Click the adorable cuddling couple for a whole photo album of emergent wildlife we have seen.

Webster’s Creek – 23/9/07

In the week without sun, we hadn’t noticed it has changed it’s position in the sky. We now get an earlier and more beautiful ray bouncing off the pond and into the kitchen as we go down to breakfast. It is so much more enticing when the bench is bathed in sunlight.

The kitchen greens love their early morning bath in sunlight too.

There is still rain predicted for today, so we hope that the rays hit the panels enough to charge the batteries a bit and for us to pump the last seven days catchment of rainwater to the top of the hill. About 23,000Lt.

We have set ourselves up for self reliance in electricity and water. Our water supplies lasted the two months without rain. Our electricity supplies lasted the recent week without sun.
Our system encourages us to be self regulating and accept natural feedback. We harvest a flow of renewing natural resources and store them for use that fits our pattern.

The system is completely dynamic. During cloudy periods we limit our highest grade of energy, electricity to just lighting, communications and refrigeration. When the store is full and there is still more coming down we can have added luxuries.
When there is full sun we can use powerful electric motors to do work. Drills, saws, grinders and pumps all have capacities that allow me to be incredibly productive. We can stay up later, use the high power exterior lights and charge up all the smaller batteries we have.
If it is plenty of rain, we can indulge in long hot baths and showers.

I can experiment with dams, catchments, waterways and irrigation. These experiments allow me to expand my understanding, they are currently wasteful and inefficient so can only be justified when there is a glut.
My results are constantly improving.

We have a lower grade of energy stored here too. The synergy of water and sunlight allow plants to form carbohydrates. Some of these we can eat, some we can use to build and some we burn. Properly dried and fully combusted timber produce enough heat for our home to keep us comfortable through winter, boil our water for baths, showers and washing up, bake bread, cook food and provide enormous pleasure.

The local timbers that grow here are Ironbark, Stringy bark, Bloodwood and Tallowwood. These are all very hard woods. Ironbark is graded as extremely durable in the local conditions, it is rated for 25 years in the ground and I recently heard of a well built house almost 200 years old. Our house is only 13 years old, all the timber is off the ground supported by solid, deep concrete foundations then on steel stirrups. I expect it to still be here in another hundred.

I would like to be more self reliant in firewood and structural wood. We bought $35 in firewood this season. And $300 worth of structural posts. The flow of these items isn’t the issue, it is the store. That means increasing our dry storage space.

We are at a stage now where there are still many priorities.

I would also like to be more self reliant in food production. We have established a very successful winter green salad garden. This complements almost every meal.
We have prepared soil over time and fenced a space for a larger garden to provide more of what we like to eat.
Currently growing are Rainbow chards (so sweet), basil, oregano, parsley, mints, lettuces, taro, arrowroot, aloe, pineapples, mulberries, guavas, peaches, oranges, lemons, dragon fruits, olives, pomegranates, avocados, mangoes, calandula, pecans, candlenuts, davidson plums, bamboo, rosemary, thyme, lavender, passion-fruit, figs, carob, coffee, icecream bean, comfrey, hibiscus, lemongrass, bell-peppers and onions.

Towards this end we have been diligently catching our own humanure and urine and composting this to return to the dirt. I even went to school to learn how to do it right.

This is a years worth for two people. A bit over a cubic meter.

This process has recently received an upgrade. We are developing the capacity to harvest our visitors contributions too. A few little luxuries like a door, and a seat and we will be ready to make the first of the new piles.

This is a slow and steady cycle. A pretty critical one for us, we realised as soon as we got here that we would have to deal with our shit if we wanted to grow.

And that brings us back to the kitchen.

Today was brought to you by the following principles of sustainable living.
Use and Value biological and renewable resources.
Catch and store energy.
Accept Feedback and Apply Self Regulation.

Now that our roof is fully guttered, we have a quality catchment of 131m2. This runs into a 23,000Lt concrete tank. The day before yesterday this tank’s water level was a meter from the bottom, today it is a meter from the top. We have caught and stored about 8000Lt of water over two nights.

Now we hope the sun comes out before it begins to overflow so that we can pump that water to our 22,000Lt storage and header tank at the top of the hill. Ready for the next downpour.

What a difference a day makes. Especially a very wet one after a drought.

We are experiencing a bit of a drought at the moment. We arrived home from our trip to Melbourne to find our header tank completely empty. Not a drop came out of the tap.
We have about a 1000L left in the bottom concrete tank. There is the possibility of buying in town water. It will cost about $150 for a load. I’m not sure exactly how many litres that brings maybe 5-6,000L.

Instead of rain, the Nimbin valley has had very bad frosts. Many of the river flats have been affected, it is the deadest and driest I’ve seen the valley in my few years in the area.

On the other side of the hill, the road to Kyogle is burnt quite severely. We were told by the caretakers of our house that there were several days before we got back when thick smoke filled the air.

We’ve smelt a few fires since then, mostly people burning off. We have collected a pile, several cubic meters, at the top of the ridge. When the guest toilet is operational we will have a party and fire night to welcome the spirits of springtime.

The frangipanis are showing new leaf growth. I want to prune some of the fruit trees too before they begin to reshoot.

The composting toilet now has its slab floating.

We removed the supports that were in place while it was setting and have begun to erect a temporary shelter above.

To my loving father, I’ve just paid the home insurance too. So although we are working on the preventitive strategy, if the whole lot burns down, we are covered financially.

After intial hestitation, Kirrah has adjusted to the movement of the garden to get more winter sun. Here are the wintergreens:

The Rockwall garden is fenced and ready for a spring planting, if only we get the water sorted out!

The Zen house – a quiet space for residents to live, the reference library and the broadband internet connection. I’ve found my work zone.

The desk i’m at is at a large picture window overlooking…

It is an amazing place here. It works beautifully. Today is orientation – I’m meeting people. Most of who have lived here for a while and flow with the essential domestic routine effortlessly. Some are even newer than myself – another here who reminds me the most of myself flew in from Auckland yesterday.

The grounds here is where the real magic happens – aiming to be food neutral. Balancing what grows and selling surplus with what still needs to be bought. It is all happening in such an integrated way here with such awareness – I feel I am in the right place.

Ben is a fast friend and likes bikes.

Tim i’ve formed the quickest connection with – he is the founder of the trust. 40 years old and passionate about sustainable living. 10 years he has been here at the Permaforest and is a wealth of experience. Solidly connected in the Permaforest circles – working with the likes of Bill Molison, David Holmgren and others that really lead the world in the sustainable wholistic Permaforest movement.

It is the guys that have been forward with getting to know me. After the delicious organic vego lunch there was almost a speed dating vibe with people circling around – I kept to my seat as new people would come up, ask about me or something they wanted to know and then move around. The girls here have remained a bit aloof – interestingly in relationships the slower things start the longer they last. Hot and fiery tends to burn out quickly. Slowly and naturally tends to flourish and grow.

There is a lot of working going on all the time. And it is very well co-ordinated. Organised to a scale of 12 people all eating three meals a day + two tea times requires a complex system of understanding – I’m still learning it. Feedback is given freely and reading the subtle cues and comments is a valuable skill.

So much has opened up so quickly for me. I love all the new changes. This is definitely the place for me to be learning this year.