What tomorrow brings

Click to enlarge

This is a snapshot from the Queensland Rural Fire Service website. Over the past few days, I've been observing the fires. We're situated at the red dot. Locations where fires are being reported, are increasing in number, and getting closer. While the wind directions at present, aren't cause for concern, tomorrow and Saturday will be a different story. They will intermittently push all the fires, gradually in our direction.

Aerial view

2007 - initial front terraces, as the house was under construction

We've been living on our 5 acres of bushland, for twelve years now. Easter, was the anniversary of moving in. Our leap into large-scale gardening, happened to coincide with the cultural celebration, for new life and new beginnings. Easter. Since this cultural celebration, just passed - it was fitting to share an areal view, of what all that Natural Sequence Farming, Permaculture and Natural Succession Gardening, has achieved during that time.

Switcheroo

Hi folks. I've not been blogging, due to some big decisions, which have unexpectedly emerged in our lives. One has to do with my new website. After several months waiting on Weebly, to fix a bug in my comments box, I've still had no success. No follow-up contact, either. Now they aren't returning my inquiry emails. So I've decided to stop blogging about our property, there.

I could have changed hosting companies, like I was intending to, later. However, another big decision was going to affect that too.

~ Late May ~

time for fledgling kookaburras, to leave the nest

For now though, please bear with me, as I gradually migrate the four property related posts, back here. Where I also intend to finish the second part, of the last post - about Resilient surprises. That was left hanging for a while.

I'll try to post one-a-day, so I can be all caught up, for the next bit of news to share.

It's been crazy around here lately, with more crazy to come. So if I don't sound like my normal self, it's because I'm not really dealing with normal, at the moment, lol.

I hope you're all doing well.

Do nothing

It's almost winter projects time, and I'm doing nothing, Well, for good reason. I promise. If you want to read more about why, check out the new blog post on my property website.

Does nature knock at your door, too?

I expect we're going to be busy this autumn/winter, catching up on some overdue projects. Summer. Heat. Drought. Need I say more, as to why we're behind? Fingers crossed, the budget will cooperate, along with our expectations. I'd really like to get a few things achieved on our list, for my birthday (come July).

But you know how it goes - expect the unexpected, lol.

Are you planning anything special, this winter? Or summer, for the northern hemisphere?

All things compost

Over at the Gully Grove website, I've written about all our composting attempts to date. It was interesting for me to revisit where it all began, to where we ended up! If you want to read the new update, visit Compost Gully.

Just a quick update, on the comment box on my website too - Weebly has determined it's a bug, and is endeavouring to fix the "notify of reply" check-box. You can still comment, with no problems. But the tick won't appear, if you click the option to be notified of follow-up comments.

Update

For all those who still keep me in their blog lists - thank you! I will leave a notification here, every time I do a blog post (see the latest) on my new property website. 

I will still be blogging here, just not in as much detail, about the property. It's more to do with my life, family, cooking and other stuff. Although I'm sure the property will still be mentioned here, from time to time. Just not in as much detail.

I have not forgotten that Passionfruit slice recipe, Meg *wink*. I intend to share that (here) next.

Technical difficulties

Photo by burak kostak from Pexels

Well it cannot be a true unveiling, unless something goes wrong. Like going live, with my new website today, lol. I realise the Disqus comment box is becoming an issue, so I've reverted to the Weebly default comment box, - in hopes Weebly will help me fix it again. Doing what I can behind the scenes, but I'm waiting for their feedback. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

You can actually make a comment successfully, using the default. But the checkbox which says, "Notify me of new comments..." doesn't apply a tick, when clicked. Even though the service will be engaged, if you click it once. It's terribly confusing.

I'm just going to be good humoured about it all, and chalk it up to a learning experience. So folks, you're free to still visit my site - it's live. You can even comment via the default comment box, without any unnecessary hoops to jump through to sign in. Just a name, email and optional website address. But you may get confused when it comes to checking the "Notify me of new comments" box.

I'll post updates, as they come. Hoping the default can be fixed. But for now, thanks for your patience folks.

Lift off

Image by IO-Images from Pixabay

Guess what folks? I was able to string enough time together, over the long weekend, to finally complete my website. YAY! If you just want the fun of exploring the new website, all on your own, visit gullygrove.com now. It's a fairly basic website (nothing too fancy) but I enjoyed putting together all the little details, which say - this is what we're all about.

If you want a bit more information, namely about the comment box, here's the brief to help navigate.

