“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” To help tear down the language wall, I´d like to show you, from time to time, some of the pictures posted at our German-speaking homesteading and permaculture forums www.selbstvers.org A Selbstversorger is a self-sufficient person (or at least interested in self-sufficiency). Today: User: Minze Location: Brandenburg, Germany Glasshouse made of used windows. Their new mailbox, created by her husband, who is an artist blacksmith.
User: Talbewohner Location: Thuringia, Germany This family is reanimating a historic vicarage. The big house and the adjoining buildings are turned into several apartments. The whole thing is surrounded by a permaculture garden. Website: https://www.erdenpfad.de/index.html They are also offering WOOF-like helper holidays. Small scale grain growing One of the kitchens (on the inside they are allowed to be creative). New shed, made of used wood to fit into the ensamble. Their preschool child, performing as fire artist.
@songbird: I don´t know. I have never been there personally. (And perhaps I am not the proper contact. When I start singing, the ear protector shop next door is sold out in seconds… ;-) ) One more candidate: User: Schafmelker Location: North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany The Gersch family is running a small biodynamic sheep farm with cheese dairy. Website: https://www.milchschafzucht-gersch.de/Home.htm They are member of the GEH (Society for the Conservation of Old and Endangered Livestock Breeds) https://www.g-e-h.de/ Helper/WOOF jobs are available occasionally. This year´s spring lambing season is almost finished. Cheese maturation Landscape Booth at the local fair. Some petting animals attract children and adults alike.
OMG I feel sick with envy. In tears in fact! Is that awful??? Everything looks amazing I adore the sheep photos, especially the one of them taken from behind as they walk through the ... um ... what do you call that? Bush/scrub/brush/forest? Whatever you call it, its a gorgeous photo. I wish I was there : /
@helenlee: That is the driveway to a small secondary valley. Too small to be cultivated by todays big farming machines. Shepherds often graze such places, as the rent is cheap and they get some extra money from the biotope conservation programs to keep these valleys open.
That photo could be at my place ... that's what happens here if you don't constantly keep the bush back : ) My fleeces were full of vegetable matter when I had sheep here, but the sheep were very happy : ) I also love the photo titled "small scale grain growing". Gorgeous : )
Some garden pics of Talbewohner´s project: (Also see my second posting in this tread) Mirabelle tree in full bloom Another glass house made of used windows Vorwerk hen with her chicks Cold frame made of old window frames A little island for mother duck
NO DON'T!! Don't post any more photos! You're making me cry!!! They are all SO beautiful ... so very very beautiful. Why isn't this place next door to me??? And the quality of the photos is wonderful Manfred. Thank you do much for posting them It's so perfect it looks like a place in a child's story book to me. I would so love to be in there with all those lambs curled up in the hay : ) Lambs are the best
Hansel and gretel! All the german folk i know who went hungery after ww2 remember sucking on honey locust pods
User: Mike42.1 Location: South Africa Mike (Michael) and his wife Alex are running an aid project for mentally disabled people in South Africa. They established their place Ikhaya Loxolo (home of peace) in 2004. Here a press report on their project: https://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-08-if-they-are-raped-then-so-what As money is always short, and to give their residents a meaningful task, they try to live of their own produce as much as possible. They have a big vegetable garden Siesta A visitor (Nile monitor) One of their jersey cows giving birth to her jersey x brahman x nguni calf. 10 days later The creek Same creek after 450 mm rain within 24 hours. Usual yearly rainfall is 1250 mm. Imagine what could be achieved there with professional rain harvesting. Sometimes you just wish you were a cow. (At the beach, about two by car from their location.)
@helenlee: Perhaps we could do ananimal baby special? @andrew: I do not know any honey locustaround here. But many other stories about hardship and hunger during and after the wars. My grandparents often warned us to keep prepared for bad times comingback. I am not the prepper type, but I amreally concerned about how little value the security of food supply seems tohave for most people and politicians nowadays. You can buy soft commodities cheapfrom the world market, so why should we care…
Wow. Just saw the photos from South Africa Awesome work ... fabulous vege garden Love the sleepy sow with the chicks on her back Some of my internet friends say they can't keep chooks with pigs ... the pigs eat the chooks ... but I have never had that problem. And the chickens in that photo don't look too scared either
Today: The baby animal special Rallymann´s rabbits and goslings One of kraut_ruebe´s cuys fuxi´s quils tipopaar´s Kune Kune piglets and turkeys Ani´s Tauernschecken goat kindergarden Olaf´s goslings karl-erwins-frau´s “cuckoo´s child” (Link to her blog: https://karl-erwin.blogspot.co.uk/ And some more pics from Mike´s kindergarden
OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! The cuteness factor of all that is out of the ball park!!!!!! I LOVE spotted baby pigs! I LOVE baby bunnies! I LOVE ducklings! I LOVE spotted lambs! And the rest of it is just damn cute too ... especially the jersey calf (I hope it's a heifer!) & the dog & cat & kittens Whatever breed that duck is the 6th photo from the bottom ... the one of the duck with a chicken ... she is gorgeous Oh! And the guinea pig! I love guinea pigs too They're just the sweetest most innocent lil' things
Good news from the seed savers front: After successfully stopping the planned, very adverse reform of the EU seeds directive, the European seed savers lead by Arche Noah (the Austrian seed savers organization) and Global 2000 (the Austrian part of Friends of the Earth International ) now handed over a petition with more than 500.000 signatures that is claiming free use and legal sales of heritage breeds. The photo shows Austrian farming minister Andrä Rupprechter forwarding the petition to EU health commissioner Tonio Borg.