Readying for the road ahead:

It is worth restating the ultimate mission of pointReturn. I see it as a community of environmentalists who believe in a life away from the conveyor belt of ‘modern’ economy. Here they will live, work, produce surpluses of water, food, energy and cash, distribute those surpluses locally and in support of those causes that ring true to them. Simply by living such a life they will guide and inspire others to replicate the pointReturn model.

Obviously I expect more people to come and commit themselves. I am already turning to create facilities to receive them. We discuss problems and requirements of such a place. A number of projects suggest themselves. We are now building a solar cooker that can feed ten. Next on the list is a second washroom. A volunteer who stays more than a year becomes a resident and deserves a more private space than our pavilion’s dormitory affords; we have decided on specialising in rammed earth buildings as all raw materials we need are available for free. We need devices and means for processing grains and oilseeds. We need to get more vegetable beds and agricultural fields into production to keep volunteers and residents engaged.

But for current residents of pointReturn-which is still mostly in the creation phase- there are limitations to cope with. Our breakfasts and lunches are cold. There are too few of us to be split up and deployed for cooking; assuming everyone has cooking skills, which they don’t. The solar cooker if it is successful, might cook hot meals unattended. The other conundrum is that our success with vegetable growing requires that the project be manned whole time. It will be a nice relief if there were more to take turns at watch keeping.

But there are pleasures already that outweigh the difficulties. We sleep in silence, mosquito free. The drinking water is increasingly clearer and rich in taste. The air is fresh. Though the days maybe hot, in the pavilion’s shade, it is always pleasant. Recently drilling for an exclusive drinking water pump, we hit water at 15 feet; a fact that endorses our water harvesting methods. That’s not a hard depth for our trees’ roots to dip into; which explains why trees planted in 2008 have required no more than two hose watering this entire year. It is a swale hydrated patch- it sports a green patina, where once the soil was bare and hard.

Bird count and visitations are increasing. A kingfisher and a blue jay are so regular and convivial that we have pet names for them. Drongos, mynahs, coucals, lapwings and partridges are common. A harrier and an owl have audited us. An egret is evaluating the threat of the windmill that stands by our inviting pond. A hummingbird flew in one day for a drink. A fearless gang of a resident blue jay, mynahs and drongos keep me close company, impatient at my pace of digging a swale; they want tiny critters to be exposed in numbers, so they may dive for them. A partridge nested and brooded over its eggs within yards of us sickling away.

And just this week a young man, an ex-IT professional, formally enquired if he could join us long-term.

Yes, yes! We are beginning to grow.

 Viewed 9562 times by 1977 viewers

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9