Rural Living in Portugal: Making Wine & Growing our own Food.

Head to squarespace.co... to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code: Frankieoffgrid
Pet portrait commissions: frankieoffgrid...
Or you can email me: [e-mail]
Our wine making video: • STOMPING GRAPES with o...
If you'd like to support our project:
- You can join us on Patreon from £1 per month and get some extra perks: www.patreon.com/frankieoffgrid
- Buy us a 'Kofi" (which will go towards our latest project, whether building the house or working the land): ko-fi.com/fran...
- Shop at our tea shop: www.seibiantco...
Use code: FOTR10 for 10% off ☺️
- Shop our merchandise: frankieoffgrid...
- Follow us on Instagram: / frankieoffgrid
We have put together a helpful list for you of all the things that have helped make living off grid easier for us: www.amazon.co....
The linked items are affiliate, which means we get a small commission per sale (at no extra cost to you)!
Beijinos e abraços,
Carissa, Iwan, Frankie & Albi
Our Story:
We are Carissa, Iwan & Frankie the sausage dog, and in 2020 decided one night over a bottle of wine that moving from North Wales to Portugal would be a good idea. Within a month we were on the road to Portugal to find the perfect piece of land to call home. We picked up Albi, Joao and Simao the cats along the way, as well as Diogo the podengo and a flock of chickens.
Subscribe to follow our project as we turn an old stone barn into our home, and learn the ropes of looking after a piece of land to make an abundant garden and one day, our very own winery.

[@4711karo]

Congratulations to Iwan on the wines and etc you are producing. And to Clarissa, I am loving your art and today the picture of Toby. Brilliant … Just wonderful. And little Frankie …. May she be 100% well and comfortable soon, dear little girl that she is!

[@Jaantoenen]

The silence within is the greatest peace and love, and it lives there. Cheers.

[@carolinawren3594]

thumbs up for Frankie

[@suenunn9099]

Place your dried stems inside a paper bag and shake the seeds off. Saves more seeds and less mess.

[@nareshbalgobin8101]

Happy Frankie is Well pray she full recovery

[@jamiesmith1343]

Wonderful news on Frankie!!! Your garden is looking great! Don't give up on the garlic. You salads are so beautiful, such a labor of love goes into your prep. Blessings all around.

[@charliesaul729]

❤Toby, our fur baby is now famous! We absolutely love love love his portrait! As Toby, our "rescue collage dog" is going on 15 and slowing down, your beautiful artwork will forever bring us smiles. ❤❤❤

[@flowersflowers473]

that was a beautiful potrait!

[@Andrew-dt2eb]

I’m very happy Frankie is doing good ❤GOD BLESS

[@ceeb1452]

So glad to hear the good news on Frankie :) When it comes to specialist care here in Portugal, the vets are exceptional!

[@jeangodding6348]

The guy hanging out on the curtain , was that Mothew ?

[@christinetomlinson4132]

Great to see Frankie is getting better 😊 if you want more grapes ask Nic to show you our Quinta where you can help yourself ❤🍇🫒

[@FrankieOffGrid]

Hi Christine! That’s so generous of you! I may well take you up on that.. I’ll be in touch through Nick. Thanks!

[@naomilamb7406]

Wine and Dachshund. Nova Scotia, Canada 🫶👏👏💐

[@hydrolyser]

Just started watching, blood pressure falling, smile returning. Thanks for posting again, love this stuff. Steve

[@uppanadam]

Ah hah!! That chook!! But seriously!! Living the dream!! Dachshunds...wine...and growing your own food!! LOL!!

[@mesutozsen903]

Eline emeğine sağlık bu güzel video için kolay gelsin hayırlı işler....👍👍👍👍

[@AleeshaSattva]

OMGosh Toby is gorgeous and I looooooove how you did his portrait!!!

[@steveperrett9395]

Thanks! Hope this helps with Frankie's care.

[@FrankieOffGrid]

Ah thank you so much Steve! We’ll put it aside for her!

