Table of Contents
General site informationAboutMissionGoals
Permaculture at PanyaNatural building Water and irrigation Garden ForestAnimals Appropriate technologyFermentation and food-processing
Living at PanyaDaily routineDaily tasksWeekly tasks
PeopleRoles and responsibilitiesExpectationsCompensation
Budget
History of PanyaCurrent community membersPanya Family
General Site information
pic of panya
Size of site:4 hectares (10 acres)
LandownerPi Jo Jonbai (since 2006?)
Longest staying volunteersNick Tittle, Brecht Deriemaker
Location1 hour North of Chiang Mai, Thailand
Living capacityUp to 5 long-term people, Up to 35 volunteers
MissionTo educate local and international people on permaculture design using panya as a demonstration site for dozens of functional permaculture projects.
Permaculture at Panya
Since 2006, international volunteers have been installing dozens of permaculture projects at Panya to establish a more self-reliant community. Each of the projects fit into a particular system. Panya's permaculture projects are arranged by their systems below:
Earthworks Natural building Water and irrigationGardenForestAnimalsAppropriate technologyFermentation and food-processing
Earthworks
Upper Reservoir
Function: With a capacity of over 1,000,000 liters of water, this reservoir at the highest point of the property serves as a water storage element for plants and forests in the dry season. This reservoir is also home to a thriving ecosystem with frogs, snakes and birds.
Design/install: The pond was lined using a bentonite clay liner in summer 2013. At the time of writing, we are still waiting for the rain to fill up the pond. Read a
detailed description of this project at – http://www.panyaproject.org/uncategorized/we-have-sealed-our-dam/.
Swales
Function: Swales were dug throughout the contours of the big hill on the south side of the property to catch and store rainwater. Over the years, volunteers have planted trees on and around the swales. When water catches in swales, the water is held on the hill and allows tree roots to reach deep down in the soil to take hold. Swales are an excellent
Design/install: Swales were dug at during the first PDC taught by Geoff Lawton in 2006. Volunteers have since constructed bamboo bridges to cross the swales.
Terraces
Function: Terraces are another way to retain water on a slope. At Panya, volunteers have dug long terraces along contours. Each terrace is 1 meter deep, sloping into the hill. All rainwater will be retained and allow a variant ecosystem to thrive.
Trees: Banana trees, mulberry trees, moringa, coffee, durian
Perennials: Cranberry spinach, chicken spinach, Brazilian spinach, citronella, lemongrass, vettiver
Buildings
Community buildingsPanya's facilities can support the living needs for up to 40 people. Living needs include sleeping, eating, using the bathroom, cleaning, washing and working. Our facilities are outlined below:
Sala
Functions: This building is the center of our community. We use the space for teaching, dining, reading, relaxing, doing yoga and just hanging out and getting to know people.
Design: The building was built during a natural building internship in 2013. It uses various
building techniques such as adobe earthbricks, earthbags, wattle and cob, chip and slip. The roof structure is a tin roof with steel frame with a tin roof supported by teak posts.
Kitchen/breweryFunctions: Design: This was one of the first buildings to be built at Panya.
Toilets
Functions: 4-stall humanure toiletDesign: Built using homemade adobe earth bricks. The composting chambers have no organic material in them. They were built using mainly earth and then some structural steel and concrete floor panels. Wood (organic material) in the previous compost chambers caused the building to break down over time.
Showers
Functions: 4 private (2m/2w) hot water showers
Shower design: Earth brick walls, water line connected to mainlines from tanks at top of property. Future plans to connect greywater system to runoff.
Hot water heater design: A metal barrel painted black inside a concrete box topped with glass. Inlet on bottom, outlet on top.
Workshop
Functions: To hold most Panya tools, to provide storage for materials, to provide workbench space to work inside
Design: Built using adobe bricks, ceramic roof tiles
Chicken coopFunctions:Design:
Sauna
Functions: To sweat and relax on cool winter nights.
Design: Built with earthbricks with large overhang.
