Spreading the green word!

[Shaz]

Hi Everyone!

My name is Sharon or Shaz if you like, I'm from Australia and me my hubby and two ankle biters are embarking on a quest to live the good life on 5 acres of beautiful land nestled in the gorgeous rainforest of Tropical North Queesnsland! The journey has been long and sometimes extremely difficult just to erect the house! It has taken over a year to build as we have done it all by our lonesome! We lived on the property in a shed for about 5 months with no running water, no mod cons, pretty much nothing but electricity!(which I hope to one day not need anyway). I grew a vege garden, completely organically and from seed but we ended up leaving for a break in the city- (I obtained a full time job- maternity leave fill) before I could really get into it. We had a porta loo and bathed in a big bucket after boiling water in the kettle and we cooked on an open fire, often to the dismay of our taste buds!!ha ha we weren't exactly green but we sure learnt a thing or two about the land we were living on and it opened my eyes to an entirely new world! I came to the realisation that with enough effort, there was nothing that mother nature could not provide, I started reading books on permaculture, self sustaining lifestyles and living frugally. Before long I realised that all of the difficulties we had were because we had not looked for help in our own backyard! Now after making a little more money, the shed is almost completely decked out as a house, the kitchen and bathroom will be completed soon, it has three bedrooms and will have a beautiful outdoor area overlooking the dam. This time I want to do it right, the majority of the building was completed without sustainability in mind and finances meant that I couldn't really change that otherwise I may have looked at a mud brick or straw bale house, but we have installed a Biolytics septic system which is basically its own ecosystem (based on worms!!ewww) unfortunately it cost about $13,000 AUD which was a big chunk of our money, it wasn't until later that I found out about composting toilets although I'm not sure how much these cost. We have no mains water and will survive purely on rainwater. We plan to have chooks ducks and Turkeys for meat and eggs, I have read up about Bee keeping for honey and wax for candle making. We will be planting fruit and nut trees and a year long organic vege garden. I am looking to buy all my staples in bulk and eventually barter fruit and veg for staples like flour salt and sugar. One day I would like to use solar power for necessities and not need electricity at all, a generator and home made bio diesel are another idea on the go! Anyway hopefully I will be able to blog on the site and let you all know how I am going with my 'superplan'!!! I would love to eventually be able to spread the word, help and provide advice to others based on my own experience! If anyone has any advice - let me know! Take care, from a green beginner!!!