Oh the wonderful days here..... Not to hot, but wonderful sunshine with the mountains rising up around us. The nights are COOL and I think I may be making a market run soon to purchase some necessary items including a hat, thicker socks for evening relaxation and maybe even a sweater. On other travels I have always regretted having to much, but being so stationary it would be nice to have a bit more of a wardrobe option especially for the chilly evenings and mornings.

We have had some very productive building days and have made great strides on the future sauna. The building medium is going to be cement, but mixed with sand to make a plaster with which we are able to build very thin but strong and well insulated walls. The framework is iron rods secured in a concrete foundation and wire mesh woven very tightly together, like making sewing stitches to create a strong base to apply the cement plaster. The technique is referred to "ferro cement" (ferro being spanish for iron). There is a picture above of building the iron framework and also one of the whiskey bottles we are using for the windows . Ferro cement structures are used to create beautiful sculptings as well so it will be really fun to create some of the accents which will be the final creative touch. The chicken palace is also looking beautiful! Yesterday we put the final plaster on with which we used natural clay pigments and iron oxide to create lovely earthtone colors. The thatch roof goes on soon and then the chickens will be soooo thrilled they will lay bountiful amounts of eggs!! I will load pics of that as soon as I download them from my camara.

We did sacrafice one of the roosters on Thanksgiving which we were all involved in (in above picture we are plucking it) and made a stew out of it so everyone could savor him. We also baked breads, pumpkin pies, frittatas, scalloped potatos, mashed potatos, fudge cookies and the biggest hit, benoffi pie which is an english dessert consisting of boiling condensed milk in the can until it carmalizes, sliced bananas and whipped cream!!! I am still recovering from sugar overload!

Being a week and a half into my stay I feel completely settled and am enjoying all of the interesting people and stimulation. Most nights we have educational movies, permaculture talks, integrative living conversations and so on... There are so many of us interns that are interested in either creating a sustainable living center of our own, or taking bits and peices to create some kind of sustainable business. Obviously I am still unsure exactly how I want to incorporate it all in the future but am loving every bit of information and opportunities along the way!

Day off!!

Today, Monday the 24th is our R&R day which is much needed after a grueling day of mixing and pouring cement for the future sauna. It felt like we were already in a sauna with the sun beating down and the humidity souring. It has been so great to be doing so many different hands on building activities and with as many hands that are around we are quickly gratified with amazing results. The chicken palace is drying and then we are putting up the ceiling which is going to be a yurt like ceiling structure with thatched roofing. We have also been mixing up a plaster to put over the adobe bricks to make a more finished product. That is a similar mixture, taken place by dancing in the mud, adding sand and water and rice husks. We can also play with different color clays to produce natural coloring.

Last night we broke into the passion fruit wine that Peter (a wonderful older gentleman from seattle area) had made and what a delicious treat! A few glasses of that and we had a full on dance party in the sala! There is quite the array of talent... Jugglers, various muscicians ranging from guitar to flute to mouth harp to didgerydoo?? little Ping is the youngest of the bunch (3?) , her mom is one of the cooks and she loves to rock out!! She brings an elevated level of energy to all aspects, buzzing around with curiosity.

Today, and half of tomorrow the farm is quiet with most people off to explore Chiang Mai and surrounding areas. I was eager to have a quiet day reading, practicing guitar, knitting my leg warmers that are in the works, doing a bit of cooking and just being. There is a WONDERUL smoothy stand 20 minutes away that is also irresistable!! From my computer corner there is a beautiful veggie garden in the works with bamboo trellises for growing beans and creepers and so many fruit trees full of fruit that we constantly have to be picking it off the ground so it doesnt' rot! Pon, the woman cooking is waiting for my hands in the kitchen so I must be off!

Lien (from Belgium) and I practicing music!!
(Watch out Sarah, I can play two songs!!)

Our lovely thai ladies whipping up deliciousness!

Playing in the mud!

