Pondering and Planning

Project progress has slowed down lately. Probably due to the hot weather and the flies making it unpleasant to be outside. Instead we've been spending our time thinking and planning. We have many of our ideas scribbled down on a printed out Google map of the property, and it gets added to all the time. Sometimes I pull the map out and realise that we had the placement of something we've been wondering about already on the map! Oops, forgot about that.

When we started thinking about the shed project again - the half finished one that's stalled - it became obvious that we've squeezed ourselves into a confined area and it's just not going to work. The shed project has stalled because we're not feeling sure about the design or the location. It's an uncomfortable feeling that's just not going away!

So, pulling out the map of the property, there really is only one spot near the house that hasn't been ear-marked for other great things.. the North side of the house. The North is a tricky location, but after pondering it for some time, we've seen that it would make a perfect location for the shed of our dreams.

There's enough room to fit the cars, tractor, implements, materials storage and even the workshop all in that one location. Not only that, but the roof would have enough room (and is facing the correct direction) for a proper solar array. There is no more room on the cottage's roof for any more panels, and it means we can plant deciduous trees around the house to benefit from their shade. We could even put the solar command centre and batteries in there.

So, location sorted, design almost perfected, we're waiting on our friend and neighbour to dig out the pad nice and level. I think Marty is going to order the materials tomorrow. We're both feeling energised by the new design and location - which has to be a good sign. Yes, I have a good feeling about this!

The other plan I've been thinking about is the kitchen. I needed to figure out the rough layout of the room so we can have 240V power installed to the correct location. I used Sweet home 3D and a tape measure and given all the constraints, it was easy to fit the the pieces of the puzzle together.

That's the rough plan for now. It's difficult to show it properly without being able to move it around, but the idea is that we'll wall off part of the kitchen to create a big cold cupboard/pantry that also houses a little chest freezer. The cold pantry will be full of shelves for storage of food etc.

The rest of the kitchen had to go where it will fit. The oven is a representation rather than a real thing.. the sink will hopefully be a corner sink, and the yellow and pink represent cupboards we already own and didn't want to get rid of. We'll put any 240V appliances on them in that corner. We've always wanted to cut a window into the North wall.. and no, the walls won't look like that at all! Ha! But you get the idea..?

So, other than planning, our time has been taken up with gardening, mowing, working and going into town.

We're feeling a bit more confident going forward with good plans in place. :)

November garden in photos

I walked out the back door (our only door to the outside at the moment), and I'm so glad the first thing to be seen is the garden. There's the classic strawberry in a hanging basket, some timeless herbs like calendula, thyme, gotu kola and there's a small comfrey* plant amongst that mess.

The Water garden was started a little late this year, but the plants don't seem to mind. The Kang Kong only just survived the winter being brought inside to take root in a jar in the North facing window. I lost all but 2 plants, and I realise now that I should have taken cuttings much earlier and brought them inside once they had established roots. I think I'll have a bigger plants than this by this time next year.

The Chinese water chestnuts are amazing! I put about 8 in a paper bag, into a plastic container, into the fridge (an esky with variable temps) and left them there all winter. I opened the container a couple of weeks ago, and they looked ready to go, so I planted 4 of them into pots. A few days later, something hungry came along and ate 3 of them! Looking at the ones I'd left behind, looking dry and done, I popped them in anyway and covered the pots to keep (choughs I reckon) hungry beaks at bay, and wouldn't you know they're sprouting now? The original one is doing great, so it's a small set back for the others, but considering how quickly these plants grow, I'm guessing we'll have too many again next year - and only from the two pots like this..

I took a walk around to inspect the trees, which is dangerous around here, and although I could be talking about brown snakes, I'm actually referring to the grass seeds that get stuck in your socks as you walk around. They burrow and get into everything, and it can get to the point when you feel like if you take another step, you'll break skin! I know, I know, that's why I should be wearing sock protectors.. and tracksuit pants are a definite no-no!!

Anyway, we have moved the chicks away from under the apricot tree, and it's really responding to having the extra fertilizer. New growth, green all around. Amazing what chooks can do.

The hugel bed is more green than the surrounding area. We've had a little rain, and it responded right away. Many of the dead asparagus plants are suddenly putting up new shoots, and the green manure is green again. Amazing what a difference a little earth works can make!

