Fall Harvesting and Nesting

On Tuesday Sep 22 we mourned the upcoming days becoming shorter than the nights with some leftover ribs (this time with pesto), corn, and a tomato and julienned bean salad.  Mmm, we think we'll survive the equinox trauma.

Our handyman hero Marcelo was here the following day.  He installed the new house water filter, added lights in the downstairs workshop, and fixed the lock on the back door.  Everything was done beautifully.  Now our house water (direct from the water table) is very well filtered.  This will keep the irrigation filters from clogging and the pressure washer from having to pump fine grit, along with providing the purest drinking and cooking water.  Which was not a problem, but still.  The lighting in the workshop is brilliant: even and bright.  The back door was very hard to unlock and lock even when we moved in, and it suddenly became impossible about a month ago.  Marcelo found that the hinges had slipped slightly, so he jacked the door up with a crowbar and tightened the hinge bolts.  It works perfectly now, smooth and easy.

100 bags of pine bark mulch were delivered on Thursday Sep 24 for our gardener to spread over a couple of the front beds.  A layer of cardboard, a dusting of soil, and this bark should beautify the garden and keep the weeds at bay for a while.

Here is a view of the rising full moon from our balcony on the night of Saturday Sep 26.

Pat continues to harvest and prepare the bounty of the garden.  Her latest haul included almost 4 kg (8.8 lb) of tomatillos, baskets of tomatoes and peppers, a couple more strawberries, and a beautiful lush bouquet of basil.  She made the tomatillos and peppers into seven tubs of salsa for freezing, the basil into a couple ice cube trays of frozen pesto, and we'll enjoy the tomatoes sliced or in salads.

Gerrit got Pat's beloved weather station installed on Monday Sep 28.  We brought it over from the US, since it's such a nice one.  Now we can accurately report wind speeds, outdoor humidity, rainfall, barometric pressure, and daylight flux to our dear readers.  Wouldn't that be exciting?  Well, you can see for yourself.  Pat (aka Lilac09) is streaming all our weather data to Weather Underground, which you can watch in real time here.  There is historical data there, graphs, and everything a weather nerd could want. 

Here's a story our new friends Marian and Dave told us about when they arrived here in Ponte de Lima.  They live in a sort of suburban neighborhood a little west of Ponte de Lima.  Not long after they arrived Marian put flyers up all around, inviting neighbors to a meet-and-greet at their place.  The starting time came and went, and nobody showed.  Uh oh, had they violated some custom or norm?  Fifteen nervous minutes later the entire neighborhood came through the front gate.  They had been waiting to enter together!  A couple of the younger neighbors acted as translators, and everyone had a great time.  Marian had made a map of the neighborhood and asked people to pin their names and numbers to their houses on the map.  At the end a patriarch made a speech welcoming them to the neighborhood.  "We are a family", he said, "and now you are a part of it too."  This is the kind of warmth we see all the time from the Portuguese.  What a great idea that was of Marian's, too, for instant connection to all the neighbors!  She was a pastor in Pennsylvania before retiring here, so gathering people together comes naturally to her.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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Howling, Harvest, and Hand-holds

Boring alert: Pat got our way-over-complicated irrigation computers figured out and reprogrammed yet again, and Gerrit fabricated a little shelf for our network router to keep it cool and unshielded without having to prop it on a pile of bags like our prototype version was.  We warned you: boring.  But it's what we're doing.

Every culture has its own old folk songs.  They're usually simple, and easy to sing or dance to.  In the US, you'll find old favorites like "Down in the Valley" and "Buffalo Gals" for example, very simple with only two chords.  Portugal is no exception, they have a two-chord traditional folk song heritage which is played and danced to at almost every community event.  What is jarring to Anglo ears, though, is the singing.  They sound slightly out of tune and like they're shouting or shrieking, especially the women.  Some cultural barriers just can't be overcome.

Over the weekend after the big Ponte de Lima Feiras Novas celebration, which just wrapped up for this year, our little village of Calheiros stages its own festival.  They play music most of the day over loudspeakers at the church in the village center, filling the whole valley.  There are Euro-pop tunes, sentimental songs, and even the occasional march from John Philip Sousa (a Portuguese native son), but a large measure of it is the old-fashioned Portuguese folk songs.   Here is a recording we made from our balcony of some of the worst of it, amplified a little so it will make it through your speakers.  Some Anglos use this Calheiros festival as a cue to get out of town, but so far we're managing to ignore it.

Then the nighttime party begins, and along with the music comes the obligatory fireworks displays.  A huge one took place Saturday night Sep 20 at midnight, which Gerrit somehow slept through, and there were bursts of explosions marking the start of festivities in the morning, the lunch break, and the evening.  The Portuguese love their fireworks!  (Fireworks are called "fogos de artifício" here, or "artificial fire".)

