At 5.00 o’clock Sunday morning two weeks ago you would have found me fast asleep (probably snoring like a trooper) and dreaming pleasant dreams of urban self-sufficiency after a big Saturday in the garden topped off by a trip to Jarrahdale to pick up our two pet goats, Sunday and Kirsch.
Suddenly my peaceful slumber was shattered by a horrible scream that brought me bolt upright in bed. “What? Where? Is someone being murdered? Oh no!! There it is again! It’s coming from the goat pen. Someone must be attacking my goats!!” (Okay, maybe not the most natural conclusion, but the first one that sprung to my sleep addled brain.)
I stumbled out of bed and through the hole in the fence to my neighbour’s backyard to where our goats live. Expecting a life and death struggle between a goat and maybe a fox, or at the very least one of the goats with its head somehow tangled in the fence wires I was surprised to see Sunday peeking bleary eyed out of her shelter and Kirsch standing in the middle of the pen, hale and hearty, as she drew breath and let rip with another ear piercing (drums that is, not lobes) scream. After a quick assessment whereby I realised there was nothing life-threateningly wrong with the girls ( ie they were intact and had food, water and shelter) my anxiety about our lovely four-legged family turned into an even greater anxiety about how my long suffering neighbours would be reacting to this 5.00 o’clock goaty serenade.
Trying to live as an urban peasant on a tiny 213m2 block means that our gardens, bikes, compost, bees and livestock tend to be constantly sneaking into any under-utilised public spaces. Any food scraps or building materials that are left lying around usually get appropriated and it’s not uncommon for a group of kids to come knocking on your door looking for empty jam jars or egg cartons. All this calls for pretty open-minded and tolerant neighbours. . . .
So as Kirsch sucked in another gargantuan breath, I looked desperately for a way to stop whatever was causing her to make this most unneighbourly noise. I noticed that her udders were huge and swollen and it was then that in spite a premature and shocking start to the day my brain started to make sense of the situation.
Kirsch and Sunday had spent the previous week staying with our friend Keren, who has a goat minding facility. While Kirsch and Sunday were with Keren she had found new homes for Kirsch’s month-old triplets (Red, Yellow and Blue Boy). Although we had been milking Kirsh a bit over the last month she was obviously used to the kids taking most of the milk and, without them, she was bursting at the seams, a sort of mammary expanding empty nest syndrome.
Quick as a bleary-eyed, sleep befuddled flash, I whipped out the milking gear and started milking her. To my enormous relief that seemed to provide Kirsch with the sort of relief she needed. As her frothing milk poured into the stainless steel jug, she stood quietly on the milking stand munching on muesli , using her mouth for its gastronomic rather than operatic purpose.
The relief was short-lived, however, as it quickly became apparent that the two litre stainless steel jug we customarily used for milking was no longer up to the task. Without her kids feeding, Kirsch was a veritable river of milk. As I rushed inside to get another container she let out a series of bellows (how could so much milk and so much noise come from such a small goat?) which continued until I was back milking her and started up again as soon as her udder was empty. Not knowing what to do and fearing any minute some enraged neighbour would come bounding over the fence armed with a roll of goat gagging gaffa tape, I opened their gate. In a flailing of floppy udders she charged out of the pen and up the road with me stumbling after her.
When I finally caught up with her she was standing in the middle of a ‘paddock’ (a scrubby block of unused land at the end of our street) moaning and bleating. It took me an hour to calm her down and lead her home again. After scrambling through all of my goat books and trawling the net, I realised she was, of course, pining for her kids and the consensus of opinion seemed to be that she would come to grips with the loss and settle down in a day or so (a bit longer than it took my mum to stop pining when I left home.)
In a rural setting a few days of screaming goats would be fine. You just turn up your radio or put in your earplugs. Not so easy in suburban South Fremantle.
I went to bed early that night after setting the alarm for 5am. After a restless night tossing and turning I am pretty sure the alarm and the goat went off at exactly the same moment. With a sense of déjà vu I jumped out of bed and pulled six litres of milk from a screaming goat and then followed her down to the ‘paddock’ where I tried to calm her jangled nerves (and mine) before coaxing her back home. I couldn’t keep this up. Something had to be done. Then as I was filing up the goats drinking trough, an inspiration struck me….. Goats hate to get wet.
