Off The Grid

magic mangoes, going bananas

2010-01-23T02:23:00.000-08:00

Yes that right...magic mangoes! As soon as the platter of mangoes is cleared, more are ripe. So far I've harvested 90+....and we've already eaten about 60, this can't be normal. Verging on excessive, but wait, the bananas I harvested on Christmas eve, are ripening...about 125+ on the one rack! We're making mango and banana sorbet, smoothies, fruit salad with the addition on Native Australian finger limes and mint. Tomorrow I'm making the traditional family Banana Bread (although I think it's safe to say we the first in the family to use homegrown bananas). Bananas go well with cereal of course, and they're just great on the go..the mangoes make it out to the beach, yum! OK, the list goes on!!
Out the front of the house there must be 50 tamarillos hanging on the trees, I'm still looking for ways to use them, other then just eating them fresh. The lemon tree has little lemons growing...and there's a couple blood oranges this year too. All of the citrus are OK, but not thriving currently. Guavas are forming on the tree, although I'm having a hard time getting rid of the scale infestation. Our mulberry tree seemed to want to fruit for much longer than the other local trees, maybe it has to do with being above the frost line. Looks like the passionfruit is about to start flowering/fruiting again :) I love watching the progress...and seeing my family enjoy the fruit! The little one thinks once theres only a couple left, Mom can just pick some more...and it's true; there's still another 60+ on the trees! It's amazing how a 5 year old tree can fruit with such intensity (there's 10 trees..they didn't all grow on one tree)

walking in the rainforest

2009-08-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

sunrise above the cloud

2009-08-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

Solar array

2009-07-25T16:57:00.001-07:00

We have 8 solar panels up at our old shed house. They are 123watts each, which is about the same as having 13 80watt panels. The batteries and inverter are up at the shed house too, as is the 4 thousand gallon rain water tank. We usually have all the power we need, except in the winter when the sun hours are decreased. Recently we had to buy a second hand 5kva generator to help us, and the batteries through the extended overcast weather.
Once we finished stage 1 of the new house, we trenched the power and water lines down here. It works well, now both houses have power and water. Gravity feed the water down here, but the shed house uses a solar powered pump. We're thinking about getting another water tank, the gardens would greatly benefit, plus in bushfire season we need the extra water.

Kangaroo on the driveway

2009-07-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

This guy came visiting four days in a row; the guavas we're too good to pass up.

sunrise and the afternoon

2009-07-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

On mornings like this, it feels like we're floating over the clouds. The mist looks like the sea with headlands and little islands poking out.

River standing in the morning light, he's almost always awake before the first rays.

Mist down in the valley

This is the front of the house, and the verandah. The kitchen is to the right, the livingroom is inside the large glass doors, and the bedroom are in the northeast and east to take advantage of rising with the sun.
The profile as seen from the north west side. In the winter the suns rays stream in through the windows all along the top (clerestory) windows, warm the pavers on the verandah floor, and shine through the doors and windows. The bedrooms are all on the north face, and act as solar heat collectors. The last light of the day comes in through the side kitchen window, and fall across the livingroom. In the summer it's the opposite. At the height of summer the strong rays don't come in through the top, and they stop at the start of the pavers, so the verandah stays nice and shady. I'm growing more banana plants to block the hot eastern morning sun, that hits the kids rooms and heats the house. The concrete slab and walls hold the cool temperature of the earth and nighttime air. On really hot days, we open the whole house up at night, and the shut down some of the windows to keep out the hot wind. Then we take off down to the rainforested creek to cool off.
We still need to finish the rendering, the other side of the house and half of the front is still just the block work.

We finished the bathroom a couple months ago, but it still feels new! Many of the materials are secondhand. The floorboards are salvaged old growth timber, they needed a lot of work to come up nicely. The french doors we're given to us by a friend, and the sink vanity is recycled. David built the whole bathroom, I sanded back the doors and painted them, we both worked on the floorboards, and I tiled the whole inside. It looks kinda flash, but it really didn't cost much to build.

Sourdough, Sweet Delights

2009-07-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Learning to make sourdough bread has been an amazing journey. I've given myself time to learn, and it's really paid off. At first, there were many failures, of all sorts, but I kept experimenting....it took many loaves. The crust is thin and crisp, the inside is soft and yummy. This batch is from this morning, 1 loaf stoneground wholemeal/unbleached white/pharoh's flour, and 2 smaller loaves of raisin, date, and cinnamon sourdough - using the same flour combo. Everyone (except me) awoke to the smell of hot fruit bread. I'm trying to make all of our own bread, still working out how much that is......when it's hot, it's devoured!

Misty Morning

2009-07-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

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The other day I awoke to this amazing natural show. From the kitchen counter we enjoyed watching the mist rise as we ate breakfast.

the new compost toilet

2009-07-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

So here it is, the new compost toilet! It's built off the hill in order to get the drop; otherwise you have to go up a flight of stairs. It's the nature loo model, although we made some small cost saving amendments. The floorboards, and structural wood is reclaimed, as is the roof. There is a solar powered (of course) extraction fan. Soon we'll add a door and a light, possibly a small sink....the bathroom sinks just a stones throw away.

funky glass details

2009-06-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

Production style glass

2009-06-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

Luniverre

2009-06-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

Following the Flame moving to Paris, we were invited to have an exhibition there. These are some of the pieces that went over for the exhibition. I was pregnant with River when we made these pieces!

Flame

2009-06-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

My husband David made this glass sculpture and called it flame. It was bought and taken to Paris, where it is on permanent display in a gallery called Luniverre. The gallery is across the street from the Picasso museum in the center of the city. There is a white neon light going up through the center, so it lights up and slightly flickers.

Rainbow in valley

2009-06-05T18:07:00.001-07:00

River in the front yard

2009-06-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

Glass Studio

2009-06-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is the view from our glass blowing studio, its at the foot of Mt. Warning.

Sunset cloud behind The Sisters

2009-06-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

Goanna

2009-06-05T17:53:00.001-07:00

This guy was hanging out down at the beach.

Local birds

2009-06-05T17:47:00.001-07:00

A pair of rainbow lorikeets making a nest. And a gathering of black and sulpher cockatoos up in a dead iron bark tree

looking out the kitchen window, I spy bananas!!

2009-06-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Looking out from the kitchen window, I spy bananas.

tree tomatoes aka tamarillo

2009-06-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tamarillos growing in the front yard, yum.

Banana harvest

2009-06-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

We cut our first rack of bananas down recently. Next year I plan to let them grow longer, as I think they were a bit small. I figured, get them before the fruit bats do!