lifestyleblock discussion forums - Blogs

RENOVATION BEGINS

trikee — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:10:54 GMT

Well it has been a crazy hectic few months! House relocated, then we focused on our two homes needing to be sold! Weatherboards replaced on the Invercargill house, painted and rented and now SOLD - possession date 10th February :-) This gives us the funds to build a shed, so the man is happy!
We have purchased the Autoflow vermiculture septic system and are very happy to be the first Southlanders to have one of these - arriving in the next couple of weeks.
My Homewood Heritage Wood stove also arrives in a couple of weeks, but still waiting on design and quote for new kitchen - have purchased one off trade me so we going for a mix of old and new.
Quote for power supply came in yesterday, needing transformer and am absolutely stoked that the price is just under $8,000 I had budgeted for $14,000!!! YAY!
Lifestyle block we live in has been painted inside and out, floorboards polished etc etc... now on the market, few people through already and some interest (check out my real estate listing on here).
Busy times ahead with renovating the house etc but very exciting! So far am pleased to announce no major budget blow outs but I have gone into this very very well researched and my book of quotes/information/to do lists is getting very full!!!
Anyone thinking of embarking on a "transporting a house" mission please contact me via private message and I am more than happy to share information.
[:)]

Getting There Slowly!

Leonie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:00:54 GMT

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened but not happened also, if you can understand what I mean.

I am now 2 weeks out from my due date, and this baby boy hasn't settled one little bit. He's a wriggly kicker and I love it (no matter how sore it is at times lol)

We have been travelling down to the Waikato every few days since we moved on/into our bare foot haven home.

The more time we spend there, the harder it is for me to leave and I actually find myself talking to my house when we close it up.

Our wonderful neighbors on the front block have been an absolute savior. Teaching us so many things about grazing, cattle, water wheels, turbines etc. They are such an inspiration and just really good sorts.

We have ended up stopping the water wheel we had and are working on building a new one for a new spot down stream from the house. The original one was not as sufficient as we had been led to believe. So I am researching over shot water wheel designs etc.

At the moment as we are still in 'settle in' mode, we have made a deal with our good neighbors. They graze our grazing land and in return raise a weaner for us with their mob.

They are topping our grazing and doing what is needed for that land and it's working out great.

They have diggers and tractors etc and have also laid gravel down on our muddy driveways and helped us fix our river crossings making them much more accessible.

Thanks to all the rain we have had recently up the far north, my vegie garden hasn't done too well. Our courgettes, lettuce, spring onions, chilli peppers, and a few tomato plants are doing ok though, oh and our climbing beans. So I guess that is a start and something.

We have 3 chooks in our awesome chook coop that my wonderful husband made and they afre laying regularly now. I will look at getting a few more hens soon.

Come sunday we pick up a couple of miniature kune kune piglets from near Auckland. I was only going to get one for a pet but now we are getting 2, a male and female from different lines so we will breed them. I know they aren't the greatest for eating but they will be something.

We have added 2x190w solar panels and have 4x225ahr deep cycle batteries for those which once we get our pure sine wave inverter, will run on a 24v system. We use these to run the fridge, lights, water pump and sometimes the tv (which now is on a satellite),

We are looking at moving those and other panels up the hill on the back of the house where we will also place the wind turbine. And once the water wheel is hooked in we should be sweet! Considering we keep adding to our battery bank.

That way we are covered for all seasons, sun, rain and wind!

If anyone else has a water wheel or doing one I would love to see or hear how your going?

Well that's just a quick update for now... We are still loving our new found lifestyle and that love is growing stronger each week.

Our son Brayden will be starting at his new high school in February and will be starting his first job in possum trapping soon. Our newborn son Hunter will be here so i will keep you all up to date on that. hubby is still waiting for a transfer to come up or a job in something different round the Kaeo, Keri Keri area.

So until next time...

Cheers!

Bobby Calves

muzzathm — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:08:33 GMT

Hi all, looking to buy half a dozen Bobby Calves, we live in the Helensville area, does any one have any for sale, or know of a local town supply farmer in the area that we maybe able to get some off. Cheers

And so it begins....

*~Flake~* — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:19:12 GMT

I fell in love with straw bale design when I was 16. At high school environmental groups were on of my 'things', and small picture sustainability appealed.

My husband has gone back to uni to finish his other degree in Chemical Engineering. His 'thing' is alternative fuels, and big picture sustainability.

