Crossing Over

The time has come to cross over to the other side :o) I resigned last week and we’re off to Tassie on 19th December. It has rained so much down there over the past few months that we weren’t able to complete the earthworks and erect/fit out the garage in time for occupancy, but considering that water harvesting is one of our main priorities, we welcome the rain. We’ve secured a rental property only 35 minutes from the land, which has a lovely view over the bay and will serve as a good base camp over the next 12 months, especially considering Karim is maintaining his full time job while I plant trees, dig swales, collect firewood, build soils and make mudbricks.

We had an amazing farewell and engagement party last weekend, with some great friends from around Australia, the UK and NZ. We partied like there was no tomorrow with friends that we’ve had the most brilliant journeys with over the past 10 years, and new friends that we’ve met while living in Sydney that will be a very special part of the rest of our lives.

But of course there is a tomorrow – a truly wonderful tomorrow. We’ve already arranged a tour of an established permaculture property not far from our land in Tassie only 3 days after we land, and have bought our survey equipment ready to spend Christmas surveying the property and start drafting our permaculture design. Some experienced local permies are then coming to our land to review our design and discuss what they might do differently based on their experience. Faboulous… we couldn’t think of a better way to spend our Christmas.
We’ve then got a great friend, Dean, coming over for NY to ensure that we have a few days off to simply enjoy. I look forward to our next blog update, as the journey gets truly underway.

Straw Bale Working Bee

Karim headed down to Canberra in August for a 4-day straw bale working bee, along with about 24 other volunteers, to help construct the first straw bale house in Canberra. Straw bale is a very appealing construction method for us in Tassie because of its thermal insulation properties. The slab, posts, beams and roof were already in place, so by the end of day one a whole main wall of straw bales was already in position.



If the house is designed according to straw bale construction, the width between posts and the height between beams should be calculated according to the width an heights of the straw bales, which avoids cutting straw bales to fit and obviously speeds up the construction process dramatically.

Once the bales were in place, they were secured with metal brackets, then large needles were drilled through the bales and tightened with wire.


The last step was to trim the excess straw while having a good chinwag with fellow volunteers, before spraying on the mud and clay render.


And at the end of a hard day’s work earth building, there’s nothing like sharing your camp site with the locals.

This is definitely the kind of initiative we would like to adopt when we eventually build in Tassie – giving people the opportunity to learn how to build their own earth home while getting your house built at the same time!

Planning our Temporary Accommodation

The deal we made for the previous owner of our land in Tassie to stay there for two years is (unbelievably) nearly over, so its time to plan the construction of some kind of “temporary” accommodation. We really liked the idea of a yurt, but in the end it wasn’t very practical in the long term considering the cost. So we’ve decided on a large garage with a storage section, living section and an undercover carport that we can cut and store wood under (as well as create an outdoor dining area). This way, when we eventually build our earth home, we’ll have a great size garage come workshop, art studio and accommodation for WWOOFERS and guests.
Even though it’s “only a garage”, we’ve applied permaculture design pricinples by positioning it on an east to west axis, with the living area and main windows along the north side. And of course we’ve made sure that it won’t get in the way of future dams, swales and food production areas!
We’ve measured every piece of furniture that we want to fit inside the living area to make sure we build it just big enough to be comfortable for a few years if necessary while we build.

We did a quick two day trip to the land in July to peg out the site and meet local concretors and builders that could help with the fitout. You can just see the orange survey tape marking the location of the garage through the trees, to the right of the trucks.

Something else very exciting took place during this visit, Karim got down on his knee on the land and proposed :o)

That night we celebrated with a lovely meal at the Old Court House, and stayed in the most beautiful straw bale cottage called Whispering Spirit, only 3km from our land. Karim now knows never to put shampoo in a spa bath :o)

Upon returning home we finalised the garage design plans and lodged them with the council. Why aren’t we surprised that you can design a garage, have earth levelled and a slab laid, have double glazed windows made, manufacture and erect the building faster than the council can say “we allow you to put a garage on YOUR land”. Hmph
Now its time to research suppliers for our compost toilet, kit kitchen, floor coverings, water tank, and of course the most important thing, someone to help us build a cat cave ready for our four furry babies :o)

Tom and Zaia's Permaculture Property

I was honoured to be invited to Tom’s wedding shortly after the Trinity PDC course, meet his beautiful wife Zaia and their amazing childen, and discover the wonders of their permaculture property a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane. Their main food production area is laid out on a perfectly sloping, north facing section with a succession of swales, creating the perfect growing environment, let alone an extremely asthetically pleasing and calming atmosphere.


