Yay visitors!

Most of the visitors for Cumbre Yah 2011

These are some of the latest visitors to visit the Bosque Village. Really awesome mix of people from all over Mexico and the world!

Things are pretty different now than when I lived here alone. I still felt a little shy with all these people though.

More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebosque/sets/72157626422224383/

Click ‘Like’ on faceook:  https://www.facebook.com/cumbreyah

I should probably read the book Subpoena Colada sometime.

So many projects…. many on hold… many in critical phases. Important people zooming about. Planning for Seattle.

The Bosque seems to be coming together. Many new plants and trees in the ground. More and more people wanting to come for longer term. Learning to be a hard ass with unaware folks. Many new Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebosque/collections
Can’t sleep. Reading Masanobu Fukuoka who writes everything I already think. Re-assuring.
Add us on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/bosquevillage

El Cruithne esta otro arg Somnium.  Entre los tiktaalik hay arg  norg. The Dakini forked my Methanogen into a state of extropy. I  reach the Apogaea on the path of kaizen. Don’t tell me again about  the petaflop revolution. NO megamaser or swaraj. Freethought moppy  petaflop. Now now and then again we will meet in Mithraeum.
It was hoax but not evil.

In a dream I knew Isotelesis and the triz and the scrum. Late at  night around the fire we discussed spookey metaethics. never found  the secret Antikythera.

Next day now day one day we will go to the noosphere.
We will have childrem named Apsara, Gaggle, and qubit.

It is over. Dead. Death is a wonderful release. Let those molecules  go free! Name each: audaxviator, Jamais vu, Heyoka, parallax,  flummox.
But for now live in your hyperbolic wigwam. Live your brazen nezarb  lifestyle. Light the fire for us pyrolagnia bitch. Serve pristin  ecclesia druidic path. Take the sacrifice. Be venus unclothed. Be  the flecha and live in the house of leaves.
As night falls we go to droomoord to meet the enchanted katak.
The magic is before you here in Michaocan, Mexico. Purepecha shaman  still lives after generations in secret. The kinship was not  destroyed. Banjaxed. The Bhikkhuni hut is reserved for the next  half year.
Do it. Come here now and be close. Know true intimacy. boko-maru feet together. Put you in the calaboose.

There is more but none for now.

The gardens are producing lots of greens. We can have all the salad we want. Some of the greens are kinda spicy though. Arrugula. spinich, kale, mustard greens, a purple spicy green, a purple non-spicy green, cilantro, parsley, basil etc. Four of my collard greens plants are still alive. They get eaten by local pests, but if I can just get these ones to survive until they seed then I might be ok.
I have learned of several native plants growing in the forest which are good for salads as well.

We have been eating mushooms a lot. There are 4+ good kinds to eat here, though the favorite is oreja de raton since it is easier to clean than the trompas. I tried drying them and that works very well. I should be able to serve mushrooms all year round after I collect enough in the next rainy season.
I need to figure out what level of collection I can do without damaging reproduction.

Great news! My huge stone cistern is finally full! 67,000 liters of water. All the other water storage things are full too.
So for a couple weeks I have all the water I want. As the rains taper off, then we will have to go back into conservation mode. This year I will have 5 times more water than last year, though I will have more guests too.
I still need to build the sauna and more composting toilets.

The face totem pole is nearly done. Now we will have to figure out how to move it to a dryer place, seal it, paint it, build a base, and lift it in.Hmmm…

I had beer with locals in the tiny town several times which was enjoyable.

The dogs are mostly all ok.
Dizzy has some kinda tumor in her tits. The vet says to keep an eye on it and use a cream.
Goldie has been slowing down more and more over time. I was confused by it. She acts sad. So I took her in and the vet diagnosed that she is over 12 years old! The people who gave her to me said she was 3 or 4. The new heart medicine we put her on is having immediate positive effect.
It looks like I may give Hippie and Sebastian to some nice local guys. I will wait until after I can get them fixed.
A little more focus on dog training is improving dog behavior.

A wwoofer and I mapped the community center in Eronga. I gotta figure out some things to do there, though it is nearly impossible since I never go to town ecept to get the things I need to survive here.

A bunch of the adobes we made got rained on. Arg! What a waste.

Many more things going on, but I am too busy to write much.

More pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianfey

Things are going well.
Some recent challenges but they seem to be getting worked out.

I did some touring with the woofers of the lake area and that was ok. I live in such a cool place, I should explore more. I would love a week or two to just travel Michoacan. I have been here 3 years now with never a time free to just go and see places. There are jungles and caves and deserts and cities… so nearby.