Together with our two current children, our cat, dog, birds, and horse and hopefully by the time of the shift another wee family member, we plan on moving up north to Taranaki. The region offers the opportunity and lifestyle, and currently Canterbury has had one shake too many for us.

The dream: strawbale. I'm guessing the reality: a coloursteel barnhouse. The Goal: to operate a block that generations will enjoy, as self sustaining as possible while catering for our family interest in horses.

We're now starting to plan, prepare, and get quotes for our property, and so I start this blog from the VERY beginning of our journey [:)] I'll take care of asthetics and block management, 'The Engineer' can look after power and water systems.

Wish us luck! :o

Feeling the Magic

canajanz — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:36:22 GMT

It was a rather nondescript turning , not even a letterbox. The grass had grown up a bit along the sides of the long driveway but I could still see the aggies poking through.
The poplars on the south side rustled softly in the breeze as I idled along towards the bridge (a private bridge!!).
How special! Not just a creek to call our own, but a bridge!

The view opened out to my right along the willow lined creek and across to the western boundary of poplars. WOW!

By the time I had parked the car I was shouting �SOLD� in my head.
I attempted to be cool and reserved.
It doesn�t do to show an agent that this HAS to be your place.
I must have looked as if I was choking on something as I asked all the normal questions. Where is the boundary? Does the shed have a permit? How much?
I was choking .. on excitement! [:D]
THIS was magic.

Pause for reality check.
The stone bridge pillars would not have been my choice
The shed/barn is incredibly ugly
Those two small things are not nearly enough to temper my rising excitement J
This was IT.
[:D]
Power of veto had been exercised and I was not going to get my place on the hill
Have I seen anything that even comes close to this in the agreed (serious compromise) geographical area? That�s easy. NO!

Look in the shed. Shed? More like a hangar! A horder�s heaven. Steel frame, concrete floor, galv skin. A place to store everything while we build. A place to camp out? I am getting ahead of myself.
What is that little building? A pump shed? The pump had delusions of grandeur [:)] But it�s perfect for me... a great office during the build.
The creek runs the whole east boundary, bubbling softly over a small weir of fieldstones.

I struggle for coherence as I bid good-day to the agent and hold my breath as he drives away.
WoooOOOHOOO! Happy dance. Phone. Where is my phone??
I have FOUND it! YES! This is IT!

The chickens on the far side of the creek stared at me quietly as I made my way back to the gate and the real world.

Hands in teh Air

canajanz — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:00:09 GMT

Buying a property in NZ is relatively easy.
Or it should be.
It had never been a problem in the past
This time was going to be different.

This time was like riding a crazy, out of control roller coaster! We rode bravely, hands in the air.
I cant say it was fun. [:(]
We reached the point where we sighed in relief each time the vendor pulled the plug on the latest deal.
But the fascination held and we struggled on, jumping through hoops,never knowing what was coming next.

We thought the end had arrived in February 2011 when we got to settlement date but it seems someone had waved us through the pitstop and we had to ride for a wee bit longer

I will never understand some of the things that happened. Never!
Therein lies the genesis of several more blog entries [:D]

Retrospective

canajanz — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:29:19 GMT

In a moment of bored weakness I accompanied my daughter to an open home for no good reason other than curiousity.
Bad move.
I had adjusted to urban living. I was surviving.
Right?
Clearly not!
I fell in love with a place I could not have ... and started dreaming again of escaping the urban jungle.

It didnt take too long to get involved in the weekly open home circuit.
I was trying to be reasonable
I didnt need to own 1000s of acres
Himself was very much not interested in sheep any more.
What if we just had 1 acre? or 1/2 an acre? As long as it was in the middle of someone else's several hundred that would work for both of us.

The theory was fine, but in practice there were not too many places that fit that description.
Agents, being agents, took us to 5 acres 40 miles away, 20 acres with no water and 10 acres of vertical hillside.
The months passed as I learned every highway and biway in the district.

Then one day the magic happened!

I followed the agent onto the section and said SOLD! before I even got out of the car.

It took another 10 months and 2 weeks of rollercoaster madness before it was ours but we made it.
We are here!

Settling In

Leonie — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:00:58 GMT

We are settling in nicely and finding our new home exactly that 'HOME'.

We do a lot of travelling at the moment as hubby is still working down the way but hopefully soon that will change.

Today we are 28 weeks pregnant and my baby bump is getting bigger. We are having another beautiful son who is kicking like he is training for a UFC fight [:D]

We are slowly sorting our power source out as we will be staying off grid with the water wheel, solar panels and maybe also a wind turbine setup. We have started collecting deep cycle batteries and soon enough I will have my washing machine and fridge, yay!

