Spreading the word

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Principle 8: Integrate rather than segregate
Members of the ESPG enjoy lunch during their tour of Abdallah House
In an effort to spread the word of what we are doing here and how we have done it I hosted a tour with permaculturalists from the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, which is where I grew up.
Below is an extract from Permaculture Melbourne's current newsletter 'PIE' (Permaculture Information Exchange no. 121). It's part of an article summing up recent activities of the Eastern Suburbs Permaculture Group by Mal Boyd.
For April, we ventured beyond the ‘burbs to visit Richard and Kunie’s fabulous retrofitted place in Seymour, ‘Abdallah House’ – highly recommended for a permie pilgrimage!
As we were sipping on some home-grown herbal teas from the boiling billy, Richard told us about the history of the construction, the methods and materials and how they came to be there, a very interesting story. We saw how the eaves/spoutings were simply and minimally constructed, being simply suspended from the protruding corrugated iron sheets.
We learned of the tight budget and how the house was constructed with a partial slab (as the solar passive element), how the curved box beams were constructed. We heard about the choice of timbers, locally sawn from an on-site gum tree, and much recycled from the old bungalow which originally stood on the property. Richard them showed us the garden, the manure processing station, and the chook run/ covered orchard. Richard explained his solar power generation system and how they are generating 6 KWh per day but only using 2 KWh, so exporting most of the power. He showed us his combined tank stand/cellar.
After a great shared lunch, we were shown the inner working of the house, the creative use of timber, solar passive heating, the wood stove which, during winter provides heating, hot water and cooking. We saw the cool cupboard with its airflow connection to the cellar, the simple compost toilet, energy efficient lighting, and spotted a range of fermented foods/beverages in production.
A very informative day!
— Mal Boyd, ESPG convenor and Pc Melbourne President
Whilst giving the tour I learnt that an article, written some time ago by fellow ESPG member David Coote, was published in the current issure of Grass Roots magazine (No. 219). The article is a double page spread that gives a good run down of the project along with some lessons learned. Grab yourself a copy and find out how to make undies out of an old t-shirt too!

 

 

If you are interested in coming up for a visit yourself, we are opening our gates (not that we have any) on National Permaculture Day, May 6th 2012 from 1pm till 4pm. Click the image below to find out more.


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