Creek Street Micro Farm

[GaryD]

Hi,

At the end of July, we had nine trees felled.

Today, we got the bobcat and mini-excavator in to remove the stumps and to heap the wood up so that we can get it removed or chipped.

We also created another access road to the back paddock. We're going to be bring in several truckloads of fill - to create a series of tiers.

Gary

[GaryD]

......and we got the largest sections of tree trunk packed into a 14 cubic metre skip bin.

The largest of the trees.......a huge old camphor laurel.....proved to be a big challenge. It was was as big as the machine that extracted it.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

The tree loppers are coming back in early next week to chip the wood that remains after last weekend's effort......so we'll have a nice big heap (or three) of mulch to be used around the place.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

Photo 1 -had the Bobcat back in again to move all of the wood from our most recent tree carnage into a single heap for the woodchippers to get at.

Photo 2 - the back paddock (about 2,000 square metres - 1/2 acre) is almost a blank canvas.....bar two large stumps that will be leaving in the next week or two.

Photo 3 - as I walked up toward the back fence, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that our chickens were all following me. Since I'm the one that they associate with the BSF larvae, they alway seem to figure that I'm going to find more larvae for them. Wherever I go in the back paddock, they follow.

Photo - 4 - we tidied up the weeds in the area where we planned to heap the wood and, in so doing, we re-discovered a 2,000 litre tank base that I want to use as a pond, a Bluetongue lizard.....and this pumpkin.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

On Sunday, I barrowed about two cubic metres of gravel around various parts of our backyard and raked it out.

My back still aches and I'm reminded of why I don't much care for the bloody stuff.

Having said that, things are starting to look the part.

Gary

[aquamagic]

Gidday Gary,the place is looking good,its amazing what you can achieve with a bit of effort ,time & a bit of space.My Aq project is progressing, be it slowly.Have aquired & yes bought enough equiptment to cobble a reasonable size system, just have a couple of urgent "things" to do for my Darling before proceedings can begin in earnest. Ill start a thread & photos as soon as practible
Cheers Steve A

[GaryD]

Hi Steve,

It's coming together now and you're right, it's a matter of time, effort and space.....and money.

.....just have a couple of urgent "things" to do for my Darling....

Yep.....been there and done that.

I'm looking forward to seeing your new system unfold.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

The rain has turned our chicken pens into a quagmire in recent days so Her Serene Highness decreed that something needed to done about it......and, to reinforce the direction, she slipped outside of one of the pens.......dislodging her tiara (and her sense of humour) and issuing forth with some firm instructions about what one might do with the chickens (most of which would be seriously uncomfortable if not physically impossible).

So, I moved about ten barrow loads of gravel into the pens to create gravel walkways. While not quite the yellow brick road, the gravel paths do add a certain "Je ne sais quoi" to the ambience of the chicken precinct.

Oh, did I mention.......my back is stuffed. Photos later.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

As I entered my shed, this morning, I heard the noise that all fish farmers dread.......the sound of nothing.

Some time during the night, the circuit breaker that supplied power to my Mega Bin system tripped and all of the system pumps had ceased operating.....and all of my jade perch had died due to the lack of oxygen.

It did occur to me that I might process the fish for ourselves but I quickly rejected the idea. I realised that if I wanted to eat fish of questionable quality, I could get any amount of it from the nearest supermarket, right?

While Norwood boys don't cry ('cept when their dog dies), they are well disposed to "colourful" language so, having got that out of the way, I set about processing a year's supply of cat food.

That task provided me with ninety minutes to reflect on the wisdom of not having a backup power system. It's been on my To Do list for a long time.......too long, it seems.

Interestingly, my golden perch all survived.

Gary

[Crusty]

You would not be Robinson Caruso there Gary. I had my pumps unplugged by the wifeasorus, so my backup did not kick in and lost some 180kg of fish. Man that was hard to get rid of. Now my backups are hard wired to the pumps in case they fail regardless of the power.

I have a DIY for the relay switch here if you would like me to post it?