Irony (def’n): Incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result.
In a blog, just a week ago, we celebrated the progress we’d made on our aquaponic project in El Frances. Today, in an unwanted twist of irony, we have another update on our progress. But we’re not celebrating so much.
This past Sunday night – almost a year to the day we started construction – seasonal winds picked up to the point of compromising the bamboo structure of our aquaponic farm in El Frances. The center section bamboo posts began snapping like twigs under the downward pressure. As the roof continued to collapse, it created a “sail” facing directly at the wind. By 6:30 Monday morning, the entire structure was compromised. By 9:30, powerful gusts plus a small volunteer “demolition team” helped the rest of the structure “land safely”.
We managed to save most of the PVC, all the electrical, the fish tanks and growbeds. By end of day Monday, all that was visible were the growbeds, the fish tanks, and a damaged chicken coup. Check out the video report.
Lesson 1: Bamboo has about a one year warrant and is not a contextually appropriate (sustainable) building material for our climate.
Lesson 2: Wind must be considered a key factor when determining what a contextually appropriate material to build with is.
Lesson 3: It’s great to have a community of friends of Dead Wheat (here in Panama) who dropped everything to help us out. Thanks to Chris, Luis, Tom, Chris, Dan, Mark, Patrick, Hollyn. Christine, thanks for the breakfast burritos. Jenni, muchos gracias for the granola bars, constant flow of water and Cool-Aid and the spaghetti lunch.
At this point, our plan is to rebuild with steel. More costly, but sustainable. Your financial help right now would be greatly appreciated. To sponsor the rebuilding of the El Frances aquaponic project, click here.
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