Giving Thanks

So much to be grateful for in this life!

We spent a whole day giving thanks for all the blessings in our lives, including friendship, health, love, the sharing of knowledge, growth in learning, and the joy of community. And of course we ate our way into a delirious food-inspired bliss.
We fired up the earthen oven and made empanadas, breads, pumpkin pie...etc, etc.

To top it all off, a friend shared with us the art of aerial acrobatics on a silk cloth suspended from a tree! So much fun, if not extra challenging from the weight of our full bellies.

Let's not forget to give deep gratitude to the garden (and her spirits) for blooming full of food and lessons.

Taller de Bioconstruccion

What a wonderful weekend workshop! November 5-6, 2011

Folks came out to put their hands in the mud and learn a bit about earthen building.

It was a lovely sharing experience between our international interns, local Misioneros and visiting Paraguayans.Gracias a todos por su participacion y buena energia.

smiling flowers pokey bugs october

The gladiolas are bringing in the hummingbirds, the mud house is climbing upwards, and the smiles are glowing as we round out this month of internship adventures.
The walls are mudding up lovely, with bottles and window holes and dreams of sweet inhabiting.

The bathroom marked for the bathtub and dry composting toilet.
So many smiles...
...and concentration in keeping with the line... if that's your style.
'Tis that season again, and the caterpillars are poking all around us...
Calendula flower balms on their way. Here infusing in sunflower oil...
Anybody know the name of this flower?? It has appeared in our gardens for two years now, and we are just curious if it has medicinal or edible properties...
In the garden-- green beans on their way...
...and fava beans on the plate...

And as always, the baked delights just keep rolling out... this time, bagel explosions!
The local school kids did their Ecology Fair presentation on Mama Roja happenings and their in-school implementation of environmental care... and won! Now they go to the state fair and keep spreading the good work!
Of course, the interns did their share to help the kids out on their project... earthen mini-models of the on-goings at Mama Roja. Fabulous!Bonus Photo: The birth of the winged...

Mud People, Pigs, and Flowers

Mud building is in full swing, and we just can't keep everyone clean! The house on the hill is looking great as we stack up the adobe bricks.
There doesn't seem to be a problem instigating laughter with this group!
Meanwhile, Mother Nature is doing her great work of supplying us with flower delights everywhere. Here, the garden chicory is starting to set up for seed now that the heat is creeping in.
The gift of flowers and loving helping hands.
And more baby plantlings on their way!
Also going in: bean trellises, sheet mulch gardens, keystone sesame beds, and the fields of mandioca and peanuts, amaranth, quinoa, and chia. Just trying to keep the birds from over-sharing their fair share!
Holy hogs! We got a pig! Her hobbies seem to include eating, spilling her water container 14 times a day, eating, oinking at the rooster, eating, rearranging the mud in her pin, eating, and oh, eating.
Also, we have hesperadina (an old family liqueur recipe) and mulberry wine on their fermenting ways!
The castle composting toilet is also getting re-loved up. Soon, we will all be on the throne of life connecting with the royal cycle!
Now that is stacking to a tee! The music must not stop just because one must wash clothes!
Bonus Photo: The Lirio, or Ground Orchid, in process of opening -- the same flower as the first photo above, but this shot was taken about 10 minutes earlier

Chicks, Kids, and the House on the Hill

Everything is in motion! Spring springing out!

We hosted about 20 kids from the local elementary school, helping them develop a class project on ecological living. They asked tons of questions, touched and smelled the garden plants, stuck their hands in compost, patted the Earthen buildings, marveled at the dry composting toilets, quizzed the interns, and awed at the rocket stove-prepared lemon grass tea! Gorgeous sharing experience, and our neighbors told us their kids just couldn't stop talking about the "farm at the bottom of the valley."

The same week the children came to visit, our mama chicken hat

ched a proud crew of spring cheepers. More to come next week...

We have been working in the gardens and the fields, and sprouts are popping up everywhere. (photos next entry...)

Also, the new building is underway, being floored and roofed, sometimes simultaneously! Since we are building on a hill, we decided to make it flow with the natural levels of the earth, giving it 3 different floors. Here you see the retaining walls and roof posts:

The roof frames (giant hardwood triangles) were built on the ground and then hoisted up into place.

The hoisting went like this: everyone lift the heavy upside-down triangle together and push one side up (leaving the tallest man on his tippie-toes), and then another coordinated heave and heft to get the other side up. Then the flipping: two guys on ladders, two on ropes, one with a tall stick in the middle, someone yelling orders, pushing, breathing, heaving... and voila! one was up... whew.

...only 6 more to go...

What an experience! A real blessing to have so many hands to help heave and hoist, and then admire it with afterwards.

Next step... hauling dirt in to fill the floor levels, and pack it down with our handy stump-stomper. Now we are ready to put up some Earthen walls!

In between all the building and gardening, we took a field trip out to professor Eric Barney's workshop to see his wacky and genius renewable energy creations. Homemeade wind turbines, water pumps, micro-hydro spinning electrical what-have-yous, and organic yerba mate.

Bonus Photo: Dead Beautiful Things in the Palm of Our Hands