It's been ages and ages since I last was on here. My efforts to start a permaculture paddock paradise fell by the wayside there, although it started out so well... then we had no water, then too much water, and now no water again.

Since my last post we had a dam dug... which is holding water well when we have it and I have used it to irrigate... although with little success as the water evaporated faster then we could put it on, so all we achieved was emptying the dam with no real gain.

We are continueing to keep the manure on the paddocks and the soil is slowly improving, but we also are facing a huge erosion problem as 800ac of bush were developed and the run-off is no longer a slow trickle over a few days after a downpour... but a torrent that lasts for as long as the rain/shower and fills our dam up with silt.

When the dam was dry we had it cleaned.... 7 truckloads of silt... which we returned onto the land and used a ripper to work it into the soil. I figured... all that rotting stuff that was on the bottom, together with the dirt should give me a better soil profile. I've been going around with the ripper attachment and rip the ground every so often to reduce the weeds emerging (with it was grass) and to work the soil over as best as I can (I am dreaming of a Yeoman's plow or just a PTO driven rotary hoe).

The paddocks are mulched with grass hay. I am really fortunate to have found plain grass hay that is full of seed and relatively weed free. So... I am crossing my fingers that when we get good, steady rain again, I will see the tender green of grass sprouting.

I am also slowly building 'leaky dams' to slow down the run off and reduce the erosion of the top soil I am so painstakingly trying to create. It's one way to use all the sticks and branches my drought stressed native trees are dropping.

I will take some photos and post them, wont' be pretty but....

The track system has to be re-established... although I am thinking of using 'The Equicentral System' as developed by Jane and Stuart Myers, and I have started planning how to set it up... it'll be very similar to what I had planned before... I think. We will see

So for now... I am signing off until next time.