My Journey to become a ZERO

A journey to becoming a ZERO

Nope, no typo, my goal it's not to be a Hero, no way, I WANT TO BE A ZERO !!!!!

It's a long journey, being a Zero means hard work and a lot of planing.

I started my journey almost 10 years ago. I remember my first step: Garlic 🧄

At that time I "had" to quit my job because my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and right after my uncle began to show the first signs of early Dementia/Alzheimer.
Quitting my job was hard, I was so used to "run" all day. But my uncles proposed me a deal: I took care of them, in return all their belongings would go to me.
That included a house and garden, connected with our backyard.
At that time "weeds" had taken over my uncle's "garden". Me, not used to work the soil, had no knowledge whatsoever.
The only thing my uncle usually planted was potatoes. And sometimes beans. I am not a fan of potatoes.
So I started with ... Garlic 🧄
Because I love Garlic. And it's so incredibly easy to plant. Pick a garlic 🧄, separate the clove, put in the soil, buried till the middle... tadahhhhh 4/5 months later each clove will give you a whole bulb🧄

Loving the garlic success, I went for lettuce...and tomatoes...and basically everything I could think of...

Then Portuguese government put on a investment for those who wanted to use solar panels in the roof. We applied and got 50% help on our investment
That allowed us to save at least 70€ monthly on bottled gas ( in the small villages there's still no gas from a grid)

It was always a Dream to add a barbeque and a wood oven to our House. But when we thought about it, it also made sense to maximize the space.
Under the exterior barbeque/wood kitchen we had build a 20.000 lts water reservoir. And over it, covered by a roof that can be lifted, it's another reservoir, for 15.000 lt.
The water comes from the gutters all around the house, pipped to enter the upper reservoir and go down to the other reservoir when this is full.
Everything works using Gravity. When the water in the upper reservoir ends, a electric pump is activated to fill with water from the lower reservoir. Really simple.

So we now had Solar Energy, Water from the Rain and a Garden for seasonal veggies.

Cooking:

Next step: ending gaz and electric stove for good.
My husband works in construction and renovations. The amount of wood needed and than left behind is gigantic.
Gradually we bought several different machines to help with cutting tbe wood: gaz chain saw, electric sawmill and a splitter.

No trees were ever hurt by us for cooking. But cooking with wood becames a "addition" because it's really fast - we're talking about a big family that eat a lot 😂
And the food is so much better made with wood.
Again, over the years we evolved to using iron pots and pans, I call them my BLACK BIMBIES 😂😂
When someone is bragging about cooking with the famous Bimby robot, I usually say I have 7, all sizes 😂😂

Heat:

About heating the house, we also use wood, a medium size wood stove that allows me to heat the house, even the first floor with a pipe that goes up to the rooms. This stove also has a oven so with the same wood I get the house heated and make food.

The Well

Having 35.000 lt reservoir seemed a lot... but really isn't. Having a big garden and a big family, that water is over in no time. 4 years ago we had a really hot summer, the garden needed to be watered at least twice a day and using the water from the grid was a terrible mistake. When the bill came we realized we need more ...

That's when the old well from our uncle's property came in handy. Now it's all connected to our reservoirs, using a "network" of big hoses and a big gas pump, pumping from the well to our house reservoirs. It's extremely easy to use and pays off a lot.

Seeds

Another Big Battle I love is collecting seeds
Amazingly easy, makes me very proud to keep the seeds cabinets always full. Seeds need to be kept in a dark and dry place, protected from insects and rats.
Mostly we can keep seeds for everything, just let it dry in the sun and keep it till next season. Instead of harvesting all the plants, we always leave some to sprout and than we keep the seeds. Carrots, leak, coriander, radish, tomatoes, cucumber, melon, pumpkin, pepper, lettuce, rúcula, beans, favabeans, peas...
Keeping seeds is a empowering feeling.
One year we bought strawberry plants. Everytime I harvested the strawberries and washed them for us to eat, I would throw the water from washing in the same place in the garden. A few weeks later we had several new strawberry plants growing there. So simple yet I can't help feeling amazed

Trashing the Trashcan

That was easy: everything here goes either to the compound pile or the recycling center.
The left overs are mixed with soil and each season are distributed around the garden. Than the big tractor does it's work and mixes all together. Our trash becames food for our food...an amazing neverending cicle

Trees

When i got this garden from my uncle's, they had 6 trees, all together, the rest was used for potatoes.
Now we have over 30 different fruit trees. 3 years ago we made a "New year" resolution of planting more trees and we spent the first weekend of that year planting: persimmon, pomegranate, apple, pear, avocado, lime, lemon, several different kinds of plums, peach, quince, tomatilho...
And my husband is in a "quest" that I am very proud of: bringing back some "old" trees that we used to eat as children and now are almost gone. I only know the Portuguese name, "Saramanhos", a kind of tiny wild pear, with an amazing taste.

Of course I can't say I'm a Zero yet. With 4 kids and a husband that eat like monsters... I have to shop for more food all the time

But I am still learning...my goal is to have less and less impact on Mother Earth as I go

Much to talk about yet, soon I'll get back to this matter

All words and photos I use in my articles are mine. My English is not perfect, that with my phone having a mind of his own and my dyslexia... yeahhhh, you're bound to find a lot of weird sentences...please forgive me in advance 😂