#57 Installing sensors and mapping out our trees 

Post your questions below for next week Q&A + vote the ones you like to see answered! 💪

Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) fruit is called Medronho in Portuguese. Wait till they're red and ripe, you can get tipsy from too many of them, as sugar starts to ferment inside :D a spirit drink is made with Medronho

Thank you Felix. Loved your work.😊

When Naomi said "I'm here to log native trees", I nearly had a heart attack and then I realised she meant record/document them, not cut them down 😅

Bye Felix, hope you'll be back sometime again. Thx a lot for these amazing videos. Umarmungen aus Brasilien

Forgot to say it last time. Nice to see Julie back ☺️

Q&A: How do you keep the community happy and disagreements resolved? Would love to see if there is anything done to essentially "run a small community" from a sociology perspective. Pizza night was a good idea!

It might seem tedious and pointless. But tracking the native plants and identification/location is vital to any work in restoring the land to it's natural species. Using technology to help in this work is awesome! So much better than the ribbon tags we used to use back in my day! These amazing and beautiful young ladies are laying the ground work for vital projects to come. What a great thing to see in your videos. So glad to see them and their dog is super cute as well!

Sad to see you leaving Felix, i really liked your cutting style, every Video got better after each other and you made really big progress on this!

1) Is underground housing an option in Portugal? Seems like an easy natural way to beat the heat. 2) Is purchasing the fountain area from your neighbor a possibility? The owner and his stories about the area made him light up with youthful pride. Perhaps he would appreciate the thought of selling it to someone who will be restoring it and carrying on his stewardship over the land... instead of letting it fade away to dust.

Props to the cameraman, lots of beautiful shots in this vid.

It's Medronhos, my friends. some people make a powerful distilled drink out of it but it is illegal to do it at home because of the methanol issue. they are definitely safe to eat when ripe (red)

Consider canning some of the oranges. You can make orange marmalade, put it in canning jars and it will last for a year or more.

Orange marmalade would be a good way to preserve them.

Q&A : In a past episode you have made a contour map. Have you already made use of it to make a permaculture design? E.g. Where to make swales and dig additional ponds to hydrate the land, help trees grow and mitigate the fire risk.

Felix, thank you for your filming and good luck in your new adventures.

Thanks Felix. Your contributions were amazing!

Once turned to powder, oak galls can be used as natural brown fabric dye :)

Raspberry Pi with Home Assistant is an excellent system for data monitoring, collection and analysis. Open source is the way to go, especially if you can host your own instance and not rely on the cloud. (Relying on the cloud is like driving at normal speed on a fog shrouded highway - you might be okay or you might crash & burn into something you'll never see coming. Plus, free cloud services eventually put up a paywall and then all your saved data & analysis tools get held for ransom. Screw that! Open source and self hosting on-site is self-reliance & true empowerment.)

The strawberry tree is arbutus unedo; the fruits ripen in winter, when they become bright red and very, very soft. I often eat the ones that fall on the ground, provided they haven't completely smashed themselves, but you can pick the ones that come off easily! I recommend installing a simple net around the tree to collect the ones that fall naturally, as they will be the sweetest (and the most sought after by ground critters and birds). The whole fruit can be eaten, the seeds are almost nonexistent and the skin can get a bit pointy and coarse if dark, but it is usually red and soft. Basically, a sweet orb that requires no work to enjoy. Don't eat them unripe... they're full of tannins! The fruits take one year to develop, so you will have beautiful trees with ripe red fruits and white clusters of flowers at the same time, it is a very pretty tree. The wood is also incredibly tough, perfect for crafting something, should you have to fell one.

Q&A: if you put turbines on top of the hill, you don’t need the cables to transport te electricity downhill. You can just store it in some accumulators and bring them to base kamp to be used in your sistem

Hey guys, the "strawberry tree" is actually a an Arbutus or Modronas tree. They do a famous and quite good spirit in Portugal called modronho with that (similar to grappa, snaps, rakia). THey fruit every second year in some places, butt the fruit when red can be used for incredible jams! ENJOY ;)

This girl s project is nice. Medronho is ready to eat when its red and soft, and very sugary, usually in winter, between november and january. Was common our grandparents advise not to eat many because it could cause drunkness... The "plant gals" (?) on the oaks are call "bugalhos" in portuguese. Most people confuse it with seeds, but,as you said, is a reaction to isolate an infection and protect the tree. The pot was (almost sure) not to get resin from the mimosas. Probably not to get resin at all, because they use plastic ones for a long time now. Looks like a common pot. The resin is collected from pines ("pinheiro bravo", the ones you have growing there, by seed), at the end of its life. Almost sure you have different willows and abrunheiros growing, probably by the water areas. They are very easy to propagate by sticks. Its great to see the names of the oaks you identify by english/international names. Usually we just call it oaks, and identify them by the most common place of grow in the country, or some nicknames... P.s. mimosas and eucalyptus cant be finish by logging. Most of them regrow, so you have to remove the roots (or use herbiceds, wich i supose you dont want). Cutting only works if you keep on top of new regrow leafs and take out right away so they wont do photosintesis...they stillregrow from other seeds on the ground. Its a messy job. Hope you have sucess.

