Country Grind Quarterly

So apparently there is a newspaper/zine being produced in Canada for rural punks and misfits, delivered free if you have a rural address. The Country Grind Quarterly. This is such a great idea. Recommended for anyone who loves blasting Antischism, driving tractors shooting off guns, and generally telling society to fuck off. If only I lived in Canada.

http://www.countrygrind.net/

Right, so what's been going on at Uma Rapiti. Well we've weathered a few storms and things are starting to look up a bit. The sun has been out longer and stronger, and even though we're still in the depths of winter, this Waiheke Island microclimate is starting to feel like spring. And as a result, a few of the seeds that I sowed earlier on have begun to sprout.

Other things that have gone in the ground so far are garlic, potatoes, lettuces and some kale sprouts. Most of the work however has been in the greenhouse, getting seeds started in their trays and waiting till the time and the climate is right to plant them out into the rested beds. With garden activity being pretty low-key, I've had time to strike up some other projects like putting in a new set of steps up to the woolshed and digging in some paving stones to create new paths. The photo below is just a rough dig to make sure everything is going to fit right and my measurements weren't way off. Still working on the tricky task of screwing everything together in order and making sure it's all level. Not exactly the kind of thing I have heaps of practice with, but challenging myself like that is what this experience is all about.

Aside from work, I've had a good bit of leisure time to explore the island by bike, car and even by kayak. I paddled out to a small island just off the coast and had a good rummage around and came away with a good haul of mussels that became a delicious stew that night. There's nothing quite like plucking your dinner straight from the sea. I'm just loving all the opportunities to enjoy real, fresh food while living here on the farm. With eggs from the chooks, all the garden veggies and the orange trees producing, I'm feeling pretty well fed. It's definitely a special place.

Dirt Ritual

Working outside in the mud
Boots sticky, skin flecked, muscle flexing
Rain drips in silver threads
Down perspiring chin
Following the etch of veins
As I open a hole into the earth
Spade thrusting and cutting deep
Standing back from its gaping wound
Feeding its black flesh the
Quivering seedlings freshly sprouted
Filling that void with an arboreal hope
As fat worms thrash and flee
Retreating to the dark

With this gift
The dead and living are wed
Mineral bonds broken and re-forged
Nourishment taken from decay
A ritual of rebirth at the
Interface of soil

A sacrament
Cast from my hand
Taking root

Slugdge: Garden-themed Metal

So this is very fitting for the farm: a metal album full of puns and references to slugs and their slimy gastropod allies. With song titles like Dark Side of the Shroom, Lettuce Pray, Salters of Madness, Slugdge may sound like a joke, but these songs absolutely rip. An infectious mix of death, sludge and doom. Maybe I'm the only one who gets excited over these sorts of things, but Slugdge is going to be on heavy rotation while I go about my business in the garden from now on. No garden pests, no mercy.

"Dedicated to he who harvests the cosmos, Mollusca the Greatfather."

First Week Update

So what's been going on here at Uma Rapiti in my first week? Well, a lot of mulching really. The main goal has been to get the garden beds covered and in order in anticipation of spring planting for the seedlings we've started in the greenhouse. So chop and drop is the name of the game at the moment, turning all those pesky weeds into green mulches. I need to replenish my stock of cardboard for sheetmulching purposes, such has been the demand. Simple things like cardboard and newspaper become highly valued commodities within a permaculture system. I've also sown broadbeans and peas as cover crops for their nitrogen-fixing contributions, plus as a bed full of garlic. I've been making lots of trips into the surrounding karaka forest to collect sack-loads of tasty leaf litter as well. It's pretty sweet to be able to listen to birdsong from tui, kereru, etc. while doing my job. I just hope none of the karaka seeds decide to take root in the garden beds. I also headed down to the beach with my trusty wheelbarrow for a load of seaweed to grace the uppermost asparagus bed. Other jobs have been things like digging out gigantic flaxes and attacking it with an axe to divide it into three pieces before I could even move the behemoth, let alone replant it. A new tamarillo has gone in as well as more olives. I'm awaiting the arrival of about ten new banana trees to fill out the subtropical garden. Oh and I also restarted to the worm bin that had gone to wrack and ruin previously, so fingers crossed that the new worms are happy and healthy in their remodeled home.

In terms of produce that was growing when I arrived here, it's been mainly leafy green like silverbeet, brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower, a bunch of chili peppers, a few radishes, lettuce, leeks, some young potatoes, and there's a stash of kumara and an assortment of squashes in storage. The chooks are laying many eggs, but still getting a few feeds out of them. Oh and the brined olives from last years harvest are ready and so I've been cracking into those and they're delicious.

The upper garden all dressed up in leaf litter.

Lower garden bed

Seaweed-laden asparagus bed

One flax divided up

Filling the void left by that gigantic flax, becoming a pathway to the forest sleepout