Update on my off-grid mountain lifestyle change (Part 2)

G'day imgur!

Tarnz here again with a bit of an update-in-pictures of my off-grid lifestyle change! My first post garnered quite an overwhelming level of support and interest. People wanted to be kept updated so i'm here to share some of the stuff we have been working on at our place over the last few weeks. For the uninitiated, a link to the original post can be found here: http://imgur.com/gallery/uhPay. You'll be able to read about my initial adventure leaving the city and setting up life on the mountain; erecting a military surplus field barracks as a living space, and developing our water and power supplies. It's been a pretty fun and productive time so far.

Just entered into Autumn in our part of the world. One thing we have come to learn after moving out here is that the seasons tend to play a much bigger role in the decisions you make. Our priorities have shifted lately as we prepare for colder, shorter days.

Still, gotta make the best of everyday and make sure we get some stuff done!

The shelter, water and power facilities covered in the last post have been going well. Our latest projects have mostly revolved around increasing our levels of self-sufficiency. The local pizza joint is about 200km away, so one of the most important things we have been aiming to achieve is growing our own food. We have begun work on our kitchen garden!

One of the experiments taking place at the moment is this self-contained wicking bed we have built. A wicking bed is a low-maintenance, water efficient technique for growing stuff. We are all about re-purposing old crap to make new, interesting, less-crappy things. We thought one of the old military crates our shed came in would be cool to utilize for this project.

The bed consists of a lower water-basin level that acts as an irrigation reservoir, which is then covered with a growing medium. Water is delivered directly to the reservoir in our bed via a permeable ag pipe with a raised outlet. Water 'wicks' upwards into the growing medium, hydrating the plants. This way, the beds only have to be tended to about once a week for a top up, and you are free to do more important things, like drink tea, or play gameboy.

We haven't had time to develop our own source of compost yet (its getting there) so we had to bite the bullet and buy some bulk organic soil mix. Hopefully the only time we have to do this!

Magic growth potion. +10 vegetablyness. Seriously, get some worms they are awesome.

Applying magic growth elixer.

Let there be carrots!

Got an old washing machine drum laying around? Grow tomatoes in it!

Horse poo + worm juice seems to be a goer! Always mulch.

Growing organically means you're always going to have other forest residents sniffing out some of your crop. For us it's mostly Wallabies and Antechinus (small Australian native mouse-like marsupial).

Food must be sheilded by protective force-field.

Errect some classic gothic arches using low density irrigation pipe.

Force-field generators are expensive and prone to rebel sabotage, so use something more suitable, like some orchard netting. Very appropriate.

Oh yeah, I've been working on a youtube channel at the suggestion of some fine folk around imgur. Got a video about the wicking bed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5AGysoC1BA

Wicking beds are pretty cool to build, but also a bit of an investment. You can also head into the local village pub and talk to this old bloke, Swon. He'll give you a bag of random magic seeds from his garden and all you gotta do it throw them in the dirt and wait for it to rain. So far there is some corn, squash, and some different beans. Good on ya Swon.

After you are done growing some food, it's good to be able to cook it. We managed to get our wood-fired stove together and installed. We built a flue and chimney-cap from scratch also. Chimneys are very important. You can learn more about chimneys in the 1964 documentary, Mary Poppins. Highly recommended.

Stove fuel. about 4-5 days worth.

Chimney parts. Sophisticated stuff.

Had some old galvanised sheet steel lying around. Was used as capping for the military crates. Use old stuff again, it's good for you.

Shiney. The old man recons his welding isn't that good. Keep talkin' old man.

Functional, but also quite refined I think.

Chimney being a chimney.

Food and heat and tea. The chicken makes a noise when your water is boiled. If you want, you can ee it in this vid I made about the stove install: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE9ZOu2mZkc

Next major projects we are working toward involve the construction of a few more facilities. Some more sheds to hold stuff. As well as our cabins that we will be building eventually. This has meant working with and learning more about our sawmill.

Getting a lot better at quarter-sawing our own timber.

It's called Blue Gum Eucalyptus, so naturally its a nice orangy-pink colour.

Closer

Starting to look like a real lumber yard around here. Still tinkering and working out the kinks. The first batches of timber we make will be going towards making more garden beds, doing some fencing, and a little interior construction.

Also made a neat vid about it, you can catch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO_E2KXV-94

As mentioned, the weather is getting cooler and the animals are becoming less active around the pace. But still plenty of chances to spot some sneks. Stay warm big fella.

Looks like the place is google-satellite official! Something else we are constantly striving towards is a better overall knowledge of the land. We have started working on a trail down the mountain to our creek. This mostly comprises of walking through and marking a trail on foot and 4x4, then coming through with a dozer to clear the copious amounts of lantana in the way. Lantana is a wirey, bushy invasive weed that has choked out alot of the native forests in this part of the world. This red line is a bit over a mile. Not far to go before we get to creek-town!

Thanks for checking out the post! Hope it was half interesting. Here is the all important Hillbilly beard progress pic!

I'll be back in a coupla' months with more updates if people are still interested, so until then stay cool and thanks for all the comments and support!

If you want to stay in touch or ask questions like last time here are the accounts i keep active:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWxUfOOYZDnSfwFn-m1MF6A
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/tarney22

Part 01: http://imgur.com/gallery/uhPay

*Edit* Thought I would add link to reddit discussion for part one, there are some posts that give a lot more info from me about our original setup of the place, and the story behind it: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/5srd6k/upcycling_a_vietnam_war_era_australian_army/

G'night

moo cow tax.