Portugal Off Grid

I picked up two waterpumps off Marktplaats. One is a cheap Chinese Lutain 152F (which is a Honda clone). You can get parts for these cheap and it just needs a gasket, so I've got it sitting on the dining table waiting on parts.   This little water pump is a CM 46/1a Italian water pump that is very portable. I will hook it up to the large water crate around the land for irrigation use. I got these pumps for 120 euros total. The new gaskets have been ordered for 10 euros. If I can get the Lutain running well, this will have been a good deal. I prefer to use the quiet electric pump, but it's good to have options when the solar power isn't strong. You can't always count on sunshine in the winter, even though Portugal gets more sun than any other country in Europe. This is yet another fireplace cooking grill, now sitting waiting to be packed up.  

Back in the Netherlands, I've been collecting things for Portugal. We plan to go back down soon in a month or so. Right now it's easier for me to find things cheap or free in the Netherlands because we have Marktplaats here. I speak the language here and I know the thrift stores.   I've been buying things for the fireplace since I like cooking on the fire so much. We have upgraded the toilet for the campervan: a diverting composting toilet that we can also use in Portugal. Got a free sofa, which is temporarily in the living room. It is wood framed and once the floral pattern covers were taken off, we got a lovely plain canvas. Seamus loves the new sofa. Picked up a solid metal kettle for the fireplace. and garden tools! nothing beats finding tools for about 3 bucks a pop at the thrift stores!  

Our last week there saw some changes before we went home. The solar power station got a new table and moved to the corner after it was painted with limewash. I think the table I made works just fine. The sun started beating down hard as summer got warmer. A new (used) table was acquired from a second hand store. Right now it's covered in tools, but will eventually be the dining table. The neighbor's sheep were let into our olive orchard to cut down the grass. The place was clean! Our next trip will see further improvement. The cactus started blooming and it was lovely. The sheep have enjoyed nibbling on the bottom of the cacti.  

Little by little the kitchen started looking more like a kitchen The front room started looking more like a real place. A doggie gate on the door helped manage the puppers. We had to block some holes in the fence with steel I found in the garage. This is temporary but necessary because our little dogs like to go into the neighbor's yard. The neighbor's dogs like to come into ours... but his dogs Pilote and Diana are turds. Pilote is sweet as can be and playful. Diana tries to kill my little dogs. No matter how much to work to keep things out or in, we still get little geckos. I like them. At least the birds aren't coming in any more. even the barn is looking like a barn.  

Once we got the solar system running okay, we got to work on the well. It's pretty deep. We are on top of the low hill, so our well is probably one of the deepest in the neighborhood just to get to the water table. The concrete cover has not been put in place, so the water has a nice layer of green. The electric pump is light weight and easy to carry. Here I'm priming it. Once we got the water pumped up to the top holding tank (which also took time to clean) we put a shadow cloth over the well. This is temporary until we get the concrete cap put back on. Hopefully this will kill off some algae over the next months while we are back in the Netherlands.  

At first, I pulled out the hotwater tank from my camperbus and hung it in the bathroom. It is not vented to an exhaust tube and should only be used outdoors or where there is a lot of ventilation. Since the bathroom is not insulated, there is excellent ventilation through the tiles. The 12volt pump was hung up with an on/off switch. It pumped clean water to the heater and hot shower!! The bathroom was used by hand carrying water at first. Eventually I built a shower bench so I can sit down and shower. This is important as we get older. Everything drains into a central drain on the floor. Not the ugliest, but not the prettiest either. It is easy to see where the original wall height was before the previous owner added bricks and the new roof. This will all be tiled over eventually.  

The smallest bedroom coming along The kitchen was slowly being built, drinking water was brought in from the campervan. We used water from the large water tank outside for mopping and cleaning. It had algae in it, but it was fine for flushing the toilet and mopping floors. This was a piece we saved. It got filled up with lemons from our neighbor, who visited us every day. The bag of onions on the top shelf were from another neighbor. Portugese neighbors are awesome. The taylor's stove makes a mean hotdog and toasted bread sammich. One thing I discovered I hate about the house is the taller floor in the kitchen. I would trip on it often, so I painted it with neon green which will stay until I paint the stripe white or something else. Once I painted it, I didn't trip often. Once the bedroom ceiling was insulated, the clean room got a twin bed and my travel companion took it over. The master bedroom/living room/office became storage while getting worked on. Evenings on our land ar...

First we dragged everything outside and started sweeping and mopping. Lots and lots of dead birds, a dead lizard and bird nests. They were coming in through cracks where the roof joins the walls and also down the chimney, Eventually it was clean enough to sit in. Started building a usable kitchen. The stove and table combo came inside. We went into town and bought a bunch of raw lumber, just to start making things we needed. The first thing was a cabinet for the sink to go onto. This is a stainless steel large sink brought down from the Netherlands, purchased for 15 euros with it's faucet. It attached to the provided plumbing hose perfectly. Then we started insulating the smallest bedroom so my travel companion could stay there while we worked on the rest.