June 2007

Well, we charged ahead and had a nice little stint of progress, only to falter soon after due to our inability to source timber large enough to cut the big perimeter beams, which are 12" X 7" (300mm X 175mm). We may have to look further afield, or work out an alternative of some description. Either way, we'll work something out. Our draftman is great, but our engineer (this is the sexist bloke who refused to acknowledge my presence due to my gender) is another matter. We will be non-conforming owner builders bent on eliminating concrete from the site, so it must be our own stupid fault; it's just a pity we didn't manage to find someone who was inspired to explore alternatives and find it an interesting project rather than just another hassle.

Whinge over. It's stressing Trev too, especially now we've had progress and he's really motivated to get it all happening, and now we're spending a lot more time looking at the plans and shaking our heads. Scratching them a lot too.

So while he's waiting on answers (which we're still hopeful of finding) he's been following up on all our superannuation issues. For the longest time we've been saying we should get all our bits and bobs of superann and stick them into an ethical superannuation account. If you're an Aussie there's a great place to find all those bits and bobs at the lost superannuation finder at ATO SuperSeeker and the Australian Ethical Superannuation site Apart from knowing it's supporting all the right things and for all the right reasons, we believe that as they are investing in sustainable industries, which is a growing sector in the marketplace, that it's going to be the right thing for our hip pocket in the long run, too. Geez, I love it when you find a win/win situation and doing the right thing doesn't automatically mean making sacrifices.

Trev uses a razor in which he replaces the blade, but not the handle. Now I've found a toothbrush with a natural bristle head (is it made from animal products? I don't know.) that alows you to replace the head and reuse the handle. This is something I spent at least 2 days thinking about manufacturing a few years back (I have lots of crazy ideas; thankfully, I don't attempt them all). Trev is especially thankful. I'm keeping under my 'hat' for a while the next crazy experiment our family is going to have to suffer through ... Simply because building a house, working, gardening, and writing aren't currently enough to fulfil me, I've come up with a new 'hair'-brained scheme of which, no doubt, you will hear more. But, back to the real subject in hand.

I was pleased to find someone else has saved me the bother. Though I'd like a wooden handle, rather than plastic, it's still one way to reduce the waste issue. Not so much of an issue? There must be billions thrown away each year. So we'll do our minute best to reduce our contribution.

Still wish we could line up at the supermarket with refillable bottles of detergents, laundry wash etc. Reduce the price to both the consumer and the producer.

I love how, in NZ, you can do that with alcohol. You buy a bottle and fill it with, in my case, alcoholic ginger beer, and when finished bring it back again for a refill. They also have every kind of liqueur and spirit imaginable. Though it does mean you are encouraged to drink more than is sustainable (for your brain cells).

That's why all those new ways of being more sustainable (often seen on the New Inventors) are so great. We've received an email or two from a woman who was featured on the New Inventors recently... here's what she's done in her part of the world.

I have just finished reading your fantastic book "Living the Good Life" and can I tell you that it has changed my views on global warming forever.

I have previously discounted greenies as a bunch of panic merchants, stressing about something not real and nervously telling my husband
"If it was that bad, the government would do something about it, wouldn't they?"

Well, I am amazed at how you managed your six months and am inspired to do my bit. I am an inventor of a large mirror that goes on the sides of the trucks in the mines, My mirrors last about 3-4 times longer than the ones on the market now and although they have a high embodied energy, they are not just throw away consumables, and we recycle the backing boards from the glass inserts if the mine gives them back to us as we ask.

Catherine Constable

I keep being reminded of what exciting times we live in; we're on the brink of saving the world (or destroying it) and we need everyday heroes, heroes like Catherine. We don't have to leap tall buildings, we just have to discover new ways to make them sustainable. We don't have to do with out toothbrushes, we just have to make them more environmentally friendly. We're really starting to look at how we live and to understand that currency isn't everything. We have to invent new ways of doing things rather than living by convenience alone.

I love being part of this generation, there is so much to do, so little time to do it. We're going to have to evolve as a species, and learn from our mistakes, something that history shows us we've yet to do. I hope we can overcome the underlying problem - that humans, if given the chance, will not go out of their way if the level of convenience is reduced too greatly. Or as Trev says, 'People are like electricity and water, they choose the path of least resistance'.
Even if, in the end, it's the equivalent of signing our own, or our grandchildren's grandchildren's death warrant. We're a frail, falliable little creature; let's hope we can get it right.



