Waiting for the machine to stop

Preoccupations of a sociologist-vanlife traveller-homesteader-mother

 

Trying to do my best work as western capitalism crumbles about our ears.

Through musings, ideas, revelations, troubles, failures and fuck-ups, this blogs aims to open up emotive discussion about what we value in life and how we want to be valued.

We also rent a yurt. For quiet rural farmstays. If you want to get away from it all.

waitingforthemachinetostop

What am I writing about?

    • Parenting and unschooling
    • Vanlife
    • Redefining work and labour
    • Communal living
    • Farming and permaculture
    • The complexities of lived capitalism (let’s not beat ourselves up)
    • Vernacular Islam

parenting and unschooling

Traveling in a van with young kids: my essentials

Traveling in a van with young kids: my essentials

Having spent nearly two years in and out of living in a van, with a hyperactive child, aged two to four years old, I learnt the hard way what was needed on the trip; what was missing; what was superfluous; what worked and what didn’t work in terms of organising the space and so on.

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This blog documents my reflections as we travel, and settle, and parent and carry out the work that is surviving. Our journey, gradually moving further away from ‘the West’ and what it embodies (literally and metaphorically), we are trying to unlearn the things we take for granted as normal, searching for different forms of value.

 

travel and #vanlife

do nothing parenting

do nothing parenting

A couple of years ago I took a Permaculture Design Certificate course run by Rhamis Kent, who had studied under the tutelage of Geoff Lawton. Sidi Rhamis introduced us to the ideas, writings and practices of a Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka, which are set out in his notes and writings in a collection called ‘The One Straw revolution’. 

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unschooling and the pandemic

unschooling and the pandemic

When my friend told me she was worried that her daughter would “get behind if she did not go back to school soon”, this got me thinking. While these are very real concerns for parents, who know how fiercely competitive the job market is getting, I started to think what does ‘behind’ mean? Perhaps now, in the midst of the Pandemic, is the time to reassess what education is actually for, and doing.

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Yurt Life

Are you attracted by off-grid, self-sufficient living but not sure if you can hack it? Are you keen to escape the cold Northern European winter and try out sunny southern Europe living?Maybe you have some money saved, or you have the opportunity to take a sabbatical, or you are a digital nomad or have flexible work.

This might be the opportunity for you, please read on.

right livelihoods

do nothing parenting

do nothing parenting

A couple of years ago I took a Permaculture Design Certificate course run by Rhamis Kent, who had studied under the tutelage of Geoff Lawton. Sidi Rhamis introduced us to the ideas, writings and practices of a Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka, which are set out in his notes and writings in a collection called ‘The One Straw revolution’. 

read more
unschooling and the pandemic

unschooling and the pandemic

When my friend told me she was worried that her daughter would “get behind if she did not go back to school soon”, this got me thinking. While these are very real concerns for parents, who know how fiercely competitive the job market is getting, I started to think what does ‘behind’ mean? Perhaps now, in the midst of the Pandemic, is the time to reassess what education is actually for, and doing.

read more
Traveling in a van with young kids: my essentials

Traveling in a van with young kids: my essentials

Having spent nearly two years in and out of living in a van, with a hyperactive child, aged two to four years old, I learnt the hard way what was needed on the trip; what was missing; what was superfluous; what worked and what didn’t work in terms of organising the space and so on.

read more

Farmstead Life

we decided that a run-down casita and a hectare of neglected olive and orange grove in Andalucia was exactly what we needed, and after a Permaculture Design Certificate, much trial and error and blood-sweat-and-tears, we are waiting for the machine to stop whilst continuing to plant the last sapling, as it were.

Farmstead Life

we decided that a run-down casita and a hectare of neglected olive and orange grove in Andalucia was exactly what we needed, and after a Permaculture Design Certificate, much trial and error and blood-sweat-and-tears, we are waiting for the machine to stop whilst continuing to plant the last sapling, as it were.