WWOOFING ADVENTURE II: Gut Kappel, Great Impression

It has been awhile since my last communication. This is due to our seven + week learning visit with a beautiful couple at Gut Kappel (Good Chapel). A “little farm” about 300 years old and use to have a chapel. I am not sure if I can ever get used to seeing houses that are 300+ years old, amazing really, I feel safe knowing that the Germans build to last. 

It is funny, we left the last place wondering how or if we could afford to “make it” as full time farmers, to wondering if we have enough start-up money or drive to be full timers. Gut Kappel has been a grateful experience, they have about 4000 Naturland laying hens as their main production, along with, turkeys, broiler (cooking) chickens, cows, pigs and a what it seems to be two other business enterprises, delivering other farmer’s eggs twice a week and buying and reselling regional speciality products such as wurst, cheeses, milk, honey, jams and breads at the local markets. Wow, they are busy and of course they have employees, but it definitely puts it in perspective on what we are aiming for...A quality sustainable lifestyle for us as a family, our animals that we care for and Earth. 

I see us more as earth carers and not just using the land and animals for only our benefit. We want to work and care for them - this includes raising and killing chickens if we want to eat them - there is a humane way to raise and kill a chicken - hence the photo of Thorsten helping prepare. It has come to our thoughts of joining with another like-minded family to ease the financial stress and be able to share the workload. It is hard, demanding and time consuming it is definitely not the lifestyle for the faint hearted. It is a lifestyle not just another job. 

And well, Liljana just loves everything about it! She will run the place before she is potty trained, I think...

I have been a bit more restricted on this farm with the repetitive learning than Thorsten. Mainly due to caring for Liljana and their stricter policies on where she is allowed to access. With good reason, of course this is a much bigger enterprise and more income dependent than the last place.  However, I have had plenty of learning opportunities as well, like collecting eggs, which is approximately 990-1100 per stable per day! Helping pluck feathers on slaughtering day, sorting eggs, going on delivery/pick up tour, helping prepare cheeses and setting up for the market, driving a tractor (one of my favourites, I must admit!) and painting like I have never painted before (including giant happy chickens on doors)! I think I could get a certification as a professional farm painter and make my mark with green and brown doors with happy farm animals for everyone. I truly think these folks do have happy healthy chickens, you can really see that that care for their animals which is a nice thing to experience.  

                                                   

Thorsten speaks the language and therefore obtains much more valuable information through conversation, which will benefit us both. I am struggling a bit in that department and made some funny mistakes, like putting asparagus shavings in pea soup instead of it being for two separate soups...oh well. I think the best was saying "Ichhohnchen" translating as "I little horned thing" instead of "Eischhohnchen" which means "squirrel". You can see how one can get it confused...I probably never spelled them right either, for the German speakers out there reading my blog may get additional laughs or not...I at least like to think I entertain the Germans with their own language and my version of it! Something I have come to take light-hearted because it would not be so fun to learn if I never. 

Another great thing to mention is that we are both happy with the work and lifestyle potential farming has. It is quite satisfying at the end of a long hard day and looking upon the rolling hills and listening to the birds sing and not cars yelling. Liljana loves to be around all the animals and makes sure to feed the chickens grass, taste test the dog food for quality, and mooo at the cows to say hello. 









Challenges come both physically and mentally but I believe as long as we look at each other at the end of the day, smile, feel satisfied and it feels right in the heart and soul then we can overcome the challenges one chicken at a time. 

Our first WWOOFING Experience: Ehrenberg, Germany

Our adventure has begun. We drove east from Darmstadt (near Frankfurt) for five hours almost to the Czech border to a little place called Ehrenberg.

Upon arrival, we were not sure what to expect but the living arrangement was surprisingly pleasant. Not luxurious in any sense but comfortable and dry. Liljana got comfortable pretty quick and tearing the place apart everyday was routine! At first, I was disappointed and a little concerned with my lack of excitement but was relieved after my first day of hard labour that a sense of accomplishment came over me as I went to the chicken house to greet my husband collecting eggs.

