Casalinho

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Merci, Les Pionniers de Limal

    Yesterday we sadly waved goodbye to our most recent group of Scouts, who made their annual camp here at Casalinho. I seem to be forever making excuses for not updating this blog, but it’s been a busy ten days! So a heartfelt thanks go out to the fourteen members of Les Pionniers de Limal, Belgium more »

  • Introducing Oficinas da TerraCrua

    Oficinas da TerraCrua (literal translation = Workshops of Raw Earth) is a local organisation offering workshops in a range of sustainable building techniques such as Adobe, cob, cordwood and straw bale. Nuno taught the New Build session on our recent Permaculture Design Course, which everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Although workshops are taught in Portuguese, more »

  • Terrorists, Feline Style

    We’ve been so caught up with other things over the past weeks that I’ve failed to tell you about the newest members of the Casalinho team. They’ve terrified the dogs and the cat is so horrified that she won’t come in the house.  They keep us awake half the night playing tag on our bed more »

  • Permaculture Designs

    Our recent Permaculture Design Course culminated in a design exercise, taking the lower part of the property as the focus and me as the ‘client’. The designs were full of innovative ideas, and it was really interesting to see how closely some of the ideas matched my own. Here they are, group by group. Group more »

  • Life post-PDC

    It feels like a long time since I’ve sat down and written anything for the blog. My apologies, we’ve been so busy that I’ve been falling asleep every time my bum hits a chair! With the assistance of an absolutely fabulous bunch of volunteers we managed to get our new Volunteer Space / Training Room more »

  • In the Kitchen: Elderflower Cordial

    The edges of fields are now white with elderflowers, and their perfume is positively delicious. There are a host of wonderful things you can do with elderflowers, but our family favourite is elderflower cordial. I’ve no idea now where it originally came from, but the recipe I use uses 40 flower heads per batch. 2.5 more »

  • Cabrito Assado: In the Kitchen with Your Goat

    Those of you who have been following the blog will know that we recently killed our young goat for the table. If not, check out Goat Butchery for Beginners. So now that you have goat meat, what’s the best way to deal with it? Chop it into chunks. Pop it in a dish with a lid more »

  • Cabrito Assado: Goat Butchery for Beginners

    The deed has been done and Assado, our young male goat, is no more. Those who would prefer not to learn about how to butcher a goat should probably not read further. From experience though, I know that many of our volunteers are really interested in learning more about the process. I salute them, because more »

  • Mix and Match Goats

    We’ve done a trade with a neighbour. Branchina, our lovely older goat, has gone off to pastures new and we’ve just welcomed Bonita to our little flock. Bonita is a much younger goat but we decided it was a good idea to introduce some different blood as all our goats have been one family group to more »

  • The Nursery Wing!

    There’s a nasty disease that I’ve been unable to name which kills rabbits around here. Unfortunately a case of it hit here last week and we lost most of our rabbits with no warning 🙁 It was particularly upsetting as three of the adults who died were fairly new mothers with litters still tucked up more »

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