Water-disaster

Money down the plughole

It’s been one of those weeks in the Valley of the Stars.

For the best part of three years water has been our obsession, but the latest attempt to solve our biggest long-term challenge has just ended in an expensive failure.

We shower in mineral-rich borehole water and drink filtered rain, but for our new eco-lodge that’s not going to cut it.

We need a reliable system of delivering plenty of clean drinking water and have called a lot of people – from Colorado to the Netherlands – and there’s no simple answer to the variables of supplying, filtering, treating and storing our H₂O.

We hadn’t realised just how hard it is to purify your own drinking water when the work isn’t already done for you, or the amount of unsustainable plastic bought becomes unsustainable.

At this point I’ll be honest – this is my second draft of this week’s despatch because the first attempt was so far into the weeds that while reading it out loud I bored myself, my wife, the dogs and even the cats (who are trying to endear themselves to us at the moment).

It’s the blue we’re looking for: at least there’s something to celebrate

So in short, we spent months sussing out different water diviners, hearing a pitch from a man with a magically suspicious SENSOR and eventually betting on twitching Justino whose divining inspiration first marked the spot with an X in late August.

In December the wild-west crew dug deep and struck water, and this April the pump was installed and the first samples of our not terrible 5,000 litres a day could be collected.

Simon the dog seemed to like it, but the proof of the drinking is in the testing, as I have explained.

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The samples took an age at the lab, with results dribbling through to us like an under-resourced tap...and each result slightly drained away our optimism a little more.

This week the report came back in full with the worst of all worlds...

Not only is our new water salty, but it also contains iron, and while both are good for us in small quantities, these are not small quantities.

And salt and iron are removed from water in two different ways...both systems can be as expensive as each other.

So now after years of pondering the best solution to deal with salts in solution, we are back to the drawing board...less than a year before we’re due to open.

Not fussy: we need to talk to Simon about his salt intake

We will solve it – through a combination of rainwater capture, reverse osmosis and ion exchange filters and storage – but it’s frustrating pouring money down a well only to see our levels of water confidence falling.

And when we do, and water becomes an even more scarce resource, we will have a good, long-term, sustainable solution.

If you would like more on the pros and cons of all our solutions I have pages of copy ready to run, so please let me know and I’ll try not to nod off while explaining it.

The borehole was always an expensive gamble, but we hoped the water gods would be shining down on us.

Perhaps they will be happier now we have sacrificed two of the kittens.

Cam and the great kitten robbery: already settling well into their new home, we hear

When I say sacrifice...Cam Camarena popped over this week to pick up Batcat aka Bruce Wain and Doc Holliday as the time had come for two of the four mittens to move into their new home.

Mum Val Kilmer had been holding advanced fight training and roof running classes this week, so we’re confident they’ll be just fine in Quinta Camarena.

Moving from seven animals to five, and five cats to three has instilled a certain level of calm – herding cats is a bit like...herding cats.

Electric avenues: this week we’ve been working out just what goes where

In fact a lot of things related to our building project are like herding cats, but in an attempt to keep you away from the unsubscribe button, I’ll employ restraint and allow all the frustrations to wash over me like a crisp, clean waterfall, because there’s more fun to be had...

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HAPPY PORTUGAL DAY! Yes, June 10^th is a national holiday here!

It commemorates the death of famous 16^th century poet Luís de Camões – Portugal’s equivalent of Shakespeare – who penned the country’s national epic poem Os Lusíadas about the golden age of Portugal’s globetrotting explorers.

And there’s nothing like decorating the streets of your local town with ceilings of paper flowers to take your mind off water woes.

On the eve of the holiday we headed into our nearest town São Teotónio to help our friend Rui and the team of dedicated decorators install the decorations.

We’d popped into the local parish council offices a couple of times to half-heartedly help fold coloured paper tissues into flowers and fluttering strings for the biennial Festival de Mastros, or festival of the masts, and even brought a few friends along.

That was then: Lotti, Rachael, Ed and I with Daisy and Katya folding paper flowers

But now the time had come to hang strings of colourful bunting from masts so they fan out across town and in a few other nearby villages.

It used to be a huge event in the community with dozens of people pitching in, but a lot of younger folk have moved to Lisbon or beyond and a COVID lull lost some momentum.

But the volunteers folding and cutting by day and by night have created a most astonishing array for street decorations.

And now: the guys have been busy, working weeks to put all these papers together

While Portugal Day launches the festival, the flowers also bring colour to a series of saints’ days from now until the end of July when the road roofs will remain.

Music, marches and dances will take place underneath, and a small stage has been set up for the opening this evening.

But just as Rui was planning for an all-nighter to get all the decorations in place, the rain we’ve wanted – but a day earlier – began to deliver a sudden storm, the like of which climate change now provides.

“It’s tradition,” one of the guys shrugged as the rain fell and some of the colour started dripping out of the first fan of paper strings, which were at least a little protected by trees.

Apparently it happens most years – even when the weather forecast predicts just a 3% chance of rain (as it did this year).

Overnight efforts were suspended...but the new day began with sunshine and hopefully there’ll be time to get all hands on deck in time for the party!

Water woes eh? We can’t seem to escape them!

The latest, and last our of buildings to take shape…next up some walls and a roof!