The morning after.....

Well its been over a year since I started this  blog. The house is now a home and we have settled in. Still need to finish the fence down the side of the house. It's been sitting in the garage for a while now. I've been very busy at work and haven't had any time to erect it. I have spoken with the neighbour and he is going to get it put up. I think this is fair. I bought the fence and he erects it.

Anyway, we got our first "bill" from Energex a month ago. It was in credit $75. The good thing is that the power box on the side of the house still shows the amount in credit growing each day. I seriously wonder however, how long companies will be paying a higher rate for the electricity we "sell" to them.

I suspect after the rates decrease, it will become more worth while to add a battery bank to store the electricity during the day, and then use it at night, only drawing extra if the batteries go flat.

We have used 696 kW h and have produced 859 kW h, meaning we are 163 kW h in front.

At the moment, we have building occurring on all three sides of us! The other neighbours sold up, and the new owners started building almost immediately. It's a timber framed home, which has gone up incredibly fast. They are supposed to have it completed in January! Thats a 3 month build!

The plants at the front of the house are taking hold at long last. Thought they were going to die for a while. I put some black weed mat down and covered them with stones. It seems it is keeping the water in and is letting the plants take hold.

The property to the rear of us was auctioned off as the builder went broke! They have been doing a fair amount of work to it each day. They have added a massive outdoor roof. Not to sure how it would stand up to a cyclone??

Today we went to the Gold Coast. My mother has purchased a unit at Varsity Lakes, a stones throw from the University. We took some photos for her as well as a video, which are shown below.

I took some shots of the garden....  Really need to get some good ideas together for our home.... Well these were rather simple, but I did like the plants, and the "white" river...

And the video....