Wintertime Images

Winter in Misiones has been brief and lovely, and aside from a short break, activities around here have been hip and happening. Our friend and new neighbor Matias is getting set up, and we have helped him set up his teepee home.

Bamboo poles and a rainbow painted tarp. He's starting his farm life in style!
When the trees were abundant, we harvested bags full of Mandarina oranges:
And the garden: full of life and a few surprises...

The ninja-planted sunflowers poked their sneaky heads up just before a mini-cold spell:Oh, sweet amaranth, just before we harvested the grains for planting and popping:

And now we are in full swing for spring planting. Flats being prepped with peppers and tomatoes, and all their friends:
Lulu in her firepit lounge:

The farm foodies section: Here, grilled peppers 'n' eggs for the vegetarian barbeque option:
Homemade reeces experiment?:The Mandarinas converting to marmelade:


And a bit of earthen building, just the touch ups, to keep our hands muddy:
Roof work: Prepping our next building project

Yoga-tastic!

Thanks to all the lovely yoga folks who came to Misiones for the "Yoga y Conciencia" retreat. 
Many Blessings!!

April-licious!

 

What a busy month!! Flowers and ducks and mud houses and all!  Whew!

We got ducks!!!  A happy couple to waddle our delight (and eat up the grasshoppers in our garden.)

 The House on the Hill got a floor...

and doors and windows too!

...and then we moved into it!  Pardon the moving chaos.

The happy couple: LadyDuck and Pato

Lulu loves the ducks too!

This is the corn we harvested, dried, and nixtamalized into corn tortillas.

Mmm.. eating those corn tortillas for our Mexican fiesta! 

Finishing up the internship, we painted the Cosmic Cabin, emphasizing its natural cosmic glow.

The garden-- lots of plantlings in the ground and many winter crops starting to poke up their heads.

Bonus Photo:  Squash Peace.  A garden harvest.

Yoga Retreat!

"Yoga & Sustainability"

Come join us for a yoga retreat
in the sub-tropical jungle of Misiones, Argentina!

What to expect:

• Two guided asana yoga courses daily, including a morning Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga, Jivamukti-style, or Hatha, and an evening Restorative practice.
• Pranayama breathing techniques and practice
• Kriya cleansing work
• Evening meditations

All levels welcome! (Beginners, advanced practitioners, and all the inbetweens.)

Course Date: Wednesday, May 9 -- Sunday, May 13, 2012

Where: Mama Roja Sustainable Living Center, Campo Ramon, Misiones, Arg

Meals:

Fresh delicious vegetarian meals provided from our garden harvests and other local farm produce. Three meals and an afternoon snack, enjoyed communally.

Accomodation:

Shared earthen cabins (on a first come first serve basis) or you may bring your own tent and camp out in one of our lovely forest sites.

What else?

There will ample time in the day to explore the surrounding jungle, hike up to the waterfall, swim in the rivers, relax in the hammocks, ask questions about our sustainable living project, and enjoy!

Teachers:

Kimberly Gossett (long-time practitioner of Ashtanga yoga, Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher, Reiki Master Healer, Sustainable Living Teacher)
Ashley Cooper (Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher, Buena Honda Yoga, Sustainable Earth Yoga)

Course Cost: $1000 pesos Arg
Cabin Cost: $200 pesos Arg

Course size limited. Reservations required.

Possiblities of extended stay and volunteering at Mama Roja after the retreat.

For more information or to make reservations, contact Kimberly at mama.roja@yahoo.com.

Also available: Swedish or Thai massages, Reiki healing, and Chakra cleaning/balancing work

For other local yoga workshops: "Yoga and Conciencia" Retreat at Chacra Mariposa May 4-7, 2012. See www.sustainableearthyoga.com for more details.

Marvelous March Mud Mushrooms

The Internship continues with a wild ride through March. We have been working on many projects throughout the month, always learning and growing.
Why can't we wear mud too? If it's good enough for the walls...
The "rainbow" sheet mulch garden going in. Later planted with pineapples, radishes, cucumbers, and some flowers too.

Loofahs getting ready for scrubbing our backs. The rest of the garden is gorgeous too.
Mushroom watch-out and identification.
Gotta make use of the rainy days. Making medicinal balms......and peanut butter on its way.Monkey, our kitten, of course is the hardest worker of all. So many laps, so little time.

The micro-hydro dam. We have started with sand bags to seal off one section fromt he river water.

Digging down to encourage the water to move around our sandbags, not under.Stomping them into place.
We took a ride down the road one evening to join a local protest against the giant dam "Garabi" that the Argentine and brasilian governments want to put in on the Uruguay river, which will flood many people out of their homes, destroy a lot of land, and cause an ecological catastrophe in a large portion of Misiones. The children at the protest were the most adamant, and for good reason, simce they stand to lose their family houses, their schools, and even their heritage.
At the building site, the house on the hill, with lots of helping hands to put up the plaster.
The first layer of plaster over the adobe bricks.
Also, the roof is framed for the second half of the house. For the future, of course...
Marcelo and the mud tree.
The inside plastering gets smoothed out as we finish up the second coat.
Car windows and cob to close off the top of the house.
Almost finished up there...

Our field trip to the Chacra Suiza. As usual, a rewarding experience. Here is a group shot over the "hot bed" prepped for winter planting.

And our parting bonus shot: Caught by surprise after a day of work...