3rd PERMACULTURE COURSE

It's been a while since I last posted , but I've been quite busy in all sorts of things these last months...after the strawbale workshop I was in USA for a peace and reconciliation camp...check out for more here or here if that interests you... when I came back I found lots of work to be done, mainly cutting wild grass and brambles which were totally taking over...plus, a broken solar water heater :-( that I still have to find time to fix before winter...
Another Permaculture course was about to come, so that was my priority...part of the grass/weed cutting was also to provide the camping place and to clear the walking paths for the 15 participants who would arrive for the course, plus Lesley of course, the teacher...

I started to build the new compost toilet that I thought it was needed for the extra number of people on site :-)...

I didn't finish it, but I made it ready to be used... anyway, I will leave the compost toilet for another post...

The course was great as usual... It's always nice, encouraging and inspiring to have like-minded people around... and in some way, reminding myself of the reason why I'm here...
It was lovely for me to host all those who came, and have the privilege to cook for all of us during the 8 days of the course... the first couple of days Lyna was still here and Marcia also came for the weekend to give a hand... but I realized it would not be a big deal (I was a bit worried that it might have been)...
Despite the heat, I guess everyone was coping well with the conditions we can offer at the moment...
There was a couple from Germany, Hannes and Johanna, who came with 2 kids, around 2 and 4 years old, Lina and Finn, who also add to a good and definitely entertaining environment around us :-)

Here's Finn playing with some wood boards together with uncle Georg...
Georg, uncle Justus (both Hannes' brothers), and the parents, would take turns to skip the lectures and be with them :-) ...it worked perfectly ... they would also entertain themselves quite easily, either with the dogs or with dirt, or a simple bucket with water :-)

the classroom...

the usual "sheet mulch", practical time...

now split in groups, they started to prepare for the final presentations of their designs...some more focused...

others, rather relaxed :-)
...In the end, they all did great... I always get amazed with the results of a day work with a group of people who hardly know each other...and who don't know much about this place besides the few questions they make me before starting to work...

here's the first group: Ricardo, Jo and Filipa...

Ricardo filling in more details...

Vera, Pepa, Susanna and Francisco... The second group... very concerned with the handicapped accessibility...

As usual, everyone would hear the feed-back from the rest...nothing negative... only what we liked, and what we would do differently...

Forth presentation...Johanna, Hannes, Georg...and I guess Nelson was in this group but had to leave on saturday cuz he had a ferry to catch up to Madeira Island, where he lives with his wife Maria Jose... But Hey, there's little Lina to replace :-)...

Here's Hannes, presenting some details... very good, low cost and practical ideas... Hannes also took some part on the lectures to speak about the peak oil... I'm sorry I've missed it, but Lesley said it was really good and detailed facts ... One of this things that many people should be hearing about, or at least be conscious about...and hopefully, be acting about it :-)... here is a good video if you wanna have more clues about it... a very powerful example of Cuba on how to change our petrol dependent life styles ...

And another presentation... Pedro, Moy (Susanna's husband), Justus...

...and Maria Jose (Nelson's wife)...

And so, they all got their certificates and most of them left that same afternoon...
The German family only left on tuesday to get their bus in Fundao, and Jo was going to stay 10 more days...
I was exhausted I have to say, specially because I got a floo in the middle of the week and took me a while to recover...actually most of us got the floo... it all started with little Lina, and then it spread... oh well... it was worst for Lesley who had to teach, but the rest of us did fine under the circumstances...

One more course, one more good experience ...
soon I'll write about the compost toilet that is about to be finished.

PEACEFUL DAYS TO ALL

STRAWBALE BUILDING DONE...

I thought I would have time to post every couple of days, but in the end I just didn't have the energy for it...so, this will be a bit long... but most of it pictures and videos, don't worry :-)
here's the last day picture with all who got involved... except for Xico and Nuno who left us before...and Carin, a french girl who also joined us during the week... oh, and I have no idea where Lyna was...probably puting Nolan to sleep :-)...

So, from the left to the right, there's Katharina (a traveling potter from Germany), Lua and her daughter Kiara who came to help in the kitchen (portuguese), Zven, a carpenter from Germany, Eddie in the back (also a carpenter from Germany), Chrissy, also german (a studying nurse, who was actually quite handy when I cut myself with a machetti), Jo , another carpenter from Germany (they were very handy as well), Marcia, who came from Lisbon to serve us once again, Lesley, who led the workshop, and me...
It was a really lovely time with everyone and I was pleased to meet Katharina, Chrissy, Carin, Xico and Nuno... the other ones are already family :-)...

It was amazing what we could all accomplish in one week... I still have the roof cover and the plaster to finish, but the building is up and safe already !!!

So, let me just put some videos and pictures for you to have a rough idea of how things developed ...

Here's the beginning of the 3rd day... the first layout of the bales...not much words...I was still shy to speak :-)


few steps forward... with more explanations of what we were doing :-)...


Eddie and Jo explaining how to break a strawbale in two... first part :-)


second part ... and more on the building...


Jo checking if the wall was going straight...


every one had their task at times... Eddie, Nuno and Lesley puting the steel bar at the corner, while Zven was checking the window frame...


Xico and Lesley putting a temporary board to hold the window frame...


sweet Kiara !!! always around ...


starting with the roof...


first "A" frame for the roof...the carpenters were on the case !!!


corner detail...


It was not always easy... :-) nice picture of Xico and Nuno...


make sure it would be straight... it's not easy to work with logs... even for professionals... I loved learning nice and simple techniques...


on place...


nice picture of Xico with his camera...


pealing the mimosas we would use to fix the broom on top of the tin roof...


Jo fixing the window...


the hardest work was about to start... Jo and Katharina helped us with their skills with clay to find good soil with enough clay for the plastering... I showed them a place where I want to have a pond in the future and they liked the soil there...very handy !!! now, the digging and carry part had to be done


taking as much stones as possible...


and now yes...the fun part of it !!!


everyone wanted to give it a go ...


Zven making the door... he likes to use the chain-saw for everything... even the more detailed things... amazing !!!


Lua was not only helping in the kitchen... I loved that she was with us... such a beautiful person...


in the last night we treated ourselves with a lovely dinner at a local restaurant... even though we came super late, they still managed to feed us :-)... it was nice to relax and enjoy each other's company...



last details before leaving... the door handle...beautiful and cute !!!


smiling Marcia... Thanks for all your help, for your presence, your friendship...for who you are... you are amazing !!!


and finally...a big clap to ALL who made this happen!!! Thanks...

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 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... that gave me time to do all the shopping for building material 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...hands on work...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... beautiful!!! Great idea !!!

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

Meanwhile, me, Jo, Zven and Xico went to the woods to chop 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 and get that, together with the tin plates for the roof...

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 also , who is actually from the village nearby, Povoa de Atalaia, who also comes to help in the kitchen... she's a funny one ...
And that was the first day...

First thing 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's literally makes us "tired" :-)

a wise patch from the carpenters... so we can use only 2 boards on a row... everything 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 , where the earth oven will be...

next step was to prepare the place where the bales would be piled up... with huge nails up ...the board on top is just a safety measure till we start laying the bales tomorrow... the truck straps are on 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 great ?!!!

It's taking a bit more expenses than I was expecting though, and 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 if we'll be able to put on the insulation or not... it's quite expensive, or a much longer hard work with sheep's wool or recycled coark...


Anyway, I'll try to post as regular as I can, to avoid a really loooooong post at the end... I hope you are enjoying this as much as we are :-) Be inspired !!!