EARTH & US: Permaculture Homestead
Joe’s back-story
Joe Brewer had a difficult early life; he was bullied for being “different,” in a small Missouri town. His parents were back-to-the-land chicken farmers, one of his brothers became a pawn shop owner mostly dealing in used guns, another became a fundamentalist Christian. Joe wanted to be a cheerleader in high school, and can still twirl a stick convincingly. But he was jeered for it. When he grasped the state of the world, he went into a “10-year depression,” suffering from insomnia so severe that he thought he was losing his mind. This reminded me of Greta Thunberg’s story of bleak depression.
How did he come out of that darkness and become the inspiring and hopeful person he is now? Oddly, Joe credits a book he found called “The Greatest Salesman of the World.” He told me that there were ten steps in that book which he embraced that turned him around. The first was: “Form good habits and become their slaves.” A few others: “Make one person’s day better.” “Notice when you think everyone else has a certain problem because it’s certainly your own, projected out.” “Live each day as if it’s your last.” “Greet each person with love in your heart.” Joe was desperate for anything to help him, and followed the author’s advice to practice each step all day, every day, then add on the next practice and the next until he was doing all ten, daily. “It feels great when you know you’ve made one person’s day better,” he said. “So I would try to make more and more people’s days better!” These practices, he believes, changed his life.
He is an extraordinary parent, frequently telling his daughter stories, some from his own past, some he makes up, to teach a life lesson. Once, when her younger friend Soriah had a crying fit, Elise also started to cry, and Joe said: “Yes Elise, you love your friend, so when she is upset you’re getting upset too. Because you love her, you feel what she’s feeling. That’s called empathy. And you also have a choice to stay with your own feelings.”
Camped at the canyon’s edge
Joe and Jessica left for two weeks to attend Jessica’s brother’s wedding in the US. Uh-oh — I didn’t expect to be working on my own for 2 weeks without Joe’s guidance! No problem, Joe arranged for me to do a work exchange with his Dutch friends Joep and Julia, an archeologist and an architect, and camp (actually, “glamp”) at their permaculture homestead! Joe kindly loaned me his large, excellent, leakproof tent and sleeping pad, and Joep and Julia provided colorful sheets, pillows, and blanket. The exchange is about 4 hours of daily work Monday-Friday, weekends free; they provide the fabulous peaceful camp site, a big breakfast on weekday mornings, as well as basic staple foods such as rice, pasta and beans for volunteers to cook.
Kak-kakatarak! That’s the guttural sound of a certain bird here that wakes me at dawn.
It’s a perfect change of pace and scene: peace, quiet, and pure air far from the urban streets of Barichara, with breathtaking views of the canyon; a HOT water shower; an open-air lounge with well-equipped kitchen, wifi, 2 hammocks, table and chairs. The work began at 7 am with a bit of sweeping, pulling invasive grass, then a breakfast break with delicious homemade bread and plum jam, eggs from their chickens, homemade chickpea-yogurt and granola, papaya, pineapple, a cornmeal “arepa” (flat bread), and coffee.
After that, we worked on building the semi-underground new bathroom structure, tapping small stones in between larger rocks (dry-stacking without mortar) — it was rather meditative, like figuring out a puzzle. Joep arranged shade-cloth for our comfort, and worked enthusiastically in each task alongside the three other volunteers and me.
On other days, we sorted rocks, used tools to shape flat stones for making the bathroom floors, pulled weeds, raked leaves for compost, watered gardens. At times I was assigned lighter work, like shelling pigeon peas, and helping Julia in a craft project for making lampshades from dried stalks of pasto. One day I was assigned to clean dirt out of an old dry-stacked rock wall. I joked about being a cross between an archeologist and a dentist cleaning dirty teeth.
Joep speaks Spanish as rapidly as any Colombian, and while we were working or eating together, it was always his language of choice. He and Julia still speak Dutch together, and his English is fluent too.
The volunteers
Also volunteering were a young recently married couple, Victor and Alexis; he from Bogota, she from America. They met as workers on a cruise ship, have traveled extensively and are next headed for Medellin. They’re doing various types of volunteer work with “Work Away.”
The other volunteer is iAnku Xue, a soft-spoken 45-year-old man from central Colombia who had lived in Barichara a few years, until the house he was renting got sold. He was very kind and helpful, assisting me in setting up my tent (and later moving it). It was hard to understand his accent at first, and he doesn’t speak English. Finally we had a one-to-one talk and I learned that he studied sacred geometry and was inspired, as I was, by the water-crystal images of Masaru Emoto. I was quite excited when he showed me his website, part of which is devoted to his study and work with biogas digesters! He sees the benefit of converting waste (human and animal manure and kitchen/garden scraps) into methane for cooking, light, and electricity, conserving water while producing an excellent and safe fertilizer, and protecting waterways from pollution. In many parts of the world, women have the burden of acquiring and carrying firewood, and are jeopardized by smoky kitchens. Biogas eliminates the need for firewood. iAnku has built four biogas digesters and is invited to Israel next month to build one for twenty families.
We volunteers usually took turns cooking a mid-afternoon meal. This seemed much more sensible than multiple separate meals. Sometimes, it was a group endeavor, which also worked well. When I was in town for a Spanish lesson, I’d pick up some vegetables to cook.
