February 2017 blog 3 — Puppies, trailers, and a new chalet

This week began Sunday evening at the small music venue which hosts small concerts costing only 5 euros to attend one Sunday a month. The venue has a cozy fireplace but it’s so big that it doesn’t really warm up, so it feels colder inside than out sometimes! Plus Sunday was cold and rainy so we had to bring Hugo and Harvey’s car blankets in to keep warm.

Emma and I

Sunday selfies

This time, blues performer Jeff Espinoza sang and played both guitar and harmonica. He was really awesome, and as a bonus it turned into a bit of an open mic after his sets. There were a few other talented musicians in the crowd, including Lady Miss Emma and the owner of the venue Vincent McCallum who both got up to perform and were amazing.

Jeff Espinoza and Vincent McCallum

The next morning I had the pleasure of tagging along with Emma to go look at a puppy she’s adopting who’s named Bella and such a cutie. She’s a mix between a poodle and an Estrela Mountain dog. While I played with puppies, Rory picked up a building trailer down near the Algarve he scored an awesome deal on. We were equally excited about our endeavors.

Dougle sniffing out his new puppy sister

Bella!

The trailer

Since things are looking more and more promising for us buying the Mimosa property, we’ve decided it’s time to find a place to stay up there. Rental homes were scarce in that area when we browsed online, so we decided to take a trip up there for the night to ask around. We found a perfect little one room wooden chalet that’s only 5 minutes from the property, and right in the nearest village to it. It’s cozy and has everything we could possibly need! 

The Chalet

Inside the Chalet

Little kitchenette

Of course being up there a couple of days we also spent some time at the property. All was great until Harvey found some manure to roll in just as we were about to get into the car. So instead, we needed to give him a bath in the river with my travel shampoo. He was as unimpressed with the river bath as we were with him being covered in poop. Thankfully though Harvey’s back to smelling like a dog, and he and Rory are friends again. 

King of the terrace

The ruin

All in all we’re feeling really lucky to have come across the wooden bungalow we’ll be calling home for a while. We’re moving up there this week to settle in before we have visitors next weekend, and shortly after I’ll be leaving for Ecuador.

Speaking of which, thank you to everyone who has donated toward this medical volunteer trip I’m going on! Check out my page for the details of the trip, and to read more about what we’ll be doing there: https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=824685…. I really really appreciate any donations towards it! I’m so close to my fundraising goal just 2 weeks from when I leave. Thank you, Thank you!!

Other than that, I was happy to get a Starbucks fix from Lisbon airport when dropping Rory there Friday morning off to Ireland/Scotland. In the meantime me and the doggies are packing and getting organized for our move this coming week, not that we have all that much to pack! 

Not the most helpful of packers

We’re looking forward to the coming week. We have a meeting to hopefully sign a purchase and sale agreement and pay a deposit on the Mimosa property. One more step to it being ours… Stay tuned, and thanks for reading :).