Making Sense of Things

Posts related to 1. Society

Its aims is to explore the features of contemporary societies – feel free to contribute!

• 02 October 2011 - Growing forests in deserts…

  It has been a long time without posting… we do apologise for such a long silence but the truth is we’ve been extremely busy! We spent most of August hiking in the Swiss Alps and we do hope to be able to share with you our experience with the makers of the über-famous Gruyere cheese… Anyway, after this great holiday, we then went to Jordan to study permaculture. We ended up doing a Permaculture Design Course for two weeks in Amman (it’s now Carly’s second PDC!), followed by a week of conferences/discussions/experience sharing in the Wadi Rum desert, exchanging about agriculture and water harvesting in arid climates; cross-fertilisation of the aid and permaculture sectors; using permaculture in regions where there are land rights conflicts such as Israel and Palestine; using carbon footprint offset taxes to finance permaculture projects, etc… After that, we went to the Occupied Palestinian Territories to visit some of … Read the rest

• 28 July 2011 - Week 9 – Eco-building in the Pyrenees, Hosting a project and community living

  Over the 5 weeks spent with Pierre I observed how he managed us helpers, his projects, his family life and himself.  I imagine the whole process could be quite physically and emotionally rewarding but also draining – dealing with various people from all walks of life, interrupting your routine, sharing your space, managing the build, training, supervising, etc.

   

  As mentioned in a previous post, community living often seems harder than the project or building itself. So, this week’s post is from Pierre’s perspective. We’ve asked him some questions which he has kindly answered for us.

   

  1. How many helpers have you had?

  So far, to the present day, which is in the third season, I have had about 30 helpers (5 in season 1, 20 in season 2, 5 so far in season 3).

  2. Why are you using volunteer helpers?

  I haven’t thought about why before. It happened in a … Read the rest

• 25 July 2011 - “Faced with inhumanity, we must be more human” – A witness account of the Oslo tragedy

  Erik Abild, a Norwegian friend of mine whom I met while working in Gaza, yesterday shared his thoughts about the horrendous and absurd killings which just occurred in Oslo. We particularly appreciate his call for greater humanity. As he puts it perfectly:

  “Today, here in Norway, many politicians and people state that “today we are all AUF” (the name of the youth party). And we are. Just as we all were Japanese when the earthquake struck, or as we all are Somalis when we read about famine. This feeling of community is a part of being human. And this communality, the shared experience of humanity, is essential to hold onto. In the face of inhumanity, we have to be more human. Because there is only this one world, brutal and beautiful, and we only have one fragile life to make our difference in the world we all share as … Read the rest

• 20 July 2011 - Week 8 – Eco-building in the Pyrenees, from earth bag foundations to plastering

  This post will actually cover the progression of Pierre’s projects in the Pyrenees over a 2 week period as we would like to use the last post, week 9, to share Pierre’s experiences of hosting volunteers for his projects.

  During my last 2 weeks at Pierre’s, we completed the ceiling insulation (see our week 5 post for details), continued painting the window frames (inside and out), finished plastering the internal walls, plastered the first coat for an external wall, made some earth bags, finished sanding and painting the floors, added some creative elements and contributed to some gardening in preparation for Anne and the family to move in.

  We had some extra helpers arrive, Ann and Hannah, who added some great energy to the group. Jean also arrived in time to spend a week helping out after being awarded his doctorate! I’m so proud of him!

  Earth Bag … Read the rest

• 12 July 2011 - Week 7 – Eco-building in the Pyrenees, Inspiration in the Mountains

  During week 7 of my eco-building adventure, we spent a few days visiting Pierre’s mountain house to get some fresh air, a break from work and see some of the design elements he implemented there. It was inspiring to see his designs and thoughts about space actually implemented (see the week 6 post for more about designing space).

  This week I will simply share with you some images from the mountains and Pierre’s house and garden. He purchased an old house a decade ago and improved it substantially – essentially all by himself. As you look through the pictures, think about his use of space, the colours, the types of stairs, the simple, modest, effective use of natural materials and so on… altogether, the house offers a beautiful mix of rocks, natural plaster and wood.

