This is what it means to be grown up

So many things I used to thin would mark me being grown up.  First I thought it was when I got a job, then when I bought my first car, then when I moved out of home, then when I had a child, left my ex, then little things like booking the car in for a service on time, remembering that rego was due despite the fact I didn't recieve the letter...  But today is a big one. 

On Saturday we came home and discovered that our English angora, Rob Anybody, had Floppy Bunny Syndrome.  I spent the next 24 hours nursing him, keeping him warm and hydrated, trying to get food into him, every hour.  He looked to be pulling through but sadly at around midday on Sunday he slipped away.  He was calm and peaceful and not in any pain.  My son Ianto is heartbroken (Anouke is too young to comprehend death).  But the thing that has made this a 'grown up' moment is that I have to bury him.  It is a chore I would rather not do.  I really don't want to go out in the rain, dig a hole and place my lovely bunny in it and cover him over.  But there is no one else to do it, and I feel that I should too.  This is something that has to be done.  It can't be got away from and it feels heavy.  I can put off dealing with his hutch til the sadness subsides, I can leave the fibre I harvested from him and hadn't got around to dealing with yet but I can't put this off.  So today I feel like an adult.  And it sucks. 

Shetland sheep

My desire to have a sheep or two has lead me to a bit of research and I think I want a shetland.  They are an unimproved breed which dates back thousands of years and was probably introduced to the Shetland Islands by the vikings.  As they are unimproved they are very hardy (vital if something was going to survive in the Shetlands!) and have not been inbred for wool production or meat production at the expense of survival skills like easy lambing.
Because they were a breed that did well in harsh conditions near the arctic circle when they are in better conditions they thrive. They are good for fleece (which can sometimes be harvested without the need for shearing) and meat so are a good all round small sheep.

3 tonnes of firewood - more than just fuel for the fire

We got a huge pile of wood delivered the other day.  The overwhelming thing about a huge pile of wood in your drive way is that you then need to move it somewhere else.  By hand.  The process has highlighted a couple of things for me.  That physically, I am not that great.  That to live the life I want to, I actually need to start doing it.  Now.  That it will involve physical labour like moving firewood.  That I actually don't mind that physical labour.  On days like today when I am grumpy and irritable moving the wood brought some peace to my mind.  Getting off the couch and outside into the sun using my body calmed my mind and erratic emotions. 
The reality of the huge pile of wood is more than just warmth in the middle of a very cold winter.

More vegies

To add to the list
brussel sprouts
turnips
celery
beetroot
leeks
radishes
capsicum
tomatoes
saffron


I also want to build a root cellar for storage of winter vegies that don't get preserved, probably in the south facing hillside.

On another note, please don't hesitate to comment - different eyes see different oppurtunities and problems!

Garden list

Fruit
Avocado
apples
apricots
pears
oranges
lemons
limes
quince
cherry
passionfruit
peach
plum
kiwi fruit
strawberries
raspberries
currents (red and black)
cranberries
tomatoes

Vegetables
Potatoes
silver beet
broccoli
carrots
cabbage
zucchini
pumpkin
corn
cauliflower
asparagus
beans
pea
onions
garlic
chilli

Herbs/spices
parsley
cinnamon
allspice
pepper
mint
thyme
tarragon
rosemary
oregano
basil
fennel
vanilla

nuts (also for the wood)
hazelnuts
chestnuts

Things I would love to have
coffee bush
tea bush
grains like amaranth, rye or barley

Trees/flowers
silver birch
lavender
chamomile
daisies
nastursium
calendula

Jackie French's garden

http://www.jackiefrench.com/garden.html  Looks like that.  I love it.  I read her book "Backyard Self-sufficiency" last night and it is brilliant.  Previously I had only read John Seymour's self-sufficiency books and they are very different.
Jackie does gardens that require work to set up, planting and waiting and caring, while I am young and active, but by the time I am too old to prune trees, mow lawns, pick fruit from the tops of trees etc most of the garden should look after itself.  By planting groves of trees and creating an artificial forest that nonetheless takes advantage of the way actual forests grow she has managed to grow coffee bushes, avocados, bananas, and many many other plants in a similar climate to here (if anything more extreme as she quotes temperatures as low as -9 C and as high as 52 C) that I never thought I would be able to grow.  In my visions of the future things like that were things that would have to become very rare (or if TEOTWAWKI happens as I think it will non existent) and to think I could still have avocados, as a regular thing not a treat!  Even now they are a treat but it is concievable to have them all year round planting and gardening the way Jackie French does...  Unbelievable. 
The other brilliant thing about it is that it matches the type of garden I see in my head.  I have such a clear picture in my head about how my house looks and how the garden looks.  Now I have a block of land it is even clearer.  And a garden as productive as that that looks like a jungle just fits.  It matches a vague memory I have of my great grandmothers garden.  I can't have been any older than 4 but it was wonderful - full of little nooks and crannies created by well established plants and a wonderland for a small person. 
I just have to get over my gardening block.  I have always read gardening books and been totally overwhelmed.  Crop rotation, companion planting, fixing soil, rules about what works and what doesn't...  just completely outside my realm of experience and completely intimidating. 

