Category Archives: Summerfest 2012

‘Summerfest’ Thank You!

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Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time at
‘Summerfest 2012 Project’! 
We are so grateful for your time and efforts.
Thank you to Jesus and Mary and the God’s Way of Love Organisation for all their input, advice, direction and hands on and behind the scenes input. Thank you to the Team Leaders, their assistants, Tony our bus driver, all those who volunteered expertise, time and resources in all areas including pre makeing things e.g. bird boxes, transporting equipment, contributing ‘food’ – newspapers, etc for the living systems – and all the bits in between.  
 
We really enjoyed ourselves, learnt HEAPS and had lots of fun. Hope you did too. Enjoy implementing all the exciting experiments into your own land and gardens! 
Enjoy experimenting until we see you next, smile. 
 
With Thanks, from the Lytton-Hitchins Family.
Thank you to these two beautiful friends of ours for their love,
time, patience, guidance, advice and so much much more!!
Thank you to all of you who supported various parts of the
project. Thank you to the team leaders and their assistants
and all those who volunteered their time for this event.
Project manager and expert consultant.
Thank you both for your vision and enthusiasm.
Thank you to Tony our bus driver for
your time and expertise!
setting up camp. Hope you enjoyed the thunder storms,
Glad most of you stayed intact, smile.

Thank you to everyone pitched in and helped out in all sorts of ways! To those of you who worked the land, those who facilitated, organised and ran the event, those who volunteered time, energy and resources. We are so grateful for all of it!

‘Food’ for systems.
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed newspaper
and cardboard, including Bunnings, the Independent, Kentucky Store,
and others.  Thank you to Shane, Philippa, Lincon, Paul,
and all others who have trekked back and forth to the
paper shed over the last months. If you still feel like
collecting paper and cardboard and dropping it by, or we are happy
to collect it, please do we have many more systems to
fill and we would love to keep it coming!
Living system before

Living system during construction
Living System almost completed
seeding
Worms:

Nesting Boxes:

bird boxes flat packed

‘Reptile Heaven’:

Before
Before
finished at the top
during – under construction
reptile habitat
reptile habitat

Waterless Garden:

before
during
pre-work
during
in progress
Once again Thank you!!! We are excited about what will develop next in ‘God’s Garden’…

Preparations Day One & Two

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The last couple of days have begun and been busy organising things for ‘Summerfest’. We are grateful to all who have volunteered time and resources over the last while and especially the last couple of days organising, sourcing, gathering, delivering… Thank you so much to our neighbours for giving us their wood piles to put in the systems and to everyone who has contributed newspaper, cardboard, wooden pallets, cardboard bales, time etc.
Chopping Cardboard for ‘Worm food slurry’:
making a cardboard roll
feeding it in
shredded
worm food

Neighbour’s forest and wood piles. Gathering, chopping, transporting wood. New discoveries and wonders:

tall trees
termite mound
dead matter pile
loading
loaded

Discoveries:

ants
ant highway and animal
trail
shaped wood
somethings home
gaul wasp nodes

Standbye Paddock Preparation:

new contour
pond beginning to fill from a beautiful downpour of
rain. We suggest you bring your gumboots!
Things just want to grow!! Growth on the contours beginning
already
fertility system/living system hole partially full of water

Another load of wood from the neighbours – thank you!!

We kept imagining this being planted out and created into
a beautiful forest again! It has so much potential.
load on the move
investigating all sorts of new things.
what is happening around some of the woodpiles at the
neighbours. They are naturally creating living
systems. It was really exciting to see what is happening.
There were some different soil creatures,
beetles, ants, insects etc beginning. Not much else, but there is life.
I feel there was much that I ‘couldn’t’ see also doing lots of work.

millipede
sculptural log stacking
what water does to wood
woodchip
en-route
unloading
new home

Thanks so much for all your help, ‘pre’ preparing! We are grateful for your desire, help and growing friendships!

after some rain
v

SummerFest in Kentucky, 2012

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We have been planning and are organising for an exciting event in a couple of weeks: 

 
Kentucky SummerFest 2012 Project
 27th November – 4th December 

Below is an idea of what will be happening at SummerFest, a Day visitors Guide. You are also welcome to camp and there is another document to read with more detailed information which you can go to by following this Link if you desire to camp and/or attend the entire week (press on ‘link’ and it will take you there or visit www.divinetruth.com go to What’s New on the Left hand side and then look at the SummerFest at Kentucky and there are documents underneath that you can click on).
 
