Living The Life

I guess it’s a just a sign of the times. As daily routines get more daily, periods between blog posts get longer. Because, what is there to report on anyways? Truth be told, quite a bit… And though developments have been chugging on comfortably and stories have unfolded and faded, people have come and gone and many moons have waxed and waned – my urge to write about it all wasn’t pressing. While that may have been much to the dismay of some readers eager to hear about this new project we are living, I tend to see it more positively. It’s a result of the hecticness of new beginnings settling down and life settling in. The adjustment phase is slowly, but noticeably coming to an end. We have arrived.

When the pace of construction turns sluggish – due to rain, lack of materials or other quirks and qualms – and it doesn’t really get to you…

When you have accepted that insects will live in and off your house and you routinely bathe yourself in insect repellant and your house in woodguard…

When you no longer try to mask and combat the must and mold that creeps into everything, no matter how well you store it…

When you have discovered the closer sources for ice and vegetables – close enough for Mo to joyride his bike – and you don’t have to drive to El Nido town as often…

When going to bed at 10pm feels like 1am and waking up at 7:30 is quite the lie-in…

When you can countdown the seconds till it starts raining, because you have learned to read and listen to nature…

When you are learning to distinguish local trees, wild growing fruits and vegetables and their seeds (but still always ask, just to be sure)…

When you have made more friends on the island and those friends have expanded your world by people, places and joy…

…then you are on the path from building a life to living the life. And we are.

The More The Merrier

Now that the structure and functionalities of our home are more or less done – as I have mentioned before, they probably never will be completely finished – the next step was and always will be to give it life by sharing it with others. And since we have no doors (or walls), we didn’t even have to open them to invite in family and friends both old and new. In the last few months, one guest after the other has warmed our house (so they too are to blame for the lack of blogging haha!). The ideas, energy and support they carried over our threshold and infused our “four walls” with, have played an essential role in turning a big ol’ pile of wood into a true home.

Breakky with the Sister.

Artist at work.

Bunker 2.0

One momentous occasion was shortly after were some of the lucky few to join the transition trip of the Tao Paraw from El Nido to San Fernando, where it was dry-docked for the off-season months. After a truly fun little cruise around the West coast of Palawan and a night on Cadlao, one of my favorite islands, we had a spontaneous house warming. Our kitchen was buzzing, our seating possibilities all taken and our laughter heard near and far. Believe it or not, we managed to sleep 16 people in our kubo that night!

:)

4 out of 16

Making buko salad.

Having family come visit and spend some time with us here has meant the world to us. They ask the right questions and make the right comments and help you realize that you are still yourself despite new surroundings.

It is with pride and apprehension that we present our new life to them. We are proud of our accomplishments so far and of the lifestyle and mindset we are focused on living. We are apprehensive about how deep their understanding will extend and how that may influence us and, of course, about facing those tough questions that we know they will slip in here and there. Because in the end, our families are our roots – they are always part of us, they nourish us and no matter if needed, wanted or even unwelcome, what they pass on is absorbed and has an influence on us.

We also noticed that visitors have become a connection to the world we stepped out of but don’t want to lose touch with. We are definitely still in the transition phase when it comes to finding our way into the social web of the island. Of course, living an hour away from town does also present some limits. But instead of mourning a lively social life (ok, sometimes we do mourn it quite a bit), we realize that it just takes a different kind of effort and seizing of opportunities out here.

Beach trips instead of park hang-outs. Lechon (roasted pig) instead of Doener Kebab. Whalesharks instead of walks by the canal. Buko juice instead of Club Mate. Fetch and tug-of-war with Mona instead of game night with friends. San Mig instead of *insert name of favorite European pilsner here*. (Highly dramatized, of course.)  

Counting our lucky stars that so many of our friends have made their way from various corners of the world to share some of these experiences with us. And we couldn’t be more excited about the seemingly endless line-up of visitors that have announced themselves… The Roots Farm homestead awaits you!

