Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

Greetings All,
Thanks Mimms2 for reminding me about John Seymour's books. I used to get these and books on Permaculture out of the library on a regular basis. Permaculture for the few that may not be familiar with the term Permaculture is a system of permanent and self sustaining low input gardening. I will certainly read more on these over the cooler months. Thanks again.
My dearly beloved and self appointed designated shopper returned from town this morning more than a little grumpy. The two magazines she gets each week are no more due to the Bauer collapse. Worse there was a NZ Hunter and a Rifle mag in the box for me. I offered first read of one of my magazines which didn't seem to help much. Worse was to follow. A therapeutic bike ride was canceled after the front tire was found to be flat and the substituted walk needed to be done without an iPod which seems to have given up the ghost. Thank heavens that is three things.
Regards Grandpamac.

I used to be a permaculture advocate. I believe in permaculture; but not permaculturists. They tend to sit back and whine and moan without getting off their arses and doing stuff.... Usually farmer haters; yet know nothing of farming. When challenged as to why don't they become real farmers and be a model of how things should be done they make every excuse under the sky as to why they can't.

Most want to whinge about how small farms can feed the world; but haven't the balls to do it. They still want a town lifestyle and an annual overseas holiday. You have to sell a f***-tonne of organic cabbages to pay for their lifestyles..... And.... those that do buy "farms" (usually a couple of acres) make their money running permaculture design courses or doing "consultancy". Basically farming people/students etc because once again you have to sell a f***-tonne of organic cabbages etc etc etc......

And then; they can't "farm" their small properties without using cheap foreign labour (WWOOFERs). Oh; they absolutely LOVE you calling WWOOFERs "cheap foreign labour.... Light the fuse and stand well back.... Then just mention "no different to big corporates using cheap or slave labour" and stand even further back.....

I do practice permaculture but now call it "sustainable natural gardening" rather than permaculture..... Just to distance myself from their stupid antics..... Permies often ask me how I've manged to get so much done on my place even though I was living fulltime with my parents, caregiving (55kms away) them. My answer was simple "I get off my arse and actually do stuff".....

Right; off my soapbox.... I hope it didn't come across that I am disillusioned with permaculturists?

Greetings Bumblefoot,
Thanks for your post on sustainable natural gardening. Being a bit of a hermit and living in Hawkes Bay I had not come across the darker side of some people using permaculture as a fig leaf for their profligate consumption. I think that many people intuitively adopt many of the principles of sustainable natural gardening on their blocks and farms without even realising it. About 6.5 of our 8 hectares is pretty much a blank canvas having only been used for grazing to date. My thoughts of what to do with it will certainly changed on my wanders around it over the coming weeks and months.
Regards Grandpamac.

I often broadcast vege seeds and plant vege seedlings in shelterbelts, all over the place really. Let veges self seed. So as well as the formal vege patches I can sorta forage wild veges too.... I was going to whinge to a mate about getting tired of eating venison mince during lockdown; but thought it was a bit "1st world problem-ish"

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings Bumblefoot,I had not come across the darker side of some people using permaculture as a fig leaf for their profligate consumption.

And their virtue signalling wokeness..... Like one person here; moans about fuel exploration etc etc etc and then flies on a holiday to France and off to Scotland to take part in a climate change conference..... Two overseas trips in 6-months....

things are getting bad, no meat pies at all at the supermarket !!!!
so today i made manchester eggs. its a pickled hard boiled egg wrapped in a ix of sausage meat and black pudding filling then crumbed and baked.
tonight i am giving the dog a run for the money on toxic farts !!!

Originally Posted by gonetropo

i am giving the dog a run for the money on toxic farts !!!

Releasing toxic farts is a highly underrated passtime.....

I had to go to NW; bought some bacon and forgot to buy eggs..... Yes; buy eggs........ First time in 5-years when I do buy some.... They decided to moult just on lockdown.... It's like WW2 rationing here for eggs Freeloading slackers ha ha At least the ducks are starting up again! They usually only go off the lay for about 3-weeks in mid winter and take up the chooks slack...

Eggs would be one of the last food items i'd ever want to give up. I never grow tired of them. And duck eggs are something I've really enjoyed... apart from the odd one gathered from an outside nest that didn't have a use-by date stamped on it.

Originally Posted by Dicko

Grandpa Mac,

Yes that is a great way to transition to start getting setup while you have good cash flow and more youth. Also let’s you buy in earlier and that can have benefits.

Where are you planning to retire Dicko ? I think the first thing is to buy land with good soil, then get planting fruit trees, they need time to get fruiting. I have 40 + fruit trees. Is it a place with late frost some springs ? if so plant the trees in circles where a sprinkler can be put on a pole in the centre. Is there slope with good aspect etc. Is there a creek where you can plant both sides. All these things need considered and a picture of what is needed worked out. Good Dirt is Always Cheap and Poor Dirt is always Too Dear !

Speaking of living off the land.... This gave me a giggle.....

Moa,

Where to retire is a great question and I would like to find an answer!

