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sheeka11-blog · 7 years ago

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Reflecting on our new Business.

What do we enjoy? What are we good at? What are we passionate about? These 3 simple questions when answered would reflect and shape our thinking on what type of business venture we were about to create…

We love the prospect of being our own boss, the outdoors, being creative thinkers, planning, an opportunity to express ourselves through our work, surrounded by likeminded people, freedom, trust, nature, variety, being the creators of our own destiny, financial reward for these choices we make, hard and rewarding work, bringing happiness to ours and other people’s lives.

We knew we wanted to align our business venture to as many (if not all) of the values we identify with. We realised that establishing a business is very much like building a house: you first must clearly define what it is you are looking for in the venture, what do you want from it and how do you want to feel. The shape, design and final concept must follow this thinking, as it is only when you have your emotional shape and structure in place, that the design appears.

Our pathway to Creating “Northlanding House & Garden Services” appeared when we were given the opportunity to prepare a newly built home for its owners. The trades teams had completed their work and although he house was now ‘ready’ for its new owners, it was filled with all the remains of the build teams including lots and lots of dust, dirt, grubby windows and general leftovers of the build. Our challenge was to present it in a ready to move in state. We did this with enthusiasm and focus, and after 8 hours, the place was complete. The gap between builders moving out and owners moving in was being filled by us, and it was pretty neat. We took on several more new builds and delivered the same results which resulted in our pathway taking another wee turn…

We were introduced to Richard Dunbar who manages Mangonui Holiday Homes http://www.mangonuiholidayhomes.co.nz a beautiful range of properties in and around the Coopers Beach/Cable Bay area. The properties are incredibly well appointed, and the majority have uninterrupted sea views. Richard invited us to consider undertaking Spring cleans on several of his properties that would involve servicing the inside and outside. We accepted the opportunity and immediately set to work planning our schedules and establishing a work plan for each property.

We have been operating our wee Business for 4 months now and the variety of work we now undertake has become wide and varied. We absolutely love working with Richard, not only is he inspiring, he is also like minded in his attitude to hard work and high standards.

We work with individual Holiday home owners too where we service and manage the overall presentation of their properties. We also undertake one off jobs that includes water blasting driveways as well as house washing. Recently we started working with estate agencies where we prepare and present properties prior to going onto the market for sale.

We had some decals produced for our vehicle that advertises our business, we’ve also placed some business cards around the local area which is generating interest.

The most important component of what we are doing is that we are really happy doing it, it’s our business, our choice and our responsibility for its success. It’s a little meaningful opportunity that’s making a difference to our lives and to those we are working with.

It’s been quite an amazing (almost) 12 months since we packed up, sold up and left Auckland to begin a new chapter in our lives. On November 4th we celebrate 1 year in the North…a journey that has been filled with everything, including blood, sweat and tears….

Thank you friends.

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sheeka11-blog · 7 years ago

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Bringing it Home

I’m going to try and capture our experience of bringing a ‘House together’ in such a way that I don’t lose you through sheer boredom or by length of time…..here goes.

As with every experience there should be a beginning, or in our case, a catalyst. Our Blog gives you an insight into Why we stepped out of ‘life as we knew it’ and chose the road less travelled.

With every lesser road, there are far fewer sign posts and far more pot holes which meant we had to negotiate a whole lot more and make so many decisions that were either challenging, sacrificing or damn hard.

The Catalyst: I had been out that Sunday and when I returned home I found Brooke in a distressed state, she had had another very challenging experience brought on by an unhealthy relationship at work, and she was done. That afternoon she wrote her resignation letter and gave her anchor of 22 years, 6 months’ notice. I encouraged her to do this and backed her all the way. That was that, 6 months to plan, to dream to visualise a life without the constraints the past had been imposing upon us . September 2nd was her last day, and mine was to be 1 month later. So, by the 2nd of October we were officially unemployed and it felt amazing…….

We had purchased land in the Far North of NZ several months earlier and although we hadn’t planned on heading north quite so soon, we were incredibly excited to be doing so.

One minor hurdle to get over before our big move was to sell our home in Warkworth. We absolutely loved our home, and over the 5 years we lived there we nurtured our Old girl back to her former glory. We painted her, pulled her apart, refitted bathrooms, put on new decks and verandas and fenced off the surrounding paddocks to allow the few sheep we had to enjoy a wee bit of variety. Auctions are funny things, they require interested parties, reasonable weather and some luck! Fortunately, we had most of that and on the day of the auction. We had a great turn out and reasonable weather. ½ an hour after it all began, it was over and a family from Onehunger were to become the next guardians of our home.

