Category Archives: Bio garden

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - in-sights of a community - coming home
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – in-sights of a community – coming home

This is the story of someone who set out into the world to find what was within him from the beginning. It is the story of a conquest in two steps, with almost 30 years in between. It is the story of a great love and it is the story of a humanitarian who couldn’t decide between cynic and hermit. And it is the story of people like Rachel, who wants to control a group by creating dependence on her. And above all, it is your story.

“Those who talk most about the system are those who want to step out.”

Some people know the famous film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by director Miloš Forman, starring Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy. 30 years ago, I would have written “everyone,” but the fragmentation of society has already progressed far.

In all ages, people set out to leave old communities and seek new ones. Some then find them. The old communities are often their own families, the neighbors’ kids down the street, colleagues at school and university. The many people who also knocked on our door in search of the right community often initially describe a longing for peace and quiet and a rejection of the intrusive norms and rules of a post-capitalist – now already post-factual – society. They are drawn to places where people meet without a sense of roles and devote their attention to what truly interests them – at that particular moment. After a short time, a sense of lack often sets in. On the one hand, they recognize that this way of life promises no security – nor does it contain any; on the other hand, it is laborious to recognize the new modes of real coexistence that arise from the composition of the group. A clear structure, the formulation of goals, milestones along the way, and, above all, good planning – against entropy and senseless redundancy – would be a much better endeavor. Instead of a “better” life, they are offered only a “different” life. In Familiafeliz and many other communities, we sometimes call these seekers “community tourists.” In fact, these people set out to find something ideal, put in a lot of effort, and are often very helpful and friendly. Some exploit themselves, others are happy to be exploited. Sometimes one gets the impression that failure is anticipated, and that the real reason for the visit is the search for proof that one’s own wish cannot be realized.

Then tension sets in. What was initially the tension of realizing that one’s own expectations and wishes are not adequately accepted and realized by the group of people one meets at Familiafeliz expands into tension with this group of “others.” And once again, one is left with the realization that one has not found the right thing, even though one had given so much and contributed so much to its success.

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - in-sights of a community - post - industrial
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – in-sights of a community – post – industrial

What began as a spatial journey always ends as a journey within oneself. It is not new to realize that one always brings oneself with oneself to the new place. Whoever wants to be happy will find this happiness within themselves. Circumstances may or may not contribute to the amplification, but ultimately it doesn’t matter: Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, or Al-Andaluz. This was a list, by the way, not a comparison. Today’s arts pages often denounce what appears to be a list and is intended to convey to the viewer as an outrageous comparison.

“Sovereign is someone who says no without justification.”

The beginning of Familiafeliz also has something to do with the reconstruction of a ruin in eastern Spain. The deliberate dedication of one’s life to rebuilding a ruin in a small mountain village and thus revitalizing the village is simply presumptuous because its effects are unforeseeable. Starting something without being able to assess the consequences—and knowing them—is a building block for one’s own happiness. Seeing failure as an opportunity is also helpful. With the purchase of the garden land, we were able to express that this desire to settle down goes much further. However, it was not intended as an appropriation and accumulation of values; rather, the acquisition of land was intended to contribute to one’s own nutrition and, above all, to offer future generations space for settlement and activity.

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - in-sights of a community - trees falling
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – in-sights of a community – trees falling

There were also magical moments: the first bag of cement in the house, which was mixed with sand and water on the floor with shovels, just as we had started with Lilli and Karl Heinz in France. And there was an iron rod that we had driven into the garden as a reference for all the flowerbeds and infrastructure. Every measurement begins with arbitrariness. And thus every measure also begins with arbitrariness.

A visitor once remarked that this weak community with such strong members must recognize that there are many weak people who are incapable of such arbitrariness and who nevertheless also need space, affection, and love, and who also deserve a chance. She’s right. But where this space lies is up to each individual.

In the face of the ignorance—even among friends—that is evident in decaying societies, one can become a cynic. If you’re also extroverted, the doors to the world’s stages are wide open, once at the theater on stage, now YouTube and Tic-toc. In these antisocial media, these cynics struggle for clicks, likes, and reach, yet, like all social beings, they lose themselves in the quest to be heard, if not listened to.

An alternative community then becomes the stage for their own performance, the audience claps because they think just as alternatively, and for a moment, there’s satisfaction that they’re not so alone after all. When the minority fantasizes about the future in the back room, the brave new world is possible, at least for a moment.

