Flores Permaculture

We had to expand our drainage system to accommodate the heavy winter rainfall.  This resulted in quite a large gully in the middle of the primary pathway to our house. We used saplings and off-cuts of lumber to build a simple, yet strong bridge that spans the spillway comfortably . The new bridge makes it much easier to carry the 50kg sacks of cement that we need to continue building inside our house, as well as groceries.  

After another heavy rain, we nearly had another disaster like the  2015 disaster. We had already built a spillway to accommodate the thunderstorms that seem to be increasingly frequent in the last 3 years. However, this was not enough to keep the rising flood waters away from our gardens and home. With the help of Fiona and Elisa, our two young wwoofers from France, we increased the drainage systems downhill from the spillway. After the soil is piled downhill of the new trenches, we planted the new berms with Taro for both erosion control and edible functionality.

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 sol...

This project was inspired by heavy rains last October, when  a flood wiped out our roadway and deposited mud on our roof. Phase one was implemented when  we set new tubes in March of 2016. Phase two was built in  April of 2016, when we built an iron reinforced concrete structure. In May we finished the bulk of the project  when we covered the reinforcing iron and tubes in concrete. However it was only in July, with the help of Wells, Hadas, Avichai, and our trusty little robot, that the 6,000 pound structure was finished. Now we await the coming storms to test our new system.

Magnus has been working steadily to stabilize the bridge that connects the farm to the rest of Flores Island.  Using a cement mixer and some help from friends, the project is stable now. A special thank you to  José Carlos,  Elisabete,  and Fernando  of  our local government  for providing materials and transport of those materials to our site. Over 6,000 pounds of sand, gravel, iron and cement were placed to create a massive spillway in times of flooding.  This is a continuation of  the spillway project  previously blogged. Iron reinforcing bars binds the concrete into a single mass to resist erosion and allow heavy vehicles to pass safely over the tubes. Odin and Mitra are happy to apply water to the curing concrete while  it hardens. A temporary stairway allows easy passage to the gardens. The project is nearly finished, only a bit more materials to fill in the exposed tubing and to guard ag...

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.

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!