Guide to retreat on our land

Sometimes we leave the land for long periods of time and we'd like to make it available for people to do meditation retreat there while we're away. It's really difficult to find places that are comfortable to live but have practically no distractions. This article is intended to become a guide for living at our place since it's off-grid and has various aspects that will be unfamiliar to those used to normal residential living. See also our daily schedule which may be useful for creating your own schedule for retreat at the land.

Groceries

• Every month or so
• The path to Vaca Velha
• Storing vegetables and fruit
• an average shopping list

Water

• we use river or rain water for washing (fill the 5L bottles from tank or river to keep an in-house supply each day), well or spring for drinking
• using the well
• maneco's spring
• the rain water is probly ok to drink if other sources are unavailable - maybe clean out the tank first and ensure the roof is clean
• in absolute emergency (e.g. no rain, well dry and maneco's spring not working) you can use the river water, but you should boil it first
• to boil water, use the fire not gas as you should do a whole 20L bottle. Best to use one that's already got at least a couple of litres in it so that the newly added boiling water mixes with cold water to avoid boiling water affecting the plastic. Use the cast iron kettle for boiling water on the fire, the blue kettle is for gas. The cast iron kettle should be washed first as rust builds up inside it.
• collecting rain water for the plants in dry season

Toilet

• pee in the garden, either water down and pour on veges, or just pee around the ferns, but do in a different place each time to avoid odour
• dry toilet empty in one composter until full, then empty the other to start using that one
• when emptying a full compost compartment, use for the fruit trees not the vege patch
• the best material for the dry toilet is dried grass clippings from cutting the shorter grass around the house, rake into wide low piles and let them dry for a couple of sunny days, then collect into sacks
• ensure the sacks have wood on top so that mice don't make nests in them
• it's good to leave the toilet door open during the day to avoid mould accumulating on the walls

Power

• you need to be sensible with power usage, about 200 watt-hours per day is average. In summer you can use twice this, but sometimes in winter you have weeks where all days are

quite dark and you will likely have to ration power sometimes. In emergencies there is the petrol generator. You can also charge computer and phone in Maneco's barn if you need to.

• there are two connection schemes for the panels one for dark days and one for light days. On dark days it's better that the panels are arranged to give 30v output instead of 20v because when it's a dark day they'll drop to about 60% voltage which is too low for a PWM type controller to be able to charge a 12v battery. See our power project for more
• to learn the general components
• the inverter can handle the blender, but not any power tools and certainly not the spinner-dryer, they all need to be used with the generator

Generator and petrol tools

• the generator takes pure petrol, the oil won't need changing before we're back. The chainsaw and weed-eater both take 2-stroke mixed with petrol in 1:25 ratio, e.g. 10ml 2T with 250ml petrol, or 15ml with 375ml, use the blue mixing bottle that has total volume indicator up the side and a cap for measuring exact amounts of 2T.
• turn the metal on/off valve to off if the generator will be sitting idle for more than a day or two otherwise petrol can leak over time due to temperature changes etc
• try not to leave the chainsaw or weed-eater with petrol in them if they'll be idle for more than a week or two (i.e. use them until they run out, don't just empty them) otherwise the carb will get dirty and they will be very difficult to start.
• in the case of difficulty starting (dirty carb/petrol or very cold) holding the accelerator in when starting can help. Also if you've tried to start it for a long time, try both with and without the choke because it can get flooded if trying to start many times with the choke in. If still no luck, leave it for half an hour and try again as it could be too flooded to start and need time for petrol to settle out of the system.
• if using the blade with the weed-eater, it needs sharpening quite often, use the green-handled metal file, no need for sharpening stone. Be sure to sharpen the correct side of the blade and install it the correct way (there's an arrow on the plastic guard indicating which way the blade spins)
• use the blade for cutting/maintaining paths that have anything at least as strong as ferns, the nylon for keeping the grass around the house short

Internet & phone

The only company accessible from our location is Vivo, and usually you need to go up the hill to the northern fence to make phone calls. Internet access is achieved via an antenna on the top of the hill above the northern fence. A cable runs through a PVC pipe from the house up to the top of the hill which contains a power cable and a LAN cable. At the top of the hill is a box containing a Vivo router connected to the antenna. Halfway along between the hill and the house is another box which contains a hub since LAN segments must be shorter than 100 metres (see our rural net connection for details about all this). To use the net turn the power to the router on with the switch to the left of the door. This switch has a red light below it to remind you to turn it off after using the net. The net uses about 10 watts.

• if problems, check the signal and connection to the router at 192.168.1.1
• connection is usually too slow for youtube etc - this is usually due to Vivo not the signal
• only 4GB per month, then cuts down to 128Kbps (in reality this often means 1K!)

Washing

• dishes - two bowls, one for washing, one for rinsing, when washing water is dirty, pour into the compost bucket and change the rinsing bowl to washing position and clean the empty bowl and fill with fresh water for rinsing. I usually have the washing bowl at the front of the bench and rinsing behind it.
• clothes, fill two large black buckets, one for washing, one for rinsing, use rain water from the tank if sufficient, otherwise collect from the river with buckets and wheelbarrow. Twisting the clothes to squeeze the water out is hard work, especially for blankets and sheets, we usually use the spinner with the generator. The spinner often wobbles, don't let it keep running when it wobbling, stop it and adjust the contents or take some things out if it won't stop wobbling.
• self - we use the river most of the time, but when it's really cold we wait until the house is warm in the evening from the fire and then fill the purple bowl with water (you can even add some hot water) and wash with a flannel.

The fire and stove

• minimise gas usage as you can only bring 5L gas bottles yourself
• the fire needs to be going for a good hour to be really ready for cooking
• try and brings some newspaper rubbish back with you whenever you visit canela as this will make fire starting a lot easier
• keep some wood piled up on the back of the fire to dry for the following day - keep an eye on it to make sure its not burning, turn it over when it gets to hot. Don't go to sleep with the wood drying on the stove top if the fire is going, put the wood on the floor under the stove.
• empty the ash into the metal bucket, and when full pour onto the vege patch, or into the dry toilet if any odour is noticed (only happens when no short dry grass is available)
• the oven is not very efficient, so for things like bread we make flat bread in the big frying pan

Handling the cold

Many people in Brazil are from the north and don't really understand what cold is, in winter you will need to be prepared for sub-zero temperatures in the mornings with thick frost and sometimes snow. This is usually starts in May and can last a couple of months or more.

• the veges need to be covered in the evening with the clear plastic tarps over the hoops that are on all the garden beds to be protected from morning frost
• thermal top and pants will make it a lot easier to dress warmly, especially at night, wool gloves and scarf, long thick woolen socks and a tight woolen hat which covers the ears is very good for nights and mornings - all these are readily available in canela
• put a pile of coal on top of the embers of the fire before you go to bed, this will burn slowly throughout most of the night and also keep the fire warm enough to start easily in the morning
• wash the dishes the night before when it's warm as the water will be painfully cold in the morning, sometimes iced over if the fire didn't last long enough
• the mornings are the hardest time to warm up, if you're shivering too much go for a walk to the top of the big hill or chop some wood for half an hour