Autumn Activity

We've had a couple of good night's sleep without the 3am microbat intrusion! We thought maybe it was getting in through the air vents, and although we'd already sealed them from the outside, I put tape over them on the inside just to make sure. Nope, that wasn't where it was getting in. While I was up on the ladder, I noticed a bit of a gap around the top of the window frame, so that was plastered over and it seems that was the answer. At least the bedroom is even more air-tight now, so there's an upside!

The brakes on the International A414 tractor are now back together and working as intended. It was the idea of lifting the back end of the tractor and adjusting the breaks while it was running was the most stressful part, but in reality it was no big issue. The old massive bottle jack and some big heavy bits of metal worked to hold her up just fine. Once adjusted, Marty took her for a run up the driveway as usual, and we discovered that the handbrake is adjustable from the top!

After the tractor was back together, we hooked up the single tine deep ripper and dragged the old A frame out from storage. We started by marking a contour line in the woodlot area using the A frame with the level attached. I then drove the tractor alongside the posts, and the deep ripper sunk into the ground, moving the soil but not turning it over. We did a rip on each side of the posts, and we planted the trees that I had waiting all summer for good weather. We planted a line of 14 trees, mostly Yellow Box and Blakey's Red Gum, in between the two ripped areas. Usually people plant IN the rip, but if it's a wet winter, they'd easily drown, so we planted them between the lines. The silty soil in the woodlot is deep and becomes a heavy clay at the bottom of the rip.

Then we took the A frame and tractor up on the top of the hill, and made a couple more contour lines up there. The soil there is rocky and hard, and the ripper didn't go in nearly as far. We hope to see some improvements to the soil and hopefully some more natives will volunteer to grow up there now. It would certainly be easier and better than buying and planting more trees and plants, but I started some locally saved seeds just to see if I can get any to come up. If they do, I'll plant them between the rips up on the hill. There is plenty more land we can rip and plant trees in, and we certainly intend to!

Since then, Marty and I have been working on a project we've had in mind for a while now, a covered annex to the shade-house. We worked on it all last weekend, and there are now 4 poles in the ground, and the ground is roughly leveled using the little Kubota. We'd planned a little garden shed in that general area, but weren't exactly excited by the plan, but we came up with a better idea and just went for it with the materials we have on hand.

The little cement mixer that Mum and Mike gave us before they went to Queensland was awfully useful. We plugged it right into the solar system, and it uses only 150W. Much quieter than running the generator for mixing a little concrete for the posts. Not to mention the bags of cement they left came in handy, too!

The next step requires some welding, and we're expecting a bit more rain, so we'll continue it when we can. It'll be such a useful little space once it's complete - a bit of storage for chicken feed, gardening supplies and tools, and shelter for potting up plants etc. It's also a bit of practice and a confidence building exercise before we start on the bigger shed we've wanted since we moved in. We'll get there!

PS: I forgot to mention how nice and easy the tractor is to drive now! It stops easily, and the handbrake works perfectly, which makes us both feel more relaxed.

The toolshed

We put up the toolshed a while ago now, and it's been keeping various garden tools dry and out of the way (out from under the varandah) for a year now. I always intended to use cob to fill in the front wall, since tin is ugly (there is SO much corrigated iron around!!) and the wood used to construct it was bits of various sizes and shapes that we happened to have lying around. Since there are no straight edges, cob is a great choice.

Then I saw in a borrowed Ownder Builder (no.181) the back page has a great article about installing a bird nest into their cob garage as it was being built. This inspired me! See, we have a great problem, lots of native blue banded bees call our cottage wall home, and this year they managed to burrow right through and into the kitchen. We've plugged the hole temporarly, but I would love to build them more mud walls. I don't feel right about repairing the kitchen wall until they have somewhere else to call home first.

So, we're poking blue banded-sized holes into the cob to start them off. I also would like to add some bamboo on end for some of the small mud wasps (they fill every little hole with mud), and of course the bigger mud wasps are always welcome to add their nests to the walls as well. They're enjoying making a muddy mess of the bathroom mirror right now. Yep, mud wasp central here. Luckily for us they all seem friendly enough.

I've also inserted a few old Fowlers jars for a little extra light when looking for the shovel. I don't know that they'll make a difference, but they're fun anyway. It's going to take a while to finish, it's not as fast as putting up a few bits of tin, but it'll be a whole lot nicer to look at, and hopefully create some habitat as well.