16 June

Lots happening. Trev has skinned his first wallaby and is in the process of tanning the hide and turning it into 'Davey Crockett' boots. The wallaby was road kill. No quick trips to the vet for the poor thing. And as he was fresh, it seemed a terrible waste not to utlise his remains. So after skinning him, Trev turned him into Nuju food. Just to be safe, he cooked it up and left it in a heavy cast iron pan on the floor. Of course, when he went to feed it to the dog it was no longer there, and the pan was so clean I was asked whether I had washed it. We both turned and looked at Nuju, who did a great job of looking abashed.

We had an email from Dr Céline Bouldoires Mumenthaler about Nuju's smell of fear ...

I just wanted to tell you that the “smell of fear” comes from expressing the anal glands in fright. This, as a vet, I know very well!
It actually makes sense to put so much odour on the ground for your attacker to be distracted with while you leg it, when you think of it.

Which was interesting, especially when you compare human fear response (pooing oneself) to an animal's, who does just as odiously, but without the mess. Kind of seems like a more highly evolved response, really :-)

Finally, we have a solution to the next stage in building. It's been weeks in coming. We can halve the size of the timber to 6 X 7 inches (not sure why we're suddenly dealing in inches, being a child of the metric system myself), and we'll horizontally laminate the beams with Trev's handmade bolts. This will make it easier to source, handle, will make for some ease of carpentery at the corners of the house and is a great relief. So now we have a new timber order in and as soon as it arrives, we'll be back in there with boots on. (we've had rain lately and it's muddy).

But we've not been idle; we've gone down to the mill and filled up the ute with sawdust and sawdusted the garden paths and a narrow path through the greenhouse and will be filling the beds with top soil that came off the building site. Lots of wheelbarrow action.

I've been mucking around with 3D architect programs and flying around the inside of our house. Lots of problems using a program designed to help you create a house with conventional building materials. But still, it gives us a good idea of light and space and has led to a few sighs of appreciation when we look at where walls meet roofs etc and we can work out ways of dealing with issues before they are already built.

There's an article in the latest Pacific edition of TIME Magazine which includes a paragraph or two about us. Nothing new, just the usual preoccupation with how we wiped our bums. Though it says we couldn't wait to use the real stuff again, which isn't quite true and also includes this terribly arrogant quote where I'm supposed to have said 'if everyone lived like us we could have a population increase'. I actually can't imagine saying that, but apparently I did. Maybe I was taken out of context; certainly not in context to our current lifestyle which, while fairly good, still hasn't reached the 95% level, I must have meant. Journalists have an eye for the salacious details, that's their job. But it always comes as a disappointment. Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the link to the article. Which also featured David Alder. He and his wife Suzanne live out West of Lithgow on 120 acres and have been building with earth and car tyres.

Last night, we're all tucked up in bed and were nearly asleep when Caleb lets loose an amazing quantity of air from under the blankets and a sleepy voice informs us, 'That one nearly lifted the doona'. (Doona being an odd Australian word meaning eiderdown, quilt, duvet).
It's not surprising, though, as we've been playing around with different breads. I made a loaf of bread using LSA (Linseeds, Sunflowers, Almonds), pumpkin seeds and seasame seeds and it was gorgeous. Then I played around with rye flour, molasses and pumpkin seeds in bread that was more like a cake. And we've been hoeing into them. We have been buying expensive organic breads but figure we should probably be doing it from home again as we have a very energy efficient way to cook them. And the rewards have been great, even if we will need to find a way to ventilate the caravan without letting the cold in at night.

I'm also back into making tofu. We're still not up and running with our own soy beans, but next season I hope to grow them in bulk though, having said that, I remember spending hours shelling them at Gympie. Maybe Trev can invent another flail. Wherever possible, we buy organic, but there's nothing like homegrown organic.

June 30 (really it's July the 1st, but I'm gonna sneak this one in).

Caleb learning to play 'Smoke on the Water'. He's counting down the hours till his birthday on the 14th of July!

