Tag: living permaculture

Boodaville Volunteers 2021 – Maria and Gloria

Post author By Antonia
Post date October 8, 2021
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Boodaville Volunteers 2021 – Maria and Gloria

Gloria and Maria share about their experience volunteering at Boodaville this summer. They were part of the European Solidarity Corps volunteering project "Living Permaculture"

Gloria

I wanted to live a different experience this summer, to be in contact with nature, not be so connected with the computer and mobile and work on something more physical and manual. I have lived just what I wanted and I have learned a lot. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity. I was unaware of many things about nature despite being born surrounded by it but, when you live such an experience, you realize that how the land is normally cultivated is not the best way to do it using pesticides and creating monocultures.

Participating in a project like this changes your mentality and you become much more aware of what you consume and how you do it. In addition, I have acquired many other values of coexistence and care for people such as working in community and always being a team.
In my experience the feeling of self-improvement has increased a lot.
You don’t feel capable of picking up a drill until you pick it up and it starts to break the ground. You will not know if you will be able to transplant plants until you prepare everything and do it. Until you do, you don’t believe it.
For me, the biggest lesson has been learning the natural processes of the planet. We live in a society that goes too fast and does not give room for anything.
Living in a town of 200 inhabitants and working in a place like Boodaville, you learn to be more patient with all the cycles of nature, to work on empathy and to focus much more on the moment.
It has been a pride to work the land and take care of the animals together with other women and share our energy.

Maria

After a little more than 4 months in Boodaville I think I can already say that it is part of me. I started this experience without any kind of expectation or prejudice. I wanted to go with an open mind and receive all the information without having any prior idea.
That has been the key. The wide variety of tasks, activities and excursions that we have done have allowed me to learn things that I never thought I would learn. From chopping wood to planting tomatoes or taking care of 4 chickens, 1 rooster and 3 chicks.
On a practical level, each day has been different. And, on a personal level, the development has been unpredictable. An experience like this allows you to get to know yourself better and even find your goal in life.
I also appreciate the company, the conversations and the laughs with Gloria. Having been 2 volunteers this year, the relationship is close and communication has been essential. We have worked as a team and we have supported each other.
I recommend that anyone take a few months of their life, leave everything behind and get involved in a project or community. I feel stronger, more capable, freer and happier.

Antonia

I'm taking this year before university to try things out. Still searching and on my way to learning more and more about myself and the world around me. Sending out lots of love!

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permaculture

2019 ESC Volunteer Project

Post author By Lou
Post date May 14, 2021
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2019 ESC Volunteer Project

Reflections and learnings from our 2019 volunteers - including a video they produced soon after arriving.

We are here!

Posted on May 10, 2019

Dear readers of this Boodaville blog,

Together with spring the Boodaville season has started in April. But our adventure as ESC volunteers at Boodaville has just begun. Adam, Maria, Santiago and me, Inge, have been selected as this years long-term volunteers with Claudia and Gala as our much needed mentors. We are all super excited and honoured to become a part of this beautiful place and meet all the amazing people connected to it. For the coming seven months we will live at Boodaville and in Caseres. We will be working on the site, be active on social media and hope to become part of, and make new, networks with other permaculture projects.

For me personally these first two weeks as a Boodaville volunteer have already made a huge impact on me. Meeting my fellow volunteers, Claudia, Anna, and all the others who are passionate about permaculture and Boodaville has been the best of experiences. Leaving my old life, my family and friends behind for seven months has been both exciting and hard. Jumping into an unknown situation like this project should be. I can now honestly say that having the right people around you makes taking a huge step like this so much easier. The philosophy of permaculture is not only obvious in the way Boodaville is designed but also in the way we work together as a group. We seek solutions instead of focusing on the problems. Our differences are not important, we all respect each other and focus on those things that connect us.

So please follow us if you are interested in our journey and the amazing thing we are planning this season for Boodaville. We will post content on this blog, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook. We will also be present at the coming Maranya festival. Hope to see you there!

Reflections and learnings from our 2019 volunteers - including a video they produced soon after arriving.

