New beginnings
March 5, 2014 and the start of a new chapter. Fives have always been special in my life due to me having been born on the 5 June 1956-I like what a 5 means in numerology-change-and that in my opinion is one of life's certainties along with death and some kind of taxes. Anyway I'm starting this blog because I think it's time I publicly said what I think and in the hope that I can enter into an online teaching exchange with a wider audience than those I have taught in the past 25 years.
I live in New Zealand on a farm in the North Island one hour from Auckland on the coast in the small settlement area of Whangateau. As a practising wiccan and environmentalist I am passionate about trees and use both Permaculture design and organic methods on my farm which is called Caretaker Farm in my desire to create a sustainable forest and garden and a practical outdoor school teaching environmental studies to children from the city and English language to foreign students. I have been working on this project for the past 23 years. Three years ago I met a French man called Fabrice and since that meeting the two of us have been building a Community Earth Oven as an international project on the farm
To earn the dollars necessary to support these projects I also teach taxation Law at the University of Auckland and sometimes the two activities are difficult to balance since they seem to use different parts of the brain and my body. Currently I'm on leave to try and sort my life out, to take a break from the teaching which I have been doing for the past 13 years,to start a new career as a writer and to get the farm school (english language and environmental studies for adults and children) that I have received a resource consent for from the local government up and running as well as finishing the Whangateau community earth oven project which I started two years ago.
While all this is happening I'm living in a world where I see lots of lost people searching for some kind of meaning in the life or w they should be doing in the life or just trying to find themself. How do I know this-from the exchange I have had in the past 20 years with the more than 1,000 WWOOFERS (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) from all over the world that have stayed on the farm and the 1,000s of students that I have interacted with as a teacher at high school, of unemployed adults and university students. Meanwhile capitalism continues to dominate as the economic system in our world where the only people losing money are those who can afford to lose while the vast bulk of others continue to struggle to survive unable to find jobs despite education. further humans continue to trash the environment oblivious to the fact that they are just a species here on the planet which can well survive without them. In the end nature is the dominant force and humans need to learn this or suffer the consequences.
I have lots of strong ideas and opinions. Some people will agree with me and others won't, but no matter, the point of this blog is to get people thinking and to share my unusual life on a global scale. The plan is to write once a week detailing all the happenings on the farm and what I have been thinking about lately.
If you are interested in the Whangateau community earth oven project then you need to check out the special page on Facebook under www.facebook.com/CommunityEarthOven. If you are interested in Caretaker Farm in New Zealand then check out the website www.caretakerfarm.co.nz
I live in New Zealand on a farm in the North Island one hour from Auckland on the coast in the small settlement area of Whangateau. As a practising wiccan and environmentalist I am passionate about trees and use both Permaculture design and organic methods on my farm which is called Caretaker Farm in my desire to create a sustainable forest and garden and a practical outdoor school teaching environmental studies to children from the city and English language to foreign students. I have been working on this project for the past 23 years. Three years ago I met a French man called Fabrice and since that meeting the two of us have been building a Community Earth Oven as an international project on the farm
To earn the dollars necessary to support these projects I also teach taxation Law at the University of Auckland and sometimes the two activities are difficult to balance since they seem to use different parts of the brain and my body. Currently I'm on leave to try and sort my life out, to take a break from the teaching which I have been doing for the past 13 years,to start a new career as a writer and to get the farm school (english language and environmental studies for adults and children) that I have received a resource consent for from the local government up and running as well as finishing the Whangateau community earth oven project which I started two years ago.
While all this is happening I'm living in a world where I see lots of lost people searching for some kind of meaning in the life or w they should be doing in the life or just trying to find themself. How do I know this-from the exchange I have had in the past 20 years with the more than 1,000 WWOOFERS (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) from all over the world that have stayed on the farm and the 1,000s of students that I have interacted with as a teacher at high school, of unemployed adults and university students. Meanwhile capitalism continues to dominate as the economic system in our world where the only people losing money are those who can afford to lose while the vast bulk of others continue to struggle to survive unable to find jobs despite education. further humans continue to trash the environment oblivious to the fact that they are just a species here on the planet which can well survive without them. In the end nature is the dominant force and humans need to learn this or suffer the consequences.
I have lots of strong ideas and opinions. Some people will agree with me and others won't, but no matter, the point of this blog is to get people thinking and to share my unusual life on a global scale. The plan is to write once a week detailing all the happenings on the farm and what I have been thinking about lately.
If you are interested in the Whangateau community earth oven project then you need to check out the special page on Facebook under www.facebook.com/CommunityEarthOven. If you are interested in Caretaker Farm in New Zealand then check out the website www.caretakerfarm.co.nz
hi Audrey
ReplyDeleteThis is very good intro for your farm. A good start always indicates a promising future on the blogger! Keep it up!
Indeed, I have experienced heaps of others who are unable/unwillingly to find a job. The capitalism as mentioned is exploiting the majority and benefiting the minority; however, the communism has failed to save the world; The people who are truly seeking the solution are either ruling out or kept on what they had been doing. To the end, this might leave lots scars on the planet as well as people's hearts.