5/1

Today I woke up and did another Manure Tour, collecting the black gold. I actually enjoy doing this. You just walk around the country side with a scooper, feed sack and the jams pumpin' in my headphones. My next task was to pull up some gorse. Gorse is a very prickly shrub/tree that some genius brought over with himself from Scotland way back when. This invasive species can stay dormant for up to 100 years before it sprouts, waiting for the right conditions. After I mowed the lawn(which is like zen to me) I tagged along with Micheal while he visited his client in Mangawhai. While he was doing his thing, I walked about a kilometer into town. I needed to kill some time so I found a pub and had a few quiet ones.

The bartender was a nice dude with plenty to talk about. He was from down south and despised Auckland, calling it a virus. Our hour long talk covered...

• Permaculture-When all of the resources are gone, will you eat your money?
• 9/11 conspiracies- He lost me on some of these
• The scariness of the American Bible Belt/his willingness to debate the bible with Christians
• Marijuana laws/the war on drugs
• Obama and the restored faith that the rest of the world has in the US
• Teachers from within "the System" teaching young ones how to be a part of "the System"
• Taking advantage of the opportunities life gives you
• How the victors write the history books
• The advantages of using a point system instead of money, etc, etc....

It was a very entertaining way to spend a couple of my hours. A few beers and a colorful local.