The Big Wet gets even Wetter

2010 is set to be our wettest year for 30 years. Over the weekend we had over 150mm of rain which makes it our wettest October since we started keeping records. Although this has delayed our spring planting for a few days, it has given us many exciting (and sometimes amusing) sights.

Not only are our tanks and dams all overflowing profusely, but every depression in the ground is now full of water and creating little streams of runoff. As our son Greg commented, there seems to be water seeping out of every nook and cranny. Our wheelbarrow gets extensive use shifting all sorts of materials and this weekend we even had barrowfuls of water to shift (but nowhere needed water).



Our jetty nearly went underwater

When we were first looking for a property to purchase, one of our dream criteria was a permanent stream or natural spring. Tenderbreak has finally given us our springs (temporary we think?? ). They are popping up everywhere, as water seepage follows channels below the ground till it eventually comes to the surface. These are feeding our gullies which have turned into small streams, our main gully has turned into a fast flowing creek, Pauls Creek has turned into a raging river (nearly washing out our access road and the Yarra River has turned into an inland sea down at Yarra Glen.



When the dam outlet pipe couldn't cope, the overflow went over the driveway



Now we have a new range of adventure activities on our property.....white water rafting, surfing, canoeing, riding barrels over waterfalls or for the more fearful having “boat” races using leaves, sticks or bark.

All this beautiful water has given us an opportunity to flush water out of the dam. We opened the gate valve on the outlet pipe open for several hours allowing stagnant water sitting at the bottom of the dam to flush out. The fresh, nutrient filled rainwater then topped up the dam. The fish should find this very refreshing.



Releasing water out of the gatevalve



Some more photos that give an idea of the sights that behold us.



Emergency road repairs!



Rapids in Pauls Creek



Horse "float" Parking





Yarra Glen Race Track

Surfs Up as water enters the Yarra River

Pauls Creek is now a river

Murray and Vicki

Murray & Vicki have been staying with us since May. At the beginning they helped manage the place while we took a break, but once we returned home were happy to stay on (like long-term WOOFERS).

Whilst at Tenderbreak, they have been extremely busy gathering firewood, weeding, planting hundreds of onions, bushfire prevention work, helping out with tours, renovating our extensive network of garden paths, mulching and many other tasks. They have also used their culinary skills to create some wonderful meals and edible delights for us, including the Midnight Xpresso Chocolate Cake for Heather’s birthday and a wonderful cheesecake for Kathy and Sally’s birthday. On top of all of that they have entertained us with their recorded and live music.

Murray is a bit of an “ideas man” and came up with a unique way of using saplings. We laid them in a tight parallel pattern to make a raised footpath over a boggy area that had formed near the gate that leads to the chook pen. As you can see in the photo, it is not only very practical but also quite aesthetic, low cost and has low embedded energy.

Dedicated cook Vicki out in the rain collecting lemons for making lemon butter.

Vicki loves cooking and quickly mastered the subtleties of managing a slow combustion wood stove. She also “harvests” weeds with great thoroughness- our garlic patch has never looked better.

However what makes these long term stays memorable and special, is the bond that develops between hosts and visitors. As with our earlier guests, Murray and Vicki are easy to get along with, they blend in so well they are like part of our family. It is a real pleasure to sit around the dinner table eating delicious home grown meals with a glass of wine (or home-made ginger beer) and enjoying each other’s company. Thankyou Murray and Vicki, for sharing our journey with us.

PERMACULTURE IN ACTION” TOUR OF TENDERBREAK

After a long break over winter we are recommencing tours of Tenderbreak Permaculture Farm.

Bookings are required for tours on:-
Sunday, OCTOBER 24th, 2010 &

Sunday NOVEMBER 14th, 2010

Both tours run from 1:30pm to 4:30pm and include afternoon tea.

Our tours are suitable for anyone with an interest in permaculture, organic gardening, passive solar house design, tank water, mudbrick building, property design and layout, chooks and ducks, solar power, grey water systems and sustainable living. In fact our tours are a bit like doing a mini Introduction to Permaculture Course.

Although our property is a large bush block, we provide information and ideas that are suitable for both rural and suburban dwellers. The size of the groups is limited to ensure there is plenty of scope for questions and discussion. Contact us for more details or for bookings at tenderbreak@bigpond.com

The Big Wet



2010 will be remembered by us as “The Big Wet” after “The Long Dry Spell“. We have been keeping rainfall records since 1995 and this year we have already had more rain than the annual total in each of the past 4 years. We are on track to match (or possibly surpass) the annual rainfall total of our last “Big Wet” which was way back in 1996 (It’s a long time between wet years).

All our tanks and dams are full and overflowing., which means we will have plenty of water for the coming summer should we need it.

