Monthly Archives: September 2014

Summer loving..there was none of that but other things kept me occupied. :)

August has come and gone. And a busy August it has been too. Completely none stop, with hundred and one things going on.

DSC_0226It was fantastic to have my friend PT Jorge and my brother visit me!  Maybe we should have relaxed more but I had them both give me a hand with things that needed doing.  Jorge was fantastic in aiding me to harvest the carobs. We got 12 sacks full.  carobs_collected

 

 

 

 

 

 

The carobs are then sold at this Co-operative type place who personally I think are doing a fantastic job. The Government now want there cut from every carob bean traded.. :). DSC_0249

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother was a great help. We had a go at installing the wooden floor (oak lamparequet blocks) using untried methods. It was challenging but we managed to find a method that seems to work. But gluing the 2 mm cork underlay to the floor first and then using a minimal amount of glue for the wooden blocks that stick on top of it seems to work best. It is a slow process never the less and I'll be lucky to get the kitchen finished before winter. DSC_0260 He was a great help in helping be to find the pipes in the walls. There was no mains pipework installed which is good to know. I can now implement my own solution. My bro also helped me install my second solar panel array on the roof. Couldn't have managed this on my own. It consists of three, 160 watt panels giving me a total generation capacity of 960 watts which should be sufficient for my needs. I have a 1200 W inverter.

This runs all my current appliances except the washing machine which stresses it out. I would like to go upto 2400 Watts but I am not sure if I have enough batteries to sustain this type of load for any significant amount of time.

I charge my electric bicycle from my solar generated electricity! I really love this bike. It has given me substantial independence here and has good range of 60 km. gingabike TWA

The composting toilet has been challenging in terms of the odour. I was almost about to call it a day last week but I have decided to stick with it. I'm going to seal it up and then use forced ventilation for this enclosed space.

 

 

 

steady_trickleBeen getting a steady stream of veggies.  Cherry tomatoes, rocket, basil sweet, peppers, melons! bro_wit_melon and now the garlic are doing well. They wouldn't sprout in August because it was too hot.This despite giving them all the water they could possibly want.

 

Sweet Million F1I am really pleased the two Sweet Million cherry tomatoes that I planted back in March have come through for me!  I have this august,  planted a bit of ginger in a pot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DSC_0262 It's growing slowly but steady. This week I put a bit in the ground so fingers crossed. I've planted a few fruit trees as well so I have a mini orchard now. A clementine, tangerine - my bro gave me hand with this one, lemons, lime, one pear tree and a couple of peach.

 

 

 

 

 

It the middle of September. I have been harvesting my almonds. It has colled down and actually rained today. So I got to built Primeiro a house -asap. He is a good dog and I glad I have him. He´s got my back whwn he's not trying to bite me..) He is a little possessive of this things. I got him a trailer now, so when we have to travel far I pull him along in this.