We finally got around to the major task of moving the chooks the other day. It normally would take us about 30-45 minutes these days, but we had moved them all the way down to the end of the property. Well and truly zone 5 stuff! The weather warmed up quickly, and we didn't want them to suffer the slow hops back toward the orchard area, since there are NO trees in between. So, we boxed them up at night, secured them in with the chicks, then used the tractor to drag the houses up to where they are now. We came back the next morning to set up the fence and let them out into it.

It's been almost a year since they were last on this ground, and even so, the fruit trees seem to be better off for it. Little pears are getting bigger, the quince is giving me hope (although, it did look hopeful last year as well, but the fruit turned black and died well before ripening). All the plants are looking happier this year. It could be the pruning our Permie friends did, the extra water we've had this year, the extra manure or all of those things combined.

I think we've both decided that the orchard area is where we'll make the chooks permanent run, and move them around within it (or exclude them from certain areas where needed). It makes so much sense them being close to the house (especially the front door when we re-instate it), we can protect them and the fruit at the same time (from foxes, possums and wallabies/kangaroos), and they will keep fertilizing the trees and keep pests like fruit fly at bay, and gain the benefit of the shade in summer.

Now we just need to build it..

Add it to the list!


* Seems hiding the comfrey from the pests is working for now. The new Paterson's Curse Crown Boring Weevil is very effective at reducing comfrey numbers to nothing around here - but there's still a good amount of Paterson's Curse around, since the weevils are only just starting to do their thing, and the weed it's suppose to control has done finished flowering by now..

Not too slack

It's nice weather for sun baking..

..but we've been busy with the solar system this week. We ran the wire for the lights in the kitchen from the old system to the new. I always forget how to wire up the pull-switch, have to look it up every time!

The most obvious part of the whole thing was finally being able to take down the UGLY little solar shed that dominated the north wall of the cottage.

Other than that, we're almost back to "normal". We're still charging everything outside instead of in the kitchen though.. and the freezer.. that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. All I can say about that right now is, I made a HUGE mistake buying it all those years ago! Now it's back to square one again, but at least we have a good idea of what we really need out here now. (Something I wish I had considered way back when..)

We'll show-off the whole system after we've installed the battery monitor, so it'll be just about all done as far as 12 and 24 volt is concerned. Marty and I are a little bit proud of ourselves for pulling it off. We knew nothing about this stuff before hand. It's been quite the learning experience, and this way, we know our system inside out, back to front. :)

Wet shaving and cutting concrete

So my face had hair all over it. Whiskers and grays. I'd say it was a full on beard! A rarity for me and probably the longest it's ever grown. While I liked the look and face warming goodness that accompanied it, the opposite can be said for the hot summers here so it was time for it to go. Back around May this year I started researching wet shaving because I liked the idea, frugality of it, and the super keen old school tech. I put together this little starter kit;

Only, it was just in time for winter... so it was relegated to the back of a cupboard - until about 3 days ago when it finally came to use and boy did it shave swell! Firstly, I got Manda to hack off the longest bits with a hair clipper, before trying out the double edge safety razor and thankfully loosing only a little blood.

I'm using a Muhle R89 Classic DE, Semogue 1305 Shaving Brush, some Occams Original Shave Cream, a blade sampler pack, some Mitchells Wool Fat shaving soap and the lathering bowl is from Bendigo Pottery that was found in an op shop.

We've also been powering forward with the off grid solar project. One part of it was cutting conduit channels into the concrete porch area where the system resides.

This exercise has cemented our idea not to remove the concrete porch when the time comes to construct a proper wood deck. While our neighbor told us of the thin layer of concrete over bricks around his house, we seem to have thick, well made cement, complete with quartz and reo-mesh!

We've been buying wire, bits, and hooking up converters, then unhooking them, buying more bits, drilling more holes... soon it'll be done... soon.

Charging ahead

We began early this morning, lifting the final panels onto the roof and plugging them in. The batteries were cleaned and wired in series and parallel, plus the temperature sensor for Blue on a negative terminal. We checked and re-checked everything, put in the remaining fuses and turned the system on. What a moment!

