Hi there Yogis,

A beautiful, wet March morning… and very wet yesterday…  

You may not have understood this, but if the world goes on cutting down trees, spraying poisons, and turning once productive land into deserts (actual deserts), we have only about 60 years of harvests big enough to support life as we know it.  What will your children and grandchildren do, how will they survive, what are you teaching them?  We can change this, and some are. By diversifying we can save the planet.   Are you?

Because I am aware of this, and want to do something, a number of things have been inspiring me lately towards a more integrated life….

1. The need to spend less time on the computer, and more time interacting personally with people – whilst earning a living.  I think I have this one solved and will reveal it to you later.

2. I have a need to become more self sufficient.  I am pretty much on the path, but need to refine my tastes, and get back to basics – another lock-down or retreat would be a good move to push me into more foraging again…..  Might do this when all the bits are in place. The hive was due this spring, but we haven’t had spring.  I will get my hive re-instated, and a couple of chooks.  Teaching knitting and crochet is part of the plan.

3. In order to get more self sufficient, I need to refurbish my garden.  Change things around, build the sleeper retainers higher, add more mulch, and get more large pots going on the verandah for the very cold weather, when nothing much is happening in the garden.  A friend of mine who rented,  had his whole herb, vegetable and fruit garden in pots.  A travelling orchard.

4.  Another larger tank is required.  I have thought about it for a long time… now I need to do it.  The small tank supplies the pond, and the pond is supplying me with more herbs, (and like it – especially since it is an integral part of garden drainage). I also need a compost tumbler.

5. I did look at solar a while back… whilst I need to be less tied to the grid, I am not sure solar is for me.  I may get a combustion cooker with a wet back.  I am used to this technology.  When I had one, my energy consumption was mainly just the council service fees..  One morning’s wood top-up supplied the water, the cooking, got rid of paper waste (which also went on the garden) and provided the heat for the house, and supplied it around the clock.  It is messy, it does take time – the time when I WONT BE ON THE COMPUTER!  Shades of “The Good Life” without the pig and goat.

COLLECT FOR FREE:  A beautiful, fully operational Singer Sewing machine in a cabinet with a box of embroidery discs. I have used it for years, and I love it.  It is metal, with metal motor parts, and a solid wood cabinet which opens to a small table. You will need help to move it and put it in your car.  The legs unscrew, so it may go in a station wagon.  Email me if you would like to come and collect it.  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

We all need to think about how we use what we have been given.  THE MOST SACRED THING WE HAVE IS CHOICE, and I have always chosen to restore a little slice of paradise every day!  It is all about love.  It is not about politics it is not about religion.  It is about what each of us can do today.  

If I take care of my world (interior as well as exterior) it will take care of me.  The picture of my front garden above is uninspiring to some – but how many of you can remember when it (and especially the backyard) was just a flat, weedy swamp which provided not one thing for the house,  and in the summer cost money to keep alive.  I planted all those trees in the photo, I drained, put down the gravel, planted herbs.  The wisteria grows on my back verandah…  My house is warm in the winter and cool in the summer – of course I have insulated at the same time… but it is a package, not just one thing.  It is constantly evolving (as am I).

You can do it too.  It just takes a plan.

IT STARTS IN YOGA, ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE