G'day,

Unfortunately, for various reasons this blog is something I cannot commit to anymore, but please follow our facebook and instagram pages: Eagles Deep 

G'day,

As always, I would've like to have written this post sooner.

Not long after the last post we had Dave Spicer back to do some major earthworks. The earthworks consisted of repairing our 3 dam walls (with clay taken from elsewhere) connecting swales to the 3 dams (which would run on contour across the landscape for a few hundred metres) and finally make some terraces in the zone 1/2 areas, using the excavated material for the dam wall reapair. After surveying the area with a lazer level nd dry-hiring an excavator, the work commenced. It took about 4 days altogether and looked to be a real success. We even squeezed in time with the machine to dig out a cave in the side of the hill for food preservation and storage. It's been 3 months since then and last week the swales completely filled with water, due to the dams being up to their full potential. One of the terraces has become a cropping area, the other has currently got the skeleton of a polytunnel, a tree 'hardening off' area and a compost area.

Other jobs in the past 3 months have been building a permanent chicken coop near the house. The structure was made from round poles and the walls were made using an old technique called 'wattle and daub'. This was made by weaving thin, green pieces of wattles in a criss-cross fashion and then covering the wood up with a mixture of wet clay and straw. The technique seems to have been a succes, though I found willow branches to be more efficient than wattles so perhaps the technique should be called 'willow and daub'. The clay wall then needs to be lime rendered, which we have not done yet due to struggling to find the particular type of lime.

Other jobs have included repairing on old wood stove and intstalling it, planting a load more trees (productive, support species and windbreaks mainly), keeping on top of the veggie,garden milling a load more wood with Dave's portable sawmill, and general maintenance indoors and outdoors with the goal of continually trying to make the place at least somewhat comfortable, organized and civilized.

G’day

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a post (4 months… phew that has flown buy!). I would like to make a resolve to be more diligent at writing posts more frequently, but that would be wishful thinking on my part and a commitment I may not be able to meet. I will however now make a resolve to be more disciplined in uploading photos with captions (this is much less daunting. I could be in and out of the cyber café in 20 minutes, BOOM! ... no, we still don’t have an internet connection at the farm)

Just after my last post I went away for 2 weeks to cater for a permaculture design course in South Gippsland at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute (where I was WWOOFING for 2 months just before Carl and I moved on to the property). I was also able to attend some of the classes and the field trips to some very inspiring properties practicing various sustainable horticulture and agriculture.

We’ve had friends over around the festive period who have been an incredible help (mostly) with building structures out of home-milled timber, as well as planting trees and making lots of compost. As anticipated, our more-longer-term cavalry has arrived in the form of Adon (passionate permie from Newcastle, NSW) and Drew (aka Drewbie Dusty D-money Drizzle; a really cool guy Carl and I met in California). Other new members of the crew are the cat (known as puss), the chickens (12 rhode island reds, 10 australorps and 6 pekin buff bantams), and just the other day 2 blue heeler pups (Ozzy and Sally).

Next week Mr Dave Spicer will be back with an excavator to help us perform some major and minor earthworks. These are mainly in order to emerge the patterns, already existing in the landscape, that maximize the water harvesting capacity and make it much easier to decide the placement of any new element in the system (be it structure plant or animal). I’ll try to let the photos do the rest of the typing.

G'day,

I've been wanting to write a post for about a month now. I'll fit as much as I can in the time I've got with internet.

On the 17th of October we moved on to Carl's new bit of land (yeah, the one in the photos). Before this time, I was still WWOOFing at the Southern Permaculture Institute, as well as visiting a few other permaculture inspired properties in Victoria (see the photos along the side). Once we moved on, we set up camp and cooking facilties (although the first thing I did when I got out the car was casting my fishing rod into the dam, but to no avail).
  The first job that needed to be done was digging a trench, with an excavator, to set up irrigation from the higher dam (via a 2 inch poly-pipe) to our base in the hay shed (right next to the lower dam in the top photo of this blog). Sorry, just before this, the same excavator ripped all the dry cow shit and blackberry bushes out of the hay shed (giving us a huge pile of fertile decomposed manure for gardening). And I should mention that Carl hired a very experienced permy, bushman, and fucking gentleman called Dave, who we both met at the PRI up in NSW to come down for a couple of weeks, to basically pull us out the shit (as chefs so eloquently put), and guru us through times of confusion and frustration. I would like to say that since then, Dave has taught me a bloody lot. His work ethic, simplicity, humility, and apparent ability to naturally balance lateral on logical thinking has been a sincere source of inspiration for me.
  After the trench from the top dam was dug, a trench was dug for a header tank, in order to gravity fed the rainwater we would harvest from the main tank next to the shed (which both arrived a couple of weeks ago).  Getting running water to the house was the first of hopefully many successful rivers crossed. The next earthwork was connecting a swale* to the lower dam. Because of this connection the swale instantly filled, and a has stayed full of water (though it needs finishing on the farside).
  The next day, a concrete slab was laid by the 3 of us (Carl, Dave and myself, but mainly Dave, cos he knew what he was doing... poor guy, he's 15 bloody years older than me) to cover 1 third of the hayshed floor (the rest was filled with gravel, as concrete is expensive and, as I have now realized, bloody hard work). A sliding door was fitted (we have an awesome second hand scrap yard about 20 minutes away) at the back of the shed, any holes in the shed have been patched up with tin, any leaks in the roof sealed (though there is still one leak that we haven't figured out yet) a tin wall has been placed between the concrete slab and the gravel inside the shed, in the hope of enclosing off a comfortable living area.
 With the excavator, Dave has also made a mound around the shed to divert rainwater, coming down the hill, into the dam (Carl has turned this mound into a herb garden and Medetirranean tree grove). Shortly after this he used it to rip up a compacted, rocky area, designated to for a veggie garden and food forest.
  After this, Dave built a rocket stove (please google) for hot water via a wood oven made of clay and bricks (to me at least, it's a bloody master piece).
 
