Hemos empezado el curso y después de un día de teoría vamos adelantando el trabajo practico de crear dos “wicking beds” (huertos especial para usar muy poca agua) y para plantar calabacin y calabazas en los de zaïs y finalmente vamos a poder plantar algo de verduar en frente de la cocina! (ver las entradas previas para mas info!!
We’ve started the living permculture course and after one day of theory we are moving forward with the practical tasks of creating wicking beds and planting on top of the za¨s. We’ll also e planting food in front of the kitchen!! (see previous blog posts for more info)
“Nothing in nature has only one function; it is furiously efficient in this way”
Toby Hemeny
As many of you know we have spent a couple of years regenerating the soil at Boodaville, and due to lack of water we have not previously started to produce our own food… but this year things are about to change….
We now have a 10 000 litre rainwater tank, and some kitchen gardens where we have mulched and planted green manure for two years. In April Gerald Jaquemet is coming to spend a week with us implementing plans we have for highly water efficient gardens where we will actually produce food to eat for the first time.
These are the kitchen gardens, the photo was taken Spring 2017 and you can see the cover crops.
We are busy calculating, based on the water available, what area will become a vegetable garden. We are researching the best techniques for absolutely making the most of the water available.. including use of mulch, compost, drip systems, shape, rainwater catchment and many other things!! Above all we are finding the right kind of plants for the climate – please don’t expect to be eating watermelons!! As that name implies, it is the kind of plant that needs loads of water to grow.
Gerald, Tristan and Sara taking a break down at the river during our workweek in July 2017
Here is some more information about Gerald our Permaculture Designer for this next project, and you can join us to learn and work with him at out Living Permaculture Course 7 – 14th April!! We still have places available!!
“Learning submerged in nature is something that Gerald experienced from a young age.
After attending his first PDC and practicing Permaculture Montsant in 2009, and since then, he lives with his family in the coastal mountain range of Tarragona, in a natural environment applying the principles of permaculture in the various projects developed on the farm, an invaluable learning throughout 8 years of rural life.
Passionate about creative processes applied to sustainable life since 2004 when he started working in bioconstruction in California, Gerald is convinced of the importance of the role of permaculture in the awakening of consciousness, with which we will be able to adapt urgently to the challenges of global crisis.
He tries to teach permaculture with heart-mind-hands, also offers workshops, advice on various practical aspects of sustainable living and design of human habitats, always with the aim of reducing our ecological footprint while increasing the “index” of happiness.”
Cultivación de comida en Boodaville…..
Como muchos de ustedes saben, hemos dedicado un par de años a la regeneración de la tierra en Boodaville, y debido a la falta de agua, hasta ahora no hemos comenzado a producir nuestros alimentos … ¡pero este año las cosas están por cambiar!
Ahora tenemos un tanque de agua de lluvia de 10 000 litros y algunas huertas donde hemos abonado y plantado abono verde durante dos años. En abril, Gerald Jaquemet viene a pasar una semana con nosotros implementando planes que tenemos para jardines altamente eficientes en el uso de agua donde realmente produciremos alimentos para comer por primera vez.
Estamos ocupados calculando, en función del agua disponible, qué área se convertirá en un huerto. Estamos investigando las mejores técnicas para aprovechar al máximo el agua disponible … ¡incluyendo el uso de mantillo, compost, sistemas de goteo, forma, captación de agua de lluvia y muchas otras cosas! Sobre todo, estamos buscando el tipo correcto de plantas para el clima, ¡por favor no esperes comer sandías! Como su nombre lo indica, es el tipo de planta que necesita mucha agua para crecer.
Aquí hay más información sobre Gerald, nuestro Diseñador de Permacultura para este próximo proyecto, ¡y puedes unirte a nosotros para aprender y trabajar con él en el Curso de Permacultura Viva del 7 al 14 de abril! ¡Todavía tenemos sitios disponibles!
Aprendiendo sumergido en la naturaleza es algo que Geraldexperimentó desde muy joven, por tanto desarrolle este fuerte conexión con ella.
Después de atender su primero PDC y practica en Permacultura Montsant en 2009, y desde entonces, vive con su familia en la sierra litoral de Tarragona, en un entorno natural aplicando los principios de permacultura en los varios proyectos desarrollados en la finca, un aprendizaje inestimable a lo largo 8 años de vida rural.
