Emergency Exit!

Hi everyone,
Been getting a little behind with posting at the moment due to lack of facilities and/or time so this one should cover the rest of my time up in the hills and maybe a little bit more if I get time tonight. Sorry for the irregularities but that's just part of being on the road.
On Monday afternoon I spent some time sitting reading a bit more of Sherlock Holmes and chatting to the other helpers mostly about past travel and adventures - the usual topic. In the evening though we lost running water. The tap water is pumped from the river every 3 or 4 days but the switch is in the boss' house and the boss was still away. However after all the work in the field a proper wash really was necessary so I wandered up the riverbed looking for a bit of water. I did find a big puddle a fair way up which I could and did use although it was overflowing with pond skaters and tadpoles. So after getting kind of clean I returned back to the quinta but was sent straight out again to collect water from the spring back up the river - never mind.
We ended up having a sort of duck stew with rice, melon and orange for dinner although the whole kitchen smelt very strongly of goat cheese and I think the smell had contaminated the duck stew cause it did have a bit of a wiff...I mostly kept to the rice and fruit - nice overall though.
After eating and clearing up it was time to move out to the 'patio' to "enjoy the ambience" as Fredrico loves to say. We sent the last of the electricity time power went off at 11pm - watching The Real Dirt on Farmer John. It's a film documentary about the history of a Midwestern American farm and what happens when the extremely eccentric son becomes the owner. Some parts are a little slow but it's a pretty interesting documentary.
Tuesday morning started much the same as Monday, up at 6.30, stumble around in the dark for half an hour until the power comes on, breakfast, off to the field. We spent the whole morning sickling once again although the progress seemed to be a bit slower than the previous day. By the end of the 5 hours work I was suffering quite a bit so I ended up spending most of the afternoon resting - after I'd stunk the room out with deep heat for my back and threw down a couple of painkillers of course.
Over the evening I got a bit of studying done and tried to talk trees with Caroline but I couldn't give much input as she knows way more than I do on the topic. After dinner Fernando eventually arrived although our first meeting was pretty short - just a "hi nice to meet you" sort of thing then off to bed...oh well maybe there would be more conversation the next morning...or not.
I got up and followed the usual routine but my back was unbelievably stiff and painful. We went out to the field and got the first two hours done before Fernando arrived on his tractor to come and collect the cuttings.  Unfortunately it seems he was allergic to the grass cuttings - hayfever - so he left the work to us three girls while he watched from the tractor. I kept cutting  while Caroline and Elizabeth put the grass on the trailer. It took a good hour to fill it but once we'd finished we headed back to the house for a snack. During this time Fernando discovered my back injury and thankfully put me on light duties. I spent 2 hours peeling cloves of garlic.  The idea was to preserve them in salt, paprika and oil, but first the whole bag needed to be peeled. I think I managed about 30 overall and it wasn't a bad job, better for my back at least, although I did smell of garlic for the rest of the day.
We had lunch then all sat out on the patio for a bit discussing loads of organic farming and sustainable living ideas although Fredrico and Jerome had to go and see to the goats every so often. In the evening Fernando offered to take a couple of us into the nearest town so me and Elizabeth went along - I needed to find an internet connection and Elizabeth needed to restock her fruit and veg supplies. We were meant to be meeting a new volunteer there, an American backpacker, but since we couldn't find him or contact him we gave up and went back to the quinta. As soon as we returned he called but luckily he was only at the end of the dirt road so Fernando went back out to collect him with Caroline. It turns out she had been at the same place with the American, Alex, before! Neither of them had enjoyed the previous project since the guy was really weird (in a bad way) but they both knew about this quinta and ended up meeting up once again.
Now, Caroline was leaving on Thursday and after a bit of discussion I decided to go with her. I can't stand giving up but I needed to give myself a bit of recovery work and I wasn't going to be able to do that there. Caroline also wanted to check out my new project and see a bit of helpX variety so we decided to stick together for a bit. It's a bit of a shame that I couldn't stick around because the other volunteers were great people and the location was beautiful but I nowadays I know when to call it a day and be sensible with my health.
Before we set off we went for a bit of a wander up the river. There was an abandoned house a little way along that we wanted to explore. Building regulations are much stricter within the national park and it turns out the owners had used concrete in the roof which was illegal. Instead of altering it they just abandoned the place so now it's sitting there, half renovated and half furnished but totally abandoned.
After walking around a bit we finally got ourselves organised and after saying good bye to the farm residents - the humas, the pigs, the gorgeous and very friendly young Siamese cat and all the other animals - we finally got on the road around 11.30.
En route to the new project in Carril we stopped off at a lake near Castelo Branco for some photos and a snack. Although it took us about half an hour to find the place the view was definitely worth it! We spent a little time there before carrying on up the road with windows wide open and Bunny Wailer blasting out of the CD player.
The location of this new project is a little village called Carril, near Tomar which is about an you north-north-east from Lisbon. We arrived around 3pm to meet our new hosts and find out what we would be doing.
Look forward to finding out what the work plan was in my next post. I'll be updating again very soon then hopefully we'll be all caught up and up to date - I'm confusing myself with so much backtracking at the moment!
Until next time!