Volunteering on Flores, Azores - Travel for free/WWOOF

Sweet Potatoes

Last year I had a good Sweet Potato harvest, but not nearly enough to keep my family fed through the winter.  This year I have cleared more land and planted about 500 slips of 5 different varieties.

Above the forest trees are cut down and then the exposed roots are cut to kill the tree.  As it dies and rots it will feed the soil for me.

Above is an experimental patch using recycled cardboard as a pathway mulch and fresh cut grass to mulch the Sweet Potatoes.  

Another forest patch above.

Above is the Super Bowl garden with Figs and Banana on the hillside and Sweet Potatoes on the drier level areas before the land drops into a boggy Taro garden.

A row of a new experimental variety is above.

The tools of my trade.  I am an OG (original gardener) .  A mattock and a hoe are all I need to take virgin forest land and transform it into fertile beds, just like my ancestors before me.

A steeper garden cut into the mountainside is above.  In theory the steepness will allow me to leave the crop in the ground until I am ready to harvest.  The rain should runoff and not rot the Sweet Potatoes.  One of the problems I have is storing all the food I produce, my house is not large enough.

Above is one final shot of the newly cleared forest and some of the gardens that are visible now.  Still much work to do and some great Winter Solstice burn piles to ignite!

Guinea Fowl are Reproducing

The 20 Guinea Fowl eggs that I ordered on the internet 2 years ago, hatched four healthy keets under a broody hen.  This year the four adults are breeding well and are giving me 2 fertilized eggs daily.  There was a power play by the males, and now one male gets both hens and the other male is lonely.  Those guys fight rough!  I thought the loser was going to die for sure.

Above are my two year old adults and genetic starting point for my new flock.

The guineas boss around the chickens, but the rooster still gets his fair share of food.

So far, I have 8 new keets and hopefully more coming before summer ends.  I keep them in their own cage to be sure they do not stray into the jungle and get eaten or lost.

Above the keet pen is seen within the larger adult fowl pen.

The parents patrol the area, keeping  threats far away.  Apparently they can take on snakes, rats, cats and dogs.

I had a fun surprise in the genetics with several white keets mixed in.  Soon I hope to have about 100 adults free ranging in the second part of the day and winter times.

Taro Expansion Summer 2017

I have been steadily clearing boggy areas of our property and planting more Taro.  I think I have enough plants now to feed the farm and visiting friends year round on these tasty vegetables.

The original Taro patch is below.

My boys enjoy playing under these massive leaves, a good way to stay cool in the summer months.

I am now incorporating Water-cress into the Under-story of the Taro with great success.

Below are two cultivars of Taro with Water-cress thriving among them.  In the periphery is Nasturtium, another summer salad favorite.  This is my second Taro Patch.

A closer view...

Below is the newest Taro Patch, it is still filling in, but soon it will be larger than the previous two patches combined.

Below is another view of the Third Patch with Sweet Potatoes growing in rows in the drier areas of the land.

New Tropical Micro-Climate Garden

Magnus has been working diligently to remove the jungle and debris from a great location on our farm for several years.  

The first steps were taken in earnest last year and recorded at this blog post from 2016.

With the help of AviChai, Magnus managed to get the "Super-Bowl Garden" cleared of large trees that had accumulated over the years.

This year with the excellent help of Anne and Matts, the garden if functional and beautiful.

Above Anne uses cut Canna Rocha (Hedychium gardnerianum) to mulch around freshly planted Taro.

While Anne mulches, Matts pulls all the cut wood out of the stream bed and stacks it for future compost.

Above, the scope of the garden can be seen, with a beautiful spring fed stream running through the center.

Banana trees are planted near the mountainside, with Taro in the boggy areas and fig and avocado in the dry areas.

Young Taro transplants are growing their true leaves now and harvesting the solar energy.

The cool spring water creates an ideal climate for the Taro to thrive.

 Clearing a bed for the water to follow was a huge priority.  Before we cleared the channel, the water spilled over the entire area and created a boggy mess.

With Matts help, the stream runs free and clear now, allowing us to harvest water as needed.

The garden is located in a natural depression in the land, giving it amazing sun catching abilities.  As more stones and cliffs are uncovered, the area will retain the solar radiation and become more Tropical than the surrounding forest and gardens of our property.

Painting the Chimney and Oven

We decided to paint our chimney and oven a nice fiery color to complement our cool blue house.

Last year we finished refinishing the area, but ran out of time to paint before the rainy season arrived.

