Usually I follow vlogs from Portugal off grid, because is a way to be closer to my country and nature (I live in Asia for many ears)and you guys that are doing great work and taking care and renovating such abandoned beautiful properties .
So I would like to share here 2 more vlogs that are doing the same and I think can give you great ideas:
MAKE.DO.GROW love their insulation projects
and the other is
THE INDIE PROJECTS because the ideas they have for their stone barn with roof windows and wood
Thank you for keeping doing it!

👍👍👍

p̷r̷o̷m̷o̷s̷m̷

Doing good, slope away from the house, more worky worky, less talky talky..👍👍💛

Make 2 casa's out of it. Your not going to be inside much during the day. So you need a bathroom 2 bedrooms and a kitchen block in the left side. So make 2 bedrooms of 4×3 meters like you draw on your first drawing. A bathroom of 4x 1,5 and you still have enough space to put a kitchenblock and some ossibility to sit down. The right part you make a deck on 2,20/2,30 high that will give you some space above the deck to ceate a bedroom for 2 (4,80×3). The normal space you make a bathroom and a small kitchen under the deck. And living space for the rest. Which will give you the possibility to rent it out on AirBNB or keep it for your father in case you will meet a partner.

Hello Alex,
Thank you for sharing your journey! As mentioned in other comments, there are several other utubers in your area tackling similar issues and are worth checking out and collaborating with. It looks like you have a lovely property and I look forward to watching your progress! Blessings to you and Dad!

I agree a French drain would work out well

A YouTube channel called Make-Do-Grow has done a lot of research on the ways to direct the water away from the house and how to do the floors inside to keep the damp and water away.

In case the local council do not let you have a fire, maybe you could buy or hire a wood chipper, then feed all the cut brambles through the wood chipper

You could try an ancient method for breaking up rocks. Drill a straight line of holes into the rock, hammer wooden pegs or wedges (beech works best) into the holes and soak them with water for several hours. The wood will swell and develop enough force to crack the stone. I've never tried this myself but it seems reasonable. It's just a wild guess but I'd try drilling the holes around 10 cm apart.

Hi, great work! very satisfying video, one of my favourite jobs was clearing the terrace walls on our property in Spain when we lived there! Little tip for clearing the suckers (growth around bottom of the olive trees) best to use a hand axe! We had 100 trees and after trying many tools found an axe the best! Not an expert on drainage but if I had to do it think I'd use concrete and have it slanted away from the wall and dig out so it could run off away from the house!!! Would need to put re-bar in or else it will crack up!! Keep up the good work!

My friend, it would be best to put down a big tarp and set the brush on top of the tarp. Then just pull the tarp. It will slide easy and the brush pile will not roll on you.Back of the house looks like a good place for a French drain. Gravel and perforated pipe to direct the flow of water. Your ditch is practically dug for you already.

DONT use a weed killer!! It's not good for the environment. I thought you were all about the environment? Also, some if not all of them are cancer causing. Do the vermicast.

It's OK even if they didn't give you permission to burn the brambles. Get a wood chipper and make all of the brambles into worm food. That is the carbon part. Just get sheep or chicken or other animal manure for the nitrogen part of the worm food. Turn it all to vermicast and organic fertilizer for your farm.

What are you going to do with the brambles ?

Just dig out the brambles, you would need to anyway for the drainage system. Good job with all of the clearing you have been doing.

Before doing anything i would dig out the gully! you will probably find it is very early rainwater gully, you don't want to be digging up them huge boulders, i feel in that environment the ground tells you were the pipes are going.. and septic tank close to house.. soak away pipework can be flexible, i wold be supprised that the gully is granite or carved stone.. interesting stuff..

