A big ol' storm!

Last week, we had a humongous storm that killed 17 people in the area. Luckily, no one was hurt at the FFH, and the downed trees and branches gave our volunteers something to do for the following week. Brush had to be cleared, branches chopped into firewood, and leaves raked.

A downed pine tree brought with it a flying ant's nest, and Seba bravely smoked out the ants. Yes, there was honey in it, and yes, it was good. We were without power for the week, which meant that we were also without water. The city brought by water after several days, but we had to take the self-sacrificing steps first of not showering (despite Sol's protests!).

Other work progressed nicely, with work nearly completed on the new cesspit. Here, Gus--handyman and electrician extraordinaire--stands in the lovely trench that he, Ted, and Mark dug to connect the new cesspit. Over the next few weeks, we'll be putting the finishing touches on the new bathroom, preparing the garden for new crops, and enjoying the soccer pitch, now reopened after being closed thanks to fallen branches.

The past few weeks

Hello!!

My name is Vashti and I've been a volunteer on the farm for the last month. Here's on update on what's been going on...

                                                     Charlotte, Vashti, Laura and Sabastian
                                              Litte do we know what we're about to get into.

                                                               Trying our best to Tango

Mark and Sol arranged a professor of Tango to come give us a lesson and it was amazing! All of us had a great time and even though there were stumbles and someone's foot was damaged (sorry Charlotte) we enjoyed every minute!!                         

                                                                     The professionals

                                                                    Tango therapy

But don't think all we do on this farm is dance!! We've been making progress with the hostel bathroom and shower. The walls are almost completely finished and the facilities are almost up and running. It's hard work and I usually walk away covered with mud from head to toe, but I also walk away satisfied that I did my part. Even though it isn't finished I feel content knowing I contributed a little and someday soon it'll be completed and be there for all the volunteers to enjoy!!

                                                         Mark working in the garden.

                      The garden is coming along great and we often dine on the yummy veggies.

 

Family Farm Hostel now in stage two

Hey there happy campers, Mr. Mark back to the old writing thing, posting on the blogging.
We are happy to announce that our website http://www.wonfamily.net/ is now mostly ready to go and provide the main arena to show who we are, what we do and what we hope to achieve. The blog will now become the moment to moment life on the happy homestay hostel that we are trying to form. So thank you very much to Katherine for helping me, a total fuddy duddy on this machine in front of me that the younger generation have attached to them like an unopperable appendage!!! Blessed  me to them, for they help in the formation of our centre, where we hope to inspire all who come to engage themselves in creative, proactive coparticipative sustainable lifestyles. Words, words, words....Yet come and visit us to have acts as well, and then we are complete...
Later!

What is happening in November 2011?!?

Hello All!


Katherine, an ecovolunteer here, updating what has been happening. Some projects have been completed, and new ones are starting.

The pool has been cleaned, and is up and running, thanks for Tom, a volunteer who hung around and helped out for the last three weeks. We were sad to see him go, but everyone is thrilled to have the pool up and running in time for the upcoming Summer months!

One main project that we are all working on is the wall for the new shower house behind the main house and hobbit holes. Using earthen building techniques (wood palettes that serve as the foundation, with a plaster on top consisting of soil, clay, and manure to make a strong and eco-friendly wall) to build the back supporting wall. After we complete this and add the roof, there will be a shower stall, two toilets, and a sink.

Of course there is still the general maintence of everything, as well as soaking in the scenery and eating lots of yummy lacto-vegetarian food!

 A general view of the house. The hobbit hole and main house on the left. Plowed rows of plants in front. The pool on the right.

 The start of the back wall with wood palettes for the shower house.

 Adding the organic plaster substance to the wall, giving it strength!

Mark directing Jeanie and Nele to stomp. Squishing around to mix the manure and make the paste!

 Sol and Andy (daughter of Sol) hanging out with volunteer Mona and some neighbors, cooking in preparation for a food festival Sol sold her delicious tacos and pancakes at!

 Tom working on cleaning the pool, an event we were all quite excited for.

Some berries on nearby trees. We have been using them with other fruits for yummy juice midday!

One funny afternoon adventure was spent looking for the miniature horse of a friend of Manwell. Apparently the horse walked off the farm after someone accidently untied him. We split up into three search parties and did a couple of the walks around the block before it was decided that we could not find it. Fortunately, for us, the horse, and the boy that lost it, the horse had walked right back to his home nearby, but the opposite direction from where we were looking. A classic Argentine moment!

Until next time! Ciao!

