For the past few weeks I've been in NZ's Bay of Plenty, doing plenty of free labor in exchange for room, board and kiwi hospitality. Megs and Stuart are developing 10 acres in whakamarama (pronounced fuka-mara-ma) to be a commercial herb farm and also sustain the family.
Megs adn Stuart (owners) are funny folks who ditched the corperate life in London to raise their kids (Samantha 2 and Alex 5) in the fresh air and cow shit that is rural New Zealand. They are intelligent, busy and hilarious. Always swearing about something and opening a beer to celebrate something else, usually at the same time...
Farming it up
Coworker Tom and I shared a pimped out trailer, compelte with a sunset viewing porch, long drop outhouse and fire heated bath. Unfortunately, a strong Tauranga breeze blew the outhouse over which broke the bath, but we got that fixed right quickly, before anything got smelly...
Things I did, Things I learned
-planted, weeded, pruned, harvested, cooked, ate
-mulched, composted, brewed compost tea
-fed the cows, chickens, worms and children
-chainsawed, split wood, painted stuff, fixed broken stuff, built stuff
-gathered many pine cones (a throw back to my glen alpine days)
-daily easter egg hunt/egg collecting
To compliment the rugby and heavy drinking, Megs and Stuart are into natural healing and I got my first reflexology treatmetn (extensive foot massage that connects to the rest of your body, maybe...) In conclusion, I like farming, chickens are silly and someitmes it's hard to tell a pumpkin froma mleon til you eat it.
Megs adn Stuart (owners) are funny folks who ditched the corperate life in London to raise their kids (Samantha 2 and Alex 5) in the fresh air and cow shit that is rural New Zealand. They are intelligent, busy and hilarious. Always swearing about something and opening a beer to celebrate something else, usually at the same time...
Farming it up
Coworker Tom and I shared a pimped out trailer, compelte with a sunset viewing porch, long drop outhouse and fire heated bath. Unfortunately, a strong Tauranga breeze blew the outhouse over which broke the bath, but we got that fixed right quickly, before anything got smelly...
Things I did, Things I learned
-planted, weeded, pruned, harvested, cooked, ate
-mulched, composted, brewed compost tea
-fed the cows, chickens, worms and children
-chainsawed, split wood, painted stuff, fixed broken stuff, built stuff
-gathered many pine cones (a throw back to my glen alpine days)
-daily easter egg hunt/egg collecting
To compliment the rugby and heavy drinking, Megs and Stuart are into natural healing and I got my first reflexology treatmetn (extensive foot massage that connects to the rest of your body, maybe...) In conclusion, I like farming, chickens are silly and someitmes it's hard to tell a pumpkin froma mleon til you eat it.
posted by barkan at 10:23 PM
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