Congratulations! We did the same and we are trying to live a off-grid lifestyle here in center Portugal! We're Portuguese and we had some health issues that made us think about our future. We decide to make a big change intonout lives so we sold our house in the city and bought a stone house in the mountains! And it was the best move ever! Now we are debt free! We transformed our land to be more productive and we are nown in the process of making raized beds. Congratulations for your work!
What an exciting move! Congratulations for all of your work as well, it sounds like you guys are thriving in the environment you have chosen 😁. It sounds like you guys are pretty much handled, but if there’s anything you’d like us to show more of (for example, what we landed on for our final raised bed design) let me know. Good luck with everything!
Your farm is beautiful & wow ! That view. I’m 73 years of age and like you just renovated my present home into exactly what I want & can’t stop thinking about moving to another country like Portugal where people are more connected and valued.
Hi Patty. We're not much younger than you and are making the final move in a few months. It's not as difficult as you might imagine and a D7 retirement visa has minimal requirements. Grab on to your dream, follow it and hold it dear. There are more chapters to be written in your life's story. We all have at least one more adventure left in us!
Thank you for sharing your life with us. Our paths seem very similar but on a much smaller scale. We fell in love with Portugal on our first visit. Last year we bought our mini-farm in rural central Portugal from videos and photos. We have a small olive orchard, many fruit trees, land and cultivated garden space along with a charming stone cottage with beautiful views. Our final move is in 4 months and we're retiring. The only thing more beautiful than the place is the people. We feel so welcomed and have enjoyed every moment that we have been there and every person that we've met. We wanted a place where life moved at a slower pace than the US. We call it the land that time forgot. The country is truly special and we feel beyond fortunate that we found the peace beauty and tranquility of rural Portugal and it's wonderful people. Looking forward to following your journey.
Wow, yes, so many parallels. I'm so excited for you guys and your new adventure! Please let us know when you guys get here. We'd love to connect and would be happy to help in any way we can 🙂.
Yes! My husband and I were active riders for about a decade (until the entry of small children into our lives), but one of the first things we mentioned when we got here was that the roads would be amazing for motorcycles 🙂.
I am soooo pleased this video popped up on my suggestions. 🙌🏽🎉 😀 I LOVE it!! I so resinate with everything you said. Subscribed! Looking forward to more videos . Thank you for sharing and letting us into your little piece of paradise 🙏🏽😊
I'm so glad you are enjoying it and thank yo so much for the support 😊. We should be coming out with the next chapter sometime on Sunday assuming all goes well.
New subscriber. Douro country is truly a beautiful magical place in Portugal. Inspirational lives that you’re living! 🌟 How have you adapted as a family to the Portuguese culture and language? Looking forward to future videos. Até à próxima. 😊
Hello and welcome to the North! Thank you so much for th support and I wish you guys an amazing journey as well. Let us know if you every happen to be in the Douro area and would like to stop by and say hi 🙂.
I had a farm in the Douro Valley but it was foggy every morning and very windy. Extremly beautiful but not suitable for the fruit trees I want. So I moved to a place with much better climate, the northwest part of Portugal, the Minho region . I live close to the Geres National Park but with a very special climate. I can grow, avocados, mangoes, cherimoyas, sapodilha, bananas and all the temperate climate ones. Good luck to your project, welcome to Portugal
WELCOME TO PORTUGAL. BEAUTIFUL HOUSE 🏡 AND SO AMAZING VEW, SO CONNECTED WITH NATURE. YOU ARE CLOSE TO HEAVEN THERE. GOD BLESS YOUR HOME AND PROJECT, AMEN .
Thank you so much for this wonderful introduction, Shayna. I really like your rather reflective approach and can fully relate to your remarks regarding connection, and if I may add, meaning. It’ll be very interesting to follow your journey. Just subbed. Julia 💗🙏
Thank you so much for the kind words and for the support 🙂. I think there are a lot of people out there like us, looking for connection and meaning, and I am looking forward to connecting with more of those people along the way.
Subscribed. Wish you all the best in your new journey. Beautiful the farm. Greetings from Switzerland, near Zurique. I’m Portuguese and planning in several years go back. Bye and see you in the next video 🙋🏻♀️Alexandra
That was a lovely introduction to your life on the farm and your site. I’ve visited Portugal a few times and absolutely love it! Looking forward to visiting each week. Louise from Canada
Fantastic, you have such a beautiful home. Myself and my partner are coming over from the UK in September to have a look around the area. Think we will be staying in Amarante. What you are doing is pretty much our dream. I'll be following your journey. All the best, Scott.
Just subscribed. Originally from Winnetka and then grew up in Palo Alto, so that was fun to hear where you are from. We are moving to Portugal soon, so that is how I found you on UA-cam. I am looking forward to hearing more about what you are doing and watching your future videos.
That's exciting! Have you already chosen a place in Portugal? I'm always curious to know what motivates people to make big moves like the one you are about to make, so if you'd be up for sharing, I'd love to hear it.
@@SiliconToSoil We will be in the Tomar area. There are a bunch of reasons to move, I have really enjoyed my visits there, it is beautiful and the people are wonderful, I can eat the food there (food in the USA makes me sick), I feel much safer there and the climate is going to be a blessing because of the longer season allowing me to grow so many more things (we are using permaculture on our farm currently). I am looking forward to watching the video you just made, it will be my treat this evening when I have a break.
Thank you for sharing! I don't know the Tomar area well, but I imagine it is beautiful. I'm so glad you will be able to enjoy the people, the food, the tranquility and the climate here. If you're ever up our way in the future, let us know. We would love to connect. And thank you for following along 🙂.
