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Bummer, did you guys get a replacement?

130 ft ✌️

@@offgridcitycouple5695 thanks from India 🇮🇳

Thanks for stopping by ✌️🙂

It works with Optus too, you'd just need to check out if there's an option for your network 👍 (but Telstra does generally have a bit more coverage)

Cheers 🙂 spent a couple years in engineering school, but most of it is just persistent research ✌️

@@offgridcitycouple5695 well done 🙌🏻

Thanks Arte, and thanks for stopping by 🙂

@@offgridcitycouple5695 my name is Paola - actually.

It is a pretty cool process hey 🙂 thanks for checking out our journey ✌️

It's an honour 🫡

It is a relief to have water set up, in the future there will be a buried poly line directly to the tanks and with them all connected up it'll be as simple as flicking a switch and the water replenishes itself and all the tanks fill from one tank :) At the moment we just fill the van up when it runs out of water with that 1" poly. A permanent connection would require digging up the driveway and installing an additional solar pump with a battery, charge controller and solar panel which is a lot of effort for something temporary... All simple life conveniences require a lot of effort when off grid lol And we were going to add inline filters when the iron was a problem, but since the minerals ended up settling to the bottom the water is beautiful. The final set up will probably benefit from some filters, just because silt can build up in water tanks overtime and that whole mix of minerals and silt can make the water taste weird to those who aren't used to it. But it really isn't a necessity because most germs need sunlight to grow and the tanks are closed off from any light. Being an irrigation professional is definitely a career option after all this lol Crocs are the ultimate farm shoes 👌 And yeah the pump is pretty impressive, it was putting in about 40L/minute and now that it's set up with solar power it's free to run. The grass on the mound is absolutely loving all this rain, but the growth slowing down now that the weather is cooling down. The rain isn't much of a problem other than slowing things down because the ground is too soggy to drive around or work with. We haven't had a dry week in a couple of months really, it's weird how much it's been raining.

Due to the longevity factor. Neighbours who have concrete tanks say they last forever. But funny enough it seems that concrete tanks are also one of those things that "they don't make like they used to". Ours have some workmanship issues that we found more and more of as we looked over the tanks. Long story short we'll be returning them back to the supplier and swapping out for poly. It's a real inconvenience... Steel and poly seem to have the same lifespan, poly is easier to manoeuvre and doesn't rust.

@@offgridcitycouple5695 people tell me that steel doesn’t leach chemicals… polymer tank are not good for drinking water… What is your opinion?

@@stephansmith1937 regular corrugated or colorbond steel tanks still have a poly liner inside them. But the pure stainless steel tanks would be the way to go if you're concerned about chemicals leaching out. Even concrete leaches some minerals too. Our take on it is that almost everything we buy is wrapped in plastic so it's kind of unavoidable to have contact with it. We're basically living in the Plastic Age right now 😅 and microorganisms are evolving to break down plastic so who knows what the ultimate long term implications are

We do get heaps when it's warm and humid, the tea trees don't seem to do anything other than provide a place for them to hide so they're ready to pounce when we walk past!

For a fast and reliable internet connection Starlink is unbeatable. We've used it for a year now and there's less outages than with any other type of internet provider we've ever had, and it's way faster.

That's the intent, do things once if we can! 🙂

Thanks Allison, pretty exciting to have water storage, it's the simple things we celebrate nowadays lol 🙂 Never thought about rodents damaging water tanks, that would not be a fun problem to deal with...

We were after longevity, and concrete is known to last longer. But that said, concrete tanks are heavier and hence harder to install/remove, and they can crack too. Steel ones are lined with a polymer on the inside and can rust if the paint is damaged, so it makes sense why poly tanks are so popular. Poly tanks still last a couple of decades and are really easy to install so there's pros and cons to all options.

