Things were going so well, until that is i spotted a huge mistake at the final stage of the flooring for my new home and the start of ecoVillages. If there was one thing i learned building and living in India for 15 years it was that i trusted people who didn’t do good work and in the end i should have just done it myself! I was rather hoping to rely on a few local people to take me through the process of making this base, which is an 8 sided octagon. The problem was , as you can see in the thumbnail image... one of the corners is sticking out by a whole 10cm! This is not good at all, since the cloth wall of the yurt needs to drape down to make sure water does not come in. I scratched my head in disbelief, that corner has been hidden by plastic and even though i would have assumed my friend and guide would have got this very important thing right, it definitely wasn’t! After some measuring and checking i realised the problem originated from the very first step, cutting the 8 pieces of wood to exactly the same length. They were off by as much as 3cm, and there was no way i was going to undo all that work!
I spend most of yesterday pondering and was quite upset. I didn’t get angry with my friend, even though i am even paying him to help me.. and just tried to stay cool. Surely it would be OK to cut it and then make that corner go in a bit. Since i have no experience with octagons and wood i really wasn’t sure.. but luckily i had my very good friend and brother @naturejon to call! Jon is a dear friend and has many years of experience building yurts and eco homes. He said it should be totally fine to cut it and put some supports back in and not to worry. Phewph! That was a relief. After 2 months or more of extreme hard work it was pretty crushing to have been looking at the potential of having to undo a lot of work.
I just came back from the land, and im very pleased to say that the surgery is complete! It don't look pretty but you wont see it when it is finished, and i just put SO many supports in that i think this base is Super strong.. might even hold an elephant.. although that’s not something i hope to ever try!
Its good to learn lessons in these early stages of building in a new location. In India i learned a lot building a geodesic dome, and now im learning here with this yurt! I have already decided that I will put the yurt up myself with a friend.. rather than to have to painfully watch someone butcher my new home and hard work! That i hope to start within a week.. Very exciting!!!
What's is also very exciting is that tomorrow we DIG A WELL! If you saw my previous update you will know we doused for water over a month ago now, and we had an amazing result with the dousing stick bending strongly in two locations on our land. On one spot the stick literally split and almost exploded in front of us! So let us see if tomorrow our land gifts me with a beautiful birthday present.. WATER! (yes tomorrow also happens to be my birthday but Shhh. don’t tell anyone!)
Dousing For Water!
ECOVILLAGES:
THE UGENCY HAS NEVER BEFORE BEEN SO GREAT!
Once I have finally established myself on our land, I will be ready to start manifesting ecoVillages Phase 1, building a new earthship model for the region. We have the funds secured, the land is beautiful and ripe for this, as is the entire local area. Penamacor is a very special place folks. Its nothing like fancy Portugal, its rural, rustic, simple, and very special. I never expected to see so many people ready to work together, help each other, and live such an alternative lifestyle. There is a HUGE flow of people already coming here, and most have no clue how to start building or even buying land.
Very soon I hope we are ready, the ecoVillages crew, to take this world FAST tracked to a new and wonderful paradigm. I could never have imagined as we turned a new decade what the world had in store for us. TO me it already feels like there is nothing left in cities. Whatever people used to gravitate to them for, times have changed. It will take time for us all to catch up and find a way to move on and into a new world that is waiting for us. There is not other sensible path left other than to get self sufficient, and secure and as SOON as possible.
You wont hear it on the news unit it is too late. When the BIG crash happens it is going to be the one that catches everyone out. Wherever you are when it happens, expect to stay there! This is my feeling, my intuition, and right now I am doing everything i can to make this alternative work, and to help as many people as possible to do the same!
Disrupting the "Cost of Living" Industry
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ECO VILLAGE COIN (ECO) HODLERS:
We've moved! ecoVillage tokens have migrated to hive-engine. Air-drop is complete to all hodlers.
This is an important update to everyone who has purchased ecoVillage coin. There is nothing to do on your end except be aware of the changes. As many of you will know steem engine has a new hive version called hive engine. Since Steem is no longer stable or decentralised I have now completed the migration of all ecoVillage coins to https://www.hive-engine. I have also completed an air-drop of any tokens purchased by you to your hive wallets. You should be able to see them on peakd.com or hive-engine.com. This is the new location for everyone to buy and sell ecoVillage coins (ECO).
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BEER.Afff, sad to hear about the poor skills or execution, that's Portugal... specially in more remote areas.
There are half a dozen (maybe less) companies starting to push personalized wood houses, they even do dislocations but they are more interested in making full houses of course which are much more profitable for them.
Hopefully you can gather some people with the year passing by, that area is really special, hoping to travel there in the near future again.
Be well my friend and celebrate life ! Congrats !
Amazing project
I forsee sustainability from your work
The idea is well searched...Great work you are doing to combat climate change
I can fully understand what you've been through. I'm learning to sew and know from experience what it means a few centimetres here and there and how it feels when you have to redo everything.
You're doing great I'd say, so good luck with your projects.
I think you've got so many supports in there that is should be fine, glad it worked out!
Is the yurt base on the land you bought, the same place you're digging the well? Or is it on your friend's land that you mentioned?
I'm really hoping to be in the area by early October!
And I have no clue how to buy land, but I'll be renting first of all anyway - I'm pretty sure a legally recognized address will come in handy early on.
So very encouraging to see what I think is pretty rapid progress!
This looks great Alex, must have been so disappointing finding that error though! But as you said it won't even be noticeable once the yurt is up. Digging for water is a huge step and so important, I'm excited to see how that goes! xxx
Happy birthday belatedly ;-)
I concur on what you write about the urgency, I think the same way.
Also I guess one should secure the land now for cheap or at least sane prices before the fiat bubble bloats and the bursts because of the corona fiat money printing.
I guess most important is you sorted the problem and it's behind you. Your yurt will be super secure. Thats awesome news about the dowsing results. How exciting. A healthy well is so key to life. I look forward to the well digging post.