I have seen many RU-vid blogs, To see a honest video ( No click magnet) is a True breath of fresh air and good content. Hope you make a success of your channel. Well done ..
I dont mean to be so off topic but does someone know a way to get back into an instagram account? I was stupid lost the account password. I would appreciate any help you can give me
@Keagan Hassan I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and im trying it out now. Takes a while so I will get back to you later with my results.
Great videos,guys,very informative,I've traveled many times to Portugal in the truck and Motorhome,beautiful country and people.Much success with your life offgrid in the sun.👍👍Paulo
I love your channel! My partner and I really enjoy watching your videos together. He’s from Portugal and I’m from Spain so we would love to live off-grid somewhere in the mountains of our beautiful countries one day. Thanks for being so inspiring and helpful!
You both remind me of my hippie years. I follow you both with interest as I want to retire somewhere away from the USA, which is quickly becoming unhinged. I have a few acres now and that isn't enough space from neighbors. It's refreshing to hear the downsides to your living in Protugal, that is rarely shared and quite helpful. I wish you both happeniess & a great life. Look into growing Moringa & herbs for health so you can avoid doctors. ;)
Thanks so much for supporting us by watching our videos Mike, we'll look into the herbs and Moringa Cheers 😀Portugal is truly a beautiful place to retire♥️
Thank you so much the details on your costs, its been great and so helpful. Really appreciate your effort and time putting this together! I am looking forward to hearing more. Thank you
You can buy a refilable LPG/GPL bottle. They use them for campers and forklifts. You can refill them at the fuelstation with LPG/GPL for about 0.50/0.85 per liter. You can also drive on it which is really cheap as well.
Well done! I wish you lots of success in your venture for the future. We live in Switzerland, where the costs you quoted wouldn't cover a week, never mind a year! We tried living in Malta, (I'm Maltese), but the Island is not the wonderful country it used to be. We're a bit past attempting to live off grid, but Portugal is high on our list of places to retire to. We spent a few weeks travelling there last year and loved it. I've tried your ftira recipe and came out almost like our local baker in Zejtun. I'll be trying the fish stew recipe soon, if I can raise the mortgage to buy the fish! All the best to you both and your wonderful pets.
Hi Alexander! Thanks for the good wishes! Totally agree with you regarding Malta! I was back there for a week last January and its unbelievable how much it has changed. I'm happy you tried my ftira recipe.. I'm sure you miss it as I do. The fish stew is really good..just remember when choosing the fish to put in it , the more bony the fish the more bones you'll have to pull out when eating! 😁😁
I hope your chanel grows and you're able to make some money through RU-vid 😊Thank you so much for sharing your experience... It is a huge resource for others (like me!) Who have big dreams of self sufficiency off the land. It's neat to hear a realistic break down of costs, no matter how "off grid" there are always some costs hey! Have you ever considered being wwoof hosts/work away etc for some extra helping hands during busy growing season and building projects? I look forward to more videos from you, It's refreshing to see a raw and honest approach without over editing and dramatisation. Blessings to you and your fur& feathered fam 🐾✨🌿 P.s what a beautiful yurt... The detailing on that door is so lovely! All the best x
We hope our channel grows too! 😁😁 We have had some wooofers last year but it ended up being a bit more work having to cook for them! Lol. Hopefully once we're better set up next year we can start again. Yes we do use the wood ash in the compost but thanks for the tip just the same! Glad you enjoyed our video! Thanks for your support!!
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife I'm sure it will! 😁glad to hear it! Hopefully it will work out well for you.. I've done wwoofing on lots of different places many self catered or some cooking for the group (including hosts!) So I'm sure you can work out something that suits you! It can be a great way to get a big project completed with help of team spirit! All the best ✌️🌿
@@lucycollier5776 yes many hands make lighter work 😀 we will have to take a different approach than we did last time. We had never done it before so there is a bit of a learning curve till we figure out the right way to do it
We've just stumbled onto your channel, we'll what can we say you two are just incredible you have answered loads of questions we have been asking for month's. So informative, so inspiring, so easy to watch, so glad we found you 🙏🏻 sending love and cwtches 💙✌️xx
Hi Brett and Beck , Thanks for stumbling onto our channel 😃 and for this really sweet comment , welcome to our YT family and happy to help Have a great Sunday
Hello again guys. If you can get your hands on several pieces of organic ginger you could try growing that as a good cash crop. You will need to make your own seed. You cut the ginger Into 30mm pieces and plant in 300mm wide bed in two rows at a pacing of 200mm in each row in a bed of 10meters long, you will need 5 beds. It takes 200 days till harvest so two crops per year is poss. It will take you a year to build up enough seed crop for an acre. From your crop you lose 80% in weight once dried you should make a fair living. Note you will need to work out how many pieces of ginger to plant in you starter beds, you could start smaller as the start up seed will be costly . Look on youtube youll see a lot of info. Stay safe guys.
