Flores Permaculture

After expanding the farm for the last five years, I am finally satisfied that Zones 2 and 3 are producing well enough to feed us through the winter!  This summer I turning my gaze again to Zone 0. The first step was to install a new zip-line to get materials to Zone 0 from our Zone 4 drop-off point.  The limitations of our summer-only dirt road dictate that heavy construction be done in the dry summer months only.  I asked my good friend Augusto to build me a new and improved post with a return wheel to bring the empty wheel and hook back after sending down a batch of building materials.  He used a recycled trike wheel as the base of his design that includes a brake to control the speed of the descent down the mountain.  Odin and Mitra love to help operate the brake! The first job is to build my boys their own private bedroom.  The original stone house had two dividing walls inside to create two bedrooms and a kitchen.  Those wall...

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 ...

So far we have cleared about 15% of our available land so far.  It is difficult and dangerous work. Below Kristina gives some perspective to the scale of our jungle. After clearing out the underbrush, we can find the larger trees that need to be cut down to compost over the next years. The smaller trees that are in good health can be left for future firewood harvesting.  We remove all crooked or damaged trees as we clear. Finding cliff walls and old retaining walls made of stone helps to illustrate the value of this land for agricultural use. Below Stan tackles one of our worst invasive species, False Tobacco.  It is a plague on our ecosystem. From inside our Zone 3, we can look out to our Zone 2 and the Wwoofer Cabana across our valley.

Because of the irregular terrain created by volcanoes and subsequent erosion of the valley, our zones stretch and contort in curious ways. Zone 0 House and Immediate Surroundings (~5 meters radius around house) Compost Bins Nursery Greenhouse Window Sills Potted plants on front porch awaiting planting Zone 1 Area Above Canal and Below Roadway (~25 meters radius around house) Fruit Trees in Zone 1 Banana x 7 Lemon x 1 Grapefruit x 1 Tangerine x 1 Mandarin   x 1 Sweet Orange (bahia?) x 1 Raised Bed Gardens Below House Raised Bed Gardens In ‘Bowl’ South of House Raised Bed Gardens Behind/Above House Greenhouse/Retaining Wall Chayote Patches Zone 2 Area Below Canal, Along Roadway, Julia Land and Chicken Orchards Fruit Trees in Zone 2 Banana x 150 Apple   x 2 Fig   x 7 Loquat x 5 Plum x 3 Custard Apple x 5 Chestnut x 2 Tree Tomato x 5 Lime x 3 Valencia Late Orange x 1 Blood Orange x 1 Sweet Orange (bahia?) x 3 ...