All that work comes down to this little setup we call the SCC - Solar Control Centre. (Not a very catchy name, and rather military, but it fits.) There is more to add to the system, but this is the basics of getting energy from solar panels into batteries. Everything flows from right to left - first a 2 way box with a couple of 50A fuses in there for the positive and negative cables coming from the solar panels, then Blue - a MPPT charge controller that is the brains of the system, over to the Bussmann fuse box which keeps the batteries and Blue separated if things go pear shaped (it has 80A fuses in it), and down to the batteries who enjoyed their first charge today thanks to this little setup.

So, how am I writing this if we've started the charging?? Well, silly us.. we realised that we can keep some of our power just by keeping one of the panels off the roof and using it to keep charging the old ute battery system. It's working just fine for now, and we're grateful for that. It gives us some breathing room to wire up the house and attach the other smaller components. We also want to make a door for the SCC to help keep out the dust.

We'll go to bed very tired, but happy with ourselves tonight.

Electricity and Water

The weather has certainly warmed up with 30°C+ (88°F-ish) days lately. We discovered last year that Spring isn't like it was in Victoria, with a slow build up of beautiful mid 20°C (77°F-ish) days. Nope, here we jump right into hot. Honestly, the winter hats, hot water bottles etc are still out and were only used a week or so ago.

But on that note, it means free hot water! Ok, luke-warm water is good enough for now, but oh how wonderful it feels!!

We used an old shower screen over the bath - an idea we got from our friends Jeanie and Bill. It was overcast today, but even so, after working in the roof and sweating all day, it was like heaven! The water drains to the mandarin tree, and soon the lemon tree as well, plus the pavers obviously need a bit of work still. :)

We're trudging along with the solar system. Step-by-step, little-by-little..

We've installed the conduit from the panels over to the batteries, fed the solar cable through (that is way more difficult than it sounds), bought just about every little bit of conduit joiner and accessory known to Masters (the hardware store), and we are still missing bits! Tomorrow we'll add the switch between the solar panels and "Blue" (the affectionate name for the charge controller), put Blue into place and wire her up. After that, we've got a pretty big job of taking down each one of the panels and re-wiring them.

It's only after all that, and then some, can we start the batteries charging for the first time. The initial charge is suppose to be for a week without load. As you might imagine, we're a little hesitant to say goodbye to the luxury of electricity for a week, but we'll just have to manage. It will be very much worth the wait though! It's not like we'll be sitting around with nothing to do, however. There's wires to run for the house, cutting concrete to run conduit to the kitchen and lounge, a light circuit to run for the bedroom perhaps, and of course, BATHS to relax in!! :)

For the garden!

Marty and I have spent a few days working on an idea I had. Originally, it was suppose to be a simple arch made of weldmesh. Since the area we wanted covering is about 6m (19.5') long, there was nothing simple about getting weldmesh to behave! So, plan B. A custom structure, welded together using our new found welding skills (not so much skill, but perhaps blind faith and more practice).. and we did it!

The poor garden looked like a construction zone for a few days, but it's finally finished, and the grapes are planted, one for each. An early season variety closest to the house called Menindee Seedless, and a late season variety called Crimson Seedless. Since grapes seem to grow without any care here, they should do just fine with a little. The idea is that they help shade the garden just a little more during the summer, and then during winter, drop their leaves and let the light in. Anything that needs more sun than that will be planted in the garden to the north.

The broody Dorking's first time hatching was a success, with 8 cute little chicks being shown off today! Two of them appear to be from Naked Neck mothers, but the rest are full Dorkings. We're both a bit worried about how they'll fare with just the electric fence for protection - birds of prey are still a threat - but even so, considering they were only hatched yesterday they're doing fine so far. It's lovely to see them being able to do what comes naturally!

Just a short clip of extreme cute. :)

The hugle bed is growing great guns but I'm getting too attached to the green manure to chop it down now. :)

And here's a picture of Marty, being awesome and cooking up a storm! The hair and beard are both about to go, since the weather is beautiful right now! I thought you'd like to see it, in all it's glory, before the big chop. :)

Getting warmer..

The hugel bed is growing nicely with all the rain. The asparagus plants are poking their heads up asking "Is it Spring yet?"

