Earthship seminar complete and heaps more jam….heaps bro, heaps!

I’ve been working 12 hr days 5 days a week lately so sorry for the lack of updates. 

I just spent my weekend at a seminar by Mike Reynolds about his Earthship concepts and his visions for a future of self sufficient housing.  Some very cool ideas and a lot of stuff I will be trying to incorporate into my own designs.  Also seems that a bloke called Darren is about to get Australia’s first ever building permit for an Earthship designed home so that’s kinda exciting and it’s here in Victoria up near Kinglake just North of Melbourne.  I’m quite keen to check it out and go lend a hand once building gets started.  I’ll try to find time to post some links for anyone who wants some info there.  Big thanks to my brother and family who chipped in for the tix to the seminar as a christmas present, love ya lots!

Also went back to Trentham last weekend with some friends and picked a shit tonne of Blackberry and even some Elderberry (which I didn’t even know was there until it was pointed out to me).  Picked up some organic plums and rasberries on the way from a little farm outside Woodend and now I have a shitload of awesome jam!  Plum, Port & Blackberry is my fave so far but we also have Rasberry & Blackberry, Blackberry & Vanilla and Blackberry & Elderberry.  All fantastic and easy as piss to make.  So happy to be eating off my land before I’ve even done anything to the place.

Work calls so I gotta sign off, will post pics of jams and stuff later, cheers :)

awaiiken-deactivated20120221 asked: hey maybe we can follow eachother and bounce sustainable living ideas off eachother :)

Absolutely.  I was kinda hoping for some feedback and comment here.  I’ll answer as often and as openly as I can mate.  Cheers.

tallarook asked: Just stumbled across your blog while browsing tags for "rammed earth", and was a little stunned as your project sounds almost exactly the same as ours - we're in the Tallarook Ranges, just over an hour north of Melbourne, one allotment away from the state forest, with no power or other services. We're in the early stages of building our own sustainable home, too :)

Mate that’s awesome!  You guys are way ahead of me, I only got the land December last year and I haven’t so much as put a dunny on the thing yet.  I was just talking to a mate today about the bobcat and shipping container idea and now I see you’ve done exactly that. Can I ask you some questions?

- How much did the bobcat cost you?

- How much did the container cost you?

Keep it up mate, the more of us around the easier it gets for others I reckon.  Cheers :)

The Jam is delicious…

And so damn easy to make.  Can’t believe I’ve never done that before.  I’ll put up some pics later for yaz :)  In the end I’d picked around 1.6kg of blackberries so I have quite a bit of jam now.  I’ll have to start using it to bribe family and friends.

There are so many blackberries left to be picked I could probably make 10 times that amount.  If only I had enough jars.

The Green Man is up!

I was given a fantastic Green Man for Christmas and went to put it up over the New Year.  I decided to place it amongst the branches of a grand old Blackwood tree that shades a massive wombat hole in the centre of the block.  I’m hoping to place many items like this, sculptures and carvings, around the forest for people to stumble upon as they wander around.  I covered him with a few handfuls of dirt in the hope that moss and grass will take hold and absorb him into the surrounding plants so he is visible to keen eyes only.

I find something engaging and inspiring in the anthropomorphising of nature this way.  Faces in trees, imps and fairies, moss covered remnants of a mythical past.  It feels like an extension of our inclination to see faces in clouds and knots in wood and it speaks of the life in inanimate things.  I want the forest to have this kind of feeling.

UPDATE: Just found this website about tree carving, awesome!  Definitely gotta do some of this.  Here is a poem from that site:

THE GREEN MAN.

I am the stirring in the Spring

Leaves of green and sap for blood

Misty folklore memory

I am the glimpse in the Autumn wood

You’ve carved my face in wood and stone

And I look down upon your prayers and song

But though I dwell in your halls and churches

It’s in the wild free woodland that I belong

Blackberry time

I’m about to head off to Trentham again to see how many blackberries I can pick in an afternoon.  I was in Bright last weekend and the blackberries were ready so I’m hoping I haven’t missed them all.  There’s plenty of them around so I doubt very much I’ll be able to pick them all anyway.

