inspiration

International Permaculture Day was celebrated on the 6th of May.  we did what all good permies do who live in this neck of the woods -- travel to Zaytuna Farm, home of Geoff Lawton .... one of the international godfather's of Permaculture to get a farm tour from the man himself.

we got an insiders perspective on the how's and why's and wherefore's for permaculture at Zaytuna.  Seeing the progress of food forests .... 10 years old and 10 weeks old.  a kitchen garden that had our children (and numerous other kidlets that were there) playing their hearts out.  bamboo .... oh my .... again reminded of the uses and benefits!  rabbits ... we'll have to get over the cuteness factor because they are a great and prolific source of protein.  ducks, chooks, goats .... and dairy and meat cows.  and of course the all important aquaponics and soldier fly larvae collecting!  it really was great to see it all in action .... knowing it is achievable and do-able if we apply ourselves.

memorable quote of the day, "we're aren't food farmers, we're soil farmers ... it's about getting the soil healthy ... we are here to tend that."

a picture is worth a thousand words .....

... the beginnings of a food forest

an old trailer converted to a mobile chicken coop.  solar
power is used for the netted fencing so that these
birds can be moved around the property and do
their bit to help with soil fertility.

the kitchen garden.  i was in love .... instantly!

here Geoff is expounding on the value
of bamboo .... did you know it is
a grass/weed inhibitor?

"the man" sharing about the rabbits over ducks and
the chicken enclosure

more discussion on swales, water management
and this amazing creation

tomato's as a ground cover and weed inhibitor
an accident brought on by chicken tractoring
and throwing them tomato scraps ... fabulous!

i never tire of the amazing world of bamboo!

the kids running and playing through the
kitchen garden

jj showing off the size of the rabbit tractor.  these
little guys do an amazing job of fertilizing
and  mowing!  they also love to eat the weeds
that are some of the most noxious and hard
to get rid of!

deep in it .... a swale that is! retaining
water and feeding the soil.

the view at Zaytuna .... glorious!

permaculture is ...

people care

earth care

fair share

Piggyness of Pigs

if you follow my posts at all you know that i am a joel salatin devote .... he is an amazing farmer who runs Polyface Farms in the US.  He is a man committed to stewardship of this planet and a man who recognises our Creator God made it and the design of it .... for US.  including animals.  he often can be heard talking about the chickenness of the chicken or the piggyness of the pig .... eluding to the whole idea that we should respect all living animals for how God created them and what He created them for.

i reckon its a concept that once you get your head around what that means .... you will forever be changed about how you see the animals we live with.  that doesn't mean not to eat them .... it means to let them live their lives the way they were meant to be lived .... not cooped up in cement floors or row upon row of tiny cages, never seeing the light of day and living horrific and miserable lives.

anyway .... i digress.

i had the opportunity to go out and see a friend who had just gotten a couple of "weiners" .... these are piggies that have grown enough to be weened from the sow and are ready to be fattened for the dinner table.  but while they are growing they can perform a wonderful service, by beginning to till the soil, etc.  which is what our friends were going to use them for .... to reclaim an old are of their veggie patch.  it really was inspiring.  hubby still has to finish off the movable electric fence area where they will till the soil for the veggie patch reclaiming .... but even in their current quarters, you could see their piggy-ness coming through.

i saw them on their first day getting settled into their temporary digs.  they seemed a bit listless, so i suggested to my friend that pigs love mud .... why not spray them and get them wet?  so we did and oh my!  within 15 minutes they were charging about, having a blast and enjoying their piggy-ness.  gorgeous little animals.

i so enjoyed watching them dig around in the dirt.  one of my pet peeves is to see people who have pigs as pets with nose rings.  it is truly horrible to watch people put rings through pigs noses because they don't want them mucking around in the dirt.  guess what?  it is part of how God created them .... it is wrong to deny them of their innate piggyness.  what is one of the most intrinsic things that you do as a human?  imagine someone coming along and saying .... you don't get to do that anymore .... because i say so.  it's wrong .... it's just wrong!  so my heart was very happy to see these piggies with clumps of mud on their noses .... having fun .... because it is part of how they were created!  and their nose serves a huge purpose to us!  if we manage them properly then they can dig up old veggie patches (as in my friends case) and in general just be of great use to us .... and they are enjoying themselves as they do it!

