Building the Compost Bins – 12th December 2017
With the Compost Wall finished, we set about building our new large Compost bins. The fun part was always going to be the digging the 8 post hole needed to make the bin.
The ground here is like rock!
Solar Panel Adjustment Time – 4th September 2017
We have one of our new adjustable Solar Racks in place now supporting some of the new panels. This will allow us to adjust our Solar Panels for maximum efficiency based on the time of year and the angle of the sun.
We also now have a set dates for adjusting the panels. These are based on the Summer/Winter Solstice times and the adjust-ability of our Solar Racks
Increasing our Water Storage – 25th August 2017
Water has always been an issue here.
Partly due to the steepness of our property(No flat land for tanks), and partly due to the intermittent nature of rain on the western side of the coastal ranges.
Passive heating and cooling the house
By our estimations, the house here at Arborlon was built about 20 years ago.We don’t know who built it, but as we’ve lived here now for two years, we’ve noticed how well they designed the aspects of the house to achieve natural heating and cooling. We have no need for heating or air-conditioning!
Fault Finding – AGM Solar Batteries – 30th July 2017
Lately the stored power in our Solar Batteries has not been performing well.
The power stored for overnight use had not been good since we got here, but lately had become an issue as we would come very close to running out of power overnight.
Don’t build your Solar Box out of Pine! – 30 July 2017
We built the Solar Box, for the batteries and components of our new Solar System, soon after we got here almost 2 years ago.
The initial build was always temporary as we knew we would be relocating and /or rewiring this system once we got settled.
Burying the Plot Irrigation – 28th July 2017
In lots of photos you may have seen the ‘blue snake’ across the lawn on the plot level. That was the Plot hose connected to the Plot irrigation…
Well we finally got it ‘buried’ and completed.
Spanikopita when there’s too much spinach!
What do you do when nature throws you too much spinach, you make Spanikopita!
Growing your own food is one thing, but eating the food you grow is a whole other thing. You have to be prepared with recipes and ideas of how to use the abundance of food that nature gives you, which prompted me to start posting some recipes to help us all use our home grown veg. So,
Ex Tropical Cyclone Debbie arrives with a Bang! – Part II – 30th March 2017
Heavy rain continued to fall through Thursday morning and we could hear and see water pouring down the mountain in lots of places.
We knew there would be more ‘damage’ to the road, and possibly to areas of our property too… so ventured out again when the rain eased.
Freeing the Water Tank – 4th February 2017
With the tank level wall almost finished, it is time we started on moving our 27,000 litre poly water tank.
It has been on a 14 degree ‘lean’ since we got here, and we have a nice new level pad to put the tank on. But first we have to free it from the bank it sits against. 20+ years of erosion and weather have locked it in a bed of clay.
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