Redundancy - New business and reinvigorating my permaculture

Sorry blog.  I have not attended to you in past months.  I've been busy.  A weak excuse I know.

Doors Close, New Ones Open

I left work at the Department of Planning and Community Development on 14 December, having accepted a voluntary departure package. No more daily commute or 8.30 to 6 grind.  No more back-ache from sitting behind a flat screen all day.  At least until I get another job - and there's no rush.

In the mean time I'll play with a new small business idea: clipsthatsell.com  Have a gander and tell me what  you reckon?  This is certainly keeping me busy, but I still love my permaculture.  I've always wanted to have a go at small business.  I expect making money from it will be hard.

Why am I into Permaculture again?

Currently I'm reading Permaculture Pioneers. I thought it might be a bit boring reading the reminiscing of a bunch of old hippies, on the contrary I'm really enjoying it.  Stories from friends like Max Lindegger who set up Crystal Waters ecovillage who I stayed with, and of course understanding the David Holmgren/ Bill Mollison relationship.  There are lots of bits that resonate eg:

Depending on deceptively simple measures to solve deep, endemic problems is like bingeing on sugar when you feel depressed.  It seems like you're solving the problem...Deceptively simple fixes often wind up making the problem worse by smoothing the way for more of what caused it.  Building freeways ultimately helps generate more car use.  With more congestion people have to live further away in dormitory suburbs.  Local shops are no longer accessible on foot.  Shopping centres become islands in seas of parking.  People stop walking and grow fat. Without the casual conversations on the footpath, people no longer know their neighbours.  The place becomes less safe...It seems "inevitable".

There are negative feedback loops like this all around us.  Look at the fiscal cliff in the US right now, which has come about by their bingeing on debt.  The solution?  Increase the debt limit, to avoid tax increases and Gov't service cuts.  Crazy.  But turning a negative cycle into a positive one doesn't always have to be a radical sudden change.  Live a bit more simply.  Consume a bit less.  Grow some of your own food instead of importing something manufactured. That's what permaculture is about.  Learning to be a bit more self sufficient in the fundamental skills of living - food, fibre, shelter, solving problems, living as a community. Giving back our confidence to look after ourselves. 

I was given the Permaculture Pioneers book by Richard Telford, a permi who's walking the talk in Seymour who I recently visited.  He built Abdallah house, an icon example of sustainability. He also maintains the Permaculture Principles website which is a global authority on permaculture on the internet. (Thanks Richard for your help designing my website).

So maybe leaving work will be the best thing that happened in 2012.  It will be interesting to see.

New hot water service and busy bees

On 4/10/2012 I put the third box back on my bee hive, having been reduced to two boxes over winter.  It is full to the brim. The queen has been laying eggs in the extra comb built on top of the second box frames and in the lid.  This picture shows the comb I scraped off the top frames, so I could put the third box on. You can see the grubs in the comb.

After 20 years of service, my 135 lt gas hot water tank blew a hole.  This happens after a time.  It's an opportunity to go to a gas boosted solar hot water service.  I compared the flat panel with evacuated solar tube systems, and got three quotes. I decided on the evacuated tubes because over a year it is more efficient.  It took about 10 days to research, get quote and have it installed, ie 10 days of cold showers.  Good for my resilience.

Spin Farming and How to make a wick bed

While I was in Bali all the other permi's were raving about Spin Farming. It is a method, or business plan, to be a profitable farmer in urban areas.  So on return I've rejigged my front garden beds along Spin lines.  700mm wide beds, as long as the land allows, with 200mm wide footways.

This is the final bed layout

Now with YouTube

I also made a new wick bed in the back for regularly used vegies and herbs.  I got the bricks off Freecycle and the redgum fence posts off the nature strip.

Watch this video for details how to make wick beds and their benefits.  It also shows how to make sand from soil

Here it is as a cold frame

Bought myself a new tool treat as well - a chain saw blade sharpener. This will help keep the wood fire going.

Training, Kintamani and tourism stuff

I went to IDEP for some more permaculture training, particularly about patterns and design.   It has been really good, pragmatic and hands on training.

A day trip to the temple at Tannah Lot

Whilst, here, myself and Stella are teaching the students at ROLE about permaculture.  This exercise demonstrates the interconnections of elements in eco-systems, which permaculture seeks to mimic.

 Back to the classroom for more on healthy soil = healthy people

 and building layered compost

Making Aloe Vera juice up at ROLE's Warung.  It's anticeptic, anti-fungal, anti bacterial, good for the stomach, good for skin or wounds, good for hair and its a dynamic accumulator in the soil! Role has heaps of Aloe, they just need to start processing and selling it.

I went up to Ubud and then on to Kilamantani one weekend. Many of the major roundabouts have the most amazing and huge statues.

 Mnt Batur at night, which I climbed the next day and looked into the cauldron.

View of Mnt Batur from Kintamani

The road goes up for many km from Ubud to the volcanoes and it cools down as you go.  There's lots of intensive polycultures in action, like these citrus trees with brassicas growing underneath.

The land at the base of the volcano is rough and rocky, but every skerrick of useable space is put to production.

Here's what it's like to drive in Bali traffic - in the countryside

Second Week in Bali - ROLE foundation

Unfortunately the project I came here for did not work out.

