We have been quiet for a while but it’s time we came to grips with this next phase of our lives. After travelling for 3 years, and blogging about it all at www.mytb.com/slowfeet we have stopped. This is not a permanent condition. We may not travel for quite so long in the future but we will be on the move again. There are people to meet, places to see and roads to wander. For now, though, we really do need to something about our homelessness. It is the responsible thing to do.

There were a few options in play. We did the suburban thing many years ago and can’t see that as an option again but a nice apartment in the city? Close to restaurants, theatres and family. Attractive, but maybe when we are a little older. Setting up again on a bush block in the Northern Territory. We have the block and there are a lot of good friends about there. No family though and that is a problem. A couple of hectares with a nice house close enough to the city for all of the services? We did look hard but they all seemed just that bit too squeezy. So we have ended up on 30 interesting acres flogged, we think by a dairy farmer with a cash flow issue and because it was too difficult to farm. Not so close to a city that services are easily available but in a very nice part of the country and not that far from family, really.

The block from up the hill a little

When we bought our acreage we had a large but basic shed built on it, shifted our two shipping containers, packed with our goods and chattels, into it and promptly left the country. That story is on our travelblog site in rather too much detail I suspect.

The containers brought our stuff from the NT and stored it safely while we travelled the world

With no house on the block we needed to find some accommodation while we negotiate a design for a house and get construction organised. That will take time. We had the option of renting close by but we knew that the development task required to turn a rough, weed infested block into a nice place to live would be assisted if we didn’t have to travel to and from the place to do the necessary work. We decided that we could cope with living in the shed until the house is built. I should note though that we made that decision when it was warm.

The shed is just that. It sits on a slab, steel framed and metal clad. Sixteen metres long and 7.5 metres wide it is large enough, but that is about it. No bathroom or toilet. No water. Exposed to all that the sun and cold can deliver with no insulation or lining. No electricity and no plumbing. No telephone and not much internet cover. And, a drainage problem that allowed water to flow in under the walls when it rained.

They needed to come out so we could move in

One of us is a calm, positive person who can cope with just about anything. She was never going to have too much trouble, always provided that the house on the hill remained clearly on the agenda, along with those trips to West Africa, Ireland, Greece, the Middle East … The other one of us, though, is not so accommodating. It was clear that the construction of a proper house would take a time and we needed to be reasonably comfortable while that was going on so to sort things out a bit.

The basic plan was to:

organise a water supply, waste removal, basic amenities and some power;

progressively replace temporary arrangements until the shed is more comfortable;

take action on the worst of the weed infestations;

get started on design of the house and development of the block.

All pretty straightforward but perhaps rather more work than I had intended as an old, retired bloke. I have been told that we should record our progress and we have decided to do so. Much of it may not be of great interest to others but some could be of interest to others doing, or contemplating, a similar thing. Others may just get a laugh out of what we are doing or wonder at our stupidity. Friends and family will get to hear a little more frequently what we are up to. In any case, I will write progressively about what has happened and is happening and, if it is of interest to others, your comments are very welcome.

I should also point out that it will take a little time to get to ‘real time’. We have been here now for 8 months. I will cover some of the highs and lows in the next few, or perhaps more than a few, posts.

I may also get used to using this program.