We practice attachment parenting (sometimes also known as Kangaroo Care) with Bella. She is with us 24/7 and is fed every 3-4 hrs. We forget very quickly how tiring those night feeds can be, but she is adorable. She hisses very gently when she wants milk or attention, and sucks on her pouch for comfort. Joeys are extremely clean and will not dirty their pouches unless in distress. The mummy-roo will normally lick the anus of the joey whilst she is in the pouch and cleans the pee & poo this way. We will be leaving NT next week and will unfortunately have to leave her behind. She will be going to live with Luke's mum in Katherine. We consider Luke and the mob at Speargrass family, so I guess family of family means she is still staying in the family!
Update 4th Oct 2016 : Bella was dropped off at Petrena's and now has her own little pink hanging bag…..
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It is strange staying in an organic farm but not have anything to eat from it! We are wwoofing at Michael's Organic Mango Farm in Elizabeth Valley, Nanoomah, NT. Michael lives on this 20 acre property with Madame (Amelie's new best friend), and is happily sharing his produce with the termites and wildlife. Half of the farm is bush and the other half contains 380+ mango trees and several vegetable patches. Michael is a weekend gentleman farmer; working in Darwin during the day and tending to his farm in the evenings and on weekends. Organic mango farming apparently doesn't take much work outside the harvesting season. The fruits grow on their own, with a little help from chicken manure and some mulching. During harvest, all the fruits are picked over 3 days. The science of mango farming lies here; The sap burns so the fruits need to be picked in a special way. As the fruits are exported to the eastern states, Department of Ag / Quarantine requires that they have to be blanched in hot water (the centre of the fruit needs to be at 62degrees for 10 mins) for disease control. FYI, Non-organic fruit is dipped in chemicals such as dimethoate that cannot be washed off so think twice before buying non-local, non-organic fruits and vegetables! Michael’s mango orchard has been invaded by Mastotermes Termites that are hollowing out the trees and killing them. The harvest has dropped from 10tons to less than 5tons. As it is an organic farm, nothing much can be done about the termites and Mike is just waiting it out and looking for alternative crops. I suggested using Diatomaceous Earth, but was informed that applying DE over nearly 400 trees is just not practical! Any suggestions anyone? Our big question now is, HOW DO ORGANIC COMMERCIAL FARMS CONTROL THE TERMITES, PESTS & BIRDS? I learnt all about Integrated Pest Management (i.e. : leave the pests alone and bigger animals will take care of them, and overtime, they will all manage themselves….) but I can't see how this can really work in a big farm. We spent a lot of time planting Cassavas. These are being used as sacrificial plants in hope that they will divert the attention of the termites from the mangoes. We have been experimenting with recipes; Cassava chips are yummy, but Oumou takes a little getting used too. A big thank you to Mike for his hospitality and kindness!
Unschooling is a term coined by John Holt who advocates that children are natural learners and learn best when they learn what they want, when they want with minimal adult intervention. Laura from Speargrass is a strong advocate of this and seeing how successful the system has worked for their family, I decided to do a little more research on the subject. First and foremost, Education and Learning are different things; doing well (or not) in school has little to do with learning. The earlier is about being able to answer questions in exams, the latter is about understanding and applying knowledge. According to John Holt and other research done on literacy, it takes 30hrs for a person to learn how to read; both adults and children. That is less than 2 weeks of school! The problem nowadays, is that we introduce reading to children at too early an age with "dumbed-down" material that may not be of interest to them. On top of that, we add on the complication of learning phonics and rules, and make everything so complicated that it puts them off. If we waited for the right time, the children would naturally seek to read as it is a means to an end; to be able to read things that interest them. After the basic 30hrs of instruction, they will learn to read & understand words contextually and this is later enforced through frequent exposure to the same words. I largely agree with the above. Stephan is dyslexic and we had struggled to teach him how to read since the age of 3. That was probably way too young! The therapists used phonics based methods; sounds-write program, orton-gillingham approach…. And to be honest, I don't understand any of the rules. Basically, there are too many rules and too many exceptions! By the time he had worked all that out in his head, he'd lost interest in what he was reading. About 1 year ago, we started using audio books with book support. Stephan would listen to the stories and follow the words on a hard copy book. He was able to read interesting books that would normally not be accessible to him at his reading level. This coupled with reading glasses (an optician specializing in learning difficulties found that his eyes had difficulty focusing) and Stephan is now an avid reader! Natural School of learningIn the month we spent at Speargrass, I saw how our own children have become more independent and how the older children learn and have been very impressed.
