January 2006


The truisms prove themselves worthy. It takes, so everyone tells us, ten times longer to do anything when building a house, than you expect. At the rate it is taking and will take for bureaucracy to to do its thing, we might be lucky to start building by May or June. We're still waiting to be able to erect a couple of pre-fabricated sheds to house the strawbales required.

But we're not sitting idle. We've read every book on the subject, drawn multitudes of house plans, researched sustainable products, we want to be PVC free, paint free, use the least amount of concrete possible, have a beautiful house, and not spend a fortune.

We're even starting to think we might set ourselves an ambitious financial limit, but, as the other building truism goes, it always costs twice as much as you were anticipating. So far, that's been the case and we haven't laid a bale yet.

The block has been slashed, a dam built, a mountain of soil and accumulated junk from the last century has been unearthed, including an antique motorbike (beyond restoration), antique bottles, engines, and bedsteads. We'd love to get a garden going, but will have to wait for the dam to fill.

Caleb spends most of his day riding his bike around the streets and at the skatebowl with his new found friends Jayden and Zara. All of them doing the kinds of things that makes mothers hearts hammer.
He's doing his best to ride his bike like a horse without the use of hands so he can incorporate his archery phase, which, also includes the use of hammers on the internal organs of watching parents. Fishing is still a favoured activity and we all enjoy finding rickety little jetties to dangle our legs from.

Alas the raspberry season is over, but we're wolfing down apricots to console ourselves, that and rhubarb crumble with vanilla custard.

We've received the first copies of our book 'Living the Good Life' and we're keen to see it sitting on bookshelves in February when it's released.