Homesteader’s 2nd Anniversary: Updates, Progress, and Future Plans

Hello, and welcome back to the Vandemonian Homesteader. Thanks for dropping in, and I hope life has been treating you well over the past week. Earlier this week, Friday, to be exact, was the second anniversary of my first post as the Vandemonian homesteader. And my word, time has flown by.

A lot has happened in those past two years, but I will discuss that and more shortly. In today’s anniversary post, I will give you some updates on a couple of ongoing projects so you are up to date on what went on during the few months I was offline. Then, I will touch on the progress of my goals, discuss the journey so far, and share what is happening soon and what I have planned after that. So, with that out of the way, let’s jump in.

Compost Bins

Today’s first cab off the rank will be a quick update on the compost bins. A few posts ago, I discussed making compost at home. In this post, I set up a store-bought compost bin and shared a method of creating your own bin using scrap timber and chicken wire. Both bins were set up, filled with a mixture of browns and greens, and left to do their magic. The original post can be found here.

Since that post, I have continually stirred and added to the compost bins. However, I haven’t been stirring the heaps as much as I should. Instead of stirring them every two or three days like I’m supposed to, I actually stir them once a week. Typically, as I do my yard work on the weekend, I will add a little more scraps or waste to the heaps and give them all a good stir. Then, the mid-week stirs generally don’t happen as I am usually running around getting ready for work or doing other jobs.

As far as their progress, though, I am happy. In particular, the chicken wire bin is working very well for me. If I were to make it again, I would look at doubling its size and using metal star pickets to help support it instead of the timber. Usually, the timber supports would be fine, but with my resident possum and now dog pulling it apart trying to get to its apparently delicious interior. It needs a little more reinforcement than what the timber alone could provide.

During my weekly stirring of the heaps, I have noticed that the chicken wire compost heap has started to produce what looks like will be good compost soon. It has every quality I am looking for, including colour, feel, and lack of smell, so I can’t wait for that.

However, out of sheer curiosity,  I thought I would try something a little different to the store-bought plastic bin. A while after I had set it up, I stopped adding the brown ingredients and only mixed in the green wet ingredients. When I checked it last week, I was greeted by a foul odour and what looked like a slop bin. And as I tried to stir the heap, it became apparent that there was nothing there but a big bucket of mush and swarms of little flies. I took a picture of each compost head so you can see the difference the imbalance of ingredients makes.

Now that I have seen what I wanted to do with the plastic bin, I need to fix it, which means I will need to add a lot of dry brown ingredients. If it can be fixed, I will consider this experiment a success. If not, I’ve learned something, so it’s still a success. So, for now, any bit of cardboard, newspaper, or dry leaves that I can get my hands on are quickly collected and added to the heap.

Propagation Stations’ New Lights

Some of you may remember a while ago. I posted about some of the changes and upgrades I had made to my propagation station. The original post can be found here. One change, in particular, was a new set of grow lights that would allow me to have a light for each shelf of my shelving unit. Unfortunately, when they arrived, I discovered that the cord between each light was too short to allow me to set up each one where I wanted. So, I had to find and order longer power cords for the lights. When I made and shared that original post about the upgrades, they still hadn’t arrived, as their delivery had been delayed. Thankfully, they eventually turned up sometime after that post was made and have since been installed onto the shelving unit.

As you can see from the pictures, they look fantastic, and the plants also seem to respond well to the light level they throw out. Even though the lights came with a small bag of bits and pieces that could be used to install them, nothing would work with the thickness and materials of which the shelf was made. So, I instead opted for the quicker and easier approach of a few dabs of glue.  

Worm Farm

Another great bit of news is the continued success of the worm farm. Not only is it supplying me with a ridiculous amount of worm juice, but every couple of weeks, I open it up, collect some worms and then relocate them to another garden bed to help out with this yard’s soil issues.

Winter Garden Bed

Despite having talked about the value of knowing where the sun and shadows hit your yard during the year, I used a bit of guestimation when placing the treated pine garden bed I made. When I placed it in the middle of the yard, I thought it would be okay there. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that the small, flat-pack shed in the middle of my yard has a shadow that covers two-thirds of the bed for most of the winter.

