Urban Again

Our house.

Here I am in Brisbane, finding myself in the world of urban agriculture again. Back to a shared house, but this time with a slightly bigger yard than I found myself with in Toronto (which really just means I have a yard). As I'm here trying to learn more about permaculture, I thought I might take this opportunity to start growing some vegetables in my own space. 

Garden.

The space gets a lot of sunlight and already has a good base, with some raised beds and fruit trees already established. So far I've found dragon fruit (the cactus like plant), a mango tree, some lime trees (some of which might be oranges and grapefruit that are currently just green), a potential cherry tree and some recently planted apricot trees. There is also a great rain water harvesting system in place with big barrels.

The canvas

I don't want to get too out of control as I won't be around forever to take care of the garden, but I'd like to leave this house knowing that there is a food system that should maintain itself relatively well. 

Therefore my goals for this space are:

1. A good compost system-- I found compost bins, but they're filled with all sorts of wires... weird.

2. An herb spiral.

3. One raised bed worth of veggies.

So time to get back to experimenting... Fun!

Winter Worthy

So here it is. The end of renovating for this year.

I love my house.

North side.

I'll be back in March to attempt to do some interior work. The exterior is basically where I want it to be. Still some details to finish up, but you get the idea of what it will look like. Just add on a wrap around deck, gardens and hops vines.

Probably doesn't look much different than my last posts, but I can see it.

Be ready for an August work party gang to get me moved in!

South side.

not quite done, but no animals can get in!

Almost winterized

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of how the house is doing now.

Hopefully will have one more post before I leave for the winter of a completed exterior. The well, septic and wiring will have to wait until next year, but such is life. This could be home this time next year!

almost there....

the new tub... claw feet awaiting attachment.

the beginnings of a kitchen floor that isn't trampoline-like.

super siding

Quick update.

As the weather gets colder, more layers are going on to the house. Though it's not quite closed up for the winter, I think these pictures give a pretty good idea of what it will look like.

I've had so much help so far and feel so lucky to have such great people around me.

Almost time to call it quits for this year, but still some more outside stuff to do before it snows.

Maintaining Minimal

New 8' wide, 7' high window.

Here are a few more pictures and a quick update on house progress.

Front window view.

As I'm working at camp now, I haven't had a lot of time to be doing the work on the house myself. Luckily, I found an awesome contractor who is also working on my neighbours' house. I'd love to be doing it all myself, but the reality is he can do what would take me a week in a day.

The most recent work has been taking off all the siding on the front part of the house and re-studding the house. The studs were at random distances from each other, usually around every 3 feet instead of every 16 inches. While this was being fixed, we also reframed some windows (very exciting).

Unfortunately while doing this work it came to our attention just how bad the foundation is. Looks like it won't last a lifetime (surprise, surprise). For now, we'll keep insulating (grant money), redo the roof with tin (can be reused) and eventually this fall have a closed in living space.

Sliding glass door opening.

Even though it may not turn in to a permanent dream home this year, I still love the house and get more and more excited every time I go up there!

House update

It's been a while.

demolition looking at the south wall.

I'm now back from an amazing year of tree planting and have jumped right in to the reno process (with some time off for weddings and family/friend visits in between). So far we've managed to demolish the inside walls that are coming down to give us a better view of what the open concept will look like. In doing this the design has changed so that in the end I'll end up with a two bedroom house with a loft and cathedral ceilings. If all goes as planned.

The structure looks like it's in better shape than most anticipated. As we stripped off the layers of panelling we discovered that old raw wood was used as walls on the initial house (built in 1954). We also discovered that these walls were indeed holding the studs together and therefore were holding up the house. As those beautiful boards have to stay I've decided they'll be an awesome look for the walls and they'll be a focal point of the house. It mean insulating from the outside, but most of the outside has to come off anyways.

demolition of bathroom (new kitchen), notice the raw wood on the left.

I started pulling some of the chipboard off of the outside of the house. I started at the giant hole in the wall and found this less than gorgeous fake brick tar paper. It's coming off, but for now it makes the house look a little less ghetto.

