New beginings

Hello there!

I know its been a while, but updating the blog (till now) has been too hard to be worth my while, as it is, it was not that simple anyway!

Ok, so anyway, for the non family members who read this, you have maybe been wondering what has happened to us, in the last few weeks.... We moved to our 20 acre block of land, and have been living a fairly minimal lifestyle, and loving it. For a few days we didn't have running water, then we had cold running water, but had to boil water on a gas camp stove for hot. Then the combustion stove was set up (with a few set backs due to leaking pipes and hot water tank) and then we finally had hot water and some heating (our stove is a 'cooker' not so much a 'heater', so although it cooks and heats our water brilliantly it doesn't put out alot of heat - good thing for the warmer months though). Its been a steep learning curve for me, I haven't really had to light a fire to cook on before, but I think I am not too bad now. At least I can light the stove and keep it going (most days!), and cook our meals and even bake bread, biscuits etc. I will get better at understanding how to get the ideal fire for what I want to cook, and its great to have the challenge!

Its funny, when we tell people about our lifestyle now, we hear so many times how they couldn't live without a shower, electricity, running water etc etc. I find it funny, as really its more a matter of they like these things, and don't want to live without them. Its not hard to live without many of the things we take for granted in our modern western life (and most of the world's population does live without these things). I think its been a great experience for us, to go without some things makes you realise that you don't in fact need them. I now know that for me the main things that make life hardest are lack of lights, some warmth, and company/communications (I didn't realise how much I realied on communication via the internet).

The move was more stressful, and more work than I anticipated, and I wasn't as prepared as I thought I would be. Our daughter didn't cope well with the moving of all of our stuff out of the old place (although she liked putting the stuff into our new place), and spent much of the time in fits of crying as her bed was taken apart and put on the trailer, toys packed into the toy box etc etc. I think in hind sight she probably shouldn't have been there whilst that was happening, but I didn't have much choice in that as I needed to help get the stuff packed. You live and learn.

I will try and keep the blog up to date from now on, although I am sure my updates will be sporadic. There is much to post about - anticipate tutorial type posts on setting up a wind generator (Brad's toy), cooking on the combustion stove and the garden of course.

I am off now, to help Brad build our bathroom or maybe to move bricks.... hmmm, decisions decisions!

A chapter ends...

Tomorrow we start the move. We are planning on doing it over 2-3 days, so that we don't have to madly rush and stress (more) about it.

Its both exciting and scary. Our new place is not ready for us to move into, and is probably less ready than we though it would be. But we have worked hard, done our best and that is all that we can do. Unfortunately our beautiful Stanley Combustion Stove still sits there, waiting for its turn to shine (or is that glow?). The stove will be our main cooking appliance as well as our heater and hot water heater. Its probably the biggest set back we will have when we move up. But I think within a week we should have it all going. So I am going to hire or buy a gas heater. Not really my ideal scenario, but the weather has turned on us, and its likely that we might even get snow on our first night up there, so some warmth would be nice, if nothing else just to defrost in front of.

But on the up side we have had some amazing help, thank you Craig for all your hard work plastering. My parents have been long time helpers with most of the construction work, as well as fixing up the house that we just sold, so thank you so so much. Thank you to Garry for your help with moving stuff. Also our localish friend Wayne has helped with construction and putting up our gravity feed water tank (this means we don't have to carry buckets of water inside to do stuff like wash the dishes! YAY!). Ivor, another friend has helped with building type work, and is taking half a day off work to help us move some stuff. We feel privilaged to have such help at this time, as it seems that on our own we would probably not have much hope!

Its been an interesting process - prioritising what is important, and what can we live without. It also makes you more aware of how much we rely on different things like running water or electricity. When everytime you want to use something that uses electricity we have to wrestle with the generator, it makes you think whether its worth it or not. I think this is a good thing.

I also want to point out what a hard worker Brad is - all that building, and he hammered every nail in by hand (he did use the cordless drill and power saw for the cutting though). He is up there late at night working while I pack (I know I get the easy job) and get the kids fed and in bed. He is often not back till 9-10pm. He has done such an amazing job of this, its just a pity that we didn't have a few weeks extra. But that said, we are excited about moving, reduced debt, and more simple healthy lifestyle.

Oh, and incase you are worried about the kids, I have bought them thermal tops, been knitting frantically, and have lots of blankets ready for them. All that and they will probably run around naked even in the freezing cold!!

Nearly there

We have been working flat out. Its been hard. We have had a bit of help from family and friends, and have some more help lined up this week and next week.

We have sourced some materials - natural paints made with ingredients like beeswax, linseed oil, orange oil etc - got a load of firewood delivered by a friend.

I have a 'rental' home for the chooks lined up (haven't had time to build them a home as well).

Brad has perfected working with his headlamp on for light (we have no electricity as such).

I have packed up about 1/2 the house now.

I am baking scones and biscuits every couple of days (I now realise that I mostly bake when I am stressed!)

The track into our place is getting very wet and muddy and if I don't organise a whole lot of rock, we wont be able to move our furniture in - we move in by the 12th of June.

Still so much work to do, I look forward to being on the other side of this hill, and look back and laugh at how stressed I am right now! Oh, and enjoy the peace and quiet of our new lifestyle. Actually now I am excited, back to basics and self-sufficiency here we come!

Blue Tongue Lizard, and progress

Brad took this photo of one of our soon to become neighbours! Isn't it a great photo! Blue tongue lizards are pretty common around these parts, although its a little surprising to see one at this time of year, its almost winter (although the weather is still fairly nice.... fingers crossed we get a nice and wet winter though)!

Building is going along ok, slower than we would like - ideally by this stage we would be just tidying up the living area, maybe painting and doing the finishing touches, but there are still walls to put up, sanding to do, plumbing, wiring.... We are working as hard as we can though, doing the best we can. Its hard, and the kids make it harder, as I seem to be too often having to hold back our son who is facinated by power tools, and sawing... Which means I can't be doing something else more useful...

On the bright side we have gotten a hot water tank to hook up to our stove, and a flue for it! We have the gravity feed header tank nearly ready to use. We have also put down a LOT of flooring on the upstairs level, which means we have somewhere to put boxes when we move. The kitchen is in, and just needs a new bench top. And the pantry is almost done! We have a small camping stove to cook on if the combustion stove isn't quite operational. Plus the pizza oven - any guesses what we will be eating each night??

We are just prioritising, what are the most important things that we need. Do them, and whatever needs to be done for those to be completed. Its hard work, and Brad has had to work up there late nights, while I bring the kids home to get them fed and to bed. Less than 3 weeks to go now, so I guess it'll be over soon!

Here is a recent family photo, with our little boy's blackwood tree - one year on after it was planted.