down comes a tree at Ngairin

Using a tractor and pallet and ladder to scale the tree...note power lines...but they were far out of reach really! Loz is holding Sam up on a safety rope...she's a bloody 'ledge'
Loz is a team worker extraordinaire - handing Sam the gear to attach a cable to the tree
Sam up the bloody tree attaching a big loop of cable to help bring the tree down in the right place..ie not in the dam!
Andrew hands the cable to Sam to attach to the back of the tractor
Charlie starts the wedge cut at the front of the tree
cutting the wedge at the front attentively watched by budding sawguy Andrew. Charlie is down the dam embankment....stupid place for a tree really.
Charlie slices through the back of it
Andrew gives Sam the signal to move the tractor and cable a little....
I moved away and shot this....I was a bit scared....

The tree is down...sad but now we have light and no roots in the vege garden...and it will be apart of a house one day...

me and bubbles

Me and the dog bubbles just before we left the tathra house

milo Loves the fact that he has to stay inside!

What we do on the lagoon a lot

Bubbles loves my new bed.....

Big roo handprint at the beach

big boy roo

a wallaby this is the main culprit for eating our gardens

Looking out my back door through vege patch to other cottage

corner posts stumped on large rocks.....very very stable

the net is on

lifting it over the top

masking the wire at top to make it easier to lift wire

sam wiring the big top....well thats what it looked like anyway

big turpentine gum posts are cemented in

the lagoon at dusk

outside the dairy

inside the dairy -kitchen and backdoor

Moving on....to paradise

Heya...

Well I've been off for a while...sorry about that....life love and the universe got in the way a bit....but on track now. I have had to leave that little house and little paradise in the backyard at Tathra and am now situated about 20ks north on about a 100 acres of pastures and national park, lagoon and beach in a tiny weeny little (its small ok!) house. I love it...having to peel back and really look at what is necessary and what is a space filler! The animals all came with me but not the garden :(
Because there has yet to be built a place for a garden to survive the biodiversity out here....ie: roos, wallabies, possums & birds galore...not to mention a rat or two but thats right up the cats alley....
The vege cage is being constructed and the plants will soon go in...Yay! I have been hanging to get in there! I will put some progression pics up soon , promise...go well. Kx

More pics of my place April 08

The bananas are doing well at the bottom of the slope in this yard. I swaled the vege garden so all water eventually stops at the banana garden. I also grew sweet potatoes, silverbeet, parsley and tomatoes under the them.
The chook yard is almost invisible under the pumpkin vines.
It doesn't take long for healthy plants to take over.
This is the begining of the summer crop of tomatoes and pumpkins in the chook yard extension.
Before I added the extension of the chook yard

Well I've been flat out getting the permie business(http://www.lusciouslandscapes.com/) off the ground and have had little time to get on the blog. But I realised that I need to show you how the garden is growing....Amazing how time flies when your having fun.

The Chook yard was over run with tomatoes and pumpkins during the summer months and I now have the chooks back in there for the Autumn breakdown. Some sad news about the cute and fluffy one (Remy). Lost him to a tick in October...very sad and the garden is so quiet without him.

Just entering a new phase of my permie business with bigger better paying work coming in with the influx of city escapees buying into our little farming community and wanting to do the 'right thing' by applying sustainable principles to the land.

If you are thinking of entering into business with your own permaculture ideas I urge all of you to do your homework, market research and business plan before launching yourself out there. It really pays off to know where and how you stand when entering into a small business activity. There are small business workshops and support networks in most regional towns and cities. And if you can apply for a NEIS grant, go for it. Every little bit helps.

http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/Programmes/NEIS/

Kathleen's Tassie trip

I've scored some work here at this place for a little while. Tasmania is stunningly beautiful to me...so many green, green fields and water overflowing in the dams. It is a bit cold though...really their spring was like our winter! It is very anglicised with most gardens being full of european things...but the wild bits are just fantastic. I urge you all to get over here for a holiday...Feb/March is the nicest weather....K


View from the balcony at Mulannah Morning on the Mersey River Devonport
Kathleen composting with Jay jay
The woofers bit within the barn
The nursery
Mulannah House

frosty bits are here

This is 1 yr old Remy....way too cute and fluffy.