seeing them in action was a real affirmation to me of how we want to use them on JustEarth.  we will probably fence in the OMG (organic market garden) area first up.  providing the appropriate mobile shelter while they dig up the earth and make it all mucky and full of good fertile "stuff" .... after that we'll put the chooks in the chook tractor over it just to spread it all out and then we'll be ready to till!  it's all about using the systems and animals the way they were made rather than making life too hard!  and at almost 51 .... i am very appreciative of that!  <g>

i will finish with another thot.  any animals we own will serve a purpose -- they are partnering with us in the work that we do.  one of the purposes that any animal we have will be to nourish our family.  so rest assured, any animal we have will have a great life .... and one bad day.

off to dream now .... about prosciutto, sausage, slabs of bacon ....... <sigh>

the Chook Hilton is open for business!

all hats off to my husband for getting the chook hilton done.  a real feet of genius.  and the two really good things about it are that 1) he had fun doing it and 2) it cost us about $30 in long screws, bolts and hinges!  woo hoo!  <g>   tonight the chooks are perching happily in their new home and we are toasting our accomplishment!  i could wax on about this bit or that bit .... but this is one time when a picture truly does paint a thousand words.

we start the day with the framework that had been put in place last weekend.  note the mesh for the bottom of the coop.  the idea being that when the chooks are roosting the poo will drop through the mesh into the deep composting trays beneath .... which can be cleaned out from time to time and chucked in our main composting area.  it will also keep the chicken coop heaps cleaner!

the walls are going on!  we do love pallets!  bolted to the base with securing boards across the top.  these boards will be critical in holding up the u-beaut roof we have!

roof is on!  and the perches are being placed.  we are choosing to use branches of timber that have been harvested from the trees in our yard.  they are more natural and provide a bit of uniqueness to the design.  but even more than that .... they cost us zippo!

we are setting the perches at varying heights and angles.  we are hoping to add another 6 or 7 chooks in the next year and setting the perches up this way will allow us to easily add these new birds without running the risk of over-crowding.

here is a great shot!  you can see through from back to front.  the level area at the back is for the nesting boxes.  this will be accessible from outside the chook run to make for easy egg gathering.

note the pitched roof on the chook house!  this will allow for higher roosting if the quantity of chooks requires it -- at least that was the thot at the time.  little did we know that one of our girls would take to it straight away!

the log that is in place can easily be removed and allow for clearing of the hay to the ground below ... for the chooks to scratch and dispatch as they see fit.




my major contribution to the effort .... the ladder for the girls!  an old board hanging that was around ... nice and long so that it isn't a steep descent for them.  i have taken smallish sticks from the yard and simply nailed them to the board at set intervals.

and on goes the front door!  note the double door set-up.  the whole door is meant to be left closed for most of the time - opened mostly for easy access if needed.  the smaller hinged door is opened each day to let the girls in and out.  you will note the board sticking out at the bottom .... this will have a hook hanging from it for the water .... keeping it elevated and clean.

so the doors are on, front and back .... next it's time to get the fence up.  the chooks will be on the side of the backyard .... with heaps of leaves and scrub to scratch around in.  they haven't been in this area of the yard before.  hoping for a double hook here .... fresh and interesting area for the birds and the poo'ing and scratching the birds do in the run will help to improve the soil and allow us to plant a few fruit trees along the fence line.  

a final look at the hilton before the girls are brought in.  

the front of the coop, door open and ladder installed.

that's me .... putting straw in the back of the coop for the girls to lay their little eggs in.















a final glance inside .... nice and cosey, don't you think?  all ready for the girls to come in!











that chuffed look on scott's face is because he has never handled a chook before.  so he helped with the transfer of the girls to their new abode.  we waited until late in the afternoon so that we could close them in straight away to get used to the space.








so the girls are in.  amusingly enuf the australop has found the top shelf!  getting as high as she can!  well, she has proven that it can be done and that their is indeed room for all the new girls we want to add come the spring.

welcome to your new digs.  up on perches already and checking the world out.  hope you like it.  it is certainly dry and well protected.  good night girls!

