Turning Jungle into Gardens

Maarten stayed on our farm for a month and had the opportunity e to learn about tree felling and how to correctly handle a 'motor saw'.

Nearly all the trees are down now, including this lovely Acacia.  

After cutting the large trees, the small underbrush was cleared and burnt.

This is a south facing amphitheater that we have been slowly clearing for about five years now.

With the help of Renault and Maarten, we burnt all the undesirable plant material to return to the soil.

The young men enjoyed the opportunity to build massive bonfires that raged into the early morning hours.

On the other side of our valley, alongside our Banana Plantation, we cleared and burnt a large swathe of land that is nearly flat and has a micro-climate that is much warmer than the surrounding lands.

We now have two young ladies from Germany planting the areas with all manner of edible and delicious plants that were started in our greenhouse.

Sleeping Room of the Clubhouse is Finished

The roof is finished and the top level used for sleeping is closed and being tested by our two wwoofers, Filippo and Maarten.

We added diagonal braces to stabilize the structure.

The remaining job is to close the lower level and install windows and doors, then a kitchen and sitting area.

The Clubhouse is Coming!

 Our WWOOFER Clubhouse is beginning to take shape.
We used four recycled phone poles set in concrete for the corners.

The framing is freehand chainsaw milled Cryptomeria Japonica.  It is not straight, but very strong and easy to work with.

The remaining five pillars are set on phone poles placed upon large field stones to distribute the load more evenly.

Our fist two 'wwoofers' for 2016, Camille and Carole, helped us frame and board the second level.  This will be the platform to sleep on when it is finished.  We tested the strength with five adults and two children on top with no signs of stress on the structure.

Next, we made diagonal supports between the posts to stabilize the structure from sway.

And we took many fruit eating breaks, chosen from the surrounding orchard, while working to stay strong!

The first roofing beam is installed.

More to come as we build!

July 2015 Projects

Micro greens.

Purple Taro.

Chicken forage area with citrus and figs.

 Green Taro patch.

Our second wwoofer arrives.

Our wwoof-er home, dry and cool with the water flowing under the roadway.

Tomato harvesting begins in earnest.

June 2015 Projects

We had our first wwoof-er this June.  We had a great time and worked hard together.

We arranged a work exchange on a friends farm to harvest potatoes, as he has a large flat area to cultivate.

The children really enjoyed having a new friend to live with them for a few weeks.

Konswan is bringing supplies from the 'nursery' near our house up the mountain to our fruit orchard site.    Behind her are the blocks for our shed project.

Konswan's precious cargo of comfrey, figs and grapes.  These are clones we made ourselves and can continue to propagate until all of our land is full of edibles.

Our first guinea chicks hatched, along with more chickens.