Latest News

Everything at The Hive is gearing up over the next month - are we not meant to hibernate over winter?? And there's a storm on the horizon ...

Lots of work is being done lately on defining the land boundries with the current owners; quite a tasking project with 6 people running around with poles, hammers, books, maps, compass, camera and all sorts - jolly good fun all round!
And from this we have to draw up some well defined topographical maps - ooh err!

This type of work will be ongoing at least one day a week for the next few weeks; primarily as this needs to be done to satisfy the legal documents due for completion in January - a serious issue on which many things could hinge.

Also, for the completion of sale to bee successful we have a lot to do here; clearing land, contacting juntas and councils, working on improved access, topography, architectural drawing for building footprints, cooperative legal setup, local collaborations, learning new skills and languages - the list goes on!

However, all our hard work may prove fruitless without the funds to finalise the purchase!
We require 20,000euros for the land to secure the project, and a further 20,000euros are projected for the building of the honeycomb cooperative/association.
By the way, this doesn't need to come from a single source, nor should it!
We want a community driven project here folks! e.g 8 people with 5,000euro investment.

If we are successful, we will be able to start on rebuilding and improving the facilities for the project - providing a fantastic infrastructure for people to be involved in permaculture at a practical level.

If we do fail to raise sufficient funds, we will aim to secure the 25,000euros+ already invested by negotiating for the completed purchase of land and buildings required for the cooperative/association to be successful.
Hence, any investment will help greatly.

So, no time for lazing in the sun and enjoying ourselves anymore, time to get to business! And for this we need *YOUR* help!
- would you like to join the cooperative/association?
- would you like to be an ethical investor?
- do you know someone who would?
- can you run an event to raise funds and awareness?
- please spread the word, tell everyone down the pub!
- join our Facebook group and invite your friends
- can you think of something else we haven't thought of?


In the coming weeks we hope to fully document and describe the future plans for The Hive, and get this info out to you all - so keep an eye out!!


    APRIL

Arrived on site. Established long stay carpark. Cleared land for base camp. Cleared waterways. Reconstructed paths. Made observations of sunrise /sunset, aspect of the land, wind directions, weathe

r. Made contacts with local adjacent landowners and goat farm nearby. Negotiated rent-free terrace for forest garden (oops, thought it was our bit of land, but apparently not!). Started marking out the areas owned by the Hive, attempting to distinguish them from the wildness all around. Lots of work done on the Honeycomb building, clearing courtyard and the bottom of the house, replacing floor beams and roof rafters, and making watertight for the coming winter.


    MAY

Continued clearing land. Completely cleared second terrace with horse-chestnut tree providing lots of shade and the temperatures increase. Should turn out to be a good campsite with running water, solar showers and compost toilet planned. Spent time with other permaculture designers on the land, indentifying fruit trees – quince, pear, apple, cherry, walnut, almond, olive and many more. Many hours spent trying to understand the ancient water and irrigation stystems, clearing sources of water and repairing levvies and channels.


    JUNE

Cleared the largest single area of land so far and exposed other terraces. Found a well which needs digging out. No sign of water as yet. Found more steps and the overall topography of the site now starting to make some sense. A whole week of clearing paths is still only a fraction of the whole task.


    ONGOING WORK

Over the past three months the Hive has established networks with other permaculture individuals and group projects in the surrounding area. Right at the beginning of April a trip was made to the Portuguese Green Gathering. Some good contacts were made as a result of much informal chatting.

A good deal of time has been devoted to planning and documentation, ensuring that the project is carefully photographed and recorded on a regular basis. This also includes keeping the books and so far the Hive is on budget.

Permaculture Works Article

    “THE HIVE” PORTUGUESE PERMACULTURE PROJECT

The Hive is a permaculture convergence of organics, art, design, education and outreach for social and environmental justice. It is located in Colmeal, Central Portugal. It envisions the promotion of sustainable, low-impact and low-carbon living, and the nurturing of community. The Hive is a collective (ad)venture, utilising local knowledge and traditional skills, and providing a space to facilitate the realisation of practical and innovative ideas to share, inspire and empower. The Hive intends to pollinate, and connect with, networks of projects, campaigns and like minded initiatives.


    Why The Hive is unique

There is a growing network of privately owned permaculture projects in central Portugal, but we believe the Hive may be the only project to seek to create a communally owned Permaculture co-operative. The Hive intends to provide a template for low-impact rural living, addressing the issues of rural depopulation. The project will serve as an example of sustainability and will also provide a legal and financial framework by which other projects may easily be established, holding a set of “model rules” and guidelines, similar to Catalyst Collective.

The Hive has up until now been supported by private investment and the Scottish based working group have contributed a good deal of time and effort over the past year.

We are now appealing to you, the wider Permaculture community, to support this radical project in any way you feel able. Advice and mentoring are always valuable but fundamentally the future of The Hive depends entirely on securing future ethical investment.

Arrived on site.  Established long stay carpark.  Cleared land for base camp. Cleared waterways.  Reconstructed paths.  Made observations of sunrise /sunset, aspect of the land, wind directions, weathe

r.  Made contacts with local adjacent landowners and goat farm nearby.  Negotiated rent-free terrace for forest garden (oops, thought it was our bit of land, but apparently not!).  Started marking out the areas owned by the Hive, attempting to distinguish them from the wildness all around.  Lots of work done on the Honeycomb building, clearing courtyard and the bottom of the house, replacing floor beams and roof rafters, and making watertight for the coming winter.

MAY

Continued clearing land.  Completely cleared second terrace with horse-chestnut tree providing lots of shade and the temperatures increase.  Should turn out to be a good campsite with running water, solar showers and compost toilet planned.  Spent time with other permaculture designers on the land, indentifying fruit trees – quince, pear, apple, cherry, walnut, almond, olive and many more.  Many hours spent trying to understand the ancient water and irrigation stystems, clearing sources of water and repairing levvies and channels.

JUNE

Cleared the largest single area of land so far and exposed other terraces. Found a well which needs digging out.  No sign of water as yet.  Found more steps and the overall topography of the site now starting to make some sense.  A whole week of clearing paths is still only a fraction of the whole task.

ONGOING WORK

Over the past three months the Hive has established networks with  other  permaculture individuals and group projects in the surrounding area. Right at the beginning of April a trip was made to the Portuguese Green Gathering.  Some good contacts were made as a result of much informal chatting.

A good deal of time has been devoted to planning and documentation, ensuring that the project is carefully photographed and recorded on a regular basis.   This also includes keeping the books and so far the Hive is on budget.<-->