Planters

 Finished the planter boxes for the area under the east facade.

Lay sheets of 4mm steel on the bearers. And left it unsealed to rust.

Then I made boxes out of ply and coated them with a rubber membrane to protect them. They sit on a thin layer of gravel and have triangular cutouts along the base to facilitate water drainage. 

The bottom third of the boxes were filled with largish rocks, then a layer of gravel on top to the halfway mark. The gravel will have water permeable textile on top before soil is added. 

Im planning on having native swamp foxtail grass in the planters but need to wait until spring to plant the seeds.

Mushroom time again and there's been so many huge ones I cant cook enough of them! One weighed in at half a kilo and I was able to make mushroom 'steaks' from the cap!

Solar connection

Solar  panels and battery have at last been installed! The house hasn't been wired yet but I've connected an extension cord through the ceiling from the electrical shed into the house, so can at last boil the kettle etc. 

I've ordered a new microwave and when it arrives on Tuesday I'll bring my 9 yr old one out to the house so during the approaching winter I can make some hot snacks.

If anyone is wondering why this build is taking so long - I calculated my income over the past 7 years since I went back to casual teaching (because my bank balance dropped below $4,000!) has averaged $36,500 a year before tax. 

Out of that I am renting a flat in the nearest town, building this house AND managed to take 3 overseas trips totalling more than 10 weeks! 

So, at the very least, I'm bloody good at economic management 😆

I've also fixed the water run off at the driveway gate which was causing deep ruts to form. 2 tonnes of road base filled the channels.

The 4.5 gate was beginning to drop and drag on the ground when closing the last metre, so a wheel and a buried off cut of steel PFC beam - problem solved!

Currently I'm digging another channel from the solar cable trench down to the water tank to lay an electric cable for the future electric water pump. Then I can backfill the trench.