Day 1 - Introduction

After spending a few fun-filled days in Christiansted it was time to break away and head into the rainforest.

Creque Dam Farm (it's pronounced "creaky") is amazing. Living in a truly diversified sustainable environment has been both eye opening and inspiring. It's only the end of the first full-day and I already am vibrating with excitement. Today we started out with simple getting to know you activities to introduce each other and our various backgrounds. Each of the instructors bring some interesting skills from agriculture, animal husbandry, to primitive survival. As for the students, we come from some different backgrounds. Some have lived on farms or worked on farms at some point and am looking to expand on that experience while some, like me, are a little older and are mostly looking for knowledge and education to make life changes. Some of us have spent years doing what was expected of us and some were encouraged to take their own paths.

I am going to try to keep my posts up to each day of the program so that each post will build on the one before. I will start with some background and color.

Creque Dam Farm is a 200 acre farm in the rainforest near Frederiksted, St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. It has been in the works for over 6 years and before that the land was used for horses and in the distant past, sugar cane production. The farm is built with the ideas of permaculture and sustainability. The water is produced through the well and roof gathering. The water system is run by a solar-powered pump as are all of the other electric systems.

I'm living in a cabana on the hill overlooking the rest of the farm. It's open air (with screens doors and walls). It's not entirely sealed off from bugs but the lizards are always hungry. It is surrounded by nothing but dark and the sounds of the forest at night. It is truly something to behold. 9 weeks in here.. There is more that I want to learn than I feel I will have time for.

Check my flickr page for photos! Here are a taste from the first farm tour.


Off to bed, big day tomorrow. I have many more entries to write.