August 2018 — Digger on Overtime

Considering the heat of August afternoons, we've managed to get lots of work done during the cooler hours of the mornings and evenings. During the oppressively hot afternoons we've been extra grateful for our improved access to the beautiful creek! Especially since the river beach (on the opposite side of the property) has dropped to about knee level. The creek (just behind the yoga deck) is well over our heads in some areas and perfect for an afternoon swim. We even tied some rope to help us climb up to a spot to do an awesome rock jump into it.

The existing terraces are starting to take shape and come to life more and more as we clear them off and tidy up the mimosa tree piles. We've also had to set some time aside for strimming the baby mimosa shoots that are making an aggressive come back. However, they're much more manageable as little shoots compared to the mimosa forest we faced this time last year!

Our friend Spike helped Rory get the beams finished off in Ruin 1. Now for the floor boards and shelving along the back wall. We're preparing ruin #1 to move into for the winter; but long term it will be the reception/library bottom floor, kitchen/dining extension 2nd floor, and the top floor extension will be an indoor studio space. 

Rory spent quite a bit of time working the good old faithful digger this month too. He's dug a well to pump water up into the holding tank at the top of the property — which he has also dug. Then he cleared an area closer to the top and flattened it out to be a car park higher up for cars that might not be able to make it up and down the steeper park of the track. Lastly he dug the bank next to Ruin #1 which will have a roof extending out from reception/library. It has really opens up the terrace and that area, and it's much easier to visualise how it will look now. The idea is to hang some hammock swings for a nice area to have coffee or read a book. For this winter we will likely move our temporary kitchen up to that area. And we'll sleep in what will be the cozy reception/library for this winter.

To prepare for autumn planting, we visited a tree nursery with our garden design friend and expert, Shelley😀, who is Paul's wife — the one building the pool. She's working on the plants portion of our natural swimming pool. The plants half of the pool will serve as natural filtration for the water pumping back into the swimming part of the natural swimming pool.

We're planning for when the rain starts to plant some native and mature trees around our boundary. It will be welcome shade for the coming summers, and serve as a protective barrier from forest fires. Also some willow trees along the river bank will do well in the moist ground down by the river and be quite beautiful come the Spring and Summer. 

As far as work exchange help, our friend Pablo from Guatemala joined us a couple weeks ago. He'll be doing a bit of traveling around Europe the next 3 months, but Cara Creek will be his base where he'll help us out with the endless amount of clearing, building, planting and more. We also have a return volunteer, Adrianna who had stayed with us for 4 weeks in the Spring. It's really nice to have someone return and express their astonishment about how different the place is. Although we may not always realise it, we are little by little getting there.

Follow links to follow us on Instagram and like our Facebook Page to see more frequent photos of the progress and more at Cara Creek Eco Lodge. And as always thanks for following along as we realise our Eco Lodge dream!

June/July 2018 — Summer projects and growth

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. 

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. 

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.

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