Looking back on 2021 and the end of 2020 it sort of seems like I’ve accomplished a lot… but I also feel like I could have done so much more! In the end, I think I’ve managed to settle into a nice balance between working and relaxing and I’m mostly happy with where I’m at. Life in my creepy barn/cosy house is pretty sweet so far but there are loads of improvements to be made to the house and infrastructure that will make my life easier and more comfortable and I feel like I should make a list of what those things are… because who doesn’t love a list?

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My ‘house’ and top terrace at the very beginning in August 2020.

Happy New Year! My evening didn’t go quite as planned due to a Covid encounter right before I left Canada and I had to spend NYE alone in Covid jail in case I caught it. I was bummed at first but as I settled in with a whiskey and Netflix I came around to the idea. Maybe 2022 will be a year of fewer hangovers and time spent more productively… who knows! I do know that 2021 was a very interesting year for me and it was great to end it with a long overdue trip home to Canada to see family and friends. I was busy catching up with everyone but I managed to maximize my napping time and feel like I had a wonderful rest.

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I’m somewhat intrigued but very apprehensive about plumbing. I know it would be a good idea to sort out an awesome water system for my entire land right from the start, but it’s a very daunting task for someone who’s barley got experience unclogging a drain.

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Despite owning my piece of land since September 2020, actually living there still seems like a far away dream. As I fall asleep each night I seem to spend my time counting projects instead of counting sheep which tends to lead to a sense of overwhelm. It’s a magically wonderful sense of overwhelm, but overwhelm, nonetheless.

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I’ve been very weird about my land since I took ownership of it in September 2020. I’d been working on it since late July and I even had the key to the creepy barn, but I had no desire to stay there until very recently. I feel like my reluctance has been some bizarre combination of being comfortable and feeling at home at my friend’s place, and of having some bizarre mental block about the whole thing. I can’t really put my finger on why I haven’t been eager to spend the night except that it all seemed a bit dark and scary over there. Throw in a mild dislike for camping and a strong like for my morning routine and creature comforts, and I guess we have our answer… somewhere in between ‘I’m scared’ and ‘I don’t like to be uncomfortable’.

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A few months ago, when anyone asked when I’d like to be living on my land, I’d have said mid November. I even wrote a post about making my barn livable in time for this winter. That, my friends, was insanity. It’s mid January now and I’m nowhere near being close to moving in… in fact, I feel like I’m somehow even farther away! When they say everything will take longer than you expect, they’re right! I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but they’re wise. Though a move in date seems like a far away dream right now, things are plodding along in the right direction… it’s just that they’re plodding very slowly. But no walls have fallen down, no sink holes have opened up in the middle of my land, no trees have been washed away in floods, so life is good.

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When I had the idea of buying land and living the rural life in Portugal I didn’t give much thought to what type of land I actually wanted. On the top of my ‘must haves’ list has always been a ruin and obviously a water source, but beyond those things I wasn’t all that picky. Even after buying my place, I didn’t even notice that it was packed with mature olive trees. In fact, I only counted them for the first time right before starting to pick them. Turns out there are 30 and, luckily, it turns out that I really love picking olives. Even better, I really really love olives and olive oil!

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There’s something incredibly overwhelming about buying a piece of land without much infrastructure and proclaiming it my new home. It seems slightly bonkers… I don’t really know much of anything about off grid living! Sure, I can build a few things out of mud and I know a bit of carpentry, but I’ve never been much of a camping type and I really had no idea where to start to be able to turn a piece of land into a livable place – especially with winter approaching.

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That’s it! It’s done! As of last week, I’m officially a land owner! My experience buying land in Portugal has been amazing smooth, but in the back of my mind I’m sort of waiting for something unforeseen and terrible to happen since I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about people buying land and then everything going sideways. But I’ve taken the advice of practically everyone I’ve met and I’ve chosen to employ a lawyer so, in theory, she should be on top of everything. Right? Well it seems so because the deed was done last week, money paid, and I guess I now own land!

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I’ve lived outside of Canada since 2001, spending a good chunk of time in places where owning a car doesn’t make a lot of sense. My only short stint of car ownership was in 2005 when I bought a 1989 Honda Civic for $250 New Zealand dollars from a guy who was leaving the country the next day. I didn’t plan on buying a car but he was desperate and I suppose I accidentally took advantage of him. I didn’t have a car budget for my trip so threw out a ridiculous price and he took it and, up until yesterday, that’s been my only time as a car owner. The car worked perfectly for the five months I was there and I sold it onto a friend who drove it for another four years. So that was a win.

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