Timelapse

Here is a link of a time lapse Aidan did last weekend.
It's amazing looking at the property and how it has a life of it's own.  Once it was all bush, then cleared for farming, then when we took over the bush is slowly starting to regrow.  The native trees are self seeding and the future picture will be affected of how much we clear and grow ourselves.

As for building advancements, Aidan's dad Tony helped him gutter the container roof so now when it rains we can finally catch our own water.  We also have our first solar panel, a tiny one to power the light in the toilet.  We are taking baby steps towards a sustainable life out there, but it is happening.

Camping Friends

This past weekend we have had another family come to stay.
Arran and Jodie bought 7 year old Ruben and 4 year old Ethan to pitch a tent and help finish the roof on the container.  Aidan and Arran met through work, but none of the rest of us knew each other before hand, I shouldn't have worried though, if Arran was relaxed enough to appreciate Aidan we weren't going to have any troubles!  (just kidding Aidy).
The four boys were really good together.   The Potter's bought bikes, including a balance bike that William firmly attached himself to, and we had plenty of new toys to keep everyone happy.
Thanks to the continuing progress by the sheep we have reached a new stage where our boys are big enough to explore, and the grass is short enough that they can actually walk though it. While Aidan and Arran hung out on the roof of the container doing manly, building things; we all went for a walk, starting with the 'forest', a group of self seeded gums near the back corner, across to see the billabong and to look at trees.  The forest was a huge hit, there was a number of times over the weekend that the four boys would all troupe over to the forest to 'chop' down trees with a plastic axe, borrowed from the prop bin thanks to a production of the Wizard of Oz a couple of years ago, and an assortment of shovels to use as makeshift axes.  Then they'd all come back usually with William in the rear pushing the bike because he was too short to straddle it.

The promise of seeing stars was thwarted by a very gray sky that night, followed by a huge downpour that lasted until mid Sunday morning.  Luckily the newly finished roof kept us all dry, and despite the wind, rain and sheep all having a go at the Potter's tent, it was still standing the next morning. 
It does however mean that Aidan has now promised Oscar that he will put our tent up next time we go out so he and Osc can sleep in one too.
Arran was a very enthusiastic worker and I will certainly be making a thorough list next time they come out.  Hopefully we will have clearer skies and more wild life if they come again.  The four boys entertained themselves pretty well which left Jodie and I to sit back and pretend we were looking after them.  I was a bit concerned about how I would feel not working, because that's what we do there, but I actually found it quite enjoyable.
The completion of the roof also marks the start of new phase for us, other than the guttering, we really don't have any more big or expensive jobs we have to do until we start on the house.  It will be now that we start to really learn how to enjoy what we have.  I'm sure we'll still find little projects that we want to work on, I definitely still want to keep working on the veggie patch, and there are small bits and pieces to do.  But we can do things like use the left over wood to make chairs and a sand pit, or I can keep chopping down saplings that need to go anyway, to make frames for my climbing fruits I'll be getting once the sheep are gone.  Who knows, we might even just read a book! 
The last thing to note, which I'm sure many of you are interested to know, the toilet is great.  It got a serious beating, with 8 people using it over the weekend and it didn't smell.  In fact, I'd go as far as saying it smells better than our toilet at home because there is no lingering smell if use it straight after someone else.  Granted I had a cold last week, but I'm sure I'm not the only one with the same view.
And thank you to Aidan and Arran for putting in vents, not necessarily to help with the non existent smell, but to let in light and air.
Thanks Jodie for the photos, you are all welcome back any time!

