An exciting purchase.

I have just bought something that I'm very excited about.  It was a pretty expensive purchase, and will come by courier, so I don't even get to 'play' with it yet.  I'm going to tell you what it is, and later (after it arrives and is set up), I'll also review it.  But first, I'm going to tell you the background of my purchase and why it is so exciting.

We live in a tiny 'town' in rural Victoria.  We have a regular sized block of land and neighbours, but we have to walk to a shop to pick up mail, drive a fair way to buy things and enjoy watching farm vehicles go by, hearing lots of birds, cows and chooks (ours included) in the mornings.  We have no mains gas, so are totally electric for the running of our home.  We have no mains water or sewage system, but instead rely on our own tank water, bore water and a septic tank.  Townies find this to be a scary sort of setup, but if you've lived in the country at all, you know that this is just a way of life, and, with a bit of luck, your setup is so good that you don't even have to think too much about it.

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When we bought this place, we were lucky enough that it already had great water tanks that collect ample water from our (surprisingly) large roof.   We also had our garden taps connected to the bore pump of the school next door, so we were able to water our gardens and our animals, and even flush our loo with bore water instead of rainwater, and so we have always had the luxury of ample water to do as we need.  On top of this, we live in the one part of Victoria that was never put on water restrictions because we have been the lucky ones and received a decent annual rainfall each year.  Having said all of that, I'd like to point out that we've never been ridiculous with our water use.  We know that excessive use of bore water isn't ecologically great, and so we've always watered our garden enough, but let the lawns die over summer and only watered parts of the garden when it was essential.

So for the last 7 years, we've been blessed with a water input that meets our needs, but our output has been full our problems!  It turns out we have a very dodgy septic tank.  I dread to think how many dollars we've spent on repairs and maintenance - we've had it pumped out a couple of times, we've had a plumber do some unknown thing to it, and another plumber replaced the pump that no-one even knew should be in there!  It is also a strange setup.  Apparently septic tanks should have a grease trap between the water entry and the main storage tank.  We have a grease trap, but it is not in the right place and is actually an old Telecom pit which isn't at all right to be a grease trap.  I don't really understand septic tanks (sewage treatment plants I do - I used to take guided tours of one!), but what I do understand is that ours has problems that do not seem to be fixed by any amount of repairs. 

We've considered replacing the system with a more environmentally sensible system, but the financial outlay and the major disruption to the property are seriously off-putting.  And since our septic tank seems to work fine when much less water is being put into it, we were leaning towards making changes in our home to reduce the input to the tank, and had started researching how to do that.

Then we lost our bore water supply. 

We were cut off by the school by accident, and it seems that since the house is no longer owned by the department of education, we're not to be reconnected.  So now, with a full vegie garden and a yard full of fruit trees and animals that all need water, we had to come up with a plan that would enable us to keep up the water to everything that needs it using only our rainwater supply.  And this new problem, together with our septic tank problem, have led to some watery changes (and my purchase - getting to it!).

First, we started to collect greywater - the old fashioned way.  I have a large water container with a tap on it that I collect my washing machine water in and then deliver the water to each of my fruit trees in turn.  Thus saving about 20L from going into the septic a day, and also giving my fruit trees a boost.  We've also added a bucket to the shower.  This collects more than 10L of water a day which gets watered around the place.  We eventually also hope to add a grey water diversion from the bathroom to water some of my ornamental garden using a hose system.  So all up, we've already started reducing the water needed for the garden and the water going into the septic tank.

And today, I bought a waterless toilet.  I can't believe how excited I am about a toilet!  But a toilet that will not only save an estimated 80-100L of water a day, but will also take the pressure off of our septic tank.  The toilet system we've bought is a urine diverting system that collects solid matter and toilet paper in a bucket in the toilet that is then emptied into a separate composting system where it is left for 12 months (or more) before being able to be used as fertiliser around the garden.  You can collect the urine to use as a nitrogen rich fertiliser too, though we're opting to divert ours straight into the septic tank since we have the system there.  The toilet uses no water, though it does use a small amount of electricity to run a fan to ensure no smells or moisture build up inside. 


