Why we bought a Mountain in Portugal

David: David Stanley (00:00) Why on earth did we buy a mountain? A lot of people have asked, well, not you guys, because ⁓ I've probably got about two listeners. ⁓ But a lot of you have asked, why have we bought a mountain? And when I tell tell people, give an example, I was talking to a chap at work the other day, and he says, What do you do? Why, you know, you don't look like you do this permanently. I said, No, I'm only here for three months because we're in Scotland. ⁓ And

David Stanley (00:29) He said, Well that asks more qu that that gives me more more questions and answers. And he said, So, where do you live? Because obviously he heard my Yorkshire accent and he thought I lived in Yorkshire. I said, Well, actually I live in Portugal. And he was like, More questions. I said, Well, I bought a mountain. And then he just his head just went, What? ⁓ He said, Can I be a friend with you? And I said, Yeah, we've we bought a mountain. And how we got to buying a mountain was not what I envisaged. It wasn't a plan. It just happened.

David Stanley (00:59) So I mean I my hands are moving, but ⁓ basically, ⁓ in 2020, we all remember that COVID area where we were locked down ⁓ and not many people had a lot of areas to go to apart from go for a walk. And we thought, let's buy some land. ⁓ And I stipulated with Alison one, it's gotta have water and it's gotta have trees, it's gotta have a building on it. So we were okay. So

David Stanley (01:28) That's what we set about doing. And I said, have a look at Italy. Italy, I like Italy, been to Italy a few times, quite a few times. ⁓ travelled all around Italy, most of the cities, most of the towns, been all over it, top to bottom, everywhere. So I know Italy quite well. And it's fabulous. So I said, have a look at Italy. So we ended up in Portugal. ⁓ And the reason for that is she follows a couple of ⁓ YouTubers, the Swadlanders ⁓ and a couple of others.

David Stanley (01:58) Five in a van or something, I think. A family of five. I mean we're a family of six and we live in that's Sprinter that's just behind my area. That's our van there. ⁓ that's at ⁓ god, Chateau. ⁓ man, Hermitage. Just outside of Le Monde. So that that's it there. You can see the camera's tracking my face. That's our van. We cook inside. So ⁓

David Stanley (02:25) Forgot what I was gonna say now. So how did we get them outdone? So we ended up ended up in Portugal. We sold everything that we have. We had a pub restaurant business and we had houses. So we sold sold everything and then we we bought a mountain and we thought that's that's it. But when we got to Portugal and having a look around, Alison had set us up with a couple of estate agents. The first one didn't really get what we wanted, you know, it was a property with a bit of land.

David Stanley (02:55) ⁓ we wanted so they took us to where a pine pine a couple of acres of where it was cheap, it was about three grand. And I thought, well, this is all right, yeah, it's nice. Road, road access. So we had road access, which was okay. ⁓ there were no building on it, there was no water, there was a puddle. ⁓ but I I I had imagined at forty degree heat in the summer. It would have been worse than useless. So there was plenty of trees.

David Stanley (03:24) ⁓ it was all overgrown and it was okay, and they wanted an answer. I said, No. So we went on to the next one. Now the next one wasn't too bad. It was ⁓ had about five acres of land with it. It had fig trees, it had some olive trees, a couple of orange trees, ⁓ a few other things, had a stream running part of the way through the land, so we had water. I said, But does this run all year round? And they went, nah, no, it doesn't. So

David Stanley (03:52) We were there in the February ⁓ and this were in two thousand twenty one, I think. We were there in the February and no, it wasn't no, not February two thousand twenty one, twenty two. ⁓ just after all the restrictions were lifted. 'Cause we yeah, so anyway, so February twenty two. ⁓ we looked ⁓ and it was nice. ⁓ there was a ramshackle building on it, which I'm not bothered about. I can fix it up.

