Natural Living Workshops.

Well, Im taking the plunge and planning a new venture for us.... whether it will succeed is anyones guess, Im trying out offering 'Natural Living Workshops' hopefully if enough people are interested and we can price it correctly, it will work, we can help people to experience a few different and new things plus make our life a little easier financially...
The first workshops will maybe be in mid November, more details are available on our new 'Workshops' page.. please go and have a look..

My Kitchen.

Ive been asked a few ties for a few pictures of the kitchen since I mentioned we were doing some work on it. Well we did quite a bit, but work has since ground to a halt again due to lack of funds. But I'm loving the look that is slowly evolving and it really feels right to me... I understand its not the kind of kitchen most people would want, but it works perfectly for us. The bare concrete floor, may not be beautiful, but for dogs muddy paws, our dirty boots, the Portugal dust... its just about right, maybe later when the puppy is bigger and we have spare money, then we'll tile it... but till then... this will do. The same with the 'back door' its a polythene sheet on a wooden frame... but its watertight, draftproof and lets in plenty of light... works for me... at the moment... We are warm, dry and comfy.... and we love it...

Now we've moved a cupboard out and put in the old Sofa, we can sit down by the range in the wet evenings and be all snuggly, also as you see the dogs love it too!

Yes its a tad 'rustic' but its very funcional, and its just my style... I love it. Nothing cost us much or most of the time, anything at all. The shelves are made from our wood from the forest, yes... those dining  chairs are really lastic garden chairs... hehehe we've had them almost five years now.. and they will stay untill we find other better chairs which are as comfy as those! We give the walls a splash of paint every now and then to brighten up the place, and Ricky keeps saying he's going to repaint the floor (it keeps the dust down and makes it washable) and do it with bright blue paint.... hmmm Im not convinced, no doubt he'll do it one day while i'm in here...

Making Our Wine.

 Today we decided was the day to pick our grapes, this year we had decided we didnt have many, a poor crop, so we would utilise what we had and make a few litres of Port instead. Rik went off to work telling John and I, 'oh it'll only take you a couple of hours' please bear in mind, we hadnt trimmed , pruned or cared for the vines at all this year, they were covered in brambles....

6 hours later and he's home and we are still picking...and we are scratched to ribbons from hands to shoulders...

But it was worth the effort, we will have wine this year!! Strangely enough, the red grapes didnt fruit much and the white, have been magnificent... so it will be different...

Here is Rick and John working the magic and strong man thing...they are tipping in the grapes and then crushing them , its a tough job when there's a lot of grapes... then there is a shot of all our lovely grapes mulched up and in the vat.

It will stay in the vat, being stirred twice a day for five days only, then they will put it through the press to sqeeze every last little drop out, before transfering it to the barrel. We are hoping for around 120 litres , which we may take around 25 litres for making some Port...

Frugal soup...

We had the most delicious soup for lunch today and it cost almost nothing... made from yesterdays leftovers of course...
As Rik's brother joghn is with us for a couple of weeks we are eating a more 'English' diet.. I have to ease him into our food regime gently...
So yesterday I cooked him the 'Sunday Roast' that he is used to at home, a large piece of Roast Pork, roast spuds, carrots, and french beans and cabbage, all from the garden. (or frozen in my freezer from our garden)
We all had a large meal, then I cut up what meat was left into two bags and froze it, the bone is cooking away with some veg at the moment as stew for dinner today...the other two bags will each do a meal later ...
There was a lot of veg leftover... so today I sweated an onion and three cloves of garlic in some olive oil, chopped the french beans small, plus a big handfull of the cooked cabbage (the rest is in the stew) and a few cooked carrots, simmered them in a little water with a couple of small potatoes chopped small, to this I added a veggie stock cube and simmered till the potatoes were soft... I then blitzed the lot with a hand blender. Added a sprinkle of sea salt and a good teaspoon of cumin powder.... mmmmmmnn yum... It was thick and creamy and absolutely lovely! With some homemade soda bread, a great lunch..