Life of a Boodaville volunteer: May

Posted on Jun 17, 2019

So I here am, one month into my adventure. An adventure I share with my fellow volunteers, our mentor and our growing Boodaville family. A seven months journey into permaculture. A month does not seem much. Its only four weeks. Thirty one days of working in the morning, eating and relaxing in the afternoon and working some more in the cooling evening. All this while enjoying nature 24/7. The month May felt like a lifetime to me, but in the best way.

I learned that permaculture is based upon three principles: care for the Earth, fair share and caring for people (and animals!). When applying for this project I imagined most of my learning would be in caring for the Earth. And I have learned a lot, I learned how to use zais systems to regenerate the earth and get rid of your compost, how worms are not disgusting but beautiful hard working creatures. I learned that nature as a design inspiration leads to impressive gardens like our own Boodaville food forest. Also when you cut grass it gives the nutrients a chance to return to the Earth. A month ago cutting grass seemed to me a waste of time but I now consider it to be my new hobby.

But the thing I truly learned a lot about is caring for others (both people and animals). The sharing circles though often emotionally draining have made me realize many things about myself and others. And help me accept some of those. Living in a group, a community, a wolf pack, has both been amazing but also challenging. The key to being a successful group is not to never have friction but how you handle it. Storms may be gathering, rain may fall, it’s good for growing.

Last week I was asked if I have a motto. I found out that I do. “Perfection does not exist.” But striving for perfection is a noble cause. To me, permaculture seems a great way to at least try.

Thank you Boodaville for welcoming me so full of kindness!

Posted on Oct 23, 2019

“Everything that is really, really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom” – Albert Einstein

My first impression about Boodaville as a volunteer: Arrive – Breath – Stop your thoughts – Start working from inner silence. The first half of the day I spent with daily tasks of the very basic life in boodaville with feeding the worm compost, chickens, making wood chips for the food forest, cooking, having inspiring conversations with other volunteers,… The second half of the day I had the freedom to work on my inner processes. Everyone does this in a different way. I chose reading and meditating. Others use their time to learn Spanish or connecting with the land by riding a bike. So there is a lot of space of self-development, which creates amazing conversations and projects from everyone! On the weekend we had a great tree planting project going on. I learned about permaculture-principles and step by step we tried to bring the soil alive again, from really harsh conditions, the cultural way of farming have left for us.

In general I feel Boodaville is a place you can learn to build a new form of living together as society and learn to come back to your basic needs, slowing down from stressful life and reconnect with the environment by working with the land.

I really appreciate the people I met and the awareness of the freedom to choose every second from now on! People I met and the awareness of the freedom to choose every second from new on!

Sense of an ending, Boodaville 2019 (by Inge)

Posted on Jan 24, 2020

From the beginning of May until the end of November I was one of the lucky few who had the opportunity to work and live in Boodaville as part of my ESC project. Now my beautiful, intense, exhilarating, often frustrating and completely inspirational time in Boodaville has ended. Before I came to Boodaville I dreamed to one day be able to lead a sustainable, self-sufficient life. I dreamed about finding my place in this world. Finding people I can connect with on deep levels. Learning all the practical things I felt I did not learn in school. And hoped to have fun while doing all of this.

Boodaville made it possible for all the things I had dreamed about for so many years to become reality. The last seven months I learned to live without running water and electricity. I learned to take care of our gardens. How the plants actually look that provide us with food. I learned not to be disgusted by compost toilets. To see my human waste not as filthy, but as part of me and a vital fertilizing part of our ecosystems. Reality however brings with it negative things that did not appear in my dreams. There can be no good without the bad. And if you do not let the bad happen a lot of good things will also not happen. I had to accept sides of me I could ignore in my old life. I had to face frustration and pain. Not only my own but those of everyone in my community. And where there is a group of people, especially a group like ours with strong personalities, each from different backgrounds, different cultures, well conflicts will just arrive. You cannot help it. And maybe we should not want to. Because conflicts do not need to be bad, do not need to create pain, create division. They are a sign that people care. And when well handled they made us stronger. And while learning all of this, I had the best time of my live.