Hi Ken.. thanks for that we will definitely look into it! My only worry regarding growing ginger is the frost we get here. Normally first frost is around november and last around march or even april. Also no humidity in summer (which is one of the many reasons why forest fires are a problem here.) I'll have a look online but I thought ginger likes high humidity and no frost. I know people who grow ginger in small amounts successfully in our area but they do it in pots. I'll do a bit of research though.. Cheers and Thanks for watching 😁
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife Hi that leaves with one crop per year. You could possible look at the red onion as your first crop plant in april then plant ginger in may. Also with a bit extra finance you could errect some poly tunnels
Useful info, thank you! You mentioned laundry detergent - have you investigated using horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) - you can use the conkers (nuts) or the leaves. It's amazing how instant the soapiness (from the saponins) is - loads of videos and blogs with info around.
Hi Maxwell! Yes a friend told us about using horse chestnuts but we havent tried it yet.. one day last year sarah came across a horse chestnut tree in town but we havent found it again. We will have to look for it one day soon so we can get some. Thanks for the tip😁😁
Thank you for your videos! Thinking to go off grid myself, but haven’t yet decided in which country, choosing between Portugal, Spain and Italy. Your videos are very helpful and so resourceful! Sending you love! 💖🙏
Amazing video guys, thank you, really useful, I love your washing machine you are living a dream... love to visit sometime, Im travelling in Portugal in my van looking for a place to be, thank you again Muito grato Go Off grid all the way man, keep it real
It looks as though you have as many flies in Portugal as we do in Western Australia!! I love following your lifestyle, you are both so animated and entertaining - I love it 😻
Hi Kym! Thanks for the lovely comment!! Flies are pretty bad here in summer, same as w.a but not as bad as Darwin! Lol ! We used to live in freo a few years back and absolutely loved it!
Enjoyed the video, especially coming from two mollies. 😁 My wife and I had plans earlier this year to spend in Portugal, but that got postponed of course. My parents were born in Malta,
Really good information, really looking into Portugal as a retirement home, have been there three times, but you are really making the everyday life experience much clearer,thank you
Morning guys :) I wonder how much the cost of living increased since 2020. I don't know about you but we've noticed that we have to pay €20 to €40 more per grocery trip - Yikes! Not to mention lumber process has increased too... Can't wait to get growing! Great video guys much love from up north!
Thanks guys😁 yes the cost of living has increased significantly but we find ways to keep our costs down in other ways when it does .We will be making another video with the last years review probably in June where we compare from the year before.
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife it could be fun to collaborate on a piece and see how the cost of living is different from North to Central Portugal. What do you think?
Hi Michael.. there is a really good organic market that sets up every couple of weeks in our area which we plan to eventually start setting up at, once we decide on all the items we could potentially have for sale. Thanks for the suggestion, that's another thing added to the list !😁😁👍👍
That's really helpful, loving your videos so far! How are things with the language barrier? Like can you do all bureaucracy in English? I guess not 😁how did you handle it? Thank you
Thanks for watching! Language barrier isnt too bad. I'm fluent in Italian so that helps a bit. Occasionaly it can get tricky but someone will step in and help or we'll figure it out.
Hi guys i just find your chanel i live in toronto i love your homesteading and very creative washer machine i hope you treate your tyroyeed because i did mine and i know as soon as its better good luck with everything
Welcome aboard Suzanne ! thanks for watching.This is one of our earlier videos so once you catch up 😜 you will see that I have taken out half my thyroid ...Thanks for your concern
Very informative ... thank you ! ... just started watching your channel and kudos for giving us the run down on how to ensure we can support your tube by watching video completely etc, I wasn’t aware of that ... I’ve mentioned before my next adventure will be in Portugal ... I am older now and project will be small scale for solo living ... one or two acres only with my dwelling area a small part of that, to allow a couple of chickens maybe two goats and small scale veggie patch ... but I still want to maintain a rough land management /preservation on small scale to continue my one person eco project ... I’m currently in southern (wee bit east) Spain (born and bred in Ireland) ... so we are practically neighbours (ish) ... trouble is upon initial investigations is finding a small plot with water in a remote area ... so if you know of anything please let me know ... love, light, happiness, health, positivity and peace to you ... Namaste 🙏...☘️ 😘
so nice to hear about your plan and that you are Irish I haven't met an Irish I didn't like 😁. A small plot of land with water doesn't sound too crazy, have you been looking on many websites? if you email me on lukeandsarahsoffgridlife@gmail.com ,I will send you my estate agents contact he is a lovely man
Thank you for the info you are both so happy and full of positive energy. I seriously like the look of Portugal especially Castelo Branco & Leiria areas. If you drove from left to right from one side of Castelo Branco to the other roughly how long would this take if you have done it ? Will keep an eye on your channel it's brilliant, also love that dog he looks like a good friend.
