Bella Donawitz

Hello world!

I'm a 30 year old girl with a beautiful little girl that has a killer garden even for a city dweller, a deep love and respect of nature, spiritual but not religious, a gentle spirit. I'm a big reader, I haven't owned a TV in over ten years, I love cooking and tending the garden from whence they came. I am living in the Rocky mountains in Canada and am land hunting.

I'm grounded and realistic and while I'm a dreamer I know garden beds down't build them selves.

What I offer!
I'm stable. Believe it or not. I define that as being debt free, able to keep a little human alive and happy, set and achieve goals. No addictions or seriously bad habits.
I'm a good communicator.
Some say I'm easy on the eyes.
I'm honest. When I say nothings wrong, I mean it.
I should note that I am able to support my self and not looking for a free ride of any sorts. I have worked my buns off and have saved a chunk to put towards my dream.

What I'm like
My humor is on the darker side of the color wheel.
I have an epic vinyl record collection.
A glass of while we cook dinner together is heaven.
I love chai tea so much I'm a little embarrassed.
I always believe in people. Sometimes more then they do.
I believe in forgiveness. I believe in being patient. This means I will love you and I both enough to cut the cord if we are drowning each other but not with out working at it.
Dancing solves a lot of things.
I believe that being a light soul with an ability to be silly at times will carry you through a lot of the mucky bits in life. Doesn't mean you can't cry and really feel it. Sometimes you just have to shake your sillies out.
Charity isn't optional.
Puer aeternus isn't restricted to gender and neither am I.

I am not for everyone.
Living off the land isn't for everyone.

If any of this made you smile, write me and tell me about your self.

As young females in our early 20's we'd trade 'adult treats' to resort staff for work shirts and name tags.
We'd then use all the facilities for none of the cost.
We saw a lot of awesome resorts for no money.

The closes we came to getting kicked out was when someone notice my name tag didn't match my ethnicity and I lied and said I'd borrowed my roomies.
I had to clean an entire floor with the staff.

Red wings have always really kicked butt (had mine for 10+ yrs died due to dog)

Also check out Fry or some other german boots that have stacked heels(then you can have them re-souled)

Great finds!
Victoria is an amazing place to scavenge.
As a young punk in that city i never bought furniture.
I also have never owned sooo many nice bits of furniture, my yard sales looked like I robbed the antique road show. I had an amazing wood sofa with scroll carvings. It went great with my Patti Smith and Ramones posters.

I'm not sure your read my whole post.
I in no way think leaving a bookshelf around and expecting interns to build a perfect structor. Nothing replaces a formal lesson.
I've heard it said many times on here. That people do not value a 'lesson' unless it is a sit down-y formal way.

This is what I said:

"Then sit in a class setting and teach about, lets say chickens. We then plan out what we are going to do in a 4 hr chunk. get interns to work along side me for 4 hour chunks. 5 days a week. The rest of the time is theirs."

If you tell them about chickens, show them your plan for the day , then start doing it with them. They should be able to continue to do so. It is creating a frame work that can be fallowed in steps. If you have asked them questions and you feel they truly understand, there can also be accountability. Also so when you come back and nothing is done "I didn't know what to do man." Isn't an acceptable answer. I don't expect people to know what I haven't taught them. However I am not intrested in teaching the samething over and over. I will cull the heard lazy people are bad for group moral and should go.

As an interesting side note. Not all apprenticeships are paid, in both the states and Canada journalists and a few others are expected to do an unpaid internship.
Trades are paid a % of what they'll be paid once certified in canada.

If you are living in a Yurt or something on my land and eating food I've cooked there is value to that. Reality is you need to ether barter or pay for food and shelter.
20hr leaves you time to work a normal job if you want and make tones of loot as a bartender/local labour in a nearby town/resort. My land isn't far from a few towns. In fact you can take a city bus.
Its also a selection process of my end.
I've met so many people that think 'money's the root of all evil', but are the first with their hand out to the farmer.
If you want to work more then that I will pay you in one form or another. Real money even.
If you are a good worker
Botem line is by just showing up to work you are not arriving at the table with 50% of a pie to give to me.

