So This is Carregal,The way I was

Well this is a new one for me,lets see how it goes.I am CARREGAL and and as far as I know I have lived here from the end of the 1800's not sure exactly when , when but next door and I were an item once, methinks,but I am told on reliable authority that my top floor and attic was added in 1942.That is the only definite date I can remember,but I am hoping someone out there will be able to come up with some info.

I was lived in ,after a fashion until about twelve or fifteen years ago.Then the guy that owned me went and found himself a Spanish lady ,got married and buzzed off to South America, where I suppose he lives happily ever after.I don't know really cos he never sent me a postcard,or even a Christmas card.

So things were pretty quiet.I had a few rats for company(or a few dozen), next doors goats and chickens would wander around, and my owners brother would pop in from time to time, just to borrow something or see that I didn't wander off.He seemed a nice kind of fellow.He sells chicks and rabbits plus gosling's in the local markets ,seems to make a decent living out of of it as far as I can tell.

He nailed a sign to my front door saying VENDO, like for sale.
I was'nt the best catch on the block,but I had a certain charm and bags of POTENTIAL!!!!.
Lets face it I only had one tap, and that was in what's now called the "bakery"Come on !! how twee can you get?, this new guy definitely lacks imagination,and the tap dripped into a stone sink.I had no posh loo, just a bucket in a lean- to with a plank across it, to be emptied every week somewhere down the "garden",helps the grass grow.

Before this new fellow switched things around, you came up the steps in the front and into my "front parlour",bit swish.I had a dresser and table and chairs, no easy chairs like,just some little rickety ones that people fell off when they got drunk.

And of course there was the T.V.I had one of those,I don't have one now.This cheapskate wont splash out for one.I don't get it really,you pay for your licence in your electric bill whether you have a TV or not.But I digress ,straight off the "parlour were two bedrooms,that's pretty standard format for round this area, but these people from outside always think they know better,and he had some major surgery done,but more of that later.

If you went out at the rear of the parlour there were the stairs.one set up to the Sotao where I kept the Ariel and all the rubbish,well it was'nt exactly rubbish but lots of useful things that would be useful one day,could be recycled and made into door latches and bent nails for coat hooks, God! its all a disposable society today, you should have seen the stuff this new fellow threw out, there must have been at least three lorry loads that I know of, and I am am sure there was more behind my back.The builder got Augusto from the big house to take one load,(I thought he was a mate,but there you go), did'nt pay him and didn't tell the new guy,he sort of found out by accident,bit of embarrassment there he says, but I tell him in these parts we get used to waiting for money.

So you went upstairs to be nearer to God or store things,let apples ripen etc, or if you went down the stairs you would come into the adega, that's where we make the wine.There were a few clues lying around,racks of bottles, some full, some empty,and then there were the barrels, again some full some empty and the wine press itself,for crushing the grapes before letting them ferment.

You could go out the back a well through a rotting door to the "workshop"where previous owner straightened nails and tied things together with string and wire.He didn't actually construct much,he was a farmer or smallholder.I have about 720 sq metres at the back so if he was like next door ,he would start at about daybreak and carry on till dusk and not have masses to show for it at the end .

But I want to finish going round the house,out at the back from the "Parlour"was/is a big wooden door taking you onto a veranda,with a little room off ,used as a bedroom from time to time.On the veranda which lets be fair ,has super views of the forests at the back,and down the valley to the left, well that's where my previous owner used to have his shaving mirror nailed to the wall.Cut himself from time to time, blood everywhere.

Then we have this place called the "bakery"with big open fire and canopy,that was the kitchen,a littler wall round the fire and sink,roast things on the spit and keep warm,plus you had the bread oven for ,yes you guessed it baking bread.Everyone has one of these, and by everyone I mean everyone, bread oven and Adega, staple essentials of life bread and wine. Then next to it a store for the tools and on the near wall a little square room as another bedroom.
On the end of the building was the "garage".No my previous owner didn't have a car ,or a tractor,its this new guy again.Ideas above his station if you ask me.

But there are lots of photos and a few plans that I will get him to "post"(another bit of jargon to cope with) when he comes home from work in the week, then things will be clearer, perhaps.