For the love of frogs, mud and bunnies.

The children have for as long as I can remember had a very special love for frogs.

There has always been the awareness of their singing at dusk, their spring time mating in our ponds or blow-up pools and there has always been the catching of them followed by their release back into the wild. We usually always keep an observatory for all the little creatures that the children find, much love and attention goes into the keeping of the observy, as we lovingly call it, and it changes frequently between earthen, dessert and watery world.

When I arrived back from Denmark it was an earthen home and housed a baby tarantula and a lizard, the children would catch and bring bugs to the little creatures for as long as they kept them in captivity.

The frog in these pictures is called Camelia, and from what the children tell me she keeps coming back, they release her and she finds her way back to them within a few days. The observatory was changed into a watery world filled with rocks for Camelia and her friend another tree frog, who quickly escaped.

After a day in captivity Camelia was released back into the cenote. 

 The observatory before it was changed for Camelia.

Cleaning the cenote, as is currently happening,  has the added benefit for the children that as a last step in the process a big pump is used to vacuum mud and sediments from the cenote floor onto the gardening area, and is there anything nicer on a hot day than to submerge 

yourself into the slimyness of mud, and then to jump into the cool cenote water to rinse off?

Finally we had yet another burial, this time of a bunny.

Keenan's favorite bunny who he had called Black Beauty escaped from the bunny corral at the beginning of last week, he was extremely touched by the escape and feared for the bunny's life in the wild. His grief was intense for about half an hour then he let it go.

5 days later he found Black Beauty outside the fence of the bunny corral exhausted, he died in Keenan's arms a few minutes later, and Keenan went through the grief all over again,

heartfelt tears for the loss of the little bunny's life.

We buried him in the garden next to Vampira, a bat the children had found wounded while I was away, and had not succeeded in bringing back to health.

I love to observe the children and their honest emotions; their grief so intense, their compassion so real

and yet they naturally allow the feelings to pass through them, feel them fully and then release them.

~Blessings~

Moving on...again

As I  sit under the expansive ceiling of our jungle home I am once again reminded how extraordinary this experience has been for our family.

Sure the heat is at times oppressing, the bugs relentless, the inconveniences of living without electric power, hot water and until very recently a toilet can at times feel very overwhelming, yet now as this time is coming to a close

I cannot help but to be acutely aware of the blessings that this 

brief experience has afforded us.

The children enjoy endless creative play in nature, their relationship with the animals, especially the babies, but truly all the different creatures around us, has created in them a growing compassion for all things living. Their learning has been completely natural, they have learned the necessity of attentiveness and awareness when living in an environment shared with potentially dangerous animals...and they have been free, free to just be..

We have, for a moment, taken part in the development of this harsh terrain, and so, with the help of many, created a more cohesive  and functioning piece of land.

The fact is that our little family will be making the move north. Come mid may we will be taking our leave and move to Denmark, a move that we have envisioned for three years, and are finally able to make a reality.

There are many reasons for the sudden change in plans and I could get into it here, but I wont because it is not important. Suffice it to say, that everything has worked out in perfect order for everyone involved, and that we feel nothing but gratitude.

So as we work the land these last few weeks it is with the intention of leaving everything in the best possible way, as a reminder that we were here and cared deeply for this project and with the wishes that it will continue to grow into

the wonderful place envisioned. 

~blessings~

House progress

The house is progressing nicely, soon the roof will be added then the walls, all this should happen in the next few weeks. We are still planing to move in by the end of december.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we decided to build with rocks as it is so very abundant all around us, that does however mean the use of plenty of concrete to bind the rocks.

The foundation is rock and pure cement, but the binder between the rocks in the walls will be a mix of cement and mostly lime.

One day a truck arrived filled with huge tree trunks, both Miguel and I felt so sad, how can we claim to be building sustainable if we use 50 year old trees in the structure.

Apparently they are sustainably logged, when the woods reach a certain age the owner is allowed to cut an area, he must replant three trees for every one cut and then they must not be touched for 50 years. Still makes me sad though:(

It does makes me happy that there are rules in place for these practices even here in Mexico.

Another change, one of many, is that we are back to constructing a roof made of ferrocement 

( a lighter cement, sand and water mixture) as oppose to the traditional palapa roof (thatched roof), which for the longest time we felt certain was the best choice.  Many reasons for this change of heart, the main being the ability to catch water. 

We are building one or two huge cisterns (about 20.000liters) to hold the captured rain water, with the idea that we will be able to store and supply all of our water usage from the rain.

Another thought was that the palapa will need to be replaced every 7 years or so, that is if a hurricane does not get at it before that.

And so even more cement...

Much of the building materiel is not 100% ideal, but I comfort myself by the fact, that this will be a strong house that will last a long time. It will supply our water needs, we will reuse all our greywater to grow food and plants around the house. The blackwater will be composted and used in the garden on none edible plants.

The energy use will be supplied by the sun and to start out the stove as well as the refrigerator  will run on gas. 

So while I cannot say that it will be the perfect "green" house, certainly it is a big step further from where we came, and another step in the right direction.

Here is the house site just a few weeks ago, digging down to the bedrock for the foundation.

Lots and lots of rock everywhere

 Foundation wall underway

 spaces in the circle are for the 8 wooden posts that will support the roof

all the wood trunks were left in the front of the property and moved one by one by hand, by 12-14 men. It took 3 days to move them all.

 center beam and all remaining beams raised by hands and strings..

 Keenan loves the building site, and helps when ever possible, his favorite these days is to mix his own "cement" mixture

 these walls will be the basement that will house the cisterns and also provide for storage space

 Last I saw the structure this is where it was at, that was 4 days ago, I imagine the cross beams for the roof have been added by now...more to come later

A few images from around the land.

The clean up of the cenote is well under way, this Sacate tree, (also known here as the bubblegum tree, because the sap is where the original gum came from, the children have chewed it, and it is just like gum only without the sweetens) had fallen presumably in a storm and had to be taken out..

 cleaning first the tall grasses, and then the sediments, all that we take out of the cenote is reused to build soil in other areas of the land, and to make compost

and we had our first baby chick hatch

~Blessings~