Two year research on the coconut beetle

Here we have described in detail our research and holistic organic treatment to reduce the numbers of the damaging beetles in our trees. Oryctes Rhinoceros L. is an endemic pest of Asia that causes devastating damages to coconut palm tree plantations. What is the effective method to organically and naturally reduce the number of coconut beetles? We would like to share with you the results.

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Making Bokashi Balls for Our Pond

After removal of all and cleaning the pond, we began to make Bokashi balls. These would be placed under the big stones to allow the Effective Micro-organisms(EM) to settle into the stones.The Bokashi Balls are made of clay, rice bran and EM. We are happy to share with you our method of making this highly useful Bokashi balls.

 

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Cleaning the pond

Jiwa Damai is surrounded by beautiful ponds teeming with life. However, due to the ash coming down with the rain from the last volcanic eruption on the neighboring island, our stones in the pond, which are full with algae were covered completely with the ash. The fish feed on these algae and all of a sudden there was no food left. The ash also prevented the algae to receive light and hence they did not grow anymore.

We had to search for means how to remove  the ash from the stones. A water vacuum machine we bought did not do the trick.

The only other way was to empty the pond and clean it out. This was sad, since the pool had developed its own micro climate with its various inhabitants, and we had to destroy this. The stones were also the seat of many micro organisms, especially EM. Having this micro climate surrounding the buildings of Jiwa Damai, prevented mosquito larvae from hatching and both large buildings were nearly mosquito free.

These ponds are the pride of Jiwa Damai, teeming with life, surrounding our main building and giving it its unique charme. They have a concrete base and the large river stones were added later to provide hiding for the fish and our eel as well as many crabs and frogs. To keep the water clear we had added many bags of Geolite, a stone in ground down form, which draws dirt to itself. All these needed to be considered

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Yoga Teacher Volunteer at Jiwa Damai

Our lovely yoga teacher volunteer, Bee at Jiwa Damai is sharing some of her thoughts with you regarding her experience here. She has been our “busy bee” for the last couple of months helping us start the day with yoga in the morning and teaching our local team English. Originally from Austria, Bee has been traveling in order to find her path as a yoga instructor. We are very grateful for all the positive energy she has brought to this place.

You can find out more about our volunteer program here or just follow the stories from our volunteers on the Jiwa Damai blog. In the meantime, we invite you to discover the way Bee has experienced her stay at Jiwa Damai.

What made you chose Jiwa Damai?
I was searching for a place to practice yoga and to teach, for a healthy environment. I believe that yoga is a lifestyle and in order to follow it, you have to select carefully your surroundings. At the same time, it is hard to find a place where you can start with teaching when you don’t have prior experience. I was reading that Jiwa Damai is looking for volunteers and that they offer yoga in the morning so I thought that I could start to teach and also learn more about yoga here. The beautiful part is that they offered me this chance! I’ve been at Jiwa Damai for almost two months now. And I am happy to say that I had my first yoga students here.

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Our volunteers and staff opening coconuts

After working hard Kadek, Tyrone from Germany, and Maxwell our American volunteer with Made, the coco nut oil fairy. Today they have been opening lots of coconuts, which we will use to produce our own organic certified coconut oil.

Both Tyron and Maxwell enjoy a healthy lunch.

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Our volunteer with Orchid, the cat

Sabine, our Austrian volunteer Yoga teacher is visiting our cat Orchid in her home the Garden Lumbung. Orchid has made this her home and is receiving every volunteer staying there with joyful greetings and meowing. She talks a lot and takes immediately to the warmest place where the person sleeps.

She is a great companion and extremely gentle.

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Preparing the soil for seeding

Preparing the soil for seeding long beans are our Balinese gardener Kadet with our Canadian volunteer Catherine.

Here is Catherine also setting up the bamboo stick to give the beans guidelines how to grow.

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