the straw bale house

eike is a neighbor of michael and maobi. he has a house made out of almost all natural material. the walls are made with straw bales. today i went over to his house and helped him put some plaster on the outside walls. the mix was calk, straw, water and sand i think. the work is harder than i thought it would be. the first layer is very important. you cant just spread it on, you kind of have to push it in there real good so it will hold. when that first layer dries after a day or 2 it will need to get 2 more coats. eike has spent the last 6 years working on the house. he has done pretty much the whole thing on his own. its a big , big house. eike is a real smart guy. he knows alot about natural building.
while working today i was thinking a lot about an idea i came with a little while ago of someday having my own land. i would like to build a yurt or a cabin or something, and have lots and lots of food crops and trees. i have been getting interested in the idea of food forests. i was thinking i could have a big week or how ever long work party type of thing. i would invite everyone i knew to come help out and i would post online. people could stay there for a week or so and work and i would give them food and such. and also they would learn how to work with cob, how to plant things, and all that stuff. a lot of people pay to learn that stuff, but im not interested in trying to get people to pay. it would be a good deal for the both of us.
some day i would really love to have some land to work on.

97 liters

michael just got back from the olive oil press. we ended up with 97 liters of oil. that's a lot

the start of a big project

before i came to michael and maobis place they had told me they wanted me to build them a compost toilet. i was thinking of building a small scale 3 to 4 person compost toilet which is just a small box, a bucket, some sawdust and what not. but they want a more intense compost toilet that can hold the poo of 20 people living there.
it will be set up like this . . . on the upper part there will be 2 sections so 2 people can be using the toilet at the same time. each section will have 2 toilets in them with one available to use while the other one is closed off. underneath there will be 4 sections, one closed off section under each of the the 4 toilets. when a section gets full it will be closed off and the other toilet that was locked down will be opened up and pooed in. by the time that section is filled up, the section that was first used will be somewhat broken down and hopefully ready to use in the garden. there is going to be a angled access door in the back which is south facing in hopes of generating some heat. i hope this works out well. im not sure if it will be safe to use directly on food crops but it should be ok on plants and trees and what not.
if you want to use your humanure on food crops it should be put into a compost bin where it can reach thermophilic temperatures which is 113 degrees. that will kill the parasites and what not.
we have a lot more planning to do. so far we put pegs around the perimeter and i started digging trenches for the foundation. yesterday i spent a lot of time ripping down a rock wall which i now realize didn't need to be taken down.

again with the olives

it is 1 30 in the morning. i just got in from finishing up with the olives. i have really been liking all this work. it feels good. this morning i got out of bed around 8. then around 9 30 we headed to the terrain and we picked olives until the sun came down and then picked some more. its was maybe 7 pm when we got back. then we ate a very delicious meal of mashed potatoes and mashed carrot with fried egg on top. then we drank some homemade wine from another one of michael and maobis friends. then a group of us put the bagged olives into a machine that took out all the leaves and stems. i had to stand there and shake up the olives when they were coming down the machine to put the leaves through the grate that then went into a bag.we all drank wine the whole time. lots and lots of wine. we now have 23 bags full. i would guess each bag ways at least 60 pounds. tomorrow morning we are going to the olive oil press place. i am excited to see how they make oil.
michelle doesnt like olives. i use to hate them. now i like how they taste. salty and what not. my feet stink.

many many olives

last night michaels friends from belgium came, and they brought 2 of there friends, a baby and a dog. today a group of us picked olives all day. we picked hundreds of pounds of olives. it was another beautiful day here. the sunset was great to see from the tops of the trees.
tomorrow we are going to pick the leaves out of the olive bags and play music while we do it. tonight after dinner we drank some of michaels friends homemade wine who lives down the street and grows the grapes himself. then we played music. maobi and i played hand drums and michael played piano. then maobi started playing the dijeridoo. i thought it sounded really good. they said i had some latino rhythm or something.
michael and maobi want to build a compost toilet down at the terrain. i am interested to see how it comes together. i am glad that i am here at this time and get to be part of the beginning of all of this. they are both smart and full of great ideas.right now i am planning on staying for 2 or 3 more weeks.

first day of work in portugal

on the way to the field we passed a donkey. michael. told me a funny story of how a neighbors donkey was running away and he chased after it for a while. eventually he caught it and figured he could just ride it back. when he was on, a dog started teasing the donkey which made the donkey run down the dog with michael still on it. the donkey was running high speed all through the town. when the donkey slowed down to take a turn michael was able to jump off.
michael and maobi live in a house that she got from her aunt. they bought 7 acres of land that isnt to far from the house. lots of olive trees. there are some caravns there that are available to sleep in. they have it set up real nice. attached to the caravan is a tarp and under the tarp a nice table to eat at and comfy chairs. we picked olives for maybe 6 hours. i liked being up in the tree. since ive been in europe ive climbed 3 fruit trees. i think 3.
its nice working with them and talking about our interests. they have been thinking of an intersting idea of having a small group of 10 or so people come to there place and all live together for a year and study permaculture and what not together. i think it is a great idea. they can all live and learn together and teach eachother and create right there on the land together.

i am now in portugal

not to long ago i left pierettes place in switzerland and went to see my brother in halle germany. it was nice to see him again. then i went to basel switzerland and hung out with tim. then i took a 10 pm flight to porto, portugal.
it was 11 30 when i got into porto. i asked a security guy where the light rail was and he gave me a rail pass and showed me to the train. what a nice guy!!! i had to take the train to campanha which is an hour or so from porto. then i was supposed to take the train to rodao, but the trains were not running that late. so i started walking around looking for a dry flat spot to sleep. after a little while i was sitting and i started talking with this lady and i asked her if i could stay at her place. she said she didnt have room. i believe her.i kept walking and i thought some guy was following me. i stopped and sat on a stoop. he came up to me and said something i didnt understand. i said no Portuguese. then i said. je me pelle dward, and then i shook his hand. he kept looking at my bag. then he left. soon after i came to a park with a few trees and such. it was somewhat well lighted and i didnt want to be seen sleeping with all my stuff with me. so i literally went and slept inside a bush. i big bush. not as big as you are thinking but big enough for me to crawl under it with my stuff. i put the tarp i had on the ground. i noticed it smelled like dog poo in there. gross. hahahahaha. it started to rain soon after so i took out my big trash bag and pulled it up to my waist. i slept for an hour or so then woke up a bit chilly so i went and found a new spot. a much better spot down some stairs that was dry and covered. no one could have seen me. i took out my sleeping bag and slept for another couple hours until it was time to go back to the train station.
3 hours later i was in rodao, portugal where michael picked me up. nice guy. we went to this bakery that uses a big old fashioned bread oven. then we went back to his place. so buautifull here. rolling hills and olive trees. old houses that look over a hundred years old. at the house i met his girlfriend maobi. very cool person. i like them both pretty good so far. i am excited to be working with them. i am going to help build them a compost pile and a compost toilet. tomarrow we will pick olives.