A Magical Month

A few days ago we headed over to Bruny Island for the first time to visit friends of a fellow permaculturist, John and Pat, and tour their greenhouse. What a simply magical place Bruny Island is…

Our first stop was the white sandy beaches at “The Neck”.

We then did a lovely walk around Fluted Cape, where we were lucky enough to see the endangered 40 Spotted Pardalote and Swift Parrot, and got very close to wallabies (isn’t he cute?!)

We took a few minutes out to send our prayers to the whales that were slaughtered here years ago, which we think these rock sculptures might be tributes of.

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 12^oC and inside the pile was 43^oC, 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 Transition Town meeting, but missed their driveway. Karim went to back into this driveway to turn around…

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)

Synchronicity… or Simply Living in a Small Community

The extent to which things just seem to fall into place for us here makes us wonder whether it’s down to an extraordinary level of synchronicity or simply the result of living in a smaller community.

Just one example is when we were planting a hedge on the roadside last weekend and a lovely gentleman named Paul stopped to say hi. He could identify all the species that we were planting, along with all the birds that flew past during our chat. Before saying our goodbyes he gave us his phone number, and offered us some hazelnut trees. Another chap had driven past and given us a wave during this conversation. A few days later we were on the way to Paul’s to get the hazelnuts and I mentioned to Karim “we’ll need some mushroom compost to plant all the fruit and nut trees”. We turned the next corner and there was a whole truck load of mushroom compost. We had a wonderful tour of Paul’s property, picked up the hazelnuts and a bag full of other seeds from his garden, and sat and had a lovely lunch with him and his wife Catherine. It turns out that Paul is also from a small town in Devon, just down the road from Karim. One of many conversations over lunch happened to be about how good the local wood fired pizza was. Paul mentioned that we should also add manure to the mix when we planted the trees, and between his house and our land we stumbled across 20 bags of horse poo on the side of the road for $1/bag. After dropping the poo and hazelnuts off on the land, the pizza conversation prompted us to get one for dinner on the way home. We mentioned the hazelnuts to the wood fire pizza shop owner, who took Paul’s number to get some hazelnuts for himself, which led to a conversation that discovered that the pizza shop owner is our other next door neighbour. He was the chap who waved when we were planting the roadside hedge! Whether it is synchronicity or living in a small community, we like it… a lot!

Also, my permaculture studies always seem to be following the exact parallel of work that actually needs doing on the land. For example, we’re at the stage of fitting out the garage where we need to plan our waste water management system, and my next assignment just happens to be studying reed bed systems. I was finding the research a little daunting to be honest, and annoying in regards to Council’s expectations. Do we really need to pay a consultant hundreds of dollars to conduct a site and soil Analysis just to tell us that we have clay soil??? You only need to walk around the property for 10 minutes after rain to become 6 inches taller because of all the clay under your boots! We’re installing a waterless compost toilet and are very careful about what we put down our drains in regards to soaps, washing liquid etc, so are keen to implement a reed bed system and don’t see the need for a septic tank, which apparently don’t work well in clay soils anyway. Fortunately we managed to find a couple who live nearby that have installed a comprehensive reed bed system with no septic – fully approved by council. We visited their gorgeous straw bale and mudbrick property to research the wetlands system, which is the design that we’ve decided to mimic. This photo shows the bath that the grey water first enters, and the thriving gardens that it nurtures.

The Transition Movement film (how to transition communities from oil dependency to local resilience) was aired at the local cinema for the first time this month and 40 members of the community came, which was an awesome turnout. We have volunteers to lead the awareness, transport and food groups, I’ve volunteered to administer the group emails and lead the waste group, and Karim is going to investigate establishing a local currency. We car pooled to share a lovely meal with some of the people afterward, and are starting to make some great friends.

