Mil ovos!
A very short post this but I’ve got big news. In just under a year since they started laying, brownie and her mates – hennies, 2, 3 and 4 (we can still only recognise one of them as being a bit darker than the rest) have laid their 1000th egg. And after their little rest in October, they are back up to speed and laying significantly bigger ones. So good news all round.
We’ve also been busy. We went on a short soap making course last week. We’ll start churning out all sorts of soap from next year made with our own olive oil and assorted extras. So now you know what to expect for future Christmas presents!
And I went into the forest with a group of fungus foragers and came back with a basket full of wild mushrooms. It’s been a couple of days and I’m still alive so I guess they were safe to eat – more to follow but here’s a selection (the big one is a scaly tooth!):
4 thoughts on “Mil ovos!”
Hi Richard
Just found your web site from someone on Arganil forum. I’m coing out to Portugal in January to look for,and, hopefully, buy a place in Coimbra area. I’ve looked at Arganil, Penela, Pedrago Grande Castelo Branco and surrounding areas. Where are you? Are there place that you think are good to settle down in? I’m looking for woods, hills, rivers, hopefully on premises.
I’m currently in Botswana, lots of sand and not much else except in the north ofthe country where we have the Delta and swamps. Looking forward to getting back to Europe after 16 years out here.
Rgds
Tony Charlton
Hi Richard
me again. My girlfriend are looking at your site and it is making us even more anxious to get to Portugal, buy a place and start up our small holding and perhaps a tourism campsite.
Where are you located? The area looks like Coimbra area.
If it is not rude, how much did the renovations cost? Our estate agent is quoting between 15 and 20,000 euros to do up a virtual ruin and end up with something like your house. It sounds too cheap to me – what is a more realistic price?
Rgds
Tony Charlton
Hi Tony
In answer to your questions about coming to central Portugal to live.
I have to say, it’s a bit difficult to answer. It’s often a mixture of finding the right location, the right house/ruin that you can afford, how close to a village/town/city you want. And if you want a river or forest how much of a fire risk is it. And how much land.
We were lucky enough to find a decent enough house which we were confident of doing up and with the right amount of land and location. We also didn’t have much time – it was a case of now or never. So although we would not describe it as the ideal dream home we were looking for, it ticked all the boxes and we are very happy here.
With regard to the estate agent (who did you speak to?) saying 15 to 20 grand to do a place up – maybe so but there are so many imponderables. Ours was described as ‘almost liveable’ when we bought it but it might as well have been a ruin. We could have kept the roof, the electricity was connected but we felt it was much better to have it all redone.
Builders also gave us wildly differing quotations for doing the same work.
PS we are just south of penela. There is a link on the site to a google map of the place.
All the best
Richard
Hi Richard
thanks for the reply. I’ve spoken to Kevin Ormston at Portugese Property Shop mainly but have seen a lot of sites on Pure Portugal (Sophie) which look reasonable. We would like to start a small holding and a tourist camp. Your blog makes the place look just what we are looking for. I came to Botswana as a teacher with the British Council in 1996 on a 3 year initial contract and now, 16 years later, have decided to move on.
We are going to rent in a village called Tokia whilst we look for a place to buy. I think that must be quite near to your place.
Would like to drop in and pick your brains over a glass or two when we come out.
Rgds
Tony Charlton.