Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Winter


We use some of the silt and topsoil from the dam to create landscaping around the house site
The little red trailer that could
When the dam was built they just flooded a large section of land, so there are lots to dig out
Turf that has been submerged for 15 years or so
Our new stone wall curving around the house




The finished kitchen
Our solar system
Inverters, regulators, etc.
With a large battery bank comes the importance of ventilation
Since we are not connected to mains power, our battery bank can handle a few days of very little sunshine


It will be so nice to have green areas around the house instead of sand and clay


Monday, June 30, 2008

The last six months

This guy comes every afternoon now

They are moving in on us
Trying out the Yeoman plow
Making a go with the forage harvester
A day on the land
Martina kicking back after have been planting blueberries
Our new blueberry patch
My harvest of sunflower seeds, and since they are non hybrids I plan on using them for the next season


Well, I just happen to like photograph flowers. Do you have a problem with that?
Since we were moving in to the house in late fall (April), the wood heater was a must.
Kelly and Brent finishing off the kitchen
Soon to be my bedroom, it needs a few more days of work.
Kitchen getting ready to get a spray of undercoating

So I am back with the flowers, I guess I was really impressed how much they took over the garden
Signs of a Yeoman plow
The big swale fills very easily


Sunset at Undercliff waterfalls 5 minutes from our house

The new tractor

Starting to see the finished layout



Hot water piping in the floor

It was a good year for blackberries
Kelly with his new fence posts
Tanya on the Machine

The next few photos are shot by Martina


Our new Biolytix sewage treatment system


Wow, anybody for indoor soccer


The gabions along the driveway doing their duty
Spraying the compost tea
We gravity feed it to the ute to take to the land
Brewing at the house we rented
Our own resident compost tea brewer - Jessie
Well, so much for the drought
Yeah, we did have some rain last night
Our small creek on steroids

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Sorry for the delay - it's time to catch up

Resident bird at the house we renting
Some of the new chooks and couple of pigeons
It's growing alright
We have put in a lot of walkways the last few months




Summer in Liston


Sunday, December 16, 2007

The last week

A sea of field peas
Using local grass in our gabions to control the flow of water next to the driveway
Getting help from the bigger artillery to make our swale a bit bigger

We had a farm track collapsing because of all the rain, more work to put on the listRemains of better days
Not on our land, we just went for a walk in the neighborhood

Some shots of everyday life

All the Agapanthus are flowering at the house we are renting
Siphoning out the water from the dam to do some work on the wall
It is almost empty, but with all the rain we have been it has filled up again. We have decided to wait until February to do the work, it is just to wet right now
Deep down in the valley, below where we are building the house
Planting veggies into the cover crop of field peas
Jessie and Tanya at another one of our dams
There has been a lot of planting going on, and it is coming up strong
The small swales are doing their job providing water to the freshly planted trees
We got hold of some good clumping bamboo
A lot of trees
We are using some of our own timber for the garden fence

The House

We are almost done with the outside shell
The view from the kitchen window
Some nicely framed shots


The windows and doors are being put into their place

A lot of bolts and nuts, and of course some steel

Looks a bit naked

Monday, November 19, 2007

Planting trees while the house is being built

Just for Art
It is coming along nicely

Owen helping out
Nicely framed
The frames laid out waiting to be raised up
Martina cutting down the covercrop to plant the beds up with a selection of seeds
Some of the trees yet to be planted
A newly planted tree with the milkcarton to protect it
Another windbreak towards the road
It looks really cool with all the swales and newly planted trees
The veggie garden with two newly planted beds
Tanya's herbspiral is coming along nicely
Our new official address; 578 Rivertree Rd.
Our newest members to the workforce, but they tend to mostly inspect the work
We dug two shorter swales above our long one next to the house, to plant up with trees to block the view of the road
Lining up the contour lines
34 small swales with close to 200 trees
We "roto tilled" between the swales and seeded up with cowpea, which is coming up like there is no tomorrow
Owen surveying and Jesse driving the excavator, what a team
We planted only native; Eucalyptus campanulata - Eastern New England Blackbutt, Eucalyptus youmanii - Youman's Stringybark, Eucalyptus calignosa - New England Stringybark,Eucalyptus dunnii - Dunn's White Gum, Eucalyptus viminalis – White Gum, Lophostemon confertus - Brush Box, Grevillea robusta - Silky oak
The gully that we want to plant up with trees

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Chooks, steel and garden stuff

Our four newly arrived chooks - nice looking birds from the sunshine coast
Yeap, that's a chicken tractor
Putting a fence around the veggie garden, you do have to dig down the fence because of our friends the rabbits

Posts marking the corner of the raised beds in the garden - can be used for many things, but mainly so that the garden hose doesn't take a shortcut across the beds
Tanya's herb spiral of her own design
There are many walkways in the garden - which means a lot of effort to make them work properly
You gotta love that fieldpea - only $3.95 a kilo as seeds and it is the hardest working seed in the mix
It was only a couple of weeks ago we seeded up the swale
The second shed



We just had 25 mm of rain, so we got the tanks set up just in time
Well, that worked out good
Levelling the pad for the tanks
They are so fast getting the frame up - hours not days

Monday, October 22, 2007

Buildings!



















Sunday, October 14, 2007

The making of a veggie garden - Part one

Putting the gravel on top of cardboard with folded sides on to the bedsIt takes a lot of gravel and cardboard
A pallet load of sugar cane mulch standing by for future use in the garden
Things...
A lot of irrigation outlet points around the garden

All the walkways are dug down and are on level
It is hard work
Good gravel
The future center aisle
The excavator makes the work a bit easier
Jesse brings in goodies from the garden every night


We are already seeing growth from what we seeded the other week
The topsoil in place
The site looks really big now when all the topsoil has been raked out