Summer is the season for the cork harvest in Portugal and crews are at it full swing. This morning I caught up with a crew busy just minutes away from where I am staying near Grandola in the Alentejo, south of Lisbon.

Crew members hack at the bark of the cork oak tree with a broad-bladed axe. They cut horizontally, then vertically, then pull at the loosened end, wedge the axe handle under it and lever a length of bark loose. It peels away easily like an old scab.

The outer layer of bark that is removed is about 2 inches thick. It regrows again within nine or 10 years when the tree can be harvested again.

Trailer loads of bark are sent to a processing plant where the cork is boiled to make it pliable. Apart from bottle stoppers, cork is used to make handbags, hats, shoes, upholstery, picture frames and much, much more. You can find cork products in shops all over Portugal.

A trailer load of cork bark waiting to be sent for processing. The number painted on the trunk of the tree shows the year it was harvested, 2019. It will regrow in nine or 10 years.

The last couple of weeks have been a little stressful as I worked to assemble the right paperwork to satisfy the customs agents so I won’t have to pay duty on my shipment of household goods when it finally arrives in Portugal.

But I overcame a big hurdle a few days ago when I received my residency permit which is good for five years. I hadn’t expected to achieve this step for another couple of months. I’d heard all sorts of tales that you had to provide proof of income and health insurance, but I didn’t have to do either of those things . I did have an “Atestado” or certificate from the local Junta de Freguesia, parish office, where I am buying a house, to say that I am a resident there. It helped that the house owner is also the president of the Junta.

I also had the all important “Numero de Contribuente” or Portuguese equivalent of a Social Security number. I provided those documents at the Camara Municipal, municipal office, in Ferreira do Zezere, the regional town. They asked me if I was retired, when I retired and when I came to Portugal, then created the document, I paid 15 Euros and Bingo, I was good to go!

While waiting to occupy the house I am buying near Tomar in Central Portugal, I am doing volunteer work I found through the website Workaway.com I did this last summer and it gave me room and board, something that’s vitally important to me now as I am officially homeless.

Anyway, this Workaway is hard work. Did I say hard work – yes, I meant, REALLY hard physical work. The last few days the other Workaway volunteer and I have been working “in the Olive Garden.” Actually, this means trimming the stray shoots off the trunks of the trees so all the energy will go into producing olives. We spent hours chopping away and dragging the cut limbs into a big pile which will be burned  on a day that the wind isn’t blowing. It’s been very windy and unseasonably cool here for the past 10 days.) This work is hard on the lower back and arms and during the afternoons I sack out for a couple of hours, unable to move a muscle.

In this part of Central Portugal the olives are ready for harvest in late fall, I’m told. Harvesting them is an all-hands-on-deck activity. It involves spreading huge nets underneath the trees and shaking the olives loose. In this area, everyone takes their olives to the local co-op which processes them for oil. According to my online research, a mature olive tree will produce 15 to 20 kilos (33 to 44 pounds) of olives each year and it takes about five kilos of olives to make a liter of oil.

It’s cork harvest time in Portugal. All around me in this part of the Alentejo region south of Lisbon, the tree trunks suddenly look pale and naked. The harvesters cut off the outer layer, about two inches thick, of the bark. It’s like cutting off a dead layer of skin which will regrow in about eight or nine years. The harvesters typically paint a figure on the trunk showing the year it was cut. A tree can live up to 270 years.

The curled lengths of bark are stacked on trailers which have to be guarded, they are that valuable. The cork is taken to a processing plant where it has to be boiled till it becomes piable.

It’s a wonderfully vertatile material. Apart from sealing wine bottles, it can be used for making flooring, upholstery, hats, handbags, shoes and a whole lot more. It’s stain resistent, water resistent, fire resistant and it floats.

Apparently Portugal produces about half the cork harvested annually, or about 310,000 tons, according to Wikipedia.

I have really been enjoying the Portuguese food. A meal in a local restaurant often costs about 6 Euro (less than $7) and that usually includes a glass of wine.

After living in the desert for so many years more than 1,000 miles from the ocean I chose fish as often as I can.

However, I really miss vegetables. At local restaurants you get huge portions of fish or grilled meat, often served with French fries and rice. The pastries here are yummy, but you rarely see overweight people. They keep active.

Another thing, when I went to use the ladies bathroom at Oriente train station in Lisbon, I noticed there was no toilet seat and no TP. The seat wasn’t such a problem and luckily, I had some kleenex in my pocket. When I came out to wash my hands, I noticed the next woman pulling a yard of TP off a big roll beside the wash basins before she went into the stall. Guess I’ll have to learn!

I found it, the house of my dreams!

After days of house hunting, seeing all manner of abandoned houses in the Alentejo and around Tomar in Central Portugal, I saw this beautifully restored old stone cottage and felt that surge of lust. Could this really be mine? It has two large bedrooms, one with bathroom en suite, another bathroom, a large modern kitchen with cupboards and surfaces I could never afford in the US, a cosy living room and a view to die for.

