100 Good THings
A blog about two folk, a dog and a tractor,
building a minimalist house and life in the country
Five years ago, my husband Phil and I embarked on building a solar passive, off grid, architecturally designed minimalist house in a paddock in rural NSW, Australia. I know what you are thinking: “a life in the country” means a big house and lots of land. Well, not so much. We have a bit of land and started out with a paddock consisting of two trees and a whole lot of grass.
This story documents the experiences of two folk, a dog and a tractor, and what we achieve as we build our house, learn to manage our land and realise the 100 Good Things that have earned their place in this adventure.
It has taken some years, but I've realised you don't need lots of things to have a good life - and it turns out there are many folk out there who already know this! There is an entire movement called minimalism with some amazing speakers and promoters (see The Minimalists blog), Brooke McAlary has written about slow living on her blog and in her book Slow, Live Life Simply, and a guy called David Bruno wrote a book about how he changed his life based on a strict interpretation of the idea. So it's not a new concept and whilst it is affirming that others have reached similar conclusions to me, what stands out is we can all have different techniques and reach the same outcome: a less complicated life.
But it takes time and purposeful effort. I've had hints that this adventure might reveal unexpected and humorous outcomes as our lives shift to a minimalist life in the country. The rhythm of the seasons, the dictates of the elements, land and animals, independent but with a growing sense of community, blah blah blah and its TRUE! The corker is how our minimalist sensibilities have dovetailed so neatly into this new world we glimpse and how glaringly impossibly they don't!
So what started out as an owner builder project has evolved to represent our statement of faith in the possibilities of our own abilities and growth. This blog details our experiences.
Lee Towle
2020
August
August for the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor involved a lot of hard physical work, all of which were just mere baby steps towards a future end goal. It reminded me of that saying “look after the present and the future will look after itself” (attribution unknown). So we persevered, we progressed and we stayed present.
May
May means garlic planting in the world of the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor. A total blur of everything garlic. Sitting around the kitchen table, ensconced in piles of garlic bulbs and cloves, buckets of soaking cloves, and cloves all laid out in neat rows for planting. Every step of the process is absorbing, tactile and bathed in autumn light. Happy days.
March
During March, the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor enjoyed the last few golden days of summer, and revelled in the cool change and rain. This month of season shifting is full of hope and energy. With the reveal of autumn, the leaf colour change, mushrooms in the paddocks and the orb spiders with their expansive webs, there is plenty of preparation. Garlic crop, kitchen garden, paddock tree plantings, and house build all dominate.
