Speaking to Carbon Farmers in South Aussie

Last week Louisa and I travelled to Tanunda SA to speak at the South Australian No Till Farmers Association. No till farming is a conservation approach to cropping which avoids the damage ploughing can dol to soils tructure and soil carbon (it releases large amounts of CO2). South Australia has many no till farmers because they generally have very low rainfall and no till retains mositure in the soil. I can confidently predict that the future belongs to no till.

A hard day with the conservation farmers

One year ago to the day we launched the Carbon Coalition at the Central West Conservation Farmers Association Conference. We've battled to get any attention from the media. Pictured interviewing me is ABC Rural Radio's Bruce Reynolds, who still thinks we're crooks. You can see it in his body language. Getting the indea of climate change across has been a very difficult task.

Lightning is good for Uamby

Did you know that lightning is good for growing plants? It creates nitrogen in the air which settles on the plants and helps them grow. The high energy in lightning mixes the oxygen and nitrogen in the air to form nitrates. These dissolve in rain and falls to the ground.. we've noticed the effect...

Garden gone...

This was our lush vegetable garden. Organic. Terrific. established with the guidance of Laurie Thomson who teaches organic gardening at the Canberra Institute of Important Things (or somesuch name). The important thing is that Laurie taught us out of the goodness of his heart.
This is our pile of sheep manure, 'mined' from under the shearing shead by various visitors and guests, notably my good friend and mentor Constant Berhends.

It's crutching time again....

Yes, folks, it's that time again. Crutching!! This is the time when our shearers Steve Minnett and Col Doherty trim the wool from the faces of our adult sheep (to keep them from going wool blind.) They also trim the wool from around their butts to stop "daggs" building up (accretions of excreta) dollops of dung, hanging off the back, making them uncomfortable (becuase, unlike you and me, sheep can't get around to wipe their behinds. (Heaven knows how they got on before man with shears arrived on earth.
Steve and Col are our shearers - "our" shearers - because they care about doing the best job. Perfectionists. And nice blokes, too. We use them as often as we can get them. They are part of the family. It's an amazing relationship when you really get to know the inner life of afellow human being. And shearers are fearless about expressing themselves and revealing their feelings (after 20 million beers).
They are very professional, work very hard, in conditions most city people would reject. They make it 'a good shed' - a shearing shead is a very tense place at times, with so many sheep being processed. A good sense of humour is essential.



The rhythm of the seasons beats loudly like a drum on Uamby. EAch month has its events and episodes.