I have done countless hours of research into the best system for us, and found that there are quite a few waterless (or very low water use) toilets available in Australia.  Our requirements were quite specific though as we needed a unit that didn't need underfloor access (we have a low ground clearance).  This meant our choices were limited to only a few brands, many of which looked like giant versions of the old chemical portable toilets.  I'm sure these suit some, but we wanted ours to still look nice and not frighten visitors away.  So we made our choice - the Seperett 9000, from "A better way to go" - and I've ordered it and I'm really looking forward to getting it and installing the system.

The toilet we are getting.

Ahhhh.... the things we get excited about!  I promise to report back when we have installed it and used it for a bit with a full review.

Eight....

Our boys turned 8 this week. The years are simply flying by, but I must say I love the boys more and more each year, both because that is the natural thing and also because I love the quirky characters that they are gradually becoming.  Little people that still love to be cuddled, read to and pampered by us like little children, but can also be extremely independent, read to themselves, hold intelligent conversations (that are sometimes a little too smart!) and are simply funny.

For last year's birthday, we invited a hoard of children for a round the world party. It was a huge success and we all enjoyed it, but this year I insisted on a quiet, family party. We held the party on Saturday and while it was a family party, it was far from quiet! We invited the local family, but also family from further afield and some adopted family with children the boys' age. We kept most of the invited guests a secret from the boys who were delightedly surprised as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and great-grandparents kept arriving. With 22 people all up, it was a great party! We cooked pizzas, ate and drank homemade treats, played pass-the-parcel (adults and kids together) and thoroughly enjoyed being outside in our pretty spring garden in the sunshine. And the boys received a pile of wonderful presents. In fact, their entire birthday wish list was granted by family.

From our 3 month old niece to my Grandad visiting from the UK, everyone had fun with pass-the parcel. 
And my friend, Jayne, was delighted to win the game for the first time in her life.

So when Tuesday came, their actual birthday, I was a bit concerned about how they would receive their homemade gifts from us and each other. I shouldn't have been worried though, they love them.

We set up a treasure hunt ('birthday quest') for them and they scrambled through the clues to find their homemade bow, arrows and quiver with a pillow shield made up to replicate Tom's shield from their favourite book series, Beast Quest. One of the things we, as parents, love about this series is the lack of merchandising. This means less 'I wants', but also opened up the opportunity for some unique, homemade gifts. The boys are really pleased with them, particularly the bow and arrows.

Appliqued tokens on fabric with belt arm loops on the back and stuffed with soft pillow stuffing,
these shields mean the boys can imagine playing Beast Quest, and if they get hit with a sword or arrow, it won't hurt :)

Simple bow made from flexible branches, string and duct tape with a quiver (fabric covered PVC pipe with a strap that velcros around them) of felt tipped arrows.  They really work, but hopefully won't take out any eyes.

And for each other, they made Harry Potter wands with special bags (sewn by me, decorated by them). They think they're pretty special too.

The wands were made using a chopstick, a hot glue gun, beads, paint and imagination.
Glad they don't work though as their favourite spell is Avada Kedavra.......

It can be hard to make for kids in such a materialistic world, where new toys come on the market constantly and advertising (and school friends) make their list of "I wants" extensive. By making gifts that met the boys interests, I was able to tap into their desires, while staying homemade, simple and eco friendly. Happy all round.

Oh, and I made them a birthday cake for the family party too. I'd had always wanted to make a figure 8 racetrack cake for their 8th birthday, and was granted permission. But I made it a bit more modern and special with a surprise Mario Kart theme. It was dubbed 'the best cake ever'!

Now I can't wait to give them their homemade Christmas presents, and hopefully keep this homemade tradition going for many more years.

We built a pizza oven!

