Eight Acres

The book  Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making  (affiliate link) sets out a guide to developing a holistic goal for your farm or business.   See my introduction to Holistic Management here , and  part 2: four key insights  for the reasons why holistic management is important and  part 3: holistic goal  for understanding what you are managing and what you want from it.  I reviewed the  ecosystem processes in part 4  - the water and mineral cycles, energy flow and community dynamics. In part 5 the book takes that understanding of ecosystem processes  and discusses the tools that we can use to manage ecosystem processes in brittle and non-brittle environments, including: money and labour, human creativity, technology, rest, fire, grazing, animal impact and living organisms.   In part 6 we learnt about questions to ask to test our management decisions against the holistic goal defined in part 3.  This e...

The book  Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making  (affiliate link) sets out a guide to developing a holistic goal for your farm or business.   See my introduction to Holistic Management here , and  part 2: four key insights  for the reasons why holistic management is important and  part 3: holistic goal  for understand what you are managing and what you want from it.  I reviewed the ecosystem processes in part 4  - the water and mineral cycles, energy flow and community dynamics.  The next part of the book takes that understand of ecosystem processes and discusses the tools that we can use to manage ecosystem processes in brittle and non-brittle environments.  These tools include: Money and labour Human creativity Technology Rest Fire Grazing Animal impact Living organisms Money and Labour I admit I found this chapter abstract and confusing.  I think the point is to consider the use and sour...

The book  Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making  (affiliate link) sets out a guide to developing a holistic goal for your farm or business.  ( See my introduction to Holistic Management here , and  part 2: four key insights  for the reasons why holistic management is important and part 3: holistic goal for understand what you are managing and what you want from it). Holistic management considers four fundamental and interelated processes that function within our ecosystem/environment: Water cycle Mineral cycle Energy cycle  Community dynamics These processes are the foundation on which we can build our holistic goals.  The holistic goal should be formulated around how we want to influence these processes, as any improvement in one will result in an overall improvement in productivity of the land.  I will use this post to discuss the processes and further develop the holistic goal that I drafted previously. W...

The book  Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making  (affiliate link) introduces four key insights that underpin the concept of Holistic Management.  ( See my introduction to Holistic Management here ) 1) The Whole is Greater that the Sum of the Parts Hence the reason for the word "holistic".  Every landscape is part of a broader ecosystem.  If we make a small change on our property, say clearing trees or building a dam, it will have an impact on the wider system.  Every action we take, we must consider the holistic effect.  Later in the book, there is a chapter on forming a holistic goal for your farm, so that you can ensure that everything you do moves you towards the holistic outcome that you want, and doesn't do unexpected damage. 2) Brittle vs Non-brittle Landscapes Landscapes respond to influences depending on where they sit on a brittleness scale.  Non-brittle landscapes have frequent rainfall, a fairly constant gr...

Has everyone heard of Holistic Management? Its a technique for land management developed by Allan Savory. I first came across it when I watched a video of a presentation he gave.  I can't find the exact one now, but there are a few on Youtube that give a good introduction. I've included one below, ( which you can find here if you're reading this in email or RSS feed ). I also went to a workshop with Allan's son Roger back in 2013.  He is based in Queensland now and has a company called Savory Grassland Management .  Anyway, it was a one day workshop and really gave me a lot to think about, and since then I had been planning on getting the book ( Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making ), but never quite got around to it until Fiona from Life at Arbordale Farm texted me last year to say she had found TWO copies at the Lifeline book sale for $7 each.  And so I finally got the book and that is a very long introduction to this post,...

I've had a compost worm farm for several years now.  Actually I currently have three worm farms.  They are a little addictive!  I didn't know anything about compost worms before I got them, but I fell in love with the concept of having somewhere to dispose all our organic (vegetative) waste that would also reliably produce compost and liquid fertiliser.  The worms and I have been very happy with our relationship and I thought I knew everything I needed to know, but then a neighbour (who we respect as a very good hay farmer) recommended this book - Organic Farming with Worms, by David Murphy  (and that's not even an affiliate link because its not on Amazon).  Not just recommended it, he actually raved about it and showed us his new compost worm farm, and he said he'd bought copies of the book for all his friends!  This really got my interest, so I ordered a copy for myself. This book is for anyone who is serious about getting more out of their ...

Its not until we have visitors, or we stay away from home, that we realise how weird some of our habits might seem to other people.  If you are trying to live a simple, frugal, self-reliant or sustainable life, you probably have some weird habits too.  I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.... 1. We eat what we grow Sometimes people bring us food.  Honestly we don't need any food, if anything we have too much food.   We have all the meat, vegetables, eggs and milk we can eat at the moment .  I actually got a little stressed out recently by exactly how much food we HAVE at the moment.  Please don't buy food for us, but we would love to share what you grow yourself.  When I want to take something to share with someone else, I usually want to grab something out of the garden, is it weird to turn up with a kg of tomatoes, or a carton of eggs?  We occasionally stop at the bakery and pick up a sugary bun just in case our home produce is not welcome...