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Thanks Andy 🙂 We're planning to put a 9x12 metre kit shed on there the size of that gravel pad in the shot. When weighing up concrete vs poly there's pros and cons for both. Concrete should last longer, but they can crack and are a lot heavier and hence harder to install. After getting these, poly tanks do seem like an easier/cheaper option to work with that still lasts a couple of decades. Afterall, if we ever needed to replace poly tanks we could then just prop them up with a crow bar and roll em down the hill! Not the same story with these 😅

Thanks Mike, it is very lucky 🙂 Some challenges with letting it settle and not getting too carried away with the sodium content but other than that it's like magic having water pouring out of the ground

That's the interesting thing about all this chemistry stuff, based on how unlikely it is for water to be non drinkable, the good old smell and taste test is good to go in most instances

Thanks Allison 🙂 It became a bit of a rabbit hole of information, hopefully someone finds it useful and has a shorter learning curve as a result

Thanks as always Oily Rags ✌Do you know what the challenge was with your neighbour's one? It wasn't fun to learn this stuff but as soon as we learned what sodic soil was, we had to get to the bottom of it all to make sure we don't create it. And when the water turned into ice tea from the iron that was real off putting. Thankfully all sorted out now 🙂

​@@offgridcitycouple5695 It was right on the edge of being Brackish water, haven't really seen him using that particular bore.

@@oilyragsgarage7200 that's the worst problem to have, would be so unfortunate to spend all that money just to find out the water can't be used

Hey Plowe Story good to see you too ✌️ Thanks for stopping by and yeah the weather is getting better in the Northern Rivers. This summer was HOT

It was good for the price for sure, and the people at the lab were really helpful. And when we saw the guidelines say "aesthetic only" we were like "challenge accepted" lol I've drunk it straight from the bore, no issues at all, just burped a few times as the stomach got used to it

Thanks Mr Little Lud ✌️ How far through the vid did you get? Not the most riveting topic this one 😅

@@offgridcitycouple5695 All the way, I was curious about the arsenic.

@@offgridcitycouple5695 I await your further progress with genuine interest as you have already impressed me with the planning that seems to be your signature.

Very interesting, do you know why that's the case? 🤔

@@offgridcitycouple5695 its to do with how the antenna resonates. when its upright its a thin little beam. on its side its a wide flat beam. wide and flat means you need to be less accurate for the same or better speeds

Thanks Stephen 🙂 it was either that or accepting that drought will always get the best of us, very grateful it turned out the way it did

Antony Flower was our diviner, really nice guy. Don't know if he'd make it out to SA though

Thank you for letting me know 👍

@@joejones1763 ✌️

On this occasion we didn't, maybe some other operators do. After we had already put the bore pump down the well, we learned from these comments that you can DIY install a flow sleeve on the bore pump. It's just another PVC pipe that covers the pump, so that it sucks water in from the bottom. This helps sand particles to fall to the bottom of the well, instead of coming in through the side inlet of the pump. But even without the sleeve, the amount of sediment we have coming through the pump is really minimal

Thanks Mr Foxx 🙂 surprisingly we don't see many snakes, and if we do they just keep their distance. It seems they avoid areas where we spend a lot of time, or maybe all the goannas keep them out. Sorry to hear about your dog. Can't imagine what that'd be like 😓

Everything is easier with the right kind of machine, sounds like the dream to have something like that 🙂

That's awesome you've got a 10 metre rise, if we knew it'd go 2 metres higher than anyone has seen before we probably would've looked for a higher property too. But hey, it's been a journey of building our own hill which is now like a watch tower 😅

As difficult as that situation was for you, at least you know at what level to build. I'm coming up to 20 years and love it, even with the ticks and leeches :-). The birds are our constant companion. It's the fires I worry about, and in 2019 we did lose, not all, but critical infrastructure that still isn't replaced. And a little like you, a neighbour really helped. As you may appreciate, the fire season looked dire, so our neighbour allowed us to park our heavy equipment on his property - where it was more likely to be saved by his poeple and RFS, and it was :-).

@@solarute5486 wow 20 years is a long while, you guys must be having a good time 😎 And we'll take a flood over a fire any day.. have u guys got much of a buffer between you and the trees?

@@offgridcitycouple5695 Buffer? Not big enough. And the bush grows back sooo Fast.

@@solarute5486 it's a tough one to manage 😓 we have so much to manage out here too. We blink, open out eyes and Lantana everywhere...

Just the pump. Everything else we found separately. Full set up kits cost way more but then there's the convenience of having it all there

Thank you DJ 🙏 One small step at a time. And are you DJ from Blue Mountains or a whole new DJ 😎

Hi. I am DJ from Biggera Waters in the Gold Coast😊

@@DJ-ke6tq good to meet you DJ 👋 on the rain radar yesterday looked like u guys got a whopper of a downpour 😮

all good though, lots of creeks that flow out to ocean so no inundation , a long way from that video you recorded in the March 2022 flooding of your property.