David Stanley (04:22) There was trees. There was a road right next to the building, which they said about three or four cars go up and down, you know, during the course of the week. I thought, where's the gonna live with that? But as we were walking around the property, there was five, five or six cars went past, and I thought, well, this is not the best. ⁓ This is not the best way, so I thought, okay, well, we'll not bother with that. I liked it, and over the road there was a lot of pine trees and and

David Stanley (04:51) everything else. And it was nice little building. It it could have been alright. I mean I've seen some of the YouTubers that are on there, you know, that do it. ⁓ and they live in smaller properties, you know, ⁓ with the land and they they live quite nicely off it. So we said we'll come back to them. And then we the next day, ⁓ we were going to meet Melanie from Home Key Portugal. I'll put a link if I remember. I'll put link in the bottom, Home Key Portugal. And it was basically

David Stanley (05:22) We met her for the first property. We met her at coordinates because there wasn't an address. So we we were at the wrong part. The coordinates covered a bit of an area. And we were at the top of the mountain and she was at the bottom. And then I was just happening to walk out onto the road and I thought, well, I'll see if she's parked a bit further down. And I saw these four before and someone in the road. So I I waved and then we drove down to her and sure enough that was Melanie. So we parked our car because we were in a I don't know, a rental car, Renault something. ⁓ rena, I don't know.

David Stanley (05:51) Cleo or something like that. I can't remember what it was. It was totally insignificant. But anyway, barked that up, jumped into a four before, and said, You won't get on to the you won't get onto the property in that. And I thought, this is gonna be ice. ⁓ This is this is it. I thought this is fabulous. And I really like this. Sound of this. And we got in a car and I was sat on the passenger side, on the right hand side. ⁓ obviously she drives on the left or on the hand side, and I was

David Stanley (06:21) are in the back. You know, so I I was with her and I was like driving along thinking, Jesus. That's deep it. ⁓ Because we started going up like that and then we came round a big corner and through some trees and that and then there's like a a bit on the mountain that we drive onto to get our thing where there's about I don't know four four five hundred foot drop and it's almost vertical, straight down to the river and I was like, Wow I wanna fall off the edge of this or meet you know a big a big logging truck coming. So

David Stanley (06:51) That part of it, I was sold. And then she said, we're not there yet. It's about five or ten minutes. So we set off, went around it, and then we came round and said, This is this is your bit. And I said, We'll have it. I said, we'll have it. And it was like a lot of acreage. And Alison was like, It's too big. And I said, How big is too big? We don't need to use it all, do we? We can just have it. Yeah.

David Stanley (07:20) We can have it! You know, and I was like, Look at it! ⁓ Ha ha it was just it was stunning because at the top there were vultures. I thought they were eagles at first, but they were vultures. And it was all around. The the the vultures were flying all around. ⁓ not many people go on there. And then we turned a bit on the land and and then we s we just started dropping down. He said, There's the property. And I said, That is it, we're having it. And it wa the most expensive one. ⁓ but it was ⁓ superb.

David Stanley (07:49) You know, we we drove on and it it had a pine tree right next to the building. It was a brand new building. ⁓ they had a fire in two thousand seventeen. Well not brand new, it was about five year old. But it was built in two thousand seventeen 'cause after the fire it got demolished. So was rebuilt ⁓ and it's new roof, all concrete, big fireplace, never been used, nothing in it, apart from lizards. And I thought, this is ice. I thought, this is it. And so we drove a bit further on, you know, where we drove up to the end and then we

David Stanley (08:19) walk down to where the water was and the water was crystal clear and you could see going down about into the murky depths. It's about two hundred feet deep, the river that we have, and it was just beautiful. And I thought, we're having this. And Alison was like, It's not what I want. This is not what I want. I want a small hole in I want something where I can grab a few tomatoes and and ⁓ vegetables. Where I'm parked now, I I we're in the Highlands of Scotland opposite Lot Linny. ⁓ And

David Stanley (08:49) We've built a small flower bed that not a flower bed, a vegetable bed, and it's probably about a metre square, two metres. And it's ⁓ sh ⁓ you know, rockets growing on it. That's floured, so it's dead. ⁓ And there's some parsley and a few other things that are grow. I'm looking at it now. And it's I'll show you. So if the camera wobbles a bit, this is me moving the studio. ⁓ I can't ⁓ do it. So I can't show you. I'll I'll put it in another video.