**At present, I've switched to the Weebly default comment box again. To see if Weebly can help me fix the issue. So if you don't see the "Disqus" comment box (outlined below) that's why. Sorry for any confusion this is causing. I realise Disqus may be limiting your ability to contribute, so please disregard all of the below - for now.**

I was going to use the Weebly default, comment box, but there was an issue getting the notification of replies, to work. Which is an important feature. Opting for the third-party, Disqus comment box, not only fixed that problem, but has several more advantages:

• Sign-in with existing Google, Facebook, Twitter or Disqus, social media accounts
• Avatar image, distinguishes your comment
• Pre-filled data, avoids unnecessary typing, every time you comment
• Stores all your comments, in one place - from any website, using Disqus
• Edit or Delete your comments
• Easily add, images, gifs, links or video to comments
• Rich text options (like bold, italics, underline and strikethrough)
• Receive notifications of comments and replies, via the registered email
• Immediate publishing of comments

Don't despair, if you only wish to comment as a guest - that option is also provided. Just click inside the comment box, and tick the box, which says, "I'd rather post as a guest". See this article, for a more detailed explanation. If you opt for this, please write your name and/or your blog name (ie: Chris, or Chris@GullyGrove) so I'll recognise you. It's not necessary, but I wouldn't want to miss a regular commenter, from this blog.

The 3 main disadvantages of the guest post (must there always be a downside?) are:

• No email notifications of subsequent replies
• Cannot edit or delete, once posted
• Requires moderating, before publishing (sorry about this one, but it's out of my control)

If you have any questions or concerns about the comment box, let me know. While I have disabled the captcha verification process, I'm not sure if it still requires a checkbox (as a guest) to verify you're human. As opposed to a spam bot, lol. I know that process is annoying, but I suppose it prevents spamming.

UPDATE: Due to feedback on the possibility of information being collected, using Disqus, I'm including some links to the Opt-out feature, for tracking - as well as, how to make your Activity Private. Which are added layers of protection, while using Disqus.

Back for 2015

 Luffa's

It's three months into the new year, and I've reopened my blog. Why? Because we're not moving. Bet you weren't expecting that? Well, neither were we! It was a done deal as far as we were concerned. But then life happens and changes the way we look at things.

Every reason which was important for going, turned out to be manageable where we were. Not easy, but still manageable. The main change of heart came when my husband decided to switch careers recently. Only it would involve several years of studying, training and practical experience to get there.

No more suitcases

Such a large alteration on top of getting resettled, would be even more challenging for our family. We decided we weren't going to wait another year changing careers, as that is how long it would take to move and resettle. David is hitting the books and computer to make that new change today.

While away from this blog though, we've done a few things to the property (progress with Hilltop) plus a few more projects lined up. It all takes time but I look forward to revealing them.

Out for a walk

How long are we going to stay here? It will be eight years this Easter and maybe many more years to come. Our son, Peter, is growing quite attached to the backyard. Our eldest moved here at four years of age, and grew attached to the concrete footpaths we walked every day in the suburbs. Our son though, is growing up and learning the well trodden bush tracks, we walk him through, nearly every day here.

Natural play

He loves to search out and shuffle across the log bridges, and basically yearning to be outdoors as much as possible. So comfortable with space is he, that he wants to do everything by himself. Fearless.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm fairly certain we won't be moving for a while. There would've been many new opportunities to enjoy in the city, but I'm also quite relieved we're staying. It's not an easy life here, but it's what we know and I guess, ultimately, what we love.

Truth be told, we had to disengage from this place while considering moving and that was torture. I'm glad we don't have to go through that any more.

Garden gone awry

 Red flowers of pineapple sage

One of the hardest daily aspects of this pregnancy, has been avoiding the garden. Nearly all of our garden is contained on a slope, or requires walking up a slope to reach flat land. In the six years we've lived here, I've only taken one serious spill down a slope. It was my own fault (a miscalculation) but when you're pregnant, any kind of fall down a slope can be potentially harmful.

So I did the right thing and only visited the immediate areas around the house, or waited for David to be home - that way, he could support me down the harder to access areas. Pregnancy is only for nine months though, so we've made do.

But oh, how I have missed the garden...truly...I stare at it through our windows, or from afar outside, and make all these plans in my head. I think about what I will do first, when I can run around and get tangled in the jungle again!

A heron, spied through our window

The plans aren't just in my head though, I'm working on putting them on paper. I'm not talking about placing a fruit tree here and a garden hedge there (the haphazard way I'm used to planning) rather I've got a full blueprint of stages of earthworks, remedial plant repairs and then permanent plantings - as I'm designing this system to maintain itself once it matures. We need a reliable garden, not just one that performs when the weather is being nice.

Kent pumpkin

I guess I tired of lamenting a lack of rain and fertility, because of where we live. Every year our growing plans are thwarted because we live in an environment of extremes. This year, it was our beloved Kent pumpkins; which have always produced a crop religiously - come rain or extreme heat! This year we got one!

