East side

Last post for today! I just wanted to share my favourite photo of the last trip.

It looks so dry, and hot! It wasn't too bad, though. We took off the barbed wire from the fence in the front there, and removed the wire that was just lying all over the place. That will make mowing and scything a lot safer. The grass is about knee height in places, and we don't want to encourage snakes around the house.

The trees in the picture are almonds, and surprisingly tasty!

You might see behind the trees a water tank. It's not in use, but has some water in it. Marty is standing near it, looking up at the tank stand and blue barrel that was once being used as a header tank.

I can already imagine a low cob fence in place of the wire - keeping the wood posts, of course, because they're so full of character. I'm sure there'll be plenty of nesting opportunities for the Blue Banded bees in the fence, too. It's a longer-term project though - not too high on the priority list!

Blue Banded Bees

These lovely little bees are making their home in our new home!

The mudbrick walls have plenty of holes in them and the bees are all excited. Since we could tell they weren't eurpoean wasps, so after that, we're quite happy to have them here.

Turns out they're Blue Banded bees and are useful pollinators and aren't likely to sting anyone.

I think this means we need to get re-mudding the walls either now (so they have time to make a nest in a new wall - perhaps one we make just for them), or we might have to wait until next spring, after the baby bees are all grown up and left home.

Judging by the number of other things on our to-do list, I'm thinking we will be mudding next spring!

From a bed to a loo

Researching options for toilet facilities, we came across the very informative "Lovable loo" YouTube video. We liked the idea so much we decided to build our own version.

By chance we found a single bed for sale at the tip shop in Stawell for only $5, and immediately saw the potential for a toilet.

Single bed

There was a fair amount of materials available, and we got to work right away.

The finished product.. in place.

The sawdust is in a burlap bag that was once used for chook food, along with a handy scoop. The bucket sits neatly under the seat, very snug indeed. We've colour coded the bucket (it's black!) to avoid any confusion as to what the bucket is to be used for. So far, so good. It's working out very nicely. The whole room smells of pine.

This last visit we found that just hooking up the water tank to the plumbing let enough water push through to wash our hands in the sink. No pump required, at least while the tank is full.

We're working on the water situation - we need a header tank for the tank stand (which is about 4.7 metres high) and a pump to get water up there. It's all new to us, so we'll be researching and asking advice before jumping in. We then need to get the water into the kitchen somehow! :)

We've already made a few mistakes. The first one was to only have 2 buckets for the loo to start with. We're going to need at least a few more, until we get the composting part of the system set up. Last time we visited, we had to use the old outhouse - which isn't nearly as nice.

Otherwise, we've got solar power and batteries to research. It's probably the next priority so we can get some refrigeration happening.