Vegie Beds

I thought I'd better fill you in on what I've been up to in my new vegie beds (thanks Sooj, they're wonderful!). We had some pretty nice soil to fill the beds with - a mixture of a pile of soil that had been cleared off the future shed site and a pile of horse manure/saw dust that's been settling for months - but I wanted to add some extra organic matter to build it up. Since the beds were made over existing grasses/weeds (recently whipper-snippered) I covered the bottoms w/ cardboard using flattened boxes that I salvaged from work. Then I placed a layer of compost, a layer of lucerne hay then the soil/horse manure mix. I also mixed in some gypsum and sheep poo in the top layer of the soil mix. The gypsum helps to break up clay soil...the soil mix we had wasn't heavy clay (like most of the soil on our property!) but it had a small clay component so the gypsum should help with this.

I planted out 5 beds last weekend (I now have 3 more to do), though there is still room for more plants in each of the beds. I'm waiting on an order for more seeds from the Digger's Club (where I get most of my plants and seeds as they have lots of organically produced plants/seeds and heirloom varieties) so I'll have more to plant, hopefully next week. The first bed has 3 different carrot varieties (including 3 colour purple, which, when you transect it has 3 rings of colour including purple!); next has tomatoes (these are already fruiting as I've had them growing in pots since late spring...it's a bit late to plant tomatoes from seed here now), next bed has daikon raddish, pak choy and rocket; next has 2 different climbing bean varieties (including a purple one again) and sugar snap peas; and finally, sweet corn. (Thankyou Mary...I've planted Chloe, Dylan and Elise's rocket, beans and carrots so they will have to come and sample them when they're ready.) I also have cabbage, cauliflower, mini broccoli and lettuce planted in punnets, to be planted in the beds as seedlings. The nice thing about many of the heirloom vegie varieties is that most of them are unusual-looking (you don't see many in the shops) and they taste better and yield more than the more commercial varieties we're used to buying in supermarkets/greengrocers. You can get carrots that come in reds, purples, oranges, yellows and whites and tomatoes that are green, yellow, purple and striped! Anyway, sorry for rambling on about the vegies, but it's exciting seeing them all sprouting and developing into seedlings so fast. So far everything has sprouted through the soil except for the lettuce I've planted in punnets. I water twice a day and each time I notice new seedlings have come up and that all the seedlings that have sprouted have grown a bit more!

Today we also bought 9 blueberry plants...we've decided just to plant them on the western side of the house...will have to think of something else for the other sides. We will also plant some grapevines on this side. Both should help provide some shade in summer...we also plan to have espalier fruit trees (apple, pear etc) along the western fence to provide summer shade (but since they're deciduous will let the sun through in winter). In addition to the blueberries we bought some other fruit trees...a chocolate pudding fruit tree (can't wait to sample that one!), 2 rosella plants (Kristy should be excited about these...they produce little flowers that are delicious in champagne!), an avocado, a jaboticaba (a tree that produces yummy berry-like fruit), water chestnut (to go in an old bath Sooj is making into a water-plants pond) and a water lily.

We have lots of work cut out for ourselves in the garden but it's lots of fun. I enjoy it so much more than painting!

Nettie

OUTSIDE

Yay!!! I have a weekend completely off!

I've been playing outside whilst Annette's still going with the painting inside.... somehow I don't think she'll ever undertake a full house painting ever again...

The generator had to be connected to the battery system, but I wanted to have it above the one in hundred flood level, so this was my handywork last Sunday night (took 2 hours) after I came home from emergency calls at 8:30pm.... I used some off-cut steel from the mezannine floor.

Today, I finished building the vegetable garden beds. There are 7 of them, each 1.5 x 2.4 metres insize. I did the first five beds a couple of week ago and last week we hired a Dingo, to fill up all the beds with dirt (I'll let Annette explain what went in... if she ever has time to write on this blog...). So finally we've got some veggies on the way! The beds are old railway sleepers that are set out so they are level and they are screwed together with BIG coach screws.

Today I also got Danny the Bobcat driver to come out for the day and he's backfilled all the trenches. I also finished off the retaining wall around the house and Danny shifted all the dirt and mulch so now we have a garden bed all the way around the house. Once the soil and mulch settle after some rain, we'll plant the beds out with .... blueberry... thats the plan or now at least. The high garden beds around the house was designed so that we don't have to completely enclose the verandah all the way around the house... we will make sure its safe for the kids at least. This garden will be watered with a grey water system (once we can afford it!). Anyway, better get to bed early for another big day tomorrow.

see ya!

