Day 2 - getting down with dirt!

Today we had a few sessions taken by Adam from permablitz. The first morning session was all about energy - starting with a quick lesson on the laws of thermodynamics, and then looking at different forms of energy (eg chemical, kinetic, thermal) and how they are converted through from one form to another. The highlight of this session was "The Energy Price is Right" - where we had to order a range of items (eg kilo of firewood, manpower for a day, a ham and cheese sandwich, a lightglobe on all night, a bullet) in terms of their potential energy.

Then we got down and dirty with dirt! The next few sessions were about soil -soil structure, soil organisms, how to get good soil (get humus baby!), and varios soil types around the region. We had a good practical session where we did some simple soil testing (the ribbon test), and looked at different layers in a cut away secion of the soil just outside Commonground. Adam has some great slides of photos and mini-video taken through a microscope on another course he did recently (with Dr Elaine Ingham from soilfoodweb ). We saw lots of mini-soil critters - really interesting. We learned strategies for improving soil health, and building up your topsoil. We also had another practical session where we had to try and match 5 buckets of soil with the regions there were taken from - ranging from soil from a vege patch, to soil from a regenerating forest area. We were encouraged to use all our senses - but only a few brave souls actually tried soil tasting.

The last session of the day was on water and aquaculture (but we didn't get to the aquaculture - that will be for the next session). We talked about the way water cycles through the system through plants, evaporation, precipitation etc. We did a group exercise where we had to come up with as many ways as possible to re-use a litre of water in an average suburban block before it leaves the system. Most groups came up with 6/7 reuses, which was pretty inspiring.

By 5pm all our brains were hurting! It was good to be able to get out into the Commonground garden run by Robbie, and get into the dirt by helping to weed, plant and pot on in his organic garden. Then an excellent mean of Laksa followed by fruit salad and ice cream. Now it's after dinner and many of us are watching "The power of community" - about the Cuban's fuel crisis and how they responded to start growing their own food, and reorganising their society. So I'm goign to stop typing and start watching!