WinniPigs Hotels

Guinea-pigs provide wonderful compost as well as being very easy to feed with the abundance of spontaneous vegetation we have on the farm, wonderful company and more tasty than rabbit meat without having the disease-prone problems of those larger herbivores.

This is a design to perfect our existing guinea-pig breeding project by making multi-layered GuineaPigHotels (make them a lot happier + multiply available space for them x5 in each existing cage).

One idea is that (if this works well), after perfecting this design we can sell the complete GuineaPigFarming starter kit & have a network of guinea pig farmers to bring down capitalism through out the world. Healthy food for the human brain. All very multifunctional!

Develop Guinea-Pig page in e-book

Thanks Heloisa!

Update Feb 2015 - we had a wonderful architect visit us at the beginning of the year (see article about her in our last newsletter) who made this sketch of the piggy situation right now.

News

Stella 19Oct15 - and another thread in Regrarians. Still breeding like anything, we've added quails to eat the fruit-flies that gather in their compost and they seem to get on well.

Stella 29Apr15 - great new thread about winipigs in FB! See here.

Now we finally managed to get some of the much better designed doors completed on the hotel (just 4 more to go! THANKYOU Olivier, Allan & Jose :) - as per Heloisa's sketch - and it really makes a huge difference in how much more pleasant it is to feed and clean them.

We also found some metal frames thrown out nearby that are perfect for more hotels for the future ...

AND (recent addition to the design) since we noticed their compost-bedding was attracting/ breeding a vast quantity of fruit-flies ... we thought of getting some quails to live together with them.

And the quails immediately set out to eat them, quite enthusiastically.

We know the chickens really enjoyed their spent bedding / compost when we gave it to them (birds in general do enjoy cycling herbivores' poo) so we thought the quails might also cycle the winniepigs poo in situ, but haven't observed that happening, yet. Early days.

Stella 23Aug'14 - we have an update so made a new video. Eventually all this patio will be full of piggies (it's lovely to have their cooing noises just outside our bedrooms, we all enjoy each others company).

See updates in each relevant section, with this date.

Stella 20May'14 - moved this here from my internal PC Academy blog, so can share with more colleagues. Moving slowly! Still not done the mega-hotel structure (last month we decided to prioretize sorting out the workshop, which was getting too messy...) but have made some great temporary accommodation where little groups of 5-6 piglets seem quite happy... + have tried out the boxes-draws multi-tier system in one of the large cages and it's helped me change my mind about some of the details ...

Stella 1Apr'14 - been working on this for a while but not had time to document, THANKS Lou for typing for me in a Think&Listen! (very mini-max & multi-functional way to move your designs, highly recommended).

But I should have started with the headings we usually have for designs, as it helps to stay brief, focused & to the point... I spent too long copy-pasting the stream-of-consciousness stuff Lou kindly typed up for me! And most of it ended up as a possible article (below).

Am very excited about this design! :))

I'm delighted at seeing these amazing little creature get happier each week here with us, as we improve their hotels, & it's been a lot of fun to do some carpentry again at last, too!

Another fun thing that has been happening is that the spanish students, hearing us talk about the guinea-pigs in english, started calling them the Winnie-Pigs (pronounced 'winnipigs' with a spanish accent) , since they had heard of Winnie the Pooh a lot more often than guineapigs. Cute! So we started calling them the winnipigs too :)

The conversation started something like "winnie pigs? isn't winnie a bear?" ... bilingual farm humor, sorry if it doesn't translate ... :)

Guinea-Pig Hotel August 2014

Stella 23Aug'14 - Now we have the biggest yet guinea-pig hotel, and we're refurbishing the old cages based on everything we've learned so far (see videos below). We're already theoretically self-sufficient in meat but Jose wants to breed more for now: 50+ piggies + capacity to breed many more, it's particularly gratifying to see them eat all the excess fruit that we wasted in past summers (even by giving as much as the chickens could eat after using the best fruit for preserves).

The shelving was given to us - & we decided the best use for it was a 5 storey big guinea-pig hotel

- but we're still continuing with improving the existing cages & designing new ones from recycled materials.

