Details of Life at Jardines Lumbini

Mid-April? When will the passage of time cease to astound me?

Sensing that the time is nigh for another newsletter, my jaw is dropping as to where to begin.

So how about I share a letter that Troy sent out recently with some nitty-gritty detailed photos of life at Lumbini lately? We work well together in so many ways. This is one of them: I show the artful flower shots and cute kid photos, he shares pragmatic pipe-fitting shots. So I guess you could call this the "More Matter, Less Art" edition. ;-)

Photo infrastructure update...

Amazing hand-made-on-the-side-of-the-road furniture by a traveling artisan named Vicente. He played La Bamba on the guitar while Anjali danced under the palapa.

The "shower garden" has blossomed. Still awaiting its shower.
Bright-eyed and pig-tailed at the new sinks. The palm mat wind-screen on the left was from another traveling salesman of local crafts. He pulled up to the palapa one afternoon and left with a pile of our pesos.
Lower half of deck #2. It functions more as a study than a dining room. Meals are more frequently enjoyed around the fire.

The Mandala garden. (Tif's note: I had to include a more recent photo for this, as the garden has simply exploded since the time Troy wrote the original letter weeks ago. Here I am harvesting foot-tall chard about a week ago. And yes: the sky is that blue sometimes.)

(And another view of the Mandala Garden, with mosquito-nibbled buddy Harlan modeling how big the broccoli is! [and then immediately afterward finding a tree to "water;" heehee!])

Recently planted Avocado in its pit filled with organic matter and padded with mulch. Those sun-scorched branches on the grounds of Lumbini make some super-dense mulch.
The Avocado's neighbor, Mr. Fig. Mission Fig.
Coconut palm in the second line of trees courtesy of Felipe and Carol. Looking strong and guarded by a militia of yellow-helmeted scorpion plants.

The view from the west side of the palapa looking through the kitchen to the two tents. Two 3x6 counters with shelves and the same 3 burner camp-chef we had already.
Appliance row. The chest freezer, fridge, washer and mini-fridge. We plan to employ different combinations of use of the three refrigeration units depending on the size of the group present.

The sinks, complete with cold and solar-heated-hot input and grey-water output. The utility sink on the right is covered with the dish-rack. It's the same one that's been in the domo collecting gerbil doo-doo for years.

The back of the sinks. The greenish pipe is the grey-water. It empties into the central banana/papaya (yet to be planted) ring in the Mandala garden.

Blame the Baja sun for the lighting on this one. This was the best I could do at noon. This 1x3 tupperware container collects the water from the shower. Still the same old green shower, a bit reinforced, with a little gulley to drain the water into the tupperware. It leaves through the black pipe at the top of the picture and flows 30 ft downhill to the Avocado and Mr. Fig you met earlier.
The Avocado receiving greywater from the shower.

Hasta pronto,
TP

I remembered a muy importante detail Troy left out which I'm sure you're all eager to see! Our humanure toilet, which we lovingly call, The Pooper! We exclusively use the bright orange buckets for the humanure, and exclusively white buckets for kitchen scraps. The navy bin on the right holds sawdust with a scooper. Two large scoops (or more) of sawdust per deposit= minimal smell and no flies! Toilet paper is held in orange bucket-in-waiting. And just as important, the spic-and-span cleaning process after a batch of humanure and kitchen scraps are added to the compost pile. Remy (wearing gloves) demonstrates. So clean!