Books with Spirit – Joyfulness between horses and people

We were lucky to have two wonderful French people wwoof here for a few days, who were in Australia rejuvenating themselves after a long stint in Madagascar. Fred is a specialist in organic agriculture and Claire’s speciality is eco friendly water and sewerage.

They have been working with an organisation that is training Madagascan rice farmers to increase their rice yield times 10.  Wow!  The awesome change in results, has been brought about mostly by the recognition that rice is not really an aquatic plant after all.

Here is a link to their website if helping out, right at the front line of a volunteer organisation appeals to you.  2000 of Madagascar’s farmers have been re-trained in this new method.  If the 2,000,000 farmers that farm rice all grow rice like them, the country would be a net exporter of rice instead of old people and babies dying regularly of starvation as they run out of food every year. 

Keep up the great work Fred and Claire.  Click here for their website.

P.S.  Fred seemed to connect with the land in a similar way that I connect with the horses – he is seriously talented!

Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOFERS) come to our farm at Tanjil South in Australia.  WWOOF is a world wide organization that promotes a cultural exchange between the host and the guest, who work 4 hours per day doing work on an organic or chemical free farm, in return for their board and keep (their food and a comfortable bed).

While they are with us, the wwoofers are treated as part of the family and we make an effort to include them in our social lives at the time.

Most wwoofers are looking for the horse experience, so I include a small amount of instruction with the horses each day that I am here and outside of working hours, they get to spend as much time as they like with the herd, exploring how they “hear” horses.

Click here to read some of the wwoofer stories.