Finestras

Finestras is an abandonned spanish village in the southern parts of the pyrenees in the beautiful mountains of Huesca! We started three years ago with nothing but our idealistic visions.. our approach was to go there and see whats going on and not the popular „spend-your-life-earning-money-and-THEN-do-what-you-want-to-do style“... so we went to the Bar of the neighbouring villages, and with wine and good mood we came into contact with the people of that region and started to communicate with them..

… this was how it all started!! Three years later we have permission to use two pieces of land for experimenting, living and reanimating the village + a ruin to built a house, for ten years... without spending any money... additionaly we are in talks about three pieces of land that we might buy over the next years...

This was in last years summer!! Since that we have created swales and Hugel culture beds in one of the gardens and made it quite beautiful, and prepared the ruin for further constructions– claro, we have to deal with the conditions of the region, which is, as the name indicates (Sierra de MontSEC - „Dry Mountains“) quite dry – But, hey... – its not about consuming a nice piece of land, but creating a paradise out of „a desert“ (exaggeratedly speaking ;) )

Our inspirations we found in Meditation, Permaculture, Music, Art, Yoga, all the different people of all the different cultures, Fantasy and the Life that surrounds us with all its miracles and cruelties.. Finestras is our share in the creation of a better world, our fight for a better future, our struggle against injustice, our political statement...!!!!!

Our project only exists because of the goodwill of the people of the region. Without them we would have achieved nothing and without them we will achieve nothing more.. It is our priority to socialize with them and so slowly and deeply-rooted grow into the region, culture, etc... We have a wide network of supporters and sympathizers that from time to time visit us (and we them) – therefore it is our duty to treat them respectfully and, in the ideal case, inspire them... There are also similar projects all over the region that are partially more established than our project, who treat us with benelovence and sympathize with us - its worth visiting them!!!!

Sooooo....:)))))
Thats our short introduction for our pequenito pueblo Finestras
...we would be really happy for whatever help we can get – so feel welcome with your ideas and visions, and... as it is everything still in the phase of getting firmer and firmer, therefor it is still enough space for your engagement and participation (we don't even have a firm core group – its just about to evolve, step by step..)

If theres anything you want to share with us, let us now!! All kinds of workshops, projects or whatever fits in the frame (which we trust you to recognize;) ) …. we are keen to learn and are looking forward for every new input...!!!

So feel invited!!! :DDDD

What brings this community together

As many projects all over the world it was also our aim to live a life of full self-expression, creativity, artistry and most important, harmoniously with each other, plants, animals, nature, universe and whatever..!!

„Foundations“

1. the creation of a place based on the principles of sustainability, either ecologically, economically and socially
- create fruitful connections between single elements
- don't take what would be unsubstitutable

2. Connections & ConGrowing with the culture of the region and the regional economy

3. In the ideal case 100% of the needed materials are taken from the direct surroundings

4. The aim is to strive for complete self-sufficiency and the minimizing of consumer mentality

5. The connection to fellows worldwide

6. Benelovence, Respect, Open–mindedness, Creativity, Cooperation, Peace and Humbleness and knowledge of oneselfs unperfectness as guiding values

7. Commercial interests are never to be of priority

8. The abuse of drugs is not welcomed or supported

9. Foundations have to be seen as indicators and not as firm law corsett


I) Spirituality and Meditation as cultural Leitmotif

II) Spread of wisdom and knowledge through schoolings, workshops, courses....

Offers

What can you learn here

• Drumming
• Garden-planning
• Eco-construction
• Guitar
• Meditation
• Samkhya-Yoga
• Permaculture

Add a skill you learned here with a review

Services

• Permaculture-Workshop

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Products and Creations

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Needs

Projects/Construction Sites

1. Water

There is lots of space for ideas and actions about the water-factor... our aim is to have water from all sides of the village running and winding through the area greening everything.... but we are quite a few steps away from that – At the present state it is a well a couple of feet below the village that supplies us with water. We were thinking about the construction of a „Flaschenzug“. Apart from that there are many other ideas, like

- a Solar or Wind Pump
- a „Tauteich“
- water-collecting-net-constructions

… so if you have any experience with one of these or other realizable ideas – go ahead!, tell us!!, work with us!!!

For now the water collecting webs might be most realistic, as the conditions in Finestras seem quite fitting for that – it also seems like a nice experiment :)


2. The Gardens

Feel free to be creative!!!
As written above, there is one piece of garden with HugelCulture Beds that wait to be cultivated + whatever constructions you can think of – realize them, ALSO: if you need some special materials, get in contact with us and we'll do our best to support you..

If you have contacts to seed banks or have your own cultivated seeds and want to share – don't hesitate!!!

The vision is to have in the ideal case one huge forest garden that stretches over the whole surrounding area, with three dimensional beds, waterchannels winding through the area creating small islands and whatever shapes and corners and micro climates, with all variations of plants 'n whatever

Also it will be of high importance to host all kinds of insects, like bees, worms and so on... as it seems to be the case that there is not always somebody on the spot throughout the year, we must find solutions how to provide for optimal conditions without having to care too much for it...

