Natural lactobacillus fermentation

What can you do with red radishes, daikon radishes and other vegetables in your kitchen?

Natural lactobacillus fermentation, with whole mustard seeds, juniper berries, julienned butternut squash, carrots, sliced onions, minced garlic, sliced red mustard leaves, salt, tiny bit of cider vinegar, tiny bit of brown cane sugar.

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.

Joists for First Level Flooring Installed

We received the 'shingles' for the outer wall of the clubhouse, now we are waiting for them to dry before installing them.  

They are off-cuts of Cryptomaria Japonica, or Japanese Cedar.  Rot resistant and fragrant, perfect for the wind and rain we get all winter here.

We used Acacia wood for the joists to support the floor.

They are long enough to allow for a porch extension that we had not planned for.

The boards are locally milled from our islands forests.

After the wood dries a bit more, we will finish installing the boards and close the lower level and install windows and doors.

The Last HUGE Tree Behind our House is Down

After eight years of steadily clearing the forest behind our house, we are now free of potential killers.

Read our blog post Tree Felling Adventures for a backstory.

Phase one involved sending Maarten up a tree to fix the lines.

Phase two, Filippo,Maarten and myself strung a steel cable across the valley to attach a winch to a stump to control the falling direction of the ~30 tonne giant.

Working in the jungle is always a challenge!

But after a day of rigging safety lines, the giant came down exactly as planned.

Now our house is finally safe from danger and we can begin building  a solar tracker in the new safe zone!

Reinforced Concrete to Build a Spillway

Maarten, Augosto and myself have been improving the drainage system this week, in the hopes of avoiding farther water damage to our properties and home.

We back-filled the two new tubes with concrete to anchor them in the next flood event.

After covering the tubes with concrete we installed an iron framework and mesh to be contained in the next concrete level.  This should allow large trucks to pass over the tubes without damage and prevent the bridge and tubes from washing away in heavy flooding.

Hard work in the hot sun, but well worth it when the winter rains return.

New Flood Protection Measures Created

After a devastating flood event this winter, we have been installing new drainage systems in anticipation of the next storm.  Initial damages can be seen  at our previous post, Disaster in the Dark of Night

Odin and Mitra are testing the new trench that Maarten and Filippo are digging for us.  

Boat races are great fun in the heat of the day!

We added a third plastic tube to the existing two tubes, as well as an earthen berm reinforced with a stone wall, to keep flood waters from coming down the pathway to our house.

We still need to pour concrete, reinforced with iron mesh, to stabilize the ground when the floods pass over the spillway.

The large boulders used to build the initial structure are holding firm. 

The process of building this part can be seen at Road Building 

Now we wait for the next storm to test our new system!

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!

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.