So I guess all that is left for me to say is thank you. The Boodaville site is a beautiful mixture and monument of all volunteers that passed through it. Boodaville as a place is simply amazing, and Anna deserves all our praise and gratitude for bringing it into existence. Matarranya and Terra Alta are both stunningly beautiful regions inhabited by the most generous and friendly people. Who welcomed me and the rest of our crew with love, food and a lot unasked but needed advice. I need to thank my fellow volunteers. The ones that were there with me from beginning until the end. And the ones that spent time with us. I am going to need years to truly realize how much you taught me. These months would not have been as amazing if you had been different people. So really thanks to everyone I met. Who proved to me that there are a lot of people that care. Care about our planet, about nature, about all animals and other living thing.

Lou

Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.

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2018 EVS Volunteering Project

Post author By Lou
Post date May 6, 2021
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2018 EVS Volunteering Project

In 2018 we invited two young people, as part of the European EVS programme to come and do volunteering in Spain. See their experiences and videos here!

2018 “Living and teaching Permaculture”

4th October 2018

Review from Jessica (her first ever blog post – when she was here as an EVS volunteer in 2018!)

I’m back in Boodaville. It’s great to be back and follow the rhythm of nature to guide our days. I miss that in our everyday society. It’s very interesting to see how my fellow Boodavillians have changed in the 2 months I’ve been away. They are so free. So confident. In touch with themselves and taking life day by day. It makes me realise how I have changed the last 2 months too. I adapted to life in our modern society again. Guided by the clock and appointments and my mobile phone. It is amazing how I bounced back into society life. Now I need time to bounce back in nature’s rhythm. The rhythm I prefer.

I’ve been doing various projects since I’m back. Redoing the insulation on the veggie fridge, making a functioning hay box (we need to find a new name for it… Aggelos suggested sheep box as it is insulated with wool now, not with hay). We lit the rocket stove we made this summer for the first time. It didn’t go very well, there was smoke coming out everywhere. Jordi, who is in charge of this project, calmly started to repair and showed me how I can make the best fire. He announced me the fire master. I’m also trying to bring a leather chair back to life by using the tools we’ve got. I love being creative. I keep surprising myself with the skills I never thought I had. I’m even learning Spanish. It’s hard to believe that I arrived only last week. So many things I have learned already.

Often we swim in the river and it’s not as pleasant as it used to be this summer. These days its more… refreshing I’ve got to say. And therefore getting in the water is turning into a challenge. I keep telling myself that it will make me strong and resilient. That works well so far. I wonder how long it will last.

23rd December 2018

This beautiful reflection is written by Aggelos one of two long-term volunteers this season:

Hello hello, probably for the last time, at least for this year. My EVS project has almost come to an end and it is in these moments when you think you would look back, remembering and reflecting upon experiences. But you don’t do it the usual way, just looking at photos, or wishing you relive some special moments because those moments are gone, they are in the past. That doesn’t mean you forgot about them but that they are a part of you now. You will never forget because you are who you are.

I cannot relate any more to the person I was when I first arrived in Boodaville. Frightened and scared that I had left everything behind, my friends, my family and the security of no change. The very first moments of complete sadness and without any sense of purpose. Looking around I could only see the emptiness and meaningless in everything. It was only when I talked to the people that were with me there about how I felt that I started to grow, to grow inside. No more wondering if I chose the right place, if I made the best decision.

“this was the first step to natural farming and reconnection with the true nature of all things. Because when you realise that the soil in your hand is not just a combination of water, minerals, organic matter and microorganisms but life itself, the essence of meaning, it is then you become whole not as a human but as part of everything.”

Living in Boodaville, in a way that most people would call primitive, can be frustrating and limiting at first. It is the mindset of the modern human, the prison in which he was born in not able to see the bars that would bring about his lust for escape. Letting go is the key for accepting the unfamiliar, the different.

