A friend’s bulldozer has come in handy for re-locating our storage container onsite…

This large ex-shipping container serves as a secure lock-up for tools and other rersources until we build. It will soon be painted ‘forest green’ to tone it down a bit.

The bulldozer should be useful for forming new accessways and benching the building site too!

This week we began laying out the grid pattern for our new West Orchard. We are using a permacultural technique of planting Acacias as windbreak/shelter trees. In these photos Adam the Brit & Mayumi from Japan pound in stakes using a rope-triangle guide, while Ilan “the Camel” from Israel delivers stakes from our trusty toyota 4wd : >

As these things will happen it was not long before our new base-camp on the land gained a nickname… “The Gypsy Garden“.   Tucked away at the back of the Land amidst established Kanuka and lovely Nikau palms, it is a sheltered, quiet spot.  Our little river curves about the camp on 3 sides and an old shanty serves as the cook-house while sleeping is in tents.  Click on these thumbnails for bigger photos:

Ilan aka ‘the Camel’ from Israel gives the old bush shanty on the land a new coat of paint.  This existing building serves as our ‘kitchen’ in the Gypsy Garden, until we build our new barn.

Today a large steel shipping container was delivered onto the land.

Perhaps this doesn’t seem too exciting, but actually it gives us a secure lockup and weatherproof storage for tools and equipment, and is a significant step forwards!