Permaculturing in Portugal

This week the roof is really starting to look like a roof from the outside as well as the inside. Monday we laid the insulation (50mm cork) on top of the boards of maritime pine, followed by the waterproof breathable membrane. No sooner had that gone down than the weather decided to test it out. We haven’t had a drop of rain since we took the roof off back at the beginning of July (well, apart from a 15-minute shower of dirt) and it waited until the very moment we got the waterproofing on. Considerate weather! Damn! When you’ve lived in Scotland for more than half your life, that’s a real novelty.

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The boozing butterfly is a Two-tailed Pasha or Foxy Emperor (Charaxes jasius). Not seen in the UK as its range is too far south. Its feed plant is the Strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, which is part of the original flora of this region.

This post is a preliminary enquiry to see if there is likely to be enough local interest to make it worthwhile planning and running this construction as a series of workshops. The construction will be going ahead anyway. (If you’re interested, please leave a comment below rather than responding on eg. Facebook. Comments on this page won’t get lost or superceded by more recent news.)

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The thing with dry stone schist buildings is that they’re dry stone. A good wind will whistle straight in through the walls, and the heat from a stove will whistle straight out. And there’s a fair variety of wildlife that comes and goes and sets up home in the gaps between the stones.

We have no particular objection to sharing the building with the local wildlife, but aren’t so keen on the winter winds and losing all our heat.

With the roof now planked and the wall heads being built up and capped ready for laying the insulation, we’re starting work on pointing the stonework in the interior of the building. It’s a messy job, so one preferably done before we get around to replacing the floors.

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Today’s progress on the roof … highlighting the asymmetry of the building. I’m very glad now I decided to stay with the original schist roof covering. Not only for the beauty of the natural stone, but because regular tiles would be a nightmare to lay and would end up looking pretty silly.

Entire roof now planked

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Today’s progress …

Wayne laying planks, Chris behind him

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… courgettes, onions, garlic, celery, tomatoes, peppers, rainbow chard, cabbage, spinach, lettuce (4 varieties), Japanese mustard greens, butternut squash, damsons, basil, marjoram and the last of the green beans, strawberries and raspberries.

This morning’s haul

Coming soon: aubergines, watermelon, beetroot, carrots, leeks, chillis, apples, peaches, pears, grapes, quinces and giant mystery squash.

Coming later: olives, chestnuts, almonds, persimmons and broccoli.

Roof is really coming on now.

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Big progress on a Big Thing (the roof) over the last couple of days.

The cleaned, preserved and oiled chestnut rafters, beams and wall plates are now all leveled and in place and work has begun on fixing the wooden planking to them. These photos are from this morning. By the end of the day, the planking had been completed up as far as the middle beam.

Michael, Wayne and Chris lay the first planks

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Sometimes, when the number of Big Things needing done threatens to become overwhelming, it’s occasionally worthwhile to do a small thing, just for that sense of achievement, satisfaction and progress it can give. Well that’s my excuse at least.

Small thing in the foreground. Big Thing in the background

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