16 November 2019

We now have a Seasonal Pond!

23 October 2019

HUGE THANKS TO OUR SEASONAL POND HELPERS!!!!

..... The story goes like this ......

We originally planned on running a workshop with Sean Morrow to build a frog pond at the Cooroy Community Permaculture Gardens. This would have been great however the cost of such a project was very high.

We recently decided to build a Seasonal Pond instead.

The idea sounded grand, but it costs money to get a machine in to dig a 4 x 2.5m hole, 500mm deep.

As the committee bandied ideas around at the most cost effective method of creating the initial hole for, I had a thought.....

Ian is pretty energetic and may be willing to hand dig the hole. (I quietly texted him at home, and got a swift response saying he'd happily dig the 5 cubic metres, if there was no rock etc underneath.)

I relayed my idea to the committee, only to have Wayne (our AMAZING Webpage Master extraordinaire) pipe up and mention that he thought there was a layer of road base, or rock or concrete below the surface in that area.

A few days later, Ian went with pick axe in hand and tested the theory. ...... and yes, he did hit a hard layer 100mm down.

Knowing our Permaculture Members to be a kind and helpful lot, I asked Wayne to put out an email asking for HEEEEELP! - In the form of a jackhammer and eager operator. Esther (our fabulous PN Facebook Manager) put out a call ('post') on my behalf too.

Within a few hours I had Dave (one of our new members!!!! ) texted to say he was in Sydney, but I was welcome to use his jackhammer, and his lovely wife, Melissa would even drop it off at the CCPG for us.

Later that afternoon, George texted to ask if we'd found a jackhammer, as he was willing to come to CCPG the next morning at 8am with his jackhammer to help with the Pond hole.

So at 7:30am Ian and I arrived, followed shortly by George - and the NOISE and DIGGING began, with George on jackhammer, Ian on shovel and me on wheelbarrow. At 9am Wayne joined us and slaved away with Ian and George.

By 11:30am - with much sweating and smiles, (aided by me encouraging the boys with watermelon, water, and the offer of Morning Tea when it was all over) the hole was complete!

Thanks to the tireless work from Ian, George and Wayne, we have the Pond site hole dug, so we can now proceed with the Seasonal Pond working bee on November 16th.

...... All of that said, I just wanted to give a SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to Dave & Melissa for offering their jackhammer and time, and to George for the offer of his jackhammer (and all his energy), plus Ian for hanging in there (on the back of the shovel) from beginning to end, and Wayne for being 'roped in' unexpectedly when he arrived at CCPG on Wednesday last week.

YOU PERMIES ARE AWESOME!!!!!

It's SOOOOOO WONDERFUL to be part of such an extraordinary group of Permaculture friends, who bandy together to help make a difference for our members.

With SO MUCH GRATITUDE for being your LOVELY SELVES!

Dee Humphreys

21 April 2019

17 April 2019

A big thankyou to Val Wilson for supplying the above photos.

Just set some of the straw bales up at the CCPG...and will set the other bales into food forest if not raining tomorrow. My Billy will be helping set into place the arbour on Sunday. I'm using woodchip onto thick cardboard under the arbour structure and will see if this is soft enough for wheelchairs but may top with sawdust to smooth it off. I had a lovely time at the gardens and met another girl who works at IGA. She came in for a look on her way home. I will post these on FB  for the group to feel excited.

With this rain it is locking in the straw bales to grow much food..

Cheers Val

14 April 2019

A big thankyou to Val Wilson for supplying the above photos.

Hi Everyone, Headed into the CCPGardens this morning to start my exciting task to revamp and enhance the Food forest. I look forward to showing the skills I have to transform this area into something productive and beautiful. I'm in close contact with the piles of woodchip -soil so all the landscaping earth I can use like a painters pallet. Woodchip, and then decomposed soil smelling like mushroom compost.

This morning I started the task and was joined by 2 local Magpie's excited to join in the fun. Even go one sit on the trailer and give me a whorble...heehee.

Our land is enjoying this rain and the birds are busy singing when the sun comes out.

Have a great week.

Cheers Val Wilson.