#ForTheLoveOfPeople
«There are those of us who see the world as poetry and song. We live outside conventional ways and soar above the chaos.
We often times live in a dream of what we want the world to be.»
Kate Ellen
We believe in being creative, whether it is through arts, music, building or creating something. We would like to facilitate a safe space where diversity is valued and where you can express yourself freely and without judgement.
Staying in the beautiful surroundings with the gorgeous view of Lake Elmenteita and Soysambu Conservancy is healing in itself. We believe The Shire is like a sanctuary, a place where you can let your guard down and where both your body, mind, soul and spirit can be nourished and find healing.
We believe that by letting people come to visit The Shire our guests will find inspiration in their hearts – whether it is to create, to learn new things, to experience the joy of simple living or even to find the courage to make some changes in their own life.
As the original Latin word recreare implies, the whole point of re-creation is to refresh and renew. We definitely believe that The Shire is a place you can come to free yourself from the stressful everyday living, where you can charge your batteries away from your daily chores: Rest, recover and restore.
The SHIRE Project
The Shire is a holding in off-grid rural Kenya, about 40 km from Nakuru town, located on a hill around
2000 meters above the sea. The property of The Shire is about 12 acres big and offers a beautiful view over Soysambu Conservancy and Lake Elmenteita.
Our passion and dream for the place is to be able to host people who want to experience authentic rural Kenya,
– not just the «touristy» and crowded places and the fancy hotels on the coast where the Westeners tend to leave quite a lot of money behind.
If you need time away from everyday life – from stress and noise and living on a tight schedule, we highly recommend that you book a visit with us on The Shire. We want this to be a sanctuary, a place for
Self-expression, Healing, Inspiration, Re-creation and Education.
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On The Shire you will meet:
Kate Ellen - from the US
Marit - from Norway
The Queen's right hand
46, a mom to 6 biological children and 9 orphan Kenyan daughters. Has lived in Kenya for the past 16 years, is a home educator and has built The Shire. Creative, musical and super smart – has tons of knowledge and even more passion.
42, no biological children, but a bonus mom to a few and with a big loving heart. Musical and creative, and a handywoman with lots of practical and quite a few technical skills.
Queen of The Shire
Edith - from Kenya
Emma - from Kenya
Éowyn - from Kenya
Starlette - from Kenya
19, the youngest of Kate's Kenyan orphans-no-more daughters. Is finishing secondary school in the village, so we are very happy to have her live at home. Very creative and musical, she draws and paints, plays the guitar, sings a lot and has a beautiful voice.
15 years old and another creative – great at drawing and creating all kinds of things with her hands, and knows how to make perfect mud better than anyone. Also is a very good rider and is looking forward to having horses again on The Shire.
12 years old, is a planner and organizer, loves to make lists and schedules and set up surprises for her mom or her sisters. Likes posing in front of the camera, sings pretty much all day and is learning to play a little ukulele and piano.
6 years old, the entertainer of the family – loves to perform by singing, dancing or doing a hoolahoop show. Also a creative, loves to play with color and express herself by i.e. by doing her own or other people's make-up.
Beatrice - from Kenya
Our dear and faithful househelp who has worked on The Shire from the very beginning. She helps us keep the house tidy, separates the milk, makes cheese and butter, cooks, cleans...you name it! The children love her and so do we, there is no one like Beatrice!
James - from Kenya
James is by far the most detail focused worker we have had working on our farm, and his tidiness blew us away when he helped working on the bath house. He has lots of different skills and is also a fast learner who appreciates learning new things –
i.e. building with mud.
Kepha - from Kenya
Kepha is Beatrice's stepson, and he came from a village hours and hours away to work with us on The Shire. He is a fast learner and hard working, and he fits in on our team like the hand in a glove. We are super happy to have him here!
Bu
Our Great Dane, Bucephalus, loves everyone who is willing to give him cuddles. Has no understanding of his own size or people's need for personal space, is more than happy to sit on your lap.
Fang
Our fluffy and brave little guard dog who barks at strangers and keeps our compound safe.Is a very dedicated one-person-dog, and at the moment he follows Marit around wherever she goes. Thinks he is the size of Bu. At least.
Callie
Liquorice
Keeper
Has had a countless number of kittens but never liked being a mama and didn't really care much about her kittens. Is very playful and young at heart. Callie loves cuddles so much that she starts drooling.
Has given birth to a countless number of kittens, including Keeper, and totally loved being a mom. Would even step in for Callie when she didn't like nursing her kittens. Is now fixed.Can be gone for a few days and then come back home to sleep.
The man of the house – quite lazy and loves to sleep, eat and play. Still not fixed, so he is causing some tension with the other cats every now and then. Will most likely lick your hand if you try to cuddle him.
June
Mayday
Twinkle
Our faithful milk cow – mother of Mayday and the grandmother of Twinkle. Very protective of Mayday and gets easily ticked off at the dogs.
Our youngest calf, born on
May 1st 2021. Very curious about the dogs, but her mama chases them and keeps them at a good distance
Born March 23rd 2021. Curious, but also quite bashful and a little scared.
Wilbur
We found Wilbur in our garden looking for food one day in January. He was so skinny and so dirty he didn't even look like a pig. We decided to keep him and Wilma, gave them a bath and had the vet come the same day. He is growing and healthy and doing very well on The Shire.
Wilma
Also Wilma was found in our garden looking for food. Even though not as skinny as Wilbur, she still wasn't healthy and also got a bath and three shots from the vet. She is also growing more and more every day, looking happy and healthy.
Rabbits
Chickens
What we can offer you
All the buildings on The Shire (except for the stables and the outhouse) are made out of earth (built with four different earth building methods), and the holding is also designed in order to capture as much water as possible – which is part of a permaculture friendly way of thinking. We offer a crash course in earth building for people who are interested, and can also teach an introduction to permaculture.
Here is a video of Kate's latest mud creation, where she is working on our indoor-outdoor bath:
Other than this we also offer peaceful surroundings, simple living accommodations, your own individual schedule according to your own wishes, a piano and some different music instruments you may borrow, some really colourful and spectacular birds around the compound, a couple of cows, a few dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens, the opportunity to participate in different building projects if you want to, a moon that is the same as the one you see in your own country but that still looks very different, your very own host and guide who has lived in Kenya for the past 16 years and speaks Swahili as well as English and the possibility to learn, breathe, rest, create, heal and develop as a human being on Planet Earth. And, by the way – we believe that we can learn from the locals just as much as they can learn from us. A cultural exchange, that is.
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#ForTheLoveOfPeople
As our webpage is still under construction, you can find more information on our Facebook page.
You can also reach us through e-mail:
theshireprojectkenya@gmail.com
If you would like to donate* to
The SHIRE Project, you can do so here:
If you are Norwegian and would like to use Vipps, you can send your gift to
+47 90087653 and just mark it «The Shire».
You can also give specifically to our latest ongoing campaign, which you can check out here.
* The SHIRE Project is
a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation
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If you would like to follow Kate Ellen's own personal journey, please go to patreon.com/kate_ellen
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