January 27th, 2008 AndrewD
Well it has been a hectic 24 hours this Australia day, racing down to Sydney for Australia Day 08. We have been going to Enmore Park for 8 or 9 years (friends, bands, beers and fireworks). So we thought next year we will probably know more people here in Yass and there has to be a BBQ or two somewhere we can crash (or if not hold our own and invite people here) so this was a bit like out last hurrah. Also Australia Day for our family does mark the end of the silly season.
While down in Sydney we also did the school shopping, uniforms as my eldest heads off to high school and shoes for everyone – I cannot believe it takes so long to find a pair of black shoes.
I know this is out of order but on the way down we also stopped off at Cooma Cottage the home of the Australian Explorer Hamilton Hume
“Pioneering pastoralist Cornelius O’Brien built this single storied colonial cottage in 1835, and between 1839 and 1873 it was home to Australia’s great overland explorer Hamilton Hume. A creative owner-builder, Hume added his version of Palladian style wings and a Greek Revival portico. Set in a pastoral landscape the house represents an extraordinary taxonomy of vernacular building techniques and includes a fine, mid-nineteenth century stables outbuilding. Situated on the Yass River, Cooma Cottage is in the heart of some of New South Wales’ richest sheep grazing country and during the 1830s, brothers Henry and Cornelius O’Brien joined other pioneers such as Hume in settling these rich, open plains.”
Quite an interesting building. It started off with only two rooms and before Hamilton Hume died, he had added to it 7 times. And in the front (the original front) there is a massive old olive tree which was planted by Hamilton and is still there 150 years later, I have to say it is massive. Definitely if you are driving thru Yass stop there and do the tour. While the property is owned by The Nation Trust there is a local group of volunteers (Friends of Cooma Cottage) that organise the tours, and the house also needs approx $500k of work to fix up so if anyone is feeling generous 
This is also where the Hume and Hovel walking trail starts.
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January 20th, 2008 AndrewD
And this time had the camera charged – anyone know what sort of frog it is?
Posted in Animals | 1 Comment »
January 18th, 2008 AndrewD
So the tanks are full, all of yesterday (and overnite) just a constant drizzle. So this backs up the 20 mm that we received on Thursday. It is good being on tank water as you can use the water how you like eg I can water the garden every day if I want.
What I find funny about water restrictions is that while they say people cannot water their garden each day, you can still waste water with a dishwasher or long showers, but water a vege/fruit producing garden everyday from town water and you’d be in trouble, something not right there. Also the Yass town water does taste fairly average, very calcium rich don’t recommend it
Anyway the reason for the post is that last nite my daughter went outside on on the decking and there she found a small frog, I ran to get the camera but no battery power. A frog, we could not believe it
Posted in Animals, Climate change, Gardening | 2 Comments »
January 12th, 2008 AndrewD
Well with all the rain, the crab grass and patersons curse are raging. Anyway I’ll deal with that over time. So on the 3rd Jan I ordered some sleepers and soil from the local landscaping shop Robinson’s in Yass. So they rocked up the day I called them and delivered everything.
So grabbing my trusty hoe I cleared a 3×3 metre patch. Layed some cardboard on the ground followed by sleepers and sugar cane mulch. Now to move the sleepers, of course they were no where near where I needed them. After trying to carry them (lasted about 50cm) I pulled an old dog chain out of the car and dragged them to where they were required. I stacked the sleepers two one top of each other. Then I used my wheelbarrow (Christmas present – thanx Santa) to place soil in the newly formed vege patch. And to finish it off a few bags of pea straw and blood and bone.
Here is where I cleared away the Patterson’s Curse
And here it is with soil and mulch
On the 6th Jan 08 I planted in my 2.4×2.4 metre patch. The seeds were nothing unusual just Mr Fothergill’s
Sweet Corn 12
Zucchini 4
Lettuce 6
Lettuce 6
Spring Onions 3 rows
Also in some containers I planted
Parsely
Broccoli 4
Cauliflower 4
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January 7th, 2008 AndrewD
Ok so the house was complete by July 07, basically after the delivery they send in the joiners and they complete everything, touch up the paint, install the tiles, guttering etc. The only flooring in the chipboard flooring, as carpets and other flooring will need to wait until next March or April.