The almond trees certainly know it's warming up. They're blooming like crazy and look really happy after the permie group pruned them. The bees are humming away up there happily, and the old flowering broccoli is yesterdays news.

And one more sign of spring - a broody hen is fighting the massive urge to scratch around in the lush green grass and is trying to sit on some eggs. :) We've set up a special area just for her. Here's hoping for good news in roughly 3 weeks..

Don't forget, you can click on the pictures to get a bigger view. :)

Tree planting at home

The other day, we went to a clearing sale that was a bit of a bust, then the next day we went to a poultry auction, which was also a bust. I think something is telling us we should just stay home! So, on the way back we stopped in to the nursery and brought home 12 tubestock trees. Today we got stuck into planting them all.

These trees are the start of a woodlot, a windbreak and a screening of the neighbouring properties. First we mowed the area, then we marked contour with the A frame, dug the holes, planted the trees, put a guard around each one, and came back with the wheelbarrow full of water containers for them all. Initially we were going to use the contour line to rip a small trench using the tractor, but decided against it.. It was a bit more curvy than we expected.. but the little trees look great anyhow!

It's much more productive staying at home. :)

Running out of winter

So, a friendly electrician took pity on us and took a look at our setup, and we're hoping he's able to help us out. In the meantime, when the weather allows, we've continued to practice welding by putting up the shed. It's been fun, frustrating and exciting, all in the same day sometimes. We're both getting better at welding, and I'm pretty sure it won't fall down.. Mostly pretty sure. After all, when it's done, we're going to park the tractor and the cars under it! Yikes.

We've had some lovely rain, the wattle trees are blooming, and so are the almonds. The chooks have been amazing, too. They're laying enough to keep us with 2 dozen eggs at a time in the cupboard, and a few more to give away occasionally. They're out scratching around in the cold, from just before dawn to a little before dusk. The naked-neck breed is the work-horse of the chook world, I think, followed closely by the langshan. The dorkings are a bit more laid back, but it'll be interesting to see how the next generation fare, given their role models! I can't wait until we get a broody hen!!

It's nearly the end of winter, and we're scaling back our heater usage now. For a while there the Nectre 15 was running 24 hours a day. Now it's only really in the evenings, except for the odd 10°C (50°F) rainy day, when going outside just isn't going to happen. The wood we stored is getting a little low, but we'll make it through with spare.

Spring is just around the corner, and with it comes plenty of ideas and plans. Lots of seeds to plant, a few earthworks, bamboo planting, food production, renovations.. the list seems endless! It's like I say to Marty all the time though, there's no rush or time limit. Just us two, doing what we can. :)

DIY Extra Low Voltage solar power

We've been working on getting electricity happening here for a long time now. Lots of research, lots of learning, determining exactly how much we need and finding the components. It's been a learning experience, for sure, coming from not knowing what amps, volts or watts were, knowing nothing about electricity at all, really!

Building the battery box feels like nearing the end of the journey, rather than just the start.

Inspiration for the box and "wall" for the charge controller etc, came from a strange place. We had this wood frame that was attached to the 3-point-linkage carry-all we got at an auction. It wasn't much use to us on the carry-all, but it inspired us - in a rustic kinda way - to use it to build the holder for the power components. Just add a form-ply box for the batteries and.. you see it, don't you?

Fortunately, Marty sees my crazy plans, and runs with them. :)

It's sturdy. I weigh about the same as only one of the batteries though!

The top opens, the front comes off completely, making moving the batteries in and out (hopefully not often) a little bit easier. It takes both of us to lift a battery, and it took a few days of rest and a visit to the chiropractor after doing it. I'm not even joking!

The batteries are 12V 190AH each. All four of them will be hooked-up to give us 24V and 380AH all up. It should be enough to run the freezer, and I doubt they'll notice our little 3 watt light globes in the kitchen. Most everything else we re-charge (laptop, power tools, vacuum cleaner and mobile phones) are done during sunny days.

So, next up, we've attached a board at the back of the unit, and "Blue" (the Victron 150/70 MPPT charge controller) will be attached - once we've got a door to keep it safe from crazy weather.. After that.. well.. lots of maths, cable sizes, fuses and such. Maths isn't our strong point, so we're taking it slow and making triple-y sure we have it right before doing anything drastic.

Meanwhile, our old ute battery is still going strong - goodness knows how - with the old charge controller keeping it charged despite the weather. We have light, internet and gadgets.. but we're both looking forward to the day we can have a freezer too.

White stuff!

The most amazing hail storm hovered over us on Saturday. It could have been snow, but it would have hurt to stand under it for sure - given the noise on the tin roof.

The hail went in to the gutters, down the pipes and clogged-up the inlet for the water tank. It gushed out all down the side, and this pile of ice even hung around through the next day as well.

The hugel bed was drenched, but it held the water from running down the hill. Perfect!

The rest of the property didn't get as much soaking-in as that one spot did - it's the first time I've seen rain running down the side of the hill like that. Too much to soak-in. It flowed down the driveway, into the old diversion drain (that was here long before we were), and into the dam - sounding like a creek, bringing silt and dirt with it.

After the storm, we walked the property, looking at where the water came from, where it went and learning as much as we could. The sun came out for a short time, and it looked eerie with the dark sky from the storm beyond the trees.

It's been raining on and off for the last two days now. The water tank is full, the garden swales are full, and all the plants in the shade house is un-damaged. I'd say we were pretty lucky. The cottage didn't drip once, the fire kept us warm, and the lights and power remained steady. Speaking of power.. we're still working on that..

Permie Day Pictures

Today I got in the mail some pictures from our Permie day! I just have to share, it was just such a great day. :)

Karen - pruning an almond tree. I think there's an OH&S issue here! Risking life and limb for almonds. That's dedication!

The grape vine in front of us was pruned and shaped into a heart! So cute!

I really felt like I was going to bust a tire on the tractor doing this. Marty and I learned a lesson about hugelkultur beds that day - cutting the wood into more manageable sizes is a good idea before burying it in the ground. We thought this would squish the wood and branches down before covering it back over with dirt. Hmm. Well, it kinda worked.

Everyone worked really hard covering the hugel bed over with all the dirt, sawdust and compost we had. It wasn't easy! Marty and I would have taken forever to do this on our own.

An awesome bunch of friends that made the day so great. Thank you all so much! :)

Random acts of blogging

The fan inside the laptop started sounding very sick early this month, and just before it gave up entirely, we found a replacement on eBay. Shipping from China is a little on the slow side, but having received it today, we installed the fan this evening and it's working perfectly! So we have a laptop in one piece again, and it's quieter and cooler than ever. :)

Only hours earlier..

So, since the last time I wrote, we had our very own activity day here at the farm with the Permaculture Riverina group. They're such a nice group of people!! The activities included pruning our many very old fruit trees, and making a HUGE 20 metre (65.6 foot) long hugelkultur bed. It was a massive effort, but made SO much easier by having all our friends to give us a hand and have fun too. Hopefully I can snag some pictures from everyone else, since Marty and I were a little forgetful in that regard.

The Permie day was on the 13th, and before that Marty and I were very busy getting everything ready for it, which involved digging out the shallow swale where the wood would go. That was a bit of an experiment involving a borrowed disc plow (that didn't work as hoped, but it did help break up the ground so Marty (mostly!) could dig out the dirt by hand).

Disc plow adjustments

Precision tractoring along contour

Marty using the A frame level

Ready for Permies

In the house, we have been cleaning up and chucking out, making room - literally - a whole new room! We have been holding onto a lot of junk, and it was holding us back from sleeping in the bedroom of the cottage. So, we got tough, and gave away literally suitcases of clothing and boxes of stuff that we never used (after all, it was all packed away!), and gained a bedroom. We've moved the bed (a huge undertaking in itself) and we set up the loungeroom with the couch and piano and bookcases and all the things that we enjoy having on display. Hooray!

Otherwise, we took an old water tank down beside the house. It has been empty for a while now, but full of silt, sludge and of course, concrete which Marty smashed into bits.

Marty opened the top and climbed in to break up the concrete

I sliced it open with the angle grinder

Half a tank

 
So, coming-up, we plan on getting the house batteries hooked up soon, and we need a little more soil for the hugle bed before we can plant some herbs on there, and Marty's getting pretty keen on getting the shed started again. Big projects, but taking them one step at a time.