Apasionado por procesos creativos aplicados a la vida sostenible desde 2004 cuando empezó a trabajar en bioconstrucción en California, Gerald esta convencido de la importancia del papel de la permacultura en el despertar de la consciencia, con cual estaremos capaces de adaptarnos urgentemente a los retos de las crisis global.
Intenta enseñar la permacultura con corazon-mente-manos, ofrece tambien talleres, asesoramiento en varios aspectos practicos de la vida sostenible y diseño de hábitats humanos, siempre con el objetivo de reducir nuestra huella ecológica mientras aumentar el “índice” de felicidad.
During a really amazing week in 2017 we learnt about permaculture, and created the zaï / compost system at Boodaville as an effective low-labour way to deal with food waste. Marc Haetjens was an excellent teacher and gave everyone the chance to use tools, work on the projects, and ask questions about anything and everything permaculture related.
Marc will be back in June 2018 for our two-week living permaculture course and we will build a new roof on the old house!! We also have a course on drought resistant food production and regenerative agriculture from April 7 – 14th!
Zaïs
The idea came from Yacouba Sawadogo via Alessandro Ardovini and was implemented by Marc Haetjens. We made 30cm circular holes in the ground, filled them with kitchen waste that would normally go on the compost heap, and let the combination of moist food, trapped rainwater, provide a nutritious place for plants to grow. We seeded green manure in each zaï and gave each one a heavy mulch of straw. The holes are about 20cm deep which means that there is enough decompacted healthy soil being made in this area to plant a squash garden. We are choosing to plant from the squash family as the area is in zone 2 and we want something low maintenance. When we left site in October 2017 we had filled about 30 zaïs and we will see what is growing there when we go back next week!!!
Here is a video about how to use a zaï!! essential knowledge for anyone who comes to volunteer with us!!
¡Durante una semana realmente increíble en 2017, aprendimos sobre permacultura, y hemos creado zaïs! Muchas gracias a Marc Haetjens, que fue un excelente maestro y le dio a todos la oportunidad de usar herramientas, trabajar en los proyectos y hacer preguntas sobre cualquier cosa relacionada con la permacultura.
La idea provino de Yacouba Sawadogo a través de Alessandro Ardovini y fue implementada por Marc Haetjens. Hicimos agujeros circulares de 30 cm en el suelo, los llenamos con desechos de cocina que normalmente irían al montón de compost, y así la combinación de alimentos húmedos, agua de lluvia atrapada, brinde un lugar nutritivo para que las plantas crezcan. Sembramos abono verde en cada zaï y les dimos a cada uno un acolchado de paja. Los hoyos tienen unos 20cm de profundidad, lo que significa que hay suficiente suelo sano descompuesto en esta área para plantar un jardín de calabazas. Elegimos la familia de la calabaza porque el área está en la zona 2 y queremos algo de mantenimiento bajo. Cuando dejamos el sitio en octubre, habíamos llenado unos 30 zaïs y veremos qué crece allí cuando volvamos la próxima semana.
Here Aquí hay un vídeo que explica como usar un zaï!! conocimientos muy importantes para cualquier persona que viene a hacer voluntariado con nosotros!
We are opening for the season in just 2 weeks! And have places for volunteers who can stay minimum one month.
We are looking for some people to start on the 17th March! (The first few days will be unpacking after winter and setting up the spaces so they are ready to live in again!) and we will be having an opening season calçotada on the 24th!!
The usual situation is 3 – max 6 people living on site, working together to keep the Boodaville project running in 2018, and also doing some work on the land and buildings to move forward with the permaculture design. You can see all the projects for this year in Part D of the AnnualReport. As you can see, we run many events so volunteer work includes preparing for them, and helping make the events successful. During the events there are groups of up to 20 people on site!!
¡Abrimos la temporada en solo 2 semanas! Y hay oportunidades para voluntarios que pueden permanecer mínimo un mes.
¡Estamos buscando a algunas personas para comenzar el 17 de marzo! (¡Los primeros días estarán desempacando después del invierno y configurando los espacios para que estén listos para vivir nuevamente!) Y vamos a montar una calçotada el día 24 🙂
La situación habitual es 3 – 6 personas viviendo en el sitio, trabajando juntas para mantener el proyecto Boodaville en funcionamiento en 2018, y también haciendo algún trabajo en la tierra y los edificios para avanzar con el diseño de la permacultura. Se puede ver todos los proyectos para este año en la Parte D del Informe anual. Como podéis ver, llevamos a cabo muchos eventos, por lo que el trabajo voluntario incluye la preparación para cursos y apoyo para que los eventos tengan éxito. Durante los eventos, hay grupos de hasta 20 personas en el lugar.