Edgar Ferraz of Chavetejo, a real estate agency in Tomar, showed me this gorgeous place and I was immediately smitten. Compared to the dark poky rooms of all the other houses I had looked at, this place was spacious and light. The builder who has restored it has left areas of exposed stone which gives it a rustic and cosy feel. The white plastered walls and laminate floors looked clean and modern. I could see my furniture in the rooms and my artwork on the walls.

The cosy living room nook showing the exposed stonework and a former fireplace. It will have a wood burning stove for heating.

Buying a house in Portugal is a very different process from the US. I worked with the estate agent to haggle over the price and what the builder would provide. The renovations were not quite complete when I saw it. After several emails, the owner agreed to an offer of 115,000 euros, a little less than what I netted from the sale of my condo in Albuquerque, NM in April.

The next step is to hire a lawyer who will do all the work to check the plans, deed, boundaries, whether there are any liens etc. The sort of details that are normally dealt with in the disclosure documents that the seller must provide in the US. I found a lawyer through recommendations on the Facebook group “I Love Tomar” which many expats, mostly British, belong to. This Facebook group has been very useful. You can post questions and get advice from people who have been through the process and those who have been living in Portugal for years.

Once the lawyer has done all the research, he will prepare a promissory contract at which point I will have to put down a roughly 10 percent deposit. Stay tuned!

I’ve looked at ten houses so far, five near the coast in the Alentejo region south of Lisbon and five near the Central Portuguese town of Tomar.

It’s been an adventure. Although you can find a house for $90,000 to $100,000 or even less, those I’ve seen need a lot of work. Often they have been empty for several years. The rooms are small and dark, typically to keep out the heat. Some I’ve looked at have nothing in the kitchen except holes in the wall where you would put the plumbing for the sink and water heater.

Many houses have orange and olive trees on the land. However, the “yard” around several houses I’ve looked at is a jungle that would take months of work.

One house I looked at had a warehouse attached where the family crushed grapes and made their own wine. Sadly it was in very poor condition.

House prices in the Alentejo area are generally higher than around Tomar, probably because it is closer to the Algarve region, popular as a vacation spot.

I’m realizing I will have to spend more than I originally anticipated to get something that I can move into without facing months of camping out and dealing with builders and plumbers.

I’m now experiencing “international house-hunters” first hand on the limited budget of a retired journalist. It is full of surprises, some disappointments and hard decisions – and I’ve only just started!

At the moment I’m staying with Simone, a Dutch woman whom I worked for last summer during my two-month research trip to Portugal. She lives in the countryside about five miles from Grandola. It’s a farming town about an hour from Lisbon on the direct train route to Faro in the Algarve region popular with vacationers from Northern Europe.

Grandola is not far from the coast and – alas for me – houses in this area are becoming increasingly expensive. But many are still a bargain compared to US prices. I contacted Dina, a delightful agent with ERA Imobilaria in Grandola who speaks fluent English. We talked about what I wanted and my budget and set appointments to look at three properties she thought might suit me.

The first was advertised as a “small farm” with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a garage, and a large garden with fruit trees located in a semi-rural area for 71,150 Euros (about $80,000.) Unfortunately, it was a complete wreck and would have taken A LOT of work, effort and money to make comfortable.

The next two properties were located in the town in a fairly modern town-house type development. The first was a two-story property with three bedrooms, a bathroom, extra toilet on second floor, lovely garden with orange and lemon trees, attractive patios priced at 86,150 Euros, (about $97,000.)

The next house was similar but with only two bedrooms.

Oh decisions, decisions, the three bedroom townhouse had lots of benefits – good price; modern and clean; location convenient to cafes, shops and train station etc. – but the rooms were kind of poky and the view in the town was blah.

I’d kind of like to be in the country, but not too remote.

Later in the day, I looked at a two-bedroom, one bathroom wood cabin type property on forested land just outside the town. I really liked almost everything about it – the warm feel of the wood interior, the porch, the location etc – but in my opinion the owner wants far too much money, she’s asking 139,00 Euros (about $156,000.)

So, I’ll keep looking. Stay tuned!

Fresh picked oranges, right off the tree in the Alentejo region of Portugal.

I arrived in Lisbon on Sunday, May 5, after months of planning and a long journey. I found a low cost route by flying from Las Vegas, NV on a Thomas Cook flight to Manchester, UK, then on to Lisbon on TAP, the Portuguese airlines. The flights themselves were fine, but I would not recommend having to change planes in Manchester. The airport is not well laid out, poorly signposted and there are a lot of stairs to climb which is not fun if you have multiple pieces of luggage. My right shoulder is still hurting.

Arriving in Lisbon, the weather felt warm and more humid than the high desert climate I have been used to. It was delightful to hear Portuguese being spoken. All my efforts to learn online via Babbel.com, Duolingo.com (both of these offer the Brazilian version of Portuguese, but it is still helpful) and PracticePortuguese.com (this is the Portuguese spoken in Portugal) have really helped.

I took the metro to the Oriente train station for my one-hour trip to Grandola. After a brief taxi-ride I arrived at my temporary landing spot, at the home of Simone K., the Dutch woman I worked for last summer. The last two days, I’ve spent visiting realtors and tomorrow I will see four different houses. Prices in this part of Portugal are rising fast so I hope I can find something feasible within my limited budget.