The following week about 300 people paraded through the town of Cygnet with lanterns to celebrate the solstice, and “getting over it” after the shortest day of the year, and we stayed with Paul and Catherine for the night so we didn’t have to travel back to Kingston. Everyone we’ve met lately was there, the owners of the first permaculture property we visited back in December, the guys helping to build our fence, the people who own the property with the reed bed system, the horse poo family and several of the people who watched the transition film. Here’s Karim with Paul just before Paul led the parade in the truck covered with prayer flags, which had some children drumming on the back, and one of the many wonderful lanterns.

Anyway… down to progress on the land!

Thank goodness the locals were right when they said -4^oC was rare, as it hasn’t been less than 0 since. The weather has been quite mild, and much to the dam’s despair it hasn’t rained enough to create run-off into the dam “yet”. That said, at least the foot or so of water in the bottom is still showing every sign of holding after several weeks.

The garage fitout is coming along beautifully. A carpenter that we met during the Sustainable House Design Course, Matt, has constructed most of the studs for the walls and ceiling. He did such a fantastic job, and we can really see it taking shape in there now, getting more and more excited about moving in December. We’re nearly ready for the electrician and plumbers to hook things up now, then the insulation can go in, followed by the plasterboard on the walls. You can see the little bathroom at the rear left, just enough room for the shower, compost toilet and a space to dry ourselves.

The Conservation Volunteers threw any ideas I had about hibernating through the winter straight out the window. We thought things would slow down a bit, but they’ve only ramped up! We start each morning with a quick lesson on Permaculture, the first one being a basic introduction to some of the environmental problems that we’re facing. We weren’t surprised that none of the six school leavers had ever heard about problems related to soil loss or food miles, but were pretty shocked that none of them had ever heard the words Climate Change, Global Warming or Peak Oil. I did my best to introduce the subject gently, yet finished by overlaying the population increase graph over the peak oil graph to make sure they realised that some big changes are coming.

Remarkably, we completely finished the wildlife proof fence around the food production area, thanks to the help and guidance of two local and very experienced Permaculturists, Jules and Peter. Jules is a tree surgeon so was able to cut down one tree from the property and teach us how to remove the bark and split it, which we used as fence posts. It was hard work and time consuming, but rewarding from an environmental perspective.

The fence is a fantastic milestone as we can now design the area properly and be ready to plant a few fruit and nut trees next month, plus construct some raised beds ready for spring. You can see that even on the shortest day of the year the food area receives some sunshine – woo hoo! Unfortunately the future house site only receives about one hour of sun during June though :o(

This close up photo shows the wire extending onto the ground to stop the rabbits from digging underneath, and the floppy wire at the top stops the possums from climbing over because they have nothing solid to grab onto. The timber posts were made from a tree on the property, and the roofing sheets to stop the possums climbing up the posts were left over from the garage.

Jules and Peter are also constructing a lean-to over the caravan to protect it from the rain (which we’re trusting will come sooner or later). Posts for this were also taken off the property, and all the rocks are forever proving to be useful.

Jules is going away for a couple of months, so Paul is filling in and will keep working with Peter to help us finish the lean-to and build things like the chicken house and yard, wood shed and greenhouse.

Karim has been spending his Sunday’s on the land to get a piece of the action as well, chopping lots of firewood, planting a native hedge for privacy along the roadside and constructing some beautiful steps up to the garage.

And our orchard design has been completed! You can see by the following design that more than half of the food area has been allocated to a variety of fruit trees and the hazelnut hedge, with particular varieties chosen for cross pollination. That said, we’ll also have loads of herbs and vegetables growing up and around the fruit trees as well. Just a few main features of the design are the ability for chickens to enter the orchard for pest control, a secure chicken house for laying and sleeping which is fully protected from rats and quolls, a large netted area for the chickens to roam during the day without being taken by hawks, a chicken tractor to control their access to three separate vegetable gardens, easy placement for the chicken manure to move straight into the compost area, greenhouse and tractor system, positioning of the chickens next to the wood shed area so mulch can be added to their netted area easily, heat coming off the greenhouse will aid the composting process, compost can be easily moved into the greenhouse and tractor gardens, and north to south footpaths for food growing over trellis. You should be able to click on the image for a close up.