 A gift

We were generously given a box of pumpkins by one of David's work colleagues, but I have to say - they tasted of nothing. I've made several batches of pumpkin soup, and not even the slow cooked chicken-stock, made it taste of anything remotely like pumpkin. Roasted, it still tasted like pale mush. It was that bland, it could easily be confused for choko! Which I have to say, even our choko's (growing over the chicken coop) had more flavour this year.

 I wish choko tasted like pumpkin - we'd be set!

We managed to produce a Ute load of chokos, sweet potatoes and a single pumpkin in our growing season. That's what haphazard planning can achieve, and we've taken our chances with that system long enough. Thankfully, I've done quite a bit of research as my bump has grown, and I can't wait to put that knowledge to use in the garden.

I'll explain the specifics once my diagrams are complete. I'm a visual aid learner, and need them to explain better. We're going to concentrate our efforts however, on the immediate areas around the house, and the land on the edges. If you're familiar with permaculture, this is often referred to as zone 1 & 2.


The key areas within these zones will address:


1. Capturing water run-off from the road and storing it in the soil.

2. Modifying how we manage the chickens.

3. Removing structures which aren't using the land to its maximum potential.

4. Implementing simple (non electronic) technology to boost soil fertility.

5. Reducing our energy demands on fossil fuels.

6. Stacking layers of natural energies/inputs, to support the environment.


It doesn't sound like a plan for growing better vegetables (where did I mention a veggie patch?) but they are the underlying issues we need to address first, that will ultimately resolve our problems with growing anything on our land.

I'm giving a generous time frame of 2-5 years to implement the new design, but it will probably take 10 years to be fully mature. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the process. In the six years of experimentation to date, we've already learned what doesn't necessarily work in our extremes - and that money thrown at a problem, doesn't necessarily solve it either.

Time we spend in the garden though, well that's always free. We're the avid experimenters - only this time, we're going to work within an integrated design.

It won't be long until winter arrives, which means a new baby and time frolicking/working in the garden again. Both things, I'm very much looking forward to!

Back to Gully Grove

I've attempted to write this post, a dozen times or more. Strange things happened at the beginning of the year, but where to find the words to explain it all? We really didn't experience our traditional Spring and Summer months. Normally, we're praying for rain to come - this year I prayed for it to stop! Rain, rain, rain and then, the Queensland floods.

Mercifully, it stopped, but only after carving a wave of destruction across the Lockyer Valley. We were spared the house: much of the garden and driveway suffered damage (again) though. Yes, this was a separate rain event to the one I recorded late last year. The mother of all storms, took over 30 lives in Queensland. Not surprisingly, we didn't get back into fixing the front retaining wall until 2 months later. It took that long just for the ground to dry out, plus there was the whole recovery period for our family/community too.

Shock, fear and displacement can do funny things to people. I'm not going to dwell too much. What I will say however, is Dave is back home and we're going to stay at Gully Grove. There's a long story behind that short sentence, but trust me when I say it's better to focus on what we're currently doing than what has already been done.

For starters, we fixed the portion of the front retaining wall that was damaged by the floods. It collapsed completely. A few days hard yakka, made it transform from this....

Back to this!

Fantastic to use it as a ramp again. I'm now working on digging the trenches above to fix the drainage issue. There is no way of knowing if it would've prevented the wall from collapsing, as there was just so much rain to contend with on January 10, but it would've lessened the run-off from the neighbour's driveway.

After all that hullabaloo of the wet-season however, there were other exciting things waiting to be discovered in the garden too. Like our first baby pineapple!!

Major excitement!

It appeared a few weeks after the flood and has been growing steadily ever since. I didn't realise it had flowers on the actual pineapple though! The things you learn when you grow your own food. Just a few pineapple tops, which would otherwise go into the compost bin - and there's new food in the making. Dave brought three FREE pineapple tops from work recently (after serving the sweet fruit to customers) so I'll do a post about propagating soon.

The process isn't as quick as writing these few sentences about it - plants need time to grow and mature; for pineapples about 18 months! But if your garden is going to grow plants anyway, why not pineapples? You can even grow them in pots, in a greenhouse or poly tunnel. Put them to bed in winter and bring them back out in Spring! Pineapples really aren't that fussy on soil or water. Just don't expect them to suffer frost in winter, as they're a tropical fruit.

Can't wait to taste our first pineapple

Without a doubt, they have to be the most quirkiest, colourful, talking pieces of the garden. Baby green tree-frogs even like to nestle in the centre of them too - before the pineapples grow out of them, that is.

Other survivors of the torrential rains, had to be the sweet potatoes. I think the fact they were growing on top of a retaining wall (with a drainage layer behind it) stopped them from rotting, like other vegetables we planted away from the wall.

Overgrown veggie bed - sweet potato vines

If it came to a famine, we'd be able to survive on sweet potatoes, pineapples, passionfruit and pumpkins. Oh yes, we didn't even plant this one!

