Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal
Episodes
Planting the Vineyard
19 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For the best part of six years, a crazy combination of ambition, naivety, mis-placed confidence and pig-headed determination has created Vale das Estr...
Summer Time
29 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dry January is a distant memory, Lent is nearly done, the sun is shining here in the valley, and spring has not only sprung, but is now powering into ...
Returning Refreshed
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Portugal’s unusually wet winter put a dampener on everything except perhaps reservoir levels and groundwater reserves.So it was great to swap the “...
Biblical Weather
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Marta has arrived.After being battered by Ingrid, Joseph, Kristin...oh Kristin...and Leonardo, the sixth named storm of the year has done what only st...
Backing the Booze
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For a recovering news addict, the daily barrage of bad news breaks over me like the Atlantic waves on our wild west Portuguese coast.The inundation of...
Happy Holidays!
21 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the great things about being married to a Portuguese Swede is also one of the great things about being an only child: it really pays off at Chr...
Marketing 101
07 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We have already learned a lot of new jobs in this new career path, and for the past two weeks we’ve been trying to learn another one: marketing.Havi...
Storm Surge
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the rare occasion the entire Portuguese power grid goes down for a few hours we are positively smug, but the other side of the coin is keeping ever...
Elephants to Alentejo
09 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s more than 30,000 years since elephants last wandered the rolling landscape of Portugal’s Alentejo, but that’s all about to change.The last ...
Paint & porn stars
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the voyage of discovery that is making it up as you go along, our little late-summer lull didn’t last very long.I last wrote about us suddenly re...
Coming up for Air
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
So that’s what they mean by the silly season...how did it suddenly become September?It’s been both exhilarating and exhausting, but we couldn’t ...
It’s actually happening...
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve heard many encouraging words in the various iterations of these despatches, from Off-Grid and Ignorant, Off-Grid and Open and now Off-Grid and...
Fantastic Festas
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Portugal loves a party, and the summer season smoothly segues from festa straight into to festa.Since most schools were out from early June the festiv...
Springing into Summer
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The metaphors have moved from walking through mud to battling thick undergrowth as the moment in the year has passed when the clay on our land turns t...
Off Grid and SMUG in Portugal
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Surprised, interested, shocked, concerned and intrigued all sum up our reaction to the massive power cuts across Portugal and Spain, but perhaps the m...
Opening Time
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For more than three years now there’s been a loop of thinking, building, pushing and waiting...but we’ve finally opened our doors to a flurry of g...
We’ve done it!
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Well, that was easy.After years of waiting and hoping, begging and pushing, of sleepless nights and stressful days our reaction was...understated when...
The Infinite Staircase
16 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since our Portuguese adventure began, there are certain phrases I never thought I’d say out loud.For example: “Once we discovered pillow tanks we ...
Birthday Presence
02 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Birthday presents can reveal a lot about one’s age, stage of life and current circumstances, and this couldn’t have been closer to the truth than ...
The Pleasure of Bleisure
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Januaries here in Portugal are more palatable than most northern hemisphere winters.For one, I never do the whole Dry January thing because it’s my ...
The "Making Of" Movie
29 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the excesses of Christmas, and the many visitors we’ve been welcoming to the valley, I’ve managed to put together a video of our whole bui...
The Big Plan for Our Second Life
08 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We started the Google search with escarradeira, then moved on to cuspideira and then we started calling people.A few hours and many phone calls later ...
Real People
23 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve recently realised we don’t live like real people.When real people have a problem they call someone: a workman, an expert, a master technician...
Opening time
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes we thought it would never happen, but four years after moving to Portugal full time and two years after construction work started on our ret...
Clearing Skies
08 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I’d like to start with an apology.You’ve been very patient with me as I’ve bumbled and grumbled my way through the past few months, mostly...
Identity Crisis
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With all the talk about gender at the Olympics I’ve been reassessing how I identify.I’ve spent the last few years trying to move towards something...
The Valley of Death
21 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Well, now you just need to get through the valley of death, don’t you?” was the unexpected message of encouragement from one of our recent gues...
Losing Perspective
30 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I’m sitting on a plane in the skies over Africa trying to put everything we’re doing into perspective.It’s silly o’clock in the morning here, ...