Rainy season activities.

Who needs a flatscreen?

Whalesharks!

Kiss?

Beach Walks.

Sunday Mornings.

Rain Rain Go… no, Stay!

This has been our first rainy season here and what started off as slow and moderate, definitely picked up in the last month. It’s hard to believe that the same soil that was impenetrable and dry as a bone just a few months ago now ranges from loose and ploughable to soaking and soggy. The dry riverbed from which we dug gravel for construction went from a cute ankle-deep stream to a raging river that swallowed up our makeshift bridge and extended to the step of our bodega at its height.

And most noticeably… everything is GREEN – juicy, luscious green.

Rain Guards and Greenery.

 We have used these months to focus on the surroundings of our house. Landscaping has turned out to be an immense, intense and very gratifying task. Hacking away at buho roots, planting carabao grass patch by patch, laying paths and choosing ornamentals and ground covers to fill the turned and prepped flower beds… and then watching the rain do the rest. It was sweaty and back breaking and bug-bite plagued… and absolutely worth it!

Never knew I would be the type to jump out of bed and into the garden. Or feel all the more homey with pretty-fied greenery surrounding me.

Adding Colour to our Life.

Happy Banana Circle.

Animals enjoying the carabao grass lawn.

Oregano to the left - natural anti mosquito shield. Turmeric to the right - just because.

Blooming Dill required some Boundaries.

Local Passion Fruit Wall.

Papayas from our first Banana Circle.

It has also been a season of learning. Learning by doing in the garden and learning by getting wet in the house. Habagat – the southwesterly winds – comes in through the back of the house and proved to be unimpressed by our bamboo blinds. After only a few downpours that were accompanied by stronger winds, we decided that a little wall in that corner couldn’t hurt. So our first lesson led to us encasing our stairs with sawali, which isn’t 100% waterproof when the wind slams into that corner, but it’s an improvement.

Our second lesson led to more tarps being made to turn into makeshift walls upstairs because, yes, wind can make the rain horizontal enough to sneak its way into our “room”.

Another important lesson – let down the blinds and securely fasten them to the hooks BEFORE going to bed. It saves having to stumble out of bed at 2am to secure the house. Also, tie down those tarps upstairs unless you want even less sleep because of the sound of them slapping into your house with every gust.

And finally, we learned that moist is the new dry during rainy season and your feet will never be not-muddy.

Kubos and Cold Beer

The influx of visitors presented us with another little issue of our home sweet home. When you don’t really have rooms, where do the guests sleep? Answer: Our living room floor downstairs, upstairs next to us or in a hammock strung up between two posts of their choice. And though nobody has complained yet, we figured it might be more convenient to have a “guestroom” or two. And so the idea of the Roots Kubos was born. Since our future project will include building unique native style huts and us playing host to whomever frequents them, we figured we might as well do a trial run and test it out on a smaller scale.

Drawings were made and concepts discussed and next thing we know we have a huge truck arriving from Puerto Princesa filled to the brim with frames that had already been made in Puerto, pre-cut bamboo and other beautiful native materials.

If it hadn’t been for the rain, these babies would have gone up in no time. But it rained. Rain hindered the wood delivery for our floors. Rain slowed the roofing. Rain made it hard to find a time to varnish. But since there was really nothing anybody could do about it, we watched the planned two weeks turn into ten, enjoyed the company, ideas and contributions of the carpenter stationed in the original but renovated farm kubo.

Last week both kubos were completed. Finishing touches will include tent-like door flaps to shelter from wind and rain and some interiors of course. But what really makes these huts so special is something no man can build and no money can buy – a view onto pure unadulterated green. Let’s just hope it stays that way as long as possible.

Another great development will contribute to an amazing amount of comfort and convenience is the extension of our ability to harness free energy and direct it towards a more healthy and hassle-free lifestyle – a fridge powered by solar - thanks so much, Uwe and Veronika :)

We found this surprisingly energy efficient fridge and after calculating and getting some expert opinions, got a solar system that would be able to sustain the load.