The rainfall is also just what our bush needs. Steady, consistent rain soaks down deep into the ground for the trees to draw on in dryer years. It is also providing essential moisture for the massive amount of regrowth that is occurring after the fires. Many of the saplings have grown at remarkable levels. In just over 18 months they are well above my height (some are 5m).

Along with the massive amount of green at ground level there are plenty of other surprises to be found. At the moment the purple flowers of the native Hardenbergia are at their peak, along with the yellow flowers of the various wattles. We have even found two Hardenbergias which differ from the hundreds of others in that they have pink flowers.

Our property has several gullies running through it. These usually only flow with water after heavy rainfall and this year (for the first time in ages) they are running most of the time. Our main gully is very pretty with its winding stream, especially where the water drops over a rock ledge creating a beautiful waterfall over 1m high.

Although more than half of the bigger trees in the forest are now dead, there is a huge amount of life at ground level. Perhaps the saying “You can’t see the forest for the trees” should be changed to “You can’t see the forest for the regrowth”.

I Can See Clearly Now

Up until now this blog has been fairly factual and mostly focused on our ideas and work on our Tenderbreak property, but this entry is different in that it covers an emotional journey we have been on.

It all started when we returned from a 9 week trip which involved exploring my family roots, meeting a number of wonderful permaculturalists and plenty of walks through open spaces and to the tops of mountains to let the fresh air blow the cobwebs away. After 9 weeks of pure bliss we returned home.

Blue skies

Instead of waking up invigorated and ready to fire on all cylinders I found myself in a place I had never been to before. After a very relaxing holiday with nothing more to think about than what to do the next day, there was suddenly so much work to be done and things started looking very bleak. This was made harder by the fact that this year was the cloudiest and wettest one for many years, so it was a battle to even start outside jobs. Then on top of all of this, was the return to our fire ravished bushland with thousands of dead, blackened tree skeletons with bare arms stretching skyward.

Even though I was quite aware of the fact that I had so much to be grateful for, the negative stuff started taking up all the room in my head. For the first time ever, I began to wonder about other “roads” we could be on. Growing most of one’s own food and running a house with independent services and planning new projects requires constant management and lots of hard work. On top of this, the forest which was one of our key attachments to this property had (like us) undergone major trauma. It would remain black for many years to come. It wasn’t only the forest that was black however. I knew I could choose to look at the half empty or the half full glass, but it was the empty half that filled my mind and dominated my thoughts.

The forest starts to heal

As I sank deeper into this horrible space it was Heather that kept me afloat. She knew how debilitating depression could be after a serious and painful back injury severely reduced her mobility for most of 2001. She gave unending, loving support and using her wisdom, worked at lifting me up to a brighter place. She put up with my constant negativity and guided me along the rocky path that I was following. I won’t go on about  the detail too much, but the trigger which finally helped me get out of the dark hole, was a song. The song that I will be forever grateful for, was Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now”.

Heather and I were sitting down having our morning coffee, and she had put on a CD. As I sat there gazing sadly out of the window, the words floated across the room and went straight to my heart. They completely overwhelmed me.

Thinking about it now, I know it was a combination of a relaxing moment with a steaming cup of freshly ground coffee, a nostalgic song with words that were speaking directly to me and most importantly, the company of a beautiful and loving partner. It was the perfect coming together of all those magic elements that gently lifted me up and opened my eyes.

For those that don’t know the words they go like this:-

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all the obstacles in my way


Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.
I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day.

Look all around, there's nothin' but blue skies

Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) Sun-Shiny day

Up until now, I thought this was just a lightweight bright and breezy tune, but now I feel every line was written specifically for me. Since that moment I really can see more clearly. I have re-found my enthusiasm and drive. My head is filled with plenty of things to write about, and this blog will blog along again. Of course there’s suddenly so much else to do as well, so entries will have to wait till I have time to spare.

Inspiring Events Coming Up

Our calendar is chock a block with interesting, inspiring and interesting activities over the coming months. You may be interested in joining in too.

PETTY’S ORCHARD HERITAGE APPLE FESTIVAL

This Sunday... March 28th

The annual Petty's Orchard Antique Apple Festival is on Sunday March 28th. There will be over 200 varieties of apples to taste, heritage orchard tours, local produce stalls, cooking demonstrations, great organic food & cider, Rare Breeds BBQ, educational presentations from Vasili (Vasili's Garden - SBS), Peter Allen (Heritage Fruits Society, Mountain Districts Permaculture Group), Adam Donaldson (Snake Gully Cider) and more. The photo shows the "Apple Tasting tent". Thankyou to Belinda ( http://belindas-simple-life.blogspot.com/ ) for providing this photo.

