Druids!

On tuesday night Ben and I attended a meeting of the Canberra Organic Gardeners Society. It was a pretty interesting night. Lots of elderly people, some very stern looking young folk with that air of social conscience about them, some farmer looking types and the odd hippy or two. Having come straight from work I was in a serious looking black suit. Ok so I didn't exactly blend into the background. This interesting mix of people were a very nice bunch and they had a little library of books their members could borrow. The speaker was a lady who was clearly a world expert on biodynamic gardening (she teaches all over the world). I found some of it I had to really force myself to let go of the conservative in me in order to take it on properly. Some of it was easy..."we must work in harmony with nature"...yep that sounds pretty reasonable..."plant your seedlings in the afternoon and they will do better than if you plant them in the morning"...fair enough, sounds reasonable...."prune your fruit trees during the new moon rather than the full moon, the wounds will produce less sap and heal faster"...okaaaay, I don't really understand why but if you say so I can go along with that..."fill a cow horn with manure and bury it for 3 months over winter, dig it up, scoop out the goop and make some liquid fertiliser with it and spray it over your land"....I must admit my first reaction was okay, the druid lady is scaring me now....but i got to thinking...

ok so i probably wont go out looking for a cow horn to fill with manure to bury over winter, but if someone else had done so and said "spray this druid juice around your garden and it will be bonza," you know what? I probably would. What the hell do I know after all? Luckily, Ben is keen as mustard to collect some cow horns over Christmas at his father-in-laws cattle property to get the process started. So I guess I am quite interested in the learnings of the Druids so long as I don't spend too much time wondering "why?"

After we got back from the druid circle we had a butcher's at the lunar exclipse with their telescope. great stuff.

Ben and I ordered some more seeds and bits and pieces today. A veritable heap of vegies and 8 different types of herbs. We also ordered some propogation trays so we can get them all started.

Had chicken soup for dinner and succumbed to the sample tray at bakers delight...sun-dried tomato scones...yum.

Ben and Trish loaned me a book on home farms on tuesday. Its brilliant. how to set up if you have say 3 acres, or 5, or 10. great stuff, I love those wee Pop Larkin type farms that have a little bit of everything. chooks, vegies, fruit, bees, a bit of everything. Of course if you have a couple of hundred with plenty of trees, some cleared land and river frontage you can have wind power generators, wood fires etc. brilliant!

Ten Canoes

I just watched a cool movie, "ten canoes". its this great movie set in tribal war times about a man who fancies his brother's youngest wife and the story his brother tells him from the old times about another pair of brothers in a similar position. Its a be-careful-what-you-wish-for job, but very funny. Also there are some nifty scenes to do with building canoes out of bark.

Now I am watching the first episode of 'californication' which appears to be about exactly what it sounds like...

Had a long day at work today (8 to 7). I seem to have tons of work on at the moment.

Tomorrow Ben and I are going to the Canberra Organic Gardeners Society meeting. There is a lady talking about biodynamic gardening (whatever that is). It should be an interesting night anyway and it will be handy to meet some locals who understand the seasons better. I have a bit of a plan in mind regarding polytunnel material and the raised garden beds to help get the growing kickstarted a bit. Now I just have to find someone who sells the polytunnel material.

Lazy Day

Bit of a quiet day today. Did some washing and a bit of cleaning around the house. But otherwise a very lazy day. Watched some DVDs and generally spent the day recovering from the big ride yesterday.

Looks like Dad and I will be tackling the gippsland rail trail in November which is something to look forward to. Have to make sure I get plenty of riding in to build up the stamina and fitness again a bit before then. Last time bu the time we were climbing up to Beechworth Dad spent the whole time waiting for me. The only time I left him beihnd was when he stopped to take a phone call!

My forearms are very sore today from the ride, as are the palms of my hands (bruised) and my neck (stiff). Not to mention the..well..unmentionable bits i mentioned yesterday. I an unnatural enjoyment from that last sentance by the way.

Did absolutely nothing in the garden, so I will have to make sure do something next weekend.

