
Archive for the ‘Holistic Living’ Category
The Lost Boys Cafe, a Port in the Storm
17/06/2022John Sedon, owner of the Lost Boys Cafe in Hamilton NZ, has a stories to tell. He’s not just a cafe owner in tough times, he’s a confident, and maybe, even a healer of sorts. Hear his stories in these three segments.



Hopi Chief Comments on Our Times
10/09/2021Hopi Indian Chief White Eagle commented a few days ago on the current situation:
′′ This moment humanity is experiencing can be seen as a door or a hole. The decision to fall in the hole or walk through the door is up to you. If you consume the news 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, with pessimism, you will fall into this hole.
But if you take the opportunity to look at yourself, to rethink life and death, to take care of yourself and others, then you will walk through the portal.
Take care of your home, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual home. When you take care of yourself, you take care of everyone at the same time.
Do not underestimate the spiritual dimension of this crisis. Take the perspective of an eagle that sees everything from above with a broader view. There is a social question in this crisis, but also a spiritual question. The two go hand in hand.
Without the social dimension we fall into fanaticism. Without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and futility.
Are you ready to face this crisis. Grab your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal.
Learn resistance from the example of Indian and African peoples: we have been and are exterminated. But we never stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire and rejoicing.
Don’t feel guilty for feeling blessed in these troubled times. Being sad or angry doesn’t help at all. Resistance is resistance through joy!
You have the right to be strong and positive. And there’s no other way to do it than to maintain a beautiful, happy, bright posture.
Has nothing to do with alienation (ignorance of the world). It’s a resistance strategy.
When we cross the threshold, we have a new worldview because we faced our fears and difficulties. This is all you can do now:
– Serenity in the storm
– Keep calm, pray everyday
– Make a habit of meeting the sacred everyday.
– Show resistance through art, joy, trust and love.
Hopi Indian Chief White Eagle
July 9th 2021
Slowdown Post #14: Wood Chopping and Stackin
09/09/2020
Stoking up for the winter, Conner splits and Jess stacks, nearing the end of a few day’s farm workout plan. Poplar dries quickly, and is quick to light, but its only good for a fire starter. Hardwoods are best for the slow burn. WE debated whether to hire a mechanical splitter, but Conner was happy to have the workout, and since poplar splits so easily, it went fairly quickly. Nevertheless, as you can see, there was quite a bit to split and stack. Living off the grid has its advantages and having warm fires to heat the house is a big one, not to mention the cost savings! purenewzealand#newzealand#wanaka#lovewanaka#mountainspirit
Slowdown Post #12: Apple Press v 1.0
12/08/2020Jess and Conner rev up for our first round of cider making. This version had a few design flaws that was solved with our later version, which you’ll see soon. Mainly we had to beef up the cross beams because of the incredible amount of pressure exerted by the Toyota car jack. I also used sheets of thick steel for the top compressor plate, and bottom drainage plate. We did away with the Mitre 10 bucket, replacing it with a cut-off from some large thick culvert drainage pipe from a building site. It’s white and looks great. Since it was an offcut, it hadn’t been in the ground yet, so is usable for making cider. The storage contain top also has been replace by the beefy sheet of steel, also courtesy of the same building site, used with permission of course. @purenewzealand #newzealand #wanaka #lovewanaka #mountainspirit
Lockdown/Slowdown Post #9: Drying Berries!
06/08/2020Rosehips and Hawthorne berries dry in the autumn sun. Pick before a frost and dry the rosehips berries, then use a food processor to break them up to make a tea very high in vitamin C. You have to watch out when picking rosehips as they have little stickers on them that can stick you! Use gloves and pick as many as you can. When making the tea, just steep and filter after grinding, then add a bit of honey.
#purenewzealand #newzealand #wanaka #lovewanak #mountainspirit
Lockdown/Slowdown Post #8: Micro Hydro Install
05/08/2020Drilling holes into a perfectly good micro-hydro intake box! Conner, our helper and wonderful person during lockdown helps me add anchor points which will help hold the micro hydro intake to the stream bed. It will take two pours of concrete to hold the intake in place, not to mention some bolts and chains anchored from big rocks in the stream bed, going under the cement. Only a 100 yr flood event will take this out.. if that we hope!
Lockdown/Slowdown Post #7: Micro Hydro
05/08/2020The Powerspout micro-hydro in action last spring during its initial trial run, when we had a running stream. During Lockdown, it was Conner’s and my job to build a more permanent footing and structure for this gizmo, and to secure the intake. More on that later…stay tuned. We’ll show you images and text of this hydro system, called the Powerspout, how we set it up, how the company configured the system to our water flow and drop, (called head) and how it works now that we’ve got water flowing in our stream. It’s the perfect dovetail to our solar. Tons of sun in the summer and tons of water in the stream in the winters.