More on Peter Andrews

We have just had another day with Peter and it's been so good. I've read his books and I've listen to him talk, but it really isn't until you are standing in the paddock and seeing what he's seeing and listen to what he's saying that you really get the full appreciation for his knowledge - his knowledge is formidable. He's very good in the actual doing stuff and we built another weir this afternoon. We now have 4 that still need a little work on and we hope to just continue building. I will write more about the weirs later. Today I was going to explain a little bit about what we did in half an hour this morning.

We have a contour bank that runs between two sections of pig paddocks. This forms a lane way and we also use it to slow up any nutrient run off that may happen off the pig paddocks. Our aim is to not have run off, but with the sort of down pours we get in summer, we do get some. Peters suggestion was to put some mini ponds into the contour. The contour bank is more of a level drain than a contour. This will work like a series of ponds to filter any runoff. This could also work on any existing contour bank to just slow up the water and hold it on the paddock for longer.

First load of dirt at the base of the existing contour bank.

Taking the dirt from the grassed part of the flat outside edge of the ditch. We took about 3-4 bucket loads and tried to  place the grassy side up.

This is the finished product. Looking back towards the contour bank. We tried to smooth it all over and we'll get grass growing along the bank to hold it firm. Peter has suggested Kikuyu, so we'll have to find where we can get some runners.

There's a little rain around at the moment, so it would be perfect if we could get about an inch of rain tonight!

Stay tuned for more.........