Sunday night 15 minutes of heavy rain after my 9th day of bush fire siege. The relief I felt was over whelming almost.

The power, surprisingly came on Saturday night. TV broke the waiting and watching which has been a 24 hour reality.

Spot fires crept closer down through the newer rain forest behind the hen house and humpy. At night I could see the spot fires glow so I carried watering cans to put them out. Sleep I grabbed but usually for an hour at a time. Smoke is so thick at times I can not see where the fire is coming from.

Thanks to Margaret East for securing me a double 35 metre fire pump which is anchored into my 20 000 litre fire tank. Once installed, I had to practice how to start the pump, machinery not my forte, but once secured I felt a lot more ready to defend the cabin and humpy.

My hens were evacuated last week, that was a relief.

I will not venture far from my gardens. I do not want to see the new reality at my boundary with Night Cap National Park. I hear trees crashing down the cliffs and boulders falling.

There has been amazing support. Those of us who chose to stay and defend got to know more of each other.

Food I have and the garden still provides silver beet , kale and paw paws.

I haven’t even thought of taking many photos.

A very tense day just past with fires breaking out all around the valley. With no mobile phone coverage here therefore no direct alerts, I was woken by loud shouting and vehicle movement on a neighbouring property at 3 am.

Then I saw a tree light up like a roman candle on the cliffs to my north. Then the phone started ringing with neighbours deciding what to do, leave or stay.

I got into action, filling containers and buckets with water. Sweeping up dried leaves and packing a bag with water, food and the essentials.

The Rural Fire Brigade arrived at 11. They inspected the 3 water tanks for their outlets, luckily the tanks are fill. Marked my neighbour ( Joe) and my frontage so other firies know we are staying to defend as long as possible.

My escape route is to Chris’s large flat open space where we have agreed to meet if the time arrives to abandon our homes.

A huge thank you to Chris Carson, NP worker, who is my next neighbour and keeps me informed of the fire’s progress.

Tuesday is going to be the next high danger alert day which extends from the Queensland to Victoria.

Who ever thought 20 years ago when our valley regularly got 2 and a half metres of rain annually to see now less than half that rain. To watch the forest dry out and to have to endure the politicians who still deny climate change as a reality.

Winner of the Scholarly Nonfiction Book of the Year 2019 at the EPAA

Is it too late to regenerate the earth? Call of the Reed Warbler shows the way forward for the future of our food supply, our Australian landscape and our planet.

This ground-breaking book will change the way we think of, farm and grow food. Author and radical farmer Charles Massy explores transformative and regenerative agriculture and the vital connection between our soil and our health. It is a story of how a grassroots revolution – a true underground insurgency – can save the planet, help turn climate change around, and build healthy people and healthy communities, pivoting significantly on our relationship with growing and consuming food.

Using his personal experience as a touchstone – from an unknowing, chemical-using farmer with dead soils to a radical ecologist farmer carefully regenerating a 2000-hectare property to a state of natural health – Massy tells the real story behind industrial agriculture and the global profit-obsessed corporations driving it. He shows – through evocative stories – how innovative farmers are finding a new way and interweaves his own local landscape, its seasons and biological richness.

At stake is not only a revolution in human health and our communities but the very survival of the planet. For farmer, backyard gardener, food buyer, health worker, policy maker and public leader alike, Call of the Reed Warbler offers a tangible path forward for the future of our food supply, our Australian landscape and our earth. It comprises a powerful and moving paean of hope.

Drought continues following a light sprinkle.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-11-03/bottled-water-wars-in-rural-australia/11666438

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/01/birds-are-liberation-that-never-ends-but-enjoying-their-company-is-also-to-know-an-inconsolable-sadness

Thailand’s government has this week agreed to ban the use of glyphosate

Thailand’s government has this week agreed to ban the use of glyphosate and two other farming chemicals (paraquat and chlorpyrifos) due to their dangers to human health. 

The ban takes effect from 1 December 2019. There was strong opposition from Thailand’s agriculture minister, however, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul, said he would resign if the

…https://www.change.org/p/greg-hunt-mp-restrict-the-use-of-glyphosate-in-public-spaces-in-australia/u/25240192?cs_tk=AuMI3w60AWuJNpv3tF0AAXicyyvNyQEABF8BvO_R58HZ9F7p_sKZ6GRmpfI%3D&utm_campaign=1814fe158b4e4fd797e245b328b21d8e&utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_term=cs

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-17/green-walls-in-china-and-africa-keeping-deserts-at-bay/11602796