Elisabeth Fekonia from Permaculture-realfood will be in Townsville conducting two 'CHEESEMAKING AND ALL THINGS DAIRY' workshops in January 2012. Both courses will be held at Castle Hill PCYC, Belgian Gardens, Townsville and bookings are essential. Contact Elisabeth Fekonia direct on 0432 180 523 or Email: info@permacultureproduce.com.au. Her web details are www.permacultureproduce.com.au                                

Shop and WIN this Christmas with Connect2christmas!

The competition will run over 4 weeks, starting 16th November and ending 14th December.
The winners will be  announced at our Connect2mums Live Chat Christmas Party on Wednesday
night 14  December 2011 begin at 8.30pm (NSW/Vic time) 7.30pm QLD.

Shop at Urban Farmer Up North this Christmas and you could WIN amazing prizes!

Urban Farmer Up North in conjunction with Connect2mums is pleased to announce our Connect2Christmas shopping competition! We have gorgeous prizes that you can win  simply by doing your Christmas shopping online at Urban Farmer Up North.

It's easy to enter, simply:
1. Shop at Urban Farmer Up North 
2. Be a member of ‘Connect2Mums’ or become a member here www.connect2mums.com.au (it's free to join)
3. Leave a comment about your purchase at Connect2mums in the Connect2Christmas group under one of the following Prize  Categories:
Babies
Kids
Mums &  Dads
Enter here: http://connect2mums.com.au/group/connect2christmas

So who has been huddled shivering in bed these winter mornings! I know I certainly have. Have been so slack in fact that my hubby usually sends the kids up to drag me out of bed. "But it's tooooo cold" I wail!
This cooler weather has certainly been marvellous with keeping the pests at bay though and for that I am infinitely grateful. Last year we had pests invading left right and centre and many fruit failing badly because of it. This year we have a wonderful crop of cucumbers with nary a bug in site (althoug the odd cockatoo has decided to feast on them) and fingers crossed (and dare I even say it) the tomato grub just don't seem to be around this year. Even the hearting lettuces, that my husband always insists on planting and then they never heart but turn to slush instead, have developed a firm centre. Oh joy!
We have noticed though that some things are slower on the uptake, perhaps the cooler weather has the seeds and seedling shivering in their shoes as well. I've had silverbeet seedlings sitting for weeks now, not moving, regardless of any love I send their way. But I won't complain. There is nothing more fantastic than a tropical winter in Townsville. Drag out those winter woollies and pretend.

You may have heard of Joel Salatin, from Polyface Farm, USA. Joel is a 'beyond organic' farmer who supports regenerative agriculture. In 2010 he toured parts of Australia giving talks and we are fortunate to have him giving a full day workshop here in Townsville on Thursday, 4th August 2011. It looks to be both an informative and mind broadening experience.
http://regenag.com/web/upcoming-courses/details/17-joel-salatin-workshop-townsville.html

Well Yasi certainly kept us on our toes. It was an anxious wait so see just where this enormouse Catergory 5 cyclone would cross the coast. It must have been truely terrifying for those people who experienced Yasi first hand, those in Tully and Port Hinchinbrook. Places like Tully Heads and Caldwell have received horrendous damage, it will take years for those living there to get back on track.
Townsville was amazingly lucky. I spent a sleepless night on Wednesday watching Yasi on the BOM website, it dipped up and then down and I felt panic starting to set in as it got closer to Townsville, then by some strange miracle it chose a different path.
We had evacuated our house due to concerns about storm surge and I am grateful that Yasi slowed down (altering the time it hit and not coinciding with high tides) and that it was not any closer to Townsville (which would have increased the storm surge).
 I feel guilty saying this because Yasi's actions have altered the lives of so many people. When we left our house the only thing I cared about at the time was finding the safest possible place for my three kids, knowing that if the worst possible scenario proved true then our home wasn't that place. I actually didn't care at the time whether we still had a home to come back too. The kids were the priority.
Townsville got off lightly. We have lost many many trees, which I find really sad. Structurally, most homes escaped unscathed or with minor damage. Electricity was off in many parts of town, its slowly returning due to the efforts of amazing Ergon crews, but some people will not have power for weeks. Others don't have water. But we have our lives which is the important part.

