Six months off grid. Water, water where's the water

I read caravan magazines and online forums when ever I can. A reoccurring theme of discussion between the free site-ers (caravan speak for off grid camping) is access to water.  Where to get potable water as we travel and ways to reduce usage.



Our caravan has 180 litre water tanks and if we are careful and have very fast caravan type showers  we can last 4 days before the water pump stops delivering. 

Our spot on the farm is a cracker. Views to die for. Sheltered from the worst of the wind. But..... No town water.



So  K has been lugging water containers back from town almost every trip. 2 by 25 litres at a time. I have gained new respect for how strong K is despite his light build. He heaves these 25kg containers up above the tailgate. One day I thought I would show my appreciation for my caravan hot shower by sneaking the containers into the ute and fetching water. All went well until I was ready to lift them back in the car. I couldn't get them up high enough. After a very frustrating 5 minutes I conceded defeat and completely rearranged the front and back passenger area and jammed one water container into the front passenger foot well and seat belted the other in place. Very careful driving back to camp.



The transfer into our tanks is handled by pump set up Mr Fix It put together from a caravan 12 volt pump, water pipe, hose fittings and washers. The pump is housed inside a plastic box and hangs off the water heater shroud next to the water inlet. The water is pumped through a filter first.



I really appreciate the water that comes out of my caravan taps and try to make it last. Short showers, wash dishes once or twice a day, resist the temptation to rinse everything and wipe dishes with paper towel first instead. We use shower water to  wash clothes  and the cold water that comes through before hot water makes it to the shower head is saved in a bucket sitting in the shower and goes to  fill the flush tank on the toilet.



Rain provokes a wonderful dance where we chuck a bucket under the best water drips off the annex and transfer it to the tanks and containers. This exercise is supposed to save K trips into town, but we get plenty of exercise running in and out.



My caravan twin tub is the best water saving thing. It does a wash in 15 litres plus a bit extra for rinsing. So two showers worth of water.



A great event happened in the water department this week. K put a rainwater tank on a shed and it rained.  We pumped water from the tank to the caravan for the first time.  Champagne moment.



Cheers Sue



A Ferg on the Move.

Six months off grid living.

The baby grandson is six months old now.... Hard to believe that we have been here that long. We trekked down from Mataranka in Northern NT at the beginning of November 2015 to mind the farm when baby was born and to be here in the first few weeks.

The family kindly let us set up on the farm  and due to a health issue of K's we are still here instead of in Brisbane as originally planned. It has been wonderful to be able to be a part of the baby's life....a privilege we have not ever had with the other grandkids because of distance.


We have ventured sans-caravan off to Adelaide and Sydney and Newcastle at various times but in the main this last 6 months has been a real life test of our caravan set up for off grid living.

So I thought I  might spend the next few blogs reflecting on the whole off grid  experience. We are very practiced at the small space living aspect of permanent caravan living, but in the past half  of our year has been with connection to electricity and water. Off grid or free site living has been as we travel and for much shorter times on the farm.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our spot on the farm, and are grateful to the family for allowing us to set up here.

So I will set myself to thinking about it all and get back to you.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Water, water. Or things we do to fill our tanks

It has been very dry here in Crookwell for some time now so on our second day back from Rathmines we were delighted to wake to rain. Good solid soaking wet stuff. Delighted because it was very close to necessary for K or his son-in-law get buckets of water out of the dam for the dogs and rams and also because the new water tank on the shearing shed was ready for use at last

Being  ever practical I was even more excited to be able to collect water off our caravan.

As you all know by now, our daughter and son-in-law are kindly allowing us to camp on their property. We are able to do this because we are relativity self contained in our set up.

We have a mini solar panel farm connected to our batteries. These and the gas bottles keep us going on all but the greyest days when we run the generator.

But water is truly the limiting factor. If you ask caravan owners how long they can stay off grid, the answer starts with power but always ends with water.  

So when it rained out came every bucket and tub strategically positioned under the key places where water runs off ... the back corner of the van, the two corners of the annex and along the shade cloth. We filled the caravan tanks with 160 litre of filtered rain water, we always pump through the filter, and still have 50 litres ready to pump in and another lot ready for clothes washing.


Just in case you have a picture in your minds of us sitting inside a warm caravan, sipping hot chocolate and delicately nibbling on choc chip hot cross buns...the only proper flavour in my opinion...let me paint you a picture. There's K in his swimmer shorts and a rain proof coat diving out into heavy rain every 10 minutes or so to transfer water from buckets to tubs and then pumping the whole lot into the van tank every 5 trips or so. Or me, when the rain slacked off shuffling buckets to get the best drip speed landing in the tubs.


