by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Nov 2, 2015 | Halloween
Living in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE with the nearest neighbours kilometres away, we miss out on Halloween traditions like Trick or Treating (never mind that 1. even if we did have neighbours, most people in Australia don’t celebrate Halloween anyway and 2. if we... read more
by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Oct 21, 2015 | Eco-living
Your own free-range eggs delivered right to your back door: this is one of the benefits of keeping your own chickens. And as a homesteader, you are practically obligated to keep chickens- it’s the first step to having the idyllic Old MacDonald’s Farm. But there is a... read more
by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Oct 10, 2015 | Eco-living
Today, while working out in the orchard, I looked up towards our house and noticed a flash of pink on the roof. We have an earth roof. In an earth roof system, the roof is waterproofed, insulated, and then covered in soil and plants. There are many benefits, two of... read more
by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Sep 22, 2015 | livestock
Unless you grew up in the country, your idea of ducks is probably like mine was: gentle, playful animals that spend their time happily splashing around in ponds, waddling comically around on the grass, bath-time rubber-ducky creatures whose adorable fluffy yellow... read more
by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Sep 14, 2015 | Eco-living
We live in a two-storey house…with no stairs. We have external access to the second storey. But who wants to go outside to get upstairs when it’s cold, rainy, dark (or anytime, really)? So, we have two ways to get upstairs inside the house: a temporary ladder and a... read more
by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Sep 1, 2015 | Eco-living, pizza oven
It’s almost Peter’s birthday, and one of my gifts to him is a pallet of bricks. Does that seem a bit mean, giving a man a pile of bricks for his birthday? Well, these are no ordinary bricks. They are FIREbricks, or refractory bricks. And the plan is to create one... read more
by blythe_tait@bigpond.com | Aug 18, 2015 | duck pond, Eco-living
Out of all the tasks we have on our to-do list, you may wonder what made us decide to build a duckpond. Our chickens are fairly self-sufficient- their watering and feeding systems are sorted, and we can leave them when we go on holidays without needing anyone to... read more
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