Down on the Farm!

We work with this adorable little lady and her husband, she is one of our Stake Self Reliance specialists.  She may be small but she absolutely gets things done, a real fire-cracker!  Her stake had nothing happening with self reliance and in a little over 2 months time she had scheduled a work shop/devotional in every ward in the stake!  We have been very busy due to her diligence.  They are both very hardworking people and ultra self reliant.  Although they live in Lisbon, they run a family farm 45 minutes away.  They invited us to visit their farm...It is hard to believe these two keep up with all the work that has to be done there.

On the piece of land by the house they have 5 different kinds of chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, and bees.  The garden is full of vegetables to be harvested & canned along with 6 different kinds of fruit trees.  They have no hired help.. all the work is done by the two of them.  I find that pretty amazing!

This is her outdoor oven where she bakes bread every 5 days!  Those are her 'oven tools' standing in the corner behind her.  It is a wood burning oven.  She served us some of her bread for lunch...delicious!!

The Family home has been here for generations...they did some improvements with running water, electricity and an indoor bathroom!

Notice the main source of heat with the fireplace in the back...those chairs in the little alcove are for a really cold night!  All the walls of the house are a good 12" thick.

This is their one luxury...Brother Teles dug this swimming pool by hand and is so proud of it.  The summers get very hot in this part of Portugal.

BEES!  It is hard to tell...but this is a lump of living bees surrounding their queen.  He is waiting awhile for them to get established before moving them into one of his bee boxes.  They produce their own honey...YUM!

They keep just enough sheep that they can have a lamb for Easter dinner and another for Christmas dinner every year.

Besides caring for the land around the house...this plot of land about 50 acres is covered with olive trees they use to make their own olive oil and also cork trees they strip and sell for profit. 

Cork Tree

AND the fields were also full of beautiful wild flowers!

She is one fun loving, hard working, Christ like woman.  Just one of the amazing people we get to know and love.