I've had an amazing team so far to help in the deconstruction process. Ben, Gene, my mom and cousins Charlotte and Alicia have been an incredible help thus far. Feel free to come out too and help!

ghetto chipboard house.

home sweet home.

nice brick house.

House Heat

After a bit of chaos surrounding getting the wood stove from kijiji (my new favourite pass time) I am now the proud owner of a used Regency wood stove. I'm hoping this will be my primary source of heat when I'm eventually living in this house of mine.

Heat Source! Plus a kettle! And it all fit in the Jeep!

I also found a lot of insulation on Kijiji along with doors and a million other things, but realized I shouldn't get that far ahead of myself. 

I've also been working on getting a well put in. Who knew you had to get a septic report that requires a soil test by a technologist in order to put a well in. I do now. Looks like the well will have to go in to the list of August projects along with roof, fixing hole in the wall, insulating, etc.

For now, it's time to go tree planting again to pay for it all. Look for updates in August and make room in your schedules to see it first hand!

Maybe a window?

Needs a touch of work.

Happy H20 Heating

Though there isn't a lot that I can do at the house right now, I can google.
The compost water heater is something that I really hope I can attempt this year. It may be the neatest idea I've come across EVER!

Here's a video of how it works.

I'm so excited! Could it be possible that I will have hot water from wood chips? Maybe even be able to do some sub floor heating and heat my house with it? Maybe make the pile the floor of a greenhouse and heat the greenhouse and my water with compost? The options sound endless and I'm so stoked to try this.

Real time house update:
The house is now empty of the stuff being stored in it by the previous owner. The hope in the next few weeks is to get the energy audit done (fingers crossed for grant money), take down some of the inside walls down to the studs (Ben and I started this only to find more wood panelling underneath the wood panelling), check the place out with a contractor and get some estimates, take the kitchen cupboards out and potentially try to take the tiles up so we're at the wood floor.

So much to do, but most of it will have to wait until August. Let me know if you have any more super sweet ideas and when you're free to come help!

the "new" homestead

The view of my house from across the road. (Don't mind the dates on the pictures, they're more recent than 2005)

That's right it's home owning time!  Which means the blog will now be used for home renovating ideas. My hope is to make the house as sustainable (or green if you will) as possible. I've been doing some research in to cheap and sustainable options and have found some pretty amazing ideas. Some of my favourites this far include a compost hot water heater and pallet crafting.

Currently the house is in rough shape, but with a little bit of work it will be amazing! I have an acre and a half bordered by my maple syrups friends' new farm's land. We are all very excited about the possibilities for this land. There is also a garage that has seen better days, that I have big plans for in the future.

I look forward to sharing the renovation plans with all of you and welcome any ideas (and labour) you may want to contribute.

Coming in the side door to the kitchen.

From kitchen door to front door... will hopefully be all open soon.

Front door in to 'for now' living room.

The barn... needs work.

Food for Thought

I'm so lucky to have such a great group of people to support me in my adventures. Now that I'm back in Canada, my adventures may slow down, but I thought I'd try to keep the blog going.

I wanted to share with you a story about a friend (soon to be neighbour) of mine.

A few weeks ago, as she was passing a drug store, she saw a sales clerk throwing away a cart full of bagged milk. She stopped to ask if it had gone bad and was told that the expiry date was the following day so it had to be thrown out. Instead of walking away from this situation, this friend asked the sales guy to load the milk in to her car. She then brought it to the Mission, a homeless shelter, where they did not have the funds to buy even powdered milk, let alone real milk. The Mission was very appreciative and the drug store didn't know the difference. As this friend delved deeper in to the situation of waste from this particular drug store she did not get the results she'd hoped for. The manager suggested he would be locking his dumpsters from now on, instead of providing it to the needy, due to a bad experience he'd had. At this my determined friend went home and called the head office to find out about the store policy. She had researched other groups and found out through Second Harvest in Toronto that stores are protected from being liable when donating food in good faith. So why is it that we still have food being thrown out when people rely so heavily on food banks? How can we be so quick to throw out food, before it's even expired, when other people are hungry? Imagine if every store donated their near expiration food to organizations that could use it quickly?