Sad to see you go, Felix! You did an awesome job :)

Fascinating. Love watching your endeavours. - all the best Felix, your videos have been superb

Consider a vertical spiral type of windmill, being that close to camp, it'll be quieter. A typical blade type might add 20dB to ambient sounds

All the best Felix! Thanks for sharing your skills for us to enjoy 🙏🏻😎

Thank you Felix, I’ve enjoyed your videos. Good luck for the future!

The strawberry tree, here in Portugal, is used to eat, when the fruits are ripe, or is used to make brandy.

To deal with the mimosa you should do what its called here in Portugal "morte em pé" which is when you cut the outer layer of the log of the tree so it gets dehydrated and dies, after that, when you cut them down, dont forget to not leave any logs so they dont get naturaly rejuvenated again. Also sorry for my bad english :)

Yay for the logging project! Wish I could join you Naomi! You look fantastic and so at ease😊❤️

Super easy preserving for the glut of orange crop: -Salt + orange sections +any herbs you want = amazing preserved oranges with tons of flavour to blitz into sauces adding salt and tang! (can last years!) -Sugar + oranges = Marmalade add in all sorts of extra citrus/ herbs / whisky to make wonderful breakfast/desert sweetness (also lasts years, happy vitamins in the winter!) Go get those Oranges! No food should go to waste, when so many delicious possibilities exist!

QA: Are you guys planning to plant fruit trees as well?

Q&A: Your project of rebuilding the ruin seems to be a hot topic. A lot of people seem to say that it's better to knock the walls down and rebuild them. They argue that you could build something more efficient, safer and law abiding. What's your opinion on this?

I Love to see the progress on project kamp and that you have more people around. Collecting data is a very important job and it's nice that you've got some experts now to help with that 😊

No Felix..you can't leave now!! You were just finding your groove with us!! I love your story telling both verbally (tree questions and cute dog comments) and visually!! Loved the speedy forest walk through as well as the beauty of the orange trees. Best of luck in your next adventures!

wishing you the very best Felix!! we enjoyed your work over at the camp, Cheers :)

‘It’s not the most voorkoming tree here’. Heerlijk 👌🏻

Thank you neighbor for sharing your 🍊 oranges!

Late to the party, but I thought Felix did a good job and I'm glad he was able to be here to help the Project along.

My grandparents lived in rock houses without electricity, running water, plumbing etc, needless to say, it was a very hard life and when the railroad started building and offering wages in the state there was a rush for those jobs which provided enough income to have those luxuries of electricity, running water, sanitation etc. the old stone homes and farming/ranching we’re happily abandoned. My grandmother used to tell me about the struggle to live under those conditions and how happy she was to have a home in the new railroad town. Why to I tell this story? It’s to say that it was a huge struggle to get away from that hard basic living that a lot of people now think it was ideal or easy. Even with some of the new technologies and conveniences it’s going to be a hard life out there. I still go out there to visit the crumbling remains of my ancestor’s stone homes and try and imagine what it was like raising a family there, it’s beautiful out there but I know I would never ever want to live there as my ancestor’s did.

Thank you Felix , good luck with everything!

I do some film production and postproduction myself and I must to say that Felix you're a great film maker! Thank you for these films, its a big pleasure to watch them! Wish you everything best in your career

When you use an orange for juice or just to eat, you can save the rind (peel) and make candied orange peel. Quite easy to make and to store.

Wow this is really hard work, I’m very impressed by the team. The knowledge they have, just amazing.

Love the fact that you went with Home Assistant in the end. :D

Thank you Felix! Music in this video was great!

Thanks Felix, you were great!

Take care, Felix!

Yes, you’re doing a great job doing the video footage! Good luck to you and you will be missed.

Thankyou, peace fellow babies.

Great video I love being part of this great adventure! So intelligently thought out! From Hestand, Kentucky USA.

Absolutely Awesome . Love watching your endeavors/videos. most the time like to read all the comments of Project Kamp You guys has a fantastic audience of inteligente people with fantastic suggestions Bravo

Hi!... Strawberry tree in portuguese its called Medronho u can eat when they riped (red). They lovely and u can make liquer.

Really cool seeing the kamp growing on several levels

Question for Q/A: What’s the status of your compost toilet? In update #48 Wouter mentioned you can’t pee while you poo; have you done some adjustments/improvements to the toilet since you built it?

Thanks for all the effort on these videos Felix! Really enjoyed them

Thanks for the video. I really needed something positive today

Going out with a bang Felix, beautiful shot of the orange picking there ! 18:17 Take care !

Thanks for the video and stay safe.

Thanks Felix for your great work!

