Vegetable Garden Lessons from 2022
If I had to pick a word to describe this year's vegetable garden experience, I think it would be along the lines of "underwhelming" - but that's on average. There were still some highs to balance out the lows, and many lessons learned as always
How it all started
Recently, I came across the #homesteadfavorites February photo challenge on Instagram, with a prompt for each day of the month. One was “How it all started”, and I realized that was a story worth sharing beyond a mere Instagram caption – especially because in the case of our journey culminating in the Casa Beatrix Farmstay, there are five such “beginnings”… A Childhood Dream My first recollection of a childhood dream was the desire to become a vet, but not only. I wanted to live on a farm, a big house
Interview on Farmstead Talk
Earlier this week, I had a wonderful talk with Gloria from Farmstead Talk. We "met" on Instagram, and chatted via Zoom. Ah, the beauty of social media and technology. Gloria is a retired nurse (back at work to provide additional Covid19 support to her community) who lives on a farm in the mountains and embarked on a project to interview one homestead for each of the 50 states in the US. Then she decided to expand her interviews to international projects, which is where we raised our hand, almost
We bought land! Now What?
Almost a year. That’s how long it took us from the moment we first saw the property we fell in love with to the moment we signed the papers that made us its official new owners. Well, 11 months to be exact. Ten, maybe, if you count from the moment we decided we wanted to buy the place. No matter how you look at it, it has taken quite a while. We are partly at fault, because we wanted to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s –
A Day in the Life
From recent conversations with friends, it has become clear that many of you wonder what in the world we are doing, not big picture but on a daily basis. So, here’s a taste of what a Cramooz day sort of looks like-ish… Ever since the arrival of “Mojito the mutt” – our adorable puppy born Feb 14 and adopted by us April 23 this year – into our lives, my daily routine begins around 6am. I get up, let the puppy out so he can respond to the call
Living the Dream: Zen and the Art of Navigating Bureaucracy (a Cramooztopia update)
Many of you are probably wondering what we are up to, where things stand with our project, and what we are doing with our days. I have to admit, I have been pushing off the writing of this blog for months in the hopes that instead of a lukewarm update, I could share some epic and exciting news. Today, I have decided to rip off the Band-Aid and share the frustrating truth – but rest assured, all that means is that the big news is on hold. Let
The 7 Stages of Bureaucracy
Portugal is an amazing place, and there are many, many reasons why we chose to relocate here. However, I would be crazy if I said it was perfect, and delusional if I did not mention the biggest challenge we have had to deal with: bureaucracy. We knew this going in, of course, and accepted it as a small price to pay in the grander scheme of things. That helps, but unfortunately does not make us immune to the challenges of dealing with the issue. This week has been particularly frustrating,
Mustaches everywhere
It may not be all that obvious just yet, but we have a thing with mustaches. It all started five years ago. A friend had met her match, and he happened to wear a mustache. I thought that was amazing. She was not as thrilled. And then the oddest thing happened: I started coming across mustaches everywhere (this was before the mustache trend): postcards, paperclips, rings… so I took photos or bought little trinkets for my friend. She was mildly amused but mostly thought it was weird. And
A Little Girl’s Dream
My mother always assumed that having a daughter was synonymous with dresses and playing princess. Then I showed up, and went through phases where only wore pants, came back from birthday parties covered in mud because I HAD to go out and play soccer with the boys, and secretly signed up for the baseball team. I don’t ever remember wanting to be a doctor or an astronaut, but I had a plan. I envisioned a big house with a lot of land. Chickens to give us eggs, cows for
Tour du monde, hémisphère sud
It's about how we started plotting and planning, figuring out our itinerary, and ultimately decided to focus mostly on the Southern Hemisphere