Casalinho

Tag: Our week in pictures

  • PDC August 2016 – Morning Madness.

    Morning warm ups during our most recent Permaculture Design Course.                                                 You can search for forthcoming courses at Casalinho here.    

  • 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.

  • Scout Camp 2016 – Community Help in Malhada do Rei

    On at least one day during our annual Scout camp visit, we like to direct all that energy into helping out our local community. This year the Scouts did a marvellous job of brightening up the bar and bathrooms at one of our local river beaches in Malhada do Rei with a fresh new paint more »

  • Scout Camp 2016 – Milking the Goats & Feeding the Pigs

    One of my favourite activities with our annual Scout camp is teaching the Scouts to milk the goats. This year we’ve also had the pigs so the braver Scouts were hand feeding them. All fingers still intact 🙂 Lots of photos, proof for the Scout’s parents that they really were on a farm and not more »

  • Scout Camp 2016 – New Parking Space & Learning to Render

    We’ve enjoyed hosting a Belgian Scout Group for their annual camp. As one of their activities they’ve built a brilliant new parking area here, already in use as we now have a PDC group on site. Jeroen has also been teaching the Scouts how to render, and they’ve been practicing on one of the exterior more »

  • Plunge Pool

      No longer any need to walk far in the heat. Today’s reason to be cheerful is that our very own plunge pool is full again for the summer. We’ve a Scout group from Belgium due to join us shortly, followed by a couple of Permaculture Design Courses.