Blitzed Again.

 

On April 27th I was blessed by the team from the Permaculture Guild with another blitz.  On the day a team of lovely folk descended on my property and undertook so many projects that I had wanted done, but needed help to achieve.  The photos above and below show work in progress, building a wicking bed to grow more vegetables in.  It is a modified design, that has the overflow pipe at the base of the reservoir on a spindle.  If the bed needs to be completely drained, I can attach a grey water hose to the top of the overflow and simply turn the pipe to release water on the strawberry bed beside it, or into buckets to be used on other gardens.  I will be most interested to see what the outcome will be.

 

The most important project on the day was building a double sand pad.  This was planned so that the hothouse could be assembled on the smaller/inner sandpad,  a small potting shed will be built just by the front entrance to that and the final installation will be a large water tank on the opposite end of the large/outer sandpad later this year.  This will allow me to install a small aquaponic system in the hothouse, as well as a set of grow shelves for when I plant seeds into punnets at the beginning of each growing season. It will also mean that the 3 tie in together nicely and complete the picture in the first quarter acre I am working to establish.  The hothouse is a simple kitform I purchased at a very good price on the internet and will be a tide over until I am more financial and can build a proper glass house on the same site.





 





 



 During November last year I bought several loads of tree mulch from local arborists and had managed to spread the majority of that in the main garden patch to reduce the weed problem and cut out all mowing.  I still had about 2/3 of a truck load to spread, so this task was also undertaken on the day and now the entire olive grove, orchard and garden patch are under mulch.  Still a strip along the dividing fence and around the sandpad to do, will have to invest in yet another load of mulch soon to complete the task.

 

The end of the day saw us all around the trestle sharing a mixed meal and good conversation, lamenting over all we achieved during the day.  Feeling quite pleased with ourselves, we later moved our chairs around the fire drum to relax and gaze at the wonderous colours and patterns forming around the full moon above.

Solar Oven

 

Above is my latest WWOOFer and I displaying the solar oven that Magnus and I built.  Lucinda spent the afternoon lining the inside of it with foil windshield protectors, while I finished the outer lid.  We then hinged it onto the body of the box and put the card table stays on so the lid will stay up while cooking.  It works on the basis of reflected light.  From the lid, through the glass, onto the silver reflective surfaces inside the box.  We are planning to give it a test run tomorrow and will bake some damper and garlic bread.

A Blast From The Past

 

There is nothing like a friend revisited.  3 Weeks ago that just came to be for me and a young man I hosted during March and April of last year.  Magnus has returned.  What a welcome face it was to see disembarking from the bus.  He has been such a breath of fresh life here and so far we have managed to knock over a number of important jobs.  The floods that went through a while back had left me feeling very disenchanted and lacking motivation.  Part of that was also due to being on chemo for so long.  (glad that part of my journey is now done).  We have built new garden beds, adjusted watering systems, extended the compost bay (now have 4 small bays to make it work better) and done a great deal of preparatory work in readiness for the permablitz being held here on 27th April.  Another project Magnus and I have tackled, is the construction of a solar oven, in which we hope to cook the food for the folk attending the permablitz. Once again the folk from Ballarat Permaculture Guild are coming up to weave their magic and help with some of the bigger projects on the property.  We are planning to build a sand pad that will hold the hothouse, a potting shed and eventually a water tank, which will be utilised in the paddock.  On the same day we hope to get a wicking bed made, build a couple more raised vegie beds, do some planting and generally enjoy the time spent with fantastic people over shared meals.  (today I don't have much faith in the weather, a cold southerly blast has hit hard, even the wood fire is struggling a little).   Tonight, Magnus and I travelled down to the local bus stop to pick up another WWOOFer by the name of Lucinda.  I think she is an incredible lady who has such a wonderful journey ahead of her.  As she is deaf, I am back to using sign (although a little rusty).  She is endeavouring to teach me to sign without fingerspelling.  Will make life easier and aside from that I will be more proficient in something that means a great deal to me.  Tomorrow we start the first day of her time here and I can only hope she enjoys it as much as I know I will.  Here is to meeting a new friend I hope will be a long time friend.