Next morning as soon as the first decibels of goat chorus hit my ears I jumped up, ran into the chook pen where the hose was and gave Kirsch a short sharp squirt. Then I ducked down into the chook pen. Immediate silence resulted. After a few quiet moments, Kirsch gave another, slightly more tentative bleat so I bobbed up and squirted her again. After a few minutes quiet I figured I had found the perfect solution to noisy goats and crawled back into bed.
About five minutes later she started bleating again but this time the instant as I made a move for the hose she stopped her goat shout and stood looking forlornly at me. I reasoned that squirting her when she was quiet would only be counter-productive and definitely send a mixed message so I figured I may as well get back under the covers. As soon as I headed back to bed she would start again only to stop as soon as I made a move on the hose. Not to be outsmarted by a goat, I pretended to go back to bed but actually ducked down behind the fence and quietly snuck into the chook pen without her seeing me. Just to make sure she hadn’t realised I was there I peeked through a nail hole in the fence.
Now I know my little domestic goat is quite a few generations removed from her wild relatives but obviously her sense of smell and hearing survived her domestication.
Picture this if you will. On one side of the fence there’s me… stark naked, half awake, crouching in a pile of chook shit and cabbage leaves. On the other side…. one damp but defiant goat staring straight back at me, nostrils flaring and her ears like a couple of sonar receptors knowing exactly where I am and exactly what I’m planning.
They say a good relationship requires give and take. After two weeks of negotiation Kirsch and I have come to an arrangement. She gives me some time to sleep in in the morning and I take her for a walk up to the paddock in the afternoons. I give her plenty of goat muesli and branches and she gives away 5 litres of milk every day. She gives me access to her udders and I take good care of her. I don’t kid myself about where the power lies in this relationship. Goats have an acute smell, excellent hearing and when moved to it uses it, an incredibly loud voice. I on the other hand only possess opposing thumbs that allows me to hold a hose and turn on a tape.
And in terms of intelligence? Well, never take a knife to a gun fight.
Applications were made to the City of Fremantle for three different aspects of the Fiesta. (Please contact Shani Graham if you would like to see copies of these applications.)
This year’s Fiesta poster featured a painting by local artist Tim Darby, entitled “Growing Community”. His whimsical water colour caricatures are popular with adults and children. Tim donated the use of this image to the Fiesta.
In preparation for the Fiesta several street and community events were held, including a Street Verge Gardening Day a month or so before the big event. During the day residents of Hulbert Street were encouraged to plant productive food gardens on their verges, or tidy already established verge gardens. Three new verge garden beds were established and many verges were tidied. All households did some tidying of verges before the big day.
During this day, participants received training from Shani and Tim in organic vegetable gardening and an extensive tour showing the features of the two sustainable houses (The Painted Fish and #21) open over the Fiesta weekend. It was envisaged that these volunteers would then act as “guides” over the weekend, assisting people with questions etc. This training would also assist them in their own personal development and academic study.
During a Scarecrow Making Day facilitated by local community artist Nadia Rasheed, held the Sunday afternoon the weekend before the Fiesta participants were encouraged to make their own scarecrow to enter a competition held over the weekend. Approximately 25 children and families enjoyed this opportunity. Scarecrows were used to sign post open homes, gardens and studios before being gathered for official judging on the Sunday afternoon of the Fiesta.
The Painted Fish at 37 Hulbert Street was open again part of Australian Open Garden Scheme (AOGS) with a door charge of $6. Three volunteers worked on the in and out door of the Painted Fish all weekend. The number of people entering the house and garden less than in 2008 (only 500 people or 10% of visitors paid to enter the Painted Fish compared to 1000 people or 50% of visitors in 2008).
The front half of Tim and Shani’s other property at 21 Hulbert Street was also open to the public, with all proceeds from the donation box inside going to the running of the Fiesta. An estimated 700 people visited this house.
Four other gardens in the street (at # 7, 24, 26 and 10) were open to members of the public .
- The Solar Shop
This year about 60 stall holders participated – a well planned mixture of community groups (such as Living Smart, St Paul’s Church, Soroptimist Club etc ), local artists and craftsman (eg Kiki, Chinky Rooster, Desert Shadow), local businesses selling or providing information about sustainable products (eg Solar Shop, Solar Options, Tanks Very Much etc), flea market stalls and stalls selling food and drink (local schools and community groups were encouraged to run food stalls).
