Blog - The MahoJos

21Aug 2023 by The Mahojos No Comments

Feathered Friends: 26 birds you’ll LOVE at the farm!

If you love birds, then you'll love hearing all about what birds we see at our farm in South Wales. We have some lovely feathered visitors at all times of the year. Whether your favourites are birds of prey or little garden birds, we have an amazing range who come to stay. Here's our A to Z of birdlife at the farm - there's actually 27 birds on our list as we forgot the Eurasian Jays!: Blackbirds Blue Tits Buzzards (we often see them circling above the farm calling to eachother) Canada Geese Chaffinches Crows Eurasian Jays Goldfinches Green Woodpecker (we often hear them knocking on the trees in the orchard) Great Spotted Woodpecker (we often see the females with their bright red heads) Grey Wagtail Little Owl (we hear…

13Feb 2023 by The Mahojos No Comments

What’s Life Like If You Live Full Time In A Static Caravan?

Static Caravan

WHERE DO YOU LIVE? We've been living full time in a static caravan in South Wales (UK) since August 2020. Prior to that we were living in a 2-bedroom flat that we rented in the town of Pontypridd. We sited our van on Amy's mum's farm and we've just lived through our 3rd winter so thought we'd do a quick blog post on what life has been like so far. DID YOU NEED PLANNING PERMISSION? No, we didn't need planning permission but this was for two reasons. The caravan was sited within the 'curtilage' of the garden of the main house (curtilage = an area of land around a house and forming one enclosure with it) We are family members of the main house owner. If we weren't family members we would…

05Jan 2023 by The Mahojos No Comments

Is this the BEST European road trip ever?

Campervan

Just before the global Covid-19 pandemic hit, we stumbled upon an incredible road trip in Portugal called the N2. When the world opened up again, we headed back to Portugal to experience the BEST European road trip ever. In January 2020 we were visiting family in a Portuguese village and did lots of fun stuff locally. We visited schist villages, spent a lovely day in Coimbra and headed to Nazare, famous for huge atlantic waves. On our travels, we stopped off in a tourist information centre and discovered a 'passport' for the N2. What is the N2? The N2, or the Estrada Nacional 2, is an iconic route that starts in the northern Portuguese town of Chaves. Built in 1945 it was once the main route through central Portugal, snaking…

02Dec 2022 by The Mahojos No Comments

Can You Help With Our Exciting Bike Bus Survey?

Uncategorized

Hello! Thanks for stopping by - below you'll find a short survey about an exciting idea - hope you can help us to collect responses to help develop the Bike Bus idea! Loading…

04Oct 2022 by The Mahojos No Comments

5 Amazing Advent Calendars For A Happy Christmas!

Events, Latest posts

If you're thinking that it's too early to start thinking about Christmas, then you're right. It's 82 days from today, but who's counting?! One of our favourite things about Christmas is getting a lovely advent calendar. Traditionally, we go for the chocolate kind and it's always Cadbury's (other chocolate brands are available). Have you noticed the growing trend in 'alternative' advent calendars? Have you received one? Was it any good? FOR FILM LOVERS Here are 5 of the best that we've noticed so far. What's the first film you think of when it comes to Christmas? Home Alone? Elf? Die Hard? Well for all the Die Hard fans out there, you'll be pleased to know that someone has invented a Die Hard advent calendar! Available on Etsy, this version is…

11Aug 2022 by The Mahojos No Comments

Our shortest campervan trip to France

Campervan, Latest posts

We made a last minute decision to spend a week in France in the campervan...would we get stuck in traffic and miss our ferry? Would we eat our bodyweight in baguettes and croissants? We never travel in August, ever. Why? Because the cost of travel is insane and the traffic is well known for being ridiculous. But, in an attempt to spread out our annual leave, we ended up booking a couple of weeks off in August with no real plan of how to use it. As the time got closer, the weather wasn't looking great for a break in the UK so we booked to go to France. Going on the Eurotunnel would mean selling a couple of kidneys, so we booked the ferry from Dover to Calais instead.…

26Jun 2021 by The Mahojos No Comments

EP11 | Linda Wilmott | Independent Hostel Owner

Podcast

When the opportunity came for Linda Wilmott to leave her well established career in the civil service, she jumped at the chance. Her organisation were offering Voluntary Exit packages, and having got to a point of high stress and dissatisfaction with her job, she knew it was time for a BIG change. At the age of 47 she left the security of a career with nothing else to go to. Linda applied for a voluntary role with Stirling Youth Hostel for six weeks, and in that time, she was inspired to try something new. She was already a keen hiker and loved the outdoor life. So after speaking with her partner and sister, she decided that buying a Youth Hostel would be her next step. With no experience of hospitality…

12Jun 2021 by The Mahojos No Comments

EP10 | Kelly Hayes-Raitt | International Pet Sitter

Podcast

Kelly Hayes-Raitt admits that she sleeps around (usually with pets!) as a full-time international pet sitter. Fifteen years ago, after a 30-year career as a political activist promoting social and environmental justice, Kelly ran for public office and got her butt kicked. She decided to take a sabbatical from politics and ended up in the Middle East working with refugees. She’s housesat throughout the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. She’s visited more than 70 countries, including pre- and post-U.S. invasion Iraq, from where she reported. She's written several essays about her trips to the Middle East that have been published in a variety of anthologies, literary journals and newspapers. She's also written the definitive book about housesitting called How to Become a Housesitter: Insider Tips from the HouseSit Diva, available in soft cover or Kindle on Amazon or as an ebook from her web site www.HouseSitDiva.com. Besides…

11Jun 2021 by The Mahojos No Comments

7 delicious foods that we miss from Malta

29May 2021 by The Mahojos No Comments

EP9 | Louise Dumayne | Living in the Yukon Wilderness

Podcast

Louise Dumayne lived in London and worked as an actor all her professional life. In 2012, aged 42, she made the life-changing decision to fulfil a childhood dream of moving to the Alaskan Wilderness. She now lives with her husband in the Canadian Yukon at their extremely remote, off-road, off-grid log cabin. In 2017, they featured in the Channel 4 series “Escape to the Wild”. Her short story, The Bear, was published in Words and Women IV (Unthank Books) and she’s currently working on a novel based in The Yukon. You can follow Louise's Yukon adventures here: Instagram: https://instagram.com/yukonbushlife Blog: http://yukonbushlife.blogspot.com ....... If you are enjoying our podcast and would like to support our work then you can buy us a coffee! Head over to the following site and check out…