Off grid. Living with solar and bottled gas.

The sun has shone all week. So we have not needed the generator to top the batteries up. I have made a concerted effort to manage the household tasks within the power options. That means bottled gas or the batteries for power, and of course, the sun and wind to dry clothes. Not that it matters if we run the generator as it is very economical but I have sort of set myself a challenge to manage without it. The gas runs the caravan three-way fridge, water heater, BBQ and burners and the solar manages appliances.
I’m sure I have told you that I am not an open fire lover, and anyway this is fire ban time, so wood fire cooking is out.
As an aside we were very saddened by the news of the fires in SA this week. We know the affected areas well since we lived outside Freeling for many years and our kids played sport at Hamley Bridge on weekends. As it happens the shed on our old house site was burnt down during the crisis. Wow!  Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost so much, not the least being the sense of security that home is supposed to give.
Back to the off grid challenge.
So I have been trying to crack bread baking in the BBQ. Our BBQ does not have a lot of clearance under its lid so I have to watch how high the dough rises in case it hits the top.  The other challenge is the amount of heat coming from the flame under the BBQ plate. I have been cooking cob loaves in a pie plate with five layers of folded aluminium foil in its base. I place the tin on two small pizza trays and put the whole lot on a low rack to keep a space between the BBQ plate and the base of the loaf. The loaf is a bit black on the bottom still but the bread is really  nice.

I finally found a 1lb tin that has a really heavy base and not too high sides so today’s bread looks very professional. Still cooked on the rack and two pizza tins the bottom of the loaf is brown but not burnt. The sides are crisp as well. Looks like the loaves on the suppliers web site.

It helps that I have found the correct place to aim for on our temperature gauge that K drilled a hole in the BBQ lid to install. 180 degrees at the BBQ lid for an hour produce this loaf today.( I did scones in it last weekend and it does all our roast and meat cooking.)  K was doing important things outside while the bread cooked.

The 12v 2000w inverter runs useful appliances including the our beloved coffee machine. With the power flooding in from the solar panels, as long as I don’t exceed the inverter’s capacity and I don’t run appliances too long and drag the batteries below save charge levels,  I can pretty much do any task. The trick is to do things that draw larger amounts of  juice while the sun makes the power during the day and to choose appliances that are low in power requirements. Electric kettles and toasters are generator only appliance and I don’t use them. But my stick mixer works quite nicely. At night the batteries handle lights, charge phones, run the camp fridge freezer, run the DVD player and TV and stretch to a coffee or two. Occasionally on a grey morning I might have to boil water and make plunger coffee if the batteries are low.
Today I washed in the twin tub, made coffee, ran the microwave to cook eggs for K and cooked these cake pops in a cheap cake pop machine. Apparently grandmas are supposed to have “something special for me to eat” when granddaughters come to visit. I hope she likes these little wonders. Five minutes in the appliance for 6 little cake balls.  I used a microwave cake in a mug recipe because a full cake mix would do about 30 balls. Six at a time I think I might have lost concentration well before the end.
I think this might become a grandma and granddaughter activity.

On a completely different subject, I finally finished my 12ply knitted afghan. Now all it needs is a home. This pattern is a favourite of mine. It starts from a rectangle in the middle and with clever casting on and off grows outwards. Mind you the 12ply yarn is hard on my wrists so I might stick with 8ply in future.

K is running new cables from the inverter today so I need to go and move some things out of a cupboard. I am anxious for this improvement to be finished ‘cos then I can leave the coffee machine on the bench instead of lifting it across to the inverter plug. Anything to make coffee more accessible I say.
Feeling quite self satisfied.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move.

A working day. Lamb marking and baby sitting

Lots of activity on the farm…….Two days of lamb marking. The lambs get vaccinated, drenched and have rings on their tails. The males get fixed as well. K catches and lifts the lambs.  Our daughter and son-in-law do the doctoring.