Thank you Stevie! 😃 We love CB too ... It takes around 30 minutes if you mean Castelo Branco City ,but if you mean Castelo Branco Region... no idea but it is easy to check on google maps Have a great day
where did you bought your yurt guys? i am between build mine and buy one, had list the fram work i coud do but i will prefere buy the window and the rest... cool chanel, also plan to build my farm in portugal next year.
Hi!! I guess it depends what you intend to use it for. We have a gasoline powered one from leroy Merlin in Coimbra. To be honest we havent used it much but this winter we plan to upload a video about cleaning our land and you will hopefully be able to see it in action. I have seen woodchippers in most of the big chain stores like maxmat and bricomarche too.
Thank you for your video, I've found that raising pigs and goats for meat and milk. Has turned out to be much more expensive than buying high quality meat in the UK, it's a labor of live and responsibly. I've raised many animals. Above all I would recommend Guinea pigs. They are very easy to keep, breed, kill and cook. I raised about 60 on grass and vegetables scraps. Best of luck with everything.
Thanks glen We re hoping to get goats next year. Really looking forward to it. Sheep and pigs too eventually. I've never had or tasted Guinea pig. I imagine they breed like rabbits 😆
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife like rabbits but better I think. They can have up to 8 in a litter. They are born fully formed with there fur. They are running around in minutes. They live very well in large herds. Unlike rabbits. Just keep adult males apart. I found that they eat most weeds that humans can eat. They also eat brambles. It would be great to try them on eucalyptus. Goats and pigs are great. I do love them.
They do sound good, and the fact that you mentioned brambles got me even more interested but i guess you can't just leave them running around your land or they will disappear.
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife In America they have been kept in the kitchen and fed raw food scraps. I've kept them in hunches and mowed grass for them with a scythe. And kept them in moveable runs on the grass. There manure makes great compost. Currently I'm building a raised bed garden with a 2ft outer wall in one of my pollytunnels. Guinea pigs can live on the paths in between the raised beds. There bedding can go straight onto the beds as mulch and weeds just will be dropped onto the paths for them.
Hi Anita.. totally forgot about that idea! Thanks for reminding me. I had asked the manager of a hardware store if I can film and he declined so I forgot about it. I'll put it on our to do list.
Nice. That's pretty low! Part of being "sustainable" can also be finding ways to get your income up in a way that fits you even if it is a "compromise". What worries me about trying to get all costs down to zero (a good goal, sure) is that you're swimming very much against the current; whether we like it or not, we are also part of the system and money is the language that the system understands. Asset prices will keep increasing, prices will keep going up as monetary supply increases... Anyway, I very much agree with your home, lifestyle, and expense reduction. I just hope that you are not completely "anti-money" because in the long run you can really end up hurting yourself. Always good to make a little and put away a little each week for the future. But maybe you already are. Best of luck.
S. Walker 🤣 we live on our dream land not in a dream world ..if you watch till the end we say that we don't know how much lower we can go with these costs because we spend money on the bare necessities and things that are hard or impossible to cut out.We will do another update of this video soon because things have changed a little bit now that we have goats 😁
Hi we included cleaning products, essentials like soap etc and pet food in that 600 but we have dropped that down to 350 as we said , but it's not that crazy we were not eating steak everyday ...portugal isn't that cheap. How much do you spend and where are you from?
Thanks for watching our videos😃 , no we do not have a paying job so far, we are still living off our savings but we are also starting to get a small income through these videos. In this sundays video we give a back story about how we got to where we are today if you would like to check it out, it covers where we got our money to start this life here in Portugal and what led us here.
Just found you channel today. Really interested in how you guys progress. Thanks for the honest breakdown on costs. Just curious, once you get up and running in cheeses and veggies etc, will you be supplementing your income via a local farmers market ? Do such things exist in Portugal?
