This time last year we were running around tidying up loose ends and saying goodbye to friends and family, now we are settled in and getting on with the work that needs doing. We are off schedule due to refitting the kitchen and having back to back guests up to mid November, then we failed to take advantage of the last few weeks of good weather, we'll make a proper start in January we said! Then came the storms and what storms they were. One hundred mile an hour blasts, (bye bye screening) and torrential rain made for some very soggy land, though we did what we could, when we could.
The barn now has guttering but we couldn't do anymore work on that as the weather needs to be good and dry before we fit it out or we will make more problems for ourselves. We've learned a lot about humidity in Portugal. Come February we managed to make a start on the courtyard, clearing the ground of weeds, raking and flattening it before putting down anti weed matting and gravel. Phil has built a raised flower bed as a feature which will hopefully will get skimmed today so we can clear the barn of the soil I have sifted.
The field has been transformed from a piece of scrub land that was used to keep cows on and has a smooth more garden like appearance. We hired a local man with a small tractor to plough it a couple of times all other work has been done by hand so to speak, we now have it all seeded with grass and can see it taking shape, though I have to admit to feeling a little old for weeding an acre, but it has to be done. The land has screening pretty much all the way round, with a line of Melaleuca twigs on the north side, just the boarding to put in place in front of the courtyard. We have bought the wood to make the pergola and trellis's, we can finally see the basics coming together. a lot of work to do to fit out the barn but we still hope to be open for business this year, hopefully for the summer. We recently learned our yurts will not arrive until June, they were scheduled for April but there was a problem, probably for the best as it will focus us on the other works.
So from this...
To this...
In a couple of months.
