Week 2 -- 02/11-02/17

Week 2

On Monday Geoff had to show a property to some potential buyers so we all went along for a tour. The property is Tagari farm, its about an hour drive north west. Tagari was started by Bill Mollison (the founder of permaculture) and then taken over by Geoff when Bill Moved back to Tasmania. It was closed down because the county demanded tghey put in paved roads because of the amount of people visiting and working on the site. They refused and instead abandoned the property. Geoff said at one point they had laeft for 18 months and it took 6 months to get the property under control. We were visiting it after 7 years of no one being on the property. I had no idea what to expect. The overgrowth was insane. the grasses and reeds were all head high. Some one of the bigger ponds (called dams) actually turned into a marsh. The edges had so much decomposition covering them that you could walk on it and it was like walking on a water bed.

With Dan leading the way with his trusty machete we managed to make it around the property. The goal was to get to the mango trees for feast but unfortunately because there had been so much rain there were barely any trees with fruit on and they were not even ripe yet. The mangoes grow out of a flower on the tree and if it rains too much when the flowers bloom then they get knocked off the tree and you get no mangoes.

Visiting the buildings was pretty creepy, it was a bit like a ghost town. And all the vegetation was just creeping its way inside. The bamboo forest was insane it was almost dark under the canopy because all the clumps had grown together. There were some growing sideways searching for a patch of sunlight.

The property is amazing but in need of some serious work to get it under control. When we got back and Geoff showed us the before pictures it was hard to even make the connection to what we saw at the farm because the overgrowth was so extensive.

On Tuesday Geoff and Nadia (his wife) left for 2 weeks to Cuba to do a water harvesting project. When the Cold war ended and The Soviet Union shut off the gas supply to Cuba they were in a world of trouble. At that time they used more petroleum based fertilizers then the US. So some people involved in permaculture showed up and started training the locals, and they basically turned every spare plot into a garden. They are now one of the leading producers of organic food in the world. There is a great video about this story called "The Power Of Community -- How Cuba Survived Peak Oil". I highly recommend it. It is a very possible reality for the US to face. After all, there are only so many oil producing countries left we can invade.

enways moving on.

After a few days straight of rain it starts to wear you thin so I decided to stay inside and make a case for my camera from some leather I brought with me. The leather was thin enough so i was able to use a regular sewing needle. usually you need to use a glovers needle, its a much thicker needle with an angled tip to push through the hide. It came out nice, not bad for my first time eh?

There were a bunch of Silky Oak Trees that needed to be put in individual pots so Ryan and I did that for half a day. A good tip for potting sedlings. Don't just fill the pot with soil and make a hole with your finger and shove the plant in. The soil will be too compacted for drainage and there is a good chance the root will shoot up to the top looking for drainage. Instead hold the seedling by the stem where you want the soil to come to and pout the soil in alternating sides to get an even fill and shake it down to compact it slightly.

Sunday Tom and I decided to ride bikes up to Protesters falls. About 15 kilometers up the road. And I mean literally UP the road. Anyway supposedly protesters falls was one of the first sites where people protested the logging of rainforest trees. I never think of Australia as having rainforests but there it was, an old growth rainforest. The change from the foliage on the way up and once we entered the park was crazy. It felt like we entered Jurassic park or something. We walked about halfway and it seemed like the trail stopped at this piddly little trickle of whitewater. And we both looked at each other and said is this it? Then I discovered where the path continued and when we were getting close you could see the falls through the trees and it. Was it worth the trip?

You Decide.



So as i was scramblin around to get some photos i looked down and saw something on my ankle. i though it was just a leaf but i couldn't seem to get it off. Then I realized it was a leech and i tried pulling it off but the damn thing is so slippery my fingers keep sliding off and not to mention it has like a death grip on my skin. So I yell to Tom and he says all nonchalantly "just use a lighter mate".

How to remove a leech with a lighter:



And no trip to the rainforest is complete without a python sighting. It scared the hell out me as were were walking out and i looked up and there was this 5 foot long python halfway across the path. But it seemed to be content to just keep on its path so after a little documentation we left it alone and continued on our way, thankful for such an encounter.



Untill next week folks.

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