After a fews days of working I felt more and more satisfied with how things are. The family is lovely and hearty, the food is delicious and being outside, having tasks to do is just great. The best Liljana, so happy playing outside getting dirty and learning new animal sounds first handed. Our shack is cozier everyday and the warmth from the woodstove makes it a home. It is starting to open my eyes on living with less and no desire to get more. It is also satisfying to not be connected, no television, little internet and little noise other than the sounds from the rooster letting everyone know that daylight has come again.

Collecting eggs is something I can see doing myself. It was hard the first time as you have to get use to the curious chickens being happy to peck at my hand, shoes and pants. The thing I never liked was having to disturb the hens and take the eggs from under them. It was something I accepted but I felt like a sneaky fox taking more than my share. However, it is good when you know that they live a much better life than many chickens and allowing them to be chickens and not caged animals in horrible conditions is nice. Last thing, don’t forget to thank the chickens!

The two weeks went by so fast and each day felt refreshing as we were to work six hours, Monday to Friday and I did not mind. It was a good experience full of learnings and reflections to take in for our new beginning. We have planted our seeds, we just need to give ourselves love, air and water to begin to grow. 

The Amish got it right...

We have 18 days left in Australia before we venture to Germany! Wow. I still cannot believe it and cannot wait. Packing our lives away in boxes, one by one, memories put away for later. We are downsizing big time, the good will can survive off of us for awhile! It is amazing how much unnecessary stuff you collect and hold onto. Too much consumerism for my liking.

I long for nature. It is where I feel at peace. I cannot think of a better way to connect to mother earth than to look after her. In a way, the Amish got it right. I am by no means a hard core Christian but how they connect with one another as one in a community, where everyone has a place and their help is needed and appreciated, how they live off the land and make everything by hand. There is a real sense of belonging in the most simplest form. In a way I do not want to get my hopes up in case we do not succeed as farmers but part of me dearly desires to drop the city life and find people who desire simplicity as well.

There is one soul in the universe and everyone has their part to take care of, it is time I listen to mine, quiet the mind, silence the stress.

I will try and write again soon. Have been busy with life but I am trying my hardest to document our life change.

Do you like your coffee black? How about your beans?

This week I feel, my husband and I took a dive in the water head first together. We officially both resigned our "corporate" jobs. It is funny how your view on life changes. My goal coming out of university was to get a good paying job as a geologist, get recognized for my hard work and get promoted. I don't think I can be further away from that now.

In my prep work for business value adding ideas, I have been trying some ideas. Mainly because my husband is very good at reading attentively and I do not have the attention span at the moment to finish a book. Instead, this weekend I tried to roast my own coffee beans. They are drinkable and they are definitely roasted. I even took pictures for this blog, like the professionals so I could share my excellent work to the world. Well I have pictures and in addition I had an angry baby who I woke up too early from her nap and a grumpy hungry husband who thought I was making lunch while he napped with the baby! But this will not stop me, I will try again this weekend and every weekend until I get a cup of coffee that I am happy to share with my friends.

I am so procrastinating on the book list I said I would post since two blogs ago because I actually don't know where we packed them and I do not know all of the authors by memory. When I do find them they will be listed nice and neatly :) 

One step closer to Germany!

Yesterday I put in my resignation in at work! One step closer to our life change. It is an exciting and scary feeling at the same time. Part of me is relieved that my corporate time is coming to an end and the other part is freaked out about the unknown ahead. 

All the planning in moving overseas is stressful but not my first time. However last time I had a job and a company to help me with the move. Also, moving to Germany or any country that you do not speak the language will be tough. 

Our rental house is getting sparser and sparser as we often joke that we would be unaware if we have been robbed when we walk in. Everyday is closer to our move date and closer to our new life path. If there was ever a fork in the road this is certainly a change in our direction. 

As preparation to get our minds into farming and starting our own business we read a few books...Well to be honest my husband read more than me but I am trying to catch up. One of the most influential farmers we came across in our research is Joel Salatin (http://www.polyfacefarms.com). This guy deserves a whole blog topic on his own and in some future one, I will. 