Hi Michael , happy you found us 😁 Yes there are farmers markets here and we hopefully will make a small income from cheese in the future I doubt it would be the same for veggies but we do plan to grow our own animal feed. Have a great day
I like the new look Luke could be a new trend cookie monster shirt and rice crispy boots just had to laugh a while Man what a sense of humor If it works it works that is a great Professional stihl weed whacked trimmer Will last you a lifetime. Just Keep the air filters clean just a little soap and water maybe 2 to 3 times a year👍👍👍👍✌️
Just remember to keep The air filter clean The filter in the tank might need to be change if it’s over two years old. And also the filter on muffler need to be clean!
thank you 😁 but unfortunately we cant help you out with getting an address ,you an either get a PO Box at CTT or go to the town hall and they might be able to help you with that. Good luck
Hi Steve, I am sure you can find the info you need in a video that covers the topics you are interested in. , but we do not have a borehole and our video is how much it costs "US" to live off-grid here not setting up costs just daily expenses at the time we posted this video.
You didn't mention Molly's rabies vaccine wich in Portugal is obrigatório by law. I would really like more information on how you get internet in the middle of rural Portugal. Love your vids!
Hi Polly Jazz, we didn't mention it because Rabies over here is given every three years and we started our channel two years after Molly got it. She is due for her next one this August and we will be making an updated version of this video around that time too so we will mention it then😁. Regarding internet we have 4G (not on all parts of the land)but it is pretty good and all we need.❤Thank you for watching
Hi you guys deserve a bit of apology, you are so honest here about living off savings. That's what it seems? I thought in your other video it was that you still had income from a rental property in Malta. I know of no way that you could single-handed recreate the authentic circular rural economy of 19c Portugal.
Hi I do not understand the whole message but we sold our house when we left Malta 3 and a half years ago and were living off savings for the first 3 years until we started getting a tiny bit of income off RU-vid .
Hi and thanks for following our journey. We don't have one on the property it's a little drive down the road with the other group of letter boxes of our district, and you can buy it from your post office.
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife Cool, thanks for the quick reply and keep them entertaining and educational videos coming guys. We also bought land in the area this year, so I'll keep asking annoying questions in the future. ;-)
@@perfectdaypursuit8412 no problem and welcome to the area , if you want you can email us too at lukeandsarahsoffgridlife@gmail.com We'll do our best to help where we can. Have a great day and thanks for supporting us by watching our videos.
I’m portuguese and I’m loving to see your videos. Me and my boyfriend want to move to portugal in a few years and have little project similar to yours! I’m curious as to why you chose Castelo Branco to live. Much love ❤️
Hi Lili Ana thanks for watching our videos 😁 we looked all around Portugal for land before we settled for Castelo Branco ,the most beautiful and affordable land for us was here. If you watch our how and why we talk a bit about this 😁
You are so tricky! I got your poll question wrong because of this video! You asked viewers knew the type of home you lived in. The correct answer was gypsy caravan! I picked YURT! I was tricked! 😆 🤣 😂
Yeah usually price of goods is higher than the price of service in countries with bad economy, have saying that because I am originally from Morocco, lived in France, England and now in Ireland, and I say Portugal is more or less like Morocco.
What will be your main income in Portugal? The goat milk products? I'm curious what the possibilities of making a living out there might be for a foreigner. Also, have you considered raising rabbits?
Hi Connor we are probably not going to have one main income just a lot of different things we make to sell and hopefully grow a little bit more on RU-vid😁 definitely no rabbits we do not want animals in cages all day
Wow, it's really amazing what you're building towards. I'm waiting for that cheese factory to be rebuilt 🧀. Would you ever get cows 🐄🐄🐄🐄 or that's not even a thought (for whatever reasons)? Stay wonderful! ❤️🎨
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife That's a fun goal. I assume they cost a lot. Hopefully, you earn enough to support the off-grid lifestyle with perks like that. ❤️🎨
I’m planning to buy a used Mitsubishi flatbed truck, with a non-working drivetrain and install a Tesla EV drivetrain. I’m hoping that the Portuguese department of vehicles will approve it. I’m an experienced EV converter and will convert my tractor, as well, to electric battery, when I find my farm. I’m searching for around 4-7 hectares, northeast of Castello Branco, nearer to the Spanish border. I have been in construction for over 40 years and now a manufacturer of green technology products. I’m planning to set up an employee-owned green technology business, similar to Mondragon, Spain. What are your thoughts?