Still not caught up on posting old photos. I am getting emails from folks from past festivals or shoots, which is always nice. I have known or met such amazing people. It is nice to hear what they are doing with their lives. Lives are like sculptures.
I heard from my dad, who I don’t talk to much. We don’t talk much since I misplaced my faith. It is a loss for both of us. I am so behind on emails people send, and those who make me think I often am slowest to respond to. His is pretty important to me. I now have 3872 messages in my draft folder which at one time I thought I should respond to. Dang.

All the dogs are fine. They are generally doing well, though one or other always has some injury or issue. It is so nice that they are past the puppy stage.
With the woofers around they have been getting more human attention.
Training needs to happen more. They are all trained not to be bad, but few are trained in any way to be good. And.. they are are times a mob .. a pack.. of dogs. They need some work.

The second kitchen is now cleaned up with good help of wwoofers and we can start making healthy food there. Food situation is improving. I am well fed. The ideal of eating locally grown food, preferably with much grown here, is doing better. I still need to build a root cellar. I am making a list of what is in season when so we can pig out in the ideal ways.

I feel often overwhelmed by all which need to get done,…. but I guess slow progress is just fine.

One guy is working on a wooden skull carving. It is going well. I want to make a mold with it. and make concrete skulls in time for the day of the dead.
Overall things are going well. The rains are falling well… and the collection system seems scaled well this year. I am catching much rain, unlike last year when I lost a lot.

Went today to go try to find locally made cheese in the closest village. The people who did make cheese don’t now. The lady who makes tortillas and bread was not found. Will try again.
I want to go visit the local best cheese guy and learn a little.
I bought his cheese recently and so far as I can tell it is the best cheese made in the state.
(thanks, Jen and others who recommended him!)
I would like to know how to make aged yummy cheese. Not a big priority… but making cheese would be cool. Maybe then I would get goats. More fencing needed first.

Gardens are going well.
I can’t tell what will happen since things are expanded much more from last year. I think I will have a massive surplus of large goards or squash.
I wish I could travel into the future 5 years and them come back and tell myself what I should be doing.

You know what pisses me off? I have studied things, known things, sought ideas all my life, and then I find stuff obvious i missed. Fuck! It is very hard to know everything!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karass

This sounds like this kinda thing I should have read a couple times.
I blame my friends.

I went to town and it was a long day of getting things done. Many things. Materials, tools. Got to make chainsaw go. Some things failed but I know now what to do better. I tell you this: many dead fish in the van was not a plan which worked. I need to buy a pickup or find a guy with a very dirty pickup who will get stuff.
There are some things that happened I cannot day. There always are. Openness does not pay. If peoplee are given an opportunity to hate, then they do hate don’t they? So many work for hate.

Many things happened. Every time I leave here, stuff happens. Nothing dangerous happened.

I bought food and so I will be happy tommorrow and for some time. I am getting better at buying food and eating food. And! Now I have done maybe the best thing I have done here. One of the guys I hire has been super great and nice for a long time. I am kinda shy, but I go to the christenings and weddings. They are kinda fun, and after I walk home. The people could not be friendlier. I think they are a little shy like me. Anyway… I gave him a raise cause I has been thinking about that a while, but I was hungry too.. so now he brings me a torta every day that his wife makes.
This is like a fantasy for me. I am always starving. I eat moldy things and try to pretend I am doing science to find out what molds do. Now I have a torta every day to eat! the tortas are huge crazy huge, I think they are trying to impress me. I was going to say something because I could not eat it because my stomach was shrunk but now my stomach is bigger and I can eat it no problem.

Today: I bought many weird fruits and seeds being sold as herbal medicines.. all things I can plant! And I got more of the seed propogation trays. If I do things right I can grow many things.
I am getting good a making microclimates. A barranca is not a place to throw garbage, it is a natural vivero!
I don’t even know what some of the seeds I bought are. One is Jojoba. I will have to lookup the culture on that. And some other weird ones. 90%+ of my plant experiments will fail, but all I need are the ones which don’t.

Shipping containers:

One other question: I don’t have a forklift or crane here. What is the best way to move them?
How many men would it take to levitate one carefully if there were many lifting points? 10? 20? I am wondering if a group of men with ropes could move a standard container.

They weigh:
“A 20′ x 8.5′ dry cargo container may weigh 1,800 kgs. to 2,400 kgs.”

10 people would have to carry 200 kilograms each… Ouch!
20 People would still have trouble. Actually 20 people couldn’t do it.

We can of course use leverage and other techniques of stone block moving.

How do you think it could be done? How many people do you think it will take?