Our three year old granddaughter is very involved. She climbs into the pen and tells Poppy which one to catch next. The lambs move as far away from the threatening two legged ones as possible and pack up in the corners of the pen climbing on top of each other. Granddaughter’s job is walk around  using hip and shoulder and  “shushing the sheep”. Pretty cute and very effective. She moves the ewes around in the holding pen as well, looking for her favourite black “mum”. I didn't get a video of her doing this yesterday, but here she is moving the sheep at shearing last summer.

The sheep dogs are supposed to stay in the trailer. They do this for hours, well until joined by a three year old distraction.  She loves the dogs, climbs in and out of the trailer and gets lots of cuddles.

I am on grandkid duty. I get to cuddle a restless grandson while his mother drenches and inoculates lambs. Its a good thing the baby is little and easy to carry because his sister is very mobile and while she is very happy to help daddy with the sheep, she moves like and Olympic sprinter and can be outside the shed and on to some other activity while you blink. I got told to get a chair at one point and “sit there grandma with mummy’s baby”. She wants to run her cars down the ramp and wash them in the water trough.
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The work goes on until sunset, then  we pack up and have a cuppa and go to our respective homes.

At the Fergs residence the supper of choice is lamb curry, made with the left overs of the roast from earlier in the week. (Some of the crossbred lambs look like they might make good roast next year by the way)


Life is good
Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Night time activity. The local residents.

It is peaceful here in the evenings. Even more so than we are used too. Usually no road noises and the only lights are the ones we have put in ourselves. On a clear night the stars are very bright. (This we are used to. Starry nights in the NT are spectacular.)


But just because it is night does not mean everything is asleep.
Driving home last night from town in the dark we encountered a couple of ‘roos and wallabies. They are very dark coloured and bulky as opposed to our  lighter coloured and slimmer built wallabies in Mataranka. I captured this very short video of one of the kangaroos bounding down the road ahead of us. We were doing 35 km/hr and it was racing ahead, kicking up dust. It ran ahead of us long enough for me to grab my phone set it to video and then grab this.

A few minutes later a very dark wallaby shot across the road in front of us and cleared off into the nearby paddock in about three bounds. There is a wombat that crosses the road about 10pm as we drive home. He is chunky. Hitting one of them would be like running over a boulder. There are feral  cats and baby foxes here as well. And rabbits in the blackberry bushes behind the caravan.
We see  echidnas as well. I  haven’t managed to get a night photo of one but earlier in the week we got this photo of an echidna crossing the road. We pulled up next to him for a photo. Apparently if the echidnas are on the move then rain is on the way, None so far but you never know. Again the echidna was darker quilled than the ones I have seen in the NT.

At night the sheep wander up this end of the paddock to visit. So we hear the lambs and ewes calling each other in the early hours. Sometimes the horse comes to check us out as well. Now that we have the dog close to the van we know when the rabbits and foxes are close. She’s not fond of them.
Birds start up as the sun rises.
So …. as I said peaceful if not empty evenings and nights.

Life is good

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move.

A farm type weekend

On Saturday K and his son in law oiled the new deck off the shearing shed. I was on baby duty. Mother and daughter supervised.

The shearing shed has become the social hub for visitors and family.

 

 

 

Parties, barbeques, picnics and of course sheep work happen here.

 

The deck is for loading bales of wool into trucks. The original deck and ramp weren't safe and were retired last season. Friends and family built the new structure recently. The generosity of people is wonderful.


Mr Fix It has spent the last week making the rails to go around it. They slot into wood stirrups and lift off to move bails out. The rest of the time they keep us safe.




We had planned to have bubbly on the deck to celebrate, but there was a cold wind so we adjourned to the caravan for roast dinner instead. This particular leg of lamb was very well travelled. Bred and fattened in Crookwell, frozen and transported to Mataranka,  brought back to Crookwell to share.  I wonder if the lambs smelling the wonderful aroma of roast realised what their fate is next year.  Bit unfair to cook in their paddock.

The other first of the day was our baby grandson's first visit to the farm, which hopefully will be his home soon. First sleep on grandma's bed too.