Suerte con el proyecto y ahí estaremos para ver vuestros avances. Un saludo desde Barcelona Y muchas felicidades por llevar vuestros sueños adelante. 💪
Just added you to my list of folks with YT channels,that are renovating farms in Portugal ❤ will be watching your beautiful ideas unfold in the future!
What a beautiful place you have found for you and your family! Really interesting to see all the things you're doing or planning to do. Also the permaculture. We just stumbled upon your channel and we love to follow you. We also moved from another country to France and we love it. Bye from France! Kim & Angelo
We are from the Netherlands and we moved to France in the beginning of this year (2024). So we just “landed” 😀 We document our journey with our channel and slowly creating our own homestead ☀️🍀🇫🇷
Oh wow! So it's a relatively new adventure. That's so exciting 🙂. I'll have to take a look at your channel to see what you guys are up to! Best of luck with all of it 🙂.
Welcome to Portugal! We did something similar, as we are Portuguese, we sold our house near Lisbon and bought a stone house with a bit of land some Km's from Guarda. Debt free, friendly community, good schools for our kids, lots of nature. For the first time in our lives we feel happy. Good luck on your adventure and be happy!
Thank you for the welcome and I am so happy to hear you guys have found happiness in your adventure. Can I ask if you guys would have considered yourselves more city-people before the move? Or have you always had some connection to rural life? How has the transition been? We have a good friend near Guarda and it’s beautiful there, but I imagine coming from Lisbon it would be a pretty big change.
I definitely will. We have many ideas and plans, we're just in the process of figuring out the best way to make them reality. Thank you for your interest 😊.
Hi! We are also from the Bay Area and moved to Portugal (Silver Coast) last year after a decade in NYC. Congratulations on starting your channel - GREAT video!
@@SiliconToSoil We love it so far! We've been here since Oct 2023. We started our channel at the end of April 2024. We haven't been to Douro Valley yet but it looks beautiful.
UA-cam algorithms brought me here. I have now subscribed. I love your farm, and the first thing I wanna know is how did you create those beautiful raised beds? And are they hugelkultur beds? I'd love to see a video about that!
Thank you and yes, that's exactly what they are! We have iterated quite a few times and that is our latest design. I'd be very happy to do a video about what we've figured out, thank you for the idea 🙂
Lovely! Look fwd to more. Curious to hear if your turn towards a life like has come out of a turn away from anything in particular in your professional lives/career, its a brave move! ❤
Thank you and thank you for the feedback. That's an interesting thought exercise for me. I have generally focused more on what we have been turning toward as opposed to what we were turning away from, but I'll put some thought to that and I'll address it in one of the next chapters 👍.
Le meilleur choix de votre vie ❤ le Portugal est merveilleux les gens sont adorables et la vie y est paisible . Je suis française et je vis au Portugal , mon mari est portugais
Well come to Portugal! It was interesting listening to all your projets but, it would be nice to hear about your family, about your husband and children, their names, what are they doing, are they enjoying and adapting easily to this country, are the children going to school, are they learning the languague etc etc Just a suggestion…
Hello and thank you for the feedback! I definitely plan to introduce everyone to more of our day-to-day life, the family and the transition we have made, as the channel progresses. For now, as our kids are quite young, they will only be a very peripheral and mostly anonymous part of the channel, but I will definitely be talking more about their schooling, how they have adapted language and culture-wise, etc as their well-being was a primary reason for our move.
Have you had experience with requesting permission for rebuilding on your land? The channel, the Newbys, have been waiting 5 months for permissions...sounding extremely frustrated. If you have experience and tips, they might appreciate it. They seem connected to some in the community but that doesnt seem to help. They were discussing having to move if they don't get permissions. I don't know how it works, just that it takes a long time sometimes. Does having a lawyer help too?
Hello and yes. We have been going through the many bureaucratic processes of registering our farm, defining the boundaries, having people come to verify some of the ruins, etc. All necessary for us to put in the paperwork to renovate existing buildings and to build new ones. We have been in this process so far for about a year and a half and we still are nowhere close to the end. Ours is a bit of a complicated situation for various reasons, but from what I've seen, 5 months is not at all unusual. For us it hasn't impeded things too much because we have so much to do in other areas that we're just getting along with other things while waiting for authorization, but I can imagine it would be very frustrating if getting authorization were holding up plans. If there is anything out of the ordinary a lawyer might help, but otherwise having a good engineer who knows the people in charge of the authorizations is the best I can offer because they can call and see what the status is and hopefully move things along, but one of the things we've had to get used to here is that things just take longer... sometimes MUCH longer than we were accustomed to in the US.
@@SiliconToSoil yeah for sure, where are yall at? Currently trying to find someone to send me some videos of the place without buying it out from under me lol
@@maryr7593 Yep, we're in northern Portugal, though quite close to the boarder between what is considered northern Portugal and what is considered central Portugal. 🙂
There is so much to see and share and we’re trying to keep each chapter to less than 30 minutes. We will be showing more of everything in the coming chapters, but if there is anything in particular you’re interested in seeing, let me know and we can prioritize it 🙂.
Douro valley has mountains/hills, terraces. It is where the grapes are grown for the Port wine. They are probably in the higher altitudes and thus the fog. There is a 'tourist' train that goes from Porto to one deaden station...that allows people to see all the terraces. There is also a boat tour that goes down the Minho River. Though it is the called the Douro Valley...that's where the river flows. There are terraces lining the hills. Weather in winter in Porto is kind of like Portland, OR...rains alot. But in summer it is warmer though rain can be scarce. In the region north of Douro Valley, Tras-os-Montes area...it can get frost and snow in winter.
