Our first stop was the white sandy beaches at “The Neck”.
We then did a lovely walk around
And finished off with a wonderful lunch around the campfire with John and Pat at Cloudy Bay Lagoon.
Our little home (ok shed) is coming along nicely. Karim and Matt have finished erecting the studs, the electrician has installed all the wiring for the lights and power points, and the plumber has installed the water and drainage pipes. The next step is to install the insulation and plasterboard. Once that is done the room will really start to take shape. After stressing over the kitchen bench top moral dilemma, the second hand kitchen won't quite fit between the garage columns, and it's the sink and drawers that land directly on the column so we can't cut the back of them out to sit around the column. There’s a big dishwasher gap that we don't need though, so we could make the whole unit smaller - but we can't make the bench top smaller because the hole has already been cut out for the sink, so we'll have to get a new bench top that can be cut to fit. But not all is lost as we can use the old bench top as a work bench in the tool shed :o) and the kitchen will now fit nicely into its little corner of the garage.
I had to build a hot compost pile for the Permaculture IV course, so made the most of it by running a free composting course on the land. We demonstrated three different methods of composting; Bokashi, hot compost and how to build your own worm farm. I arranged it on a Tuesday so the volunteers could also learn, and about a dozen people from the community came along. One guy kindly donated us 20 bales of hay in return for doing the course, which is going to be fantastic for the chicken enclosure. Between the three methods we transformed “wastes” such as lawn clippings, fallen leaves, ash from the fire, hair from a brush, shredded junk mail and food scraps into rich compost. We also set up a separate worm farm outside the food growing area specifically to deal with the cat litter. Celia from the Permaculture Association of Tasmania came along, and the next day asked if I would teach an Introduction to Permaculture weekend course in September. This was totally unexpected, but brilliant!
Four days after building the compost pile, the temperature outside was 12oC and inside the pile was 43oC, which means we got the carbon to nitrogen ratio pretty spot on for the pile to start cooking. I’ve got composting course notes if anyone is interested.
Here’s the worm farm, a laundry tub that cost $10 from the tip shop. It’s perfect because it already has a drain (which we covered with mesh to prevent the worms from falling down it), and the bucket to catch the worm tea sits neatly inside the cupboard. We positioned it under a pine tree to the south to protect it from the sun and heavy rains. In only two weeks we not only disposed of the cat poo, but had loads of worm tea to fertilise the new trees.
The week after doing the compost course we went to visit a local house designer that we met at the
But ended up here…
Talk about synchronicity again, the driveway just happened to be that of the guy who donated us all the hay at the compost course! He pulled us out of the culvert with his Lamborghini tractor, gave us a tour of his garden, about 20 strawberry plants and a contact name for who can help us build a great greenhouse, so it was meant to be.
It’s been another fantastic month working with the volunteers. They keep me young just like Carly did when we worked together at Converga. As I’m getting to know them they’re starting to confide in me and share some of their problems, talk about the trouble they’ve been in, upcoming court hearings and how they want to try and turn their lives around. I feel privileged to be having these conversations with them and really hope that I can make some kind of positive impact over the next six months. Here are some of the crew (left to right) Dale, Sam, Kyle, John, Bradley, Cameron and Daniel.
We managed to get all 10 hazelnut and 15 fruit trees in the ground; apples, pears, plums, nectarines and peaches woo hoo! The nectarines and peaches are self fertile, and specific species of the rest were selected for not only cross pollination, but early, mid and late season varieties to extend our harvest period. After pegging out and marking a circle the size that each different tree would mature to, we constructed mounds to plant the trees in so they don’t drown in the heavy clay soil. We broke up the existing soil, added ag-lime then made the mounds with five wheelbarrow loads of topsoil, two bags of manure and two bags of mushroom compost per fruit tree.
After a quick lesson on hazelnut sex (showing the boys the male catkins and female flowers and explaining the pollination process), we planted 10 happy hazelnut trees.
We then placed a pot plant around the trunks to keep the mulch off it (and avoid rotting), then laid flat cardboard boxes over the mounds and covered them with a thick layer of straw. This will retain moisture in the soil and protect the soil life; the earthworms will love moving through the cardboard, and it will prevent erosion of the mounds.
Rocks were then laid along the edges of paths, and beds filled with more soil, sand, compost and sheep manure. Two beds have been planted out with a variety of goodies that will scramble amongst the fruit trees; prostrate rosemary, garlic, chives, gooseberry, raspberries, alpine strawberries, oregano, lettuce, silverbeet, cabbage, kohl rabi, celery, broccoli and sunflowers. The remainder of the beds (which have extremely limited topsoil) have been planted with green manure crops such as broad beans, oats and woolly pod vetch to help build and fix the soil, and a mix of flowers to attract pest predators such as Ladybeetles, Lacewing, Hoverfly and Wasps. We can’t wait to see some spring growth!
We were also able to lay bark chips and mulch along all the foot paths thanks to roadside clearing by the council.
Before we show you the end result let’s recap. This was Zone 2 (the food production area) soon after we arrived in Tassia Mania and had strimmed the area (December):
Then after large old stumps were pulled out Dean and I filled massive holes with what seemed like a million tonne of rocks and it became this:
Then Dean helped spread gypsum, dolerite, sawdust, soil and hay, and it became this:
And now that same patch of land looks like this:
Paul took over from Jules while he’s away for two months, and helped Peter finish the lean-to over the caravan, which looks fantastic. This of course also creates another rainwater catchment area.
When Paul saw our half empty dam he became extremely excited about the opportunity to build a jetty. This is something that we always wanted, but didn’t really know how to go about it. It’s worked out perfectly that the dam hasn’t filled and we still have a chance to construct this jetty. Paul also suggested that, due to such low rainfall this winter, we should fill the dam with the hose. Apparently the clay in a newly constructed, empty dam can start to shrink then crack, and once water flows through cracks we could have all sorts of problems. So the main pillars for the jetty are now in place and the dam is nearly full.
They’ve also started building the rat and quoll proof chicken coupe...
Progress has simply been incredible, and it’s difficult to imagine what we’ll achieve with the volunteers by the time they finish in late November. To think that a few months ago I thought I’d be spending a couple of lonely days each week working on the land by myself, talking to the plants and maybe getting a few hedges planted here and there.
The birds are starting to feel really relaxed around us now, as you can see by these Dusky Robins happily fossicking within two metres of us – one on the wheelbarrow handle, one on the end of the wheelbarrow, a couple on the ground and one on the mulch pile. As soon as we do anything new to the garden they come in and suss it out, especially if we’ve uncovered yummy insects for them to feast on.
We found the most beautiful nest in a tree hollow, which based on the shape, materials and location is probably that of either a Yellow Wattle Bird or Grey Strike-Thrush.
To end (and prove that it’s not all work), we had a party on the land to farewell one of the boys leaving for the mainland and to celebrate our achievements so far.
And singing and laughter often rings through the valley while we work :o)