We have reacquired a dog. She comes up the hill to live with us when we visit. It was quite gratifying that she seemed to know what was going on and be very happy to live with us again. Mind you that might be because she remembered exactly where her ball is kept. She is ball obsessed and will exhaust herself chasing one.
She sat next to my chair this morning for an hour quite happily. Or should I say next to where the ball is hidden.


Anyway it is nice to be pet borrowers for a while.


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move



  

Hot water is much better. Or what ever happened to quality spare parts.

Today, after a couple of days on the farm, during which the family have come out from town to do farm things, we embarked on an expedition into Goulburn for serious food shopping, children and adults all.

To fortify the grandparents for this effort I cooked breakfast and while Mr Fix It had a lay in. While organising breakfast I flicked  the gas water heater on. Out of the goodness of my heart I let K lounge a bit longer and slid into the shower.

"Can you check the water heater," I uttered past chattering teeth a couple of seconds later.
"Did you turn it on?"
"Yes of course. I wouldn't be in here otherwise."

Mr Fix It clambered out of bed and into the front boot, to find the problem. Turns out that the relatively new gas tap that switches between the two gas bottles is faulty. No gas flowing out of either side of the tap this morning. Disaster. No hot water is bad enough. But the main fridge is on gas.





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 I  struggled back into my jammies, vacated the van and went out and threw a ball for the dog who comes up from the kennels to live with us each visit. Good way to warm up. 

Much muttering. Many trips in and out of the van as Mr Fix It rigged a single way tap. .A few trips to the back of the van to check the fridge pilot light and magically there was hot water.

You can be sure I checked the temperature before I ducked under this time.
Seriously I wonder what happened to quality in parts?  So many times the replacement part lasts less time than the original. Five years from the first tap. Twelve months from this one!



The rams enjoying the shade

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

The simple things.

Beautiful sunny but not too hot weather here this week. We are enjoying being with family, something we relish and has become part of our non-working touring time. A stint here in NSW, some time in Adelaide and some in Brisbane are treasured components of our life.

I was struck with how much joy can be gained from the simplest things this week.  Children especially can bring this fact home. Much joy comes from the funny faces the newest baby makes as well as the pride in his sister's voice when she announces to the world "this one's mummy's baby."
I enjoy watching our granddaughter who loves to be outside either in her own garden in town or even better at the farm.

She spends hours in her playhouse at home. In her garden she has a homemade seesaw and a swing slung from a tree branch. The seesaw is my daughter's "design"  (she gets ideas like her dad) and constructed by her brother-in-law and her husband out of a log or two and a couple of planks. Hours of fun, with an obliging adult balancing the seesaw or pushing the swing.  Yesterday she was leaning on the swing seat and twisting the chains to give herself a "whizzy" and laughing at how clever she was.

You don't have to spend a fortune to please a child. K bought his granddaughter some solar lights. A couple of butterflies and a peacock. She loves them. The previous lot of butterfly lights were carried everywhere and finally gave up so these are just perfect.

Sometimes the simple things are free.
Out at the farm the blackberries are flowering behind the caravan.  We are here earlier than normal this year so this is the first time I have seen the bushes flowering. Other visits have been at ripening time so we can pick the berries as they are ready. One of life's yummy simple pleasures.

The solar panels are silently creating power for us. K gets a kick out of watching the amount of  power coming in. He is especially chuffed by the fact that the older, smaller panels that were manufactured in 1987 still work at peak efficiency.

There is plenty enough power to charge batteries and run the twin tub for today's wash. I get a bit of exercise bucketing the spin water back in each load.  (This is a good thing.)

The chooks are laying eggs and eating our veggie scraps. One of life's simple miracles, even if I don't eat eggs. Ok I just don't eat anything that has eggs in it that I can taste.These ones are going into town for their owner, our daughter, to use.

 

 

 

 

By the way, in case you thought Mr Fix It was doing nothing, here is a picture of the backup power shed rigged out of an old plastic table lent by our sun-in-law, a tarp and some tent pegs. The generator runs when there is inclement weather so rain protection is important. 

 

 

 

He has been making leads for power things, getting sand out of the DVD player our granddaughter took into her playhouse and propped up in the sand pit, testing and recharging all the batteries for the power tools and hammering something down in the shed.