Unexpected progress

What a crazy month it's been! The cooler weather means we've been working a bit harder than usual to get some things done. All that came to a halt when a few mice found their way inside the cottage. Absolutely unacceptable! Haha, we did the same thing in the Old Miners Cottage, ripping apart things because of mice, and here is no exception. We took off the skirting board where the mouse hole was located..

And plastered it all up in lime before re-attaching the board.

It's been so long since we plastered, I had to look up the recipe again (our old blog came in handy)!
Problem solved, and no mice since. Phew.

Another unexpected priority was the wood rack. We knocked one up using old star pickets and a welder. I think we're finally getting the hang of this stuff! It was unexpected because we suddenly found ourselves needing the extra space under "the structure" (the car-port type thing we made) for a chance buy at a clearing sale recently...

I still can't believe I won the little Kubota with a front end loader and backhoe! Swales, earth works and pads for water tanks here we come!! Well.. right after we give her the old grease and oil change, and fix the hydraulic leak in one of the spreader arms. Sounds so simple. Ha. :) Anyway, the wood rack held all the wood that was sitting where the Kubota tractor is now. Given our "beginner" status as welders, I'm really surprised that it's holding up so well.

The new shed/workshop is making progress thanks to our good friend Anthony from the Permie group. This is gunna be great!!

We were given a lesson in mud from another Permie group friend, Dick. The mix needs a bit more sand, but the idea is there! It just goes to show how much clay content our local soil has! It shouldn't be too difficult to do the rest of the house.. it's just a matter of time now.

Yesterday we made a mud mix for the chimney tops, and did our yearly maintenance. The mud up there looked pretty good, but it got a top-up anyway. We've given the caps a lime wash so hopefully they cope with the weather even better than last year. The chimney's are clear and ready for another winter.

There was a bit of mud left over after fixing the chimney caps, so I filled in some holes on the North wall of the cottage, and also made a start on the cob walls of the tool shed. One layer down, many many more to go!

I added more straw and made a cob mix, and it's very strong with no cracks. It's a cute little project, but not a priority.

Next jobs include adding more storage capacity to the wood rack, working on / fixing the Kubota, and continuing the workshop construction. Unless something else unexpected comes up, and that happens a lot around here.

The looong slooow summer continues

The hot weather continues, the garden is looking stressed, and we haven't had rain for a long while now. It can be a bit depressing, but things will change. Eventually.

The site chosen, roughly leveled and the stirrups are in place for the new shed. Nothing much happens quickly in the summer.

Well, except for the peaches, which were quick to ripen, and be eaten by parrots, but we got a few and they were delicious. :)

But slow is generally the name of the game right now. That goes for food and medicine too. These are some sauerkraut and pickles I made, and behind them are tinctures brewing. It took 6 weeks to make the tinctures and 1 week for the fermented foods. (The sauerkraut and pickles are eaten already though, that was quick!)

It's been warm here lately, and we're expecting more of the same 37°C (98.6°F) for another week at least, the unofficial temperature easily climbs over 40°C (104°F) under our veranda. Getting up before dawn and hiding inside after 9am is about the only way to get anything done. We're thankful for the fan, the insulation in the roof and the thick mudbrick walls. Although the walls have a habit of staying a tad too warm after a few days of heat, things will be much nicer once they're rendered, painted and the trees grow up.

Another day, another shed

After a long hot December, we find ourselves already well into 2016 and a much cooler January than we're use to. It's almost tropical, with periods of rain, storms, and 30-something degree weather. The garden is confused! Ginger is growing well, and so is the Paulownia trees we've planted recently. Our tomatoes were given to us by a friend of ours, but of the three varieties, the cherry tomatoes are the outstanding winners. The roma tomatoes suffered blossom-end-rot and the bigger tomatoes (not sure of the variety) are suffering from the sun and rats are eating any fruit they do make. So, we're happily feasting on the cherry tomatoes. We managed to get one capsicum, sun damaged, but still quite yummy, but otherwise it's been a fairly lean summer. That's ok, it's far too warm to eat a lot anyway!

I was saying last time that we changed our minds on putting the shed where it was, and we were about to dismantle the whole thing. Marty had ground off one beam across the top and we had to leave it for a bit since it was too hot to risk starting a fire. One day we were lamenting having anywhere to store things out of the weather, especially the tractor, and I came up with a crazy plan. Lets put up the roofing iron we were donated (very generously by members of the Permie group), and use the spare C section to make it all stronger (since we made a mistake by putting the C section on the wrong way last time).. and 2 days later, we have "the structure"! The tractor is protected from the elements, there is now a large pile of straw bales and a place to store the chook food (which gives us more room by the back door of the cottage).