Tender Comrades

Sorry I've been so slack posting lately, I've been very tired of late. Going to bed early and sleeping more than usual. I will definitely sleep well tonight too as I went for the first ride of (almost) spring after a very long break (about 4 months). I was feeling very ordinary. At about 1.5km i was wondering if it was every going to end and I'd only just started. I was very slow. I perked up a bit on the Monaro Highway and rode into the fruit markets where I bought a coffee and some oranges and mandarins.

I knew that I was going to far but being an idiot I did it anyway. I ended up riding 49km. When I say ride, I really walked at least half the last 20km and the old posterier is very tender. It took about 5 hours too, which gives you an idea of how slow and sorry I was. Sure the legs were spent but it was the rear end that just couldn't take any more saddle time. My mates will all be pleased to read that its only bruising though as I had my spandex leggings on :-) Got that mental picture now? good...my work here is almost done.

Still its good to know that I'm not starting from as low a base as I started last year (in late November). I could only do about 6 km to start with. Should be a good spring/summer. I should be able to get the weight down to double digits with a bit of luck and some persistent riding!

My hands were numb and twitchy by the end too. They have been suffering a bit with work lately as well (if I had any brains I wouldn't be typing this now).

But I just watched the triumphant return of Buckley in a magpie win over sydney to get a spot in the 4 (i think). Speaking of magpies, I got attacked by one twice as i rode along the Monaro this morning at about 9.30. All you notice is a sort of thump on the back as you a treadling along and then again a few moments later. Which reminds me I stopped along the Monaro for a few minutes at the model areoplane club that was in full swing. that was quite cool. Funnily enough the model sail boat club was out in force too as i rode along the front of lake burley griffen at about 10.30. must have been the day for it.

bed time now, good night everyone.

Ferocious Fanciers

Spent a bit of time getting organised for Ride to Work Day. Somehow I've managed to become the world's most underqualified ride to work day co-ordinator. Still the weather is starting (slowly) to get a little better and the old pins are getting itchy for a bit of treadly action. Anyway, I am assembling a crack team (or perhaps I should say peleton) of ride to workers. Not PE though (whose identity I will protect). He was quite a regular ride to worker. He would ride from Belconnen to Woden (probably 20km or so) every day until a few months ago he suffered a series of breakdowns in the same trip and snapped. Jumping off his bike he picked it up and threw it off the bike path into some bushes and never rode to work again. I think we've all felt like that from time to time (though not necessarily about riding of course).

I have sent out the invite to all the EL2s with whom I was training in Bowral. So the dishlickers are on again for the 2nd of September. I have a couple of takers already, so I hope to get a few more to make it a right cracker night.

I saw Black Sheep (the movie) on Sunday. It was absolutely hilarious. As most of you will know I really don't like gory horror films. This however, was brilliantly funny in its goriness. If you just imagine 90 minutes of "baaaaa" followed by a merino mauling someone, you pretty much have it figured. Throw in a bit of werewolf movie type transformations from human to weresheep form and you have the rest of the movie right there. baaaa-maul...it just didn't get old....

Ben and I are going to attend the August meeting of the Canberra Organic Gardeners Society (COGS) next tuesday. They have a guest speaker and we hope to meet some knowledgable and interesting people who can give us some hints on the organic gardening lark. I am thinking about rigging up some poly tunnel action on a small scale to help the garden get started during the frosty winter months. I think I can devise a sort of slot in frame arrangement for the garden beds that I could stick polyethelene over to form a sort of low poly tunnel to generate some heat during the day and keep the frost off overnight. I could then just remove them after melbourne cup day when the risk of frost is no more. As someone said to me last week. You don't pant tomatoes in Canberra until you know the winner of the Melbourne Cup. Of course, in Hobart, its Hobart Show day as everyone knows!

I must remember to take some snaps of the progress on the weekend. The Nest box is looking very close to finished now. I think this weekend I should be able to report finishing the paving of Palace Poulet. I keep telling myself I will order some propagating trays and some herb seed to get a good head start on the herb garden but I seem to have been quite busy at work the last few days. Too many irons in the fire today.

