Have you mulched your garden? We found free wood chips and added it to our garden and around our fruit trees. It made a huge difference in the amount of watering. We went from watering almost every day to about once a week during the summer.
Never trust a Portuguese weather report. 😂 I was all excited to see sun out this morning and I decided to do laundry. By the time the machine was finished it was raining. 🤦🏽‍♀️ The laundry is all hanging in the mud room now. 🙄

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I enjoy watching your videos. I have so many ideas for your little house and area. But I would love to see in the video projects that are actually completed. I don’t know if I’ve seen any before and maybe I just missed a video that shows something completed. Thank you for sharing.

Can you share info how expencive your solar system was,lithiumbatte;r ,name of manifacture .?

Cindy vane put a window in her metal door..she might give you some tips

Did the cork help with the cold in the house?

Gee girl it might be cheaper and more prudent to get a new door and window fitted

Great job on the door, Kirsty! I hope it makes a big difference to your warmth. It was very interesting to follow your electricity usage and solar energy input over the few days, a this is something that I am researching as part of my future plans.

Thanks for sharing 👍 After I got the new electricity bill for my tiny house in the garden I'm considering to get a solar system as well. At least something like your bluetti. I wish you a lot of sunshine 🌝🌞 at daytime and rain in the night 😉

Hi frome toronto .i had mastactomy 2 months a go and living in warm place is a must for my joint and bone, thanks a lot for your amazing video i can see you honestly talk a both posibilitys and you are brave knowlegeble person that i ever saw to start homestead by herself i am sure you will achive your goles .i was a nurse for 20 years so i littlebit concern a both living with solar system very close to our body they have waves and still we dont know howmuch they hurt bodys is it posible you stablish them far from your house.good luck with everything.

Corker job on the door Kirsty ❤💯

I was thinking about the cork you put in the blue door, good insulation by the way, you said it made the house darker though. Can you paint the cork white?

Yes weather here in UK is same very cold and rainy. It must be a bit of a bind when you
are off grid, especially after the tremendous heat this summer.

Just continuing to enjoy your videos!

Where did you buy your cork boards? Id love to use natural insulation,just struggling to find an economical supplier

Remind me how many Watts your solar is. You only have 1 tiny battery if I remember right.

Du musst ein Fenster machen dann hast du auch mehr Strom du verbrauchst zu viel weil es da zu dunkel ist schöne Weihnachten 🤶 🤶

Are you high up?

Cork Carnage!!! 😆

Beautiful view. Good luck and like watching what your doing. My first visit to your site.

It is interesting to see how the solar leads you to live an intentional life. Focusing on your energy footprint, making choices and paying close attention to weather. Most people are oblivious to these.

We have constant rolling blackouts in south africa as our power stations have not been maintained so are in bad disrepair. We spend 8-10 hours a day without electricity. My advice to you would be ti switch fridge and freezer off during the day for 2 hour intervals. This way you can save a lot of power yet maintain integrity if the temp inside.

Make second door in policarbonate outside
Insulate the blue door

Cork is the best insotalion

I hear you on the solar. We have also had a series of overcast days, but we do have a backup generator, so no worries. For years we had a propane fridge, until we got a good enough solar setup to get an electric one (graded A+++ for energy efficiency – fridges do vary a lot on how much power they use.) It's very instructive and empowering to find out exactly how much energy everything uses and I'm very glad our kids were brought up with this knowledge — so all good!

Hi Kirsty – love your videos, I think you're amazing doing what you're doing. I've been thinking about your door/window and you may have already considered what I'm about to suggest. Do you particularly want a square/rectangle window? The integrity of the door is being held by the cross bars, so why not have a triangle window? It means you're only cutting the metal between the bars., you already have some wood framing done and you could also use that diagonal bar to hinge the window. Anyway just a thought. Getting warm here now in Victoria Australia – up to 24 deg C today and we're just 6 days off Christmas – usually mid to late 30's now. Believe I'm glad but it is strange thinking do I need a cardigan today? lol All the best. xx Siw

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Great video

You are doing great. I envy your independence🎄

Hi from Canada but the other side west coast, I will be going to Portugal in January hope to meet you there.

Buy a bag of ice when cloudy to keep in your fridge and reduce how much the fridge has to turn on. Also I know there is a small unit that burns wood and makes electricity. I wonder when or if they will make one that sits in top of your wood stove?????.

Could you put a timer switch on your fridge for winter? Instead of setting it just to come on for a couple of hours, set it to be on all the time except for a couple of hours during what is the coolest times? Just a thought.

Thinking about the runoff from your cistern. Might be a good place to start creating narrow irrigation trenches to bring water to your garden area rather than let the overflow just sink into the ground around the overflow area. My friend who created a simple irrigation system starting next to the village well, just dug pathways about 4-6 inches deep and about 4 inches wide fanning out from the cement slab next to the well. He mapped out how and where he wanted the water to flow, and where to end up. His garden was beautiful in arid dry season Senegal and flourished even more during the rainy season. Just a thought. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your window. Perhaps a custom sliding type with screens or multiple slat Jalousie window??? I am just so curious.

Hey Kirsty! Just wondering if you are making sure your solar panels are clean. Even rain will make a film on them.

Just a thought maybe you should get yourself some timers and plug the plug your fridge and your freezer into this timers to shut off for an hour and then kick back on for an hour shut off for an hour kick back on for an hour and that would help you save a lot of energy just at night

Can you charge your inverter with your car's cigarette lighter? Just plug it in whenever you drive anywhere.

You could Steampunk your door, a la Gene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4_ZpGUAvZE&t=1429s

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2 triangle shapes on the top that form a square would make a nice window in the door , another idea is taking the vent out of the bottom of the door for a pet door for your cat but you are doing great with so many projects, Merry Christmas

An Idea for your door's window, carefully cut out a larger hole with an angle grinder. This can be a hinged (lockable) flap on the inside.
Place security mesh and sandwich it in as per this video (below), use security fasteners that cannot be unscrewed on the outside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJDWjOkaQhM
Make a window with a long horizontal in the opposite wall for cross ventilation (for summer nights), and install security mesh in this as well. the mesh could be cemented in with stone surround, and a lift-out window-frame for the cooler seasons.

If you live off grid, you need a generator. I am off grid in Australia and I still have to top up my batteries after several days of heavy rain. The idea is to not drain your batteries down.