There's light at the end of the tunnel on the EI front.

Another month's gone by pretty quickly and I've been a bit slack on the blog front, but with the rush on EI vaccinations finally coming to an end plus a break from the rain has seen us make a bit of progress outside in the last few weeks!

This past month: we've managed to tick a few things off our 'to-do-list' black board in the kitchen.

We've set out all the built in wardrobes, but haven't unpacked all our clothes yet. We also have been getting quotes for the wardrobe door.

When we originally moved, I broke the glass insert in our dining table, so we ate on teh couch for a month, but I bought a router and modified the table and inserted the left over bamboo floor boards instead of the glass insert so now we are eating in a civil manner..

The ensuite and laundry is almost finished, but there's still a few fixtures to go. I made the laundry bench out of a silky oak slab, got the splash back from Ikea, and the post is a very old fence post which was lying around outside.

Annette made two loaves of organic bread today... whilst I was slaving away outside.... very nice fresh with nutella!

Started the moving-in process!

We had a busy and productive weekend. On Saturday, I spent all morning filling in the power trenches. The rest will be done by an excavator, but now I can organise sprinkler systems etc etc. Then after a tip run, we went down to Sydney for our friends' Leah and Gareth's wedding at Taronga Zoo. It was a good night out at a great venue! Today (Sunday), we came back early so I could go and vaccinate more horses whilst Annette finished cleaning the kitchen and started unpacking. After I came home, I started bringing in some of the furniture from the shipping container and most of the kitchen stuff, so the house is starting to look like a home! Better go now... will put up photos soon.

Quick Update

A couple of things happened this week
1. told the Totally Green Plumbing guys to not come back... :-)
2. floor finished
3. moved into our master bedroom
4. Bernie the builder hurt his hand (not at our place) so he's out of action for a while... I'll have to start doing stuff outside.

Tomo and Vik on our teak day bed... its a really nice piece, but we bought it when we weren't really aware that it was most probably produced from rainforest timber and is quite an unsustainable bit of furniture! After earning their lodgings and breakfast with a morning of cleaning floor boads, we took them out to The Entrance for a bit of pelican-ing.... what kind of 'birds' were you taking photos of Viktor??? All the pelicans are behind you....

ciao

New Main Page Photo

I've put on a new photo up the top. It takes a bit of time to download because of its size and resolution. Viktor my brother in law from Sweden took lots of great photos on their recent trip back here for Christmas and this is one of them. Thanks Viku!

Here are some more recent photos:

Nettie finishing off the bedrooms' old floor boards.Bernie starting the first piece of the new bamboo floor boards...

Mum, Viktor and Tomo's first visit last week.Zane and Sarah dropped in for a visit on the way through... we chased the cats and dogs with his radio controlled car... funMichael and Kristy came for our first din-din with Tomo and Viktor..

We are in!!!

Hey All,

Sorry of the lack of updates recently... we will definitely get back into things once we are a bit more settled.

We're a fairway off being done, but things are certainly better now than a few weeks ago.

POWER - The main thing pre-christmas was the power being put on... hurray!!! So, Clint the sparky worked har the week before Xmas and got it all going. The guys from Solar Shop were great and they got the power system up and going in one day. The system is on a supa-mezzaine in the carport that Charlie put up they day before the solar guys arrived. After a few sunny days, the batteries have been pretty much >90% most of the time. All the power points work as well as the lights so now we can work into the night.... yeh...

The Solar Shop guys with the power going for the first time!!!