During a really amazing week in 2017 we learnt about permaculture, built this new toilet and prepared the hole to be able to use the humanure effectively!! Thanks so much to everyone who came and enjoyed so much learning and doing with us. Especially to Marc Haetjens who was an excellent teacher and gave everyone the chance to use tools, work on the projects, and ask questions about anything and everything permaculture related.
TIPPEE TOILET : The toilet has been built and placed over a 1m cubed hole and pee, poo and toilet paper will go directly into the ground – and stay there! There will be no more moving humanure from one place to another (sadly for Rob Durand and Franny Jones who have been the true stars in that area in the last few years!).
We predict the hole will take about 7-8 months to fill up, at which point we will have a new hole ready and will move the toilet. The toilet will move around terrace 3 for the next 18 months.. and then?
The plastic chimney will take smells up and away (as long as we leave the seat closed!) and we can poo here.. and in theory pee as well.
Here is the photo from the original design meeting in May: I am the toilet, Rob is a bush.. beginning with W (I’ll have to find out which bush we’re supposed to plant before the toilet hole fills up!) and Edu represents a very happy, well fed fruit tree living near, but not too near, the humanure.
We WILL have signs to ask people not to use this toilet if they may still have in their system antibiotics or other substances that are unhealthy for the soil. (Don’t worry – we’ll provide you with a very clear sign at the festival in May! ;))
¡Durante una semana realmente increíble en 2017, aprendimos sobre permacultura, construimos este nuevo inodoro y preparamos el hoyo para poder usar el “humanure” de forma efectiva! Muchas gracias a todos los que vinieron y disfrutaron mucho aprendiendo y haciendo con nosotros. Especialmente a Marc Haetjens, que fue un excelente maestro y le dio a todos la oportunidad de usar herramientas, trabajar en los proyectos y hacer preguntas sobre cualquier cosa relacionada con la permacultura.
ASEO DE TIPPEE: El inodoro se ha construido y colocado sobre un agujero de 1 m cubico, y el pis, la caca y el papel higiénico irán directamente al suelo y se quedarán allí. No habrá más trabajo de mover caca de un lugar a otro (¡por desgracia para Rob Durand y Franny Jones, que han sido las verdaderas estrellas en esa tarea en los últimos años!).
Predecimos que el agujero tardará entre 7 y 8 meses en llenarse, y tendremos listo un nuevo agujero y lo trasladaremos al inodoro. El inodoro se moverá por la terraza 3 durante los próximos 18 meses … ¿y luego?
La chimenea de plástico deja salir olores por arriba (¡mientras que dejamos el asiento cerrado!) Y podremos hacer caca aquí … y en teoría hacer pipí también.
En la foto del diseño original en mayo: yo soy el baño, Rob es un arbusto y Edu representa un árbol frutal muy feliz y bien alimentado que vive cerca, pero no muy cerca, del abono humano.
Tendremos que pedirles a las personas que no usen este inodoro si aún pueden tener en su sistema antibióticos u otras sustancias que no son saludables para el suelo. (No se preocupe, le proporcionaremos un cartel muy claro en el festival de mayo ;))
Hello and happy winter time! (en castellano abajo!)
It’s been a long break since the last newsletter but if you are on Facebook and Instagram there are more regular updates there. The site is closed for winter right now, and although we will go and harvest olives over xmas time, the main winter jobs are planning next year and working on the long-term design. (The recent cold spell has slowed the ripening of the olives! we expected to harvest a week ago!)
For the permaculture designers among you here’s a post about a little project planting trees from seed, and here’s a Spot the Difference game for you to play, I kept improving the environment for the upcoming seedlings!! (see more on the blog post!!)
Our next Living Permaculture Course is 7 – 14 April 2018, our facilitator is Gerald Jide and the projects are : creating water efficient vegetable gardens for food production in 2018, and regenerative agriculture. Later in the year 9 – 23 June we have Marc Haetjens and Alessandro with us to build a new roof and create a warka water type system for collecting condensation. And we’ll be adding more to the calendar in the next couple of months!
Below is a summary of the year, there’s more detail on the Annual Report page, and if you are interested in buying in to Boodaville and becoming part of our future community here then please let me know!
