The 110k Swap

We're very pleased to find amongst the hot and sticky weather we've had over the past few days, inside our little minor dwelling has been comfortably cool. The inside temperature only changes very slowly, despite what's happening outside. I can put our little bubba to bed at night knowing she's not going to wake up cold in the middle of the night, because it will be the same temperature in the morning as it was the night before (or maybe 1 degree less sometimes). That is gold I tell you! Absolute gold! From someone who, up until a week ago had not had a full night's sleep since before the baby was born (July), she's only now starting to sleep through the night. If I now had to deal with hot days and huge temperature drops at night, I'd still be getting up to deal with that. So we're still sleeping in the unfinished minor dwelling. Our quarters are just clay bricks, concrete floors and roof (and we do have insulation in the ceiling). There

You know when you come across something so shocking your instinct is to tell people about it ("holy heck did you know..."), but then they don't want to know because it's so shocking? We set out on this project just innocently wanting to build a passive solar house - we just wanted somewhere warm to live. Josh researched extensively as to materials for the walls. We knew we wanted concrete floors and lots of insulation in the ceiling. But what to build the walls out of for best performance? Once he started looking into it though, he came across the nasty truth about VOCs - volatile organic compounds. It's one of those things that the more you read about it, the worse it gets. And we decided, if we want to bring up children in this house, we don't want VOCs. They're the worst in things like paint and carpet and cabinetry. If you don't want VOCs, you're in for more expense because it's no longer standard. It's one of the main reasons (besi

Upswap us something for a piece of our house!   We're starting again with a very small item to try and get the momentum happening. This is easy for someone to swap something with as it's not worth much! But an exclusive piece for your place that you will never see anywhere else! These clay bricks cost us about $30 each but they're not worth anything to us because we have a handful left and can't sell them. Considering all and any offers for something to swap for it!   These bricks are great as a coffee table or plant holder. We've shown in the photos how some nice wood can be attached to the top. Our 2 year old stained the wood with a home made stain made from vinegar and rusted steel wool - a totally natural piece of furniture with no nasty chemical smells. This particular one has a big circular hole which can be used as a magazine rack. The brick could also be painted. A real talking piece for your living space! We started out on this swap journ

If you happen to have any of the following lying around and would like to swap for a  home theatre system , get in touch - details at the bottom :) 1. House cleaning for a year 2. A ski trip in Japan 3. A really cool pimped out treehouse 4. A pair of Llamas 5. The world's longest waterslide 6. A suite booking at the Ritz, London 7. Naming rights to a star 8. A small sailboat 9. 100kg of prawns 10. A brand new moped If you have any of these or it sparks the idea of something else you might be willing to swap, please get in touch with us asap: phone: +64 276 354 901 comment on this blog post message us on our  facebook  page Here's a pic of the projector screen that comes with this system Thanks! :)

We've been in the new place for 2 1/2 weeks now and we've been in stealth mode. One reason is because this is the first chance I've had with no interruptions to sit and use the computer. The other is to do with outside showers and peeping toms! We've been up late making the place liveable, kept up at night with an unsettled baby and woken up early with an exuberant toddler (she has curtains now which helps a little bit). The minor dwelling has windows walls and a roof but is just a shell. We've got the baby cot in the bath room which just has a shower tray in it, and the toddler bed in one bedroom and ours in the other.  Every day has had a new drama. And a new luxury; the Thursday night that we moved in we had an extension cord from the big house to plug in a lamp. The next day, we had a power point and light switch in each room and a makeshift sink with running water in the main house kitchen. The next day, a Saturday, we were able to move the fridge int

At a social gathering someone was having a whinge about various conspiracy theory governmental issues turning the world to custard. It wore me down over about an hour or so and I finally asked "well what's the answer to this problem, you're clearly upset about it, what are you going to do about it?" The person most likely had no idea, and they turned the question on me. So I replied that I thought permaculture was the answer. And they agreed and that was the end of the conversation, and the whinge. Thank God almighty! Natural and pure is definitely a big trend in food circles these days. Having run a food manufacturing business myself, I'm very aware of what the bigger companies get away with when it comes to food additives. It made me realise the only thing that's 100% trustworthy is food you've grown yourself. Then I stumbled across "permaculture" and completed a certificate in permaculture design. Essentially this word refers to harness