First Aid

Well, we've had our first major first aid incident.
Aidan was on top of the container, still plugging away at the roof.  Things were moving much faster now he had stopped pre-drilling holes and  making small holes in place with a nail and hammer instead.  He now also has a tool belt with all the screws in it, so my job had been reduced to handing up sheets of corrugated iron- which I did with bare hands.  I sliced my right hand quite badly across the palm, it was so deep that all the layers of skin were sliced neatly open and when I curled my hand it would lift up so I could see under the skin.  Luckily, Aidan had done a similar injury many years ago coming off a bike on a mountain and knew exactly what to do.
The outcome of the whole experience is that while we had an adequate first aid kit, we now have a much more extensive one, and now know that the nearest hospital is in Kyneton for future reference.
The night before we had been having a conversation about how good it was that if felt like there was no one around, but really if anything happened we knew we had 2 neighbors within very close proximity. 
It also raises the question of phone coverage, both our mobiles were with 3, but with the changeover, Aidan had been 'upgraded' to Vodaphone, which means now he has absolutely no phone coverage out there.  My own phone plan ends in a couple of weeks, but there is  no way we can be left out there without coverage.  What if something really serious happened and we couldn't call for help?
The moral of the story is:
-have a decent first aid kit
-know what to do with it
-know where the nearest hospital is (because an ambulance is a very long way away)
-make sure the phone is charged
-always wear gloves while handling tin

We have............. a toilet!

The impossible has happened, we finally have a toilet.

And like all impossible things, it actually turned out to be quite easy.
I think Aidan's sudden need to have a toilet has to do with a potential camping date he's organised with another family next weekend, but I am not complaining, being the only one in our family who doesn't stand to relieve themselves I think it's long overdue!
It was always going to have to be a composting toilet, we don't have water connected to it and we can't have a septic tank, so essentially we have a thunder box. It's a wooden box with a toilet seat over a bucket.  Sitting beside it is a metal bucket which will be filled with sawdust to scatter a scoop over what ever gets deposited in the bucket. It may sound primitive, and possibly horrifying to some people, but when we've been without a toilet all this time, it is the ultimate luxury.
From all accounts they don't smell, which we believe, despite the fact it is a short distance from the container.  Like all things at Mia Mia, where it was put had a lot to do with the ground.  While we didn't have to dig, our first choice was directly behind the container, but the uneven ground in between might have been too dangerous for a late night visit.
We (the royal we, mainly Aidan) laid a slab, then he and his dad put together a kit shed which Aidan dynabolted to the slab.  It looks like a council toilet, but we think it's fantastic.
It turns out the hardest part about assembling the toilet is finding sawdust.  Which we are yet to do...  There are no convenient saw mills near by, and the hardware/garden supply places we've visited don't have it.
There are alternatives which we can use, like shredded paper, pine needles, dry grass clippings etc.  It is exactly like the compost bin, needing to have an even mix of wet and dry materials, but sawdust is best because the bucket won't fill up too quickly. 
Also with the kind help of Tony, Aidan's dad, we finally turned the cubby around 180 degrees so we can see they boys playing from the container.  It was amazing to watch the two of them poke poles under it and lever it around, and thank goodness it's done.  It has been on the to do list for far too long.  Now we have to put up a shade sale and a proper sandpit, so the boys stop trying to dig up the crusher dust with their diggers.
2 huge jobs were accomplished, and with the cutting of the grass it looks like a completely different property. I just looked back to another blog entry a couple of months back to see how green everything was, you would not believe the difference.  Then again in Winter it will be back to the same lush green we saw when we first bought it.  What an amazing place.

Beating the grass and our echidna

We're slowly winning the battle with the grass.
After speaking to the local CFA, it turns out the grass was still too green to burn at the cut off date for burning.  Luckily though, Anthony the fire chief had a spare hundred or so sheep to come and eat it   .  Now instead of looking at the sheep through the fence they're running around our property and pulling out my agapanthas by the roots.