Abrazos and take time to enjoy the gifts of nature this holiday season 🙂
Anna
Hola y feliz invierno,
Ha pasado mucho tiempo desde el último boletín pero en Facebook y Instagram encontrarás actualizaciones mas regulares. El sitio de Boodaville está cerrado para el invierno, y ahora solo queda el trabajo de cosechar la oliva y el trabajo de invierno de planear el año que viene y realizar el diseño de largo plazo.
El próximo curso de Viviendo la Permacultura se realizará el 7 – 14 de abril 2018. El facilitador es Gerald Jide y vamos a crear huertos que gastan poca agua, y hacer trabajo de agricultura regenerativa. Más tarde de 9 – 23 Junio tenemos a Marc Haetjens y Alessandro Ardovini para reformar el tejado y crear un sistema tipo warka water para captar agua de la condensación. Vamos a añadir más eventos durante estos meses!
Abajo es un resumen del año, hay más detalle en la página del informe anual, y si tienes interés en formar parte de la futura comunidad de Boodaville dime y te pasaré información!
Abrazos y disfrutar los regalos de la naturaleza durante las fiestas 🙂
OJ died, and from there we had to move forward. He died in February, the day after our crowdfunding event in Barcelona, right in the middle of the campaign. To find a way forward after this tragedy, with some of the closest people to the project we formed an informal advisory board and that has been a huge support to me during the year.
Two days before the end of the crowdfunding campaign in March we made the target!! Thanks to a very generous former Boodaville participant and many more supporters. That was the first “UP” part of the rollercoaster that has been this year.
During April and May we were finding our feet with 2 new long-term residents, volunteers, some new collaborators, plus long-time collaborator Rob Durand.
With the support of the advisory group and Nico and Andres from allmyfrnds we had an amazing festival, the biggest ever with great music, really delicious food from Emilien, and hilarious games at the river. June was quiet and energy was low on site, then me and Kira spent the whole of July at Boodaville. With Marc Haetjens we ran an absolutely fantastic Living Permaculture course, the third big “UP” of the year! After the course we tried to resolve conflicts between the long-term volunteers, which resulted in one of them leaving. We spent an intense, emotional and soulful week with OJs mother and friends, including a ceremony where we spread some of his ashes in the future food forest. The last week of July was spent with Gerald working on further water catchment and silt basins. For three weeks at the end of July and beginning of August, none of the long-term residents were on site and we had some excellent volunteers step in and rise to the challenge of life and work at Boodaville.
August was quiet and in September with a new group of volunteers, and one of our returned residents we were set to do lots of planting for the regenerative agriculture plan, and the idea was to irrigate until rains started coming in October. We cancelled the last courses and most planned events in order to conserve energy to focus on the regenerative agriculture and other jobs. Sadly some volunteers that had been booked in for a month cancelled the day before their arrival, and there were differences of opinion among the volunteers on site. Combine this with the fact that temperatures stayed ridiculously high until mid-October with no rain, and there were perfect conditions for things not to go to plan. By the end of September all the volunteers who initially signed up until the end of October had left. Some fantastic people who hadn’t signed up to anything held the fort and got some last jobs done before the site was left empty the first two weeks of October. We packed up for winter with a few awesome project collaborators over a tiring weekend in mid October and the contrast with the end of year party last year was incredible.
However… because of permaculture design and mulch, the plants have survived the October drought, and let me tell you about our visit in November…
Sunshine, seedlings wrapped in newspaper all over the place, music, a small group of friends and family mulching, planting tiny trees, music, digging, lots of straw and some manure, children sitting on the ground surrounded by tiny onions they are separating and planting. I actually said to Bernat “This is like heaven”. In two days we finished all the planting jobs that were still on the list and collected the first part of the olive harvest.
Let’s hope those onions survived the below zero temperatures this week.
Rollercoaster!
Next year we will be continuing the journey and are looking to fund both courses and volunteers with the help of the Erasmus program. We’ll run some bigger Living Permaculture Courses but the really important work, pending from last year, is continuing the process to find and inform potential members of our future eco-community and working cooperative, and to start planning a future together.
Team Mulberry! We didn’t collect the olives, they won’t be ready for another 2 weeks.. so we’ll be coming back again. We planted 2 small trees, lots of seeds, broccoli and put down mulch, mulch and more mulch!! A great weekend 🙂 Thanks to Javi, Fer and Maja.
