The Garden of Heartsong

On July 28, 2017July 28, 2017 By jollydeeLeave a comment

Well, after much other doing here on the land we have made a good start on the creation of the garden where we will grow many vegetables and fruits. It began with some clearing of the area so that it would be open to receiving new seeds and plants having been only growing forest plants and trees.

Jolly good job of clearing garden area June 2017

This was the first clearing done of the area.

Garden Creation late july 2017 (4)

Eagle and Reikiom got busy with the soil, while I leveled (sort of) out a path into the garden area. (Honestly, I DID do some of the doing, even though there is no evidence of it!)

Several trees had to be felled to allow enough sunlight onto the garden area so that the plants can grow with enough energy from the sun as well as from momma earth! We used some of the trees to make a couple of terraces so that we could level the land for planting and to separate different plants onto different levels and areas.
The soil is what we call “black gold” as it is so rich and fertile, never having been over used and only having had forest plants and trees growing there. The trees give back a lot with their leaves creating the perfect compost and mulch.

Next, the fence went up to discourage animals from digging up what we plant there.

There will be an update here on the progress of the garden very soon – we planned to plant some seeds and some young plants today, but it rained much of the day, so hopefully tomorrow we will get to that.

The Road to the Heart Space Base

On July 22, 2017July 22, 2017 By jollydeeLeave a comment

Newold Road
The story of this road is a really good one.
After we had been on the land for a few days back in early June, we took some walks up through the valley and observed the land around the valley to decided where to build the Heart Space Base. After some perusal and observing, we came to a mutual agreement on a location on the hill to the north of the valley, facing south into the valley, but with views in most directions, albeit mostly with trees as a view, which are in themselves truly beautiful. We started to clear the area where we plan to build the earthbag dome Heart Space Base. It wasn’t that much later when we realized that the site we had chosen was literally just down the hill from an old logging road that had overgrown with ferns, brambles and several trees, but was still cut out of the hill and relatively level and wide. It goes from the site to the main logging road that zig zags from the bottom to the near top of the land. It is the perfect access to the site for getting the digger to the site to level it and for taking building supplies up there. We won’t use it so much once the dome is built as we don’t want to abuse the land with trucks moving over it too much.

So, we started to clear the (what we have called) newold road. Eagle got handy with the bow saw and felled a fair few of the saplings and other young trees that had sprouted up since the land was logged back in c1998. I showed up the next day to shift them off the road as well as the old rotting branches and such that we lying across it. Brambles had grown also, so those got cleared off as well. Once many of the trees had been felled and moved away, I got to raking the leaves off the entire road. That took me a couple of days, but it was great to see that the surface was mostly clay and solid and firm. Next, Reikiom and Eagle got busy with the chainsaw and felled the bigger trees, and then got the stumps removed.

Before any clearing

Logs lying everywhere

Ferns and brambles galore

After raking

Raked

9. Newold Road

5. Newold raking (2)

14. Newold done

It was altogether quite an operation, but all tribe members helped in the process. Jaime and I did major work in taking down some of the bank above the road to ensure there is enough width. Eagle did a massive amount of clay moving to widen the entrance to the road from the logging road. Jacob and Raquel helped us with all of that as well as helping move the branches from the felled trees, and doing a lot of de-barking the trees that will be used for the recipricol roof timbers of the dome.

11. Last few stumps out on Newold road (2)

10. Last few stumps out on Newold road (1)

13. Last few stumps out on Newold road (4)

12. Last few stumps out on Newold road (3)

Debarked logs for recipricol roof

The first few minutes of this video show what the road was like before we did anything with it:

This one shows it in the middle of our doing:

And this one is of it once we had it cleared!!

Good doing Heartsong Tribe! 🙂

July Sharing of Doing and Being!