That is it for now, I will provide a book list soon! 

Welcome to the New Year...We survived so far.

It has been some time since I last posted a blog. Mainly because I went back to work as well as looking after our daughter who is a happy and active 18 months old. The other reason is that I had to think about where I wanted to take this blog...as a mom or as a individual. I chose to change the name, not that I am sure anyone would really notice as it does not look I am that popular according to google statistics, but none the less I sort of want to redirect the focus of this blog. 

Background

My husband and I both have excellent jobs in a pretty awesome part of the world; a place where I could only dream of as a child as the ultimate place to live...where it is always sunny, sandy beaches at your front door, nice people, easy living...This is Australia, mate. 

But we are not quite settled...Why? If you think of life and how you would see yourself as successful, I feel we are fortunate enough to tick at least some of those boxes. Yet, we kept asking ourselves why are we not satisfied? One of the conclusions I have come to is that life is a bit too easy. Definitely not something I like to admit as I know how many people struggle and suffer throughout the world and how many people work hard, like we did to get where we are today. Taboo to say this or not, it is the truth. 

I worked so hard to get where I am today only to realize it is not what I need to satisfy me in this life. I feel anxious, stressed over things I never thought I would care about and it took me awhile to understand that it is because I am trying to fit where I do not belong. My soul is crying out to be set free, to fulfil a purpose, to help others and connect to Earth. I just cannot stay and watch my life pass me by so I have to do something. 

My perspective

I feel like I am trapped in one of those 50s television series where life is great and their are only little problems like the dog has a water hose attached to him and he runs in the house and somebody walks in with a cake unaware of the situation, slips and the cake falls on their head...basically problems to keep the watcher entertained. 

However, neither one of us can stomach the thought of working in an office for the rest of our lives to pay a mortgage on a house that we settled for because it was all we could afford and spending all of our hard earned savings on a trip to see our family overseas only to return to the mundane life of office work to pay the banks for a house that we call home and a whole lot of extra interest on top because they were so nice to buy our home for us. And why? Because we did not want to have to pay someone else's mortgage, we wanted something we could work on, something we could call our own, that is what our parents taught us to do, that is the norm, that is what I dreamed of doing as a kid right? hell no. 

I do stress that I do not judge people for above being their ideal life. This is not meant to offend or look down on people interested in that life path, this is just an insight to ours and merely just an alternative perspective. 

The Point

This leads to the purpose of this blog, well at least for the next year...to document our breaking out from the Matrix. Our goal is to get a little farm in Germany and attempt to be self employed and ultimately self sufficient. The plan so far:

1. To read heaps of books on farming and business. CHECK
2. To sell most of our belongings and ship minimal to Germany. Working progress. we are running out of places to sit.
3. To quit/take long unpaid service from our jobs and go WWOOFING (http://www.wwoof.org) for three seasons in Germany. Starting March this year.
4. Come back and work for six to eight months, digest what we learnt and plan the next attack.
5. TBD

This is a slow and uncertain plan but this is our plan so far. My parents are supportive but think we are crazy, our friends thought we were bluffing, and I believe reality has yet to sink in for me even when I talk about it I think am I really saying this?

The Reason

There are a few reasons for this life change, some are logical, like our parents are getting older and our siblings are having kids and we want to be apart of that. Other reasons are selfish in that we want to make the best of the short time we have in our hosts' beings lifetime in a way we see as ideal. Finally, we want to be apart of healing the Earth, even if we can only afford a small patch of land to nurture and feed only a small number of people good and happy food, it is a start. This last reason/connection is the main drive. 

Outlook

I am not saying we are going to be successful at it, or that it is going to be a holiday, or that we won't go back to our jobs and be thankful for them. I do not know the outcome and I guess this is the fun in documenting it. 

Next time I share the books we read or are still reading...And if you are intrigued please stay tuned as their will be more. Whenever I get time to write.  