So, though the weather has varied greatly in the 5 years we have been here, our impression is that it is quite similar temperature-wise to where we were in northern California, but there is a lot more rain and, consequently more humidity. The summers still tend to be pretty dry, but a bit more humid than where we were. Also, since we are just above the Douro river, we tend to get morning fog pretty frequently during the summer (and some of the rest of the year), that usually dissipates by around 8 or 9am.
So I have become pretty proficient in the years we have been here, but there are a few disclaimers I would like to add to that statement. I had taken Spanish in school for a good portion of my young life, though it had been more than a decade since I spoke any Spanish when we moved to Portugal. The pronunciation of the two languages is quite different, but there are a lot of similarities in grammar, conjugation, etc that gave me a leg-up when learning. Additionally, since we moved to a rural area where almost no English is spoken, we had the benefit of immersion which, in my opinion, is the fastest/easiest way to learn a language. I think if I had moved to Porto, for example, it would have been a longer process as there are many more people who speak English there and I could have used that as a crutch. That said, on of the most wonderful things about my experience here has been the locals' lack of judgment or criticism when foreigners are trying to speak and learn the language. I have never, not a single time in 5 years, had an experience where a local was making me feel stupid or embarrassed if I was fumbling with trying to communicate in Portuguese. I have only had really supportive even excited reactions (that I was trying to learn) when speaking to locals which has made the overall experience really relaxed and enjoyable. I have been taking lessons since before we got here and I continue to take lessons online now as I would like to get to the point where I can have deep and meaningful conversations in Portuguese as we have no plans to leave the country, but I also know that, if I am in a situation where I don't know some vocabulary or if I'm tripping over my words for whatever reason, I will be met with understanding and assistance. I can't speak for how it would be in other parts of the country, but that has been my experience so far where we are. Just a couple of resources if you're interested: www.practiceportuguese.com is really well done. I think it's around 15€ a month, but they have a huge amount of information in the form of lessons, interactive content, podcasts, etc and it has been helpful for us. The Preply app is also a good resource. I'm sure there are many apps like this out there, but this is the one we found initially and we have connected with some very competent and amiable tutors through them over the years.
Hi - Am a Bay Area boy (born in SF) but have been living/working in SE Asia. Am now semi-retired. Bali is home base. Are you are open to older volunteers?
@@SiliconToSoilVery nice! I may not visit until Feb/March of next year. It would be my first time visiting Portugal. How long do volunteers typically stay and do you provide a place to stay?
Hello again! Would you like to maybe start a private email thread or something of the sort? I think my contact information is listed on the page, but if not, let me know and I can send it to you here 🙂.
I know many people who would agree with you 😊. We tend to prefer it here, but I also had San Francisco weather for a good part of my life, so a change has been lovely.
You have been there for 5 years...how is your Portuguese? Have you taken the free Portuguese course for resident foreigners? I lived in Portugal in 1990-91 and am fluent in Portuguese. Would love to teach ppl if they need help. Question: in US, the scented air industry has taken over...meaning you walk into a store and can get overpowered by the ppl's body sprays, very scented products, etc. But for those of us suffering with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (chemically derived scents cause our body to react in allergic ways). Ppl with chemical sensitivities have a very difficult time traveling because ppl use scented cleaning products as well as the ppl who who are also staying at the place. One doesn't want to get sick while traveling and we end up becoming isolated hermits from the rest of life. Sucks really! If you are interested in learning Portuguese, let me know.
Hello! I have actually become quite proficient in Portuguese in the 5 years we have been here. Since we are in a relatively rural area where there is very little English spoken, the immersion has helped immensely. We also have locals working on the farm with us, so my day-to-day is all conducted in Portuguese. Regarding your question: I'm sorry to hear about you're experience. I tend to be quite sensitive to smells as well, but I don't have the physical reactions associated with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I didn't quite catch the question in there, though.
@@SiliconToSoil just curious if you have gotten to the point where your English has been affected by the Portuguese? You know you are doing well in Portuguese if your English has become somewhat 'tainted'. Ie) saying that fruit are immature instead of ripe. Understanding is fine but if someone flipped the two words when trying to speak English and weren't say talking about fruit....perhaps the subject of people instead...connotations of the two words are completely different. Ppl who watch Portuguese real estate videos have probably noticed this already. The agent will say it is really fresh in the house. They mean cool in temperature...but the Portuguese word for cool is fresco and thus it is a false cognate for the portuguese. I have noticed one of the UK guys who does property videos (farmer for fun), he often says things in English in the manner in which they are said in Portuguese. He is married to a Portuguese woman and seems to have a full grasp of the language when he and the real estate agent chat about the very old antique pieces of farming equipment that they find in the old farm houses they are filming. I didn't notice my 'altered English' til after I had returned to the states a couple of years, changed states as well...and ppl observed my odd way of saying things...especially things like opening/closing lights and water faucets...instead of turning them on. Luckily prepositions in Portuguese are not as difficult as they are in English....getting on a bus, in a car, sitting at a table, etc. Having taught English to foreigners in US....I literally did what they said to drive home the point...get on the car, get on the table, in the table was a bit harder to pull off. I usually suggested to ppl who were planning on going to PT to learn Portuguese before they left because many, many universities offered beginning Portuguese classes. (Even if technically it was Brazilian Portuguese....there are usually enough teaching assistants that speak with a European accent that they can teach you the differences if you ask them to. The accent would be different but if someone learned the vocabulary, verb conjugation, basic sentence structure, etc...learned the correct way of pronouncing the European Portuguese accent...they would have a leg up. If you take the class as a non-degree/non-credit seeking student...the university would be way cheaper in US. Besides every immigrant applying for residency in Portugal is entitled to take free Portuguese courses. Knowing your English grammar is very important however, since all the PT for foreigner teachers refer to parts of speech...nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, gerunds, past participles, past tense, present tense, future, command, conditional, subjunctive, etc. Nowadays ppl can just look up the words in class but while you look up the word, you are missing the assignment or explanation. In other forums ppl have said those classes were not as helpful for them...but for most ego-centric Americans...they have never tried to learn a language past the first couple years in high school. Many ppl for the longest time had the opinion...why should I learn other languages...everyone speaks English. Back in the late '80s when I was graduating high school...it was certain which language would be that of world dominance...it was usually looked at as which country would be doing the most business. But also most ppl do not recognize that just you know the words, etc...some things are said in different circumstances depending entirely upon the culture and context. (Ppl in intercultural/ different languages....soon realize this quite quickly.) My comment is not entirely for you Shayna...I write for the benefit of others who may be interested.