Last night though I woke up at 3am and could not sleep. I ended up reading a bit more George Orwell until I finally managed to doze off again.

I should also mention that the trip to the Goulburn Poultry Fancier's Society Spring Show and Breed Sale was a real hoot. No chicks for sale unfortunately, but that's ok, I wont have to worry about how to keep them warm enough during the bitter winter months. And I'll have plenty of time to finish off the chook run now. The chook show was a real eye opener and there were some frightening looking chooks i can tell you. It spurred me to create a new rule. I'm not getting any chook that looks like it could best me in a fight. Ben managed to upset a 'fancier' by making jokes about the name of his breed of pheasant....you had to be there but trust me when I say it was very funny. Lunch at the Goulburn Brewery was decent afterwards. nothing remarkable just a nice lunch. I can recommend the bakery on the way into town though. Very nice. I have a deja vu feeling about it though. I have a vague feeling I have been there before but I can't imagine when.

Residential Training

I've had a very long week. Four days at a residential training course on Executive Leadership Dimensions on Bowral. I got lucky on checkin and scored one of the Executive Suites. Huge! Rooms were a bit cold though and I got a touch of a cold. The days were very, very long. in the 12-14 hour range. (except for the 16 hour one but I'm not sure I can count the last 2 hours in in front of the raging fire in the DFIS HQ—don't ask—getting rowdy with the other naughty executives). Met some really interesting people and got some quite astounding insights into politics and power-broking. Also I have quite a few of the EL2 cohort that I met there interested in a catchup at the Narabundah Dog Track-the dishlickers again!

Was also nice to carpool up with the other DVA guys. I can also highly recommend the 'hearty meals' at Truckstop 31 if you are ever heading that way.

Had a bit of a run around day today, looking for various bits and pieces. I bought

• some star pickets to batten down the corners of the chook shed
• somme plywood for the nesting box roof
• some dowel for the roosting bit
• some chicken raising feed
• a wee feeder thingy that i can hang from the roof of the chook house
• a bale of wood shavings to tide things over until I can get some free stuff

I lugged all the new sleepers into the back yard. and about half of the pavers. I did quite a lot of work on the nesting boxes (which are nearly ready for action). I also got the chook house positioned (with the assistance of my mate Ken) and got the star pickets banged in a bit to hold it all in place.

Got an early start in the morning. Got to be around at Ben's place nice and early for an early start to Goulburn for the Goulburn Poultry Fanciers Society Spring Show and Breed Show. So exciting!

Like a Red Rag to a Sheep

Bit of a odds and ends day today. Getting organised for a 4 day training course at Bowral. Leadership Dimensions. I am really looking forward to it. Lots of introspection, self awareness, analysing strengths and weaknesses, that sort of thing. The preliminary workbook on conflict management was pretty spot on for me I think. My default position was nurturing-assertive but when things go bad I move to a position where I try to make sure everyone is happy. I give ground and make concessions to avoid upsetting anyone, even to the point where I am way beyond my own tolerable position....right up to the point where I snap and brutalise everyone left standing. There is, of course, the wierd aberation in which someone working in retail or a service industry can get me there almost instantly but those of you who don't work with me will just have to take my word on it, that it takes quite a lot to wind me up at work. But we've discussed this particular character flaw before....

I am strugling to get everything in my small suitcase. Somehow I've managed to to end up with a giant suitcase (very very handy for the lengthy Christmas pilgrimage to Tassie) and a tiny suitcase (very hand for the short business trips here and there) but nothing in between (which I imagine would be quite handy for the current problem in hand). Never mind, the itty bitty suitcase will encourage me to efficiency in packing. besides, I can get some books into my briefcase and as everyone knows, you can't travel without a good supply of books!

Speaking of books, I received an amazon order today. Some lovely hard-cover editions of the Iliad and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead—carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.

