The entire course was invited to a beautiful and inspiring farm, the home of Ananda and his family located in Thiruvannammalai, a local city about 110kms away. Spending 4 days there the course excitingly built a composting toilet, created a raised bed area for future vegetable garden and also took on a few maintenance progress such as improving irrigation, pruning trees and enjoying the company and care of Nalini the cow!

 

Tiruvannamalai bus station

Arriving with the bus to Tiruvannamalai.

 

Arriving

A crowed of rickshaws dropping us of at the farm.

 

Chosing Site

Laying flour lines to show the composting toilet foundation.

 

Digging down for stability

Planting the bricks in the ground for stability.

 

Composting Toilet

An excellent example of the greenery at the farm.

 

Working on compost toilet foundation

Nathan and Isa working on the foundation of the composting toilet.

 

New raised veggie bed

Finished vegetable bed infront of Arunachala, the holy mountain of Tiruvannamalai.

 

Compost toilet foundation

Composting toilets coming to a close.

 

Sleeping under the stars

Even after being offered huts and beds the permaculture course eagerly huddled under the stars.

 

Along with full days of enthusiastic projects the evenings and free time brought music, games, delicious food chefed by Gayatri, Aditya and Anuja, wife, son and sister of Ananda. With this experience the group came back to Sadhana feeling inspired and very grateful for the time there!

It was commonly decided and hoped upon among the team that everyone wanted to return to the farm to celebrate the course once it’s finished!

 

Experiencing without sight

Florian leads Ally through the farm to allow her to experience other senses.

Thank you very much Ananda and everyone one at the farm for sharing your wonderful home with us!

The Permaculture group

Permaculture class at Ananda’s farm, Tiruvannamalai!