Hello again and thank you so much for the response. To answer your question for me, absolutely! I actually find that both of the languages that I speak tend to taint each other. For example, it occasionally slips, for me, as well, to say something like "It's fresher in the house," but also I have found that the sentence structure is a bit more traditional/formal in Portuguese than in English and I feel that taking over as well. For example, I now frequently use the more formal English sentences like, "To whom do I send this?" instead of the colloquial "Who do I send this to?" due to the way I would need to say it in Portuguese "A quem é que envio isto?" But then there tends to be a bleed-over of some of the more informal or playful language concepts more frequently used in English, into my Portuguese. I remember the funny I look I got from one of the people who help us here when I said the equivalent of "Yeah, that tree is looking very sad." She understood what I meant, that it was looking unhealthy or in need of water, but it's just really not something they would ever say. It makes them laugh, though, when I say things like that, so 🤷♀️😁.
So, I plan to talk a bit more about this in one of the coming chapters, but short answer is that my husband is bringing in an outside income which allows us to do what we are doing. We are still very much in the investment stages of our project and, though we are looking into funding and things to help in that area, currently it is not the farm itself funding the project expansion. We hope to get there in the future, but we are likely at least a couple of years out.
Hallow,I am Ljubica,and has litle farm arraund house.I need partner,for me,abaut 60 g.because we together join in this place,so terible is been lounly, i has 58 g. and start vith garden,vegetable,flovers,makeing house,garden house.I injoj looking work other people,incurage them,and I need curage too.I am profesor of art,work in school too.LIke children.I do not children.I love God.
@@antoniodasilva1230 We haven't had a lot of time to explore that area as of yet, but we'll be about half an hour north of you for a mini-vacation later this month. I have heard it's a really beautiful area 🙂
Congratulations! We did the same and we are trying to live a off-grid lifestyle here in center Portugal! We're Portuguese and we had some health issues that made us think about our future. We decide to make a big change intonout lives so we sold our house in the city and bought a stone house in the mountains! And it was the best move ever! Now we are debt free! We transformed our land to be more productive and we are nown in the process of making raized beds. Congratulations for your work!
What an exciting move! Congratulations for all of your work as well, it sounds like you guys are thriving in the environment you have chosen 😁. It sounds like you guys are pretty much handled, but if there’s anything you’d like us to show more of (for example, what we landed on for our final raised bed design) let me know. Good luck with everything!
@@SiliconToSoil thank you!
Your farm is beautiful & wow ! That view. I’m 73 years of age and like you just renovated my present home into exactly what I want & can’t stop thinking about moving to another country like Portugal where people are more connected and valued.
It’s funny how that happens 🙂. Well, I wish you the best in finding what you’re looking for, wherever that ends up being.
Hi Patty. We're not much younger than you and are making the final move in a few months. It's not as difficult as you might imagine and a D7 retirement visa has minimal requirements. Grab on to your dream, follow it and hold it dear. There are more chapters to be written in your life's story. We all have at least one more adventure left in us!
Thank you for sharing your life with us. Our paths seem very similar but on a much smaller scale. We fell in love with Portugal on our first visit. Last year we bought our mini-farm in rural central Portugal from videos and photos. We have a small olive orchard, many fruit trees, land and cultivated garden space along with a charming stone cottage with beautiful views. Our final move is in 4 months and we're retiring. The only thing more beautiful than the place is the people. We feel so welcomed and have enjoyed every moment that we have been there and every person that we've met. We wanted a place where life moved at a slower pace than the US. We call it the land that time forgot. The country is truly special and we feel beyond fortunate that we found the peace beauty and tranquility of rural Portugal and it's wonderful people. Looking forward to following your journey.
Wow, yes, so many parallels. I'm so excited for you guys and your new adventure! Please let us know when you guys get here. We'd love to connect and would be happy to help in any way we can 🙂.
@@SiliconToSoil That is so kind of you. We'll be sure to touch base when we arrive. ❤
Be welcome to Portugal,, hope you all enjoy this new life journey 😊
Terrific story! Looking forward to future episodes. The property looks really beautiful. ❤
Welcome to vibrant Portugal! Wishing you an amazing journey. A new subscriber has joined your channel.
Thank you for the welcome and so much for the support 🙂
Pls be happy in Portugal, we love having u guys be part of our Portuguese society.❤
Thank you so much 🙂
Que continuem a amar Portugal. Aguardemos então por novos vídeos. Be happy.
Obrigada 🙂. Vamos lançar outro ou hoje ou amanhã.
I just returned to Canada,wow Douro valley on motorcycles was a memory we'll never forget.
Yes! My husband and I were active riders for about a decade (until the entry of small children into our lives), but one of the first things we mentioned when we got here was that the roads would be amazing for motorcycles 🙂.