Twisting through paths and over swale bridges uncovered an immense variety of food no matter where you looked.

It was even a joy to visit the toilet (or Thunderbox as they so aptly call it), perched in the centre of a banana circle.

Tom generously welcomed us back to his property in July 2009 to gain some experience building with stone. We collected the stones from the nearby creek (learning about stone selection), and went through many trials and tribulations learning how to place the right stone where on the wall, as well as mixing the grout and creating beautiful shadows between the rocks. Considering we have an abundance of rock on our land in Tassie, it was a fantastic opportunity to gain some exposure to this kind of construction project.

A hard day’s work was always rewarded with bananas from the garden and Zaia’s delicious and healthy cooking. We had no idea you could sprout green or brown lentils, and have become completely addicted to her lentil soup! Soak the lentils overnight, then keep moist in a colander for 2-3 days. Fry onion, garlic, add the lentils and some sea salt, cover in 2 inches of water and simmer. You won’t believe how delicious this simple meal is!

Apart from learning a bit about building with stone, many things came from this visit to Tom and Zaia’s permaculture property. Firstly, a realistic idea of the effort involved in both establishing and maintaining a property like this… Tom had spent three years (full time) in its making. It became even more apparent that the sooner we can get to Tassie and start developing our property, the better. Secondly, a bit of an awakening. In these surroundings I realised just how dependant we were, and how vastly better Tom and Zaia’s situation would be over ours in a crisis situation. Deep down I already knew this, but being at their property really brought it home. It’s typical nearing the end of a holiday to think “oh well, back to reality”, but this was the complete opposite. I felt like their permaculture way of life was reality, and I was going back to insanity!!!
Thirdly, this trip to Tom and Zaia’s farm also had an extremely positive impact on Steve and Liane’s life – as they now own a permaculture property just a few kilometers down the road rather than a chemically grown peach farm!

Running your own Introduction to Permaculture Course

Another venture we were keen to take on after completing our Permaculture Design Certificates, which would also help keep us “sane” until moving to Tassie, was to spread the word by running our own Introduction to Permaculture Course. The Hawkesbury EarthCare Centre provided the perfect venue (an earth building surrounded by organic gardens), and we offered to donate all proceeds for the opportunity to nurture our teaching and course facilitiation skills.
We spent many hours after work and on weekends developing a two day agenda with course handouts and practical exercises, which was the perfect way to embed so much of the knowledge we had gained through the PDC. Kat Szuminska, who completed her PDC at Trinity with me the year before, offered to cover energy cycling, edge effects, and soils, so between the three of us we had all the Permaculture principles covered.
The course was marketed to the EarthCare members, by hanging posters at every library within a 50km radius, sending emails to organic seed suppliers and all the local schools, and writing a press release to local newspapers. The amount of interest received was extremely motivating and a fantastic indication of the future strength of Permaculture within our communities. In the end the course was fully booked out with 24 participants, and over $1,500 was raised for the EarthCare Centre.

It was a truly rewarding experience spending the weekend with like minded people who were keen to learn how they could apply Permaculture to their lives. It also reinforced that Permaculture was going to be a very important and exciting part of our lives. Of course the highlight of the weekend… building a compost pile!

Urban Vege Patch

After completing our Permaculture Design Certificates we were still some time away from moving to Tassie, so as a positive move in the right direction we started to grow food in our current urban environment. We visited the local Hawkesbury EarthCare Centre and joined the organic gardening club that was based there (Henry Doubleday Research Association). I can’t tell you how beneficial it was spending a few hours each Saturday volunteering in their garden, learning from members that had years and years of experience.
The first thing we did was start composting to build soils, so we never had to purchase any. We had a good amount of lawn clippings, fallen leaves and weeds to compost, and the neigbhours didn’t mind us sweeping up their dead leaves either! With this plus our food scraps, ash from the fire, vacuum cleaner dust and a load of shredded office paper, it didn’t take long to build enough healthy soil using the 18 day Berkely method.
In the meantime, we started sprouting mung beans, alpalpa and pea sprouts in the window sill. I couldn’t believe how easy, quick and cheap these were to grow, let alone the health benefits!

Because space for growing veges at our rental property was limited, we increased our growing space by using broccoli boxes (free from the local green grocer).

We’ve found the broccoli boxes to be suitable for pretty much anything; brassicas, tomatoes, herbs, bok choy and lettuce, even squash grew well in the broccoli boxes!

In only a few months over 20 herbs and veges were thriving in this small garden space, and we found growing our own food to be so rewarding that we knew we would be doing it for the rest of our lives.