Popping in to town now for some family time.

Simple life. Good life

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move



Travel memories. Dust and storm Ouback NSW

The relatively gentle rain and glistening green grass and trees here in the Southern Tablelands of NSW still feel a bit  strange after a season in the NT. My eyes are used to stronger greens and very red soils. We got talking about storms here and other places today. We have to be sure to have the annex tied down against wind and rain.  One memorable time we left the annex up and came back after a storm to find the canopy ripped off the caravan. That was the  weekend the same storm took the roof of the cinema in Bathurst. K has considerably strengthened the annex structure since then. A topic for another blog maybe.

Looking through files I came across these photos of a storm we travelled through one trip across from SA to here. K decided to come via Broken Hill. Not a route of which  I am particularly fond, for some reason.

 

We ran ahead of this amazing dust storm for about an hour. It was just behind us and generating a strong head wind. The dust eventually over took us and we couldn't see anything but red.


Then suddenly wind changed to directly head on and the dust turned to mud, coming horizontally at us. Red rain hit the windscreen.

K slowed down and we followed the left hand white line trying to find a place to pull off.

Just as suddenly as the red rain started it stopped. The heavy drops of water had settled the dust and we were driving into heavy drops that thudded like hail onto the car.

A few minutes later the sun broke through.

Through all that I was just cowering  in the passenger seat. K on the other hand was having fun and had the presence of mind to grab the camera off the dashboard and get me to take some photos.

So glad the master driver was behind the wheel.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Travel Memories. Derby Corroboree

During one of our trips across the north of WA we managed to be in Derby on the weekend of a cultural festival. Everywhere we went in town people were urging us to go that evening. I think it cost us $5 to park the car and it was one of most interesting evening we have ever had.

The local artist had displays, the schools kids had displays of work and craft and there was  an enormous variety of food and music. We attended the night of the children’s corroboree. There were mostly kids dances as well as performances by some of the very elderly elders. The kids were dressed up and took their roles seriously. 

The little children had glow sticks that they put around their necks and then they ran all over the grounds and climbed the trees. After dark there were circles of light in every tree, moving constantly and the air rang with giggles. They chased each other through the crowd, and across the arena.

K found me a seat to watch the dancing and went to get me food. A very nice indigenous lady decided she was my friend and was really impressed with kind, polite, and helpful man.  She was very keen to take us back to her camp for the night and show him off to her sisters. I think if I had not hung on really hard I might have lost K.

I was not teaching in remote schools at the time so this was my first look at indigenous  culture. I have since attended a couple of festivals but this one stands out because it was so friendly.



Party time. Dancing to the band.

 

We had a great night.

Have to go back sometime.

 

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

 

 

 

 

Busy Rainy Morning

Today is Saturday. Before we came into town today I decided to tackle a few things.  Cooking being the main one. Outside of course since I am determined not to cook in the caravan, even if it is raining outside.

 

 

When it is wet the otherwise quite spacious annex is very crowded. K has every chair we own unpacked and set up just in case someone needs them and because is it raining his tools are under the annex too.  The washing I did yesterday with the saved shower water is hanging from the annex roof. Yes I know I could have taken it down the hill to the shearing shed and hung it up there. Granted it would probably be dry by now but I would have got soaked opening the gate on the way.

 

Anyway back to the tasks.... I decided to make lunch with the left over roast lamb from the freezer. So I dodged the washing to use the outside burners to make Italian Herbed potato, sweet potato and roast lamb  with salad. Yum

I have just about worked out how to use the BBQ to make our gluten free bread.  Proofing the bread is a problem when the car is colder than the caravan. Bread rises really well in a warm car. But I had to heat the BBQ up so I put the tin on top of the BBQ lid wrapped in a wet tea towel. It made a sort of steam bath and up came the loaf a treat.

Bread is not too bad. Need a few more goes to get it perfect. But it tastes pretty good, warm with butter and cheese.

As I finished the loaf K came up the hill with more eggs... The chickens are laying four every day.So instead of turning the BBQ off I made a very large crust less quiche. K will be having quiche and salad for lunch for a few days.

