My journey towards self-sustainable living.

[Sarcophilus]

Hey everyone,

So through solely the fault of my own, not many of you know me, but after many many years of lurking through these forums, I have decided to and hope to continue as an active contributor now that I feel I am in a position to make better use of not only the vast information here, but the knowledge that all of this forums members have, and also to possibly have something I personally can offer others.

Anyway, enough of that,
Some backstory:

After purchasing 200 acres this year, I have only in the last month just started work on it over my weekends, with the hopes of retreating away from the small town in Tasmania, where I am currently living. I have felt it is time for myself to move forward and get back to the bush, where I have spent the majority of my life.

The block is just under 50 minutes from town, with no mobile coverage whatsoever. It has varying elevation of 100m, with just under 500m above sea as the highest point. The block consists of just under 100 acres of poorly fenced pasture, a stream that flows year round and separates the pasture from the rest of the block, which is a mixture of marshland, cool temperate rainforest, eucalyptus and wattle bushland. There are no buildings or utilities to utilise on the property, so essentially,  I am starting completely from scratch.

The reason for having started this topic is so it hopefully may prove useful in some ways as a guide to others, for advice and feedback, any of which would be greatly appreciated, not to mention as a way to keep track of and map my own progress.

I have never done anything like this before, so all the problems I have already and I am yet to face will be completely new to me.

I must also mention that I don't often have time to post in depth but I will aim to update here, at worst case, once a month.

Look forward to hearing from you all.
 

[Sarcophilus]

Edited December 9, 2016 by Sarcophilus
Images not working

[MountainGoat]

Nice one, I look forward to watching this thread, and your property progress...

[Sallubrious]

I see you have a stream that looks to have a good volume of water and a good flow rate. There's a few yourube vids on using a fisher paykel washing machine as water powered generator. You have to re-wire the stator and make a few other mods but they are a great way to make free energy from a creek.

This website has a good rundown on how its done & lots of other green power projects
http://www.yourgreendream.com/diy_fisher_paykel.php

Edited December 8, 2016 by Sallubrious

[Sarcophilus]

Thanks Sallubrious,

 

Hydro generation is definitely something I will be looking into. The stream isn't particularly deep but it does flow at quite a rate! 

 

I have been wondering if anyone has ever built a waterwheel generator with a spiral pump incorporated into the design. It would be nice to knock over two necessities in one go. Would that be complicating things? What are your thoughts? 

 

Thanks for the information. Appreciate it.

[Sallubrious]

The spiral pump is a good idea, I think it would need some type of gearing if it was to be used in conjunction with a generator.

The dynamics of the water generator require relative high speed because of low torque production in or order to generate a reasonable current and the spiral pump can operate at almost any speed. I'd suggest they would regulate their own speed and that would not be in linear slope in relation to each other, so gearing them together would be quite difficult.

I'd suggest the two devices would be better to be self standing separate machines so they can do their own thing and not interfere with load dynamics of the other device.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Sallubrious

[Sallubrious]

Inclined wirtz coils are another possibility too, you don't need the rotary adaptor that way so there's less moving parts to wear out.

 

Something like this could be adaptaed with a paddle wheel attached to a universal joint etc

http://lurkertech.com/water/pump/tailer/fig19.jpg

[Sarcophilus]

You've made perfect sense. I had figured that there had to be a reason for not being able to find evidence of a spiral pump in combination with hydroelectric generation.

 

Can't say I've seen the incline coil pump before. Archimedes screw type deal, albeit seemingly more refined.

 

Thank you

[Anodyne]

If you haven't already, you could check out the Cabin Porn thread for some inspiration. Looking forward to your updates, the place looks amazing.

[Sarcophilus]

Thanks heaps Anodyne, I'll be stuck here dreaming for hours now! Appreciate the kind words.

[sagiXsagi]

Awesome place, looking forward to seeing the thread updated from time to time.. 

[Sarcophilus]

Update:

First and foremost, apologies to you all for taking so long, as you'll see, I've been flat out!

