Yes, we have made the decision that we need to get a small tractor!!! Whilst it has been fun and somewhat fulfilling strimming the land each time we visit, now the house is there we want to enjoy that more, so strimming is becoming a bit of an annoyance. Plus, in the summer it is just too hot, so it means getting up early doing a couple of hours and packing up by about 10 am.
The land does need to be cleaned every year, not just to make it look nice but to reduce the fire risk. Whilst this is not an issue for us, we do want to keep the risk low and there is current a move within the Portuguese government to introduce mandatory land maintenance, which would mean they would clean the land and the owners have to pay the bill, the land is claimed by the government until you pay up. The way to avoid that is to clean the land annually yourself. The way to do this easily is with a tractor. With a tractor and a “capanadeira” more details about that later, but in essence it’s like a large rotating chain, under a cover, that you drag across the land and it does the same job as a strimmer, but a lot quicker. I reckon I could do the whole plot in a day.
First task is to source the correct size tractor and equipment, so watch this blog for progress.