One little green step at a time...

So we´re back here and into the swing of the usual routine again after our trip to the UK last month. Unfortunately our builder took another contract in the time we were away and it´s dragging on a bit so we haven´t managed to get back into the building with as much gusto as we would have liked. Nonetheless, it´s given us some time for planning and experimenting with a few things and generally sorting out what we should be doing to get started on the non-building type of things, both on our land and in our hostel.

The first thing we did was reassess our hostel to see if there are some ways that it too could become ´a wee bit greener´.

Popayan for the first time ever is introducing an official recycling system which is really great news and although it´s not up and running yet, we´re trying to figure out how we can coax our guests into separating their rubbish. We have also started collecting the coffee grinds from the free coffee we offer at the hostel and are chucking them into our composter. We´re also investigating building a green waste digester to dispose of scrap food, peelings etc from the hostel and use them to feed the soil up at our land.

The next step was to convince the staff that we can work with more natural cleaning products. Bleach has long since been a no no in the hostel (much to their grumbling) but having read about concoctions made from vinegar, bicarb of soda, citronella, lemon juice etc, I was keen to try as much as possible to move away from the toxic cleaning detergents that we have to use on a daily basis. Luckily they were very easily convinced as the products speak for themselves! They are even talking about using them in their own homes as it´s considerably cheaper and just as good as the shop bought options.

Up at the plot, we spent last weekend (with the help of some friends) building a hen-house so that we can get started with some chickens as soon as possible - hopefully we can pick up the three that we ordered tomorrow and get them settled in. The neighbours cant understand why we don't want to fill the coop up with 10-15 hens (the recommended occupancy for a coop this size here), but as long as our three are happy, healthy and productive, I reckon we´re onto a winner.

The sister of a friend of ours also has a bee hive that she´s not using and a contact who can teach us about bee-keeping (because we have no idea where to start!) so it´s looking promising for bees! Popayan has a honey co-op but I was worried that unless you are joining the co-op, they might be reluctant to share tips, sell equipment etc so this is the perfect solution, hopefully we can do it all independently. First though, we need to get planting some flowers so that they have something to eat.

We´ve also been reading a bit about Lunar planting and so want to get a veggie plot built this weekend to be in time for the next cycle. I´ve been looking at the ´keyhole garden´ designs that my mum introduced us to and it looks like an idea that we could use, given that our soil is fairly poor for planting. I think it´s an African model used to give good yield in small spaces with un-nutritious soil. Another idea we´ve been experimenting with from Africa is the ´zeer´ fridge. A clay pot with a smaller clay pot inside (or a plastic bucket in our case) with a layer of sand in between which you wet with water each day and then cover the whole thing with a wet towel. We´re still perfecting the model but it´s managed to keep two cucumbers nicely refrigerated for nearly a week now and we´re told that it can cool things to 6´C in optimum conditions, which is fine for most food products. The idea is that the water evaporates through the clay, pulling the heat outwards and in turn cooling the contents of the inner pot. It seems to be working and could be a big help given that the fridge is the main electrical problem with living off-grid.

It´s been a couple of weeks of small steps but on the whole we´re feeling that we have a bit more direction with things and although we´re frustrated that the building´s not making progress, it´s nice to know that we´re pushing forward on the projects that go alongside.