What survived in the garden?
Definitely not our bananas and pawpaws. I'm sad about that. Most of the climbing vines such as pumpkin, luffa and air potato copped a hammering. The mandarin tree has developed a lean, and is now in danger of being removed completely (by my chainsaw weilding husband!). The passionfruit arch is now a square, but the vine still looks healthy. Large trees and smaller ones like grevillea snapped in the wind. We had an enormous tree that provides shade in our backyard which we prune every couple of years. All the new growth broke off, leaving the bare trunk still rooted in the ground, and the branches that fell landed over the chook runs, inadvertantly stopping them from blowing away! The arrowroot and cassava didn't bat an eyelid. The ginger and turmeric looks ruffled but the tubers aren't affected. A once potted orange tree is now enjoying life in the garden bed after its pot smashed. Pigeon pea toppled but fortunatley had left many seedlings to take its place. It will take a while but the yard will recover.
I count us very very lucky.

Will signing this petition make a difference?
I'm not sure.
But I do know that people power does make a difference.
The more people that can band together and say NO means more voices to be heard and governments will eventually have to listen.
Without the bees we have nothing.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bees/?fpla

Photos of some of the plants we are growing in our garden at the moment.

Our native bee hive splitting experiment seems to be going well. It's now been approx 3mths since my husband got all keen and he often grabs a beer and sits down the back watching the bees coming and going from the hive. WEIRDO!

The bees have been extremely busy inside the hive. When hubby built the box he added a layer of perspex under the lid, so we could take the lid off and still view the bees in action. Well now we need a torch to see inside, there is so much resin (I don't even know the correct terminology) on the walls and covering parts of the perspex. So we can only assume by their enthusiastic building that they like it.

We are very unsure of the correct time to split the new hive from the original hive - we've been told that we may have to wait up to 18mths, depending on how strong the hive is.

There could be trouble in the camp at present though. Since Sunday there has been a swarm of bees flying outside the hive. Been doing a bit of research and it could be one of three things.

1. It's a mating swarm and there is a virgin queen flying around outside looking for a lucky drone to mate with. Discounted that theory though because I doubt she would want to muck about for 4 days - gosh she'd be exhausted from all that flying. Plus it could be a little too soon for the new hive to have a queen already.
 
2. The bees are swarming. Again I doubt it as they are still fitting out the new home that hubby built them. A strong hive will start building a daughter nest, using the original hive as home base until the other is complete, when the work is done a virgin queen and a swarm of workers will fly off and start the egg laying process in the new home. But there is still room in the new hive so it's unlikely they would been going anywhere.

3. Battles!!! Stingless bees from another stronger hive are attacking the hive in our yard in a bid to take over and occupy. The most plausable theory, although I'm not sure if they usually fight for such a long time. Native bees fight to the death, so its all a bit gory and there will be losses, however the nest should recover and if the invasion is successful we may even end up with more bees!

My neighbours are growing Guada Bean (also called Snake Gourd or  New Guinea Bean) and its not actually a bean but a member of the Cucurbit family.
It's an annual climber and very suited to our tropical climate as it is generally resistant to mildew. They can grow up to a metre long and have a pale green skin with white stripes.  Pick them while young, the ones in the photo below are approx 60cm long!
So we tried them for the first time a few nights ago and they are seriously delicious!! Even my husband says so which is saying something as he is the most fussy person on Earth and usually if it's not peas and carrots then he doesn't want to know about it!
I didn't do any crazy cooking with them, no experimenting at this stage. Just did what my neighbour suggested which was lightly steaming, a smidgen of butter and salt & pepper. Perfecto!!!
So guess what we will be growing next in our garden?