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Ten years ago next February I splashed out on a big zero turn ride on mower at the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo. It seemed a lot at the time, but it's done a power of work since.
Andrew and his mechanics at Gisborne Gisborne Power Products roll their eyes a bit - because I've used it for some pretty rough works. Here at Moora there are an unbelievable number of rocks - and it's pretty much unavoidable to 'mow rocks' from time to time.
It's got a new engine a couple of years ago and some other major overhauls. Having done some very tough work breaking in Moora and it's now starting to do some similar 'development work' at the forestry property that will be our new home in a few months.
There is an area of remnant native vegetation that was required to be kept when the permit was granted for forestry use. It is about 250 metres by 100 metres (and so 2.5 ha). Over that area there are maybe 50 quite mature and large trees - and then a range of smaller trees. Up to 16 years ago it would have been grazed, so I guess the younger trees will mainly date from when the stock were excluded.
The screen shot from Google Earth shows Flemings Rd running across the top. There is a blue shipping container almost exactly in the centre of the house we have planned - with the remnant trees to its south.
In order to manage our fire risk we will need to remove some trees to the west and south. Before we do that we need to do a cleanup - which is where the big ride on mower comes in.
The soils are reasonably depleted because, as well as the trees, there is a lot of bracken. This is a native plant, but one that grows well in relatively poor soil. Peter Andrews describes it as a plant that is part of repairing depleted soils. It is a low growing fern that is also pretty good ground fuel for a fire.
On Saturday we took the mower up to what we are going to call Carmyllie Forest Farm and started work.
As with any area like this, limbs large and small fall all the time. While they are part of the habitat, they are also an impediment to clearing up the bracken - and a fire hazard in their own right. So the first task is to take all the fallen timber and put it into piles that will later be burned.
After that the mower goes in. You could almost feels its relief when, having seen that it was in for another property breaking in task, it found that the worst thing that was hiding in the bracken was some decaying branches rather than the thousands of rocks we have at Moora.
As I check through my photos I find I have mainly 'after' shots rather than the 'before' ones I'm looking for now.
This first one shows how thick the bracken was pretty much over the whole area. The clear area was just as high as the foreground an hour earlier.
The second photo shows Luca on the ride on quietly nosing his way in to the thicket. Yip has been pulling out branches and is making piles.
Having now researched the bracken control issue a bit, it is clear that the best strategy (by far) is to knock it down - and the address the reason why it is growing in the first place.
The material I think best suggests that manure is the key. That is like music to my ears. I can think of multiple ways of addressing that - all of which we have used at Moora.
The first thing that occurs to me as a 'quick hit' approach is the organic chicken manure and rice hulls that I've sourced for Moora before. Here I shandy it with compost, but it will be a while before I have the first batch of Carmyllie compost ready to go.
The second option that appeals is simply to use it as the area for our chooks. I think we will need another 50 metre roll of electric netting to go with one I bought back from England a couple of years ago. That will let me make a square of 25 metres by 25 metres and leave 40 hens there for a few days. They will do their scratching - and deposit their poop. They will be reasonably close to the house - which will make it easy to collect eggs and care for the Maremma dogs that protect them.
And finally - we will start compost rings on the Moora Farm model as soon as we get there - and before too long we will have compost to spread. That is the best of all. With a bag of lime and some pasture seed tossed on top, my compost spreader will work at an improvement task that I hope will go on far into the future.
The next few photos show what we were able to achieve on the first day of the process. The first photo looks back at the house site. The house will sit on a low platform with a rock retaining wall built of leftover stone carried up from Moora. Look carefully and you can see a pile of those rocks in the middle left.
The photo is taken from the foreground of the beautiful view we will have away to our west.
The following 2 photos show areas where I worked while WWOOFers rested. They were pretty clear areas to begin with - with few fallen branches. I think they will be lovely semi-shady areas where we can grow some good grass and produce very good pastured eggs.
Having gone through this improvement process now in 2 previous places - I love this initial phase! Clearing the ground for the first time lets you see a little bit of what you have. While the soil isn't perfect - it is material to work with. It is so interesting to see the mosses and lichens beneath the bracken and wonder what they mean?
In years to come I'll notice the transitions - how I look forward to when I see clover for the first time - when the colour of the soil changes. Well - maybe that is a ways off.
I love the order of a carefully and sympathetically altered landscape. I also love wild things, but no landscape is unaltered and a big part of the integrity of a forest / farm is its productivity.
One of my favourite verses from the King James Bible is at Matthew 6: 28-29 where Jesus said:
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
I really enjoyed my day considering the lilies of a new field. We got perhaps a fifth of the area cleared I think, but it may have been more. There is a lot to do, but it can only happen one small piece at a time.