SEPTIC - this isn't quite finished, but Chris the Biolytix guy came out on Thursday just after Christmas and put in most of the sub-surface irrigation so that we could use the shower, bath and toilet etc..... but the major hicup came before that when the Totally Green Plumbers were slack as. Even though they could have put in the hot water tank and installed all the taps and stuff back in August (we bought the stuff in June but the walls weren't up until August) Mitchell the guy thats been doing our stuff kept saying that they wanted to do everything in one go when the septic and power were both available so that they could commission it straight away... anyway, he kept putting us off until the Friday before Christmas, came at 9:30 and left at 2:30 after only getting the hot water tank in and the taps on the bath tub, then said he'd be back on the 7th January!!! (which by the way has come and gone and he hasn't called us)... I was very pissed off because we still had no toilet and no water in the house except out of the bath taps. Anyway, Nat (husband of Nicole who works at Wyong Equine Clinic) came to the rescue and a couple of days later on the Sunday before Chrissy, came over and put in the toilet cistern and basin taps and fixed the water pump... he'd only accept a bottle of wine!! I also fixed the ensuite shower and the kitchen taps so we were now right to go and move into the house after the septic irrigation lines were in. So, the Friday the 28th December, we unofficially moved in... our mattress from the caravan into the guest bedroom and slept in our new house and used the toilet!

Having a late night Hungry Jack's for our moving-in celebration dinner with some champers!!

The biolytix tank in and ready to recieve..

FLOOR - We sanded back and varnished the 2nd and 3rd bedroom floors the weekend before Christmas and also moved all the bamboo flooring that was delivered into the house to acclimatise, then for the following 1.5 weeks after Christmas, Bernie has been back in action and we've been doing the floors together. The bamboo boards look really good and feel good as well, but the job was quite back-breaking work. Tomoko and Viktor were at least able to visit us a couple of times. Last weekend, they stayed over night after our first 'official' dinner. We also had Michael and Kristy over for our mini house warming. Thanks for the Frangipani! The next morning, even though Annette told Tomo and Vik to 'sleep in as long as you like', we were banging and sawing and being very noisy from 7:30am onwards so they didn't get much of a sleep in... then they helped us rub off the glue marks and finger prints off the new floor with metho!!! Thanks guys. The bamboo flooring has now been finished!

The timber slabs on teh counter...

THIS WEEK - Charlie came back yesterday and finished off hte mezzanine in the carport with a gate and ballustrade so its now all safe and we'll take photos for the solar shop guys to be able to claim the government rebate. Annette has been busily painting the skirting boards before they get put into position later in the week. We also picked up our new toilet for the ensuite.. the Caroma Profile Suite with the handbasin on top!! Itwas a couple hundred dollars more than I was expecting ($870), but since we've been waiting for it since September, I'm not complaining :-)

Now the dilemma.... do we let the plumbers that let us down back into the house and touch our special can (toilet)?

Will put on more photos later..

cya
Pete

Solar panels

Here are the photos we promised of the solar panels. They've been in for a couple of weeks now but are still not hooked up to batteries...any time now. We're waiting on the mezzanine to be built in the carport, for the batteries to be placed on.





A grid was installed first and the panels were fixed to these. The guys spent most of the day installing the panels.

The panels look quite good on the carport roof. They are in a prime position (facing north) to collect the sun's energy.

Most of the electrical fittings are in (just a few lights and power points) and the waste water treatment tank is in but we're still waiting for the dispersal lines (which the treated water empties out through, underground) to be installed. Have had A LOT of rain over past week (each of our 22 000L tanks is full!) which has held things up.

Also waiting on the arrival of our bamboo floorboards...another hold-up with these.

Progress

I promise to put up a few photos as soon as I can get home whilst still light!!!
The solar panels are up but the mezzanine for the batteries still have to go up. The trenches for the power and phone have been dug. The biolytix septic tank is in but there's another council hiccup with the evapotranspiration area and I'm about to building the retaining wall all the way around the house so that the balcony has a garden bed surrounding it... its the only way we can use stainless steel wire for the balustrade. photos soon!

Progress (or lack of) Report

Things have slowed down incredibly and we're currently waiting on the solar people, the Biolytix waste water treatment system to be installed and the electricians to come and finish plus the plumbers. Everyone is slow and no one comes when they promise!

On a happier note, I was very excited last week to find my first strawberries growing. They are alpine strawberries (yes, Tomo & Viktor, just like the wild ones in Europe which we taste-tested in the Stockholm Archipelago!) which I have growing in some pots. Delicious!

