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23rd August - 6th September. Kin Kin.
- Too much green permaculture, but informative.
The main reason/thinking behind this fortnight long stay near the minute village of Kin Kin, in the Noosa hinterland, was to learn a bit more about Permaculture (p/c.) I'd heard the word used a lot and whilst I had a vague idea I'd have been hard pushed to put it into words so felt that some learning was called for, hence our late August arrivial at this p/c education and demonstration site. To the object of learning I feel I was very successful, one of the hosts was a good teacher and I think I gained a lot of knowledge, none of which I'll be including in this blog (just in case you were worried!) Unfortunatly on most other fronts far from the bext time was had and I must confess that by the end, actually by the end of the first weekend, I was itching to leave and having a pretty rought time of it at some points. Still, we didn't die or find ourself remiss of a limb so the best thing to do is be gratful for the information fained and hope the rest of it becomes a faintly amusing memory in time.
Before we get into it however there is the small matter of us getting there from Hervey Bay. We got the morning Greyhound which took us three hours south (including the compulsary 45 minute rest stop twenty minutes from our destination) to a place called Cooroy. On first inspection this looked little more than a solitary bus stop and a small cluster of shops but after a while I went on an exploritory mission to the other side of the railway tracks and discovered...civilisation! It actually turned out to be a fairly large, built-up town with tonnes of shops and, very importantly, a public toilet. We had 4ish hours to whittle away until we had arranged for our host to pick us up, which we mostly spent hiding from the on-off rain in a covered bench and bbq section of a park, consuming food scouted out from the local supermarket and bakery. A giant bottle of fizzy drink was on special offer and I foolishly gave in and subsiquently spent an hour feeling considerably unwell..it passed some time at least.
One of our hosts, Zaia, picked us up, along with her ten year old son, and drove (in a style that could optimistically be described as 'suicidal') us out to their property. Completing the household was Zaia's husband Tom and fifteen year old daughter. It was a bit uneasy being somewhere with kids, especially as we had no idea of their existence prior to our arrival! However it wasn't the nightmare I momentarily thought it could be, in fact the children actually proved more comfortable to get on with than the adults. That probably gives a far worse impression than is justified, they were friendly enough in a low-key manner, it was just...lets just call it a difference of personality..or, more bluntly, we had just about nothing in common. They were very full on into most aspects of 'alternative' lifestyle, from the sane (sustainability, peak oil and p/c) which were no problem at all to the whacky (every type of 'natural healing', therapty or excersise you can think up along with a wide assortment of 'they're out to get you' conspiracy theories) which led to prolonged silences and occasionally lunging full on into vacant eyed drooling insanity (hords of people heading north from Brisbane stealing food in the very near future after oil runs out and promotion of an in no way crazy sounding natural healing website called 'doctors are dangerous) after which laughter escaped before a return to silence. Very quickly conversation all but failed, it wasn't massively uncomfortable as outside of work we more or less stayed out of each others way...but still, could have been better.
It must also be said that, especially to begin with, the food situation really didn't work well for us. This involved WWOOFers feefing themselves soley on what was growing in the gardens, which meant a constant large bowl of vegetables, greens at least twice a day and sweet potatoe or other less common similiar things that I forget the name of when we could find enough. Whilst after a while we could get this tasting pretty decent its still obvious there's some fairly vital and important things missing...I know it was only a fortnight so it seems kind of pathetic to complain in such a fashion but the simple truth is I've never quite felt so drained of energy or so weak, especially across such a prolonged period. It quickly got to the stage where we'd be sleeping ten plus hours each night and still feeling tired all the time, where after the tiniest bit of work, which we'd had zero problem with eleswhere, we'd feel utterly knackered. While there was likely also an influence of mental factors I feel the affect of the diet shouldn't be understated...for whatever reason we felt less than tip top most of the time...not the recipe for the most pleasent time...
Ah, a nice light read this blog ain't it? Real cheery stuff! Yeah it wasn't much fun most of the time...but we went with the idea of learning and you can't argue with the results. Bob was a great teacher, really knowledgeable and endlessly enthusiastic about the subject. Also the property was very beautiful, due to the the nature of p/c it seemed a bit random (and a touch of a mess even) to start with but the density of plants, trees and wildlife truely was a sight. There were kept animals - 3 dogs, tonnes of chickens and a few goats and cows plus a higher number of wild animals than we're used to owing to the more wild setting, frogs, toads, the odd snake, birds with the most bizarre calls and some simply massive spiders...one of which had decided the inside of our caravan was home prior to our arrival..which didn't give Liz quite the introduction to our new home one might desire...I got it to leave...only for it to mill about on the outside of one of the windows for a week before finally going on its way...I Maintain it was simply being friendly...though it is kinda creepy to think of it watching us sleep...
Though the work may have felt a disproportinate effort you couldn't complain about the hours, 7.30 to 1ish with a half hour morning tea in the middle. Reasonably full on but at least we then had the afternoon to ourselves. Our first two days Tom had to go off to earn some money so we were by ourselves to harvest some strawberries (which we would do three times each week) and have a go at building a simple fence out of coregated tin sheets along one lengh of one of the chook enclosures, where they had been pecking incessantly at the ground causing lots of dirt to fall in the swale (water-retaining ditch dug along a contour.) This took us ages but we struggled one and got it up in the end...only for Tom the next day to decide he wanted it done a different way so we had to take it all down and put it up again. To be fair it did function a whole lot better the new way and didn't take that long to redo...a bit annoying at the time though! That done we then did various weeding and mulching until the end of the working day, at which point we were halway to our first day off, which was Saturday (owing to out hosts Seventh day adventists faith.)