Harvested 6 Kent pumpkins from a feral plant

Again, I put it down to the fact it sprouted from the compost, on one of our retaining walls, that kept it out of the puddles everywhere else. Pumpkins are real survivors. So are fruit trees! Or at least ours are; partly because we plant them on mounds of compost to keep their roots out of the clay soil.

Emperor Mandarin starting to colour

It's about the only helping hand we give our fruit trees. I even gave up spraying them with white oil, which is a more natural pest preventative. I live in the bush, and the number of pests in nature are too numerous to wage war with. I figure, what fruit trees I plant which survive are worthy of staying at Gully Grove.

At the moment, I'm waiting for the mandarins and two varieties of oranges to colour up, before we can eat them. We have other fruit trees that fared the wet conditions too, but didn't produced fruit because the blossoms rotted off. Next year perhaps we'll eat apples, pears, persimmons, mangoes, mulberries and pummellos!

With all the rain however, the ones growing on the unaffected side of our front retaining wall, began to fill-out like a proper garden.

Bright red flowers are from the pineapple sage

It's beautiful to sit back on the verandah and see this wall of plants, starting to dwarf the actual retaining wall. This is what I had always hoped for, when we envisaged this particular patch of ground. If you notice in the background, the passionfruit vine, in front of Hilltop Chicken Coop, is going absolutely feral too. I've already tasted one of the fruits, and it's simply incredible.

Turns red when ripe

For me, there's nothing like home grown produce. Pineapples and passionfruit, who could ask for more? Actually, what we did get more of is long grass and weeds galore! But this was actually a blessing in disguise. The grass, which was about a metre long, was cut with the brush-cutter and put in Hilltop Chicken coop for deep litter. We also had plenty of passionfruit prunings to throw in too! There was so much "extras" that grew in the wildly wet conditions, that we just threw it either in the compost, chicken coop or under the fruit trees.

Familiar patterns are returning to our lives again. In fact, gardening has taken on a whole new meaning for us. It's not just a "dream" any more. It's not even a dream garden. But it is a tried and tested reality that we've been battered by the odds of nature, and we're happy to go back and rebuild the pieces. It's all part of the healing process. The results mean more to us than they did before. Out of destruction comes new life - that's what nature does.

I must admit, all the events of the Lockyer Valley floods, battered our self-esteem as gardeners. We felt so helpless to stop the size of the destruction. It's not just in our gardens we've been working on for 4 years, but it's spread throughout the entire community. Even to the point where you see empty concrete pads, where homes use to stand. There are white crosses placed near them and you know it represents a member of the community, no longer here.

Re-mulching the garden again

But that's where things have changed for us. We actually feel closer to the Lockyer Valley and the unique landscape that has changed along with us. Nature is busy rebuilding and so are we.

The new picture in my header takes on a significant meaning too. It's about seeing through all the destruction and realising the tender hand of nature. This is life in all it's unadulterated glory. You may get to pick the best aspects, but you cannot change the worst. They are always there in the background and we shouldn't believe we can avoid it.

The responsible thing to do is merely live it, today and tomorrow. Just as the plants do in the elements of nature. We cosset our plants like we cosset ourselves. Never truly exposing the truth of our fragility (and the systems we build) until the hand of nature comes to test us. What then? It's a scary prospect but nonetheless, one worth considering.

Close-up, pineapple sage flowers

Every time I wield a pick now or push a barrow to build a system, I do so in the background of nature. We tend to forget that. We think it's "our" work or "our" garden, but it's only ever a borrowed landscape. I know I was lucky to survive the floods. I know our house was lucky to stand and stay dry inside too. But there's no luck involved in making the decision to spend time in our garden again.

My delight in finding a pineapple after the fury of nature, is where my journey towards healing, and ultimately forgiving nature, begins. There is much to forgive in this life. There is much to reap too. Which is where my hope for Gully Grove remains - on the cusp of life and death, but ultimately bringing new life at the hands of nature.

By the way, it will be Gully Grove's forth year in the making, this Easter!! We have such an awesome reason to celebrate now.

I hope your gardens (even the ones down your street) give you a sense of strength today.

Celebrate a reason for living!

Gully Grove

You may notice a few changes on our blog. I still have some more to make, but it could take me a while to get it up and running.

The first change has been the title of this blog. It's no longer just the "Bushland Project", but it's also known as Gully Grove. This is the name we've finally settled on, for our property.

It's taken 3 years to come up with this name, LOL. We've never really felt the need for an official name, until recently. Gully Grove is a picture of where we wish to head in the future.

For more details however, click on the new, "About Gully Grove" link, under the header.

The good news is, I won't be changing the web-address, so there won't be any confusion where to find us.

Our backyard...

