Kingfisher Cottage - part 5, 4 years on...

Kingfisher Cottage - Part Five, 4 years on

 

 

 

 

April 2020 and Kingfisher Cottage is in a bubble. The COVID-19 virus has caused a world-wide Pandemic. We are 'locked down' on our land and in our third week of isolation to prevent spread of the virus.

 

This is not much different for life here. In fact, this is what we have been planning and developing for...we haven't quite got there yet but we are doing fine. Four years ago in June, we moved onto our land an into our new home with a dream of building self- reliance through sustainability. It was a 10 year plan and we are coming up to 4 years in 2020.

 

We were lucky. A brain tumour and subsequent loss of work and all income devastated us for  two years after 2007. We were in rental properties and chewing through our savings very quickly. As new work developed and John started to make some money through trading on the share market, we managed to put a deposit down on this piece of land in 2009. We bought the land in 2010. We couldn't afford to build a house and sat on the land, planting and caring for it until 2015, when we finally found a building company that could build a cottage for the money we could raise.

 

We had no regular income and no collateral, so no bank would give us a mortgage and we didn't want to owe money anyway. We took a risk and went ahead with the 'it's now of never' approach and it worked. Rental payments were draining us and we couldn't carry on much longer - we considered selling the land several times. Luckily we didn't! We sat up night after night stressing about how we could afford the new build but struck lucky when I secured a twelve month contract with a large company and that enabled us to keep going.

 

We moved into the home in 2016 penniless but with the determination to lower our costs and become as self-sufficient as we could so that a major catastrophe could never destroy us again. We didn't envisage a pandemic - but here we are. We feel almost immunised against this by our past and confident that we will survive as we did after 2007. We are not completely self sufficient yet but feel very grateful for where we are and strong.

Progress toward self-sufficiency

• Fuel

In the past year we have made great strides towards our final goal. We are now completely self-sufficient in firewood. Our two plots of Gum trees plus the Poplars and She Oaks are a good combination of hard and soft wood for our wood burner. Bark from the Gums makes excellent fire starters as a bonus. We are coppicing the trees so that we will have a permanent source of timber to cut and dry. We have two years worth ready and drying now.

 

 

 

• Growing Food

Finally most of our fruit trees are producing if only a small amount. Peaches, Limes, Feijoas, Persimmons, Figs, Guavas, Walnuts, Chestnuts. The first Avocado and a hopeful looking couple of Pomegranates are hanging in there. The figs are a bit small and sparse as a result of the drought this summer, but the fig forest will flourish again once we get rain.

We are hoping that next year the two plums, three oranges, Tamarillos, Babaccos, Butia palm, Ice cream bean fruit and Hazlenuts will come on line with fruit. We planted 6 Olive trees this year - they will take a few years to grow.

We are constantly building the soil in our vegetable bed and make compost from food scraps, chicken poo with pine shavings, seaweed, coffee grounds, grass clippings and leaves. Nothing goes to waste if it can be composted! The lock down has forced us to become far better at succession planting so that now we are producing enough for the three of us. We aren't creating a surplus yet, but being able to go out and pick food every day has been a great move forward. In the plan for next year, we are building raised beds in a potager near the kitchen for easy access. In the meantime, we have built an access pathway through the tropical hill to the existing compost and vegetable bed.

• Making produce and cutting back

We continue to make Kimchi, Kombucha and grow bean sprouts in jars. This year I have attempted sourdough bread. We reached our goal of only putting out one rubbish bag a week - in fact it is closer to one every two weeks now. We continue to avoid waste, re-use and recycle wherever we can. Our new goal is a bag a month. We have also given up meat as part of our move to healthier living and that is saving us far more money than we ever dreamt it would!

• Water

We had a breakthrough this year...the bore that we drilled four years ago had been deemed useless because of a high level of Boron in the water. It was so high that we couldn't even use it on the garden! This year we found a guy who could filter the water through a reverse osmosis pump - yeh! Unfortunately the flow is very slow and it takes all day to top the tank up with water...and it would take a week to fill completely. However, it gives us water during drought without the cost of delivery and after the drought this year it will also add a feeling of security.



• Trees

We have planted thousands of trees since we began ten years ago. Some of the early ones are now huge! Some we brought with us in pots, most have been grown from seed. Some have been swapped and others bought for birthday or Christmas presents. We love them all. Those that have grown particularly well are the Jacarandas, Bead trees, Avocados, Silver Dollar and the Banksias. The Acer Rubrums, after two years, are showing their beautiful Claret coloured foliage this Autumn and the Acer Senkaki is absolutely spectacular out side our living room window. The tropical bank that was an ugly clay hillside a few years ago has turned into a vibrant and lush area with bark walk ways.

• Portfolio Income

Our intention was always to have several small incomes rather than one major one. This and lowering overall costs of living,was our way of avoiding having all our eggs in one basket ever again!

1. This year the major achievement and addition to our portfolio was publishing the first in a series of easy to read guides called 'Sleep well to live well'. Luckily it was finished before the lock down but unfortunately the launch and further talks were postponed. However, it will still form the basis of talks and programmes offered to individuals and organisations in the coming years. Lock down has forced me (along with many others) to translate learning into online materials so that I can offer Zoom coaching. webinars and self-paced learning through slides and videos to back up the book. A good move overall because now I can expand the audience to those overseas without having to travel.

2.    My existing coaching and workshops for leadership and brain building have continued. My major client has asked me to translate two workshops into online events for this year, which suits me well.

3.    Selling through Kingfisher Cottage continues through the Facebook page.  So far, there has not been much to sell but that is building and for the past year I have been promoting the place for future sales by raising our profile and story. This year, once we will have a quantum of plants, trees and other good to sell, I will start a new website.

 A new addition last Christmas was sales of gilded Lotus Lily pods...picked from the pond, cleansed, dried, mounted on sticks and painted gold. We also sold more Lavender, foliage from the Silver Dollar tree and some young trees. The nursery has grown this year from seed and cuttings; there are now more trees ready for sale. The Leucadendrons are becoming mature and more Silver Dollar trees have been planted. These will offer new opportunities to supply florists.

4.    John's share market investment business, Sparrowhawk, continues but during a Pandemic there are opportunities through volatility but also the chance of losing large amounts of money. We don't expect much income for this year because of our cautious approach - although you just never know! Best to never plan on it!
 
Monty
Our other member of the family, mentioned in the last blog, has been with us for over two years now. Monty is a well established part of our lives here now even though he isn't particularly sustainable!

Plans for year 4-5

We have many exciting projects planned for the coming year. Some of these will be associated with building Eddies (mum's) home on the platform next to our cottage. Much of the coming year is unknown and we can't plan for it, but what we know is that this time next year we shall have an even better story to tell about developing our lives here at Kingfisher Cottage.