the exciting part of this chicken coop and move is that it is our first major step in achieving our backyard vision for sustainability.  it means that we can start thinking about setting up the no dig beds, modifying the current raised beds and getting our food crops in the ground.  the sooner we do that the sooner we will be feeding our family and not relying on the stores.  it's a step by step process and  it's certainly not gonna happen overnight ....but each week we seem to be seeing something change and morph in our yard.  it's quite exciting really.  this winter season is great to be bedding in some fantastic changes in our way of living.  it elicits in me the quiet hope of amazing crops and possibilities for the spring and for our families health and well being.

taking stock .... early winter update

not much really growing in a major way right now .... so i thot it might be a good time to give updates on where projects and plants are up to on our little homestead.

the front raised bed

the front center bed.  seems to be ever growing and morphing.

on the one side is the raised veggie patch.   in this one we have some greenfest pea's growing, garlic and snow peas that are being tried on a river cottage style growing piece.  all seem to be doing well.  the garlic sprouted really quickly and the two types of pea's .... while they don't have flowers on them yet, are growing like weeds.  so that is all good.  the broad beans are up too.  i read today in an organic magazine that you should pinch out the centre of broad beans early on to promote more bean pods.  gonna have to give that one a go!

the river cottage inspired
snow pea trellis.

the dissapointment in this bed is the parsnip and the comfrey.  neither seem to be coming up at all.  they both should be.  my understanding is they tolerate this moderate cold fairly well .... but no joy on that.  i'm also dissapointed that i didn't put more mulch down.  the grass has bloomed horrifically and it ticks me off.

on the other side we have started concept #3.  we knew there was good earth under the layer of grass .... but felt really daunted that getting all that grass up would be really painful.  so instead .... scott mowed the lawn right back .... we dug up the bed a little bit and are covering with newspaper and straw to get it ready for the spring.  i have planted an edging of parsley and it finally seems to be taking off (you can never have enough parsley!).  there is also a few errant strawberry plants as well.  i have moved the artichokes to the front.  aesthetics really .... they look really cool as they get bigger and besides offering good food, they will look good in the front yard too.

the parley lines the front of our
central bed.

we are ending up making this side a bit of a two tiered area ... the edge closest to the street will have trees planted, we have a division made with limbs from trees that scott has been pulling down, the idea being to level that up a bit .... the tree's and whatever ground covering they have will be slightly raised.  still need to get a few companion nasturtiums and marigold's in.  i reckon lavender will be a bit of a go'er as well.

chicken hilton.  hmmmm .... it's a bit of a touchy subject, but v.1 wasn't stable so had to be pulled apart.  let's just say the chickens are gonna love v.2 .... it will work a treat i do believe!  will be able to house over 12  chooks and it has a mesh floor to utilise deep manure mulching.  hoping that the final product will be up and running this weekend.  fingers crossed.  once that is done the big beds in the back yard can get started and bedded down to rest for a spring planting.

the chook hilton progress.
the wire allows for the manure
to pass through to a deep mulching
bucket  below.

seedlings.  these are looking good in my greenhouse.  i am going to start trying to get into ugly veggies <g>... the first is celeriac.  heaps of my seeds are coming up so i'll keep you advised on how they turn out.  i have a plethora of cabbage, snake beans and also am about to plant out broccoli and cauliflower.  i've also got chives, comfrey, spinach and beetroot ....

i have to figure out how to get this comfrey really going.  i've got a punnet of 8 and only one has sprouted.  really disappointing.  comfrey is a real central part of our composting and weed management program.  it has something in the leaves that really promotes decomposition in compost piles as well as being a great border for beds and keeping the weeds out.  so i am going to have to find another way to get this stuff to grow.

you'll remember my post on my love affair with leeks.  i planted out a tray with 24 punnets with 2-3 seeds in each punnet.  so far i have about a dozen coming through.  moved their position in the greenhouse so that they get a bit more sun .... so the jury is still out on this .... but at least something is coming up.

more chooks.  yes, well, we still have them -- they haven't flown the coop.  thought i might loose them again last night when one tried to get on the top of the shed.  but i managed to get them all locked away safe and sound.

