We have 7 'german mounds' in our garden, to catch the snow melt-off / flood water. It's been hard to get rid of the weeds, as well as the slug invasion which has been eating all our vegetables the last 2 years.
Last week we got 10 ex-factory farm chickens. After 2 days in such enclosure the mound is clean, fertilized and free of slug eggs, without much work by us. It is ready to be planted with synergistic plants (Will happen in a course taught by Marek Kvapil in May). Our Indian Runner ducks patrol the paths between the gardens.

Naturally the eggs brings food and money, eventually we'll have a bit of meat and as a bonus we found out that the kids love the chickens, especially collecting the eggs.... win-win-win...

4 day old foal. It is owned by a young local woman, who has her 2 horses at us. It means we get our grass cut for free, free manure, our daughter learn how to ride, kids in our forest kindergarten learns about animals and we attract a lot of the kids from the village...win-win-win...

Turning a problem into a solution; creating a path to our future educational area; presently our workshop and guest room for volunteers. The land was sloping and draining water into the foundation of our new straw bale house; after 2 days work it's now a 'cat-walk' (CZ: 'mole'), and a flat area for yoga and summer breakfasts.
Next is to build a wooden boardwalk on top, on one side creating a picket fence to the neighbor, and some small root-cellar inclosure in the mound for storage of potatoes.

Old variety spelt wheat being planted in our 'extensive orchard'.
We had to fight with the regional agriculture office and the Ministry of agriculture for 2,5 years before we succeeded in making it legal in all of C.R. to grow something else than grass between the min. 50 trees which is required per hectare to gain the EU donation for extensive orchards. In time the old variety fruit trees will overshadow the field, but it's going to take another 5-10 years.

This wheat (what's left after the deer and wild pigs!) will be used for Radka's production of sourdough rye-spelt breads. Yesterday she baked 12 loaves... Profit now is low as we have to buy the organic ingredients and wheat prices has risen 100% the past 2 years.

...part of the benefits of old variety wheat (spelt is a wheat), is the long straw. This will be harvested for straw bales; some might be in time for the European Straw Bale Gathering which we're hosting.

And no; we couldn't find anyone willing to sow it mechanically, so we did it this non-effective way. Took half a day work with our small tractor, cultivator, harrow and Radka's rythmical sowing. Johanka waited patiently in the tractor trailer for mama...

...While daddy had fun....

Our bio-dynamic neighbour (www.biodynamika.cz) came around Sunday and made 5 x 63 meter long slightly raised vegetable beds, as we want to grow a lot of vegetables for the European Straw Bale Gathering and our other events+ sale/personal. We're still looking for someone who wants to manage this part as a ... We have around 50.000 kc to buy the final vegetables for, as well as free accommodation, tools, seeds etc.

And it's all fenced in. Have to fight the quick-grass though!

Olomouc Waldorf kindergarten came for an excursion yesterday with 24 kids, visiting our forest kindergarten (Rarasci).
Not only good for the kids, and paid a little for the work, it also resulted in one of the mothers deciding to have her child in Rarasci, every Monday ;o) Win-win-win...
Photo shows 'Johannesburg' and the Rarasci cottage in the back.

Here's a link to a 1 hour radio documentary about Rarasci, made throughout 8 months. / Reportáž ?eského rozhlasu 2 z lesní školky Rarášci a následný rozhovor o lesních mate?ských školách dopln?ný o dotazy poslucha??.http://www.rozhlas.cz/default/default/rnp-player-2.php?id=2286087&a...

In between all of this there was also time for me to go to Lodz in Poland and present 'Big Bale Building' at the 'Cohabitat' gathering:

Cohabitat Gathering 2011 from dobraidea on Vimeo.

...While Radka hosted a group of Brontosaurus youth who helped plant a more fruit trees and help in the garden...

Please have a look at our program and join for one of our courses; here's a greeting from our recent newsletter to Juraj and others who understand Czech language:

Jaro je tu již v plné síle: oseli jsme skoro hektar pšenicí, zasadili mnoho nových stromk?, v sad? se pro?ezává a tady v Podolí u Bouzova jsme p?ipraveni, abychom vás nebo vaše p?átele p?ivítali na sérii seminá??. Letošní formát seminá?? je založený na myšlence získání dovedností, které budou d?ležité pro dobu, kdy levná energie nebude samoz?ejmostí. Povede je vždy hlavní a vedlejší lektor. Vedlejší lektor bude provázet doprovodnými ?emesly/dovednostmi, které spolu s tématem víkendu tvo?í jednotu.

Pokud vás seminá?e zaujaly, budeme rádi, když je rozpošlete známým, vyv?síte v okolí nebo na sociálních sítích ?i podobn?.

Srde?n? vás zdraví,

Zdravim,

PermaLot o.s.:  2001 - 2011 Deset let bádání na téma venkovské udržitelnosti
www.permalot.org

...Some more information here: www.jen-sen.cz; articles here: www.permamax.blogspot.com