林择洋的航海梦想

Finding a nice christmas tree in the forest.

two pretty mermaids painting the storage shed inside.

Casper, our beloved sailboat dog passed away this month.

dand again, merry christmas to all of you from all of us!

Dear Sea Gypsies,

Things are looking very Christmassy now, as the snow falls and we prepare to delve into the forest on the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree.  Snow isnt quite at head-height yet, since its been a tropical December.  Today shows a toasty -10 on the thermometer.  Woofers are holding their breath, waiting to see some proper winter-conditions, thus facilitating giant snowmen, igloo-building, skiing, and perhaps a model sailing ship crafted from snow and ice?  Anything is possible on the farm!

This month however has been a sad one.  Our friend and one of the seagipsy family, Casper, died a few weeks ago.  At almost 14 years old, he was happy, eating many waffles, until the end of his life.  We buried him in a peaceful spot overlooking the raspberry patch.  He was a beautiful dog with a beautiful heart; we know many of you loved Casper and he will always be remembered.

Other news is that, after a much-needed trip to the Canaries for some of us for some serious sailboat spotting, we are back and working hard to...yes, you guessed it, work of the roof which is now thankfully finished!  Otherwise we have been trench-digging, honey-stirring, shed-cleaning and wall-painting, trying to finish everything that needs doing before our beards and toes start to freeze.  All of us are itching to get back into the boat shed however, desperate as we are to
start sewing the sails, melting the ballast, carving the mast and welding the deck...only a few more steps until our beautiful sailboat is ready for her maiden voyage!

If you want to join our happy sea-gypsy tribe, feel free to drop us a line.

Have a good Christmas everyone, and remember to put out a big bowl of porridge for the Fjosnisse.  This gnome lives in the barn and he can get cranky if he doesn't get his fair share at Christmas!

Dear Sea Gypsies,
November has been an exciting month here on the farm. We've had Americans, Australians, Spaniards, French, Dutch, English... all of us wwoofers staring at the sky, waiting for the snow to come! It has been unseasonably warm, and we are still working hard to finish all the things that need to be finished before winter arrives. It's already snowing on the mountains, so skiing, ice-fishing and igloo building are just around the corner.
The roof is not quite finished, although we hope that by the end of the week we will be eating "Roof Cake" to celebrate its completion.
Turns out a 100-year-old roof is hard to fix! But once all the tiles are straight, we will move onto the winter bathroom and then the boat.
Other projects this month have included fixing up the chicken coop, turning it into 5 star luxury accommodation. Only the best for our chickens! We have also tried our hand at plowing, which is
surprisingly difficult. Maybe there's a reason farmers decided to swap horses for tractors... although we definitely prefer the horses!
It might just take a bit of practice to get those furrows straight.
Other news... the northern lights have been putting on quite a show this month. Wwoofers have been busy, hunting for trolls in the forest and sending each other on scavenger hunts around the farm. One brave wwoofer attempted to walk along the ancient pilgrim trail that runs through the farm, back to Oslo.
If you are interested in coming to help us out here on the farm,please let us know. There is always space, just send us an email if you want to try your hand at roof tiling, giant igloo building, welding, plowing... and of course boat building!
We hope all of you are well and looking forward to winter!

Check out our photos from this month:
a.Slowly scaling down the farm, this English girl worries about life without diesel for our tractor... this guy works best on grass and plenty of oats.

b.Wrestling with giant snakes in the trench!

c.Safety regulations are by the book. Everyone is wearing earmuffs these days.

d.Happy sea gypsies feasting (Australia, France, US, England).

Dear Sea Gypsies,
The snow is almost here! September and October have been productive months here on the farm, as we have been working hard to prepare for the coming winter. The roof on the main house is nearly finished (with lines so straight it is almost sea-worthy!) The trench for the winter bathroom has been dug; once the pipes are in, these
hard-working WWoofers will have no more excuses not to shower! All that’s left will be to install the wood-burning heaters in the barracks, and then it will be so toasty warm it wont even feel like winter. We even have a homemade hot tub, nicknamed "The Potato Pot", and once the sauna is built, our luxury spa will be complete! What
better way to watch the Northern Lights, than steaming in a hot tub (that was once a milk storage tank, heated by the magic of a Swedish potato cooker)? Especially when (to the delight of some, and horror of others) we discovered that it is possible to measure the volume of its occupants. Maybe life is getting a little too easy on farm and we have too much time on our hands?

Harvest season is over and we are enjoying the bounty of home-grown potatoes, lingonberry jam and apple sauce. Our honey is jarred and stored for the winter, and it makes a delicious accomplishment to the morning porridge. There has been a spate of biscuit making, which is definitely helping us to gain some well-needed winter insulation
around the stomach area! However we are already looking forward to next spring, and are busy making plans, dividing the fields into potential orchards, turnips, peas, maybe even pumpkins. There is talk of installing both a greenhouse (for those of you who cannot seem to do without a few tomatoes) and a heated space for growing mushrooms. If you know anything about permaculture, we are very anxious to hear from you, because we need all the help we can get!

