April 2006


April 8

We're buying a bus, a big blue and white (with lots of rusty bits) bus. It has the seats removed and a bathroom partition with a loo, bath, shower and basin, a brief kitchen/living area and a 'double bed' bedroom in the back. It has power (safety switches), instantaneous gas hot water, and a gas stove.

The big issue at the moment is getting it from its current location to our block. Since the last owner had it the neighbours below him have built fences that make removal difficult. The fact that it doesn't have a motor or a gear box also contributes.

Trev is keen to get in there and put his practical skills to the test. At only $2200, it's a bargain, however the removal fees will no doubt be less so. We're keen to get onto the block where we can do more damage, at least to weeds. Photos of the bus coming soon.

Had another meeting with the draftsperson on Friday and my triangular bathroom went by the wayside. Now it's more rhombus, or something, trapezoid? Good lord I've forgotten my shapes. The roof design has also been altered, and the kitchen is bigger and now there's a sizable alcove which will be used as a library/reading area.

It's raining and cold and sometime during the week we succumbed and turned on the heater for the first time. The dam is, hmmm, around a 1/4 full. Our rainwater tank is filling nicely. The mud is appreciating at a great rate and all is well.

On the book front, it seems it's almost out of stock at the distributors and is approaching its first reprint. And only 2 months after its release that feels pretty good. I found out it's been released in NZ, and looks like it will be released in the UK in January next year. This is mostly due to an Australian woman's blog www.loobylu.com which won a recent blogging Australia/New Zealand bloggers award, and attracted the attention of a UK publisher who read her rave about Living the Good Life, and went on to buy it from an online Australian Bookshop, read it and approached Hardie Grant Books.

We're also getting lots of great feedback from readers. It's really wonderful to hear what people are doing with their lives. It would be great to have a few write in about what they're doing so we can plonk it on the site - either sustainable builders, or sustainable households. Send us an email with a couple of photos, nothing more inspiring than seeing what others are up to.

Trev's been up to lots. He's made himself a workbench and is creating rustic picture frames as he gears up to start making windows with his latest toy. A new drop saw.
Caleb is back on the trampoline, since our furniture arrived from Launceston he's gone hard at rediscovering forgotten toys, that is when he isn't working around his full on social life. He's even had a few visits from the toothfairy of late. Few mores steps away from all things baby.

Writing is what I've been up to, mainly articles for various magazines, The ABC Organic Gardener, Earthgarden, The Owner Builder and others.


We can feel an involuntary 6 months without spending a dollar coming up!



April 23

We didn't buy a bus. We bought a 25 foot caravan with gas stove and electric fridge, double bed and bunks for $3000. It's on the block now, and Trev is down there as I write working on a bathroom that will be situated between the caravan and a shed. We both admit to feeling an odd sinking feeling when imagining, when we move in, just how long it will be before we move from it into the house. I make jokes about how, 'if you haven't heard from us in a few days, you might want to check to see if there's been any murders'. It's not a lot of space to share, especially considering one of us is very good at inveigeling space and enjoys nothng more than jumping up and down. We'll take the trampoline with us and suggest its the better place to move oneself vertically.

We moved 300 bales into a temporary shed last week, we had around 8 kids there to help us out. Most of the help comprised of making cubbies out of bales, every now and then I'd do a role call to make sure no one had ended up smothered or had accidently inhaled one of the many mice that had taken up residence in the bales. The kids turned out to be very creative in their approach to mice erradication, and employed Caleb's vertical up and down motions along with heavy soled shoes. I've since bought 6 mice traps and have caught three extras.But will have to keep it up as the bales have turned out to be full of seed. Which was the reason we went to great length to find straw, its not supposed to have a great deal of seed in it.

I'm concerned that the mice, which have found the seed, will be found by a snake. We've already come across a lovely black tiger snake living only 50 metres away from the sheds. Caleb recently watched the Snake Man at a local event, I spied him across the tent with a look of disgust on his face, after asking him why he looked disgusted he replied, "He never ended up fighting the snake!". I guess his ideas of what the show was about were different from everyone elses. I'm hoping he has enough sense not to start his own local snake fighting spectacle himself.



We're about to get power on to the sheds. Trev and I had a go at dowsing for the phone line so we didn't cut through it. My dowsing looked pretty good, the wires crossing over at the same point each time. Unfortunately for Trev, his part of the job was to find the wire before the big machinery came in and found it for us. It wasn't there, his trench was about 2.5 metres long and we still hadn't found it. Eventually the big machinery arrived, we shrugged our shoulders in confusion and the trench was dug VERY slowly. We never found the cable. It must have been deeper than our 500mm - 700mm holes. However, I still believe it's exactly where the my wires crossed. (or maybe my wires are crossed).

The trench was dug, the electrician arrived, cables were laid, the meter box was about to be positioned when it was discovered that the wrong meter box had been sent. I went and dug a garden and surrounded it in chicken wire to protect it from marauding rabbits, possums, sheep and the possibility that the stray cow that found its way to our block last week and then subsequently disappeared, after at least 50 large cow pads were laid.

We've bought a second hand composting toilet. The Envirolet loo is a self contained unit that uses a heater to evaporate excess liquid, keep the compost warm and actively breaking down, and with 'arms' that circulate the material. The fact that we bought it secondhand is a great testiment to the fact that we can not only 'deal with our own shit', but with others too. Still, it's saved us around a $1000, something I'll not put my nose up at.

Caleb's keen to get out to the block an start living in a caravan, what an adventure! He's also keen to see snow, apart from those little white patches on the top of some of the molehills around here. At the moment there is only an abundance of mud.



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