farm hunter returns

Where has the duck herder been? - BUSY! Work has been busy. Here is proof - the duck herder at work! Can you believe I get paid for this?

What is she doing? Well, this is a little trial we are doing - seeing if we can compost kerbside collected green waste without an expensive shredder, without adding water, and without turning every week. I am mixing up some wonderful Effective Microorganisms (love bugs!) The clever thing about these bugs is that they are a mix of aerobic and anaerobic (and also some friendly yeasts and fungi thrown in for extra love) love bugs. After we sprayed this lot, we covered it with plastic to keep the moisture in and protect the anaerobic love bugs. It is very clever - so far with our trials - the temperature shoots up to almost 70 degrees within 48 hours - this is the aerobic microbes doing their thing. The initial high temperature pasteurises the while lot - killing any seeds or pathogens. Then the other buggy friends take over. The temperature drops down to between 50 - 60 degrees, while the whole lot ferments along nicely. No smell, just love. Big huges piles of bokashi!

So far it is working REALLY well - and we will save THOUSANDS if it continues to work. Because of the anaerobic process, we should only have to turn once (at 4 - 6 weeks, and then after another 4 - 6 weeks, uncover the pile and spread it out to dry and cure. voila! Much better than an aerobic system that needs to be turned every week!

And here is the duck herder again - resplendent in hi vis, perusing the level of contamination folks are putting into their green waste collection.

"preen" its a lovelly day when you can make 20 tonnes of compost before lunch!

Did I mention I loved my job?

In other news, here is a little shot of one of the three remaining adolescent children of Nefley - how cute! I am keeping all three of them!

And here is a blurry shot of Camilla - the new secret chicken. She has just started laying - lovely little white pullet eggs. Why is she secret? Well, unlike all the other hand raised animals in the back yard, who trip you up while you are walking because they are so bold and tame, Camilla runs and hides whenever she sees a human. She is slowly becoming more confident , but she is a secret chook because no one ever sees her!