It’s impossible not to smile when you can walk out the front door and pick enough fresh produce for a stirfry!

Our first attempt at eggplant wasn’t too successful, however on the second attempt, by positioning it in the sunniest part of the garden, surrounded by flowers to attract bees, well what can I say – we’re still eating last season’s eggplant preserved in chilli, garlic and parsley from the garden!

We've learned so much by starting small, and can now take at least some practical growing experience to Tassie. There is still so much to learn, which is exciting rather than daunting because we've witnessed the rewards.

Introduction to Permaculture

I became vegetarian in 2006 after saving the life of a small lizard (long story), and Karim followed shortly afterward, for both ethical and health reasons. It wasn’t long before I found myself volunteering for animal welfare organisations, and protesting against some of the inhumane practices that are going on in our own backyard.

The more I learned about conventional farming practices, the happier I was to be a vegetarian, but the more depressed I became in general. Watching a series of documentaries on the Mayan Calendar was a turning point, as I realised that everything is a part of our evolution of consciousness, and I needed to learn how to “allow” – as long as I was leading my own life in a positive, enriching way. Following this awakening, Karim suggested that I study Permcaculture as he described it as an end-to-end positive solution to agricultural, social and financial systems. I began reading Bill Mollison’s books immediately, and in June 2008 I attended an Introduction to Permaculture Course run by Milkwood. In September 2008 I completed the Permaculture Design Certificate with Bill Mollison (co-founder of Permaculture, featured in the centre of the photo below), Geoff Lawton and Greg Knibbs at Trinity College in Melbourne, along with approximately 60 other incredible people from 16 different countries around the globe. How right Karim was, good-bye depression, hello positive solutions!

Karim followed soon after, and in January 2009 completed his Permaculture Design Certifiate with Geoff Lawton at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia.

Caught in the Art

You might be wondering how the name “Caught in the Art” came about. We’ve always been interested in art, and in 2006 I had 12 months off work, during which I spent my time painting and share trading. I was amazed to find that Caught in the Art wasn’t already registered as a business name, and secured it immediately. For those who know us well, the name is quite fitting. I investigated setting up a stall at the Balmain Art Market with two other artist friends, Carly and Bree. Here we are contemplating our spot along the church fence.

Before long we were enjoying spending every Saturday there displaying and selling our art.


Though the artwork has been put on hold for a few years, we find that Caught in the Art is still a suitable name for our property in Tassie, because it will be not only covered in sculpture by the time we’ve finished, but we will definitely be caught in the art of permaculture and sustainability while we develop our dream.

Our Piece of Paradise

A few years later we decided that Tassie was where we wanted to eventually end up, and we travelled down in August 2007 with our shortlist of potential land to purchase. The choice became easy when we visited the Huon Valley (45km south-west of Hobart) and inspected 15 acres at 99 Jacksons Road, Franklin. The block is 900m off the Huon Highway, and 90m above sea level overlooking the river. Only about 3 of the 15 acres have been cleared, which you can see from the top of the driveway.

Part of this clearing exposes the spectaluar view to the South-East.

The rest of the property is forest, which wraps itself around the cleared section and contains magnificent trees that we will protect for as long as we live.

A lovely walk track takes you down to the creek, where we were lucky enough to see a Platypus and a wombat burrow on the way (which pretty much sealed the deal).

Of course at this point we hadn’t started studying Permaculture yet, we bought this property because of the privacy, the view and the relaxed feeling of the local community. It doesn’t have the perfect aspect (sloping away from the North), however the cleared section is large and flat enough for the sun to hit our proposed food production areas (phew!!!).

The owner was living on the land in sea containers at the time, and since we were not ready to move we negotiated $25k off the asking price in exchange for him being able to continue living there for another two years. This really benefited both parties, and offered us extra security knowing that the land would be secure while we were still across the Tasman.

Love at First Sight

Our relationship with Tassie began in September 2004, and it was love at first sight. Our first encounter with the locals was asking directions at a red light in the centre of Hobart city, only to find that all the traffic was quite happy to sit through the next green light and onto another red - until they were sure that we knew where to go. In fact, someone ended up driving out of their way to direct us, just to be sure. We call this wonderland a “mini-New Zealand”, as we found all four seasons and all the different terrains that we adore, all within several hours drive of each other.
From luscious rainforest….

To alpine snow…

To white sandy beaches…

To spectacular waterfalls.

We felt at peace and happy there, but little did we know that one day we would call this amazing place "home".