Newsletter Three
Continuing Construction and Progress
We are happy to report the birth of a second lamb! This photo was taken a couple of days after birth.
We are very pleased to report that we have assembled a high quality construction team and that we can be confident in allowing work to continue even when we're away—which is almost unheard of here.
Currently under construction we have:
Café Cosmos will function as a gathering place for our community and a focal point for local families and groups. Nestled up against the foot of the mountain, Café Cosmos is a short stroll from our bouncy blue pedestrian suspension bridge.
Café Cosmos is an internet café and restaurant that also houses an art gallery.
Café Cosmos will also serve as a filming, projection & interview location.
Café Cosmos is located on the first floor of a two-story structure. The second floor will have three short-term rental units, plus a good-sized sitting area and veranda with great views.
Here is the foundation for the first floor being laid:
...and below, the back wall and, to the right, work being started on the second floor:
Here is the losa, or second floor being built of a very sturdy ferro-concrete monolithic pour:
Below you can see the state of completion of Cafe Cosmos when we arrived this trip (July 15, 2008). We plan to finish the first floor of this project during this trip—and our “stretch objective” is to complete the second floor, too.
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In addition to an Internet Café, we are now installing a well that draws water from the water table of the river. Not only will this be used for irrigating the various gardens and the upper field, the flow rate is sufficient and the water quality is good enough to use as drinking water for the nearby houses, including our own. We will, of course, put in good water purifiers in Café Cosmos and in all houses, so that we can be super certain of pure drinking water.
Our first corn crop has matured and is shown here drying on the porch. The final harvest was about half a ton and is being used as supplemental feed for the chickens, which are now big and healthy.
All of the above photographs
were taken by our dear friend
and most excellent property
& project manager, Jorge Abad
We invite you to communicate, visit and to seriously consider joining us in whatever way fits for you and your life goals. Some may wish to be full time residents, others part time (click here to see available homesites & here for community ideas). Still others may wish to come from time to time, to do a retreat or to take a class....or to teach one.
Our vision is to create a place in the world where we can contribute to reforestation, ecological renewal, organic food production, local self-reliance and micro-enterprises that serve these goals.
We also seek to create a place where we can use internet communications and create music, videos and films that will educate, influence & inspire the world with a new vision and new values of full human development and ecosystem biodiversity and sustainability.
We invite you to participate, to become part of this "seed crystal" for a new civilization.
Norie Huddle & Richard Wheeler
R S V P
Micro-Enterprises
Congruent with our interest in supporting the development of a diverse skills set and a number of small businesses, Norie is taking her first class in jewelry making with Master Jeweler, Francisco Burbano.
Below, Norie is wearing her very first piece of jewelry: a sterling silver bracelet inlaid with espondylus and a small garnet. Her design is patterned after (you guessed it?) a butterfly!
Jewelry making is one part of our overall plan to create a series of micro-enterprises that will support the work of talented local artisans & develop marketable skills among local people.
We are spontaneously self-configured as the
Huddle—Wheeler Design Team
Invitation
The Farm
As another part of our design plan for the land we are landscaping our garden areas, putting in fish ponds for their decorative value and also for raising fish for sale in local restaurants and markets.
We have installed beehives and are raising a fully organic crop of sugar cane to rebuild the soil structure after years of the previous owner’s unwise cultivation practice of using urea for fertilizer.
In discussions with local experts we are laying the ground work for progressive reforestation of our upper mountain regions which rise up at least 1200 feet from our riverside farmland.
Norie has been reading books on organic farming by Polyface farms and we plan to follow the precepts and ideas where they best relate to equatorial farming needs. We are happy to relate that our evening fields are full of fireflies and early morning brings great squadrons of dragonflys to patrol the crisp mountain air. And yes, this is the season for small frogs and toads. We’ve had at least a dozen come inside to visit.
