Sunday, October 28, 2007

First permaculture design


Well, I've been doing some dreaming about our block and this is what I have so far. I've just realised I haven't put in a greenhouse/potting shed so that would likely go between the house and chook tractor for daily checking. However, as I said, this is all just dreaming at this stage.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

New Horizons


This is the view up the property from the gate (which is at the top of a steep driveway). You can see the old tree and the forests on the perimeter

This is the view across the property from the gate

My favourite - this is the view from the site where we will plant the house, which will hopefully be made from straw bales we grow ourselves.

Another view from the house site

Or new views.

We have returned from a very busy and very productive time in Tasmania. We have bought new land, secured a PO Box; enrolled Georgia in school (school in Tassie starts in Kinder, at the age of 4); opened a local bank account; found our builder; met the local GP; met the mayor and his dep; made ourselves known in the local establishments (there aren't that many!); found the laundromat and the hardware store and I have got work lined up, for if and when I want it!

So now we have a few things to do. We need to plan the house for building, which should commence in January 09. We've been in touch with the builder. We're discussing plans and things now, and knowing the lay of our land, it is easier to work things out in terms of position, north facing-ness (!), views etc. I have a lovely big scrapbook of our ideas. It's fun and exciting.

We also have to plan our accommodation. On site there is a temporary accommodation, which we will renovate to become the guest cabin. It looks terrible now, but after we have refurbished and clad it with timber or something on the outside, it will be comfortable. It will be small though, and I am not sure how I will cope with living in a 2 room cabin, coming from an 8 room house... but there will be 23 acres of land surrounding me, and the build will be in the pipeline. Our office will be in an old bus. It's huge. How strange, but soon it should be quite funky.

The land is 23 acres. It slopes. It has the feel of rolling hills about it, like all the area around Geeveston. On the boundaries of our land are rainforests. We will own approximately 6 acres of forest. It's beautiful. There is a creek on the border of one of the corners of the top end of the property. There is a 125 year old blackwood in the centre of the land, which will be for the children's cubby house. The 'cabin' is powered with a generator and there is a water tank for the water supply. We'll be looking into powering the place, probably off the grid, with renewable energy.

I can't wait to plant the veges and get some animals. I will get some chickens first. And a dog, but I'm not sure which type. It's exciting. We're really encouraged about our decision; the people we have met so far are very fond of Geeveston and they congratulate us on our decision.