New Year, New Beginning

We are underway with our project to build a sustainable off grid lifestyle as a counterpoint to our city lives - the lifestyle we want to have versus the lifestyle we have to have.

​After Christmas in Auckland we left the house in the care of Hannah and Zane so they could continue their summer jobs to finance their university studies and have spent a week at Tāne's Rest to get the ball rolling.

Our driveway now with some gates announcing habitation.

Taking a trailer load of fencing timber and posts with associated paraphernalia we have built and erected a set of gates to begin our fencing programme. These are the first post holes that Grant has dug since he was a student working to finance his own university studies by spending summer fencing in the Marlborough Sounds.

The beginning of our first log stack to bring order to the chaos.

Time with a chainsaw has also established Marie's first orderly firewood stack and made a small dent in the piles of log offcuts. It is clear that we will also need to incorporate a wood fired pizza oven in our plans as this will allow us to cook outside, to eat delicious food and to put at least some of the wood debris to a productive use. ​We also have the spot for an oven worked out as we have begun to level the site for our caravan.

​​It is a New Year and a new beginning, both for Tane's Rest and our family as we look towards a more sustainable future.