Three years ago we became guardians of a piece of land quite deep in nature, a 30 minutes walk on an ancestral path in the mountains of Cocorna, Antioquia, Colombia.

My partner Esau is a descendant of the indigenous Paez-Nasa tribe. Taking care of the land with love and a deep respect for nature is something his elders have done for decades and decades, until guerilla chased them away. The fact that he is the first one to own land again after all these years, means a lot to the family. The atonement of something that was violently broken.

Using the ancient knowledge of Esau’s tribe combined with my newly gained practice and vision of natural building and permaculture practices over the last years, we started a project that is regenerative; respecting the natural circular cycle of life. We became a family of four, literally building our nest, transforming 5 acres of meadow into land that now thrives in accord to the rhythm of nature. It is hard work. We take turns looking after our two small children and doing household chores while the other one is working on the land taking care of the earth, animals and- or building our home. Sometimes we have volunteers staying with us. We try to buy as little as possible, and when we can’t avoid that, we try to go with something pre-owned.

Things we have created this far are:

· The main house- still under construction but far over the half with more than 80% of the building material like, bamboo, wood, stones, earth and straw harvested ecologically and ethically by ourselves from the land. We do this with great respect and according to indigenous laws.

· We have done quite some landscaping to make the place more enjoyable and accesible. Creating paths, freeing out big rocks to sit on, making little flat areas, even taking time to plant and nurture flowers and more ornamental plants these days.

· We planted fruit trees, plantain, cassave and banana as well as rows of corn and beans, in the beginning with little succes but we keep planting and become better, improving soil quality and finding ways to be smarter than the insects and harmful pests.

We bought three cows and continually harvest their dung for compost.

· We cleaned out the coffee growth several times and have bought a machine to wash the pulp from the berry several times before drying. After drying we roast the coffee on a fire. For now it's for our own and guests’ consumption, but we aim to have a good surplus in the future.

· We created garden beds, we sow seeds and plant veggies, we do a lot of soil building because growing organic needs good nutrition from earth, among others we have a worm-, leaf-, cow dung- and kitchen scrap- compost, we do loads of weeding and mulching. (covering the Earth with organic matter like leafs, straw etc) Nature is strong!

· A big piece of land has been left alone and is starting to become reforested.

· We built a happy home for a bunch of chickens that so far have been very generous with laying eggs

· We cleaned out loads of trash left on the land by previous owners.

· We are starting a seed saving bank

· We made several homes for different kinds of wild bee colony to populate it, like angelitas and African sting bees.

· We are the guardians of two springs that supply water for the valley

Our future plan is to become a place of inspiration where people can also learn the knowledge as passed on by the Paez-Nasa tribe for thousands of years. Like hosting natural building workshops and courses in medicinal plants. Also we plan on developing and selling organic products from our land and sometimes rent out our home.

Right now we have almost finished the main house and are also aiming to be building the guest quarters. Unfortunately not all building materials can be harvested from the land. We need extra money for the things we can’t harvest or make ourselves:

* Screws

*Roof tiles

*Certain tools

* Nails

* Working boots

*Chimney pipes

*flaxseed oil for waterproofing

We also like to give 5 months work to Esau's cousin Daniel that can help us with several jobs on the farm.

If you are inspired and motivated to help us with finishing the project so we can become operational, we would be so grateful. The support we already received is meaningful and special for us beyond words. It motivates and enables us to grow strong as a family, a natural living project and guardians of earth and water.

Love,

Esau, May, Uma and Tay