A Full Week in Scarborough, UK

I have now completed a full week at the Scarborough Woodland Project. Some things about the experience have frustrated me but I'm taking a positive outlook and living by the saying "if it doesn't kill ya, it only makes you stronger". And since I'm not dead, I must be stronger.


Some highlights of the past week include:
- using a mixing bowl to bathe myself (didn't feel that much cleaner)


- listening to 13 year old Cathy mouth off to her mother, Louisa

- receiving my iPod Touch on Tuesday (thanks to Justin, the previous owner, and Andrew, the sender)


- finally finishing the chicken pen with Denzil


- finding a new hobby - wandering around densely populated areas trying to steal wi-fi signals with the iPod


Probably the biggest highlight of the week was having two proper showers this past weekend. I took the weekend off from WWOOFing and visited York. I had hoped to stay at the hostel but didn't book ahead because I don't have a telephone to them and you can't book online for York's YHA. So, I figured I'd wing it. Stupid! When I found out it had no vacancies, I walked around York for two hours with a list of guesthouses/B&B's, trying to find a cheap one with vacancies. Finally finding one, I paid promptly and headed for the shower. A week plus without a proper shower had left me quite filthy. I probably spend thirty minutes trying to get clean.

Trying to avoid spending money I mostly just walked around the city. The York Art Gallery was free so I stopped in there. I did feel it was necessary to spend a little money, so I took a tour of the York Brewery and sampled some of the ales. And I had lunch today at a vegan eatery; unfortunately the food wasn't up to Fressen/Urban Herbivore standards.

So, I can't believe it has been a month already. I figure I'll post a pic monthly to show that I am indeed still alive and healthy. Here's the first (taken today; would have been better/grosser if I had of taken it Friday):


Temporarily Clean,

Kasza




Southernly view from woodland


My accomodations at the woodland


A disclaimer accompanying art in the Shambles in York


Public footpath gate (based on the foot and half width restriction, I'd say only skinny people are permitted on the footpath)

The Scarborough Woodland Project

I have been at the Woodland for three days now and I'm smelling quite ripe. The shower in my caravan is broken, so I haven't showered since Thursday morning when I left Nottingham. There are no other showers presently but an outdoor shower was received on Friday which will be installed soon.

Unfortunately for Louisa, the proprietor of the Woodland, things are fairly chaotic here. Zoning officials have demanded that the two 40' caravans that her and her two children (17 year old boy, Bill, and 13 year old girl, Cathy) were living in be demolished. They have been told that there should not be permanent buildings on the woodland lot. They have moved into a small shed-like home comparable to early North American pioneer homes.

While I've been here I've spent all of my time building a makeshift chicken pen to keep the roosters (or cockerels as the locals refer to them) from raping the hens.

I've learned to hate chickens while I've been here; they're basically filthy and noisy. I've come to this point of view after being woken up at 4:30 by cockerel and seeing the young chickens that Louisa is keeping in her home (they generate lots of poo).

I have to apologise for the lack of photos; I haven't had a chance to take any while I've been here. I'll be sure to make next weeks post more interesting.

Peace,
Kasza

Last Post from Nottinghamshire

This post is on time!

Next Stops

My evenings for the past week have mostly been spent on Trinity Farm office computer planning the next steps of my travels. After calling a couple places and being told that they were all booked up for a few months, I realized that I should get my UK and France placements confirmed as soon as possible. The next stop proved to be the most difficult but I finally secured lodgings at the Scarborough Woodlands Project. Here's the breakdown for the next little while:

17 Apr - 3 May Scarborough Woodlands Project
3 May - 17 May Rose Cottage, Ayr, Scotland
17 May - 7 Jun Living Ark Animal Sanctuary
7 Jun - 21 Jun Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary (awaiting confirmation)
22 Jun - 25 Jun Jules Ferry Youth Hostel

After getting a taste for biodynamics at Trinty Farm, I'm hoping to stay at farms that have a focus in permaculture methods or veganic farming. Permaculture seems to be a necessary practice to ensure sustainable agriculture in harmony with our surrounding environments (and obviously I'd be interested veganic practices because I believe in animal rights).

