Eco's Lodge

[sun burn]

Well i hope you can find something sooner rather than later.

[eco4560]

This week we covered 2 chapters - Humid Tropics, and Humid cool to cold climates. We looked at house design, garden design, earthworks (like terracing), and composting toilets. We touched on animal tractors again.

In the afternoon Tom left the 3 of us to bounce around ideas for our design project, but gave us permission to mess around with the brief a bit - so we added two fit husbands who want to work really hard into the picture to open up some of the opportunities further. The reality is an older woman with a bad back, and her daughter who works away 4 days away week.

I had requested early in the course that if Tom had chooks to kill, that he teach me how to do it. So - he came and took us away from our design efforts as there were 2 roosters that were destined for the kitchen. I killed one (well ALMOST) and he dispatched the other. When I say almost, he was bleeding vigorously but kept blinking and breathing for ages! I think I only got one artery, so Tom got to the other one and the breathing stopped. It was less traumatic for all concerned (me and the rosters) than I had anticipated.

They were then dunked in hot water and we plucked them. Tom demonstrated how to remove the inside bits on the first bird and I did it on the second one.

So I'm pretty chuffed that I can now prepare a chook for the pot. You don't get a certificate for that!

[Grahame]

Well done Eco, I reckon learning to 'dress' a bird is an important survival skill. Every now and then we get a thread in here that asks about the essential post-oil survival skills and tools or something like that. To me the ability to kill and prepare animals should definitely be on the list.

I still don't like doing it, but I am definitely getting more efficient and neater. A pair of 'kitchen shears' has been a great addition to my tool kit.

[eco4560]

So long as there are chooks to hand I'm survival ready. Pigs, guinea pigs, turkeys, cows, goats and frogs? Not yet!

[eco4560]

We looked at housing (quite like the idea of digging myself a cave!) and design principles for the garden - avoid evaporation (so any ponds / dams are deep with a smaller surface area and are covered), mulch like there's no tomorrow, don't till, no chemical use as there's no soil biota to break it down. I learnt that termites are the earthworm equivalent in arid zones. And to capture ever single drop of rain that falls, using gabions and swales as well as tanks and cisterns.

We watched the Global Gardener DVD (Bill Mollison looking at swales in the US desert and teaching in Africa).

We spent some time on our design in the afternoon, serenaded by the marimba band which was rehearsing for a performance next week. Before the last sun disappeared we took a look up at the dam and the planting work that's been happening up on the top swale.

Next weekend is very exciting - no class, because there's a group of Permaculture Noosa people (include us PDC'ers) getting on a bus and going to Zaytuna for a farm tour. Tom is the tour guide and bus driver. I wonder how many times we can sing 'The Wheels on the Bus" before he loses his temper (I don't think he ever does though....). There's a verse that goes - 'the permies on the bus go chop and drop....'

[eco4560]

Only 2 sleeps to go before I'm heading off to Zaytuna! Will try and take lots of pictures for you all.

The last time I was on a big bus with a group of people all going to the same place for such a long trip was my high school excursion to Canberra. That was a LONG time ago. Bob Hawke was PM.....

[S.O.P]

Very jealous. And please do take lots of photos, even a video of an established forest would be nice.

I may be blind, or not looking in the right places, but I've missed a lot of before, during and after photos of established food forests. Where it worked, what worked and why it worked. There needs to be more articles of this ilk.

[Grahame]

Eco, on a pilgrimage to the permacultural Mecca.

[mischief]

Yay,have a great time!!
I'm so jealous.

[Tulipwood]

What's happened to her? She should be back and have posted by now. The suspense is killing me.