What a whirlwind of a Summer! Work, play, sunshine, rain, work-awayers galore, time away and last but not least time with just the two of us on-site to reflect and plan for the coming months.
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| Improved access to the Creek |
We’ve had anywhere from 0 to 12 work exchange volunteers on-site at any given time over the Summer. We’ve been fortunate to host some wonderful people from all over the world — Portugal, Australia, France, Russia, Italy, USA, Germany … to name a few. They’ve all offered unique talents and personalities. With their help we’ve checked many projects off the ever growing and never ending project list.
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| An after work cool down session on the river beach |
Most recently we even had family over lending us a helping hand during their little back to nature work holiday :). Trina, Matthew and Dylan stayed for a week. Trina was so helpful with the daily chores of watering plants, feeding the animals, etc. The boys helped Rory with picking up and unloading tiles, working on ruin number 1, building up the weir on our river beach, and more. They adjusted so well to our rustic lifestyle, and were lovely to have.
With all the comings and goings of workawayers that June brought we managed to complete the fence for the future garden, start the interior framework for the bottom floor of ruin 1, build a “walopini” — our future green house — , fit the canvas onto the tetrahedron, and more.
WatersEdge has also made a major dent in building our natural swimming pool. Here are some photos of the progress… It has come along beautifully so far!
Big thanks to Alex and Jo for their meticulous work on the fencing for the garden, and all the other projects they helped out with over their 3 month stay. It put our minds at ease to leave the place and animals in their trusted hands while we were away for 2 weeks in July. They’ve moved on now to other projects and work; however, we’re very grateful for all their work during their stay here.
Since arriving back from our trip to the USA Rory build a gate to the fenced area while I wired up the electric. We now have 2 female pigs sisters and 4 hens. Our hope is that they’ll turn over the land and fertilize it to be our future vegetable garden.
In the meantime we are nurturing our small garden — growing some tomatoes, herbs, and roses in the huegle beds just in front of our temporary kitchen. We’re also still nurturing our avocado trees, olive trees, pear trees, and blueberry plants in pots. Bonnie built a little fence around our tomato plants to keep the dogs and cat from walking on them, and they’ve really flourished. Very tasty and exciting trying our own grown food. We’re really looking forward to expanding the garden season by season.
For the bottom floor of ruin 1 we used some of our own eucalyptus trees as posts and beams. Firstly stripping and sanding them. Then fitting them, treating them with borax and linseed oil, and getting them in and adjusted to fit perfectly. They’ll add charm to the cozy reception area that it will be in the future.
The wallopi was build from geo-desic dome kit using the kit and our own mimosa trees here on site. The …. kit gave instructions on what lengths to cut the branches to, and pieces to then link them together. Luke, Michael, and Kevin worked hard on building steps down to the existing hole and digging it out. After cutting and preparing the branches, linking the wallopi together, and placing it on top of the hole, they made wooden garden beds for inside. It came out beautifully, and will allow for year-round growing. The idea being that in winter we can fit plastic over the top to create a hot house, and in summer could swap out the plastic for shade netting for a cooler area for plants.
All the workawayers also all helped in welcoming and loving up on the new fur babies… — a kitten we picked up at a local market, and a puppy whose previous owner wanted to find him a life of freedom to run and play all day. We couldn’t resist either one, and neither have disappointed! “Thunder-Stripes” aka “Tess” aka just “cat” was named by Rafa for her stripey coat and for how fast she is. She’s tiny but with a huge personality, and rules over the dogs. Louie is the perfect play mate for Hank and refused to have it any other way besides to fit right into the pack.
We’ve been taking some time off having volunteers and working ourselves for a couple of weeks. Although it’s helpful to have workawayers, it’s also important to have some time to reflect and refocus.
For the coming months we have friends joining us to lend a helping hand here and there. And Pablo is coming from Guatemala to stay for 3 months to work exchange which will be awesome. Our plan for the coming weeks is to finish the interior of the tetrahedron, finish up the first existing ruin and get it ready for winter, and tackle the mimosa which is starting to sprout back up.
