New member

Welcome to the forum Gem. 

Take the time to read other threads here on the forum for information or advice.
Perhaps tell us a bit more about your local project.

Thank you

Good morning  It was quite a journey over to portugal last year and we have since bought this piece of land that is about two hectares. It was an adventure with all the forest fires last year, further to this I was working on a couple of organic farms where i met some of the victims to the very big fire that happened a few years ago.

We are working to create a pet boarding facility for the foreign nationals and the Portuguese, if they'd like to use us. It's called Pat Me Pet Hotel. We have a webpage and a fb page. We have had a few cancellations because of the Corona Virus.

At the minute I am connecting us to a volunteers site because we are needing some help with digging ditches and improving the place. We will live inside the hotel with the pets. It was previously a house of a donkey, so sort of follows on from this.

It's absolutely gorey and lush, there is lots of space we have bought a couple of hectares of land in a place near to Sarzedas. We are combining quinta work stays with creating a friendly and petite pet boarding premises with the hope to gain further and more permanent residence here in the country.

Gem x

The local project is:

Water Harvesting Project Olheiros

The Minister of Environmental and Energetic Transition, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, at the end of an Interministerial Drought Commission meeting on Wednesday.
“This drought is a structural problem. We must change the way we consume water in Portugal,” he told reporters. In this article it describes how water will be recycled to hydrate golf courses to preserve water better. It is promoting the cease of boreholing in the south of the country. (By Michael Bruxo 23rd November 2019, https://www.portugalresident.com/no-new … -portugal/ Nationsl News. Portugal Resident)

I am here in the Castelo Branco district of Portugal doing a water harvesting project. The idea is to catch the water and contain it for irrigation. So far we do this by water collecting from the roof surfaces, laying tarpaulins onto the ground and collecting the run off, also by leaving containers open to catch the rain. We have been deepening the trenches that collect the rainwater and feed it into the pond. This is  part of the overall aim for the additional tree planting on our plot of land that is a humble 2 hectares of Portuguese oak, pine, olive, and fruit and nut trees. So far we have planted an additional 30 trees on the land and have started a vegetable and herb garden area during the Covid quarantine time.

This is our second year and we have met some challenges with the condition of the soil type and the harsh summer climate. The only other means of irrigation to back up our water harvesting activities have been to use the water from the well and the pond.

Generally rainy days are about monitoring and improving the water harvesting system.

An example of a water collection observation: Reporting what the rain has done for us.
•We collected about 20 000 litres of water today by looking into the pond
•Pond refill ditches flowing well to channel rainwater into the pond
•checking and positioning the funnels for collecting water

#roughdraft