At the start - part two

 

The site for our home

Not long after we purchased this property, or agent suggested we should list our old property near Ballarat for sale, with the suggestion that it may take up to a year to find a suitable buyer. It was a twenty acre block in the middle of the bush, a house about ten years old, new sheds, and all the extra's for living in the bush.

So we listed it, had an open day for inspection, and sold it within two days! The original plan was to slowly develop our new farm, build sheds, install fencing, water tanks, etc, before we moved. The purchasers wanted a 45 day contract, so no problem we thought, we can move in 45 days to our new farm and get established.

And we did, we moved our cats, our dogs, our chickens our turkeys, and everything else in 44 days. We built a temporary chicken yard, dog yard, installed temporary water, a 12volt battery system and moved everything else we owned. it was the day before Christmas, we were exhausted.

 

Identical water pumps for house and garden water supply

 

 

The next year, we started, put new water tanks in, completed a petrol driven pump installation at the dam, and new electric house and garden pumps. We also installed our solar power system (completely off grid) and started to build a house.

 

House framing from the south west end

 We chose a post and beam style construction, with a hexagonal shaped section for the living room and kitchen end, with a conventional rectangular extension for the bedrooms.

House framing from the north east end

We also completed some property tasks, including weed control, fencing and also an experiment too see if the old and decrepit cherry trees could be restored to fruiting vigor. we selected two typical trees and carefully pruned them to see what the result may be.

A pruned cherry tree in blossom

Did we mention we are also very keen gardeners? We built this green house from the ends of an old Ballarat green house, reclaimed aluminum tubing, and yet to be added poly carbonate sheeting for the walls and roof.  

Greenhouse construction