I never thought you guys would get into logging your land 😁

Q&A: are you planning to have any animals such as goats or chicken on the land?

Bye Felix! Wishing you a safe journey back to Germany :) We'll miss you

Since Oranges grow well I’d highly recommend starting some citrus fruit trees on the land as not only a great source of vitamins and replenishment in stupid hot tempratures but to also tinker with extracting Lemon and Orange oil which has an insane amount of uses from cleaning to bug repellent.

I assume you're familiar with OpenStreetMap? This mapping data you're collecting is definitely appropriate to upload to there so that shared and used in other research projects on natural diversity and other things. See the `natural=tree` and associated tags for individual trees as well as `landuse=forest` for homogenous areas.

Recently came across your channel and its quality! I live in England and what your doing is my dream.

Looks like a wonderful climate !

Thank you Felix!!!

Thanks Felix! Amazing work you've done!

The fruit that you try eat is Medronho, and tree is Medronheiro. Endemic from Portugal. You can eat they only when they are red and soft. We usual make a very strong drink called Aguardente de Medronho.

Medronhos fermentation is awesome!!! Lots of sugary goodness to go along... not so great to eat plainly!!! Makes a hell of a powerfull "água ardente"!!! Very sweet and with a punch capable of bringing back the desiesed!!! At least, that's what my grandmother from Viseu told me!!! 🔥🔥🔥

Hello. Nice to see development on your base camp and the forest. Can help notice that you use gas bottle for the cooker. Since you are seeking for off grid and renewable energy´s , let me give an idea. Since you have lot of Mimosa trees and lot of wood ,why don´t you make or buy a Gasogene (gasifier) to produce woodgas? in the WW2 they used Gasogene on car´s to produce gas to drive then. Maybe you can use now whit improved methods . Is an idea to reuse wood and make your own gas. These days independence of gas and electricity is mandatory. See you next video

Awesome tech to track data, so interesting!

Thank you for your works Felix!

It's brilliant what you do!

Hello everyone, have you ever considered using a water turbine? You have a small waterfall above the camp, wouldn't that be worth it? Or is there too little water flowing? Greetings from Germany

Wonderful work you do

Hi Guy's On the topic of wind turbines. You might care to try / test a Spinning Granny Chimney Cowl. Back in the 1950's these cowls were used to break up and distribute smoke in large industrial towns and cities. No matter which direction the wind blows the the cowl will rotate. It shouldn't be too difficult to connect one of these to a car or truck alternator to produce power. These cowls are sold on Amazon made of galvanised steel but I think it should be possible to copy the design and make some out of recycled plastic. They may not produce as much electricity at the large bladed turbines. But I think they would be more robust in high winds which likely cause damage in the bladed style. Also less intrusive in the landscape.

Q&A: Really love you guys, love that you featured and talked about CSA (we're a CSA, working hard on sustainability) any big regrets? anything you'd do differently if you could again? Sorry if someone has already asked that! I wish I could come by a part of your team, but with two littles and a farm to run it's pretty much impossible, so I'll just keep watching your vids instead ;)

Felix you’ve done awesome. Thank you.

I love watching you guys. You are awesome, thank you

so cool.. thanks for the share!

Another nice video. Nice to see the many ways that Home Assistant can be used!

Great format. 🙏

Very good video and work week! Had a blast watching all the interesting topics.

Homeassistant is a good Choice!

incredible, generous video!

Q&A: If I remember well, you planted/sowed trees last season, in the same update where you visited friends who had restored their land by planting indigenous trees. How is it going ? Did the trees grow ?

You can "bottle" (as they say in the uk) or as Americans would call it "can" orange segments.... just need to peel off the pith. Water bath and SLOWLY cool the glass jars. Best book to have is the us fda canning guidance book. It seems to be the most comprehensive I have found. It has recipes in it as well. I would advise having a home biogas digester with stove, 2 huge stainless steel canning pots (one to cook bulk items in and one to water bath). One thing I would recommend .... either a walk in fridge or root cellar to store it in. I found that my jars lasted much longer if kept cool and didn't spoil as easily as if left at normal room temperature. Given how hot Portugal is this is something to consider

It is really nice to see you Felix!

Q&A Time: Have you considering writing your own books? Perhaps some tips or anyting related to your current project of some sort. I'll definitely buy that.

ALWAYS FANTASTIC STUFF HAPPENING!!!

sooo great! amazing projects. love it!

Peace brothers! Love brothers! Make love, Not War! Cheers!

Bye Felix! Thank you for the videos. Best of luck in all your future endeavors.

Thanks for the videos Felix, it was great, a little different but it grew on me

Use the mimosa for fuel in winter, mulch in summer. Thin the eucalyptus but use it to distill into organic essential oil for income. Use the pine for lumber, replant with fruit, nut and Cork trees

Great video,thanks

Your videos were great, Felix! Wishing you the best in your new endeavors.