It's been a busy 6 months of building, producing, gathering and crafting, so busy in fact that we haven't had a moment to blog. Until today.
Teaching younger folk to build has been our focus over the past year, starting with James and Zeph building The Cumquat, then more recently, Connor, Jeremy and Marta helping with the north-facing greenhouse.
We've built a number of other buildings too, including the Yause (named after Jeremy Yau, who came to SWAP with us in February and has been here ever since).
Jeremy moved into the Yause after just 7 weeks of building.
We also built the Cookhouse, the name we gave our low-tech sauna.
We used local cypress timber and discarded sheep's wool to line the inside of Zeph's old cubby, and we found an old wood heater at the tip which we bought for $30 and restored with a lick of stove paint. Thanks Zeph!
It works a treat!
We also installed more water tanks for further veggie production (nearly everything we spend money on is intended to take us away from further requiring it),
To preserve our gifted old timber windows (thanks Vasko!), Connor painted them before the rains set in.
and we started work on the Smithy, where Jeremy and Patrick will be setting up a blacksmith and wood crafting workshop to teach others.
There have been many other smaller projects we have worked on this year, such as completing the cellar – building more storage for our preserves, ferments, booze and cheeses. We are so close to going fridge-less now! Just a cool cupboard to build and a fridge to offload.
Home production has also been extensive with many hands making light work. Buster, who rode her bicycle from Brisbane, came to SWAP with us and hung about with Woody, decking the trampoline with summer fruit to sun-preserve. Thanks Buster!
Our bees have had a remarkable first season, storing food for themselves and for us in the near completed anti-aviary.
We robbed them of a third of their summer production,
obtaining a whopping 15 kgs out of a total of 45 kgs of honey that they produced in just 6 months. Astounding! Thank you beautiful creatures.
The annual veggie production began to ramp up again too,
Home production of perennials has also increased this year with plants such as hops for brewing and for sleepytime tea,
and kiwi fruits, which tease Woody with their unripeness well into early winter.
We have been gathering other perennial crops in the garden too, such as acorns – harvesting them for pancake meal and beer making,
and gathering together for all sorts of events with kin and community. From community garden working bees and free workshops that we've organised,
to fermenting workshops, including Culture Club's wonderful community pickling day,
mushroom and weed foraging workshops that we've led,
and Friday night local food gatherings, which we've hosted weekly at Tree Elbow.
We've had so many remarkable guests stay with us over the past 6 months. David Asher came from Canada to share his passion for wild fermented raw cheeses,
permaculture teacher, Penny Livingston-Stark, came and feasted with our community and shared her remarkable story alongside David Holmgren,
cousin Pepper and Ra were regular visitors,
comedian Lawrence Leung (who slept in the Yause) and independent filmmaker, Celeste Geer, came with a crew to film for Catalyst,
and of course our three long-term SWAPs, Connor and Marta (here stacking a fine compost on the nature strip),
and Jeremy (here working on a forge blower he's making from discarded material), have all been stalwarts at Tree Elbow this year.
Long term resident Zero, a huge personality in a little dog suit, will turn 49 this winter, rendering him the most significant elder of Artist as (extended) Family,
and while Zeph has been extricating himself from Artist as Family collaborations, he still makes regular appearances (often with friend Owen) to Tree Elbow, bringing his zest for disruption, bravado and beautiful independence, and keeping us all on our toes. Onya Zeph!
The way we get around and retrieve resources, or go out to participate in the community is very much about our continued practice of a low carbon consciousness. Bikes are essential for this cultural and economic transition. We've been car-less now for seven years!
Riding and walking into yet another wet and cold season means we are once again hardy to the change of weather. While community friends and other loved ones fall sick around us, colds and flu will be a long time coming into our neo-peasant home.
Walked-for, dug, and directly-picked food, dirt on hands, active and accountable living and mobility, goodly sleep, and generally being outside all gather as the ingredients for a health-filled, resilient and low-carbon life. While this is not THE solution to the many varied problems of industrialisation, it is for us a genuine response to the predicament of our age.
We hope you have found some spirit here, spirit to aid your resolve as we find strength and inspiration in yours. For those interested in a deeper unpacking of our practice and of our cultural fermentations, Patrick has an essay just published in Garland magazine. If you have similar life hacks you would like to share with us or any other Qs related to how we live, please leave a comment or send us a message. (NB: Trolls will be composted.)
Over for now,
much loving and flowing of gifts to you, and from and to the worlds of the world,
Artist as Family