We are also thinking about a responsible cultivation of bamboo to be our material for constructions in the future – please don't be person 1000 to tell us about the risks and problems with bamboo – we really have thought and discussed it several times with our conclusion that the advantages overweight.. ;)


3. Housing

In summer we will work on the ruin – as its not a huge mansion we may be able to finish the walls and roof in summer.. therefore we'll provide a plan which is about to be open source and open for everybody's ideas.. but as a foundation we're thinking of a kind of Pyramid – Earthship – traditional stoney house =) (O)__o


Deutsch:
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Zur Zeit stehen 2 sichere und ein eventuelles Bauprojekt an:

1. Der zentrale Brunnen ist verbunden mit einer Sammelstelle, die drei Kilometer nördlich vom Dorf liegt. Diese ist wiederum verbunden mit einem "Deposito" kurz vor dem Dorf. Um die Wasserversorgung über den zentralen Brunnen wieder herzustellen, müssen wir uns die beiden Stellen erstmal anschaun und genau gucken was zu mahen ist. Laut unserem Brunnenbauexperten;) John, ist es wahrscheinlich, das mit der Zeit ERde in die Auffangstelle gefallen ist und wir "einfach" nachgraben müssen. Interviews mit den Dofbewohnern haben zum selben Schluss geführt.. aaslo an
Materialien: Spitzhacken und Schaufeln...

2. Die Ruine muss augeräumt werden und wir müssen uns was einfallen lassen, wie und an welchen Stellen wir draus wieder was bewohnbares machen. Am Anfang wirds erstmal heißen den ganzen Schutt auszuräumen. Ist das esrtmal gemacht ehlt quasi nur noch n Dach und man hätte sowas wie ne provisorische Unterkunft, hierfür also: Handschuhe, Muskelkraft und ein paar Köpfe, die mehr Spaß dran haben aus einer Ruine irgendwat schönes zu machen, mit all den Möglichkeiten, die die Umgebung bietet...

evtl 3. Es gibt da ein Stück Land, das wir mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit zum Garten umfunktionieren dürfen. So wie wir die Bodenverhältnise einschätzen wärs am sinnvollsten mit Hoch- oder Hügelbeeten zu arbeiten. Wenn also jemand Lut und Spaß dran hat Grundlagen für einen Garten zu schaffen... fühlt euch eingeladen!!!

Experts/People with the following skills

• non-violent-communication
• well-construction
• natural-building
• spanish-speaking
• roof-construction

Materials

Aditional info about Materials

Here is what mother nature offers us:

- Stones in all sizes
- „Schieffer“
- Clay in all kinds of colours
- „Schilf“
- Hay

What we need
- black tubes for heating water
- Material für Tipis und Jurten
- Limestone
- Windows for the house
- Steinmetz werkzeug
- what do you think?

German:
Wir wollen in erster Linie Materialien direkt aus der Umgebung verwenden. Für die geplanten Schritte dieses Jahres scheint das auch weitgehend ausreichend zu sein. Es gibt Lehm, Stine, Ziegel, Holz steht im geringeren Umfang zur Verfügung. Vor allen Dingen brauchts Leute, die echte Motivation haben ein Dorf auf kreativste, verspielteste, nachhaltigste, sinnvollste Art und Weise wieder aufzubauen. Wir wollen einen Ort aufbauen, der in Einklang mit seiner Umgebung nichts nimmt, was woanders fehlen könnte, nichts verbracuht was nicht zurückgegeben wird, und gleichzeitig voller Idee, Emotion und Ästhetik ist...

Tools

Special Needs

There are a couple of meetings we have to hold in our working phase this summer
1. Talking about the land purchase with the families who own the land
2. Talking with the officials of the ayuntamiento about our project and future perspectives

We need funny, inspiring, motivating people full of ideas, like exactly you:)))) … ;) …
feel free to bring in your idea, to start a project group and realize, create something!!!

maybe you can see already what else is missing.. here, however, some ideas we collected:

So if your spanish is fit enough to hold easy conversations with spanish, easy-going, friendly officials – feel free to help us with that;)

German:
Da die meisten von uns wenig Gemeinschaftserfahrung haben, ist alles an Wissen und Erfahrung willkommen, was uns in irgendeiner Weise weiterbringen kann. Wir sind offen für Ideen, Impulse oder Leute, die sich ernsthaft engagieren und mitgestalten wollen. Es gibt gerade viele Dinge zu tun und wer den Zauber eines weißen Blatt Papiers, das zum gestalten herausfordert zu schätzen weiß, der soll sich hier willkommen fühlen. Es gilt quasi von 0 (... vielleicht von 1, oder 2) auf eine kleine Gesellschaft in Existenz zu bringen. Die Türen zu diesem wunderschönen Ort sind offen, jetzt müssen wir es nur durchziehen...