One of the things we've been very busy with at our house has been the pizza oven project.  Well it is finished!  Hooray! 

Pouncy thinks he makes a lovely addition to the oven.

It was a great project.  We learnt a lot of new skills and ended up with something that we love to look at and is functional too.  But we're certainly no experts, so I'm not giving a tutorial or anything like that.  But here is our pizza oven story.  Feel free to ask any questions.

Step one was to build the plinth or base for the oven.  We had an existing concrete slab, so we levelled that and built on top.  We used besser blocks for our base.  Can I just say - besser blocks are damn heavy!  And having never laid any bricks before, this was a steep learning curve for us.  But despite our lack of experience and the damn rain, it got done and we were even able to make a fancy arch at the front using recycled bricks and pieces of bluestone that were found on our block (they were from the original school building that used to be here).  It was so exciting when we pulled out the form work and the arch stayed in place.  A thing of true beauty that we just kept gazing at.  Oh, and we tested the safety of it by letting Hurley walk under it ;)

We then had to make a top for the plinth.  We used a piece of cement sheet, held up up with more besser blocks underneath.  We laid a surround of recycled bricks, held them together with some wood and trailer ties (true professionals I tell you!) and then poured a 5cm thick re-inforced concrete slab on top.  Onto this, we smashed a pile of bottles and lay the broken glass and then filled up with sand.  This is supposed to help with insulation.  Onto the sand we added a layer of clay pavers.  Then we tested the safety of this by standing our children on the top hehehe.

 

The next step was so exciting as we were actually building the oven, several weeks after starting!  We made a guide for building the dome, then I built another arch for the door.  The rain kept coming and the tarp was well used.  Finally, Stu built a great big sandcastle, I mean sand dome mold, and the kids played in the sand pile. 

 And then we built the oven.  We used about 60 recycled bricks that had been broken in half.  Just an aside here, the work involved in removing mortar from reclaimed bricks and then breaking them in half is back breaking and really rather unpleasant.  The bricks built up quite quickly, with this step and the next being completed in a day.  We put in our stainless steel flue at this point too, nestling the bricks tightly around it to hold it in place.

To finish off the oven, we used a layer of insulation batts and covered them with a mud mix that we'd put rather a lot of oxide into.  It looked rather too much like chocolate cake mix and I spent the whole time we were doing this bit singing the Crowded House song about chocolate cake (very annoying!).  We ended up using two barrow loads of this mud/concrete mix to get a good coverage.

 Finally, we were done!  We left it for a few days for the mortar to dry and then the only thing left was to pull out the sand.  The kids had a great time doing this and it was lovely to reveal the inside of the oven.  We christened it with a small fire and a curry cooked in it.  It was delicious!

And then, finally, we cooked pizzas in it for the boys birthday party.  Stu is master pizza oven man, and did a great job.  But we discovered we needed to burn a bigger, hotter fire, for longer before we try these again.  Probably also wasn't a great idea to try cooking pizzas for the first time with 22 hungry mouths to feed..... oops!  But it was fun anyway and we plied them with home brewed beer and ginger beer while they waited.

All up, it was a fabulously fun project and for about $500 and many, many hours of hard work, we have something pretty special in our garden.

PS. sorry the pics end up a bit tiny - there were just too many to make them big! :)

I'm still here....

Just stopping for a moment to say......

I haven't written here for so long, I nearly forgot how.  But in case you were wondering, I'm still here and I'm fine :)

We've just been so busy with holidays, building projects, garden things, pet things, kids birthdays (yep, my two babies turned 8 yesterday) and all the parties and so on that go with them.  I'm also busy with dancing - regular classes, parties and performances.  And on top of that, Christmas is now less than 6 weeks away, and I'm determined to make all the pressies that go to people outside our home, and 90% of the ones that will stay in it.  So I'm busy, but I'm loving it.

I promise I'll be back soon with tales of holidays and pizza ovens and more.

Take care!
Tracey
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