ESCAPE TO PORTUGAL: Our Life Building a Self Sustainable Homestead

good morning and welcome back to our YouTube channel I'm just heading down to the animals now so I thought I'd bring you along with me Fernanda do you want to come with gotta try if I'm afraid you still can't reach the pedals but you can sit next to me hey I don't think you like the sound of the engine do you get ready get ready are you ready get ready [Applause] so I thought I'd give you an update on the goats because been getting a lot of questions about them after what happened in the last video if you've not seen what happened then I'll leave a link to it so you can watch but basically dogs broke in and attacked our goats and one of them Paul matild actually got injured and had to have Staples and antibiotics and all sorts of things but she's recovered really well we had the vet round yesterday for a checkup and he's really happy with the progress he actually removed a few Staples he said the rest should just fall out on their own which is brilliant um unfortunately has left the goats feeling quite stressed and there was a moment actually the same day that the dogs came and attacked the goats they came back that night and that was obviously what we thought could happen but since then they've not been back and we have set up a lot of precautions to make sure the dogs cannot get to the goats and I'll show you that now so here is the goats new enclosure as you can see we've firstly got some electric fencing here it runs the whole way across here because there's permanent fencing already affixed to the field so that's the First Defense the second defense is another electric fence at the bottom because we discovered the night the dogs came in they were trying to dig under and I think that's how they got in before they must have just wedged themselves underneath this electric fence which is crazy and then we thought we'll have two electric fences that should stop them then obviously we've got the firm fence as well and we lock them in the horse box at night for their extra safety we also have CCTV down here so massive thank you to Rio link they hooked us up with these easy DV cameras quite a while ago I'll leave a link in the description to them because they're amazing we've used them for years they just set up over there and it triggers any movement lets us know what's happening and it's good because it means we can just tune in any time of the night or day and see what the animals are getting up to because even though they are close by and I was alerted the first night that the dog came back because I heard the dogs through the window it's always good to be able to just double check and see what is going on so now I need to go in and see how the goats are doing before I do the goats I've got the chickens to feed they want their Freshies and I will let them out as well it's quite funny seeing them with the goats but they absolutely love these cool fresh vegetables and I have turned the fence off so I'm just gonna whoa walk over and take them their veg now today is actually quite cool considering it's August so I'm going to seize the opportunity and clean out the animal enclosures it's not a fun job it's one that I don't like to do I don't know why anyone would like doing it but I'm gonna use it and clean them out it's already a fly in my face and I haven't even started because these animals they're not these animals they're not neat and tidy like cats they don't use a litter tray they just poop and pee wherever they want so in the summer that does unfortunately attract a lot of flies so chickens you can come around sunbathe and I do still have a Broody hen Patty it's Broody aren't you yes every day without fail Patty is here sitting on eggs it's much too warm to be bringing babies into the world in the summertime sitting on eggs for three weeks and then having to obviously look after them it's too much so every day I bring her out and when I open this she doesn't want to sit in here so it's a good way of keeping her out but yeah she's on two eggs if anyone has any recommendations for breaking a Broody hen I would love to hear it because I've tried putting her in a crate for a few days in the house and that didn't work I've tried cold baths that didn't work so I don't know what to do and I'll take the eggs whilst I'm here I'm now going to open up the goating closure they're not really too fussed about coming out this early in the day but I'll give them the chance to do it if they want so you might be wondering where's Theo he's actually out on the tractor right now you might be able to hear in the background although I'm not sure if the mic will pick it up so now this is open time to get started on the goat yours so we're still not taking the goats out for their Forest walks because we do hear the dogs occasionally in the surrounding forest and the last thing we want is to be out with them on the loose and the dogs appear so if you're wondering what all these branches are we've been bringing branches in for them which they really enjoy but I need to take them out because once they've cleaned them up they just get in the way and I've discovered that this one [Applause] they're not overly keen on you didn't like it did you sweetles so I'm going to take all these out and then it's time to