Unusual crops from the farside and what we cook them on

 These are some crops I grew in the farside garden this year during the worst drought in living memory with virtually no water.
The first is Hungarian Amaranth #1 for grain and the second is an Okra (in this case Cowhorn Okra).

Below is our tile fire with the top removed for cooking. Until we install our free, secondhand, recycled kitchen woodstove this has to make do for cooking - as a bonus it keeps us warm. 

Our cat - The Woodle

This is our cat - The Woodle. She's recycled too. Her name was Bleach but mostly we just call her woodle. She seems to have adjusted to life on the farm. In fact, she thinks she owns the farm. Her job description is: chief mouse hunter and minder of the couch. We keep her in at night - we have hundreds of birds now and quenda numbers are booming despite the cat. We haven't got much of a mouse problem so she's doing her job well.

Our recycled cottage

This is our recycled cottage (home) at Balingup Sustainable Small Farm. In 2002 it cost me $1500, but unfortunately $26,500 to move it from Manjimup to Balingup. Still it was a pretty good deal when just a concrete slab was going to cost $30,000.

It came with an outside laundry (now a shed full of recycled stuff), a garage (also full - in fact so full I broke one of the floor joists but that is another story), a hills hoist, a tile fire, gas hot water system (still going, just) and a heavy jarrah picnic table. Cut in half with a circular saw and all moved on three low-loaders.

Nearly everything in the house is recycled! We have over 3000 books - all secondhand except for maybe a dozen. This is minus the 4000 or so we sold off. All our furniture is scavanged, most of our clothes, nearly all our crockery and cutlery. I have a shed full of computers, two full of tools. You name we've got it - all recycled - most of it from tips, side of the road, op shops and garage sales. We lived very poor for a very long time so we became really good at making something from nothing. We are constantly amazed by what people throw away and why everyone hasn't done what we've done on virtually no income.

What we can't find we do without until we can find it. There are few things things that you really need but many that make life easier. We adapt things to do the job and modify others to do a job they were never intended for. Just believe in abundance thinking - I never used to but now I'm a convert. Think of it and it will come (or maybe it's just a matter of keeping your eyes open).

We are very proud of what we've done here - it is amazing!

The new pump is working

Fitted the firefighter into the creek today with some difficulty. Wouldn't start. Downloaded the instructions. Cleaned the spark plug - that should help. Still wouldn't start. Then I found it - that little "on" button - gets you every time. Hmm...a der-moment moment.

In about 15 minutes we had a tank full of water and I had my second shower since January (yes, really - although I did have a lot of swims).

Of course, tonight it rained.

Made "steam punk" chook tractor

Finished another pullet train today - this one I've named "steam punk". It's for the featherfoot bantams. Wheels from a pram, recycled (but new) tin covers the house, which was a bird cage, and a rabbit cage re-meshed with heavier weldmesh for the run. Pretty tough - but looks a bit like a world war one biplane (if you squint).

The mark II "Pullet Train"

After the success of my first pullet train (I sold it when we looked like moving) I decided the new Rhode Island Reds could have a new one as a temporary home until the "Chooktagon" was ready. Introducing the mark II Pullet Train (hasn't got wheels or handles yet). I'll make the wheels a bit wider apart for this new design - the mark I steered like a cow.
The chooks look very happy.

Magic toadstools?

All we need now are elves, pixies and faeries etc.

It's a sign!

Lisa posing at the gate.

Could I have one with the works?

Helper John making sourdough bread for the solar oven. No, it's not pizza - it wouldn't fit.

Lisa's gourmet goats cheese

Lisa turned goats yoghurt into goats cheese today. We had to use the goats yoghurt because we wouldn't be able to keep it as long in the esky fridge.
She rolled it in dried oregano she had harvested earlier in the season.
It tasted delicious!


While I've been busy in the workshop carving out a sign for the front gate.