Dorms
Function: Two dorm houses can sleep 12 people each. We also have 5? private rooms and 8 single room homes.
Design: 1st floor built using adobe bricks, 2nd floor is bamboo walls with and wood framing
Long-term volunteer housesAll of the long-term volunteer houses were built using earthen materials over the last several years. Amenities are indicated next to the name of the house
Elephant house Cottage
Water and Irrigation
sketched map of irrigation system
Include notes on: Pond – animals, plants, food forestWell – washing, cleaningRainwater – drinking
SourcePanya gets water from multiple sources. And each of the sources are used for multiple functions. The redundancy of the Panya water system helps meet the sites needs for water security.
Upper Reservoir Well
Rainwater catchment
Sala, Toilet, Bean house, Sauna, Cottage
Distributionpic of water tap
12? taps throughout site
Recycling
Greywater – Kitchen, showers, toilets.
Panya has a system of swales, terraces to retain water on the hill, as well as a few seasonal ponds and drainage ditches throughout the site channeling water into a lower reservoir.
Garden and nursery
map of gardens and forests
Nursery garden Kitchen garden
more pics
Other gardens
Annual plants
pics of plants?
Perennial plants Lukina (n-fixing)Chicken spinach (n-fixing)New zealand spinach (n-fixing)Cranberry spinachCow peaPinto peanut (groundcover)…
Forests
pic pic
Upper left forest Upper right forest
pic pic
Lower left forest (chicken coop) Lower right forest (bean house)
Types of trees throughout Panya, estimated numberNote: Arrange by forest section, if possible
Mango(1000)Banana (200)Mulberry (50)Moringa ( )Coffee ( )Coconut (50)Lychee ( )...
Animals
Map of animal living, eating and grazing areas: Include animal eating, grazing areas, ponds (chicken coop, fences, kitchen greywater system, shower greywater, upper reservoir
picsChickens, Ducks, Geese, Roosters, Turkey, Frogs, Turtles
pics of Chicken coop, Greywater ponds, Upper reservoir (when full)
Fermentation and food-processing
At Panya, we make and process using different fermentation and dehydration techiques. How we do this is described below.
Kae's Café
pic of Kae's Menu
Pic of brewery At Panya we do fermentation is quite a regular thing. We prepare fresh kombucha, wine and bread. Here are some recipes we have found using food available at Panya.
Kombucha
pic of kombucha jar Materials: Big jar, big cooking pot, ingredients, white sugarHow we make kombucha: Choose ingredients from the garden. Boil 2 gallons of water with the ingredients. Add as many kilograms of sugar as gallons of water. You can use a little less if you'd like. Let the ingredients steep in the hot water overnight.
Available ingredients/good recipes at Panya:
Other ingredients: White sugar 2kg per 2 gallon batch
Good combinations/tips:
Wine
Materials: 5 gallon jug (glass preferable), , carboy (to let air out as it ferments), big cooking pot, wine ingredients, white sugar, yeast (possible to pull from air)
How we make wine: Choose ingredients. Boil 4 gallons of water, make a tea using the ingredients. Once the water reaches a boil, put the pot in the hay box. This will allow the ingredients to steep overnight.
Ingredients/good combinations at Panya:Mulberry, Lemongrass, Chile, Ginger, Mango, Papaya, yeast from air?
Other ingredients: White sugar, at least 4kg per 4 gallon batch
Violine's Sourdough BreadHow we make bread: Make the dough 1 night before hand to give it time to rise. X cups of flour + X cups of water + salt + half of a jar of sough starter yeast (we keep a jar of sourdough fermenting at all times)
Life at Panya
Panya is a group of international volunteers from all over the world. When you volunteer with us or sign up for a course, you are part of our community – you live, eat, cook, and work with us. We have a flexible schedule to accommodate a large number of people and also facilitate the daily tasks required to keep things running smoothly.