the compost bin is up and running.  i don't have the balance correct .... but our hearts are in the right place.  i have to say that turning the stuff is an absolute pain and i see why folks get the tumblers .... hey! just being honest!

scott and i will each be attending a Milkwood seminar / course in June.  Scott is going to the Aquaponics DIY workshop and i'll be attending the Mushroom Growing seminar.  i am expecting that shortly we'll be growing fish and fungi to harvest and enjoy!  they also have a Food Forest weekend that i would love to attend .... but i am not sure if it is do-able .... and shouldn't i be putting into practice those things i already know before moving on to others?  but i can dream!

so i give us a pass for the winter work so far and an A+ for effort and enthusiasm!  the potential is there and we should be reaping the rewards very shortly!

"Chicken Run" revisited ....

so today we went from 5 to 7 chickens ....

i thot, that after owning chickens for 3 years i knew a fair bit about chooks, their habits and how to care for them. boy ... did i get a lesson in chook care 101 today .... so many things i forgot or just didn't know.

the whole purpose of getting these two additional chooks (they were free on freecycle, btw) was to provide us with more eggs during the leaner winter laying months.  i got really excited when i got home and let them out of the box and there was a u-beaut egg in the box.  good girl!

but i'm getting ahead of myself.  i need to step back a bit.

keep in the back of your mind that when i picked these hens up the owner said the bigger white leghorn cross was the dominant chook and picked on the smaller isa brown cross regularly, ergo she looks a bit hen pecked.  but i think to myself, this is ok ... because once she has the others to mingle with it will fall away and the hierarchy will be worked out.

so i have been giving the old girls free reign .... they've got well over half the yard that they are foraging in ... all in an effort to get the chickens to get our back yard ready for our no dig veggie transformation for the spring.  all good stuff!  i decide though, that when we bring the new girls home that i'll lock them all in the back area for a few days .... just to assist in the inevitable hen pecking that will ensue as they adjust to each other.  i figure close quarters will get it over and done with sooner.

beastie-boo

so ... the new girls come home ... i let them out of the box.  a bit euphoric as i get the nice warm egg out of the box ... thinking u-beaut!  so i start to walk out of the pen to leave them alone and what happens!  little miss hen pecked, the new isa brown cross starts taking on all the others!

squawk!  feathers flying!
squawk! beaks a pecking!

this little monster!  i couldn't believe it!  she had turned into a beast!  so much so that i decide to nickname this creature beastie-boo.  it suits her completely. she chases all the other chooks around the yard trying to put them in their place.  with mixed results mind you .... but she does give it a good effort.

and the leghorn cross isn't so bad .... takes on the old isa browns a bit ... but manages to keep clear.  certainly not the agressive chook that she was made out to be!

my poor old girls don't know what to make of it all!  i've set the fox amongst the chickens!  LOL!  so much so that when i go out an hour or so later to hang some laundry and wander over to see how they are doing ... the 5 old girls are hovering at the gate desperate to get away from these new birds.  i think they are being woosy myself .... but such is life as a chicken.

time out .... kids come home from school and i need to get my eldest to her piano lesson.  figure i'll be home in time to check that they have all gone in to roost and make sure that they haven't killed each other.

beastie-boo trying to
put the old girls in their place

ha .... ha ......

i get home ... and the sun has gone down a bit sooner than anticipated ... but that's ok .... just go check the girls are all in and then shut them in for the night.  take the torch with me .... one, two, three, four, five .... the two new ones are gone.  i sigh .... what has happened?  how could this happen?  i feel really bad and wonder if there is anything i can do.  i wonder if they have nested somewhere else for the night .... and start looking around.  nope ... .can't see them in any of the under growth.  and then i look up ....

not too far ....
just about at the 2 meter mark i see a white blob in the trees.

what tha!  my girls don't fly!  let alone roost in a tree!

i manage to grab her and toss her in the coop.  one chook down.  i look high and low for the other one and don't see a thing.  i sigh and give up ... she was a bit of a beast anyway ....  but then the guilt sets in.  so i get a stronger torch and head off looking around the rest of the yard.  nope .... not over there ... or there .... then i go around the side of the coop and look back into the yard and there she is .... perched precariously on a branch of our neighbors tree that is hanging into our yard.  one wrong move and she'll be gone.  i try to remember that chooks are very docile at night .... maybe, just maybe i can grab her.

