Category Archives: diy

Yarnauwi: the First Five Years

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in art & craft, diy, ecology, events, history, regeneration, trees, waterways

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Towards the end of 2012 we first came to Yarnauwi Farm. The property at that time was a single paddock, carved up with junk-filled erosion gullies and with two regal, remnant red gums smeared up the hillside by the wind. However, set within a grand landscape of rolling hills and a couple of kilometres from the coast, there was something about it that captured our attention and our aspirations.

Five years later, the property is beginning to change. The survivors of annual tree planting are now heading skywards, most of the junk is gone, paddocks have been fenced, some erosion gullies are stabilising, sheep graze, fruit trees peek from the tops of tree guards and rain thunders on a shed roof. The last five years have brought with them an almost vertical learning curve, challenge, plenty of failures and the indescribable satisfaction of seeing seedlings become trees become woodland.

We’ve tried documenting this process online here at yarnauwi.com, but to celebrate this milestone we’ve also produced a limited edition book curating photos, illustrations and writings from the last five years.

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Yarnauwi: The First Five Years is divided into sections on the history of the property, trees and tree planting, creek restoration and erosion management, treasures extracted from the junk heaps, property planning, “obtaining a yield” and landscape change through the Fleurieu seasons. Each section is copiously illustrated with photographs and drawings and hopefully provides inspiration to others who are seeking to regenerate their own landscape or who have a connection with the spectacular landscape of the Fleurieu Coast. A number of sections contain “before-and-after” photographs of locations around the farm showing the impact of tree planting and low-tech erosion management strategies, predictably however, with a few decent summer downpours the changes were even more dramatic just a month or two after taking the final photographs!

It’s available for purchase now from our Etsy shop and we’ll also have a few copies available, together with sheepskins and farm- and Fleurieu-inspired artworks at the Second Valley Market from 10.00am-3.00pm on Saturday 27 January 2018.

Yarnauwi: The First Five Years
Softcover, 48 pages, full colour on premium satin paper.
Approximately 21.7cm x 28cm.

Shed Quilt

17 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in art & craft, diy

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Back when I was just a mother of one, I embarked upon trying to learn quilting. I came across an excellent free online course through Craftsy, Block of the Month 2012, where each month you receive both written and video tutorials and complete two blocks using a new technique. Techniques included slashed blocks, paper piecing, foundation piecing, appliqué, half square triangles, curved piecing and more, with some traditional patterns like Dresden Plate and other more modern designs.

I set myself the challenge of only using fabric I already had in my collection, mostly stuff picked up secondhand including old sheets and scraps. I picked brown and pink as my main colours as I wanted to achieve a folksy Laura Ingalls Wilder look (alas there is not more gingham!)

I completed the blocks in 2014 during Asher’s nap times, and then went on to use one of the block designs, a variation on Drunkard’s Path, to make a full-scale quilt for my Mum’s 60th birthday. In my Mum’s quilt I did purchase a few new fabrics, and stole some from her collection which had special meaning for her, such as fabrics used in clothes she made for herself in the 70s or that she has used in quilts herself being the accomplished quilter that she is. I wanted to achieve a 1930s look hence the use of yellow!

In the meantime those original blocks have sat in a stack, undergoing multiple house and location changes. Finally this year I sewed them all together, and then stitched-in-the-ditch to hold the layers together. A Shed Quilt is born! I hope by bringing something handmade and soft to our new shed, it comforts Asher and Annika when they are feeling cold, tired, or overwhelmed by their farm experience, and adds some specialness to time spent here.

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“You’re just so far away”: A tale of a farm shed

19 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in building, diy

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The Yarnauwi skyline is changing: some is grown, some is constructed.

A ‘Grand Design’ it isn’t, but the Yarnauwi farm shed has seen enough delays to make even Kevin McCloud blush. After 14 months, our simple 4-bay equipment shed is finally done. Ordered in January 2016, with the shed company suggesting an initial completion date of June 2016, this modest structure was beset with delays ranging in scale from an apocalyptic winter through to urban tradies that couldn’t quite stomach the prospect of venturing beyond suburbia.

Done!

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Winter active

31 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in diy, ecology, regeneration, trees

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Blue gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon) seedlings ready for planting.

Before Yarnauwi, we never really appreciated winter. Now, through the long dry season, we find ourselves yearning for a chill edge to the wind, the moisture in the grass, and skies of dark clouds. We’ve tried to plan our year to mimic the lives of so many of the organisms that occupy our landscape: in the hot, dry times, we go into maintenance mode, watching and waiting for the first rains before we spring into action again. With the greening of the landscape, it’s all on: tree-planting has begun, shed sites are levelled, the grass grows. In winter, the kangaroos converge in clans numbering hundreds, displaced from the pasture, they lounge among the seedlings in the reveg areas while we look on nervously.

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Joel and Annika work on a rock dam to arrest erosion on a boundary before the rains hit.

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And then the rains hit.

