Flores Permaculture

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...

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!

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 grou...

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 fo...

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 th...

This year we had a great harvest season for Strawberry Guava. Odin and Mitra were eager to lend a hand to gather berries, one for the bucket and one for the mouth. We developed a good system with the boys relaying the full cups picked by our woofer helpers to the master bucket. Below Stan and Mitra team up to get the job done. Vince also lent a hand to gather fruit on our family farm. After a hard days work, Mitra puts his feet up to enjoy the biggest and best fruit gathered. And when there are enough fruits to fill a large vessel, we engage in the ancient and sacred art of fermentation.