Brrr Cold it is

After the dust clouds came through last week (more on that below). How cold did it get. Yass temps for the weekend were

• Sat 4-10
• Sun 3-7.8 (icy winds blowing from the mountains as well)
• Mon 3.2-11.9 (and very little wind)

On the dust storm, I missed the first one in Yass (caught it while in Sydney). Anyway as you may be aware, we drink the water from out tank and up until now that has been fine. But since the dust storm the water is a bit murky (and even a new filter does not help). Do people know if I just have to wait for the fine dust to settle in the tank (will it settle) before it becomes clean again? Or is there something else I should be doing?

Posted in Climate change | No Comments »

Tanks are full

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 »

House Part4

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Posted in Building | No Comments »