On the one hand, it feels like it’s been a long time coming and yet equally it also seems to have suddenly just come upon me, but as I’ve promised myself over the length of this blog, we should start building in June….which is NOW!

I’ve been talking with neighbours about recruiting a team for ages, well since we stopped working in November, and the general response has been that workers will come.

However, the challenge now is that it would seem that as Loubar’s major industry becomes kif production, there are few workers doing anything outside of that and I must admit to an evolving fear as to where I would actually find anyone to work on the build of Farm Finn….but more of that below.

The first thing I needed to do is to set up Glamp, now that I was going to start spending more than a couple of days a week up in Loubar.

This obviously means that I also get the chance to try out what it’s like to “Glamp”, to try out the tents, floors, lighting, the whole lot…excellent…bt this meant that I had to transport the whole lot up to Loubar, necessitating a very full car and multiple journeys by donkies to the land with tents, rugs, metal boxes, gas cookers/tajines, toilet tent, sun shades, seats and so very much more…it’s amazing how much one needs to camp these days!!

Having said that, within a day I had established myself on a site, had the tent set up, looking very glam(p) with hand made iron beds and mattresses and aforementioned rugs….the IKEA solar lanterns also worked nicely and looked great too!

An immediate priority was of course, water and sanitation. I’d brought with me a large plastic container which I envisaged as being the toilet, but this needed a frame, which needed a design and a carpenter…I know, I could have done it myself…but I didn’t and this being my first stab at a composting loo, I searched the internet for design assistance and found this very informative site on all things composting toilet, along with the “Humanure Handbook”.

Armed with these guides I managed to design and have built our first composting loo.

If I say so myself, it works, but as a first design there are definitely a few changes I’d make. Firstly the “hole” is only 20cm and needs to be bigger, perhaps 25 – 30 cm (tho I am aware of the design differences for our “smaller shitters”!

The second is that by the end of the week, the container was already full, which indicates to me that I am using too much wood shavings….this needs review!

Throughout the preliminary discussions about building, several had included the question of whether or not to apply for a Roxa or building permission. Several of the neighbours emphasized that if I got the OK from the Mkadum (Community Overseer), then that was all I need.

Certainly the local Mkadum arrived to discuss the site with me, jogging up the mountain from a game of footie, armed with a huge spliff!!! To tell me to simply go ahead.

But Waafi and Mwalem Mhd both encouraged me to seek out the baladier, which for Loubar is in Bab Taza and get a roxa…the challenge you see is that whilst building with no roxa would leave me at the merci of ongoing “gawa” or coffees to be paid to Mkadum, Caid or even Pasha, a Roxa might mean officialdom snooping around my build which will almost certainly be more extensive than allowed!!…

This is such a Moroccan predicament…to be or not to be, more or less zig zag?

In the end, I got my Roxa and a very clear understanding from the Baladier that they had no intention of visiting my land, it being so far from their offices…and good luck to me!

So now I had the permission, I needed some workers and these were proving hard to find, as mentioned above.

Fuddle had offered me the number of a “Chef Chantier” in Xaouen who offered to find a team, but somehow this felt against the spirit of keeping it all as local as possible and thus finally I started work with a team consisting of me, Flynn and Mustapha, the brother of Waafi and Hamid, who’d worked in the winter on the terracing.

Within days however, mates of mates and distant cousins/neighbours had joined us and at the time of writing I have a team of four labourers, which feels perfect, all of whom live around the land….which I also like!

I have to say though, whilst of course my over riding sensation with this build is simply joy and fun, I am concerned about timeframing and getting things finished by November, which will be wnter and the end of the building season.

The general need to hold off building until June has, I feel, as much to do with the kif planting season, which involves everyone “hill side”, as it does with the weather and risk of rain, which people so strongly emphasized, which is to say perhaps I could have started earlier.

Added to that, Ramadan starts begining of july, Eid s at the end and the Kif harvest is Sept/Oct…lots of things to decrease the building rate…we shall see!

Back at the build and in true eco/perma culture style, we are trying to recycle everything possible.

This means that metal sheeting will be used for animal housing, beams made of wood that is over 50 years old and no longer available in the forest near by Loubar, will be used in the ceilings, and “dirt” from the build will be sifted and added to lime morter.

In addition to this we’ve managed to save tons of rocks and hundreds of “Moqdar” or earth bricks, which are made of mud, sand and straw, weigh approx 9 – 10 kilos each and were made for the original house over 70 years ago.

These can be used for internal walls and have amazing thermal mass, I love the idea that we are reusing something hand made by the father of the guy I bought the land of, to add to the new house that will be on the land…equally that we’ll be making more where necessary using techniques generations old in Loubar…..tho there’s a video from Youtube,about adobe brick making,  showing what we might be doing.

What has also been nice whilst up here is the reappearance of Flynn. Of course I’ve popped down to see her and her brood at Waafi’s, but the other night she just turned up outside the tent and hasn’t left.

She certainly needs a lot of TLC, probably a decent deworming course and bathing in something to rid her of ticks ad fleas, of which she is simply crawling.

But it’s great to have her again…..this’ll be her house too and hopefully I’ll take one of her pups, tho which I’ve yet to decide.

As things are evolving here, if I a honest, I feel very much at home.

The camp site is comfortable, the kitchen works (tho needs a bit of attention, which will come) and I simply love walking around the land at all times of day and night seeing and thinking of what to do. It’s all very organic and beautiful.

It would seem that without a fridge and with the challenges of composting meat refuse, I am returning to vegetarianism, which feels very healthy and of course there is no alcohol.

But I think what gets me really is simply being surrounded by mountains, nature and peace…it’s just so peaceful here,  honestly can’t wait to get the place to a condition where I can share it with others….does that sound silly?

But when you sit up here and chat with neighbours during the day, or watch what people are doing below, or sit and listen to the sound of birds or insects or the call to prayer echoing through the valley…it’s simply beautiful, simple but beautiful….And though it all, whilst I have ideas, the concept for the fnal place is evolving…which is as it should be.

On Tuesday morning  left my new team to complete the taking down of the ruin…

I write this from Fez and am about to go back up in the next few hours. I’ll be staying up in Loubar till next Thursday…

I’m so excited to see what has happened in my absence and what the future holds for farm Finn!!!