WOw what a week! I have transitioned from living in an unfurnished apartment in the small town of Penamacor to living in a mostly unfurnished and amenity free Yurt! Luckily i have made a liion battery, and have a small solar panel and inverter so i have enough power for laptop, fan, and have some lights at night. I also have a nice mattress and made a bed frame out of some old pallets.. I prettied it up with some screening. All in all it is very nice in the yurt, even without any furniture. I just tonight brought my new gas cooker and gas cylinder here so i can finally cook again! I have been eating not so well this past week, although i did discover a really good sushi place that has a nice plate of food for just 5 Euros. Ive also just bought and brought a wood burning stove to its designated spot in the yurt. IT was HEAVY, and thank god i have an Austrian friend who i call Hercules. We did it with no damage, and its ready to hook up to some pipes ready for the winter. Its a bit hard to imagine it being cold right now as at one point the Yurt reached an eye watering 47 degrees. It was too much of course, and i have now learned how much it helps to bring up the sides of the yurt canvas on a hot day. It knocked more than 10 degrees off the temperature. Phewph!
FIRE TIME!
Two days ago we had a bit of a drama. We had a HUGE fire just a few hundred meters away from our land. IT was INTENSE for me because i have a house made of wood and canvas. I think the yurt and everything in it would burn down in no time around here. Fires are a regular occurrence around Portugal, but i wasn’t expecting to meet one so soon on in my life here. It was 1am when i was just getting to sleep and heard people and noise outside. SOmething felt wrong, and so i woke up an poked my head out of the door. uh Oh! I saw Huge bloody flames a few hundred feet wide and pretty darn close. The wind was blowing toward me, and the fire looked like it could easily be headed this way.
I did not hesitate and grabbed a few things and left pronto. There were several people hanging around watching, and the fire brigade turned up and worked hard all night. My fire app told me that there were around 50 firemen involved, so it was big enough to but the fear of burning alive into me. I stopped briefly and chatted to one or two people, then i left. I headed back to my old unfurnished apartment, fearful of what may happen, and tired.
I managed to grab a few hours sleep on a cardboard box on the floor, but i obviously didn’t sleep well and woke up at 5am really wondering if i had just AGAIN lost everything i had. I had by then moved almost everything i have to the Yurt, and if that all went up in flames i would have been pretty shocked. I spent some time accepting that possibility, and then simply HAD to go back to see what had happened. I was even more concerned as my liion battery is basically like a bomb when set on fire, and would have made sure that the Yurt and everything in it was incinerated!
THANK God, i arrived and everything was fine. The flames were gone, but i could hear the water pumps going, and some firemen stayed on to keep an eye on it. Phewph! DAmn that was a close one! It is a bit unnerving that you could fall asleep and just burn with your house should a fire come. It sure makes me think about clearing the area around the whole land very well. I’m clear on one side, but on the other side there is a lot of burnable stuff.
Here's a short video a friend filmed of the fire..
So its fair to say that it has been a really challenging week. I have no water on the land, and no real toilet. Ive made a temporary compost toilet *a bucket with something to sit on *.. and am still wondering what option i will choose to manage all the poop waste. ITs not pretty right now, but i can handle it for a short time.
WATER
I HOPE very soon we will have a borewell dug and will have water! It will change a lot for me here having running water, and then i can also wash myself at the end of a dusty day. We did try for a well, but there was nothing down there so shallow. SO dig deep we will, and fortunately it is the best time of year to dig, at the end of summer when the water is at its lowest. If we get water i will be so happy! It will mean i can also water the tress and start making a garden.. Oh and that shower will be nice too!
Luckily we have fresh water springs nearby to drink.. so i go and fill up once a week with about 50 litres. That water is the BEST, sacred spring water! Even if we get a borehole i will still be going to the village of Aguas to get mine!
POWER
This is my quick and easy power system. The invertor iss 500 Watts which is more than enough for my laptop and light. I have a thin flexible 100 Watt solar panel on the roof, and my homemade DIY 700 watt Lithium ion battery bank. I have to say its been performing really well, that baby holds a heck of a lot of power! I have been nervous using in in these high termperatures, but ive been keeping a close eye and it WORKS! i do need to make a small battery room outside so that i can protect it and muyself in case of any problems or fire. Im thinking a small tyre wall should contain anything that ccould happen, and contain any fire or explosions.
SO that’s a brief summary of things.. Looking back i can say i have done a lot in Week 1! Let's see how week 2 looks! Im focussing on Furniture and kitchen now and i hope to have a chair and table to sit on very soon!
Thanks for stopping by, always nice to hear from you if you are here.. <3