After I got used to the facilities I learned to love them. Pooing and peeing in the ground to return the nutrients back to the earth, washing dishes with minimal water and soap, being aware that everything will end up in the soil, the element keeping as humans and a lot of other creatures alive. Even washing ourselves was done with the minimal impact on the surrounding environment usually in the close by river. As for our house, it was made out of stone walls and a green roof. The addition of a rocket stove, a very weird looking construction in which the wood burns more efficiently producing more heat which is distributed along a bench, made all the difference during the cold months of October and November. It was the result of team work from scouts, volunteers and the teacher.

In addition to the main house there was an old stone wall house next to it. My first very exciting task was to help rebuild the roof of that house with a bunch of other people also excited to work with natural materials. Bio-construction became something really important and fun for me.

Self-sufficiency is the desirable outcome of permaculture but it takes time to reach that point of a well established ecosystem that supports itself. The task was even harder considering the compacted lifeless bleached and withered soil in Boodaville. Years of ploughing destroyed the top soil and deprived the earth of organic matter and microorganisms. During my time in Boodaville one of my site tasks was to attend the future food forest, to water the trees growing there. But a lot of them died. We suspected that the soil’s compaction was to blame and when the time came just when the rain started we begun the regeneration process. Heavy mulching and planting winter plants such as cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, dill, artichoke and onions were performed. Sowing rye seeds and legumes as green cover completed the process of helping natural regeneration of the soil. When it was finished I could feel more free as I was thinking that this was the first step to natural farming and re-connection with the true nature of all things. Because when you realize that the soil in your hand is not just a combination of water, minerals, organic matter and microorganisms but life itself, the essence of meaning, it is then you become whole not as a human but as part of everything and nothing.

Our everyday life was as simple as taking care of ourselves but not in the egoistic and self-centered way we are taught to do. We were a community of people looking out for each other, cooking for everyone, working and learning together and supporting everyone when needed. The strongest feeling was that of the solidarity and the well being of the community. Everything was happening because of our determination and interest in building the future we think is necessary for a fair life in which the earth and the people are protected.

This core of people from different backgrounds interacting in an environment of pure cooperation was the result of similar goals and understanding of life. Consequently, the relationships build from our everyday communication and community life imagining the perfect future were like family relationships. The learning process was also quite different. Non formal education was possible because of the interests, diversity of people and their knowledge which allowed us to exchange information about almost everything and realise that you don’t need professors, universities and experts to learn things that are most useful for a life in harmony with the nature around us.

That is the most beautiful part of the story and in the same time the hardest one. When the time came to say goodbye after so many wonderful experiences like sleeping under the stars, playing music, singing, cooking together, sharing stories, laughing and just living the way we did we couldn’t believe that it was over.

I am so happy that I met all these people and so grateful for the time being together. I hope to keep meeting people like them that inspire me to keep fighting for the future I believe in. I will certainly continue searching for them and explore the path of permaculture wherever it takes me.

Lou

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2018 Wicking Bed

A wicking bed is a drought resistant garden, watered directly under the soil, so nothing is lost to evaporation and the soil is always moist.

25th April 2018

We finished the wicking bed. Here are the designs and photos of the process!!

Read more about wicking beds here : https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/wicking-bed-construction/

Lou

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Tags course, drought, ecological garden, education, living permaculture, mulch, nature, organic, permaculture, permaculture education, soil, water, wicking bed

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Fermenting

Jessica posts about life at Boodaville and what makes her heart sing, including fermenting; kombucha, sourdough and lactobacteria.

Let’s talk about things that make my heart sing at Boodaville. For example fermenting. I love fermenting stuff.

A volunteer from Cyprus, Olivia, came in May this year to Boodaville and introduced us to sourdough. She taught us how to create our own “sourdough baby” as we call it (during the season our baby literally grew up and we called it “masa madre”) and make the most delicious pita bread. Olivia moved on to pursue her sourdough career and we bake sourdough pita’s regularly. Sourdough is incredibly simple and tasty. Every day we feed our masa madre and “harvest” some already fermented sourdough to kick start today’s bread. If we want to pause it for a few days we put our sourdough baby in the fridge, if we want to pause it for a few weeks we put her in the freezer. As simple as that.

