Holy Goat Ranch

On Tuesday the 16th of October the Permaforest trust visited the Holy Goat Ranch intentional community in Dorroughby.

We were hosted by the beautiful and dynamic Graham Jordan. It was awesome to have a guided tour of the past 25 years of his Life’s work. His insight and understanding of his home showed us the potential fruits of living in harmony with ones environment. He is a natural fit for his stewarded landscape.

Graham has a strict policy on acceptable fruit tree behaviour. If a tree doesn’t flourish and fruit under its own initiative it is quickly removed and replaced with one that does. Managing a property with the particular characteristics of this one means that he doesn’t have the free time and energy to baby anything that doesn’t want to seize it’s chance at life.

He used pioneering acacia’s and eucalyptus to establish the soil and recover it from paddock. After 10 years the acacia’s began to die off, falling over and damaging a lot of the fruit trees that he had planted around them. The eucalyptus were now getting too big, so he also removed the ones that he could but many still remain. However despite the difficult end transition, they succeed in their initial purpose. Life was returned to the soil and the animals to the ecology.

The site was changed.

The return of wallabies marked a new phase in the life of the orchards. Small pioneering shrubs that once were free to thrive like pigeon pea were now heavily browsed. The ground-cover under-story was now seeded to grasses and other green manures. Several introduced species went rampant, and now are his work to remove for example Dollarweed and wandering jew. This meant that he could also increase the amount of work done by machine, the ride-on mower replaced the hand scythe.

Just recently scrub turkeys have moved into their regrowth rainforest;

This meant another change. As well as having to fence vegetable gardens, they also need now to use only rough mulch around fruit trees so the turkeys don’t scratch it away to their giant compost piles of nests.

The slope in some parts is incredible; but handbuilt stone steps; guiding around the massive fig tree roots mean we all make it to the house sites safely.

Graham spends 5 days of his week working in and around Lismore as a contract builder. He built most(all?) of the stunning structures on the community. The other two days he works on maintaining the community.

Thankfully on a site like this; his other forte is rock retaining walls.

It is an inspirational environment.

He is aware of the tripartite division of energy within systems. This concept is of a third going to metabolism, a third to maintenance and repair and a third for production, construction and expansion.

The community is spring fed, they also collect their rain water.

In exchange for his time we did several hours of Rainforest Regen on the south slope of the property.

Here is a view from where we are working across the valley to the north face.

We worked to clear privet, groundsel, kaffir and lantana to allow young seedlings dropped by birds some light to establish. This was the third sweep of this area.

At the end of it all; Graham took us to a private water fall for us to all have a swim and cool off.

Then we were free to hang around the lounge until we wanted to leave.

All of us from the trust would like to thank Graham and the Holy Goat Family for opening their doors to us and sharing the wealth they have built over the last 25 years of living here. It was an amazing experience.

Solar Power System

Appropriate Role of Solar Cells Solar Cells may be an appropriate way to make use of the already embodied fossil fuel energy in human skill and industrial manufacturing capacity to contribute to electric power production during the transition to declining energy availability. This is especially so: where small demand systems are remote from the grid. in sunny dry climates where low rainfall limits wood and other biomass production in sunny urban environments where solar cells can double as a roofing material. The greatest value from solar cells may be their role in forcing us to reassess how precious electricity is and the inevitable conclusion the we should use it only for high-quality functions such as small electric motors, lighting and communications. The increasing numbers of people living with autonomous solar power systems are the pioneers in a new culture of modest electricity use while continuing to participate in modern affluent society. The value of their actions may be far greater than any net energy gains or losses of solar cells.

(Excerpt from David Holmgren Page 98 of Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability)

Day 1.

When we first arrived at the house the only power supply was 100w of solar panels on the roof attached to 2 ageing heavy duty lead acid truck batteries. These were wired into two 40w halogen kitchen down-lights and a depressingly dim 4w cold cathode in the living room and as it was all 12v - a few cigarette lighter holes around the place.

Appropriateness We live on the peaceful side of the community buffered from the road by acres of forest, the other side of our property is undeveloped pasture. This remoteness puts us far away from the existing grid infrastructure - it might have been possible to get mains electricity connected - but it wouldn’t have been any cheaper.

