Its sooo wet

Ex tropical cyclone Oswald has certainly sent some major water our way, over 500 mls over the last couple of days! Damian is flooded in and stuck at Rockhampton, he tried to get home from Mackay for my birthday yesterday, but couln't get any further than Rocky. The water tanks and dam is full, and I have plenty of supplies to not have to go anywhere during this weather, and I doubt I can get out at the moment down our track as it would be too slippery. We've had strong winds as well, but nothing too bad, more annoying than anything else and it blows the water in to the shed area so we need to keep doors shut etc. The rain is great for the paddocks too. We  still have a lot of dirt (now mud) around the shed from the build, which does make things pretty yukky but the grass will eventually grow and then it won't be so bad during heavy rain. And the horse keeps insisting on walking over this section of ground churning it all up in the rain instead of staying on the remaining 150 odd acres...what is with that? :) I think we still have quite a bit more water on the way, so will see how much we end up with...

We've run away to the. Farm...

Friday was D-day for our move to the farm, we packed up a couple of loads of our belongings and headed off. We had some serious issues with the land cruiser on the way here, seems to be a fuel sensor issue, we will be on Toyotas doorstep tomorrow to see what the problem is hopefully. We still have lots more to bring up, but we are here. We have been tidying up, unpacking, putting beds together, hanging blinds, making flyscreens and remaking the old fly screen door fom home  to fit this smaller door and repainted it, putting door handles on, putting weather strips on the bottom of the doors to keep out the bugs and snakes and spiders, changing the door handles on the kitchen cupboards to update them,  connecting the sink and gas hot water,  and just generally working really hard. We're off to bundy hopefully tomorrow to get the car fixed and get a few more things so will have a quiter day tomorrow hopefully. The house is looking good though, downstairs is mostly finished, just little bits and pieces here and there to do, and upstairs in the bedrooms is all bare necessites, and will be our next focus building the built in wardrobes and bringing our other furnishings in. I am off to Tasmania in a few days for a 2 week holiday with Mum, so everything else will have to wait until then. Damian is going to start my chook pen before then and will finish it off while I am away, so I can bring my chooks and guinea fowl back up with me when I return...yay. So, without further ado, here is our little mostly finished for now house...

(The kitchen)

(Upstairs Bedroom)

(Downstairs living area)

(Gas cooktop in action)

(Gas oven - it was absolutely filthy inside when I bought it 2nd hand, it took me 6 days to get it clean)

(Downstairs bathroom - shower end)

(Downstairs bathroom - toilet end)

(Kitchen benchtop - this was originally an ugly laminate which I have resurfaced with a stone look)

 

I doubt we will look at building our permanent home for at least 12 months, we would like to get some more infrastrucure in place around the farm first (gardens, paddock and yard fencing etc and our office and craft studio) and save up some more money! And have a bit of a rest and enjoy the rural lifestyle for a little while before we take on the workload of building a house. But in the meantime I will enjoy decorating and furnishing our abode to make it feel like home.

The country life...??

Still exceptionally busy around here. Still up to the property most weekends, which is a 4 hour drive there and a 4 hour drive back. So many things to catch up on the blog with, but time is definitely short at the moment, hence the long exodus from here.

(The "Shed", including the "shouse")

 (Damian installing the cladding along the front of the shouse)

The painting of the shouse is finished inside, and this weekend coming, the kitchen and flooring will go in, then the chippies should be back the following week to do the skirtings, arcitraves and hang the doors, then really just the plumbing and electrical final fitoffs to do, then should be ready!
We did a test run of the kitchen install last weekend, so that we could work it all out before installing the flooring, so as not to damage the flooring, dragging bits and pieces around everywhere. It was a bit like putting a jigsaw together, but it's working out. We will probably get a new benctop made to fit this exact space though, as it is different to how the kitchen was in it's original house.

(The kitchen "test" run, lots of thinking going on here)

I am hoping that our move to the country will be an enjoyable one. I am hoping that I get used to the slower pace, and things not being as up to the minute as they are here. Last weekend while painting, I ran out of paint, so went down to the local hardware to get some more. They stocked the brand of paint I was after, but as the colour was a different brand's colour, it needed to be matched. I said, very naively it turns out, "well that's ok, I will bring down a colour sample and get you to match it"....the lady looked at me as though I was speaking a different language, and in the silence I could almost hear the cogs turning and the crickets singing...and I said..."you know, on your colour matching machine??" hehehe...ahem.... She said "nooo...we don't do anything like that here, you'd have to go to Bundaberg for that"  So, it was a 45 minute drive to Bundaberg to get our paint, but we'll just have to be more organised in the future, it will happen, just got to slow down enough to get ourselves together.
A few new animals on the block, large and small, which I will elaborate more on with a bit more time...and I apologise as I have not had time to catch up on what you are all doing of late, but hopefully over the school holidays and xmas break, I can start to catch up a bit....life has taken over for the moment :)

The hatching has started...

