Blog

Gijs
Sun 23 Jul 2023

Very comfortable temperatures

While most of the Mediterranean experiences 40-45 degrees Celsius, we are still very comfortable. Our weather station only peaked once at 25 degrees …

Gijs
Mon 17 Jul 2023

Eli and Miri

Today Eli (green shirt) and Miri (blue shirt) arrived. A capable and likeable couple from Italy. Their last address in the Algarve was rather warm so …

Gijs
Sun 2 Jul 2023

Snakes

Seems that someone had outgrown his wardrobe… today we found a pretty tall snake skin! Once in a while we spot them and in variable lengths. …

Gijs
Sat 1 Jul 2023

Foxes!

Since a few weeks our nightly cameras register a new animal. About a week ago Gijs even saw it live while wandering in the field early in the evening. …

Gijs
Fri 30 Jun 2023

Mark and Marvin joing us

Mark (on the left) came to help us in July! All the way from Germany by car. His friend Marvin took some leave too and joined him on this roadtrip and …

Gijs
Fri 9 Jun 2023

Sprinklers

As part of the plans to improve the growth of our tiny forest we finally decided a sprinkler system was needed. This in addition to the one line drip …

Gijs
Thu 8 Jun 2023

Upgrade of the Nutty Forest

End of April we realized that measured against our inputs the growing of the plants was slower than we had hoped for. We decided to get Mathias from …

Gijs
Fri 26 May 2023

Pieter: our very own Action Hero!

During May we had the honor of having Pieter helping us. Pieter (Netherlands) has a long military background, spending his past years in Engineering. …

Ellie
Wed 3 May 2023

Balding

With all the pampering of the tree-lines the first couple of centimeters of soil already show a lot of mini-life and a different, darker color. …

Ellie
Sun 23 Apr 2023

It really does not always go well

It is the second week of April 2023 and only now do I realize how tired I am. For the last six months, in hindsight, I have been working against the …

Ellie
Sun 23 Apr 2023

What the Egg ?!!

Something white and very round passes by. A spider on its way to play golf? It will definitely need a larger than life club…

Ellie
Mon 3 Apr 2023

Duhuff…

The smell of decomposition, the good kind. I once had a teacher who said it was the smell of sex. At the time I looked at him quite sceptical but now …

Ellie
Sun 2 Apr 2023

Put him on a chain !

As this was not an option we had to let Matti go after only three weeks of Matti-ness. What good times we had ! The first week I suddenly hurt my left …

Ellie
Sun 26 Mar 2023

Fog lifts

I teamed up with Sebas for a total of 5 weeks. A bit longer than usual because his Lola was having quirks and needed a fix up before the road trip …

Gijs
Sat 7 Jan 2023

Evaluating 12 months of rain

On December 20th, 2021, we started tracking the daily rain on our land. We now have the data for the whole year of 2022. 2022 had a lot less than …

Ellie
Wed 14 Dec 2022

Inspiration

Four days immersed in a world of insects, bacteria, fungi, humus, mulch, roots, chromatography and everything useful to improve soil and plant …

Ellie
Tue 6 Dec 2022

Maarten WorkAway buddy of the month November

One thing great about being born in the Netherlands or up North is that we know from humongous experience that we will not melt with one drop or a bit …

Gijs
Thu 1 Dec 2022

A better fence

Since the visit of the wild boars on August 24th we realized the electric fence is not enough to prevent wild boars from entering. In the Winter the …

Gijs
Mon 28 Nov 2022

Our plans submitted to the Município

Horay! Today we submitted our plans to the Municipality! The 3D rendering is how we hope to rebuild the current two houses. Below the situation a few …

Ellie
Wed 2 Nov 2022

You see canas, you cut them

We do not refer to ourselves as “a project”. This presupposes some kind of sensible framework. Like we know what we are doing. The reality …

Ellie
Wed 2 Nov 2022

On the attack

The word boredom does not exist in our Azoia diary as a new challenge presented itself: The vole. A vole is not a mole. The mole feasts on critters …

Gijs
Fri 28 Oct 2022

Kanaee from Japan

In the past two weeks we had Kanaee helping us. She is from Japan and travelworking (a new word?) for six weeks through Europe. The Workaway platform …

Gijs
Thu 29 Sep 2022

Managing the line - by Karolina

Hi, I’m Karolina! I lived with Ellie and Gijs most of September. It was our Workaway experience. I worked on the land as a “tree line …

Gijs
Wed 14 Sep 2022

Oversized?

Every first Sunday of the month the village of Azeitão hosts a huge market with something for everyone. Our eyes caught these big tubs. Easily sizing …

Gijs
Mon 12 Sep 2022

Rain!