muck out their horse box sweepies just come over and started eating this tree branch so I guess it's not that bad it's not tasty but it's not the worst this is a literal tree now let's bring this up here the goats are supervising me to make sure I do an adequate job take this out and that now could one of you just pass me the broom and the Spade that'd be lovely don't nibble The Brew sweetie do you know that exact same food is also available outside you do know that now I'm genuinely curious I'm going to be building a veggie garden again soon which I'm very excited about do you think I could use this dirty old straw in the raised bed because we're going to be doing the whole hyger culture method again and it'd be such a shame to just not use all of this because there's quite a lot of it let me know in the comments because I'm hesitant to use it if it's going to be bad what do you think sweetle no no no my knuckle is not for eating all of the goats are making sure I'm doing an effective job including sweet pea I don't know what that knocking is but it's very very annoying this is obviously a patch where one of them loves to go to the toilets it's really a lot wetter the other side I didn't catch on camera but Margo was just rolling in the dust it was the cutest thing sweet pea I feel like you're gonna dive on the head I reckon I could use this in the in the hygiculture after all it's just organic matter that's gonna rot down sorry Margo you're right in the way and I know you're gonna have to move I'll try and go around you but I'm yeah I'm sorry my love I know I didn't want to make you move from your little dust bath sorry sweet Ness [Music] ah okay that's all cleaned out it's washed out so I'm just waiting for it to dry so whilst I'm waiting for it to dry I'm going to head over to the chicken coop and clean out their poop Pickens pretty much always poo in the exact same spot which makes it clean easy to clean but because it's summer they're drinking a lot more which means their poos are a lot sloppier so some of them have left some absolute bombs on here I think I'm gonna need to actually rinse it and give it a good scrub but I don't know if that cooled down camera but I just let my entire arm on the crusted slopper so that's just it's lovely just came off like a cow pet kind of cow Pat chicken poo really smells revolving as well now I'll spray it down with some vinegar so the vinegar water sprayed and I like to use vinegar because it's a natural cleaner it doesn't harm the animals it doesn't harm anything really unless you swallow it neat and then it's gonna really hurt your esophagus but I have it diluted and I'm spraying that on to firstly loosen up the crusts and then clean the rest of it off so I'm letting it kind of soften up then I can wipe it off spray again and wipe it off because Pooh is the biggest attractant for flies and flies create problems so if I can eradicate as many flies as possible I will it's super tempting as well in summer I'm gonna give this another spray to use things like um the sticky fly traps because you do get a lot of flies but I really dislike using them because they don't discriminate what they catch so they'll also catch pollinators and other insects that aren't a nuisance so I don't like to use them but the Flies aren't actually too bad um keeping on top of husbandry is very important but also it's just one of those factors in the summer and this vinegar water is doing a brilliant job breaking up the poo although Nancy are you waiting to lay egg thought you'd all laid eggs by now I might need to get a proper scrubber because now it's just near to everywhere this Frozen a fantastic job of breaking up the poop so I'm happy about that and it smells like a chip shop in here the chickens are all coming in to see what the hell I'm doing don't worry lovelies I'll be out in a minute I'm not moving in with you yes you've caught me in cleaning don't worry I'm not gonna clean you today it was yesterday's book cleaning happened like I said because I've been doing these sloppy poos because they're drinking more because it's warm um but that's also meant that their rear ends have been uh getting a little bit dirty just got today from yesterday which they were not happy about but now that they've all clean backside so that's brilliant this is all done I'm Gonna Leave This open to dry out and then they can have their nesting box back whilst I was doing that the goat enclosure was drying out so now let's check it see if it's dry enough if it is I can whack the clean straw in sweet peas in there ensuring I did an adequate job don't think it's dry yet no I'll leave it for probably another half an hour and then I can put the clean straw in William's current obsession is wedging himself between the chicken coop and the chicken run and letting all the girls know he's found an amazing nesting spot unfortunately he does this multiple times a day and the girls are used to it and no it's not an amazing nesting spot but it's very cute nonetheless to see him do it now he's been caught in the act he's gonna try and escape and make our look he wasn't doing it how are you gonna get out this time are you gonna spin oh it must be tough for a big Cockrell there we go and he's out since putting this shade on the top and also putting this shade here