A Quaint Little Gate

We were building a little roof to go over the little pedestrian gate in front of the farm. Ian and I had lots of debates over what type of roof should preside: a conical dome-shaped mushroom? a thatched roof? a symmetrical one?

We finally decided on this one: a lopsided, simple triangular arrangement. It seemed to fit best with the current Hobbit theme of the farm. 

Ian had me stand beneath him and hold up the planks while he cut them to size. It was one of the scariest moments of my life, with my frail fingers just an inch away from a chainsaw. But it was also very fun. Life should be a little bit dangerous. 

Ian hammered in two planks on either side of the gate, and then the morning after we hammered small planks on top to finish the tiling. The wood we found from a local wood dump. After walking around for about 15 minutes, the perfect wood appeared before us. It was this beautiful, red-tinted decking that had been abandoned in a corner. The individual pieces were extremely well cut and smooth. And it was only 3 pesos.

In total the Little Roof took 2 days to build. By sunset, it was time to call it a day. We picked up the few tools we used--a hammer, some nails, and a chainsaw, and went back inside for tea break, cookies, and dinner.

Mr. Mark

Hello there. Well, we are getting the hostel ready now for the start of spring and then summer, so it is time to introduce myself - Mr Mark - as the family head, Sol being it's heart, and her food being in our bellies...yum yum....
So, really those who write on the blog here are the ecovolunteers who come here and take on this job as part of the project. Ada started it, then Mina continued it and got it to the excellent state it is in today, so thanks a whole bunch to them. The thing is that I am now 43 years old and really I would like this blog to be more of a reflection of what this place is about, in the young and vibrant language of those who stay here, following the theme of the organic network. So my writing will probably be found more at http://www.wonfamily.net/ which is at the moment being written and formed as an umbrella organisation, to set up a trend of family farm hostels, where any family, or familiarity group, can copy our model and find a way to get out of the rat race and log onto the grid of autonomous decentralized cooperatives by building hostels, sustainability acadamies, wellbeing centres, one world therapy centres, or whatever takes one's fancy..

I love this picture. It looks almost like I'm stuck inside a room, and Ian is the guard. Or my face would be a photograph on the door. Or Ian could be looking into a mirror.

None of the above are actually true.

We were actually stripping paint off of the front door to the hostel in order to prepare it for future paints.

They bought paint stripper and we spent a few minutes just covering the door with a viscious, cream colored liquid. And within minutes the old painted started to crinkle up and froth. We then grabbed chisels and started scraping away at the door.

It was so much work! But very good exercise. There really aren't that many opportunities to share a deep conversation through a hole in the door.

I just realized I never really introduced myself. I'm sorry--I guess it would be nice to know who has been writing these posts all along.

Well, my name is My Ngoc To, pronounced Me Knock Toe. But at the farm, and everywhere else in South America, I go by Mina. I'm currently 19 years old, born in Vietnam, living in Georgia, and currently studying economics at Harvard. During the summer I took a break to go to South America to volunteer, and I found this jewel called Family Farm Hostel. If you want more information on my experience here or just about my travels, just email me: myngoc.to@gmail.com!

We made a sun out of natural materials. To start, we found a piece of charcoal next to the fire place and sketched out a general vision. Next, we hammered nails in so that the plaster would stay. 

This is where the fun started. We stood about six feet from the wall and threw fistfuls of the cow poop/earth/water mix onto the wall. You would think that it would smell bad and feel gross. But I, a city girl who had never done much dirty labor before, found this to be completely liberating and relaxing. The whole time I was laughing and giggling nonstop.

This was a good opportunity to practice my aim too. A few times I was laughing too hard and threw the poop too high, and it soared above the wall and onto Ian's bed.

Once we had enough plaster stuck to the wall, we started on the delicate matters, stroking the sun and pinching out the edges until we had sculpted the perfect spiritual sun.

To add color, we held spices in our hands (moron and curcuma) and blew them on. It's amazing how much of a ceremony this project became. It was almost as if the the sun moved through our bodies and onto the wood.

We finished the sun in about an hour and a half, and we worked without stopping, without doubting, without fearing. I think all art should be this way: a bit dirty, a lot of fun, and done in groups.

Last night I played hide and seek with all the kids. I shouldn't call them kids, because they were my age: it was Seba, Maxxi, Andrea, Jose, Daniel, and another kid whose name I forgot. We started playing at around 9 and didn´t stop for two hours.

Hide and seek is called Esconder y Buscar.

The whole yard is so fun to play in because you can hide behind the well, behind the pool's fence, behind the house, under hay stacks, beneath tables on the porch. I am lucky I am small, because twice I hid beneath the bench right next to the base and surprised the seeker every time.

Seba liked to climb trees to hide. One time he climbed the roof, too, to hide, and brought his friend Maxxi along with him. His poor friend didn´t know how to get off the roof by the end of the game. I hid behind a curtain covering some old hardware behind the main house. At this time, Seba was the seeker. I think the game was approaching the end because I heard some kids telling him where I was staying. Through the curtain I saw him coming, singing and humming as he went, and when he was about to pull up the curtain, I screamed and exploded through the curtain like a crazy animal.

In the end I beat him to home base. The poor thing--I scared him half to death.

At another time I hid behind the fence at the swimming pool. I layed flat down on my back and just watched the stars. It was a half moon, and the light illuminated an almost imperceptible ring of clouds surrounding the moon. The stars are different in Argentina, and I am constantly fascinated by their arrangements. And then, bursting out of nowhere: a shooting star. My heart felt happy, and I decided to find my way back to home base.

I came back after 2 weeks of travelling around South America, and, honestly, I missed my farm family the whole time. When I came back Sol cradled me in her arms as if I were her own child. I was sick from crossing through 6 countries in two weeks, but they took care of me and made sure that my health improved.

The Hobbit House is so cute! It now has very polite-looking decking, flowers at the base of the front door, and clean windows. The air of the place is warmer every day. If I had the option, I wouldn´t mind living in the Hobbit House.

We recently added a sun to the Hostel. (Pictures will go up soon.)  A plastered sun made of earth and other natural materials. The spirit of the sun. It looks like a lotus flower, the earth, a pregnant lady's belly, an eye, and a spiritual sun all at once. And what was amazing is that it created itself from our own hands. The inspiration to make a sun in the Hobbit House came suddenly, and Ian and I set to work on it in silence. We both knew what to do, and within an hour we had transformed a pile of dirt into a brilliant sun shining in the Hobbit House. In the end we blew colored spices from our hands to color the rays and the center.

We also fixed the fence leading into the house. Ian made the small pedestrian gate workable again, and then we both made a little roof on top. Using recycled wood, we made a quiant little pointed roof on top of the gate. The wood we found was rose tinted and perfectly cut.

We have taken many many photos. I´m waiting for my computer to be fixed as to upload the photos.