First Swim in the 3/4 Acre Pond & Happy 2024
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ม.ค. 2024
- A pretty special moment to have the first swim in our farm pond after a really big downpour. And even though we noticed the level of the water dropping, which means that we'll probably need to do more work to the dam so that it holds water better - this was still a really nice core memory for us to see some of the hard work starting to pay off. Because even though essentially everything is still a work in progress, having a 100 metre swimming pool right in our backyard that we created is still really epic.
That's been the key with our journey so far. Even when things don't go to plan, we keep focusing on the possibilities, find solutions to challenges, and always keep our dreams alive until eventually they make their way into the real world. That's how it works when creating a beautiful off grid oasis - it definitely does not happen overnight. A beautiful property with majestic ponds, luscious lawns and nourishing orchards is something that takes years of hard work, care and persistence to create.
About Us:
We're Alex & Sarah, a young couple on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, who decided to move off grid and leave the city life behind in search of more peace and simplicity. Follow our journey as we share what we learn along the way while building our Fully Off Grid Home & restoring our Overgrown Organic Tea Tree Plantation.
Filmed with GoPro Hero 12 & DJI Mini SE Drone.
I love watching your journey and what you've accomplished so far. Have a great and prosperous 2024.
thank you Peter, all one day at a time, and all the best for the year ahead for you as well 🙂
Awesome to see things are coming together 👍👍👍
A few Marron raised in the dam would be an Awesome treat on the BBQ - 🦞🦞🦞
Lov watching you guys, information overload on your RnD is much appreciated, cheers for doing all the homework and + some 👍👍👍
Can't wait to see your homestead grow 👍👍👍
Cheer Andy🍺🍺🍺
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.
Thats awesome to see you guys swimming in your dam after the hard work of building it. I think it will seal up its self after a year or so.......most new dams always seem to drop to begin with
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.
Happy New Year. What a great way to start the year, swimming in your dam. I look forward to seeing what you get up to this year 🎉😊
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 🙂
Always remember to take time to smell the roses 🌹
We always have work to do, but if you don’t take time to enjoy what you have already done and created. Otherwise you will burn out and forget why you do what you do. ❤❤❤❤
Yeah that happens sometimes for us, everything becomes like a chore when the big picture is forgotten. So, this annoying time of year with all the heat and rain and midges has been good to remember all the good stuff again 🙂
But overall, every time we achieve something we start something else right away, so I guess maybe it's not about the next cool thing we create, but about the process of doing it and being able to enjoy the journey. People have said that all along since the beginning of time but it's only now sinking in lol
Looks like a lovely place to float around :) Happy New Year!!
happy new year to you too Gabby, all the best to you from us 🙂
Amazing progress, friends!
great to see the progress, made me laugh, if I swam in my dam I'd be eaten alive by leeches. 😁😁
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
Nice one guys, well done. Don't forget evaporation is a big thing too, it may not be leaks but just evaporation. Seeya Rob
Thanks Rob 🙂 the days have been hot so the air and sun would be stealing a bit of our water for sure!
You have accomplished so much so far, great to watch your journey as it unfolds, I know you will take it further in 2024 and I will enjoy watching the next chapters.🙂
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
How lovely!
🙂
Great progress and I can hear (and understand) every word you say, thank you. Any chance of numbering your 2024 videos? e.g 01-2024 02-2024? This would allow viewing in chronological order.
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 🤔
Theres a good chance that the dam will seal up with the silt. Not a bad time to recharge since its been so hot and humid.
Happy 2024 to you both😀👍.
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...
How do you guys go with snakes up there? Just be mindful of where and what your dogs are doing as red belly blacks will be attracted to your water source looking for food. I'm in the central tablelands and I've lost a dog to a snake bite and it wasn't a nice thing to witness. Congrates on your progress so far i like what your doing 🙏
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 😓
Drill down into the original ground 👍
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
Put some yubbies in their, free feed 😊
oh yeah there are some in the little ponds next to the dam, so they've probably already started colonising the dam 😀 Once it holds water we'll throw some hollow logs and root balls in there and get some fish going too