[@jonheath3706]

I love dachshund and once swapped a canary for one. The dachshund was apparently untrainable (not true) so we took her and loved her for the rest of her life. We called her schatzi.

[@monalingan9523]

Wonderful news about Frankie❤

[@karipreston1204]

Love your beautiful blouse that you were wearing while you were talking about Frankie!

[@ruthnoronha8206]

You should keep them whole. The coriander will stay fresh for longer. Gind as you go. That’s how my grandma and my mom do masala recipes.

[@jonheath3706]

If you lightly toast the coriander seeds in a dry pan, it enhances the aroma when you crush them. Yum.

[@sgrvtl7183]

Enjoyed your opening~flowers are beautiful! and throughout the piano music is lovely~~

[@oakolive]

The veterinary hospital in Coimbra is A++ and I’m so glad we have that available. I hope that it all works out for Frankie, it’s amazing how they charm their way into our lives and empty out our pockets 😅

[@lidijabirsa7768]

Haha, you made me laugh about "how they empty out our pockets"! 🤣🤣🤣So true! Our dog had a surgery $$$$🤑... We were happy to be "robbed" by the vets, just to see our dog happy again! 🐾❣️

[@judithgreen3689]

What a bountiful harvest! And your homemade wine! Did you say 117 F? That is hot. Here, in high desert U.S.; we've had hot, rain, hot, rain - like never before. I think you're such a courageous, lovely young couple - slowly & honestly homesteading in Portugal. Love your drawing of Toby. Partial to that name; my grandson. Glad the show's namesake Frankie is doing good.

[@silevee]

I love seeing all your animals but Frankie was your first and she's such a special girl! I hope treatment will really help and relieve her discomfort. Continued success to you and your Portuguese homestead and everything growing there.

[@heidihughes8806]

P.S. I loved the drawing of Toby! 👍💜💜

[@spicynomad]

for perfect boiled eggs: take the eggs from the fridge and put in the put w/ tap water. put the pot on the stove and bring to a boil. on the first boil, turn off the stove and cover the pot. whenever you are ready deshell and enjoy. you will have all the whites and the pretty yolk(my favorite) in tact. since your eggs are fresh im not sure.

[@elainemcgran8828]

A little tip Put the dry flowers in a papper or even a plastic bag and shake it the seeds fall of into the bag much easier and cleaner.

[@JudySnyder-dv5ld]

Love your art and your garden.

[@andreaschuler4435]

Another video the way I like it, calm, informative and entertaining

[@sheilajoseph9953]

Good news for Frankie, all the pets are so chilled. Great harvest of veggies.

[@jennya2439]

I love Sausage soooo much - I’m glad she’s improving and hope she can make a full recovery 🥰. Your home grown dinner looked absolutely delicious, as did the plum wine 🍷- it must be so rewarding to eat and drink the fruits of all of your hard work ☺️. The portrait of Toby was awesome!

[@henrymichaelwilson8107]

A coller with a bell is the answer.

[@lindagage7315]

If you put your dried herbs in a paper bag upside down hold on to the stems then gently squeeze the pods they drop into the bottom of the bag, I do that with my summer savory!

[@lorawiseman8847]

You guys have come a long way since you started. Your garden and all the food from it are amazing! Glad Frankie is feeling better. Your little family is so sweet.

[@mafish7962]

So happy for Frankie! Our spaniel has a monthly painkiller injection for his arthritis and it’s been amazing! Have a great week and take super care, Laura ❤❤❤

[@janhodgson1740]

Aww love Frankie x we love our fur babies.. ❤

[@deborahwhite2339]

I'm glad to hear Fr💓nkie is doing better. 🙂👍👍🇨🇦

[@isnoo1]

HUGS to Frankie...............

