Gearing up for something BIG

July 28,

At the moment, I find myself welcome at a wonderful place with alot of soul.  Toi Toi Manawa is a 90 acre permaculture centre run by two enthusiastic organic farmers, Kailea and Andy.

Tonight I happened to haggle with a hunter, and chucked a massive wild boar in the car, and now it's hanging on a willow tree outside, waiting to be butchered in the morning.  By this time tomorrow, it shall become HELLA MEAT and provide heaps of delicious, wild-boar flavoured protein for the next few months.  I hope by consuming this beast, I may absorb it's tenacity and ability to forage in the woods.

Anywho, this month has been interesting.  Alot has happened, many things have changed, and in just a few days I'll be off to a freaking Orangutan Sanctuary in the middle of Indonesia (WUUUT!).  I'll talk more about that later.

So a little more than a month ago, I decided to head south, and do my duty to upload gigs of videos in Christchurch for the permaculture conference, as well as finish my fundraiser video.  Though there were 100 reasons to stay up North, I was called down South, and down South I went.  It was only fitting that on the way back, I ran into all the permaculture crew at Awhi Farm in Turangi (Including Jo, Brian, Georgie, Kelvin, Matua, and a few others).  We had a massive meal, they said goodbye to me, and off I went.

Unfortunately, the dreaded stomach flu hit me mysteriously, and I spent several days moaning around Wellington, and nearly crapping my pants on the ferry back towards Christchurch.  Luckily, I made it back to Ilam in one piece (without crap pants).

What stomach flu does to a man

It took me about a week to recover from the Ol' stomach flu, because it stealthily creeps back if you don't starve yourself for three days.  Luckily, I souped my way back to health, and quickly got in to the swing of fitness again.  Despite all the amazing organic food I've had, I felt lazy and sluggish up in the North Island because I wasn't exercising for a few hours a week. Doesn't matter how well you eat, if you don't get out and exercise, you'll stay in lazytown with the fatties, and I ain't one of them.

Silly Random Story:

Rich and I decided to take a break from our odd jobs and do some location scouting for his film at a park Wildlife Sanctuary.  As I walked down the main path, I looked to my right, and saw what appeared to be people...naked people.  Turns out it wasn't just people, it was old people...having what I guess was their bi-monthly forest sex.  It was an awkward moment of eye contact to say the least.


Back to "Normal":
A strange thing happens when you leave all these amazing permaculture places, you feel like you have been pulled away from something important.  Though I was utterly grateful that my friend Rich let me stay at his place for a month, I felt that I was putting my life on hold by staying in Christchurch for too long.    It's an amazing city for students and construction workers, but my journey lies elsewhere, and I felt the need to get on up out of there, and get back to permaculture.

I've seen the promise land, and it is filled with Biochar!

However, before I could do that, I needed to finish my big fundraiser video, and what is that you ask?

Next month, I am going to Ketapang Indonesia to work at an Orangutan Sanctuary, and I intend to give something great to these Orangutans, and the people who care for them.  Earlier in the year, International Animal Rescue accepted me to work at their center in Ketapang, Indonesia, and when you get that chance...there is no way to turn it down, especially considering how threatened Orangutans are.

 I'm going to fight to make sure my fundraiser is successful, because I want to do something real to help the Orangutans at the centre.   I won't make any money off of it, and won't make back my travel costs anytime soon, but that is what service is all about, giving and expecting nothing in return.  What I want to do with my fundraiser is leave the Orangutans and the people that care for them a gift that will ensure their ongoing care.  If I do one thing good this year, I hope this will be it.

The Big Orangutan Fundraiser

The One downside about going to the Borneo rainforest is the 14 SHOTS you need to get.  Though I don't mind vaccines, my arm felt like a pincushion, and those shots aren't cheap. Neither is the Anti-Malaria meds (Malarone).





After two weeks of Phelpsing' out at the  local swimming hole I started to make my way around to planting Rich and Ness's backyard garden, though it's a pretty ghetto-licious design.  Maybe after a few months away from Christchurch, I will know if I'm a master garden planner, or a garden destroyer, depends on the strawberries planted in the strawberry tire.






                   Fun Fact (urinating near a lemon tree for several months will make it grow monstrously huge, a good third world fertiliser technique)


Note to folks, the lemon party technique will not be used with any permaculture consulting I'm involved with in the future.








