Here's the map of our existing trees.  you can see we can use quite a lot more, many many more.  SO far I've thought to add a jacaranda, 3 pin oaks, walnuts, almonds.  Still need to pick quite a few more trees to fill the yard.  We'll put some wattles that drop seeds for the chooks to eat.  I'd like quite a few more that have autumn colour leaves too.

Here's some circles of the zones.  Zone 1 is about how far we'll walk for a bunch of parsley for dinner when it's raining.  Zone 2 is where the rest of the crops can go and beyond that we'll have the animals and trees and once a year crops.

I've been putting our plans on tracing paper, so we can layer them.   This is the set of structures that currently exist on our block.  The house is all squished up at the top left of the 2 acres.

This one shows the areas we can't build.  We have a drainage way 20m from the back line.  We have a nature strip out the front.

Elivation, sun information, drainage.

We said we'd not need a ride on mower, but the day has come

Jan's been using a good little program "Sweet Home 3D" to show him the layout of the shed he'd like to build in the paddock.  The idea is this will be Jan's hideaway, he'll be able to work out there and get his projects done.  A bit of a man cave I suppose.

the fish pond that came with the place was unsightly.  It also sprung a leak meaning Jan was continually replacing the water.   We've given up and started to fill it with dirt.  We'll plant some cool shade loving ferns here it's at the southern side of our house.  It'll take four scoops of soil to fill it!

It's amazing how many chooks will fit in the one nesting box! 

We've had a rough summer.  However the sage and the rosemary I planted have been going strong.  I hope they survive the winter!

We had self seeded tomatoes growing when we moved in and again now.  They'll provide us with many weeks of tomatoes in our salads as the warm weather ends.  I didn't plant any tomatoes this year, because they need netting from fruit fly.  Too much effort while pregnant / with a newborn.

We have just finished our season of tiny golden nuggest pumpkins.  I thought I wouldn't see any normal sized pumpkins this year, but finally I see some babies on the vine!!  The thing is, winter is coming.  Will the pumpkins get big enough and ripe enough before the frost comes.