[@janmccann8081]

Lovely lovely video. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@nareshbalgobin8101]

Congrats on garden havest and wine 💚🌿🙏🏼

[@gloriawaters1455]

Hi there Clarrisa and Ewan just got to say that supper looked yummy I love all the variety of vegetables fresh from your garden stay safe and thanks for sharing 👍 x

[@Neilhuny]

I think it's Charisma, not Clarissa

[@christine3358]

Wonderful news about Frankie!! And agreed, must keep trying the wine! 😉

[@pamelalambe1356]

Glad to hear Frankie is doing better. Toby art is very wonderful.

[@sharondoust5002]

Thank you for letting us know about Frankie the sausage so happy you found out her problem love her to bits thanks for a great video a soothing one cuddles for Frankie Diego and pussycats

[@petefoti1041]

I'm so glad my in-laws have AC at their Villa in Ponte da Barca. We've been monitoring weather from here in USA. Stay cool my friends.

[@Alfablue227]

Just came back yesterday from Barca. Weather is cooler even rained x 1 day. Right 80'F and beautiful.

[@marialemes564]

I love everything in your garden and the animals are beautiful!❤️from 🇺🇸

[@greeneyed333]

first class video many thanks ,chilled me right out, great music great flow ,perfect.i wish you all the luck in the world going forward on your slice of paradise in portugal

[@juanitakauffman6336]

Great video again.

[@projectportugal]

Beautiful video, great news about Frankie's diagnosis that it can be treated❤

[@veroniquemora2683]

Contente que pour saucisse ce ne soit pas plus grave !! 🐕Les coquilles des œufs 🐣 ➡️➡️🐓🐓 vous pouvez les donner aux poules !! Belle vidéo !!🌻🌻

[@arjanvogel6444]

But you have to cook them.

[@dianerayburn1728]

Frankie is looking more like her old self this week. So glad it's being sorted and you have good vets...

[@Huskeybear76]

Did you know you can buy an attachment for your strimmer to cultivate/plow the soil for your garden? Easy way to mix soil and compost to enrich the soil.

[@arjanvogel6444]

Thanks for your vid 😇💟💟💟 Love and bless you guys, good as always thanks 👍😁.

[@Feeoryne]

Ahhh Salchichon!!!

[@isnoo1]

Seriously LOVE those "B" rolls of yours with the garden and cats!!! Thank you!

[@jamesseltenreich652]

Your an amazing artist, amongst all the other things you do, I love your videos, Your Alaskan Friend 🙏❤️

[@zlatahume3134]

You chosen lovely way of life and may continue for you😊

[@carolbulmer8253]

I’m so glad that Frankie is ok. The meal that you made with the veggies that you harvested looked delicious. Iwan, the plum wine looks good. Carissa, I love the drawing that you made of the dog. See you next week❤️❤️

[@calypso4554]

Good news from Frankie! And your portrait of Toby is very nice, its like a translation into the essentials of his face.

[@moniquevelasco20]

Hey guys! Loved the dinner setting outside. So glad Frankie is doing better. Your pets seem to be handling the heat ok. Love and be safe!🤗😘🌼🇻🇪

[@Neilhuny]

That dinner setting, candles, home grown and made wine and food was superlative!

[@ruthconstantino6861]

Anom!

[@zenandink3531]

Your harvest is BEAUTIFUL! How wonderful to have such an abundance from your own garden and land. Heaven on earth 😊

[@itsasimplelife1980]

Well done guys, your vids are very enjoyable to watch. Leaving the U.K. tomorrow with my family, hopefully to never return. Bought a reno job, land and hopefully a much healthier family orientated life working in harmony with our land. All the best guys… x

[@barbaranielsen2888]

Great news on "Frankie"! Tour flowers are beautiful! That plum wine looks delicious!

