March 2007

Trev has reduced the level of soil on our house site, in some areas by 2.4metres. So we have 25 holes of varying depths 450mm wide (wide enough for a child to be eaten whole) on our house site. Trev has a couple of sleepless nights (which meant we both did) worrying about machinery, council visits etc. Yet I wish I'd caught him on camera the day the mini excavator arrived and he climbed on board and drilled his first hole. Irrepressible grin. Boys and their toys and all that. It has certainly increased his enthusiasm, along with the council visit in which the building inspector expressed surprise that the holes were so deep he couldn't see the bottom. It all seems like overkill to drill down till you hit rock, or in our case decomposed sandstone. But it's what the engineer wanted.

Brian is about to receive a list of 200 X 200 post lengths all of which we will have to blackjack. Another engineer/council requirement we didn't manage to get out of. The bottom of the holes will have 200mm of FCG Fine Crushed Gravel which is then compressed with a tool that Trev devised (photo to come) then the post is inserted and surrounded with more FCG. At the moment Trev has covered all the holes with squares of old corrogated iron, topped with a few shovelfuls of dirt to keep kids and animals out. Finally feel as though we have started!

March 12

Yes, Trev is feeling good about the house, no more mountains out of molehills, just molehills, as per picture. (arrow pointing to covered hole). He's decided it's a great adventure and he's going to enjoy it! FInally I'm not the horrid woman pushing the poor buggar into corners and making him fight his way out. Always been a bit sensitive about my um, assertive side.

Trev has also come good in the garden and is out planting as we speak. This is good, because as a couple of guests remarked over the weekend when we did a quick tour of the garden, 'Oh, yours is the messy side'. Yeah well, I pulled out the weeds and finally got around to collecting seed from lettuce, celery, rainbow chard and parsley and then pulled them out too. The raspberry canes have all been rounded up into the coral and no longer trail over the path, which I even made an effort to sweep.

Trev starts work tomorrow at 7.30am working in an apple orchard, on the back of a tractor is about as much as I know at the moment. Once this starts I'll have to pull out my finger and do more around the house and garden as I will no longer have the excuse that he's home during the day to do so and I'm not. The work is likely to be short term, and good for accruing dollars before converting them into house building materials.

I've been very slack with emails lately too and have spent half a day catching up and realise I have accidentally double deleted one. Could the person requesting a copy of 'Who Killed Dave', please re-request as I'm happy to send you an electronic version.

Finally got on my bike and pedalled up enough hills to make me realise I am no longer the least bit fit and that suspension on mountain bikes are not enough to entirely reduce the likelihood of two black eyes (Kiwi saying, work it out). But I'm going to keep at it, all my time is now spent in front of a computer again, I need to hunch over the handlebars for a while instead. Went to the beach over the long weekend. We figured our beach days were over once we got to Tassie. Not so, this is the salty end of the Huon River. The kayak is a publically used one, that never seems to get stolen. Everytime we go down we have a good paddle around with Nuju swimming along beside us. Last time there were hundreds of thousands of jellyfish like pale chinese lanterns floating in the water. Very beautiful.

March 21

A friend lent me their Two Visions DVD a while back, it's about the thorny issue of Tasmanian Forestry. It was incredibly interesting, and I believe a valid take by a number of scientists, economists, farmers, foresters, hydrologists, woodworkers on a number of related issues, from 1080 poisoning, to water use issues. I recently discovered that it is available in a low resolution version, free and online at www.twovisions.net It runs for 46 mins and if you have broadband it really is worth a watch, regardless of where you live.

The Medieval Mayhem festival activities we've been running a number of workshops leading up to it. We had an archery session on Saturday with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) www.sca.org.au They have branches throughout the world. Anachronism is not Anarchy a conclusion some people have been quick to come to, here's a definition from Wikipedia.

An anachronism is anything that is temporally incongruous — that is, it appears in a temporal context in which it appears sufficiently out of place as to be peculiar, incomprehensible or impossible. The item is often an object, but may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a custom, or anything else closely enough bound to a particular period as to seem odd outside it.

I loved the archery session, everyone who attended loved the archery session. The group were professional and the costumes were fantastic. Trev has renewed enthusiasm to reduce the rabbit numbers with a touch of rabbit golf (a game we played on the day). What a wonderfully carbon neutral activity to be involved in. The next day I couldn't draw too deep a breath without pain in my right hand side, not to worry, we've decided to have a session of target practice in the local neighbourhood (which really means it's an elaborate excuse to get together and drink lots of beer/wine). Probably not the best risk management policy.