Then, Marty built a little tool shed to help tidy up some of the shovels, rakes and other stuff around the back door. My contribution is making the front wall of the shed out of cob (mud and straw), so it's not quite finished yet because we're waiting on some sand. No matter, the tools are out of the rain now, at least, and it won't be long until we get the sand delivery.

Australia Day was luckily not too warm, and even more luckily, it didn't rain until the next day, because we took our little Aussie made tractor down to the festivities to be part of the Australian Made machinery display. The day went pretty well, and Marty was thrilled to drive Peter's very old tractor back to his place afterwards.

Since then, we've enjoyed some lovely rain. The water tank is full again and we have some green grass even. Marty and I have also begun learning a little woodworking from a friend of ours, and lesson one is putting up yet another shed! This one will be somewhere we can work in, where the work bench and wood working tools will be, somewhere dry, hopefully a little less dusty, where we can make things from. We're very excited about it.

So, we're keeping very busy, and projects are happening.

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. :)

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. :)

Spring?

October is nearly over and generally it's considered Spring - at least everywhere else we've lived for quite some time. Here, it is feeling like instant Summer. Sure, there were a few days when we put the scarves and hats back on, but otherwise it's been around 30 degrees! Almost nothing in between. I'm not entirely sure if it's considered normal or not!

The last item to arrive from the Henty Machinery Field Days was the "jazz tank" from Clark tanks. Excellent colour! Not quite blue, not quite green. The shed that it's suppose to be collecting the rain from isn't ready, so the tank is waiting around for now.

Speaking of the shed.. got 2.. maybe 3 posts in the ground before our friendly neighbour in town had some advice to offer. We have spent a good few days pondering this advice.. thinking takes time! Made some changes to the design - but only in our heads at this stage.

We've been to a few "clearing sales" in the area lately too. Lots of fun, many bargains, much junk. Basically, when a farm is sold (or for a few other reasons too, I guess), the stuff the new buyers didn't want to pay for.. the stuff the farmer doesn't want or need.. and sometimes, stuff that other random people don't want too - all gets sold via auction. The junk, err, stuff.. is spread over a paddock (or bigger sometimes!) in "lots".. usually lying in a heap or on a pallet. As a group, you and everyone else follows the auctioneer around as he calls for the highest bids. Quite often the auctioneer starts the bidding at the price which he thinks it might be worth, and when no-one bids, he comes down in price until some cheeky so-and-so calls "Two dollars" (or a similar low number) and that's when the real bidding begins. Other times, the cheeky one walks away with the lot for two dollars after all! It's a fun game, but one has to be careful or you can end up either with loads and loads of junk (selling quite cheap, but it all adds up!), or spending far too much money for far too little goods to show for it.

The shed

There's been one thing missing on the farm for a long while now - a shed. The old shed had almost completely disappeared - all that was remaining was a single wall with a window. The previous owners attempted to build some kind of structure directly off that one wall.. but it was a long way off being a shed!

The "view" from the house

Side of the old shed

Not exactly a useful structure

The wood had since rotted, and taking it down was not difficult at all. More surprising was the fact that it was standing at all! It was big, ugly and in the wrong place - disrupting an otherwise nice view. Well, it will be a nice view again once we clean it up!

What's left of the old shed - what a mess!

Initially, we wanted to simply take it down, re-use the materials, and put it up over by the peppercorn trees. When taking the shed down, we quickly realised that the wood was just hugelkultur in the wrong place. :)

Convinced by a friend in town, we have decided to try a more solid structure made of RHS and C purlins. He's going to show us how to weld it together and even lend us his welder and a neighbour's generator to boot! It all sounds pretty impressive and perhaps a bit scary too.. but we're in good hands.

So begins the task of digging holes for the square RHS posts.
This took quite a while. The soil is quite heavy clay all over the property, and behind the peppercorn trees is no exception.

The future shed

 The spot was chosen for a number of reasons. Ideally it will provide for some shade in the harsh summer heat. We've noticed that the blowflies don't like peppercorn trees at all, and tend to stay away. Plus, you might notice from the above photo, we tend to store junk under there anyway! May as well formalise it.

The shed will mean a great deal for us, having somewhere to work on things (everything from bat and bird boxes, to chook houses, to kitchen cupboards), and it will get the tools out of the house and into an organised space where they can be used at last. We can't wait!! I look forward to updating further on the progress. :)