Sadly, independent media are increasingly finding it uneconomical to operate, and we have now lost the Australian Owner Builder magazine, after 40 years as an institution for inspiration and technical information. I was invited to contribute to the final issue and wrote two articles for that occasion. Lots of love and best wishes to Lynda, …
Magazine Articles – June 2020
I’ve not added to this blog since pre-pandemic times, and am also taking a break from writing DIY articles, and deadlines in general. There is an article called Harness The Winter Sun in The Owner Builder No.218 (June-August 2020), in which I’ve looked at effective passive solar heating – in this article, with a special …
Magazine Articles – December 2019
In newsagencies this month I have articles in Grass Roots No.256 (Nelly & Benjamin) and in The Owner Builder No.216 (Owner Building Without The Divorce). Nelly & Benjamin is also running in the December edition of the Canadian Donkey & Mule News, as a cultural exchange item. You can see Nelly & Benjamin, with bonus …
Nelly & Benjamin
A version of this article was published in Grass Roots 256 in Dec 2019/Jan 2020. In late 2018, I had an unexpected telephone call. The man on the line said he knew from a friend that we had a group of three donkeys courtesy of the Donkey Society – and would we like two more? …
Caravan Days
As part and parcel of owner-building our strawbale house, we spent four months living on-site in a caravan. That summer is now half a dozen years in the past, and I’d like to commemorate that time on my blog. This is the original manuscript of the article published in Grass Roots 251 in Feb/March 2019. …
Magazine Articles – October 2019
In newsagencies this month I have articles in Grass Roots No.255 (Roadside Rehabilitation) and in The Owner Builder No.215 (Embodied Energy Revisited and Coloured Glass Designs). Roadside Rehabilitation takes a look at the work we’ve done at Red Moon Sanctuary to protect and bring back the native flora in the roadside reserves adjacent to our …
Tasmania By Campervan, Easter 2009
We’re looking forward to finally making another trip to Tasmania next year, for the first time in ten years… having meanwhile bought a farm, built a shed and outbuildings and farmhouse with our own hands, planted thousands of trees, looked after animals, planted an orchard and permaculture garden, etc etc. In celebration of that, here …
Magazine Articles – August 2019
It’s magazine time again. In newsagencies this month I have an article in The Owner Builder No.214 on Successful Downshifting. It’s about how we found ourselves in our 40s, suddenly waking up every morning on a gorgeous little farm in the country (complete with 50 hectares out the back of extraordinary Gondwana which we will …
Magazine Articles – June 2019
In newsagencies this month I have articles in Grass Roots No.253 (Podcast Pandemonium) and in The Owner Builder No.213 (Low Waste Building Site). Podcast Pandemonium is an article aimed at the less technology-savvy part of the DIY / self-sufficiency community, not all of whom have grown up with IT, and not all of whom understand …