06/03/2026
Oh hallelujah, happy days! đ€©
The bulldozer is here to put us back in shape after all these rains. But itâs not just the thought of roads without ruts that makes me celebrate. Weâve been waiting to clear more space for the horses and do some seeding for ages, but with one thing and another⊠But this was the year we were definitely going to get there.
It should be easy enough to hire someone for the job (it needs a track tractor/ bulldozer because of the steep hills), land clearing is part of the story hereabouts many. It has to be done legally for fire control, and practically to access the cork trees on harvest years.
However, normally it is done with a disk harrow that rips apart the soil and damages tree roots, with no consideration. We want it to be done with a chain mower with respect for the roots of baby trees and big trees alike, and leaving a nice fine mulch to feed the soil not leach it of life.
Unfortunately some locals are against the mower on principle, and others just havenât got the equipment. And with so many people competing for the tractors business it was a sellerâs market.
We thought weâd found someone to clear and seed in October, which would have been ideal. But suddenly he said he couldnât do it till April, which is too late to seed and possibly too hot already. We looked elsewhere, many elsewheres.
At one stage it seemed so impossible I was considering going with the brutal method, just to get it bloody well done. Luckily it started raining and I was saved from myself as you canât do it in the rain, and it rained and it rained and it rained, as you know.
And then, with the great synchronicity that runs our life as a rule, in January we stumbled across a company that could do the job and actually cared about doing it sustainably! Itâs so often what happens when things look like theyâre not going ârightâ. Itâs not a spanner in the wheels, but a gentle brake to give everything time to align.
This guy was set to come end of January, but the rain didnât stop. There was no point asking when he would come, he had no more idea of when he might be able to do it than we didâŠ. so we waited, seeing another year of regeneration pass us by⊠And then the call! He was coming on Friday, and wow, here he is! Not always to be counted on in Portugal (or most places to be fair).
And Iâm sorry if this is not even a little bit interesting to most of you but to me itâs sooo exciting I wanted to share đ
Iâve been waiting years to get to this phase of the regen plan: more grasses, more carbon storage, more movement of animals feeding the grasses and insects and birds with their poo. More life to the land. So Iâm happy, and looking forward to greener days.
If you would like to learn more about how we care for the land, the horses or our aromatic plants, come visit. The roads will be totally fixed very soon đ