“Anyone who says it can’t be done without money wants to make a difference.”

Alternatively, you can seek the open spaces, distance yourself as far as possible from the structures of these societies. A community away from the villages, in a sparsely populated area, might be just the thing. There, nature touches you. The interfaces of society no longer hurt as much. That’s where you want to stay, with an in-house job on the field, with your own chickens, and only with your friends around you, who are also fed up with a society that is clearly falling apart, that dances on its own magic mountain, calls to arms, and already looks at the culprit. Anyone who doesn’t go along with it is an enemy. They are met with contempt and hatred, driven by their own insecurity. The cave becomes a comforting place of rest, and the shadows on the wall fade in the circle of fire.

In the showdown, these two groups meet in the alternative communities. The stage is set by the strong pioneers who begin without knowing where their journey really leads. They invite people with the desire to find like-minded people who also want to set out, who can lend a hand, who know about the hardship and aren’t afraid of it. And then come the cynics, who have chosen language and writing to get out and don’t understand that you build toilets first, then libraries. And then there are the dropouts who can’t leave and who want a safe space of peace. They all sit together, and it feels like a community, but not at all like the community one would like to be part of.

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - in-sights of a community - trees
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – in-sights of a community – trees

Randle Patrick McMurphy wants to escape forced labor in prison (the system). He simulates a mental illness. The system (society) reacts as expected. He is forcibly admitted to a clinic. There, however, he isn’t supposed to receive treatment in the sense of recovery; rather, he is supposed to learn the rules of the system. Don’t stand out, stay calm, adapt, take your pill. Efficiency then also requires conformity. The individual only gets in the way. And having fun is certainly not on the agenda. Humor is disruptive. Randle provokes and pulls some out of their lethargy. The consequences are catastrophic, for his fellow sufferers, and ultimately for him as well. The so-called system always reacts the same way. It treats the symptoms and is efficient in defending the status quo. Although these conditions may be described as “unsustainable,” they are perceived as fairly solid and lasting. But more than that, they are the recurrence of similar processes that build on one another and alternate. Every empire has its heyday, but also its before and after.

The people who gather on the hill at the edge of the wall, far from the village and the city, want to escape exploitation and arbitrary rule. But they are preparing the ground for even greater arbitrary rule.

“It’s the people who should be loved who can do something and don’t do it.”

The village of Cervera del Maestre in Castellon has always been a special place. Under the Moors, it was a strategic military pillar for occupation and defense. With its fall, a void was created that was filled by migrants from Cervera near Igualada in Catalonia. The poor families set out, quarried stones from the ruins, and used them to build the village we know today. They reclaimed the fallow land and, amazed, restarted the water management system of the old lords. These were pioneers who had no idea where their journey would lead. A community certainly also formed, one that spawned such clever initiatives as a “poor man’s bank.” It was also enough to build and fortify a mountain village, a safe place to harvest the crops despite the cold. The village was a village of Catalans in the diaspora. Surrounded by Valencians, they retained their language and culture and were successful in agriculture and trade. The Cerverinos—as they still proudly call themselves today—were so successful that one night the residents of Traguera came by and slaughtered most of the men to dampen their success somewhat. That’s how the old folks tell it.

All of this is history. All of this is a process. These processes follow one another, merge into one another, and alternate. At some point, it appears as a pattern, becomes obvious. And the thought arises that it is a kind of repetition.

Here, one read about the introverts, the extroverts, the doers, and the participants. A bridge was drawn from the old to the new history, and from the communities of yesteryear to the alternative ones of today. It was a journey through the thoughts of a person living in community. One might get the impression that all the protagonists of this story are the many, and that oneself is the individual. But isn’t it also the story of oneself, one’s own soul, inhabited by all the players with their roles, struggling for the best path through life.

When you watch a small child play, you can enjoy how one moment they are a construction worker, the next a policeman, the next a bus driver, and then a child in the sandbox. The child switches roles so quickly, seamlessly, without the weight of adults. They try things out, or they are tried out. Perhaps all these individuals live as memes in the soul and are nothing other than the archetypes of societies. And in the child, they try things out and take on this essence. In the end, one often gains the upper hand. The others sink back into the unconscious.