quiet, stealth .... no! branches breaking under my feat ... crunch, crunch ... grab, squawk!  gotcha!  beasty boo gets chucked into the coop.  done!  all locked in for the night.

don't know if i'm going to be popular with the girls in the morning.  planning on leaving them in their little coop while i trim a few wings and trees ....

it will be interesting to see what tomorrow holds.

contour .... it's a catching thing!

i bet some of you are wonderin' where we are at with regard to our backyard "permie" transformation, huh?  well ... i said that we expected some morphing to happen .... and that perhaps initial thoughts and designs would change?  well,  that is an understatement!

a view of the milkwood veg patch

after our day out at Milkwood Farm, i was really struck by what they had done with the veggie patch  out  behind the wool shed.   it is a bit hard to see from the pic at the right, they have built this thing to capture the rain run off by building their beds on contour with the land and thus capturing the water when it rains.  the flow of the hill that this is on comes from the top right of the pic and thus any rain run off is caught and held in the beds .... veggies lovin' that!

the other thing i was really struck with was their ability to use local or recycled materials.  it is pretty obvious from the pic that they have used local timber for both their bed walls as well as the wood chip path between the beds.  it has also enabled a much more fluid line and less structure in the garden beds .... which makes them flexible long term and easy to modify and change if needed.

just seeing this has been a real boost to scott and i.  we've been stuck in wondering how and where we were going to get the materials for the raised beds to get the back garden done.  it's been a bit daunting to think of having to build this huge structure that seemed so permanent and inflexible.  seeing their veggie patch .... and how low cost and easy it was to do, really encouraged us.

the other thing was learning that no land is ever flat .... there is always some contour to work with.  which made us have to rethink the lay of the backyard and if we could take what we had thought was a pretty flat piece of land and find any contour on it to exploit the rainfall.  in my belly i knew we could .... so we came home invigorated to figure out how to best utilise the natural resources we had.

the first thing was ditching the structured bed.  yes, we knew that with a raised bed you had the opportunity for further reach and bigger beds .... but if we committed to beds no wider than 1m .... then we could easily make them without borders and build them up that way.  reducing the need for buying or sourcing additional materials! 

so with that came the need to put the chickens to even more work.  we have expanded their backyard grazing area even more, to collect more of their glorious poo and benefit from the scratching.  from the picture on the left you can see where we have moved the fencing and the old line from where they were.  a pretty dramatic shift!  and needless to say, the chickens are loving it!  this means that within a week or two we will be able to throw down the cardboard, hay, compost and manure to make our first serious winter beds.  and i have seedlings that i'm growing now that i can't wait to put in these beds!

the next issue was contour.  have a look at this picture and you'll probably see that yes, indeed, we do have some land fall on the property.  the water runs from the top left down towards the middle of the yard.  we had to figure out a configuration on that contour that would allow us to capture the bulk of the run off through the yard.

so ... here is the first try of what we thinking we'll do.  the blue lines represent the flow of water on the property.  i have noticed over the past few years that after a major down pour or a few days rain, that the middle of the yard seems to turn into a bit of a bog ... or at the very least is where we have the greenest grass!  so this is where the rain is traveling.   the green area's represent the potential beds.  the large one in the modified "C" shape needs to be more of semi-circle shape, but you get the idea.  if those ends are just a bit more open then we'll be able to capture more of the rain water and it will get fed through the beds in the middle as well.  it's the hope anyway!

and .... as we are learning, everything is about trying something and seeing if it works.  if this doesn't completely do the job .... then we'll try something else for the next spring.  one thing that we are going to try is to build up our soil via the food forest.  you can't really see it very well .... but on the left hand side of the picture .... running almost the entire length of our backyard, along the fence line, is where we would like to have a food forest.  challenge is that that about 3 cm under the grass it is a rock .... so we are going to  move the chickens over there, pile in old mulch clippings, food scraps and hay for the chooks to scratch and poo in and are hoping that this will go along way to building up and improving the soil.  we have cut down about 6 trees from the side ... so more sun is getting in ... but we'll have to see how it all works .... i am still a bit skeptical, yet willing to give it a go <g>.

in the meantime .... our chickens are very happy.  they are loving their new grass and we are loving the scratching and fertilizing ..... thank you very much girls for all the hard work!

a day on the farm ....

national permaculture day today, if you weren't aware.  a day when those of us "permies" take great pride in being in full blown sustainability mode and show off what we are doing.  across sydney, there were heaps of backyards and allotments open for folks to see and be inspired by.  we chose to go another route .... instead heading away from the city to a small farm out near mudgee called Milkwood, where they have embraced permaculture from the ground up, literally.