@@DJ-ke6tq yeah it'll probably be some time before something like that happens again, if ever. We prefer water over fires any day though

Thanks for the awesome feedback Andy 😎 glad the info we share is of benefit ✌️ Do Marron do well in Northern Rivers? We're looking forward to having all kinds of cool stuff in the dam once it holds water! Already got hollow logs ready to drop in as fish habitat 👍👍 And yeah the RnD is a lot of effort with us being completely new to most things 😅 but it's been good accepting that we know nothing and needing to learn a lot. By the time a video is made we've been on the phone with shops, labs, local land services, scoured obscure online forums, watched a bunch of other videos.. farmers in Australia just don't seem to share much knowledge online but when you meet them they're like encyclopaedias lol

@@offgridcitycouple5695 cheers for the reply 👍👍👍 Yer marron is a WA thing 🤣🤣🤣think you guys have the red claw species, smaller, long main claw arms, less meat 🤔🤔🤔 , I was keeping my comments short but do really appreciate what you are sharing on your channel, i'm sure many are benefiting from your homework and of course sharing 👍👍👍 Keep the awesome coming👍👍👍 Cheers Andy🍺🍺🍺

@@offcampnandy7727 thanks again Andy, it's real heart warming seeing the channel starting to actually benefit others - because it started out just as a random idea like "let's make some videos about moving into the middle of nowhere! " Best part is though, we put out something nice, and receive nice feedback. And that nice feedback from yourself and others is a reflection of how awesome you all are 🙂 So yeah, not sure how long TH-cam comments are best, but we have heard of those kinds of crayfish. That some are illegal if you take them across the boarder and all kinds of funny stuff. But it would be so cool to have a pond become a healthy food source one day, one day when it stops leaking lol.

Happy New Year to you too Allison 🙂 it was a magical moment for sure. And we can't wait for the cooler weather to get stuck back into everything. A year is a pretty long time so it's exciting to think about all that can happen from now until our next happy new year video. Thanks for your nice comments on our channel 🙂

happy new year to you too Gabby, all the best to you from us 🙂

Is the hearing and understanding part notable because you're from outside Australia? Or the cicadas are loud too, so great that you can still hear us lol Not sure how the numbers would go on every title, we could put all of them into a playlist though, then they can all play in a row automatically. We've already got some playlists started, but it is a cool idea to have a playlist summing up an entire year 🤔

Thanks Dave 🙂 good to hear your take on this topic as there's basically nothing out there online when it comes to dams silting up other than info on how to clean out the silt.

Oh gosh not leeches! One place we stayed at had so many we'd be pulling em off ourselves almost daily.. not fun at all. Hopefully u guys don't get midges like out here, they're arguably worse. Get u in the middle of the day even while you're walking

Happy 2024 to you too Oily Rags Garage 🙂 that's cool that you've heard the same thing about dams sealing. Online there's no information about this at all. Even before summer fully started we couldn't wait for winter already, it's so much easier to do stuff when it's cold, and now that midges are back it's whole new level of annoying lol but seeing grass growing on the mound is really nice

Nice job on that epic pond! It won't ever seal though unless you seal it from the start with pure bentonite. Even when it fills, it will empty very quickly, plus you have a large surface area and shallow depth so evaporation will be conciderable. Even if that pond had no leaks it would drop 5-10mm per day or 50-70mm per week due to evaporation. The sooner you seal it with bentonite the less it will cost in the long run...

@@bedurveghardwoodgardenbeds7047 it was leaking a bit, and we applied DamIt Dam sealer recently and it was super effective. Just monitoring the rate of leakage now from the initial application to share the results soon, it's an amazing product and can be applied straight to the water. Worked overnight for us 🙂

@@offgridcitycouple5695 it wont work long term. Used it myself years ago and polymer innovations (the original product). Both work initially then fail. And you are left with toxic plastic slime in your pond. Geoff Lawton also used it and failed. I recommended to Curtis Stone not to use but he too was impressed with the initial result until it failed. Now he is finally going the compacted clay route. I do hope it works for you, but that's $1000 you could've spent on bentonite clay. You can get 4-5 tonne of pure bentonite clay for that...

Yeah when we compared the cost of someone being out here full time testing every lift to only potentially be able to confirm level 1 compaction, we decided to put that money into a stronger foundation instead. Will be a really interesting project when it comes around

thank you Peter, all one day at a time, and all the best for the year ahead for you as well 🙂

🙂