Finally, we want to welcome six new babies to the farm. Chicks – three white, one brown and two black – have arrived and are giving us constant entertainment. Turns out, chicken TV is much more addictive
than the normal kind! Four of the chicks are currently living in the girls’ barracks, the last arrived this morning with the first snowfall and we are calling him Tuff, in the hopes that he is tough enough to survive the winter.

That’s everything from the Sea Gypsy tribe this month. We hope everyone out there is well, and enjoying the autumn! Please take a look at our photos and remember, if you have some spare time, there’s always room on our farm for an extra WWoofer or two. The cold is coming, and that means work is about to begin again on the boat. She
has been much neglected over the summer, and requires some well-deserved attention!

PHOTOS:

a.The epitomy of a Sea Gypsy farmer, wearing a stylish hat and riding a 52 model Massey Ferguson tractor.
b.Making apple sauce with our steam heater.
c.The trial run of our machine of the month, an old-style food processor (acquired for free and in perfect working order, although there was a long evening of head scratching before we realized we were using it upside down).
d.Two happy WWoofers, boiling in the Potato Pot.
e.Moving home the grass in the fields.

Dear wannabe seagypsies.

The first real frostnights have been visiting us, so winter is slowly coming our way. we have had quite a lot of asian volunteers this month and celebrated the full moon with moon cake some weeks ago. (chinese tradition)

Last weeks have been mostly used to harvest and prepare for winter. Jam-producion is up to full speed and hopefully we will have enough homemade jam for the whole winter. The bees have got their
sugar so they are also ready for a long winter. Most important step now is finish up the roof and also make a new shower/bathroom which will be warm.

So until next newsletter, have a nice autumn!

Minutes from last weeks.

a. A seagypsy girl from Taiwain
b. two proud seagypsies just waiting to launch their home!
c. Apple harvest. We got 72 kg of jam!
d. Lingon-berry harvest. that was totally 26 kg sofar, and still more berries out there.
e. The roof had to be fixed. We are getting there!
f. Cleaning out the barn for making winter bathroom.
g. Wood cutting. We are not sure but we think we got around 20-30 m3 of wood ready for winter.

Still pouring down, last night it rained 50 mm/m2, which makes the
potato field a little wet, but still some time until we have a
beachfront at 400 meter above sealevel

Its been 5-6 hardworking seagypsis from Malaysia, New Zealand, USA,
France and Sweden here now for a long time and . We have spent time
painting the barracks which looks really cozy and nice, then we have
been working out on the field and also slowly preparing for winter.

When it comes to boatwork we got hold of 1 tonns more lead and will
continue making ballast for the boat.

If you think you have some skills who could be useful to us and wants
to become a part of our happy seagypsy community please dont hesitate
to contact us.

Minutes from last weeks:

a. Kiwi-girl painting the barracks inside.
b. Directly arrived from Jordan. A mix of norwegian winterclothes and
traditional jordan wedding costume maybe :-)
c. Biking to the lake to go swimming. Whopping 16 degrees C in the water.
d. Painting the barracks outside.
e. As usual on thursdays - swedish peasoup and waffels.

Sailing the Farm tribe mid July 2011

Dear wannabe sea gypsies,

A wet summer this year i must say. We havent had so much rain for the last
80 year. The weather seems to be more and more weird. if it continues
raining like this each year we can rename our seay gypsy boat to noahs ark! :-)

Summer has been busy as normal. we have been working mostly the field. Our potato garden
is doing good. they seem to thrive on top of an old storage for sheep manure so
nutrishion seems to be of no problem.

Of more serious construction stuff: we ran out of space or more correct - found out
our long term gypsies deserve a bit more private space so now we have 3 nice barracks
and a shower in the barn. At the moment we paint them inside and outside. Lifting them
above the boatshed was a little scary. If the barrack slipped, we could just start over
with the boatbuilding process but everything was smooth sailing.

Hopefully when august is coming we are back to boatbuilding.

If you think you have some skills who could be useful to us and wants
to become a part of our happy seagypsy community please dont hesitate
to contact us.

Minutes from last weeks:

1. Barrack is lifted into position. More space for volunteers is now solved.
2. Painting up barracks inside. This one will be a cozy place during winter.
3. Organic potatofield is doing good. But need endless amount of weeding it seems.
4. Aussie girl doing queenbreeding. We more or less trick the bees into thinking they need a new queen.
5. Preparing for sailsewing. That is trying to get the pesky industrial sewingmachine to work properly. Almost there!

Dear wannabe sea gypsies,

Its been really nice weather for the last 2 weeks. The bees are busy
collecting pollen, and we have been working out on the fields for the
last days. The potatoe field is finished so now its just to wait
until october to see the result.