That is amazing. I am really impressed with the target inspired by permaculture.
Thank you ☺
I am soooo pleased this video popped up on my suggestions. 🙌🏽🎉 😀 I LOVE it!! I so resinate with everything you said. Subscribed! Looking forward to more videos . Thank you for sharing and letting us into your little piece of paradise 🙏🏽😊
I'm so glad you are enjoying it and thank yo so much for the support 😊. We should be coming out with the next chapter sometime on Sunday assuming all goes well.
Welcome to my beautiful Country I just subscribed. You choose one beautiful place to live Douro Vally . Your story is very impressive. See you soon.
Thank you for the welcome, the kind words and the support. We feel incredibly fortunate to have landed here and we will be sharing more soon 🙂.
New subscriber.
Douro country is truly a beautiful magical place in Portugal.
Inspirational lives that you’re living! 🌟
How have you adapted as a family to the Portuguese culture and language?
Looking forward to future videos.
Até à próxima. 😊
There are two things in life priceless, time that you cannot buy , and peace so welcome to the perfect country to have this two tremendous items.
Thank you 😊
Great story. And a very based view of life. Good luck for you, your family and your projects here in portugal.
Thank you 😊
Awesome. We just moved from NYC to Northern Portugal. Wishing you and your family an amazing journey. You're going to crush UA-cam! Be well.
Hello and welcome to the North! Thank you so much for th support and I wish you guys an amazing journey as well. Let us know if you every happen to be in the Douro area and would like to stop by and say hi 🙂.
Magical place!! 😍
Great to see you learning and growing:) Contagious!!
Blessings to you 🫶
What a beautiful project! Best wishes for all of you.
I love your “story” and looking forward to following your channel. ❤
Thank you and thank you for the support 🙂.
Nice to meet you all! I just subscribed. I wish you all success with this channel.
Thank you so much for the support!
Spectacular ! I really loved seeing all the story (and be a part of it 🎉)
And we love having you as part of our story 😘
I had a farm in the Douro Valley but it was foggy every morning and very windy. Extremly beautiful but not suitable for the fruit trees I want.
So I moved to a place with much better climate, the northwest part of Portugal, the Minho region .
I live close to the Geres National Park but with a very special climate. I can grow, avocados, mangoes, cherimoyas, sapodilha, bananas and all the temperate climate ones.
Good luck to your project, welcome to Portugal
Just watching this video is enough to begin to feel the pace of my life calm down.
The countdown has begun 😁
WELCOME TO PORTUGAL. BEAUTIFUL HOUSE 🏡 AND SO AMAZING VEW, SO CONNECTED WITH NATURE. YOU ARE CLOSE TO HEAVEN THERE. GOD BLESS YOUR HOME AND PROJECT, AMEN .
Thank you! 😃
Thank you so much for this wonderful introduction, Shayna. I really like your rather reflective approach and can fully relate to your remarks regarding connection, and if I may add, meaning. It’ll be very interesting to follow your journey. Just subbed. Julia 💗🙏
Thank you so much for the kind words and for the support 🙂. I think there are a lot of people out there like us, looking for connection and meaning, and I am looking forward to connecting with more of those people along the way.
Bem vindos a Portugal
Espero que gostem e tenham sucesso
Abraço
Muito obrigada ☺️
Congrats on your new venture (YT). Looking forward to seeing what you create there.🙂
Thank you 🙂
Subscribed. Wish you all the best in your new journey. Beautiful the farm. Greetings from Switzerland, near Zurique. I’m Portuguese and planning in several years go back. Bye and see you in the next video 🙋🏻♀️Alexandra
Thank you! We haven't made it to Switzerland yet, but it's very high on our list of places to visit 🙂.
bem vindos a portugal e boa sorte from dallas texas
Obrigada 🙂
WELCOME TO MY COUNTRY
Obrigada 🙂
That was a lovely introduction to your life on the farm and your site. I’ve visited Portugal a few times and absolutely love it! Looking forward to visiting each week.
Louise from Canada
Thank you so much for the support. If you ever come back to Portugal, let us know if you’d like to stop by to say hi 🙂
Lovely story, enjoy your new life
The view is stunning!!
Fantastic, you have such a beautiful home. Myself and my partner are coming over from the UK in September to have a look around the area. Think we will be staying in Amarante. What you are doing is pretty much our dream. I'll be following your journey. All the best, Scott.
How exciting! Let us know if you'd like to stop by while you are in the area. We'd love to connect.
@@SiliconToSoil Hi there, that would be fantastic thank you so much. I see you have an Instagram, i'll add and dm you on there if thats ok?
@@scottcooper6593 Perfect 👍
Just subscribed. Originally from Winnetka and then grew up in Palo Alto, so that was fun to hear where you are from. We are moving to Portugal soon, so that is how I found you on UA-cam. I am looking forward to hearing more about what you are doing and watching your future videos.
That's exciting! Have you already chosen a place in Portugal? I'm always curious to know what motivates people to make big moves like the one you are about to make, so if you'd be up for sharing, I'd love to hear it.
@@SiliconToSoil We will be in the Tomar area. There are a bunch of reasons to move, I have really enjoyed my visits there, it is beautiful and the people are wonderful, I can eat the food there (food in the USA makes me sick), I feel much safer there and the climate is going to be a blessing because of the longer season allowing me to grow so many more things (we are using permaculture on our farm currently). I am looking forward to watching the video you just made, it will be my treat this evening when I have a break.
Thank you for sharing! I don't know the Tomar area well, but I imagine it is beautiful. I'm so glad you will be able to enjoy the people, the food, the tranquility and the climate here. If you're ever up our way in the future, let us know. We would love to connect. And thank you for following along 🙂.
