Long Overdue Update

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. It would be great if I could say that the landscaping was done but sadly it is all still a long way off.

There has been some progress however...

All dirt piles except the massive one at the top of the block have now been flattened. The front of the house is now ready for grass. We have scattered $100 of grass seed over approximately a third of it, unfortunately not much has taken at all, but one section has finally started so we are leaving it for a while to see how well it will spread. Our living room windows are disgracefully filthy, but because of all the dirt just in front of them it is not worth cleaning them as they will filth up again in no time. Bring on the grass and some nice clean windows!

The backyard is now neatly divided from the front with the addition of a colorbond fence. This new fence goes from boundary to shed, shed to house, house to boundary. I was concerned with how it would look but am very pleased to say I really like how it has come up.

Terrible terrible phone pic, but you can see the fence
and at least the grass is short  here. This photo was taken
a few months ago.

We have also dumped 15 trailer loads of dirt in the backyard and levelled it out quite a bit, as well as smoothing out the cut around the shed. The dirt was of course taken from our dirt pile out the front - not that it made much of a dint. We have now organised for concrete path in the backyard, running from the gate to link up to the portico outside the laundry, restarting again the other side and running across to the dining room door. It will also branch out to our clothesline. It is supposed to be started late next week. I can't wait. It's going to be done in Pompeii again, but unfortunately we cannot find a concretor who is willing to use flyash. We really were fortunate that our builders were open to using greener products.

A couple of weeks ago we received our first electricity statement. FINALLY. I was so excited to see that our average daily usage has dropped from 11.5kw in our old 16 square house to 8.3kw in this new 23 sq house. Yay us. Even factoring in the connection costs, we are still in credit $269 due to all the power we produced with our solar PV. I am also really pleased to say that despite the quite cold weather we have been experiencing, our house is capturing and holding the heat well. It's so wonderful to see our house working how we designed.
I'm also very happy to report that despite experiencing a very dry summer we did not even come close to running out of water whereas most people I spoke to who live around here were seriously low and getting very concerned. We did still make use of the kids paddling pool, and on the stinking hot days I was having showers twice a day so it's not because we went without anything.

The fruit trees we planted along the back fence are doing really well except the citrus which are alive, but have not grown much at all. I pruned them all last weekend, I've never pruned before so watched some You tube vids and spoke to some ladies at work to find out what to do! Hopefully I've done it right..

We visited the local native nursery a few weeks ago and purchased approximately 60 tubestock plants-around 15 different varieties. We planted 23 along the driveway the weekend after I bought them, but haven't managed any since due to a combination of bad weather and other commitments. So far, planted in a random mix there are Lightwood, Black She Oak, several different Callistemon, Slender Tea Tree, Honey Myrtle, Kangaroo Apple and Hemp bush. The next area to plant out will be the batter behind the house, but we have had an awful lot of rain of the last couple of weeks and this has highlighted the need for even more dirt in the backyard, so we will have to do that before we do the batter planting.
The study is also organised now and we have a better computer so I intend to pop in here a little more often again to update as things get completed. Thanks for sticking around all this time :)