11 Tuesday Feb 2014
Posted in ecology, regeneration
River red gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) are notorious limb droppers. With the recent blistering temperatures (Adelaide’s been experiencing been experiencing strings of days above 40 degrees Celcius, and the normally milder Southern Fleurieu has had days in the early 40s) and a burst of gale-force winds, one of our two remnant red gums has lived up to its notoriety. Continue reading
27 Monday Jan 2014
A little while ago, some very generous friends offered us an old tractor that wasn’t suitable for their needs. We took delivery of the 1960s McCormick International Harvester A414 a few months ago, and while it mostly seemed to work, shortly after arriving some hydraulic lines blew-out, leaving the tractor unmovable. We contacted a couple of local mechanics to come out and have a look, generally receiving a response along the lines of “Fix it yourself.” While I’m not sure about how that works for them as a business model, it’s definitely in the spirit of the tractor, designed to be maintained, fixed and customised indefinitely with the assistance of a manual and some creativity.
After several weekends of tinkering, evenings of poring over manuals and the occasional visit to auto-parts shops, the mighty A414 roared into life. It handles like an ocean liner, sounds like a freight train and gets from 0-10km/h in a time comparable to the entire Jurassic Era, but boy, that slasher sliced through the dry grass of next winter’s reveg plantings like only spinning steel can. Continue reading
19 Sunday Jan 2014
Posted in livestock
Tags
A couple of weeks ago, we checked the hive and all seemed well. We found the queen, the bees were busy and on opening the hive there was the seductive scent of honey. The colony had spent weeks drawing out the honeycomb on the hive frames, and seemed to be just beginning to lay a good pattern of brood (young).
Spot the queen
There were a few ants that seemed to be making a nuisance of themselves. The bees would try to expel them from the hive, while the ants would cling on to their legs and wings pulling them off-balance. After a little research, we thought we’d apply cinnamon, a widely recommended treatment for ant problems. The bees were irritated by it, and the ants unmoved. Next, we constructed a hive stand with the intention of putting the legs in tins of oil as a physical barrier for the ants, but unfortunately for us, it was too late. Continue reading
02 Saturday Mar 2013
Posted in diy, planning, regeneration
Tags
ecology, events, kangaroos, photography, planning, recycling, revegetation, seeds, soil, summer, trees, waste
Another hot dawn breaks
While the sun still has some sting left in it, we’ve now completed our first official summer working with the block. When we settled the contract in late November, we began drafting a phased plan for actions to take over the 2012/13 period and beyond. We intended the first year (at least) to be primarily a process of observing and auditing the property, learning what we can about what is here, what has been and what is possible.
Golden afternoon light on the big red gum and the hills beyond
15 Tuesday Jan 2013
Posted in planning
Tags
ecology, erosion, kangaroos, permaculture, planning, revegetation, soil, summer, trees, water
Strangely, one of the things that attracted us to this particular patch of ground was its need for regeneration. With only three established trees on all 47 acres, one of our first projects is to plan revegetation in an attempt to return areas of the landscape to a reflection of the Pink Gum Woodland it likely was 180 years ago.
My imagined Pink Gum Woodland, based on local seeds we’ve gathered.
In the spirit of the permaculture principle of observation before action, we’ve been restraining our compulsion to do stuff to instead spend the first year or so primarily attempting to learn the patterns of the landscape, auditing what’s here and reflecting on possibilities before we start digging holes. Continue reading
Yarnauwi Farm 