it's made a massive difference to the outdoor run area it's nice and cool and I've been wetting the ground as well because it's a really good way to get them to keep their feet cool by rummaging around in the wet soil which is cooler because chickens cool down the best through their feet they don't have sweat glands so that's one of the things I do during summer time is constantly keep a patch of their Coop of their run nice and wet so they can run it around in the soil and cool down they also do have a little pool that they can stand into and Frenchie seems to be the only one who actually stands in there the top of your water pull this one out there and you're good for food oh it's nice and dry Now isn't it Raj [Music] two let's try three and see how that looks oh I'm doing away straight on the fresh straw wonderful is this your protest can't believe you just did that you absolute Joker let me just whack some extra straw on that oh and a little poop as well the cheek of it immediately have to put in the straw Down Sweet Pea stood behind me and just weed and pooed all over it so I guess it's a good sign that she's happy that it's a clean toilet for her again ah goats are so funny yeah it's just firing up the tractor because we're going to attach the trailer to it and head down to The Terraces because we've got some dirt to collect and I'm not going to say what the dirt's for just yet for an exciting project it is super handy and I think I said this in the video before last having the ball hitch on the back of the tractor because being able to use the trailer is so so good I swore I'd never do it again but here I am in the back of the trailer Cleo's in the tractor this time though so we can't go as fast as in the car the fingers crossed this time it's not a while's last foreign [Music] the trailer because we need to turn it around and there's not enough space here to be able to do that so we're going to turn it around then re-hitch it once it's full of soil this should be a nice fun job I'm looking forward to seeing the tractor just piling up massive amounts of soil okay right I better stop filming and actually help out [Music] that's good three two one [Applause] you hold on to that yeah I've got it I'll drive forwards yeah and then we can push it back further thank you [Music] having the right equipment makes jobs like this a lot easier I know I still haven't said what this dirt is for yet but I'm sure some people have already guessed and having that front loader on the tractor is just such a dream it'll be good to get rid of this pile of dirt as well because it doesn't need to be there it's basically all of the wash off from the flash floods last year that went down into the ditch the Theo dug out here we go first scooper go go I feel like such a nerd yeah I feel like such a nerd getting excited to see uh the tractor scoop up soil and oh wonderful oh I just remembered I was meant to bring a spade I completely forgot we're gonna have many trips so I can get one on the way back I knew that was gonna happen so when it's all fly off the first load is in I don't need you thank you [Applause] so we now have enough soil as you can see to take it up to the top so I'm going to shut this impossible with one hand it is one Dusty job everything's covered in dust including me and it's not dust actually it's dirt Theo's using his Spade feet to level it out so if you're wondering what I was doing this morning well B had the pleasure of cleaning out the goats I conveniently had to fix this bit of road so that I could get the trailer and the tractor through here because this morning there was a big mound of dirt right here in the way where I needed to go and that worked really smoothly actually so now I need to drive it up to the house and drop it off [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning we actually ran out of light last night so we ended up getting the soil up to the house and then leaving in we're going to be decanting it this morning it's bright and early and you might be able to see behind me one raised bed because what we're using the soil for is my raised beds we're setting up a veggie garden and I'm super excited this has been something I've been looking forward to for a really long time and we've now got the time to do it so in our last property we use the Hoover culture method for our raised beds and it worked absolutely amazingly and that's basically you fill up your raised beds with logs soils Twigs organic matter that over the years rots down and creates a really nutrient rich soil so we're going to be filling our raised beds with that and also the soil that we have just been moving and we're going to be using that soil to also level the ground because this spot is perfect here outside the house it gets dappled sunlight throughout the summer and then the leaves are gone during the winter so it'll get the winter sun so I'm hoping this will be really good and also seeing it from the kitchen window means that I won't forget to water my garden and tend to it every single day so what we need to do now is decant the soil from the trailer get it out and just level the areas where we want the raised beds because we also haven't decided exactly where we want the raised beds we've got quite a few we've got a lovely u-shaped one we've got three