Next Steps

Stella 23Aug'14

- need to design something for keeping piggies cool in hot weather (best solution will be to cover patio with climbers but this will take a while ... find short-term solution)

- make better doors (these were a quick & ingenious design by Jose but not ideal)

- refurbishing old cages we've emptied with this last hotel

- cut back cactus to make holes for refurbished cages & take spare earth to green roof gardens downstairs

Stella 1Apr'14

- keep observing the guinea-pigs families outside my room every day (keep to a new "5mins pause&meditate" routine that involves really being with them whenever I need to stop during the day, & try to learn their language

- finish the first GuineaPig Hotel (the one filmed in the videos below)

- then start re-furbishing all other existing cages (making them multi-level)

- & keep observing & perfecting that design

- started to document it by video, need make a few drawings as well

What it's about

Ultimately, this is about -

1) my plans for taking down capitalism

2) in order to reverse climate-change,

3) popularizing the breeding of Guinea-Pigs for food

4) & raising consciousness about the importance of having healthy animal fats in human diets

5) & the importance of taking control over food production locally.

Anti capitalism is essentially about designing a much better use of all resources, thinking globally whilst acting locally.

This guinea-pig hotel project is about transforming abundant biomass (grass & 'weeds') & other 'waste' (all especially easy to find in cities) into high quality food densely packed with nutrients ... which is also very cute & delightful to live & interact with.

Why I want to do it and who else is involved

Stella 1Apr'14 - I think (especially in a world where civilization is exterminating some 200 species per day) it is crucial we take very seriously our responsibility to protect all the biodiversity we possibly can, including treating very well the domesticated species that our ancestors have taken so much trouble to breed in order to feed ourselves in the most sustainable ways.

Soon after Jose arrived about 2 years ago he started breeding guinea-pigs, as he's very keen on having more animals here and a friend wanted to cull hers. But I've never been happy with the accommodation we provided them (initially two cages we had built for rabbits, years ago). Also I was not happy about them being in zone 2 & 3 (away from the house) as I think these little animals are very good for us humans to have close, and they also benefit from our attention.

At what stage it is at

Stella 23Aug'14

- we love our new big guinea-pig hotel & we're working now to double (possibly triple) capacity by refurbishing all the old cages we've emptied by moving piggies to this one. This will greatly facilitate the breeding programme also (need to have lots of independent spaces in order to select & avoid in-breeding).

Stella 1Apr'14 - we have some

40 guinea-pigs in total

in 6 cages that are about (HxWxL) 100 x 100 x 130 cm

+ 2 temporary 'tubular' cages about 50 x 50 x 150 cm which I invented recently in order to keep 'overflow' animals more comfortable whilst we make them the new super-hotel spaces.

Using vegetable trays that normally get thrown away and refurbishing an old solar dryer (which meant to have shelves etc)

Did these 3 videos to document & explain the design

(in spanish & english)

2014Mar16Coballas1 http://youtu.be/ke9qjuGf8fA

2014Mar16Coballas 2 http://youtu.be/t9sjTO6cVe8

2014Mar16Coballas 3 http://youtu.be/a7_F73pp9Yc

Two more ...

Marzo 2014

http://youtu.be/VDQyOjnYv5E

http://youtu.be/g8hRh1dx9Xk

What's going well

Stella 23Aug'14

- much tidier + lots of extra capacity AND the piggies look a lot happier with much extra space.

- looking forward to slowly refurbishing old cages ...

- very nice to have all the piggies in our Zone1 ! Before many of the breeding females were too far from the house & most of us never saw them... now we can go piggie-meditation (sitting observing them enjoying themselves is very calming!) whenever we want to, and also check on them & immediately see if they need anything.

Stella 1Apr'14

- had a LOT of fun during my (ongoing) long interview with the guniea pigs.

- gave me tons of ideas just being with them,

- love the ideas of trays that are easy to clean and cheap

- and then, with Ricardo (who likes doing carpentry type things) we could make & sell the Hotels complete with breeding animals and a manual on how to feed them and kill them

- they are so perfect in every way! Including perfect food size - no storage needed, each piglet is a good single or double portion.

- Much better than rabbits as they are much smaller so we can realistically make environments for them where they can have a healthy, active social life, meaning they don't tend to get ill as they are much happier bunnies.

