A Pond is dug...

Hi, The other half here for this one.
I have always wanted a pond Since we have both space and available water, It seemed that now was a good time....

Though I'd really have liked to make it about half the size of the field, common sense and finances ruled and I settled on 8m x 6m ranging from 30cm to a metre in depth, with an added boggy area for raising thoroughbred mosquitoes, er, bog irises and such. So I marked out the outline, planning to leave it till finances allowed for hiring a mechanical digger.
Having marked out the pond I thought awww, what the hell, may as well remove the turf. So I did and discovered the amazing extent of the willow's roots...
Then I thought that I'd just take it down a spade depth all over...After that it seemed a small thing just to make sure there were no hidden springs, giant boulders or lost civilizations under where I was digging so I did a test dig to a metre.
After a day or two I was getting carried away with the whole thing and decided to see if I could actually do it without killing myself in the process!...and I did, much to my amazement. Pass the Ibuprofen...
After all that digging all that remained was putting in the underfelt,

the lining,

filling,Fettling the lining for minimum pleats,
and landscaping, which is in progress and will take a lot longer than the digging. The willow, which was pretty rotten was felled but will be replaced with another a bit further down the irrigation ditch, and further from the pond, to the left. We filled it on the 14th. It took me 8 days to dig. I only just worked that out - What was I thinking? Worth it though. The Herons are already queuing.

So there was this barn....

...at the back of the house which we part owned and had been the original habitation of the family prior to 1947 when they built the small granite farmhouse. 7 children were born there and some of them are still alive and living in the village at the end of our farm track.
Half of the barn and another outbuilding was owned by three separate members of the family and over two years we bought them all. They were all in pretty bad condition although built from granite blocks and mud bricks.

Our half of the barn as it was - background wall is the partition with the other section.

Our half of the main barn was a ruin and the rain from the roof was leaking all over the main house at the rear so we had its shell structurally rebuilt soon after we bought the quinta.



The same half after rebuild, built slightly higher to allow us to create a taller upper floor. This roof is a rustic quick fix and will be re-roofed next.

When we finally bought the other half we opened it to find............


The bake oven made from granite and mud render...



The rest of the barn which had been two rooms, lower and upper. Probably a lower stable and upper sleeping platform originally and then used for storage in later years.


Bats roosted in the lower beams and it took 4 hours to clear the disintegrated hay from the building.

Now both shells have been renovated with spaces for windows and doors...

and inside it has been given a waterproof foundation and solid floor.
We broke down the original mud brick and granite interior wall last week and now both halves have been opened out into one area.









In January we stripped off the old roof and have put in new beams and joists to elevate it to the same height as the other half. Unfortunately we had rain and high winds so had to cover the open structure for a few days...

Fraser battening down for the storm. But to no avail
It was scary to see the cover being lifted by the wind and even the brick weights could not hold it.
Over the past few days new joists have been added and we have had to make some major decisions about how to insulate and finish the roof. We have decided to board the roof inside with floorboards covered with insulation foam, liner and modern tiles rather than the original canudos or roman style tiles.

Two 7 metre Eucalyptus beams are the main roof support and will hold pine rafters.


Fraser and I treated the pine floorboards which will be used to line the final roof over the rafters cover.

This was as far as the roof has progressed as of Wednesay......
We will be boarding out the roof over the next 5 days or so.

2008 and all that... A quick history of the quinta and our projects

We have fully owned our quinta for 4 years now and the farm cottage was already converted from a ruin when we bought it. However we have added a new kitchen and upgraded parts of the interior since then.

We are situated in a lovely little forested and cultivated valley with a view of the lake which is a 3 minute walk away, where we can swim and fish and a 7 minute walk to the local village.
Fraser and dinner!

We have just under a hectare of land which was mainly cultivated in the past with five terraces, two small fields and a small strip of forest which is under pine, oak and strawberry trees (Madrona) whose fruit is distilled to make a local brew of the same name. We inherited many very old, overgrown and dry grapevines......................

A view of our fields part of our terraces

25 olive trees, several willows, 2 small fig and 8 old peach trees, 2 apple trees, a medlar which is past its prime, a new cherry tree and several New Zealand Cabbage Palms and an infestation of brambles and local cane which dominated the land to the point of all else.


We visited up until summer last year, only during school vacations when we would fly in from Prague, where I was working. We spent all of our time re-capturing the house from the wild.


and making changes to the interior, frantically strimming the terraces and woodlands against fire risk and doing grounds and house maintenance. It was hard work recovering key features from the land...

Water Source....Before

Water Source... After a summer´s work

But we did take some time for ....Hammocking




We would then leave exhausted to return to Prague for another 6 months. All very frustrating.

However since summer last year we have stopped working and we are now here full time. We have opted to downsize and hope that in the next two years we will have completed our four basic projects.
Project 1

Reconstruct the barn to a workshop and studio/ recreation area. Fraser, my husband is a painter and modeller. I also like to paint and have several other creative hobbies so we both need a space to work and be able to leave our stuff out. So the ruined barn at the back of our property, which was once used as the main house, is an ideal solution.

Project 2

Complete patios and shadery and an outdoor kitchen. We have two other outbuildings which we hope to convert for storage and an outdoor kitchen barbecue area for the summer. These make the third side of a quad and a natural area in the centre is perfect for a terrace patio.

Project 3

Re~forest 3 of our terraces and turn the rest into kitchen garden, and landscaped garden with fruit and nut trees and grapevines. As we are too old and decrepid now to farm all the terraces we want to turn most of the area back to deciduous forest and garden. I love cooking and want to try my hand at wine~making and vegetable gardening on a small scale.

Project 4

Create a pond and marsh area in our field and plant crops and other vegetation to encourage wildlife into our valley. Being lovers of the environment we want to improve the land for flora and fauna to flourish.

Next post will be about the barn project!!!!!