We filled the caravan tanks with 160 litres of filtered rain water and still have 50 litres ready to pump in and another lot ready for clothes washing.
There is now the slightest hint of green on the paddocks. And there is water at the shearing shed too. A luxury we all enjoyed when the next lot of crutching was done on the weekend.

I had to include this shot of miss four year old stomping the wool down in the pack. She and her grandfather make good team. She directs. He does as he's told.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Finished projects and off home to the caravan

One more yarn stash project finished just in time to pack it in a bag and head back to the farm and our caravan home. I am very happy with this one. It is draped over Mum Fergs lounge chair in this photo. Might try to sell this one, if I can get my act together.

I am torn between longing to get into my own space and so sad to be leaving family and friends. However said family are in the bad books for giving us things to carry to both sets of grandkids. Lovely thought. So much for travelling light.

 

I have to keep fending off offers of useful bits of junk. Plaintive cries of "I live in a caravan you know," do not seem to fend off these "gifts".  

Early start tomorrow. Catch you all when we get home.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

Still contented. And a job for Mr Fix It

In my last blog I made the mistake of accusing my brother-in-law of leaving things for Mr Fix It to do when we visit. He replied on Facebook that Mum Ferg collects them ready for K. Maybe true. However what ever the truth is their vacuum cleaner arrived last night for a visit with K for a health inspection. Loose wires in the plug was the diagnosis. An over night stay and a new plug today.

I have a feeling I am the victim of this joke.

I navigated the road closures for the Tour Down Under to slip into my mother's place at Lyndoch yesterday. I appropriated her sewing machine to alter a dress. I don't carry my sewing machine with me in the caravan so major jobs get done when we are here. I dropped into the Gawler Bakery and grabbed a pasty plate for lunch. Mum kindly put away the cold meat plate she had prepared so we could indulge. When we lived in Freeling this was my go to cheats meal after a day of shopping. Nostalgia at its tastiest.

Mum's Great Dane spent the day dozing on his mat, the kitten did its best to steal my yarn and then likewise settled into her basket thingy.

The Adelaide area was our home for many, many years. I am always apprehensive when we come back that I will find myself longing for the "home place".   It hasn't happened so far, although the inevitable changes to roads and landmarks catch me in the heart at times. Being here is a bit like window shopping new caravans. I find myself intrigued by a familiar city but still content with my lifestyle.

I love my small space that wraps around me like a comfort rug. So good to have minimum cleaning. I love the quiet. City noise is disconcerting now. I have got used to the sociable nature of country people so the waves of humans who don't even look at you as they pass is "not nice".

Good to know I still love my life.   Miss the family but.... Given that they live in all corners of this country I guess I would always be missing someone. Starting to long for my caravan which has the incredible ability to be a home wherever it is parked.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Swelter one day, shiver the next

The next chapter in the story of our family get together on the farm involved an abrupt change of weather. Saturday and Sunday we were kicking the rams out from under their favourite shade tree. By Monday we were sheltering from the wind and rain.
The son-in-law the farmer has been hanging out for rain, as the grass has browned off quickly over the last week or so. The Queensland family members who were tenting would have been quite happy if the rain waited until they headed off on Wednesday.


What we got was very strong winds and fairly consistent drizzle, not all out rain, and, for NT and QLD dwellers, cold temperatures.


So late at night after we farm campers got back from town, Mr Fix It and his son were wrapping the grandsons' tent, a cheap 2 man job with the three boys sleeping in it, in two tarps. It looked like a silver envelope sat over a triangular prism. Very stylish! A dash of hundred mile an hour tape over a couple of warn spots on the old tarpaulin and no water would have dared to enter.

Silly me didn't get a photo.


It was still very cool and windy next morning so, before anyone ventured into the annex for breakfast, I sprang into action in my role as Mr Fix It's Mrs. You see the annex is dressed in its warm weather coat, that is shade cloth walls not canvas as the canvas version is in storage, and wind break was definitely in order. With a clothes line, clothes pegs, a couple of bungee cords, a tarp or two and lots of grunting later I created a protected corner around the burners and chairs. Pretty proud of myself. But once again silly me didn't get a photo, so you will just have to take my word for how brilliant it was.


