This was a rainy weekend after 2 weeks of hot dry weather, a perfect time to be working on water transfer!

A friend lent me an Onga 414 transfer pump. The middle dam is about 70 meters from the shed, probably about the limit for running extension cords. The pump worked well, but the nyglass 2" threaded fittings were disappointing, quite difficult to screw the nut onto the suction port (almost as if the threads were slightly different) I might replace this with brass fittings at some stage.

The clear PVC also suffered from the vacuum and flattened out a bit. Might have to replace this with more robust suction pipe at some point. The guys at the plumbing shop told me 'everyone uses this stuff for suction', I know that is bullshit now. Lucky the guy gave me the 5 meters of 2" PVC for free (after spending so much).

One of Kirsty's customers asked if we would be interested in capturing a swarm last night. Luckily we were prepared and had an 8 frame hive with foundation frames ready. The fact that we had never caught a swarm before did not deter us, we had been hanging out to get a hive established for some time.

Here are some pictures of the new hive

We were told the swarm was quite accessible, hanging on a branch in a rotodendron at head height. This is about as easy as it gets so off we went about an hour before sunset.

Kirsty and I read the dummies guide to beekeeping section on capturing swarms as we drove up the mountain.

This year we embarked on the first major project. Earthworks for water harvesting.

Over the last three years we have noticed that rainfall has dropped significantly and the existing water resources are inadequate. The small house dam dries up by mid January, most likely due to the neighbour pumping it dry. We sampled some of his fruit, which was very juicy but not very tasty (a dead give away he has been overwatering).

Here are the pictures and description of the design.

John and I have seriously started to contemplate building a house on the property at Buffalo. Hopefully before building materials become too expensive, due to peak oil,with straw bale looking like the most positive alternative. This venture is in the early stages of planning, with research being the primary activity at present. As this will be an ongoing project I have decided to construct a book on this web site Straw Bale House to maintain the journey we take in our endevour to build a straw bale house

Kirsty and I have been working hard on the farm.

We havbe planted about 200 trees and plants so far. This is not many in the scheme of things. These have been planted as windbreak mostly.

Also, planted some trees (eucalypts) in th back paddock. As a start of a woodlot but more as a stock of seed to propagate more trees in nest few years. I hope these trees grow and produce seeds soon.

I started work at HSD in September after almost 6 years at AAPT. The uncertainty of being extended for only 1 month at a time at AAPT finally got to me.

An opportunity to work at HSD presented itself and after weighing up the pros and cons, I made the move. I now work four days a week in Melbourne, and Kirsty and I spend 3 days down on the farm. The work-life balance is great, and my place of work is about 50mins closer in travel time.

The only downside is I only get about 10 mins on the train to read books now, but I will get over it!

On the 18th August 2006 we took possesion of the farm. I left work early to get to the solicitors to pick up the keys.

This site is a blog chronicaling our work at a farm in Buffalo, Victoria. The farm is approx 14 acres of flat pasture in dairy country in South Gippsland Australia.
Our dream is to develop this site using Permaculture design skills to make a self sufficient future for ourselves and possibly several other families.