I have made a wonderful, bit later than medieval, but still old enough to be considered an obsolete technology, purchase... a wooden loom. (just call me Ana Crone) Looking forward to having a go at ...looming. Though oddly enough my biological clock has been inspiring a few malaproprisms.
'Look', I say, 'it's a womb leaving'
(Loom weaving)
Or, worse,
'Look! It's a lurking womb'
(working Loom)
Not surprising I'm having dreams of cuddling up to fat little baby girls. Will post photos as soon as it arrives. (The Loom!)
It was an ebay purchase, $35 before postage, $60 after. A bargain.

March 25

Couple of good websites to recommend. First is mainly for those currently residing in Sydney, but can be taken up by anyone. It's Earth Hour, where businesses, households etc are accepting the challenge to turn off the lights (and everything else) for one hour next Saturday the 31st March... here's some of the details straight from the horses mouth.

At 7.30pm on 31 March 2007, we are inviting Sydney to turn off its lights for just one hour - Earth Hour - to show that it's possible to take action on global warming.

WWF-Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald are asking all of Sydney - its companies, government departments, individuals and families - to turn off their lights for just one hour. It's a simple action if everyone takes part, sending a powerful message that we care about the future of the planet.

Earth Hour is the launch of a 12 month campaign to reduce Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by 5%. This could be achieved if all businesses and households turned off unused lights and appliances on standby.

But we need you to help make it happen.

About global warming

* The climate is changing! The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1990. In fact 2005 was the hottest year since record keeping began. (Australian Bureau of Meteorology)

* Almost 70% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions come from energy production. (ABS)

* Unless we drastically cut emissions the Great Barrier Reef will be facing annual bleaching events by 2030. This will be catastrophic for the reef. (IPCC)

* Not only is this natural global treasure at risk, but the livelihoods of many Australians will be affected. Currently the annual return from tourism almost $6 billion sustaining around 60,000 jobs.

* One million species worldwide are facing extinction due to climate change. (University of Leeds)

www.earthour.org for more info and to register.

Also stumbled on this site The Road to River Cottage Which is an interesting multimedia take on our food supply and sourcing it sustainably.

Trev almost bought himself to the early stages of collapse on Friday attempting to move all his molehills and convert them into a mountain again. In the hot sun (31 degrees) and no doubt at a hefty pace. I was at work and oblivious. However he was holding himself up on furniture when I got home and still insisted on making dinner despite and obviously bad Atrial Fibrillation attack. Stubborness and stupidity your name is MAN.
Caleb and I pitched in on Saturday and moved the last seven or so molehills onto the mountain. It will be a great source of clay and sand already finely ground by the drilling process to add to our clay slurry mix for rendering walls. So its now in a convenient pile to one side of the building site. A part of the energy reduction equation is working smart, making sure we are always dragging weights down hills, not up, the easy access to materials and the use of all 'waste' materials on site. Eg, separating the topsoil off the top of the site cleared onto a pile close to the garden, and the clay/soil removed is now incoporated into what will one day be the drainage system.

Waiting now on the posts to arrive, told it may be a week or two. All very frustrating when you want to get in there and add to the progress, and we could go faster if we were willing to accept less sustainable wood sources ... but we're not going to go there. Will do our best to cultivate more patience along with the garlic, onions, and winter greens currently being planted.

We have a major population explosion of slugs going on and they are chewing down on all things young and sweet, I've done a little research and decided to go with four yeast traps in the worst areas and see how we go. Basically just a glass jar buried to the lip in soil and filled with yeast and water. Apparently the component of beer traps that they are attracted to, so why waste good beer.

Currently eating corn, hundreds of tomatoes, potatoes, spring onions, onions, carrots, beans, rhubarb, strawberries, not much in the way of greens as they are being flogged. Last week I made chilli and garlic fetta stuffed pumpkin flowers, deep fried in a light batter. Impressed the hell out of our neighbour. Everything was ours bar the flour and oil. Might see what we can do about those two sometime in the future now we have more room and water is less of an issue.

Better disappear and help Trev nab more firewood from the mill waste pile. It's always a good opportunity to break a leg.

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