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - in-sights of a community - climate change
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – in-sights of a community – climate change

When all these role models meet in the subconscious soul of each person, and when all these archetypes find themselves reflected in life around the fire circle, then the soul is the place of the event. Then the first great love would be love for oneself—and for one’s strengths and weaknesses. Then the first peace would be peace with oneself.

“Sinnhaft ist auch Haft. (A play on the words in German, meaning: whoever seeks meaning also locks himself in.)”

Coming from the Savannah, we are able to find our way in manageable groups. Two hundred people are too many; a clan of 64 is still manageable.

According to Bernstein and Lowy, the life of a group can be divided into several phases: orientation, power struggles, familiarity, differentiation, and separation. What would a world look like in which these phases find space simultaneously, within oneself and within one’s own group? What would happen if one allowed all these phases to exist within oneself and within one’s own group?

“It will be as it is.”

The photos in this article are impressions from our home in Windeck near Cologne. They tell many stories that are only revealed to those who ask. They were taken at the same time as this article was written. The quotes are from encounters with people in the Familiafeliz community.

One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - in-sights of a community - the bird flu control group
One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – in-sights of a community – the bird flu control group

“The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine,” says the repressive Head Nurse Ratched in the famous film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Most people seek support in structures and then lose themselves to those who provide them. The price is sometimes their own life.

social media equals social distancing

#SOCIALMEDIA was seen as as a computer-based layer over network connections to be used as an information exchange opportunity for their users. In the wild west hype of Internet emerged a lot of so-called funcionality on screen to tickle the human neurons.

no social distancing - harvesting olives in the color garden
no social distancing – harvesting olives in the color garden

This story is about social media, social distancing, real community life, final goals, military tools and about selecting useful information out of spam and the link between all of them. You are 1 out of 7 out of 23.000 if you read this story down to the end.

When i gave my first lectures in IT-Networking on a glimp of the beginning of remote data transmission i was asked by a elderly student: “What will be a fundamental consequence of using this network on a daily basis?” My answer was simple as that: “The information will loose its value.” Now – looking back – i would likely clarify “the flat-screen-based information…”.

We – as humans – are evaluating the relative truth of information by calculating the distance between the sender (to us) and the source of this information itself. Embedded in never ending story telling we see self-experienced information – sender equals receiver – as likely true, if it is told us by somebody else maybe true and if the person giving us third party information we become more and more unsure.

Based on OSI we experience the information offered in our perception. But finally we are looking on a kind of a black box because we – as an application to receive this information – are not able to decode the underlaying protocols. So like in the last 200.000 years of human mankind we invented strategies to evaluate this black box by using assumptions, prejudices and validations.

Originally created as a military weapon additive the former ARPA-NET, all this ingreediences in this black box became more and more commerialized. In the beginning it was only the access to this black box which was invoiced. Later the bill expanded to include individual functions and access to content inside or behind the black box.

Whenever humans inventing tools they imagine an advantage. They calculate this advantage in comparing tools to achieve their goals. So my second prediction as a reply to the question of my student was: “And the sender will invent more and more sofisticated tools to present their information as true.”

At the same time the black box was growing a lot. As a point in the FIDO-NET fourty years ago i was reading maybe 10 posts in newsgroups and happy about one personal mail a day. The effort to wrap information in a way to send it, was high – like stepping into a little yellow or red iron cabine in the corner of a street to make a remote call – and therefore the average of daily received messages was low.

Based on my career and the capacity of internet functionality our community FamiliaFeliz used a website and social media to spread its information as well. By using this black box we where trapped in the same way as the others and even knowing the conditions from a professional point we experienced the same difficulties “to get our message to the receiver”.

Making research on the possibilities of these new tool social media we where focused on two issues: hidden features and emergent values, in naive speech: “Contemporary communities should have a look at contemporary tools to reach contemporary goals.”

Social media, as a product of private companies, is for sale. You might pay with money – which is another currency for quality life time – or you pay by giving attention, anyway, you pay. Refering to the evaluation of the tool we have to look on advantage and disadvantage of using this tool.

To messure this value we should think about the real goal. For many social media users we see a shift from infinite / final goals to milestones as goals. Lets give a sample: If your final goal is to buy a car you might have a look at some online shops and blogs and vlogs about cars you are interested in. You will compare the received information with your assumptions and prejudices and maybe you will validate it in a test drive at the nearest car dealer. But finally you might buy a car and you stop to make research about it. All research and surfing the internet could be seen as temporary goals to reach the final goal to buy the next car. In this case the information out of the black box is used to reach this defined goal by surfing from milestone to milestone.