Alex siempre me preguntó porque quemais los rastrojos? Teniendo tanto terreno lo apilas y obtienes un abono orgánico increíble, yo soy de Galicia y estoy segura de que casi todos los incendios son producidos por la quema, yo tengo una finca y nunca quemamos los rastrojos lo juntamos con todo lo orgánico, hojas, cartones….. Mucha suerte con la obra me encantan tus videos

There is a lovely Ukranian family renovating a Belgium farmhouse. They did some drainage there and may be able to help you. Their channel is here https://www.youtube.com/c/DeHoeveOldBelgianfarmrenovation (Good luck)

Good progress Alex, well done to you and your dad. Thank you for making and sharing.
I am curious to know what effective organic/ecological weed killer you are talking about spraying on the brambles. I have never been able to find one. The only way I know of removing brambles permanently is to uproot them… a lot of back-breaking work unless you have a backhoe attachment for that tractor but the only way. Good luck! 😉😁

Wow! over 4,000 views in one day! I just found you and subscribed. I may also buy such a property as well. Best of luck with yours. I will be watching.

Hi Alex, working very hard as usual. I think the ditch around your house was cut to put in a French drain? Also do you own the complex of buildings next to your stone house?

Now that was a lot of brambles to remove! Good luck on the proper grading of the ground away from your home to be.

Hey Alex!! You're doing too good, I've have a question there is any snakes living in that holes.

Good progress, interesting how once the brambles are cleared, you get nice idea of the size and shape of the building, and how it lays on the land, great little tractor reminds me of a ride on, which I have never seen anyone use off grid, used on very large lawns to keep grass short😉😁

Goats love Brambles. Since you could not get permission to burn it, maybe feed it to goats?

Well done on the clenaing

I did the same job two months ago, the wild berries with thorns (I do not know if I write it correctly) after cutting need to be sprayed with poison because they will grow again.

These folks do goats…maybe you know of them…they are in central portugal I think…https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jPtZZ0i0vZo

Goats! They love brambles I think. Very useful animals….and smart

The tractor is small but it is mighty😎

What about a wood chipper? Very useful for garden, pathways, etc.

So happy to see your videos Alex and I am looking forward to watching your progress. The climate here in Southern California is very similar to Portugal and we are constatly on the lookout for wild fires. I am sure you will need something similar to French Drains from the high part of the landscape draining to the lower part around the external walls.. That will help keep any moisture from winter rains from seeping under the walls and into the flooring. Maybe you can funnel that water into underground water storrage barrels for watering the Olive Trees that I see planted around. My hats off to you for hauling that first load of brambles with just the pitchfork, reminded me bailing hay with my Grandfather the old fashioned way. Thankks again for bringing us along on this adventure of yours and I look forward to seeing your next video.

Thank goodness for the small tractor!!!!! Mulching machine next????

Thanks for your vid 😇💟💟 love you guys. maybe you should first repair the wholes puzzle the stones back in to a stread whole with cement or something and for drainage use castor's to keep the rain water from the roof tatsing the wholes and for toilet maybe go under the whole tru to a septic tank with over flo

Well done Alex, you are doing a great job of sorting out and clearing the property ready to begin your renovation work. Great little tractor!! All progressing well 🚜🌞😎💚

Looking good 👍

Alex, why don’t you invest in a chipper, then turn your brambles into valuable compost to go with your worm farm. Looking at the size of your property, you’ll need a lot of compost.

Hello Alex! So nice to see you again. 😀 The previous owners of the house made a ditch in the descending part of the rainwater so that the soil inside the house was not soaked with rainwater. You can do better with gravel and make the correct diversion of the ditches. 😉

I just subscribed today. I love these stone house renovations. I got hooked via the Indie Project. I look forward to your journey.

looks like rock up to bldg–may be impossible to dig–could put a gutter across back of bldg to guide water to sides into some type french drain–but this takes away from old style of bldg?????????????????

you need a French Drainage

You make a great progress
I enjoy your work 👍💪🏻
And I look forwards to the next vlog

You’ve done a good start and lots of hard work ahead
Pray that you have good health and strength to see you guys through
Keep up the good work 🙏🏿👌

Two things:
1. You are prohibited from using metal cutting blades on the land this time of year I believe (Fire Risk)
2. There is a website for registering fires (ask at the Post Office)