 
Note: This document is designed to provide a brief overview of the event. If you plan to attend it is essential that you watch or listen to the orientation materials, and see the full facility and event schedule details at God’s Way Of Love Event Schedule (http://www.godswayoflove.org/PDF/Org/GWOL%20Event%20Schedule.pdf).
 
SummerFest is a week long ‘festival’ to be held at Kyabra Station, Kentucky, NSW. The week is designed to give participants an opportunity to experience hands-on experimental techniques for farming, land re-generation, and home gardening, based around principles such as:
 
•Teaching about the land and how quickly we can change it to become more fertile, abundant and balanced.
 
•Empowering people to do it themselves in a new way 
 
•Educating People who are passionate about the land/environment etc, globally 
 
•How to put love back into eco-systems, and to support eco-systems as the most effective and loving way to regenerate nature
 
ORIENTATION MATERIAL
 
1. If you plan to attend on any of the days please read, watch or listen to the orientation presentations found in the following link:
(Kentucky SummerFest Orientation Material) http://www.divinetruth.com/HTML/whatsnew.htm)
 
This information is designed to give you a good overview of the principles behind activities we will be undertaking during the days at SummerFest. If you are pressed for time the audio files give an overview. If you are interested in a broader scope and examples of the main principles in action watch the youtube videos. If you do not have the chance to watch or listen to these materials prior to arrival at SummerFest there will be a daily orientation session where you will be able to watch these. It is important that you watch or listen to this material before joining us in the field so that you have a good understanding of our ethos.
 
2. OTHER SUGGESTED WATCHING MATERIAL:
Chernobyl Life in the Dead Zone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVv1vsZxV00
 
3. Please RSVP Via Email: event@godswayoflove.org
Or Phone: Peter & Eloisa Lytton-Hitchins ph. 02 6778 7458
 
4.OVERVIEW OF WEEK’S ACTIVITIES 
 
* 28th November – Swales, Systems & Contour Planting
 
We will begin the week in a large paddock (around 100 acres) focussing on large scale soil improvement and water management. Methods to be demonstrated and created include: using contours and ponds to redirect and retain water, and building living eco systems to provide fertility and regenerate soil, and seeding of grasses to prevent soil erosion.
Contour/water management site

*29th November – Re-generation and restoration of swampy land

 
Activity on this day will using some alternate methods to reduce water logging down from the paddock worked on on day one. We will focus on improving water take up through building living systems above ground and planting shrubs and bushes to absorb water.
 
*30th November: Swales & Living Systems
 
Work on this day will build upon swaling that was completed at last year’s ‘Octoberfest’. We will tend to the planting from last year incorporating living systems into swales to create fertility and improve soil.
swales & living systems site
*1st & 2nd December: Various Activities To Choose From
There are three activities to choose from on both Saturday and Sunday. You can choose a different activity each day and have the opportunity to swap between activities during the day at 11.30am.
*Activity 1: Waterless Home Gardening– demonstrating several techniques including fibonachi system to maximise sun and water usage of any area, designing waterflow in your garden, techniques to minimize or completely remove the need for watering, mixed planting incorporating natives both flowering and mulching, fruit trees and vegetables.
waterless garden site
 
*Activity 2: Nature boxes – positioning boxes for animals and birds according to their particular needs, providing shelter close to food and water. Scouting for suitable locations and some tree climbing will be necessary.

nature boxes

*Activity 3:Creating reptile habitat – Reptiles are often forgotten or even shunned members of vital ecosystems. This activity will focus on providing habitat for reptiles by placing shelter, food and water in close proximity, providing safe transit zones. We will utilize above ground living systems to incorporate suitable living shelters and abundant insect life. There will also be planting for protection and mulching.
Reptile habitat site
*3rd December: Unfinished Projects & Possible Green House Construction
The day’s focus will be on completion of any unfinished projects plus green house construction and waterless seedling propagation. Full details TBA on the day.
Kentucky Summerfest 2012
Detailed Information
 
House Rules:
 
The Lytton-Hitchins family request that no meat, cigarettes, alcohol or drugs are brought onto the property. Any persons not respecting this request will be asked to leave.
Also, the family asks that each person comes with an attitude of treating others in the same manner each person who attends would like to be treated themselves.
 
Arrival:
 
Please arrive by 7.30am. Day Parking is available by the woolshed
 
Daily Briefing:
 
Daily briefing and orientation will start at 7.30 sharp in the woolshed. (Follow the signs from the front gate to find the woolshed
 
Times:
 
Activities concerning the environment will run from 7.30 am to 2.30/3pm each day
 
Evenings:
 
Every evening there will be an activity in the woolshed that you are welcome to attend if you desire. Activities may range from a concert, dancing, karaoke, sing-a-longs or various presentations about spiritual matters. See the noticeboard in the camping ground for details on the day.
 