When actually getting the system, my perspective was that solar technology was still a little green - as in not yet ready. It is an area of incredibly rapid development. I was right.

In the 12 months since we have had our system installed - the cost of the equipment has halved, mostly due to a now more generous government incentive and in part due to scale of operations and efficiency in manufacturing. However - what we have done in that year with that additional feed hasn’t left me feeling ripped off.

Designing for Us

David Holmgren uses the phase “design cul-de-sac. It would take us more energy to figure out, understand and integrate new components into an old system than it would to just do a new work right over the top. (we had a similar situation with the existing hot and cold water systems).

We planned to leave the old system in place to continue to power just the fixed lights. With this new plan in mind - we were eligible for the federal government rebate. One of the conditions of the rebate was that you must use an installer who is recognised by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE ). Another is that you install a completely new system.

The terms of the rebate have changed significantly since our system was installed - see http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/pv/index.html

Their list of local installers yielded me about six likely candidates. A few of the larger groups such as Rainbow Power Company were consulted but quickly written off - I had a short list of smaller companies and continued to discuss my requirements and research with them until i’d exhausted all but one. Simon from SunSparks electrics. He is a mindful man who is raising money to build a school based on buddhist principles. He also sells Indian clothes at the local markets (we still discuss the ongoing system maintenance in passing at these local meeting places). I also trusted him, which I’ve come to find is a rare quality in the solar marketplace.

Working with him we drew up a sheet that would be submitted to greenhouse office outlining our expected power usage. This audit details; Every device you plan to use How much power it consumes How long you plan to use it Which devices you plan to use simultaneously what gets used seasonally And so on. This gives a very detailed awareness to needs and potential points of conservation.

A few patterns developed, one in particular to be aware of, anything that converts the high grade energy of electricity to the low grade of heat is a waste. A big one. Classic sucks of power like electric stoves (2,000w), hot water units(4,000w), air conditioning (a heat pump)(2000w), irons(1,000w), toasters(800w), electric kettles(600w) all consume so much power it would be ridiculous to run them on current solar technology. Thankfully they all have extremely low-imput alternatives.

So with our electrical desires laid bare we could move forward and submit our application for government assistance - it arrived two days later - the fastest approval in the history of the department. We took that as a good sign that we were on the right track.

We finally selected from the bottomless shopping cart of consumer electricals available for the affluent Australian: A small refrigerator (200w) A specially selected Fisher and Paykel Washing Machine (250w) Construction Power tools (100w ~ 1000w) Kitchen power tools (500w) Laptop Computers (~100w) LCD screen (150w) Water transfer pump (750w) A small stereo (50w) Lights, lamps and small batteries (100w)

At this stage we were running a gas fridge - it was one of our goals to kick that habit. It burnt through considerable amount of gas and chose to run out during periods of heavy rain so that the gas man would arrive, unload and then rip up our hand built driveway of sand and gravel with skids and swearing on his way out. Twice.

The fridge is our single biggest consistent load. It is trumped in peak power by the water pump but that is run infrequently and selectively so that we can pump when there is full sun and batteries are at capacity. The first step was to scale down, a full size 220L fridge for two people who intend to grow their own food is too much. The fridge effect is closely related to the travel bag effect - no matter how large or small it will be filled. We kindly asked for the return of my old bar fridge - a much more suitable size. We don’t miss the volume either - a fridge is a place where high turnover is to be valued. The freezer section is big enough for leftover soup and a try of ice cubes.

However to run this little cold box for five days without sun and without damaging the longevity of the batteries still requires a considerable investment.

The Batteries were installed first; they must be kept charged at all times so they come full from the factory. This means we could use them to power the tools used to install the panels and other equipment.

Don’t be fooled by their bright, cheery and green appearance that is 500kg of lead and acid. They have an expected lifetime of 10 years. I think moving them back up the hill for recycling will probably take 10 years off my expected lifetime, So I am treating them with the respect they deserve.

