Freedom to Choose Blog 2 – Off Grid in Portugal

Shed
Tool shed

They welcomed me with two big smiles and greeting kisses. Taking a quick look around at the farm of Jonas and Miho, I immediately noticed the progress they made. They have been working hard on their new house in the past few weeks. The yurt is ready to live in. Setting up the yurt took 2 days of work with 5 people. Luckily, the parents and brother of Jonas came over to give them a hand. They also set up a steady shed for the gardening tools. Also this shed was more work than they initially thought!

The Yurt
The Yurt

The yurt looks very inviting from the outside and as soon as you step inside, the coziness embraces you. The wooden structure radiates a very warm look and the round shape gives a good overview of all the furniture with the bed and roof window in the center. They installed a wood stove for cooking and warming the place in the winter.

The Yurt inside
The Yurt inside

They also showed me the shower they invented by using a black camel bag (water drinking bag) on the metal roof of the shed.

The water heats in an instant with the hot sun and Miho is very happy with this hot shower!

The thing that surprised me the most was the solar pump, working with a super-thin solar panel. This panel provides them with electricity to charge their phones, computers and for the illumination.

The solar pump is not bigger then a hand and it is easy to use. Jonas gave me a presentation of how it works and admitted that it was the first time they used it. Now they can just pump the water from the well instead of getting it bucket by bucket.

Jonas has been germinating more seeds into little plants and bought several fruit trees to plant.

They have a great variety of herbs, vegetables and fruits to grow like courgette, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, beans, peanuts, hazelnuts, avocado, lemon, orange, melon. During my visit, Miho was preparing a deliciously smelling vegan dinner with lots of veggies, rice and nuts.

Miho cooking
Miho cooking
DSC01971
Small veggie plants

Miho is going away for a month to work in Japan. This is going to be a challenging period for Jonas to take care of the ‘young’ farm all by himself, but I’m sure he is capable of doing this with his laid back and positive attitude.

Read blog number 1 here.

One thought on “Freedom to Choose Blog 2 – Off Grid in Portugal”

  • Ballekens Pol

    Het ziet er allemaal goed uit!Ze hebben hun “draai” blijkbaar gevonden.
    Jonas en Miho geloven in hun project en dat is al 50 % van de slaagkans.
    We kijken steeds met bewondering naar de inventiviteit en de doorzetting van
    deze jonge mensen.Succes,en we steunen ze waar we kunnen!

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