Getting a fridge to working temperature always takes way more power than the indicated usage, so we kick-started it with a generator for a few hours, to protect the inverter and charge controller – a very useful tip from good friends with experience.

As we switched it over to the solar setup, there were some red flashing lights, some loud beeps and the charge controller shut everything down. Fail. We tried a few more times, with and without voltage regulator, plugged and unplugged and every time we were noisily warned before the system switched off. But why? After consulting with everyone we knew who might know something about solar - including our trusty provider of the equipment – it turns out that our not-quite-so-trusty electrician who installed our setup did so wrongly. The succession and which is connected to what (namely the inverter and charge controller to the battery) wasn’t right and as it turns out, he did the same thing to our first setup, which we have already been using for months. I guess this one worked because we never loaded it heavily, though we had been having some issues with the inverter every once in a while.

And then it rained, so couldn’t come by to fix it… Hopefully the next weeks will not only bring him to over to set it straight, but also bring some success in getting this lovely box of cold drinks, ice cubes and properly stored food working!

Second Solar for the Frrridge.

In Farming News…

With this glorious rain, we are watching everything grow. Day by day the trees get bigger, the vegetables rejoice and the vetiver grass thicken.

Sadly, our green house turned into a bug-refuge and soup kitchen – come one, come all, free food and shelter! And they came and stayed and ate and multiplied. From grasshoppers and leafhoppers to butterflies and moths, ladybugs, beatles and aphids and a whole bunch of worms and catarpillars. They attacked from the top, devouring leaves and budding vegetables. They attacked from the bottom, munching on the roots and making the plants whither.

And oddly, none of our organic homemade or store bought sprays, powders and other remedies seemed to even make a dent in their population.

After trying for months evict our unwanted guests, out caretaker Tay casually mentions that there is a gap about as wide as a hand between the main structure and the roof of the greenhouse… Really? Now you tell us? The entire time we had been fighting a lost battle, like using a shot glass to empty a boat with a bucket sized hole.

So we closed the gap. Removed most of the plants. And sprayed. Chemical stuff. Yuck. We didn’t know how else to level the playing field again, start anew and not have the first seedlings we plant in there become a light snack for the gang.

But in the end, it was yet another learning experience… 1. Organic farming requires constant and well timed preventative measures 2. Organic farming generally is quite hard and 3. A greenhouse with holes makes the perfect insect dome.

No abundance of vegetables for us this season… But I did manage to grow a few peppers, something I definitely didn’t expect to work. And we are harvesting local spinach kulitis and water spinach kangkong, eggplant and loads of chilies. Sweet potatoes, ginger, turmeric and winged beans and okra are still to come…

Accidental Kulitis - blown by the wind or carried in by cat paws.
Spinach sprouting in my potting soil.

Peppers!

Talong.

We also started a little lemongrass plantation. Something fast and easy to grow and multiply. Delicious as tea and in soups and who knows, maybe one day we’ll think of fun products to create… oil, syrup, candy?

These little bundles...

...will hopefully look like this one day.

The mastermind behind our Roots Kubos just happens to also be quite well versed in landscaping and trees. With his help, the Roots Farm’s future is going to be that much sweeter. It started with over a hundred pinapple plants and calamansi trees and will move on to bananas, pomelo and other citrus, mangosteen, rambutan, guyabano, avocado and whatever else we can find and make grow. Baby fruit trees take a few years to start bearing fruit, so this part of the farm is something we will have to heed and tend to, nourish and hopefully one day harvest sweet sweet success from.

Calamansi Galore.

Grafted Trees are Awesome! So tiny and already bearing fruit.

For those who have always wondered... This is how pineapple grows.

And finally, there’s my own little dining room nursery project that resulted from randomly sprouting seeds from mom’s seed bank I was afraid were going to spoil. It is the first time I have gone through the entire process on my own – from prepping the soil, to sprouting the seeds, to caring for the seedlings, to transplanting and strengthening and finally putting them in the ground.

