Fishing at the Farm Weekend announced

We are very blessed to have had two lovely gentlemen volunteer their expertise to put on a fishing weekend on the farm.
The first gentleman is from NIWA (National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research) and he is going to give a "hands on" talk on Fish Farming which should be very interesting. His name is Dr. Philip Heath and he is the Manager, Mahanga Bay Aquaculture Facility. He travels all around the world learning and teaching people about Aquaculture and we are lucky to have him volunteer his time to share some of his knowledge with us. The date for this event will be the 10th of January.

The next lovely chap who has decided to share some of his passion for fly fishing is our bank manager John Olds from Kiwi bank. When John came to visit me on the farm to see how he could help my photography business, I saw him eyeing up my barred rock chooks. We got to talking and it turns out that John is fly fishing mad and the feathers on my chooks were quite coveted for making flies. When I told John about the trust he said he would be more than happy to teach children how to tie flies for fly fishing. Luckily I have a bag full of feathers waiting for a good use.

Our plans are to have Saturday the 10th be a day to learn about fly fishing and Sunday the 11th to be a spinning fishing day. We are right on the Akatarawa River and there is at least one old cagey trout down there who likes to tease the Anglers. So if you know anyone who would like to teach families how to fish, or anyone who would like to learn how to fish sustainably then come out that weekend it should be good fun. We are hoping people who have extra fishing equipment will bring it along to share for the day as well as their wisdom on how to protect our fish resources. Looking forward to seeing you.

Jean Gwatkins leads Trip to Chatham Islands

Our Earth Camps own 88 year old jam making guru and keen fisher woman, and last years Wellington Gardener of the Year, is taking her spritely self and a group of people to her favourite fishing grounds of the Chatham Islands. There are two separate trips. One is a fishing trip where you are promised to come home with loads of kina, crayfish, and various other fish. The second trip sounds like a gourmets delight where you travel all around the islands experiencing all of the beauty and culture that abound and then are fed royally at the hotel from fresh food from the sea and gardens prepared by two fabulous chefs. Jean knows more of the details and would be happy to fill you in. Give her a call at 388-6733 to learn more. I think it would be worth it just to spend a week getting to know this fantastic lady that we are fortunate enough to have volunteering for our Earth Camp...she has agreed to repeat the Preserves class this year (31 January) and has also agreed to teach us all how to make blueberry wine (4 April) so mark your calendars.

Portrait Fundraising for Digital Camcorder

Now that the 500.00 has been raised for the tipi, the next item that we would like to get for the Trust is a high quality Digital Camcorder so that we can record the activities and make videos for the blog that teachers and parents can use with their charges.
So because I can, I will donate $50.00 from every portrait session that prints out this blog page to book in to see me at Mandi Lynn Photography. I will also extend the October special into November for Earth Camp fans. This means that instead of spending 190.00 for a portrait session you will spend $50.00 and that $50.00 will go to the Trust. Because I invest so much time with each family for each portrait session, please understand that session numbers are limited. Click here to find out more about Mandi Lynn Photography, and to reserve your session at this special price.

Tipi Pitching Date Set

I am still reeling from the wonderful example of how the universe provides. We needed $500.00 for the building consent for the tipi for the Earth Camp and low and behold someone nominates us (who ever you are thank you from the bottom of our hearts) for the Upper Hutt community service awards. We ended up winning for the Heritage and Environment Section and guess how much the prize money was. Yup, exactly $500.00. How blessed are we?
So now we are planning for the Tipi raising. I figured it could be a lot like an old fashion barn raising of sorts. So if you would like to come along and join in the event bring a dish to share and muscles to hold the poles and we will see if we can get this thing pitched with community power. The date of the Tipi pitching will be the 15th of November or the 16th if we are rained out on the 15th.

For those that are interested we got our Tipi from Jaia Tipis in Nelson

Earth Camp Tutors Invited

Do you have a special skill that you wouldn't mind sharing?
Last year we had a lovely time sharing our knowledge with children and families. We had lots of help from the community as well and would love to provide a venue for you to share your special skill.

The trust was started to fill in the knowledge transfer gap. In the past parents taught their children how to grow and their own food and survive. Now most young families don't have those skills. (David and I only learned them after we bought the farm and some days I still feel like I have veggie garden ADD). So if you know something and would like to share it we would like to hear about it. Your audience will be usually from 0-101 years old and is usually made up of 3/4 children 1/4 adults.