David Stanley (09:18) Yeah no, so sorry. Ha ha ha So it's true that I'm using this background in my picture here 'cause otherwise it's just the van and you know some people have commented, but you can see all the cables behind. So I'm in the front of my van. ⁓ this is my studio, called the van table. Purely because we have a table in the van and we can just set it up anywhere. And I thought, van table, we'll just wherever we are, we can make an episode of the podcast. So we just call it the van table. Just looking at my quick notes. ⁓

David Stanley (09:49) How did we afford it? ⁓ we afforded it because we sold a house. ⁓ and that's that's basically it. We sold the house, we bought it. ⁓ We were we were really, really, really, really lucky. Nobody had looked at this mountain. ⁓ all the properties that we were looking at were between three to eleven thousand pounds. There's the one with the road running through it, that was the most expensive one, that'd be 11 grand. Melanie's showing us another one, which Allison wanted.

David Stanley (10:19) But there was no tree cover. There were a few trees, but no tree cover. So it would have been merciless in the sun. There was a a stagnant pool. There was a ⁓ to be honest, there was a borehole in which we could have got working again with water, so we could have we could have used that. So that was already on, so that's a plus. That would have saved us probably, I don't know, between five and ten thousand pounds, depending on how deep down the water is. ⁓ I think it's normally a thousand pounds, you know, ten metres or something like that. I I'd I could be wrong.

David Stanley (10:49) Let me know in your comments below. I I have no idea You know about those sorts of things. ⁓ so yes.

David Stanley (10:59) The property was exciting. It was it f it ticked all my boxes. There were olive trees. And when we walked down that we've got pine trees, ⁓ we've got pine nut trees, we've got strawberry trees. I'd never heard of them either. ⁓ And we walked down ⁓ to the water, so we had plenty of water, more water than you can ⁓ swim in. ⁓ And it it's clear. And then we also have there's a spring on there as well, ⁓ which is

David Stanley (11:26) Beautiful. And just around the corner from where we are, there's no tap water yet. We've been there four years and we just use a spring. This the mountain spring that we have is absolutely fabulous. And people from all over Portugal come and get this water. And it's bottled. there's a company called Superbock who have a a bottling plant at the other end of our mountain and it's called Vitalis. It's five kilomet five or six kilometres away. That's how long our mountain range is. Small part that we're on. ⁓ Where the mountain say our mountain.

David Stanley (11:55) It's where the the mountain bit dips and then there's a valley in the middle and then it carries on. It's on the same range, but i there's a road through the middle. So I am terrible at stuff like that. I'm not terrible, but I remembering ad lib is is hard work. ⁓ I don't have notes apart from these pointers to just keep me kind of on track so I don't end up talking about the that man had stood on the top of that mountain over there. ⁓ I can't see that far. What am I doing with my coffee ma?

David Stanley (12:26) Where's my girlny coffee gone?

David Stanley (12:30) cobblers looking for me drink. Anyway. So, I see. Ha ha put it in front of me on the steering wheel. See ya look, here's my famous cup. This was ten quid and it says it done spill and it's also invisible.

David Stanley (12:46) Look at the invisible milk. ⁓

David Stanley (12:52) The background I'm using on ⁓ recording bit of software I'm using is it's it's just keeps glitching in and out, you should probably know. It's probably due heading, so you might know what's it all. Why Portugal instead of Scotland, Wales or somewhere else? Portugal, weather, affordability, a lot more bang for our book. As I I was I was saying this is gonna point me back to what I was talking to you about. The land that we bought in two thousand twenty one. We were really lucky. Well we were looking in twenty one, we went in twenty two.

David Stanley (13:22) We were really lucky because the land that we've got now, we are looking at similar pieces of land which are ⁓ hundredths of the size and with a ruin of a building and they are the same money as what we paid for our hundred acres. And it's really it's really good. ⁓ and I for me it was an awful lot of bang for buck, you know, and and

David Stanley (13:50) I look at the property prices, they have gone up a lot. They've gone up twenty-five percent a year. There are still bargains there. There's a lot in the village that we are from. There's a lot around. ⁓ you can have you can have a whole street of houses from six thousand euros, but they're only single story houses with bedroom and a one bedroom and a a lounge, but you need to do a lot of work on them. There's a house with about 18 rooms that's 20,000 euros. ⁓ it's not falling down, it's sound.

David Stanley (14:19) It's just needs uplifting. It's twenty-year-old decor, thirty-year-old decor in there. You know, but it's it's a beautiful house. It's really nice. Prominent there's not much land with it. But you can buy land around and have your own land, and there's stacks of it. Stacks of it everywhere. And everyone's really friendly in the village. Three English families in the village. There's Queen Janice, there's ⁓ Kate, kids, and then there's us. ⁓ we're not there all the time, obviously. Because we ⁓ badly advised on the visa.