Hopefully all the fruit trees and the hazelnut hedge will be planted in July. We’ve marked out all the foot paths through the orchard…

And the conservation volunteers have started to prepare the ground for the trees. We’re breaking up the existing soil, adding ag-lime, then creating large mounds of topsoil with mushroom compost and horse poo.

To finish this month’s enormous update, we received a CD of the digital recording that was done on the property as part of Land for Wildlife’s bird monitoring program. I’m listening to it now and it’s so beautiful. Experts listened to the recordings and sent us a report on the incredible amount of bird species that were identified, particularly small birds and five species that are endemic to Tasmania! In just one hour of recording they identified 17 species: the Masked Lapwing, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Spotted Pardalote, Thornbill, Tasmanian Thornbill, Yellow Wattlebird, Yellow-Throated Honeyeater, Strong-billed Honeyeater, Black-headed Honeyeater, Scarlet Robin, Golden Whistler, Grey Strike-thrush, Grey Fantail, Forest Raven, Goldfinch, Silvereye and Common Blackbird. Wow…

Mother Nature

Since joining Land for Wildlife we’ve been able to confirm that we have a resident wombat (via professional analysis of its poo specimen), and have loads of evidence of resident Eastern Barred Bandicoots. They’re so cute, only weighing in at around 600 grams!!!

We’ve also identified 11 bird species on the land so far: Superb Fairy Wren, Yellow Wattle Bird, New Holland Honeyeater, Scarlet Robin, Grey Fantail, Thornbill, Silvereye, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, and what was either a Wedge-tailed Eagle or a Brown Falcon circling above. We think he was looking for Marvin! We also had Kookaburras a few months ago that seem to have moved on, which is good because they pinch other small birds from their nests, and all the small birds are a sign of a really healthy system. One of our favourite birds is the Spotted Pardalote (pictured below), which we’ve only sighted twice. We borrowed a digital recorder from Land for Wildlife and have conducted some early morning recordings, so that might also identify a few more inhabitants that we haven’t actually sighted yet.


We’ve been feeling more and more in touch with mother earth and the challenges that she’s facing of late, and trying to continuously reduce our footprint. After watching some footage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (straight after complacently fueling the car up at BP!), I’ve started car pooling with the volunteers, so they now pick me up in the bus on the way through. It’s actually very nice to travel with company.

After studying food miles as part of the Permaculture IV Certificate, reminding us of just how far some of our food was traveling (and the lack of nutrition it had), we’re now managing to source about 80% of our food from organic farmers in Tasmania, with about half of that being within 50km.

We’re having somewhat of a moral dilemma with the bench top on the second hand kitchen that we bought for the garage, because it’s a bit old and tacky, and a horrible salmon colour with an awful fake marble finish. Of course it would do the job just fine, it’s just plain ugly. If we use it, the materials and energy that went in to making it will become more worthy. If we don’t use it, it will probably end up in the landfill and even more raw materials, energy and pollution will go into the manufacture and transport of a new one. I suppose it’s these every day decisions made by billions of people that will determine how healthy (or not) the earth is going to be in 5, 10, 20 and 100 years time. We may need to consider what the bench top, old or new, will say to us each time we use it. Watch this space for the outcome of our dilemma…

And some wonderful news… do you remember the little kitten we were looking after, Hedge? Well his name is Scooter now, which is so perfect because he did start scooting around like a maniac when he got better. We’ll leave you with these images of him with his new brother and best friend, Russel :o)

Learning how to Live

We’ve both had a variety of careers, and have learned many different things throughout the journey, but recently realised that this is the first time we’re actually learning how to live – how to build shelter, capture and utilise natural resources like water and sun, grow food and simply enjoy life. So we’ve created the following You Tube video of images to celebrate our first few months in Tassie Mania, the new driveway, preparing the food growing area, building the shed, constructing the dam and installing the water tanks and irrigation system. We hope you enjoy it…

Winter's Coming

We had a viscous cold snap a few days ago and it reached -4oC overnight. It’s not even winter yet, but locals tell me it doesn’t usually get that cold even in winter. Here’s hoping!!!