It's STILL raining here - two weeks and the weather bureau is predicting more. Our bush block hasn't seen this much rain in decades. Literally. Even though we've not lived here that long, we've lived in the area for over a decade. Seriously though, as wet as it is, it also makes for a wonderful change. The land needed it.

Anyway, we got a break in the weather yesterday afternoon, so I decided to see how the water was flowing on the block. We have several gullies cross-crossing the block, which naturally deals with the run-off. I've never actually seen them flowing up-close, because until now, all our large rain events have only fallen within 24 hours. So the run-off is often gone before I can get out with the camera.

But on my recent hike in our backyard, it was a wonderful discovery of miniature waterfalls and changing hues of wet bark and foliage.

This is part of our sand-pit, run off area. The erosion has cut out a miniature waterfall that sounds absolutely delightful when it's running. Although we're not too keen on further erosion, we understand this is a natural part of the lands ability to cope with large water events. One such strategy, is to cut a meandering path through the block, to help slow down the flow of water.

This is part of the reason we're not in a hurry to remove the lantana bushes. Not until we've added more plant life to hold the banks together at least. Otherwise, it would only take a few heavy falls to wipe out most of the soil from this area. If you notice above, on one side, Dave has cut the grass, and the other is left to grow naturally. Our intention is to plant both sides of the banks with reeds and rushes, so we can eventually remove the lantana and keep all the grass mowed.

It's not that we're particularly fussy about mowed lawns, but we are fussy about seeing snakes before we stick a ruddy great big foot on them, LOL. Fortunately we've only encountered green tree snakes so far, but I'm happy for the brown and black snakes (neighbours have reported on their blocks) staying a mystery to us.

The above image is where the run-off leaves our property, behind that lovely thicket of shrubs. This is what we call our recharge area though - which means whenever there is too much water to get through, it spills over the bank and has more time to soak into the sand. While it looks like a creek bed, it's not actually a creek. It's just the accumulation of silt over the seasons, where soil erosion from up stream, ends up sitting here.

To show you how a recharge area works, the image below is to the left of the above image. It's where the water has spilled over and is soaking into the recharge area. And yes, it was the same area, a reader dubbed an interview area. Hi mountainwildlife, how bizarre is that interview set-up now, LOL?

Here is the same spotted gum tree, as well...only it's bark has changed colour in the wet. You can see it's almost completed it's annual shedding of flaking bark, having grown another foot or two, no doubt!

The spotted gum is a native here. Not surprising since it doesn't require a great soil to grow in, and recovers quickly from bushfire. We get several species of native trees here, but the spotted gum would have to be the quickest grower so is more common. They're quite a large tree too, around 30 or more metres in height.

While we're looking at bark though, here is my favourite tree. It's an Ironbark with thick, robust bark. Being a hardwood, they take longer to grow than the spotted gum, but their width is something else to behold. I love that this tree is part of our backyard, and as long as we're living here, it will stay.

Still on the subject of trees though, here is a reminder of the 2003 bushfire, which came through this area - two years before we bought the place. There are a few black tree stumps like this one, and even a few hollowed out trees (no branches).

I'm in awe how rain makes the black charcoal of the stump, stand out more - and there are even plants growing in the middle of it. To the left is some moss too, all part of nature's big recycling project! Even when something dies, a useful job is found for it.

I love how the rain brings new life with it too. All these green sprouts have popped up through the natural layer of mulch nature provided. Even this native grass is sporting a new shade of green, from some of the brown ones already dying off.

This is not a very good picture (below) but this is another gully that runs down one of our south facing slopes. The miniature waterfall trickled and it sounded so beautiful. One of our future aspirations, is to green these particular gullies. We have another gully on the opposite side - both running down into the sand-pit.

We would love to have tree ferns and all manner of rain-forest foliage, planted here. It would be such a haven for the green tree frogs, dwarf tree frogs and green tree snakes. Of course, the gullies only flow in heavy rain, but with enough plant material, it should generate enough humus to keep the plants moist in drier times.

Peeking through the trees in our backyard, we can see the back of our house again. I remember when we used to drive to our block to visit, and imagine our house sitting there. We'd say to each other, "imagine when all this becomes our backyard". Wow, how did it happen so fast!

Seasons change, plants grow and die, that's what I love most about our backyard. We play with a very small portion of it, but nature does all the rest. Most of the photos you've seen today are, "as is". In other words, we haven't interfered with nature's original design. Of course, the surrounding landscape is always changing - depending what the neighbours and local council are doing. Because what happens up-stream, always effects what happens here. So in a way, I suppose it's not entirely a la naturale.

One last photo before I go though...this is technically our backyard. Or the civilised section we've managed to tame. The house is just up the top of that bank, and below (in the distance) you can see our wedding "wishing well". This was made for us, so that guests at our wedding could place cards inside. We got some lovely gifts of money too. Nothing enormous, but it was enough to help contribute for the next phase of our life.

