I am busy preparing to take a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course, offered by Tom and Zaia Kendall of PermEco in Australia. It’s an online course, and even though their courses and other activities are donation-based, I have still paid what I would have paid to take the same course here in South Africa. To…
Category: Out of My Comfort Zone
A reaction to an anti-vax post… not as viciously as I would have liked
This picture was posted on Facebook, and is considered to clearly endorse the anti-vaccine agenda, judging by how it is received by people and the comments that were made. I agree with the sentiments of the original writer, but I am also going to differ radically. Let’s start… What if having a vaccine passport meant…
The Mission Goal Has Moved – Once Again!
After feeling extremely sorry for myself for all of 20 minutes, I started weighing my options: pros and cons of staying versus leaving and the different countries that make sense to me. I wrote earlier about the rudeness of some government employees. That specific country (which I won’t mention here or ever again!) has been…
Brick walls and severely lacking Parkour skills
Time for an update, methinks. I have come to the realization that all of the house restoration and backyard farming videos and blogs that I have been following were made by people coming from G8 countries. Maybe they weren’t rich themselves, but their backgrounds gave them access that I – coming from a country in…
Singhiozzo Italiano (Italian Hiccups)
EDIT: I was wrong – buying a property would make the application process easier, but it has to be a habitable property, and I suspect to a certain value, as well. So buying a €6500 fixer-upper won’t pass muster. Back to the drawing board…
Cutting the Italian Elephant into Bite-Sized Portions
With the “Botswana Idea” now well and truly in the circular file, I have decided to revisit my original plan to take my dream to Italy. It’s still a massive elephant, in many respects. Imagine discovering that your dream house has half its back wall and a big chunk of its roof missing! To…
A twist, a translation and an energy boost in (what I feel is) the right direction
First, the background. I am a 44-year-old Afrikaner woman, currently working for the local government in Rustenburg, South Africa. I would like to start a small Permaculture-based homestead/backyard farm, and as South Africa has become increasingly hostile to farmers and smallholders alike, I am seriously considering bringing my energy and resources, such as they are,…
Hooligan Incorporated
No, that’s not really the name I chose, but it should have been if you know me at all! Yes, I bowed to the Man, and am fully planning to register a Closed Corporation. It’s basically a “lite” company, in the sense that it also protects me as an individual, but is not as heavily…
Too big for the box
Let’s start off with some good news. I have found out today that I should have more than adequate funds to launch my backyard farmstead IF I take it slowly and not splurge on wants before I can safely afford them. I won’t be rich by any conventional definition of the word, but I won’t…
Committing myself to a Permaculture lifestyle: booking an online PDF course
The moment one commits oneself, it is indeed true that Providence moves, too! I have set aside the month of May to take stock of my current situation in life and design a way forward. I know where I would like to be in 5 years’ time, but until now, the path to get there…