Our project at a glance

The days of our youth exchange Test Green Nests have passed, but you can watch the best pictures on the slideshow made by Míša:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8_RSNHEmYg

To look back and sum up the project in exact numbers, this youth exchange gathered together 30 participants, 4 organizers, 4 volunteers, 8 people from the local community, 2 dogs and 12.012.215 wasps. We spent 10 days in 3 yurts, we learned about 8 different sustainable building techniques and we met personally 2 families who live in such houses. We tried to build one superadobe house, one superadobe fireplace, one adobe furnace and learned how to plaster the walls.

Besides the practical workshops, we enjoyed Teambuilding games,

Hungarian folk music,

Contact dance, Thai yoga massage, Home movie projection, we shared our skills during the Skill market and enjoyed other activities.

We tasted each other´s cultures and presented them to the local community during the Intercultural afternoon.

The days were ending by the wonderful fire in the sounds of guitar, singing and drums.

Big thanks to everybody who played his or her unique part in this amazing experience!

What does one need to build up a yurt?

This is how Vašek´s and Míša´s yurt was built... important for Green Nests Testers!

Natural Cosmetics Recipes - Beeswax Cream

You need:

• 20g of beeswax (it’s really good for water absorption into the skin)
• 1dc oliv oil (or you can use other kinds of oil, for example yoyoba oil, almond oil, cannabis oil - more expensive oils are better to use for facial creams); you can also use cocoa butter instead of beeswax, or half of oil and half of beeswax and half of cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is more expensive, but good for face.
• essential oils (be sure it’ s 100% pure essential oil without chemicals – NOT those that are used for aromatic lamps). Different essential oils have different effect for skin and mind – you can check for example pages http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/therapies/essentia02.htm. It’ s good to use for example geranium, bergamot, lavender, rose, jasmine… You shouldn’t use more than 5ml of essential oil for 0,5 l (but you can mix them if you want)
• water
• a pinch of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)
• vitamin E liquid concentrate as a preservative (not necessary)

How to do it:

1. You melt oil and beeswax in a double boiler (for those who don’t know this word in English, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_boiler. First put oil, than beeswax.
2. When oil and wax fuse, you can put the pot out of the fire, put boiled water in it (hot, but not). It’s recommended to add the same amount of water as the amount of wax and oil together (If you have 30ml of wax-oil, you will add 30 ml of water). If you add more water, the cream should be more liquid, if you add less, it will be thicker… So it depends on your taste. When you have thicker cream, it’s good to use it on wet skin (right after the shower), because it locks the water inside the skin and thus hydrates it more.
3. Ok, now you have strange liquid, you should gently mix it, add a pinch of sodium bicarbonate (it helps to connect water with the waxy liquid).
4. Add essential oil/oils
5. You can pure the cream into the prepared containers (in the Czech Republic you can buy them in pharmacy for 50cents). But for nicer consistency it’s better to mix it continuously until it’s cooler, but still possible to pure it.

Tip: You can also use fresh herbs. You boil the water; add lot of herbs in it (as if you want really strong tea). You let the herbs fuse in the water the whole night, next day make it hot again (but don’t boil) and use it as the water for the cream (instead of pure water). In this case, you don’t have to use essential oils (or you don’t need to use so much).

Good luck!

(If you try, let us know if you were successful or if you have more tips!)

Eva

Day 8 - Intercultural evening

Saturday was the last working day. We were finishing what we started, but unfortunately we could not finish everything. Even though there is still so much work to do, we are all glad that our effort and enthusiasm are visible now. It was amazing to see how things grow right in front of our eyes. 

 On Saturday afternoon every group had presentation for others and also some local people were invited. During this intercultural program we could for example see Germans playing funny theater, taste Czech specialty called “bramborak” or herbal spirit becherovka,

Czech girls in the bathroom

 taste Italian bruschetta and parmesan, hear different Austrian dialects and enjoy Austrian performance with singing and dancing, taste Latvian non-alcoholic beers and breads and finally experience Hungarian music. Everyone was in such a good mood that we continued this nice evening all together by the fire place.

Austrians and their performa     

Day 7 - Thai-yoga massage afterparty

On Thursday night new volunteer joined us. He is a rastaman looking like dreadlock Jesus. Friday was hard working day. The flow of work was much more better than previous days and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The view from the top of the bathroom

Evening was dedicated to presentations of sustainable houses and then there was amazing massage workshop led by real expert on thai-yoga massage that is good not just for the one who receives but also for the one who gives. It is based on unconditional love. We were taught just four exercises, but there are hundreds in fact. For our tired bodies it was the best what we could experience to relax and feel really really good. 

Thai yoga massage

After workshop we had lot of energy to enjoy the fire in the hole (for those who do not know – the fire place is placed in the little valley and we call it “the hole” :-) and sing and play the musical instrument and celebrate Soma’s 20th birthday. He looked very happy to share this special day with us.

Day 6 - work in progress and trip

As usually, the sixth day started with another great lesson of yoga which filled us up with energy we needed straight after for work. We've advanced very rapidly and did lots of work because we were efficiently divided into groups. 

In the afternoon, some of us went to visit the Adobe house about two kilometers from our spot. The others wanted madly to complete the work. The farm was very beautiful, as well as the shape of the house. Karoly espacially warmly welcomed us there. He showed us everything about the house and answered all our questions concerning adobe construction techniques.

Meanwhile, the others were working at the construction site. After the dinner we heard a very interesting presentations about straw-bale houses and yurts. The night programme ended with the film HOME by the French director Yann Arthus-Bertrand. There were beautiful pictures of our fragile planet and it was shown that we have to protect it. It was a hard working day and we easily fell asleep after it ;)

day 5 - the day with the best night (up to now)

Hello green people !!

Let us tell you the story of our fifth day in the nature.

We woke up into  a cold and windy morning, but after Agi’s energizing yoga lesson and delicious breakfast everything seemed to be alright again.  Sun started to shine and (except of Mark’s yelling) it was the right impulse for us to start to work . |So as to be more efficient and finish all our great super-adobe buildings on time, we were divided into several groups. We started to work at other places: super adobe fireplace nearby the kitchen, plastering of the bathroom and summer kitchen and creating a new ‘‘outdoor‘‘ stove. Comparing to the days before, we were much faster. We managed to make two layers of future house to be, plastered all the kitchen and the majority of  bathroom walls , .....

In the evening, we all, tired workers,  fell down on the floor of the big yurt, and started the cycle of our own presentations about different ways how to built nature houses. Introduced by a short funny movie, the presentations contuinued: since today we (at least theoretically) know how to built an adobe, cob building and an earthship.

 After these we tried a really strange but great dance called contact dance...

... and then some of us sat around the fireplace, and we were singing and laughing a lot. It was a great end for this beautiful day. 

Day 4 - fourth day, but the first of hard work

Dear  green people,

after getting to know each other and the beautiful eco-farm of Karcsi and his friends, lots of watching and learning we finally started today building the sustainable Super-Adobe house. Also today the smart Italian team discovered not being in Gardony, but in Bocsa. Congratulations!!! 

After waking up with a nice Bob-Marley-song from the Czechs we had our breakfast and we heard lots of interesting and useful stuff about Super-Adobe houses from a little bit confused Mark (professional Super-Adobe architect). Divided in two groups, we worked on digging away the earth from the door parts and the others enjoyed designing some idealistic eco family houses. They tried to fix their crazy ideas into clay sculptures too. But guys – always be careful not to dig shit out of the ground instead of clay! 

Getting new energy from traditional hungarian vegetable dish from lentil we relaxed while playing some football, playing the guitar, reading and stuff like that...

Switching the groups afterwards we changed our calories from lunch into real hard nature work and lots of sweat, blood and tears. When Master Mark wasn’t interrupted by curious junior builders‘ questions  he could explain the most useful details of constructing work to us. Thanks so much for this! 

Unfortunately time was running faster than a turtle could go and the sunset came while having typical working dinner. We are ready to meet experienced Cob-house inhabitants this evening and of course also to party all night and having lots of input and hard work on next days. That’s all folks...! 

Day 3 - Teambuilding in a storm

Hello Test Green Nests people,

today we don't have so much time, so very faster  about yesterday! It was nice day full of games, activities and dance! We spent the morning with Agi and her interesting pictures of families from all the world. The all family was in front of their house (or dwelling) with everything what they had. It was interesting that we could see big differences between people from different countries.

In the afternoon we were divided into 3 groups and we tried to improve our cooperation and communication skills during three teambuilding games.

After that a sudden storm, heavy rain and strong wind came, and this was the real task for the whole group to show, how we can cooperate in a difficult situation. Everybody did his best to save the yurts and our things from the rain, tying the yurts to the ground and digging ditches around them to channel off the rainwater. 

When the storm was over, it was a big relief for everybody, and our happiness even raised during the Hungarian folk dance in the freshly built yurt, where we could test the floor dancing - it was proved to be very stable!

Meghívó Ökoépítész Nyílt Napra

Kedves Barátaink, Érdeklődők!
Idén Mindegyszeren rendezzük a “Test Green Nests” Európai Ökoépítész tábort, melynek keretein belül 35 fiatal látogat a tanyára. A résztvevők 18-22 éves, környezetbarát építészetben érdekelt diákok, akik egy egy hetes, igen színes program alatt fognak ismerkedni a magyar ökoépítészettel (szupervályog, rönkház, hagyományos vályog, zsupfedél, és esetleg , ha az időjárás kegyes, szalmabálaház), a  környező zöld tanyákkal (fészkekkel), projectekkel. Építkezésen kívül lesz ökomozi, jurtatábor, több féle ökobudi használat (pottyantós, komposztálható, hagyományos), több féle egyszerű mosakodási módszer kipróbálása (tűzzel melegített hordós, kerti zuhany, hagyományos),néptánc, népzene, masszázs, jóga, kontakttánc és látogatások a régió egyéb ökotanyáira. A tábort egy nyílt nap koronázza meg, melyre sok szeretettel meghívunk benneteket. Augusztus 13-án kora délutántól lehet érkezni,  rendezvény 15 órakor kezdődik. A program: eddigi elkészült építészeti munkák bemutatása, az egyes nációk (olasz, osztrák, német, cseh, litván) kulturáját bemutató programok, kulináris produkciók, népzene estig. Aki szeretne, sátorral maradhat éjszakára, a következő nap (Vasárnap) 7,45 kor jógával indul, majd reggeli, és 10-től biofogkrém készítés lesz kis csoportokban (az itt készített fogkrém ajándékként elvihető). Várunk szeretettel!

