Thanks to Contributors

Well, 1 year later our conviction to create a more self reliant lifestyle has taken some slow and then some big steps forward. After an 9 month land negotiation, planning, a few council hurdles, too many lawyers and nearly walking away from it all, we managed to purchase our land and got consent to relocate a house on (best Trade Me purchase ever!).

The focus of 2013 has been getting the earthworks complete and house and other infrastructure sorted. The house has been orientated for good north sun, is well insulated, has wet back fire and solar hot water installed and we have a Rotaloo composting toilet in action. Thanks to the work of Kama Burwell, we also have Taranaki's first mulch basin grey water system - low tech and low budget. The site has a bore which is pumped to a header tank up on the hill, so we only need a pressure pump for the shower and we have water when we have no mains power. The garage has been orientated as for future PV panel installation, if we get there. The chicken coop and green house kitsets are in the garage for later construction, along with fencing materials for grape, berry and kiwi fruit fencing.

So, after wearing myself a wee bit ragged to get to this stage before our second child is due (3.5 weeks!) its time for one last pre-baby effort to get the forest garden main plantings in. The area has had 3 silage covers over it for a couple of months to get the grass under control, and the troops have been called in for an early winter planting day. I look forward to being in this position in another years time, to look back and see what we have achieved.