Quinta das Abelhas, Permaculture in Central Portugal
We’ve just lit the stove. That’s officially the start of Autumn / Winter!
The stove is an Esse and we love it! For a basketful of wood a day (it’s super-efficient and designed to run on wood) it provides the energy for all our cooking, heats the whole house, and gives us lots of hot water 
It looks good in the farmhouse kitchen too 
It has been a madly busy week again. Many many thanks to Shawn, the bread oven king, for staying with us this past week, and persevering with the bread oven construction.
We had 4 tonnes of granite stone delivered and a metre of sand, and some sacks of cement. Last Saturday, Shawn and helpers started by building the dry stone granite base of the oven.
As the base reached the desired height, it was important to create a level base on which to build the actual oven. Before the cement was added, a fair bit of sand and gravel was filled into the centre. We had a block of slate hanging around, which was used to form a shelf/lip in front of where the door was to go.
Now the fire bricks could start to be put into place, cemented in with fire cement.
Once a rough circle was completed, Shawn starts building the walls. Some of the bricks had to be cut to form the circle.
Upright bricks make up the sides of the door, with an arch over, and the wall bricks continue at an angle to make the dome of the oven.
At this point it looked really unstable and bodged!
Voila! The insides of the oven are completed.
Next, we covered the top in fire cement, and pointed all the bricks properly.
So, after 3 (or 4?) days of work, a fire was set within, to help set the cement casing.
Pizzas were enjoyed later in the evening.
Then we got to play with mud! Mixing cob is an art form, with lots of stomping mud, sand and straw into the mix until it felt about right. Young Tru couldnt resist sitting in it.
When the mud fight was finished, the work of covering the oven in cob could begin. Using hands, a good layer of cob was added, and smoothed out to get the desired shape.
Several layer went on over several days, with the oven being used in the evening to cook dinner, and to help dry out the oven. Before the final coat, indentations were made in the top, so that it would really stick. Any cracks that appeared were smoothed out, filled up, or slipped over (slip – a watery clay mix).
The finished oven is beautiful and practical. It heats up very quickly, burning only twigs and prunings, offcuts and scrub, and stays hot for a long time, thanks to the thick heatsink of cob, stone, bricks and cement. The inside gets up to well over 200 degrees centigrade, while the outside is only warm to the touch (the cats love to sleep on the granite lip around the oven – a cosy spot now the nights are getting chilly).
We still need to make a door for it, fire bricks will work for now. We are very happy indeed with this new low energy cooking option added to the quinta.
We set up the solar cooker today. 200 euros worth of lean, green, carbon-free cooking. Matt estimated that a couple of years of cooking will see it pay for itself, versus the gas cooker, and when Russia cuts the gas supply off we won’t have to worry.
First we had to clear the ground of tiles and weeds, and more weeds, and all the weed roots, and then all the roots we didn’t see the first time. 6 wheelbarrows of gravel smoothed the surface off and then we just had to prise the kittens away from their reflections and put it into place.
The first kettle boiled in twenty minutes and there’s another one on as I write, which seems to be going quicker as we get better at angling the beam. Cooking does take a bit longer, and although a sheet of metal laid in the beam began to buckle and melt, when it’s warming a large pot the whole thing won’t get quite as hot as it would on a hob, but it’s great as a slow cooker. Things take a little longer, maybe you have to plan ahead a bit more, but a free replacement for your gas cooker sounds like the future to me.
Tabua chain-saw massacre
Just cutting down an olive tree.
Who the hell is that?
Putting on the first kettle.
The angle is adjusted to hit the spot.
Free cooking for life.
Really want to make one of these for the yurt / camping area!
http://www.appropedia.org/HSU_Bike_powered_washing_machine
We’ve got the bike and the washing machine, just need some help to put them together! Any offers?
More pedal-powered technology at http://bikesnotbombs.org/app_tech
Yes, our panels have been installed, producing 24 volts into the battery bank, and then converted to 220 volts for the house electric system.
Sim, os nossos painéis foram instalados, produzindo 24 volts para a bateria banco e, em seguida, convertidos para 220 volts para o sistema elétrico da casa.
Almost all the sockets, lights and wiring has been finished and we now have a washing machine running in the adega.
Quase todos os soquetes, fios e luzes, foi concluída e agora temos uma máquina de lavar roupa correr na adega.
Yesterday, we were turning things on and off, to see the numbers change on the controller panel.
Ontem, fomos virar as coisas de vez em quando, para ver os números mudança no controlador painel.
This morning the sun is pouring power into the batteries, after we climbed onto the roof to clean the panels.
Esta manhã o sol está despejando potência para as baterias, após a nossa subida para o telhado para limpar os painéis.
We have some very interesting lights in the house and they all have LED lightbulbs with a maximum power of 6 watts (very bright).
Nós temos alguns muito interessantes luzes da casa e todos têm LED lâmpadas eléctricas com uma potência máxima de 6 watts (muito brilhante).
Writing in portuguese is not easy for me. But I will persevere and learn (thanks google translate!)
Yesterday I bought a teenage reading book, also to help with my portuguese.
Escrever em Português não é fácil para mim. Mas vou perseverar e aprender (graças Traduz Google!)
Ontem eu comprei um livro de leitura adolescente, também de contribuir com o meu Português.
We’ve been thinking about solar oven for some time now, and yesterday decided to have a go at making our own.
The builders have left us a few off-cuts of the insulation stuff, and I had an old ‘super’ from a beehive.
To start, I screwed some t&g to the bottom of the super, to make it into a complete box, with a bottom. Then some of the blue polystyrene stuff needed cutting to size and fitting in.
After a quick look at plans on the internet, we had to have a long look at what junk was lying around, that could be used to make the reflective flap.
A old metal panel from a dead computer did the job, pop-rivetted onto hinges which were screwed onto the back of the box. Covered with tin foil, and protected with copious amounts of sellotape, does the job of reflecting the suns rays into the box.
And it works! Just made a cup of tea and some leek and potato soup.
The shiny back flap could be improved, as we come across materials that would work better. Some designs use a mirror, although I wonder if this might be too hot in the summer and dangerous to eyes.
And our original perspex top was tinted, so that didn’t work. Luckily we had another broken sheep that will do for now, but when we find a proper replacement we will use that.
Quite amazing really. Its april and we can cook using the sun’s rays – in July and Aug this contraption will probably boil water quicker than a gas cooker. And we have recently ordered a parabolic solar cooker, after finding a cheap supplier in spain, although if we had an old satellite dish and some aluminium sticky tape (such as we used to seal the insulation in the roof) we could build our own one of them too.
Solar Cookers / Fornos Solares (Portuguese website):
Tá-Sol, Fornos Solares e outras curiosidades
COOKING WITH SUNSHINE
Author – L. Anderson
Complete guide to solar cuisine with 150 easy recipes to start you off and give you the basic principles
Our solar batteries arrived this morning. 12 x 2 volt solar batteries. Just waiting on the the invertor and regulator, and for Dave who is doing our wiring to return from a trip away, and we can get our solar power system sorted.
PRACTICAL PHOTOVOLTAICS
Author: R Komp
A comprehensive guide to the theory and reality of solar electricity, also a detailed installation and instruction manual. Lots of good technical and practical stuff – enough to construct.
£14.95