In fact I’ve been mulling around with the issue of blackberry for the last couple of weeks and I’ve decided goats are most likely the answer to my problems there.  The locals I spoke to all suggested poison was the way to go and seemed confident that the newest herbicides are reliable, quick and don’t build up in the environment.  I’m not really buying this.  Goats seem like a perfect fix in my mind, they don’t poison anything and apparently they have an insatiable appetite for blackberry.  They are cheap, friendly (at least the females are, the males sound like monsters) and edible!  I’m planning to have a chat to some local goat farmers to get a feel for it.  I will have to purchase some portable electric fencing to move around the property and some kind of mobile shelter for the colder months of the year but I kind of like the idea that while I’m here in the city working there are some friendly goats happily munching away at the blackberry and clearing the place up for me.  As long as they don’t ring bark any of the nice trees….then they’re going to become Rogan Josh.

Finally I’ll mention I’ve added a bunch more photos from my couple of days up there around New Year.  I’ve been crazy busy on a new job here in Melbourne so my updates will continue to be sporadic for a few months.  Cheers all!

Check out new pics page.

I just dumped a bunch of pics I’ve collected off the net over the years of my favourite houses.  Feel free to contribute if there’s others I haven’t found yet, I’m always keen to see more, just keep it on topic.

‘Cool and inspiring houses.’

Settlement completed.

Best of the season to you all.

Good news, settlement was completed Dec 23rd and I spent a wonderful lunch with my family at the property on Tuesday.  Feels good man :)

So I now have a list of priorities to get things rolling:

1.  Road in needs clearing and grading.  There are some saplings that are growing too close to the road in and need to be cleared before they get too large.  It’s also pretty damn rutted at various points and a large tree fell across part of the road during the storms on the weekend.  Looks like at least a full days work with a chainsaw and then some.

2. Create a road that runs the easement on the southside and have it graded and gravelled so it’s safe for 2 wheel drive vehicles.  I don’t have a 4x4 (that may have to change at some point, might be able to get away with a grunty quad instead) so the only way to get my van into the property will be by upgrading the current road and running it up the easement (which is currently overgrown) to the gate.  Apparently my neighbour Wally has a grader and made the road into the area himself.  Sounds like a good bloke to get to know ;)

3. Start planting the big trees.  I am keen to have a row of Chestnut trees running the bottom fence line of the property.  They won’t be in the way of anything else I want to do so the sooner they get in the ground the sooner I’ll be roasting the little bastards children over a fire.  They are quite slow growing from what I hear.

4.  Clear and flatten a spot to set up tents or park a caravan.  I’m keen to spend some time just walking around and getting a feel for the place, noting the species present and comparing soil in different areas etc. and I also want to open the place up for my friends and family to stay and enjoy our own private camping spot in the forest.

5. Dig a dunny!  We’re going to need a long drop as a temporary measure while things are progressing.  I was gifted a bloody good shovel this Christmas and I reckon this is the perfect job to break the seal on it.

I reckon that should be enough to keep me busy for the next few months.  I’ll keep updating with pics and comments as I go.  Hope you all have a great new year, cheers!

Pics page sorted

I figured out the pics page, will post more as they come.

Settlement soon.

So I went in on Friday and signed the contract of sale, handed over my deposit and shook hands on the deal.  Whilst I’m required to complete settlement before Jan 16th 2012 I already have the money so I’m thinking I should be able to have it done before Christmas no worries.  A present to myself and my family :)

There’s been a little to and fro with the contract regarding fences.  The neighbour is in the process of fencing the boundary and I wanted it completed before settlement.  However the vendor is not contributing to the fence and so can’t make any promises, despite the fact that I specifically asked if the fences would be complete when I was negotiating a price.  So I had the vendor add a special condition to the contract that said he would foot the bill if I was issued with a Notice to Fence (commonly requiring the owners of both properties to contribute financially).  Helps to do the work on the contracts yourself and not leave it all to the solicitor.  The legal profession might prefer you think contracts are gobbledygook that only they can decipher for you but trust me, the more of them you read carefully (this applies to everything!) the more you find the wording is not as confusing as it first seems.  By all means run it past your solicitor for a thumbs up but understand it yourself first.

So I’ll be away til Dec 16th and then I should be able to post as the official, fully paid, no mortgage owner of my own patch of forest.  Then things get interesting…..