Personally, I remember little of what I learnt in school. History of the Industrial revolution? Calculas? Accounting standards? Tax Laws? I did relatively well in school but the reality is that none of what I learnt is relevant to my life now. Would I have turned out "better" if I had been given the freedom to learn on my own? I am not sure.
Even though I do not utilize the knowledge I learnt, I believe that the process of going to school and taking exams teaches us discipline, focus and the tenacity to get through whatever it takes. Life is after all not only about doing the things we want to do, and often, persevering at something that doesn't, at first glance, seem appealing often gives us an even greater sense of accomplishment when we succeed. I also fear that if our kids were unschooled, they would become too much like us. Children are products of their environment and if our kids do not go to school or have other avenues of garnering information, all the materials and information given to them will be governed by our interests and beliefs. Wouldn't this be limiting for them? There is a Democratic school movement that sounds very interesting. Children are in a school environment, but the children decide what, when, how they want to learn with the guidance from teachers. Sudbury School, Summerhill School are 2 well known schools that I am going to look further into. … Dave has been patiently explaining his farming techniques when we are out in the field. His family has been working their land this way the past 30 years; building soil fertility and maximizing harvest. Zucchini has one of the shortest crop cycles; it takes just 4 weeks from seed to harvest. 1. The soil is prepared with soil additives about 6 weeks before planting - lime (zucchinis require a ph of 6.5), blood & bone and old bird Poo (phosphate) is added. 2. Weeds are hooked out, irrigation lines laid. 3. seeds are planted about 70cm apart. 4. New plantings are watered with soluble Nitrogen and potassium. 5. Seedlings can be seen in a few days and seasol solution (phosphorus) is given to help root production. 6. At 4 weeks, the plants are ready to be harvested and will bear fruit for approx 10 weeks. 7. Fruits have to be picked daily as they grow very quickly. The process is scientific with almost 100% success rate. I am currently inclined towards following Fukuoka's No-work farming technique so am a little at odds with the system here. That being said, we are very grateful to Dave for all he has taught and shared with us. His passion for farming, dedication and hardwork has been inspirational. Notes from the field (I am recapitulating this from memory, so it might not be correct…..) 1. watermelons require a ph of 5.5, pumpkins 6, zucchini & the cucumbit family 6.5, nightshade family (tomatoes, capsicums, chilli, potatoes) 8. 2. NPK in short : Nitrogen -> big green leaves; Phosphorus -> deep roots; ; K Potassium-> flowers & fruit 3. Grow green manure in between planting seasons using Sorghum (mass) and cow-pea (nitrogen fixing). Super Dave & his cattle
We finally mustered the courage to leave our little bubble in Speargrass. We were supposed to be learning about farming, so decided that a stint in a real commercial farm might be necessary. David & Theresa make a living growing and selling vegetables, but the operations are in no way industrial. They have a 160 acre property outside Batchelor but only a small area is being utilized and the crops are being rotated every 4 years. We did our first few days in the fields harvesting Zuchinni, tomatoes, watermelon & Kale. It is back-breaking work and I am in awe at how courageous and hardworking they are. Theresa is 7 months pregnant and they are juggling looking after Emma, their 2 year old, farming and building their house. It is overwhelming. The "not perfect" vegetables are given to the animals…. Boxes and boxes …... A good watermelon – sunburnt on the top, turning yellow at the bottom with a slight tinge of grey dew and makes a musical "thump" when tapped. During our afternoon off, Benoit, Stephan and fellow wwoofer, Marion, built a shelter for the generator. Swimming in nearby Florence Falls and Bulley Waterholes.
My relationship with meat has been put to the test these past few weeks. Our friends at Speargrass Farm are Hunter Gatherers; They eat what they grow and kill and are pretty heavy meat eaters. I had not been eating meat for a while and there are countless reasons for not doing so; It is cruel to kill animals, farmed animals are kept in deplorable conditions, it is unhealthy to eat meat, it is environmentally unfriendly to rear animals for food, meat has large amounts of antibiotics and hormones, eating meat makes me feel heavy, bloated and unwell and so and so… On a micro-level at Speargrass, eating meat makes sense though. It is an ethical intelligent healthy process that is essential to them living a sustainable self-sufficient life - Animals that are reared on the farm are happy, healthy and loved - Only good-sized adult male animals are hunted - A “prayer” or thanks is given to the animal - The animal is killed quickly and cleanly - Every part of the animal is utilized - And Laura cooks deliciously….. Making LeatherI decided that I would work on the skin of the kangaroo that we killed last week and make some leather under Luke’s guidance. It is quite a yucky process; The rotting meat, the smells, the flies… But I overcame my initial revulsion and fleshed a kangaroo & goat over 4 days.
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