Commenced:
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01/01/2005 |
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Submitted:
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08/04/2011 |
Last updated:
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16/02/2016 |
Location:
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Cherokee, Victoria, AU |
Climate zone:
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Cool Temperate |
(projects i'm involved in)
Project: Fernglade Farm
Posted by Chris McLeod about 10 years ago
The German Field Marshall, Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke, or “Moltke the Elder” to his mates, was attributed with the following quote: “no plan survives contact with the enemy”. This quote is so appropriate when applied to all of the systems (water, firewood, solar etc.) at the farm here. No systems at the farm have actually completely failed, it is just that in the real world none of them actually work like you’d think that they would when you set them up in the first place.
A good example of this sort of failure is that person could
read all about firewood, however nothing quite prepares you for the realities
of harvesting, storing and then using the stuff.
Firewood is used here to: dry clothes during winter; cook
food; heat the house; provide hot water (when the sun isn’t shining); as part
of the fermentation process; allowing small dogs to slowly cook their brains; and
assisting with germinating seedlings. As
you can see firewood has multiple uses and it is a crucial resource.
However, there are so many different opinions about firewood
around these parts that it is hard to know what to do and where the truth lies.
Some locals advised me that the local trees are rubbish for firewood. The
council advised me that it would be better to truck firewood in from the endangered
River Red Gum forests up north, where some of those trees can be up to 600
years old and are very slow growing.
Yet on the farm here, there are tens of thousands of trees and they can grow at a rate of 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches) per year and often much more in a wet year. A years worth of firewood can be sourced from as little as four trees.
For the rest of the entry + photos goto: http://ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/break-through.html
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