Hovel Sweet Hovel 🤗

Our wee hovel is coming along nicely! Today @vincentnijman and I had a glorious rainy morning working inside; scraping a ton of ancient, compacted dung off of the ‘floor’, bashing part of the ‘possibly supporting’ wall down, and removing a great deal of rubble-related waste outside.

The room already feels cosier and cleaner, if you can believe it! It begins to feel less like a hovel/ cellar and more like a potential living room/ bedroom, as we vision it to be.

Beginning work like this is not our first choice when the sun shines on our blessed land, and when there is wood to be chopped and olives to be harvested… but on a super-wet day, there’s nowhere we’d rather be than knocking down cobwebs, carting piles of broken brick, and breaking up layers of animal poop from the last century. It is incredibly satisfying!

We’ve had a few general issues in our rental bothy, which is probably par for the course when a house is not continuously inhabited by the actual owners: what incentive is there to keep on top of all the wee jobs, when this is not your own home? Or when someone else is paying basic rent for a property that you own?

Whereas our own wee hovel is greatly enticing to us, to come and explore, play, mess around with, clean repair, transform: to invest enormous amounts of time and energy – all that it takes, really – into make it a home. We have the incentive, because of it being ours, potentially forever – and because we seek freedom – the kind of freedom that does not require us to be under contract to anything outside of Natural Law, frankly!

Having an – even temporary – rented home does create a tension between us and our comfort, especially in the colder seasons: there isn’t the same investment in fixing it, warming it, making it comfortable, because we will not be here in the longterm; all invested energies or attention will be for the benefit of the owner (the value of the house) and the next tenant.

Our own home on the other hand, also being a less modern and so more natural home, is responsive to our touch in profound ways, and we are encouraged by all that improves under our care, to do more. Between us we have a good, solid base of DIY experience, and we also have oodles of intuition and belief in cocreating from what is already there.

This is what excites me most, because having materials around us, which can be taken apart and put together again better, means there are tons of options for how we proceed. It is fun! And it is demanding of us! Of our focussed attention and creative imagination. It demands that we remain upbeat and inventive, fearless and motivated.

I have a sense, a vision, of what wants to transpire. I took a mallet to the terribly-constructed brick ‘wall’ today, and began (with Vincent’s help) to open up a wider arch, rather than the previous, weird kind-of doorway and window: I feel a cosy winter evening with this gorgeous oiled stone floor with thick colourful rugs and sheepskins on it… us barefoot in winter, with the stones warmed by our cute miniature stove, and a big low bed with piles of fluffy duvets and pillows making it the most happy of resting/ loving places, after a day of physical work on the land.

To make this vision come alive, we will have to reinforce a lot of aspects of this building and this room: it requires significant structural support, and in places has the need of waterproofing, draining, sealing. It will be very effortful in areas! And will likely cost a bit in cement, glass, tubing… And at the same time, we have clay, wood, stone, mud, grass, hay, etc. on the land, enough to make several rooms perfectly secure and comfy…. It is just a matter of using our minds, our hearts and our muscles in harmony and intelligent creative aligment!

Our vision spurs us on, as we nip (to our temorary) home for a recharge with marvellous pasta and a raging hot wee stove. We can clean ourselves and warm our bones and feel nourished, before thinking about the next phase. I am excited about the measuring of comfort, and of how long it might take us to make our magical hovel more suitable for our needs than our mod cons place. We are beginning to think about intermediate technologies, and how an organic house would require organic tech/ amenities solutions…

I love that we are in this dreaming space, of inventing a new kind of home, one that we have not really seen yet, but have a strong sense of wantingness towards. And I love our shared understanding of what is important, and what is less so; we absolutely do not want a conventional electrical supply or infrastructure. Nor a conventional water supply! Nor conventional cupboards and storages spaces… I made a wooden bed frame that we may bring with us. And I want to be able to use my sewing machines, and to store clothing and fabrics…

We want to be able to clean ourselves and make ourselves healthy, delicious, nutritious food in a wholesome setting. Likely without a fridge though: perhaps a coolbox. Certainly we want different kinds of cooking places, from an open fire in a stone circle, to a rocket stove and/ or outside kitchen.

Our feelings will guide us, and our instinct, research, ruminations will help us read the signs. Looking forward to the next step, whatsoever it might be!

With Love & Gratitude!