Abundance Farm

Center for Ecology and Humanity

Para espaņol, aqui.

January 2005 Tour of Finca La Abundancia:

(Click here for October 2004 Photo Tour)

This tree, an acietuna, can become part of the roof and also provide material for beds and miscellaneous other furniture... 

Since (according to local experts) it has reached the full size for this species, we decided to cut it down.

This is the basic idea of what we are hoping to end up with.

But this is what we have now.

It's a good thing we have The Turk with this Soviet-made military jeep.

He helps get the supplies to the farm.

Also, the "WAZ" as the vehicle is known, brings mechanics to help with the diesel engine.

And the WAZ brought this little cat, now known as Gringo, to guard so that the rats do not enter the motor.

Meanwhile, it was decided that this Guanacaste would become roof beams.

According to my local expert, this damage was caused by fire and we think is almost at the point of killing the tree and allowing the many forest creatures from eating up the valuable wood. We now have a rule, no agricultural fires at Finca La Abundancia.

A tree can provide a lot of wood. Here, we do most of our cutting with chainsaws right onsite rather than hauling to a sawmill. Maybe one day we will have our own sawmill, but for now the local chainsaw gurus do one heck of a great job.  After seeing how minimal the damage looked afterwards from the inside, we had some second thoughts about whether we'd made the right choice, and still aren't sure.

What is going on back at the house? Here's Scott Miguel preparing the crowns of the walls to receive the beams from that huge tree.  The walls of this house were built about forty years ago.  We are picking up on an old dream left unfinished.  Let's see what we can do!

Omar and Napoleon are measuring parts of the house.

And the Turk is busy getting a small generator into working order to run that drill and a few other small tools until our long-term solutions are running.

Then, all the wood has to be moved to site.

And the woodhaulers are posing for portraits.

While Melissa considers the implications of the construction designs and materials on the long-term educational philosophy of the Abundance Farm Educational Foundation.

Which sunset will she ride off towards? Here is ours.