December 2018 - Cozy for Christmas

December was a fabulous and cozy month at Cara Creek Eco Lodge. Firstly, we moved into the downstairs of ruin #1 after living in our tent for just over a year. Regardless of how nice we kept our tent, it has been such a welcome change to move into 4 walls with the powerful wood burner stove. And now our tent is cleaned out and set up for visitors and work away volunteers to come😀.

Our miniature animal farm continues to go well. Our two Nigerian dwarf goat sisters have settled in great, and crack us up with their silly personalities every day. Our chickens began laying the tastiest eggs. Although it took longer than average for them to settle and begin laying, it was worth the wait for how good they are. 

We also got one of the miss piggies a boyfriend to breed, and ate the other miss piggy. The whole process of killing and butchering the pig went really smoothly, and the Pork was out of this world. We’re excited to continue expanding our farm raised meat and eggs, as well as growing more of our own veggies in the coming months too. It’s brilliant to truly know where some of our food is coming from and there’s a whole new appreciation for it as well.

Some new structures went up before Christmas, such as the roof structure over our outdoor shower, making showers in the rain a better possibility. And a wood shed has been built for our heaps and heaps of fire wood to keep dry.

We closed out the year spending Christmas with amazing friends, who welcomed us into their families and homes to celebrate with them. We enjoy the traditions here... especially the one of a lighting the village bonfire for the 12 days of Christmas from the 24th at 10pm until the 6th of January. Everyone gathers around the fire over the season with homemade cheeses, sausages, wines and more to share with who ever is around. It's really sweet. 

To celebrate New Year’s Day we planted new trees with our friend Gary, who came up for the pork party and then stayed on to look after the place and animals while we were in Scotland. It was wonderful to get his expert advice on giving our trees the best start. We planted many varieties of apple trees, pear trees, peach trees, and plum trees. It’ll be a few seasons before we get fruit, but it’s lovely to replace the invasive mimosa trees with a variety of different trees that will give back so much. Over the next month or so we’ll be planting dozens of a diverse selection of trees on site.

Just after ringing in the new year we headed off to Scotland to have our celebrations with Rafa, two of my great aunts who live in Scotland, Trina, and Matthew.

We’ve had a fabulous month of productivity at Cara Creek Eco Lodge, and a lovely couple weeks wrapping up 2018 and ringing in 2019. We feel refreshed, and have hit the ground running as we come into the new year. Good thing because it’s going to be a busy couple of months preparing for some great friends and family visiting in April 2019. Then we’ll be hosting (I’ll be co-teaching) a Yoga Teacher Training in July 2019, so stay tuned for more information on that coming in the next couple of weeks!

Keep following along on Instagram and on Facebook as things progress exponentially! Happy New Year to all! We wish you a healthy and prosperous one, and as always thanks for following along as our dream becomes a reality!

November 2018 - Moving On Up!

Despite the cold and the torrential rains this November, we've pushed on and ruin #1 is one step closer to what it will be — cozy room level one, kitchen level two with dining room extention, and small studio level three. There's a temporary waterproof roof in place over the second level — which is the new and improved kitchen. Long term it will remain the Eco Lodge's kitchen. Just needs a bit more work before it’s ready for our future guests! It makes some difference being up higher this winter. 

Our good ole' temporary kitchen since April of '17 was a structure built near to the river. Great for summer, but with the winter sun it gets very little warmth, so this is a massive upgrade. We'll keep the very fond memories of the original kitchen though, as it's served us and our MANY work exchange volunteers from all over the world very well. 

For a couple weeks, we tried a temporary kitchen underneath the wooden terrace built off the side of ruin #1 (as pictured below), but unfortunately it leaked rain even with plastic covering the wood so we had to upgrade and get into the upstairs kitchen.

Our plan is to go up one more level to have a small studio above the kitchen, which is why the roof is just temporary. Scroll through these photos from only this month to see it's progression. From walls being repaired, to ring beam, to support beams, to temporary roof....

Lovely little view from our kitchen window

The first level of ruin #1 is coming along too. That will be our cozy reception/library long-term, but first we'll move into it for the bulk of the winter. Our friend Mary (you may remember her from pervious blogs from Dublin who has come out to help before) is arriving December 11th, so we have a new deadline to get into the bottom level of ruin #1. That way she can have our cozy tent during her quick stay. The cob floor is just about finished and once the stone walls are repaired and repointed/plastered with lime-crete, we’ll put another finish layer of cob down and at last be able to move in. Miguel (stone-mason) has gotten crafty making a stone hearth for our wood burner to sit on, and shelfs within the walls as he repairs and repoints the walls. We have a gorgeous wood burning stove to be installed that will keep us nice and cozy for the rest of the winter. You can probably hear through my writing how excited I am.

Freshening up the cob - clay, sand, straw, and water

The wet days have been ideal wet weather for burning some of the massive piles of non-usable mimosa branches which has brought terraces back to life. It's nice to be re-acquainted with areas around the site that had been covered in these piles. The rain has filled the river too. It's getting louder by the day, which is a nice sound to sleep to. 

We've added to our fur-baby pack. Shiva is a 4 1/2 month old Spanish Mastiff. She came all the way from a lovely family from Alicante, Spain who were kind enough to meet us half way in Madrid. She loves the freedom she has here, being outdoors with plenty of playmates. Shiva is especially fascinated with Thunderstripes (the cat), who thankfully has no problem holding her own. Most of the time Shiva still only sits when we say it in Spanish, but other than that she's adapting really well😂! 

We’ll be adding more farm animals this weekend too (currently we have 6 hens, 1 cockerel, and 2 piggies)... We're picking up a pair of Nigerian dwarf goats. Two girls, at the right age to have babies, and then we’ll have goat's milk to make our own cheese and yogurt. You can see how it goes as we learn what it's like to keep goats, plus stay updated with all the progress by following us on Instagram and Facebook! As always, thanks for following along!