Belated harvest results and report for 2023

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I haven't managed to keep up with my blog posts, but what I did get stuck into is posting images fairly regularly on Instagram @abdallahhouse. If you go right back to the first entries you can get a pretty good idea of what we've been up to. 

2023 Report

Kunie and the boys headed to Japan for about a month early in the year, which gave me a chance to get a 2nd hand extractor fan installed in the kitchen. It extracted the gas fumes from our 1960's cooker out through the top of the cool cupboard, and out through the flue. It was a good opportunity to revarnish the floor, chairs, table and repaint the cupboards and doors.

 


The other big job I got started was the long awaited rebuild of what I have been calling 'the shed', which was actually the original outhouse (toilet) and laundry/bathroom. The last remaining part of the original building. The building was identified by David Holmgren as a "prime candidate for retrofitting as a studio space" (page 92) of his 2018 book RetroSuburbia. So it progress over the year from a worn out dump, to an attractive shell of a building - called the Studio.
The primary driver for this job was to use up as much of the materials that I had collected over the last decade + as possible. I wanted to use up as many things that I had collected as possible and keep costs to a minimum. I spent $3658 to get the frame up and the 'skin on'. I loved doing this project! A great way to creatively reuse materials. It captures the essence of who I am.


For some strange reason I took on another job that I'd been thinking about for a long time, a crazy paving path along the south side of the house. The purpose of this was for both access and to create a 'dam wall' to prevent water getting under the house from the nearby infiltration basin. I had the perfect amount of concrete pieces to complete the job, with some brick used to widen the path.

This was a very meditative exercise, that helped me cope with financial challenges that I had been facing in the book publishing / sales / distribution businesses that I help run - Melliodora.com


2023 Harvest

As far as harvests went for 2023, it took a while to get things back under control after being away for 3 months in 2022, getting back early November. So I had a late start on the summer plantings. There was also a lot of work to do at the Whiteheads Creek Garden to get that back in order after the severe flooding in October 2022. 
  • Total 422kg
  • Eggs = 572
  • Vegetables = 172.6kg+14kg of Tomatoes from Whiteheads Creek Garden
    • Poor harvest from Whiteheads garden because of flooding impact in Oct 2022.
  • Fruit = 192kg
  • Herbs = .9kg
  • Other = 14.9kg
    • A big increase, primarily because the hazelnuts have come into production.

See detailed spreadsheet results below, use tab at base to change the year. Updated with new results as the become available. Use the tabs at the base of the spreadsheet to the year you want to view - it automatically displays the most recent spreadsheet.

See our 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2013 food harvest result post here. 

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