There's a Lesson in it.

Gossip must be one of the most dangerous activities that a human can engage in. Not only is it destructive but often it is inaccurate and can cause lots of trouble for the person spreading the tale as well as the person who is being gossiped about. Recently I had occasion to see the impact of gossip on a friends relationship when she shared things with a wwoofer who she was working with in her garden. This young wwoofer then related what she had been told to a third party only to have the tale relayed to my friend’s partner who then used it as ammunition to confront his partner during one of their relationship counselling sessions. Naturally my friend freaked out and rang me as I was the one who had sent her the wwoofer and she was feeling completely betrayed by her private discussion having come back on her. So what’s the lesson? For my friend be cautious about what she shares in future when she is working alongside a wwoofer. For the wwoofer caution also in future dealings and particularly who she talks to in the future-getting involved in peoples personal relationships is very complicated at the best of times and even worse when it involves gossip. 

At the farm we haven’t had many wwoofers or helpers after several left in reaction to me or the supposed negative energy on the farm last week and that has meant I am back working in the shop in its last days. After 11 years we are closing the Old Bakehouse Market or as it is now known Queen Street Curio. We will close down at the end of April. Many past wwoofers will remember working in the shop-some more than others but everyone mostly enjoyed the experience and for those learning to speak English it was a great opportunity to improve their conversational skills.

Work continues on the community earth oven and the three kiln ovens-it is such a huge project and I am thankful to all the many international workers-wwoofers and helpX helpers who have worked on the project to get it to where it is now-I wonder why I am doing this for the local community when no one from the local community has helped build it-Maybe it means the local community is not very interested in such a project but in my heart I feel everyone in the future will be grateful to have such a facility. Anyway we keep going.

The biggest sadness of the week was the death of my daughters dog Lucy. She had an enlarged heart and after getting an infection suddenly started collapsing with heart episodes. Her death at aged 11 was a great shock and is yet another sign of how time passes and the mortality of all species.

I put some photos of interest of wwoofers who have worked on the oven and other bits and pieces. My next blog will speak about Permaculture and the Natural Farming that I try to practise on the farm following the teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka whose writings I am now re-reading-I thoroughly recommend his last book “Sowing Seeds in the Desert-Natural Farming, Global Restoration and Ultimate Food Security” and of course his first book-“The One Straw Revolution”.     

 

Willing Workers in 2014 after playing with clay earth oven

 

Kristen and others working on building the Kiln oven

 

The community earth oven with the exterior posts