I am sitting at my desk writing a post. This feels like a massive achievement. It’s been too cold to work in this room for over two months, the website has been broken, and I have also been a bit broken. My allergies returned the day after I stopped breastfeeding and I had to manage children while I had a fever last Monday and Tuesday which is brutal, as all parents know!
But today I am OK! My mind is full and things feel rather chaotic. My summer plans got thrown into array yesterday by Bernat’s family which is something I haven’t started on yet. The thing about life, and about the complex dynamic systems we are part of, is that everything is ALWAYS shifting around.
This feeling of surfing from wave to wave and occasionally getting wiped out – it IS life. I have two kids, an ex-partner, I run a business and a project, a flat in BCN and the volunteer accommodation in Caseres, and I am part of a housing cooperative, and I’m planning to move out of BCN to a new town in September. So yes, if my life is designed with all that in it, then I will accept the ride. Keep calm, keep my head above water, and when I’m surfing a wave it’s amazing!
Boodaville finca and Rovira Regenerativa
We planted 4 big trees that Priya grew from seed. The chances of survival are not amazing, but let’s see!! We still have two oaks in the pot and are thinking about the spot for them. The rocket stove threw out so much smoke we got the shock of our lives when the carbon monoxide alarm went off!!! I vaguely knew we had one, but had no idea where it was or how to switch off and reset. I’m improving the rocket stove design this week to help get the chimney drawing even when it’s cold and there’s no wind.
Alessandro and Olivia have been working with Nick pruning the olives, making a knew rubbish structure, and mulching the terraces with the prunings. They finish their volunteering in a week!
Every week Boodaville is looking tidier and we want to be ready in March for a group weekend with our new “Regenerative Community” program. A good goal
For Rovira Regenerativa Angela has done a great job creating the webpage and getting in information out about our Regenerative Weekends. Now we have so many volunteers (4 are starting in March!), we are excited that they can also help with fertilizing the fields and pruning the grapes. Lou has been learning syntropic agrictulture with The Green Rebel and ordering more exceptional quality horse manure from Windchaser Ranch
other Boodaville projects
Saying goodbye to Alessandro and Olivia : After six months they are leaving next week! Olivia played padel in Caseres with some people from the village last week. I don’t think any volunteer before her has ever integrated to that level.
Saying hello to 4 volunteers from Pistes Solidaires: From the beginning of March we have 4 volunteers in the flat. They will be helping out at Mas La Llum – particularly with the Youth Exchange, as well as working at Boodaville and with Pere Vidal for some weeks. To cover costs Boodaville is taking these volunteers as hosts only, the coordinators are our partners in France.
Boodaville ESC volunteers in July: On 1st July we will welcome 2 new Boodaville Caseres volunteers for 6 months each, and 2 new Boodaville Barcelona volunteers for 12 months each. These positions are not advertised yet, but if you are interested please contact us!
Youth Exchange RegenerACT: This 12 day program is in June at Mas La Llum. We are looking for about 4 more participants from Spain. The application form will be published in March if you are interested the infopack is here!
overall admin of the Asociation
The website is functional again! There are many hours of work to put all the photos and translations back, but the most recent posts and pages are up and almost perfect!! Right now I need to translate this and check it all works to plan
Angela and I are working on a communication plan as I’ve been very lost recently about how to get people’s attention!! I think I need to have one day a month where I do all the instagram stuff and schedule it for that month. Then I really want to get up and running on Bluesky with a strategy, and on LinkedIn too. And maybe we abandon Facebook altogether with the current crazy world, and obviously we stopped using Twitter (currently called X) a while ago. Telegram has it’s own controversies of course, but overall I think we’re good with that. We have a Boodaville channel and that should be a big part of our strategy maybe?
We are actually very close to getting the permissions as a fully legal “Boodaville – Classroom in Nature” now!!!
And to finish just a huge Thank You to Angela for coming on board with Boodaville and helping us move in a great direction. And sending loads of love to Jessica who has had a really really bad month.