Sunday Sep 20 was potato salad and rib heaven.  Pat harvested a bag of our homegrown potatoes in the morning, cleaned and prepped them, and made her famous potato salad including homegrown onions and the super pickles from friend Maayan, and she sliced some homegrown tomatoes.  Gerrit had started some ribs at 7:30 AM, so it was feast time for lunch.  Gerrit thinks that Pat's Portuguese potato salad is even better than her classic.  Our potatoes are golden, creamy, and flavorful, and Maayan's pickles are crunchy and flavorful too, so the combination is really a gourmet potato salad.  Gerrit is using a similar rub and method for ribs that he did back in Seattle, and they continue to come out great.

Here is Pat's harvest from the day.  We have: Tomatillos  A leek Peppers (not sure what they are but they're not hot) Tomatoes - Purple Dragon, San Marzano, Yellow cherry, Red cherry  Strawberries  Cilantro seeds (aka coriander) Dill seeds  Potatoes She also got a nice little basket of apples and made applesauce and apple-fig crumble.

We finally got the pool rail and mounting feet which Pat had originally ordered in April, five months ago!  Orders were lost or mis-shipped, delayed inexplicably, or canceled due to no stock, but finally all the hardware was here in mid-September and Gerrit could start installing.  Which involved drilling holes in the granite.  Which is nearly impossible, even with a concrete bit and a hammer drill (granite is much harder than concrete, and it ruined several bits).  And which is made completely impossible when the impact drill literally falls apart.

A trip to the big hardware store in nearby Viana do Castelo resulted in a new drill and bits, along with a few other items we couldn't live without.  The following morning Gerrit discovered that his old hammer drill had been completely shot.  With little or no actual hammering going on (despite the sound effects), it's no wonder that holes weren't being drilled and bits were smoking out.  The new one glided right through the granite with just a concrete bit.  The railing was mounted, finally, and behold.  Unfortunately there is quite a horizontal wobble to the rail.  This is exactly how it should work, though, with the rail tubing sleeved over the mounting feet posts as it is, but we didn't see it coming.  The rail just swivels on the feet.  Hmm, we'll see what to do about that.  If anything.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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Pickin' Vegetables and Bluegrass

Folks need their computers just about anywhere they live these days, and we're no exception.  Pat's has been temperamental for a while, stalling and balky, and we've been trying to figure it out.  On Saturday Sep 9 Gerrit took the bull by the horns.  He found that our network router was getting rather hot in its little closet compartment with this hot weather, so he pulled it out into the open to cool it and also to eliminate any WiFi radio shielding being provided by the closet.  That improved things a lot, and he also scheduled a memory upgrade for her (from 8 GB to 32 GB) at a local shop.  She'll soon be flying through her computing.

Pat's been in a state of FigMania for a few days now, prepping and cooking with them as fast as our gardeners can pick them.  We have a cake-sized fig tart and lots more jam now, for us and for gifts.  Mmm, when's dessert?

She continues to tend and harvest the vegetables she's growing around here, too.  Here's an example, with a tempting glass of chilled vinho verde for accompaniment.

Our friend Maayan gave us a big jar of pickles she had made, and they're just about the best we've ever had.  They were from her homegrown cucumbers and gherkins of various types, and they were crisp, crunchy, briny, and rich with dill, garlic, and bay.  She's been embracing homesteading, reading and taking classes, and it really shows.

Gerrit got his parts for the enhanced house water filter and began planning and setting up for that.  On Wednesday Sep 16 our handyman Marcelo came by and scoped the project, plus some other jobs needing doing around here.  He will get to work next week.

Pat continues to make storage space and pack things away.  Gerrit built an Ikea narrow utility closet for her to go next to the washing machine, and she ordered and built a couple more drawers for the hall closet.  The corner in the dining room was piled high with stuff, and now it's completely cleared out and looks great.

She wanted three more glass shelves for the cabinet we have in the kitchen which holds dishes and glassware.  She found a glass fabricator very nearby, about a 10 minute drive.  We took an existing shelf in there on Tuesday Sep 9 and the following day we got a message that the new ones were ready to pick up!  They required some cabinet drilling in order to position them where she wants, but they are beautiful: exact copies of the original, done in one day for less than 40 € ($46) total.  Nice!

On Sunday Sep 13 our friends Maayan and Dan came over for a birthday lunch for Maayan.  Pat prepared a vegetarian feast for vegetarian Maayan, and Gerrit made a frittata to go along with it.  We all lounged around the pool and paddled around in the hot afternoon; it was so refreshing and such a relief from the heat.

