Project Sabbatical

I'm writing this from San Francisco. We have just returned to raise funds and awareness about the project and look for allies, sponsors and volunteers. It's wonderful to be back although we miss the land and Shiva already. It was a very hard to decision to leave our new home. However, we need to further the project in other avenues for now so we can be successful and expand later.

We have already had a lot of interest and support. We finished the walls, up to the roof the last week before we left. There aren't pictures of this as all five of our cameras broke this year either from waves at the beach, moisture or just living in the tropics. We left with a deep sense of satisfaction for overcoming the various and plentiful obstacles we faced. We will return with more fire and vigor, and enough funding to create a better vision.

I still have a lot of content I wasn't able to post, and photos too so I will be going back through to finish all the sections and include as much data as possible. This will be some of the journal content for my book.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and I hope we get to see each of you soon!

"Commitment is the enemy of resistance, for it is the serious promise to press on, to get up, no matter how many times you are knocked down." -borrowed from Fernando Gonzalez

We've done it! The cabin has a roof! Gracias a dios! Love to all of you who have supported us. This is the best feeling in the world. Viva la revolucion! Viva Terra Madre Panama!

7 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

By Care2 .com
www.care2.com, USA | Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:01 PM ET

Ablestock.com/Thinkstock

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Gardening | Vegetables

Not that being part of a trend is ever a good reason to start or learn something new, but if it helps you move forward by being part of the "in" crowd, then you really need to plant your own edible garden this year.

WATCH VIDEO: Organic Gardening

That's right, having your own vegetable garden is now trendy. In fact according to the 2009 Edibles Gardening Trends Research Report conducted by the Garden Writer’s Association (GWA) Foundation, over 41 million U.S. households, or 38 percent planted a vegetable garden in 2009. And, more than 19.5 million households (18 percent) grew an herb garden and 16.5 million households (15 percent) grew fruits during the same period.

The study found that there was a growth in edible gardening from both experienced gardeners and from an influx of new gardeners: 92 percent of respondents had previous experience and 7 percent (7.7 million households) were new edible gardeners.

And one-third of the experienced gardeners grew more edibles in 2009 than in the previous year. The GWA indicates that given the strong response for plans to grow more edibles into 2010, the vegetable gardening trend will continue and there will likely be a new high level of edible gardening activity this year.

Another survey done by the American Gardening Association showed a 19 percent increase in new hobby country farms and urban edible gardens in 2009 over 2008.

So, aside from its popularity, do you need some other reasons to grown your own food?

• The GWA's survey found that the main reason given for increasing or maintaining edible gardening last year was to supplement household food supply — to help them save money on food. That alone is a very powerful reason.


• There is nothing more local than food grown in your own backyard, your windowsills, or on patio containers.


• Growing your own fruits and vegetables means that you know exactly what does and does not go into your food and exactly where it comes from.


• You will get healthier in a number of ways. Not only will you end up eating more fruits and vegetables, but you will be getting added exercise. Did you know that you can burn as many calories in 45 minutes of gardening as you can in 30 minutes of aerobics? And, working in the garden reduces stress.


• You will get a bigger variety of your favorite fruits and vegetables because you can choose from hundreds of different varieties and you can grow the things you like the best.


• You can teach your children or grandchildren where their food actually comes from and that it doesn’t come from the supermarket but from the soil, the earth that we all depend on.

All four wall frames and wall boards. Designing the windows we found and refurbishing them is a challenge. Now for the roof frame!

Took a little break from the first photo (craziness and cabin construction) to hike los quetzales. So cool. Ended up in boquete and stayed with our friend Noel for Carneval, the 100th year anniversary.

Hooooawwwwww! Lift that frame boys!

Frame, walls and windows

Continuing with the frame we have 3 of the sides done and the walls half way up. Now to decide how to do the windows, Limon sourced used wooden frame windows with some of the panes missing from a taller and we found discarded glass, big cool pieces at a window and glass taller. We're using the old ones as a guide but upon more discussion have decided it's best to buy new windows just for piece of mind. The frame is gorgeous inside red mahogany, laurel and teak on the yellow laurel walls. We oiled the existing structure, floor and walls with impregnating oil, opting out of varnish or sealant. Now with a few random showers the wood is waterproof, bug-free and warp resistant (a big problem with not fully dried wood and killer mid-day sun.)

The four of us have been working hard, sun-up to sun-down and cooking on the land. Lots of fried rice and bbq's. The goal is to be done, really finished in two weeks!

We have Walls

Walls...yah.

We have a Floor

And they smell great. This is from its raw round state to the cut 4 x 4's to the 1 1/2" floor boards. So much work. But entirely worth it. Thank you to cuyler yogi, he flew down to help us build. Couldn't have done it without him. aloha floor.

First two WWOOF-ers!

Two rivers converge on a 40 hectare finca. Grassfed beef graze and free range chickens range free. We killed two chickens and made soup with onions we gathered, ajo we found and chili dulce

we picked, and the delicious weed culantro.

Traveling in Panama is great! We had an amazing time over the week and visited the most beautiful white sand beaches we've seen yet. Isla Grande on the Carribean and the water was crystal clear and the beaches were clean! I ate lobster and the boys found a boat that took all ten of us around the island on the craziest voyage of more than ten foot swells once we hit the open ocean. The Panamanians were scared- I could tell...it was hilarious.The boat was just a twenty foot fiberglass lancha and we were flying all over. Even I thought we would tip and I've survived the waters off of diamondhead! After that the caravan moved on to the 40+ hectare finca, all in the Colon region. They have more than a hundred head of cattle, 3 rivers converging, rolling hills and full grown trees as far as the eye can see. They have a rustic house there, an outdoor kitchen and a drop toilet that can easily be converted to composting. With no water running yet we talked to Noriel about a two into one pressure system where the pvc actually supplies it's own pressure without a pump- even uphill the 200'. We also discussed solar and wind and they're on board to fix it up a bit and hold retreats and presentations. This really opens a lot of possibilites and we're very excited. We're working on a presentation to give to the Villareals in hopes of educating them about possibilites at their disposal and becoming partners in the future. They're excited and just want more information and the resources to get themselves up to speed. Pretty sweet.

But the best news in months is that our first two visitors arrived! Cuyler Yogi and Limon's brother! They're here to learn, play and help us finish the cabin. We had a great dinner last night I was cooking all day in anticipation. After we ate our first round we went to see the cows and ducks and walk around the land in the starlight. When we cam back Shiva- damn she wolf- had pulled the whole roast chicken off the table and ate the whole thing bones and all. This was no small feet in under five minutes. But they brought new music and movies and energy and it feels so good. They both thanked us profusely for involving them and it made us both so happy and proud of what we've done, validated it, and really called my attention to the gravity of the situation. We're changing our life and through this affecting many lives along the way! The web has begun to spread and I'm overjoyed! Now I just need a few other choice people to get their butts down here!

We plan on starting WWOOF Panama. I have spoken with WWOOF International and we only need about 3 more farms to team up with. They have a world web of organic farms anyone can go volunteer on and room and board and opportunities to learn are always provided in exchange for work. It's swell. Go to: www.wwoof.org

Cabin Foundation

We got help from a local constructor to level, dig the holes and pour the cement as we weren't completely confident in our skills aquired online and through books. We used our initial design but in the end decided it was impossible to not use cement so we used as little as possible to construct the 25 columns on which the cabin will sit. We dug holes between 2 and 3' deep and reinforced the columns with rebar and a really rocky sand/cement mixture.

Once this is layed out we can put the 4" x 4" studs in each 5'x5' square. We managed to use 90% less cement than was proposed, in the end only 10 bags.