[@marybates2201]

As usual another stunning visual and auditory video. 6ou do et the bar high. You certainly had a good harvest for your evening meal. Now that eztra special harvest of sausage nearly had me spitting my coffee out when you then added the cooked sausage to the table. Very clever and funny. Anyay your evening meal, food looked delicious and the setting, looked so perfect. Do you get mosquitos or gnats or anything over there on a nightime? It really looks like you are in for good harvests of so many things this year. But i do know you have worked mega hard for that. Yes it does look like you are living the good life from your video and yes in my mind it is idealic, but to get that life and current level of contentment has come on the back of blood, sweat, tears and hard toil. I do love your homestead. So pleased little Frankie is okay ( and that you did not in fact eat little sausage) so dysplasia is that eitherthe jaw at the wribg angle or is it jaw dislocating or some thing along those lines? I know i have it i 1 of my joints, but as most of my joints have something i can not remember which. I had my 3rd replacement joint on the 13th and at 53 i am young for them. Bit by bit i am getting fixed up so that 1 day i can buy a little village/ outskirs of village house with some garden space. I would live what yoou have but by then it wouod be too much for me. Seeing that smoke like that must be scary. Are you in a danger zone area esp with having pines on the edge of your property? Oooh meant to ask Carrisa, are Egyptian/walking onions used for pickling, or salads or something? Presumable they stay small sized? Most of my veggies got decimated by slugs and snails and other insects while i wasx8n hospital. So for me this yeaf is a handfull of eigher round or chantenay carrots, onions both red and white, potatoes and tomatoes. Iwan that plum wine looks delicious. Will you make a perrynfrom your pears ( ask your mam about babycham which is a sparkling perry. Or pear cider, but then other than eating them you can preserve them in juice or syrup and i thi k you cad dehydrate them. How were your sun dried tomatoes? Well i have waffled on a bit too mych, see you next week xd

[@julieking4828]

I’ve found that banging on something or pounding it on the ground typically fixes it. 😘🤣 Thanks for another nice video.

[@GirlMeetsFarm]

So glad to hear Frankie is doing better! She is such a cutie! Also - incredible that you found a specialist to work with for her jaw dysplasia. The plum wine looks incredible - that colour! Take care x

[@lucapoloni9516]

Love watching your videos. Love the animals. Watching from far off Sri Lanka❤

[@Neilhuny]

Wow! Loads of glorious produce from your land but you make everything many times better with your 'unusual' additions. The flower petals add great colour and interest and really lift a dish. And I've never heard of just putting lemon juice on fresh courgette! My sister is suffering from a glut of them, tomatoes, garlic and a few other things - but it was the courgette that was proving to be a problem to deal with. ('unusual' only to me, probably) I've suggested courgette trifle but she won't have it. Victoria Sponge with a Marmite and courgette jam? Letitia Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley is my culinary inspiration - The Queen of Cordon Bleugh. Chocolate and cod's roe ganache anyone? In all honesty, that bright red plum wine looked completely delicious, and the real wine/grape wine looks great and sound like it is coming on well... will you have any left before this year's harvest is ready to drink? I guess it needs to last at least another year ... ?

[@ruthconstantino6861]

😂

[@sanjaradmanovic3883]

I am so happy for Frankie❤

[@soniaayachealmeida7111]

❤Hello couple, what a delicious dinner 😋. Kittens 🐈🐈‍⬛ and puppies look beautiful. 🐕🐶 Hugs from Brazil 🇧🇷😊😅

[@bettylambe9817]

Beautiful Art work well done 👍

[@anniemac3075]

Good to hear the news on Frankie, a relief for you all. Some of the plum wine would be nice spiced for winter.

[@codyleeser392]

Give Frankie a small piece of solomon's seal root. It is a specific for joints and will hopefully correct the situation without a surgery. Please research this. Also, a grated potato poultice will ease her pain.

[@heidihughes8806]

So rewarding and healthy to be eating and drinking the fruits of your labour!😝☺️ Everything is thriving and I imagine it's so worth all the hard work you've put in 👍😂 It's lovely to see the animals, as usual 🐕🐓🐔🐝🐛🌞😺❤️💜

[@reflexologista]

Congratulations guys ! 👏👏👏☀️ Claude

[@thomascallaghan5988]

Great video

[@bevtrue6937]

Glad Frankie is better. Did the vet say how she could have gotten displasia? (Too much chewing gum? Haha) Animals are wonderful but expensive. Your homestead is so fantastic. Your meal looked SOOO fantastic. Made me so hungry. Especially the tomatoes. The plum wine came out great, didn't it? Should I bring my glass? 🥰

[@joyguthrie964]

I love zinnias.