The other parts required was the plumber and sparky in (all internal wiring and plumbing is already completed – so only external plumbing required) and they were both flat chat but they could do all the work by the end of September. Also I eventually chose a Biolytix system for our waste as I am not on town sewage (but would have done something like this anyway). Not thinking of where the dispersement area should be I have it in the middle of the back half of the land, and as this is black waer I am not supposed to grow fruit there. So I have a middle section that will become native vegetation but separates the orchard from the house.
There were two issues with the builder:
- Is that they wanted me to cut into the land to make a flat base, now while this did not seem like an issue, I now have a drainage problem to deal with as when it rains all the water washes down to where the house is. I should have requested higher peers at the back of the house.
- The tank water was originally specified for the toilets, and washing machines only but they forgot to tell that part to the building plumber so all the plumbing was done together. So what my plumber and I decided to do was connect the tanks to the house (to supply all the water) and install an additional filter and get a bigger pump with a cut-over to town water switch. Really thou this has been a blessing in disguise as we have been here 3 months and only today have switched over to town water. Need bigger tanks (only have 10000 l), I will get these when I build the garage but I would have saved the small Yass dam over 20000l.
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January 4th, 2008 AndrewD
Well in June 2007 we had the house being delivered just two weeks after council approval (the factory take a risk and start building it several weeks in advance so it will be ready on council approval).
So we headed for Yass a few nights early and we thought they would have to come past the caravan park, but as they had not appeared by 9 am we thought we would go to the block and wait there. We saw them just arriving. The house comes in three sections, today the first two were being delivered.
Once there they maneuvered onto the block (they had to cut one of the trees on the nature strip out front). They raise the house on hydraulic jacks and then drive the trucks out. The workmen then scamper underneath and place the piers in place, then lower the house. The same is repeated for the second and third section (of course each section has to be perfectly aligned).
Also here you can see the hard cut into the earth and the bank at the front of the house which I have to fix for drainage.
Completed house – now just to get the plumber, sewage, electricity connected.
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January 3rd, 2008 AndrewD
One of the things we had to do for the house prior to delivery was organise someone to level the land. So I had a friend who knew someone that could do the job so we met him on the land one weekend and we pegged out the area. We discussed the options and it was decided hat a hard cut was what is required.
The building company had also specified that where we do the cut that we create a slope so the trucks can roll out.
As it turned out the cut dug in approx 1 metre
- more than I expected. Also the width was a bit narrow and we had to get permission from the council to place the house 7.6 metres from the boundary rather than the specified 8 metres
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January 3rd, 2008 AndrewD
Well late 2006 we started looking at houses – I had always wanted a straw bale house but for a few reasons that did not occur. Looking thru some different magazines we decided upon a to look at some homes that are built in a factory, transported to the land and tied down.
For some reason there is about 4 of these places in Wagga Wagga so off we went. In the end we chose a home by Better Look Homes (http://www.betterlookhomes.com.au/), they had the design we liked and came in at the right price as well.
Also one of the advantages of a home like this was they did all the council work (in regards to the house) and they know the councils. Also as Yass council is notoriously slow it would mean that we would have a house on site within weeks once the council approval came thru, rather than wait upto a year for someone to build something for us.
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January 2nd, 2008 AndrewD
The block itself is in the rural NSW town of Yass – the dream itself started a long time ago but we went looking for something in this area and we found this in our price range (actually probably a thousand or two more than I wanted to spend). So we ended up purchasing the land in 2006.
The size is just over 1 acre approx 35 metres wide and over 100 metres deep with a slight slope to the south west corner.
Previously people had horses on it so they sprayed the Patersons Curse – Of course it just keeps on coming back. Here is what it looks like when we purchased it.
It is locate just behind the Yass Show Grounds (OK there is a block between) and it is close to the main town – the block is classified as rural but we are only approx 2kms from the main street.
A blank canvas if I had ever seen one. But a year later we would have our house here.
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January 2nd, 2008 AndrewD
Hi there and welcome to our blog, I guess to introduce us my name is Andrew and my partners name is Lee-Ann, but please do visit the about us page for more info. But basically we moved from St Peters, Inner Sydney to Yass, rural NSW. We went from a 170m2 block to 1 acre. We want to live off the land and save those carbon credits.
Eventually we will have vege patches, fruit trees and some chickens and pigs, but first I need to get rid of the Patersons Curse (sometimes called Salvation Jane) which covers the land and fix the drainage around the house – but more on those later.
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