We've also been attacking the grass front, prior to the sheep coming, with the old mow it then round up it combination.  Everything has suddenly dried out anyway with the recent heat wave, and the sheep are doing their own combination of eat it/trample it flat.  The problem with having sheep is that we only have 3 fences, so they are also grazing on the two properties next door.  We went for a walk the other night to herd them back to our end, I didn't realise how many sheep there actually were.  Now we can see the ground it is possible to walk anywhere without battling the long wild grass. Seeing the ground has revealed we have a real life echidna living with us.  It was very exciting, I don't think I've ever seen one in the wild, though Aidan had seen them squished on the side of the road, and it was huge.  The size of a big bike helmet!  It was a shame the boys were in bed, but luckily we have a video taken on Aidan's phone... Check it out here
We also have to cut fire breaks, and for the first time ever I was easily able to use the lawn mower because it was clear enough to see where the rocks and holes were.  Hooray for the sheep!

We've had a couple of single days out at Mia Mia in the past few weekends.  It's never as good to go out just for the day.  It helps to go out the night before so we have time to sit around the fire and unwind before getting to work.
No actual building has gone on since our last posts but miraculously the veggie garden and fruit trees are going strong.  I expected to go out and see a dry patch of dirt and bare sticks that resemble our trees.  Instead the constant rain means that everything is thriving.  The potato plants are big and bushy, the celery has been eaten by some sort of pest, but we only really planted it because it was limping along in a pot at home, who needs that much celery anyway? The peas are going great guns, and there are even a couple of little carrot tops poking out the top.  The fruit trees are covered in blossom and thanks to the lend of a wheel burrow the second 'plot' is filled. and we've planted all the rosemary I'd grown from cuttings.  I'm starting to feel a bit more like a green thumb, it's very exciting.  Now we just need to grow some actual food.  It's the first step to our sustainable life out there.
My dad, aka Grandpa Alan gave the boys a swing set for their birthdays which has gone up.  Oscar and Aidan built it together.  It probably doesn't sound as amazing to everyone else, but I sat there watching Oscar taking initiative in the assembly and do things like pick the frame up from one corner on his own to take the wrapping plastic off it while Aidan did something else.  It is what the whole experience is about, the boys learning how to create things on their own and become independent human beings.
The rain and thriving plants also means thriving grass.  It just never ends.  We cut the grass around the container after a warning from Mary over the road that a brown snake had been spotted on our driveway, but a week later it looks like it has never even been mown.  We've decided to go with drastic measures and I've contacted the local CFA about burning it, we're just waiting to hear.  It will mean we're not a fire hazard, there will be nowhere for the snakes to hide. Eek! Just like in Alice in Wonderland, we'll "Burn the monster out!"
The warmer weather is also starting to change the dynamics out there.  The boys were so hot and sweaty last time we went out.  It reminded me of picking grapes in the heat on the block when I was a kid.
The plan of attack is to get water delivered and to get some shade happening.  The roof on the container is still happening, but we're going to take a big market umbrella.

Roo

 It's been many weeks since we've been able to visit the block and get dirty for a cause. Very much due to Jill's selfless dedication and hard work towards her upcoming performance tour, which has been chewing up our weekends and covering our dining table in mountains of half finished costumes.
We're both in need of a Mia Mia excursion, Jill more so than I, as it's an amazing place to cut ourselves off from TV, road noise and the general cramped feeling of our apartment. Oscar asks to go to Mia Mia every Saturday as it was our ritual for quite a while. I think he will be just as excited to get back there as we are, William on the otherhand I think will just go with the flow like always.

Above is a picture of a kangaroo I took while Jill and I were shovelling gravel for our patio. He was about 5 and a half feet tall and eating grass with another couple of kangaroos including juvenile that was slightly bigger than a joey.
In the picture he's standing about 3 meter's to the right of where the back of our proposed house will be. Technically it's the front door but it's actually the back of the building and is right in the middle of our block.

This is the area that our block is located in:

View Larger Map

When Jill's tour is over we'll be able to start going back to Mia Mia but that's still 2 or 3 weeks away yet.
Until then I'll leave you with the roo bouncing away after I spooked them all.