It is very hectic around here at the moment, lots of travel to the property and building organising going on, as well as running around picking up building materials etc. Michael and I went and picked up a whole car trailer load of cladding for the shouse this morning, and when I got back, I thought I would check on Mummy hen as her babies are due today...2 have hatched out so far, 1 plymouth rock and 1 speckled sussex. So, I am waiting patiently, there are quite a few others that are starting to crack, so I am hoping most of them should hatch, there will likely be a few that don't hatch though, when we candled it appeared that 2 weren't fertile, and there has been the odd occasion where I have had to put a cold egg back underneath her as she has forgotten about it, so we shall wait and see how many end up hatching....

(the first chick off the rank, a cute little plymouth rock)

(number 2 to hatch, a speckled sussex)

 

I am hoping my week starts to settle a little now, I have so many things to catch up on, I need to get the kefir grain that Liz sent me going, and send her off some seeds, catch up on the washing and just take a break for a couple of days I think..

Look where the guinea fowl are nesting...

In my potato tower...

They're so funny...

Dreampot cooking....and a bit more permaculture learning....

I purchased a dream pot a few weeks back, and this is the 2nd time I have used it. Yesterday I cooked up a coconut ginger chicken and rice. Both the rice and meat dish cook at the same time, and after the initial heating up on the stove, the pots are place in the dreampot and continue to cook. This works very similar to a slow cooker, but doesn't use any power or gas after the initial heating, so will be a great option for when we move to the property, as we will be on solar power.

It can also be used to make yoghurt and keep things cool. They're not cheap to buy, but hopefully a good investment. It will also be good for when we next take the caravan on a trip away, as it is safe to cook in this whilst travelling, which is what a lot of people use it for.
Not too much happening here other than that at the moment, I have things I could be doing, but can't seem to get motivated enough to do them...it's starting to get hot here again during the day, and I'm not a real heat lover, once it gets over about 28 deg my energy levels drop and I would rather be inside. Probably live in the wrong place then! The late afternoons after about 4.30 are just beautiful though....great outside and BBQ weather. I am currently reading Linda Woodrow's book on home permaculture design, I am really enjoying it. Even though I have done my Permaculture Design Certificate, this gives more detailed instructions on the actual setup...Linda, where did you learn all this info from? You are so clever...it's giving me lots more to think about with regards to my design at the new property...I thought I had it worked out pretty much, but back to the drawing board I go :) Better now than after I had started putting gardens in though...

More progress...

The shed frame is up. Just waiting on roofers now to do the sheeting, then the interior walls for the shouse will be started.

Damian came down from the property on Thursday night, and on Friday we went and picked up a fibreglass shower and the vinyl, and then we went to the Ettamogah Pub for some lunch. In the afternoon I cleaned all of the windows I have purchased over the last few weeks for the shouse, while he went and picked up all of the framing timber etc to build the internal walls. Hopefully this can all be started some time next week.  The weekend was very hot here, especially Sunday, over 35 deg here, so I just chilled inside with the airconditioner on and watched Bathurst. I brought some little chickens who are living in the cage in the shed out into the shaded area of the pergola in the afternoon, and spritzed them with cool water to keep them cool.
Yesterday I purchased a cheap little site shed to go up to the property. I plan on painting it up and turning it in to our office/craft room, as we really won't have the room in the shouse, and my office equipment and sewing equipment are too expensive to just setup in the shed itself. The site shed is 5 metres long x 2.5 metres wide, so should be a perfect size. I think we will end up putting a sofa bed in there as well, and we can use it for an extra sleeping area for when people come to visit. As we plan on building our new home over the next couple of years, I wanted to have somewhere to keep my stuff, having it locked away for that long is not an option I was looking forward to. It's a bit ugly right now, but once I'm finished with it it will be nice - a new paint job, another window and new floorcoverings and probably an air conditioner and it will be all good.

At this stage things are on track to relocate at the end of the school year. The 2 older kids are planning on staying in this house and renting it off us, as we don't really want to sell it just yet. We want to keep our options open and the market really isn't real flash for selling at the moment either.  In the meatime the chickens have totally wreaked havoc in my vegie garden. Since I have confined them to a large area up near their pen, they have been very determined to get in to my vegie garden. There is pretty well nothing left except some comfrey (just) my potato towers. some shallots and my garlic and some nasturtium flowers!! I have now thrown my hands up in defeat, so I am going to heavily mulch the garden and leave it for now, and will start on my new gardens up at the new property. We won't have Michael's dog up there, so I will be able to let them free range over the yard again so hopefully they won't be as determined to get in to the vegie gardens. I think everything up there may need to be pretty secure, as we seem to have dingo's, hawks, rabbits, goannas etc so the vegetable garden design is going to need to be like fort knox, as are the chickens pen and domes. Lots to think about, but right now the main focus is going to be on getting the shouse built.