positive thoughts

So we are still in the uk ,still trying to get finances organised.Its hard work being somewhere in body but all other parts are in a different country.My heart is now in Portugal.

I have so many plans for when we finally make the permanent move....just need a bit more cash.

Trying to develop an income stream from online work and this is a slow and laborious process but I shall persevere.Plus I have limited money making skills in regard to online stuff but loads of people do it so its possible..

The children are quite pleased to be here in the UK.Older daughter was pleading her case for us staying here for 5 MORE YEARS last night!Younger daughter says she is just not going.I am not sure how we can get them to view the whole experience more positively really ,bit baffled by it.And I have a lot of sympathy for them having moved around on a regular basis during my own childhood.They resist the idea of learning Portuguese as they say they are quite happy learning French and Spanish at school........

birthdays...

My lovely older daughter turned 13 today.

In her eyes a major milestone and also in our eyes.She feels like she is on the verge of a very exciting life.....so do we, but its just possible that the excitement is different for us all.She wants to stay in England and be with her friends.I understand that.We are fortunate to live in a good place in Yorkshire and the children have got some lovely friends but they are getting older and I think its imperative to show them a different way to live before they leave home .Already they are aiming to become corporate workers at some time in their future....they are becoming disdainful about the idea of growing food ,tending the land ,building a beautiful home and being concious of their own footprints on the planet.They NEED nintendos ,ipods ,computers etc...(I do want us to be able to power computers actually) can't live without all the gadgets of modern times blah, blah, blah

BUT last night my daughters friends organised a surprise birthday disco and after half an hour the stereo stopped working .The thirty kids in this big hall just entertained themselves ,(no music ,screen to do it ).They sang and played games and really had a good night.My daughter describes it as the best night of her life!This time 13 years ago I spent the night awake just watching her and wanting a wonderful life for her.So far its been ok ,nothing too bad has happened but I know that to give her the wonderful life I need to share the experience of Portugal with her and give her the opportunity to learn who she is without all the distraction that our very western lifestyle throws up.Fingers crossed we will be there by spring..

Power ?

We we get sorted and move over for good the big issue will be power.I work on-line now and need to have about 5 hours of power everyday for the laptop in order to continue to work this way.At the moment and for the foreseeable future we will not be able to invest in a full solar system and so have more or less concluded that we will be trying to manage with a few panels and a 12v set up plus a generator for heavy power jobs.But we have no experience of this and have 2 children who like their gadgets and who are also not too impressed with the idea of living in Portugal.At their age (almost teens )friends are more important than family from their perspective.So these are a couple of our immediate challenges.We will be home schooling and we want the children to be involved in our renovation work and planting work.We have a whole hillside which needs replanting with native trees .....a lot of work.

a cold winters day

the view

New blog!

OK so I'm new to this but I will give it a go...

We have almost purchased a small quinta in the Mondego valley in Central Portugal.It has no power ,no mains drains ,no mains water etc...BUT it has got lovely land with very neglected vines ,some fruit trees and plenty of potential.We want to change how we have been living so far and move towards a sustainable lifestyle .We hope to sustain our power needs by using the sun and being more conscious of our usage.We hope to produce enough food to sustain the family and this means learning about growing food and preserving it so we have no waste.Speaking of waste , we intend to produce and reuse our own waste with the help of composting toilets which we will build using materials found on the quinta.