Dec 23, 2012

Our Little thanksgiving Rituals...

 "Welcoming the day"



"Giving thanks for the day"

GUEST BOOK

If you ever came to visit, help, live for short or long term or rest, feel free to write a comment or impression of your stay. A simple question would be " What comes to your mind when you think about the Mount of Oaks?"

We would like to gather your thoughts and comments.

Thank you !!!

May 28, 2010

DONATIONS

There are many ways to participate in this project - one that we are really grateful for is cash - with little we seem to be able to make a lot!

The Bank Account for the Association is:
Account Name: White Stone
Bank: Caixa Geral de Depositos
International Transfers :  

IBAN – PT50 0035 0339 00059421630 49
SWIFT- CGDIPTPL 

By PAYPAL: whitestone2004@gmail.com

If you are in the UK and not wanting to deal with bank fees - you can send to a UK bank account and we can move it into the common bank account easily.

UK Bank Account :
Miss EPMG Cowan
Co-operative Bank
Belfast 
Sort Code: 08-92-73 
Account Number : 88230818 
International Transfers:
IBAN - GB42 CPBK 0892 7388 2308 18
BIC - CPBK GB 22

If you wish to send a personal donation to Barbara, her details are:

Barbara Leite
Caixa Geral de Depositos NIB : 0035.0457.00018952800.54
International Transfers :
IBAN – PT50003504570001895280054
SWIFT- CGDIPTPL


Mar 2, 2010

STRAWBALE BUILDING WORKSHOP



From the 27th of MAY till the 3rd of JUNE we'll be hosting a STRAWBALE BUILDING WORKSHOP and build our bakery house next to the kitchen...

If you are interested to participate, let us know and we'll post further details...
At the moment I just want to know if we have enough people to go for it !!!

THE COST wil be 200E , and that includes food and camping place...
For more detailed information please leave a comment of e.mail me (Barbara).
Share with others if you know who might be interested

PEACE

2ND PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE 2010


Due to the fact that our course in March is already full and I keep receiving e.mails of people wanting to attend it, I decided to go for a second one this year.
It will be from THE 28TH AUGUST till THE 5TH SEPTEMBER...

Confirm your participation as soon as possible, because this last one was really fast to reach the maximum of people we can have here ...

For more details about the course of things you need to bring, click here (but ignore the dates in the beginning of course , eh, eh)

PEACE

Dec 9, 2009

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE 2010

From the 20th to the 28th of March we'll be running here at the Mount of Oaks another PERMACULTURE COURSE and as last year, it will be taught by Lesley Martin who is a fantastic person and teacher in my opinion, and I’m sure all the ones who did the last year course can say the same...
It’s gonna cost 180E (if by any chance you’d like to offer more, know that all the money will revert to pay the teacher, the food expenses of the course and all the extras will be for our future building projects...this land is still in a pioneering stage and we buy all things we need mainly with charitable donations)...

Now, WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT OF THE COURSE ?


It includes lectures, field trips, hands-on projects, camping and meals. The course will be conducted in the internationally accepted manner, so all graduates earn a Permaculture Design Certificate for completing the 72-hour course which includes : Intro, Fundamentals, Field Trips, Design Workshop (the attendants will be put into groups and each presents their own design project in the final day)... All students are required to be present for the full 9 days if they wish to receive the certificate.

The course will consist of a broad range of topics applicable to life anywhere on this planet, yet will be tailored to the needs of the students present as well as the location at hand. Participants will help to co-create the design of food forests, permaculture-style gardens, natural buildings, water catchment and irrigation systems, work with swales and dams, etc...

Permaculture courses are fairly standardized as far as content. We will cover every major topic . So quickly what that includes is the following:

1. Philosophies and Ethics underlying permaculture.

2. Basic permaculture principals and help shape things in general

3. Patterns in Nature, and how to use that in design

4. Methods of design. How to go from a damaged piece of land to having and idea for how to move forward with it.

5. Climactic factors. We will cover all the major climates and how to work with them.

6. Trees, forests, and why we want to mimic their systems.

7. Water: catchment, usage, importance, and conservation

8. Soil, minerals, microorganisms, building new soil, and preventing erosion

9. Earthworks: How to shape the land to help it acheive the goals we are aiming for.

10. Aquaculture

11. Natural Building

12. Alternative systems: community living, and other ways of choosing to live differently that works well for people and the planet.

Each of these categories has subcategories and the teacher also has their own additions and certain topics that are stressed over others.

You can also check here for the last year’s report:

Now, WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTED TO BRING ?