Wow ❤ thank you for sharing your story.Cant wait to see how your journey goes 🙏 just subscribed 😊
I’m so glad you liked it and thank you so much for the support 🙂.
Suerte con el proyecto y ahí estaremos para ver vuestros avances. Un saludo desde Barcelona
Y muchas felicidades por llevar vuestros sueños adelante.
💪
I hope you share more videos. This is so peaceful and calming.
We definitely will! Our next chapter should be coming out mid-week this week. So glad you enjoyed it.
@@SiliconToSoil 🥳 so excited for this. Thanks for your reply!
Bem-vindos ao meu País 😊
Obrigada 🙂
Love your story! And hearing the birds singing in the background! Just beautiful.
Thank you 🙂. It was so lovely having you guys here to visit.
Just added you to my list of folks with YT channels,that are renovating farms in Portugal ❤ will be watching your beautiful ideas unfold in the future!
Thank you so much for the support 🙂. I hope you enjoy it.
Just found your vlog. Wow. What a wonderful gift to give your family.
What a beautiful place you have found for you and your family! Really interesting to see all the things you're doing or planning to do. Also the permaculture. We just stumbled upon your channel and we love to follow you. We also moved from another country to France and we love it. Bye from France! Kim & Angelo
Thank you so much 🙂. Where are you guys from? How long since you made your guys' move?
We are from the Netherlands and we moved to France in the beginning of this year (2024). So we just “landed” 😀 We document our journey with our channel and slowly creating our own homestead ☀️🍀🇫🇷
Oh wow! So it's a relatively new adventure. That's so exciting 🙂. I'll have to take a look at your channel to see what you guys are up to! Best of luck with all of it 🙂.
I’m so happy to have come across your new channel. It will be educational and fun. Hi, from Arizona!
Hello Arizona! And thank you for that, we'll do our best to continue to bring you guys beautiful and interesting things as we move forward. 🙂
Absolutely awesome stuff
Thank you 😊
Welcome to Portugal!
We did something similar, as we are Portuguese, we sold our house near Lisbon and bought a stone house with a bit of land some Km's from Guarda.
Debt free, friendly community, good schools for our kids, lots of nature. For the first time in our lives we feel happy.
Good luck on your adventure and be happy!
Thank you for the welcome and I am so happy to hear you guys have found happiness in your adventure. Can I ask if you guys would have considered yourselves more city-people before the move? Or have you always had some connection to rural life? How has the transition been? We have a good friend near Guarda and it’s beautiful there, but I imagine coming from Lisbon it would be a pretty big change.
So very cool let us know about your farm stay plans!
I definitely will. We have many ideas and plans, we're just in the process of figuring out the best way to make them reality. Thank you for your interest 😊.
Nice chat, especially the getting in touch with mother earth
Best of luck on your venture. The land is gorgeous.
Bem vindos.
Obrigada 😊
So excited to build further connections with y’all through this channel!
How nice. I liked you project. Welcome to Portugal.
Thank you 🙂
Beautiful spot for sure😊
Hi! We are also from the Bay Area and moved to Portugal (Silver Coast) last year after a decade in NYC. Congratulations on starting your channel - GREAT video!
Thank you so much 🙂. How are you guys liking it? How long have you been here?
@@SiliconToSoil We love it so far! We've been here since Oct 2023. We started our channel at the end of April 2024. We haven't been to Douro Valley yet but it looks beautiful.
@@TheUnretirees Lovely! And welcome 🙂. Please let us know if you guys plan to come up north sometime, we'd love to connect.
UA-cam algorithms brought me here. I have now subscribed.
I love your farm, and the first thing I wanna know is how did you create those beautiful raised beds? And are they hugelkultur beds? I'd love to see a video about that!
Thank you and yes, that's exactly what they are! We have iterated quite a few times and that is our latest design. I'd be very happy to do a video about what we've figured out, thank you for the idea 🙂
Subscribed 😊 looking forward for your next vídeos❤❤ looks promising 😊
Thank you 🙂
Maybe another word for creative is being productive. Beautiful property.
Definitely 🙂. And thank you!
Welcome to my beautiful country
Lovely! Look fwd to more. Curious to hear if your turn towards a life like has come out of a turn away from anything in particular in your professional lives/career, its a brave move! ❤
Thank you and thank you for the feedback. That's an interesting thought exercise for me. I have generally focused more on what we have been turning toward as opposed to what we were turning away from, but I'll put some thought to that and I'll address it in one of the next chapters 👍.
Le meilleur choix de votre vie ❤ le Portugal est merveilleux les gens sont adorables et la vie y est paisible . Je suis française et je vis au Portugal , mon mari est portugais
Thank you and we agree completely! We are so very happy we made the choice.
Well come to Portugal! It was interesting listening to all your projets but, it would be nice to hear about your family, about your husband and children, their names, what are they doing, are they enjoying and adapting easily to this country, are the children going to school, are they learning the languague etc etc
Just a suggestion…
Hello and thank you for the feedback! I definitely plan to introduce everyone to more of our day-to-day life, the family and the transition we have made, as the channel progresses. For now, as our kids are quite young, they will only be a very peripheral and mostly anonymous part of the channel, but I will definitely be talking more about their schooling, how they have adapted language and culture-wise, etc as their well-being was a primary reason for our move.
my kindda peeps....😊
Hello welcome from Cambodia
Hello to Cambodia! 🙂
Have you had experience with requesting permission for rebuilding on your land? The channel, the Newbys, have been waiting 5 months for permissions...sounding extremely frustrated. If you have experience and tips, they might appreciate it. They seem connected to some in the community but that doesnt seem to help. They were discussing having to move if they don't get permissions. I don't know how it works, just that it takes a long time sometimes. Does having a lawyer help too?