So off I headed to Toi Toi Manawa, and I was delightfully surprised by what I found.  Toi Toi Manawa at this stage is basically a blank canvas for what is to be an incredible Permaculture Education Center.  The main building is incredibly well built and insulated (a first in New Zealand), there are two massive compost toilets, plenty of shipping container rooms for students to sleep in, and 90 acres of land to experiment on.  Though I've wanted to plant Shitake Mushrooms here, I decided to research using Biochar on the property instead.  Pretty pleased with the 10 year Biochar plan I typed up for the center.
Toi Toi Manawa

You don't realise how much you need the outdoors till you've left it, and come back again.  It feels good working outdoors, using your hands and your brain to improve the landscape, one small step at a time.  Though work with business and film requires incredibly fast paced coordinating to get right, work on a market garden requires persistence, patience, love, and observation.




 I think we need more of that, and less people racing to an early grave surrounded by a pile of real estate investments, like this guy:

Shelllldnnnnngg

Though I've been trying not to read to much news, it's absolutely insane looking at what's going on in the state.  DROUGHT across the entire continent.  Colorado is on fire.  It's mind-numbing and enraging that the politicians who's states are ON FIRE do everything they can to say "climate change is a hoax".

US POLITICS:


Don't even get me started on the U.S. Elections.  Though I'm hoping all of congress is throne into the hole in The Dark Knight Rises, I'd rather vote for the disappointing Obamanator over SATAN CHILD EATING MITT ROMNEY.

Romney laughing at burning Mountain Gorillas

I don't think I need to say anything about this guy...  He says climate change is a hoax.  He's a massive tool.  He keeps his family in an Mormon compound, He says 'corporations are people', he believes woman should be controlled by men and abortion should be outlawed, his company destroyed lives.... AND he's a creepy, plastic, hypocritic figure head of corporate fascism.

Meanwhile, Obama is busy schmoozing out with bald-headed real estate investors who pour champagne on him, but I'd still vote Obama over Mitt Beelzibub Romney.







Though I am utterly content experimenting up here at Toi Toi Manawa...I had to go back and see the new Batman movie...'Dark Batman Knight who Rises' or whatever it's called.  It's an unknown, small budget indie film that just came out.

  I'm embarrassed to say it, I kind of got tears in my eyes at the end of the film.  It felt like seeing Star Wars for the first time.  Plus Bane shot up the Stock Exchange, which was awesome.

Though some people said the movie was Anti-Occupy, I think Nolan snuck in some insanely obvious jabs at slimy stock market traders, cops, insane rich folk and middle eastern women?!
Anyway, in one scene, two stock market traders are moaning about not getting the right rye-pastrami sandwich, then one of them gets shot in the face...comedy gold.

Well, it's about time for me to get the heck off of this computer.  By this time 7 days from now, I'll be in the middle of Borneo, blogging about my sensuous experiences with Orangutans...but in all seriousness, according to Willie Smitts, they'll stare into my soul, and instantly know whether I'm not a good person.  Hopefully I'll pass the Orangutan test.

-Raleigh

The Permaculture DESIGN COURSE!

May 30 2012, Te Moata, Tirua, New Zealand

You know you've found something good when you sit enthralled in a classroom for 6 hours, and then stay up till 3AM with a pile of colored pencils, as if you were a kid doing an arts and crafts projects.

For the last 2 weeks, I've been in a place I do not soon want to leave, with people I do not want to leave, and I've experienced magical, life-changing things here at Te Moata.  However, it's not just the people, and this place which has inspired me, it's what I've been doing here: a Permaculture Design Course.

Earlier in April, I worked at the Annual Permaculture Convergence, which lit a fire in my mind about the possibilities of Permaculture.  So when I heard there was a 2 week permaculture design course
happening in May, I signed up without a second thought.

 At first, I was somewhat dissapointed that I wasn't able to take my first design course with Permaculture Super-Celebrity Geoff Lawton, but I was still extremely excited for what might be in store.  After spending two weeks in the steel beast known as "Auckland", I was craving nature like a Southerner craves Jenkem.

Geoff "Cool Guy" Lawton

Geoff "The Bulldozer" Lawton, smoking green as he greens the desert.




















The drive to Te Moata took me through through backroads, sheep trails and leering Woodsmen till I finally arrived in Tairua, home of the super flash Wharakei caves, which I might have spelled wrong.

Sweet caves

After climbing over large hills and valleys, my car finally reached the elusive Te Moata, guarded by a large, warm-hearted giant named Dave (who runs the place), along with his wonderful wife Jessie.  The trip down the driveway to Te Moata is like an Indiana Jones ride, with giant boulders, mossy ancient rocks, and Faintails darting over your head. Once you get to middle of Te Moata, it takes a moment before you take in how truly beautiful the place really is.  

