getting settled

Hi everyone,

It’s great to be here…and here is…Luffley’s Cafe, Murwillumbah. We are on our way to Byron for the evening to visit a friend, and we are taking this brief opportunity to re-connect with you all as we have absolutely no reception at the farm (and currently no computer either). It would be an understatement of mammoth proportions to say it has been a big couple of weeks. But we are pleased to report that the move is now complete, the cleaning at our old house finalised, and we are happily ensconced on the farm.

setting up base camp

There is so much to say and such a short time to say it, it is difficult to know what to include. We have done only a small amount of farming this week. Since arriving officially on Tuesday morning, we have been focused on getting everything organised at our new home…or should I call it our new ‘complex’. In fact we have 4 spaces we are managing, and we have named them all to make communications easier. The first is our caravan, which we are calling ‘The Shack’; the second space is our shipping container which we have dubbed ‘The Cellar’; the Kitchen (which is located up at the farm shed) which we have named ‘The Mess’ and our toilet/shower tent, which we are calling ‘The Outhouse’. Not sure whether these names will stick; they may be replaced as we settle in and find preferable nicknames for our multiple spaces.

where on earth is the magi-mix?

We had a beautiful first evening. The weather was outstanding. And after a quick walk up to the vege garden to pick some herbs and greens, we managed to prepare a fresh but simple meal in the caravan. Ahh, thank God for baked beans…with kale and fresh potato salad. Yum! Camp food always tastes better for some reason and it definitely feels like we are camping.

first meal at base camp

One of our greatest achievements since arriving is setting up our bathroom facilities. We needed something quick and so opted for a camp toilet set up. The gear from Oz Connections camping gear is fantastic and cleverly designed for Australian conditions. In the future we will build something more long term, the camping bathroom is a great immediate and low cost solution. We want to be as low impact as possible, so we have set up a compost toilet, and all our toiletries are bio-degradable. This morning Michelle set up a grey water system so that all our water from bathing, brushing teeth and washing up can be safely put back into the environment. Anyway, shall talk more about this later, but for now, here’s a photo of our set-up. It’s basic but it works. In fact the shower is really enjoyable, almost like going to a bathhouse!

a simple bucket and a kettle of hot water is all we are using to have showers

our compost toilet

In the future we will be composting all our ‘humanure’ but for now we will simply store it in these bins, covered in sawdust, which keeps it from smelling or attracting bugs.

Time to head off, so shall finish this post here. Just a quick one today. Enjoy your weekend.

Cheers

Michelle & Rachel.