We had toast, cereal, eggs and coffee accompanied by a kids video on the outside TV, while the wind blew and the rain fell. (Did get a photo of the outside TV set up... and here it is. )



K and I are very grateful for these few days of us all together and proud of the way the two mums managed  four young children and two babies between them,  packing food and running between the farm and the house in town, while the men did jobs together, entertained the children and cemented friendships.  True family time.


We have now packed some things into the car and headed to Newcastle for a week leaving the Crookwell lot to have family time without grandparents.


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

Down the hill.

A quiet couple of days here in Crookwell.

Grandparent time has been wonderful. Baby is four weeks old already and still very cute, as is his very bright big sister. (I really treasure the time we get with all our grandkids. Earlier this year while the youngest grandson was just a baby we spent  a  good long time in Brisbane with them. Really great memories)

Our little camp is well established, with four chairs and the outside TV in the annex and a shade area on the other side sheltering the fridge and providing a spot to sit in the mornings. K has gone crackers with the solar lights around the camp. Lots if "crickamas lights" to quote our granddaughter.

Under the caravan annex  life proceeds as normal. The BBQ is doing duty as an oven, producing bread and meals. The outside  TV is providing background noise for my knitting.  The dog is sitting at the door hoping someone will throw a ball. Washing  is  again dancing on the lines at the back of the van.  Mr Fix It has  addressed the non-working bits of  the twin tub, saving $145 by  repairing not buying a new one. He removed the spin timer which was cactus, so now I just open and shut the lid to turn on the spinner. The mechanism to empty the tub is now on a cord and hook out of the back of the tub...  She should work for another 12 months.

Sunny weather has the grass browning off quickly. The lambs are all out of the cute gangly stage but still play games together in big groups before baa-ing loudly and rushing off the grab a feed from their mothers.

The animals have a routine they seem to stick to. The horse has a route she follows each day, starting the morning up near us and then circling the paddock. If we drive in late at night she is usually in the middle of the driveway. K really set her off yesterday throwing an empty bottle for the dog to chase. The horse was obviously upset by his extreme breach of morning protocol and protested loudly before kicking up her heels in disgust and cantering off down to the dam much earlier than normal.  The rams spend the day under the tree near us, heading down to the dam to drink when the shade on their side of the fence is gone.

Now to the title of this blog.....down the hill.

I am very proud of myself. I drove the ute back down the hill following after the quad that inconveniently decided to pick up a stick in its tyre yesterday needed a repair done before is could be driven to the shed. K volunteered to fix it and drive the quad down and I followed him. Proper 4WDriving!
Ok K didn't think it was very hard, but it was down hill and across the back of the dam and I had to avoid sticks and not drop into the holes or  fall off into the dam. I have got used to dirt roads. But pointing the nose of the car down a hillside still gives me shivers. Beginner NT Schools 4WDriving course passed or not.

I haven't been to this part of the property before because normally it is a  quad drive,  so I took a picture back across the valley to the back of the shearing shed. Not a bad view.

 

Going well.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

 

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.

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.





Add caption

 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

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.

Darwin to Crookwell. Amusing and amazing

The recent dash from Darwin to Crookwell meant we didn't stop for sight seeing. In fact a lot of my photos were taken from inside the car. Well would you get out if it was either 38 degrees or there was lightening crashing down?

So the sky. Spectacular cloud formations, sunset as we hunted for a camp and smoke from the many fires.

Another sunset.



Smoke rising from fires behind Elliot township

Sun in the passenger window

Storm clouds just north of Pt Augusta. I couldn't
time it to get a shot of the lightening

Strange sights. A very unique tourist bus that is a cross between a sleeper car and a normal Greyhound bus. Boulders near the Devil's Marbles site. The strange alien at Wycliffe Well the UFO capital of Australia.

Devil's Marbles turn off is just ahead

Aliens at Wycliffe Well

Some kind of hybrid bus sleeper cabin

The landscape changes hourly.

Rain on the windscreen

Dry hot and brown

Red dirt

Last hotel in NT

Much greener camp between Hay and Narrandra

We did however find time to revisit an important tradition. Breakfast at Banrock Station Winery in SA's Riverland. We try to stock up both good food and good wine here every time we go past.

 

 

Balcony dining at Banrock Station Winery 

Murray River Flats

Decision time

 All set up on the farm now. Sheep and lambs grazing outside.

Sheep and a lamb or two at the farm.
This is the view from my doorstep for the next month or so.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move