Mandrova House

They rolled up their sleeves and started working.

With the decision to use the best know-how from the past and 
combine it with modern knowledge, they embarked on a possibly treacherous journey.

The path was still a bit foggy for them, but the goal was crystal clear – to live in nature and with nature, totally sustainable and with their own food supply. They embarked on a satisfying life path of typical cottagers.

With an open mind and heart they started learning carpentry from the older masters of the art around them and introduced modern principles of regenerative farming to their land. 

Sceptics at the beginning, the locals were impressed with their learning  hunger and perseverance.

Systematically, they revived the traditional treatment of wood with some help from an 88-year old Mr. Anzeljc. 

He was the last professional carpenter in the area before wood handling was left to the machines after WWII.

When Mr. Anzeljc realized their motives were pure and their hunger for
knowledge was real, he even gave the carpenter’s most precious tool, the
plenkača axe, to Aljaž.

“A tool box and a pile of drying wood is what makes our dreams come true”, Aljaž says. Some of their tools are probably a century old.

Anything they found in the old building or in its surroundings, they used for and in their new house. 

Old windows were used as a greenhouse for the poultry and plant seedlings. Old wood was reclaimed and reused with great love. Eva and Aljaž even left the beams’ nail holes intact, honouring the history of old wood.

The only way to revive the tradition was by actually doing it. So, every bit of wood in the house was manually and, above all, lovingly processed.

“The wood is alive and you have to let it be as it wants to be. With wood, nothing is ever perfectly perpendicular and we prefer that.”

Yes, in Mandrova House, wood is worshipped. Now, after their house
is finished, Eva and Aljaž are able to make wood products, using only hand tools. 

The tree behind the house can – with some time and a lot of hard work – become just about anything: a new wall, a bench, a greenhouse,...

Only a few things in their home were bought. And even that was done with honouring the tradition. 

The wood-burning stove is modern, but designed the same as those centuries ago. It is the only heat source in the house, it bakes the bread, cooks the soup and dries the moist socks in the cold winter.

By all means, winters here are truly fierce. 

Just a few kilometres away is the absolute coldest place in Slovenia, where the lowest temperature measured was -34.5 degrees Celsius.

Thus, Eva’s and Aljaž’s growing season in the garden is extremely short. Despite that, they are able to be highly self-sufficient.

Using the method of regenerative production, they produce a significant proportion of food. 

They enrich the living layer of the soil with organic matter from their animals, cooperating with them.

“We observe them,” says Eva, “and try to figure out what they need. If we give them the best, they return that tenfold.” 

Broilers are a mobile fertilizer and mowers that contribute important microorganisms to the soil and thus revive biodiversity. Hens are willing accomplices in compost mixing.

Pigs are surface looseners, transforming the spruce forest into a pasture.

Now, Eva and Aljaž share a bit of their lifestyle and knowledge with others.

By organizing wood construction and regenerative 
self-sufficiency workshops, they spread their knowledge and create a community of people who want to live differently.