Hi there! I am Joseph.
I have been an immigrant, or expat, living in central Portugal along with my beautiful girlfriend Mariana for six years now.
Together Mariana, my father Clinton, my mother Julie and myself, would like to show you a bit of the daily goings on around our Portuguese farm / homestead / smallholding and all of the work we are doing whilst renovating, starting building projects, working with our livestock, DIY and trying to grow our little families own food!
In this episode we welcome you to join us in the very beginning of Spring time, one of my favourite seasons where we can see life really is amazing and all the plants and insects start to return from their winter slumber.
We begin by opening up the chicken coops in the morning and letting the geese out onto their pasture, the geese are separated from the chickens for the first hour or two of the day, just to make sure that the chickens can get their feed and that the geese do not gobble it all up and stand guard over the feeders like the mighty guard geese that they are. After this they are all let out onto pasture for the afternoon and everyone gets to roam the meadows.
Mariana and I walk up to the sheep barn with Mitzy and Lilly the dogs, we talk to you a little about why we are excited to do so, there is new life on the farm this week, something we have never bred here before, pigeons, and it is something that we, well I, am very excited about. Mariana is not as excited but I will let you see for yourselves if my excitement is warranted!
Once we arrive to the sheep barn we open up the double doors and wish a beautiful morning to all the ladies, we check the pigeon loft and see that unfortunately the second egg did not hatch, but there is indeed one baby squab inside. The squab has a yellow down which means that it will mostly be white in adult feather form. The father was sitting on the nest when we arrived, a lovely thing that pigeons do is share the task of incubation, not only this but also the feeding is a shared task between both loving parents. Pigeons will also be monogamous and once they have nested in a place together they will nest there up to six times per year with the same partner for the rest of their lives. This will produce up to twelve squabs a year per couple. Hence why pigeons are everywhere I suppose!
Mariana and I then set to cleaning out the sheep barn, with now twenty sheep the barn needs cleaning either every day or every other, depending if the weather is bad or not. This week it has been wet, which means that the sheep cart mud around and their wool is wet, the straw needs changing much more often like this.
After the sheep barn Mariana and I take a walk to the next village, a short ten minute walk through the cherry orchards. Once we get there we take a look around the village and have ourselves a little drink by the church. The Saharan sand storms mean that the air is a very rich orange, brown colour!
When we made it home I decided to whip us up a traditional Portuguese lunch, bochechas de porco preto, pig cheeks in tomato and wine sauce, with white European rice. Very nice indeed, if I do say so myself!
After lunch I wander upstairs, to my parents part of the farm house, where we see my father painting and decorating the upstairs bedrooms. A task that is very well suited to the weather we have been having the last week. By the way thank you all for your rain dances, they definitely worked and we really needed that after this winter drought.
Thank you so much for watching, have a marvellous week everyone!
See our journey to self sufficiency / permaculture / organic farming living in Portugal, trying to produce as much of our own food planting vegetables, growing fruit trees as well as looking after all our animals, such as our chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, quail, rabbits and sheep – Shortly pigs too!
– Growing vegetables, raising meat and foraging on our cherry farm in Portugal’s Beira baixa.
Follow us on Instagram @farmerforfun
IF YOU ARE PORTUGUESE OR TRYING TO LEARN PORTUGUESE PERHAPS CONSIDER TURNING ON SUBTITLES FOR THIS VIDEO, MARIANA & I HAVE CREATED SUBTITLES IN PORTUGUESE, MAYBE THEY MIGHT COME IN HANDY WITH LEARNING A WORD OR TWO! CLICK THE ‘CLOSED CAPTIONS’ BUTTON ON THE VIDEO AND THE SUBTITLE OPTIONS WILL APPEAR.
PLEASE HELP US TO CONTINUE CREATING THIS CONTENT BY CONTRIBUTING TO US ON PATREON
Hello guys, very nice video 🙂 I wonder which camera + micro do you use? Thank you and have a wonderful time! Greetings from North Cyprus
Good job.
One more reason to have a drive for planting trees in the Sahara!
Great place and love the dogs 👍👍
Hello Joseph and Mariana! It's so, so nice to see you again and I'm so sorry for not living coments in your videos, but I always give you a like as I can. 😊😀
Lovely to see how you both work together cleaning up the barn. I am impressed with all the delicious recipes that you share. Did you always have an interest in cooking?
Forgot to ask you…how bad are the CICADAS (cigarras) and CRICKETS (grilos) in rural Portugal with their annoying singing that reaches 120dB? Any particular time of the year and time of the day?
