Hi Wendy,

First off, thanks for the bunch of work and research you've done on the topic, as well your sharing and openness - I really appreciate it !

At the moment I'm living a more 'regular' contemporary life in Amsterdam together with my wife, but we're looking into chasing our dream of a simpler life in partnership with nature, in Portugal. We have our eye on a piece of land not too far from Porto, but it is urban land, and we would normally be connected to the grid (the infrastructure is there). I don't know if, in this case, the municipality would let us choose an alternative way to deal with our 'waste', but I'd really like to try. As the plot of land is about 3,5 hectare, we shouldn't cause any nuisance to neighbours even IF the system would produce some smell for a bit.

Basically, my question is this: did you build a case / documentation in writing which you presented to the municipality, and if so, would you mind sharing this documentation with us? I imagine you would have presented your research in Portuguese..

We're looking to combine permaculture-based agriculture with tourism and (nature) education on the land, as well as ofcourse living on it ourselves. Although it seems to be getting more common in the more southern parts of Portugal, I haven't really found this kind of combo close to Porto. Maybe we could invite and inspire the city dwellers there to broaden there horizons, and maybe get inspired themselves just like we have been with many great examples before us, such as yourself.

Thanks again,

Ward