Walk Against Warming

Here are some photos of the Walk Against Warming which Sarah and I took part in today. There was a fantastic turn-out, with around 30 000 people joining the walk in Sydney. Apparently there were about 50 000 for Melbourne's walk and thousands more people participated in other walks across Australia. We heard from Bob Brown and Peter Garret who were both welcomed enthusiastically by the crowd. (I was stoked to get such a close-up pic of Peter!) A very well spoken young boy, about 8 years old, also gave a moving speech. Typically, the so-called Federal environment minister, Malcom Turnbull, refused the opportunity to address the people on the day, even though he had been kindly invited to give his point of view. There wasn't even a representative from the Liberal government present, however the Greens, Labour and Democrats were all represented by party members.

Please take a look at the pics. Sarah and I had fun and I'll definitely be turning up for next year's walk too!

Before the walk and speeches.

Young boy urges people to take action, for the sake of his, and future, generations.

Greens Senator Bob Brown

Peter Garret was so enthusiastic he almost broke into a dance.

Sarah the protestor with placard.

Nettie with placard...pretty appropriate since we're fighting the Korean coal mine project on the Central Coast and Sooj and I are about to get our solar panels so we won't be relying on the horrible stuff.



Turning out of Macquarie St, to walk around Hyde Park.

Walk Against Warming

Well, I finally finished the major part of painting last Sunday. I had a little celebration inside as it's been such a painstaking job. Still waiting to hear from the electricians as to when they will be coming to do the final fittings.

Just on a non-house topic, I thought I'd mention the Walk Against Warming that is happening all over Australia, this Sunday, 11th November. It's a day to show politicians (just before the federal election) and fellow Aussies that there a plenty of people who are concerned about global warming and also that there is so much that can be done to try and reduce it...if only everyone would act now. So, if you're concerned too (and you live in Australia), come and join one of the many walks that are taking place across Australia this Sunday. Sarah (my sister) and I will be joining the walk in Sydney, which begins in the Domain. There will be talks from Senator Bob Brown and Peter Garrett, and lots of music. The website for the walk is http://www.walkagainstwarming.org/ - it has details of where the walks will be taking place (even in country towns) and all sorts of other information. You can even purchase a 100% organic cotton, Aussie made, Walk Against Warming t-shirt. Please come and join in!

Nettie

(BTW, I'll be catching a train to Sydney, rather than the car...more enviro-friendly!)

Painting Nearly Complete!

This weekend should see the completion of the painting (not including the architraves, skirting boards and exterior though!) which has been a daunting task. Only 1 more coat to the main room walls and 2 on the kitchen walls and I'm done. Yay! The electricians will be in some time from next week, to do all the light fittings and switches and the solar and waste water treatments should go in in the next couple of weeks.
Nettie

Biotop Swimming-Teich / Natural Pool Release 4

This is one example of the kind of natural swimming pool that we plan to build. I'm just starting to plan the layout now.

Letter Box!

Yesterday, I made our letterbox... even though we opened a post office box at Wyong, we were still getting mail delivered and the letters were being left on the ground, even in the rain! I had elaborate plans for constructing a mega-sized letter-box, but opted instead to follow the theme of using as much of the timber lying around as possible.

I cut out the opening in a rather large tree stump with a chainsaw and chisel and hammer then fitted the steel letter box inside.

Solar Power Rebate Approved!

Hello all you bloggers!

Sorry about the lack of updates the previous couple of weeks. Workwise we've been getting steadily busier and a couple of weddings to attend to have stalled our house progress somewhat... still, we're now about 2/3 of the way through the painting of the walls and ceilings.

The next 4 weeks should see a lot more progress because I just got told that our application for the remote solar power grant has been approved.. I think we're only the 3rd apllication to be approved under this new grant.

SO, that means that we'll get the full solar system in 4~5 weeks which will cost around $62K but the government will fund $31K of that. hurray!

This weekend we're off to Thredbo for Annette' friend Alison's wedding, so I'm looking forward to that.. I've had a super-busy weekend and a couple of late night, stressful 'DPI Community Information meetings' that I spoke at so I'm very much hanging out for that motel shower and a good unwind!

cya

Carport Warming!

We had our first BBQ yesterday! Grandad had arrived from Japan on Saturday and since it was a public holiday, Mary and the two nieces Chloe and Elise, Sarah, Mum and Graham all came up to have a look at the progress on our house. Unfortunately, Irwin had to stay home and look after Dylan who was sick!

It was the easiest BBQ ever for me because mum brought up everything.... and it was all very yummy!