So a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get a call from a mate, he'd come across a farmer who'd been about to burn down a little shearers cottage, he asked on my behalf if it could be acquired. So under the condition that it was moved in no longer than a fortnight, I could have it for the sweet sum of nothing at all. I went about measuring up the footings one night after work so I could build a copy of them up on my place.

The dimensions of the cottage are 6m x 5.5m, its entirely hardwood timber-lined in the interior, with one bedroom, a living area and a bathroom. All I need basically. A woodheater and/or outdoor bbq will be used for cooking, so no kitchen is no big deal.

The following weekend, two friends provided assistance with a laser level and chainsaw, a post hole auger and a cement mixer was hired, and 26 meters of reject telegraph pole was purchased for the price of $12 a meter, instead of the regular pole at $580 for a 10.5m length. A meter of aggregate mixture and 14 bags of cement were also purchased. I had some lengths of non-structural pine kicking about and some steel droppers so those were used along with the laser level and a stringline to plot out the centres for the footings on a nice little spot on a bit of a hill 100 meters or so up and away from the creek. Holes were dug to 700mm deep at the highest end with 800mm lengths of telegraph pole dropped and concreted in, at the lowest end, holes were dug to 800mm with 1200mm lengths of pole concreted in. Once bearers are on top my floor height will be aproximately 200mm high at the high end of the slope and 500mm high at the low point of the slope. This allows for me to have room at the low end to build a composting toilet out of a plastic 44gal drum that will fit in under the house. I'll speak on that later. Thanks to the help I had, three lads and a single weekend was all it took to have the footings were complete.

The final week of my deadline was rather stressful, the cottage was too tall to be put on a truck, to much dismay, so splitting it in half it seemed was no longer going to be the go. Instead, an ikea inspired flatpack was going to be the only other way. So I spoke to the boss about borrowing the flatbed trailer from work, we use it for transporting packs of pvc pipe so the overall length of it is 7 meters drawbar included. He let me borrow it again after using it to move the telegraph poles, to transport the house. In five hours on that saturday. A few more friends and I managed to take down the roof, cut the ceiling along the internal walls and lift the pieces off, fold all the walls down and cut the floor in half. Sunday was transporting day, in two trips, an over width and overloaded trailer was snuck up 65km of back roads to the block, not a car was passed on either 2 hour trip.

Currently the cottage is in its pieces besides the footings. Planning to get it back up some time over the next month.

Here's a few pictures.

Cheers,
Sarc

[tarenna]

Great stuff and much respect. What a fortuitous situation - you have approached it really resourcefully and look to have ended up with a good score..

 

Is there logging coupe visible in the background of one of the photos of the footings??

[Sallubrious]

If I could wake up to that view every morning, I'd ditch 90% of my possessions consider myself lucky to live there. 

 

Nice work on the footing & piers that's awesome man!

 

Are you planning on capping the piers with white ant caps/ or insulators etc ?

 

White ants get a taste for hardwood very fast, especially if any moisture is being wicked up anywhere.

[Sarcophilus]

Thanks for the kind words Tarenna,

 

Is there logging coupe visible in the background of one of the photos of the footings??

Yes there is, thats to the north, it's plantation forest that has just been logged and is currently being revegetated.

 

Its such a magical spot Sallubrious, that view to the south is spectacular hey!

 

Are you planning on capping the piers with white ant caps/ or insulators etc ?

 

White ants get a taste for hardwood very fast, especially if any moisture is being wicked up anywhere.

No need for any of that thankfully, we do not have a form of white ant in Tas that is destructive to buildings, only a forest dwelling variation that inhabits rotting, wet timber. Nevertheless, the footing tops will be protected and spaced from the house with Malthoid paper and concrete sheet, but that's mainly for packing purposes.

[Sallubrious]

I had no idea about Tassie not having white ants that attack buildings. You learn something every day.

[Sarcophilus]

Well there you go!

 

How lucky right? I would not have gone telegraph pole if it was the case, saved an absolute fortune in $$$ (concrete) because of it. I can expect to get 50+ years out of the poles because of no termites. 100mm of concrete went in the holes first then the exposed and untreated cross section of the poles were painted with sump oil and allowed to soak in and dry providing a hydrophobic barrier. Then the surrounds were concreted. I can't see any reason why I'll have any problems with the foundations at all.