So I think it's fitting I make this the last photo of our backyard. It all contributed to finally bringing us here. Maybe we can do some good in future? I hope we can.

New Header Image

For those who may be curious to know what kind of moth I've placed in my Header Image, it's a Grapevine Moth, or Phalaenoides glycinae, if you're into speaking Latin. :)

It's a native moth and I've only seen a few around here over the past few years. I suspect it was sussing out my Luffa vine nearby - which makes for a pretty convincing Grape Vine impersonation, if you ask me.

Given that it's a native insect, and happens to be a good host for wasp eggs who feed on them, I reckon it has a place in the food chain here. It happened to be sunning itself on a log stump, next to our rusty wheelbarrow, when it caught my eye. A really stunning sight!

If you want to know a little more about this moth, visit here.

Building paradise

Everyone dreams of paradise. More to the point, I think everyone dreams about arriving there. I'm certainly no different. Whenever I visit a permaculture garden on acreage - you know the type - dripping with foliage, water and productive plants - I always end up wishing it belonged to me. If only I lived there to enjoy "that" paradise, oh the things I could do!

My dusty five acres, in comparison, seems rather lifeless. Sure I have recent fruit trees in the ground, chicken coops and the potential for more development - but it's not paradise. It doesn't look or feel anything near it - yet.

And that's really the silly game we play with ourselves about the concept of paradise. It's something other people (or nature) does for us, while we just magically arrive there. The truth is paradise can rarely be afforded by common folk. You either buy it by the million, inherit it from a wealthy relative, visit it, or - you build it from scratch.

Which happened to be the only option we could afford at the time too. This particular block of land was nothing flash. The fact it was five acres, located near a rural city, was probably its most sellable asset. Otherwise, it had two slopes that converged right in the middle - where all the storm water ran through. We could take our pick of house sites - the north facing slope or the south facing slope. The only flat land was the sand pit in the middle!

Our sandpit, or stormwater run-off area

So it seemed our paradise was to be riddled with 30 metre native eucalyptus trees too, lantana thickets, clay-loam type soil which eroded in enormous caverns in any disturbed soil - not to mention the water repelling ability of the soil, not to retain any moisture. We bought into all this rather naively too. All we had to do is build walls, plant plants and use any earth-moving equipment required. Oh yes, and the little thing about water - didn't that just fall from the sky?

Needless to say, our pursuit to find paradise by building it around us, came at the expense of those original (idealistic) beliefs. They had to go! There was much more to it than that. Oh so MUCH more.

The reality is, we haven't stopped working from the day we first bought the land in 2005, until this year, 2010. Five years in total. We've moved dirt - ate dirt - got bogged in mud after the dirt got wet, and still the dirt persisted at teasing our personal thoughts of paradise. Are we deprived? Hardly. But it's certainly a long way awaaaay from the kind of paradise we first imagined.

Our wall, still resembling a dirt mound

For starters...it's a lot harder to believe it's paradise when the ground is parched, the plants won't grow and your back hurts from all the physical labour. But this to me is where my pioneering spirit takes flight. God isn't making any more land, as far as I know, so it's up to me to help rejuvenate paradise to what it used to be.

It may only be a small dream and I may not see anything but dirt for a long time to come. But one should never be accustomed to arriving at paradise. For that generally leads to idealistic opportunism. You can believe what you want, if you've never been tested in paradise.

No matter how much you believe your patch isn't as nice as "paradise", or it's too much hard work, just remember that any labour of love going into growing things, reaps more rewards than the initial effort. It will feed you, shade you, comfort and build you up in years to come - probably when you most need it too.

If you don't build it though...

A day full of dirt (in my books) is a day well spent in paradise. :)

The project changes in 2010

We've been living on our five acres of bushland since Easter 2007. So we're fast approaching the three year mark! I've got to say, the end of this year marks the turning point for us all. This isn't the part where I announce we're selling...no, this is the part where I announce we're making big changes (here) next year.

The front wall, before retaining

I was tempted to start a new blog in private (Bushland Project II) as I felt the new direction would be too extreme from where we started. Only when I had something to show for all the drastic changes, was I going to reveal the new blog. But there's no mystery - nothing to hide - it's just another change like so many we've been through. I guess I was afraid people may think us crazy for doing what we're contemplating.

I'll give you an example to mark our new direction...we're going to be selling all our chickens. Told you it would be extreme. But we may keep three; it all depends on reaching our objective which is reducing our responsibilities to meet the function intended.

We started keeping chickens for fresh eggs and I suppose the romantic notion of country life. Soon I became obsessed with breeds. Which isn't a bad pursuit in itself, but when measured against our finances and wider ambitions for this place, it was becoming unbalanced.