Moving on: On November 3rd, 2016, we hooked our Caravan onto our UTE and travelled North to begin the next chapter in our lives…

500 Olive trees, a beautiful River called the Oruaiti and a view to die for welcomed us to Northlanding. Initially the name Northlanding was just a working title by our Architect Tonia Williams, but we really liked it and after a quick search on the Business directory names we discovered no-one had grabbed this name yet, so we did!

The Plan: Quite simply within the next 12 months we planned to gain and understanding, then harvest our Olives, establish a business…oh and build a house. The good news was, prior to coming up we had had several quality meetings with Tonia, and together we had come up with a design that we loved. Tonias job was to formulate the plans and configure our unique construction concept to them. We were building with SIPS panels http://www.formance.co.nz/ and this house would be the ‘first’ of its kind in the Far North of NZ which meant we had to find a building crew capable of, willing to and able to (with the quantity of houses going up in the area) take on the project. We found one in Doubtless Bay Builders where Melv and Jacqui who co- own the company said yes. Building would commence in March which worked our really well as we wanted to get our fences and our Garage up first.

We had an amazing Summer living in our wee caravan with our dogs and our Olive trees. We got to know the ‘lay of the land’, swam in the river, went paddle boarding down it, welcomed friends, met our neighbours, pruned our trees, cut our 5 hectares of grass and genuinely embraced life. We took a while, but eventually we had let go of our ‘other life’ and had stepped into a new way of living. We realised we needed (an awful lot) less to have (an awful lot) more. Less stuff, less stress, less clutter, less money coming in, less space to live in and I guess most importantly less people. When I say less people, I mean, we now get to choose who we want in our lives and we have some incredibly special people in it, we cherish these friendships so much. We had more time to relax, more time for people that really mattered to us, more energy for each other and our precious dogs, more focus on building a new and exciting business and more passion to throw ourselves into our ‘new life’ in the North.

The Build: Our life slowly began to revolve almost 100% around the house and remember that ‘road less travelled’ part I talked about earlier, well, we were well and truly on and in it now. A beautiful quote about tough times has stayed with me throughout the House building experience, it’s by Robert H. Schuller and its says “Tough times never last, but tough people do.

We had an incredibly tough time, so tough in-fact that it almost broke us, not broke us up, but to experience so much stress, exhaustion, vulnerability and uncertainty and even anger, almost every day towards the end of our build literary made us unwell. We were eating badly, we were not sleeping, we were losing weight, money was running out along with a lot of our tears, relationships with contractors and suppliers were strained and it was very very difficult to make rational decisions. There were days when one of us just could not go on, couldn’t cope with the pressures and it was up to the other one, who was a little stronger that particular day to push through on what had to be done. There is absolutely no question that together we were stronger, and together we got through it. When it came down to it, all that truly mattered was protecting each other and being a strength for each other.

It’s all over: The builders finished what they had to do on the Friday. They left that afternoon and for the first time in months, it was just us: Me, Brooke and the dogs in our home. Things were not complete, there was no fire installed, storm water pipes still had to go in, Gib had to go up in kitchen, windows had to be finished, more painting had to be done, electrics had to be finished and it pretty much rained every day, which meant mud everywhere…but it was ours.

The beginning: We have been in our house for 6 weeks now and all (apart from the painting) is complete. We even managed to have a holiday in the UK to celebrate my wonderful Mums 80th birthday. Time away from the place was going to determine how we might feel about everything.

I truly believe we were operating/existing/coping at a level beyond measure, we were so tired we couldn’t sleep and so stressed we weren’t aware of what was normal anymore. When we arrived in the UK, it was 6.30am UK time and when we came through arrivals we were met by my wonderful Mum and amazing wee sister who had got up at 4.30am to go all the way (by bus) to the Airport to meet us. My eyes fill with ‘happy’ tears as I write this, as it was such a tonic, a generous gesture of their love and support for us. We were beginning to heal already.

The next few weeks was all about family, re-connection and re-energising. We felt the love and support in abundance through laughter, through celebrations and togetherness. Absence did make the heart grow fonder, there was one particular day when Brooke and I were out walking through Scotland’s stunning countryside and she said “you know what? I’m feeling really positive about the future and about going home”. I too felt it, the past was where it belonged, we had stepped into a new era…a new beginning.

We have started our new Business, well three actually. Our Olive Oil is going well, we also started ‘Northlanding Home and Garden Services’ where we service holiday homes and gardens in and around the area, it’s going really well and it’s all on our terms, which clients we say yes to and which ones we say no to and its empowering and inspiring at the same time.

