Sleepover on the mountaintop!

Last weekend we slept on the mountaintop! I was watering the garden in the afternoon and when I came back they had made pizza that we could bring and eat on the top while watching the sunset. It was super windy when we were walking up, but we managed to find a calm spot to sleep. Toni brought our big sheepskin which we could all sleep on. It was so beautiful and we were filled with excitement and happiness (Lykke!). It was so nice to fall asleep and wake up with the sun. In the morning we started with a danceparty and then we walked down for our duties. 

The flowering garden

The garden is beautiful! Everything is flowering and growing! I am learning that whenever I start to worry too much I just have to look around, stop thinking and start enjoying. In the garden there is a lot of beauty to look at and to be happy about! Soon we will have a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, zucchinis and other delicious vegetables to eat!

Quack burn

In mid-April we celebrated the finishing of dequacking (removing couchgrass) with a huge bonfire in the garden! I am happy that we did that when everything was still moist and green so nothing else was put on fire. First we ate lasagna that I had prepared, and then we gathered in a circle around the fire with a handful of quack, shared some words of thankfulness and love and threw the quack on the already existing quackfire. We danced. It was beautiful, empowering and liberating. It was also some volunteers last night, which was sad, but it was a beautiful goodbye/see you again. The goodbyes here are always painful. We get so close so fast and share a lot of experiences, and then suddenly it is time to say goodbye, but I am just so thankful for all the lovely people I meet here and learn from.

Finca on fire!

Today, The 4th of June one of La Donairas fields was on fire! Everything is super dry. The fields went from green to golden in 2-3 weeks and we already had a fire! A guy who has worked here for 5 years said that it was the first time in the 5 years that he has been here. We don't know what started the fire, maybe some electricity in a building or a cigarette (just a guess). We were working in the garden when we saw the smoke growing bigger and bigger. We ran there to see if we could help. Luckily when we got there the fire was already under control and we were just hitting the last small flames with some branches to kill them. I think it was a huge wake up call for all of us. Agente medio ambiente (The nature agency/naturstyrelsen) came and said that we need to make boundaries around the farm to prevent the fire from moving too far. The deadline for making that was the 1th of June, so the farm could possibly get a huge fee.

Lately, I have wanted to make a bonfire, but now I have thrown that thought faaar away! No unnecessary risks.

Toni saving the day by peeing on the flames and Kata by hitting the flames with a branch.

Wild boar attack!

We had a wild boar attack in the permaculture garden we have close to the house where we live. It was a big disaster. They destroyed the whole garden and left only few things behind, mainly onion.  It was really sad, because it was a two year project of one of the guys living here destroyed in one night. Though, it was almost destiny, because the day before we were told by Darren Doherty (Known for Holistic management and permaculture design) that the garden in the Nido uses too much water on the garden and should stop doing it now where we have the new productive garden.

The garden before the attack:

  The garden after the attack: 

They turned the soil real good ;)

Mula, dog and wild boars in the garden!

Mula Transport

Finally i got permission to ride the Mula/Mule/Muldyr to the garden! So now i have transport to the garden and I don't have to walk up hill! Her name is Silvia and she is great! As you see on the first Picture it is possible to ride her without a bridle. She is very clever and understands what to do just from sounds and small movements.

Dog against wildboars

We just got a dog in the garden and an electric fence around it to keep out the wild boars. His name is Gitano and he will be able to walk around when he gets more used to being in the garden. I am unsure how much he will actually have an effect on keeping away the wild boears, because he is very lazy and did not react when I saw the wild boars right outside the fence the other day. The wild boars are definitely not shy. When I saw the wild boars for the first time in February there was maybe 10, but now in May there is at least 30! They grow super fast! 

One day where i was riding back home on Silvia, she was a bit nervous and i didn't understand why. Then we saw a fox and i thought that was it, but then i could hear and then see some wild boars and suddenly around 30 wild boars, very different ages and sizes, ran right out in front of us! I am sooo happy that i was on Silvia and not walking alone. My legs were like spaghetti!

The Brown spots on the Picture is wildboars that me and Amaro saw one morning when we were cutting down cañaeja, a plant that are poisonous for the sheep

Harvesting

We had our first harvest the 15^th of April and so far we have been able to harvest the herbs, salatmix, Tuscan kale, turnip, radish, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard and spring onions. It is so cool and delicious to be eating fresh food from the garden! The food goes to the Hotel of La Donaira and to the people Living in the volunteer house.