 The address is the corner of Homestead & Monckton Rd, Templestowe . For more information phone 0407860320 or email meggshp@gmail.com

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT LIVING SUSTAINABLY
Eltham College Training Services have put together this series of talks, which start next Tuesday and run to June the 8th. The program is :-

• March 30 “Securing Our Food Supply: Who needs Supermarkets?” With Graeme George
• April 27 “Surviving Black Saturday with the help of Good Planning and Design” with us (Andrew and Heather)
• May 11 “Focus on World Poverty: Feeding the world” with Rick Coleman
• May 25 “Fish into Food: Unusual Edibles and how to grow them” with Stephen Onions
• June 8 “ Being Really Water Wise: using your water twice” with Rory Fort

All talks will run from from 6pm to 8 pm and will be held in the Eltham Professional Learning Centre (Eltham College), 1660 Main Road, Research. $5 entry also includes a tea or coffee.
To book a seat or for more information contact ECTS, ( ects@ Elthamcollege.vic.edu.au) or Ph 03 9433 9859 or check out their website www.ects.vic.edu.au .
ALTERNATIVES IN FOOD GROWING COURSE
We are helping to present a course called “Alternatives in Food Growing” at Selby Community House. Topics include grafting, composting, bee keeping, fruit tree pruning, harvesting/storing, preserving, tips on vegetable and other food growing. Site visits to be scheduled.
The course is held on Wednesdays 7 to 9.30 pm and runs over 8 weeks
Our presentations are as follows:-
• Wednesday 24th March – Introduction to Compost, Basics of Seed saving and general growing tips
• Wednesday 14th April – Amateur Bee Keeping, Pest management, Choosing & Managing fruit trees
• Sunday 18th April – Site visit – Tenderbreak Farm – Dixons Creek 1.30-5.00pm including Afternoon Tea
For bookings and more information email Tracy at Selby Community House selby@selbyhouse.com.au
Perhaps we will see you at some of these events.

Autumn Equinox

The autumn equinox has passed, and so has our annual Autumnfest celebration described in our last post. The weather was kind, the music was great, the displays were interesting and informative, the food was tasty and the products were of great quality. In short, everyone did a wonderful job. We had a great time and we hope you did too. It was a wonderful day with around 35 displays, stalls and entertainers and hundreds of visitors (many of whom had not been to our market previously).

There were many highlights. The music, song and dance lifted the spirits and was very entertaining. The crowd particularly enjoyed our own little Riverdance performance by Irish Dancer Kate Bilton and her pupils (appropriately in the vicinity of Healesville’s River St.).

Another highlight was the songs of the Mountain Country Carol Singers. Their hilarious song about “Fluff” really resonated with the listening crowd. Performances by buskers representing the Healesville Music Festival (to be held in May) also added to a day of relaxing entertainment.

There were many displays focussing on the environment and sustainablity. Kurt van Wyjk’s electric car drew plenty of interest; especially the development cost of $15000 and the extremely low running costs.

The solar and wind power display by Solarquip reinforced the advantages of generating your own power, and Glen was able to give an update on what the Federal Government is now offering by way of financial assistance.

Art, craft and jewellery stalls provided a wide range of decorative items and plant stalls had a good range of garden and herb plants for sale.

The animal displays always attract interest and Amanda’s gorgeous goats certainly did that. This was the first time they had made a public appearance off their Steel’s Creek farm and they really took it in their stride and lapped up the attention. Many children enjoyed the hands on experience of giving them a pat.

 The youngsters also had fun joining in the activities organised by the Arts Council.

The food supplied by our catering stalls was delicious.

There was food for every taste and enough for breakfast and lunch. We could choose between mouthwatering crepes and quiches, exotic Middle Eastern dishes, freerange beef and pork sausages (from the Yarra Valley) and drinks such as hot chai and Mexican hot chocolate (to die for).

All these stalls used organic and free-range ingredients and the aromas from everything being cooked or baked on the spot was so tantalizing to the taste buds.

Of course our regular stalls selling local produce allowed everyone to go home with armfuls of organic locally grown food that they could eat during the coming week.

If you missed this year’s festival, don’t despair we’re going to it all over again next year. However in 2011 it is going to be bigger and better. We are going to apply for a grant from the shire that will enable us to advertise our festival much more widely to attract more stalls and more people.

We intend making Healesville's Autumnfest the "must attend" festival in this area with more entertainment, informative speakers and a focus on preparing our community for the environmental and social changes that are going to affect us in the next few years.

When we have more information we will post it on this site. If you know of anyone else who would like to be kept informed about next year's event please tell them to get in contact. If you like to be super organised you might like to mark next year’s date (Saturday March19, 2011) in your diaries.

Hope to see you then (if not before).