Ordering wood for Winter, Gardening and Wi Fi electrics.

 Pedro's wood supply in Alfaix.

 Dario cleaning the paths and enjoying the garden.

 Andreea doing a little pruning.

Peter is installing an additional router for more Wi Fi outside the front of the house.

Country property and Dashinka and Shwartzki

 A nice little country property.!

 Schwartzki.

Dashinka.

September 3rd 2013. A beautiful morning and some building work.

 A beautiful morning. It seems like an early Autumn. Only 26 degrees today. !

Lucas and Said building "the cave".

September 3rd 2013 update

The Casa De La Realidad is quietening down now. We had a super busy August with people visiting and coming to stay. We were averaging around 15 to 20 in the house for a couple of weeks. 

Silviu has just left for Ecuador. We will see him back in December. 

Now we have Andreea, Lucas, Ivi, Peter and myself living in the house. 

Said is working with Lucas on the new "cave store". Said is living in Gotcha.

You can see the "Dutch" houses of "Little Amsterdam" in the far background, then Graham and Alice's house, and the Casa De La Realidad in the foreground. The second picture shows the Hueli quarry eating away at the mountain. !

A new Paella dish and an excellent Paella fromEnrique. Muy Bien. !!

Good evening to you all. I found a new path this evening giving us some new perspectives on the valley. Still no rain. !!

Here we are, Mira and myself. ! Still no rain. Just a little thunder and lightning last night. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe tonight. !!

It's all pretty dry. We still have a good flow down the irrigation Line but we have no more holes to fill. Any leaks are very minor. This is it: ! Right now a storm is approaching with thunder and lightning and it has just started to rain, I am keeping my fingers crossed for a lot of litres of rain per square meter over the next few days.

 This is the main water entrance for the Irrigation Line.

 You see the flow from "The Naciamento" has nearly stopped.

 This is "the stream" from the Nacamiento,

 Not much water. !

I am now up on the "plateau". Very dry. !

The beams for the new bath are now set. We are starting the new "cave" food store. ! Said is the "cave" Maestro. !

Here are Neo and Tao, the children of Idris and Katya. Nice floor too. !!

This is a good picture of Ed sanding the floor. That was a big job. !!

These are the beams for the "split level", bath platform. Peter is the Maestro on this job. We are waiting for the bath to arrive in Sorbas.

This was another good ceremony with Mira. We even had a light rainfall early in the moning. As you can se we need more.rain. !!

Hello All,

I apologize for the lack of posts over the last few weeks. I am "back on the case".

This morning I took some frog poison with Mira. It seems to have stimulated me to get "on the blog". !!

The Australian Earth Law Alliance have asked me to speak at their   Conference, so, on September 23rd, I am off to Brisbane. !!

Wild Law Conference 2013

"Living within our ecological limits: law and governance to nurture the Earth Community", 27-29 September, Southbank, Brisbane

 

Dashinka and Favia

In the river

First load of Winter wood.

Ed has been sanding down the floor. Good job. !

Maybe I will be a speaker at the Australian Earth Laws Alliance Conference. Well, I'm "up for it". ! I am not sure if I am a bit too full on, radical. We shall see.

This is an "abstract" that I have written for the Australian Earth Laws Alliance Conference in September.

"How can human societies learn to live within their ecological limits.?"

Clearly we need to learn how far outside of ecological limits that we are living. We need to understand that it is not MONEY that supports our lives, it is NATURE that supports our lives.

This is not the time to be "pussyfooting" around the reality of the situation in which we find ourselves. We must disregard misinformation fed to us by the vested interests of Governments who endeavor to fulfill their mandates on the back of ecological collapse.

To illicit change we must understand the reality of our situation. We need to be prepared to stand up as individuals to meet the challenges and changes that we will all have to make for our survival.

We need to be clear on the situation within which we find ourselves before we can decide on what we are going to do to enable our survival.

We will then learn to live within our ecological limits, or we will die. !

"How do we reign in humanity’s use of the Earth and create governance systems that nurture, rather than destroy, the natural world?"

We will have to create new LAW. We will have to criminalize the destruction of Ecosystems.

We will have to re-write company law and make it the first objective of any company or corporation to protect the four elements which enable us to live on this planet.

We have to find a new source of abundant, free energy.

We have to dismantle our World Financial System and create a system of equitable sharing and protection of Natural Prosperity. Our present system of inequity must be resolved to enable our survival.

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There is always plenty of space for what I call "righteous indignation", however, I feel that the time is now right to look forwards and to meet our challenge for survival "head on".

I am just back from Ecuador where I have been meeting with the leaders of the Shuar tribe threatened by cultural extinction from a mega copper and gold mine. No "righteous indignation" there. They are looking for a way forwards. We must do the same.

All the best to you from a sunny afternoon in Southern Spain.

David.

Check out the Antennae

We have been travelling by boat visiting the rainforest. ! It is amazing that we have connection to the "outside world". Slow, and it works. !. !!

 River transport. No roads here. !

 An 180 year old Kapok Tree. Check the "overground" roots. !

What a Rainbow.! This was the view coming back in the boat this evening. !

Family visits

 We are given a "full on" lunch.

The ground water and river water is dangerous to drink because of oil pollution, so these rainwater filtration and storage systems have greatly benefited many communities.

 Once again oil underneath the mud under the water.

Oil pipes. Each well has a pipe which leads to local separation plants, where the gas is flared. The oil and water is separated. The highly toxic water taken from the oil is re-injected deep into the ground. Previously , under the Chevron Regime the water was discharged into rivers and streams, polluting and killing wherever it went. The separation plants were set up near streams to disperse this highly toxic water into the environment. Chevron has committed a MASSIVE crime against Humanity and Nature. There are over 1,000 wells in this area. !

Some words around yesterday's horror story. The "Toxic Tour".

Yesterday we flew into Coca, an "oil" town. First we went to visit an oil separation plant. 

In the first picture you can see the flares burning off the gas from the separation process. The flaring process releases poisons into the atmosphere and I could smell benzine in the air.

The oil is separated into gas, oil and water. Previously the water which is heavilly polluted was discharged into waterways. These separartion facilities were always situated by waterways so that the water could be "flushed" away. You will see in the second picture, a spade full of what we would expect to be earth. It is earth saturated with oil.

The next picture shows Donald taking a "core" sample of "soil" from an area where a family had their drinking water well. They all contracted cancer. 

We then visited Servio, who's family have been decimated by cancer. He showed us his land and made a small hole in the ground to show us the black ooze just underneath the surface. This was an oil pit. Typically every "oil well" had a least 3 pits where raw oil was pumped to ascertain levels of supply.

He showed us another area of his land where an oil pit had been set fire to to reduce levels of crude in the pit. Just below the thin green layer of grass was burnt oil, a black glass like substance, and below that is waste crude oil.

I have never seen such blatant planned disregard for Nature and Human life.  This could be described as both Genocide and Ecocide. The Amazonian ecosystem has been destroyed.

Is Chevron guilty of pollution in the Amazon Basin.?

 Air Pollution

 Into the forest.

 The stream used as a "waste" for water separated from the oil.

 A spade full of earth.

 Making  small hole in the forest.

Oil, so toxic that those gloves are now hazardous waste.

David mining. ! No, taking roots out of the irrigation line tunnels. Cool work, 31 degrees outside. !