Eight Acres

 A removal house is a great way to quickly put a house up on a bare block of land. For us it bypassed all the decision making about the type of house we needed, and it worked out way cheaper.      We first saw our secondhand house in December 2012, we moved it to our property in June 2013 and and we moved into the house in April 2017. We did most of the work ourselves over weekends and holidays. If you are considering (or have already bought) a removal house, this is my advice. You can read more about our secondhand house: Part 1 and Part 2 1. Live somewhere else while you're renovating We were lucky to be able to live about 30 minutes away from our removal house, so we didn't have to live IN the removal house until it was finished. I knew that we would never finish it properly if we moved in too soon. If this is an option for you, it will make life so much easier because you can leave all the building mess out and you don't have to worry about ruining furnit...

 The Prickly Pear cactus ( Opuntia genus) is native to southern USA, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and tropical South America, this species of cactus was introduced to Australia in the 19th century f or use as a natural agricultural fence and in an attempt to establish a cochineal dye industry . Because of the lack of leaves and the tough outer skin of the pads, the plant is very drought-resistant and thrived in the Australian climate. It gradually took over vast areas of land until a biological control was introduced in the form of the Cactoblastis moth following WWI.     An invasive weed... Prickly Pear is now considered an invasive weed in Australia and is found throughout Queensland, including on our property. Thankfully I often see Cactoblastis larvae on them, so they are not out of control here. Several species of Opuntia cactus are known as prickly pear, and its most likely that we have Opuntia Stricta growing here as this is the most common speci...

Soapmaking Websites that I Love Modern Soapmaking Soap Queen Classic Bells Soap Making Resource Lovin Soap Soapmaking Books that I Love Simple & Natural Soapmaking , by Jan Berry (2017) The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners , by Kelly Cable (2017) Both of these books are great for basic soapmaking information and step-by-step instructions with lots of beautiful photos, and some lovely recipes which you can follow exactly to create your own soap. Soap Naturally , by Patrizia Garzena and Marina Tadiello (2009) If you want to know more about the sopamaking process, without getting into too much detail, I found this book to be a fantastic starting point. It explains all the different oils and fats, colour, texture and fragrance options. Cold and hot-process soap methods are described in detail. It gives standard recipes and then explains how to devise your own recipes safely. Milk Soapmaking , by Ann L. Watson (2009) For more detail on working with milk/mylk and dai...

We finally planted our food forest one year ago (you can read all about it here). It was a long time in the planning. We had to get water organised before we could plant. But when we were ready, I already had plenty of trees in pots ready to go.      We were originally going to put the trees further from the house, but then decided to set up the food forest between the house and the sheds. This gives us a lovely view through the kitchen window out over the food forest and will block our ugly power pole eventually. It also means that we walk through the food forest to get to the sheds and the veggie garden, picking things and weeding as we go. Its a perfect Zone 1 location . If you're still wondering "what is a food forest?", pop back over to my post about starting our food forest to learn more. In summary, it is a collection of trees, shrubs, herbs and perennial vegetables arranged like a forest rather than an orchard. Our layout is three rows of trees spaced 2m apa...

Each year as the weather cools, I get the urge to pick up my knitting needles and crochet hook again. I usually rummage through my unfinished projects until I find one that I want to work on again. This year the first project to grab my attention was a shawl that I started in September 2018.     I had found the yarn at the haberdashery stall at the local market. It is called "winter linen" - 26% linen, 46% wool and 26% acrylic in 50g balls of uneven chunky weight. I didn't have a pattern, I just played with it for a while and then freestyled a shawl mostly using a modification of the crochet pattern I use for lap rugs: Row 1: two doubles, two chains until end of row Row 2: two doubles into the chains of the previous row, two chains until end of row     I started with a chain of 10 and followed the stitch pattern without skipping the first stitch when starting the next row - I had made this mistake when first learning crochet, so I knew this would make a triangle. I u...

 I got a question from a reader about where to start with a new property.  Pete and I have started two new properties and this is what we have learnt so far. Like I wrote back in this post about designing your property with permaculture , step one is "do nothing" - just observe your property for at least a year (if you can), figure out what you want from it and what it can do, then start planning one small project at a time. When it comes to figuring out what you want and what your property can do, this post about " What to do with eight acres " might give you some ideas (adjust them to fit the size property you have). If you have more than a few acres, you might find Keyline design useful as well , it helps with placement of roads, fences and water storage on larger properties, by considering the terrain (or keylines) of the landscape. This post has a lot of information for new homesteaders: Homesteading 101 advice from the experts . I find permaculture is the b...

 In Australia, bee boxes are usually made from hoop pine, which is an inexpensive soft wood. The only problem is that it is prone to wood rot in hot humid conditions. The result is that boxes that are not treated with fungicide may only last a few years before they fall apart. Most commercial beekeepers dip their hives in fungicide - either copper napthalate or copper-chrome-arsenate (CCA) to prevent wood rot. Another common technique is dipping the hives in hot paraffin wax to seal the wood. As our main objective in beekeeping (and growing our own food generally) is to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals, the last thing I want to do is put copper napthalate or CCA in bee hives when there is a good chance that these chemicals will end up in the honey and beeswax that I want to harvest. Additionally, these are both pesticides, and can't be good for the health of the bees either. Paraffin wax is better, but still a product derived from petroleum and hardly natural.  When we made...

 Since I have been keeping bees and selling our beeswax I have been getting questions about making beeswax wraps. Many people are buying beeswax to make beeswax wraps, and wanted to know more about it. I owned a few beeswax wraps, but I had never made them myself! It has been on my list of things to try for a while now, and over the Christmas break I finally had time to make some beeswax wraps, so now I can tell you all about it .    What are beeswax wraps? A beeswax wrap is a piece of cotton fabric infused with beeswax (usually also with gum rosin for stickiness and jojoba oil to make it flexible). Beeswax wraps can be used instead of plastic wrap/glad wrap/cling wrap or aluminium foil to keep food fresh both in the fridge and in the pantry. You can wrap individual food items in the beeswax wrap or use the wrap to seal a container. If you want to reduce the amount of rubbish , particularly plastic rubbish, that you produce, then beeswax wraps are a great place to s...