We started here..

1. 

I’m about to go off to Papua New Guinea in a couple of days and of course there’s tons to do. But in the mean time, there’s a moment to think back on where we’ve come from and where I hope we are going.

Only a few months ago, I was setting up camp for another year in Loubar. All we had was an empty shell, not enough space and a huge boulder to get through.

And progressed to this…

 

Since then, it’s been another memorable few months on my hill side. So different to last year and as I say, with too much else distracting. But we’ve made progress and I’m proud of what we’ve done.

Terraces make Farm Finn all the more accessible

Even having stopped the build on the house we’ve built some beautiful terraces and several pretty big rock walls, that are egining to make farm Finn look all the more beautiful.

New roads almost make it to Farm Finn.

Of course I should note we’ve no water, electricity or sanitation. There’s no building permission and

everything we’ve done is now seen as being illegal. There’s no permission for a change of land use yet…and yet, we have progress..little by little.

Finn finds time for homework.

As ever it’s been a joy to have Finn up here. He continues to make friends, enjoy the beauty of the place and run free and “wild”” about this stunning part of the world. Increasingly he’s his own man up here, and that’s as it should be.

 

We’ve had visitors.

We might not have had too many visitors, but volunteers, friends and now family have made it up.

It’s been great to begin to share permaculture ideas with Sanaa and Ben and I was over the moon when Shaun said he could make it up too.

 

 

It’s not all been roses..

Of course there have been challenges and set backs. The roxa issue is a real issue and will need lots of focus next year. Both Flynn and Olive have had babies, tho’ Flynn lost two of hers in floods. And of course I had the camera stolen, which is still unbelievable.

 

As well as that I returned with Shaun to find that not nly had it rained and the slope of the base of the yurt  had allowed water to pour in to the floor, but Olive had brought all her puppies in…a right bunch of little shitters, as I found to my cost!!!

Very soft under foot…YUK!

Good friends up here.

I’m more than happy to say that I again feel very much

part of a community up in Loubar. Friends like Waafi, Mohammed, Morad etc, are simply great and it’s so very different to Fez, or other urban experiences.

Preparations for next year.

I left Loubar, again preparing for next year. As with last year I built a temporary road and have sent up materials to build walls, notably for the new terraces that I hope will cross the land, helped by the “Trex”, or digger.

Hopefully this will save weeks, if not months of manual diging. But it’s a risk, machinery has it’s disadavantages. We’ll see how that turns out.

A new triangular house will go here.

I’m also hoping to be able to “play” with the idea of a

house built in to the rock and earth by the old mosque. This I am hoping will have both rock and earthern walls, a living roof, a double glazed front glass wall and generally be great fun…again, we’ll see what happens.

And then there’s the sheer beauty of Loubar.

I don’t realy know how to say this without sounding like a right hippy, but another constant that I am looking forward to is simply returning to a place that I find stunningly beautiful and which as ever makes me feel very happy.

Next year will require a lot of work again, if we are to get started, let alone finished. But I am hoping that we’ll be planting trees in the winter, will open up the garden and complete both landscaping and water management projects.

Tbh, I can’t wait to get back again….

Shaun and Finn.

A big thank you to everyone, and a special thank you to Shaun for coming over from Cambodia.

Big kiss to you and family, from us. xxx