Kingfisher Cottage

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...

Time flies and trees grow! I am reminded that it's easy to worry about all the things that haven't been done when all the time there are so many improvements! The land is feeling more settled now. Birds have returned and in some cases discovered us for the first time. Frogs belt out a call from the pond - that has miraculously become the Lotus pond - covered with gorgeous flowers soaring above the water. Lotus lilies Continuing to Plant We have planted many trees in the past year and those that were planted previously have grown ridiculously - sometimes two or three mts a year! Our plan is to get the framework of big trees and bushes in place before spending time on 'hard landscaping'. Trees only grow once in the ground and after 5 years, they are spectacular...left too long they won't create a mature environment. We are lucky to have so much land and can plant large trees. We have just about planted the framework now...in 2018 we planted over 70 ...

One of our many Kingfishers who visit   We had found our dream land and had a plan for Kingfisher Cottage. Apart from saving costs (part two of the series) we also wanted to make an income from the land. We love growing and seeing the land blossom. When we bought the land at Matakana in 2009 it was part of our ten year plan to become self-sufficient and stay active. The land had to be more than a park, it needed to pay for itself. In 2004 we sold a three acre property in Kumeu . For over eleven years we struggled to grow and keep the land there without earning anything from it. We were working as workaholics in a consulting business where I was away for weeks and often driving late at night to get from one job to another. We also ran a management retreat in a second building we constructed after three years there – it was good to roll out of bed and into a facilitation job! The homestead at Kumeu. Our first property on land.   In our spare time, we worke...

  Finally living at Kingfisher cottage on four acres of land, we can develop our long term dream, part of which is self-sufficiency. In the next decade, we aspire to cutting or controlling as many living costs as we can. Keeping costs under control will help us to spend on things that can earn us income in the future, and give us that warm feeling of independence. We also get to eat and drink more healthily as a side product of this too! So far we have made easy changes: ·          Reducing waste and re-purposing Year ago we cut costs where we could in order to save enough money for this home. We have continued just about all of these – there seems no good reason to go back to old habits. We wash out all our snap lock plastic bags and re-use them…they are often pegged on the line to dry! We don’t have a dryer – all washing is hung on the line or dries on a rack inside. We keep our old cars – while they are reliable and do the job...

One year into a ten year Plan for self-sufficiency     One year ago this week, we broke the curse of twelve years renting. We affectionately called it or time in the wilderness. During that time - unable to plant anything, improve things around the house or even have a pet, we planned our escape. We had a dream. That dream was not a fabulous architect designed home with 'bells and whistles'. It was a place that would also enable us to be self-sufficient and even earn income. A place with a 'homely, comfortable' feel about it rather than a 'don't dare to spill anything' atmosphere.   Our dream was very pragmatic: A permanent place we could develop for at least ten years A home that would lower our living costs An opportunity to be self sufficient in food A plan to earn money from the land as part of a portfolio income stream into retirement A property that could 'learn and grow' by adding buildings as we could afford it. A...