second day of our STRAWBALE BUILDING Workshop...

We're only on our second day of building, and we're ready to raise the walls tomorrow... 

it's incredible how fast this kind of building technique goes... I'll not say much as the pictures will speak for themselves ...

We finished Lyna's Yurt on Sunday by the way... But my mind was already on the preparations for the workshop as I needed time to do all the shopping for the building materials that we would need before thursday...

By the way, this is the yurt's floor finished, I forgot to take a picture of the yurt set up... it's a really beautiful one !!!

Thursday morning we had some time to introduce ourselves to one another and Lesley gave us a little introduction about building with strawbales...

then it was mainly hands on work... The first thing we had to do was to clear out the place for the building (it's behind the kitchen for those who know)

Then, determining the direction (south facing), and squared it properly... with a nice frame Jo built 

Edy and Zven making sure the guiding string was levelled...

we had to put some more dirt on the east part, to roughly level the ground before setting the tires... and to hold that dirt, we made a wall with tires filled with dirt... it worked perfectly !

then, Lesley thought it would be nice to make some steps with more tires... What a great idea !!!

here is Nuno Mamede with Lesley...he came with his partner and kid, to help Lesley, and gain some more experience, because he is going to start running courses himself...

Meanwhile, me, Jo, Zven and Xico went to the woods to chop down some eucalyptus which would support the floor .... in the end, we all got to the conclusion, after the carpenters (Edy, Jo and Zven) tried all kinds of ideas to use them, that the best would be to get some straight ones... so I had to go to Fundao (city nearby) again to get that, together with the tin plates for the roof...

Such nice and functional steps... Kiara is passing by...she's Lua's daughter who came to spend some time with us and also help Marcia in the kitchen... they are doing a great job... there's Fatima as well, who is actually from the village nearby, Póvoa de Atalaia, who also comes to help in the kitchen... she's a funny one ...
And that was the first day...

First thing the next day was to lay the tires which would be filled with gravel and would support the beams under the floor...

There are the beams... we still needed little adjustments to level it...it's really hard work to fill in these tires with gravel... it literally made us all "tired" ...

a wise patch from the carpenters... so we can use only 2 boards in a row without the need to cut them... everything is well supported... it's amazing the ideas we come up with when little unexpected "problems" come up...

And the floor starts to appear...

Checking if the bales would fit the floor or if we needed to do some cutting... no cuttings needed...perfect size!!! The floor it's 5x3m, by the way ... and we'll have a 2 meter "varanda" on the east side...

next step was to prepare the place where the bales would be piled up... with huge nails sticking up ...the board on top is just a safety measure until we start laying the bales tomorrow... the truck straps are in place so we can tight and compress the bales as much as possible before laying the roof...

So, this is just the end of the second day...and this morning we didn't do much because we couldn't use the eucalyptus logs and I had to go and buy the squared ones... tomorrow we will lift up the wall... probably in the morning, and we can start with the roof already ... Isn't this amazing ?!!!

I´m having a bit more expenses than I was expecting though, as we didn't have enough people to cover all the costs, so we'll be happy to receive any donations for this purpose as I had to borrow some money to buy all the material (around 1000e)...

Let me know if you can help us on that... little is much, so I'm not expecting big donations from only a few...
I'm still considering whether we'll be able to put on the insulation on the roof or not... it's quite expensive, or it can be cheaper, but requesting harder work with sheep's wool or recycled cork...


Anyway, I'll try to post as regularly as I can... I hope you are enjoying this as much as we are... Be inspired !!!

New projects about to finish...

We've been having hard working weeks... We´re mainly making a floor for Lyna's yurt, but also a shelter for firewood and a bit of gardening...

We had Lyna's friend, Aurelie, visiting for a few weeks and a couple from the Czech Republic for a week...

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to... this first one is the early beginnings of the yurt floor, with Aurelie helping out... she definitely went back to France with more muscles and a nice tan...




Nolan would always be around... he's in such a funny stage...

we were trying to use the least lime as possible, so we simply tucked them in the dirt...

Lyna and Aurelie had the hard work of carrying most of the gravel up with the wheel-barrow... me and Nolan were working on the wood shelter... Nolan loves building and he loves the hammer... he's a nice company too...well, when he's not whining ...

but he makes us laugh a lot...he is such a little clown...

He was exhausted !!! It´s siesta time 

our wood shed is finally done... It was not a priority, but we did have rain again,so I guess it was good we did it...I had to go help on the yurt floor as we found out we have less time than we thought...it was a bit messy from the beginning... First we didn't have the yurt measurements and then we had no idea when exactly it would finally arrive...

All that added to the stress, but well, we had to keep going...

Lyna treating the wood with Borax... 

Preparing the lime mix in a wheelbarrow... It´s hard work I tell you...

I was using the lime to level the bricks, where the plywood would sit... the inside is already filled with gravel... it's going well...

and the Yurt arrived from France, together with all of Lyna's stuff...she's happy and excited... but the rain came again, so we had to have a little break... some patience, trusting that the yurt material will be ok... I'm sure it will be fine...but Lyna got a bit nervous...

while it was raining I took a bunch of palette boards and other bits and was determined to literally make my bed... I moved from the upper bed more than a week ago, and stored lots of winter stuff, like blankets and some stuff that other people leave behind waiting for the day they might return (that might never happen)... I didn't manage to make a proper platform for the futon because there was not much time... I just put some pallets in but it was not so well leveled, so I was not sleeping so well for a while...