Kombucha is fermented tea, also introduced by Olivia. We have one big jar of kombucha and since that one is going really well and tastes great we split it up in several smaller jars and have experiments. All volunteers on site have at least one little jar to do weird experiments with. At the moment we have kombucha in an airtight container, apple-kombucha and tea-free kombucha. We taste and compare. Fail and try again. It’s fun. It’s also interesting to see how kombucha responds to outdoor temperatures. In summertime it fermented super fast. Winter has arrived and the kombucha is very very slooooowww…

Least favourite under the Boodavillians but the most fascinating to me are the lactobacteria. Lactobacteria are airborne, present everywhere and all they need is a nice home (which I created in a jar with starchy water and no lid) and it grows in a beautiful sour smelling substance. It is very effective to speed up the composting process, for example if our -usually odourless- compost toilet goes smelly. It produces a lot of gas during that process and when we once added lactobacteria to closed buckets of humanure permaculture teacher, Marc, almost freaked out. The pressure in the buckets could build up and the lid would explode off-sending our poo flying. That’s called learning from experience, isn’t it?

During a permaculture conference I learned how to multiply microorganisms for the compost toilet so that one is definitely on my to do list. And I’m still looking for a neighbour with some goats so I can start making cheese… hmmm… I love fermenting stuff.

Antonia

I'm taking this year before university to try things out. Still searching and on my way to learning more and more about myself and the world around me. Sending out lots of love!

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Tags boodaville, design, ecoliving, education, erasmus plus, EU Solidarity Corps, European Youth, kombucha, living permaculture, permaculture, permaculture education, pita, project, regenerative farming

permaculture Rovira Regenerativa

2019 Regenerative Agroforestry at Mas Les Vinyes

Post author By Lou
Post date October 19, 2019
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2019 Regenerative Agroforestry at Mas Les Vinyes

Notes and summary of ideas from the first weekend of the Regenerative Agroforestry course at Mas les Vinyes

Regenerative Agroforestery at Mas les Vinyes

Posted on Oct 19, 2019

I finally had the chance to visit the amazing Mas les Vinyes in September. The course on Regenerative Agroforestry is three weekends in total, and I’m writing to share my impressions and some of what I learnt at the first one. The weekend was absolutely brilliant – just to see the project was incredible, and we also had Carles and Sergi facilitating excellent sessions; theory, visiting the examples on site, and a practical, plus we stayed overnight and ate amazing food with the community there.

Even though the climate and land use is very different to Boodaville – it is greener and with a lot of animal grazing and grass – the sessions were really well adapted to give information to individual projects.

Boodaville has changed direction from the original permaculture eco-village plan, and as we see the world getting crazier, with people trying desperately to cling to power and money while environmental crises are not addressed, I am getting more and more interested in soil. Building soil. Fertile, nutrient filled, rich and bursting with life. Where fungus creates connections between different plants and trees growing together into a resilient ecosystem. The new direction is developing regenerative agriculture in the valley – a tough challenge in this water scarce, soil degraded area. I never thought I would be a farmer, but the impact of successful regenerative agriculture will be beautiful. And on the journey to get there, after ten years of creating, coordinating and administrating Boodaville, I now have the pleasure of learning, exploring, going out and connecting with other people and projects, and designing.

If you would like to know more about our new direction (including permaculture education, regenerative farming and ecosystem restoration please email me Lou : thegurney@gmail.com and I will send you information)

There is loads of info at Mas les Vinyes on their youtube channel and a great project EDUCA PERMACULTURA

SATURDAY MORNING – WHAT IS RA?

Sergi opens with a little speech about how Syntropic Agriculture won’t work in Spain as it uses loads and loads of water. I’m really interested in Syntropy and will bear this in mind and look forward to learning more!