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The Yarnauwi Farm Annual Report 2015

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in diy, events, livestock, planning, regeneration, trees

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You can view a printable version of this Annual Report here.

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We’re now three years into the Yarnauwi project. With all of our major water and fencing infrastructure in place, 2015 was a year of consolidating and refining our planting and grazing systems, and continuing to restore habitat while also developing income streams. Once again, we thank you for your support this year, whether that’s been planting trees, purchasing meat, hauling junk, offering advice or just being generally encouraging! We feel enormously privileged to have such a supportive community of family, friends and neighbours contributing to the restoration and development of this patch of ground. Continue reading →

A new (moveable) sheep shelter

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in diy, livestock

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The new A-Frame moveable sheep shelter, with its skillion-roofed predecessors in the background.

We’ve tried to structure our farm year so that summer is a time of dormancy, maintaining the property, but avoiding too many big jobs in the heat. With an historic heatwave across southeastern Australia, and four consecutive days over 40 degrees for South Australia, we thought we’d make an exception to construct another shelter for our long-suffering sheep.

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The triangular-prism rises, with gully tin in the foreground.

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New linocut print: Fear the deer!

26 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by in art & craft, diy, ecology, regeneration, trees

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“Fear the deer, rue the roo, but keep on planting!”, linocut inspired by efforts to revegetate the southwestern Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, by Joel Catchlove

After months of chipping away at this latest linocut in spare moments sprinkled throughout family life, I’m pleased to announce it finished! “Fear the deer, etc.” was begun earlier this year in the lead-up to the 2015 tree planting season and depicts the view looking west from Yarnauwi, with a selection of local birds eagerly awaiting the maturation of our and our neighbours’ revegetation efforts! In the meantime, they perch in the antlers of a red deer skull, one of the many voracious herbivores in the neighbourhood that present challenges for raising seedlings.

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The carved block, ready for inking

The birds shown are, on the left, a tawny frogmouth, a family of which we’ve spotted 500 or so metres from our back boundary, but our property still lacks the habitat to tempt them closer, a black-faced cuckoo-shrike (aka. shufflewing, due to its habit of shuffling its wings upon landing), common in nearby woodland but still only a passing visitor to Yarnauwi, and the Australasian Pipit, an enthusiastic resident of the farm.

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Ready for inking.

Special thanks to Jess S, patron of the arts, for donating part of her stash of lino for the creation of this particular piece! Thanks again to our community of friends and neighbours who continue to contribute to the broader effort of restoring habitat on our property and beyond!

Plastic-Free July: Making a feed-bag picnic rug

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in art & craft, diy, livestock

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Asher tests out the upcycled feed-bag picnic blanket

Over the last couple of years we’ve assembled an impressive collection of woven polypropylene sacks. Typically used as bags for stock feed or pasture seed, in the spirit of Plastic-Free July, I thought it was time to put these single-use plastics to use and upcycle them into a patchwork, water-proof picnic blanket.

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Asher demonstrates correct operating procedure, also showing the heavier backing.

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Farm hack: Making a sheep working race

11 Saturday Jul 2015

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One of our hoggets, sizing up the new facilities.

We’re great fans of temporary. Not aiming for permanence tends to mean that ideas can be trialled inexpensively, can be easily changed and that learning from failure can be quick and low-impact. In that spirit, as we develop the sheep enterprise of the farm, we’ve tried to keep things low-key. For yards, we use locally-made portable panels, but when working closely with sheep, we found the mesh sides problematic due to the ease with which horns or feet can become entangled. In more established circumstances, yards would have a working race for such a purpose, but the cost of a manufactured race can be steep. It was time to get out the tools and make our own.

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The ‘new’ working race in position, with sheep, also in position. As a further refinement, we need to attach bracing to the far end to help it stand up to the inevitable knocks and bumps.

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Planting and preparing trees for El Niño

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in diy, ecology, propagation, regeneration, trees

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A baby, or a nest, are not essential for tree-planting, but they help.

We’re in our third season of tree planting at Yarnauwi now, working to revegetate sections of the property for habitat, shelter and timber. We’ve planted about 1,000 plants a year, from groundcovers to future woodland giants. Once they were guarded from marauding roos, we’ve necessarily had a philosophy of leaving the plants to survive without too much intervention. Even in a dry year such as 2014, we had a modest 60ish percent survival rate, but with El Niño tipped to recur in 2015, we’ve tried to further refine our approach to give our trees an improved chance of survival. Of course, there are absolutely no guarantees it will work, or will work for everything, but it’s worth a shot.

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The bunyip water level: bringer of contoured joy to young and old alike.

This year, we’ve also planted our first, experimental, woodlot of river oaks (Casuarina cunninghamiana) in an awkward corner of the farm. The paddock was too small and inaccessible to deep rip, so we began by marking contours with a bunyip water level, an essential DIY tool for measuring and marking slope (see Brad Lancaster’s guide to bunyip construction and usage here).  Continue reading →