The stalls were coordinated by Kylie Wheatley from Red Tent Events at a discounted rate, with stall holder fees providing 68% of her fee. Stall holders were charged a sliding scale- from $50 a day for companies selling sustainable products or food, to $40 per day for local artists, $20 for community groups selling goods or services on the day, and $10 for flea market stalls. Community groups or individuals that were not selling anything were not charged for their stall. Hulbert Street residents who ran a stall were not charged.
A great deal of effort was made to ensure that stalls met the criteria for entry – products being sold had to be locally made and produced or be sustainable household goods, community groups had to be not aligned to any political part, and there was attention paid to the final “mix” of stalls. While this does reduce the percentage of Red Tent’s fees that come from stall holders, it is felt that it is vitally important to keep the local and sustainable focus of the Fiesta.
The buskers stage proved very popular this year, and all spots were filled before the opening of the Fiesta. Shani contacted interested parties from last year and other local musicians and an article in the local paper appeared about a month before the event calling for buskers. Many street residents participated in the busking.
- Local children playing violin and guitar
During the ceremony Shani Graham invited all elected officials and those who wanted to be elected (local council elections were being held!) to come forward and collect two blue ribbons. Participants then had to find someone from the audience to give one of their ribbons to before joining these ribbons. These pairings were then combined to create a circle of ribbons with both elected and non elected members of the community, symbolising community working with various layers of government for a more sustainable community.
A formal closing ceremony, scarecrow judging and raffle draw was held on Sunday at about 3pm. Sadly it had just rained very heavily before this event, and the planned scarecrow parade did not eventuate. Melissa Parke (Fremantle federal MP) Lyn McLaren (State MLC) Georgie Adeane (local South Fremantle Councillor) and Andrea Whiteley (Soil Sister) participated in the closing event. Local drumming group Wasamba began proceedings by performing and then encouraging participants to get their faces painted and join in.
Three special mentions were made from the collected scarecrows before prizes were awarded to all scarecrow participants. Many scarecrow makers were not present and many entry sheets had been damaged by the rain, so a letter to the local paper encouraged participants to contact Shani after the event to collect prizes. The Herald ran a three quarter page photo montage with the letter, an exciting surprise for organisers, volunteers and participants.
Shani had been bed ridden with a prolapsed disc for about three months before the Fiesta, and underwent back surgery three weeks before the weekend, so many calls for assistance were made to the Freo Living Smarties and local resident to assist. As well as a host of people who helped set up, prepare gardens and clean before the Fiesta, a total of ten volunteers were working at any one time over the Fiesta weekend. All street residents and volunteers were given special name badges to wear. 90% of residents in the street participated in some way, either by opening their homes, gardens or studios, running fundraising stalls, or working on the doors over the weekend.
The Fiesta clearly needs to be well insured. Because Red Tent Events coordinated the stalls, the street itself and stalls are covered but it is suggested that different opportunities to be looked at for house, garden and studio insurance. It is suggested that the Fiesta has a big enough profile to “go it alone” without continuing to be an Australian Open Garden Scheme Event, but this does mean that other insurance will need to be sought. Ideas for discussion include paying for private Event Insurance from private insurance companies or the WA Local Government Association, or expanding local household insurance over the weekend.
The second morning I commented it sounded like it was still learning how to crow. Tim suddenly said “what if it’s ours?”
Mum told us the first thing to do was relax the rooster by a process of hypnosis. Apparently chickens are not over endowed with intellect and so are excellent candidates for hypnosis. After about half an hour of my mum gently swinging a giant love heart bling in front of the chook, it was no more relaxed but Tim was starting to look decidedly glassy eyed.
She and Tim had a lovely time “quieting” the rooster, plucking, gutting etc and today we had the most amazing chicken soup for lunch – all with veges from our suburban garden – potatoes, broccoli, spinach, carrots, corn (dried from last summer). What a feast (and not a shop in sight!!)
But my favourite bit? – seeing my mum and partner sitting side by side while they plucked the rooster, talking about growing food in your own backyard.
So what could be a more appropriate for a busy bee activity than actually making a bee hive?
In our case the guy shaking his tail was Peter. Pete’s a lovely bloke who luckily for us has a passion for relocalised food production (he only sells his honey within 65 kms of its production) and helping people to reconnect to where their food actually comes from.
We have been eating his honey for a while and he had been coming along to our community events for a while, when one day over a cup of tea (sweetened with his honey of course!) he offered to help me make my own bee hive. I invited one of the neighbourhood kids (who loves all things that creep and crawl), he invited some of his mates, and before long Shani sent out a street note and we invited everyone.