What is regenerative? Productive, self-fertilising, healthy with no plagues, resilient (can withstand and recover from shocks)

What is degenerative? Production requires energy, requires nutrients, and leads to dead soil/ desertification

Jem Bendell is mentioned : DEEP ADAPTATION he wrote a paper on this as a way of coping with the collapse of our living systems and all the social craziness this has led to. The 4 R’s are Renounce, Resilience, Restoration, Reconciliation. Part of the process is to accept how bad things really are, to accept that people will be distracted by clickbait, and adverts, and continue as they have been “programmed to function” (words from the Lily Allen song “The Fear”!) Then you can find your way without these things damaging you, and engage with anyone. Ok I’m drifting off topic here…

We can adapt Regenerative Agroforestry (RA) to climate change, using Microclimates, Infiltration, the fact that forests have efficient, Slow transpiration rates – they don’t transpire all the water as soon as the sun shines like cereals (and rocket! Rocket will dry out your soil!!), Biodiversity, Low energy needs.

Characteristics of RA

tree layer
soil is a living element
symbiosis flora / fauna / micro fauna
efficient design

Types of RA

Food forest
Analogue forestry. This is where you imitate the natural forest of the region, but can use homologous varieties – so you might use a slightly more drought resistant variety of a tree, or a slightly different bush that produces fruit that humans eat, and this is agriculture, so you will be planting productive trees in the system. In permaculture design this would be in zone 3 / 4 much less maintenance than the food forest.

This picture is an analogue forestry design at Mas les Vinyes (MLV), they have replicated the forest behind using ecological surveying, and put the productive trees at the edges of the rows where they can be easily harvested. They have planted many species, indigenous and homologous trees imitating the climax forest behind. They only water the productive trees that are not native. (This project is also being funded by a research program – they are looking at what lives and dies to see how climate change may be affecting what natives live and die now)

They say there is a certification called “Forest (Garden) Product” so for responsible consumers out there you can look that up and buy even better than organic!

(more types of RA)

Alley cropping – they do some of this at MLV. Some crops do better in the “alleys” between the trees than they do without trees. This is part of the culture in many places not a “new” idea.

Check out the amazing Paulonia tree – a species that has loads of useful properties in RA systems – but needs a lot of water so no good for Boodaville.

River Agroforestry – this is illegal in Catalunya as within a certain distance from the river you aren’t allowed to farm. If you want to use animals in the system make sure they can’t get all the way to to river banks as their behaviour will increase erosion. I see a real potential for this in the bottom of the valley at Boodaville where there is no “river” but there is underground water – you can already see the bigger trees there making the most of the water available, it would be great to start putting some productive trees and designing a system around there.
Perimeter Agroforestry – where the trees follow a pattern on the design (NOT just the edges of fields around monoculture) but maybe following a swale/key line, or designing perimeters into your land to have more forest.
Silvopastoreo – animal agroforestry is what they do here at MLV.

Nice graph about mechanisation. Imagine mono culture cereal is 100% mechanisation – you drop down in the following order – alley cropping, 75%, perimeter about 60%, then silvopastoreo 50%, River about 40%, analogue 30% and food forest down the bottom at about 15%.

A tour of MLV

1st stop is the alley cropping, where we see rows of fruit trees with support species such as Eleagnus, Consuela, Buffalo Berry, Caragana. They have a nice Goji next to a Mulberry. Olivo ruso is in the system

2nd stop some “guilds” next to the veg garden. The border, at top of terrace wall is a great mix – rosemary, eleagnus and a pink flower ASK SERGI!!. They have a climber that got out of control, be careful with fast growing climbers. passion flower, nispero,

3rd stop analogue forestry

4th stop in the woods – they had cut down all the spikey, early succession bushes (the ones we get at Boodaville!) to leave space for sheep food and sheep?

Full list of species talked about with Sergi for Boodaville / water scarce poor soils

Cytisus Coronilla

Hippopae Rhamnoides – get male and femail, has yellow spine

Alfalfa Arbolia

Paulowina?

Capers?

