Our Little Straw Bale House - a Reintroduction.....

I have once again been AWOL and cannot believe how time has flown since my last very sad post.
To rekick start my blogging, which I do really enjoy, here is a post I wrote a LOOONG time ago but never got around to posting.

Our house is very small. It is two bedrooms and one bathroom, an open plan kitchen/dining/lounge room and a small laundry.

Housework takes no time. I love that about small houses. We have plans to add on a real dining room and a master suite, but that will happen when we have recovered from building the first half. We are approaching this like child birth. You labour through one, swear/scream on everyones grave that you will never do it again, forget about the pain and go in for seconds. Madness, I know.

Being owner builders has allowed us the freedom to build without having to go through a bank. When we have the money, we do something else to the house. So our personal debt is next to nothing. It has meant roughing it for the first 2 years. We actually lived in a cute little shed built by HH with no running water. Our bathroom was another little shed where we set up a bath picked up off of eBay for next to nothing and a small gas powered hot water system that served us with piping hot showers for those first two years. Our cooking facilities were a little two burner gas camping oven and a portable induction cooktop. Even with limited space we still churned out fantastic meals.

Would I do it again?

No, I don´t think so. I love my little house and I love my little 11 acres. There has been so much love, anger, disappointment, jubilation and satisfaction that has gone into our little house that it would be difficult to just sell up and have someone simply move in without understanding the joy AND the struggle that we have gone through. Even now I am sitting back typing this post and loving being sheltered by a house that HH and I have literally built ourselves. Sure it needs a final coat of render and other finishing touches. We are very proud of our little house and love showing it off.


Home is where the heart is and our little home has a huge heart.

A Little Bit of Sad.

While we were overseas, our two ducks, Dr Drake Ramoray and Charlize Theron were killed by foxes or dogs. Our housesitter is unsure. The two naughty ducks refused to go to bed one night, despite her multiple attempts to herd them into their duckhouse. In between attempts they were taken. She was so upset....and so are we.

Who is going to keep our dam free from waterfowl?

Who is going to torment and play with Paisley?

Who is going to snack on our garden greens?

Who is going to attack my trouser leg in the mornings?


There is no more "Go to bed ducks!" reverberating through our valley........

Vale Dr Drake and Charlize

Guilty!!!! My Carbon Footprint Has Exploded!

I have been blogging absent due to working maniacal hours, travelling overseas, ditching my horrendous job and finding new employment, and mostly because my trusty old computer was retired and HH went and purchased me one of those tablet thingies, which I hate using.

Apologies to all for my lack of commenting, which I do enjoy, but this little notebook/tablet thing is a down right bugger to type on, the cursor is a mongrel to control and my life has been busy enough to use as an excuse for my absenteeism.

So between travel, a bit of consumerism and lack of attention to my garden, my carbon footprint is hideous.

With a Spring in my Step.....

Poor Paisley.

There was a trip to the vet, some general anaesthetic, a scalpel wielded, and a sore little boxer girl. Paisley has had her womanly bits removed. YAY!!

She was so excited to go to the vets this morning. Her tune has changed. She got home, promptly threw up on the kitchen floor and has just fallen into bed asleep. A big day for a little girl.

Poor Paisley.

a list of simples.....

The almost springing sun streaming through the leadlight of a door that once lived in a Californian bungalow but now furnishes the entrance to our strawbale house.

Three hairy fat ponies staring longingly over a fence at pasture that is screaming to be grazed, but full of springly sugars that are equine forboden.

Two sleeping boxers catching a quick nanna nap before venturing outside for the last play of the day.

Naughty chickens laying their eggs anywhere but in their laying boxes.

Fruit trees that are shaking off the last of their winter sleep before bursting into blossom.

......spring is almost here.....

Saddling Up on a Gorgeous Winter Day

Today was such a lovely day that I simply could not resist saddling up the pony and tootling around the paddocks.

Which of course, gave me the perfect opportunity to photograph Cash in all of his stepping out on the town gear. Cash is my primary riding horse. He is a 16hh hairy yeti of a Standardbred. Come late spring he will be less yeti-like.

First of all I had to go find him. He had been lying down have a siesta in the sun. Despite so much horse/ground contact he wasn´t too muddy.

The biggest issue I always have with haltering up Cash is the appaloosa that is always attached to the lead rein.

I was kind of hoping for a good over the shoulder shot. I usually have two horses following Cash and myself through the paddocks.

Firstly Cash´s ¨sneakers¨. Yes, my horse wears hoof boots with pads inside to cushion his soles and hoof frogs. Earlier this year he was diagnosed with Navicular Syndrome which was downgraded to laminitis. He may have navicular changes, but seeing as he moves freely and happily when wearing boots and pads, we will just continue to do just that. As my vet chiro said she can xray Cash´s hooves from various angles and give me a definitive diagnosis of navicular, but the management will still remain the same. So she recommended NOT xraying and just continue with boots and pads anyway and save myself alot of money along the way. Sensible woman.

I forgot to take a closeup pic of Cash´s bitless bridle. It is a Nurtural Bitless Bridle from Canada. I am still on the fence with this bitless bridle, but as my instructor says, if it works, it works. So I am still using it. Besides it matches Cash´s saddle perfectly.

This is Cash´s new saddle in all of its comfortable glory. It is a WoW saddle and although the name is a little corny, it is true. You sit in the saddle and the first word out of your mouth is ¨Wow!¨, actually I my first words were ¨OMG!¨ Deliberately, of course. I am not a trend sheep.

And check out those stirrups! My absolute favourites, they sit at a 90 degree angle to the horse so are always able to picked up by the feet easily. When you have crappy knees like mine, these stirrups are a kneesaver.

I didn´t even THINK to take some pics from the saddle and my photographer was at work. I am a pretty useless blogger!!!!

All in all it was a lovely day for tootling.