We have been busy helping inside and out in Vila Colina, Portugal

While a lot of the work we did with Vila Colina was mural and painting based, we also did a fair bit outside to help! One of the first jobs I was pointed towards was pruning yuccas. Pruning yuccas is a bit tricky and a big job, mostly because their leaves are serrated, and have these little fibres that get under your skin and irritate. There were forty or fifty around the place. I did maybe half a dozen every day, and at the end I left having done all the trimming their leaves will need for spring and summer! I left Vila Colina chuffed to have helped and knowing more about how to propagate and care for this particular plant.

Below you can see me sweating it out in my protective boiler suit under the deliciously warming Portuguese winter sun (usually around 20°C).

While I also did a bit of laundry and miscellaneous cleaning, I didn’t take any photos of my totally glamourous toilet scrubbing duties, sorry guys!

We also helped shift a lot of dirt to make room for a new pool. That was heavy, hard work. Lots of wheel barrowing, bruises, lifting with my legs, sweating and cussing out how heavy dirt is. The best part of this job was knocking off for the day and drinking some freshly squeezed mandarine juice while chilling out on the verandah. Although… I did have some hard abs for a little while after that, so if you are into abs, I would recommend wheel barrowing tons of dirt for hours a day, for sure.

After the dirt was taken out of the pool-hole, a layer of dirt without big stones was needed on the bottom of the pit. Jim and our other host, Richard, knocked up a sieve using sawhorses and an old camping bed, and we spent another day sieving and shovelling to create that layer.

Helpers Robert, Jim and Richard, our host

Hard work and still, good times!