But it is not as easy as this. You are not alone using the internet. Some machine learning algorythmns are following you and learning what you like and how you act in front of all this competitive information sources. By tracking your way online – and offline – the sender as an intermediate is learning how to show a given product in the best way to you. As a ROI probably he will try to sell this knowledge to the car dealer.

The message the car dealer is learning from this might be, that it makes a lot of sense to postpone the bio feedback – the test drive – to the latest possible moment in with you made up your mind already about which car you are likely to buy. Therefore you might see less and less opportunities for test drives in the future.

no social distancing - creating mosaics in the house of the dragon
no social distancing – creating mosaics in the house of the dragon

As an international decentralized community FamiliaFeliz doesn’t want to sell a car or any other product. Many other communities – struggling with money to survive – are inventing products like workshops (spirituality, health, community buildung, permaculture, bio construction) for so-called living community tourists.

We do not want to judge about the communities, neither about these clients. It seems to be normal to invent a fitting product for a potential customer. Many of these users are spending hours and hours of screen time to feed the dream of a community life and social media offer a lot of groups where these customers can exchange their dreams and visions about living in a community. No wonder that a lot of communities try to meet their potential clients inside these social media networks surfing for content to feed their dreams.

However, both sides seem to be trapped. The community which try to gather clients will run in a never ending competition about attention and a “LIKE” doesn’t solve any economical challenge for them. The surfer and social media user introduces himself as somebody who search for the final goal to join or invent a community project, but more likely he stick on his chair in front of the screen and return to exactly this surfing mode to feed his desires.

There are other communities – without any business plan for social media – like FamiliaFeliz. These projects are just posting time by time something about their real activities and daily life.

no social distancing - exploring the new land of hope
no social distancing – exploring the new land of hope

In a social media group called “Projecto de Ecoaldeas en España” we found 63.4% of the posts initiated by the sender as a share of external information not direct related to himself or to an existing project of an ecoaldea (research 2020-05-31 – 6pm). The sender was just sharing information about videos, howto’s and external articles about topics like useful tools, bio construction or spirituality. We can assume that each sender was a) aware about the topic of this group (eco village projects) and b) that each sender expected a value to share this posts in this group. We might assume also that the sender would like to see more of similar postings in this place from other group members. Non of these posts leed to a real eco village project or gives information about a real activity of any existing eco village project.

In the same research we identified 13.3% of the posts as direct advertising with deep links to products, like workshops or webinars. Only half of them where related to existing communities as the provider of such trainings. The other half was posted by individuals, who probably expect to be able to win customers among the visitors of this group.

Only 10% where shared posts from individual members of other groups about real activities of communities and 13.3% where direct posts from community members about activities of their own community. If you count the 10% and these last 13.3% as posts and content really related to the topic of the social media group, it should be noted that more than 75% of the information has nothing or very little to do with the real life of communities.

But nevertheless more than 23.000 members are enjoying this group. So whatever might be posted, this people get what they want.

On the other hand less than 15% of this information is delivered throughout this black box from a sender who might be a real member of a real community.

The word of the year 2020 could be #SOCIALDISTANCING and we don’t know yet how big the impact for future generations will be. But it looks like, that the effect of postings in social media support more the following AI and the companies running the networks and selling the user (behaviour) data than it leads to finite goals of users really willing to enter a community or communities looking for new members to join.

no social distancing - all about love - a performance in Tortosa
no social distancing – all about love – a performance in Tortosa

Many years ago i started to develop a social media group called work of art. This group was introduced as “to discover how we could transform virtual attention into real benefit and value for all members”. I wrote: ” Social networks are full of spam and redundant information and it will be a survival of the fittest and a soft skill to use such virtual environments in a human and useful way.”

35 years after using my FIDO-NET server as a host for the first online-based training in collaboration with the public highschool of Cologne i found myself in the year 2020 in Spain in a lock down with kids in the house, neglected by their schools and confronted with inexperienced teachers who desperately practice sending PDF files and video links of social media platforms to their scholar.

In the early years of the internet i was responsible for train-the-trainer seminars. As the elderly student asked me about the future impact in my first online based training in these teacher trainings it was important to me to bring new generations of pedagogues closer to the consequences for their own profession in times of internet. Social media flodding out of the black box was promoted as a social tool, but it kept the distance between sender and receiver and as a product its inherent feature was and is to hold the receiver as long as possible in the loop of surfing: screen time versus quality life time.

