I have a silly side, too.

Welcome to The News Base and greetings from France!  Depending on where you found my site, you may be interested in WWOOFing, organic gardening, books, homeschooling, traveling/being an expat, or cooking – including raw, vegan and vegetarian recipes.
You might also be someone I’ve met around the world, checking up to see how I’m doing.  You could be looking to save money, or make a little extra.

I’m involved in all these things, and I write about a lot of stuff.  I’m interested in getting recipes and meeting people worldwide.  If you would like to make a guest post on my blog, or a video of you cooking your favorite traditional meal, or if you have any questions or suggestions, please give me a holler!

For more about me, click here.

If you’d like to exchange links for free, click here.

Book Review: Five Finger Fiction by Brooks SiglerSigler’s  “about the author” bio says “Sigler made a New Year’s resolution in 2008 to complete a book.  Here it is.”  If this is true, I sincerely hope she made a similar resolution in 2009.  Thank yous are in order for  Mr. Jeffrey MacAdam Sigler, who she mentions [...]

Movie Review – All About SteveI’m quite surprised to read all the awful reviews about this movie. I thought it was great.
Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, a romance, or rather romantic comedy. I expected the standard formula: girl meets boy, girl falls madly in love, boy rejects girl, girl follows boy across the country [...]

I am vegetarian and have been since I was 9. I chose to be vegetarian because in 5th grade we did a big research project in school. I chose chickens. During this time I did lots of research and discovered that most hens raised for meat or used to provide eggs were really treated poorly, by my standards. I didn’t think it was ok so I stopped supporting it by not eating it. My family followed.

Why Flipper Committed Suicide – and What You Can Do for the OthersThis is not a joke. It is the review of a very moving film by Ric O’Barry, the man who trained “Flipper”. Before “The Cove” most people did not know how “Flipper” died. My husband warned me, and I will warn [...]

All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan (And You)
In December of 2003, I was at a crossroads, literally and figuratively. I had been married almost four years. We had been through some good times and some hard things, but we were going through about the hardest thing we’d been through [...]

Making Money While WWOOFing
This is more of an issue for long-term WWOOFers. In most WWOOFing situations, you will have free rent and utitilities, and at least some free food.  Some hosts will even have Internet access, a swimming pool, a vehicle to use, or other extras.  But at most places you’ll just get the [...]

WWOOFing With Kids
The Basics
I get asked all the time if you can WWOOF if you have kids.  The short answer is yes!  Many hosts do allow and even encourage volunteers to bring their children.  But actually doing it can be challenging.
What is WWOOFing, exactly?  Willing Workers On Organic Farms or Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, [...]

Pablo tells of his first experience as a WWOOFer, with all the highlights and disappointments. Do you have a WWOOFing story? Please share!

5 Mistakes WWOOFers MakeI’ve heard WWOOFing horror stories from both hosts and volunteers, and I’ve seen some incredibly bad behavior.  Most of these things (as with all things in life) could be avoided if people would just communicate and do their jobs.  Here are a few pointers:
1. Not communicating – if there’s a problem, most [...]

How to WWOOF Long-TermWWOOFing is a great program, but each person’s experience is a little different because WWOOFing is conducted by individuals who make their own decisions about who they want to work with and what they expect in return.  The organization puts farms and volunteers together.  But it doesn’t decide who does what.
There are [...]