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!

Winter Harvest and Spring Preperations

With short days and frequent cloud cover, most of our crops go dormant from November until March; but not all of them.

We have lots of Perennial Kale.

We have Tree Tomatoes, Lemons, Limes, Grapefruits and Sweet Oranges.  And of course, Spicy Peppers to keep us warm!!

Now is the time to prune all the fruit trees in anticipation of them breaking dormancy.

Our apple trees are making many spurs now, so with a good summer we should have fruit this autumn.

Our figs will be mature enough to produce fruit this year also.

Disasters in the Dark of Night

About 5 years ago, we installed two tubes that allow the water in our ravine to flow under the roadway that connects our house to the nearest dirt road.  You can view the project at http://magnusandkonswan.blogspot.pt/2010/10/road-building.html .
Both tubes got blocked with debris and thousands of liters of rainfall diverted down the road and into our gardens around 5 am following thunderstorms.
According to Flores Weather Archive, we received between 25-37 mm steadily throughout the entire day of October 13, 2015.  When the drains work, no problem, it was the 3 am blockage the wreaked havoc until daylight allowed me to clear it.

Nothing like being woken up in the dark to the sound of a mudslide in your backyard.

The morning after!

Our safety fencing slowed the mudslide and kept our roof from being buried.

Our stairway is gone completely!  Big stones vanished.

The water is back where it belongs now, sliding down the ravine walls.

The worst damage is to our front yard where we have our gardens.

Thankfully, the citrus trees were spared, and we only lost annuals and perennials into the sea.

100's of hours of labor gone in an instant and weeks of rebuilding ahead of us now.  I need to build a safety spillway for the nest time this happens.  

Autumn Equinox

Pepper harvest continues and new ways to store them are experimented with.

Fire roasted turned out very well and tasty.

Tomato canning for the coming winter months.

Lacto fermented peppers are great too.

Squash harvest begins.

Banana harvesting takes place year round, but we always have surplus at this time of year for alcohol and vinegar production.

Our compost bins are filling in the foreground and cooking for spring application in the second bin.

Fig trees, grape, and Robinia pseudoacacia waiting to be planted in freshly cleared forest lands of Zone 3.

Final eggplant harvesting takes place and seeds are saved for next year.

Here is a permaculture garden with figs, taro, tree tomato, peanuts, mulberry, squash and citrus.

The fencing keeps the chickens out and provides a dry place for the fruit to hang until harvest.

August 2015 Projects

Our humble home and surroundings.

The Guinea Fowl are thriving in their new habitat.

Pepper harvest begins.

Eggplant harvest begins.

Tomatoes keep rolling in.

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.