Wwoofing with David Arnold in Violet Town

Sowing, growing, harvesting, killing, eviscerating (look it up if you don't know), milking, bottling, pickling, cooking, planting, pruning, chopping, (soil) building. I got to practice some of these verbs with David Arnold in the last week of May. It's time consuming, but beats being in the office.

I ate 90% from the property I was working on - goats milk and meat, vegies and home-made beer. I was wwoofing at David Arnold's 8ha permaculture property,
Murnong, in Violet town, two hours north of Melbourne up the Hume Hwy.

David built a passive solar mud brick house with big north facing windows and farm sheds attached. The concrete slab floor heats up beautifully in the sun and radiates after dark. We made jams, lived off soups, fed and milked goats. Unlike my home, there was nothing for the recycling bin!










We chopped a dozen cassurinas that needed thining. Those remaining will now kick on. The timber was cut into logs and branches mulched for compost and later use on the orchard. It was good practice cutting the scarf (wedge), back cut and controlling the fall.

David's got an extensive orchard and the trees are in great condition.
Love a persimmon.

Marg and the kids came up for the weekend and we had fun using some team work to harvest and weigh half a ton of pumpkins.

It was a great experience. Hard work and great fun. We had some good conversations about the woes of the world. Wwoofing's a great opportunity to learn about a different way. Thanks David.


PS There's two types of people in this world, those who poo in drinking water and those who don't. So now I'm back home, I've made a 'lovable loo' compost toilet. Just add saw-dust.

Here's a blog from a local permi who's made the move out of town.