David Stanley (14:48) ⁓ Alison was this is where I drop Alison in. Alison was looking into all the details of that. And this is a whole other episode where we'll we'll talk about that, which is why four years later we still haven't sorted it out 'cause everything changed and we were badly advised. And that's why it's taken so long. So now it's ⁓ just one of them things. But the mountain ⁓ is it's so nice and it was

David Stanley (15:18) But then it was really cheap. You know, ⁓ it I ⁓ s I say really cheap it wasn't cheap. It was like you could buy a house in England for what we paid for it. ⁓ And I had to persuade Alice, you know, to this is what we want. And I I I did it, we went halfway up the mountain and I said, How much would you pay to wake up here and have a coffee in the morning and look out at this? 'Cause you could see for ⁓ miles.

David Stanley (15:48) Absolutely miles. You could see all the villages on the way. You could see probably all the way to the Villa de Rodeo, where the mountain the other end of the mountain ranges are, and all the mountains enclosed. You can see all of that. It was fantastic, you know, it was just fantastic. You know, and I said, How much would you pay? And she said, Okay, we'll we'll we'll do this. You know, so we had to s sold a house to cover it.

David Stanley (16:17) clear the mortgage and and and buy it. And that that's what we did.

David Stanley (16:23) The biggest shock after buying it that ⁓ nobody tells us about ⁓ is you find out when you get there you've got your property, you've got your thing ⁓ and you know, it's on a mountain, it's florestal. ⁓ you can't live on it. ⁓ you can't live in the house. You've got to have a kitchen that's twenty yards away. There's all different rules and and everything else, which is why ⁓ it's fun. ⁓ It's fun, but we're we've sorted we've sorted a lot of that out. ⁓

David Stanley (16:53) Again that's gonna be more episodes. We've you know, sor sorted that out. I've got a fantastic guy that helps. You know, I wish I'd met him three years ago 'cause we'd have been sorted by now. I'd I'd have been done. Done and dusted.

David Stanley (17:12) Well. But anyway. Nobody tells you about is flies. They are incessant. I mean Scotland has midges, you know, and I'll tell you what, I trade the flies in Portugal for the the midges in Scotland, you know, 'cause these are bastards. But the flies in Portugal, they're just homing on you. You won't the door, they're in. Yeah, I don't know where they come from, 'cause you're outside, there's not that many, you don't see You have the doors of the van or the window, crack the window half open and they're just

David Stanley (17:42) Come in. There's about buses of them turn up. So flies are mosquitoes. ⁓ that's that's probably it. I love the heat. I don't mind b it being hot, you know, as long as I've got somewhere shaded. The van when we sit when we did this, it does get warm, but it it tends to hover around about 23 degrees, you know, inside the van when it's really hot. It's insulated and I've got insulation for the windows that we put on, and that keeps out a lot of the heat. So we we do have some respite. It's not like absolutely ferociously hot.

David Stanley (18:12) We also bought a house in the village of Portugal. We also bought a house in the village of Portugal. I've got messages going on. We also bought a house in the village of Portugal. ⁓ and it's you know, it it's I could have bought it cheaper. You know, my advice to you is if you want to buy a property in Portugal, don't use an estate agent. Find an area that you want, fly in, rent a car, drive around and you'll see signs in the window with Vaughn and talk to people. How much is that? How much is that? And you get

David Stanley (18:41) We c we can buy a twenty thousand pounds will get you a nice house. A livable house that you need to upgrade because they're the problem that Portugal has got and Spain have got and this is all the little villages and I s I see it. This is my experience of it. I'm not saying this is it then this is why, but all the kids they grow up and they move away and they move to the cities 'cause the works there, they don't want to be I could be wrong, they may want to be old farmers, but not much of a lie.

David Stanley (19:10) I'm the opposite way around. I want to escape all of the experience of the outside world and come into, you know, and relax ⁓ and live. Which is why I'm in Scotland chefing. ⁓ After ninety days in and out. And it's really nice, you know, ⁓ the lifestyle that we have there when we're there ninety days. I love it. You know, we're going to have a coffee, you know, when it starts to get hot.