35 years ago in my first online based seminar i experienced how important real presence time was for my students. Even receiving information is a social act and useless if not compagnioned by other sense experience than listening and looking.

no social distancing - all about love - lecture in the MLU Halle in Germany - biology
no social distancing – participative strategies in education – lecture in the MLU Halle in Germany – biology

You have to put your hands in the clay to understand what bio-construction means. You have to wash all the plates for the group to understand what it means to live in a community. You have to donate your last money to another member without fear to understand what shared economy means.

The ongoing fragmentation of societies was initiated by media and politics and the myth of western individualism. We can denote internat and social media as milestones. AI – artificial intelligence – driven algorithms personalize what we see. The information is wrapped and selected like convenient food to hold us in our mental and physical comfort zone.

Flat screen – flat life, when surfing in social media becomes a loop and receiving information becomes the ultimate goal, you will not arrive in the color garden of FamiliaFeliz. Keep in mind: Social media equals social distancing.

Like freedom fighters communicating between each other by sticking short paper messages on tanks we send this message in a bottle throughout this black box of social media.

no social distancing - lectures on our UNIIE campus in Spain
no social distancing – lectures on our UNIIE campus in Spain

No workshop, no car, no hidden agenda, our message is simple: just leave the screen and go for your dream. Expand your quality lifetime, in nature, with other like-minded people.

You are 1 out of 7 out of 23.000 members of a social media network group. We calculate 20% active members in this group of 23000. We calculate 15% of them are posting information related to the topic and 1% of them are highly motivated to found or co-found a community (real entrepreneurs). So we wrote this article for nearly 7 people – by posting it into that group, and you are one of them. Maybe you will make it to the color garden.

The Art of Education

the art of education - what  it is and what should it be?
the art of education – what it is and what should it be?

In early 2020 we had a lot of talks about living in communities, values and goals and further activities and upcoming projects.

It was also a time to reflext about the last years. The following collection gives an overview about social educative artistic activities of our community and address one Always re-emerging question: “What is this all about?”

the art of education - exploring yourself
the art of education – exploring yourself

In spain we are runing an artist residence, the house of the dragon (CASAdelDRAGON). One key to deliver informal education is a huge garden area called the color garden. It is our campus and space for a lot of social activities like camps in nature for families with kids (left photo).

Also we are involved in the summer school activities of APEAL, which is a NGO in Bucharest (Romania).

the art of education - it stuff for informal education purpose
the art of education – it stuff for informal education purpose

For the community project of ApEAL in Chiocanesti near Bucharest we collected some IT stuff to enable the association for computerbased workshops.

the art of education - students from a german university are building bridges
the art of education – students from a german university are building bridges

A group of biology students was building a bridge over one old water channel, designed by roman and arabic conquerors. This project was not part of the original workshop but the realisation of a common wish of the students to contribute in some way to the social project of our color garden.

the art of education - participative art installation in a gallery
the art of education – participative art installation in a gallery

The CASAdelDRAGON is an artist residence, guest house and a think tank for innovative social art projects. In the basement of the house we run a gallery since more than 10 years and we use the space also for partizipative art installations like the regalo bar, a shop, in which you can not buy anything, you just can receive a donation or you can donate something to others. It was quite a challenge for latin souls to use this opportunity.

the art of education - alternative bee keeping in Castellon
the art of education – alternative bee keeping in Castellon

Part of the color garden is a vegetable garden with a lot of young fruit trees. As an addition we are involved in beekeeping in the province of Castellon. This project address the actual situation of bees between industrial agriculture, micro-economical views on nature and sustainable needs for human habitats.

the art of education - aquaponic as contemporary art
the art of education – aquaponic as contemporary art

In a relation to the MLU Halle (Martin Luther University) we hosted from time to time biology students in the guesthouse. As part of one exhibition about social art we showed an smal scale aquaponic installation.

the art of education - latin roots and european identity
the art of education – latin roots and european identity

Magda from a little village near Bucharest was sitting on the terrasse of CASAdelDRAGON and said with tears in her eyes: “I want that my Children will see what i see now!” We where thinking the same 3 years before and we invited the first kids from Romania to visit the region of Maestrazgo, the land of the templer and deeply connected to the european history. In the following years we had several groups visiting and partizipating in our social art projects and we will continue this in 2020 and further on.