mud, scorpions and leeches and the occasional cobra

The first few days here at Panya have been anything but dull. Besides the vibrant mix of people from all places and backgrounds we have been diving full force into amazing building projects. The best technique found here to endure the cycles of monsoon to hot and dry, and also to be put up in a efficient manner is adobe bricks. There is a small flock of chickens whom require the first bit of attention so we must build them a small chatue so they will lay plentiful eggs.
Let me back up a moment to the setting and layout of the farm. We are nestled in a small valley surrounded by misty mountains and jungle. When Christian first bought the property, it had been deforested and much of the top soil was washed away. So, fruit trees were planted and the sala was erected which is the open air kitchen and hang-out area. It has a thatched attic like roof, where many of us interns sleep on the second story. I prefer that vs. on the ground as snakes do not climb walls. You will here all about that a bit later....
Food gardens are in the works all around the sala mixed with fruit trees and other legumes which restore nitrogen to the soil. The whole point is to create a supportive ecosystem so things can support themselves without much human interference. Down many different winding paths are more buildings and little houses that other interns have built in previous courses. Those are fully enclosed and built mostly out of adobe bricks on a concrete foundation to prevent termite infestation. So, the bricks are made two weeks to a few months in advance by us, or a more efficient way is to hire some local thais who can bust up to two thousand bricks a day!!
The chicken house plans are to be round with 4 windows and roosting areas and egg laying areas. With half of us laying bricks in a alternating pattern, the others were in the mud pit stomping around making loads of mortar. Basically the same mixture as the bricks which is clay, sand and rice husk and a bit of water. We were charging right along, hauling bricks from the brick pile to the hut when the big event of the day took place....
Christian pulled down a stack of dried bricks to jump away to a VERY large snake nesting within. Well, the dear snake slithered more into the open and flared out its neck standing straight upright. Yes, we were lucky enough to see a cobra! A bit freaked out because of the area the dear thing decided to reside though. The next hour was spent by two brave men trying to noose the snake and drop it in a bag to be taken way away. Supposidly cobras are only found in the south of Thailand and are very rare in other places so it is not to likely to have a run in with another. We also encountered scorpions and crazy looking centipedes hiding within all of our building materials. Luckily there is a good hospital 1/2 hour away and snake bites are only fatal 45 min to an hour after being bitten.
Another somewhat annoying but harmless creature are the little leaches that live in the grass. They hop on, get their fill and fall off without to much of a bloody ordeal.
Moving onto the most important things.... We have two thai women helping out in the kitchen so I must say I am thrilled in getting my thai fill breakfast lunch and dinner. Shaved green papaya salad, fried noodles, masaman curry today with the most delicious potatos I have ever had. (sorry Idaho)
The days are full with classroom sessions and meetings in the morning, working in the day with a short siesta break, and then some kind of educational talk or movie in the nights. I am not yet having as much introspective time as hoped, but it is all a great experience.
I am going to try to upload the pics that are supposed to go with this post, but blogger has been a bit difficult to use. The satallite internet may not be strong enough for the uploading of photos... Which would be a huge bummer.
Tomorrow we are thatching the chicken hut and then onto grander plans... The sauna!!
I must run off to the local pond for a swim (basically our private lake) before the sun sets and it cools down. We have also been so fortunate not to have sweltering hot days yet... I hear those are yet to come
Farewell for now

Mmmmm, so this is what the real deal tastes like!

After many days of fretting about my flight halfway around the world, being neurotic and researching the safest planes and companies (I have a slight fear of flying, only because it is the most unnatural and helpless position we can put ourselves in) I can solidly say that Singapore Air was one of the greatest experiences in the air I can imagine. Good 'ol Delta ain't gonna cut it any more... Hot face towels, great food, comfort, beautiful stewardessesand the planes were not in a dilapidated state. It was also fun to chase the sun west over Russia's tundra, then finally watching it set 11 hours later in Korea. A night in the Singapore airport was also quite comfortable with free reclining sofas and message chairs for us weary travellers to lay our heads without paying a dime.

My main mission to accomplish in my one night in Chiang Mai before heading out into the rural mountains where the Panya Project resides was to sample as much thai delight as possible. My first meal was a heaping plate of pad thai from a street vendor, oh for less than a dollar. This was my second splurge, a bowl of panang curry with the most savory and tender pork (at least I hope)! Of course they make all thai dishes a bit milder for us whities, but I was still sweating rivers after polishing off every last morsel. I also decided if I am to keep plucking away aimlessly at the guitar, it is better to have one in tow, than to just think about it and play the "air" guitar to my favorite songs. The owner of the guest house I stayed that first night in Chiang Mai spoke decent english and he had the perfect solution to my lack-of-guitar dilemma. Persuade the 15 year old neighbor boy to take me on his scooter to the local music shop. Off I go, zipping through the streets, no helmets, my life entrusted in just a youngin, on the back of a scooter to the music store across town. Lucky for me I had San San with me because he got me a screamin deal on a lovely guitar.... down from 3000 baht ( $88 u.s) to 2000 baht ($58 u.s)! Hopefully I will be able to play two songs by the time I return, versus the one I play over and over now.

Now, onward to Panya and the realm of new and holistic ideas and living examples of supportive, sustainable systems in nature!

Bon Voyage

Thanks to my dear friends Sarah and Brian, I now have a blog sight.  Hopefully I can commit myself to diligence so there actually is "something about taiga."  Sarah is cooking me my farewell breakfast of hearty waffles which I may be eating in the car as we must go.   

Well, from Thailand I will be...