I have worked in agriculture for 35 years. In that time I’ve lived and worked in the 3 eastern Ozzie states, Christchurch and New Plymouth, and mid west Us. Travelled a lot to the Ag areas of s lot of countries. Around ANZ I always used to look for areas of good country with good community. Eventually it wore me out. Too many good places.

In retirement I want to spent more time H&F and would like a small rural block/ Farm.

We may, stock market correcting itself have enough for a holiday home/Bach.

At the end of the day I guess my wife will get a big say in the plan. She will want to stay in Sydney or go back to Queensland. Probably Noosa way. Close to the kids who could go anywhere.

I’m thinking a place in a small North Canterbury village for half the year might be workable for the first 10-15 years as part of the plan.

I agree with your comments around soil.
You need to be a good farmer to manhattans be profitable on poor souls. Good soils tolerate poor farmers and flatter them in the medium term.

Firewood 2021
Greetings All,
We have had some cooler days, there has been some snow on the Kaweka Tops and I lit the fire for the first time this week.
Consequently it is now time to gather firewood for the 2021 winter.
Firewood gathering in progress.
Fortunately our firewood supply is within our bubble, about 60 metres from the house. Because I am old and somewhat feeble I practice low input firewood gathering techniques. Firewood is felled, ringed and split close to the stump. Next it is transported to the drying stack in the firewood transport device next to the stump. After drying and the wood shed is largely empty the firewood is transported in the bulk firewood carrier (rear of shot) to the wood shed.
Others technique and results may differ.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Firewood 2021
Greetings All,
We have had some cooler days, there has been some snow on the Kaweka Tops and I lit the fire for the first time this week.
Consequently it is now time to gather firewood for the 2021 winter.Attachment 136522
Firewood gathering in progress.
Fortunately our firewood supply is within our bubble, about 60 metres from the house. Because I am old and somewhat feeble I practice low input firewood gathering techniques. Firewood is felled, ringed and split close to the stump. Next it is transported to the drying stack in the firewood transport device next to the stump. After drying and the wood shed is largely empty the firewood is transported in the bulk firewood carrier (rear of shot) to the wood shed.
Others technique and results may differ.
Regards Grandpamac.

Looks a nice deal ,way easy then what I'm doing .

Sent from my TA-1025 using Tapatalk

This lockdown period has been extremely fulfilling in the culinary sense, as we have been able to prepare a square evening meal for four every night, exclusively with food produced directly from our small block, or hunted by me elsewhere. We made it an objective at the beginning of the lockdown to eat well with what we had, and rely only on bought food for breakfast and a light lunch.

Despite the horrendous drought here the vegetable crop has been outstanding, all the more surprising that we were away for six weeks during December and January and only got the garden watered once, with according to the Met service only two brief showers in addition to that. This has really made us wonder whether we have historically overwatered our vege gardens, considering that many of the vegetables we grow are essentially Mediterranean in origin.

All the beef is homegrown and killed on the block, supplemented by venison, pig and goat. The kids get to eat oxtail, tongue, heart and sweetbreads and generally don’t complain, I like testing them to guide them away from fussiness. We eat a lot of venison mince that we blend with beef mince in a roughly 50-50 mix. We don’t keep chickens unfortunately due to their attractiveness to Staffordshire bull terriers and a very bad stoat and ferret problem which we’ve now pretty much got on top of. The lack of chickens is going to have to change though, and I am thinking about how we can constrain chickens and stop them becoming feathered snacks. Our dogs have a very high prey drive and cannot resist free ranging chickens, as I found out to the dismay of my one mate at his home this past February...

The fruit & vegetables we grow are two varieties of butternuts, gem squash, potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, cucumbers (which are “fast” pickled), various beans and beetroots. Relishes are made from sub-standard fruit and the one variety of butternut, lots of vege soups, tomato sauces made and frozen for use as a base in spag bol etc. All the herbs are homegrown.

Highlights are always the venison backstraps and goat curry. Lowlights are generally wild pig - don’t know why but the pigs I have access to are often too “gamey” even for me. Have been wondering how much this is pig diet related. In the past the Kaimai pigs were excellent, but these Ruapehu pigs are a bit iffy. So if there’s one thing we’ve decided to process as dog meat, it’s the current pork stock.

We bake our own bread, cakes and biscuits. We had a fantastic supply of fresh milk from one of our neighbours as their house cow was producing far too much for just them, so we made butter and various milk based dishes like paneer (Indian) and melk-kos (Afrikaans).

Unfortunately we’re heading into winter without as much stored vegetables as I would like, as we’ve never been very good at growing winter veg. But the veg gardens are all freshly cleaned up and tilled, fertilised with cow pats and compost, ready to go. I’ve got my wife to thank for the green fingers, she’s a wonder at getting things going and set up for a long production period, tying the plants up, making wind breaks, keeping everything strong. I’m more of an operations bloke, spade work, weeding, occasional watering. The simple stuff.

Next up is homebrew. It’s something I’ve never done and the info on here in the homebrew thread has got me excited. If I succeed in brewing a palatable pale ale, I’m gonna award myself a medal.