The Full Monty!!

In terms of multi media, captain fantastic hi tech super blogs. Nothing to do with red wine fuelled midnight naked conger dancing contests...

I wish. so many good looking friends staying here I am starting to look very ordinary. When I accidentally bought an OAP travel card last year in England and had it inspected five times with no complaints...







Sooty was most put out being used as a political weapon



Had a riot last week, laughed for days... that was actually a Les Dawson ( a dead comic). Sometimes in these really run down areas with 80% unemployment, a riot / looting / arson would be like a day out to the zoo for us guys. This is not being glib, but broken families, drug abuse, no chance of working, homeless, unqualified, godless... what chance for the take away generation?



Meanwhile (back) down on the farm...









The political arguments last well into the night, catch a quick snippet here!





http://www.tgifalgarve.com/listen_now/index1.html



Us being interviewed on Kiss FM with the famous Sabino!!









Will you all go home? How many mouths can we feed.... typical night at Quinta Stuart - come and see!







Our latest volunteer....... we find the younger they are the less they eat!!







Birdie and Kimbo, never their best at breakfast..



Too hot, you know where to find me, under the nearest stone, Stu x

Our Fragile Planet

Whilst Little Britain riots and cancels football matches, this clever chap is stocking up for the hard times to come...



Whether a riot in London (imagine this happening whilst the Olympics are on!!) or a crashing stock exchange, I guess we are bit in the poo. Seriously.

I guess (again) that me or you could really close our eyes and go to work tomorrow and pretend all is ok, food on the shelves, water in our pipes.

But what happens if it is not? What if the trillion dollar bailout in the Useless of A is burnt through in what six months and there is no more rescue funds? I will leave you to ponder that.......... meanwhile, down on the farm, we have been busy.



Deciding to save a few euros, we are not using our irrigation to water the trees, only an occasional splash using our used shower water , the trees which are now 3 years old are not suffering and have given a good crop. This means our water bill is 50% less than last year.. and we have a lot more people staying.



Kimbo and Birdie have moved on after a month here. Kimbo has been working like a trojan, finishing the decking and fencing and tidying all the boundaries. Thanks guys and enjoy Croatia and Greece and eventually Australia. looking for an older female to stay for the rest of the summer. Free room and food in exchange for a few hours help cleaning and cooking six days a week??





Thanks to Jimbo and Birdie for the new decking, now the whole of Theatre of Dreams, Cheeky Chapati and Tikka Bar is all decked.. bare foot luxury!!







And thanks to Pura Vida for lending us Paul Palmer to teach us how to build steps in less than 4 days er hours!! (Cheers Paul!!)









Fig time is with us again. Not a good year for the green ones - our main four trees will only be good for drying figs but the neighbours black figs are great!!



With 36 celcius in the shade, we have cancelled the fortnightly movie night but we are showing the odd movie for our guests every three or four days - just wish those hammocks weren't so comfy...... some big bugger always falls asleep within half an hour of the film,, see you next month, Stu and Owl x

The Fastest Pizza

They came from Madrid. They came from Valencia. They came to Quinta stuart to celebrate the first Pizza Night of the year.Actually they came to watch the 1970s band Iron Maiden redo a few sad hits and release a press shot of a few blokes in need of a haircut. Not being a heavy metal fan, I had to accept their comment of "mal, muito mal"... I leave it to any Thatcheresque fans to dispute their comment.




We have a new family, Los Espanhols!!


Expert plumber, Super Goygo, nice guy and comedian



Pizza for 11, cooked in our bread oven. Goygo is smiling so much as he has nearly 2 kilos of pizza on his plate!!




Despite my protests, they insisted on parking 4 motorbikes in the tipi!!

Thanks to Ana, Rolf, Goygo, Suzie and Maira for an interesting week end at Quinta Stuart. They were great fun and so many jokes and laughs .. come back guys!!

Kimbo and Birdie, our two Aussie friends are coming back later this week to helo out. We will be extending the decking around the Tikka Bar and up to the evil - stuart never wins - dartboard.


Sad Boy Stuey despite 24 hour practises cannot hit number one...

I actually won a new dartboard at Central Algarve (www.centralalgarve.com)s open day two week ends ago. Andy and an army of volunteers are rebuilding an old holiday resort to take seriously disabled children from England for often their first ever holiday. They are looking for skilled volunteers (electricians, plumbers, tilers and lots of keen people to cook, clean and help around).
Hiding in the shade at Quinta Stuart, man is it hot! Six am starts and plenty of pumps and irrigation to fix...

B+ FOR A G MOVIE

Start of the Summer Season at Quinta Stuart



Thanks to the elleven guests who turned up for the first Green Movie Night of summer 2011. We watched "Who Killed The Electric Car", about the GM conspiracy of destroying the most successful electric car of its time. Praise for the film came from all, as well as the three tonnes of home made pop corn that all got eaten....... how can you guys eat so much?

