We recently completed another WorkAway, this time at Chestnut Farm, an 8 acre property just north of Ballarat. The weather in Ballarat is pretty rubbish in winter – drizzle most days and frosty mornings. But we got lucky with some sunny days for the outside jobs, and just rearranged our work schedules according to the rain.
Upon arrival we met the resident goats and decided to make it our first project to build a portable shelter. By having a shelter on wheels, you have more range to move the goats around the property for grazing, and don’t have to worry about the bad weather rolling in. Steve, the owner of Chestnut Farm, is passionate about recycling and the property is scattered with all manner of “resource piles”. It’s like having a salvage yard in your back yard. We managed to salvage all the materials required to build the shelter, and knocked it up in two days. Steve and his daughter added some artwork, and voila, a portable goat shelter.
The next project was to build a ramp for the accessible composting toilet. Again, all the materials were salvaged from the yard, and we put this together in one afternoon. The composting loo uses a wheelie bin system, where the toilet is raised off the ground and fills the wheelie bin directly, which when full, is put aside to compost for 12 months. A hose fitting at the base of the wheelie bin drains the liquid. For those interested in composting human waste, there’s an excellent book The Humanure Handbook which covers everything you need to know.
Our final major project was to build a racking system, for Steve to store some of his salvaged timber. Snuggled between two sheds, we built the racks in a couple of days, once again from wood salvaged onsite.
My key takeaway from our experience at Chestnut Farm was realising that once you decide to build something, you really can knock it up in a very short amount of time. I find procrastination has always got the better of me in the past, making me think things take longer than they actually do. As we had access to all the materials and tools onsite, there was no need to go to the store and waste time thinking about which specific material is cheaper/better quality/most ethical. By using what you already have, you have the cheapest and most ethical material in your hands (but perhaps not the better quality!).
What projects have you had on your list for too long? What’s stopping you from just getting it done?