David Stanley (19:35) You know, when it's hitting forty five degrees, we're gonna have a coffee, we sit outside in the shade and it's it's great. And then we're looking on our mountain. As soon as the sun hits the one side of the mountain, ⁓ so as soon as it goes over the top of the other side of the mountain, we get shade from probably around about six, six, six thirty, seven o'clock. Earlier in the afternoon if it's like red hot, but it goes cool quite quick. And that's one thing I'll say about Portugal is in the winter it's hot during the day, you start off like this in a hoodie and you know, a hat.

David Stanley (20:05) You know, first thing in the morning like I do. And then by lunchtime you're in a t shirt, T shirt and shorts. ⁓ Shorts.

David Stanley (20:13) How Alison reacted and what the kids when they first saw it. That's the next heading for it. Alison was I don't want it, it's too big. And it's just too big. You know, ⁓ it is it is too big. ⁓ I seem to be glitching at the minute, so I I'm in the I'm in the Scottish Islands. So hopefully it's alright. ⁓ It's too big. That was just her reaction, it's too big. But she loves it. ⁓ I love it. You know, the kids love it. Baylor

David Stanley (20:42) One of the comments that Baylor said was, When you're in nature, you're free. And she was four ⁓ and Wolfie was one. And Wolfie had just decided, That's it, I'm walking. You know, when we were there. You know, he walked from the Airbnb 'cause it took us about we we were there in February, we agreed the sale and then we completed in May. ⁓ and that was just purely 'cause of work and ⁓ music festivals and stuff and Easter and but we did fly out and have a a

David Stanley (21:10) have a few days around. And we met Joseph, who was there and he took us he did some divining sticks and showing us where water was. You know, he said there's water here. And you can see it's like all the marsh grass that's that's around. We have an area where there's a lot of marsh grass. A lot of wild boars too. You know, ⁓ Yeah There are dangers on the mountain, there's wild boars. And there's a couple of snakes. You know, we've seen a few. That's about it.

David Stanley (21:38) But what we do like about it, you know, is ⁓ it's secluded. We stopped there for a week and we didn't see anybody. We saw not another human being. ⁓ And we trimmed the trimmed the grass, we trimmed all around the farm, around the farmhouse, we you know, sorted out water, we sorted out tidying it up and we just relaxed and we explored it.

David Stanley (22:05) It was fabulous. And then we we had to come back, so we got back in a car and and headed off back. And that was it. The long term vision that I have for it, the mountain and Alison, ⁓ our or our vision is ⁓ a retreat. We've got enough land to do a a retreat and put some we've got two ⁓ towing caravans on there, but people could come and stop. We've also got a house in the village which we're turning half of it into like an Airbnb. But

David Stanley (22:35) Only for people that stop on our mountain, not that ⁓ so they've got somewhere to stop if they want a shower, you know, and and a flushing toilet, because I'm not like not everybody can cope with a composting toilet. I'll tell you what, if you're a camper man, get a composting toilet. It's a lot easier than having to find. Especially in the UK, it's really hard getting rid of ⁓ number twos. So a composting toilet's a lot easier. You know, there's dog shit bins everywhere.

David Stanley (23:03) People are gonna go wild in the comments now. It's a lot easier in a camper van, you know, and people say, Well, what do you do with your dog shit? You know, there's dog shit bins everywhere. There is. ⁓

David Stanley (23:20) You know, we're the six of us. I mean, I've got two kids that are in nappies or one one's in nappies and one's not, but we use toilets wherever we can. You know, ⁓ i that's a lot easier for us. So I'm just explaining the toilet things, but a lot of people don't like you know, when we're in Portugal on the mountain there's no sewer system. So it is composting toilets. And you can make quite nice. You know, ⁓ you know, we use we use one in our van and it's it's

David Stanley (23:49) The worst part is emptying it. I ate it. Now 'cause you've got to look at it and I don't like looking at it. The tinkles, they're easy to get rid of. Dilute it with fifty percent of water and it it's just you can get rid of it anywhere. There's no chemicals. So it's just it's great. Pour it down a drain, get rid of it anywhere you want. We don't have that problem at the minute 'cause we're stopping a we've ⁓ where I'm working they've given me a ⁓ static caramel, you know, which is showers and toilets and it's just great.