The Goddess pool, or as I call it, frozen-ass water pool.

The retreat, which looks like it belongs in a movie about Buddha, is right in the heart of native bush forest.  The entire place is surrounded by fantastically unreal streams and moan inducing trails. You can spend a month at Te Moata, and still see only 1/2 of what it has to offer.

I was nervous at first to meet everyone.  Though I saw a few familiar faces, I knew it was going to be an interesting challenge to maintain a good connection with 10 strangers in a retreat for 2 weeks straight.  However, with a bit of conversation, I saw how a shared sense of concern for the future guided us all there, because we wanted to learn how Permaculture can restore the environments and lives which the modern world has put in jeapeordy.

Our instructors were two amazing teachers, Daniel Tohill and Trish Allen, who had been practicing permaculture around New Zealand and Australia since before I was born.  These two were Permaculture pros, and our job as students was to absorb as much information into our spongey brains as possible until we needed to run out into the garden like compost junkies.

I can't remember the last time I was truly excited to learn something in college, but each lesson on Permaculture perked my interest and imagination into what could be possible.  Swales, contours, and ponds can be used to turn deserts into lush forests and grasslands, entire orchards can thrive with just rainwater, zones can be planned to make your property nearly self sufficient in food.  The list of things we learned extended far into the realm of possibility, but every lesson was extremely useful, and made complete sense.  If our country's farmers, community planners, and government officials were forced to take a PDC, they might finally emerge with a better understanding of how systems work together.  Better yet, if the world used Permaculture principles to re-imagine society, we could tackle climate change, food shortages, and poverty while restoring our environment.

*pleasurous moan*

Measuring contours, like a boss.

The cozy classroom

Each day, we would spend about six hours in the classroom learning everything there is to know about permaculture.  Though there is no way to become an expert after 72 hours of learning, it gives you a great grasp of the basic principles, and an idea of what is possible.  The other parts of the day we spent socializing with the rest of the folks who attended the course.  

At first, I was scared that there was no way I could keep building a positive relationship with all these people over two weeks, and that my personality would  eventually wear thin on them.  Luckily though, I was wrong.  Being at the center for 2 weeks with the same people forced me to make deep connections to everyone, and get to know their character, and their story, instead of just having a conversation for a few minutes, and then retreating to the ol' comfort zone.  It was absolutely amazing to feel that I was strengthening my relationships with these people the longer the course went on, instead of drifting away from them. We soon realized that we were all kindred spirits that were here for the same purpose, though all had different ways of reaching our goals.  There was Tomoya from Japan, Lien from Belgium, Tom and Sara from Taranaki, Colby and Eric from Oakland, Justin, Stefan and Noura from Wellington, and Wendy from Papamoa.  Everyone had something to share, and something to give, though I was the only one who couldn't play guitar :I

This Kid learned how to work
the Derivatives Market,
DEAL WITH IT.

This kid learned guitar

It's an amazing how much you can learn about a subject when you are absolutely enthralled with it, and have good teachers, good partners, and a great atmosphere.  This PDC was like an entire year of Enviornmental Studies crammed into two weeks, though the best part was when we got to get our hands dirty; making compost heaps, building a pizza oven, and crafting a new design for gardens throughout the property.  Oh yes, and there was some possum skinning for good measure.  They're invasive species over here, so it's alright to gat them en masse, as long as you feed their precious innards to the hawks.

Before the final stages

BOOM 

So as the PDC wore on and on, the focus turned from permaculture to people. As we were given our assignments of Te Moata garden, we had a flurry of inspired heads clashing together, and collaborated in a great way to come up with some far-out designs.

This is my first attempt at a permaculture design, don't y'all judge too harshly.  I felt pretty good for both of these, considering I had 1 night each to do the designs.  

I wanted to make a leaf shape for the garden, but instead it looked more like a mad octopus eating a clown, should work well though.

My freehand design for Dave and Jessies place, Mushrooms, strawberries, and fruit everywhere! Bwahah ):p

What's not shown, a mountain of colored pencil shavings.

As the PDC drew to a close, we were left with one event which cemented how beautiful working with folks in Permaculture can be, and that was our concert night.  We each had to come up with a big performance for the final night, and we were just as interested in the performance as the design.  

As Tom and I were the hosts, I figured, what better way to introduce the concert than as a Monsanto Shareholders conference!