Our other business is our holiday accommodation cabin. We have named it the ‘River Bothy’. Since we named our House ‘The River House’, we decided the cabin can be a smaller version of the house. It’s based on the old settler’s style cabin where the shower and toilet are in a little separate unit and the cabin itself is where the comfortable and cosy bed and seating area is. It is nestled within the Olive groves with views to the River and countryside. Its peaceful, private and most all, we want people to come stay somewhere they too can experience and appreciate the precious things in life like each other, like nature and to be reminded that although ‘the road less travelled’ may have been bumpy, confusing and challenging, it was also worth it in the end.

We have so much more knowledge, strength and self-awareness now, that if the opportunity presented itself to us in the shape of another road with no sign posts and lots of pot holes with the possibility of growth, empowerment and inspiration as the end result, would we take it or would we follow the path others have taken before us………….

I hope you stayed with me to the end and I hope you have gained an insight into how we lived through a really difficult time and how we pushed through and then let go……. it’s everywhere, in abundance.

Be your own Destiny maker, be your own Path maker.

Some photos that hopefully summaries the past 11 months for you….

Northlanding logo. Designed by Danny Neil design. A friend, a colleague, an inspiration

Caravan arriving at site

Settled in for the Summer

Caravan living.

Summer Selfie

Me and my special boy.

Very, very special friends…..how we cherish these relationships.

Paddling on the Oruaiti River

Sun rising over the Oruaiti River

The River House site meeting

Northlanding HQ. Planning board

Site ready for Garage

And 3 weeks later, she’s up

House site cleared and ready to begin the Build

Foundations in and scaffolding ready and waiting for the arrival of the Trusses

Trusses going into place. The team made these off site and we spend a few days treating them with Danish Oil to protect them against the elements when they were outside.

The giant SIPS panels were all painted with 3 coats prior to being hoisted into place.

Pretty cool Ariel shots of the work underway. Taken by Kieren Malone using his Drone

Back on the ground and the SIPS walls are flying up.

A few days later and the roof is going on, check out the amazing sky

Solar panels are so cool…..sunbathing all day long…bring it on

When you need a little joy in your life, just look up. Picture perfect.

The River House has arrived….

Looking out across the River from upstairs

A view from the Living area

Downstairs bedroom and little courtyard. Be handy in the summer for shade

Olives and Oil

Learning (as we go) the Art of pruning Olive trees

Lots and lots of clippings

Which we dragged with the quad bike and some tarpaulin to an area on the lower side and made pathways through to the River…

Ripe Olives, ready to be Shaken Down

A ¼ tonne of Olives. One of many Shaken down that day

Labels designed by Danny Neil. What a guy!

The end results. Our very own Olive Oil with their swanky labels

Look who turned 80 years young. Our wonderful Mum. An inspiration to us all…..

Thanks to you dear reader, thanks for taking the time to read my wee Blogaroo.

Any feedback is welcomed…..

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sheeka11-blog · 7 years ago

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Bringing it Home

I’m going to try and capture our experience of bringing a ‘House together’ in such a way that I don’t lose you through sheer boredom or by length of time…..here goes.

As with every experience there should be a beginning, or in our case, a catalyst. Our Blog gives you an insight into Why we stepped out of ‘life as we knew it’ and chose the road less travelled.

We had purchased land in the Far North of NZ several months earlier and although we hadn’t planned on heading north quite so soon, we were incredibly excited to be doing so.

Moving on: On November 3rd, 2016, we hooked our Caravan onto our UTE and travelled North to begin the next chapter in our lives…

Be your own Destiny maker, be your own Path maker.

Some photos that hopefully summaries the past 11 months for you....

Northlanding logo. Designed by Danny Neil design. A friend, a colleague, an inspiration

Caravan arriving at site

Settled in for the Summer

Caravan living.

Summer Selfie

Me and my special boy.

Very, very special friends…..how we cherish these relationships.

Paddling on the Oruaiti River

Sun rising over the Oruaiti River

The River House site meeting

Northlanding HQ. Planning board

Site ready for Garage

And 3 weeks later, she’s up

House site cleared and ready to begin the Build

Foundations in and scaffolding ready and waiting for the arrival of the Trusses

Trusses going into place. The team made these off site and we spend a few days treating them with Danish Oil to protect them against the elements when they were outside.

The giant SIPS panels were all painted with 3 coats prior to being hoisted into place.

Pretty cool Ariel shots of the work underway. Taken by Kieren Malone using his Drone

Back on the ground and the SIPS walls are flying up.

A few days later and the roof is going on, check out the amazing sky

Solar panels are so cool…..sunbathing all day long…bring it on

When you need a little joy in your life, just look up. Picture perfect.