With a good cement job covered by quality primer and topcoat, this job should not need redoing in my lifetime at least!

2017 Jungle Clearing Season Commences

Jungle clearing is a labor and time intensive process to do correctly.

The goal is not to kill the jungle, but to make it a useful space.

This land was abandoned to nature over 50 years ago.

Below, the dark forest is seen in the background of the fallen giant.  With no sunlight available, not much vegetation occurs under this canopy.

The first step is to cut all the smaller incenso trees (pittosporum undulatum) and canna (Hedychium gardnerianum) plants from the area, in order to expose the fallen trees blown down in previous years.

The insenso is then stacked for drying and future fire wood use.  Below, a nice stack is prepared.

  

Below Beatrice separates the branches into one pile and the logs into another for drying and compost. Thank you Beatrice for helping to collect and stack all this wood!

The giant eucalyptus trees are carefully cut one at a time, as seen below.  With the inceso cut to a meter above ground level, they will regrow.  If they were left intact, the eucalyptus would break them or uproot them when they fell.

As part of our wwoofing program, we teach people how to safely and effectively operate chainsaws and how to fell trees in the direction intended.  

After the trees are felled, they are de-limbed and our wwoofer, Beatrice, removes the limbs and piles them for compost and kindling.   

After the land is cleared of the smaller trees, some of the giant eucalyptus are ring-barked to kill the tree, but leave it standing until a time when it can be cut down.  

After the eucalyptus trees die, all the leaves will fall off and allow more sunlight to penetrate our fertile gardens and allow our seeds to thrive and grow healthy foods for us to all thrive and grow also!

Sowilo (Phase IIA)

The foundation has set and now Phase II begins.  Phase II involves building the  concrete columns that will support the solar panels and rotating axis.

The north column stands nearly three meters tall, so a pedestal is required to strengthen the structure and minimize bend or cracks.

Also do to intense winter wind loads and the fact the uppermost solar panel will stand four meters above ground level, it is crucial that the structure cannot topple and land on our roof.  This iron reinforced bench will add 1700 kilograms of weight as a counter force.

I decided to us natural stone as a functional form, rather than wood or blocks.  

The bench should seat four people, one at each of the cardinal directions.  This will be ideal for watching the sun rise from the ocean.

It takes a little more time to select and align the field stones, but I want this to be Art as well as Engineering.

The bench is nearly at the final height and ready for the capstones.

Only one more course of stone and then I can back-fill with concrete and place the capstones.  Then on to Phase IIB!

Sowilo - Harnessing the Power of our Star (phase I)

Our off-grid home is powered by a Hydro-Turbine.  In the winter months we get more than 500 watts of output non-stop.  During the late summer months we start to get less rainfall and therefor we get less wattage.  As global warming shifts our system of winds and ocean currents, we anticipate drier summers.  As a result we are adding an additional 1,000 watts of power to our  system.  In the winter we will have more hot water and heating during the day and we will maintain our current standard of living in the summer when the rains stop and the sun beams down.

The tracker is designed to maximize yearly output of solar power by following the sun's path from East to West daily at  a constant 23 degree angle.

The first stage of the project is to accrue all the building materials and get them to the site.  Not a simple task without a 4 wheel drive truck.

All the sand and gravel must be bagged up and then hand carried to the top of the hill.  Thank you Stan and Ben for your help with this morale breaking job. 

Once at the top of the hill, the bags are sent down a steel cable to the location of the work site.  In the photo above you can see the bags of materials in cue to be launched on the steel cable directly above them.

Once the sacks of sand, gravel, and cement are all on location, the mixing process can begin.  In the meantime, the bags make a comfortable resting spot for the boss-man.

Next the foundations need to be dug to support the structure.

Ben and Cbass take charge with mattock and shovel and excavate the site.

The tracker will sit atop of a retaining wall we built in 2011, directly behind our house. 

After a day of physical labor, Ben, Cbass, and Magnus, take a break to press some wine and sample the quality of ethanol production this season.

Concrete mixing finally commences and the 2,500 kilogram foundation begins to be poured.

The iron is held in place with guide ropes to maintain perfect North-South and Vertical alignment as the concrete is dumped bucket-by-bucket into the wooden forms.

A difficult job is made much easier with two strong and able men alongside Magnus.

The final foundation shape is revealed as Sowilo.  The fitting symbol for this project and what it seeks to accomplish.

Next, the pedestal will be built at the base of the North column.  And then the columns themselves will be poured and finally the metal frame will be attached to the tops of the columns.  Stay tuned...