  Your email:

   

  … Read the rest

• 03 July 2011 - Week 6 – Eco-building in the Pyrenees, Natural Painting, Plastering and Designing

  This week saw us continuing the ceiling insulation, sanding and painting the timber ceiling and flooring with  linseed oil, painting window frames with natural paint and applying cow dung plaster.

  Linseed Oiling

  The linseed oil is actually a mixture of linseed oil and turpentine mixed 2L:330ml. It is used to protect the timber from the elements andincrease its durability. It also increases its resistance from being destroyed by insects or fungus. From what I’ve read, the function of linseed oil as a preservative is believed to be related to its action as a water repellent and drying agent rather than a direct biocidal activity.

   

  Natural Painting 

  The natural paint is a mixture of pigment, linseed oil and a touch of turpentine to thin at the end.  I loved learning how to make my own paint as it’s so easy and I’d love to do it in future for my … Read the rest

• 24 June 2011 - Week 5 – Cob camp hits the road to learn eco-building in the Pyrenees

  Cobbing

  The beginning of week 5 was all about mixing and building cob since the roof was up and stable. There is so much to learn about cob that you can only truly understand through tactile experience.  You need to feel the critical proportion of clay to sand to ensure a plastic, cohesive, workable mix that won’t shrink and crack too much.  Depending on the coarseness of the sand and quality of the clay (and other components in the soil) the final mix should be between 5% and 25% clay.  By observing the soil composition from a soil test (seeing it settle in a jar with water) you can estimate proportions.

  But, it is the snowball test and crunch test that helped us refine the mix.  For the snowball test we created a sphere from our mix, held it 1m above soft ground and let it fall. If it shattered, it was … Read the rest

• 19 June 2011 - Week 4 at Cob Camp – Hard work and fun

  This week started with Marco and Linda departing camp and Anita and Martin making a real effort to progress the project positively and constructively.

  A real highlight of the week was when Laurence came to camp to give us an edible weeds tour of our area. She taught us how to identify what we could eat that was naturally growing around us and how we could eat it.  She pointed out blackberries, wild sage, Jerusalem artichoke, daisies, yarrow, hog weed and more… here are some pictures…

  

  Fitting in with this theme, Wayne decided to teach us all (in a humorous TV cooking show style!) how to make delicious elderflower cordial from some local elderflower trees. Here is his recipe:

  • Pick 25-30 heads of fresh fragrant flowers (not starting to fruit, brown or bud) to make 2L of cordial
  • Shake the flowers to remove insects
  • Put the flowers in approximately 2L

  … Read the rest

• 12 June 2011 - Week 3 at Cob Camp – Community Matters

  Most people want deeper links to a community as modern society is individualistic, insecure and fractured. Many don’t know where to start to lead different lives and those of us who do, seem to grapple with making ‘community’ work.

  How do we live co-operatively, thoughtfully and simply with each other whilst conserving natural resources, sharing responsibility for work and providing meaningful, dignified and safe work – including successful projects?

  All of us on this course are from Western societies where we’ve been encouraged to be highly individualistic. Given we need to learn new skills for living together with others (especially giving up personal space) this group has done remarkably well at banding together, without conflict, to get things done.  But… it’s not all smooth sailing.

  

  Proper management is important. My previous management experience is on big projects but there are many inspiring models to emulate, especially from small populations of … Read the rest

• 04 June 2011 - Week 2 at Cob Camp – Planting, rescuing, cooking and eating food. And making stuff out of leather…

  Week 2 of the cob building course was (nearly) all about FOOD!! Planting food, skip diving for food, cooking creatively, making a stove and oven, eating, discussing… it really seemed to be our focus all week!

  

  After our first skip dive at the local supermarket bin, we organised the camp kitchen and enthusiastically embraced communal cooking with our rescued food. We made scrambled eggs, with smoked salmon and goats cheese, frittata, salad nicoise, salsa, potato salad, creamy pesto pasta, coleslaw, ratatouille, couscous, nettle and goats cheese quiche, garlic pizza bread, chocolate brownies, spaghetti and more… but the best creation all week was Sunset Bin Crumble with Sam’s Special Sauce. This cob-camp specialty was essentially apple and rhubarb crumble cooked in Mr Oo (the cob oven we’ve recently made).  The crumble was made from delicious, rescued bright pink biscuits and butter. The sauce was Samantha’s inventive concoction of cottage cheese, 2 … Read the rest

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