Couple builds off-grid ecovillage with friends & leftovers 🐎

Emma and Edo were once a hotel stage show dance team, until they quit to live out their dream of rescuing animals (Emma) and farming (Edo) on the island of Tenerife. They bought cheap land and began to transform the rocky, dusty soil into a lush homestead.

In the beginning, it was just Emma, Edo, and some family toiling on the land to create basic accommodation. This was at a time of bare basics, with no electricity, running water, or toilets. Soon they were joined by volunteers, and they got creative building homes out of old vans, hillside caves, mud and clay, and scrap materials (including a lot of old pallet wood).

After a couple years, they had expanded beyond an animal sanctuary into a full-fledged community with 40 to 50 volunteers living on-site who all worked to live as lightly on the land as possible. The Tenerife Horse Rescue community is completely off-grid, using solar power, but also clever inventions like a horse poo water heater and a pedal-powered washing machine.

Since the average rainfall on Tenerife is between 11 to 30 millimeters for most of the year, all water is reused. Kitchen and shower water (greywater) is filtered with natural materials like pebbles and papyrus. Toilet water (blackwater) goes through a more rigorous process of biofilters. First it goes into tanks where it is oxygenated to separate liquids and solids, then it flows into a biofilter basin which works as a hydroponic pond (gravel, water, plants but no soil). Then it goes through a biofilter basins which use gravel and papyrus to trap particles and compounds after which it is finally clean enough to water the garden.

To feed what has now become a small village of people and animals, the villagers have graduated from dumpster diving to “freeganism”: they have an established relationship with a local supermarket to collect all damaged, ugly or out-of-date food. Every day, three volunteers pick up new van loads of food, it is then sorted for humans or animals.

To be sure that nothing gets wasted, and to give back to the community, they’ve gone one step further by registering as a local food bank so they can distribute food to local low-income families and other animal sanctuaries.

Drone footage of Tenerife: @madairadventure5201

[kristimcgowandarkoscellard]

People have been deluded into thinking an “advanced society” looks like: flying cars and skyscrapers with robots and computers that do everything. But that’s not it at all!!!! This place is what an “advanced society” looks like!!! Living with and in nature!!!! Not “conquering” it and destroying everything!! I absolutely love this amazing and magical place they have created!!! If the whole world lived this way our world would be a paradise!!!
Cheers

[fabianaviotticoach]

I lived in this amazing community for 2 months and I can confirm that it is a great way to live sustainably. There are also many more things happening that aren’t mentioned in this video!
This place will always be in my heart as well as the people I shared the experience with ❤

If you can support them in any way, please do 🙏🏻

[jaegrant]

It's not just a horse rescue. It's a haven for humanity 😊❤

[DaliwolfBacon]

What a beautiful community of people living with the land, not dominating the land. We all should live so mindfully!

[wendysalter]

God bless all these loving and kind and hard-working people/family. I wish them continued success and prosperity and health and happiness.

[billy]

Put up nets to catch the condensation, they do it in deserts.

[jameshatton]

This is 100% how people are meant to live! Reusing and making their own stuff. It's wholesome and it's empowering! Hearing that guy speak about how he learnt to tile was amazing! Such respect

[brendandbarry]

They are so resourceful…it’s really impressive.

[the_Mrs.]

This reminds me of the hippy communes in the 70s in the US. I witnessed firsthand. Always like this in the beginning… cooperative, ground-breaking, and intentional. Just beware the trap of hierarchy and success. Money & power ruin good intentions. Stay humble my friends. 🙏

[whooshr]

I didn’t want this episode to end! Thank you so much Kirsten…seeing this community in action fills me up. I’d love to see even more “behind the scenes” of this magical place and to hear more of the volunteers and workers stories and experiences of living and working at the Tenerife horse rescue.

[littlenest]

That washing machine should be in gyms! 😁

[scocassovegetus]

For water, all they need is to take water from the ocean, then using the sunshine and some recycled panes of glass to create a type of greenhouse where the water is heated by the sun and the evaporated water collects on the glass which is angled down so the condensation trickles down into a catchment trough, like a plastic pipe cut in half, and the water travels along that into a water storage tank. The leftover salt can be collected and used or even sold as sea salt, if they use a Food Safe system of making it in stainless steel trays or whatever is required it could be packaged as Tenerife Sea Salt, "Buy this salt to help support the animal sanctuary."

[ferminmorales]

45 strangers living rough + gov't social budget = homelessness problem. 45 people living rough + sense of community = off-grid village

[anitavirginillo]

The world desperately needs more people like this. Thank you for saving the animals.Much love always.

[ennoci]

What a beautiful example of a thriving community. The animals look so healthy and happy. Bless you all.

[PropheticCoachTheresa]

Caring for animals as the foundation clearly sets the loving tone in this community 💞

[NaomiRuthHouldsworth]

So happy that you have shown Tenerife Horse Rescue and Emma and Edo! They are doing an amazing job here. Greetings from Tenerife!

[user_r]

I purposely don't skip ads to support the channel
Just loved your content
I am from India here people going for sustainability are very low on yt space.
But you have made an everlasting impression on my mind
Thx kristen

[robinsouth]

I really enjoyed this video, it could have been a 2 to 3 part video. I would have loved to see more of it.

[lancedaniels]

Thanks for posting and sharing. Very nice to see.