12th July 2008
Been a bit slack keeping this blog up to date although Colin has been out of the country bird-watching in PNG! Since our last post we have been out to the land on several occasions. We have been continuing to dismantle the shack and also doing some good work clearing out and impoving the channels that flow into our huge dam. This weekend just gone we put in a couple of culvert pipes as the channel was obstructed by tracks so this should increase the catchment area of the dam significantly. Now we just need it to rain!!
We also have our structural and footing drawings completed and Colin has nearly finished the architectural drawings so we should be nearly ready to put in our building permit application. We have also been getting quotes for a shed so we will have somewhere secure to store materials and tools plus have somewhere to shelter when it rains.
We'll be back out on Sunday this coming weekend but probably won't get too much done as it is Talbot Farmer's Market Day. We'll be eating yummy bacon and fresh veggies most of the next week..... ____________________________________________________________________________

4th/5th May 2008
Out for more demolitions and we stayed a cold night in the tent! The house is nearly gone now. We took the glass out of the big windows and then took the frames down. We also took down the big beam that was formerly sort of holding the whole place up. Halfway through the day we got a visitation from soe smartly-dressed gentlemen in a new landcruiser. At first I thought it was the council coming to check on our progress but it turned out to be bloody jehovah's Witnesses. These people are crazy! Would you drive 3km on dirt roads and up a drive marked "private property" with a sheep's skull on the gate! One can only imagine what would happen if they stumpled onto someone's hash plantation or crystal-meth lab! Nobody takes much notice of gun-shots in the country!
On Sunday we worked early for 3hrs then headed into Clunes for the "Booktown" event before heading home listening to the mighty Western Bulldogs winning at the once-impenetrable SCG - Go Doggies!!!! ____________________________________________________________________________

25th April 2008
We headed out on Anzac Day for another day-trip. Once again we managed to get a lot of demolishing done and Alex also cleared up quite a lot of the rubble from our earlier exploits. We are getting close to completion of the demolition phase now. We also met up with the Structural Engineer earlier this week and are now reviewing the initial draft drawings that they have put together for the footings and frame.
We also managed to meet our nearest neighbours. They are a few hundred metres away on the same road. We saw someone on a tractor on their land as we passed in the car so stopped for a chat. They invited us over for a drink later and we had a great time. They've got 3 lovely dogs. Good job we'd left our crazy 2 at home. No doubt they'll meet sometime.... ____________________________________________________________________________

13th April 2008
Sorry folks. We've been busy actually doing work out at the land and have been a bit slack in keeping this site up to date! We have really been cracking into the dismantling and would now be at least 2/3 of the way through. It is back-breaking work but strangely satisfying. We also have the structural engineer working with our drawings designing the footings and frame for the house so things really are moving on. We have uploaded some more photos to the house construction and flora and fauna galleries. ____________________________________________________________________________

5/6th January 2008
We headed out on Saturday evening and spent the night before attacking some de-construction on Sunday morning before it got too hot. The old "upper-storey" is now gone and this section of the weekender will not be standing for very much longer. We are mostly dismantling carefully so we can re-use as many materials as possible. The mud- bricks used in this part, however, crumble to dust so will not be salvagable. ____________________________________________________________________________

16th December 2007
Took a drive out to the land to show Alex's Dad and Ann around. They really loved it out there. We did a bit of tidying up but no real hard labour!! ____________________________________________________________________________

6th November 2007
We took a drive out to the land on Melbourne Cup Day. No big plans - just relaxing and wildlfe watching. Colin recorded 8 new bird species and he also saw the first snake we have encountered on the land - an Eastern Brown (just the 2nd most venomous snake in the world!!). He managed a few photos of the wildlfe although not the snake which was fortunately scared of him and slithered off rapidly under a nearby log. We also saw two Stump-tailed Skinks (Shinglebacks) in the area around the house. ____________________________________________________________________________

25th September 2007
After a false start on the previous day we got our worm farm toilet installed by A&A Worm Farms. There is no house yet so we had to carefully mark where the tank needed to go. It was all installed to our markings and will be very convenient to have during the construction phase. ____________________________________________________________________________

4th August 2007
We went for a day trip to the land today to meet up with some new friends. We met Mike and Louise a couple of weeks ago through a mutual friend and found that they are looking for a block in the country. We told them about our land so they decided to check out some proprties in the area. They even found somewhere they loved so maybe we'll acquire some new neighours! We spent most of the day tidying up and doing some work on some of the existing "structures". ____________________________________________________________________________

28th July 2007
We headed out to the land to have a soil test conducted by Steve from Ballarat Soil Testing. Good news - soil is M-class clay 100-200mm below the surface which is ideal to build on. Great service - report received by e-mail next day! ____________________________________________________________________________

18th July 2007
This was a real red letter day! We received notification that our planning permit has been granted. Very exciting but also very scary as this blows away most of our procrastination excuses! ____________________________________________________________________________

9th July 2007
Colin met with Miles from Land for Wildlife to discuss getting our land registered with this scheme. He loved the land, provided loads of great information and we're fully signed up. ____________________________________________________________________________

25th June 2007
We sent off our third submission of information relating to our planning permit application. This was a refinement of the native vegetation following on from our DSE discussions. ____________________________________________________________________________

16th June 2007
We took a trip to the land to put together the information requested by the DSE. We marked out a large string grid on the ground of 5m squares and then paint-marked the footprint of our house plan. We then marked a 10m buffer around the house - any vegetation within this will be removed to provide a fire-break. ____________________________________________________________________________

8th June 2007
Colin met with Peter Woods from the DSE and had a very constructive discussion regarding removal of native vegetation. Clear guidance was provided on the information that the DSE require to base their decision on. ____________________________________________________________________________

4th May 2007
We sent off our second submission of information relating to our planning permit application. This was our second try at a native vegetation plan plus some additional information relating to waste disposal. ____________________________________________________________________________

20th April 2007
Received the response from the council to our planning application. More information required.... ____________________________________________________________________________

5th March 2007
After a lot of investigating and work we finally sent off our planning application today.