the art of education - everything about love
the art of education – everything about love

In our german home unit we established the “room for art” in the basement of one house. We invited people with interest in social art and contemporary education for a one day workshop to paint together. By transforming passive visitors to active creators of their environment we sculptured their brains, following Beuys and his idea of social sculpturing.

the art of education - discovering arabic roots in spanish ground
the art of education – discovering arabic roots in spanish ground

This Hand belongs to a great person. Her name is Fadella. She was coming from Bahrein to study our community life and she gave us a very deep impact in the arabic spanish european history. Her finger points on a handmade ancient nail, laying on a stone which is part of a roman trade path (which is part of our color garden).

the art of education - lunch time
the art of education – lunch time

The hosue of the dragon is an open house. A lot of times we are sitting together and share the Food whioch guests and Friends and visitors. These events are not intensivly organised and prepared and they appear more spontaniosly – but exactly this delives a flair, with is great and special.

the art of education - a christmas market in south France
the art of education – a christmas market in south France

Our close friend Anne is runing a severgardens project in south France. Part of this UNESCO featured project is to explore, develop and share knowledge about natural pigments and dye techniques and ways to produce natural colors for artistic purpose (which is also part of our activities in the color garden in spain). We spend a very cold and long day in France to connect locals with organic products and techniques and developed some connections for the project of Anne.

the art of education - a lecture about social science
the art of education – a lecture about social science

Following an invitation we gave some lectures in Germany for students of Biology. Partizipative strategies and methods of social art projects for science and classical education might re-design the thinking of former education.

the art of education - AMAL - and a happy new year
the art of education – AMAL – and a happy new year

In the educative space of Cecile – permaculture Penyaflor – near Tortosa we invited the guests to paint with us, reflecting the theme L.O.V.E. Later these art works became part of an exhibition under the title AMAL.

the art of education - workshop for leader
the art of education – workshop for leader

In Romania we organised a workshop about leadership. A group of children, teachers, government officials and social workers was involved to create a game about leading a summercamp for youth. The game will be published as part of another social art project ARTSURPRISE. It will be a tool to train youth in social leadership.

the art of education - where we go Cecile?
the art of education – where we go Cecile?

The missing link is another social art project in which we connect social spaces like Ceciles Permaculture Penyaflor, EcoTros or others. Quo vadis – the question for all of us and especially for social entrepreneurs like Cecile.

the art of education - a rocket stove for lunch time
the art of education – a rocket stove for lunch time

German students are buildung a rocket stove in the color garden. They are highly motivated by creating the foundation of something useful for the lunch of the next day (and the next day was really the next day!).

the art of education - light sculptures in Girona
the art of education – light sculptures in Gerona

In another open social space, the masia from Francesc, a friend living close to Gerona, was th stage for one art performance in the night. We created some light sculptures in the dark and enjoyed a conversation about art and relevance and sustainability of contemporary art.

the art of education - self organised cooking event as informal learning session
the art of education – self organised cooking event as informal learning session

To transform a passive event of a lunch into an active partizipation of the guests we invited some creatives in the color garden to prepare and enjoy local food and experimental cooking.

the art of education - learning as a personal process
the art of education – learning as a personal process

Learning something is in our opinion a personal process embedded into a social environment in which the person is free to discover and receive what (s)he is Looking for. Therefor the job of a contemporary living community with the goal of establishing a social space for informal learning and personal happiness is to create this space, to maintain it and to protect it.

the art of education - the free university of informal education
the art of education – the free university of informal education

Tine gave a workshop about awareness and meditation. The workshop was part of the educative activities of our free University (UNIIE). This underline, that we see our task more in enableling the space for informal learning than to just offer workshops.

A lot of people have a lot to tell. We want to enable them to do this… and to enjoy it at the same time.

the art of education - sense and meaning in life
the art of education – sense and meaning in life

Life brings people to the house of the dragon and they continue their way through their lifes. Some of them, as the nordic nod mosaic in the kitchen of the CASAdelDRAGON reflects, find back later and enjoy another time what they created and what others created in between.

If you have been reading this article till now – something we appreaciate a lot – you might belong to a group of people who really want to go deep into something. If you cross all These pieces of Information and ask yourself where is the red line in all of this, it is the power and success of partizipative art and ist influence on contemporary education. We are not aware about the outcome but we feel to be part of a wider movement of a lot of creative people all over the world. And even if we do not know if we will reach the goal, we are happy on the way.