Moving Mountains
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the end they left with a whimper rather than a bang.Almost un-noticed, things on the building site gradually started disappearing until suddenly th...
Juggling Spinning Plates
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“So when do you open?” is a common question as everything on our hillside starts to look a little more finished.“Last Saturday” is my current ...
I love it when a plan comes together
28 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There have been occasions when I’ve strolled up to our building site expecting a hive of activity, only to discover the Mary Celeste.Perhaps that’...
The Big Picture
14 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The first sign of summer is when planting a tree turns from simply picking a spot and digging up a bit of soil...to battering through concrete.It took...
Water, water everywhere...
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve worried about water for three years now – since we started our crazy off-grid adventure – but had no idea we’d be dealing with too much ...
The Small Things
16 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We love having friends over – especially the ones who haven’t been to our place in a while.“Wow...you’ve done so much! It’s amazing...it’s...
Missing
10 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I don’t remember a week like it. It lasted a month, but was gone in a flash. The emotional rollercoaster was so steep the cars barely stayed on the ...
Wheel of fortune
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It was my first live auction and despite being online it was still very exciting.Exciting enough for me to keep on asking Ana if she was sure she didn...
A Birthday and a Bulldozer
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Like most of us, I’m glad January’s over...but not for the usual reasons.There wasn’t anything particularly dry about it...neither in terms of r...
Landslide!
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Why didn’t I think of that?” is a question I’ve beaten myself up asking many times in this odd new life when the latest thing to go wrong has...
Attack of the Giant Moles
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We have a mole problem – a big mole problem.I went up on site the other day and the monsters had eaten their way through our whole building site.Not...
Accelerating into 2024...
30 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While I’m not really the New Year’s resolution type, I do like using the ticking over of another number to reflect on the 12 months past and ponde...
The Longest Night
24 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hasn’t that last week before Christmas been such a rush to get things done?Writing cards, last minute shopping, bulldozing holes, lowering septic ta...
What a Day...
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sitting on the sofa chatting through the best place we could build a car park, we knew it was going to be a crazy day.But after slurping down a mug of...
Alentejo Wins Again
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
With a thousand and one things to do, a deadline always helps sort the wheat from the chaff – or the wheat from the oats as it would turn out.An inc...
Second Summer
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our path of life is a little treacherous – steep and with lots of places to slip and fall – but the further we go down it, the smaller the drop be...
A Large Concrete Poop
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Things can change very quickly here in the Valley of the Stars.The first draft of this week’s despatch began: “This week our dream has really star...
Come on Aline
21 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve always wanted a dog called Eileen.The delight it would bring every time I shouted out in public “Come on Eileen...Come on Eileen...” would ...
Getting properly plastered
14 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It was dusk and we were wandering around the silent building site pondering where to place outside taps when a fancy truck pulled up.The Little Black ...
Operation Free Bar
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In my experience one should never turn down the offer of a free bar: it’s always fun and it usually leads to new friendships, but of course there ca...
Rise of the Machines
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’d been mildly bothering Carlos the building supplies guy for a few weeks about bringing one of his big diggers in to help rearrange a few things....
The Interiors Minister
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are many good reasons to visit Marvão – a beautiful fortified hilltop town in Alentejo’s interior - but this is not the place for a day tri...
The Grand Tour
26 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.c...
That Old Foe Fire
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Being in the right place at completely the wrong time used to be a professional blessing, but these days I’m not so sure.When I was a BBC foreign co...
Valley of the Angeles
29 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It was wonderful to be away, but it’s wonderful to be back in the Valley of the Stars – reinvigorated by a few weeks of adventure and ready to plu...
Don't stop this train
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I suppose the first lesson of over-sharing ones trials and tribulations on social media is understanding the jigsaw effect of a headline and a photo p...
Hitting the wall
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve had our challenges since beginning this crazy new-life, off-grid-living adventure-in-paradise experiment, but the last couple of weeks have be...
Water-disaster
10 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been one of those weeks in the Valley of the Stars.For the best part of three years water has been our obsession, but the latest attempt to sol...
European excursion
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are many great things our off-grid life in rural Portugal gives us, but sometimes parachuting into another place with other people reminds us ho...
Needing Val-ium
14 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a lot of concern from friends and in the media at the moment that the machines are taking over the world and we will soon to be doomed to a ...
