Winter is (still ) here and so is COVID!

 July/August 2020..COVID-19, and Lockdown..AGAIN!

We're now a few weeks into August 2020, and who would have believed it that we'd be back in lockdown again living in a declared State of Disaster! Unlike our friends and family in Melbourne subjected to Stage 4 Restrictions (curfew between 8pm and 5am), at least up in regional Victoria we can still leave the house anytime provided we wear a mask. Stage 3 restrictions also means, no visitors from family or friends so that means no more Cellar Door for the foreseeable future. The lockdown is in place for 6 weeks but potentially could be extended depending on how things go with containing the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, things go on pretty much as normal at 3DE. Plenty of work being done around the place including in the garden and vineyards. The last 6 remaining rows in the new vineyard, (now called the Mudstone Ridge vineyard) have now been re-ripped and prepared with organic fertiliser, mushroom compost, gypsum and lime ready for the Grenache planting in a few months time. After a pretty dry July with below average rainfall, August so far has seen more rain than the whole of last month. The three dams are once again overflowing and perfect timing for the new vineyard too.

As well as prepping the vineyard, we have levelled a site above the vineyard for a 23,500 litre water tank. The plan is to pump water from the lower dam in wet conditions like we're experiencing now that we can use to water the vineyard throughout summer. The beauty of this is that the vine irrigation will be gravity fed, as the tank is located higher up the hill than the vines, so no pumps etc will be required.

Winter food production is underway with several different seedlings planted in the greenhouse and a recent addition of some seed tray tracking made up from old fridge shelving has improved the set up. We are also trialling planting peas between the Tempranillo vines, not only as a cover crop but hopefully to harvest for eating. At least 8 different varieties from Sugar Snap to Snow peas were planted throughout the vineyard and many have already emerged. The Pink Lady apple tree has been pruned and some of the other fruit trees like the almond and nectarine have already begun flowering.

NEWS FROM THE WINERY

Due to the reimposition of COVID restrictions, unfortunately we've had to close the Cellar Door to visitors for the foreseeable future. Although not ideal, this has given us time to work on the new wine shed cellar door space, adjacent to the winery. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting new project!

Energy freedom, four new wicking beds...and the greenhouse is finally up!

SUMMER REPORT 2020

The "Tree Change" is complete!

In early January, we finally moved permanently to Heathcote. After commuting to and from Melbourne since 2007, we decided late last year to give up the rental in Ascot Vale and move to the country. That meant giving up my teaching job at Camberwell Grammar after 13 years and basically selling the whole contents of the Melbourne house on FB Marketplace! In the end, all we needed was a small van and the tandem trailer to take what was left up to Heathcote. One of the most satisfying parts of the move was calling Momentum Energy to disconnect the power and gas services. The only energy bills from now on will be our 45kg gas bottle once a year!

After a pretty hot and ferocious December with serious bushfires blazing in the east of the state, January arrived to pretty mild conditions with few hot days. The weather so far in February has been pretty mild with only a few extreme days and even some rain! Perfect conditions for the newly planted Monastrell vines of which out of 350, only one appears to not have survived. We had been keeping them alive by pumping water from the middle dam which until a few weeks back, was pretty much empty. Late one afternoon on Feb 6th, the heavens opened and a massive storm cell dumped 43ml in about 4 hrs, filling all the dams and tanks. 

Incredible what a bit of rain can do to the parched landscape. There is a lot more green around now and the Tempranillo vines have shot out a lot of new growth. The weather has been challenging for the vineyard this year and many growers, including us a reporting fewer bunches and uneven ripening.

The veggie garden has has a massive reworking with building of 4 Wicking Beds. We used cut in half IBC's which if you are unfamiliar with them, they are those large square plastic water cubes. The wicking bed principal is a much more efficient way of growing things as the plants "wick" the water up from below rather than rely on surface watering. So far the results have been amazing, producing an abundance of cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and a few pumpkins. 

The other great garden story is that after 3 years in the boxes, the greenhouse is up! It's been on the "to do" list since we bought it in 2017 but after a bit of public shaming, it rocketed to the top of the list! Thanks Tarkyn for your height when it came to the roof section!

Rain on 6th of February.

IN THE WINERY

So far this month we have been getting ready for Vintage 2020, bottling the 2019 wines (Tempranillo and Tempranillo/Garnacha) and preparing for the Long Lunch Launch on April 18th. Cellar Door has been steady with several visitors picking up a few bottles to take away. Our next Cellar Door Open is Sat and Sun, March 7/8th.

