$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')i there, I have been a Peak Oil believer (that makes it sound like a cult, but whatever) since 2001, and am hoping to beat the rush to the hinterland and have my own quasi-homestead by about 2010 at the latest (which might be too late). I want to get in touch with people for two purposes:
1) My husband and I are likely to be living in BADEN WURTTEMBURG, GERMANY, next year (2005-06 academic year), probably in KONSTANZ. I won't have a work permit, but I would LOVE to get in touch with someone in that area who can teach me any of the following: draft horse work and technology, shearing, spinning, weaving, basic construction/woodworking, organic grain growing, cow dairying, seed saving, etc etc etc. I am a useful and experienced worker in small-to-medium scale organic gardens, I can milk a goat, collect eggs, build a compost pile, etc. but am looking to take it to the next level. If you are in Baden-Wurttemburg and have a small farm and could use my help next year, PLEASE send me a pm.
Hi,
Demeter(
www.demeter.de) is by far the largest cooperation of bio-farmers in Germany, they'll surely help you at finding an internship. Their contact-adress for Baden-Württemberg is
Forschungsring für Biologisch-Dynamische Wirtschaftsweise
Mrs. Edith Daniel
Tel. +49(0)6155/841240
auskunftsstelle@forschungsring.dejust ask her by email.
Will you do your studies in Konstanz? Could it also be another university or should it definetely be Konstanz? BTW: a beautiful city just near the Alps, and even Sitzerland & Austria are just on the other side of the lake, Bavaria and the Schwarzwald is also nearby.
BTW II: an internship at a mountain-farm in the Bavarian Alps could also be of interest to you, these farms are often not a member of an coop/organisation of bio-farming while working mostly without any larger mechanization. And in those small villages a lot of old-fashioned handcraft is still alive, mostly from the elderly who are afraid to take this knowledge to their graves when not passing it on. So they will surely be able to show you a lot when treated with interest and respect. Most of these people there also have a deep (catholic) faith.
I don't know how this will affect a working permit, but I think, helping at a farm for food and sleep without a payment should be OK.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')2) In the longer term, I know that I won't be able to run my homestead by myself. First i just don't have all the skills and all the time (I can't be farmer AND housewife), and second, I plan to acquire said homestead by being a priest in the Episcopal church and living in the rectory of a rural parish, so I would have to actually preach sermons and stuff too. (Yes, I am a Christian of progressive politics. We do exist. The Bible even hints that God might care about how we treat Creation.) If anyone who's handy, or likes cooking, washing dishes, doing the heavy work around the place, and generally pitching in, or wants to learn to do some of this stuff, wants to team up with us (me & my husband, who's into orchards, herbs & pigs), PLEASE, again, send me a pm.