May the Heavens Open

April was all about water, glorious water. We have mains water, but it’s not potable, so we’ll catch rain water off the garage roof. The mains would be fine for irrigating the gardens, but we’ve constructed the dam because we intend to use quite a bit of water for this size food system, and we’ll be charged on a metering system in a couple of years time. Why pay when it falls free from the sky? But most importantly, we like the idea of sustainability and independence, not having to rely on external supply systems.

This was the dam site before we started….

Karim testing the quality of the clay that was coming out of the hole half way through construction, which was clearly nice and sticky…

And thanks to all your superior visualising, we ended up with a dam that will hold about 185,000L. I'm standing in the middle to give you an idea of the size. There weren’t too many large rocks to contend with and the clay was perfect, so it should seal really well.

Once we re-surveyed the waterline the spillway was constructed so any overflow will gently flow into the forest, we covered the entire dam in topsoil ready for planting and dressed it with a few special rocks that came out of the hole. Now all we need is some rain!

Once the dam was finished our excavator operator, Bob, dug over 250m of trenches to house all the irrigation pipes, and we commenced laying out a total of 800m of poly pipe weighing over 100kg.

Bob then buried the pipe (which protects it from fire) under spoon drains that will also direct the water from the culverts into the dam.

We ended up with five different pipes along the garage: 1” pipe to pump drinking water up to the header tank; 1.5” pipe to gravity feed drinking water back down to the garage, 2” pipe pumping dam water up to a header tank and gravity feeding it back to the garden, ¾” pipe for mains water into the garden (in case the dam is low); and 2” pipe for the future house tank to gravity feed its overflow down to the bottom tank. We also took this opportunity to lay the telephone and electricity cables to the garage while the trench was dug, and it’s all since been buried and dressed with blue metal.

Karim followed the plan that tooks us several days to map out, strategically placing taps around the property before the trenches were filled.

He also has the dam site ready to install the pump, with gate valves that will allow us to either pump up to the header tank, gravity feed to the garden or fight a fire.

The final part of the project was to get the water tanks in place, which involved constructing a level 9 x 5m slab on relatively steep ground.

But we got there in the end…

Then came the job that we severley underestimated – filling the box frame with 12 tonne of blue metal. We tipped it over the embankment from the road bit by bit onto some old roof sheeting…

Then had to shovel all 12 tonne of it by hand (thankfully with the help of our next door neighbour) until it was level…

At some point in this process (thankfully toward the end), I lost the will to live…

Once the tank site was ready it was time to cross our fingers as the excavator attempted (successfully) to lift two large tanks over the embankment.

Amongst all this, Bob also managed to create a turning circle around the garage and dress it with blue metal, construct a wonderful frog pond, remove a large wattle that was blocking the sun and sucking water and nutrient from the growing area, and stack all the large felled trees ready for us to chainsaw firewood.

This was likely to be the largest project that we’ll undertake until building the house, and without speaking too soon (the dam needs to fill so we can test the pumps and lines etc), it seems to have gone exceptionally well.

Our First Structure

March was full of excitement as we installed our first structure, the garage, which will be our home from December 2010 until we build the house (probably about three years). It's not exactly an eco-structure (concrete & steel), but we hope to make up for that by taking our time in the design and construction of the permanent house.
Where was Dean when we needed him for all this dry stone walling???
The installation didn’t come without a few hiccups – all the wall and roofing sheets had a small dent in them and had to be replaced, but it only put us two weeks behind schedule and we got to keep all the slightly damaged sheets, which will be great to use as a roof on the wood shed or chook pen. So it all worked out for the better, and we now have a fantastic new garage.

