This post is an overview of the work undertaken by God’s Way Ltd, during the work period November 18th – 29th, 2019.

Project Planning

A meeting was held to plan future Construction & Environment Branch projects for the Cushnie Function Centre & Caretaker’s Residence properties. The importance of rain water storage at the properties was emphasized.

New water tanks were purchased for the Caretaker’s Residence, and older tanks on the property will be moved to the terraced area at the adjoining Function Centre property. A roof will be erected over these tanks and the water collected used to water plants in the terraces, as well as distributed further down the hill.

Areas of the Cushnie Function Centre property were assessed for suitability for function centre and accommodation builds. A walk was taken to the highest point on the property, to gauge whether rain water tanks could be placed at this location and reticulated down to the proposed build locations. Tristan Miller measured distances and heights between potential water collection and construction sites, in order to determine the size of pumps that would be required to pump water to the buildings.

Heavy Machinery Maintenance

Eloisa Lytton-Hitchins and Wayne Shaw prepared the bulldozer and excavator for earthworks. The bulldozer and excavator are owned by Catherine Spence and gifted by her for use on God’s Way Ltd projects, with God’s Way Ltd servicing and maintaining the machinery. A few minor mechanical problems were identified with the bulldozer and a mechanic was called out to work on it.

Dam Earthworks

Earthworks have commenced to enlarge the dam on the Cushnie Function Centre Caretaker’s Residence property. Water in the dam needed to be removed so that the dam could be made deeper and wider. The dam water was pumped out and into the garden near the caretaker’s house.

Jesus has conceived the new design for the enlarged dam, and Eloisa Lytton-Hitchins is supervising and directing the dozer driver to implement the design. Eloisa also refuels and oils the heavy machinery over the period of days that it is used.

Hopefully the rainy season comes this year to fill the dam! In future, water collected in this dam will be able to be piped to environment and food production projects on the Function Centre & Caretaker’s Residence properties.

Terraces Project

The seeding process detailed in the activity report for the previous work period is ongoing and two half-days during each work week have been set aside for this task. All hands were on deck to plant seeds in the terrace furrows and lay microbe pellets and mulch on top. As the earthwork to construct each terrace is completed, seed needs to be planted before the furrows become hard and need to be re-dug by hand.

The terrace pictured above contains a lot of new growth, as it was seeded with some varieties around 1 year prior to this activity, soon after it was constructed. Further seed has been spread to widen the variety of species on the terrace.

Tristan Miller has been moving the mulch up to the terraces. The tractor is used to load mulch into the tip-truck. The project requires many loads and the work is very dusty and dirty.

Each terrace is designed with an access ramp for bringing mulch, tools and equipment like wheelbarrows into the terrace.

The soil removed from the terraces to create the ramps and excess soil from the dam renovation, is being gifted to other properties owned by God’s Way Ltd or God’s Way Ltd Members, for use in other environmental projects and experiments.

Safety Equipment Maintenance

For the safety of all people working on God’s Way Ltd projects, fire extinguishers and first aid kits need to be installed and maintained in all heavy machinery, trucks, vehicles and properties. The fire extinguishers are to be examined by an expert during the next work period, and replaced if necessary. The extinguishers will be then be guaranteed for five years and will need to be reviewed within this period.

Every 3 months, first aid kits are examined to ensure they are fully functional and that any items used are replaced.

Cushnie Function Centre Caretaker’s Residence Renovation

David Walsh (Corny) and Wayne Shaw have continued work on the Function Centre Caretaker’s Residence Renovation.

New tanks are now in place and larger guttering needs to be installed on the house and sheds to collect rain water from the roofs. Preparation and installation of guttering and downpipes for the tanks has commenced.

A pad was made for a new tank to be placed next to the house.

Corny and Eloisa experimented with polyurethane flooring, in order to determine the best flooring to use in the house.

Information Sharing and Computer System Development

Kate Eckersall has been working on computer-based tasks in the office. Work during this period included: receiving digital data (files) from volunteers and storing these on the God’s Way computer system in an organised manner, training Tristan in this process, investigating and testing technologies for creating computer programs that will assist with file classification and searching, editing and publishing blog posts to the God’s Way Ltd website.

Garden Design Experiment

Supervised by Catherine Spence, Robert Griffith has continued working a couple of days each week on the experimental garden design with fertility pits. Fertility pits are depressions in the land which capture and slowly release water and nutrients.

Cleaning

Cleaning of the God’s Way Ltd Offices and Hostel was undertaken by Kate Eckersall and Rahni Longden.

Director Activities

To allow Jesus and Mary more time during this period to focus on Divine Truth editing tasks, Eloisa directly managed the workflow of God’s Way Ltd teams. She consulted with Jesus and Mary about team feedback and project decisions once or twice each day. Eloisa had to provide quite a lot of feedback on unloving practices and interactions this period.

Jesus oversaw all of the projects, including problem solving large problems with the plumbing systems, providing workflow direction to the dozer driver and Eloisa, conceiving and improving the design for the dam excavation and many other project management decisions.

Mary wrote the company annual report and was involved in other team management decisions with Jesus and Eloisa.

Eloisa maintains the company financial accounts and this period prepared the data for and compiled the treasurers report.

God’s Way Ltd Annual General Meeting

The God’s Way Ltd AGM was held on Friday the 29th of November at the God’s Way Ltd Hostel. A meal for members, volunteers and guests followed.