If you can't beat her, join her. Attention seeking behaviour when I'm in gardening mode.

From Seeds and Soil...

...to Seedlings.

From this comfy bed...

...to this one. It's a miracle any of these survived!

From repotted seedlings...

...to teenage seedlings.

My first try was transplanting twelve tomato seedlings into ourdoor beds. After leaving and returning after 3 weeks, three had survived – of which one was unhappy (probably due to location) and the other two were already bearing fruit. Cowpeas happily sprouted and rapidly grew in the same bed the tomatoes didn’t like – to each their own. Another quirk of nature discovered.

All Grown Up.

Cowpeas.

Prepping new beds for tomatoes.

Transplanted and protected by Citronella.

Fruit!!

Over fifty tomato plants of two different varieties then found their way into large pots, outdoor beds next to our stairs and the greenhouse. Call it learning by doing or my great big tomato experiment, either way, it has us taking the steps towards planting more sustainably and actually eating some of the produce ourselves. And after a few feedings of Epsom salts (magnesium) and banana peels (potassium) – we got to taste some of the sweetest vine ripened tomatoes I have ever eaten.

Best. Tomatoes. Ever.

And a first steps have towards product development – just to throw some business terms out there – have been taken. Our chili harvest has been bountiful and luckily there are many different and delicious ways of processing these spicy little peppers. My new favorite is chili salt – roughly grind together some sea salt and chilies, roast in a pan to thoroughly dry and then grind again to get that fine texture. Without an oven to roast or a blender to grind, a lot of love gets ground in manually ;) Made some with only green chilies that was not too spicy but veeery tasty! Also, pickled chilies and roasted chilies and garlic in olive oil… and our very own homemade cashew vinegar got pimped with some chilies as well! Can’t wait to taste this once it’s soaked for a while.

Another lesson learned: milk and aloe vera help against burned hands. Next time, oil hands BEFORE playing with chilies all day.

Chilies.

More Chilies.

Harvesting Endless Chilies.

Beautiful.

Soaking Water used against Insects afterwards.

Chili Salt step 1.

Hot Stuff!

More Hot Stuff! 

Moni hard at work.

Cashew Vinegar.

This stuff is going to be deeelicious!

And after a few months of rain and with some help from Tay and his family, our very first rice harvest cycle has been completed! From planting, to a vibrant green field, to harvest... It was threshed and dried and then Mo and I took a portion to the local mill and watched it get rocked and rolled to reveal the final little white grain. Two sacks of unmilled palay turned into a bit more than half a sack of bigas (uncooked rice) and half a sack of darak (rice meal that will be used to feed Tay's pig). And since we've still got the cool season to look forward to, we went straight ahead and tried for a second round - ploughed, re-shaped and fixed the dams and replanted! 

Fields of Green.

Harvest.

Palay.

Milling.

Bigas.

Ploughed and Replanted.

Roots Farm Rice Paddies.

Spontaneous Rice Straw Collection.

Introducing: Beauty - just arrived and already at work.

My papayas have grown beautifully and are still looking for a permanent home. Two little rambutan trees have resulted from a delicious breakfast and its remaining seeds. Five precious kale plants remain, as do seven red beets. The pink and white radishes worked quite well. These babies have finally been transplanted - I waited long enough, out of fear the insects will ravish them. Strange feeling, this attachment to little plants and fear for their lives (aside from the fact that I want to eat them myself). Guess this might be a step towards sparking my green thumb, turning into a crazy lady who talks to her plants or just simply feeling the farm life…

Tree Nursery.

Precious Kale.

Left: Radish and Tomato. Right: Eggplant.

Greenhouse Revamped. 

And just because we live on an island doesn't mean we get to hang out on the beach a lot... But when we do, we get some awesome views... So I'll leave you with some and hope they entice you to come visit! ;)

(I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS BLOG POST)