really deep ones and then the one behind me is a nice shallow one that I want to have as a herb garden we haven't decided yet who's going to be shoveling out of the back and who's going to be moving the wheelbarrow I don't think either of those tasks are good so I think we might have to toss a coin to see we haven't decided yet who's going to be shoveling it out of the back and who's going to be moving the wheelbarrow I don't think either of those tasks are good so I think we might have to toss a coin to see Theo's just dismounted the trailer and he's pulled the back card so he needs to do the wheelbarrowing and I'll be doing the shoveling Dusty it is going to be Dusty it is gorgeous so ah right I need to uh limber up and ready for this shovel session look at all this soil laughs we decided that shoveling it is just way too long and so we're just moving the trailer so that we could actually get the tractor onto the back of it and just tractor it off because we tracked it on so let's track her off [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when she took my hand dreaming as we ran B is doing an excellent job at getting rid of all of the dregs out of the trailer all the little stones and dirt that I couldn't pick up with the front loader but the front loader and the trailer worked perfectly great combination one thing I will say though is a Tipper trailer would have made life a lot easier but it really wasn't that difficult in the end probably took an extra 20 minutes than what a Tipper trailer would do so if we were doing multiple rounds like 10 times backwards and forwards obviously we'd need a Tipper trailer but for now this worked perfectly and I can put a Tipper trailer on my Christmas list the soil is all moved off the trailer and now Theo is going to use the tractor to move it kind of Blends in so it's hard to see but there's a mound of wood chips here that we made with our chipper a few months ago they're in the way so he's going to move those and we want to see if this raised bed will fit nicely around this tree I'm fairly sure these chippings with different types of pine but it's wonderful and all you need to do is just dig down a little bit it's really moist in there perfect breeding ground for mushrooms So eventually this is going to go in the raised beds as well and along the floor too and now tractor man is ready well that was incredibly simple Smells lovely apparently let's have a sniff oh it does the soil is really nice underneath here as well it killed off all of the weeds that was growing and it's just created a wonderful layer you can see here the mycelium I think that's why it's called so we're thinking that could possibly fit around the tree which would be quite nice so let's see of the back looks so cool with that it's levels it would be really lovely so nice I love it brilliant we've got a lot of leveling to do yeah I feel like you need to get the enchado and bring this yeah side down a bit Yeah and then we can pop this side up a bit how exciting it fits really well around the tree as you can see it's incredibly unlevel we do need to level it but that's another job that we'll be doing but I'm so happy with that so that has been a really productive couple of days super stoked we've had this Garden is coming along and super stoked for b as well because I can't tell you how excited she is and thank you to all of the suggestions on the last video about guard animals to protect our goats and our chickens and any other animals that we get in the future they really were cool and one thing we've always thought of getting in the future is a donkey we absolutely adore donkeys and I'm pretty sure one donkey can live with the goat and will protect him really well they're vicious against dogs so as many of you already know I'm autistic and one thing that really stresses me out is dogs barking so if we were to get a guard dog it would be barking at a fox Mongoose any Predators other dogs literally everything it will bark at and that would really stress me out on my own property which wouldn't be good so we won't be getting a guard dog but we will probably be getting a donkey so we've got all that to come in the future which is very exciting we've got some fencing to build first for the goats and the donkey and also a really nice like paddocked locked area with a barn as well where they can sleep in in the evening that is it I'm really happy with how everything's turning out Mike Simon over this Garden is unparalleled and I've got my first coffee of the day and I'm ready to start planning what I'm going to do with my garden thank you so much for tuning in and we look forward to seeing you on the next video

Channel: The Indie Projects

Views: 76,966

Keywords: theo and bee, the indie projects, win the wilderness, diy, stone home, home, homestead, conversion, tiny house, tiny home, escape to, escape to the chateau, ESCAPE TO PORTUGAL: Our Life Building a Self Sustainable Homestead, chickens, backyard chickens, goats, pet goats, predators, predator prevention, protecting chickens from predators, protecting goats from predators, raised beds, cctv, reolink, hugelkultur, self sustainable, central portugal, portuguese quinta, moving to portugal

Id: 07Z0zn0ZT-s

Length: 37min 7sec (2227 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023