We have $5000 worth of 12" X 7" logs sitting outside (yes, we managed to find the right size timber!) waiting patiently for various notches to be cut, and various tongues to be lovingly sculptured by Trev. Trev has all his chainsaw carpentry skills honed along with a nice new chain and we've deliberated a million times with a million different people and we think we've got our plan cemented (though of course there isn't going to be any of that stuff, right). Trev lies in bed at night envisioning how it all hangs together, which is probably more interesting than my waking dreams which are all about ensuring there is enough money in the bank for each building stage, though on a good night I'm in for a sleepless bout of clay render colour schemes and wondering whether I can learn some basketry skills and weave us up cupboard door inserts. Using natural products shouldn't mean we have to be surrounded in wood grain, I'm open to other things. So I've got to the point that I'm watching the road side for various plants and have been heard to yell, 'Cumbungii!'



Talking of road side, it reminds me of what Trev did with his roadkill recently, he walks on wallaby, they make wonderful inner soles to his boots judging by the ooh's and ahhs, when he's putting them on.

Trev has been busy about the place creating a log turning tool as they are hard to handle and with a nice long lever, much easier to turn over, and has been busy arranging them around the building site near too their final position, and when not doing that has refined his home brewery with a nice little example of energy efficiency. As it's colder weather he's having a hard time getting his beer to brew, he made a polystyrene box and suspended a tungsten light inside to keep it warm, and lo, it worked, but there were lots of eyebrows raised at each other regarding the energy wastage. So the contraption has been re-erected, this time it's sitting on top of the hot water cylinder, which, while not warm, does have a lovely warm copper pipe protruding from it. So he's incorporated the pipe and shoved in a stick thermometer and lo, it also works, and with zero emissions! Gee, I love the slow combustion oven!

It's also been the baker of the best bread we've ever eaten. I've refined my bread baking recipe so I'm ready to share it. Our doona lifing capabilities seem to have resolved themselves after a week or so of eating the bread. Glad it's not a permanent acquisition.


Doona Lifter (no knead).

5 cups of flour (I use half white, half wholemeal)
5 teaspoons of dried yeast (I recommend Lowan's)
2 tsps of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 cup of LSA (Linseed, Sunflower and Almonds ground)

I mix it through thoroughly before adding

750mls of warm water
Mix well in till it's nice and sloppy but well blended.
Place it in a warm spot for 45mins/an hour or till it has roughly doubled in size.
Add
1/2 cup of sunflowers seeds
1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup of sesame seeds


Mix it in well again, use floured hands to combine it thoroughly.

Spoon it into two well buttered or oiled loaf dishes (I use glass rather than non-stick)
With floured hands press it in lightly till it takes the shape of the dish.
Sprinkle seasame seeds over the top before replacing the dishes in a warm spot and waiting another 30mins, before sticking them in a moderate oven, 160-180 and cooking till light brown.
I stick a thin metal rod (a stick thermometer) in and see if if comes out clean. If it comes out with moist bread mix adherring to it, it goes back in the oven till it doesn't.
Because our oven cooks the top too quickly I place the dishes in the bottom of the oven, and place a tray above them to shield them from direct heat which can leave you with a crusty top and a stickly bottom.
I also like to plop them out of the dish and stick them back in the oven upside down to brown their backsides for five minutes to make it a more even loaf.
It's all up to your oven and your personal taste.

Caleb has decided it's the best stuff he's ever eaten, and this is from the child who not long ago told me,
'When I grow up and have kids, I'm going to feed them white bread', and 'I wish we weren't so poor that we can't afford to eat white bread'. No amount of telling him white bread is cheap and the stuff we eat horrendously expensive will allay his belief he is deprived. That was till the Doona Lifter. Now it is no sooner out of the oven than it has lost both crusts to a salivating child. Dripping, of course, with real butter.

Speaking of baking. Trev bought sheets of polystyrene and has used them to line the shed roof. We thought about lining the walls also, but realise there is no need, we'd cook. At its best it can be 30 degrees (celcius) difference between inside the shed and out, we have an electronic internal thermometer paired with an external, and we tend to gloat over our internal and external differenitation.

Can't wait to try the same thing out with a strawbale house. Wish we had one.

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