My  beautiful boys loving
the farm way!

the husband and wife (and bub who is 2!) that run this place truly inspired scott and i.  a couple who abandoned their city lifestyle and embraced  permaculture with their whole hearts.  to those of us who get overwhelmed easily by this stuff and feel that you have to know heaps is encouraging to know that they started simple too! they are still doing it simple -- committed to using recycled materials where possible and appropriate, and saving an immense amount of money because of this focus.  you can tell they are always asking the question ... how can we re-use, recycle and make it happen with what we've got access to.

it was great to see a real life implementation of swales .... and how that can significantly help retain water .... or building beds on contour to maximize the use of water run off .   seeing the start of their own food forest .... and that it is, well, pretty darn simple!  and practical too!  it helped me to realise that we could actually do this!  i have to say the composting chicken coop really was amazing ... a home for 20 or so chickens where you put items for composting in at the top of the hill and watch the chickens scratch and do their good stuff in it  as it meanders and makes it's way to the bottom.  how ingenious!  <g> 

i must confess to being a mad follower of their blog.  the missus is the author and she shares a great yarn about the day-to-day triumphs and just living that they do on the farm.  it makes it all very personal and very achievable to us green horns.

and they are very generous.  they are learning and growing in their own methods of trying things and have started their business, teaching others about permaculture.  they have interns on their property that live there and learn and help them out .... everyone learning together and from each other. 

i had met Nick, the husband, at an intro to permaculture course and found him very down to earth.  and when we arrived at the open farm day, i found his wife no less engaging and genuine.  these are real folks, embracing a sustainable lifestyle because they want to have a better life for themselves and their family.  and their farm is a growing testimony to that .... seeing their successes and works in progress (nothing is ever a failure, btw, it's a learning experience!).  it was truly inspiring. 

oh, and psst ... the kids had fun too!  <g>  there is talk afoot that they will be starting a permie kids program that the children can be a part of along side parents doing the two week PDC (permaculture design course) .... i am hanging out for that!  what a learning opportunity for my kids!  <g>

anyway .... here are a few photo's from our day on the farm ....

Lea and JJ listening (haha) to Nick talk about, and showing us, the swales
they have on their property.  He also discussed the the tree planting and how
that aids in water retention on the property.  (btw, scott and i
were thoroughly engrossed!)

the earth dome.  done in a workshop on site as a test
and prototype.  cost effective, very stable and cozy ....

the chook dome (one of three chook runs).  this is meant to be moved
regularly for the birds to live, scratch and leave their lovely stuff to
improve the soil!

chook run #2. Nick is talking about how it's on a slope and they add materials at the top
and the chooks "do their thing" so that it comes out as at the bottom as compost
to be used on the food forest.

the start of their food forest. can't really show just
how cool it was to see this growing. nick talked a lot
about planting based on consistent, reliable produce
rather than sometimes heaps and inconsistently.

chook run #3.  had some chicks in this and a few sussex.  and a few breeds i couldn't
even try to spell.  these guys are getting into the interesting breeds ...
picking those that are best suited
for the uniqueness of the Mudgee climate.

the veggie patch out behind the shed (may not look much at the moment, but that's because
winter is coming in and their winter  crops are just starting to peak through).   scott and i have completely
rethought out back garden based on this.  looking at the lay of the land
they have built these beds on contour to catch as much of the natural rainfall as possible.

another look at what they've done.  simple ... wood borders, no dig beds,
mulching from the trees for paths .... how simple can you get?

 i am not sure i can sum up just how eye-opening this day was for us.  seeing the stuff that we are working towards in our own lives lived out really lifted our souls on the next step of our journey to sustainability and responsible living.