House Update

It's been a while since I have contributed and lots has been happening on the house project:

here is a brief overview, I will go through each point in more detail in seperate posts, and I will endevour to register more regular posts to keep you upto date on the particulars of the construction project as it unfolds.

developments thus far:
(0) Tireless quest of OB financing and decision to go with Intellichoice
(1) Finding tradies and Obtaining constuction quotes
(1) 34,000 Litre Water Tank Installed
(2) Thermal Mass, North Facing wicking gardens installed around perimeter of tank
(3) Gravel Drive Way
(4) Building Permit issued

It's been a full on process, I will describe each development in detail in futher posts.

Aj

Sustainability Festival

Cowes Sustainability Festival was successful,

we presented a thingo on transition towns, 5 attendees, thankyou to those people!,

thankfully the stall was more of a success and it was a great day of networking and partenership building all in the name of rebuilding a carbon free future.

Good times had by all!

Southern Cross Permaculture Visit

Visited Rick and Naomi's place today,

it's always great to checkout the property and what they have achieved,

We got some great tips on wicking garden bed design, discussed the yr 9 environment center options for permaculture type development and had a mini tour of the site.

A good link was Balnaring Primary School (http://www.balnarringps.vic.edu.au/) which is a Carbon Neutral School and has won all sorts of Sustainability Awards.

Rick has identified Phillip Island as being a good target for Transition because it is a defined land area and has quite a proactive community.

Rick is going OS to Mongolia next week to work on some permaculture aid projects and then back again in August. We will be charting his progress via a blog

On his return we will follow up by arranging for him to visit the Yr 9 center to deliver a talk and to help us out with some design work on the site. He will also be able to assist us with obtaining fruit trees to stock out urban permaculture orchid.

here are some shots of his polytunnel and wicking garden bed designs.

Notice the Tomatoes, still around!

Leesh Holding a Babaco - excellent Juice!

IBIS GARDEN PROJECT

Just back from IBIS,

After a poor response to my proposal for a integrated kitchen garden I have pulled the pin on trying to integrate this and will now focus on developing permaculture elements within the backyards of the surrounding staff houses.

The two elements we'll start with is a herb spiral and a mandala / wicking garden bed design,

stay tuned for more details.

The IBIS GARDEN PROPOSAL it is in the format of a SWOT analysis which I think works well (Stengths, Weaknesses, Opportunites, Threats)

PERMABLITZ THE WORLD - AJ

IBIS Projects

Here's a slide show of some photos detailing a couple of the projects we have launched at Ibis to promote the production and growing of local organic food

Matt and I have made use of the eclectic array of bits and bobs lying around the campus (being good permaculturalists) and through a couple of permablitzes and weekend work blitzes we have managed to create a fairly decent system incorporating:

- A sizzling hot compost

- A bread Crate Worm farm (Industrial size!)

- An experimental tub compost system (doesn't work!)

- A garden raised garden bed system

We still have way too much food scraps to handle at the moment but we should be upping the ante massively on the hot composts.

We will also mix in wood chips with the scraps as we go, preventing a nitrogen overdose that

creates stench and gaseous toxic sludge which makes poo smell good!, and giving us a nicer product that we can work into larger compost systems.

Our long term view is to build a nice working herb Spiral and a mandala garden design, a couple of classic permaculture design solutions which will provide great demonstration sites for our darling school students!!!;

enjoy the slides:

Transition Phillip Island

Alycia and Nia, ran an inspirational Transition talk today at a Phillip Island Climate Change Day.

The response was very positive with four groups brainstorming strategies for how we can begin moving towards Carbon Positive Life Styles.

About 6 people signed up and they were keen to learn more which is fantastic to have new recruits on board to assist us in 'Transitioning'.

Jeff was also visiting form melbs, a permaculture friend, was up with his family for the weekend, they were given the customary tour of the mostly empty block and defiantly keen to pitch in and help out when the fun stuff begins.

All up another great day for the work of transition and permaculture in general.

Our Straw Bale House

Here are our preliminary designs for our straw bale house.

In order to maintain thermal efficiency we have gone for the 'curled cat' design.

We have a north / South block so our large windows are facing north with eaves, designed to draw in winter sun and block our summer sun, we plan have the capacity to store about 40,000 litres

of water, recycle grey water and black water using a Biolytix system for use on a fruit orchard, heat and cook using a wood combustion Rayburn stove which will also provide hot water.

New Solar innovations are coming out from RMIT next year and when this happens we plan to install a 2kw Solar system which is about enough to provide for approx 5 - 7 kw of energy for the house per day.

In this way we are planning to operate a house that produces more food, energy and water than it consumes and can largely recycle it's own waste.