It only took me 4 hours of thinking, sawing, nailing and checking if it was leveled to get it done...it seemed strong and nice... and it was, I slept like a baby...

I really enjoy building things...

I'm missing gardening a bit, especially in this season when most things should be sown... we have lots of seedlings still to plant, but I haven't got the time to prepare a place for them...

I did work a bit here... an experiment... our young nectarine tree was looking bad (every year the leaves got this illness people call "leper") and the lemon tree next to it doesn't look as healthy as it should... so I thought about improving the soil around as I learned from permaculture and forest gardening... 

I transplanted 2 rosemary bushes that needed to be transplanted, and 3 small Mimosa trees (acacia family), to fix nitrogen... I covered the soil with card-board so the weeds won't come back...I brought lots of compost from the shit pit, the kitchen compost, and mulched it on top with mimosa cuttings... on this nice mulch bed I planted lots of beans (also to fix nitrogen)...and lets see what happens... my neighbors would probably think I'm crazy to plant Mimosas when they are such invasive trees (for them useless because they don't "give you money")... but they have many good things as well... they are nitrogen fixers in the first place, they grow fast, they are good for mulch, fairly good fire wood, they are ok for building if they don't get wet, the flowers have an amazing scent which bees also love and we could even make soap with them one day, or even use the pollen to eat... under the bark is filled with tannin, and the Aztecs even used it to heal wounds... it all sounds great to me...
but, in this experiment, I'm going to control it so it doesn't invade that space (we have lots everywhere already)... my idea is to use them to fix nitrogen in the soil, and as they grow fast, I will use the cuttings to mulch the lemon and the nectarine tree... we'll see what happens!!!

We need to finish Lyna's Yurt floor, and get ready for our Strawbale building workshop... I'm looking forward for it...

PLEASE SHARE , it will be from the 27th May to the 3rd June...and costs 200E, with food and camping included...

The seeds are sprouting out...

This post is just to keep my promise to the ones who participated in the last PDC...

Here´s a picture of the mulch bed you all made... within 2 weeks the seedlings are already quite big ... even though Muxima tried to sabotage it several times ...

you might need to enlarge the picture to see it ... I just took it with my phone from the washing dishes place...

It has been raining like crazy again...but the sun will come soon !!!
Love to you all

Resume of the Permaculture Course in March

Finally I'm having the time to write about the Permaculture course...even though I did write a bit on my blog ...

sorry about that, but after all the work and preparations, I needed a little break afterwards and I was not so fond of siting in front of a computer...

Once again the course was brilliant... the people whom I got to meet are amazing and we had really good times together...

either in the teachings,

around the table during meals,

chopping vegetables,watching mind-blowing documentaries and

hanging out around the fireplace at night...lots of talented musicians I have to say ... It was really nice !!!

I missed a bit of the social aspect because I was also running around doing other things, and in the evenings I was just ready for an early sleep...

I also had to take Christian to the hospital...Oops...he was swinging with a rope on one of our tall Cork tree and hit a rock with his knee... he actually moved the rock out of its place...Ouch!!! he was more excited with it than disturbed... he wouldn't stop taking pictures in the hospital...the nurse was nice too...it looked painful though...

I had really good times with everyone... And it was lovely to be with Lesley again... the more I know her , the more I have to say - She's amazing !!! And all of us here in Portugal ought to be grateful for her teaching and training so many of us will be the future teachers and practitioners of Permaculture here.

It was nice to see the ones I already knew, but most of them I didn't know... so different and interesting people... It's encouraging to see how the portuguese are really interested and involved in permaculture projects, or simply awakening to see the world with different eyes...and willing to do something about it...

The weather was not so bad, but we did have some rain and one day the wind was really annoying...
But everyone was fine with it... at least I didn't hear many complaints...anyway, what could we do?! We are all here to learn how to live with the natural elements, right?

I have to say that I was rubbish at taking pictures... I just forgot about it completely...

If those who were at the course would like to leave a comment with your perspective on it, it would be great...
Thank you all ... I really enjoyed it !!!

getting ready to make the design!!!

preparing the mulch bed... even when the rain was threatening ...

another group preparing for the design...

...and another group...

a nice capture while I was filling up the water containers at the spring...

one of many nice evenings around the fire... I missed most of them, but the ones I managed to be present I really enjoyed...

first group presenting their design... Kin, Filipa and Ana...

really cool structures...

second group...Christian, Hilko, Sonia and Nina...

Each one explaining different details...

after each group presented their design we would all give our opinion... one thing we liked, and one thing we would make different (no negative opinions here...I like that )

After lunch the sillyness came...really fun!!! the sun helped the mood !!!


the third group...Silvia, Valter and Susi...

nice ideas... lots of recycling bins 

and the final group... Ulli, Catarina e Irene...

lots of ideas for the garden and all sorts of plants´ combinations.

sunday night, we all went to the village to have dinner... it was really fun...

Kin brought the guitar and played some nice tunes... we even had a dance hall

Anyway, it was a really pleasant week for all of us I believe... more seeds spread... more hope to see what will come out of it ... I'm already looking forward to the next one in August... 

and the Strawbale workshop, very soon, from the 27th of MAY to the 3rd of June...