They have never been below 75% of capacity - they float (fully charged) most days of the year. Buying enough capacity in the first place means that we are not really deep cycling them, our pattern of light usage and consistent maintenance will mean we can enjoy them to their full potential.

This is the inverter and the regulator. The regulator is the brain of the system. It connects and monitors the inputs and outputs from all the different elements in the system. It provides feedback to us about our usage and status of the system.

The Inverter converts the 24v Direct Current of the batteries and solar panels to the 240v Alternating Current that is the standard for home electrical systems in Australia.

As well as containing large amounts of toxic lead and hydrochloric acid the batteries also vent explosive hydrogen gas. One of the conditions of getting government support for Remote Area Power Systems is properly managing this hazard. We have done this by building a vented box around the batteries that sit in a tray. We also have instructions for safe handling and hazards.

The shiny side of the works can now be installed.

A special delivery from Japan.

It’s mostly silicon.

I much prefer the panel aesthetic to the umbilical cord that keeps most Aussie houses livable.

Beautiful….and then there is the Maintenance

Taking responsibility for the supply of your own electricity is empowering. But most of the work to support it is not glamorous. As well as a big financial commitment upfront there is regular ongoing maintenance.

Daily. It is important to put the regulator somewhere you can see and access easily. Checking how much power came in, how much was used and how much is stored is the fun side of the routine, I do it daily. Initially feeding back to others so that a lifetime of fat flow power usage habits can slowly change to a pattern that represents the natural flow can be challenging, but it is also very rewarding. We now both “know” days when we can use the big draw cards of power tools and water pumps. We have also learned at what time of day we can use those things so that the batteries get enough power to recharge again so they aren’t sitting low overnight. Weekly The regulator is a really amazing device. Once a month I take enter the data it stores into my laptop and log all the data so I can graph it like the one below.

But it can’t tell me everything. I also test each battery (there are four) and make sure they are all returning a similar voltage. If one battery is malfunctioning it will pull the whole system down while it tries to keep it balanced.

Monthly Once a month I am to check the specific gravity of the acid inside the batteries with an instrument called a hydrometer. This device gives the most accurate reading of individual cell health (their are 12 distinct cells in our system). It is used in correlation with an individual voltage measurement. For our system in our part of the world a hydrometer reading of 1.250 and a voltage reading of 2.22 represents a full, happy and healthy cell. This is the messy part (and the maintenance most often skipped).

These little guides tell me if I need to add any distilled water.

Half Yearly I check the panels for grime and clean them with a glass cleaner, tighten all their nuts and bolts and check all the electrical connections for wear and corrosion. I also do a thorough check for things like rodents in the battery box and mud-wasp’s making houses.

Why Bother? Ensuring that all this is done properly will return me 10-fold dividends in personal energy at the tail end the batteries life time. Which by keeping them floating in the top 15% of capacity is very far away still.

It also adds value to the investment - if I ever chose to sell - a comprehensive record of all the maintenance and long term patterns of usage allow a buyer to know what they are getting, and me to set a better price. It is also good for me - it keeps me responsible and continuously observing a big element in my increasingly complex system.

House Water System

We are quite reliant on a continuously available supply of clean, clear healthy water. With this awareness we have designed a resiliant integrated system to be sure we can trust it flow when we need it. This is reserved exclusively for rainwater from the roof of the house.

The context.

We live in one of the poorest council areas in Australia - Kyogle Council has more bridges and roads on hillsides per person than any other. These are essential and expensive,

So luxuries of the centralized urban experience like drinking quality water delivered to your tap at about a dollar a ton are low on the rural fringe. If you want to pass the buck, it costs $160 for 6000L of chlorinated town water to come to you on a truck.

Fortunately we have our own house roof that is 11m x 12m. That is giving us 131 square meters of catchment.

We do not pay per litre at all. We expect about 1300mm of rain a year here, free of charge. And that’s enough.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=58037

The maths of a tin roof;

1m x 1m x 1mm = 1L (Love the metric system!) 11m x 12m x 1300mm = 171,600L total for the year.

That’s a lot! But it comes in downpours, especially during the hotter subtropical summer months. As we are quite reliant on a continuously available supply of clean, clear healthy water we have designed a system to be sure we can trust it to be there whenever we need it.