CELLAR DOOR OPEN First weekend of each month.

Autumn update.

AUTUMN 2018

 After a hectic start to the year, things have settled down slightly at Three Dams and finally a bit of welcome rain has greened things up and the crisp Autumn evenings have arrived.  
Late in April, the first vintage of Tempranillo was transferred into two oak hogsheads, one French and one American. 

 The idea behind this is to try and replicate the traditional winemaking style of Ribero del Duero in Spain. We also decided to buy a quantity of finished Shiraz from a local Heathcote producer so we now have a third barrel full of wine!

Lloyd Hudson lending a hand in the winery.

Wendy is pretty excited about finally getting her white stones to border the house. Having put that job on the back burner many times, the stones were finally ordered and Wends spent many hard hours spreading them...so far around the house and fire pit. 

A bit more tweaking of the solar PV system has happened as well with the addition of 2 x 250 watt panels facing directly West designed to catch the fading rays of the winter sun. Now we have a "real" electric fridge, harvesting the maximum solar energy is now more important than ever so hopefully panels facing East, North and now West as well will help achieve this aim.

Time now to enjoy a few nights by the fire and plan for the next Spain trip in June and the new venture, Casita Del Río!

Happy New Year from Three Dams! Summer Update

Dec / Jan Summer Update 2017/18

Wild storms, crazy grapes, fresh raspberries and stone fruit and a NEW FRIDGE!

So here we are halfway through another Summer at Three Dams and as usual, we're hard at work with various projects around the place, namely keeping the vineyard ticking along and preparing for our first vintage in a late Feb/ early March. For whatever reason, we've ended up with a serious case of overcropping which has meant we've had to bunch thin to reduce the amount of fruit the vine has to sustain and ripen. Fortunately we've had the help and advice from several well respected wine growers up here. Special thanks has to go to Simon Osicka, Phil Meehan and Eugene Meegan for their expert knowledge.

One nice thing we have been following in the vineyard is the progress of 3 little blue eggs we noticed in a tiny nest amongst the vines one day. The perfectly round nest now has two tiny little (blue wrens?) hungrily chirping away waiting for their next meal. It won't be long now and they'll be able fly away themselves.

 

Some other big projects we've managed to get through so far this summer is the building of a wood shed. Made completely out of recycled materials and salvaged timber, the new shed will hold more than a winters supply of fire wood and will also keep it dry and out of the weather. An unintentional advantage of this shed is that it will be able to rapid dry and green firewood due to the internal temperature at this time of the year! 

A few weeks back we had a massive storm that lasted about 20 mins. Ferocious winds, lightning and horizontal rain went through bringing down lots of trees and subsequently a massive clean up/recovery effort was needed to salvage all the potential firewood. We ended up with an 8 x 5 trailer overflowing with the stuff and there are still more trees to cut.

In the garden, things have been great this year. We've had our first cherries, a decent amount of apricots and peaches and the raspberries and blackberries have also come good this year. Onions, beans, silverbeet, kale, lettuces and garlic have also been really successful this year probably due in part to the abundant late spring and early summer rainfall we had last year. As usual, the apples, figs, passionfruit and nectarines are still to come in the next few months.

OFF GRID SYSTEM UPDATE

Over the years I've been tweaking the power system to get the optimum performance from our meagre system. From our humble beginnings of 360 watts, we now have just over 1000 watts which is still tiny compared to the average household rooftop array. This is mainly because I still haven't gotten around to putting up the 6 x 250 watt panels I bought back in July last year! This is mainly due to laziness on my part but also because our current system is performing better than expected and we haven't ever needed any more power, even over the winter. This may be all about to change now as this week we purchased a fridge! Yes a brand new ELECTRIC fridge!!! For the last 5 years or so we have been running a gas fridge which has been excellent, albeit a little small for our needs. The new fridge has a 4 star energy rating and when it comes on, it uses around 100 watts for 15 min or so which I reckon our system, even in its current configuration can more than handle. For example, yesterday afternoon we had the fridge, the vineyard irrigation and the pool filter all running and the batteries remained fully charged. We'll see how things play out over the next few weeks but I'm considering tweaking the solar panel arrangement slightly. I want to have the 300 watt panel facing the east rising sun, and use the 6 new panels as follows:

4 x 250 watt panels facing north and 2 x 250 watt panels facing west. 

This configuration will allow full sun throughout the day and late into the afternoon.

