The Mighty Murray

I love going up to the Murray. In this dry land with few water courses, the Murray stands out as a whopper.

The Murray River near Barmah

The murky brown colour and the swift current are all a delight to me. Its familiar, reassuring and such a striking smorgasbord of life in what seems like a surrounding dry landscape that is being damaged and deforested at a rapid rate. The bird life was incredible, water birds of all sorts, endless amounts of parrots, Galahs and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Pelicans and Swallows .

We unknowingly camped under the nest of a bird of prey, the parents came and went with various morsels for the chick. They didn't seem at all concerned about our presence. We found the remains of a fresh Galah head on the ground under this nest one morning, all edibles carefully extracted from the skull.

Raptor nest

The environment shows the wear and tear of human activity. The banks are all terribly eroded. Trees have their roots undermined and topple in. The speed boats going up and down in this section cause large waves that further erode the banks.

Eroded banks

On the other hand floods in recent years means that the floodplain has been having a fairly 'normal' and healthy cycle. For the first time in a long time the native grasses are out numbering the weeds.

Native Poa thriving after floods

On the subject of introduced species, I paid my $6 for a 3 day fishing license and caught 1 carp. Which is exactly what I wanted to catch. I've been itching to cook up a carp for ages to find out what the bad eating reputation is based on. It was a fishy flavour (but it is a fish) with a rather soft and mushy texture, not unpleasant at all. I baked it in foil with slices of lime and salt (I forgot to bring garlic) but think frying fillets might be better... hope i catch another carp soon.

November is 'Movember', with the aim of promoting men's health and the entrance banners to the towns of BendiMO, ElMOre and Mochester (Rochester) were a hoot.

Taranaki Farm Tour

On Sunday T and I went to the lovely Taranaki Farm, which is a stones throw from Woodend.

I joined just a few other people...

Farm tour snakes towards the diary

Approximately 400 people (but  I find it hard to count crowds so it might have been more) came to see this farm on Sunday, they were mostly in their 30's to middle aged, with lots of children in tow.
One of the draw cards was Joel Salatin, a man famous for his enthusiasm for regenerative, sustainable agriculture that I think does a reasonable job of not making the lives of the animals that we eat an absolute misery.

Joel Salatin in fine form

Ben Falloon and his partner and staff, love their land obviously and they have invested a lot of money to create infrastructure and design elements that maximise the sustainability of their farm.

They bring the dairy 'parlour' to the cows. They have a small herd of 7 and have beautiful lush pasture with not an inkling of being over grazed. The practice of overgrazing on 'conventional' farms is a problem that drives me crazy. It does nothing good for the grazing animals, plants, soil or farmer profits.

Mobile dairy

Moving livestock from small field/enclosure to new ground regularly is an important element for not trashing the landscape that provides food for their chickens, pigs and cows. Joel stated that these pigs below, would get 20% of their calories from the animals and plants in the soil in this area, but I find that hard to believe unless I am totally underestimating the insect life present.

Berkshire pigs amongst the Eucalyptus trees

Joel Salatin made the mobile hen house famous and their are now many versions of this structure.The house is out in an open field. They keep the chooks safe with a mereema, and Joel advised that the healthy ecosystem down at the ephemeral creek provided animals that the foxes took first!

People loved the 'egg mobile'

It was a great day, an inspiring farm and a beautiful environment on a glorious sunny day. The $10 entrance for the walk, talk and sensational lunch was a bargain!!

The true value of oil

Kirstin Kimball runs an amazing farm  in the US, where they use draught horses to do the work of ploughing, harvesting etc. Have a look at her blog to see how this farm feeds her community. 

Kirsten and her partner are considering reducing their 'horse power' for more conventional fossil fuel power.

They are struggling with the costs of employing staff to manage the amazingly beautiful animal work force amongst other pressures.

They quote Bill McKibben's statistic that one barrel of oil contains the same amount of energy as TEN years of manual labour.One barell costs approx $100 and 10 years labour $250K - $1 million. 

As peak oil approaches the restructuring means lots of shocks and adjustments are to be expected.

Machine at work

Cup Moth Caterpillars

These glorious creatures are every where at the moment, an indication of the abundance of leaf matter for these creatures to eat.

Look out for more information about these flambouyant looking creatures in an upcoming edition of Tanya Loos nature notes in the local Advocate newspaper.

Cup moth caterpillar approx 2cm long

Return of the blogger... rocket stoves and light clay straw

It takes a surprising amount of time and energy to keep a blog going... both of these things I have been directing elsewhere.

Transistion town, peak oil, sustainable living are all expressions for the urgent need for humans to use less of the planets resources and for us to remember that we are animals and need to live as part of the ecosystems of the planet.

I personally find that keeping consumption down is really difficult. Ive been seeking out ways to improve the efficiency of my use of the planets resources.
I want to generate hot water from my wood stove.... but the gear I need to buy is not readily availble nor affordable....

Went to the local tip to get some corrugated iron for a planter box, as my raspberries need repotting, only to find that the council has roped of the steel section due to OH&S issues. So no reusing and recycling opportunites at the tip anymore :-(

I got distracted one cold morning by YouTube clips of rocket stoves, really interesting ingenious designs to burn fuel in a way that traps much more of the heat than conventional combustion stoves.



Earth mass heater from ilovecob.com

I love the way that alternative people try  things and share them. This led me to mass heaters....

Cob bench rocket stove from small-scale.net

Then I got interested in construction that doesn't 'cost the earth' but uses earth instead.

Light clay straw is building technique that blends the best of adobe and straw bale construction. More on this another time.



Spring events

Sailors Creek

Echidna train

What can I do to be more sustainable? - back to basics

4 Rs

• Refuse     to buy stuff you don't need, refuse plastic bags and junk mail
• Reduce    buying stuff that you don't need like clothing and shoes
• Reuse      things like glass jars and  clothing
• Recycle    paper bottles, cans and  food scraps etc

Grow some of your own food

• herbs
• vegies in pots like tomatoes (not now of course Oct -Nov the right time)
• fruit in pots like strawberries and blueberries
• Or use garden beds to grow an enormous range of delicious health cheap food

Keep chickens

Coco and Harriet- great workers and providers of objects below

Buy local food

• less fossil fuels used to transport
• keep $ in the local economy
• support farmers at farmers markets
• means you are buying seasonal food right now that means root crops potatoes, pumpkins, swedes, parsnips, citrus etc

Dress for the weather

• keeps heating bills down
• if you wear wool you support non fossil fuel industry
• support op shops

Use energy wisely

Walk where ever you can

Car pool