Brilliant! I think before I am crowded into the undergloom I would like to read classics at Oxford or Cambridge and read the Iliad in the original greek. Dactylic hexameter doesn't really work in English, but in the greek the sound of it courses through your mind like the drums of a thousand galleys and the march of the greeks going to war. Here's an interesting thing I learned recently. Originally for a poem to be an 'epic' it had to be written in dactylic hexameter. As, I mentioned dactyls are a tough poetic foot in English and are usually done as:

• stressed syllable ---- non-stressed syllable ---- non-stressed syllable

sort of arrangement rather than:

• long syllable ---- short syllable ---- short syllable

arrangement, which is how they are in greek. I tell you it sounds like an incantation being intoned in greek, but of course you lose some of the effect because...well..its all greek to me.... Most of you would know Tennyson's crack at dactylic dimeter with the Charge of the Light Brigade. You can really hear the dum-da-da dum-da-da rhythm of the syllables reminding you of the drum of the hooves.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

I also took the wildly outrageous step of getting a hair cut today. That is, rather than just shaving it all off again as soon as it annoyed me, I went to the hair dresser to get it 'styled'. Don't worry, its nothing too outrageous, but its freaking me out a little. I had to buy gel too. How there can be 6 shelves of different types of gel stuff is beyond me. I was very close to phone-a-friend time to help figure out what I was supposed to get. So no more 'bother boy' hair cuts.

The pavers for the floor of the Chook House arrive tomorrow. As do 20 small sleepers for more garden beds. The timing sucks as they will sit in the driveway for 4 days shile I am in Bowral. Maybe I'll ring them and get them to pop them inside the gate.

The Goulburn Poultry Fanciers Society Spring Show and Breed Sale Road Trip is this Sunday. I think I have 9 takers now. Lunch is booked at the Goulburn Brewery which is conveniently (and totally luckily) located over the road from the show grounds. Should be a fun day. Also I have the concept for the next road trip ready too. September 30th.....The Running of the Sheep at Booroowa. Its like Pamplona only funnier :-)

Room with a View

Well I've had quite a lazy weekend in many ways. I've spent a lot of time watching episodes of Cold Feet on TV. Don't get me wrong, I've caught up on the laundry and ironing. Did about 4 loads over the weekend. Then this arvo about 2 o'clock I decided I had better go and do something in the garden. But first things first. Some shots of the Chook House structural woes. Still better that it happened now and not when its occupied.

Front shot


shot through the front window showing the big bend in the back


Side shot showing it leaning against the fence



Here is the chook coop stand transformed into a temp workbench while I work on the coop. The 'table top' is in fact the boards I cut for the bottom of the box section.



Here is a closeup of the sides I made. There are actually 4 of these—the other two seperate the compartments. You'll see what I mean in a minute



Here is the nest box so far with all the bits screwed together. I managed to make it out of bits of wood I had hanging about the yard. Most of it had been exposed to the elements for a couple of years so some were quite warped. I hope the chooks aren't fussy!



This shot nicely shows the box bit ready to go onto the stand bit



Here is a dry assembly. The two bits aren't joined together yet, but it gives you a good idea about how it will look. There will be a hinged roof lid of course. also you can see the two bits jutting out the front that will have a rail going across the front so the girls will have somewhere to stand when they are checking into the motel. There will also be a removeable board across the front that they will have to step over to get in. By making it removeable it will be much easier to clean out the boxes from time to time and replace with fresh litter.


I have finished the lectures on the Age of Pericles and I've moved onto a series of 12 lectures on the Iliad. I have a nice copy of the Iliad coming from amazon along with Bonhoffer's letters from prison and a big pile of rafael sabatini.

I hope the girls are very happy here. I am pretty happy with the progress I made in a pretty short time. Especially since I wasn't working off a plan and I was making it up as I went along.

I also finished the 6th Frietz Lieber Lankhmar series book this weekend and on to the 7th—The last series of adventres of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser!

Many of you will be amused to know the Collingwood got trounced by Richmond on Firday night. The only other team Richmond have defeated this year was the Holbrook Country Women's Association over 80s I think, but Collingwood being Collingwood, it would have been too easy to win the easiest game of the year and move into 'the four' for the finals. And thanks to everyone who took the time to SMS me the 'good news'. Congrats to Jamie, glad Collingwood could help out this year.