-tent or if you have, your own mobile home :-)
-your daily care personal stuff
-a flash light (the moon will be growing as it will be full on the 29th, but still, it’s always handy)
-a cup/mug (we might not have enough here for everyone)
-we do have plates, forks and knifes, but if you prefer to bring your own that’s up to you...
-sleeping bag and mat or whatever you wanna sleep with...
-some hard surface for you to write on... We don’t have a conventional class room...Fiiiiuuu!!!
-if you have your favourite kind of chair or stool, do bring it...the ones we’ve got might not be the most comfortable ones :-/
-Some warm clothes...the nights can be chilly...but the days, are usually warm and sunny (I do hope so)...
-If you play any instruments and would like to bring it for the fire circle in the evenings, do bring them along...
-Joy, Love , open heart, laughter, your own knowledge, etc...all the good in you!!! The not so good stuff comes along too, but we all have it anyway, so hopefully we’ll all be gracious :-)
-you can pay the 180E as you arrive, but if you have the chance to give it in advance one week before (all of it or a part), that would help on the shopping we need to do before everyone comes...

WHAT DOES THE LAND PROVIDE ?

-A camping area
-A shit pit and or a dry compost toilet (if we get it ready for that time) :-)... With toilet paper or water as you prefer...
-Drinking spring water and food (mainly vegetarian)...LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY RESTRICTIONS ON YOUR DIET...
-I do hope to have a better shower system then :-)...but we do have a way to shower or bath :-)

Hmmm...I guess that’s all the information I’ve got... If you have any questions, do ask ...

O.K, DON’T FORGET TO PASS IT ON TO YOUR CONTACTS OF PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED...
P.S- I just sent the invitation a couple of days ago and I already have 4 people interested to come...so let me know if you are interested cuz I will limit the attendance to 15 people...

...a comment from one of the last year attendants :
“What an absolutely brilliant course it was.. I am still digesting everything Lesley taught us. And thank you so much for hosting us all, and for this write-up!
I look forward to seeing the fruits of her teaching in the years to come - when we are all working on established permaculture projects of our own!” Hannah xx

I hope to see you here !!!!

Aug 30, 2009

winter 2009, projects ...


Summer is almost over...even though it's still sooooo hot...
you can read some of the last events here on my blog ...
I have to apologize for being so rubbish writing on this blog, but summertime is just not the most encouraging time to seat with a computer, specially when I don't have electricity :-)...
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know of some ideas I have for winter projects, in case you'd like to come and put your hands on the work or contribute to its expenses...
Speaking about that, I'm trying to get some donators for the Land's projects, so, if you have some extra money in the end of the month, or if you want to consider separating some to help the land, get in touch with me (Barbara)... or maybe you don't have that spare money, but know some people who might want to contribute for projects like this one...
The ideal in the future is for this piece of land be the most self sustainable as possible, but we need to realize it does require some investment in the beginning...
It is step by step , I know, and that's why I took the time to think about what could be the next step...

As you can see by this picture, the roof of the kitchen (our central common place) needs an improvement (actually we don't have a single permanent roof so far, what makes it a bit hard when strong winds and rain comes)...
well, actually, I'd rather just make the whole adjustments to the kitchen... I'd like to build a room attached where we can have a bread oven, wood storage and a place for the dairies...It would be also nice to have a storage for food (whatever we harvest or transform)...so, I came up with this ...don't mind the technical design :-)...

Can you get an idea?!! So, the attached room will be also a terrace, the roofs will be green roofs as it's the best solution I thought of considering the very strong winds we have here... The front roof of the patio as well... And I'd like to make a cement/stone floor for the patio too...
The terrace will have an external stairs, and from the kitchen there will be another stairs for the 2nd floor (connected to the terrace with a door...
On this drawing I also put on top the terrace a solar water heater...
And this will lead us to another project, which is a water tank on the above layer, so we can have pressure for the kitchen, garden and bath-house...
Speaking about the Bath-house, another one that needs improvements...

And if we have time, I'd like to build below the bath-house a shower house with 4 shower places...
I'd also like to replace the shit-pit for a proper compost toilet house...or at least make a better roofing on this one...

So, these are all nice dreams and ideas, which would improve this place for those who want to come by...
But as I mentioned before, it would be nice to have some money to invest in materials to build all these... Just the water tank would be around 1.500 E...the house maybe 2000 E, as I might use clay bricks, for walls and terrace...and we'll probably need to buy some straight wood boards and water proof sheet material for the roofs... I'm just shooting up in the air, but I already asked some budgets for material and shouldn't be far from that...
So,let me know if you want to contribute to any of this...either by coming to help, or by sending us some donations... (I'll not be able to say when we're gonna go for it unless we have the money for the materials)...
I've been here for almost 3 years now, and I feel it's time to start building more lasting structures, so we don't need to replace and fix things every year...

O.K, I'll let you know more about it as I plan it...

be peaceful :-) Joyful :-) Loving :-)
Share your Light

Barbara