Thursday, September 27, 2018

September 2018 — STILL, that summer heat!

Well, even in though we're coming into autumn, the heat of the afternoons has still been as oppressive as August! Thankfully it does cool down a bit at night. And the mornings offer some relief as well to lend us some time to get a decent amount of work done.




After the stone sub-floor was finished, we got the floor boards for the second level into ruin#1. The plan is, to make the floor of the bottom level an earthen floor. It has a similar shine as tile but is much warmer to the touch. We're excited to start experimenting with it; however, we're saving the bulk of any indoor work for when rain comes. 








It's amazing how the granite room holds the coolness in the afternoons. Even during the heat of the day it is one of the only spots (besides submersing into the river) to get some relief. Now that the bottom level room has essentially a ceiling in, it's much easier to visualize how the layout will be. We covered over the 2nd level floor with cardboard, then plastic, then more cardboard and some planks to keep in protected. In the next 6 weeks or so the 2nd floor walls will be repaired and we'll get a roof on.





Aside from the fabulous help from Pablo, we’ve had some more great work exchange help 
 both return volunteers and new ones. One woman, Sorcha actually found us via this blog and Instagram and caught her interest. It was exciting for us to hear that people we don’t even know are inspired by our project. She came and helped us for a couple of weeks between her caravan travels around Europe. Adrianna, a volunteer we hosted back in the Spring returned for a couple of weeks. And we have another return volunteer coming in October. It’s really nice that they are happy to return and also to hear their input and feedback regarding how the place looks. 



We’ve also hosted Zetty the architect from Czech Republic and Lewis the cabinet maker from UK just joined us this week. As well as our friends James, Annie, and Gustavo who detoured on their travels around Europe to come up for a couple days to check out Cara Creek. James had come this time last year and was very blown away at how different it looks. Another friend of mine Mellanie came as far as Porto and it was so nice to acquaint her with Porto, Port Tonics, and experience the picturesque city with her.




If you or anyone you know would be interested in living rustic and being fed at Cara Creek Eco Lodge in exchange for 20-25 hours/week of natural building, gardening, clearing, etc find more information here on our workaway page and contact me with any questions!


Other exciting things….

The pool is coming along beautifully. We went to the quarry and picked out an amarelo/yellow granite as the infinity edge, which will look gorgeous under the water. The stairs going into the swimming part are nice and wide to sit on, and the planting side of the pool is coming along lovely too. 






Talking garden design, we're finally reaching a stage where locations of garden areas don't change every other time we discuss it, which is so nice! We've worked out a perfect area for a bit of a sensory walk just past the pool which will have fragrant flowers, edible berries, and end at a bit of a pond and loop back around and look over our vegetable garden. I’m really looking forward to getting planting once some rain comes! We've gotten some great advice from many friends who already have lovely gardens, including Elseviera who offered us a gorgeous garden fresh lunch when we went to check out her garden😋!






Lastly, my yoga sessions are going really well as people get into an autumn routine. I’ve reached my one year of teaching and upon reflection I am a lot more confident and comfortable teaching than I was this time last year… Even my sessions that I try my best to speak Portuguese the whole class😁. 

It’s been magical to host classes on the gorgeous yoga deck we have all summer. I’m looking forward to moving all the classes throughout the year down to Cara Creek as we build more indoor space.


Stay tuned for more updates on our rustic life and work in beautiful Central Portugal. Click to follow us on Facebook and find us on Instagram @caracreekecolodge.... Thanks for following along!


Sunday, September 2, 2018

August 2018 — Digger on Overtime

Considering the heat of August afternoons, we've managed to get lots of work done during the cooler hours of the mornings and evenings. During the oppressively hot afternoons we've been extra grateful for our improved access to the beautiful creek! Especially since the river beach (on the opposite side of the property) has dropped to about knee level. The creek (just behind the yoga deck) is well over our heads in some areas and perfect for an afternoon swim. We even tied some rope to help us climb up to a spot to do an awesome rock jump into it.


The existing terraces are starting to take shape and come to life more and more as we clear them off and tidy up the mimosa tree piles. We've also had to set some time aside for strimming the baby mimosa shoots that are making an aggressive come back. However, they're much more manageable as little shoots compared to the mimosa forest we faced this time last year!




Our friend Spike helped Rory get the beams finished off in Ruin 1. Now for the floor boards and shelving along the back wall. We're preparing ruin #1 to move into for the winter; but long term it will be the reception/library bottom floor, kitchen/dining extension 2nd floor, and the top floor extension will be an indoor studio space. 




Rory spent quite a bit of time working the good old faithful digger this month too. He's dug a well to pump water up into the holding tank at the top of the property — which he has also dug. Then he cleared an area closer to the top and flattened it out to be a car park higher up for cars that might not be able to make it up and down the steeper park of the track. Lastly he dug the bank next to Ruin #1 which will have a roof extending out from reception/library. It has really opens up the terrace and that area, and it's much easier to visualise how it will look now. The idea is to hang some hammock swings for a nice area to have coffee or read a book. For this winter we will likely move our temporary kitchen up to that area. And we'll sleep in what will be the cozy reception/library for this winter.





To prepare for autumn planting, we visited a tree nursery with our garden design friend and expert, Shelley😀, who is Paul's wife — the one building the pool. She's working on the plants portion of our natural swimming pool. The plants half of the pool will serve as natural filtration for the water pumping back into the swimming part of the natural swimming pool.



We're planning for when the rain starts to plant some native and mature trees around our boundary. It will be welcome shade for the coming summers, and serve as a protective barrier from forest fires. Also some willow trees along the river bank will do well in the moist ground down by the river and be quite beautiful come the Spring and Summer. 

As far as work exchange help, our friend Pablo from Guatemala joined us a couple weeks ago. He'll be doing a bit of traveling around Europe the next 3 months, but Cara Creek will be his base where he'll help us out with the endless amount of clearing, building, planting and more. We also have a return volunteer, Adrianna who had stayed with us for 4 weeks in the Spring. It's really nice to have someone return and express their astonishment about how different the place is. Although we may not always realise it, we are little by little getting there.

Follow links to follow us on Instagram and like our Facebook Page to see more frequent photos of the progress and more at Cara Creek Eco Lodge. And as always thanks for following along as we realise our Eco Lodge dream!