We’re hoping that it will also serve as Karim’s office, depending on the regularity and volume of night-time conference calls with Israel and the feasibility of trying to work with four furry friends climbing all over him! This is the section that we’re fitting out to live in, which is 12 x 4.3m, so it’ll be cosy to say the least :o)
The caravan is safely on the land now, and ready for its first guests in April – our future next door neighbors Ben and Magali. They’re coming down from Melbourne for a few days to do some strimming on their land and prepare the holes for fruit trees that they’re planting this winter. We’ve been really blessed with extremely like-minded future neighbors. Actually, when you think about it, they’re more than just like-minded – they’re a young couple, no kids yet, she’s Aussie, he’s English, she’s into plants, he’s into web development, they’re building a small eco-friendly house… sound familiar???
After years of saving for this life change, it’s been somewhat difficult to watch the money disappear as the project progresses ($10k for the garage slab, $12k for the kit, $5k for the double glazed windows, $4k for installation). At the same time, we’ve become professional bargain hunters at demolitions, for example we’ve picked up a second hand solid blackwood kitchen for $400 (courtesy of the coin jar) and a Stanley wood heater/stove/hot water unit worth over $7k for only $3k, which we’ll move into the permanent house once its built.

I think the salesman noticed my hand shaking yesterday as we also handed over $15k for water tanks, irrigation and fencing, which will all (fingers crossed) go up in April/May once the dam is built. Having never done anything like this before, planning the water harvesting system was one hell of a brain teaser. We plan to pump water from the dam 150m uphill into a holding tank, and from there gravity feed it back down 200m to irrigate the gardens. We’ve made sure we can also flick a switch and use the dam water to pump directly to fire fighting taps. There will be a drinking water tank on the garage, which we’ll also pump up to a separate holding tank so that we have gravity feed water to the garage and future house (which means we’ll always have water, even when there’s no power). It sounds easy, but involved days of mapping out and measuring the distances and heights on the land, which in the end resulted in ordering over 130 parts – nipples, elbows, tees, joiners, pumps, filters, poly pipe, gate valves, adapters, float valves, taps, strainers etc. And of course the three water tanks, which had to have exactly the right inlets and outlets to facilitate the plan. Put it this way, we’ve learned a hell of a lot about irrigation systems this month!

A wonderful thing happened in March – the tiny abandoned kitten, Hedge, recovered and grew big enough to finally go to his new home in New Norfolk, not before melting our hearts of course :o)
And talking of Hedges, we’ve planted our first Hedge along the eastern boundary. When constructing the driveway we asked the excavator driver to carefully mound the topsoil on the eastern side, and it's now thriving with a mixture of Showy Honeymyrtle, Calistemon Kings Park Special and Acacia Retinodes, all of which combined will fix nitrogen, attract the birds and bees and provide some privacy.
Oh – and very exciting news indeed – it looks like we definitely have a resident wombat in the forest! As far as I know no other creature deposits logs like these (squares that are joined together)
I’m progressing well in the distance Accredited Permaculture Training that I’m doing through the National Environment Centre. Topic 1 is complete, which was summarising the 12 ethics and three principles of Permaculture and giving examples of how we can apply them, measuring our own ecological footprint (if everyone lived like me, we’d need two planet earths to provide enough resources – crikey!!), and analysing food miles. I’m half way through Topic 2, which is writing a client brief, doing a site risk analysis and a list of plants that can grow in the area. These studies will not only support our own designs that we implement on the land, but will enable me to teach accredited Permaculture courses in the future.

Last month we wrote a list of things we love about Tassie. To add to that list, the following photo says it all te he he (yep, it’s for real)
And finally, we need you all to do us a massive favor – over the next week please visualise us having a wonderful dam on the property. The excavator is coming in on Monday 19^th April, and we’re nervous to say the least. Have we surveyed the waterline properly, have we chosen the right location, will we have enough catchment to fill the dam, will there be enough clay to seal the dam??? We look forward to our April update, when we will hopefully be letting you know that the answer to all these questions was YES!