Lisa's fridge/cooler

We got rid of the gas fridge after problems with the LPG. I had the idea of using 2 esky's. Lisa found them and put alpacca wool between them and a wet cloth over the top. It seems to be surprisingly effective - though we wouldn't rely on it on a hot day. The nights are getting colder (11degC last night) so we will open it at night and add water to the cloth during the day. Seems to be working pretty well.

I took the top off the wood stove (it was only a kind of protective cover) and we cooked breakfast on it this morning. Go off gas - don't support the oil and gas companies!

The LPG's got to go!

Anyone else had problems with their bottled LPG? About a year ago we started felling sick from what we thought was a gas leak from the kitchen stove. Got the plumber out but he didn't find anything. We nearly took ourselves to hospital to get checked out. Headache, nausea, dizziness, vagueness, irritability, sore throat and sinus problems.

We had the same effects for a whole year on-and-off. About 2 months ago it started getting worse. We took some bottles back to the general store. We could smell the mercaptan in the bottles even though they were nowhere near empty. One was 3/4 full when it started to smell. Other people around town say their gas is running out quicker - my guess is that they are putting more mercaptan in the bottles and people think they are nearly out of gas and get a new bottle. Sure would be a good way to sell more gas, but they wouldn't do that would they? Or maybe they've changed the odourant.

We turned off the house gas bottle - so of course we had no shower hot water - and would just turn it on for a shower and washing up (this was a bit of a pain as we had to go outside and relight the hot water system each time - but it was better than getting gassed). We stilled got gassed!

We had (until today) a gas fridge - that had started to do this too. We used a double burner cooktop for a few weeks- same deal. Then a single burner for the morning cuppa - same again. All different bottles - different appliances. All seals in place and tight. OK, whats the deal! We did some research and found out about ethyl mercaptan the odourant used in the gas bottles - it produces the symptoms we had. Why is it leaking? Is the higher mercaptan level corroding the seals quicker? What the hell is happening? How do we prove it? This is where we need your help - anyone else notice anything odd?

We chucked the fridge outside, Lisa made a little cooler thing out of 2 eskys (like a hay-box cooker in reverse) and I took the top off the tile fire and we are going to cook on that until we get another kitchen wood-stove. GIVE THE GAS COMPANY THE FLICK! Go solar oven, wood stove and solar hot-water. What we need to refrigerate for winter we'll do without. Milk will be turned into cheese. It gets cold here in winter (down to -10C). By summer we should have a replacement solar fridge for the gas fridge. You can do it too!

The drought has broken

Good rains today. At last. We were pretty much out of water - been carting it by hand from the creek. We still had drinking water though (about 1/4 tank) - we haven't ever run out of that.

It's been a really dry year (driest for 80 years). Our water barrels behind the house are filling, so no more walking to the creek for a week or two.
At last!

Busy autumn day

Lisa and Gavin picking two-and-a-half crates of pears (Packham's Triumph) this morning.



Then we dragged a 100m long length of 2" poly-pipe up to the tank at the top of the hill. Through the blackberries. Stopping to eat a couple.

We had a terrible dry year this year - the driest in 80 years. So our pump which runs on the power of the water had stopped when the water stopped flowing in January (apparently it has only done this once in about 30 years).

We only had a 1000 gallon (4500L) tank on the hill to do the house. We had to really conserve water. We've used only 4500L in 3 months! Really looking forward to a decent hot shower though. We've got the pipe up the hill - next job - install the firefighter pump and fill the tank.

We've hand-watered everything else from the creek again - just like we did before we had the pump originally (and like we do whenever the pump fails - like it does every year). It shows how little water you can actually get by on.

The vegies suffered this year and we could have done with more. Next year will be different - we will have our backup pump in place. Should grow bumper crops!

Later in the afternoon (when it had cooled down a bit) we picked three crates of quinces. They're sitting in the kitchen - love the smell of ripening quinces!

Solar chocolate cake!

Wow! Lisa made a chocolate cake in the solar oven today.

It gets my vote - best use of appropriate technology ever.