Just saw Die Hard 4.0. Was pretty good fun actually I quite enjoyed it.

As a last note, I hope Andy B is feeling better and getting over the flu.

Wind Damage

As some of you will be aware its been a bit breezy here the last couple of days. The chook house has taken a pounding. Currently its blown up against the fence with a nasty bend where no bend should be. I hope a bit of attention with the persauder will get it back into shape though. I ordered 6 square metres of pavers to do the floor of the chook house and they should arrive on tuesday. While I was there I also got them the throw in another 20 sleepers for more garden beds. Though this time they were smaller ones (on special).

Had quite a relaxing day besides that. Did a heap of laundry, bit of cooking and watched some DVDs (Cold Feet).

I'll be away tues-fri next week at training in Bowral.

I've been a having a good read of the herbs book mum sent. Its pretty interesting reading all the old medicinal uses of herbs.

Got the heating bills recently....before next winter I'm putting more insulation in the roof and making pelmets for all the windows.

Still no sign of vegies emerging. Must still be way too cold for them (even though it has been pretty mild for august). I think I'll get some propogation tray s so I can start some seedlings off in trays and get a head start for when spring takes proper hold. There is a meeting of the Canberra Organic Gardeners Society in a coupld of weeks, I might go along (Ben too might be interested).

Well the pop corn is ready, back for some more lazy viewing...just need a nice cup of tea now....

Traded in the Draft

Well the end of a very long week is in sight. Longest day was tuesday at about 14 hours. I presented my project in a meeting today and it went very well so I can finally relax a bit. However, things took an interesting turn this morning (I'm not sure if it is a good tur or a bad turn yet). If I was some sort of sports star (stop sniggering everyone) then this morning I got traded. We have a new CFO and I've been promised to him to help him settle in and get his projects happening. Unfortunately I don't get 14 million pounds for the season.

Also received a book on herbs from mum. Ben and I were having a bit of a butcher's at it this arvo over a coffee and noted with delight that it has all sorts of information on companion planting with vegetables. brilliant! Thanks Mum :-)

For those of you who know my Sister Raechelle, she and Ashley are off to Tonga for a holiday tomorrow.

I am reading 1984 at the moment. I'm not sure how I managed to get through school without reading it but I am correcting that mistake now, thanks to Nan who sent it to me for my birthday. A really nice edition too, hardback with a red buckram cover.

The 'planning' for the Goulburn Poultry Fancier's Society Show and Breed Sale is going very well. I have two cars full for the road trip now and a few more giving it 'active consideration'. A friend has dubbed it "chicken run" which seems to be sticking as a moniker. Its funny have no vision when it comes to having fun. Everyone thought I was a bit mad—ok I am a bit mad—a bit weird then, when I suggested the greyhounds, but they all had a ball once they were there. A chook show and a brewery, I mean what else could they want? Some people just don't know how to have fun...

Long Day Chicken Soup

Sorry to have kept you all in suspense regarding the weekend. It went something like this. I woke up and went to give Ben a hand moving house. It was quite satisfying as any big job is but I have to say after nearly 8 hours I was absolutely stuffed. Then of course I popped home for an hour (quick shower etc) and off to the 18th birthday party. Oh. My. God. About 150 drunk teenagers. It was also bloody cold. ANyway that went from about 8 to 2 in the morning.

Sunday...spent day in haze...consumed vsat quantities of caffiene and managed to coax myself into a suffieciently high enough state of mind to be able to go to the cinema. Saw 'snowcake' at the dendy cinema. great movie I thought. The dendy cinema is cool too. The snack bar sells hot wedges with various types of sauce. much better than popcorn.

today was a long day, i just got home having worked until 10.15pm. I did however, make a bit of a breakthrough on the suite of 'think papers' I have been working on. I finally (after reading 500 pages of statistics text book) have gotten the hang of...wait for it...hypergeometric probability distributions as they relate to financial controls attribute testing. I have to be nice and early for the operations committee tomorrow.