And we cheesed out completely on the Feiras Novas celebration in Ponte de Lima this year: missed the whole thing.  We're becoming so jaded already.  But with good reason.  Parking is awful, crowds are like being in a sardine can, and it has been so blasted hot.  We had enough reason to stay home and cool off in the pool, and we did.  Saturday night Sep 12 was a huge party; we could hear the sound stage music and fireworks all night long, till 3 AM!  A few hours later, at 7 AM, the church bells rang, we guess to mark the end of the party / sleep four hours / repent cycle.  The following day there were more huge celebrations much of the night, too.  The fireworks did sound like they were pretty spectacular, but the comfy bed was pretty spectacular too.  OK, maybe next year we'll drag our aged and lazy carcasses down there.  Until then, you can see last year's blog post here, or search "youtube feiras novas 2026" for plenty of video of this year's celebration.

The Portuguese take their fireworks seriously.  There are several actual manufacturing plants in the country (surprisingly that's not all done in China), and the displays are really spectacular.  Here are a couple from past displays in Ponte de Lima by Pirotecnia Minhota, who does all the town's big shows (including this year's Feiras Novas).  You can check out their Portuguese shows (in English) here.

On the evening of Tuesday Sep 15 we did venture out, to a house concert of bluegrass music.  It was a great, fun evening of excellent music in an intimate setting and great to meet new people and catch up with old friends.  The band was Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection, from the US but on a European tour.  Here's video of one of the tunes they performed:

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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Life at Casa da Rocha

We put together those temporary Ikea cabinets we got as an interim solution for cabinets in the front room, and darned if they don't look okay.  We think we're going to live with them for a while and maybe keep them that way.  Life's too short to keep chasing perfection (we keep telling our perfectionist selves).  

On Sunday Aug 23 we had two couples over for dinner.  Our old friends Bernardo and Carolina brought some American expats here to meet us, and we clicked immediately.  Rick and (the other) Pat moved to Portugal from North Carolina just a few months ago and are now living in an apartment in Porto which Bernardo found for them.  We all had a great time together, talking and laughing, and realizing our shared values and experiences.  Gerrit slow-smoked some ribs and Pat served her famous potato salad, coleslaw, and a Mediterranean tomato and chickpea salad.  There was a fair amount of Americana in that meal, but instead of barbecue sauce for the ribs we offered Pat's homemade pesto.  It's a very nice touch, not as sweet or heavy as many BBQ sauces and it lent a nice Mediterranean touch to the ribs.  Sure wish we took pictures.

Alex, our horticulturist and irrigation installer, has been seeing mysterious pressure fluctuations in the lines.  He and Gerrit have been puzzling over it, and to investigate they took apart a manifold for the irrigation system.  They found that the water filter looked pretty clogged.  When Alex rinsed it out the pressure bounced back up.  So, Gerrit has a new project: to improve the whole-house water filter.  We already have one filter which catches sand, grit, and some sediment, but he'll follow it with another which has smaller pores.  Parts are on order.  And meanwhile, we'll clean the irrigation filters weekly.

Pat has been busy cooking up our figs, which are ripening on the tree outside.  She is drying some, making jam from some, and using others for fig cake and tarts.  The whole house smells wonderful while she's working.  Not only is she preserving the figs, but she's busy with our other crops here too:  basil, leeks, tomatillos, cucumber, jalapenos, and squash now, and the tree fruit when it is in season.

She is also continuing to unpack and store.  We have a little more storage space now with the new cabinets, so she is using that and also optimizing other areas to make more room.  She is consolidating, organizing, and winnowing out things to give away.  Slowly the piles of stuff on the floor are dwindling.

It was rainy and cloudy with occasional dramatic thunderstorms all during the last week of August.  Very uncharacteristic!  It's a good test of the new skylights though, which are staying dry and watertight.

One of the new vegetable vines we planted this year was watermelon.  All the vines suffered from too little watering since the irrigation system has been erratic, but we did salvage a few pumpkins, squash, and one wee watermelon.  Despite its difficult upbringing, the watermelon was delicious.  The little thing gave us just two dessert bowls of fruit.  Now that the irrigation system is up and running we should have a better harvest next year.

In Portugal the "mini" beer bottle size is popular.  It is only 200 ml (6.8 oz).  Gerrit thinks they're the perfect thirst-quenching size, but Pat misses her 12-ouncers.  On the plate here you can see the remnants of a Waldorf salad Pat made with our home-grown apples.  We only got a couple of them from this tree this year, since the tree had been traumatized by uprooting and moving this spring, but they're really good: tart and crisp.  Next year the harvest should be bigger, and we do still have apples from the other tree coming.

The annual Ponte de Lima Feiras Novas celebration is coming up next week, and this year is the 200th anniversary.  We'll send our ace reporters (us) to cover some of the event.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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