I was Tim Poots, senior vice executive of multi-level marketing for Monsanto, along with Doon Strunts, my assistant.  We had to give a very important corporate powerpoint on the dangers of permaculture, along with pumping the crowd up, like a freakish, Tony Robbins seminar gone wrong. 

Either way, the event was amazing, and it was incredible to see the things that people could come up with in such a short period of time; skits, rapping, jason mraz'ish songs, and games galore. 

Though the 2 weeks at Te Moata was over before I knew it, the lessons, and connections I had stayed with me.  I found a new path I wanted to go down, and ways of living and working which can support my future, help people, and help restore our degraded environment.  There's few things as eye-opening as a PDC, and few things as inspiring.  It's time to jump down this rabbit hole, and plan something big with my permaculture lessons; perhaps one day I can consult worldwide, create a Biochar industry, and even reconstruct entire communities.  The sky is the limit, and the world needs everything that I saw in those two weeks.

Thank you everyone at Te Moata :)

 May 26,

Later in the week:

After the PDC, I stayed at Te Moata a few days with Kuiyka, Eric, Colby, and Tomoya doing some woofing.  Little did I know that Maria was actually, and completely randomly, 10 minutes away from Te-Moata. Now I have to pick her up, and convince her to come with me, so we can see some amazing sights, and do some woofing along the way.  Hopefully I'll be able to share some more awesome adventures soon.

-Raleigh (& Maria)

Also: skinning a possum to make comfy shoe insoles, and hawk feed.

The "Down Times"

March 25 2012,

It's crazy how time can shift so easily,
1 month ago, I was preparing for my fight, and time seemed as slow
as it did when I was 5.

Now, with no huge goal to work towards, time has passed faster than
I would like it to around here.


Let's go back 24 days....

The few days after the fight, I simply languished in the amazing embrace
of a week of earned laziness.  After spending 6 hours a day for a month
training, a week was needed to recoup myself back to sanity.  The day after a fight,
everything seems just 'that' much more enjoyable, the sun shines more, the grapes
are sweeter, and the couch seems to be made of silk.



I thought immediately my body would reverse into a more lazy state, but luckily,
constant fitness seems particularly easy.
Going for a run everyday seemed like eating ice cream compared to gym training,
so it's been quite enjoyable.

The one downside of my fight was the sports injury in my chest, which meant
no intense exercise or swimming for a few days...


I know you probably didn't come to this blog
to read about what I eat for breakfast in Christchurch, you want to hear meaningful
encounters, and what's going on in my life.

In a city like Christchurch, its easy to simply float along, without something huge
to challenge yourself, especially when your surrounded by students who are in
party mode.

For a while, it's great fun to try and fit in to the old college social circle,
especially when you go to cool things like the "Wild Foods Festival" in Hokitika.
It was a blast to go to a small town on the West Coast of New Zealand, where hundreds
of people were gathered together for a single purpose...dress crazy, drink copious amounts of alcohol,
and try insane food such as huhu grubs, sheep's balls (mountain oysters), horse semen shots (didn't try that one), and more benign foods such as huhu grubs, kangaroo, and alligator.  Great way to spend a weekend :)

Me, Enzro and Pedobear

Again with Pedobear, and also Yan

However...all the fun distractions and parties wear down after a while.  I'm not in college any more, and the lifestyle of going out every weekend to party and drink seems like a step backwards for me.   That being said, I did accomplish some good things this month such as editing some episodes of One Month No Regrets, and my music video:
https://vimeo.com/40695536

After a week or two of doing close to nothing, I felt sick with myself, till I finally said "ENOUGH!".

I picked up all the Tony Robbins seminars I could muster, listened to them all, and drove off to Reefton
by myself for a few days to camp, and come up with a new direction for my life.

TONY ROBBINS HUNGRY!

It's amazing how much a few days by yourself can put things in perspective.  I read an entire book, I organised my priorities, and I felt an energy to overcome my doubts and push through with my dreams.

That being said, the challenge now, is to focus myself, and overcome any distractions which comes my way.  My good friend Rich Turner just got back from Pinewood Studios, and we've been running and swimming every morning, which feels great.

My next big adventure takes me to the North Island, to learn about something called "Permaculture".  I'll be spending about 2 weeks volunteering at the Austral-Asian Permaculture Convergence.  I don't know what I'm about to find there, but I guarantee there will be alot of dreadlocks and mentions of peak oil.  That being said...Geoff Lawton is my hero.

1 MONTH NO REGRETS

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.