Doin the Poo Dance

Monday we all had an exhausting but fulfilling day. In order to make the shed a more weather-proof place for seeding, Mark decided we should build adobe walls around the sides. Large windows would be left in the east and west facing walls so that sunlight could reach the seedlings that would be growing inside. Adobe construction uses all natural materials. First we dug up some rich soil and added leaves, water, hay, and oxen manure. In order to mix these ingredients together, Mark and I donned rubber boots and began stamping about in the mud. The proper name for the mixture is Cob. And the mixing process is called the Cob Jig. Or, as we oh-so-maturely preferred to call it, the Poo Dance. Mark and I would grab each others forearms, lean back so our heels were digging into the mud, and then swing each other around in a circle, stamping our feet into the mud and pulling them out again with a satisfying squelch as the liquid stuff trying to suck our boots from our feet. Once the cob was fully mixed we would collapse panting onto the nearest bench.

Where we wanted to build each wall we would first lay a rubble base made from stones, broken bricks, chunks of concrete, and broken ceramic scavenged from around the property. The base of rubble will allow water to pass under the wall without being soaked up through the adobe, which would weaken it. Once the rubble base was laid, we began to shovel handfuls of cob out of buckets and smack it down on top of the rubble. At first, digging our hands into poo-mud was gross, but it quickly became hilarious and fun instead. We shaped the wall with our hands, patting, squeezing, and knuckling it into compliance. The first wall rose amazingly quickly. We used glass bottles that Mark and Sol had been collecting in the wall as well.  The bottles allowed the wall to gain height more quickly, as well as making the wall more aesthetically pleasing.

Throughout the afternoon Mark and I repeated the Poo Dance more than a dozen times. By the end of the day we had brought the east-facing wall to window height, and had begun to raise two other walls as well. We were all exhausted.

Laura, working on the bottle wall in its early stages

Alix and Mark doin the poo dance

Everyone hard at work on the walls in various stages

Josh building up an adobe wall

Mark playing in the mud

Toby working on the wall

Alix getting her hands dirty

 

Toby and Laura finishing the bottle wall

New Faces, Old Materials

Greetings faithful and first-time readers! I'm Alix, a 22-year-old American currently volunteering at the farm. I guess this blog will host a long series of different authors since there's a pretty constant rotation hostel occupants. I'm here with my boyfriend, Josh, for 2 weeks. Also here are Laura, 26, from Holland, and Toby, 22, from Germany. Laura and Toby are planning to stay for a month. Josh and I have been here for a week already and we’ve really enjoyed the experience so far. Mark and Sol and their kids are all warm and welcoming, making us feel right at home, and more like guests than workers. Some days we work really hard all day, and some days are more relaxed. Rarely does everything work at once—a light bulb burns out just as the second toilet gets fixed, or a heater stops working just when we finally find the sweet spot that allows us to connect to the internet. But these little inconveniences keep life interesting, and there’s always a way to work around them.
Over the weekend we rebuilt the tool and seeding shed. We erected logs and salvaged metal poles as posts, digging into the ground to make them more stable and connecting them with bits of wire left over from some other project. We then attached mismatched corrugated metal sheeting overhead for the roof. At times the lack of proper materials and tools was frustrating, but ultimately, finding a way around these shortcomings was more rewarding. When the rusted hole in a sheet of metal lined up perfectly with the forked branch of a log, we celebrated the coincidence as an accomplishment. The whole thing was essentially improvised, but by the end we had a pretty decent-looking shed. 

This idea of working with what you have and using recycled materials instead of always yearning for perfection, to me, exemplifies what Family Farm Hostel is all about.

Alix

Josh

Laura

Toby

A Quaint Little Gate

We were building a little roof to go over the little pedestrian gate in front of the farm. Ian and I had lots of debates over what type of roof should preside: a conical dome-shaped mushroom? a thatched roof? a symmetrical one?

We finally decided on this one: a lopsided, simple triangular arrangement. It seemed to fit best with the current Hobbit theme of the farm. 

Ian had me stand beneath him and hold up the planks while he cut them to size. It was one of the scariest moments of my life, with my frail fingers just an inch away from a chainsaw. But it was also very fun. Life should be a little bit dangerous. 

Ian hammered in two planks on either side of the gate, and then the morning after we hammered small planks on top to finish the tiling. The wood we found from a local wood dump. After walking around for about 15 minutes, the perfect wood appeared before us. It was this beautiful, red-tinted decking that had been abandoned in a corner. The individual pieces were extremely well cut and smooth. And it was only 3 pesos.

In total the Little Roof took 2 days to build. By sunset, it was time to call it a day. We picked up the few tools we used--a hammer, some nails, and a chainsaw, and went back inside for tea break, cookies, and dinner.