New projects about to finish...

We've been having hard work weeks... mainly making a floor for Lyna's yurt, but also a wood shelter and a bit of gardening...
We had Lyna's friend, Aurelie visiting for few weeks and a couple from Czech Republic for a week...
But here goes 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...

bricks layer... we were trying to use the least lime as possible, so we simply stuck 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...yep, 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 a little clown...

exhausted !!! siesta time :-)

our wood shed 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 in the yurt floor as we found out we have less time than we thought...it was a bit messy from the beginning all the yurt measures and date of arrival...a bit stressy, but well, we had to keep going...

Lyna treating the wood with Borax...

Preparing the lime...hard work I tell you...

I was using the lime to level the bricks, where the plywood will seat... the inside is already filled with gravel... it's going good...

and the Yurt arrived from France, together with all 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 got determined to literally make my bed... I moved from the upper bed more than a week ago, and stored there lots of winter stuff, like blankets and the many stuff that other people leave behind waiting for the day they might return...hmmm... I didn't manage to make a proper platform for the futon cuz there was not much time...I just put some pallets but it was not so well leveled, so I was not sleeping so well for a long 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 stuff :-)

I'm missing gardening a bit, specially in this season when most of 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...

but I did work a bit here... an experiment... our young nectarine tree was looking bad (every year the leafs 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 with some things I learned from permaculture and forest gardens... so, I transplanted 2 rosemary bushes that needed to be transplanted, and 3 small Mimosa trees (acacia family)... 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...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 cuz they don't "give money")... but they have many good things as well... they are nitrogen fixers in first place, they grow fast, good for mulch, fairly good fire wood, good for building if they don't get wet, the flours have an amazing scent and we could even make soap, or even use the polen 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 gonna 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 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...
IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOME MORE ATTENDANTS, SO, PLEASE PASS IT ON TO THOSE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED
it will be from the 27th May to the 3rd June...and costs 200E, food and camping place included...

The seeds are sprouting out...

Just to keep my promise to the ones who participated on the last PDC...
Here´s a picture of the mulch bed you all made... with 2 weeks they are already quite big :-)... even though Muxima tried to sabotage it several times :-)
you might need to enlarge the picture to see it , eh, eh... I just took it with my phone from the washing dishes place...

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

Resume of the Permaculture Course in March

Finally I'm writing about the week of the Permaculture course...even though I did wrote a bit on my blog ...
sorry about that, but after all the work and preparations I needed a little break and I was not so fond of seating in front of a computer :-)

Anyway, 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 fire place at nights...lots of talented musicians I have to say ...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...ups...he was swinging with a rope 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 fun too...it looked painful though...
but I did 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 great !!!
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 awaking 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?!!

ok, now I will just post some pictures...I have to say that I was rubbish taking pictures... I just forget to take them...
and 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... :-)

one of many nice evenings around the fire...which I missed most of them :-)


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 :-), eh, eh..really fun!!! the sun helped the good 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 plant's names...nice !!!


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 real 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 for the next one in August... and the Strawbale workshop, very soon, from the 27th of MAY to the 3rd of June...

LAST PREPARATIONS ...

Soon we'll have around 20 people coming for the Permaculture design course and we still have some last preparations to be done...But so far it's all going well... we finally have hot water coming out of the solar water heater, but I'm still making sure every junction is well sealed ... here's the picture of the final look of the soalr heater, but you can see the last details ...





the box finally finished and the inlet and outlet pipes in place...

making the edges with lime for the glass to lay on...and putting a wooden structure all around every edge...

checking how the drum would fit inside and making a wooden structure for it...

And finally ... putting the insulation , fitting the drum, making the last pipe connections , and at last laying the glass on top, sealed with silicone... we just tried it out to check if there were any leaks inside before sealing...and for our amazement, the water does get pretty hot :-) Yiiipyyy...warm showers from now on... it was a lot of work and I could learn and experience working with different materials and tools...but it was fun and definitely rewarding !!!
Now I just need to plaster it well with lime... and I have to finish the last connections to the shower place ...

speaking about it, here it is... it has been a hard and creative work of joe who is visiting us from Germany...he's leaving today, and it was an angel coming on the right time... Thanks Joe!!!

here he is , around with the lime and sand :-)

digging, digging, digging... in order to bury the pipes from the solar heater and cold water drum into the shower and bath place...

Lyna is working on the creative details which make the place more pleasant...

all the walls from the bath and shower place are made with recycled pallets... which gives lots of room for creativity in order to make it look a bit nicer :-) ... it's becoming really beautiful and cute I have to say...

And that's all...we still have a long and hard working week ahead before the course as we need a big shelter for it... I got a 10x8 meters tarp, and that would make a pretty big shelter... so, we need to go cut some mimosa trees for the structure...
But I believe it will all be fine... can't wait for next week !!!

And here's Muxima enjoying her restful sunday morning... I couldn't help but take this picture :-)

Ok, now I go for a nice warm bath :-)