🍃[FESTIVAL] A sky filled with stars, as can only be seen in the Sertão!🍃

[Quincy]

This topic is part of the Community Center Festival of Sustainability

The original topic was posted in the Portuguese-speaking Community Center by @Denise583 and we have translated it below.

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This is Xainã, built with wood from reforestation, adobe (an unbaked handmade brick), demolition windows and doors and ecological tile.

My husband and I live in a small piece of paradise for which I'm truly grateful every single day.

As a means to contribute to our retirement, we thought of sharing this little corner of ours with good people, those with simple ways, who commune with nature and know how to appreciate its beauty and grandeur. Hence our partnership with Airbnb was born. 

Towel rack made out of bark and bracnches

We have been hosting guests for a few years in the guest suite, which is part of the main house, the house where we live, and the experience was so good that we decided to build a separate accommodation just for hosting.

This needed to be done with great care and environmental awareness, with a view to preserving this plot of land, just as we did with the main house.

A room kissed by the sun every dawn. In it reigns an ancient iron bed.A year and a half ago we built a Ypotyra, which means Flor in ancient Tupi, and is a very cosy, romantic hut for a couple.

This month our newest baby was born, Xainã, meaning Hummingbird in Tupi-Guarani, of which there are many on the property. 

A colourful country house full of character, immersed in Nature, overlooking the Bicas Valley and surrounded by the mountain of the same name, at an altitude of 3,600 ft (1099m).

Facing the Valley and the East

Let me tell you a little bit about the process involved.

It all started with a design that was harmonious with the surrounding nature, a space that is also functional, cosy and pleasing to the senses.

Choosing a place where nature puts on its best show.

It is important to make sustainable use of the natural resources in the area, thus avoiding materials of dubious origin and transport, both of which are costly to the environment. 

And by braiding the bamboo, we have a perfect basket for blankets.

Huge stones in the soil of the property were used for the foundations; reforestation and native wood that had fallen, or about to fall from the forest on the property, are now used as supports, roof timber, doors, entrances, countertops and flooring; silted sand from the stream accumulates in the mortar; demolition bricks and adobe were used in the walls; demolition glazing strategically installed in the walls and ceiling, letting the light, the green, and the sky in.

Sustainability goes beyond construction and is found throughout. The water comes from the spring by gravity, which the solar heating makes warm for bathing; a bio-digestion and phyto-purification system treats the waste water, and the bonfire, fireplace and wood cooker use wood gathered from the forest. 

No trees are felled for this process. 

Next to the reforestation wood floor and the adobe wall, an old and handcrafted bench rescued from the rubble of an antique shop. With a charming painting and straw seats, it was a grace on the porch.

An old bathtub from the first half of the last century, which I restored myself, is the highlight of the panoramic bathroom. Furniture, windows and doors found in the rubbish were given a new life, and one of these doors is now the top of the dining table. Crates and pallets make great beds, cupboards and lamps, and bamboo was transformed into a holder for cutlery, spatulas, curtain rods or incense sticks; gourds become graceful nests for birds.

And there's more to reuse...

Broken hammocks became sofa covers; a crockery mug that lost its handle became a great pencil holder, and the iron bucket used at the construction site is now a ceiling lamp. Even a funnel and a small beer barrel are used as pendant lighting for the dining area jajaja.

There are almost no electrics or electronics, no microwave, no coffee maker, no sandwich maker or electric toaster, but there is a stove-top sandwich maker, and the strainer is made of cloth. Industrial margarine packaging becomes a rubbish and coal bucket; scraps become cushion covers; leftovers of forgotten soaps, washed, grated and set on fire with water and essence, become liquid soap.

In the House Rules, I recommend the conscious use of water and electricity, respect for wild animals and the surrounding nature. In the listing I mention the various options available on the property for enjoying nature, such as walking along trails through the forest, the bonfire to watch for the moon, bathing in the stream, the belvedere for contemplating the valley or simply relaxing in the hammocks on the veranda and enjoying the infinite number of birds in their aerial dance or looking after their chicks in the gourd nests.

I made several awareness-raising plaques out of wood scraps, such as "From Nature, nothing can be taken away, only photos", "From Nature, take only souvenirs", which I scattered around the property.

Xainã is strategically facing the valley and pointing towards Nascente. Witnessing the miracle of the day at dawn through the large windows from the coziness of your bed is a unique experience! 

Wild animals are constant visitors there. We have the flight of the caracara and the singing of the siriemas, the smell of the bush and of life with green on all sides, a thousand birds, and time that seems to pass more slowly.

Pallet is also the "cushion" that organizes the seasonings. And to fan the fire in the wood stove, all you have to do is braid a little bit of straw.

Light the bonfire, contemplate the starry sky and wait for that silvery moonlight, the kind you only see in the countryside.

Going to bed earlier and having more time to dream... Rising early to enjoy more of the day... Being at ease with life... Feeling happy and have good stories to tell.

Just peace and quiet!

Only in the Sertão!

I believe in the importance of rekindling the taste for life in its most basic form by using the elements to bring humans closer to nature and find their essence again. 

We tend to take better care of what we appreciate and value, don't we?

We are an integral part of nature and we use it to live.

ntegrated spaces where ventilation and light roam free. An old farmhouse door makes a nice table top. Another antique door style from the 1940s stands proud at the entrance.

All and any human action will cause some impact to the environment, the challenge is to try to make this impact as small as possible, the "size" that nature is able to absorb, revert and recover.

Nature is very powerful, its power of regeneration is magnificent. 

Therein lies the wisdom of seeking balance and sustainability.

It's naïve to think that we can live like cavemen, but by destroying our planet, we destroy our food, our home, and our life.

Consciousness + No Waste + Balance; this is the key for the perpetuation of life on this beautiful blue planet called EARTH!

[Jennifer3225]

@Denise583 

Denise, this is an amazing collection of upcycling and repurposing and is incredibly inspiring. You have motivated me to capture a photo of the morning sun in my listing and I forgot how warm and wonderful that is. 

From Trash to Luxury. What a slogan. 

Well done. Keep posting beyond the festival. Much to learn from you.

Jennifer🇨🇦💚

[Denise583]

Oi @Jennifer3225 

No meu perfil digo que "sou amante da Natureza, da vida simples e descomplicada".

Desde que nasci me vi numa cidade grande, sei o que ela pode nos fazer.

Já beirando os 60 anos consegui morar onde hoje estou, imersa na Natureza. 

É como você disse, esquecemos como o sol é quente e maravilhoso, esquecemos como é tomar um café da manhã sem pressa, esquecemos como é comer uma fruta (não tomar um suco de caixinha), de fazer nosso pão, como é o cheiro da terra e um céu pintadinho de estrelas.

Precisamos voltar so básico, resgatar o simples, reencontrar a nós mesmos, nosso EU original. 

Fico imensamente feliz em ver que minha história lhe inspirou a algo. 

E não pare aí, não tire simplesmente uma foto, deite sob o sol, relembre como é quente e maravilhoso. 

E saia em busca de mais coisas que tenha esquecido. 

Abraços!