How much do we use?

Before we had electricity and a functional rainwater system, we washed our clothes by hand in creek water. This was a time consuming, tiring job that gave us inconsistent results. We now grow salad greens in our twin tub. With the arrival of electricity Kirrah’s father bought us a house warming present;

Our washing machine. It uses 73L a wash and we use it about 4 times a week. So 292L a week. A shower uses 6.66L/m. We have only recently fitted a good shower complete with hotwater plumbed into the woodfire. So the data is still being collected. Today Kirrah showered for 6 minutes and 15 seconds. I Showered for 3 minutes and 30 seconds so 9 minutes 45 seconds. So 65L/day. Averaged to 330L a week. We also bath. Each bath uses 75L we have about two a week. So 125L a week. We drink at least six litres a day. We fill a stoneware filter by hand with a jug. 42 L a week. We wash the dishes everyday and that is about 20 litres so another 140L a week

That sum total is 1199L a week.

We are able to moderate our usage. As feedback comes very directly from daily experience.

Recently it didn’t rain for two months. At the tail end of that small drought, we washed our clothes in Nimbin, bathed in an inch of water and rarely used the shower. We continued to drink six litres of beautiful filtered rainwater every day.

That experience motivated us gutter the larger side of our roof, (a job that hadn’t been done since the house was built in ‘94!). Several days after we connected the new system and plumbed it in - it rained for 7 straight days. We recorded 175mm of rain. That was enough to fill our concrete tank to the brim - 23,000L.

Catch and Store We have 46,000L’s of rainwater storage. The 46,000L is made up of two 23,000L tanks. The high side of our roof is so high that I would not climb a ladder to clean the gutters out.

So I had to buy several lengths of a completely self managing guttering system.

This is a photograph of an offcut, It has special filters that fit in those holes. Water enters the centre channel of the guttering through the filters. Leaves cannot and simply blow off. This is also the side of the house that fire is most likely to approach from (North North-West) I consider this additional expense appropriate.

A concrete tank is connected to the gutters. There is a poly tank at the top of the hill.

These two tanks are connected by a single 1 1/2” poly pipe. This pipe allows water to be pumped up to the top of the hill and then to run back down under the pressure of gravity into the house.

There is a special procedure to manage this two way connection.

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Pumping Water

Before beginning the procedure - check the solar power and battery status. The pump is rated at 700w - a motor this size we can only use during the peak of a sunny day, unless in emergency. This way the panels feed the pump and not the drain the batteries. If there is full sun and the batteries are high (90%+) we can move on to the next step.

Make sure there is enough water in the concrete tank - this is a simple visual inspection through the top. If the pump is allowed to run dry it will be damaged.

Now the details; First turn off the master red tap, this stops water running down the hill from the poly header tank to the concrete base tank. Then turn off the smaller red house connection, this prevents backflow from the house if someone turns on a tap while pumping. Now we can open the gate at the base of the concrete tank - open it fully and then a half twist back.

If the top tank has been fully emptied the pump needs to be primed first. To prime the pump, open the red master tap. Otherwise; plug in the pump and then immediately open the red master tap. This should be done very closely - best done with two people.

The pump is now pumping water up the hill.

While pumping, keep an eye on the solar system readout. Keep the battery voltage above 23.5v. Best to pump while at least 20+ amps are coming in from the panels. The normal range for the pump load is 45-55amps.

To Safely Stop Pumping Water Pull the plug for the pump, quickly turn off the red master tap. Now carefully turn the concrete tank gate valve shut. When it is fully tightened it will leak, so it must be eased off only slightly. Too much and water will run slowly back down the hill, too little and it will drip, drip, drip.

Now turn the red master tap back on and finally the house mains tap.

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Where does it go? This rain water is plumbed into the bath, the shower and the kitchen sink (and their respective wetback hotwater system). The washing machine and several taps are connected to just the cold. The kitchen sink has only recently been plumbed into hot water thanks to available light, assistance and motivation.