Hello and yes. We have been going through the many bureaucratic processes of registering our farm, defining the boundaries, having people come to verify some of the ruins, etc. All necessary for us to put in the paperwork to renovate existing buildings and to build new ones. We have been in this process so far for about a year and a half and we still are nowhere close to the end. Ours is a bit of a complicated situation for various reasons, but from what I've seen, 5 months is not at all unusual. For us it hasn't impeded things too much because we have so much to do in other areas that we're just getting along with other things while waiting for authorization, but I can imagine it would be very frustrating if getting authorization were holding up plans.
If there is anything out of the ordinary a lawyer might help, but otherwise having a good engineer who knows the people in charge of the authorizations is the best I can offer because they can call and see what the status is and hopefully move things along, but one of the things we've had to get used to here is that things just take longer... sometimes MUCH longer than we were accustomed to in the US.
Currently checking out a cheapo off grid place as a starter to see if we like the area. Need some central Portuguese friends
Let us know if you end up in the area!
@@SiliconToSoil yeah for sure, where are yall at? Currently trying to find someone to send me some videos of the place without buying it out from under me lol
We’re in the Douro Valley close to Resende 🙂
Douro Valley isn't really considered central Portugal. They are north of central Portugal. Porto starts the area and go inland towards Spain.
@@maryr7593 Yep, we're in northern Portugal, though quite close to the boarder between what is considered northern Portugal and what is considered central Portugal. 🙂
Too pity we only see a bit of the farm 🤔😏
There is so much to see and share and we’re trying to keep each chapter to less than 30 minutes. We will be showing more of everything in the coming chapters, but if there is anything in particular you’re interested in seeing, let me know and we can prioritize it 🙂.
Do think the climate in Portugal is similar to California. Is it humid? Seems your in the clouds or fog.
Douro valley has mountains/hills, terraces. It is where the grapes are grown for the Port wine. They are probably in the higher altitudes and thus the fog. There is a 'tourist' train that goes from Porto to one deaden station...that allows people to see all the terraces. There is also a boat tour that goes down the Minho River. Though it is the called the Douro Valley...that's where the river flows. There are terraces lining the hills.
Weather in winter in Porto is kind of like Portland, OR...rains alot. But in summer it is warmer though rain can be scarce. In the region north of Douro Valley, Tras-os-Montes area...it can get frost and snow in winter.
So, though the weather has varied greatly in the 5 years we have been here, our impression is that it is quite similar temperature-wise to where we were in northern California, but there is a lot more rain and, consequently more humidity. The summers still tend to be pretty dry, but a bit more humid than where we were. Also, since we are just above the Douro river, we tend to get morning fog pretty frequently during the summer (and some of the rest of the year), that usually dissipates by around 8 or 9am.
How are you getting on language wise as in portuguese ? I am from N.L.
So I have become pretty proficient in the years we have been here, but there are a few disclaimers I would like to add to that statement. I had taken Spanish in school for a good portion of my young life, though it had been more than a decade since I spoke any Spanish when we moved to Portugal. The pronunciation of the two languages is quite different, but there are a lot of similarities in grammar, conjugation, etc that gave me a leg-up when learning. Additionally, since we moved to a rural area where almost no English is spoken, we had the benefit of immersion which, in my opinion, is the fastest/easiest way to learn a language. I think if I had moved to Porto, for example, it would have been a longer process as there are many more people who speak English there and I could have used that as a crutch.
That said, on of the most wonderful things about my experience here has been the locals' lack of judgment or criticism when foreigners are trying to speak and learn the language. I have never, not a single time in 5 years, had an experience where a local was making me feel stupid or embarrassed if I was fumbling with trying to communicate in Portuguese. I have only had really supportive even excited reactions (that I was trying to learn) when speaking to locals which has made the overall experience really relaxed and enjoyable. I have been taking lessons since before we got here and I continue to take lessons online now as I would like to get to the point where I can have deep and meaningful conversations in Portuguese as we have no plans to leave the country, but I also know that, if I am in a situation where I don't know some vocabulary or if I'm tripping over my words for whatever reason, I will be met with understanding and assistance. I can't speak for how it would be in other parts of the country, but that has been my experience so far where we are.
Just a couple of resources if you're interested:
www.practiceportuguese.com is really well done. I think it's around 15€ a month, but they have a huge amount of information in the form of lessons, interactive content, podcasts, etc and it has been helpful for us.
The Preply app is also a good resource. I'm sure there are many apps like this out there, but this is the one we found initially and we have connected with some very competent and amiable tutors through them over the years.
🌝🇵🇹🇺🇲
Hi - Am a Bay Area boy (born in SF) but have been living/working in SE Asia. Am now semi-retired. Bali is home base. Are you are open to older volunteers?
Yes, of course! 😊. Are you planning on being in Portugal in the future?
@@SiliconToSoilVery nice! I may not visit until Feb/March of next year. It would be my first time visiting Portugal. How long do volunteers typically stay and do you provide a place to stay?
Hello again! Would you like to maybe start a private email thread or something of the sort? I think my contact information is listed on the page, but if not, let me know and I can send it to you here 🙂.
Better weather in San Francisco
I know many people who would agree with you 😊. We tend to prefer it here, but I also had San Francisco weather for a good part of my life, so a change has been lovely.
You have been there for 5 years...how is your Portuguese? Have you taken the free Portuguese course for resident foreigners?
I lived in Portugal in 1990-91 and am fluent in Portuguese. Would love to teach ppl if they need help.