On July 21, 2017July 21, 2017 By jollydeeLeave a comment

Today it is Thursday 6th July 2017 (or so they say), and the Heartsong land is now allowing a satellite dish to stand on the land. Although this is something not organic to land and Earth, we are most grateful to this amazing land to accept this way of connection to the outside world.

We find ourselves in a world of our own here on this land, where we are communing with nature and each other, and are most content doing so. However, we wish to share this amazing journey with our so many virtual friends, so we appreciate this opportunity to connect with our friends and family out there. This way, I will be better able to post updates with photos and videos to share. This journey is so wonderful and we love sharing with any who enjoy watching this inflowment. We also are more than willing to support and encourage any others who are looking to take this sort of path.

There have been challenges, of course, living on raw land, long distances from the usual outlets for food, utilities, supplies etc, but all in all, each one of us here is glad to be in this environment, far from commerce and the so called “civilization”!
We have a beautiful supply of water from our springs which flows constantly. Currently, we catch the current as it flows down the hill past our camp down to the river below the land. The water comes in fairly clean, but we filter it through our 5 gallon Berkey filter that Eagle brought along with him. This way, we have clean water to drink, bathe in and wash dishes etc. We have black shower bags which we fill with the spring water and lay out in the sun, which warms it, and then we hang one of the bags up on our shower frame and the water freely flows down for a nice fresh shower – I’ve got to say, showering in this spring water feels SO good!

We have been doing a fair amount of work on the land – yesterday we started a second digging for the underground water tank. The first one resulted in our finding a massive rock two and a half feet down, which was not going to be shifted, so we had to find another location which is also lower than where the spring water emerges. With any bit of luck, this new location will be perfect. Once we get the spring catchment screen set up, along with the springbox, we can guide the water into the 600 gallon tank. Then we can pipe water down to the Heartsong Hideout which is located here at camp. This way, we will have even more water to access. We have had a lot of heavy downpours from passing storms the last few days, so water is abundant!! This is something we have no complaints about! Water is the basis of everything, so a bit of mud and wet tents etc are not an issue! Talking of tents, aside of a little dampness from under, the tents are sound and we have had all dry nights – a big storm the second night we were here had us awake some of the night, but not because of dripping tents, but because of hefty thunder and heavy drumming rain! Due to there being so much rain – often in a very short length of time, we have dug drains across the roads to catch the fast running water and guide it across into the stream and the coverts to help lessen erosion. Keeping active is something that is quite easy around here and we are getting very fit!
Also, we cleared a part of the area where we will start our garden. The earth is SO rich and beautiful – we call it black gold!!

We have a good area cleared where we will soon start building the earthbag dome for Heart Space Base,

as well as our clearing an old logging road that was covered with leaves, mulch, young trees and ferns.

We will be able to access our building area via the open logging roads which are in good shape, and this road that we just cleared. It is uphill the whole way, but we are getting strong legs as we walk up and down, and we have Black Beauty, our Toyota 4WD truck who is well able for negotiating these roads when it is dry. I don’t like the trucks going up and down when it is wet, I am all for preserving the roads as much as possible.
We keep on improving our camp, what with our firepit shelter, so that we can still sit by the fire when it is raining! It has taken a while for it not to hold water on the roof, or to drip heavily from the edges splattering us, and to create a chimney that works to help keep the smoke going out – but it is in pretty good shape now. We have a channel dug across the front which catches most of the runoff from the area in front.

Camp in general is brilliant though – we have the Hideout, which we use basically for cooking and storing stuff. Then we have our tents for sleeping.

And the campfire, as previously mentioned. Then we have the water passing by.

Where we catch our spring water at camp.

It’s perfect and I am loving my life here, as are all the tribe members. I am so very grateful to all that has occurred to enable me to get started with this project, as I am to all who are participating, and all who will do as we move on.
Further reports will follow – and much more frequently, now that we have internet!
Love and appreciation to all.

Heart Song Society

Month: July 2017

The Garden of Heartsong

The Road to the Heart Space Base

July Sharing of Doing and Being!