[teonanacatl]

Nice, where at in Tas, good cheap land there

[Sarcophilus]

 

Nice, where at in Tas, good cheap land there

Out in amongst the North East state forest reserves. Around Pyengana, Lottah and Weldborough. $$$ per acre/hectare exponentially reduce as size goes up. You could expect to pay 20-60k for 1000m2 but for 100k you might find 100+ acres. Thats my area anyway, theres defonitely cheaper about. 

Edited January 13, 2017 by Sarcophilus
Clarifying

[Sarcophilus]

Another Update:

Spent last weekend putting the old girl back together. Had help from 17 friends. Saturday was spent with the Laser Level, setting up the bearers onto the piers.
***Note to self: Just buy new bearers instead of recycling the original bearers, especially on a building over 120 years old.
It took a whole day to fit and fix down the bearers and the floor. It would not have been possible to put back together without pilot drilling into the hardwood for the bugle screws.  

Sunday was spent erecting the walls onto the floor, Internal walls were stood first and then the external walls were set in place. Without a Nail-gun, it would have taken two days at least.
Surprisingly, for a building so old, the whole place went back together without any setbacks. I, among a few others, were very impressed with the work of the original builders to say the least, everything just slotted back in.
The ceiling was also fitted Sunday afternoon, It like the floor had to be cut in half through the centre, before being cut again to make quarters along the internal walls. Steel strapping was fixed across the top and tightened to try and it all square at the top. My younger brother, a qualified tradesman, and I gave up at 20mm out of square, it just wouldn't go anymore.

 

It's unbelievable just as to what is possible with some help over a weekend.
All in all, more than happy.

I should have another update soon, as I am just about to leave the house now to head up there this afternoon, If all goes well, Insulation and silver paper will be fixed on, the roof should get pitched, and maybe some cladding will be achieved also.
Pictures to come.

Sarc

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

What a beautiful chunk of nature mate! 

what about some poly tunnels with cacti for some sell-stuff-iciency to keep the wheels turning? :3

 

look fwd to this thread developing and learning some cool things along the way too!

Good luck!

[Sarcophilus]

 

What a beautiful chunk of nature mate! 

what about some poly tunnels with cacti for some sell-stuff-iciency to keep the wheels turning? :3

 

Thank you! It's such an unbelievable place.

 

In regards to cacti, they are definitely something I will be building a permanent greenhouse for at some point, possibly after winter. I don't feel quite ready to attempt to look after any as of yet. Especially given that temps will often fall to a few degrees below zero over the coming months. 

 

First priorities after the home is fencing and food production, through a garden and livestock. Then I can work on the finer things in life

[Sarcophilus]

[Sarcophilus]

Sorry everyone for the slow update.

 

It's been tough as of late, working massive hours and haven't had the motivation to do more work on my weekends. Had issues with my roofing iron also so I decided to go a brand new colorbond roof, as it would have taken at least twice as long with recycled tin. Placed my order and it wasn't ready by that weekend, so I had to wait another weekend to get it up. This way too, with the colorbond, I just got everything exactly to length. It turned out to be a breeze. I'll still use all the reclaimed rusty iron for the rest of the exterior cladding though. 

 

On a side note, a mate of mine managed to catch the first trout out of the stream, fair to say that I was a little annoyed with him for that haha. She was undersize so we let the little girl go.

[Sarcophilus]

Wow.
It's been a while, funny how time just gets away from us all without us even noticing.

Since my last post in March, progress had been slow, and is now temporarily halted. I was offered a Job on the Gold Coast, It was a hard decision to make and move away from paradise but realistically it was the best option. Relocated up here for now on a much better wage so that I am able to pay off my mortgage and finish not only the cottage but power, ammenities, plus fencing for livestock. On track to achieving all of this, but I shall be living up here for at least the next 24 months. I do plan to have some more progress to show you all by the end of this year, but that is an update on what is happening with me.
Hope everyone is well.

Peace,
Sarc