Flores Permaculture

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.

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.

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!

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.