Daily schedule (changes at times, but this is normally what we do) 7:00 Breakfast 8:00 Morning meeting 8:45 Morning work session
Break when you need it11:30 Cleanup for lunch12:00 Lunch/rest 2:00 Afternoon work session (optional)
Break when you need it 5:30 Cleanup 6:30 Dinner 8:00 Evening activity10:00 Off to bed
Daily tasks (rotor)Our daily rotor is how we split up the daily tasks needed to run our community. When you arrive, your name will be put on the rotor to help out with these tasks.
Cooking – Breaking from work 60 - 90 minutes before meals, cooking enough food for everyone using food from our garden and the local markets. If you are new, you will be accompanied by an experienced volunteer to help you around the kitchen.
Pot wash – After meals, this tasks includes putting extra food into tupperware containers, washing all cooking pots, pans, utensils and any other. The kitchen should be clean for the next people when you leave.
Sweep and tidy – This tasks involves sweeping kitchen and dining area after lunch and dinner and sweeping and tidying up the classroom, dining room, balcony and library at least once a day.
Metta – This means to make other people feel good and also make yourself feel good. This is pretty much your day off to be good to people.
CommunicationsDaily meeting – 8am, everyday
Daily check-in – how is everyone? (Depending on # of people)Who is new? Who are you – question of the day?Who is leaving/returning?Daily rotorDiscuss daily work tasks / volunteers sign up for workAnnouncements, evening activitiesGame (if time)
Weekly staff meeting (For staff only) – Once a week
Update project plan with accomplishments, new ideas/changesRecord and settle staff expendituresDiscuss how last week went – what went well, what needs work
resolve or postpone issues in 2 minutes Weekly work tasks and volunteer estimatesWeekly cleaning blitz/general maintenance in good order?Allocate base logistical tasks (listed below)
Monthly meeting / reports (For staff only) – Once a month- What did you and your team accomplish this month. Please include pictures, videos, sketches, issues, concerns, lessons learned, additional work suggestions. - To be compiled from all project leaders at the end of each month.
Community meeting formatMeeting is lead by one of the staff members. This person must keep the pace of the meeting. It is their reponsibility to maintain order in the meeting, constant flow, everything gets recorded where it should be. When proposing new ideas to the community, all community members are asked to propose SMART objectives – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound. This keeps the debate relevant and to the point, saving time.
When voting on an issueUse hand signals – two hands wiggling, one hand wiggling, 'X' with hands
Site maintenanceThese are daily/weekly/ongoing tasks to be completed by staff members.
Kitchen – Empty the drain catchMake sure enough staple food items are availableMake sure oldest food and leftovers get eaten first
Water – Running the water pumpGarden / forest – watering the plants/nurseryAnimals – Feeding the animalsNatural building – Make sure workshop is clean and tools are in good shape
Base LogisticsAt weekly staff meetings, decide if the following is needed and who will be responsible:
Food/kitchenFood marketOrganic marketSpecialty – peanuts, wheat flour (CM), honeyChicken feedDog/cat food
Fuel / truckGeneral
SawdustStraw, Rice husks, Sand, Clay, GravelLandfillRecycling centerHardware stores – Mamali, Pa GheeRandom - Toilet paper, oil, sticky rice, coconutsInternet
History of Panya (2002 - August 2013)
Summer 2002 – Proposal goes out, written by Christian Shearer, sent to 50 of his closest friends.
Throughout 2003 – Property search, Christian Shearer attends natural building course at Pun Pun Education Center taught by Jo Jandai, founder of Pun Pun.
December 2004 – Land adjacent to Pun Pun Education Center was purchased, 25 rai (4 hectares, 10 acres) with 300 mango trees. Signed by Jo Jandai, the founder of Pun Pun Education Center.
Throughout 2006 – Installing initial infrastructure. Including two earthen houses , a large kitchen and dining/classroom space, a humanure composting toilet, showers, and two bamboo Thai-style bungaloes.
______ 2007 – First PDC with Geoff Lawton – Dug swales and upper reservoir.....
Need info... milestones, achievements, happenings, size of community
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013