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our room!
this is the room where alison and I sleep! we sleep on the top loft with our sleeping bags. at night we can hear the rats scurry across the ceiling at night.
the bathroom is through that door. it is actually quite nice because we have a working toilet and a bathtub with HOT WATER!!! Hello dearies!
First and foremost, I would like to say Happy Birthday to Uncle Jim! It’s a bit of a belated wish-and only one through the internet at that, but my flight back home to come wish you a Happy Birthday in person crashed in Antarctica, and I had to trek through solid ice for days living off of those complementary peanut bags that contain all of 5 whole peanuts and a few grains of salt. Nonetheless, I persevered through the blizzards and fended off the polar bears successfully. I eventually came to the Atlantic Ocean, and after a few rounds with some Knar Whales, I was able to lasso twenty of their strongest swimmers together and got them to take me back to Portugal.
So, I hope you can forgive my belated wish, but know that I have been thinking about you!
So besides my adventures wayyy up North… Cunca (the name of the farm) has been great! I have been helping out a bit with gardening, but mainly I have been building stone-walls for sheds and other storage spaces. I was so frustrated at first because I didn’t realize the “cement” we were using was too
the view!
view from the top of the hill that is right behind Cunca has too much sand in the mixture and not enough mud. I spent around 3 hours one morning/ afternoon trying to get these rocks to stick to the walls, and they were not having it. As soon as I would turn my back, the rocks would fall off, so I gave up and went and chopped some onions for dinner.
The next day went much smoother however because we made more cement and got the sand/mud ratio right. I love working on the mud walls because besides getting really dirty, it is like making a mosaic out of rocks. I feel like such a dork because I get so excited when I find the perfect rock to fit onto the wall. And plus, it looks gorgeous and I would love to do that to a bathroom of mine if I ever get the chance.
Yesterday was an interesting day though in that we didn’t work on the farm but went to another person’s house and pointlessly raked straw for hours and hours and hours. To top off the day though, when we were driving back, we got pulled over by the police. They had been following us for 15 minutes
cunca
crazy wild flowers everywhere! before they turned their sirens on, and we all got a bit panicked because none of us had our passports… 2 Americans, 1 Swiss, and 1Austrian. The Swiss girl was driving and didn’t have an international license so we were a bit worried because we have been warned before that the Portuguese police are a bit shady in that they will write you up hundreds of euros worth of tickets just because they can. Apparently one group from Cunca was driving a few months ago and they got pulled over and the cops ended up giving them an 800 ticket for someone not wearing their seatbelt properly, and not having a spare tire in the car.
Luckily though, the two cops didn’t give us any tickets, but they did keep telling us to wear our seatbelts (which we all were). They obviously had no reason to pull us over initially, so we were fortunate to get away with the technically unusable Swiss license and no passports. Afterwards, we were talking about it and we all came to the conclusion that they pulled us over because they saw four women in a car and were hoping for some high heels and
cunca
cool cork tree that i saw on a hike we took last sunday. corck trees are everywhere! short skirts… instead though, they got 4 very grungy, smelly and tired women wearing overalls and t-shirts that looked like they hadn’t been washed in years. Damn right.
So, to top off this interesting day, when Alison and I get to our room, there is sawdust and chicken poop covering our entire floor. Alison had been taking care of 2 baby chickens after their mother and 3 of their siblings died mysteriously a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the baby chickens were nowhere to be found, but it was clear the culprit was Zegaan, the new addition to the Cunca family. Zegaan was a stray dog that showed up one day and just never really left. She is a very sweet dog, but she loves the chickens and cats around Cunca a little too much. Both Ali and I were careful to shut the bathroom door where the chickens were staying; someone came in during the day and forgot to shut the door again. Zegaan had been eying those chicks for a long time; so really, it was only a matter of time before she got them anyways. On a side note…I’m just glad I didn’t walk into the room and
they are out to get me!
this was the snake that i found hiding under my pants in my room. eekkk!! find bits of baby chickens everywhere…
On a much better note… I got to watch my first surfing competition the other day. One of the neighboring beaches was hosting the competition so a few of us piled into the car and drove over. We sat on a small cliff for a while looking out into the beach, but we decided to move after (what we later concluded to be a bad omen) we literally watched a dog run off the cliff and drop 20-35 feet. The poor dog looked like it broke its front leg, but it got up and still managed to hobble in great pain over to it’s owner- all the while wagging it’s tail. It was cute because this really buff surfer dude comes running out of the water, picks up his dog and cradles it like a baby and stars kissing and rocking it. Luckily the dog looked like it needed a cast, but other than that he was fine. I wouldn’t be able to say the same thing if that was me who fell off the cliff… that’s part of the reason why we moved.
Alrighty, I think that is my update for
cunca
alison with the chicks a couple of days before Zegaan ate them. ali was such a good mom though! now. This past week I have been really sick with a cold and something else that remains a bit mysterious. I think it came from drinking the water so now I am on bottled water. I am getting better though so that is a bonus!
yay!
I miss you all!
-kels
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The MoMster
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Hey Kels, If it's not jellyfish it is the snakes.......Thank you for writing, I so enjoy your pictures and your interpretation of life "abroad". I can see why you liked the stone wall venture...Kind of like making a quilt.......be safe my love and keep wearing those over'alls. Love you bunches The MoMster PS got your wonderful jellyfish postcard....they are waiting for you ....big clumps of them.......Sorry I missed your call