In the time that Dave hasn't been here, I've created a small veggie garden with raised beds on contour (to evenly catch rainwater), attempted a 'berkeley method' compost pile (hot compost. Which seems to look and smell quite good, and should be ready in a day or 2), worm farm, rough nursery and am currently working on a hopefully fox-proof chicken coop.

Carl, at times has gone through much stress, largely by being totally dicked around by the phone company (I could mention it's corporate name, but most people know what I'm talking about). Long story short, we had to thread a wire through a 250 metre long pipe that was underground, which took us over 6 hours. It seems to be all sorted now. All we need is electricity.

A few days ago we had a "celebrity" appearance via Dan Lawton (Geoff Lawton's (please google) son) who came for a couple of days to help us install the solar system (that should be ready with a bit of technical wiring by an electrician). He also taught us a lot about fire, and one evening, within a couple of hours, he gathered material from our scrapyard and built a 'pocket-rocket' (a mini rocket stove made of tin designed to be used as a heater; another masterpiece in my eyes). Dan was another massive source of inspiration and a pleasure to have. I should also mention that during the time he was here I somewhat nailed the heat control of of my newly bought dutch oven (camp oven) with a roast leg of lamb and veggies. Seeing as I've only got a 2-ring gas burner to cook on, I very much cherish this piece of equipment.

We also recently got a visit from 2 (1 from Colombia, 1 from North Carolina)  really good friends from the PRI and had a pretty good chuckle and a sharing of ideas. Hopefully another diamond geezer (from NSW), who was a long-term WWOOFer at the PRI is coming down to live here for as long as he wants. He is easy going, passionate and quite the social/environmental/political activist. Also, a really cool guy we toured with Amma with, from North California also should be coming for at least 3 months (like Carl and I, I think he might be a bit jaded by the people around Amma, but I could be wrong?)

Some people may (or may not particuarly) be impressed or inspired by what I've just written in this post, but it's probably also fair to mention that the small amount of progress we've made has come with a lot of pain, stress and discomfort at times (certain events that I've not gone into detail about). I am nonetheless enjoying it and learning a lot and sincerely wish to progress with Carl, and hopefully more, with efficient (and beautiful) design.

Once we get internet (touch gumwood; it's everywhere) I'll at least be more diligent with photos on the blog.

* - a level trench, usually a few metres wide, along the contour of the land with a soft mound on the lower side, designed to capture and passively soak water with the assistance of trees (and other plants if wished) planted along the soft mound (the tree roots assist the soaking and get effortlessly irrigated at the same time. 

Gidday,

I've been at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute for over a month now. I am thoroughly enjoying this lifestyle (I'm also cooking a lot which I haven't done for a while on a regular basis) and slowly but surely learning about the initial things I set out to (gardening, chicken keeping, building a poly-tunnel and chicken coop), as well as getting more of a feel of connections in a system (e.g each element performing multiple functions and trying to correlate that element positively with other elements. An example of this maybe a food forest garden acting as windbreak, a food source and an economic source (if you were selling surplus yield). An example of positive correlation may be chickens running around the food forest floor, perhaps one of the best ways to imitate the natural habitat of their ancestors. There, they would be weeding, fertilizing with manure and eating fruitfly larvae in fallen fruits, thus breaking the growth cycle of the fruitfly. I could go into the other functions of the chicken and try using my brain to connect it to another element, but I don't need to cos you get the idea right?).
  Seeing and understanding what's going on in a well-thought out system, small or large is very satisfying (largely cos it minimizes human effort, but also because it's an efficient closed loop. This means that like a natural ecosystem, every niche, through the multi-functional symbiosis of diverse elements, is filled and sustainability is the final result... maybe I'll elaborate on this slightly 'woowoo' statement if/when I know fully what I mean by it, hopefully through my own experience).
  A kids movie springs to mind (I can't remember which one, I haven't been a kid for quite a while now, though some may disagree with that) where a morning alarm cuckoo clock in a bedroom goes off, which hits a swinging pole on a pivot, which then hits a ball on a shelf, which rolls... ,does a lot of other stuff I can't remember and eventually cracks an egg into a hot pan and serves it with toast and coffee for the inventor who has just woken  (Maybe this memory was a mish mash of old movies where lots of this kind of stuff happened. I found these silly, totally unrealistic designs so satisfying as a kid)

