Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Michelle Silva <cosmobaby@verizon.net>]

WWOOF- stands for "World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms". We've only recently joined and have had three sets of WWOOFERS so far, one from France, a couple from Belgium and a woman from Germany.
As long as you communicate and have a true exchange, where both parties feel they are mutually benefiting/learning whatever it can be a wonderful experience..things have worked out well so far!

Michelle Silva
Sarasota, Fl
www.passionforproduce.net

---

From: Andeanfx <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sun, December 26, 2010 6:09:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] current financial

I have a pretty good idea what a WWOOFer is but what do the letters actually
represent?


I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually
happened. -- Mark Twain


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2010 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] current financial


>
> Fascinating about the problem with Xmas and with WWOOFers. We see some
> people buy a live tree and plant it outdoors for a Xmas tree. I suspect
> the problem with WWOOFers is even worse with hosts that don't really have
> much to teach and just need grunt work done. And suspect for some it's
> just a brief break from college.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 12/25/2010 at 6:12 PM John D'hondt wrote:
>
>>From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
>>> Sure, add more. We're not in the city anymore, not isolated but too far
>>> from stores to bicycle and if predictions hold horses will be very
>>> expensive. Rural or city, my best guess is too many things will start
>>> getting too expensive in a matter of months - and hope I never see it.
>>Gas
>>> #1, food a close second. I don't quite like the word crash because it
>>> sounds too all or nothing. It appears this slow motion economic
>>> contraction is irreversible for multiple reasons. And what we're seeing
>>> already is desperate cuts in several state and city budgets, loss of
>>many
>>> social services and safety nets - and some pension defaults dead ahead.
>>> So it looks like gradual worsening of family finances and a lot of big
>>> bumps in the road, more downhill than uphill. With local networking
>>pretty
>>> iffy for many of us the Internet is a poor substitute. Still it's nice
>>to
>>> be able to communicate over vast distances with so many.
>>
>>At the very moment there must be thousands of horses, definitely in
>>Ireland,
>>looking for a home for next to nothing.
>>But whether it is a good idea to get one is another question. Horses do
>>not
>>need to get shoed. They can be made used to working without expensive
>>blacksmith work. But to be useful they will need some harness; collar with
>>haimses, straddle and bridgins, head collar and bit and at least a cart
>>which people will find much more expensive than buying even a trained
>>horse.
>>I could buy at least 20 good horses here now for the price of one new neck
>>collar. But I won't do that for I got a few already each with their own
>>harness for the leather has to fit the horse.
>>Working with a horse also requires a learning curve from the owner. It is
>>not quite as easy as driving a tractor and if you try to drive horse and
>>cart like a tractor you are likely to loose the cart the first time you
>>drive in or out of a field that has a gate or pillars.
>>Good to know also is that a big horse,16 hands and up, will likely eat as
>>much as two cows. In my location a horse that size needs about 2 acres of
>>grazing to survive for the year. But luckily there are small pony races
>>that
>>pound for pound out-pull the big ones.
>>
>>As to networking in a basically hostile neighborhood....it is hard enough
>>to
>>keep going with what we have been doing for over twenty years. I reared
>>four
>>fantastic children and thaught them all the jobs going to survive and then
>>the three oldest found a mate that wanted something else from life leaving
>>us a bit understaffed at most times. I then tried to find maybe a wwoofer
>>or
>>two who could fit in what we are doing here. Must have had a hundred over
>>the last few years and found half a dozen who would fit in. Unfortunately
>>these all have a goal in life, know what they want and have plenty of
>>drive
>>to get it. They came here for a limited time to learn something specific
>>and
>>left.                                                  . A few
>>of these wanted to stay but they would have destroyed us if we had let
>>them.
>>I then advertised to get a young family here offering to share everything
>>we
>>have, plenty of food, a dry roof over the head a chance to live with and
>>in
>>nature. No takers. Nada. Well I suppose this might be even more tricky
>>than
>>finding a good single person.
>>Most people still can't see what is coming and that is that.
>>>
>>> Without kids at home we don't really do Xmas or shopping with the
>>madding
>>> crowd, so 25th is just another day here, and long as the ground doesn't
>>> freeze I can get some more wheelbarrow work done. The next two months
>>> won't let me do much with the garden.
>>>
>>
>>It is the same here Paul even if we do have some adult children and even
>>some small grand children not too far off. A long time ago when we were
>>still in suburban Belgium we were part of a neighborhood group of young
>>parents. There are about a dozen couples and a few singles who apart from
>>mutual help all the time came together once a month to talk openly and in
>>complete honesty about a particular subject. One month that was about Xmas
>>and all the hype surrounding it. We found to our surprise that just about
>>everybody there hated Xmas and everything to do with it but we all went
>>along with the mass hysteria because that was the only thing imaginable.
>>Most of us would have preferred to live with a primitive tribe along the
>>Amazon that had never heard of Xmas.
>>That two hour long meeting definitely changed the life of this family. We
>>became eccentric while thinking that all the hype was not necessary unless
>>life through the year was too empty and without purpose. One can teach
>>children anything, even that once a year we have to chop down a small tree
>>and then see it die inside the house for a while. You can also teach
>>children that a 60 foot tall living tree outside is something else again
>>and
>>that there needs to be a very good and better reason than "everybody does
>>it" to kill a tree.
>>
>>End of rant, all the best for the new year,
>>john
>>
>>
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>
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