https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/bbhlufly
The battle to keep my young trees alive in the heat began this week with temperatures getting up to the high 30s!

In this video I do a quick tour around the trees - I planted around 12 and so far 1 has died, but judging by the bark that’s because some animal got to it, not because of lack of water.

You also get to see my irrigation set-up, it’s a pretty crude gravity fed system, after pumping up from a well and I have to move the hose by hand, but I only need to water every two to three days and with only 12 trees it’s manageable for a year.

I’d actually be happy doing this with double the amount of trees, so I’m going to plant at least another dozen this coming winter, fruiting trees that is.

I’ll be planting a lot more forest like trees which I won’t be watering wider around the land!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/wohlbyje
It’s been raining this week in East Central Portugal, which is something of a novelty for early June.

It’s a good thing - saves me having to water the trees for a few days as they got a good soaking and obviously it’s not as hot when it’s raining so they aren’t burning through all that water at pace either.

The annoying thing was it started when I was doing some sanding in the house, for which I require a battery powered sander which requires batteries which require charging.

And no sun = very little charge for the battery I’ve got doing the charging.

As a result I found myself at a lose end while waiting for the big battery to charge so it could charge my little sander batteries - hence the video.

Although TBH I didn’t find the rain that annoying, it was nice excuse to sit around and drink coffee and ponder things.

And it’s a funny thing but I feel much more at home here when it rains - probably because it just feels more like the UK!

Anyway, I ended up with this brief look at the rain and how the sanding and inside of the house is coming along!

Enjoy!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/vdkypekm
Just a quick walk around the land while I gently plan out what the next phases are for my HUGEL BEDS….

At the top of the land I’ve got some pretty large ones with the base layers already made up - consisting of mainly pine branches and broom, AKA kindling in waiting.

Fire risk aside, these beds have ended forming a fairly natural looking boundary between the upper living and parking area which is relatively flat, before the land drops away into its rather steep slope.

I consider the next step for these beds which is basically as follows:

I’ll have to think carefully about what I put in these - it will need to be acid loving plants.

Roses spring to mind for starters…

I also have a look at where I’m going to make ‘the mother of all huge beds’ - just to the side of the final upper olive terrace - I can drop A LOT of material in there and handily enough there’s a nearby area of excess dirt from the path construction and another nearby area that I want to dig out and level off, a perfect combination.

I’m determined to burn as little as possible going forwards, all of this matter is soil waiting to built, and a man simply MUST hugel!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/ovvfzazg
It’s Strimming time here in East Central Portugal….

Mainly because the rains are coming to an end and it’s also fining time from the GNR if they catch you with the borders of yer land unkempt and with knee high grass like mine was at the beginning of this week, but no more.

I’ve attacked the lower field this week with blade and wire and learned a lot about strimming.

Mainly that the wire for me is much more efficient than the blade and if yer careful you don’t have to keep losing it by knicking it against rocks, logs and fencing.

I also learned that I’d probably have been better off streaming some of my grass a couple of weeks ago - the more difficult areas where there’s lots of stuff for the wire to catch on.

As it was this week I couldn’t see where I was going for much of the time and the grass was so long I’m probably going to have to go back over much of it.

I also couldn’t get too close to the annoying falling down fence in the middle of the lower field, - I couldn’t get rid of it as it’s locked in by grass - so a bit of a catch 22 there.

Anyway, a quick before and after video for your viewing pleasure.

ENJOY!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/zxyzbnzv
Spring is very much here, which means it’s a busy time on the land.

Just a quick update of how the house is progressing (slowly, but getting there!), a quick walk down the new track which is settling in nicely, a look around the lower fields and the new huge beds made with olive cuttings and finishing at the fruit tree area, which badly needs a tidy up!

So much to do!!!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/rqaluklg
This is a before and after video for prosperity of my new track up the house.

First half is what it used to look like (very beautiful) and the second half is with the track (not so beautiful but much more functional).

Of course it looks like carnage atm, but TBH for a freshly created scar of dirt and rock, it looks pretty good.

And I can now drive up to the house and get building materials up there.

Includes digger interlude, so feel free to bring yer inner five year old along!

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/naedjpuc
honestly don’t remember the last time I was SO excited….

Watching this digger (non brand-name JCB) make a track and sharka on my land.

Well, not the WHOLE two day process, but some of it as captured in this video!

HONESTLY…. In this short clip you see so many barrow loads of earth moved so far in a matter of seconds.

To do this by hand would be, well, soul destroying, so much so in fact that I hadn’t even considered doing this by hand!

This was Thursday - towards the end of the two days it took to make me a track up to my house and a sharka.

But more than the sheer efficiency of industrial machinery, quite literally witnessing the power of capital IRL, I’m just enthused by this whole experience.

REAL WORK, in the REAL WORLD!

And now I’ve got a track, I can get shit delivered up to the top of land.

I got back home on Thursday feeling like it was XMAS, which is novel for me given that I don’t celebrate XMAS, there was just something so VERY AWESOME about the whole experience.

I mean let’s face it - fuck the lambo, I’ll take a DIGGER any day!

Gimme something than can make roads rather than something that’ll be taken out of action by a fucking pothole!

ALL SYSTEMS GO!

Credit inspiration for the title:

https://3speak.tv/watch?v=revisesociology/yljtsqhq
It’s been raining here in East Central Portugal, after a LONG dry winter.

This is good as my IBCs are filling up from my roof rainwater harvesting system, water I’ll need to do a concrete floor in the house in a few weeks.

It’s also got me thinking about my longer term water storage plans, and I take a trip up to the highest point of my land where I’ve decided to build a pond and bury some brash piles in the process.

Killing two birds with one stone, I feel smart!