Then Pete waggled his tail, and once again we flew into a frenzy of drilling screwing, hammering, threading stainless wire and working the wax into the frames. . . . .
Being a bit of a DIY guy, I also found it really exciting to see people of both genders and all ages getting hands on with the tools. Nobody lost any fingers and by the end of the day we were the proud producers of a solid and reasonably square bee hive.
When we visit the hive Pete always brings a full size bee suit for himself and a little one so one of the kids in the street can get right amongst the action. Each time we visit I find I am fascinated by some new bee fact. The last time we opened the hive Pete took out some propolis (a waxy pinkish bee building material) which has a natural antiseptic. It cured a mouth ulcer I had in a day.
Having access to a hive has made us much more aware of bees in our own gardens and what blossoms attract them. Last time we went to see the bees some of the kids took flowers they had picked from their own gardens so the bees wouldn’t have to fly so far!
Once upon a time I used to be a school principal. I first became a principal in an era of devolved responsibility to schools, and my favourite boss used to constantly say “You know what needs to be done – just do it. Beg me for forgiveness later, don’t waste your time with permission now”.
It only takes a movie like “The Power of Community” about the Cuban peoples’ response to their own oil crisis in the form of urban agriculture; soon you find yourself googling “guerrilla gardening” and . . . .
Our first attempt at guerrilla gardening found us using a space between our property and the walkway down to the beach. It was well screened with native scrub so we thought no one would notice. We used this area to plant fruit trees, a few vege beds and hide our five bay composting system.
Two years later she very generously is not saying “I told you so” as we replant the fruit trees onto a sunny verge and replace them with shade loving coastal indigenous plants for greater biodiversity and establish a street bee hive behind the coastal tea trees.
“You can’t plant there – people will steal the tank and take the veges” said Tim. Funnily enough nobody did, and in fact months later we discovered one lady stopped every day for a bit of weeding and to pick off the caterpillars! The highlight of our Street Fiesta in 2008 was harvesting that small garden and distributing the bounty.
So this year work on our Hulbert Street Living Smarties Garden began in earnest. In autumn people attending a Living Smarties course we were running provided the people power and motivation and we created four beds made from old tin - creating two as no dig beds and bought organic vege mix from the great Green Life Soil Company for the other two. Two round beds for potatoes were added a while later and each time we run a Living Smart course we expand the number of beds. Now we have a total of 10 garden beds or about 25 square metres of garden .
But what about water? – Anna’s place is the closest house to the garden. Anna is now 84 and while her husband was a keen gardener his death 16 years ago has meant there is not much action in her backyard recently. She has generously allowed us to hook up a watering system to her outside tap so that no more bucketing is needed, and we are looking forward to watering her husband’s grapevines this summer (yup they are still surviving after 16 years with no water!)
Six months on we have just harvested the potatoes, and eat daily from the garden – peas, carrots, beetroot, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spring onion, leeks . . . all the usual winter garden fare.
Last week a lady told me about the garden she had established at home inspired by our efforts – it made my day. In fact when I am feeling a bit down I often head up to the garden for a potter and chat with whoever is going past.
“Well it hasn’t happened yet” I reply, “unless you count Ellie and Zoe whose mum lets them have a snow pea or two every day in exchange for finding snails, or my mum Joy who gets all her greens from here in exchange for worm wee, or the horse who ate half a cabbage before its rider could stop it . . . .. But see those herb beds – there is marjoram, oregano, thyme, basil and coriander – help yourself! Rebecca comes up from Hickory Street every day but she tells me they need to be picked more often”
Hey Chidlers
10am – 12pm: Sustainable House Tour of The Painted Fish and Number 21 Hulbert Street Learn about passive solar design, water harvesting, and making your own power. Lots of ideas for your own place.
Last weekend saw neighbour helping neighbour as residents of Hulbert Street spent the morning readying their verges for the annual Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta, before a shared lunch right out of the street Living Smart garden!
Last Sunday two more households prepared vege gardens, while other residents weeded and shared the big street mulch pile!
“With a Living Smart speaker’s tent, buskers corner, cafe, family activities, and street stalls for community groups, local artists and businesses selling sustainable products, you should be able to spend the whole weekend here, and learn heaps about making your life more sustainable.”
This is one of three preparation days planned before the big event on September 19th and 20th 2009.
If you are interested in a having a stall at the Fiesta, want to busk or participate in any of the pre Fiesta events, or came last year and are willing to help out over the weekend contact Shani on 