Needless to say, the pak choy and broad beans were significantly affected, with growth being very slow or not at all. And it also hasn’t helped the few plants that did grow that my dog, Natasha, loves to dig in that bed and bury her bones. Once my upcoming move is made, I will no doubt have to look into and cover ways you can pest and pet-proof your gardens.

2nd Anniversary

Two years ago, I uploaded the first post of this blog. At the time, I was living in my tiny studio apartment in Vancouver on the other side of the world, tired of how things were and wanting to force change onto my life. I decided that creating goals for myself wouldn’t be enough and that I needed a way to keep myself accountable and focused. And what better way to do that than to post about it online for all the world to see? What could go wrong?

To be honest, although not a lot has gone “wrong”, there have certainly been a lot of curve balls and lessons along the way. But it has been a great experience so far. Not only am I learning and working towards my goals, but I am also happy to be able to share my journey with the world.

But here I am, making it sound like I have achieved everything I set out to do. The truth is I still have a long way to go, and although I’m not quite there yet, I am certainly a hell of a lot closer than I was when I made that first post two years ago. And I contribute all that progress to this blog; although there have been periods where I haven’t posted as often as I would have liked, I still have my goals and the blog in my mind. And that has kept me on the path. So, to everyone who has followed along over the past two years, thank you very much; whether or not you realise it, you’re all helping me achieve what I set out to do.

In a few of my posts, I discuss the need for reflection when working towards goals. Sitting down and reflecting on your achievements in moments like this is good. It helps to remind you that although it may not feel like you are making much progress daily, when you look at the bigger picture, you can see how all those small achievements you’ve made add up to some impressive results.

As mentioned earlier, I started this blog while living in a tiny studio apartment in Canada. Since then, I moved house a couple of times and completed one of the biggest challenges any would-be homesteader has to face. And that is purchasing the land to homestead on. That, of course, pulled me back to Australia and my home state of Tasmania, and now I sit here preparing to move out onto the land and move my goals onto the next stage.

However, every morning, when I sit down at my desk with my coffee and look at my journals, countless to-do lists and whiteboard covered with memos, design ideas and measurements, I still feel like I am miles away from achieving anything. And yet, I couldn’t be further from the truth. This reflection and taking time to look at the bigger picture has helped keep me going without getting bogged down by the small challenges.

The future

Now, as much as I want to avoid moving into the world of fortune tellers and predictions of the future, I would like to share what I plan to be doing next.

As it currently stands, I have an application to build a small cabin on the property. Unlike many videos online where people build cabins wherever they want, it sadly doesn’t work like that here in Tasmania. Anything larger than 3mx3m requires council planning to get involved. Given that the building I’m applying for is a cabin/shed coming in at 9m9xm, I had no option but to deal with the council.

The decision to bring the move forward by a few years was made because some of the larger renovation projects that are needed for my current house require the place to be empty, so I thought that instead of finding a rental, I would use this as the chance to move out onto the bush block. This means that many of the projects I had planned for this current place will have to be either moved or scrapped altogether until im in a position where I can restart them from the new place.

To help keep the costs down, I will make my own greywater system, which I will cover in more detail when the time comes. As for toilet waste, I will use a biogas toilet that will collect my “waste” and turn it into gas that I could use for cooking.

Rainwater will be my primary water source, and if it’s needed, especially during doubts or long summers, I can purchase water from town. I will install a solar system for electricity, and later, I will add a small wind turbine for all my power needs.

As for cooking and heating, I have my eye on a wood stove that would do the job just nicely. Any interior work like walls, cabinetry, plastering, and painting will all be done by me to help keep costs low.

This all depends on whether my application is approved and if you see me living in a bus, caravan or tent in future posts. You would know that it hadn’t gone through.

And with that, we come to the end of another post. To be honest, I am still surprised I have stuck it out for the past two years. But as I said before, I believe it is all because of this blog and the readers. So again, thank you all so very much. Hopefully, this time next year, I will be celebrating my third anniversary from the comfort of my new homestead.

In my next post, I thought I would try making a few environmentally friendly and greywater-friendly cleaning products that can be made and used at home. So please come back and check that out. Until next time, thanks for dropping in. Have yourself a good one and I will catch you later.