I haven't quite worked out why my daughter has chooks. She, like her mother, does not like the taste of eggs. So while she is away doing the baby thing I have taken over her job of trying to work out what to do with  a superfluity of eggs.


Heading off to town get the house ready for the family (and new baby)  And upload a blog or two since the gods of the internet will let a SMS through at 3.30 am but will not let the signal stay on long enough to upload a blog with photos.


Cheers  Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Gentle days

A routine has developed here on the farm.


Breakfast sometime after sunrise, which thankfully is not as early here as in Mataranka since there is a 1 1/2 hour tine difference due to daylight saving. Check the water bucket under the shower and top up the toilet flush tank, or dump it in the twin tub for clothes washing.
K checks the power situation before making coffee in the pod machine if the sun has already started charging the batteries or in the plunger if it is still overcast.


Wander outside and contemplate the view. Be it raining, misty or sunny the view is pretty good.

Visitors at breakfast time

At the moment and probably for the next few days there is water in the buckets that we have placed to catch water runoff. Got twenty litres off the caravan roof yesterday and last night. Pumped through the filter that's one trip for water collection K doesn't have to do.

At sometime during the day the dogs, chickens and any other penned stock will get fed. K takes all 8 dogs for a run each day.

Two of the farm's dog contingent

 

Make bread, sort out food for dinner, try to use up some eggs, wash clothes, wander up to the gate to check the phone calls. Maybe go for a drive to one of the local towns we haven't visited yet.
We wandered over to Taralga one day, finding a café and drinking coffee watching the rain.

Will  get busier when the family get back from Sydney but .....

Mr Fix It and his new grandson.

Life is good.


Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Off the grid. Water

On the farm we are set up in off grid mode. That is we rely on LPG gas for the fridge and cooking, solar and generator for electricity. We have this all pretty much under control and can run and charge up most of the normal appliances everyone uses.

Water on the other hand is an issue. The family are still renting in town and planning to build their house here in the not too distant future. At present there in only an old rainwater tank on the shearing shed and that is for the stock … and the luxurious flushing toilet that a previous owner put in!  The water in the dams is not so attractive for people use.

 

So water has to be carried in every couple of days from town and transferred into the caravan tanks for washing and showers.  We have 180 litres so if we have lightning fast showers and save the dishes up for one or two big washes a day we can go four days before we run out. We have two 25 litre water containers that travel in the back of the Ute and every trip into town has include water collection. 

Once upon a time transferring the water was done by the old fashioned method of syphoning. Pipe with a weight on it into the containers, containers up on the ute tray and other end of tube into the tank. Worked well.

But  Mr Fix It was not content with that. Besides sometimes the water quality in some of the places we stay can be a bit dubious and he wanted to be able to filter if necessary. So this is the current solution.

In the black box is a water pump, exactly the same as the ones that are in most caravans today. (This one has spent a bit of time in the eldest son’s van one trip when his pump gave up)  The case is hung on the water heater by a hook.

A pipe goes into the water container and the pump pushes the water into the tank.

K has made a fitting that goes over the inlets so we don’t have to stuff a pipe into the tanks anymore. 


Water can be pumped through our filter as well, but this is town supply so we are not filtering it.

The pump is powered by the caravan batteries connected by an Anderson plug.  50 litres takes only a few minutes. Even I can do it.

We go into extreme water saving mode when camped off grid and so I have a 5 litre bucket sitting under the bathroom waste water outlet. One quick shower is about a bucket full and we recycle that either to fill the toilet flush tank or to use in the twin tub for clothes washing. I have to remember to go out and empty the bucket but it’s worth it to save K lifting more heavy water containers than necessary.  The kitchen grey water is run out to water the black berries or a garden when we have one.

Today I did the clothes in the twin tub with shower water and a  few extra  litres from the caravan tanks for rinsing. This is when the twin tub really comes into its own.

This kind of camping is a bit more work, but very satisfying. There’s something special about being reasonably independent.

Cheers Sue

 

A Ferg on the Move.