This is my grandad Yozo Asakura. He's looking very sprightly for his 90 years!
A building site isn't all that kid friendly, but I spent all weekend tidying up and I was very happy to avoid any incidents with the girls... just a couple of dislocated elbows :-)

A New Home for Our Caravan!

This week saw the completion of our carport and the relocation of our caravan. We're much more comfortable as the caravan is now well sheltered from rain and from the heat of the day. There is plenty of space (as you can see, the carport is HUGE) and we've set up a little 'entertainment area' outside the caravan, which will be very useful as the weather warms up. We've also improved our caravan grey-water drainage system so that the grey water now runs through 20m of Nylex grey-water hosing and empties directly onto the ground well away from the caravan and amongst grass/bushes etc. Previously we had it emptying into large buckets which we had to manually empty every day. If we want to collect the water for watering our plants we can still do this easily.



On the house front, we are still plodding along with the painting though it seems like it will never end. We've finished undercoating, the laundry is painted (other than the trims) and 2 ceilings are complete...still plenty more to go. Painting ceilings is not much fun! However, the Dulux EnvirO2 and Aquanamel paints make things much more pleasant as they are relatively odourless and easy to apply. Our ensuite and laundry are now tiled (we will post photos later) and the showerscreen is in. We are waiting on a new toilet from Caroma (see below) called the 'Profile Suite', which should be available in October. It has a hand-washing basin built-in on top of the cistern and uses the hand-washing water to fill the cistern, so the water is effectively used twice (go to http://www.caroma.com.au/ for more info). It costs around $500 and will be available from stores such as Bunnings. sooj says ... "my grandma and grandad have had these for 25 years in their unit in Tokyo... its about time Oz caught up..."


We are quite enjoying actually living on our property now (even though we're in a little caravan) as there's plenty of space and it's quite pleasant pottering around in the morning with lots of different birds going about their morning routines. Sooj recently discovered some Eastern rosellas nesting in a tree hollow and I've been enjoying bird-watching in my own backyard. Apparently (according to the ecological assessment guys who did the initial eco reports on this property about 5yrs ago), there is a large population of ringtail possums here, and there are also antechinus; some koalas were also seen when they did the original assessment. I plan to go spot-lighting soon to have a look for myself!


Must go and have dinner which Sooj has cooked on the barbie. Have a look at the pics below.

Bye for now,
Nettie



The carport provides a perfect shelter for our caravan (no more leaks) and fits both cars as well. When the shed is built, it will be connected to the carport on the side which is furthest to the right on this photo (northern aspect). The solar panels will sit on the north-facing side of the carport roof.
We have a nice little set-up outside the caravan, with gas barbecue (sitting alongside the outer caravan wall) and tables and chairs. There will be no more issues with mud when it rains as the floor of the carport is crushed recycled concrete.
Sally-Ann doing her book/computer work for Wyong Equine Clinic, just outside the caravan.

The new Caroma Profile Suite...see http://www.caroma.com.au/ for details.

Carport construction

Last week the carport construction was begun and Charlie finished the job this Tuesday!
Its a pretty gigantic 'carport' and it will support all 50 solar panels.
These past 2 weeks, Sally Anne has been coming to work at my place... and doing lots of washing because we need to wear fresh overalls at every call. The number of infected properties is steadily increasing so we are pretty busy all day long... the phone is driving us mad!
This is the view from the top of the scissor lift which was hired to build the carport.

Next time I'll put up photos of our new arrangement with the caravan safely underneath our new carport... hopefully no more leaks!... and just in time too because I can hear some heavy rain on the roof! The roof has also been connected to another 22000 litre tank so we now have 66000 litres of rain water capacity.

cya!

Outside the house

The balcony is now a lot safer as the balustrade is up. We had to add an extra post in between the existing posts so that the maximum distance between them was 1.5m. This is apparently required for the stainless steel wire which tends to loosen up abit and can become prised apart by adventurous little kids... but the council guy is still not happy with it. He might be happier if we raise the garden bed right around the house so that the drop is less than 1 metre, which I was already planning to do anyway.
The pic below is our back yard... the evapotranspiration area. This area is the required 700square metres but we need to have it filled (raised to the 1 in 20 flood level). This pic was taken after about 27 truck loads of topsoil from a nearby development site.. probably another 200 tonnes needed...