David Stanley (24:18) In this van I have a Julka nomad. I have to build it. So I have a shower and a wash and whatever. Whereas a hot saucepan normally does the trick for a quick wash, but the kids need showers and stuff because they just go out and in the in the dirt and get absolutely papered in everything, so they need showering off. ⁓ what you want why you want a simpler, more natural life instead of chasing a bigger house or newer car. I've had it all. You know, I've had ⁓

David Stanley (24:47) I've had lots of cars, I've had new cars, I've had old cars, I've had great cars, I've had life, ⁓ and I've had big houses, I've had small houses. I've done it all. ⁓ And I just I'm at the point fifty seven I don't look it, do I look about ninety two? ⁓ I'm at the point where I just want to relax and chill and not have to do so much, which is what I want to do.

David Stanley (25:16) And that for me is perfect. ⁓ the the more I the more I can do it like that, the better it is. I just relax. ⁓ with harvested olives and it was quite an experience taking Mahara unit olives into a a cooperativa and getting ⁓ 17 pence a kilo, and I was thinking

David Stanley (25:40) Fucking eating myself. ⁓ That money. I'm not doing that. 17 pence a kilo. Christ, that's a that trees hurt me about, I don't know, three pounds of that. Not a chance. So now we've we've washed and browned them ourselves and we've jarred them up. And I can sell the jars for, I don't know, five quid a pop, you know, for a small jar. Five five euros. Or ⁓ eat them myself, as I said, or make my own olive oil. You know, I I'm I'm gonna do it. ⁓

David Stanley (26:10) I've had ⁓ the the olive trees are gonna be a whole nother episode, ⁓ or a whole ton of episodes about what I've done with them. And everything I've learnt about there is is more and more episodes. This is the first one of why we bought it. A funny disaster mistake from the early days. Jesus Christ. This is that many.

David Stanley (26:29) ⁓ That many. ⁓ Don't buy Mountain. ⁓ Don't buy them out like we did. We did everything wrong. When they say to you, don't give your money to your state agent, don't do that. You know, always, always, you know, have everything to hand and we just we just f fucking winged it. You know, ⁓ Alison, you know, she were all everyone was chatting on YouTube and all the channels and all the groups that she were in, you know, Van Life This, Van Life, not Van Life This, Portugal, whatever.

David Stanley (26:58) Groups that were, she were in all of them, and there was that much information. And I just went along with it because I was busy enough with the pub. So we followed their advice, and you know, and then it was got to the point where we were dealing with Melanie from Home Keep, and she's fabulous. She's really, really, really, ⁓ really good. Can't falter. The guy that I bought the house off, we have another house as well. We bought a house ⁓ in a village, ⁓ his name is Miguel, and he was a president of the local.

David Stanley (27:26) ⁓ But ⁓ he's he's lovely. ⁓ Melanie, if you want to go through an estate agent, she's really good and she has a lot of properties. But my advice is buy a car, I mean, rent a car, fly in, look for an area and have a look around because there is so much, and I found so much property, so many I could do a whole series of YouTube's on.

David Stanley (27:55) YouTube videos and podcasts on it. ⁓ and it's you know, there's just loads, but anyway, disasters. ⁓ what I would say is

David Stanley (28:08) ⁓ I haven't really had any major disasters. ⁓ funny mistakes. Yeah, quite a few. Mistakes from the early days. I was came the first time I was doing the olive trees, you know. ⁓ I'm a bloke and I'll climb up the tree and I'll ramp around and everything else. I broke five ribs.

David Stanley (28:32) Yeah. Broke five. I were in agony. You know, that's probably the the the worst thing I've done. ⁓ clearing a tree of a a grapevine and it was the the land was all overgrown. I mean the the the grass was up to a and probably higher, probably taller than me. we got back and I was clearing the garden and I thought, well I'll get this olive tree done as well 'cause I wanted to get all the olives off it. A lot of them were falling off on the ground, so there was like a sea of dead olives all over the floor. And I thought clear this.

David Stanley (29:02) got this ⁓ muscaday grapevine, you know, it's fabulous. Grapes on it look really cool in the summer when we were there. Only a little. We had about three or four grapes because it's massively overgrown. Not properly pruned. It is now, properly pruned. You know, ⁓ I've done a right job on it. ⁓

David Stanley (29:23) I have. ⁓ but anyway, you know, it it looked fabulous. And I was pulling them off and I'd cutting parts of it off to get it off 'cause it was all over the olive tree and the olive tree were really struggling. ⁓ so we cleared it all off and I was pulling the last vine and I pulled it and a as it snapped, I stepped back and I stepped back into where there was a culvert with water that would normally run through. Thankfully it was empty. You know, so I plunged through the grass.