I'll put an update on how that goes (if and when I get around to doing the retrofit) in the next blog update.

In any case, it's great to know now that we will be saving money on gas from now on and our meagre total energy bills will be even less. Approximately $120 per year (one 45kg bottle)

Wends is rapt to now have the vegie crisper at an accesible height and a decent freezer compartment. I'm rapt to have a 6 bottle wine rack up top!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Summer Update 2016 /17

Summer Update 2016 /17

Welcome to yet another belated update from Three Dams.

After a pretty mild lead up to Summer with a Spring that really didn’t happen, we now find ourselves in late December enduring torrential rain and high humidity! Finally weather warm enough to use the pool though! As usual, there has been plenty of action here with lots going on in the garden and around the house. The BIG news this year is that we now now have a fence fully enclosing the vineyard! After last years near total destruction of the newly planted Tempranillo vines by kangaroos, wallabies and various other native wildlife, the vineyard is now protected and as I write, all the vines are doing really well and most are now well and truly up and secured on the cordon wire. Things are looking good for a small quantity of wine in 2018.

JAN UPDATE: Shoot thinning completed and 60% vine gro guards removed this week.

In other encouraging news from the Off Grid set-up, the new 880Ah battery bank that was installed in Feb this year proved reliable right through the dark winter months with no power outages or generator use required. In September, I relocated a 295 watt solar panel I had installed on the Melbourne house up to the property which increased the solar array to just over 1Kw (1075 watts). This has given us a huge boost in charging capacity and has allowed the battery bank to recharge much faster during times of intermittent sun periods, common throughout Winter. The enlarged array can also now power our recently installed, super efficient split system AC. A comfortable 25 degrees inside is possible using only 450 watts of power!

In the garden, things have been stepped up too. Cherry and orange trees were added to the orchard along with a climbing blackberry. Wends has planted an abundance of various vegetables including eggplant, corn, zucchini, capsicum, tomatoes and is very excited about the amount of apples this year and the very first passionfruits after about 5 years! Apart from all that, there’s still a lot of time spent in the kitchen keeping us and the visitors sustained, along with plenty of local Heathcote wine to keep everyone hydrated!

Time out at the Heathcote Wine Hub.

The (overdue) Winter update!

It's been a while since the last blog post and so much has happened since April! We're in the middle of the wettest winter we've experienced here at Three Dams and the first time that all the dams are overflowing in July! We've also experienced some pretty extreme temperatures over the last few months and gone through a decent amount of firewood! There has also been a few glorious sunny days but unfortunately not enough to fully recharge the new battery bank we installed a few months ago. The new battery bank has actually provided all the power we require this winter and we haven't needed to use the generator at all so far but the size of the bank requires a larger solar array so the decision has been made to upgrade the PV array. 

Back in 2008 when we set up the initial off grid system, one 120 watt solar panel cost nearly $900. In 2016, I can get 6 x 250 watt panels for a bit over $1100 so over the next few weeks I'll be replacing the under performing 780 watt array with a brand new 1.5kw array.

The depths of winter bring a new task this year...grape vine pruning! Due to the dry summer conditions last year and the subsequent problems with roo and wallaby damage to the newly planted Tempranillo vines, they will need to be pruned back harder than we would have liked. This will be done over the next few weeks and a roo protection fence will be constructed.

All in all, as usual plenty to do at Three Dams.

Welcome to THREE DAMS ESTATE

This blog is a collection of info and photos from our sustainable Eco project in the Heathcote wine growing area of Central Victoria. In Nov 2007, we purchased a 20 acre plot of elevated land just out of town and set about creating a lifestyle based on sustainable living and minimal resource use. The house itself was rescued from demolition in suburban Melbourne and transported to the property in 2 stages and was positioned facing due north to allow maximum sun exposure for the solar panels. The house is heated in winter by a slow combustion heater (generously donated by a friend) that burns wood salvaged from fallen trees on the property and in the surrounding State Forest. Rainwater is stored in a 55,000 litre water tank and most of our fresh vegetables and herbs are grown on site in the large fenced vegetable garden. All food scraps are composted and bottles, papers, metals etc are all recycled. The house is fully off grid and is powered by a hybrid 1kW PV solar/wind turbine system. The solar array is adjustable to maximise solar gain at different times of the year.

This year we have begun work on our small vineyard and also plan to plant a grove of almond trees.

Please enjoy the photos and please feel free to contact us if with your queries or comments.