The River House has arrived….

Looking out across the River from upstairs

A view from the Living area

Downstairs bedroom and little courtyard. Be handy in the summer for shade

Olives and Oil

Learning (as we go) the Art of pruning Olive trees

Lots and lots of clippings

Which we dragged with the quad bike and some tarpaulin to an area on the lower side and made pathways through to the River...

Ripe Olives, ready to be Shaken Down

A ¼ tonne of Olives. One of many Shaken down that day

Labels designed by Danny Neil. What a guy!

The end results. Our very own Olive Oil with their swanky labels

Look who turned 80 years young. Our wonderful Mum. An inspiration to us all…..

Thanks to you dear reader, thanks for taking the time to read my wee Blogaroo.

Any feedback is welcomed.....

zdsz�

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sheeka11-blog · 7 years ago

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Solar sooooo Good

The Solar frames were designed by Nick, our Solar man and built by our onsite team, three tilting frames facing north and designed to hold twelve panels. The tilt option allowed us to maximise the changing position of the sun throughout the year by tilting the frames accordingly. During the summer months, for example, the frames will lie flat, in a horizontal position.

The next step was installing the panels This was such a cool phase of the solar journey as we got to help Nick secure the panels to the frames. They are one metres wide by two metres long and although they aren’t heavy, you do have to treat them with a lot of care to avoid any scratches or scuffs to the surface.

After several hours, they were in place and looked gorgeous!

As we positioned the panels, Nick was busy laying cables, installing the system control centre inside the house and working with the build team to hoist the heavy batteries into place.

Two days later (and for Nick very little sleep), we were ready to hand the panels over to mother nature and invite her to ‘do her thing’.

What a beautiful sight, up went the panels, up came the sun and up went our power reading. Natures power, sustainable energy – feels fantastic and a massive goal of ours achieved.

Our journey with Nick has only just begun, in him we have found one of life’s true gems, a pure and humble individual whose value and worth to us surpasses any financial or materialistic levels. When we met Nick, he introduced us to his world, to his aspirations and goals and inspired so much of our thinking and being.

We set out with the intention of installing solar and we ended up with so much more. Thank you, Nick. What a bargain, a bonus and a blessing.

Windows

It felt like such a long time from being ready for the windows to when they actually arrived. We had been very fortunate with the weather throughout the whole building phase and it wasn’t until the house was exposed and at its most vulnerable did the wind and rain hammer us.

Tarpaulin covered every opening. 58% of the building has a window or door, brilliant for views, for light and for the summer breeze, but very challenging when you’re trying to keep the inside dry. But we got there… We were almost 1 month like this.

You can imagine our delight and relief when the windows arrived. Two trailers loaded with windows and doors and it was a beautiful sunny day….yay!

Dormer window frame going in and the boys are happy.

And it fits. The stunning views are starting to appear

Large Bi-fold going in

Fits like a glove

Let there be Glass.

In goes the large glass panel above the living room bi-fold and into the dormer window for the mezzanine. Another milestone achieved.

After the long wait for windows, they were all in within 3 hours. Next update will be the big reveal....watch this space....

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sheeka11-blog · 7 years ago

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Panels + Paints + Frames

The SIPS panels are up and looking fantastic. This is such a wonderful milestone for our Doubtless Bay building crew having achieved such a brilliant result in such a short space of time. They have also commenced an abundance of other work including the installation of the large 45-degree roof, the facias, the soffit frames, upstairs storage and mezzanine floor structure.

One of the coolest thing we get to experience now that the panels are in place is the views from each opening where the windows and bi-fold doors will be fitted.

We have been busy filling nail holes, no-more gapping the joins and painting the huge panels and we’ve loved it! The benefit of giving the panels 2 coats of paint when they were on the ground means we only needed to give them 2 coats when they are up rather than tackle the mammoth job at crazy, steep 45 degree angle.

Having completed the lounge painting, in came Alex, the concrete grinder man. We are going for a dark finish to compliment the high, light walls as well as the abundance of natural light. We deliberately selected light stones within the mix to try to create a ‘sky at night effect’ and its totally worked.

As with all builds, scaffolding is a necessity and ensuring it was site safe fell to our contractor Mr Nuie, thankfully he approved its structural integrity as well as ease of access.

SOLAR so good

In a few days’ time, our Solar man Nick will be onsite to commence stage 1 of the onsite work for our exciting installation. He has been building the main system off site at his workshop which will be the operational hub of the system.

Meanwhile, onsite, the team have built 3 large tilting frames ready to receive the solar panels. This is so exciting as, in a few days’ time, we will have power, 100% off grid.

