Southern Tablelands Shipping Container Build

[Uncle Bob]

Great to see you're still updating this thread Turnstiles. It's looking very nice!

[turnstiles]

Great to see you're still updating this thread Turnstiles. It's looking very nice!

Thanks Uncle Bob - glad to see you're still around!

Still updating, but less and less things to post about. More outside work is needed though (currently trying to get the totally neglected veggie garden back producing this Spring/Summer.)

This thread (including the previous site) is turning into another "Neighbours"!

[r3nov8or]

"....everybody needs good...."

[turnstiles]

Well it seems to have been one of the windiest Septembers I can remember since being in this region. More than any other weather phenomenon - I hate wind the most!

As the house is now a home, i am loathe to do any messy building work indoors as the dust and mess will get into everything. So this is currently my workshop:
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So the wind has impacted on what I can and can't so.

One thing i love about my bathroom is being able to gaze out of the window as I shower in the mornings and watch the 'roos, ducks on the dam, and brightly coloured birds in the trees. I can see out of the house in three directions.

Through the shower screen and open door to beyond the kitchen and the big window at the front of the house:
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Directly through the bathroom window:
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And thirdly, the reflection in the big bathroom mirror through the window which reveals another different perspective:
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But during the past year a few visitors have expressed surprise that one would be so 'exposed' while showering!!

It has never concerned me as it is so quiet out here, but thinking about how visitors who stay over might feel, I decided to add a roller blind for privacy.

It may also be useful for minimising the morning Summer sun which shines straight though the window from sunrise until about 11am.
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I've been watering the grass seed twice a day and it has started popping up:
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This side of the house gets morning sun every day - at the back of the house, much of where I have sown grass seed is in perpetual shade until well into Summer when the sun is higher, so it has taken about 10 days longer for the seeds to sprout. (I used a shade tolerant variety.)

Being Spring, when it wasn't a howling gale, I would duck outside and work on the veggie garden when I could.

I put up a climbing frame across one of the beds and have planted snow peas and climbing beans.

Rhubarb is always in, as it mint and chives. Plus a few tubers of yacón - a South American root which is sweet and crunchy (like a Nashi pear) and can be used in fruit salads, salads and cooked. (I put it in stir fry's and on my breakfast cereal.)

I've also sown a row of coriander and one of capsicum seeds.
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The rest of my veggies will go in sometime in mid October when the soil warms up more.

I know the soil needs mulch, but there is no point until the bad winds stop as it will just end up being blown off the soil and up against the fence!

I then decided to tackle the mess under and around the veggie garden water tank - a dumping ground for all things gardeny!
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I plan to enclose 3 sides under the tank and add a shelf. Then I can store fertilisers, plant food, pots etc there. On the outside I'll attach wire mesh and grow some climbing purple Hardenbergia there,
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Hopefully I can get it to cover the water tank.

One positive of all the wind and being housebound is I've been able to spend a lot of time resurrecting my dormant art career - my little working space has spread a little. A large piece of polystyrene packaging has been useful as a back 'wall' - great for protecting the sofa and as a pin board.
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I really do need to crack on and get my studio built!

[Moondog55]

Given enough water the Hardenbergia would grow up around and over that small tank in a couple of years. I still recommend a couple of bathtubs for worm compost [ wait until you can get some free naturally] and for growing wet loving foods like Kangkong

[Moondog55]

Also given how good the house looks I can't wait until you start on the chicken palace [ foxproof/ goanna proof naturally] and how you'll tackle that.

[ErrolFlynn]

You should give some consideration to cross-bracing the legs of your water tank. There's probably more than a ton of water in there when full (1 gm/cc). Timber doesn't last for ever. It might be a pleasantly cool place for the dog to snooze, but a weight such that toppling would be nasty.

[turnstiles]

You should give some consideration to cross-bracing the legs of your water tank.

You're correct - the thousand litre tank holds a tonne of water.

Boxing the under-tank in should do the job! Mind you - it's been standing there almost 10 years and doesn't seem to have changed!

[ErrolFlynn]

Okay, now that's off my mind, the other thing that occurred to me was in relation to:

Rhubarb is always in, as it mint and chives. Plus a few tubers of yacón - a South American root which is sweet and crunchy (like a Nashi pear)

The rhubarb, mint, and yacón might make a nice jam.

[turnstiles]

The rhubarb, mint, and yacón might make a nice jam.

Sounds like an interesting combo. The yacón (weirdly related to the daisy - but looks a lot like a sweet potato) would contrast nicely with the rhubarb. But I'm not madly fond of mint - am judicious in what I put it in as mint flavouring can remind me of chewing gum or toothpaste!! (Peppermint tea to me is like drinking hot mouthwash...!). A bit on boiled spuds, in a green salad and mint sauce on steamed spinach is about it for me. I've made a lot of rhubarb jam - will have to wait until next May/June for the yacón to be ready to give it a try.

[ErrolFlynn]

mint

A tiny bit of mint may be enough. There’s a cafe I sometimes visit. They serve a nice French toast with all the fruit trimmings and maple syrup. The first time, I spotted two leaves of mint. Decoration, surely.

I was going to ignore it, but trimmed off the tiniest slice from one leaf. I’m referring to a piece no larger than 2mm and manipulated it on top of one of the strawberries then gobbled it whole. It changed the whole flavour experience. It was wonderful.