Esparago

Pulsatilla (or something that sounds similar)

Cerbuxa (pruny kind of bush, something that sounds similar to this)

Caragana (Anna took seeds from Sergi)

Tanoceto (Anna took seeds from Sergi)

Palomera (?)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON – DESIGN

Process

define vision
analysis using permanence scale from yeoman. In order of permanent down to less permanent: – climate, topology (get a proper topological survey for new project – Jesus Ruiz can do this), water, roads/access, trees (dominant, abundant, frequent, occasional, rare, non-existent that would be expected), structures, sub-divisions, soil.
map of the land
sector analysis and preliminary zone map (Fire, Air, Water, Earth for sectors)
study of homologous ecosystems and biotic factors
define objectives of the system that need to be designed – including, market, economic, social ecosystem
have strategies like layers to cover time while trees go (eg growing veg under trees before they get to maturity)
define AR system to use
choose what to grow

Choosing what to grow :

decide on main cultivations, secondary cultivations, morfología y necesidades, and choose your support species. Support species have the following functions : mineral accumulators, creating organic matter, attracting insects, improving soil, covering soil.

SECOND PART OF DESIGN

proyección de especies
timeline for action
IMPLEMENTATION!!!

We then looked at two projects from members of the group and did an amazing application of all of the above, in about one hour we took two groups through the process and actually had half the design on the board! The best design session I’ve ever done.

Practical stuff that came up : If you are planting anything that competes for water put it more than 1.5m from tree. In general don’t plant permanent stuff closer than 50cm. Avellanas (hazelnuts) need 1000mm a year rainfall. oh. so maybe they won’t grow at Boodaville then.

SUNDAY – MICROBIOLOGY OF SOIL

Living soil has minerals, microorganisms and organic matter.

Aerobic microbiology makes humus. Anaerobic microbiology is what takes the minerals from the Roca Madre. Tractors mix these two, and that is BAD.

Structure : you need clay particles to hold soil together and the elements with a negative charge stick to clay (Ma, Mg, Z) The elements with a positive charge stick to the Roca Madre (mother rock. i’m sure it has a better name in English).

Fertility – Think about now, in the near future and in the long term. (This is where we have been going WRONG)

Fertility now : minerals are in the soil and water transplants them to plants once they are available.

Fertility for the next ten years : The soils needs organic matter. one way to get this is to let animals graze and eat 50% of the top of the plant. This doesn’t kill the plant (good) but also does mean the plant is damaged enough to lose 25% of its roots (good). The roots then become organic matter in the soil. So in RA we want to lose 50% of the plants at the top.

Plants auto regulate themselves, so if they lose leaves, then they will lose some roots. And if they lose roots, they will then lose leaves.

Ants take sugar (seeds, energy) down into the ground where they make fungus. Ants eat fungus. They even make different fungus in different places so they are resilient, and if some doesn’t grow, then the other ones will. Ants know more about different types of fungus than humans.

There are three pages of notes left!

Until I get another chance that is all for now

Lou

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Tags ecosystem restoration, living permaculture, Permaculture design, permaculture education, Regenerative Agroforestry, regenerative farming, soil

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2018 June New Roof

We built a new roof on the original building in 2018, with a LOT of insulation, eco materials where we could, and then more cement than we had planned.

Roof-constructing tales

Sep 16, 2019

We have seen Boodaville lately from a whole new perspective, the roof of the so called ‘old house’, to be more precise. The last week we have had to pleasure to work with Nick and continue the foundation laid for the roof last year. Also considering wet season will soon be upon us we have made some interesting water catching systems…

Water catching

We started by making the back of the house waterproof in two steps:

Creating a natural way for the water to flow a different route
Use stones lying around the make a natural dam

Then we attached a gutter and placed a water tank to collect rainwater.

Woodwork

Because we aspire to be as environmentally friendly as we can and use only natural products we treated the wood ourselves. First by burning the top layers to keep insect off and then treating it with linseed oil.

Ceiling

The planks are ready and are professionally put in their right places by Nick. We finished the sides of the house with bottles we found at the dump. We used cal to hold the bottles in place and finished the inside! And yes, it was as much fun as it looks! The end result is awesome!

Lou

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Tags Construction, Environmentally Friendly, living permaculture, Rainwater, watercatching

permaculture

2018 Rocket Stove

Building a rocket stove for Boodaville in 2018

25th January 2019

Great video showing the rocket stove in detail

The rocket stove was built in July 2018. Experienced rocket stove builder Jordi taught us how to create an efficient heater out of very simple and locally sourced materials. All we used was an old metal drum, metal L shaped pipe, bricks, tiles, soil, sand and straw.