The highlight of May was a visit from my sis Mandy, Carly and John. We had a fantastic few days, went up to Mt Wellington lookout, had a few drinks in a quaint country pub, and did a lovely walk to a waterfall and glacial lake in the Hartz Mountain National Park, where we saw the most awesome mushies.



Carly and John spent an extra day with us planting out the dam to create frog, duck and wildlife habitat and help stabilise the wall. We planted over 60 native plants, including grasses, rushes, prostrate spreading ground covers and ferns.



We also made a really pretty path through the bog so we can walk to the dam without sinking.



The dam is filling nicely (Karim pulled a sneaky one with the hose!), and we placed a floating plant called Azolla in the water to fix nitrogen, feed the ducks and fish, help control the mozzies and harvest as compost and mulch. The water in the dam actually froze after that -4oC night though, and we fear the Azolla may not recover. The clover ground cover is sprouting well, which will support the new plants by providing nitrogen to the soil, and hopefully make the walls look nice and green soon.



We’ve taped up the sisilation in the garage, filled the air gaps and had everything delivered to start the fit-out, the wood stove, compost toilet, shower, kitchen, carpet and vinyl, pink batts, studs, plaster etc are all ready to go. The downpipes are hooked up to the tank now too so we can finally start catching the rain :o)



I attended a Sustainable Poultry Course at a nearby permaculture property last weekend to learn about the needs of poultry, integrating fruit and fodder crops, feeding options, recycled poultry housing, hay bale insulation for chick pens, compost slopes, using poultry to create and prepare litter for use as mulch and in the compost heap and worm farm and oasis planting with poultry. We also mixed up batches of herbal remedies and treated the chooks for preventative measures against scaley mites and worms, which they’re generally susceptible to. This should all mean that we end up with very happy chooks like these ones that will benefit a thriving, chemical free garden.



An organisation called Conservation Volunteers heard about us creating a permaculture site and our desire to teach, and have become involved with the project. It’s a government funded program that provides a youth allowance and training to school leavers that want to learn new skills in the conservation arena. A team of six have been nominated to work on the land every Tuesday for the next six months (there goes my fanciful idea of hibernating over winter), Toyota have sponsored them with a van and Shell with the petrol. I gave them a site tour this week, a copy of the permaculture design and a brief introduction to why permaculture is the way forward. Next week they’ll start erecting the wildlife proof fence, and then will help with other projects such as taking trees off the property and stripping the bark to use them as posts, planting windbreaks, building the wood shed and chicken coupe. Every second week they have formal training at a local centre, some classes of which I’ll be teaching them more about permaculture, and at the end of the six months they’ll have a TAFE qualification. One of our main goals was to get involved with the community down here, so this is a great start. They’re a wonderful bunch of youngsters and we had loads of fun, making silly animal noises and lots of laughter. Here’s some of the team creating mulch…



Another great start to community involvement was Karim donating the 350Z to the local PCYC (Police and Citizens Youth Club). The main goal here is to get local youth involved in doing up the car and becoming pit or support crew to race it in the Tassie Targa. About 170 youths from around the area attended an opening day in May where they displayed the car, and it ended up in the local paper.



And finally, my course work is progressing really well. The main focus at the moment is studying our bioregion, which has involved analysing changes in weather over the past few decades, doing water quality tests in the creek (including trying to look at tiny invertebrates under the microscope without hurting them!), identifying all the wildlife and plant species on the property and how to protect their habitat. This led us to register the property as “Land for Wildlife”, a scheme that now covers over 50,000 hectares. One of their biologists visited the property last week and helped us to identify the different species in the forest and the wildlife that it currently provides habitat for, including some endangered species. I also learned how to identify current resident’s habitat, and I couldn’t believe how obvious some of them were that I hadn’t noticed, such as these possum tracks going up a gum tree toward its hollow.



That’s about all (and definitely enough) for this month, so it’s time to relax in front of the wood fire. Until the next update, peace be with you friends!