What a great working bee we had on the weekend!. Doone & Carol had been preparing the area for planting by ripping, disc ploughing and rotary hoeing, as well as digging the holes for the vine trellis. Then we all got stuck into it and planted 29 fruit & nut trees, 40 vines and had all the poles for the trellis in in 2/12 hours. Fantastic effort!! 
So, after lunch we dug out all the wattles that were growing on the dam wall, rolled out the trickle irrigation pipe and covered in the new water line. I think we met the new government productivity guidelines :)
To reward ourselves we went for a walk down to the hoop pine forest and through to the cascade on the new track Doone & Carston cleared. Great job guys!!.........and another beautiful Bindarrabi spot:) 

Well, we thought we would have formed the co-operative by now but between solicitors and bureaucrats we are still going :( Never mind, we have taken matters back into our own hands and are continuing on !! 
In the meantime, jobs continue to be done. We have enlarged the campground in readiness for our coming October event " Old Skills for New Times". It will be a fun event with a blacksmith, basket makers, spinners, Music, bees, edible weed walks, orienteering for kids and other kids' activities and more!!. 

We have also bought some 5m Bell tents which comfortably sleep four, plus 2, 6x3m marquees which we will use at the Oct event but also then will use for group accommodation.  So if you know of any groups that might like to have a bush camp in our beautiful environment, let us know!!

June was chilly but fine and sunny during the day, just perfect for our Solar Cooking  demonstration with Stan and Jane Caldjer. Stan gave a great presentation all the different styles of solar cooker you could use and some inspiring places where they are being used, for example in Africa, where the women not only have to walk a long way to collect wood but face the danger of attack on the way. Solar cookers save them time, effort AND improve their safety. Great outcomes! He then showed us how to make a simple fold up cooker that you can take anyway. In the meantime Jane cooked us a super damper and cake courtesy of  the free energy of the sun !