Hello from mid north South Australia

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by pinefamily, Feb 1, 2017.

  1. pinefamily

    pinefamily New Member

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    Hello,,
    I've been reading quite a bit on this site, and thought it was time to join in. My wife and I believe in living sustainably, and having moved to our new home late last year, we thought it was time to put it into practice.
    We live on a quarter acre in a small town in mid north South Australia, in an old stone cottage. So since moving here we've been busy renovating, as it has needed a bit of TLC. The yard was best described as a blank canvas, a few trees, and grass and weeds. So we have already planted citrus trees, and set up raised garden beds for vegetables. With 10,000 gallons of rainwater, we have tried to keep to this for watering. I now have 2 compost tumblers, and am in the process of setting up a chook yard.
    Looking forward to learning as much as I can from this site.
     
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  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Greetings Pinefamily and welcome,
    Congratulations on your new home. A stone cottage! Would love to see some photos of that. Are you able to replenish 10,000 gallons of rainwater from your roof on a yearly basis? Would this mean you have a dry season and a wet season? (sorry I'm not familiar with the area)
     
  3. pinefamily

    pinefamily New Member

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    Thanks for the welcome. We'll have to wait and see with the rainwater. I have already put in a smaller tank to catch rainwater from the verandah. There are still two more downpipes that don't run into tanks as well. And I intend to put another tank when my new shed goes up, so between them all hopefully we can catch enough rain. The neighbours tell me that we have had an unusually wet year, and I'm not sure how much the previous owner used the rainwater.
    We have hot summers, probably a little dryer than a Mediterranean climate, and I'm told the winters are cold, with only the occasional frost.
    This a photo of our cottage when we bought it.
     

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  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    That is an awesome stone "cottage"! I must admit I was expecting something a bit more rustic (probably residual images from ancient stone dwellings I've seen in Europe).
    I'm always amazed at how quickly our cisterns fill, seemingly even faster than what I'd calculated from roof catchment/annual precipitation arithmetic!
     
  5. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    what a unique house! i hope it works out well for you. :)
     
  6. pinefamily

    pinefamily New Member

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    Thank you, Songbird.
    The cottage was built in 1873, one of the first in the area, and was extended at the back in the 1980's into a 3 bedroom house. Before that, I believe it was a 2 bedroom cottage with a lean-to kitchen and outdoor toilet.
    The beauty of the property is the cottage sits on the corner of it, so we have maximum use of land. As I said above, citrus trees are in, and stone fruit to follow shortly.
     
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