Hilltop chicken coop

Time to strike a new balance. Something which meets function, finances and our family. At this stage, the plan is to keep Hilltop our main chicken coop, with chickens bred to produce eggs. I'm leaning towards New Hampshires, as they're still a heritage breed with a good reputation for egg production. We may or may not keep a rooster. It would be desirable to keep one, but it has to meet our objectives.

By doing this, we'll effectively reduce our feed bill by half or more, and free time and resources to pursue the most important strategy here - food production.

Middle ridge chicken coop - marked for new propagation area

This is why our chicken coop dubbed, Middle Ridge, will be renovated to become a propagation area. We've got the shaded run already, where we can propagate cuttings, grow crops and the chicken coop itself will be turned into a potting area come greenhouse. We'll be ripping the roof off and making it high enough to walk through.

This is just a small taste of the changes we'll be making in 2010. It sounds ambitious and radical from the direction we've been traveling. But while country life is kind of romantic, we have to be able to manage it within our finances and main objectives. Food production has been shafted for a few years in favour of setting up chickens. Now it's time to wind that back to strike a better balance between the two.

We feel re-energised now we have a plan to follow. There are other changes on the way also, but all in good time...

Importance of local information

As we live on the outskirts of a very large shire, our Council provides a mobile library service once a fortnight to our area. We've been using it quite regularly over the past 18 months. Well last week, Dave came home with a ripper of a book that I wish we'd stumbled across years ago.

It's called, "Living in the Lockyer", and published by The Lockyer Catchment Centre, Queensland.

What's so remarkable about this book? Well it explains the local topography in a way that encourages better approaches to land management. It's not heavy on the scientific lingo, but rather tells a story about how this area evolved into what it is today.

Most remarkably, is how the societies which lived here generations ago; actually changed the rural landscape forever. Large farming families on large blocks had to make a reasonable living for themselves. It started with the traditional pursuits of livestock and crops, in which much of the lower landscapes were cleared for that purpose. Years of overgrazing and cropping however, saw the local soils gradually lose their fertility. When it became difficult to continue farming in this way, the families then turned to the higher landscapes for logging purposes.

This is where our block fits into the equation. I'd heard from the locals that this area was once heavily logged. As such, we don't have much understory plants to speak of now and the local spotted gums (eucalyptus trees) have taken over the landscape. Most of our weeding pursuits in the garden involves the removal of sapling trees around the house.

How our block was advertised on the net - typical scrub country

Of course our goal here is to gradually improve the soil fertility and how we manage the land. Which ironically, this book says is the solution to areas which now encounter land slips, soil erosion and weed infestations. They say the solution is in the hands of landholders looking for a lifestyle block. Because the years of mining soil fertility and local flora has to be undone. It now needs intensive restoration.

It was such a buzz to read this book. We've been attempting to do the very things which will undo the damage. You cannot live here and not notice the soil erosion with each storm season. You cannot avoid the lantana outcrops either. They're everywhere. It was so encouraging to read local information, gathered by the managing body of the catchment area, to see we are heading in the right direction.

Give us another decade or more, and we may just have some of the damage rejuvenated. Or at least I hope we can. I made a pact with our 5 acres when we first decided to build, that I would give something back for the house that would sit here. I don't want to leave another legacy of depletion behind us.

So I am eagerly reading the book, front to back cover. It even has examples of systems which have worked for locals here already - and how they've chosen to deal with soil erosion and land slippage. One of the big shortcomings is in our local soils - there is a very thin layer of topsoil, if any at all. Storm water skids over an impermeable surface, but doesn't do any damage once it's allowed inside the soil.

Typical soil erosion and land slippage for our area

Improving soil fertility, improves it's ability to absorb and hold water. The thicker the topsoil, the more water it can hold. Our pursuit now is to fix that imbalance, by providing a more diverse range of native understory plants.

If I could encourage people do to anything, it would be to seek out local information designed specifically for their area. Find publications that will explain the problems, as well as solutions which have proven to work. There's quite a lot of general information out there to teach better land management, but nothing beats a local take on local solutions.

So prowl the shelves of your local library today! You never know what you'll find...

While you're still here though, I've complied a few links which could be useful:

Greening Australia
Landcare Australia
Learnscaping your Schoolground - could be useful for any backyard with kids too!

Living where you are

I haven't gone into much detail of our lives before coming here, but we use to live on a suburban block in Toowoomba - which is a small city in Queensland. We experienced some wonderful memories in our house too. It's where we got our first taste of home ownership and also where our daughter came into the world. Those days were good while they lasted.

Fast forward and we're now living on a semi-rural property, near the same city. It's taken us two years to really make a difference to the place - and we still have much to do.

