Life at Fay's
WWOOFing around NZ has certainly been a challenging experience, and has taught us a lot about interacting with many different personalities and lifestyles. We hadn't necessarily found a place that we felt truly connected to, until we happened upon Fay's homestead. I guess you would call it fate that brought us all together, as we all work really well together and feel perfectly at home. In fact, last night I had a dream that we went back to CT and I was missing Fay so much that she suddenly appeared while I was shopping and told me that she missed me, too. We have extend our stay here twice, and are dreading the day that we must move on.
But for now, our days are full of chicken chasing, eco-building, harvesting, lighting fires to heat the outdoor bath, eating yummy home-cooked food, and on the weekends, playing with two of Fay's grandchildren, pakea & xiau lu (pronounced pike-ia and chow-loo). The list of activities just goes on and on.
A few WWOOFers have come and gone while we have been here, including our favorite traveler, Liz, who spent countless hours in deep conversation, sharing the lessons of ancient mythologies which brought enormous insight into our journey. She also is the toughest Scrabble player we have ever met. You can see her here in two photos, one resting on the trampoline one afternoon, the other after an morning of work with Alyssa at Fay's brother's organic apple juice factory.
The most important lesson that both Steve & I have learned is how a truly permaculture-orientied homestead operates. Many of you many be unfamiliar about permaculture, so I will try to give it justice in a description....It comes from the abbreviated words "Permanent" and "Agriculture," but this is a bit of a misnomer because it is indeed ever evolving. It is the exercise of designing and running a self-sustaining eco-system with the most efficient use of every element to maximize production while minimizing impact on the environment. For example. the weeds from the garden and leftover food go to feed the chickens; the chicken manure goes into a compost that in turn is used to fertilize the garden; the sheep and the geese help to keep the seagulls away from the compost; the ducks live in the fruit orchard and eat all the little buggy pests; the fallen fruit goes back to feed all the animals; and the list goes on.... Meanwhile, we humans take a little bit of everything to eat ourselves, including fruit, veggies, eggs, and meat. We've been here for two weeks and haven't taken out the trash. Almost every by-product of our activities can be somehow utilized for something else. It takes an enormous amount of creative energy to make this a reality, but when it's a lifestyle that you're passionate about, it just doesn't feel like work.
Life here is a bit like pioneer living, as we only have outdoor toilet and bathing facilities, but it really makes us appreciate the luxuries that many people have, like hot running water that comes pouring out of your faucet. One really starts to appreciate the preciousness of our resources when they are not so readily accessible.
Steve spends most of his time working on building a greenhouse out of mostly reclaimed or recycled materials. Luckily the nails are brand new :) He has made tremendous progress on strengthening an existing structure that needed a lot of work, completing the roof, and is about to begin work on the siding. The most challenging element has been creating a cohesive structure out of the remains of three previous WWOOFers' efforts.
Alyssa runs back and forth between feeding the chickens and rabbits, preserving fruit, planting trees, collecting firewood, weeding, shoveling random things, and generally being Fay's assistant in just about anything that needs work. She even learned how to drive a tractor as you can see in the photo.
Fay has a large family that comes in an out frequently, including 2 active parents, 4 siblings, 4 children and many grandchildren. We certainly feel like part of the extended family. One thing that I have found truly inspiring is her close relationship with her neighbors, who are very valuable in this type of lifestyle. Back home, we often forget that we have a community right at our doorstep. Here, neighbors flow in an out of the house, sharing produce, tools, and many other resources. They are there to support each other when needed. This lessons is one that we will certainly take home with us, and will carry on to our own farm (fingers crossed).
Depending upon where our journey takes us next, we many end up WWOOFing at one more place for before we depart NZ, but currently are not willing to budge from this little taste of Eden.
posted by Alyssa Crouse @ 2:17 PM
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