Off-Grid 101
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Going Off The Grid means different things to different people.One iteration is me living barefoot on the land, not washing my long hair and disappeari...
A Centennial of Ignorance
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the occasion of my 100th despatch from the Valley of the Stars I had hoped to share stories of success, of overcoming the odds despite a total igno...
Taking a Break
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s something I find very special about islands perched in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and this week’s despatch originates on one of them...
Roots and foundations
26 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.c...
Menagerie madness
11 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There have been times since embarking on this slightly crazy off-grid existence when I’ve had the overwhelming feeling that things have been spirall...
Batcat, Elvis and the Voice of God
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Mais animais” as they say around here – more animals.Shortly after sending out last week’s despatch, Val Kilmer’s kittens started appearing...
The Nitty Gritty
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“So you’re retired?” someone asked me recently.We’ve given up our jobs, moved to the countryside, don’t have any income but are spending lot...
New Year’s mess-solution
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This year we decided to spend the ‘New Year, New Start’ gym membership money on post-it notes.The white board just wasn’t big enough for what we...
S2:Ep12 - Out with the old...
31 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On New Year’s Eve 2022, the last despatch of the year looks back at the challenges we’ve faced in a tough but fun year, and what we hope to achiev...
S2:Ep11 - Digging deep
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Finally digging for water in December 2022 - and getting a lot more from the sky than the ground (and a lot more cheaply)…but them’s the breaks.TR...
S2:Ep10 - A Doce of Batatas
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Visiting a festival devoted to a surprising vegetable, but a lesson in just what our region is famous for from November 2022.TRANSCRIPT…Different pe...
S2:Ep9 - Power Sergio
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Having survived the fire, the equipment for our huge new solar power system needed a bit of final tweaking in October 2022 before the giant metaphori...
S2:Ep8 - A new start
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The aftermath of the big fire, tackling some small spot fires a week later, losing one of our oldest oak trees, and trying to work out a master-plan b...
S2:Ep7 - Fire in the Valley
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A scary day in September 2022 as the wind changed, a fire started a few miles away and we had to pack up everything we didn’t want to lose and heade...
S2:Ep6 - Not saying he’s no gold digger
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With drought continuing to affect the valley and our concerns rising about having enough water for our tourism project, in August 2022 we enlisted the...
S2:Ep5 - Gentle Giants
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A surprising reaction to bagpipe music from the big dog Garfunkel from August 2022.“This wasn’t an instrument the original Simon & Garfunkel were ...
S2: Ep4 - Addicted
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An addiction from trying to get healthy and lose some weight, but I had no idea when I wrote this in May 2022 just how important it was going to be fo...
S2:Ep3 - The long drive
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How the city of Porto suddenly got closer, but still far enough away to ponder a big decision…to give up or to keep stressed and carry on?I mention ...
S2:Ep2 - On war and oak trees
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Reflections on my new life and my old when a question is asked, from March 2022.TRANSCRIPT…Two things this week tell me that I have reached a new st...
S2:Ep1 - Facing Down Fifty
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I’m calling this series of recorded despatches “Season 2” as it is the best of my blog posts in 2022 recorded and collated to be heard more conv...
S1:Ep6 - A night of high drama
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A long lunch and a most eventful evening when we met new friends in the valley from May 2021.TRANSCRIPT…For once Millicent the Land Rover was the la...
S1:Ep5 - It all began with a treasure map…
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The back-story to why, and how, we ended up moving to an off-the-grid house in rural south-western Alentejo, from a moment of reflection on New Year’...
S1:Ep4 - Musical pigs, bore holes and hoarders
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our local foe and why they’re so good I name them twice. A musical dispatch from December 2020…TRANSCRIPT…I have a few songs permanently on my m...
S1:Ep3 - How hard can reinforced concrete be?
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An ambitious start to learning how to build with a lot of help and a few injuries in the process from November 2020.TRANSCRIPT…You know you’ve don...
S1:Ep2 - Love, marmalade and Henry VIII
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A foray into the bushes and a window into our new life of making and discovering in rural Portugal from November 2020.TRANSCRIPT…So. I could tell yo...
S1:Ep1 - Teething troubles
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An audio version of the very first blog written in November 2020 by former BBC foreign correspondent and war reporter Alastair Leithead who gave up a ...