Subsistence Farming - Hawaii

we are hosting a Know Your Farmer Alliance workshop here about chickens. our friend ann is doing a section on ducks.

gearing up for high school and realizing that lauren’s education is going to be something i can feel proud about. i believe i will be able to say that i gave her the best i had in me. enough of the mainstream to have doors open for vet school and a regular life along with a more accurate picture of history, government, religion, money….

we have tracy teaching physics (2 separate courses), chemistry, earth science and biology each year. and tracy is one of those teachers you remember when you are all grown up because she made school fun and interesting. and lauren has had her for 3 years already and 4 more to go!

i am following a waldorf inspired curriculum and teaching not only literature, world cultures, but history from the perspective of the winners AND the losers using howard zinn’s book A People’s History. powerful book giving a rarely seen perspective on history. each year i am also teaching a block on all the stuff i wish i had learned in school: we are doing tom brown’s wilderness survival and the final “exam” is that we will walk off the land together with a backpack filled with what we consider essentials (not including food or a tent, just tool type objects) and we will spend 3 days (together) but living off the land. we will build shelters, find and make food…. can you imagine how confident you would feel if you knew you could take care of yourself and that nature is bountiful?

i am also teaching art classes but also including life skills like making baskets, weaving, spinning etc. we will be reading ishmael and studying quinn’s other book on religions. we will be learning the beauty of all religions. we will start the year with classes on how to learn, the skills to be an effective student.

we are all excited. scott is teaching a new kind of math. it was developed in response to the statistics showing that US high school students scored 23rd compared to 24 other countries, that most students hate math and that few remember anything they learned even if they did well on tests. this new math program is based on interactive problem solving using real and interesting situations. It introduces statistics by looking at a game of chance and gambling! kids work in small groups and work together to explore solutions. we are looking for other students to join the class.

we picked lauren up at the airport last night. i barely recognized her. i was looking for my child, not the young lady who walked towards me!

the goat we thought was pregnant , then thought wasn’t, well now we think she is. she is “bagged up” meaning her utters are engorged with milk. she is our favorite.

we have 2 interns coming up to work today plus a woman in the neighborhood who wants to work with us just so she can pick our brains about sustainable living.