The BA is in!

So it looks like we have co-ordinated the submission of the Building Application. We are going through a private certifier.. just cause its a little different. All expecations are that the house will be out of BA by Monday 14th and we can start talking to the builder on a start date. I had hoped to maybe turn over a sod of dirt before Christmas ... but sadly that is not going to happen.

Don't worry - Cath and I still have plenty to do. We have not knocked off much of the wood piles that need de nailing, the weather is just so hot that after a couple of hours we are melting - but if its to be used in the construction we will just have to soldier on!! We can also now get on to the part of costing what we need - the house, due to the soil type, will have some formidable foundations so we can at least start costing the steel and concrete to do in it. I know.... concrete and steel - there are times when you have to be practical about these things....

The house

After a few false starts we were able to find a building designer up here that has done strawbale. Jaye at http://www.barefootdesign.com.au/ has been great and with his input and associates we have come up with a design that will allow us to live a lighter life, but also address issues such as poor soil and living in a medium bushfire risk.

The house will consist of three main pavilions housed under the one roof line. The straw wall will run down each side of the pavilions with the front allowing us to have large doors opening up to the east. There will also be a loft in the living pavilion with an area for storage as well as reading room.
The roof will allow us to harvest the necessary amount of water we require, whilst being up on piers give us natural airflow underneath.

There is a large outdoor deck area where the pool table will be... it almost got its own room.
A concrete water tank for water storage and solar hot water and grid connected solar will be used, as will gas for cooking.

Hopes and Aims

So now that we have the land..... what do we do with it??

I have always been interested in growing vegetables, fruits, herbs for my own consumption - I think its in the blood - lately I have become more aware of maybe just growing food isn't going to cut it, that the desire is to live lighter on the earth and in turn find a way to live simpler in a world where things just keep costing more and more is attainable.

So our hope is to grow vegetables - but heirlooms, ones that may have been passed by because they don't stay ripe in the supermarket for weeks on end - the vegetables that have a short, but spectacular growing life - a purple carrot, and an orange watermelon... I also want to save seed, and be able to save seed - things that multinationals would not want us to do.

We will have chickens and collect eggs, when I first raised the idea of having a house cow with my father he thought that it was going to be the silliest idea he had ever heard of... and maybe he's right, but we will see. Cath wants pigs, and we will have bees - probably natives, not European. We have raised the idea of growing our own meat - and the jury is out at the moment... its all well and good to have these lofty ideals, but we will see if it eventuates.

We will live on permaculture principles - where we will try, as much as possible, to have a closed system in place.... and I'm sure it will be lots of hard work (please see previous description of the soil to find out how hard it will be) but I think it will be lots of fun... and it will be ours.

The Land

When we first started on this journey we were looking further than SE Queensland. We had thought that this might have been the opportunity to secure some land back closer to Canberra where Cath and I are from.. but timing wasn't right and we both wanted to do something now - not wait for the future. So we started looking closer afield

We finally found 9 acres out west of Ipswich in a suburb called Thagoona. It had a dam and was very close to public transport... in fact, if we got on well with QR we could pick up the coal train and ride it in to the city!! well, I did say Ipswich..

It has a dam, fully fenced, and the building envelope was relatively clear of trees. This is the good news. The bad news is the soil is E type - highly reactive clay. Not the best soil to build on, or to grow anything in. I am , however, in high hopes for it - I think with a little (or a lot) of gypsum, and organic fetilisers it might product the results we are after. I have a copy of 'Natural Farming' by Pat Coleby that I would thouroughly recommend to anyone starting out. If the soil isn't good - and by all accounts most of soils in AUS are not - then you are going to have some heartache.

And so it starts

Ok, I'm a little new at this - well completely new, so I have decided to write as if no-one will ever read this.... hopefully when I get better I'll be able to do funky stuff like add picture (whoo) - but this stage its just pen to paper (so to speak)



Having been inspired by such books as Animal, vegetable, miracle; Living the good life; And various Readers Digest books we have decided to put all these ideas into practice. We intend to build the house, get the chickens, grow the veggies, and try and put the brakes on our consumeristic lifestyle.

So lets just start with that ....