[turnstiles]

Also given how good the house looks I can't wait until you start on the chicken palace [ foxproof/ goanna proof naturally] and how you'll tackle that.

LOL - unfortunately you'll be waiting a long time! I've decided not to go down the chicken path. I know what is involved in looking after them, and I want to be able to shut up shop and nick off for a month or 3 and not have to worry about the chooks getting by on their own! For the sake of a few free eggs I hope to find a chook loving neighbour and swap veggies for eggs.
- - - Updated - - -

[turnstiles]

Spring means focus is shifted to outdoors. I'm back to my regular weed rambles, where I take a bucket and secateurs and wander around my 25 acres looking for weed outbreaks.

The main weeds this years appear to be small outbreaks of Patterson's Curse (Echium plantagineum) an invasive non native plant which spreads like wildfire. Fortunately outbreaks on my property remain small and easily managed.
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They have shallow roots and are easily pulled up and chopped up if already flowering.

Experience with some weeds (especially thistles) is that sometimes uprooting a plant with flowers doesn't always stop them from spreading seeds. I've seen thistles uprooted only to come back a week later to find the plant in its death throes has managed to continue feeding the pollinated flower until seeds were formed and released.

So I cut off thistle heads and store them in the bucket where they are put in the rubbish. The rest of the thistle is uprooted, chopped up a bit and left in place.

This year it looks as if P.Curse and Thistles (Scotch and Saffron) are the main problems. I've covered about half my property and collected no thistle heads - none had yet begun forming flowers. I'm doing the other half this afternoon.

I finished tidying up around the water tank, and planted the Hardenbergia vine on 2 sides. Off cuts of fibrous cement have enclosed 3 sides and further stabilized the structure.
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Next is the veggie garden.
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(This pic was taken 2 days ago - by this morning they have doubled in size! Same with the zucchini.)
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I also have capsicums, mint, climbing beans and yakon growing (no pix)

It is also Callistemon (Bottlebrush) time - love the vibrant red of this variety: These bushes went from one or two flowers 5 days ago to this today!
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Unusual flowers on this tree!!
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Lately there have been huge flocks of these raucous beautiful cockatoos - I estimated around 90 - 100 the other day - and their screeching is deafening.

Spring also brings out other native animals - though I've yet to see a snake this season.
Here's a very cute echidna I happened upon a few days ago waddling along my driveway.
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Something occurred the other day when I happened to lay out two of my right angled rulers.
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One of them is out!! I've been using these for years - so there are possibly no right angles in the build!! I initially cursed 'cheap Chinese rubbish' until a closer inspection:
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German products are usually so precise!

Finally, having now lived here for more than a year I thought I'd give a brief update on my solar power set up.

3.12 kW panels
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New Victron 5kW inverter
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2 x 5kW Li-Ion batteries
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Around May this year my Growatt inverter died and I was left without power.

Typically, it only came with a 2 year warranty. It lasted 2 years and one month. When I contacted my solar company they told me they stopped dealing with Growatt 18 months prior, as they had lots of issues with them and dealing with the company. (When I bought mine they had just started using Growatts as they were very popular at the time. Soon after they realised the issues and stopped selling and dealing with them.)

They said I could contact the company myself and see if they could do anything, but they didn't fancy my chances as it was out of warranty!

So I needed a new inverter, and the company I had used offered me a big discount on the Victron (extremely good reputation)

So I've had that installed and since then (touch wood) all is going swimmingly

At the onset of winter I noticed my batteries were getting extremely low, with the heat-pump water heater being the main culprit.

But after reading the water heater's manual I discovered it had a built in timer, plus the hybrid mode (where it draws heat from the atmosphere to heat the water and boosts it with electricity) switches to 100% electric heating mode when the ambient temperature drops below 5 deg C. (which it often does here in winter).

So once I set the timer to turn the water heater on at 10am, when the sun is up and the temperature has often climbed above 5 deg, I have not had power issues.

In fact, almost all of the time, my battery levels do not drop below 75% full.

When using the hybrid mode, the water heater combined with my fridge plus separate upright freezer uses only around 440W to power all three. (Which at the moment is using all the power directly from the sun and none from the batteries.)

Heating has been almost unnecessary. On sunny days, when the outside temp is just above zero (and the 'feel-like temp can be in in the minus 5 - 10 range) it has reached 29 deg inside due to the passive solar heating. And the insulation means this heat stays in the house so that by 10pm it can still be 22deg.

Of course there were 2 or 3 instances where there were 3 - 4 consecutive cloudy days with virtually no sunshine. So no heat was coming in and it did get down to around 10 deg inside. So I have a kerosene heater which I put on for an hour at a time when I'm sitting still. Once I'm moving about and wearing a sweater, cold is no longer an issue!

So as a result of this, I do not feel the need to have a wood burning fire in the house as i originally planned. I've stayed in places with them, as as nice and atmospheric as they are, I wasn't keen on the finding of firewood, the cleaning involved etc. At some point if the cold does become an issue I think I could probably install a small reverse cycle air-con for some heating.

It gives me a huge amount of pleasure not to have to pay electricity bills ever again!!

[Moondog55]

Two of those batteries are enough? Dirt cheap compared to Elons packs.
I am very envious of your rhubarb too

[ErrolFlynn]

my fridge plus separate upright freezer uses only around 440W to power all three.

That's not much at all.