tomarrow i leave

if all goes to plan, tomorrow i will be hitchhiking to a town where i will stay for the night and then catch a 6 30 in the morning bus to a town 2 hours north of here. then i will get another bus to go to a nice place to do a work exchange. its a little complicated. but i trust in life, an itºll work out.
i will be working on a straw bale house. the guy i am working for seems to be into the same things i am interested in like permaculture and what not. for people like my grandma who might not know what permaculture means i would describe at a sustainable way to live and be and grow with the earth. no chemicals or any of that awfull stuff. uhhhhhhhhh , i am bad with describing things.

today i walked

on my day off i slept later then i thought. i got up at 8. instead of just using water for my oatmeal i used some soy milk! i also put in some apple and banana and honey. i also drank coffee. while i was doing this i boiled 2 eggs. i ate the oatmeal, packed the eggs in a tupperware with some carrots and a pare. pair. paier. the fruit.
then i headed on a walk. the walking path was marked with yellow and red stripes to direct which way to follow. i have been at this place for 2 weeks now and this is the first time i really ventured out. i have been buisy. i noticed many eucalyptus trees. there is a factory that processes them for their ( a word that begins with a c) to make paper. they are planted by the company throughout the area which is not a very good thing. they are invasive trees with deep roots and they really hog the water from the other plants.
around here the houses are very very old. many made with stones. the not so old ones are made with clay blocks. the trail i was walking brought me through and abandoned village. michael and maobi had told me about this place. everyone that lived there was very old and died. there was one lady still living there until a short while ago she moved to an elderly peoples place. now there is no one at all. the houses are falling apart and nature is taking over, with many trees growing inside them. some of the houses still have things in them, like cooking supplies and clothes. it was a very eery place.
up the path a little more i sat and decided to meditate. it was the first time i tried meditating in a long, long time. but i was very nice. after the meitation i found some chocolate in my bag i didn't know i had.
then, more up the path there was a tree full of red balls. the outer skin was soft and pointed all over. i later found out the fruit was edible. so maybe ill go back and eat some.
i could see alot of the land surrounding the mountain from where i was. things are so much more green then they were when i first got to portugal. i set the camera to take a 10 second delayed picture of me while i was up there. it came out a little goofy. i didnt get too too lost on this adventure

okiedoke

about my last post with the 10 to 1 or the 3 to 1 ratio, i want you to know that one book i have on the subject says to use a 10 to 1 ratio and the other says a 3 to 1. when i get some time ill look more into it. but dont waste your pee even still.

all the bricks are now up. michael and i spent the whole day on it. tomarrow we will fill in the cracks with mortar then start on the wood work.

urine update!!!!

urine has lots of nitrogen and other beneficial goodness in it. the idea of it being flushed down the toilet and being chemically treated and messing with the lakes and all that terrible stuff is just ridiculous. if you want me to explain more email me and we will talk all about it. so. . . . . i set out some small buckets outside the house here to collect rain water. and now i pee in them. you shouldnt put the urine directly on the plant because its just too much nitrogen. i think the dilution ratio is 10 to 1 or 3 to 1. water to urine. thats why ive been peeing in the rain bucket.

try it at home!!!

caca

hahaha, i remember yesturday while we were standing at the site of the compsot project michael and his friend werner were talking and every few words was caca. i must say it is tough not knowing what people are talking about. i get the jist of it though. caca, i know i know i know. so, yesturday the foundation was poured down and today the entire first layer of bricks were set. also, this morning we went to a wood shop and took allot allot allot of there sawdust to use for the compost toilet. i spent a while sorting it into smaller bags so it will be easier to use. so now we have 5 pound bags of sawdust. very good. tomorrow most of the bricks should be up. maybe by friday we will start with the wood.
im getting sick of bread and cheese for lunch. i like it and all, its tasty , but i need a change. so i had them buy me some brown rice. so i make that in the mornings now and eat it at lunch. also, just so you know, because i bet you wonder. . . i have been eating oatmeal for breakfast the past few days.

hot nuts

this sunday there was a chestnut festival. on the way there we stopped to go see the biggest cork ouk tree in all of portugal. it was massive! they use cork oaks to make corks for wine and such. every ten years or so they harvest the bottom portion of bark from the cork oaks. they also make crafts and what not. cork oak. it might have been over 1000 years old.
then we got to the festival of the chestnuts. i bought a bag of hot nuts for 70 cents. it was a lot of nuts. very tasty. roasted chestnuts. they had wine there too, but you had to buy a cup for 1 50 and then each fill up was 50 cents. i shared with eik. i didnt drink much of it. i might have had 2 glasses. my head hurt pretty good for the rest of the night. cheap portuguese wine.

the compost toilet project is well underway now. the foundation has been laid out , and i few bricks have been put down. unfortunately i do not think it will be ready for the big party on saturday.

grandma

my grandma now knows how to get to my blog page