Happyzine 2015 = exciting times ahead

New Zealand based Charlotte Squire – Editor of the good news website Happyzine – laments the recent Tauranga oil spill, discusses fossil fuel free transport, suggests that possibly owning a horse and cart isn’t as crazy as it sounds and decides we need to bring back the car free day.

I’m grieving for Tauranga’s coastal eco-system right now. Deeply. As the story unfolded about the oil spill I responded in a way typical of my personality type, thinking “Right! That’s it! I’m selling the car and buying two bikes and a horse and cart.” My next thought was that I hoped my car was worth that much. I made the announcement to my family. Feedback was luke warm.

“There’s oil in many different products, it’s not that simple.”

“That’s not the point,” I said, “I have to do something.”

So tossing and turning that night, feeling incredibly frustrated and upset that our ocean and it’s wild-life had been so affected by such a massive oil hit, I went through my oil-free transport options:

Let’s start with number one on my list the ‘Horse and cart’ (I’ll rave more about this later), then there’s the wonderful bike in all it’s forms, there’s solar powered transport (including buses and min-vans), there are our feet which are generally capable of moving us along at a variety of speeds using a variety of methods (including skipping and leap-frog), there’s bio diesel, there’s the 100% electric car, there’s the long oppressed hydro car, there’s wind powered transport; and moving into the smaller scale options we do of course have the skate board, the scooter and the pogo stick …

Now, getting back to the horse and cart.

Recently it was my son’s fourth birthday. Being a long time horse lover, and knowing local horse breeder and trainer Jenna Papadopoulos. I just had to arrange for horse and cart rides at the birthday party. Jenna visited a few days to scope out the arrangements and I peppered her with questions. I couldn’t help but entertain the notion that I too, might one day own a horse and cart.

Q “How many horses do you own?”

A “Seven.”

Q “How much do miniature horses cost to own?”

A “Well, your main costs are food, so if you can get good grazing, and work out exchange arrangements like I have where the land owner’s kids ride my horse during the summer holidays, your horse food can be free. I have a one acre place and one of my small horses lives off the grass there, it’s more than enough.”

Q “How far can that miniature horse go each day?”

A “My horse loves it, he’ll go and go. Last summer I drove him out to Pohara and back each day [around twenty Kms return) – took nearly an hour each way – and he was keen, ear’s pricked, loved it. He handled the work easily.”

Q “But then surely you need to give them more food right?”

A “Depends on how much you’ve got access too, sure people with less grazing give their horses supplementary feed.”

Q “What happens if it rains?”

A “You get wet! But I am going to give my wagon a cover one of these days.”

Q “Could I give a horse a good life on my property (which is a mere eight of an acre, if that)?”

A “Sure, you could graze it on these grassy areas around the house, give your horse supplementary feed and graze it on people’s road sides; that guy across the road has heaps of grass and doesn’t appear to be mowing his lawn, you could use that for a while.”

I was excited at the prospect. My last thoughts that day were of how well my small horse would go pulling us over the Takaka Hill …

The birthday party dawned and I watched Jenna and her small horse taking six people at a time (two adults max and four small children) on cart rides around the block. The horse and cart thing was a hit and Jenna’s horse appeared to take it in his stride, as a work dog does a solid day’s work. I got the sense that this horse, moderately sized that he was, relished the exercise, loved his owner and was quite simply happy to be contributing.

I’m very tempted by the the horse and cart concept and shall continue to research it. Meanwhile here in Golden Bay numbers of horse and cart owners are burgeoning, shooting up to nearly thirty over the past five years. It’s quite common here to see people riding their horse and carts, or simply their horses, with dogs trained to follow safely, to town and back. You’re not allowed dogs on our main street but it does appear that you’re allowed horses.

Despite the fact that over the past one hundred years our councils have had less need to create or police horse and cart law, generally by our culture’s standards, the horse and cart is, shall we say a rather ‘novel’ option. These days the term ‘next you’ll be bringing back the horse and cart’ is bandied about when someone’s talking about old fashioned or  backward thinking.  Let’s put my wee dream aside for now and move on to the next exciting subject.

Three Car Free Days.  This year.  Here in Aotearoa.  As homage to Tauranga.  As a nod to weaning off fossil fuels. 

We do currently actually have a World Car Free Day, it’s September 22^nd. This year the Wellington City Council heartily supported it and millions have participated in car free days since, well, the fifties.

So let’s bring back the fifties.

My proposal is that we stage three car free days, one per month, here in New Zealand, in the lead up to 2012 and consider continuing these once a month events next year too.

 And what might these Car-Free days involve, other than the obvious absence of car usage? Well I suggest two things: nesting and bonding. Gardening, baking, bottling, jam making, neighbourly chats, reading, perhaps leisurely strolls around the neighbourhood, maybe some Frocks on Bikes action, morning and afternoon teas with friends, maybe some long over due house maintenance, long chats about stuff we’ve been waiting to find the time to chat about, it might be time to shoot some hoops, or indulge in a spot of ping-pong. The options are bountiful, simple, grounding, and I suggest: pleasing.

Ever the social organiser, here are some proposed dates for the three car free days here in Aotearoa: Sunday the 30^th October, Sunday the 27^th November and Sunday the 18^th of December (the next and last Saturday of the year is Christmas Day and I just don’t think a car free Christmas is going to happen). Or we could do Saturdays. What do you think? When’s good for you?

Some say the definition of stupidity is making the same mistakes over and over again … still, we’re human and we’ve all found ourselves in situations where we don’t even realise we’re not really serving ourselves until the realisation hits us square between the eyes. Perhaps stupidity is closely tied in with timing – where the universe finally conspires to bring a resounding end to an era, because, quite simply people have had enough of doing things the old way and they’re ready to allow in the new. Is this our time? Will the plight of Tauranga’s coast be the key event that inspires a definite shift in our nation’s approach to oil consumption, finally convincing us to set up the infrastructure for fossil free transport options?  I think so.

Note: born from this blog was – Back to the Good Life? Ode to Tauranga: Three Car Free Days Before 31st December, 2011 – join us!

For more information about World Car Free Day check out this site.

Tags: horse and cart, tauranga