So my gardening block is slowly melting, and my head is full of ideas.  Into a delirium of lists and plans - but I'll put those in a seperate post for ease of finding :)

The End Of The World As We Know It

It all sounds very dramatic, TEOTWAWKI.  Sounds like bombs, war, illness, death and pestilence.  I don't think it will be though.  I think it will be a case of 'not with a bang, but a whimper', especially for people who, like me, live in small country areas that are distanced from cities etc.  The world as we know it is one based on capitalism, more more more and materialism.  Personally I don't believe that this system is sustainable much longer, so the end of the world as WE know it is more likely to involve moving back to small villages supporting themselves, a barter type system rather than a monetary one, using sustainable and renewable resources and having less...  Just my thoughts on it ;)

random lists

Electrical stuff I plan on having ( I was going to say need but that depends entirely on your definition of 'need')
Laptop/computer
mobile phone charger
freezer
light
washing machine


don't think there is anything else off the top of my head...  Its not a long list although I am sure there would be people with a shorter one!

Random thoughts I had over the last week

 - Would like to have a seperate room with a fireplace, bath and arm chair as a retreat
 - in loft have shelving in walls for storing wool and related stuff.
 - bottles built in wall niches for candles

Not much else I can remember off the top of my head - spent the week avoiding anything too strenuous due to migraines and a bad back and my brain has apparently turned to mush...

Oh yes - also wanted to note down to build a cob chicken house and a cob rabbit hutch.  While the current bunny (Rob Anybody) is ok outside in the heavy frosts we have been having he has been moved up to the apple shed due to wind/rain etc.  I think he would generally be happier with a home that protected him from the weather better than his hutch does currently and so build one when we have our house.

We have been getting very heavy frosts quite frequently this winter (after having only one or two all season last year) and it is staying cold for a lot of the day.  While the corner we are planning on using gets the sun earlier than where we are currently living it will still be cold up there during the harsher winters.  I plan on taking advantage of the sun by building a greenhouse around the northern facing wall with a wisteria or something else that is green in summer/ bare in winter growing over it.  This will hopefully fulfil a couple of purposes.
 - Provide extra heat in winter by magnifying the sun onto the cob wall which will absorb it and then release the heat when it is cooler. 
- Provide somewhere for me to grow veges year round


Huh, apparently I had more to blather on about than I thought!

More animals

Bees!  Forgot to add bees to my last list.  To provide honey, and wax for candles.  Note to self, research how to make non petroleum based lighting other than with beeswax.

ETA
http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-oil-lamps-and-candles-for-free/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-your-old-glass-into-beautiful-oil-lamp/#step1

http://www.instructables.com/id/Lard-Lamp-a-solid-fat-burner-made-by-lost-wax-ca/

organising a small space

I am planning on living in a very small space - essentially one big open room so I lie seeing how other people do it. 
I plan to keep minimal furniture - my great grandfathers wardrobe, the bed my dad made, my beautiful coffee table and my spinning wheel and chair.  The rest will be built in - the couches for the living area built of cob (possibly hollow with a lid for storage space).  The bed in an alcove raised off the floor to enable storage underneath.  Bookshelves as part of the walls (the walls will probably be a bit thinner behind the bookshelves but books will provide insulating qualities which will counteract that.  Seating for the dining area will be also built into the cob, possibly heated by the flue of a rocket heater, will probably have to get a dining table though ;)  I'm planning on having lots of niches in the wall for candles and lanterns too.  The look of cob houses lit by candles and lanterns is so warm and homely.  I love it.

Linkspam

http://beautifulgreenlife.com/2010/03/28/cobbit-ville/

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.119717531427566.20024.100001679607910

http://www.barefootbuilder.blogspot.com/

http://www.artisanbuilderscollective.org/index.html

Off the Treadmill

So many aspects that I have planned to include in my house and great to see that other people have done it successfully and beautifully.

