What incredible progress Rory has made at our Mimosa Project. He's been quite busy building temporary facilities to make living on the site possible. A rustic kitchen and toilet are in the works, as well as a workshop/tool storage shed. We camped out on the site a few nights this week, and sleeping to the sound of the river is magical. Friends from Tomar came up one of the evenings, and we made a fire on the river beach to cook some skewers over. We can’t wait to be living down there full time. The existing water mines need some more work to be functional, and then the water needs to be tested. Once we have those going we’ll really be in good shape to be able to be live down there.
We also happen to be looking for things needed to live off grid at a perfect time. One of our neighbors across the river lives off grid, and is selling his property and all the things on it. We’ve bought amazingly priced second hand utilities like a gas fridge, gas stove and oven, a generator, as well as an extra tent, and an outdoor table and chairs. It helps to have our recently purchased 4x4 1986 suzuki to get up and down the steep dirt track, and to transport things around the property with our trailer.
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| new tent on the river beach |
Val, a friend and our first “volunteer”, arrived and started this week which has been great. She has an abundance of knowledge and experience with gardens which is perfect since neither of us know much about that. We’re looking forward to working with her and learning from her as well over the next couple of months. We’ve been working on our work away host page too, so will likely have other volunteers starting some time at the end of the summer.
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| top down in the jeep! 😎 |
Plans for the existing ruin and accommodations are coming along. Based on Rory’s sketches, an architect has worked on some plans to propose over the last few weeks. Rory’s making some edits and adjustments, but it’s a nice start. And based on the architect’s personal project home he brought us to, we like some of his style.
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| Architect's project |
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| with swings and a hammock and gorgeous views |
Besides the structures, we have another very exciting addition to the Mimosa project site…
Nearby an Anatolian Shepherd mama dog had a litter of 11 puppies with a Black Labrador dad. After the Sunday market in Tabua we figured it would be fun to spend the afternoon going to see them. We’ve been planning on getting a bigger dog to keep the “Javali” (wild boars), and other potential predators to Hugo and Harvey away once we’re living down on the property. No shocker that we fell in love with a chubby little white fluffball of a puppy who we decided to take home. At only 6 weeks old, he’s about the same size as Hugo and Harvey. We named him Hank, not only because we have an H name trend going but also because we figure he’s going to be quite the tank based on the size of his paws. Hank was the biggest male in his litter and is such a great dog already, following us all around the site in between his siestas. He’s really playful with Hugo and Harvey, who aren’t quite sure what to think of him yet. Rory and I are so in love with him, and I’m sure Hugo and Harvey will warm up to loving him just as much. Hank did so good getting his first puppy vaccinations, and got a great bill of health from our vet. 
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| Neither are too sure about Hank just yet... |
Stay tuned and keep reading as both our project and Hank grow!
