Abdallah House - Redesigning a Home

  Kunie and Richard on the north deck in late spring 2024 It's been a long time since we participated in the national Sustainable House Day - way back in  2012  and  2014 . It just so happens that SHD also falls on International Permaculture Day - so we've got a listing there too . I was encouraged to participate this year by my old friend / mentor / and architect of this house, Peter Lockyer. Great to see the Mitchell Shire Council get on board to support the  6 homes in the shire  that are opening up for the Sunday the 4th of May, including 3 (or maybe 4) in Seymour.  If you'd like to make a booking to visit our place  click here . There's a bunch of info on the SHD website about our place and you can explore more about what we've done right here on the blog. I've put together a short video for SHD that you can see below without the ads.

2024 National Tree Day planting at Whiteheads Creek Food production wasn't a huge priority for me in 2024. The flooding on the 8th of January, was a big set back in my veggie garden down by the creek. The ensuing building project took up a lot of my spare time that would have otherwise been dedicated to growing food. See the 'Wicked Sleeper' garden beds post for more about that. The flood also had an impact of the native plantings that we had made along the creek. I did what I could to salvage the plantings, and most survived. Under the banner of Seymour Urban Landcare, Vanessa and I co-ordinated another National Tree Day planting in July which local Cub/Scout groups played a big part. Biochar being made in our wood oven using homebrewing cans One thing that I became more interested in during the year was Biochar. It seems like it's a great way to improve the soil while making better use of the excess twigs that I produce on site. I've been using 2 home brew cans t...

'Wicked Sleeper' beds replace the Whiteheads garden (Dec 2024) On the 8th of January 2024 we had another a flood event that had a big impact on Seymour and our Whiteheads Creek garden beds across the road at my neighbours place - see image below. What you see in the image above is the finished concrete sleeper wicking beds that I designed and my neighbour financed and built (with help). The wicking bed internal design is based on the Very Edible Garden system  and uses their DIY kit, custom made to size. The Whiteheads Creek Garden after the flood (Jan 2024) I was contemplating giving up on growing food after the previous flood just 15 months earlier, when this one wiped out the garden again. My neighbour, Jim, was keen for me to continue and offered to build a raised bed from concrete sleepers. The sleepers were 2m long, and about 200mm high, 100mm thick. Initially I wasn't interested, thinking that a giant raised bed near eucalypts would soon be filled with roots fr...

I haven't managed to keep up with my blog posts, but what I did get stuck into is posting images fairly regularly on Instagram @abdallahhouse . If you go right back to the first entries you can get a pretty good idea of what we've been up to.  2023 Report Kunie and the boys headed to Japan for about a month early in the year, which gave me a chance to get a 2nd hand extractor fan installed in the kitchen. It extracted the gas fumes from our 1960's cooker out through the top of the cool cupboard , and out through the flue. It was a good opportunity to revarnish the floor, chairs, table and repaint the cupboards and doors.   The other big job I got started was the long awaited rebuild of what I have been calling 'the shed', which was actually the original outhouse (toilet) and laundry/bathroom. The last remaining part of the original building. The building was identified by David Holmgren as a "prime candidate for retrofitting as a studio space" (page 92) o...