These are the things that we like to teach:
Organic Gardening
Permaculture
Biodynamic Principals
Plant Propogation
Pruning
Earth Building
Hunting and Fishing Skills
Wholesome cooking
Arts and crafts
using recycled items and non toxic substances
using organic materials like weaving, knitting etc.
Photography
Native Flora and Fauna
Herbal lore
Sustainable Energy
anything else that helps people walk more gently on our Earth

So lets hear it what gifts can you share with the next generation? What will your legacy be? Think about the most inspiring events of your childhood, the ones that shaped you. I bet they involved an adult who took time to show you something new and interesting. Don't you want to be that adult for some child?
You can either post here or leave me an email at blueberries@xtra.co.nz (My name is Mandi Lynn) or give me a call and talk to me about your idea. (04)526-6788.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Mandi

Where to find 2008 Earth Camp Photos

There is a web album located at http://www.flickr.com/groups/872257@N24/
happy surfing.

The Birth of Earth Camp

I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Mandi Lynn and I am the first author of the Earth Camp Blog. In 2007 Nima Sherpa, Bruce and Katy Ausin, and David Porta and I developed Between the Blues Charitable Trust due to one concern: We were worried that the skills of growing your own food were being lost in the current generation of Kiwis and we wanted to do something to reverse that trend. Nima is a Sherpa and had to learn to grow his own food to survive in his village in Nepal, a 3 day walk from the nearest road. He brings a great deal of peace calm and know how to our Camp.

I think I mostly bring the silly. I like to make bugs cool, and gooshy mud great fun. I like to chase butterflies and photograph Tuis jumping from branch to branch. I am the free spirited artist, Nima is the practical sorter. Together we make a pretty cool team I think. I come up with the wild and crazy ideas and Nima helps me to make them happen.

We believe that learning should be fun. And you learn more when you are playing and doing hands on activities. So the idea of Earth Camp was born and so here we are. The Earth Camp is for both Adults and children from 1-101. We hold it on weekends during the Blueberry Season which runs from January - May.

Our farm is organic so the only way we teach is gardening naturally gently and without chemicals.

Our goal for this blog is 4 fold:

1. Create a community that shares ideas of things that can be done to help support families to learn to grow their own food and be kind to the environment

2. Post activities that you can do at home or schools.

3. Link to the pictures we have taken of people doing the activities.

4. As well as show you what exciting new things we have planned.

We are still learning to blog so please bare with us.

Cheers,

Mandi Lynn

p.s. thanks for dropping in and have a berry lovely day.

p.s.s. If you would like to learn a bit more about our families you can read about us in New Zealand Gardener.

Or be on the look out for the November December issue of New Zealand Life and Leisure as we were very blessed to have an article written about us in there. I can't wait to see it.

Earth Camp wins the Upper Hutt District Community Award

It is really funny how the universe answers needs sometimes. We needed $500.00 to pay for the building consent for the tipi and we were not sure how we were going to get there but we had faith that it would happen. Well what do you know. Someone nominated us for the Upper Hutt District Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards and do you know what....we won. And guess how much the prize money was....you got it right $500.00.

I think the universe wants us to continue our work here! Whoo Hoo!

Now we are off to the regional awards, cross your fingers for us.

What shall we do this year?

We would love feedback as to the sorts of things that your family would like to learn about this year. We are just about to make the calendar and would love feed back from those that have come in the past and those that would like to come in the future. So Tell us. What would you like to see and do? Please leave comments.

Portraits for the Tipi

by Mandi Lynn,
Chairperson of Between the Blues -
An Organic Environmental Education Program held at the Blueberry Farm in Upper Hutt

Now as some of you will know I am an American by birth and a Kiwi by choice. However being part Cherokee and part Blackfoot I have always had a strong leaning towards tipis and when we were stumped to figure out how we could provide an environmentally friendly cost effective rain shelter for the Earth Camp, the idea of a tipi sprang to mind quite naturally. That and the fact that my neighbours Cory and Kerry had pitched one a couple of years ago and I loved seeing it when I drove down the valley. I had tipi envy and Kerry was kind and even let me ride James the Clydesdale out to it and sit in it. I just sat there grinning and imagining what a bigger one filled with children would be like.

So we applied for a grant and Hutt Mana Charitable Trust decided we were a good bet and gave us the money to get it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that we would need a building consent to pitch the thing. So we need to raise an extra $500.00 to get the building consent. We raised some during the Easter Egg Hunt last year but we still need several hundred. So because I wear so many hats and I really want to see this Tipi up before the next Earth Camp starts in January, I will donate $50.00 from every portrait session I do on the farm until the money is raised. So if you have a family and would like to get your portraits done on the farm, and help contribute to the tipi fund give us a call 526-6788.