I just wanted to write a little post to say thank you to ALL the people who we met as a family along the way doing Parent Tribe online and also on our adventure in Portugal. Parent Tribe has been such a bloody amazing project that took us on a journey when we were trying to break away and make a different life for our family. So many inspiring things came our way through this project and what a journey we had! From connecting online with inspiring families, to then going on our own adventure to live off grid in rural Portugal for almost 2 years and buy our own piece of land, these were things ..read more

I was in a Facebook group for Alternative Families in Portugal recently and I was asked a question – How did I see living in Portugal would be for my children in the future when they grow up or would it only be for when they are small and would we then plan to move back to the UK. They wondered about how I (and other families) felt about brining their kids up off grid and if we thought about their future opportunities. I wanted to write about this as this is something we have thought about and to us we think of opportunities for our boys in a different way. We don’t consider living somewhere ..read more

This post has been a long time coming. I have always been meaning to write the next post about our journey, but it’s never come to mind. It’s been an intense few months for one reason or another and I do often find writing difficult, which is why I like to use Instagram to document our journey. I find a photo says so much and with some words to accompany it, for me it’s an easier way to get what we are doing across (so if you want to keep up in more detail with our journey hop across and follow us there :). With our future plans though i still really feel it is important to keep this blog an ..read more

This fabulous pizza base recipe, made with buckwheat flour and chia seeds, has become a weekly favourite in our house as it can be made super quick: 10 mins prep, 20 mins in the oven, then a further 10 minutes once the toppings are on. Chia seeds are a great source of fibre which is important for digestive health and are packed with omega-3 fatty acids. They are also a good source of protein. Buckwheat is a seed not a grain. It doesn’t contain wheat or gluten (although those who are sensitive to gluten or celiac should be mindful that buckwheat contains a protein which may give rise to sensit ..read more

Alice, 40, Tom, 41, Noah, 11 and Ned, 9 live in Leeds in the UK. They love adventures and were our first volunteer family where they helped us plan and make our outside toilet and shower block with recycled materials.   Please explain your lifestyle and philosophy Our lifestyle is driven by trying to create a positive impact on the lives of others through our work and daily interactions. We value kindness, compassion, exploration, creativity, growth and our relationships with others and our world. Entrepreneurship and not being afraid to do something different are what we try and model ..read more

This week we had such an amazing experience. Our first family came to stay on a working holiday and it went really well, apart from a few little issues that were learning experiences for us for the future. The Harrison family arrived and we guided them over the phone up to our track and then we quickly realised that it was going to be a struggle getting their 2m10cm wide van through the narrow bit of track just before our farm starts! This thankfully was the only major problem we had all week and after taking the best part of an hour to squeeze it through that first day, we all decided it w ..read more

I wanted to write a little post about our experiences moving to Central Portugal as this is something I often get asked in terms of basic living costs/ education etc and so I wanted to try and cover it here in one place. I do think every situation and budget is completely different, so peoples experiences will differ, but I can only share our knowledge from experience and what others we know are doing too. When we moved over here our situation was that we wanted to rent for 6 months to see if we liked the area around Penamacor and that we planned to live on my earnings as a graphic designer ..read more

I wanted to write a little about the start to this year and how last year in 2017 I think a lot of people I know there seemed to be a lot of upheavals and changes and well, crap! For us it was about following our dreams, finding our place, finding our feet and tackling everyday challenges in a new off-grid way of life. We did get a practice being semi off-grid in the rental place we had before but going to our completely off-grid farm has been a completely different experience and the last half of 2017 was mostly getting our heads around that! This gave us the space and time to settle and rea ..read more

After an absolutely brilliant yet very tiring trip to the UK to spend time with friends and family and to sort the rest of our stuff out that was left with Garf’s parents, we arrived back with our friends and 4 days to sort out our first family day here at Brejo de Serra. My wonderful friend Clare and her three kids were staying with us and we spent a few days working out where on the land to hold the forest school session. Clare was amazing. She quickly turned our smaller olive grove into a beautiful space for families to come and enjoy. We set up a circle seating area and some activities t ..read more

I wanted to write a bit about how our lives have changed in the past few months since living off-grid on our quinta, as being back in the UK for a few weeks has highlighted to me how we live very differently now. Being off-grid and quite rural you need to quickly learn to become more resourceful than you have ever been. We, like many others that have recently moved to the area where we live, are trying to live with less and be more self reliant. Less money, less belongings and less s**t in our lives! More focus on family time and enjoying others company, living in accordance with nature and ..read more