January 2018 blog 2 — I can see clearly now, the Mimosa’s gone

Around this time last year we viewed this magical valley where the Rio Seia meets the Rio Mondego for the first time. We immediately fell in love with the land, and ideas began flying of what it could be. Firstly though, the invasive mimosa had to go. It’s not native to Portugal, and a major risk for forest fires. Good news is it’s great for firewood, so we have years worth of it. 

Hikes through the mimosa forest this time last year

Firewood for days...

Last year when we could hardly find the house hiding in the Mimosa

Little by little, with the help of many hands over the last year, and Atlantico Jardins going at what was left of the mimosa we have now a nearly completely clear valley. Most of the mimosa trees are divided into piles — to be mulched for ground cover, to be cut for firewood, and the rotted ones to be used for garden beds. It’ll be a project in and of itself to keep the mimosa away, but as we develop the land and gardens it’ll become easier to manage.

This week we also met with a man who lives nearby, and conveniently also installs solar systems. We discussed what our electricity needs will be for Cara Creek Eco Lodge, and he advised us on what size system we’ll be looking at. 

This week we've also been in touch with more Workaway volunteers, who are interested in coming anytime from the end of January. They all sound like they’ll have lots to offer in helping our project along, and we’re so excited to have them! 

Please point anyone you think may be interested in a work exchange of learning natural building techniques, and off-grid in beautiful Central Portugal our way. Here’s the link to our Workaway host page.

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January 2018 blog 1 — TIMBER....

After ringing in the New Year in London, we spent the first week of 2018 away from Cara Creek hanging out with family in Edinburgh. We had a little Christmas celebration and adventured around Edinburgh with Rafa, Trina, Matthew and Dylan. When Trina, Matthew and Dylan went home to Ireland, Rory, Rafa and I went on a little adventure to a bed and breakfast on a sheep farm a couple hours outside of Edinburgh. Lots of adventure walks and counting sheep. Plus they had a litter of puppies, ducks, chickens, and some horses to feed… We had a great time!

It’s always nice to step back from the project to gain a bit of perspective. Although rustic life can be challenging at times, we found ourselves missing the sound of the river and the fresh air at night. And we came to the conclusion that our bed in our cozy canvas tent is far more comfortable than any hotel of B&B bed we slept in while we were away. Meanwhile at Cara Creek, our faithful volunteer Gary looked after the dogs and continued strimming and clearing the large slope of mimosa shoots. We’ve been throwing around ideas of possibly getting goats or donkeys to keep shoots from growing back since Mimosa is so invasive.

We’ve had Fred and Rita from Atlantico Jardins working with us to get a couple tricky eucalyptus down, and clear the rest of the mimosa. The eucalyptus were huge and very close to the river, which is lined with gorgeous old ash trees. We decided to get a specialist in to get them down in order to do our best in avoiding any damage to the riverfront. The eucalyptus successfully fell away from the riverfront and are going to be stripped and treated with borax. Then they’ll be the gorgeous beams in ruin #2. 

This weekend we went to check out some highly efficient dutch "Bruno" stoves that have coils around the inside and release heat through the tubes on either side. We really loved the look of them, and the suppliers had just 3 left in stock which they gave us an amazing deal on. We’ll have the biggest one in the large ellipse shaped studio, one in ruin #2, and the third one possibly in the smaller studio. 

Here’s some previews of the latest designs for ruin #2, two new stone house rooms, and a tetrahedron house.

Next week we have our friends from Water Edge getting started on the pool, and renovation of ruin #2 will be in full swing.

We’re recruiting to have lots of hands on deck come spring time which mean lots of volunteers. Check out our workaway page for more details on how the work exchange goes. Share with those you think might be interested in living or vacationing in beautiful Central Portugal at Cara Creek Eco Lodge. I’m available to chat about more details anytime.

Stay tuned, and follow our Instagram and Facebook page for more updates!