Echo-Village

I made the trip back to Tigre again this past weekend. But it ended up in a weird mish-mash of communication as a big group of us were originally planning to go, then Leo said he couldn't make it, and then Helena said that if he wasn't going then she wasn't, and so the others were coming because of her... I was still going though and in the end Leo decided he was going to be able to make it... Yeah, see where this is going?

And it may have been for the best as it turns out the rain from last week was still hanging around on the ground and making a mess of things. But, that didn't stop us from getting stuff done! First things first though... we had a new guest in the village. Svenja is from Germany and randomly saw our post up on Couchsurfing.com and decided to come visit with us for the weekend. Sweet! New friends rock!




We needed to have someone watch over us for good luck. Actually, I figure that we needed someone to make sure we kept working and kept a good attitude while at it... So why not Budda! (I think the thing next to him is our super-secret Dharma Initiative Decoder ring.)



Well, we wasted no time this weekend. One of the hard things about sustainable living is fresh water. At current we have to purchase water at the little store on the island or carry it in on the boat from the mainland. Not too cost effective and it gets really annoying lugging that stuff around. And even when you are conscious about your usage and go with the bare minimum you still use a lot! Oi! So, our first major project was to set up the water-collection system, cistern, and get it hooked up to the house. There was previously a pump bringing water up from the river, but it burned out and the setup wasn't quite as good as it should have been. As a result, a lot of things from the back end such as plumbing inside the house and the elevated tank were already set up for us. Our plan was to set up a collection unit on the roof, filter it, and have it piped into the 1000 L cistern that Leo just so happened to have lying around the place. Of course, sounds much easier than it ended up being!

The roof was covered in corrugated tin and has only one slope, so our placement was pretty much chosen for us. But the sheet metal actually did us some good and made our job easier. Cutting down the length of a 3" (I have no clue what size it is in metric) PVC pipe allowed us to spread it enough that it "bit" the edge of the roof and the corrugations made natural openings for the water. We then used the tops of a 1.5L soda bottle for each end and used some mesh to filter out any large debris that makes it into the gutter. Hmm... just realized that there aren't any close ups. Just close shots of my feet.






Me taking a break while Leo takes his time doing something down below...




Trying to get the tank down to the river to wash it out (Remember: we don't have running water yet...)



Slacker making us do all the work...



HA! Your turn now!



Fran y Svenja



It turns out that we had run out of gas for the stove so Leo went to the store and lugged a new one back. Of course after all of that he was unable to get the plug out so it was up to me to get it out with mallet and screwdriver.



(Insert photo of mass explosion and letters being sent off to weeping families.)

Randomly good shot of me explaining some idea or another...




While leo and I were working outside, the ladies used their powers of design and good taste to brighten up the house a bit. Don't ask me where he got them from but Leo had brough a massive bag of random bottles of nail polish. And not just your normal, "appropriate for work" colors but rather your "Lola's getting herself a man!" type of colors. Their canvas: the bathroom door. Their subject: a Swan/Peacock thingy.








And of course, after a long, hard day of work, we needed to refuel. Leo wanted pizza, but I haven't seen a Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's or even a Little Caesars since I came here! Now problem though, Campfire pizza! We made up some quick bread, let it rise, threw it in some circular pans Leo happened to have, cooked them up, sautéed some veggies, added some tomato sauce, and threw in some cheese to melt. Once everything was ready:




YUM! A great end to a long day. But Leo had more ideas in mind... Tomorrow: Cleaning up all of the bottles and trash under the house! *Sigh* No rest for the weary...