David Stanley (29:51) You know, down this hole and landed on a boulder at the bottom on my back. And I was in so much pain. I can hardly breathe. I was in agony. And it was just hard work. You know, ⁓ I ⁓ I crawled out I got out of the ditch really quick 'cause a lot of spiders and stuff in there. I saw them looking at me thinking, dinner's here. ⁓ So I ran out of that ditch quick as a flash. ⁓ and then I trying to breathe, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, I was in absolute agony.

David Stanley (30:22) Bent double. Alison will tell you, I normally sleep in the roof of the van. in the pop-top. See the pop top there in the background? That's where I slept. Because it was for the kids. ⁓ but no. So that that's where I I were living. ⁓ I couldn't get up there. ⁓ I got up there the first night, but the next I couldn't get down in the morning. I had to literally throw myself down. And Alison could hear me screaming all night because trying to move, I was in so much pain. ⁓ And

David Stanley (30:51) We should have come back then. You know, we should have gone back to England then 'cause I couldn't do anything. I couldn't lift my arm. I couldn't I couldn't do a great lot. You know, I was in agony. Agony. So painkillers just didn't work so much. I was, you know, really restricted. So I slept in the back of the earth that we have. Another episode. We're doing dead good pizza and dead good burgers. In that when we go back. We did a pizza shop, pop up pizza shop. Worked all right. ⁓ It was only a small village.

David Stanley (31:20) There's nothing to write home about. We it kept the wheels turning, it kept us from spending our money. 'Cause our money just you know, we we haven't had a serious income for two years and it's drained our savings massively. Obviously buying a house, you know, is ⁓ is a big, big big thing. And then all the stuff that we bought for it like solar and batteries and kitting this van out, you know, spent spent money on this to make it easier to live in. And it's it's it's been really hard. You know, I'd say that's that's it.

David Stanley (31:49) Finish with where you are today, sitting in Scotland recording around a table. Look at that. I'm not, I'm sat in my front of my van. Here's my steering wheel. Here's the window. Here's the door look. So you know I'm in a van. ⁓ Sat on my steering wheel. This is my recording studio, none of them fancy ones with the lovely microphones around it. I have got the lovely microphones, they're just in Portugal. I've got some great podcasting stuff, but I'm doing using this software here. Cause it edits all and makes it look cool. And this

David Stanley (32:19) Try stand up a bit. I'm knocking my phone over. My phone's on a tripod, so I've got my notes. They are. Trying to get some thumbnail shots. Ha ha!

David Stanley (32:30) yeah. One thing I'd cons ⁓ consciously do Yeah. That's it's me notes telling me, you know, ⁓ I I'd jot down before I start, so I've got some pointers. I think I've talked about everything. I dunno how long this has gone on for. ⁓ I don't know. A while. ⁓ but anyway, hang on, I'll be I'll just check to see how long it's gone on for. So yeah.

David Stanley (32:56) When did I take that? What time was that picture taken? Today it's twelve thirty, so god, been in. Probably half an hour talking. This coffee's lovely. A lot of you have asked me what to drink, because last year I ran out of tea, so I made my own tea. I made Steve tea from Sisters Lab Danham. It's cracking. I've run out of that. And then I had to wait the Yorkshire tea bags to turn up. ⁓ made mu mother in law sent some. she's very good at sending them, and then like we had a

David Stanley (33:25) A Polish lady turned up with him. You know, ⁓ Isabella. She turned up with him. With a whole ⁓ a whole episode there as well. ⁓ Came from Scotland with my friend Liam. You know, ⁓

David Stanley (33:40) Don't think she'll be watching this. She's lovely. Just slightly unhinged. You know, only only slightly. Tried helping her but just not. It's what the res it's what the we were doing with the ⁓ retreat is to get people to come and reset, you know, just put the phones down. You know. The only problem with the mountain is it's got super it's got five G. You know, the other side of the mountain, it's just you have no chance. There's no phone, nothing, you've got nothing.