Andrew and his mechanics at Gisborne Gisborne Power Products roll their eyes a bit - because I've used it for some pretty rough works. Here at Moora there are an unbelievable number of rocks - and it's pretty much unavoidable to 'mow rocks' from time to time.
It's got a new engine a couple of years ago and some other major overhauls. Having done some very tough work breaking in Moora and it's now starting to do some similar 'development work' at the forestry property that will be our new home in a few months.
There is an area of remnant native vegetation that was required to be kept when the permit was granted for forestry use. It is about 250 metres by 100 metres (and so 2.5 ha). Over that area there are maybe 50 quite mature and large trees - and then a range of smaller trees. Up to 16 years ago it would have been grazed, so I guess the younger trees will mainly date from when the stock were excluded.
The screen shot from Google Earth shows Flemings Rd running across the top. There is a blue shipping container almost exactly in the centre of the house we have planned - with the remnant trees to its south.
In order to manage our fire risk we will need to remove some trees to the west and south. Before we do that we need to do a cleanup - which is where the big ride on mower comes in.
The soils are reasonably depleted because, as well as the trees, there is a lot of bracken. This is a native plant, but one that grows well in relatively poor soil. Peter Andrews describes it as a plant that is part of repairing depleted soils. It is a low growing fern that is also pretty good ground fuel for a fire.
On Saturday we took the mower up to what we are going to call Carmyllie Forest Farm and started work.
As with any area like this, limbs large and small fall all the time. While they are part of the habitat, they are also an impediment to clearing up the bracken - and a fire hazard in their own right. So the first task is to take all the fallen timber and put it into piles that will later be burned.
After that the mower goes in. You could almost feels its relief when, having seen that it was in for another property breaking in task, it found that the worst thing that was hiding in the bracken was some decaying branches rather than the thousands of rocks we have at Moora.
As I check through my photos I find I have mainly 'after' shots rather than the 'before' ones I'm looking for now.
This first one shows how thick the bracken was pretty much over the whole area. The clear area was just as high as the foreground an hour earlier.The second photo shows Luca on the ride on quietly nosing his way in to the thicket. Yip has been pulling out branches and is making piles.
Having now researched the bracken control issue a bit, it is clear that the best strategy (by far) is to knock it down - and the address the reason why it is growing in the first place.
The material I think best suggests that manure is the key. That is like music to my ears. I can think of multiple ways of addressing that - all of which we have used at Moora.The first thing that occurs to me as a 'quick hit' approach is the organic chicken manure and rice hulls that I've sourced for Moora before. Here I shandy it with compost, but it will be a while before I have the first batch of Carmyllie compost ready to go.
The second option that appeals is simply to use it as the area for our chooks. I think we will need another 50 metre roll of electric netting to go with one I bought back from England a couple of years ago. That will let me make a square of 25 metres by 25 metres and leave 40 hens there for a few days. They will do their scratching - and deposit their poop. They will be reasonably close to the house - which will make it easy to collect eggs and care for the Maremma dogs that protect them.
And finally - we will start compost rings on the Moora Farm model as soon as we get there - and before too long we will have compost to spread. That is the best of all. With a bag of lime and some pasture seed tossed on top, my compost spreader will work at an improvement task that I hope will go on far into the future.
The next few photos show what we were able to achieve on the first day of the process. The first photo looks back at the house site. The house will sit on a low platform with a rock retaining wall built of leftover stone carried up from Moora. Look carefully and you can see a pile of those rocks in the middle left.
The photo is taken from the foreground of the beautiful view we will have away to our west.
The following 2 photos show areas where I worked while WWOOFers rested. They were pretty clear areas to begin with - with few fallen branches. I think they will be lovely semi-shady areas where we can grow some good grass and produce very good pastured eggs.Having gone through this improvement process now in 2 previous places - I love this initial phase! Clearing the ground for the first time lets you see a little bit of what you have. While the soil isn't perfect - it is material to work with. It is so interesting to see the mosses and lichens beneath the bracken and wonder what they mean?
In years to come I'll notice the transitions - how I look forward to when I see clover for the first time - when the colour of the soil changes. Well - maybe that is a ways off.I love the order of a carefully and sympathetically altered landscape. I also love wild things, but no landscape is unaltered and a big part of the integrity of a forest / farm is its productivity.
One of my favourite verses from the King James Bible is at Matthew 6: 28-29 where Jesus said:
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
I really enjoyed my day considering the lilies of a new field. We got perhaps a fifth of the area cleared I think, but it may have been more. There is a lot to do, but it can only happen one small piece at a time.
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