Just watched OK Portugal with Ken and Ginny your probably familiar with them and seen the dusty yellow haze. Makes you realize what a small world it is with wind effects! Its a lovely 6 C here with only patches of snow, cold winds when doing chores though! Nice to see Mariana doing some camera work , thanks for the early view of spring- beautiful. Wish we had a little village to walk to for a snack after pen cleaning, glad you take time to enjoy!
Please keep these vids coming. I literally live my life through your videos, wishing it was me, they are my motivation to one day end up in a simular situation. So amazing
I guess your mom.is looking àfter cloe
Hi Joseph and Mariana. Thank you for taking us along on another great day in the farm. It is very beautiful
So good you had rain, here in Alentejo didn't rain anything we had only one day of rain in a year.A huge problem.
😎🍷🚍⚓️🇬🇧👍
In the Caribbean the Sahara dust season began for us a couple months ago, and though it can be somewhat of a nuisance, it's comforting to know that it brings minerals and nutrients with it, which helps to add fertility to our soils.
💯
Such a beautiful farm. Love to watch you cook Joseph. 😁
Joseph e Mariana, bonito ver vocês os dois a trabalhar juntos e depois ir ao café da aldeia beber uma bebida 👍
Perfeita maneira de cozinhar esse porquinho ibérico: um copo para a panela e outro para o cozinheiro 😂
We had the Sahara sand also. Up to Belgium and the Netherlands. All the cars are covered with it. And in the garden.
It's good for the plants, so they say, as nutrients.
What a lovely time I allways spend watching you ,k love ig ,it’s my time to relax when I watch u ,thd farm is lovely and it just makes me so happy to watch you ,Mariana and your family together do lovrly
Joseph & Mariana, I never get bored watching your vlog. 12 eggs a year & males sitting on eggs, my pigeon knowledge just went through the roof
Fundão é umas das zonas país mais bonitas de se ver em Abril com as cerejeiras em flor .
Thanks for your videos. They’re so relaxing and full of joy. I really appreciate you sharing your farm daily routine and projects. Keep doing that for us please and can’t wait to see the cherries bloom. Here in Chicago I can see the cherry getting ready to bud. Cheers.
Hi Joseph and Mariana, so glad my raindance had result. Stil watch and love your vlogs. Kindest regards.
i can't put into words how much i enjoy your channel.
We have had it here in UK…fine orange film on the cars…how lively that you adopted the 3 strays they are obviously very grateful for having a home with you judging by all the affection you are getting…I think it is lovely for children to grow up with pets…I'm glad you got the rain you needed but hope it doesnt continue and spoil your cherry blossom…dinner looked nice as usual very tasty…
Hi. What spring temperatures are there now in Portugal in the morning and at night where you are now ?
awesome
Lovely film, Joseph 😊. Always nice to see you with the fam at your farm.
Boa Tarde eu gosto muito dos vossos vídeos um bem haja e tudo a correr bem eu também já passei por a vida de agricultora e à momentos que não são fáceis força 🇵🇹👍🙏
Really enjoyed your video . Thank you so much .
Good morning! Thank you both for such a calming and beautiful video. All is well in your neck of the cherry farms! How special it is to walk into a village for a drink! Maybe the Saharah sands will bring in some good nutrients for the soils there. "Dinner is served" so nicely ….you make wonderful food videos. I really enjoyed seeing the sheep and wow…all that compost! How valuable to have for the gardens. The ending with the two dogs, Mitzy and…?..was so precious! Have a great week ahead! God bless you all!
Another beautiful video Joe! So glad you got some much needed rain – too bad it was so orange🥴. Another delicious meal too…aah. Tell dad to ease up on all the work…. Has he not heard of sit and read a book for a while haha. Lastly, I love how Mitzy and Lily fight and fidget for your attention – all kisses and wagging tails. Adorable!! Love to Mariana, Chloe and mum & dad too❤️
Look forward to your videos. Thanks 🙏. Keep up the great work!
thank you again for that lovely video, you and Mariana are such a great team, love it to see how she rolls up her sleeves and do some smelly job. its so nice to watch your video every week.
Mariana is ready for her own posts, I think. Or at least her own segments.
This vlog almost makes me want to live on a farm again. But I know it's a lot of work, I'll just watch your vlogs instead. Happy for the needed rain. Can't wait to see the fields of cherry blossoms.🍒
Beautiful family. Beautiful farm. Beautiful baby. How large is your farm?! Cheers
Wow Josegh and Mariana love that little baby pigeon. I love pigeons and your farm as always looks Beautiful . Thannks for sharing.
There is a reason why the animals are happy and healthy looking, the live in a good place. They are lucky to have you.
Your cooking looks really delicious.
Dear ole dad never stops💪