That afternoon another WWOOFer, Matt, magically appeared (the sort of thing that might come up in conversation at some point? Apparently not!) He was pretty quiet (though really I can hardly pass judgment here) but seemed cool enough and it was certainly good to have another 'outside' person around. Later that night we all watched the film 'Iron man' along with one of the kids, which was much better than I expected, good to excape into a film for a couple of hours!
The next two days Tom was around to direct the work and they transpired to be a pair of physical and occasionally maddening days. On the first we started out by moving one of the garden chook enclosures (a p/c technique being to use these to totally clear weeds from the soil) and planted a whole bunch of plants in this new space. Then we lended a hand cementing the floor of one of the permanent chook enclosures, moving about wheelbarrows of material, passing back and forth buckets and shovelling out dirt. In and of itself the taks wasn't too bad and reasonably interesting but the tired feeling had begun big time and by the end of it I was near dead on my feet...somehow greens for lunch did little to revive me.
The following day we started out with a big harvest of the garden and then focused our attention on the half constructed bathroom complex. This has been slowly edging towards completion for the last three years, all of the plumbing and foundations were in place and the current work was getting the walls built. Tom had elected to use stones from the onsite dam and aroundabouts...while this does make the structure look great and should last a good deal longer than brought bricks it does slow things down a whole lot...as you endlessly try and find the correct rock to fit into this complex 3D jigsaw puzzle...nearly always finding your choice to be lacking in some aspect of size or angle and so pretty much spending literally hours and hours carrying rocks back and forth in vain...therein the forementioned maddness! By the end of the day we had a massive nine rocks in place, three each, so a rate of less than one an hour...starting to appreciate why its taken so long to reach this stage! Still I think Tom is really keen to get it done in the next year...if for no other reason than the outdoor shower is fast reaching the point of being in no way private (falling apart sheets and strong winds being a bad combination!) and that the novelty of moving the compost toilet when the hole is full may be wearing thing!
And so to Saturday...our day off! That means...a lay in! OK, so we only had an extra 45 minutes until a shouted 'coo-eee' summoned us to breakfast, but it involved pancakes so for once felt almost worth it! The mission of the day was to walk to Kin Kin, the nearest village which was about 3 Ks away. Liz and myself had actually ventured beyond the property after work Thursday but hadn't gotten too far down the road due to...a cow...it was, erm. big and stuff. We got past such challenges next time round, though there was a murky moment when a field full of about fifty cows all stared us down and followed us along their fencline...a little bit creepy! It was worth such risks though as we reached Kin Kin, which in and of itself was fairly unremarkable...but, crucially, had an open shop. Practical purchase - rice. Less practial purchases - chocolate, nuts and milkshake. Money well spent.
The rest of the day continued in relaxed style, involving frisbee and films. And greens.
Back to the grind the following morning heralded a very tough workday, basically spending all of it slowly hefting heavy lenghts of wood from one side of the 'resources paddocks' (AKA - junk yard) to the other. Knackering. Thankfully the afternoon provided a contrast as we went to an open house event put on by the local p/c society (of which Tom is an active member), which involved one of its members giving a tour of their home and talking the assembled through some of its more novel features. A healthy turnout of about forty people wandered around the impressive solar panel covered house (the owner being an archetect) and its ground, that stood near the top of a mountain giving a breathtaking view of the hilly surrounds. It was an interesting afternoon, sticking most in mind being a device that alters the temperature of a freezer so it can be used as a fridge, which results in less energy usage due to the improved insulation. It was good/reassuring to see p/c being usedby more 'normal' people, that it wasn' only something for people self-isolated from the world preparing for future catastrophy but could be applyed an used to good effect in everyday life.
Across the following week we fell into a pattern of work and sleep, the former taking in a range of different taks - harvesting, replanting and cutting in the polly tunnel, watering and continuing weeding along the fencline as well as down in one of the swales. At one point Tom also went on a massive mow of the gardens, in the course of a few hours totally altering the apperance of the place...and providing masses of cuttings for us to rake up as mulch.
Twice during the week we ventured off property, once on a mid work weeks celebratory milkshake run and a bit later I went by myself to walk a small bit of one of the Noosa trails, which are a series of vaguely set out walks that criss-cross the region. Though I didn't go far it was still good to trapse through the woods and round the back of cow (so many cows! everywhere!) filled fields. Liz and myself walked a bit more of one during the 2nd Saturday day off, exposing our level of unfitness in the process...still, I think we earnt our subsiquent shop mission...a little at least.
The mostly sunny and clear weather fell back to shelling rain on Monday...but any annoyance at another night of near-impossible sleep was offset by our leaving the following morning. As you may have susses - not the most fun fortnight...but informative...and more or less the perfect way to get you fantising about civilisation...the bigger, more bussling the better...all considered I was very happy to be getting on the Greyhound in Cooroy with the destination 'Brisbane' printed on our tickets.
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