Cleaning up in the garden of Priapus

Cleaning up in the garden of Martas Home
Cleaning up in the garden of Martas Home

In greek mythology Priapus was was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens … and more… We enjoyed the warm summer days in 2019 to clean up the garden of Martas home, our german home unit. Again powerful family members where helping Antje and Corinna to clean the area around the compost pile and the chicken area.

refurbished compost pile
refurbished compost pile

In the history of Familiafeliz the house of the dragon was the first property and project, but the big plot in Germany hosted the first of our gardens. Here we planted the first fruit trees, prepared beds and havested salads and vegetables. Also it was the place to develop the chicken population based on Araucana , Amrock, Brahma, Sussex, Wyanddotte and others.

We developed a brave and healthy population by mixing these variations and preselect new generations of high productive females and strong males.

Martas Home - Fruits of the work
Martas Home – Fruits of the work

Even if nowadays most off the garden activity is happening in east spain in the colorgarden, the source of knowledge and joy was coming out of this garden in Germany.

And still the chicken unit in Germany is the oldest social community activity and involve several families (customers of fresh eggs) from the village and around.

If you want to visit Martas Home check out the next german information day on the front page or apply for volunteering here.

new compost management in our homeunit in Germany

It is not a big deal to report on the implementation of a compost pile. I becomes bigger if we focus the stories behind.

In our case in Germany we “share” the space with another family living on our property and over the years we collected a reallly big pile of compost. Beside of the effect, that we reused biomass for our own vegetablle garden we gave sometimes our population of chicken access to the pile. They contributed with a lot of tasty eggs and cleaned the pille from nearly all snaill eggs.

One problem of acceptance in Germany – even in little villages – is to have chicken at all. The sound of the cock, the always escaping “gang” of bantams (little chicken) and daily little troubles with animals expanding the challenge to host them beside close neighbours.

The combination of vegetable garden, chicken and compost is an advantage and we like to establish a similar circle in our spanish homeunit.

First of all we need beside our compost doctor David more people willing to move biomass to a compost pile. Second we need a group of people interested in gardening and using this bio mass. Third we need people interested in having chicken and hosting them in a common task.

first raised bed in the german garden

After mounting more than 25 raised beds in the spanish color garden we started to create a first prototype in our german home unit garden.

Corinna started to collect some old natural stones. They are part of the local history. During World War II, our village was shelled and a grenade destroyed a barn made of natural stone. The stones are scattered everywhere in our garden and therefor they are a relic of this war.

We filled the lower part of an ibc tank with this stones.

And we charged the box with soil from the garden.

Finally we used some special soil for planting vegetables.

And we planted some salads.

And we are happy about the result after 2 month…

harvesting the sweet

In 2018, 2017 and 2016 we planted more than 300 fruit trees in the spanish home unit. 20 years before we planted around 20 fruit trees on a small plot in our home unit in Germany.

Planting a tree is a magical work. It opens doors for a sweet future and connect people with their future.

It gives future generations food and shadow and wood. These trees are older than the young strong workers on the fotos. For us it is amazing to see new generations taking the fruits of these trees.

Together they harvested the fruits from a cherry tree.

And prepared a lot of jars of sweet delicious marmelade.

Like tobacco brown tells in her TED talk, creating a garden is creating a social space for happiness.

Felling trees in the german home unit

Winter time in Germany is a chance to develop the garden area. Even “bigger” works are useful. After 22 years and some damage due to winter storms it was time to fell some trees.

 

With the help of friends and neighbors we decided tofell a large fir and two birches.

 

Now we have a lot of wood for winter evenings.

Windecks new chicken runway

windeck-chicken-runway-0
Jens and Corinna preparing a new way

In the home unit Windeck we have around 50 chicken. They have to pass a small – and often wed – area in winter to reach the green grass area near the bio garden.

 

windeck-chicken-runway-1
stones and ceramic rests for foundation, in top concrete steps

Now it was time to fix that. It was not comfortable to walk in this muddy ground.

 

windeck-chicken-runway-2
In balance, finishing a step…

Jens and Corinna used old concrete pieces to form a stable way from the poultry stable to the garden. Nice to have this activities of making the right way in both home units at the same time. In the spanish home unit it was the first step to the entrance of the sculpture garden.