[@LorraineinAustralia]

Fabulous food harvest. Hugs for Frankie❤️

[@magicwendy210]

lovely video but the sound when you are talking is a bit muffled and strange the other video a few weeks back was the same, maybe need some new mics x Love your pet portrait x

[@annar6430]

❤ to Frankie..Diogo..Albi and Jao( spell check plse) 🐕🐕🐈🐈. From MissT and me 🇯🇲

[@liamblake937]

Ive been waiting for an update on the wine! awesome

[@HelenRullesteg]

So great to see that Frankie is doing better and is in good hands. Re the little bird, I think it's actually a young stonechat, cisticolas don't have that white wing patch, but yes, they are both very striped and otherwise similar colours. There are actually products one can buy to make windows visible, they don't see them if there is stuff i.e. branches etc. reflected, patches one can put on so they see them, or something called the birdpen where one can draw stripes on the pane, we don't really see it, but they do. Sorry if this is a bit longwinded but it's a topic I care deeply about. We uses it on our windows and have had no collisions since then.

[@micaltoy824]

I wish I was your neighbor 😊

[@theyellowbootshomestead]

Drrrrreamy! That garden havest spread and meal was gorgeous:) Love seeing you guys reaping the benefits of the land and looking happy

[@maureenlowther7621]

Great veggies harvest and the wine looks good.❤️❤️❤️

[@leeworley5160]

Glad to see you guys. Two weeks without you i was worried something bad had happened. Need a sweet sausage drawing for everyone to buy and help with the cost like you did with dioggo!

[@hannekevangog7752]

Wij hadden verleden jaar 250 ltr olijf olie en dit jaar niet omdat ze gesnoeit zijn en veel walnoten die zij nu bijna op maar ook perziken en abrikosen pruimen appels peren en vijgen kersen zo lekker

[@mariaaldinavalerio9780]

❤❤❤ Namastê 💖😘

[@ruthconstantino6861]

Spot on and gorgeous portrait of Toby. Harvest cats🐈🐈🐈 are a must have. Wonderful Frankie us doing better, bless her. Thnx for sharing each furbie getting her/his scritches and kisses. Your plum wine and candlelight supper look scrumptious. 🌟

[@henrymichaelwilson8107]

I used to have a patterdale terrier. When he was 11 he got bad teeth. They were really hurting him. I got them taken out. Some people said you must be mad it will cost you a fortune. I said I don't kere how much it cost. The dog was called Dipper. After the bird. He lived until he was 18.

[@anadorsamp3560]

Un video hermoso con final feliz ❤❤ 🐕

[@peterwhite9261]

I am overjoyed that there was good news thus far with Frankie, our sausage Beautiful harvest.Great meal. Love your drawings. Yours is always a relaxing vlog.❤

[@francescatappi3241]

I am so happy to see you again and to hear the good news about Frankie. We are staying a month in Porto and tonight we went to see FC Porto play a Spanish team. I was thinking of Iwan, as he might have enjoyed the game. The crowd was really energetic! Have a wonderful week!

[@abigailgerlach5443]

Carissa, I'm with you! I absolutely can't deal with the heat. I find myself sleeping during the day and working at night. The house is adobe so it absorbs the heat during the day and releases it into the house in the evening. I much prefer colder weather. Its easier to put ON clothing! Lol. I suppose there is a point where one could end up looking like Nanook of the North. I don't care, I'm toasty.

[@katherineparsons9585]

So much harvesting success this year, it’s great to see.. 😊

[@kimallard225]

Loving the channel, you two are so inspirational. Shame we're not 20 years younger. How did you come to start your own KZbin channel? Kim x

[@jameshennephof4045]

Oil, use oil....its the key to all moving parts....give Frankie a nip of oil every day...and yourselves🕺💃you live in the second best place for it