Next film night is on Saturday July 2nd, 8.30pm for the screening at 9pm. We will be showing "Food Inc.", exposing the incredible evil of food production. A handful of farmers produce virtually all the worlds food.. dictated by our mega chains of supermarkets. I promise to make even more popcorn. A donation of 5 euros is appreciated and there are plenty of cold drinks


It's getting better! Stu's latest bread

It has been a busy week at Quinta Stuart, volunteer Anna and Owl have got the whole place sparkling and with Rick Swanley we installed an air conditioning unit in the Cosy Cabin. Not quite eco I know but solved the hot box problem.


We were lucky to be given a big load of decking and have finished a deck under the main dining area and a funky path to the existing deck. We still have loads left!!


We extended The Tikka Bar, this section is to be named The Lizard Lounge (Come and be a lounge lizard at the Lizard Lounge!) After the peach tree has fruited we will deck this area as well.




Thanks to Uncle Tommy for the two sofas - yet another place for Stuart to fall asleep. Seems to be a bad year for mosquitos and I am trialing a neat unit from Leroy Merlin that emits a signal - 7 euros and no silly blue tablets (no viagra pun intended). With the tipi up, all the rooms finished, the pizza oven fired up we are ready for summer - come and see!!

Charcoal for Beginners, Apricots for Experts

Never a dull moment here on the farm, and when visitor Zimbo Rick (await your nickname all who enter here!!) offered to make us a charcoal kiln, we did not know how successful it would be.


The partly tamped wood releases its producer gas (the white smoke). Air traffic had to be diverted for three hours, man do these babies smoke!



As the smoke turns blue, we tamp all the air ducts and put rocks and soil on the lid, and wait twelve hours or so until it is 100% cool


Et voila, charcoal... our half an oil drum of wood yielded three full carrier bags of charcoal



Not just for BBQs, you can cook anything on it!


Using the rocket stove for another of Ricks impressive squid stews



Rocket stove at night, Stuart's delight


Given the amount of wood cooking systems, thought it was better to install five fire extinguisher points!!



Owl given a rare second off from playing with apricots to barmaid



One drawback with apricots is they tend to ripen all at the same time then have a very short shelf life



Dehydrating apricots for winter. They will freeze well for stewing and crumbles as well

NB Please note pictures of the opening party are on a previous blog, please click on the first entry for May in the right hand column

www.ecohostalalgarve.com

Opening party

P A R T Y !!!!!!!!

Thanks to all 55 guests and friends who attended the summer opening of Quinta Stuart on May 7th. Thanks especially to Wilson Waitering Services for the two high speed staff and massive thanks to Howard of Strings and Things for the fantastic live music, Gloria, Michaela, Michelle, Mike and all those who brought some tapas along.



Musical chairs... grown up version


Emma and Jack, thanks guys xx


Master tapa chef Michelle and Sarah


Stu and Owl and The Swanleys

So the hard work is finished for this year at Quinta Stu. Next winters project will be to add an eco swimming pond and a big tree house as an office for me. We have just fitted five big fire extinguishers around the property and with the help of Zimbo Rick now produce our own charcoal and have the new rocket stove up and running.

So we now have 1 tipi, 2 Goan style co co huts, The Owl House and the Cosy Cabin,1 movie theatre, 1 sofa lounge, 7 hammocks, 1 chill out zone and most importantly 1 honesty bar. If you need to escape from reality, we do week end specials starting at 75 euros for couples for three nights. Got the builders in... come and stay here.... Not so welcome friends, not enough space - send them here. Want to make some charcoal or bake some bread - come and stay!! Want to host a party, run a course or hide,come to our movie nights, want a pizza party and sleepover for your kids,speak to us or visit our web site at www.ecohostalalgarve.com

• Quinta Stuart - Eco Hostel Algarve

Three Concerts, Two Hangovers and one Stuart's Summer

I don't know if anybody has coined a phrase for the couple of weeks of great weather we get late March / early April before it sinks back to wet and rain again. Well if no one has, then it is know officially "Stuart's Summer", so there.
We took good advantage during this years Stuart's Summer to see three music events. A fantastic evening of contemporary danceby Faro drama students was held in Sao Bras cinema - a very professional display for the grand sum of 4 euros entry fee!
The following week end, we took off to the back of Silves for a late night of music at O Gradys 12 Bar Blues - sitting outside until 3 in the morning. Free


Great performance from JigglyWiggly - think Rocky Horror meets Burlesque

Last week end we took the van up to Portalegre to go to Freekuency, a three day free music festival organised by a few Brits. I am too old to understand that having so many facial piercings that you could be plucked up by an industrial magnet is attractive or that to enjoy the deep bass music you need to be off your head on something far stronger than annadin.


Despite his best attempts, this joker still couldn't light his cigarette

Stunnning totty though...when I eventually figured out which walking sowing boxes were girls and not boys wearing skirts. With no facilities other than two open cess pits, a nights camping in Tripoli during the bombing would have been quieter. Free, but at a cost...



10am Day 2 and only the living dead remain dancing

We left and stayed a night at Mertola, my first trip there for 20 years and well worth a visit, all tastefully renovated, the river is so beautiful there. Good job we didn,t camp there on December 6th 1875, were a flash flood raised the river level by over 40 metres, killing over half the local population!


Well worth a day out, Mertola

We got back in time for the Passion Sunday service but guess I was still in party mood as I swear there was a donkey in church sitting in front of me...


Pedro listening to Father Bob