I do my laundry by hand at the moment which isn't a bother and just something you do because it has to be done.

We will be welcoming our first ever weaner in a couple of weeks thanks to our neighbors on the block out the front of our place.

We've never done the farming of cattle on our own at all so we are very excited. We decided to start with one and learn from there, getting use to the grazing cycle etc.

We have around 6-8 acres clear grazing and a few bush tracks on our 60 acres of mostly bush, which have alot of yummies for our weaner.

We also have 4 hens. We did have a rooster but our foxy Max decided to change that and our poor rooster is no more. But we may be getting another rooster soon.

Hubby worked on the chicken coop, building it from old roofing iron, timber, and old washing machine drums for lay boxes. All items he found just lying round on the property. All placed inside a wire fenced enclosure that was left standing when we moved on in (made things a lot easier.)

Our water pressure isn't so great but hubby is looking at changing that soon. At the moment we have a pump (bilge pump) that pumps water from the tank up into another tank on top of the roof. The pump runs off a car battery and is charged via the water wheel supply.

I've planted my vegie seeds. Capsicum, Cauliflower, Spinach, Courgettes, Bak Choi, Carrots, Thai Chill's, Leeks, Tomatoes, Silverbeet & Lettuce. I know I'm a bit behind on the planting but we had to get the garden bed sorted first, which hubby took care of.

I've found a couple of good eeling holes in the river just down from the house and will be working on my smoker soon. We have plenty of Manuka on the property so I am going to try honey & Manuka smoked eel mmmm yummy.

In the short time we have lived in our new home and lifestyle, I have learnt that there is more to life then the fast moving wants of city and big town societies. That there is so much more to life than the newest model cars etc.

I have come to appreciate the quietness and peacefulness of our surroundings and found joy in the simplest everyday tasks.

Each day I find myself waking before dawn, waiting to see the sun rise so I can get out and start my day.

We had the tv running off the generator the other day and immediately I noticed how we sat in zombie mode. We ended up turning it off and going outside. It's ok for some times.

It's not the easiest way of life, but then it isn't the hardest either if you get joy from a hard days work and being able to live off your own doings.....

It is still early days for us, but so far each day brings joy in one form or another. We are so happy we made the choice to change and move. And are looking forward to the future, our future! [:D]

Bare Foot Haven

Leonie — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:50:13 GMT

We made it!!!!!! Wohooooo!

We are moved in and already starting the tidy up of the house inside and the land outside.

We don't have mobile coverage, tv or internet and ya know what... That's fine by us for now. We are just going to take one day at a time and get use to the surrounds.

There is so much to look at and do, we never find ourselves bored since day one of moving in.

I find myself waking before dawn to check if the sun is coming up yet. As soon as I see a bit of daylight, I am up, gas on to boil the kettle and away I go! I just can't wait to get up and out there.

We are getting use to the water wheel off grid power system which is a 3 phase setup designed by the man who sold us the property. And when it rains we love it because we know it's doing the land good and giving us more power lol.

When you move from a suburban area where the night and day noises are cars, alarms, etc; Being in a bush surround is very different. The noise is completely different and can be quite scarey.... But we are use to it already and love the time to talk and just be!

The last owner has left me 5 hens and a rooster and there is an old chook coop that needs a bit of tidying up but it will do very nicely. The hens are broody at the moment so I need to get them into their coop soon. very healthy looking completely free range chooks which is great!

In the evening as the sun styarts going down we hear wild pigs in the bush and at night while enjoying a hot cuppa on the front porch we can hear them come down to the river.

We don't have enough power to run a fridge/freezer yet but it's no bother. We just use what we need to and don't buy lots of fresh meat etc. I've made a stone pool in the creek behind the house for keeping certain foods cool.

I'll be uploading photos and video blog to my You Tube Channel also as we progress so stay tuned.

We wake each day now, grateful for what we have and amazed at the fact that it's so beautiful, raw and real. And we love it... I do believe I am in paradise! :)

House has been transported

trikee — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:47:51 GMT

The house was transported onto our site a week ago, has been stitched back together and sitting on the piles nicely. The only casualty was one lightshade that must have got a good swing on in transit, all of the stained glass windows are fine. Was a big mission for the drivers really, took a while to get out of the tree lined Invercargill Street it was located on and took out a few powerlines on the way to its new site!!!

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