January 29, 2013 – 5:47 am
When we moved in to the tiny house last August, our design plans for our edible courtyard were vast, and immediate. It would be a riot of color and flavor in no time – citrus trees ripening in the microclimate of the east-facing gabion wall, feasts of greens, herbs everywhere, scenting the air as pollinators buzzed, and my child laughing and playing, surrounded by an oversupply of butterflies attracted by the many small flowers that would be springing from every crack we could see.
I expected all this to take shape by mid spring, or early Summer at the latest. Hey, we’d lived through the build and we had moved in. What more was there to do but garden?
Well, there was life and a farm and permaculture education to run, and egg-cup dinosaurs to make, as it turned out. We hope to realise the design next winter in our quieter months. But in the meantime, bring on the glory of potted interim gardening! Never have I lived in such a happy space. Read More »
January 17, 2013 – 7:00 am
Reading about our kitchen, in our kitchen. Kinda spooky, but mostly fun! We’re tickled to announce that the Milkwood Tiny House is featured in the latest edition of Green Lifestyle Magazine… get it while it’s hot!
As many of you know, the building of this Tiny House has been a looooong labor of love – but 5 years, some false starts, various small disasters, one massive learning curve, one child and one permaculture farm enterprise later, we are living in our small, natural, hand-made home. And now it’s in a magazine. Who would have thought. Read More »
December 17, 2012 – 8:15 am
I am pleased to announce that we have, 4 months after moving in, finally spend a whole weekend at the Tiny House. And it was beautiful.
Stand by for pics (I’ve tried to offset their normality by framing them as best i could) of children, dogs, swims, potato prints and all the things a proper weekend at home should include. Better late than never! Read More »
September 2, 2012 – 6:00 am
In response to requests, here’s a couple of pics of the outside of our recently moved-into tinyhouse at Milkwood Farm. The outside is not quite as finished as the inside just yet, in true owner-builder style.
But let’s focus on what IS there, and there is lots. A safe temporary fence to prevent our little one sperlunking into the dam, which will be extended to encompass the whole courtyard in the next couple of months. A dam full of frogs by night and wild ducks and swallows by day. And a little home. Read More »
August 19, 2012 – 6:00 am
What can I say. It took over 5 years to build, but we’re finally in. I am so happy that the thrown-together interior decor, yes even that lampshade, doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Would we do it all again? Heck no. Was it all worth it? You know what, I’m going to surprise myself here, and say yes. Our tinyhouse rocks. Read More »
August 10, 2012 – 6:00 am
The inside-outside woodbox for the tinyhouse is competed and now awaits filling! Now we can simply add firewood via the little, purpose-built external door, and open it from the inside, right next to the woodstove. Yay for easy heat and cooking energy delivery. Read More »
Milkwood Farm is now officially 100% solar powered. Yay! 12 CIS solar panels are now affixed to the roof of the top shed and turning sunlight into goodness for power tools and light, as we approach the move-in date for our tinyhouse.
Being off-grid as we are (even though our family farm next door is on the grid, but that’s another story), solar power was the obvious solution from the beginning. And in the beginning, our power needs were very modest, as can be seen in this here video: Read More »
Despite saying these words for the last year or so, this time I mean it. We’re nearly there. 5 years of planning, building, learning, dumpster diving, salvaging, making, wishing, waiting, thinking, re-thinking, improvising, budgeting, re-budgeting and hammering later… we’re about to move in.
I have made a little promise with myself that I won’t regale you with twisted tales from the last 12 months of ‘nearly there’-edness. Suffice to say that we are very happy to be at this point, and that it has been the biggest learning curve of our lives. But anyway. Check out our (nearly finished) kitchen! Read More »
So about 5 months ago we got interviewed about the process of building a very small house… and last weekend the resulting article finally made it to the paper. Apparently we’re part of a ‘backlash’… I just thought we were trying (trying as opposed to necessarily succeeding) to build something simple and within our means…
This does throw up some interesting questions about what it means to live in a small space, happily, in this day and age. Will it work for us? We don’t know yet – we’re still building that tiny, cheap (cough) house. But we’ll get there one day soon! You can browse our tinyhouse journey thus far here…
January 23, 2012 – 6:00 am
So just over a year ago, our house dam filled for the first time. And then went into scary nearly-melt-down. So we pumped the water out, fixed it, and then waited for it to fill again. And waited. For a year.
Do excuse multiple soggy shots of muddy pools, but this is big news at Milkwood Farm. Last weekend, for the first time, our swale and dam system filled, thanks to a big downpour on the tail of a very wet spring. And nothing went wrong. Yay! Read More »