One of my old sculptures...I accidently hit it with a shovel so her arm and leg are damaged...but she still looks good in there

cucumber ready for seed saving


gerry, fluffy and red are getting stuck into the old corn bed in their extension

The new chook yard extension and the yurt got a new door at last.....

So.....Winter and frosty bits are here!

It’s coming on winter now and you’ll be preparing for the coming frosts and thinking of how to keep those frost tender plants going. If you do a google search of frost protection techniques you’ll come across a dozen sites trying to sell you the latest doofangle from fog sprays to heaters to fans. All these are said to be the best protection for crops when frost threatens, but siting the crop on a north facing slope where frost can drain away is ideal. What if you only have a flat space to work with or the site is facing every other way but north? Here are a few tips on how to beat the odds with frost.

Observation of your site is the key to understanding the intricacies of how the weather affects that site. Keeping frost records each year helps with frost prediction. Frost is caused by rapid cooling of the earth on crisp clear nights in still air. Some people can smell a frost coming. It’s those crisp cold nights with brightly shining stars that also indicate it may be frosty. Frost flows like a slow moving river, banking up in places where there is an obstacle and draining away where there is a tunnel or slope. You can design your site so that there are heatbanks of rocks, walls or a body of water that can keep the heat radiating through the night. You can use trees and shrubs as buffers for frost against your crops, a gradation planting of different sized shrubs and trees that allows in winter light and keeps out the cold. In Bill Mollison’s permaculture design manual he suggests crown cover by large trees works for small clearings if you follow the rule of one half as wide as high, keeping the sides trimmed to vertical. Clearings should not exceed 30ms across. Clear away anything that is blocking the drainage path of the frost. Are your fence lines clear of grass and weeds? If you have a hedge growing, blocking the flow, you may need to prune drainage tunnels at the base of the hedge. If your garden has been mulched you may need to loosen it with a fork as compacted mulch attracts frost. This is where deciduous trees and shrubs work well, as leaf mulch is quite loose and is a bonus cover over the winter months.

Remember to keep up the water levels over the frosty months as dehydration is also part of losing plants in this type of weather.
Raised beds can also beat the frost, but you will have to experiment with what height works best for your site. I have friends who are growing vegetables in netted half water tanks as this helps to keep out the rats and mice (they can’t climb the sides), but it has an added bonus of being above the frost line.
Thawing out rapidly causes most of the damage to plants in a frost. Frozen cells within the plant expand and burst, so if your hose is not frozen up as well, you can help plants recover by watering them before the sun hits them. There are plenty of gadgets to help set up a system of micro jets and sprays on a timer for your garden if you don’t need to take on a commercial system for your crops.
Covering plants with shadecloth, blankets or bags can help lengthen the thawing time. In Japan they prune back their favourite trees and completely wrap them in hessian over the winter months to keep them warm, but they are dealing with snow more than frost.
Growing the right crop that actually likes a frost is also one way of dealing with the problem. Working with what you’ve got instead of battling against it helps. What grows best in your area? Obtaining seeds, cuttings or plants provincial to your area is ideal.
Frost often sweetens a fruit and in some vineyards frost damaged grapes are used to make a special type of wine. But I have seen an Italian movie where a vineyard was kept from freezing by burning anything, including the furniture, so the crop could be saved. That’s a bit extreme,
but it was a usual practice in the ‘old days’ to have a small series of braziers burning throughout the garden at night to save plants from a frost.
Keeping up the nutrient levels on your crops also helps plants to become robust and frost hardy.
Compost teas, seaweed, comfrey and nettle sprays used weekly work well to promote
strength in plants.