The Kit

Well February seemed to come and go in what felt like a matter of days. The most exciting event was purchasing our new “kit” – a 1984 Nissan Patrol diesel 4WD (work horse) and a 22ft caravan to accommodate Wwoofers, all for $5,500. The caravan is fully decked out with gas oven and hotplates, dining room, two separate bedrooms, and even has dimmer lights! The cheapest van we found of this size and condition on the mainland was $8,000 on its own, so we got a real bargain. It seemed too good to be true, but the mechanic has checked both vehicles over and it seems we really have scored big time :o)

The next door neighbour came over in his little excavator and has levelled the caravan site for us, and placed blue metal around the site so it doesn’t get boggy after rain.

On the land this month we planted some ground covers and a few dozen potatoes in Zone 2, along with millions of pigface cuttings (edible cactus) that we cultivated from a nearby permaculture property.

The seedlings we planted in January have also germinated nicely, and many should be ready to plant out in autumn.

They actually germinated so well that I was able to thin them out in the pots, and have already planted some seedlings directly into Zone 2.

We’ve cut the first proper walking track down to the creek. The photos below show the start of the track, an area we stumbled across that might become our wedding ceremony circle, and the scenery half way along the track.

During Feb we also placed rocks around the new driveway culvert to avoid erosion and make sure the water runs exactly where we want it to go – toward the future dam!

I started volunteering this month at an animal sanctuary only 20 minutes from our land, called Brightside Farm. They’ve rescued all kinds of birds, chooks, geese, cats, dogs, pigs, ponies, horses, donkies, cows, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and even rats and ferrets!

I’ve been spending time with a greyhound dog called Minnie that couldn't race anymore because she broke her toe, so the trainers were going to put her down. Unfortunately greyhound trainers use live animals such as chickens and piglets to teach them how to race (let's not even go there), so before a greyhound can be re-homed they need to be un-taught otherwise they'll chase and kill any small animal they see. So I put a muzzle and leash on her and walk her around the farm trying to get her used to all the other animals. She’s doing pretty well, though still can’t control herself around the rabbits. Poor thing must be so confused getting told off for doing what she's always been trained to do.

It’s really amazing how all the different animals get along, you can see in this photo there are pigs, chooks, ducks and even cats all interacting.

Wonderful news is that Brightside Farm found a new home for Hedge, the kitten we’ve been fostering. We had to keep looking after him until he reached 1kg (which he did two days ago woo hoo), so he’s off to his new home this week :o)

This is a great time of year in Tassie Mania, you can buy apples, pears, peaches, nectarines and plums straight off the tree (which have ripened on the tree), and we’ve never before had the privelage of eating fruit that tastes this good. There is also wild blackberry and cherries growing everywhere, so if we feel a bit peckish we just have to harvest the nearest bush! I made a delicious tart with blackberries growing on our land (not cooked of course, the raw food diet is still going strong).

We’ve written a list of other things we love about Tassie Mania:

· People hitch everywhere

· Politicians have gmail email accounts

· The RTA tells you to ignore their reminder notices

· There’s no such thing as a green slip

· Once registered in Tassie, vehicles never need a pink slip

· You don’t have to stand up for the elderly or pregnant women on the train, because there is no train

· You don’t have to stand up for the elderly or pregnant women on the bus, because the bus is never full

· Hairy legs :o)

In summary, we’re having loads of fun!

Welcome to Tassie Mania

We started 2010 in true Tassie mania style, spending NYE on the land with Dean in front of a campfire. We arrived just before sunset and took a walk to the creek, meeting a wallaby, rabbit and kookaburra along the way. We got back to the campfire just before a major electrical storm, and spent the next hour sitting in awe watching the most amazing natural spectacle with the whole valley lighting up before our eyes. We thought we might get bored throughout the night, but were still there to witness the sun come up over the river and the myriad of birds waking for the 1^st day of 2010.

We spent the next couple of days doing some touristy things with Dean (thanks to the Lonely Planet guide that Col & Michael gave us). This included Mt Field National Park (note Dean at the bottom of the tree)

Mt Wellington lookout over Hobart city

Port Arthur

and a truly awesome 3hr jet boat ride around the southern coast line, where we saw spectacular sea cliffs, caves and fur seal colonies lazing on the rocks.