Nottingham Squat

Yesterday, I decided to get active in local politics, so I participated in a squat in downtown Nottingham. There are several articles about the action on Notts Indymedia but these two contain photos: [1] [2]. I was informed about the action by George, a guy who volunteers at Trinity Farm on Fridays; he was helping organize the squat.

The planning seemed to be crumbling a bit while I was there yesterday due to external and internal complications but eventually dinner was served, beer flowed and films rolled. I spent a good hour sipping beer and contemplating the conventional, top-down, vertical management model to the horizontal, decentralized model seen frequently in grassroots campaigns with George.

It was nice to get and socialize compared to what I usually do in my evenings here. And the vegan food was very much enjoyed!

Talking and reading about squats recently got me thinking about it's relevance to the "homeless situation" in Toronto. A solution proposed by Tash, one of the Notts squat organizers, is to have homeless people learn trades while repairing and building residences on government (city, province, or federal) owned property that is not being utilized. It is a solution that has two benefits: giving homeless people hands-on training in a trade and giving them housing.

I think that type of community project could have more reaching benefits as well including community centres for continued learning and training, community gardens and host of other services to promote sustainability.

The action also got me wondering about previous squats in Canada. The one that immediately comes to mind is the Tent City squat. Unfortunately the residents of Tent City were evicted in September 2002 and that area of land has been left unused for over five years now.


Follow-up on the Ugg Boot Observations

While walking around Nottingham and nearby Ilkeston (catching a bus to Nottingham) yesterday, I realized that the Ugg boot phenomenon witnessed in London is not limited to London. Apparently, this disease is afflicting all of the young women of England. I will continue to observe how far north the problem is occurring as I travel to the Shetlands.


Pictures of Trinity Farm and Surrounding Area

future residence for when I move permanently to Nottinghamshire
a decent portrayal of the local weather (one minute sunny, next minute hail)
area of farm where I clean up garbage every morning
some field and polytunnels at the farm
the greenhouse
my caravan: exterior and interior
front of the Trinity Farm shop

- Kasza

Oh Ya...

Thanks to everyone for the positive responses to my previous posts. As I hit more locations, meet more people and take/post photos, this blog should get more interesting.

And to the people who claim to miss me: I will be back in ~8200 hours; no time at all.

See ya then,
Kasza

I've Learned the Secret of Farming!

Well, this post is three days late because the stupid internet cafe in Nottingham was closed on Sunday. Supposedly their internet provider was down (I bet they just wanted a day off). I am posting this entry from the Trinity Farm office. They have been nice enough to let me take over the office for a bit.

So, after only eight days working on the farm I am confident that I know what the secret to farming is. It seems that you put a seed in dirt, make sure sun shines on it and put water on it periodically. Eventually, this seed turns into a plant. That's how they do it. I shit you not. Plus (here's the amazing part, at least for me), you can EAT parts of the plant. I'm considering just cutting the trip short because I don't know what else there is to learn.

So, my days consist of some combination of the following:
- put seeds in dirt
- move seedlings from seed trays to pots
- move seedlings to polytunnel garden beds
- pick vegetables- weeding
- picking up garbage
(none of the images at those links are mine; I do plan on uploading some of my own photos soon)

The people I work with are pretty awesome. They put up with my relentless, ignorant questions about agriculture and the UK in general.

In the evening when I'm not working, I'll either stroll around the public footpaths and Nottingham Canal or sit in the caravan reading Thoreau's Walden (I expect that this and Into the Wild are going to impact my life post Euro-trip) and Lonely Planet's Western Europe guidebook (have to plan where I'm gonna go next).

This past weekend I checked out the Erewash Museum in neighboring Ilkeston for some local rural history (Saturday) and the Nottingham Castle of Nottingham (Sunday). It seems that is going to be how the majority of my leisure time is spent whilst in Europe; wandering around and loitering in museums/galleries (no complaints obviously).

It has been mighty frigid the last couple nights, so I'm going to head back to the caravan to get the fire going. Hopefully tomorrow morning is more like last week (~10°C) than this week (~0°C).

- Kasza