Philosophical moment

This morning as I was browsing pictures and websites I was contemplating the fine line between inspirational and intimidating.  I have found that if I look at too many completed buildings then I get intimidated.  I start to think that it is way to massive and complicated for me to do.  And it is a massive job.  But I CAN do it.  I realised that if I look at it as smaller jobs within the big one it isn't as scary, and that doing things like building a frame that aren't jobs traditionally done by women will be hugely satisfying and empowering.  And all this led to one massive realisation.  That a huge part of my fear was because society doesn't see building a house as something I can do - as a woman, as a single mother, as an individual person.  Building a house is seen as something you hire people to do.  Just like making clothes, spinning wool, milking a cow,  making cheese and butter...  So many things that once upon a time would have been done for ourselves, by ourselves but we are now so divorced from that they are seen as mystical things that only those qualified are able to perform (which would lead to a rant about childbirth but that is for another time and blog ;) ).
Whenever I mention to people that I want to build my own house, with my own hands, the reaction is overwhelmingly negative - even from people in the process of building thier own houses.  Most of them got people in to do the framing etc and find the thought of me building a load bearing cob house to be completely outside the realms of reality.  I have internalised this to a great extent and it has been colouring my intentions and ambitions.  Now that I have realised this though, it won't hold me back any more!

measurements

for future reference.  a building 'square' is equal to 9 square metres.  Why we couldn't have just stuck to square metres, I don't know but there you have it.  Following this logic the wood stove I like will heat a house 72 metres square.  I have no comprehension of how big that is in real terms.  Must measure it out one day to get a feel for it.

Animals

Dog - for company

Bunny - for fibre

Guinea pigs - kids, need I say more?

Lamb (to become sheep obviously) - for fibre  If I breed her possibly for meat too.  although lambs are a lot harder to contemplate in my freezer than calves lol

House cow - for milk.  Calves for meat. 


Hoping that no one is expecting anything other than completely random in the blog...

living fridge free

So the plan is to live in my house fridge free - facilitated by use of a cool room/cellar.


Life has progressed since i started this blog.  Currently we are sharing a house with another family who have similar living ideals to us.  They own the house a long with the 10 acres that it is on which has facilitated many more ideas.  They have lived fridge free before using their fridge (switched off) as an insulated cool room and kept it cool by using freezer blocks which they rotated twice a day to keep it cold enough to store things long term.

In thinking about how I will do it a few things have come apparent.  one is that we will most likely have a house cow very soon.  This means access to fresh, raw milk relatively easily, which in turn means that we can just go day by day - no more needing to store milk for a long time.  Butter will be fine in a cool room.  Hopefully I will be making cheese from any excess milk which will also be fine stored in the cool room.  Vegetables will hopefully mostly be coming from the garden so can be picked as needed and long term storage will be (you guessed it) the cool room.
Meat will be mostly from the freezer I think.  This will also form long term storage for things like berries picked over summer and other fruits, sauces I make in big batches that involve meat and probably some vegies as well (green ones mostly which will be blanched and then frozen).
The cool store will be designed with lots of shelves to house bottled things - fruit, tomato sauces etc - and other long term storage foods - cheeses, soaps (need cool storage), bulk lots of flour, rice etc.

In slightly unrelated news, having justified spending money of fibre and related stuff by calling it skilling up for TEOTWAWKI, i have had the inkling of a thought about starting a market built on barter.  Not sure South Lumberjackistan is ready for it, but if I'm working on the premise that the monetary system is not going to last a huge amount longer then this is the way stuff will go anyway...  hmmmm.  How to start...

ideas and ramblings and lists

don't know if I posted this gallery before http://www.cultureartist.org/Cob_Gallery/cob_building_gallery_page_1.htm

and things to do list so I don't forget...

 - find surveryor and get surveying done
 - get design drawings done
 - get design drawings drafted
 - get sample of cob mix
 - get engineers report
 - planning permission

 - collect things that can be stored easily - bottles, small windows, oil lamps, candle holders, small amounts of wood, tiles
 - find out if alternative oils can be used in oil lamps other than kerosene
 - estimate how many electrical appliances are NEEDED and how to minimise electricy usage with those
 - look at earth on site to see if contains clay
 - find out sand pricing
 - gravel pricing
 - start collecting tools


Obviously this is a list of things that will happen over time, but it is good to get it going and out of the whirlpool of my brain!

We have the potential for a bit of land now on a rent to buy arrangement - we are currently living in a share house and the owners have generously floated the idea of sub dividing off a corner of the land for us...