From Barter to Bath

Not so far in a dictionary...

There's nothing like a wet week and a determination to get a few things done. Nearly 70mms of rain Monday to Thursday was enough to see off most landscapers but not moi. Nao n'este pas. Niete. Never. The James Bond of Landscaping will not be stopped, even by the evil rainman. Business is slow so don't get even - get inventive. I invented the green suited BARTER BOY.

Stuffed into aforesaid tight green suit, a mornings mini digging was swapped for a really big hobby table now set up in the Cheeky Chapati Cafe




Thanks E. Nice big table to hold court!!

Still with time spare in between showers on Monday afternoon, 12 free range eggs were traded for half an hours welding on the air vent of our nearly complete bread oven, bring it on!!



Tricky little job.. thanks Rick. Rick is one of those rare cookies who will weld even the smallest broken hinges or right up to a complete house full of window bars or ornate archways... ring him on 968636421. May cost more than a few eggs though..

Still not satisfied, and with my blood ceasing to circulate in my lime lycra layer (shrinks in the rain, all superheroes have there nemesis) I moved two lorry loads of tree trunks in exchange for a cooker.



Yes it's a cooker...... what did you want? A picture of Barter Boy?

Barter Boy is now retired - until the next rain...maybe
Now that I have three old baths, the second one was planted up with strawberries in my green house and the last one is being used as an experiment in capillary gardening.



A short tube with elbow is glued into the plug hole. The bottom of the bath is then filled with gravel to 5cms above this tube



The water will then stay in the bath and naturally evaporate back up watering the vegetables again. Any excess water will run through the tube attached to the plug hole avoiding stagnation.



A hundred onions later.

Now has anybody an old bath? You might be able to persuade Barter Boy to slide into his emerald zoot suit one more time...

Ice is nice at half the price

England freezes as Portugal swims

Apparently these cold days are due to Artic winds sweeping down through England and across the continent and landing on jolly good Portugal. You realise that in the pre EEC days the winds would have stopped in France, and us Iberians could have still had our three hour lunch hour outside. Thanks France. Due to their 28 hour working week, the streets and roads are all empty allowing this dubious "mistral" to accelerate through cold potato soup land into our neck of the woods...

Almost as annoying was Englands bid to host the world cup. Thanks to Panorama and the feckless thick spoilt twit of the offspring of the jug eared aldulteress twerp, it was bloody odds on we would not host the world cup. Thought it would be pretty obvious a few kilos of beluga, a couple of mink coats and a - natasha - a week - for - life is slightly preferable to tea and cucumber sarnies... To William, Becks and Grabby Lingerer and the entire team of Pornorama, thanks, your fired...


Merci beaucoups.... first frost ever in November

Not that it has stopped us from working. Au contrar mons sweets.Dodging rain showers, I am determined to finish the tribrid cooking station. it has been nearly a year since it was delivered so rain or shine I have been progressing.



After building the sides up, I added an entire bundle of rock wool to the roof to increase insulation


Then I constructed the two apexes and cast a layer of steel covered with a mixture of permalite sand and cement for yet more thermal mass and insulation.


To the side of the main bread oven, I raised the back wall to protect the BBQ and rocket stove section.


Forming the combustion chamber for the rocket stove

The whole unit when finished will do the following:-

Well insulated bread oven. The oven already works but due to some ham fisted bee dropping the oven when it was delivered (ok... it was me..) the cracks reduced the effect of thermal mass, keeping the oven warm for hours down by 75%, increasing the thermal mass using rocks, cement, fibreglass, gravel then perlite will keep ot hot for hours!!
Spanish BBQ next to the bread oven. A very simple system of a deep bed of crushed glass topped with sharp sea sand. Using wood burning on the sand and bamboo skewers, it is an easy way to cook.
At the far right is a rocket stove. Wood is burnt in a lower combustion chamber and the verturi effect (sounds like a jet engine), produces an enormous amount of heat to boil large quantities of water for washing up or boiling potatoes.

What our solar cookers can do during the day, the tribrid will do at night!


Marking out Villa Sheeva, an eight person Goan style hut, our next project


Six weeks after planting the seedlings, courgettes and nabos are ready

STOP PRESS...Please check out our new web site at

www.ecohostalalgarve.com