Wild Wednesday's: Young, Wild and Free

Young, Wild and Free: Stories of Becca's upbringing on the farm

Hello Steemians,

As the title suggests, and as promised in last week's post, this blog post is going to be about my (Becca) upbringing on the farm in Portugal and all the things I would get up to, on my own as well as with my two younger sisters. And yes, there may be some super cool photos as proof!

Becca at age 2 on the farm - 1994

Our farm was in a quite remote area in the Alentejo, about a leap and a jump across the nearby river was Spain. My parents bought the land and with it were some super old buildings, like three crumbled down basic houses, well my grandmother would say they were "ruins". They built them up a bit to make it easier to live in for themselves, then the next priority was the animals and the land. They spent a few years before I was even born just making sure we had fences, fields designated for crops and others for grazing. They were the first people to fight to bring electricity to our farm and all other neighbouring farmers/land owners, which they succeeded. They really did work super hard together, it was no easy life, and they had no holidays as such, there was always something to do once one task was finished. Anyway, that's a short summary of the beginning.

The farm houses - 2000

I was born in our nearest hospital in a town called Evora, about 1.5-2 hours drive away from the farm (the first 3-4Km from the farm out to the village used to be a bumpy dirt track). From that day onwards, my life has been an adventure. When I was 1 year old, my parents finally got the water pump system working on the farm, pumping water from the river all the way up to one of our highest points on the land, this was to be used for the goats and cattle, it was a celebration! No more driving the water container back and forth from the river in order to fill our water troughs. I remember walking up and down the trenches that were dug around the farm to put in the water pipes from the water tank built on the highest point, using gravity to feed the water troughs. My parents put me inside the trenches so that they could go about doing this without worrying so much of where I was (I was just about 2 years and found it fun running up and down them - self entertained). I was always dressed in bright clothes, as I was an active child and liked walking around while my parents were out fixing fences or tending to the animals, that way they could always see where I was.

The trenches - 1994

We had pets, as well as farm animals. Okay, let me make a list of our 4 and 2 legged animal friends we had at the time: a big herd of Alentejana breed cattle, a herd of Angora goats, 6 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, 8 horses, geese, guinea fowl, ducks and chickens. Those were the main ones that I remember from that time. My birthday is in March, about the same time as our goats would have their babies, called kids (usually they would have them in late February/March/April time). And I remember on several occasions, walking down to the goat paddock at the bottom of our yard, climbing and standing up about halfway up on the metal fence, singing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you" to all the new kids that had arrived. I used to love it when a kid was born on the same day as my birthday, how awesome to share a birthday with a new born little, white curly haired and pink nosed angora goat!

Becca as a baby with the kids (baby goats) - 1993

Becca with Butch, Cassy and Bilbo (Rhodesian Ridgebacks) - 1993

Becca with Hannah (horse) and her Dad - 1994

My parents would be constantly keeping check on where our herd of cattle were and where the goats were. I remember once walking with my dad to see where the cattle were, and we came to a high point where you could see down the hill side and into the river valley and across to the other side to Spain. Here is when we saw the cattle walking across the river into Spain, so cheeky of them, escaping and going to upset our Spanish neighbours. My dad told me sit under this tree, and to wait for him to come back and get me once he had got the cows back. As he ran off to get them, a dark cloud of rain was beginning to show on the horizon, and I remember hoping he would be back before the rain.

Becca taking her turtle for a ride - 1994

When my sisters arrived, we are all 2 years apart from each other, and, well, I had even more adventures. When it would rain we would strip down naked and sing and dance in the rain around our farm. It was so remote, the last one on the road, no one else would be around apart from our parents, so why not! We relied on a water well for drinking water on the farm, so fresh, we used to love walking down to it and checking the level of the water. From the well, we could walk across to a small stream, an area filled with frogs, terrapins, snakes, and all sorts of creepy crawlies. It was great fun! We would practise catching them and then putting them back. On the other side of the farm, on the river that separated us from Spain, there were several old water mills. This would very often be our swimming spot and camping spot. The water mills had several "holes" out of which water would be gushing out of, these we would call waterfalls and we'd sit/stand under them. There was also a part in between the water mills that was covered with rocks and stones, submerged in water, that would be like cascades. The rocks were so smooth from the constant flow of the river that we would slide from the top one all the way down. We swam in muddy water, went off making tree houses and playing house in the hay barn, sitting in the back of trailers and accompanying our parents on their many farming duties. We would have picnics by the river in the sunny cold winters as well as in the shade during the hot dry summers.

Whilst Mum worked on the farm, she kept Becca and her sister in a wheel barrel, so that she can keep an eye on them - 1994

Picnic and canoe adventures - 1999

Off to the water mills - 2001

However, it was not always fun and games, as I got older I was helping out more on the farm and doing more important farm tasks with my parents. I didn't have chores, but I would naturally help when and where I could. For example, walking the goats out of the paddock to the fields, counting them out and then walking them back at the end of the day and counting them again. I also fed the horses and dogs, and helped my mum tag our kids once they were a few weeks old. When the underground water pipes would burst, my mum and I would have to fix it together, be it raining or boiling hot weather, it had to be done. My sisters and I did our best to help.

I really enjoyed my childhood, I have some fantastic memories of always being outside and getting dirty and walking everywhere. My sisters and I are all quite close still to this day and would not have changed a thing from those days. We learnt about responsibility and caring for one another and our animals from an early age, and it has made us the people we are now. One day, if I can, I would love for my children to have a similar outdoorsy upbringing, live somewhere where they can get their hands dirty and go swimming in rivers and lakes, and learn all the things I learnt when I was little.

What was your upbringing like? Did you have the opportunity to be an outdoors child?

Stay Classy Steamians!

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