A good friend of mine that I used to work with (Sarah) and her husband (Rick) gave up their lifestyle in the UK 9 years ago and moved to Portugal in order to live the life of their dreams

They found some land in the hills of Portugal and (Rick who was a carpenter by trade), built their house from all the materials and resources on their land and became as self sufficient as possible, by living off the land and off the grid.

They had been living in their house for two years.......

This life was sadly and unexpectedly turned upside down on the 15th October, when the 600 forest fires in Portugal burnt their beautiful house down to the ground and 440.000ha.......4.5 of which were theirs....

They escaped with their lives and their dogs, but they lost everything.

I have set this page up because the main thing they need right now is help to rebuild their lives. To start from scratch again, find some new land and build a new home and new life that they truly deserve.

They created a blog page when they started in 2008 and it shows their build processes from the very start. Please feel free to read it, so that you can see how much they loved their house and how much hard work they put into their dream life. 

their blog

this is a short film that has been made about the community they lived in, many families have lost their homes, their livelihoods, all or part of their worldly goods......

and this is a news clip about the total destruction of so much land, about 9mins 10 seconds in is what is left of their beautiful house and farm, the magnificent and now rather ghostly chimney

news footage

a film about Portugal

this is Portugal