The Adlington Post

I have been busy at the Men's Shed North Shore refurbishing some old tools, which I will take up to the Pacific Islands next year. The boys at the Shed have been helping me with donations of tools, as well as technical advice on woodturning, sharpening and other technical matters - thanks guys! www.pacificneighbours.blogspot.co.nz/ www.mensshednorthshore.org.nz

My chum Eric from the Shed and I scored some free metal for the Shed from a local demolition site. See more pix at my Shed blog: www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz

Over Easter I drove down to Tarankai to look after the sheep farm & campground for a few days while the Herberts attended a wedding in Wellington. On the way I came across a young goat which had very recently been hit and killed outright. Once gutted it fitted neatly into my spare chillybin, and neighbour Lindsay gave me a hand to skin it. I then hung the carcass in the woolshed for 24 hours before roasting the ribs - delicious!

Here is the meat haul mentioned in the Sunday Star Times article (below) the other week - this is my pile, I gave as much again away! stacked in the freezer

On Sunday 31 March the Sunday Star Times here in Auckland published an article on the tremendous waste of perfectly good food worldwide - and included an interview with myself: photo by Lawrence Smith/FairfaxNZ Diary of a Well-fed Freegan 0ne man's Waste is another’s dinner, and it’s not just about dumpster diving, writes Shabnam Dastgheib. AFTER SEVEN years of not paying for food, tools or art supplies, 63-year-old Martin Adlington has freeganism down to a fine art. He finds wine, biscuits, eggs, cheese, and bread and dips in a typical haul from a typical dive in a typical supermarket dumpster. He goes only when he feels like it and often finds enough to donate to large, hungry families in Auckland. This month, World Bank senior economist Jose Cuesta targeted retailers and consumers to find a solution to the world’s staggering food waste. A United Nations- backed campaign Think Eat Save estimates that in industrialized nations 300 million tonnes of food fit for consumption i...

Looks like bacon'n'eggs for me for the next week or so - I found six packets of bacon & a tray of 24 eggs in the skip last night (gave half to my neighbour). Check out the "best before" date on the middle bacon = 1 May 2014!

As an environmental artist I see a lot of perfectly good materials being disposed of in landfill. Having lived in Fiji and visited several Pacific islands I am aware that much of our waste would be very welcome to our neighbours - particularly after disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes. The remoteness and often poverty of these islands makes recovery from disaster extremely difficult and very expensive. I have previously organised assistance to Bali after the bombing ("Byron Loves Bali" in 2003), and to Niuatoputapu in Tonga after the tsunami (2010). Currently I am continuing to collect tools, knives, nails, and pots and pans for Niua as many of the people have by no means recovered from the damage of the tsunami. See details on my blog http://www.pacificneighbours.blogspot.co.nz/ tsunami damage someone's roof in the lagoon john with donations 2014   distribution of goods from yacht Atutaki in 2010 hammers for niua 2014