How a proper builder looks like

For all natural builders!

This is how a proper sustainable builder looks like:

Do not forget this equipment at home...

Advanced planning visit

The organizer team and the leaders of the national groups met during the advanced planning visit (15th – 18th July 2011) to discuss the whole project. On Friday we spoke about ourselves and our motivations to do this project.

We changed the programme according to the comments of the leaders, prepared the hot version, we spoke about the participants and their needs, intercultural evening, presentations and all the financial stuff.

We travelled to the venue, so that the leaders can prepare their groups better for the local reality, and so that they could enjoy the delicious fruits of mulberry trees...

On Sunday, we also visited a family living in an adobe house without on-grid electricity (they have only solar panels) and hot water. We will visit them during the exchange as well.

Thanks to this meeting, the leaders got much more involved into the project, we got new enthusiasm and we started to look forward to the whole event with such a great people very much!

Building our summer kitchen

Volunteers from the Artists of Life Association helped to build the superadobe summer kitchen we will be using during the exchange (hopefully). On the pictures you can see several stages of the superadobe building.

This is going to be a cellar for our food.

This is how the "snake" is filled.

The wall you can see was build by 7 people in 2 full working days.

Vasek experienced the tough reality of Hungarian summer - during noon, the temperature went up to 42°C, which made it impossible to work from 11 am to 4 pm. That´s why we had to work from 6 am to 11 am and then, after a long siesta, from 4 pm to 8 pm. This experience made us develop a hot version of the programme.

The showels and mortar mixers are waiting for us now!

Discover Mindegyszer near Bócsa - our venue

This is our venue: eco-farm Mindegyszer near Bócsa, Kecskemét

www.mindegyszer.wordpress.com

The location:

Budapest - Kecskemét: one hour by train

Kecskemét - Halasi útelágazás: 45 minutes by bus

Halasi útelagazás - Mindegyszer: 45 minutes by walk

After the walk, you will find this place...

These are the showers we will be using (also under construction).

The yurts will stand here.

This is the mulberry tree the fruits of which taste so great!

The wasps love it also...

The hungarian Great plain puszta...

... and the sunset over it.

Organizer planning meeting (4th and 5th July 2011)

After the scouting period, all the organizer team had to meet and choose the venue. Vašek, Míša and Rita came to Ági´s farmhouse in Vácszentlászló, where we spent two days under a chesnut tree. 

We decided to follow our feelings and risk going to Bócsa, even though Agostyán would be much safer and easier for us. We planned the whole programme again with the new venue...

...and we were constantly harvesting Ági´s garden.

Scouting for the venue

After we decided that the exchange will not take place in Gárdony, where we originally planned it to, a long scouting for a new venue started. We asked all our friends, acquaintances, and set out on a scouting journey to visit the places and people...

First we went to Bócsa, then we went south to Pécs, spoke to our friend Emese, who gave us contact for a family in Hosszúhetény.

We went there the day after, slept there, and thoroughly examined their adobe house without water and electricity (but with a magical spring under a majestic tree and with a solar panel). Fáni showed us everything, all the techniques they used to build this house, and many tricks for everyday life, including a recipe for pörkölt from green peas (in exchange for several gipsy songs that Vasek tought him).

Our journey continued by hitchhiking to Nagyszékely. Edit was very enthusiastic about hosting us, and we immediately fell in love with this enchanting village full of extraordinary architecture and permacultural gardens. Unfortunatelly, they are not building there any sustainable houses in the moment - everybody rather renovates old adobe houses - so we understood that this time this place will not suitable for us.

We wanted to go on to Gyűrűfű, but the guest house was occupied for the dates of our exchange. Than we got a phone call with another possible venue, so we headed north to Tata to check it out.

Agostyán near Tata is an eco-farm and environmental education centre, and they will build a cob house there this summer. This place and Bócsa were our favourite ones - we had to meet the other members of the team to choose one of them.

Everywhere, the people were very friendly and helpful. Soon we felt that just telling our vision to others, sometimes to people we haven´t met before, brought us new contacts, possiblities and ideas, and the things started to move. Everybody helped as he or she could, and soon we got the feeling that the project is just happening around us, more than us pushing it forward...

During the travel, we saw so many wonderful places and inspiring people, that I felt really grateful that this project gave me the excuse of calling them, vising their homes and meetig them. 

Vasek

Welcome!

Dear All!

Let me welcome You on our new blog, Test Green Nests.
As you may know we will come together this August in the lovely countryside of Hungary to learn more about eco-buildings.
You can read about the preparation, programs and experiences here... and much more.

Thank You for joining us, and reading this blog!!!

TGN member