Question: in US, the scented air industry has taken over...meaning you walk into a store and can get overpowered by the ppl's body sprays, very scented products, etc. But for those of us suffering with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (chemically derived scents cause our body to react in allergic ways). Ppl with chemical sensitivities have a very difficult time traveling because ppl use scented cleaning products as well as the ppl who who are also staying at the place. One doesn't want to get sick while traveling and we end up becoming isolated hermits from the rest of life. Sucks really!
If you are interested in learning Portuguese, let me know.
Hello! I have actually become quite proficient in Portuguese in the 5 years we have been here. Since we are in a relatively rural area where there is very little English spoken, the immersion has helped immensely. We also have locals working on the farm with us, so my day-to-day is all conducted in Portuguese.
Regarding your question: I'm sorry to hear about you're experience. I tend to be quite sensitive to smells as well, but I don't have the physical reactions associated with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I didn't quite catch the question in there, though.
@@SiliconToSoil just curious if you have gotten to the point where your English has been affected by the Portuguese? You know you are doing well in Portuguese if your English has become somewhat 'tainted'. Ie) saying that fruit are immature instead of ripe. Understanding is fine but if someone flipped the two words when trying to speak English and weren't say talking about fruit....perhaps the subject of people instead...connotations of the two words are completely different.
Ppl who watch Portuguese real estate videos have probably noticed this already. The agent will say it is really fresh in the house. They mean cool in temperature...but the Portuguese word for cool is fresco and thus it is a false cognate for the portuguese.
I have noticed one of the UK guys who does property videos (farmer for fun), he often says things in English in the manner in which they are said in Portuguese. He is married to a Portuguese woman and seems to have a full grasp of the language when he and the real estate agent chat about the very old antique pieces of farming equipment that they find in the old farm houses they are filming. I didn't notice my 'altered English' til after I had returned to the states a couple of years, changed states as well...and ppl observed my odd way of saying things...especially things like opening/closing lights and water faucets...instead of turning them on. Luckily prepositions in Portuguese are not as difficult as they are in English....getting on a bus, in a car, sitting at a table, etc. Having taught English to foreigners in US....I literally did what they said to drive home the point...get on the car, get on the table, in the table was a bit harder to pull off.
I usually suggested to ppl who were planning on going to PT to learn Portuguese before they left because many, many universities offered beginning Portuguese classes. (Even if technically it was Brazilian Portuguese....there are usually enough teaching assistants that speak with a European accent that they can teach you the differences if you ask them to. The accent would be different but if someone learned the vocabulary, verb conjugation, basic sentence structure, etc...learned the correct way of pronouncing the European Portuguese accent...they would have a leg up. If you take the class as a non-degree/non-credit seeking student...the university would be way cheaper in US. Besides every immigrant applying for residency in Portugal is entitled to take free Portuguese courses. Knowing your English grammar is very important however, since all the PT for foreigner teachers refer to parts of speech...nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, gerunds, past participles, past tense, present tense, future, command, conditional, subjunctive, etc. Nowadays ppl can just look up the words in class but while you look up the word, you are missing the assignment or explanation. In other forums ppl have said those classes were not as helpful for them...but for most ego-centric Americans...they have never tried to learn a language past the first couple years in high school. Many ppl for the longest time had the opinion...why should I learn other languages...everyone speaks English. Back in the late '80s when I was graduating high school...it was certain which language would be that of world dominance...it was usually looked at as which country would be doing the most business. But also most ppl do not recognize that just you know the words, etc...some things are said in different circumstances depending entirely upon the culture and context. (Ppl in intercultural/ different languages....soon realize this quite quickly.)
My comment is not entirely for you Shayna...I write for the benefit of others who may be interested.
Hello again and thank you so much for the response. To answer your question for me, absolutely! I actually find that both of the languages that I speak tend to taint each other. For example, it occasionally slips, for me, as well, to say something like "It's fresher in the house," but also I have found that the sentence structure is a bit more traditional/formal in Portuguese than in English and I feel that taking over as well. For example, I now frequently use the more formal English sentences like, "To whom do I send this?" instead of the colloquial "Who do I send this to?" due to the way I would need to say it in Portuguese "A quem é que envio isto?"
But then there tends to be a bleed-over of some of the more informal or playful language concepts more frequently used in English, into my Portuguese. I remember the funny I look I got from one of the people who help us here when I said the equivalent of "Yeah, that tree is looking very sad." She understood what I meant, that it was looking unhealthy or in need of water, but it's just really not something they would ever say. It makes them laugh, though, when I say things like that, so 🤷♀️😁.
So... you had money to start this adventure
So, I plan to talk a bit more about this in one of the coming chapters, but short answer is that my husband is bringing in an outside income which allows us to do what we are doing. We are still very much in the investment stages of our project and, though we are looking into funding and things to help in that area, currently it is not the farm itself funding the project expansion. We hope to get there in the future, but we are likely at least a couple of years out.
Hallow,I am Ljubica,and has litle farm arraund house.I need partner,for me,abaut 60 g.because we together join in this place,so terible is been lounly, i has 58 g. and start vith garden,vegetable,flovers,makeing house,garden house.I injoj looking work other people,incurage them,and I need curage too.I am profesor of art,work in school too.LIke children.I do not children.I love God.
Welcome and congratulations on the new chapter A Long Island New Yorker also moved into PT
Oh lovely! Where in Portugal are you? How long since you made the move from NY?
@@SiliconToSoil four year's and im in Anadia area
@@antoniodasilva1230 We haven't had a lot of time to explore that area as of yet, but we'll be about half an hour north of you for a mini-vacation later this month. I have heard it's a really beautiful area 🙂
@@SiliconToSoil bairrada is nice area
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