We were also lucky enough to witness the yachts in the Sydney to Hobart go past (well, it was more like us whizzing past them)!

Once the “holiday” was over and we waved goodbye to Dean, our main goal for January was to finish our Permaculture (PC) design before Karim went back to work, so I could start implementing it. We started by doing a tour of a nearby PC property, where we learned a lot about local suppliers, plant species and much more. We then spent a ridiculous amount of hours on brush cutters to tidy the cleared sections of the land so we could see what we were working with (it was covered with two years old thick overgrowth). Within a couple of weeks we came up with the following draft design.

Dean came back at the end of January as our first official WWOOFER, and together we achieved some incredible milestones, the most important being Dean’s Dunny.

We managed to turn our food production area (Zone 2) from this

To this

This wasn’t easy, and involved Dean and I filling massive holes with rocks before the topsoil was spread. Some of the rocks Dean lifted must have weighed at least 50kg. We then spread dolomite and gypsum, followed by sawdust and hay, then topped it off with a temporary irrigation system and some nitrogen fixing cover crop, broad beans and potatoes to start fixing the soil.

The existing driveway was a steep scar down the middle of the property, which was an eyesore, an effort to drive up, caused a lot of erosion and sent a lot of water off the property. You’ll see in the second photo that we filled in the bottom section of the driveway with topsoil and changed the shape so that it now wraps around the tree line to the right (you can’t even see the new driveway, and we’ve created an additional growing area where the old driveway was). We also inserted a drain and culvert to direct the water off the driveway toward the proposed dam site.

The other major milestone in January was preparing a level area for the Garage slab, complete with a rock wall garden to attract bees and slow the water down.

And it that wasn’t enough, we (I mean Dean :o)) carted about 100 tonne of tree stumps, did odd jobs like mulching, and managed to plant a few thousand tagasaste, albizia and acacia seeds along with a variety of other native ground covers, shrubs and trees.

Between all these Permaculture activities we’ve been fostering a kitten that we found in the gutter in Hicksville, who the vet estimated to only be about three weeks old. He was very skinny and sick and ended up in an oxygen chamber at the vet, but is now doing really well and nearly ready to go into a permanent home.

And last but not least, we started our new raw food regime (no cooking or heating food) with a juice diet at the beginning of January. We’re actually really enjoying it, and in only one month lost a whopping 6kg and a total of 20cm off our bodies! Dean also stuck to it for eight days and survived, losing over 2kg in that time.

Well that pretty much covers January (which feels like a year already)! Of course there’s a whole lot more photos on facebook too. We can’t wait to tell you what we’re getting up to in Feb :o)

Crossing Over

The time has come to cross over to the other side :o) I resigned last week and we’re off to Tassie on 19th December. It has rained so much down there over the past few months that we weren’t able to complete the earthworks and erect/fit out the garage in time for occupancy, but considering that water harvesting is one of our main priorities, we welcome the rain. We’ve secured a rental property only 35 minutes from the land, which has a lovely view over the bay and will serve as a good base camp over the next 12 months, especially considering Karim is maintaining his full time job while I plant trees, dig swales, collect firewood, build soils and make mudbricks.

We had an amazing farewell and engagement party last weekend, with some great friends from around Australia, the UK and NZ. We partied like there was no tomorrow with friends that we’ve had the most brilliant journeys with over the past 10 years, and new friends that we’ve met while living in Sydney that will be a very special part of the rest of our lives.

But of course there is a tomorrow – a truly wonderful tomorrow. We’ve already arranged a tour of an established permaculture property not far from our land in Tassie only 3 days after we land, and have bought our survey equipment ready to spend Christmas surveying the property and start drafting our permaculture design. Some experienced local permies are then coming to our land to review our design and discuss what they might do differently based on their experience. Faboulous… we couldn’t think of a better way to spend our Christmas.
We’ve then got a great friend, Dean, coming over for NY to ensure that we have a few days off to simply enjoy. I look forward to our next blog update, as the journey gets truly underway.