Reflecting on Six Years of Homesteading

My wife, Konswan, and I arrived on Flores Island during the final days of January, 2007, with $7000 dollars and ambitious dreams.  Neither of us had any construction experience nor a forestry background.  We had kept small gardens and done several ornamental landscape projects over the ten years we had rented houses together in the United States.  It is a massive understatement to say we were not prepared for the task that lay ahead of us, and yet we felt we had to take the risk if we wanted to make the world a better place.  We heard that small and quiet voice within ourselves clearly state to trust that all would be well, even if we could not understand or anticipate how.  We made the leap of faith and began the restoration of an abandoned stone house with orchard space.  A tall order for two dreamers who possessed years of higher education, but no practical experience beyond weekend camping trips in North America’s National Forests. 
We had read the teachings of the worlds’ great philosophers and prophets, and listened to lectures from this century’s equivalents, however nobody was actually applying the ideals set out by these socially accepted wise-men.  That ideal is to turn away from the hollow and fleeting pleasures of the physical body and to embrace the spiritual path that unfolds when we make our relationship with God of the utmost importance--a process of simplification from outside distractions that encourages a peace and calmness as we become one with our creator.  And so, with a sense of destiny that only faith could provide, we jumped into the project of converting a ruined stone house situated in the middle of an abandoned fruit orchard in the middle of the Atlantic on the Azorean island of Flores.
Flores Island had been colonized in 1475 by the Flemish initially, but the colony was promptly abandoned when the long winters, comprised of endless rain storms and intense hurricane-force winds, induced the inhabitants to move to other islands within the Azores group.  Later, the Portuguese successfully colonized Flores Island and over 400 years the population stabilized at 12,000.  The isolation of Flores from the rest of the world forces the island’s residents to become ‘Island Sufficient’ or to perish.  Ships bringing supplies are always eagerly awaited, but often are delayed, once up to seven years!  After the Salazar dictatorship crumbled in 1974 during the Revolution of the Carnations, the population was free to travel abroad.  Three-fourths of Flores’ inhabitants left over the next years, leaving the remaining 4000 inhabitants with much free space, but few economic opportunities.
Over the past six years we have experienced a mixed bag of tremendous good fortune and spectacularly bad luck.  We have done our best to capitalize and maximize on our good fortunes, while ‘keeping the faith’ when dread and fear threaten to paralyze us during the disasters.  We have learned to find the border between Fear and Prudence, a vast grey area that can lead to endless indecision if not explored and mapped.  
Now we are nearly finished with our large and dangerous construction jobs.  We are eagerly awaiting the birth of our second child in August 2013, while dreading the time constraints that will accompany such a large responsibility.  Now we need to finish building a bathroom, then start installing a kitchen and a children’s bedroom within the protective shell we constructed over the last years.  We are nearly finished installing the hydro-electric system that will generate all our electrical needs and allow us to have lights at night and keep a chest freezer and have a clothes washing machine.  Hopefully these time saving devices will allow us to focus on our children and also to allow us the time to pursue our writing careers. 
At this time, we find ourselves in a precarious position with the local police owing to not having a Portuguese drivers license.  The process to obtain a valid license is simple, but requires that Magnus return to Arizona, USA, to obtain the necessary documents.  In order to accomplish this, we must raise 1500 euros for air travel.  The documents themselves cost only 8 euros, but they cannot be sent via mail, they must be applied for and received in person only.  We now have a road to our house and two vehicles, but we have not been able to use them for over a year now, since the police explained the law to us.  Without the use of a vehicle, the isolation of our farm becomes like a prison that we cannot escape, especially during inclement weather, which accounts for November through May.  In addition to the prohibition to drive, our road is not passable to vehicles that would normally deliver construction materials. So we have to drive our 4X4 jeep to pick up materials.  We cannot buy nor sell the necessary goods that would allow us to thrive in our endeavors.  As our son, Odin, matures, it becomes increasingly important that he has the opportunity to interact with the many other children of our village and learn the necessary social skills, but without the option of  a safe, dry and wind-free vehicle in which to travel to his friends homes, he too is a prisoner in our beautiful home.  We have the vehicle but need funds to get the drivers license that allows us to legally drive in Portugal.
We are on the verge of fulfilling our goal of being a self-sufficient farm.  When the electricity project is complete we will have the free time to write articles or even short stories for publication.  The fruit trees are producing this year and will double their production yearly with minimal maintenance.   The gardens are built and only need to be weeded and planted every year.  Our chicken flock is healthy and producing eggs and offspring yearly.  The road we built is functional with four-wheel drive vehicles, a limitation in many ways, but better than having no road access to our house in the middle of the forest.  We have utilized the gift-monies that our friends and families have donated to us.  The monies have allowed us to double the size of our home and buy a 4x4 jeep; as well as double our land holdings that allow for our new road and, to raise enough vegetables to feed us year round, and to expand the orchard space in the coming years.  Now we find that we need just a little more funding to get through the next year, and we humbly turn to the hundreds of readers that read our blog monthly.  If you believe in a future that involves small families living harmoniously with nature and you believe in the power of faith to motivate people into a closer relationship with the Creator and Creation, whatever your faith may be, and if you believe that the world could be made a better place by individuals making difficult and mindful decisions then please take the time to make a small donation using the button at the top of our Blog.  Thank you for your time and support.

Building a Baby Safe Bedroom

The house design that we created called for wooden beams and flooring on the second level of our new construction.  We chose Cryptomeria Japonica as our timber source.  Luckily the Azorean people began planting the trees on our land over 50 years ago and we inherited a nice grove of beautiful trees when we purchased the land.   We were able to mill it ourselves using a Logosol guide system combined with a large chainsaw.

We decided on 10cm X 20cm Beams that would span the 5 meter distance of our bedroom. Fixed perpendicular to the beams we decided to use 3.5cm-thick boards. Since we did not have the wood prepared when the concrete work was done last year, we left 3 openings in the wall for the 5-meter beams to pass through and then insert into mirrored openings in the opposite wall.

Prior to inserting the beams, we painted the portions of wood that would be imbedded in the concrete with a tar paint to prevent wood rot.  See below.

After placing the beams, Magnus contacted a friend to help prepare the floor boards by cutting them to length, and incorporating a ‘Tongue and Groove’ system to fit them together.  This involved transporting the lumber across the island and back to the woodshop of Beru.

After transporting the floorboards back to our side of the island, Odin put them to good use as a play area, prior to their installation 2.5 meters above the bathroom floor!

The remaining gaps in the wall were sealed with concrete on both inside and out, securing the beams from future movement.

Next, we installed the floor boards carefully fitting the tongues into grooves and screwing them to the beams.

Magnus and Beru celebrated the completion of a wood flooring project and made way for the boss to inspect their craftsmanship.

Odin likes it!