We use a silver and activated charcoal ceramic gravity fed filter for our drinking water. We jug this from the kitchen tap several times a day.

Chopping wood and carrying water are two of the grounding day to day jobs of our reality.

Storage and technical Specifics There are 8 rings on the poly tank, each ring is 2835L. A knock on the side of the tank will tell you how full it is.

We have about 7m of head, our pump Davey is model number xf221 and will pump about 200L/min or 12,000L/hour.

It pulls about 1050W(P1) and outputs about 780W(P2) of pump - the rest (270W) is dispersed as heat and noise.

P1 * time = pump Wh

1050w * 1h = 1050Wh

We have a 24v DC solar system which displays usage in amp hours. This is then converted (inverted) at 90% efficiency to 240v AC electricity that the pump wants. Running the pump for an hour consumes 1050Wh / 24v = 48.125 amp-hours and pumps 12,000L.

To give a rough guide on how much water is being pumped it is possible to monitor each amp hour used on the solar system readout.

1 hour is 60 minutes. So each minute the pump is on it uses .802 amp/hours and pumps about 200L of water. Therefore each amp/hour is approximately 160L of water moved to the top of the hill.

I keep a record of this change in a log of water usage. The system is being constantly refined to our needs and the environment. I am currently very pleased with it. Water and Life.

Grey water

Grey water is treated on site in a special bed of Arrowroot, Taro, Comfrey and Tansy. This system was designed and installed on a work activity day organised by the Permaforest Trust. The kitchen and the bath are run through a grease trap. The bath needs an S bend installed to prevent swampgas from coming back up the line. There is debate in the greywater sphere about the effectiveness of greasetraps as they encourage anaerobic decomposition, however they are still the legal standard. From the greasetrap water feeds into three separate beds built on terrace. The root crops are not to be eaten, but was can use them as rootstock for areas designed for food production. The system is currently thriving and experiencing a burst of spring life. Lomandra and Vetiva grasses have been planted to keep out invasive grasses.

A full and complete writeup of the process is at the House Grey Water System.

Improvements Today Kirrah and I plumbed under the house a pipe that connects the wood fireplace water heater storage tank to the sink! We no longer need to carry 15 sloppy litres of hot water from the bathroom to the kitchen sink to wash up. We haven’t done that much more washing up - but it has made the whole process a lot easier! I still carry 15 litre water buckets around everyday to water plants. Except tonight as it is raining!

Orthographic Drawing

I’ve begun to study orthographic drawing. This is a technical style that involves following some simple conventions so that builders, designers or anyone can read your design ideas.

This is very important, i’ve had some feedback recently on both these forums. My actual experience has developed my confidence in delivering lucid descriptions and instructions for on the fly decisions when building. As complexity increases though a good plan becomes essential.

Drawing to scale also means that distances can be accurately calculated off the plan.

The list of conventions are.

Scale
A scale that is appropriate to the page size is to be used and clearly labelled. For clarity the scale should be consistent across the page. Enlargements of details can be taken and drawn to their own appropriate scale and this should be labelled clearly.

Dimensioning
Known lengths and dimensions should be drawn lightly where appropriate. Measurements are often in mm.

Lettering
This should be clear.

Line Weights.
Heavy objects attract heavier line weights. As do closer objects, when there is 3 dimensions showing in a section for instance.

The ground should have the heaviest line weight.

Keys and Labels
Often only one is necessary, if there are patterns that repeat a key is often more appropriate.

North Arrow
This is a must to orient the drawing in real space. Normally it is pointing to the top of the page.

Colour
This will influence your style. If presenting to a client or architect, colour is very important to convey information. That same information is not so important to the builder, so depending on the brief of the plan - use colours.



Here is a shed i’d like to build for my motorbike and related bits and pieces.
I’m enjoying the challenge of this type of drawing. I will definitely use the lessons it has taught me and take on bigger, more complex projects.


So far we have the west wing of the house to develop and link with the freestanding composting toilet. There is also possible integration with a concrete water tank. There is scope in the pour for a deck to the south-west to act as a seamless, step-less entryway to the kitchen level of the split level house.

And at this point we can all see the value in a detailed, accurate plan.