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Showing posts from 2016

Branching out with Sustainable Seymour

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Abdallah House featured in this local news story the promoted the Sustainable Seymour event that was supported by the BEAM Environment Group and The Seymour We Want . I've been involved in Sustainable Seymour since it's inception. It's focus is on making the township of Seymour and the local area more sustainable and began with a series of workshops on how to do just that with BZE - Beyond Zero Emissions . Since then we have been working with other local environment groups like the Strathbogie Voices to see how we can support each other.  One of our joint projects is an investigation into the viability of a pumped hydro facility on the Goulburn River, opposite the proposed Cherry Tree Wind Farm (that we have been actively supporting), as well as in the Strathbogie Ranges, making use of existing infrastructure. We also supported the Mitchell Shire Council to secure a $10,000 grant for a feasibility study into a solar park proposal at Chittick Park in Seymour, w

2016 Permaculture Day Tours

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Do you want to check out what we have been up to? While the blog has been a bit quite of late, there's still plenty that's been happening here at Abdallah House. Come on down for a tour on Permaculture Day , Sunday May 1st at 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00. The cost is $5, under 16 is free. Price includes a Permaculture Calendar (still 8 months left!), that was produced by your host, owner builder Richard Telford. Abdallah House, an urban rebuild and permaculture demonstration site on 580m2 (1/7th of an acre) in the rural township of Seymour, central Victoria. The build began in 2009 and completed in 2010. The house was a finalist in the 2012 HIA GreenSmart awards . UPDATE: Peter Lockyer, the builder / architect that I worked with on the project will be joining us once again! Features include: passive solar design, with raised living room slab reuse of original building and 2nd hand materials integrated cellar / tank stand / cool cupboard low energy consumpt

Water Audit - 2015

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I'm in the process of preparing for a full day teaching session as part of a PDC run by David Arnold based in Violet Town. He's decided to focus on a permaculture principle for each of the sessions, and my focus is on Principle 4 : Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback. As part of this I'm running a workshop on a self-audit, so I decided to take a look at water, consumption and collection. I thought it important to also look at rainfall over the past year, to give a point of reference. BOM recorded rainfall for 2015 at nearby Mangalore airport : 344mm Our records show 297.5mm for our home - may not be entirely accurate.  Mean annual rainfall for Seymour (1981-2010) : 584mm. Our household consumption was quite low compared to typical household - around 150-170lt per day for a family of 4. A big part of the reason is that we only use tank water - and it was a dry year. On top of that; we don't wash ourselves everyday, we use a composting toilet system and w