Jan 2017

Well! It’s been a long time since last update, so much has happened. Back around the end of October, Jess arrived and everything has been very fun and productive ever since.

We both went to Vipassana when she arrived, which was even better the second time around, really helped me establish my practice much more strongly. I have been meditating two hours a day ever since and I can really feel the positive changes in my consciousness the more I practice.
I have started doing Wim Hof again which feels amazing and really seems to work well i conjunction with vipassana.

Ceremony has been a big part of our lives these last few months, Jess’ first experience with the plant and my relationship with it continues to blossom. IT has been strongly encouraging me towards vipassana and any other form of self growth I can commit to.

We have a good friend come to stay with us for a while, he loves gardening too and having another ennthusiastic pair of hands makes working much more fun. We have been buying lots of fruit trees from Daleys Nursery, the variety there is amazing, but have been keeping htem all in pots through the heatwave we have been having. A storm broke just last night and dumped about 120mm of rain overnight, which cancelled our plans for more ceremonies, but it was timely as Ithink we really needed the rest.

We have seen a pair of wedge tailed eagles over the property on an almost daily basis, and recently a smaller third has joined them. The wildlife continues to amaze me with its abundance.

We have been having some issues with the sun killing seedlings and making our plants suffer, so we put up a temporary shade structure to keep them happy (mainly jess’s work there) Our button cactus don’t seem to get adequate pollination from the insects up here so I am painting the flowers with a tiny paintbrush and that has massively increased the amount of fruit being produced. Iguess there is too much pollen to choose from up here and my cactus rate pretty low on the bees priority.

I feel like everything is coming together in my life like a perfect storm. The property (currently known as lhamma dhamma kharmma farmma) is the perfect place to let go of all the past traumas and really focus on awareness, happiness and liberation. Not just for me and Jess either, we have had several friends come and stay for a while to have some respite from the rest of the world to good effect.
It feels so safe and welcoming here, Iam really positive about the now and the future.

These are the lizards that are everywhere in the house and around the property. This one got stuck in a cactus pot and had to be rescued

What looks like some kind of strage nest, but I suspect is just a termite mound.

Heres a big python I found behind the cactus, Jess thought he was dead because he had milky eyes and wasn’t moving.. a gentle poke with a stick showed he was not and we beat a hasty retreat. Milky eyes means snake is shedding and probably grumpy.

One of the cute frogs that have appeared around the house since summer began.

A nice peice of TBM crest kindly donated by interbieng. Looks like a fist. Gave many fistbumps before being grafted.

Heres my first ever cactus flowering again and Jess making her first appearance on the blog.

The mealworms grow very quickly up here! We finally got around to eating some, we fried them in coconut oil and they were pretty tasty. Kind of like nutty popcorn.

Here’s some of round one of grafting lophophora and trichocereus seedlings onto pereskiopsis.

Seems to be going well!

Some crests from ferrets backyard sale in Melbourne that jess brough up for me. Had some sunburn on day one and some rot problems.. just trying to keep them alive and get some grafts off them in case they die. This front one is still very healthy though thank goodness. It has lovely form.

This is Franklin, otheriwse known as ratdog. He is lovely but deeply helpless. He got stuck in a pile of discarded duct tape the other day. He needs constant supervision to stay out of trouble. We worry a snake will eat him if we let him out of sight. He is a welcome guest on the property.

HEres another Trichocereus Bridgessi Monstrose crest donated by interbeing. He is a generous chap.

This one I have on its own roots rather than grafting it. It looks too good to chop a piece off.

Same cactus.

The famous and much sought after boobs cactus. Kindly gifted by nrivers. I do have amazing friends don’t I? Thanks to all my friends for helping to make my life awesome.

Heres a graft that Jess had in the shop back in melbourne, it got a bit of mite damage and now that is fixed it is going a bit crazy putting out pups everywhere and growing in interesting ways.