Hi Liane.. I found the. closest bunch of letter boxes with a free spot. Bought a post box from the post office. Attached it. Saw address from post boxes. Sent myself an empty letter. Hey presto! 😁 This was after going to the post office ,junta, camara and all of them sending us from one place back to the other.
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife that's fantastic, thank you. What a great idea 😊. We'll be moving out at the end of July and are new to off grid living, we are grateful for any tips 🙂. Luke mentioned a guy who installs the electrics for your solar system, would it be possible to share his details with us please?
Hey.. so that guy isnt in pt anymore unfortunately. But recently I saw some kits for sale on solarshop.pt . The prices look really good and it looks like there is everything you need in the kit. Another company a lot of people use that install are spark solar. I think they are on fb. Everyone I know who used them so far are very happy with their work. Good luck with the move! Xx
Hi Dawn.. our solar setup cost us €3514 including delivery. We got it from a salesman who works here in portugal for a company in spain. The reason we did that was because it was about 1000 euros cheaper than the best quote we got in portugal for the same size system. When it came to setting it up the cheapest quote to install that I found was about 1500 euros so instead I set it up myself after lots of research online. We will be uploading a video on how we set it up by the end of the week if you want to see how we did it and what appliances we actually run on it too. Thanks for your question as it gave us the idea what video to do next!! 😁😁
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife Is that include the solar panels or just the setup cost? And are batteries included? Are they working during winter time or cloudy weather? Someone said on the other channel it can cost from 10.000 to 15.000 euros to install solar panels in Portugal. Yours is much cheaper.
@@as-1982 Hi again ,the price we gave is for the everything included but not the installation, we got this system delivered from Spain as it was cheaper than buying it here in portugal and if Luke had not installed it himself it would have cost us another 1400-1500 to get someone to do it It obviously depends on how big a system you want at the end of the day too , the prices you saw on the other channel was it a system as big as ours?
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife I don’t know, but he was just answering someone who asked him whether he was going to install the solar panels. He didn’’t plan to install them becuase he said the ROI or something like that is not justifiable. With your current system, can you run an airconditioner or heating system and a water heater at the same time for 24 hours?
Thought I recognised a hint of it in your accent💕! I’m British but I’ve been living and working there for the past 5 years, in SPB. Which part are you from?
I think it is terrible for a country (any country) to charge taxes if you put a home on your land. As human beings, it should be our right to put a roof over our family's head w/o prejudice.
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife sorry to bother you, do you need planning permission to build a yurt? and also do you need to pay property tax for yurt if is not a permanent building?
@@elenagisa1318 the property tax is what you have written down on the caderneta which is the deed of your land and about the pernission , I cant give you advice on that because every parish is different some allow prefab buildings up to 20 square meters and some allow temporary building s and others dont it really depends where you buy your land.
I would like to ask for the information of the lawyers you have used in buying your land. We are planning on buying in the same region where you are. Castelo Branco. We are south African but have Irish passports. We are flying over to Portugal in January 2021.
Hello , How many land do you have to your farmlands? You are courageous. God bless you all.. I would like to buy a land there somewhere. To make a small farm like you . I hope ...if you can send me your facebook so I can contact you guys , for more information! Thankyou!
Maybe I do not understand these questions I do not see the connection between the two . You can chose what you want to take care in this world and I choose animals. The world does not lack children. 😃
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife actually I have kids and I enjoy much more my life with kids then only we both, I think if you have kids with you then you enjoy much more, I try to visit you when I come purtugal after pendemic
@@abbasichannel2932 happy you enjoy your kids ,not everyone needs children though, everyone is different with different needs, we love our life and actually couldn't be happier ,and i mean this in the nicest way , just a word of advice for your future comments to people you do not know, some people don't like it when a stranger tells them to have children, you don't know what is going on in other people's life only what they choose to show you😃 have a good day
@@lukeandsarahsoffgridlife ohoooo I am sorry sorry and once again sorry if my suggestion hurts you, I am not serious just kidding, I prey for you and wish you a happy, beautiful and satisfactory life for both of you I am sorry again 😍
@@abbasichannel2932don't worry it didn't hurt me 😃it is just rude to make suggestions like that to people you dont know, but happy you enjoy our channel 😃
hi just a thought, with the bank fee have you thought about a revolute account? they have lisence to operate in all eu countrys and do not charge as far as im aware, you have to have an address for whatever country your in, they can be multi curency
