Catching up

Time has run away and I'm way behind on my posts. I plan to post four entries in the next few days starting with December now.

December 

Guy and I spent the first part of December getting the larger cob room prepared for the arrival of our first longterm guest, Grace Wall, who responded to the notice on this blog inviting people to come spend some time here, working with us, and enjoying our litle bit of paradise.

First window installed. This window also works as a door, and eventually there will be steps up to it from the inside.

Guy works on installing his first door, a new skill for him.   

Door is level.

After placing anchors between the doorframe and the cob, plus nails to hold the new material in place,
Guy fills in the space with cob.

Soon the new cob will dry and the door will be ready to use.

The first cob room, rough but pleasant, is ready for the first guest. 

In mid-December we picked Grace up at the airport in Brasilia. Soon she made herself at home and started working with us to prepare the smaller cob bedroom for the arrival of our friend Jaqi, due in mid January.

Grace found her chair and started reading about permaculture.

She delighted us with her music.

And she helped plaster the second bedroom, a tiring but
ultimately satisfying job (I think).

Guy's still working on installing windows.

Grace expressed an interest in working on a vegetable garden, a very welcome initiative since both Guy and I were discouraged by the failures of our first couple of years here and hoped that with some new energy we could continue the experiment of growing vegetables in this poor soil without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By now we had a fairly good supply of compost, including the humanure that Guy has been making since September 2014. We also have chickens that love the insects – grasshoppers, cutworms, caterpillars – that prey on our tender plants. However chickens also love tender plants, so our veggie gardens require fences. Grace was game and though she had little experience building structures she soon built the first fence around a small area, and planted lettuce, radishes, cilantro, mustard and collard greens, cucumber, tomatoes and basil.

Grace digs hole for the fence posts.

New kittens, Cindy and Fofa.

Also in December we got two kittens.  Cindy, the calico, I asked for from a neighbor. Her mother had abandoned her and she nursed with a litter of tiny puppies. She looked like a malnourished rat and everyone who saw her wondered if she’d make it. The second cat, Fofa the albino, chose us, even though I didn’t want a white cat and we returned her to the road several times, to no avail.  

Cindy finds a place to nap.

Lolita, who has missed her old pal, Fofinho (who disappeared many months ago) accepts the two new residents.