working holiday in Portugal anyone?!

Hi- we have a (very) overgrown smallholding (11acres-ish) in Central Portugal. We are trying to clear the brambles and broom and rebuild the lovely, old, dry stone terrace walls. It's quite a job for two!Just thinking... if anyone is ever considering a trip to the area we have a lovely cabin (sleeps four) which anyone would be welcome to use in exchange for some help!! We primarily need help clearing but there's also lots of other stuff- dry stone walling etc. It's a lovely place, very tranquil and always something interesting to do around the place. If anyone is interested please contact me and I can give you some more details.Shelley
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  • how far is the nearest shop? sounds good..................
  • Hi Robin- we are on the outskirts of the village so about 5mins to the shop and bar! I am more than happy to put on some more photos- and info on the area etc, if you'd like. (BTW i have people renting the cabin until the end of August but its clear after that)
  • Sounds just the place to hold the next LJN convention :-)
  • Hi there- thanks for that, yes we have been seriously thinking about the wwoofers- sounds like a great idea, just thought I'd ask here first and see what happens!!
    Apsoluteley BGS- plenty of tents too!! ;-)
  • My place in Catalonia is roughly the same size and takes a lot of effort to keep cleared. Just out of interest, what kit do you have for clearing ?
  • havent you done it yet ! lol :)
  • haha no chance!
  • Hi Bigyin- we have a compact tractor with a topper, a stihl brushcutter and stihl strimmer- its really steep and rocky, so there's parts we won't ever get to, but we have cleared the main terraces and around the house etc. The 70 or so olives have been pruned back properly so we should get our first good harvest this year!
    We are also trying to make a living here and build a house and we have a small vegie garden and keep poultry etc so clearing tends to be last on the list quite often!!
    We keep pigs occasionally and we're seriously considering upping the amount of pigs and fencing off a large area of overgrown woodland- so they would do some of the hard work for us- but that still creates another job of fencing!

    we have a blog of what we're up to here if anyones interested:
    http://www.velagota-portugal.blogspot.com/
  • (oh and various chainsaws and handtools- loppers and various really good Portuguese long-handled tools!!)
  • You sound to be in a similar situation to myself except that I don't have much woodland and thankfully it's mostly flat. I'm off out now so will look at your blog later.
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Growth/Shoots in lawn

Hi All, In a cleints garden, I'm having a real problem with these shoots that are coming up in the lawn.I'm digging them out as I go, they are on long roots. they have an oval shape leaf and develop nasty thorns. See pics.Can anyone help identify…

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