- new designs multiplies surface area by 5 (currently they only use the bottom five inches of the existing cages, can't use all the height + they are exposed from the top in a way that small rodents don't really like

- Thinking of using a system of levels connected with 'tunnel-stairs' made out of plastic bottles (other plentyful waste).

Challenges

and help I would like

name & date your entries (with most recent on top) so that we can later see how the design has progressed + others can also contribute (and we can more easily see who said what when)

Stella 23Aug'14

- lots of work all over the farm, it's a bit frustrating how slowly this project has been going! But we're getting there...

- the few very hot days we've had so far highlighted the need to shade the patio (for us not just the piggies!) ... but a good long-term solution will take a while to implement.

My Big Vision

Apart from the downthrowing of capitalism (see above) ...

<< I love it that Steph has a lot of winnipigs in her cartoons :)

Stella 1Apr'14

Starting small: for now just keep interviewing the client (guineapigs) & design the most wonderful possible hotels (living space for honored guests) for them in the finca, & observe, Observe, OBSERVE. The hotel is a maximise edge innovation that I came up to by observing that our existing pages use space very inefficiently (some 70cm of height not used by creatures that are 10cm high at most & love burrowing in tunnels).

Multi-functioning with using up waste materials, especially ones that pollute if not used, like hundreds of plastic trays all shops throw away here every day & plastic bottles (for tunnel-stairs between levels).

Cycling nutrients and creating fertile connections by (if above pilot works well!) creating first a mini-eco-business & then a GuineaPigsFarmersNetwork by making & selling perfected hotels complete with animals & instruction as a revolutionary starting-kit & encouraging more people to take control of their own food by farming high quality grass-fed meat (crucial for intelligence in humans!) on the weeds they can easily find even in the city.

Article for E-Book?

mixture of bits that came out in the T&L with Lou that are perhaps more useful as an article... (or in my GuineaPigs to Overthrow Capitalism Manual :)

If we live in the city we tend to only see animals only as pets, if at all, but it is very human and connected to "love them and eat them", as humans have done ever since we domesticated animals. Our close connection with non-human species is crucial to our inner as well as outer development, especially in contradicting the massive anthropocentric patterns that are currently destroying Life on this planet.

Our guinea-pigs would not exist if we did not breed them. Left out in the wild they would soon be eaten by predators &/or become a plague for local natural systems. Since they are domesticated animals we are indebted to give them the most enjoyable life possible before we eat them.

They are not adapted to the wild environment anymore, so either we wipe them out by not using them or we transform them into good food for us by giving them a good life with "one bad day" at the end.

Its so important for us to have a connection with animals like these. They make amazing noises they have such an interesting time together.

So in order to observe them better (client-interview!) I moved some cages close to the house (in zone1 so we see & hear them most of the day), and found I loved having a big family of them just outside my office/bedroom door.

Interesting to observe what they like etc having conversation with them. Cages like runs, lots of surface areas to run around as they have complex social lives.

Its about reconnecting people with the life-death-life cycle. Having always been a passionate protector of animals, since small, it took me 2 years to learn to kill my own chickens (which had been dying of - painful - old age for many years, something that very clearly made no sense). When I finally came to terms with this, I realized I had crossed a major milestone in my development: just to stop pretending that someone else do the killing for me.

I realized that not ever learning to personally kill our own food actually dis-connects us from Life. & it is a very damaging myth to imagine that a vegetarian diet means we don't kill anything: agriculture is the most destructive thing humans have invented, & even organic agriculture destroys entire ecosystems (robs wild species of their food to make space for human food). If we understand anything about ecology, we know that all organisms eat another's death in order to live, ultimately. To passively (rather than actively) take part in this cycle is immature behaviour - so killing our own food is part of growing up, of really becoming adults.

In our culture we have a morbid fear death & associate it (unconsciously) with violence, probably because of the massive ancestral traumas we all carry around wars and the 'normalizing' of gratuitous violence (often associated with death & lots of blood) in 'popular entertainment', especially horror & 'action' movies. This silent (if not expressed/discharged) terror builds up in us to the point that we can't think rationally about the Life-Death-Life cycle: we just react on our feelings.

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