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5/30/2024 0 Comments Late may update Time flies! Lots of visitors from the Netherlands and hard work on the Quinta. We planted a lot of fruit and olive trees, some weeping willows and work hard in the vegetable garden (planting and mulching, now it gets hotter, daily watering of all the trees and veggies!). Also, we have to make sure our land is "clean" of bushes and high grass before the 31th of may, mandatory fire regulations. With this much ground that is a lot of work. We have some great news too, the walnut orchard, containing around 50 walnut trees and two water mines that "crossed" our Quinta is ours now, So we made a cosy guest room there (the caravan on the picture), surrounded by a small water stream, walnuts and a huge vig tree! We are figuring out what to do with the harvest and would love to produce organic "walnut oil". So what fruit trees did we plant? A variety of citrus, pistachio, pomegranate, peach, plum, olives that are suitable for oil and eating, Cherrys, passionfruit varieties, and multiple kiwi varieties. Bonne and our friend Alette build the kiwis a beautiful structure to grow on. Spring has been "cold" and cloudy here, but now (end of may) summer has started and the days are around 30 degrees celsius and up, we love it. It does mean we get up early to get work done and work in the evenings. It's amazing to see all the trees covered in leafs again, especially the walnut trees! Oh and, we had a very cute and very wild black cat seeking our help. She was pregnant and underfed and just one of the kindest cats we ever met (confessing our own 4 cats can be bitches, but totally accepted this black little wild angel). We sterilized her and chipped her. And after weeks of sleeping on our veranda, because living indoors is scary, she is now a couch lover. We called her "Maan" (Moon in English) because she has such beautiful, blue, full moon eyes. Bonne recently felt a bit like building again so is "cleaning out" the ruin of all de debris and thinks about how to start this project. We have multiple ways we could start the renovation (containing a lot of bureaucracy) and we are not in a rush, as the temporary house Bonne build is just amazing and comfortable enough. So, we are weighing our options and "settle" in this new life we started here. We also made a second water pump this week, making it able to pump up the water from the river to water the gardens. And great news, haha, after some months of waiting, we finally got our mailbox and with that, an address. So the address cards Naomi designed for family and friends, can finally be posted (we heard they arrived allready, 2 days after posting them, quite a record!). And we are happy to be able to receive mail again.  With all the friends we received, we did some connecting with our new location in their company. Naomi walked the 12Km route between Ferreiros do Dão and Sangemil, that crosses our Quinta (heavy climbing, but oh so beautiful) with her friends Gea and Anita. And we biked the 50km long "ecopista do dão" from Viseu to Santa Comba Dão and can only recommend it! What an amazing day that was! ( can highly recommend Abelenda bike rental ). Also we visited a vineyard and amazing garden in Santar "Santar vila Jardim". Great to get to know more about the beautiful places that surround us. What's next? Working on the land and rebuilding the ruïne. Enjoying summer. Naomi is dedicated to go back to school to learn Portugese and is finding out what school she would like to join, so she can enjoy conversation with the lovely Portuguese people that surround us. So, up for the next update. By the way, we make monthly "vlogs" for our friends and family. Like to be included? Send us an email. I will post some (edit: a LOT!) recent pictures (last 2 months) of our Quinta down below. Come, take a walk with me.. I'd love to show you! (If you press "Play" on the photo down below, it becomes effortless to watch the pictures :) ) Ate logo! Beijinhos, Bonne & Naomi
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3/2/2024 0 Comments We moved to the Quinta! The moment we have been longing for, finally moving to the Quinta! From now on we call this place our home! We have a good base to start with, all self sufficient! It feels amazing to finally stay here and have all the animals with us again. So, this is our little "Base camp", from where we will start rebuilding the house and farm. Here are some photo's from our first week here, even receiving some friends from The Netherlands. Can't wait for the leafs to be on the trees again! Spring is here.. We will regularly share updates, news and maybe even vlogs, here! More soon! Bonne & Naomi *You can click on the image to enlarge it.
1/2/2024 0 Comments 2023 recapMy oh my, was this an intense year. Selling our house in The Netherlands, moving to Portugal in April. We haven't found our dream yet so we settle down in a rental home in Arganil for now.. with a beautiful view on the Serra do açor.
Within two weeks we find our dream Quinta and buy it, it's officially ours on the 30th of July. The owner has done an amazing job on getting all the paper work in order, so it's an easy buy! So, we buy a caravan and start building at the Quinta. We drive two hours daily and we make sure we will be able to live at the Quinta from March 24'. We find out we have the most amazing neighbors. The village we live in welcomes us with open arms and they are all so helpful and still know how to share, work together and support each other as a community, I've longed for this so much in The Netherlands. We feel so at home up there and can't wait to settle down in 2024. We made "vlogs" for our friends and family in private this year and I made a little compilation of our first 9 months in Portugal using those images. To be continued in 2024.. Best wishes! Bonne & Naomi |
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