For a long time it did not rain. The Winter was already much too dry and Spring did not bring more humidity either. The last serious rain fall was on …

Gijs
Wed 31 Aug 2022

The Lighthouse

Cancelling our trip to Ireland was tough. We pushed ourselves to make the best of it and not spend all our time working (on the land or otherwise). …

Gijs
Wed 24 Aug 2022

Intruders again

This morning we noticed some disturbance in the soil. Soon it became clear this happened in many places and it took only a few moments for us to …

Gijs
Sat 13 Aug 2022

My father is visiting

Coming back from the Netherlands, my father joined us, together with his partner Agnes. He was very curious to see where we finally ended up living. …

Gijs
Tue 5 Jul 2022

Five Scouts From Belgium

Workaway is a website for ‘cultural exchange, working holidays and volunteering’. Ellie added us to that website as a kind of experiment. Because its …

Ellie
Mon 20 Jun 2022

It's not that nothing has happened

What did not happen for a too long time was the falling of the rain and me – or Gijs – keeping you in the know. The first prevented many seeded seeds …

Gijs
Sat 18 Jun 2022

Is this you?

Some of our guest love to just chill and that is OK :-)

Ellie
Sun 5 Jun 2022

Prayer

On my desktop lives a folder named ‘Prayer’. Inside no text files, only photos. Uncountable ones of our meals. It’s not a disciplined everyday thing, …

Gijs
Thu 2 Jun 2022

Family is visiting

May brought family to our land. First Hennie, who joined us coming back from the Netherlands and staying for a relaxing two weeks vacation. Good for …

Gijs
Sat 14 May 2022

Weatherstation

At last we received our weather station. It was a Kickstarter project and like always this project planned too optimistically and delivered a few …

Gijs
Tue 12 Apr 2022

Helen

A friend of a friend asks if she can pass by and to have a look. She is English, living in the South of Portugal. Helen arrives Sunday morning. We …

Updates on our little paradise in Azoia
Wed 30 Mar 2022

The guesthouse is ready

The temperature is already rising! We hope you feel welcome!

Gijs
Tue 29 Mar 2022

Reusing the water

The water from the kitchen, meaning the sink, the dishwasher and the washing machine, will all be reused for watering plants that really like water. …

Gijs
Sat 26 Mar 2022

Moved

Today we moved from Cascais to our new home in Azoia! Lots of stuff. How is it possible we collected so much in only eight years being in Portugal. It …

Gijs
Thu 24 Mar 2022

Willem to the rescue

Our good friend Willem came for a short visit. He is hands on and needs to be busy. So luckily for all of us it was raining most of the days ;-) …

Gijs
Tue 22 Mar 2022

Pumping it

Nice to have water at 140 meters deep. Even better to have it above the ground! The pump has actually two parts: a pump and a electric motor. The …

Gijs
Fri 18 Mar 2022

Our own water source

Finally, today the works for our own water hole started. The goal is using this water for the irrigation of our dearest plants. We asked for a license …

Gijs
Tue 25 Jan 2022

A new illegal bathroom

Our builder Oleg re-created a bathroom at the location of the previous bathroom. That one had to be demolished because it was illegal. But it is still …

Ellie
Thu 6 Jan 2022

Not so paradise

Fog patches floating in the dark, wind howling but yet I will have to go outside again, and again, and again. One of the windows is ajar and gives …

Gijs
Mon 3 Jan 2022

The contractor started

Today the contractor started with the very first phase or renovation. He will add a small bathroom to the white house and do some small repairs to …

Ellie
Sat 1 Jan 2022

Now

Well now is not now while I write but it felt this moment in time deserved to be captured. To grab at other more challenging nows. It is Saturday …

Gijs
Thu 30 Dec 2021

The Escritura!

It is incredible: suddenly things started to move and the owners received the neccessary paper to finally pass the deed at the notary, the escritura! …

Ellie
Sun 12 Dec 2021

Sticky buggers

This is about the stick bug and not (yet) about Azoia. When we were little some children would have one in their terrarium but I must admit that I had …

Gijs
Wed 8 Dec 2021

Thank you!

Today Siça with her husband Antonio came again to spend a day helping us on the land. Obrigado! The weather is still nice, although there was a bit of …

Ellie
Tue 7 Dec 2021

Land Art in wait for Ostriches

Azoia is a windy spot and because our land used to be a flat, agricultural area, there is not enough vegetation to break the wind. So we have been …

Ellie
Mon 6 Dec 2021

Foi um prazer

It was a pleasure. The pleasure of people visiting us and planting many seeds. Enriching the soil and us. Thank you Ana Maria and Susana!

Ellie
Mon 6 Dec 2021

Seeds

Since half November we have started working the land which makes me especially very happy. Only now do I realize how much I have missed working the …

Gijs
Tue 30 Nov 2021

Volunteer Day

Vele handen maken licht werk, as we say in Dutch. Ellie managed to mobilize several friends today. The work is important, as is socializing at a …

Ellie
Sat 20 Nov 2021

Keylines

Eh keylines? Well, contourlines and then optimized, to keep the water of the rain and water coming from higher up as long as possible in our land. To …

Gijs
Tue 16 Nov 2021

The demolition

After six months of waiting for all permits, the demolition of the illegal constructions is finally happening. The timing could not have been worse …

Gijs
Sat 6 Nov 2021

A man and his tool

Joao is visiting for a few days. Happy to help us cutting the reed. He is Portuguese but living already for years in Amsterdam, with Mechteld and …

Gijs
Tue 2 Nov 2021

Mushroom

Today Luis brought Miguel to help for a day. While roaming around a little, Miguel found a gigantic mushroom! It is edible so he planned to eat it the …