But it really gets you thinking about where you live and more importantly, how you live. I can say good things about both places we've had - and some bad - but why does "location" seem to influence how we look at things in our lives? Could you easily let go of all your hard work and move somewhere else?

If you're wondering why I'm dwelling on such thoughts, I've had to consider the idea of selling our Bushland Project in recent times. Not because I want to, but simply because circumstances could dictate as such in future. Although we own most of our property, there's still a considerable mortgage for a family on one income to pay off. You watch what's happening to the wider Australian economy too, and you're forced into thinking about the unthinkable.

But let's not dwell on the negative, and focus solely on the positive. I've come to realise that living in suburbia and living in the country has many similarities - they involve a home, a family, a garden, perhaps pets or even small livestock like chickens? In the past I think I've made the mistake of believing life would change if we moved to the country. The truth is I could've changed at any time, regardless of where I lived. You just have to know what you want to change in to.

Our family is changing as we speak, and while a lot of it has to do with where we live - it's not like we wouldn't be going through this metamorphosis if we lived in suburbia too. The changing economy is changing the wider community. It may force some into selling or even (God forbid) losing their houses. But that doesn't mean what you end up with afterwards is any less than you had before.

You still have the important stuff, like your dreams and your family and friends. These things don't die just because we have to let some other things go.

Living where you are is being who you are...and no-one else can take your place in this world. I'm going through the process of counting my blessings, so that whatever changes come our way in future, we'll remember who we are...a family, a household and a contributor to society wherever we are.

What are your blessings?

Reflections, April 2009

My last "Reflections" post was back in December 2008, but now it seems a good place to write about our exciting news this year. Probably about the most exciting news for our family since we moved here, two years ago.

The wet weather has brought out the wild fungi...a sign of changes in the garden...

Changes...changes - everywhere!! The most significant change came of late, with a new job offer for Dave. He applied for what seemed like a very generic position as a "chef", and it turned out to be an on-site Catering Manager position. Not just for a small business though, it was for a well known catering company with contracts all over Queensland for hospitals, building sites and the like. And they happened to have the contract for the new prison being built 30 minutes drive away.

What does this mean for our little family at the Bushland project though? We get a husband and father back again!!

He will be home every afternoon and evenings during the week, he'll have weekends off and if that wasn't already enough- he'll get ALL those public holidays off too. We will be that family eating out or lazy about in the garden when there's a public holiday to be had. No more working on those days...no more working on weekends...and no more putting our daughter to bed by myself nearly every night.

Dave gets to have those special moments with his growing daughter again, which I could only tell him about later. He would often pop his head in her bedroom door when he got home from work, and say he can see how fast she's growing - and he's missing it.

I'm sure the job will have it's down sides too, but for now we're celebrating the thought of 8 hour working days instead of 14 hour ones. He starts next week...yay!!

I must confess as the end is nearly in sight though, this week has been the hardest for us all. Dave worked all during the Easter holidays, so we've missed him and he us. In the past I would've just put my head down and said this is what pays the bills. So would Dave, and our daughter has just come to accept this is the way things were. We all knew this week however, that working in this manner WAS something to feel uncomfortable about.

It's been a few weeks of extremes here. Old job new job. Happiness and frustrations. Finishing loose ends, starting others. School holidays and rain, rain, RAIN! Sunshine today thankfully. As hard and challenging as it's all been though, I guess it's about renewal. From old things come new things, but it's all what we make of it.

This family has suddenly got a lot more time to make things together!

Now & then...

I show a lot of photographs on my blog. Pictures explain a lot more than I could. It's quite a luxury to have a digital camera to download images on the net now. But when I was a kid, instant photography was called a Polaroid camera. Hardly a convenient unit to carry around the garden, and the images would fade with time - but you were pretty 'cool' if your family had a Polaroid.

Mental images fade with time too, I have discovered. When I drive around our semi rural area now, it feels like home. When I see the houses a few streets away, with their ancient sheds and car parts strewn around the front yard - I feel comforted.

Now - that is - I didn't always feel that way!

Don't we all try to hide our ugly bits from the neighbour's view? I'm ashamed to admit it, but when we first bought our piece of the bushland here, I wondered why the neighbours left such ugly eyesores in their yard. How hard was it to clean up? They had acres of land: why were their houses surrounded by junk!

Two years of living here though, and I've forgotten the idealistic yuppie who thought someone else's yard was an eyesore to the public. I get glimpses of her, every now and then, but it's only when I yearn for those rural junkyards that welcome me on my way home. I'm glad those neighbours treat their houses like HOMES and not trophies for passers by to admire. It doesn't matter what kind of home you own though - or where you're located. You should take pleasure in all your neighbour's homes, as they welcome you on the way back to yours.

It's such a simple pleasure I receive now. I get to enjoy my neighbourhood for what it is, rather than what it isn't. I'm finally home.