Permaculturing in Portugal

There is a saying about building. There is ‘good’, there is ‘fast’ and there is ‘inexpensive’. You can have any two.

This time last year I hired a local team of builders to put up a balcony and trellis on the main building, finish the schist facing stone on the log store, and re-roof the small building. I knew their work – many foreigners locally have had them turn schist animal houses into habitable structures – and it’s generally reasonable enough for the price, though you get what you pay for. I figured if I didn’t throw too many unfamiliar techniques and materials into the mix they couldn’t go wrong with a simple wooden structure. The main rationale was that they had ready access to the sizeable amount of chestnut timber which was needed to construct the balcony, and which we were struggling to lay our hands on, but in truth I was also succumbing to the frustrations of slow progress.

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The next stage in the construction of our suite of deluxe chicken accommodation is to provide them with some outdoor space. The chickens have arrived, but they’re not ready yet for free-ranging as it will take them a little while to get imprinted on coop = ‘home’.

Our hens! The two in the background are crossbreeds between Cochins and the local Portuguese pescoço pelado or bare-necked hens. The two in the foreground are Green legs.

While they’re getting to know their coop, we’ve made a start on both a permanent pen surrounding the coop and on ‘tractor’ accommodation for putting them to work round the quinta.

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This is the view from the top of the track down to the larger building on the quinta. In many ways it encapsulates the nature of the “Green Heart of Portugal” – forested mountain ranges cut deep by meandering river valleys, peppered with tiny white villages perched on mountain ridges, surrounded by land terraced and richly cultivated with olives, vines, fruit trees, vegetables … Idyllic.

But it encapsulates something else about the Green Heart of Portugal too – an ecological disaster-in-the-making presently taking hold in Portugal’s forests. The tree on the left is dying.

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It’s been strange and untypical weather this Spring. A March as warm as June followed a very dry winter. In May, we had more thunderstorms than I think I’ve encountered in the rest of my lifetime, and periodic rain has continued into June. Wonderful weather for bringing the garden on. Wonderful weather for bringing on the various fungal diseases that thrive in warm, damp, humid conditions …

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… or your alternators before they’re run in.

I spoke too soon.

We purchased this alternator from Presto Wind in the USA on the basis of its advertised power curves and a couple of videos showing no evidence of cogging, which was the problem with the first generator we tried. As soon as it was installed, it was running well over its claimed threshold for generating usable power, so it was just a matter of waiting for the bearings and rotors to run in and then the batteries would be getting some much-needed juice 24/7. Or so we thought …

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Summer is here and it’s watering time. Even with the few vegetables we have growing this year, watering them is already taking up a good couple of hours every evening. Part of that is to do with the fact that we are mostly watering them with a watering can. I’ve re-opened a couple of irrigation channels to help things along and got them working reasonably well, but it’s still not hugely efficient. I figured we could do better. But what to do?

Today I bought a reel of hosepipe. I knew I had a large funnel somewhere, and a ball of twine. With 15 minutes’ work with the ball of twine, an hour clearing vegetation from the top of the waterfall, a ladder, and a bungy strap, we now have a working irrigation system for the main vegetable bed on the yurt terrace. A bit Heath Robinson, but considerably more efficient than the watering can.

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As friends on Facebook have already found out, I managed to mistake my left thumb for a piece of pine while chopping firewood a couple of weeks ago. Quite a silly mistake really (and not one I should have made after about 20 years of wood-chopping experience) but these things happen when the brain is idling out of gear. Still don’t know yet how I managed to do it, but somehow I managed to split it longitudinally in two. Right through the nail, the bone, and out the other side.

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