First off, apologies for the long silence.
Secondly, I am thriving in the midst of chaos here in Franklin, on
Celia's permaculture haven where we're starting a permaculture design
course today with thirteen people plus six kids, five volunteers, one
wwoofer and assorted poultry and dogs. It's fantastic! I get to cook
loads of delicious food and appreciate the morning sunrise over the
Huon river.
Let me describe where I'm at to start. This farm is on 15 acres of old
orchard on a green hillside overlooking the Huon River. The
East-facing house was built last year of Celerytop pine, a hardwood
specific to Tasmania (I think, anyway. I've certainly never heard of
it!). It houses four kids and one mum, plus the assorted wwoofers,
teachers, relatives and guests. Wooden floors and tall ceilings make
this feel like home to me, as well as the ensuing chaos of kids,
animals and people trying to 'get things done.' I sleep in the newly
built loft in the shed, a haven in the midst of this insanity, up a
rickety old ladder Celia got from the tip shop for $7. I do have it
all to myself, so when I get up at 5 in the morning, I'm not
disturbing anyone. I am having the most fun rising before anyone else
in the quiet dawn and watching the orange blaze over the opposite
hillside turn to the golden orb that eventually wakes everyone else. I
make tea and stand for an hour in my loft, then make more tea and do a
relaxed set of qigong partly in the kitchen, looking out over the
river (best view in the world for doing dishes), and then move outside
to the fire circle just to the side of the house as it warms up. By
the time I'm done, the kids have started feeding chooks and someone
might even be making breakfast. And then the day starts, with people
starting projects like the expansion of the poo pile (there will be 25
people or so here for two weeks, it's going to be quite a pile! And
quite a lot of compost for Celia's fruit trees!) or whipper-snippering
around the fuji orchard. We're moving the kitchen outside today, so
we'll be transporting pots and pans and finding places for them to go.
Another volunteer, Kim, who's wwoofed all around it seems – New
Zealand, Australia, Scotland – will be heading up the kitchen crew,
and I get to moonlight as whatever needs to get done. Wonderful!
There's already such a conglomeration of neat, intelligent, informed,
excited and passionate people here for the course, I'm excited to meet
the rest of the teachers and students to see what they'll be like.
Honestly, this is the crowd I dreamed about when I thought of Tasmania
and community. Here I am, here they are, and it's great. Celia is
easily involved in every happening in the little community, especially
the Living Boat Trust. It's a large warehouse-type shack at the edge
of the river, full of wooden boats in the process of creation, hanging
off their frames until they're float-worthy. Truly a beautiful place
to be, peaceful with people working with handtools.
It's getting crazy here as more kids wake and start playing a piano
and guns and eating brekky and and and...oh yeah, the course starts
today, so we'll be doing a last push to finish what we can. La de da.