Crabapple Chutney

At the moment I have an abundance of crabapples and am still picking tomatoes from the garden.
Rather than waste the crabapples, I bought a few Granny Smith Apples to go along with them and have made a loveley Crabapple Chutney.  Such a simplistic recipe and the smell is divine.  So thought I would share it with you

CRABAPPLE CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

 

• 2kg mix of crabapples and cooking apples (whatever you have) peeled, cored and chopped into little cubes. shopping list
• 450g brown sugarshopping list
• 2 onionsshopping list
• 4tsp tumeric shopping list
• approx 20 clovesshopping list
• 500ml cider vinegarshopping list
• 2 tsp chilli powder shopping list
• 2tsp saltshopping list
• 10cm gingershopping list

 

METHOD

·       Place the apples in a heavy based saucepan, stir in all other ingredients, cover and bring to the boil.

·       Reduce heat to low and stir chutney, be sure it doesnt stick.

·       Cook uncovered for about 1 hr to 90 mins, depending on size of cubes, cooking apples will fall apart, crab apples wont. stir regularly, it will reduce and thicken.

·       Leave to cool completly then pour into sterilised jars and label.

·       Will give approx 12 x 220ml jars. keeps for up to 6 months, tastes at its best after first month.

 

Rushworth Floods 2013

 

It has been an interesting week here in Rushworth and for me personally. The first and most upsetting thing to occur was the sad demise of my precious cat "Snake". Having been born as a feral, he got to the point of puberty and it resulted in him reverting to being feral in a big way. He attacked me quite savagely and continued to behave erratically. It has resulted in me having to euthenase him, which has left me heartbroken. Then, Rushworth was hit with torrential rains and flash flooding, a very frightening night indeed. The video you see was taken on my property during the initial stage of a 15 minute downpour that resulted in 126ml of rain in the guage and a mess that will take me weeks to fix. I have been left in an emotional state of limbo and unsure of myself and my ability to manage if worse was to happen

 

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Bye Bye 2012, Hello 2013

2012, what can I say.  It was a year filled with challenges, changes and the new beginning.  I will begin by saying the start was one that brought me back around to another run of chemo, the search for better digs and the move to the new place.  I hosted some wonderful WWOOFers, who helped me get a good headstart on establishing the permaculture system that is now well on the way to being very efficient and productive.  It saw a group of wonderful Permi folk from Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne drive up to run a permablitz here and share a great time over fantastic food. Lots of stories told, laughter heard and big cuddles with a georgeous little boy.  Chestnuts roasted over a drum fire and finally a good night of rest in readiness to do it all again the next day.  I made several trips to Ballarat for workshops, blitzes and to celebrate winter solstice and Christmas.  Made some fantastic friends I will treasure always.  More trips made to my hometown of Wodonga to recurtain a house for a friend and celebrate family birthdays.  The final but most fantastic thing that 2012 brought my way was a trip to Rosebud over Christmas.  Sharing many fantastic moments with dear friends, walks along the beach and time with a fishing rod in hand at the peir. Brilliant sunsets and the chance to watch 4 amazing stingrays circle that section of the bay.  Eventful, crazy and so wonderful.. Goodbye 2012. 
I now face 2013 with a great deal of excited anticipation.  I have 7 weeks left of treatment and am confident it will be the last.  My burgeoning gardens are producing a prolific crop and I am madly working on preserving, pickling and bottling all the abundance that surrounds me.  Then come mid year I will begin teaching Introduction to Permaculture at a local centre.  Something that the last 4 years has been all about and that I can't wait to get my teeth into.  So many people who are keen and need more knowledge, it would be a sin not to share that.  Snake has grown to a massive cat and now at 2 and 1/2 years old, he is finally becoming a calm and affectionate creature.  No,  I don't let my guard down as yet, he still has ferocious moments that take me by surprise.  This really promises to be a year of endeavour and achievement.  I hope you will all enjoy my blog journey with me.

Growing Melons On Frames

 

Above you can see the frames built for growing melons such as, honeydew and rockmelons. The issue that arose from this method, heavy melons that are hanging break vines.  I set about looking for ideas on how to prevent this from happening and came up with the hammocks you can see in the photo below.  Made from cheap cotton fabric and using a good twine for the ties,  they do a great job of holding up heavy melons, which in turn saves vine damage.

 

At this stage the largest of the melons have a couple more weeks before they are ripe enough to eat, meanwhile I drool daily while watering them all.