A little history as a starter

As this is my first post on the blog it is probably a good idea to give a little history as a starter. About mid 2003 we started building a new home for ourselves in Hay, southwest NSW. The house we built was pretty much stock standard every day type construction (didn't want to scare the neighbors to much) with a bit of tweaking here and there to make it as much as possible passive solar. I stayed away from alternate building methods mainly for resale value and durability issues. But we did where possible use recycled bits and pieces in the construction. We moved into the house in February 2006 and finishing up has been an ongoing process attended to as time permits. For those interested in the building saga the link is in the side bar along with links to a few other sites of interest. So far the house is living up to all the things I expected of it and we are really happy with the way it has all worked out. This blog will also be a continuation of my house building web page so from time to time I will catch up on a few of the things I didn't get round to documenting there.

Hay is a small country town in the Riverina area of NSW. The Murrumbidgee River flows through the town, and is approximately 100 meters from the north boundary of our block. We have been in a drought for the last 10 years and river flows are reduced because of lack of water in the dams that supply this area. This has caused a dramatic drop in agricultural production in this area and most towns on the river are implementing water restrictions on their populations. Winters here are mild and temperatures rarely get below freezing, so this is our better growing season, although lack of rain in the last few years has caused us a few problems. Summers are hot, commonly in the mid 30's to mid 40s, and that makes summer gardening a challenge, the 2008 summer was particularly bad with a series of heat waves that destroyed most gardens around here. This year I will be ready for it and I will be doing some posts that will look at some of the ideas I am trialing to deal with it.