Casa di Tio Ernesto on the Canada dos Italianos -Altars, Terceira Island,

Below is an old photo taking some time in the late '70s , just before the "big one" hit the island of Terceira.

Those two houses were badly damaged and left to the grateful protection of a nasty vine that kept all rock thieves at bay. Yes, people look for cut rocks and haul them off if you have good ones.

Thanks to the vine, few of the cut stones are missing. The then small climbing plant can be seen in the below photo on the left, just in front and at the end of the house. We have kept a piece so It will be placed and contained in its original place. Who knows that one day it will be needed to do a cover up job again.

"Tio Ernesto" houses (1980?) with my late aunt "Tia Maria Ribeira" and my little cousin (now a grown man) João Carlos in the forground.
The ruined houses were nicely protected by a one time small vine that gave shade to the ladies washing clothes in an outside sink. Uncovering the rubble.	Chain saws and a few good boys at work. After more then 25 years the ruins were uncovered revealing a fantastic view.
A door still stands due to the fitted cut stones.	Inside the ruin looking out one of a window frame toward the village of Altares.
	Here is an example of the cut stones that were guarded by the vine. The doors, windows and staires will be reset using the same stones.
Above is a heap of wine bottles that our late neighbor M threw into the overgrowth. And we were singing "3000 bottles of wine on the wall . . . la la ti da . . ." and praising the vine for covering up such an arrray of junk.	The two above photos show the final clearing of the ruins and the land from the vines protective presence.
The plan is to restore the two houses using the existing cut stones and traditional building materials including the hand made roof tiles that adorn our other two restored houses.
This picture story will be continued as the work on the houses progress.