David Stanley (34:10) we use Starlink, which is just absolutely insanely good. It literally opened it out of the box and it and it works fantastically. You know, it's ⁓ it's it's great. It's it's perfect for us. ⁓

David Stanley (34:24) And I d I I can't I can't fault it enough. If you want to follow us and you want to look at more of what we're doing, we have a website. It's ⁓ the vantable dot me. ⁓ it points you to our website which is David Stanley dot me, which is me. Hello. ⁓ We ⁓ all my all our stuff's on there. There's a free PDF of everything we use in the van, which has changed ⁓ our made our life a lot easier. It's free. Just click it, it's there.

David Stanley (34:54) Download it. You don't even put your email in. But we will try and rob your email at some stage so I can just try and sell a few things and keep keep things turning over. ⁓ there's articles on there that we're writing, so it's a bit like a newspaper, so it's you know, there's more and more stuff on. I'm putting all my story on. I'm just putting it there. ⁓ hopefully Netflix will make a series. About a fat bloke living in a van. Ha ha ⁓

David Stanley (35:23) Nothing exciting now apart from falling down a ditch and throwing sticks for my dog and all my crapness of growing stuff. ⁓ That's about it. ⁓ so yeah, there's stuff on there, there's links that we use, ⁓ companies that we use. I mean the coffee I use is fantastic. ⁓ I don't earn any commission out of it. I just put a lot put a lot of stuff on. I've put some Amazon links on it in the PDF. Things like the battery and whatever. So if you buy it, I th I think I'll get two percent. So if you have a look.

David Stanley (35:52) You know, you and and buy a battery. You know, you can see the battery and all the information that we use. Lithium. Changed our life. Well, that's all I say, 'cause that is another episode. But the lithium battery's fantastic. ⁓ it's really cool. There's a Facebook page where I do generally do more updates on there. ⁓ I'll slow down a bit because they've ⁓ sh not shadow ban, but they've restricted me. I said something was healthy on a plant in Portugal, lichen.

David Stanley (36:22) Grows on the trees. Probably get told off my YouTube. I said it was healthy. It's healthy for the tree and it's healthy for the air. There's nothing I can do with it. ⁓ but Alison says there is. There's people use it for cuts and grazes. Put it on and it stops the bleeding. Something like that. I don't ⁓ know. Don't eat it. It's not edible. Well, it might be edible, I don't know. If you can eat it, you can eat it. But anyway, I said it was healthy and that was it. ⁓ Nailed me. Restricted my art and I thought, well,

David Stanley (36:50) I was getting ⁓ you know, any ⁓ videos were getting anywhere between ten and twenty thousand views, I was getting up to a hundred thousand, I was getting a lot of comments and likes and shares and a lot of reach and I was going really well and then you know, that restriction it just knocked stuffing out of everything. So I thought, right, this that's it. I'm done. So I do a little bit on a now and again. So I'm doing s YouTube, I'll do Spotify, so you can listen to this on Spotify if you're driving. ⁓ and Alison's gonna be involved.

David Stanley (37:19) it's just tricky 'cause we've got four kids. ⁓ they're up all the time. They get up early with me and then they just I don't know what it is. We're in Scotland, it's light. They don't want to go to bed when it's light and it's caravan is the caravan or the van is it's just really light. You know, we have blackout curtains in here, but they're see daylight, they're literally coming in out of the day. It's not dark, Dad. You know, they don't want to go to sleep. Baylor's always been a night owl with us anyway, 'cause we had a pub or a restaurant and she didn't want to go to bed when I was, you know

David Stanley (37:49) there so you'd want to wait till I was up which was nice. ⁓ so yeah, that's it. I record one recording. Look at that. ⁓ No notes. I've got a couple of notes. They're not notes, there's no speech. I'll show you. ⁓ Will it show you? I don't know. Hang on. Let's take my phone off. These are my notes. ⁓

David Stanley (38:12) There you go. There's my notes look the da da Just pointers.

David Stanley (38:20) G V T pointers. You know, ⁓ it just high I said I'm gonna talk about this and then it just gives me some bullet points didn't have to talk about. But that's it. You know, if you want any questions or anything else like that, you can get in touch through us. ⁓ Paige, David Sally mate, and that is I think it. So that's it. Enjoy your coffee. Exhale coffee's it's awesome. You know, it is really nice coffee. But anyway, I'll see you later.

David Stanley (38:49) Thank you very much. Goodbye.