I can’t believe it’s been almost a whole year since we’ve updated the website...

Well to be honest, there hasn’t been much to write about as far as changes to the property. Most of the time has been our daily work lives and normal stuff. I guess the most major change is that Graham returned to school full-time to get a Residential Building Designer Certification. He has don very well in the subject with his background in civil engineering, though it was still a challenge, with hours of new material to learn.

We did return to the USA and Canada for the month June to visit family and friends, since we moved to Tasmania over 2 years ago! We first visited Graham’s son Luke in Pemberton, BC, just 30 minutes north of Whistler for a week. The weather was perfect and the scenery spectacular. We then made our way to California to visit my family and my Aunt, Judith, in Redwood Valley. It was a very relaxing time seeing my Aunt and Mocha. Lucky we did, because on August 31, 2009, Mocha passed on after 16 years of a happy life. I will always be grateful that Judith was able to be his caretaker for the last 2 years.

Overall the visit back to the States was a nice change. The one I did notice on my return to Australia, was that my American accent still stands out and vice-versa – I realized I was at ease in the US speaking in public, where most sound like me. (But that’s not a big deal!) We returned to the wettest winter Tasmania has had in about 100 years! And the rain kept coming. Our rain-tanks were full and the dam behind the shed threatened to overflow every two weeks or so.

So, what’s next? We have solar panels for the shed on order and will become grid interactive later this month or by October. We plan to extend the shed internally by adding a bedroom in the workshop area. This plan is to increase our living space in the shed as a ‘live/work area’, as Graham spends many late nights with Autocad, SketchUp, and design documents. Also this will give us two rooms, and having guests sleep over in separate areas. We planted 14 fruit trees in the drain field. I plan to grow more veggies in the greenhouse and garden beds. Then summer, and hopefully some nice warms days in the deep green grass!

Summer has gone and Autumn's here. Time flew by this summer, as we ended major work on the shed "apartment" and both returned to full-time jobs in Hobart. Read More...

The New Year 2008 came and went, I didn't find time to update the site again. Mainly because with the holidays and having guests with us, I well... I just didn't ok, technology time off. So I'll back track again, and maybe someday I'll figure out a way to write in the journal each week! My 'new years' resolution... Read More...

Well almost 2 months have passed without a web site update - very BAD! Read More...

Almost 3 weeks flew by and the short of it is that our slab foundation for the granny flat and workshop is done! Read More...

It's a rainy day, but a good day! We finally had time indoors since heavier rain kept us from the building site today. Read More...

This week finally things have seemed to settle and come together, and finally some excitement! We broke ground "earthworks" on the site yesterday! Read More...

Each day was filled with random errands of setting up a new life Read More...

Graham and Troy said good-bye's to family and friends in the USA Read More...