Be patient Joel

My brother just can't wait for the harvest!

Layer of Lucerne

Here is the first layer of wet lucerne...

Its a jungle out there

Whooooaaaaa!

Whoooaaa! Look at this little sucker. A small but very deadly funnel web that Dad and Joel found while clearing the ground.

Bales

Here are the bales of lucerne and hay that we'll be using.

All clear

First, we clear out last year's garden beds. These were the no-dig gardens we started last season, so they're very easy to weed.

Bovver

Here is Joel kitting up. Its very important to have enclosed shoes, boot protectors, gloves, and, if there's any concerns about keeping one's pants up, braces too. Its just a little unfortunate that this look was also taken on by some nationalists in the Thatcher era.

Visioning

Visioning is the most important step in Permaculture, and I like to do this with eyes closed, and on a comfortable shoulder. Ok, I see it now. Lets go.

Time, big bro'

C'mon Joel, its time to work in the garden.

Grandparents

Having grandparents to the island is definitely worth a photo!!

Island Cafe

Here I am with Poppa, Arma, Mum and Joel (and Dad on camera). Its sunday and we're at the Island Cafe that's being run by Maddy and Barbara and a few others. It gave me a great idea - if we get the fruit trees and the vege garden going well, we can have enough for ourselves plus some to donate to the Kindy for sale on the Island Cafe days. In fact, it could be a great outlet for lots of Islanders who are good at growing stuff but have a problem of so much excess product. Island Produce Stall here we come!

Goliath

We pipe the water straight from the shower to the banana plants, and don't they love it!

We have no bananas - Yet!

Ok, enough of the intros, let's get down to tin tacks. On the permaculture front, I'm very busy at the moment organising, making preparations and co-ordinating the workers in readiness for the spring plantings. The bananas you see here are our first crop. Some small plants were provided by Grandma Fay last year, and they have raced away to be the big healthy plants you see in these pictures. They're Cavendish of course. Note the bigger female bananas at the top and the smaller males at the bottom. The females are now starting to curl upwards as they grow. The males don't grow big enough to eat. Once the tree has finished producing this crop it will die back, and some of the small suckers (new shoots) at the base of the plant will take over to bring the next crop. We could bag them up, but I'll wait and see how the local birds and possums go. If they leave us with enough to eat, I might not bother with the bags.

Thanks Maddy!

A big thank you to Maddy for this very flattering first portrait. xxx

National Folk

The Folk Festival, as usual, was awesome! Mum and Dad spent way too much time in their volunteer roles, but Joel and I still had lots of opportunity to catch the performers; the Roos, the seagulls, the weeing dogs, and the 3 metre tall note-taking big noses. There was music too. I like the catchphrase; "Folk Music, its not as bad as it sounds". Give it a go and you'll soon be foot-stamping, clapping and wearing hemp.

Here's a nice family shot just to get the ball rolling. From left to right its my cuz Toren, me, cuz Yarralea power-napping, and of course not forgetting big bro' Joel. Joel and I are just back from Canberra. The trip was partly because PM Kev can be so annoying with his late night calls for advice (so a personal visit can keep him happy for weeks) and partly as a family holiday to the National Folk Festival.

This is not a time for modesty

Hello

I'm Emile. Nice of you to drop by. Why a blog? I can certainly tell you why not! Life is extremely busy. Everyday is a full schedule of engagements, appointments, meetings and nappy changes. And without any one of those things life can become less interesting and certainly more odorous.

So why? Well, I am constantly being asked for my wise counsel on everything from personal advice to permaculture principles. I've decided that it's best if I get some of my thoughts up on the web so that at the very least I can assuage anxious advice seekers by telling them to go check my blog. Without further ado, here it is.......