We found we probably needed mast for the sea gypsy community so we
started planting 700 small spruce-trees. Then its just to sit down and
wait - some 80 years. It is the sea gypsies of the future who will
appreciate this step - but its good to think longterm. who
knows. maybe it will be hundreds of boats roaming the seven seas some
time in distant future?

We are still working on the lead smelter, it will be some time until
this step is finished, but goes slowly forward. Finding good lead is
biggest problem.

If you think you have some skills who could be useful to us and wants
to become a part of our happy seagypsy community please dont hesitate
to contact us.

Minutes from last weeks:

1. two hardworking kiwi/aussie guys on their way to the field to pick
rocks!

2. Cooling down the lead smelter with water. the obligatory safetymask
is on. getting lead poison is no fun.

3. Preparing the potato field. quite good soil (you can see some
beehives in the background there)

4. Planting 700 spruce trees. The seagypsy dog watch the process
closely.

亲爱的热爱航海的朋友们：

    难以置信今年的夏天竟然来的这么早！最近白天的气温达到了16摄氏度，而现在还是四月份！这样对于我们很有利，海上流浪者朋友们甚至开始抱怨船棚里有些热了，他们竟然这么快就忘记了冻伤的脚趾头！

    我们仍然进行铅的熔化工作，最大的困难是以我们可以接受的价格买到废铅。好像是中国把价格提升了，所以现在很难买到便宜的废金属了。不管怎样，我们已经完成一半了。

    农场最新消息：现在鸡蛋已经可以自给自足了，每天一个，真是难以置信！我们很快会犁地，种植土豆，缬草（为蜜蜂种的）和树莓。

    最后祝大家复活节快乐！！！

    如果你有兴趣加入，请尽快和我们联系

[上文由”彩翼飞鸟“翻译] http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5d2330920100qj1i.html

这个海上吉普赛女郎非常的认真，甚至在她的左腿上纹了一个船锚的图案，所以加上已经有的四个船锚，我们不需要更多了。

第二批小鸡。他们生长的速度快的惊人--就像施了魔法

Yes，春天来了，清洁小的帆船，并涂刷防污剂

复活节大餐，对于那些旱鸭子来说，没有比中国的火锅更给力的了！这个煤油炉是从船上弄下来冒充真正的火锅

原文：

Dear sea gypsy friends.

Hard to believe but summer arrived early this year! it has been 16 degrees last days and we are still talking april! This looks good, our sea gypsies even complain its a little too warm in the boatshed. How fast we forgot our frostbitten toes!

We are still into lead melting. Biggest problem is actually getting scrap lead to a price we are willing to pay. It seems china is driving up the prices so much so its hard to get scrap metal cheap anymore, but we are more or less halfway through this process.

Latest news on farm is: We are now almost selfsufficient on eggs!! we get one each day!!! thats incredible. Will soon start to plow the field and start planting potatoes, pacelia (for the bees) and raspberries.

Happy easter!
If you are interested in joining our cool ailing the farm tribe please contact us!
And as usual some pictures from the last weeks:

1. this sea gypsy girl is serious. even have a fisherman anchor on her left leg. so together with our 4 other fisherman anchor I think we have enough!
2. second batch of chickens.Its incredible how fast they grow - almost magic.
3.  Yes, Spring time is here, cleaning and painting antifouling on the
   small sailboat.
4.  Easter dinner. What else than chinese hotpot! For those landlubbers out there.  this kerosene stove is stolen from the boat to simulate that we have a real hotpot table.

Sailing the Farm tribe april 2011

Dear friends.

Spring is slowly coming and even if it is still snowing it usually
melt a little every day. We are into summertime so sun goes down after
2000 so we have long days ahead of us thankfully.

There has been many nice wannabee seagypsies last weeks on farm and
everyone talks eagerly about the future life of roaming the seas. We
have a huge stocks of sailingbooks on the farm so its easy to dream
about distance shores and nice sunsets.

The work goes forward as normal, we are melting lead for the ballast
keel (totally around 4500 tonns). It will be in big V-shaped form,
with average weight of around 60 kg. It makes it easier to take them
out in emergency. Lead is quite poisonous so we are using masks and
work outside. It melts around 300 degress, so easy to use a wood
burning stove.

The wax-melting process for the bees is finished thankfully. Now we
have 150 boxes with clean organic wax. We started this process in
october so it was a long and tedious work.

If you are interested in joining sailing the farm project please
contact us!

Comments to the pictures.

1: 3 hardworking seagypsies taking a rest on the couch.
2. the girl with the rooster. Look at the matching colors. The rooster
  might think they belong to the same tribe.
3. Our Igloo got a nice shaped door.
4. Balancing on a line. A little cold without shoes.
5. Melting lead for the boat. Each weight 60 kg.
6. Time to hit the road again. Our professional hitchhiking girl
  decide to go south after many month on farm. Deeply missed.

--
If you want to join our sea gypsy tribe, please contact us.
Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse
If you want to receive our newsletter on email:
http://list.nett.org/mailman/listinfo/sailing-the-farm