Permaculture Tour
Joep and Julia had torn down and rebuilt a crumbling old house on a derelict tobacco farm of 9 hectares which they purchased some 12 years ago. They saved and reused as much of the old house as possible, keeping the wood and stones, and the design of separate buildings linked together with walkways. The result is beautiful! Tables were made from thick old wooden doors. I marveled at the louvred walls, which can be opened to allow breezes and light, or closed in case of rain or strong winds. Dry-stacked rock walls are an outstanding feature; it is the ancient method of building walls that are visible everywhere in the countryside. They used it to create a beautiful seating area around a firepit. The couple collected an astounding number of rocks from the area that’s now the campground and have been using them to construct the new bathrooms.
Joep hasn’t taken a formal permaculture course, but claims he “binge-watched” everything by Geoff Lawson. He showed me drawings of the graywater and blackwater systems. All the blackwater from toilets drains first into a septic tank, then the top part of that water, along with shower and sink water, is pumped up to a gravel bed that is planted with water-loving plants. There is no odor at all. It’s then used for flushing and for irrigating plants. Water from the roofs drops into slightly curved cement “gutters” which also serve as walkways and are swept clean of leaves daily. These drain into large underground cisterns as well.
When they first arrived in Barichara years ago, Joep and Julia helped Vicky and Camila plant trees in the Bioparque. Those trees are now well established. The couple were inspired to do the same on their own property, and now have planted over 4,000 native trees, about 50 different species. They started planting about 50 trees a year and with the help of volunteers, rose to nearly 500 a year! Julia collects native tree seeds and starts them in plastic bags filled with compost; she showed me her collection of seedlings. As everywhere, the land is covered in pasto, the non-native grass that tends to crowd out everything, so they clear a patch, plant trees in May at the start of the rainy season, mulch around the base and care for the young trees. They grow fast in the tropics.
Close to the house, they planted lime trees (limon), banana, coconut palms, papaya, guava, avocado, and chaya (tree spinach, an easy-to-grow “superfood”). Contour swales, some helped with small stacks of rocks, hold rainwater around each tree. Other trees, such as pigeon peas, are planted amongst them for their nitrogen-fixing properties. Julia is particularly fond of the taste of pigeon peas. Diversion swales carry water from the driveway into the tree plantings. Another permaculture technique they use is “tree circles” where banana trees or coconut palms are planted in a circle of three, with a hole in the middle. The hole holds water and they add composting leaves and other waste for nutrients. Corn grows taller than Joep, who is at least 6 feet tall. Some areas are not suitable for annuals due to the invasion by tree roots; unfortunately this was the case in the garden they tried to establish nearest the house, where tomato and green bean plants look puny, although the sweet potatoes and basil are doing well.
Chickens provide delicious eggs and also eat food scraps, providing manure for compost as well. Other than eggs, Joep and Julia are vegan.
Julia, the architect, shared with us her designs for a future project, building a “tiny house” partially bermed into a hillside near the driveway. It would have a living roof, skylight, a front wall that could be raised like a garage door, a composting toilet, rock terracing for gardens, and many other wondrous features. Joep gave a bonus workshop on rock sculpting, a passion of his ever since he first tried sand-sculpting.
Socializing
On the first weekend I was there, our hosts invited a neighboring couple, Shane and Daniela. Shane is from the US (and his father is Michael Dowd). He is a knowledgeable health coach. His lovely wife Daniela is Colombian. Joep built a fire, Julia made a Dutch camping favorite — bread dough in long strips, wrapped around sticks and slowly browned over a campfire. Not quite like ‘smores, but I got out some mora(blackberry) jam and we had a treat.
One decadent afternoon, Julia decided to bake an apple-panela (brown sugar) cake, which we shared with Shane and Daniela, and after they departed Joep felt inspired to make crepes. The first batch was served with a homemade warm salsa, the second batch with syrup and cinnamon, and the third batch sprinkled with lime, sugar and rum, served “flambe!”
A few nights ago, Shane and Daniela invited all of us to their amazing and beautiful home just up the hill for dinner. Daniela had made a delectable chickpea coconut curry with greens, rice, plus a salad. Alexis brought a dish of tree spinach, red peppers, onions and rice. We enjoyed maracuya juice and had dates for dessert! Then Shane demonstrated some of the equipment in his mini-gym. We rolled around on exercise balls.
Most evenings, after I had learned of iAnku’s passion for biogas digesters, he and I would show up in the volunteer kitchen/lounge between about 8 and 9 pm, where he would often prepare a late meal of arepas(cornmeal cakes) while we talked. He showed me his website, many drawings and designs. We have so much in common, and he’s so friendly and warm, I started calling him my “hermano del alma” (soul brother). Of course, he has a girlfriend; she’s living in Tunisia but plans to return to Barichara. On my final evening, he taught me a lot about sacred geometry, such as the flower of life and the six-pointed star. iAnku hoped I would stay longer at the campground, because he wanted help with some English translation; but I knew I needed to get back to Barichara because Joe was returning and also I was helping in a final edit of his book. Alexis and Victor had left two days before, and iAnku was sad to be the only volunteer, I think.