What to Bring:
 
Food & Snacks:All food and snacks for self and own family
 
Water bottles:There will be facility to refill water bottles throughout the day but we request that each person bring 2Ltrs for
themselves to start Hats & sun protection
 
Tools: Picks, Shovels, Forks, Rakes, and Gloves
 
Evening Meal:
 
There will be a share meal on the first night and Saturday night. Please bring a plate or pot of vegan or vegetarian food to share on these occasions if you wish to join in.
 
 
*Thank you to Jesus and Mary for putting all this information together and taking the time to organise so much of this event! We are grateful for your time, energy and efforts!

Living Systems

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Environment day today was about creating: Living Systems. Thank you Jesus for teaching us about love. Thank you to everyone who gave their time today to create a ‘worm hole’ and an experimental ‘worm mound’. We are grateful for your efforts! We are excited!
A worm found already in residence.
They were few and far between
So grateful for the tractor – what a great hole digger!!!
It was a really great day learning about the earth, ourselves and how to create abundance through giving love and supporting the intelligent life systems without expectation* that support us.
I feel that one of the greatest gifts was the fact that if want to take and we want for everything to be given to us from the earth; If we do not desire to give and love the earth, land and all the intelligent life – the fungi, bacteria, microbes, micro-organisms, worms, insects, and all the creating things – then it is really best to not begin in the first place. The whole exercise is an exercise in giving for the pure desire to give to that which creates. To give without gain.
The hole
What I learnt today is that I need to be like a worm hole.
To stop expecting and demanding** from the earth and the land and to trust God’s abundance and her way of creating and see the way she creates and help out the best that I can by providing food, water, shelter to everything that sustains life. To all the insects, fungi, bacteria, microbes, micro-organisms etc these are our friends and our desire to erridicate them reflects how much negative, self serving desire we have and how little we understand about the way that the world operates as God designed it. We create more and more problems that then need fixing. We are exhausting ourselves with meaningless things that could be done so much more easily if we were more humble, more logical and actually understood what God has gifted us in the first place. We humans claim to be intelligent but I am beginning to wonder, smile. What I saw today is that God’s way is best*** and it is beautiful, magical, abundant and can create wonderlands…. We are excited about the experiment and to see ‘who moves in’ and what happens.
Thank you to all ye who volunteered your time!
Thank you Jesus for showing us ‘how’, for
explaining the principles, the logic and love behind the
whole system!
Thank you Lena for your time and expertise
in filming and documenting the entire process.
making clay creations
preparing the hole for minerals
adding minerals to ‘help’ the soil
Our dear friends and leaders in Love and logic – Thank you!!
jostling the bale into place
cardboard packing
the more cardboard the better –  food
more  food
and more food
and more food
and more food
add manure, add worms
cover with mulch to keep moist
what a lovely ‘bug’ palace
cover with woodchips
add some homes for other fauna
taking a wee rest
The beginning of the worm ‘mound’
Bale of hay wedged into a bit of open soil
and separated to create decomposition not composting.
‘Bugs’ don’t like too much heat
the beginnings of worm food slurry/brew
make a worm food slurry/brew water, poo,
decomposed hay, small bits of cardboard
fill the gaps with cardboard and manure
put the slurry/brew under the newspaper in all the
holes and cracks so that there is moisture
thank you for all your efforts!
Put it all together
cover in manure, mulch it with hay, cover with wood chips and
then put fallen branches  (ones that have not been on the
ground long and that have not begun creating habitat.) To
hold the mound in place and create habitat and encourage other
fauna and flora to come and make their homes!
The mound
encouraging what is already there – feeding a white ants nest,
adding cardboard and wood chips to encourage the
life and support it where it is.
pretty exciting
Can’t wait to see what happens!

* Today I learnt how much expectation I have about things giving to me in order for me to get what i want. I learnt how much demand we have and how much pressure we put on the earth rather than giving to the earth abundantly and without expectation to encourage intelligent living flora and fauna to create it’s own living self creating systems. 

** This is an emotional change not just an intellectual exercise that we can think into existance. It takes us emotionally releasing the demands and expectations that we have on things to sustain us. To grow our desire to love, grow our desire to give and our desire to find out about all the intelligent life that God has created and support it purely because we desire to support it and for no other reason. 

*** In my arrogance I am not always humble to this fact and try to force my way, but when it is logically explained I wonder why I thought there was any other but God’s way. Much to learn and how exciting!