Other Activities

Its been a little while since I made my last post.  I was discussing my progress with a friend in Canada and mentioned I needed to make an update.

First of all I selected the first plot of land to start this experiment. I may go on to work on the second plot and have the option to buy another that I believe is adjoining the first plot.  I have not seen the plot that is for sale so I don't have any details on it.

So far I've marked the contour near the middle of the plot I selected.  For the past week I've been digging a trench along the contour line, that I will widen and dig deeper. I was thinking about hiring someone with a backhoe equipped with a jack hammer to dig this swale. I mentioned this to Jorge and he said that people may not see this as something they could accomplish if a lot of money had to be invested. So  I've been digging the beginning of this swale by hand, primarily using a pickaxe.  Some areas have had a decent amount of soil with maybe 20% to 30%  rocks ranging in size mainly 2 to 5 inches diameter with the occasional 2 to 3 foot diameter. Other areas are upward to 90% stones of the same dimensions.

The contour takes a 90 degree turn close to the other side of the property.  Here suddenly the ground became 1 solid rock that extends at least 20 feet that I checked so far and may extend to the end of the property. So I've retreated to my arm chair to think about what I might do with this area.

The solid rock area is clearly a water shed, I can see where the water flows over the rocks. one option may be water reservoir, although its not in a good location for irrigation.  I'm leaning toward the idea of building a Hugelkultur mound on contour, although being solid rock I can only hope to store water in the mound itself. I'm also considering hiring someone to dynamite a section of this rock, to see if there is gravel, sand or soil under it. Maybe even a combination reservoir with a Hugelkultur mound against it.  Not sure yet.

I will have some picture of my progress very soon.

On another note, I'm working on a few small things at my Casa in Town. I noticed most dwellings already have small forest gardens containing a variety of fruit, nut trees and the occasional Mahogany  or other timber species. Although the owners generally rake up all the leaves into a pile and burn them.

I was leaving my Casa one morning and noticed one of my neighbors raking up tropical almond leaves, that were in his front yard and on the road. I've seen this done many times and I knew they would soon be burnt.  So I approached him and asked if I could have the leaves.  He looked puzzled and asked why I wanted  them, I told him I needed them for compost. He agreed to let me take the leaves, so I started bagging them up, he asked me for a bag and started helping me. Neighborhood children gathered around to watch and some even decided to help as well. Later I drove by another place and noticed another person raking up their almond leaves, so I asked them and they let me take them.  A similar gathering of children took place, but I over heard one kid saying "Mucho Basura" meaning a lot of garbage, as he sat there giggling and watching us bag up the leaves.

I ended up with around 30 regular sized garbage bags full of leaves from these 2 trees.  I had been gathering scraps from Jorge's restaurant and his fathers fruit and vegetable stand,  which were beginning to stink in 20 liter pails.  I made a large compost pile "approximately 8' long, 4' wide' 4 or 5' high" with the leaves and scraps and a few bags of Leucaena leaves I gathered from the road side.  The pile heated up by night fall and in a few days had sunk down to half its size.

A few weeks have gone by and now the pile is not even the required 3'x3'x3', although its still pumping out a lot of heat.  I didn't shred any of the leaves or other components and many of them are still in their whole form. So this pile might take a while to finish.

Doesn't look like much now

I've also planted a few Moringa trees and an oregano bush. I've sparsely spot mulched them with weeds I pulled from the lawn and fronds from fallen coconut tree branches.

 Moringa in front of my Casa, with a little spot mulch.

Oregano bush that was given to me by the same guy who located and brought me a lot of Moringa seeds. Now happily growing on the back west side of my Casa.

I've also convinced my land lord to stop burning the leaves the trees drop and leave them on the ground. I came home one day to find he had raked them up and piled them around a couple tree trunks.  I will pull them away from the trunk a bit and let him know that fungus and bugs might attack the tree, but its still great that he was willing to try something new.  Already I've noticed a major increase in the bird population as they are scratching and playing in the piles of leaves.

My back yard, now with the first addition of leaves that didn't get burnt. These trees drop a lot of leaves, so I expect this area to be covered in a year.