Its very cold out at this time of night so I am just having some chicken soup to warm up. I have become a bit addicted to it over the past few weeks. I have made several batches and I eat it all week. Its a very simple recipe (based on a far more complicated one):

• get some water on the go in a stock pot
• get a big ol' double chicken breast and trim the icky bits off, cut it into big-ish strips andthrow it in the pot
• get 4 chicken sotck cubes and 2 beef cubes - throw them in too
• get some frozen vegies (i'm currently using a carrot, pea, corn and something white mix) put them in too
• after a while come back and shred the chicken
• top it up with some more boiling water if you like (I like it nice an watery like a broth)
• eat it all week

all right, thats enough for today. keep dropping the comments

Goulburn Poultry Fanciers

I need to devote some time to freeing up disk space on my PC in the very near future. I was down to a few hundred meg on C drive. Had to reshuffle some stuff to other drives to keep my ageing PC ticking over. Time to rationalise the old audio file directory. I probably don't need 9500 songs and lectures on my PC at the same time. I will consign the less used items to backup.

Got a big day tomorrow. Ben is moving house and then tomorrow night I'm off to an 18th birthday party.

My campaign to tempt people into coming to Goulburn for the Goulburn Poultry Fanciers' Society Show and Breed Sale on the 19th hasn't been wildly successful. I only have one taker so far. Some people just don't know how to have fun...

Anyway, I hope to be ready to pick up some chicks by that weekend. The dilema I face is that if I get really young chicks they need to be fed regularly throughout the day (3-4 times per day from what I can tell). If i get them a but older its easier but they wont 'bond' with me as much. Also I might not have the same number of options breeds wise.

Nantucket Chook Show

Sorry I missed yesterday. I meant to post as usual but got distracted by other things.

Today I continued my journey into the world of smart casual and (with the assistance of my personal shopper, Lizzy) bought a vest and a pair of shoes that both go with my new trousers. We were also rather taken with a chocolate brown suit that could double duty as a coat for the casual trousers...and as everyone knows, you can never have too many suits...

It was good to hear from Andy B again though it seemed to disturb Jacko that so many of you were happy to read some poetry. I notice that Jacko tried to claim that he only knew poetry involving musical beans, but he is really obfuscating. I know for a fact that he knows a poem about a lady from Nantucket too. I learned an interesting thing about Wordsworth on the weekend (and I have quite enjoyed reading Wordsworth again recently). Wordsworth wrote and entire history of the Church of England in sonnet form. You'd have to really like poetry to stick that one out I think.

Beno is moving house this weekend so I will head around to help him out. He was telling me about his time living in Switzerland this week. Renting your house is the norm in Switzerland apparently and so the unwritten rule is that you always help people you know move house because its a dead cert that you'll be moving sometime in the next 12 months too. He said when he had to move house people were almost demanding to be allowed to help. Anyway, he also had a pretty good idea about having a series of roving vegie garden festivals over summer (when the vegies are in full flight). The basic idea is to have a bit of a bbq and check out how we each manage things in our vegie gardens, pick up tips and new ideas from each other, eat some of our produce and generally have a nice day in the garden.

More good news is that there is a chook show at the Goulburn Show Grounds on the 19th of August so I will head to Goulburn for a bit of a visit. Check out the cute breeds and hopefully meet some local (to Canberra) breeders from whom I can get chicks. The Canberra and Quenbeyan Poultry Club guy snubbed me because I wasn't interested in keeping a rooster and breeding pure bred chooks.

Politics aside (try to remain calm AK) I was pleased to hear about the Mersey Hospital. When we think of poverty in Australia the electorate of Braddon is not what immediately springs to mind I suspect. I think many of you would be surprised to know that Braddon has the highest incidence of poverty of any electorate in Australia....and the electorate of Lyons next door is second highest. This parliamentary research paper on electorate poverty rates is a couple of years old now, but I am assuming its still about right. I don't care if its electioneering, let them have their hospital I say. AK has been reading the blog quite regularly and has complained that there aren't any flame wars he can get his teeth into. This is his big chance.