To buy or to make...It is your choice, even if they tell you it isn't

Hello Everyone,

I have been meaning to provide information on meats and material items in a local and organic sort of way but I got a bit side tracked in researching how to become more independent from the grips of major cooperations.

It is funny how life pulls you in directions and before you know it you immersed in information that you never realized you were following in the first place. I believe it is a higher collective conscience letting you know that you are on the right path and it guides you in the right direction if you are open to it. That is how I feel this week in sharing this topic with you.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to the radio about a women who runs the website: http://www.cheapskates.com.au she reckons she saved around $100 000 in the last 15-20years just by making things from scratch, on her website she has a recipe for washing powder that cost less than $10 and lasts for over six months!

After this little incident of what I thought of listening to something interesting on the radio but nothing really significant, my husband and I managed to watch a couple of documentaries, Food Inc and Thrive, which we have been told would be in our interest and stumbled across a french film 99 Francs on SBS on Friday. You may have already seen them (if you haven't you should) but all three helped tie into my train of thoughts.

Anyway, I am not going into details about each idea helper just some quick facts from them. Both Food Inc and Thrive mention how there are only a handful of companies in charge of this globalization happening before us and how they are controlling most of the food, energy and even money we have. The movie 99 Francs mentions about how much advertising we endeavour in our lives and how much money is wasted in getting us to buy their product, so much in fact at the end of the film they say something like 10% of the money put into advertising can supply food to the starving.

Long path to thought but I wanted to share my pathway of thinking of why do we succumb to buying a lot of our items pre made? When did we not have enough time in our busy lives to make soap, peanut butter, bake bread...and yet have time for watching TV, spending countless hours behind our computer. It is by choice, right? I feel advertising always sell things by making it sound like you have choice. Which you do to a certain degree, right?

Our culture, has come to believe that making things from scratch is difficult if not impossible with all the ingredients that we would need and time, it is just not practical. We have also come to believe that watching TV and going the computer is a relaxing activity, something you think of as leisure is curling up on the couch watching a movie...a TV series...checking email...shopping online for better deals and so on. Why? Since when?

Again, I know I like a good documentary or movie that is how I got here with this topic in the first place. But all the time? Everyday? Maybe not so necessary. These large cooperations supply a great portion of the food you buy, use money in your bank accounts to make them more money and invest billions of dollars into making you believe that you needed to buy new shoes when you already have at least two pairs that serve the same purpose, and that making your own products from scratch is too much work after a long day and not fun to do. It is all about selling and selling well being in life for them, eat this to be healthier, wear these they are more comfortable, use this to make things easier...

I for one, have too many pairs of shoes, it is embarrassing to think about it and add up the dollars and think where I could of helped out someone better, bought something more important or just saved more money. The thing that ticks me off most is being suckered into buying something and then being let down by its performance and then buying it again but more expensive thinking that it must of been a quality thing. huh...hard to think about. This will come up in my first product review once I get time to write it...

I am not trying to give everyone the guilts, I am just trying to lift the veil and make you more aware of the grip these cooperations have on us in every direction.

For example, Facebook on the right hand corner of my screen let me know about the great deal on baby items and that one of my friend's "like" this. What? FB is aware that I have a baby? Intelligent advertising, no? I bet my wonderful single friends are not receiving advertising about baby product sales and maybe advertising on deals for a tropical vacation. I wonder if I put in my status that I had a cold and needed to lose a couple of kilos that the advertising on the right would provide me with cold and flu remedies (pharmaceutical of course) and weight loss solutions?

Interesting food for thought...Making your own products actually sounds like fun and you know exactly what you put in it, how much you put in it and it feels good when you finished it. There is nothing more satisfying then seeing the result of your own work. I want to try and make my own soap and peanut butter, two things I would never think I could do. How about you? What do you make on your own or would like trying to make on your own? How much money can you save for the hour or so investment of time into making something on your own? Let me know, I would love to hear about it.

That is it for today, hope you enjoyed...

Stay Healthy, Stay Green, Be Happy.