April 2018 — Team Clearing and (nearly) Summer Weather

We kicked off April with the most epic Easter egg hunt here at Cara Creek Eco Lodge, and continued adventuring and exploring, rain or shine for the week that Rafa was here. He loves the fact that just simply living here is one big adventure. Rory’s mom, sister and nephew joined us for a few days too. We met them in Porto when they arrived and enjoyed a day of exploring there before all heading back to the foot hills of the Serra da Estrela. We absolutely loved showing them the progress we’ve made so far at Cara Creek, and better describing our upcoming plans for building this summer. 

bedtime stories with a head lamp🔦

Since then, we’ve been lucky again with some fabulous Workaway volunteers who arrived the second and third weeks of April. Fortunately for them the rain has lightened up, and it's been summer type weather so plunging in the river after work has become part of our daily routine. Well besides the afternoons we’ve had random rain/hail storms😬... But we're getting there⛅!

All the mimosa trees have been cut down for some time, but it’s a whole other beast to now clear up the piles of firewood, small trees for mulching, and rotten wood. Over the last couple of weeks we've made quite a dent in our piles thanks so the help from our awesome volunteer crew. We have plenty of mulch that will be used to shade out the mimosa trees, and for our future garden. With a bit of wet weather we’ve been able to get through some of the larger piles by burning them, which goes a lot faster than mulching.

Jenny and Ben (aka Benny and Jen) and Adrianna have also continued with the supporting wall for the spiral shower. Aurelie and Jerome (who designed the spiral shower) are returning from their holidays -- and by then we should be ready to begin the rammed earth process. Alex and Jo have decided to commit to staying with us until mid July, and focus on helping to develop our permaculture based organic garden. If you or anyone you know is interested in coming to join our team please follow the link here. We continue to love meeting volunteers from all over the world -- at the moment from UK, Mexico, Australia, Portugal, and France and Netherlands once Aurelie and Jerome arrive back next week.

Rory’s still making some finishing touches on the octagon deck such as posts on every corner to then put a shaded roof, and some hand rails on every other side. But it’s totally usable in the meantime so it’s been wonderful to host some yoga classes down on the river. Everyone has raved about practicing there so far.

As we begin May, we’re looking forward to getting some consistently good working weather. We have plenty of volunteers booked with us through May, so there will be lots of progress in the coming weeks. If you want to join our adventure see some detail here and contact me with any questions! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more photos and frequent updates! As always, thanks for following along!

March 2018 blog 2— Foundations for a Shower with a View

It’s been a productive week here at Cara Creek Eco Lodge, with lots of help from both WorkAway volunteers and our dear friend Rusty.

With the improved sunny weather, we finished off building the river front yoga deck. Rory even saved the final screw for me to finish it off… he's such a gent😍😄😉! 

It’s the most peaceful and magical place to practice. I can't wait to start holding my yoga lessons down here right on the river as the weather gets nicer!

Max headed back to Germany after his 10 day showery stay. During the sunny spells (and even during the showers) he helped lots in the final stages of building the yoga deck, and also built some steps to better access the rammed earth spiral shaped shower that is currently being built. 

Before Max left, we also experimented with various mixtures of sand and clay, varying from 17% to 35% clay, for the rammed earth process which the shower will be built from. Max was wonderful to have, and super helpful. We’re looking forward to him coming back for his next work holiday, which he is already planning. 

Within just the last week our awesome WorkAwayers, Aurelie and Jerome have made incredible strides at building the spiral shower. First, designing it, then digging the shape, and lastly laying large rocks from the river and binding the foundations with “limecrete” — lime mixed with sand and water. Next we'll be getting started on the "rammed earth" walls. It's going to have a window at head height with that amazing view for showers down the Rio Seia. We feel really fortunate to have such driven, smart, and most of all pleasant to have volunteers!

Rusty helped by throwing rocks around, and being shotgun on digger — or just right in the front bucket of the digger😂. 

Rusty has been so fun to have around. Not to mention he’s an amazing chef so he has been sharing some of his cooking secrets. We’ve also been discussing our re-design for the future kitchen/dining area and he has shared his expertise, since he runs the successful beach front hostel/restaurant in Guatemala — The Driftwood Surfer. We’re going to miss him so much when he continues on his Eurotrip.

We are working on some alternative designs from what we had, because we received some exciting news from our architect...... Because we will be classified in the council with “rural tourism”, the planning permitted buildings can now be within 10 meters from the boundary and 30 meters from the river. Before she found this clause, we were excluded to a small area that was 50 meters from the boundary. This opens up lots of options for alternate designs, which is really exciting. Stay tuned 😉....

Our friend Robin, who lives in the village, is a really talented graphic designer. We're lucky to have him developing our logo, and are really happy with it so far. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback. We love having the involvement of our friends and family in building our dream.

Speaking of family... We have Rafa here for the week with us, and Rory’s mom, sister and nephew all joining for a couple of days this week. It’ll be great to show them the progress, hear their feedback, and do small projects to keep things moving. In just one day, Rafa’s already taken a ride in the digger, gone of lots of adventure walks, and has been "building some walls"😆. He loves all the things Cara Creek has to offer, and Hank loves having him here as an adventure pal!

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more frequent updates. And visit our WorkAway page to learn about joining the fun, and contact me for more details!

March 2018 blog 1 — The Makings of an Octagon between Stormy Flooding

As we’ve approached Springtime at Cara Creek, mother nature has displayed how high the river can rise as well as where we can expect water to run down the terraces when we have bouts of heavy rainfall. Although at times working with the elements can slow building down, we’re very grateful for the wet few weeks for many important reasons. 

Seeing how the water drains from our land has given us ideas on where to dig ponds for irrigation to collect the rainfall during the winter. The downpours also gave us a reality of where the river potentially floods up to. It flooded the terrace where we had transplanted some large Oak trees, and planted some tulip bulbs. We were so pleased to find that once the river went back down, the tulips popped up. Not to mention that post rain we have beautiful wild flowers all around. Even the very little bit of mimosa that remains has gorgeously bloomed.

While I was away (despite the rainy and stormy weather), Rory managed to start the octagon shaped yoga deck on the river with some help from some friends. They spent the rainy hours designing it, and the dry hours building it. The deck is nearly finished and is a magical place to practice yoga to the sound of the river. The wood has been treated with the natural material Borax to keep the insects away. I can’t wait to get some of my yoga classes moved down to the property once the weather warms up a little bit!

Gary moved from Cara Creek at the beginning of March, settling into his own dream house/property an hour towards the coast. He truly became apart of the family to us over the last 6 months. We’re missing him, and forever grateful for his hard work, facing the wild fires in October, and then braving the winter months with us. 

We now have a few volunteers staying with us, and more coming over the next couple of weeks. Max from Germany has mulched lots of mimosa shoots, and helped Rory with the deck. Aurélie and Jeroen have just joined us, and have brought with them great experience from previous workaway experiences. We’re excited to have them, and all the ones who are planning to come over the next couple of months. Here’s the link for more details if you or anyone you know is interested! We welcome the help:)!!

Follow us here on Instagram and Facebook for more frequent updates on how things are going at Cara Creek Eco Lodge. Thanks for following along as we build our dream!