August was a very hot month at Chumbaria, with a top temperature of 41 degrees. There were a few fires in our district, but luckily not too close to us and the Bombeiros (as always) did a brilliant job at putting them out. Helicopters with water buckets and seaplanes have been a common sight this month. Luckily our new water storage tanks arrived and we will be able to store 50,000 litres of water, collected from the roofs of the village houses. It will help to irrigate our land and keep us safe if we ever experience a fire again.
Despite the heat, we got a lot done during August. We were joined by volunteers Esther and Martin from Jordan and Rolf and Kiki from the Netherlands. Esther planted a million seedlings. Martin helped Steve with more irrigation pipes and the rest of us continued to clear the ruin, a project we started months ago. We didn’t find any buried treasure, but we did find a lot of glass and bones – hopefully only animal ones! Rolf and Kiki tried their hand at carpentry – they were actually pretty good – and made a fence for the ruin complete with gate and whale latch. With the help of Solomon they also constructed an arch for the entrance to vegetable terrace number 3. It looks really good.
We also ran two more successful ‘An introduction to Permaculture’ workshops. We had a full turn-out on both days and people really enjoyed themselves and the feedback was very positive. We spent a few hours developing their understanding of permaculture, whilst on a guide tour of the gardens at Chumbaria. We explored the ethics and principles of permaculture and how we have applied them to the development of our lifestyle. We also discussed some strategies to help with a more sustainable way of gardening. We will continue to hold regular workshops throughout the year. We get to meet a lot of lovely people and share our village and regeneration project, which is amazing.
