Eight Acres

When I first wrote this post back in 2011, Queensland had too much water , but usually water is very precious to us.  Being in a rural area, we rely on our own rainwater supplies for drinking water and septic to treat our sewerage.  I’m quite happy with that arrangement, as it means we don’t have to drink the unnecessary levels of fluoride and chlorine in town water.  It also means that we have to ration our own water supply when the weather is dry and consider everything that we put down the drain.  I feel sorry for people in the city having water rationing forced on them through water restrictions, we just have to be responsible for our own use.  The funniest thing is that my first reaction now when it rains is to put on several loads of washing so that the water isn’t wasted by running out of our full tanks (luckily we have plenty of space on the verandah to hang it to dry). We had TOO much water in Dec/Jan 2011 At our previous property we also had t...

When I first moved to Brisbane from New Zealand I arrived in late January. I firmly believed that air conditioning was a waste of energy, so when I stepped off the plane to 30degC heat (coming from a summer that had barely hit 20degC) I was determined to acclimatise as quickly as possible, even though I felt like I was melting. When I got to my hotel I tried sitting on the balcony with a cold drink, to begin adjusting to the heat. I don’t think I lasted more than ten minutes before my resolve crumbled and I was back inside trying to work the air conditioner! I have come a long way since then. I can now work outside in 30degC or hotter, in jeans, long sleeve shirt and boots, but I still can’t sleep if its too hot. you know what an air-conditioner looks like..... Our house at Eight Acres came with an older style ducted reverse cycle split system air conditioner installed in the lounge. On very hot days, we would turn it on and lie on the couch to try to cool down, but the c...

In February I've been writing a series of posts about the permaculture principle, Catch and Store Energy.  One of the places that this principle can be applied is within the home.  In most homes, the largest use of energy is in either heating or cooling the house to a comfortable temperature.  This can be achieved for free by considering the orientation of the house and the building materials, which is a technique called passive solar design.  This is most easily applied before the house is built, but there are also many options for retrofitting passive design techniques to existing buildings. our secondhand house To understand how passive solar design works, it is important to first consider how heat is lost or gained in a building.   Heat transfer occurs through three mechanisms : conduction - the transfer of heat from substances in direct contact with each other convection - the movement of hot gases or liquids due to density and radiation...

In February I've been writing posts about the permaculture principle of "Catch and Store Energy".  One of the less obvious forms of energy is in seeds and perennial plants and trees. Seeds saving Saving seeds from annual plants is a form of catching and storing energy and a very simple way to ensure that food can be grown year to year.  Seed can either we saved directly by drying seed pods and keeping the seeds secure, or indirectly by simply letting plants go to seed and seedling to spring up again where the seeds fall.  This is described in Masanobu Fukuoka's classic book "One straw revolution".  I like to do a bit of both, I keep a small amount of seed for myself, I give lots away and I scatter the rest.  Everything I know about saving seeds is here . leek seeds ripening Perennial plants An important aspect of permaculture is to let nature do the work for you.  One of the easiest ways to obtain food year after year is to plant perennial plants ...

Since I did the Sustainable Agriculture course in July last year, I have been reading The Biological Farmer, by Gary Zimmer .  This month I'm writing about permaculture principle "Catch and Store Energy", and one of the less obvious forms of energy is soil fertility.  Biological agriculture is all about maintaining soil fertility in pasture and grain crop farming, so I thought it was appropriate to tell you more about it this month. While biological agriculture shares many philosophies with organic agriculture, they are not the same thing.  Like organic agriculture, biological agriculture focuses on soil fertility and working with natural systems, however biological agriculture also uses limited amounts of synthetic chemicals where they will help the soil to rebuild.  This may seem a contradiction, but when you get into the detail it does make sense.  Its fairly obvious that all synthetic herbicides and pesticides will damage natural systems and these are...

In January I wrote about the first of the 12 permaculture principles - Observe and Interact .  In that post I discussed the various ways that we can observe and interact with our environment, from keeping your own records to research on the local climate and solar path.  Observing and interacting is a continuous process of improvement.  Of course its very important at the start of a design project, but we can always look for opportunities to improve a system. This month's principle is Catch and Store Energy.  Energy is defined very broadly in this case, encompassing both the obvious heat and electricity, and less obvious forms of energy, such as water, trees, seeds, food and soil.  This principle is important because we live in a time of energy abundance due to the availability of cheap fossil fuels and it can be very easy to forget to plan for energy catchment and storage.  We have become accustomed to buying what we need when we need it becaus...

We have decided to keep Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn chickens, even though they don't produce as many eggs as some commercial layer breeds.  There are some very good reasons for keeping alive heritage chicken breeds (see  this website  for a very good explanation): Maintain diversity in the available chicken genetics Stop multinational companies from owning chicken genetics Heritage breeds are more hardy and lay well for longer Some heritage breeds are good for both eggs and meat We can breed them with predictable results (compared to hybrids) They look beautiful!  Ivan - our beautiful White Leghorn Rooster If you're considering keeping chickens, there are hundreds of breeds to choose from, each suited to different climates, chicken pens (free ranging or locked up), egg laying requirements and meat production.  It all depends what you are looking for, but don't think you're limited to the commercial laying or meat hens, just do some resear...

Installing a woodfire is a complicated process!  Of course we decided to do it ourselves, why pay an expert when you can figure it out yourself?  I've already explained why we love our woodfire , so this is more detail of the installation process. The hardest part is the weight of the woodfire.  They are made of cast iron and range from 100-300 kg.  This is not easy to move!  The first woodfire we bought (a Nectre Baker's oven) was only 120 kg, which was lucky because it had to get into the top floor of our Queenslander !  My husband borrowed a three-wheeled stair climbing trolley and he and a friend pushed and pulled the oven up our front stairs (while I watched, holding my breath, worried that the stairs would collapse).  The second stove (a Scandia Cuisine) was 248 kg!  Luckily this one only had to come into a low-set house.  My husband backed the ute up to the verandah and we wheeled the oven off the ute and onto the verandah ...