The rocket stove has 2 major parts. The fire is fueled in the L-shape, the hot air goes up and then it’s sucked down on the sides of the L-shape and into the second part of the rocket stove. The horizontal part of the chimney doubles as a heated bench ( permaculture thinking; stacking functions!). Because the whole structure consists of a lot of mass, once it’s hot, it will stay warm for a long time slowly releasing the heat.

That’s as far as the theory goes. Reality kicked in when we lit the rocket stove for the first time… After building the stove in July, we first lit it in October. It was about 30°C outside so it was easy to collect some dry branches and off we went. Result; smoke coming out everywhere. The whole structure had developed small cracks as the organic “cement” made out of sand, soil and straw had dried up and started cracking. Now the stove was venting inside the house. It was horrible. So time to get a bucket with water and some clay and a brush to patch up all the cracks and holes. This gave the rough looking structure a smoother look. The next time we lit it the smoke wasn’t as bad and we could fix the cracks as the fire was going. That was an easy fix.

Time passed by and when hurricane Leslie came we knew for sure autumn had arrived. So I decided to light the rocketstove to warm us up and dry our clothes. Lighting it is not an easy job since the L-shape is only 22 cm in diameter so I had to use very small branches to make sure enough oxygen was available for a good combustion. I also noticed that the opening of the L-shape was too low to the ground to sit comfortably in front of it. I almost have to lay on the ground (this reminds me of roman style eating where rich people laid down while eating…) to feed the small branches into the opening. Note to self; if I happen to build another rocket stove, it needs to have an opening on eye level. But I soon learned that wasn’t the only problem…

Some days the smoke comes back into the house, even accompanied with flames. The rocket is supposed to rocket upwards, not straight into the house! Soon I realised this was caused by two problems. The first problem is the existing chimney built on the roof of the house. A short (2 meter) chimney sitting on top of a flat roof deep in a valley doesn’t catch much wind. There is some draft around the chimney needed to create an underpressure inside the chimney to direct the smoke in the right direction. So one day we had someone on the roof to wave a towel around next to the chimney to create some airflow. This was surprisingly effective! This poor person standing in the roof had to stay there doing the “wellness centre towel wave” until the hot air made it through the horizontal part of the chimney into the vertical part, where the rising hot air would find it’s way out. Not to self; the shorter the vertical part inside the house, the sooner the stove has the rules of physics working with it. If the inside tubing was shorter than the approximately 7 meters of vertical chimney we have so the whole system would heat up faster.

So a lack of breeze in combination with a short chimney on a flat roof down in a valley is not ideal. But the opposite, strong winds, caused problems too…

One very windy day I tried to light the rocket stove but the wind created so much draft inside the system that the starting fire would go out immediately. It took me a lot of effort to get enough heat in there (between wind gusts) to get the rocket stove going. But as soon as I was going it went off… like a rocket. The roaring sound was immense and perfectly synchronised with the wind gusts outside. But sometimes the wind would change and instead of creating an underpressure in the chimney, it would blow down in the chimney full force and I had the flames with the force of the rocket INSIDE the house. Luckily this nasty habit stopped as soon as the whole heating system was hot. But until then, note to self; make sure to have a good fitting door to close quickly if needed. Luckily, the curved removable door we have proved to be very effective.

A few weeks later :

Today, after all the troubleshooting I’m sitting on a heated bench huddled under a warm blanket. Since we light it every day it is very easy to start. I assume that is because it’s not fully cooled down from the previous fire. It only consumes small branches and produces more heat than I could ever imagine coming out of such a small amount of fuel. And the structure stays hot all night long. As soon as I get a house that needs a stove, it definitely is going to be a rocket stove. Now I understand the rocket stove I hardly have trouble with it. The only downside is that it does require tending to produce a great amount of heat… I love fire and making fire and fuel efficiency and environmental benefits make me feel good too.

Lou

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Tags Bioconstruction, boodaville, design, European Youth, Heating, living permaculture, permaculture, permaculture education, Rocket, Rocket Stove, Stove, Woodburning