Casalinho

Category: Our Week in Pictures

  • Hive Inspections

    Warmer weather means we’ve been able to do the first hive inspections of the new year. Sadly one colony hasn’t survived the winter, but the other is looking healthy.

  • Reasons to be cheerful: Spring Flowers

    It seems incredible that my last post was about the snow! Beautiful spring flowers have popped up virtually overnight.  

  • Snow Scene

      I knew I should have taken the washing off the line! We’re at around 800m so get snow perhaps once or twice a year. This fall got heavier in the evening, but just lasted 24 hours.  

  • Seasonal decor?

    Seasonal decor, Casalinho style. Home made chorizo and morcela dry curing above the stove. It’s been a busy few weeks, with the killing and processing of our first home grown pig and the completion of the olive harvest keeping us busy. More on what we’ve been up to in due course, but in the meantime more »

  • Reasons to be Cheerful: December Sunset

    Who needs TV when nature offers so much to watch? These December sunsets all captured inside 20 minutes, looking towards Aradas and Unhais o Velho.  

  • PDC August 2016 – RAM Pump workshop

    During our recent Permaculture Design Course, Jeroen took the participants through the theory and practice of RAM pumps. With a small stream at the bottom of our property, these are invaluable at Casalinho in lifting water to where we can use it.                     Join us for a more »

  • PDC August 2016 – Building a Raised Bed

    This practical session followed on from the swale building exercise I published yesterday. A contoured raised bed has been created on the downside of the berm, with the swale itself becoming the path above. For the short term this new bed has been planted up with annual veg, but these will be replaced with woody more »

  • PDC August 2016 – Building Swales.

    Learning to measure contours and build swales is a wonderfully interactive part of the PDC course. The swale being created here has wood in the berm to create a higher edge. The swale itself is a path, and we’ve built a raised bed on the downside. It’s been planted with annual veg in the short more »

  • PDC August 2016 – Making Hot Compost.

    PDC participants turning a hot compost pile. Put together at the beginning of the course, it’s nearly ready for use by the end. As we were lacking animal manure (so many projects, so little poo!), we’ve been using the pee from the compost toilet to add extra nitrogen. Check out this tutorial, put together by more »

  • PDC August 2016 – Natural Building Day

    Our Permaculture Design Course participants making adobe blocks and beginning a cob bench on the Natural Building day of the August PDC.