So I called the wild life rescue closes to me and they told me they are up to their earballs with wildlife and are deeply understaffed and asked if we could work around the nest.
They told me how to gauge how old they were so we could estimate if they'd be flying by the time my house would be on the market.
So up to the second storey of my house Good lord I'm afraid of highest!!!
Good news is their eyes are open! So older then 2 weeks.

So I did all the painting around that area my self so the big bad birdies don't scare the big tuff guys painting. (to be clear we are talking about sparrows not a raptor)
The plan is to leave them alone until the last possible moment and then scoop the nest and bring it to the wild life rescue.

I learned that birds in fact do have a sense of smell however that is not why they abandon their nest if moved or handled.
Just b/c the parent isn't flying around your head doesn't mean they aren't watching you from a nearby tree. They abandon it b/c they assume if a predator is there and poking around the nest. the predator has already eaten their young, or will return to do so later while the parent is there. I expressed amazement at the crappy adaptation only to be told baby birds have a pretty high mortality rate anyway.

Country life will cure my bleeding heart or I'll have a menagerie of wounded animals in no time

I'm selling my house in the city and have birds that have built a nest in the second story soffits and are now raising babies.
If I build a bird box put it next to the hole and somehow move the nest to the box then cover the hole will this work?
Is it true that if I touch them their mom will not come back to them?
Any trick to moving a nest?
Thanks for any tips!

Great article!
As an Ex-wwofer nothing pissed me off more then arriving at a farm to learn and I am then relegated to pulling weeds for 40/hrs. This is assembly line working with no pay. Best left to goats or bunnies.
Now I'm in the planning stages of my homestead and fully agree that if my plan depends on 'free/illegal' labour I am not fallowing the principles of sustainability. I have worked at farms that came dangerously close to being southern plantation style. wwofers are not farm equipment.


Before being defeated by building codes I wanted to offer a long term apprentice the opportunity to 'buy land' from me through sweat equity.

Now I have my eye on 4 acres in the Canadian rockies and want to keep the land for my self but want to offer perhaps a 'rent' to own yurt.
I feel like if I apply what I learned while teaching I may keep interns. Montissorie school applies a similar concepts.
I would like to start by feeding them.You can't work/learn on an empty stomach. Then sit in a class setting and teach about, lets say chickens. We then plan out what we are going to do in a 4 hr chunk. get interns to work along side me for 4 hour chunks. 5 days a week. The rest of the time is theirs.

I plan to work MANY more hours then the wwofers because its my dream/land and its their job. 'making' interns work long farmer hours 'so they know' how hard it is smacks of bitterness. I imagine a parent crushing a childs toy to instill the need for 'serious' work. If this is the life style they choose the'll work hard or starve. simple.

Somehow I would like to offer them a way to make more money. I would encourage them to start a garden to grow things like culinary herbs or other farm stand staples. They would then get 100% of what ever they sell.
anything above and beyond the 20hrs they could buy 'shares' in lets say my flock of chickens. So when we sell eggs the person gets a cut.

empowerment + education + respect +good food+ comfortable housing= happy interns
any thoughts?

I gave up on buying a large bit of land with others due to building regulations. The land had old (100+ yrs mostly log cabins) on it. To buy the land I would of had to demolish the cabins to make it safe......like the cabins could sneak up on you and then collapse. They've survived 100 years and by law you have to rip them down.
If you don't conform you risk losing everything.
I'm buying in a permit free zone. Winlaw BC!

-Alexis

I'm so sorry to hear about your land! Please tell us what you decide to do.
I would worry as well about other 'infractions'. Once you have one authority coming out to check on things they breed like bunnies. All of a sudden you'll have a yard full of expensive officials running in circles holding clip boards. Ever read the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbN1NaQ7yQI&feature=related

Although building codes should be straight forward they seem to be randomly enforced in the city even. My house in the city was 'built to code' except an addition that was built without a permit!!!
so for them to prevent you from doing something holistic to the land is insane!