Three Dams Estate...Heathcote, Central Victoria. AUSTRALIA
An adventure in sustainable, Off Grid living in country Victoria.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
The Wineshed@3DE, Mudstone Ridge Kitchen and a new pup!
Friday, October 23, 2020
The Spring rains have also seen an abundance of native wildflowers and orchids pop up around the place creating some nice contrasting colours in the bush. The other things that are popping up at the moment now are the snakes! The warm weather has enticed them out of their winter slumber so vigilance is required during the regular morning bush walk.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Spring 2020 @ 3DE
Life in (partial) lockdown at 3DE means jobs, jobs and more jobs...and a few wines here and there! As the days get longer (and warmer) we've been busy cracking on with the jobs list and have made great progress over the last few weeks. The 20 Pomegranate trees are in, as are 12 cider apple trees and 13 struggling olive trees have also been lovingly relocated to a different area to get a second chance to thrive.
In 2001 when I return from my 10 year stint in Perth, Western Australia, I brought with me several long lengths of Jarrah hardwood that have been in various storage locations since then. I finally got around to doing something with it and engaged a local craftsman/woodworker to transform them into a replacement kitchen bench top. The original sink position has been moved to under the window which frees up more space to cook and prepare food...and to cover with clutter! The old gas wall oven/grill has been replaced with a new (Yes, we bought something NEW!) freestanding cooker.
Sunday, August 16, 2020
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!
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Winter is here!
Another exciting project that we undertook last year was the native garden. A patch of land in front of the house was reclaimed and worked over (thanks Leroy) and a variety of Australian native plants and grasses planted. Fast forward a year and the garden is thriving, providing not only a great sight out the lounge room window but a natural habitat for the local birds and our new bees!