Sunday, December 16, 2007

The last week

A sea of field peas
Using local grass in our gabions to control the flow of water next to the driveway
Getting help from the bigger artillery to make our swale a bit bigger

We had a farm track collapsing because of all the rain, more work to put on the listRemains of better days
Not on our land, we just went for a walk in the neighborhood

Some shots of everyday life

All the Agapanthus are flowering at the house we are renting
Siphoning out the water from the dam to do some work on the wall
It is almost empty, but with all the rain we have been it has filled up again. We have decided to wait until February to do the work, it is just to wet right now
Deep down in the valley, below where we are building the house
Planting veggies into the cover crop of field peas
Jessie and Tanya at another one of our dams
There has been a lot of planting going on, and it is coming up strong
The small swales are doing their job providing water to the freshly planted trees
We got hold of some good clumping bamboo
A lot of trees
We are using some of our own timber for the garden fence

The House

We are almost done with the outside shell
The view from the kitchen window
Some nicely framed shots


The windows and doors are being put into their place

A lot of bolts and nuts, and of course some steel

Looks a bit naked

Monday, November 19, 2007

Planting trees while the house is being built

Just for Art
It is coming along nicely

Owen helping out
Nicely framed
The frames laid out waiting to be raised up
Martina cutting down the covercrop to plant the beds up with a selection of seeds
Some of the trees yet to be planted
A newly planted tree with the milkcarton to protect it
Another windbreak towards the road
It looks really cool with all the swales and newly planted trees
The veggie garden with two newly planted beds
Tanya's herbspiral is coming along nicely
Our new official address; 578 Rivertree Rd.
Our newest members to the workforce, but they tend to mostly inspect the work
We dug two shorter swales above our long one next to the house, to plant up with trees to block the view of the road
Lining up the contour lines
34 small swales with close to 200 trees
We "roto tilled" between the swales and seeded up with cowpea, which is coming up like there is no tomorrow
Owen surveying and Jesse driving the excavator, what a team
We planted only native; Eucalyptus campanulata - Eastern New England Blackbutt, Eucalyptus youmanii - Youman's Stringybark, Eucalyptus calignosa - New England Stringybark,Eucalyptus dunnii - Dunn's White Gum, Eucalyptus viminalis – White Gum, Lophostemon confertus - Brush Box, Grevillea robusta - Silky oak
The gully that we want to plant up with trees