Carl seems to be in the final stages of getting his property (this whole thing has been very harrowing and stressful for him; "yay, we're gonna get it, shit what about this, yay we're gonna get it, shit what about this. He says he feels he's aged ten years). He's often asked me if I think he's mad for wanting such a large piece of land (it's got some downsides on a practical level, as well as some upsides). All I can sincerely say is that because his heart is so set on it, I kinda trust in that (but what the fuck do I know? it could be a terrible decision).

Om Tat Sat

Gidday,

Just as my last course at Zaytuna Farm was ending (a few weeks ago), Geoff (the main teacher there) asked if any one had any questions before the course ended. I did have one, of sorts, but I waited until the end of class and spoke to him privately. I told him that I didn't feel I cognized all the large amount of information given, from either not having yet cultivated an eager interest in the paricular subject, or just by zoning out in the classroom (I was quite good at that, as I think I'm quite bad at learning in a classroom environment). I was kind of looking for some kind of hope from him. I don't remember everything he said to me, but he honestly didn't look at all worried about my statement. He seemed convinced that all the relevant information had gone in subliminally and it was just a matter of researching whatever was necessary for what I had to do in the future. He listed a lot of things that I don't necessarily need to have an interest in, with the exception of 'gardening'. I think when he said this, a penny dropped, so to speak.

Since then I have, at times, taken a sincere interest in botany. Recently, I've quite often fantasized about creating productive, diverse and beautiful kitchen gardens and food forests (also sometimes called forest gardens or agroforestry) attracting all kinds of life, which has motivated me to research about it (along with caring for chickens and ducks which can play a vital role in permaculture gardening, as well as the obvious of giving organic eggs and meat)

Another relieving aspect of not feeling 'I got it all' during the Permaculture Design Course, was Geoff constantly stressing throughout the course: "Getting an understanding of the mainframe of design is far more important than examples of techniques. The devil is in the details." When I caught myself paying no attention whatsoever, I often repeated the phrase 'get the mainframe' like a mantra (I also took notes on a lot of things I didn't follow or understand at the time).

Permaculture is rooted (rooted here, meaning it's the most important thing) in 3 ethics:
1. Care of the Earth
2. Care of People
3. Return of surplus (to the 2 above)
The next most important aspect is principles, then strategies, then techniques. Because Permaculture is synnergistic with so many different disciplines (gardening, farming and architecture, perhaps being the main ones, or some of them) it is clearly impossible to know everything covering this subject, and I for one, am not interested in taking in any information that I don't feel I need to know.

For over a week now I have been WWOOFING at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute (www.southerncrosspermaculture.com.au) which is about an hour and half away from Melbourne. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I've mainly been weeding, pruning trees. Other odd jobs have been planting beans for the spring, helping build a new chicken house, digging water pathways for overflowing dams (this is a very high rainfall area as far as Australia goes) and shovelling manure. There's a wealth of relevant research material here for me to study and it's a conducive environment for me to do that. I'll you keep you posted. 

I've designed this blog mainly with the intention recording farm progress, but I'm happy to share things about my understanding in correlation with that progress. In that spirit here's some definitions of permaculture. It apparently has over 30 defintions. Here's some that I found just now:
"The development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient." (dictionary)

"A system of perennial agriculture emphasizing the use of renewable natural resources and the enrichment of local ecosystems." (dictionary)

"Permaculture uses a set of principles and practices to design sustainable human settlements." (Toby Hemenway)

"Permaculture is a sustainable design system stressing the harmonious interrelationship of humans, plants, animals and the Earth. The core of permaculture is design and the working relationships and connections between all things." (Bill Mollison)

"Permaculture is a way of life which shows us how to make the most of our resources by minimizing waste and maximizing potential. Conscious design of a lifestyle which is highly productive and does not cause environmental damage. Meeting our basic needs and still leaving the earth richer than we found it." (Graham Bell)

"Permaculture offers an understanding of how biological processes are integrated, and it deals primarily with tangibles: plants, soils, water, animal systems, wildlife, bush regeneration, biotechnology, agriculture, forestry, architecture, and society in the areas of economics, land access, bioregions and incomes tied to right livelihood. " (Rosemary Morrow)