Whew... Windbreakers.. sorted.... Our first taste of Sweat and wholesome hardwork in our Beautiful South African Sun.. sorted... Hillbilly hats never did any harm in the process... With our unfortunate white skins....
A reminder at this point . We are trying to use anything and everything that we have available to us on the farm.... Hence... keeping the windbreakers up (even though trees in their place would be ideal)... FOR NOW.. until we have our forrest up and running.
K so... I see the rows... going down the hill...... Down the hill.. in rows.... neat rows.... same stuff in each row... Lots of food but...For this task I called in some reinforcements...
A trusty member of the Transition Network in my Hood, who happens to know plenty about Permaculture and such matters,... helped me lay out the swales. .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swale_(landform)..
He stood with his wise face and level machine thingimajig... and I walked the land with a wheelbarrow full of sticks... (sawed to all the same length,, BY HAND.. with a measly saw mind you)... smashing them into the ground.. (with the back of an AXE !!)... where ever he gave me the thumbs up...
Then its time to dig..."It must be perfect" he said in his french accent....."Exactly the same depth all the way round"
Eish ... for roughly 200m !!! ... I had a nervous giggle in my mind.. but didnt show it mind you... he was quite serious....
SOMETHING to start with ..... YES.....
Love the swales... they make perfect sense... Catch the water coming from down the hill and from the rain...
Keep it until it sinks.... Stores the water under the ground in a water bubble... ready for trees and plants to tap into to drink... Apparently, the trees grow superhero speed (will let you know about that )...
The Burms... (mounds on the downhill side of the swales) we are using to plant carrots and leeks... (good companion plants) AND the carrots will love us for the loose soil...
One of the joys of living in pure paradise is... everyone loves to help.. Reliable Mari and brother Mars (2 of my "other" children.. Yes I have many more than 3.. We share them you know) Were more than happy to break their backs in the digging process
We had trusty old Marnett called in for the longer hall.. Yoh, these guys have stamina and muscles..!!
What a relief.. Elvis wasnt back yet.. (I hadn't even met him yet but trusted the opinion of the previous owner as to his capabilities)..
Still waiting for a big fat rainfall to see what happens!
No comments:
Post a Comment