I may have found my dream property

When you first look at the property do it by yourself, stand back and see if you can see the potential. Make a five year plan in your head even though it will be impossible to stick to it as there will be items added or deleted on a regular basis.

After you have looked at the property by yourself get your wife or friend to look at it with you and get their opinion before you give them yours, this way they will give you a different perspective and maybe new and better ideas.

Bloody good idea Peter. I may have to do that. Thank you

Fences. Check your fences.

I must confer with all those who say that water is probably the most important asset that any property owner can have.

2014 saw our average rainfall drop from a 100 year average of about 506 millimetres to 306 millimetres. A drop of 200 millimetres would not have been as bad as it sounds if it had fallen in rain events of more than 20 millimetres at a time instead of the small amounts we received that virtually disappeared as soon as they hit the dust.

The great thing about the metric system is that for every square metre of catchment area every millimetre of rain that falls equals a litre. 100 square metres of roof area equals 100 litres of potential water savings. Find out the long term average rainfall in your area, multiply that by the roof areas that are connected or will be to your tanks and it will give you an idea of your rainfall water saving potential. Dams for groundwater runoff are the cheapest storage you can have per litre stored but evaporation and seepage will be an issue but they do come in handy especially if you have a good catchment area.

We have a neighbour who had a bore put in so that he could have a more reliable water supply. Over $10,000 later he has water, and plenty of it, but it is unusable because of the high levels of salts and he cannot put in a desalinisation plant because there are laws as what you have to do to get rid of the salts. Also the cost of the additional plant would make it uneconomical.

From a preppers point of view I believe we have to learn to live with years of diminished rainfall by growing more than we need in the better years and storing as much as we can. We preserve fruit, jams and juices by bottling in the years we have extra the produce and we also freeze fruit and vegetables.

In a true after the lights out scenario what would concern me is maintaining our solar power system to a level that would enable us to run the freezer so in the future and preserving would all need to be done by bottling.

We cannot grow sugar here in Victoria so we are looking at, when we get another good year, juicing grapes and rendering the juice down and using that as a sugar substitute to enable us to continue to make jam. Sugar is not required to preserve fruit but some varieties need a sweetener before they are consumed, rhubarb is one, and I am looking at some of the herbs that are capable of being used as sweeteners.

Water usage is something that in good years when we have plenty of it is not the priority that it should be. In years like 2014 we revisit any improvements we can make to our storage capacity and the ways we can minimise its use i.e. wicking beds and hydroponics.

I would say that for most of us when we first look at a property rainfall is not the primary concern, getting hold of the land super cedes all other emotions. Once the property is ours then it is time to make all the other decisions that will make, or break, the lifestyle we would like to lead.

Rainfall is abysmal out here, and yes Pete, it probably is out in the area you think it is. However I have been speaking to the owner and apparently she has drilling reports that indicate a rather large, very clean aquafier(sp) as well as council approval for a bore. On top of that, there will be 2x 50KL water tanks attached to the house before settlement so I think water will be ok.

It certainly looks to have good potential. If that aquifer is accessible and the water is good, that will give you a massive advantage.

Will it be possible to access the aquifer with non-electric pumps (windmills, hand pumps, etc)?

fractus we hear what you say about honey and would like to use more of it and if I had more time I would see about putting a couple of hives in.

You have to be very careful about some of the no brand honey on the market as much of it has never been near a bee as it is made from a concoction of corn syrup and other items and much of it is imported from China.

frostbite if you could let me know where your water supply is I will hook it up to the ute and bring it to our place.

Property looks good in the photos reth, good luck with it all

As for the property, I'm inspired. Make sure they leave the palm tree next to the crapper. For. The. Win.

And that, my friends, is the result of one Jager & Cola too many...