Transition Towns in Tassie

A couple of weekends ago I spent the weekend in Hobart doing the transition town training - it's a fantastic concept we imported from Kinsale in Ireland and the UK, where it's doing very nicely. It's a community approach to the issues of climate change and peak oil.

I've written an article in the next ABC Organic Gardener Magazine on the topic, so I'm kind of loath to describe it all over again. You can read more about the concept at http://www.transitionculture.org/ and http://www.transitiontowns.org/ and our very first transition town in Aussie and others here.

Where I'm working we have a very supportive committee who were keen to jump on board the boat and our community centre now has funding over $40,000 to do something similar in Geeveston - http://www.climbitchallenge.com/ - it's not often you get to do something at work that you're so passionate about. Our launch is in a couple of weeks, Lara Giddings it officiating, and I'm busy collecting local food from within the community and schools and doing a low food miles feast. We were donated about four kilos of shelled walnuts today, the local beekeeper will supply honey and we're going to make baklava, a high miles recipe with a local flavour.

No doubt I will subject you to more raves about it over the year. Can't wait for our permaculture blitz's, with pruning, no dig gardening, making chicken coops, mini greenhouses, seedsaving workshops and much more. Local food production is only one aspect of the project, but it's definately something I love to get my teeth into.

We lashed out and bought one of those dirt chewing beasts - the enemy of the no dig garden, a rotary hoe. When it comes to break new ground quickly, nothing beats them, and when you're stupid enough to keep expanding your garden range and you have carpal tunnel issues, it saves the pain of digging it laboriously by hand. I love it.

I strip rotary dug five lengths of one paddock and planted cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, almonds and hazelnuts. I also lashed out on a mulberry tree, - I can't get over the price they are here, in Queensland you hack a bit off the old tree stick it in damp ground and a couple of months later you have a tree. Not so here, here they're described as slow growing! It cost $56.
I'll have a go at propagating more from it in the future.

Ugly Duck

He's not ugly yet, but bound to be - he/she is a Moscovy, destined to make gourmet meals of my slug invasion. Right now it's wandering around the shed laying little grey slugs of poo that Caleb, keen to keep his new best friend in good favour, is quick to mop up.

Whenever Cal goes for a walk it's waddling behind him or laying out on his forearm and watching the world from it's elevated perch.

Nuju, a bird dog, does nothing but salivate over it, he trembles with the exertion of controlling his desire to lunge and lunch. He has to endure watching the imposter eat his food from his own food bowl. The duck has no sense of self-preservation and lives up to it's name, 'nibbler', and nibbles on everything including the fur between Nuju's toes.

Trev's jokes revolving around various duck recipes have diminished, he's become quite fond of it - but it is soon to join the ranks of animals that dwell in the outside world as the unsweet smell of duck poo is getting to us all.

Photo to come. Figured I better get a few posts up and happening, because lots has been happening, except posts.