When she shared this story with me, I was inspired. She's still working on the situation and should be receiving a copy of their store policy soon. She saw something wrong and took a few minutes of her time to make an important contribution to other people's well being.

Sometimes we recognize helping people as charity work done in other countries. Sometimes we justify our inaction to our location or time constraints. What we have to remember, as part of the global community, is that the actions and decisions we take in our own local communities are just as influential as any work being done overseas. We all have the power to make change, it's just a matter of standing up for what is fair.

Urban Growing

Lucy and I.

For my last few days I checked out different projects around Nairobi. Oddly enough everywhere I went growing bamboo came up a lot.

I started out by going with a 65 year old man I met at the hostel to see a bamboo plantation. This was a man who has put a lot in to starting imported bamboo seedlings to sell on a commercial scale for furniture, but also as a fuelwood to dry tea at some of the big plantations. It was a bit confusing as he doesn't want to sell too much, but he's not interested in small scale. His farm was beautiful and the idea is good, he's just trying to work out some of the kinks in his plan.

The Headquarters.

 Monday I went to Kibera, a well known large slum in Nairobi. I met with Ras Ambassa who works with the Haile Selassie I Foundation and Shiriki Organization. They run youth organic farming projects outside of the city, though they also had a small tree nursery behind their main office. The organization also makes sandals from old tires, which were pretty neat. We spent a few hours discussing organic farming, but mainly talking about Ras Tafari. It was very educational. I enjoyed that many of their principles are similar to those of permaculture in that people care for the earth, they care for their fellow people and they practice fair share. There were a few points I took issue with, but this is the case when discussing any one faith.

Organic kale, spinach, cowpeas and onion.

Tuesday I met with a woman named Lucy who I had met at the permaculture course. She is an amazing Kenyan woman who has worked with the Kenya Institute of Organic Agriculture for many years. She invited me to come see the projects she was working on with COOPI in Huruma, another slum outside of Nairobi. There was a presentation being given to the community, mainly the women of the community, on none other than bamboo! I liked the concept of growing bamboo more in this context as it is planned to be used for income generation and will grow well on the grey water that is rushing in to the river that flows through this slum. Ideally the bamboo will purify some of this water as well as being a material to work with in making different types of marketable goods.

River side farming.

Lucy also showed me the small plots they had where they were growing with the garden sacks. In one fenced area they had around 40 bags and in another 68 bags and a cow. It was inspiring to see so many people interested in growing food. There was also a lot of independent pieces of land growing different foods on them... it looked like the Kenyan countryside compacted beside this small river. The project faces different challenges, but are working through them and expanding to include more of the community and train them in organic food growing.

Wednesday I went to visit Amrita Childrens' Home in Athi River, outside of Nairobi. This home is sponsored by Amma, the hugging saint (I'd probably let her hug me). Here they are starting small and hoping to be certified organic. The teacher I had for the permaculture course, Warren Brush, had done the design last year and two girls who had taken the course in previous years were working on the upkeep. It looked great and it was amazing to see how quickly this piece of land came to life after only 8 months. Currently the kids who come to school there are being fed lunch with foods that all come from their kitchen garden as well as being involved in the maintenance. Pretty super.

I also met with a friend of a friend who introduced me to many different projects happening in Kenya and the idea of numerous grants being offered to do similar work. So now it's time to hibernate in Brockville with my computer and start putting the pieces together to develop a program. Any ideas are welcome and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Winding Down

Here I am back in Nairobi, after a wonderful few weeks enjoying the beaches on the coast.

New Years was spent around a bonfire drinking champagne and eating a fire-grilled Kingfish. We camped on one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen, falling asleep and waking up to the lapping of the ocean. Just beautiful. The newspaper guy would come in the morning, after the mandazi and samosa woman, the fruit guy and the fish guy. Almost like room service to our tent!

view from the tent.

And now it's back to city life. For my last week here I hope to pack in seeing as many projects as possible. I've been in touch with children's homes that are practicing permaculture, slum project working with organic agriculture and today I go to see a bamboo plantation.

The ideas are churning in my brain and I'm looking forward to getting home and putting some plans into action. I'm soaking in as much sun as possible now before I hit the Canadian winter, but am looking forward to being home. See you all soon!