Luckily there is a foundation nearby which needs help, the ROLE foundation.  It has two campus'.  I'm working on one a bit like a small version of Ceres Park in Brunswick.  I've been organising a crew of staff to plant seeds and prepare vegie beds.  I'll be teaching a bit of Permaculture and may help with fund raising.

The Foundation has a truck which collects rubbish from the local village every day.  The rubbish comes here where it is sorted:

Most of the waste is organic.  This is composted in bays, and used on the garden beds.

This is Tini, helping me in the Nursery.

These are the raised beds, under shade cloth which we're fixing up. There's no manager on site and they need someone who understands permaculture, so I've kinda drifted into it.  I want to show how to grow five or six valuable crops, like tomatoes and eggplant which they use a lot, and they can use the produce in their Wurung and at their other campus.

ROLE also does womens education and a heap of other stuff I haven't got my head around yet.

Drive down the road from ROLE though, and this is the development all along the coast, south of Nusa Dua.    Hotel after hotel. 10ha each.  You can work in one of these and earn 60,000rp a day ($6) or work as a farmer growing rice for 20,000rp.

This is what they look like when finished. It's another world.  Mike, who 

founded ROLE works hard at getting grants and donations from these guys.   

I spent last wednesday up at IDEP (Bali Permaculture research institute) learning about Integrated Pest Management.  I rode up with other ex-volunteers from the first project.  Unfortunately two bikes (four people) fell off on the way.  Just grazes luckily.

IDEP has great experience and resources.

And some tourist pics. The hero shot of the temple

Beach at Jimbaran, before dinner. It goes on like this for miles.

And during dinner.  Last night I went to the Continental with Mike for the launch of a new English language newspaper, close to this. It was the usual swanky affair, just as you'd find anywhere else.

First Days in Bukit Peninsula, Bali

I'm volunteering on a permaculture project in Bali for a month, setting up a demonstration farm.

I left Melbourne 9am on 25/4/12.  This pic is flying over Uluru.  The pilot kindly dipped the aircraft so we got a good view.  I can now say I've seen it.

Most of Australia looks something like this though.

Got the visa-on-arrival okay and managed to avoid an issue with customs, which I'll tell you about another time. First night I spent in a posh $20 per day hotel, and now I'm staying in the compound with the folk workimg on the project.

Below is the land we'll be design and building on. It is rocky land on the top of a hill, 1km from the south facing beach.  I guess it's about 8,800m2 in area, with steeply sloping treed areas on the south and east sides.

So far we've done some survey work, measuring the site, slope, features, vegetation etc.  We had a walk around with Pak Manu yesterday.  He gave us great info on how it was farmed 20 years ago.  They used to grow peanuts, casava, corn local beans, soya beans, yam, papaya, vannila, tomatoes.  They stopped doing all this I think because it was easier to earn a living from tourism.  

There's about 10 volunteers, with varying permaculture experience.  Some will be camping here soon.

A lady keeps a five cows on the property now.

There's lots of a tree lucerne called Gamal, which the lady 'chops and drops' as fodder for the cows.  It's mostly about waist high growing up from suckers just like Tagasaste.  This pic shows another legume, a bit like a Gleditsia.  There's also trees which look like Black Wattles, so there's lots of nitrogen fixing going on.

I've hired a 110cc scoota, as you do in Bali.  It's hairy on the roads at first, but everyone is very gracious.  There's not much in the way of road rules.  I'm getting used to just pulling out of intersections any time and merging with the constant flow of bikes, and overtaking cars and trucks at will.  The roads are narrow, so the average speeds of 40km seem quite fast.  At this pace it feels safe enough.

The pic below is typical.  That's my bike at the petrol station.  50c per litre bottle.

This is in Jimbaran, where I went back yesterday evening for an amazing fish dinner.

Your typical shopping centre car park.  This is at the big Carrefour supermarket where me and another new volunteer stocked up on the basics. Its funny how you start quibbling whether something's 100,000rp or 120,000rp until you remember that's an AU$2 difference.  Cheap meals at the street side warrungs are 6000 to 1200rp for a Nasi Goreng.  That's 60c to $1.20!  No Bali belly so far.


And this is the hidden beach close to our permi property, facing the Indian Ocean to the south.

Saturday the crew celebrated Estella's birthday with a meal, continuing into the evening at a local bar.

 The posh resorts in Nusa Dua are from another planet.  This is the swimming pool for one.

This is what you can do for fun in Nusa Dua, towed by a speed boat til you take off. There was so many, plus parachutes, I'm amazed they don't collide.

Kuta is mostly like this though.  It goes on and on and in and in

Three wise monkeys.  I think this guy wants my camera.

Hey Ben, you'd like the restaurant toilets!

Another one for Ben. My friend Mr Hermit.

 A quick and easy feed at the road side wurung for 10,000rp ($1)

Fixing things

It's important to look after fix old things, - like this trailer.  I scored a mig welding machine which I used to fix up some brackets, but most time was spent sanding the rust with a disk sander.

I used 'Rust Guard' to paint the most rusty bits

Voila - as good as new

Lucky I beat this storm.  Water tank's not doing much. The next thing to fix?

Easter egg hunt, in a bit of forest north of Merimbula

Fishing