Enjoy the read friends and stay tuned to our Instagram page at northlanding90 or facebook northlanding…..

Catch you later..

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sheeka11-blog · 7 years ago

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The House is Up

It took 5 days, 5 builders, 2 lachies (us) and a Hiab operator to achieve this outstanding result.

First up was the walls, and the first opportunity for the team to get their heads around and their hands on this SIPS product. We had the support of Kieren Mallone from specialist team down in Auckland to help get the build started. What a great guy, his only goal was to ‘not get in the way’ and he certainly achieved that! Melv and his team of builders really welcomed Kieren along with his knowledge. The challenge and the journey began at 08.00 Monday morning.

We have catalogued the most significant images of the construction starting from the very first Wall panel all the way to the last roof panel.

The ‘pièce de résistance’ was the Dorma window and how the get this large structure in place with the added challenge that it is self-supporting, therefore, how to set one piece in place, hold it there, whilst you hoist the second piece…….

PHOTOS OF WALLS UP

PHOTOS OF ROOF UP

PHOTOS OF DORMER

There she is in all her glory. Now to get her dressed!!

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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Logos and Labels

We engaged a good friend and a great designer to help bring our company logo and olive oil label concept to life. Danny Neill not only achieved this, but he has exceeded our expectations on delivering a visually playful and impacting brand design.

We are blown away by the creative thinking and simplicity of the design for ‘Shaken Down Olive Oil’. After sending Danny a descriptive scribble and a sketch to capture the quirky side of our thinking, Danny went ahead to create a memorable, stand out label.

Danny Neill can be contacted for any Product or Graphic design at very reasonable rates. He’s efficient, detail driven and an excellent communicator, we know we will use him again. His email is [email protected]

A business’s success is very much dependent on its Product and its Brand.

We are working hard to create our Products of self-contained accommodation cabins and olive oil, that we feel are deserving of our location and the market we intend to target.

We are driven by our Mission which is “to conserve natural resources and to demonstrate sustainability and Eco friendly practices whilst engaging with visitors and our community”.

The accommodation will provide an experience where visitors can immerse themselves amongst the olive trees in boutique, self contained, Eco-friendly cabins with views over the beautiful Oruaiti river.

A Facebook page and Northlanding website are under construction and we will continue to update you all on our progress.

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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‘The Movers & Shakers’

Movers

Two significant events have occurred in the past few weeks, both creating milestones in their own, unique way.

Winter is upon us and with this comes shorter days with less sunshine. Over the summer months the sun tracked beautifully where we were located in our caravan, however now the sun is tracking lower and its much cooler in the mornings and into the evenings. We had talked about moving the caravan down nearer the site and next to the river, however, we hadn’t quite decided when? Last Monday, the conditions were perfect and we were on! Down came the awning (spiders an all), that was the easy bit. Next to move the caravan, we would have to turn it full circle in a tight, sloped site.

Alas it had to be done: Brookies encouraging directions kept me going: “forward, reverse, stop, yell, yell a bit more, turn, no! the other way, OK go for it”. It was Precarious and scary, we were nervous and determined, good match we thought, 20 minutes later it was all over…job done.

We are now in prime spot, overlooking our River, 50 meters from the house site and feel wonderful. It’s like starting out all over again, except we are now about 7 weeks away from moving into our home, rather than 7 months.

Shakers

We took a leap of faith and got a ‘man’ in to harvest our Olive trees. We had originally planned to hand harvest the trees and enjoy the experience of using hand harvest tools to ‘drop’ the olives onto large matting then gather them up off the ground, pack them into 20kg crates and then cart them off to Olivado for pressing. Our neighbour had the Tree Shaker man on his property as we drove by last week, and us being partial to a wee bit of impulsiveness, turned the car around and went to ‘inquire’ about the Tree Shaking process. After 30 minutes we were convinced that all our ideals of doing it ourselves would have worn off very very quickly and to gather up a minimum of 600 kg’s every day was going to be a very tall order.

Two hours after Andrew Taylor, the ‘Tree Shaker Man’ arrived onsite with his mighty machine, he had shaken 50 of our best fruit laden trees and brought down around 700 kg of fruit.

We were then able to get them carted off for pressing that day. We are now waiting to pick up our oil and begin the exciting process of bottling our very own, first batch of ‘Shaken Down Olive Oil’.

Our Trees are called J5’s and date back to around 1850 when the first settlers brought them over from Europe. These particular trees have adapted well the Northland climate and can fruit on the first year of planting. The Oil itself is mellow in flavour with a distinctive ‘peppery’ taste and a very good all-rounder. We intend to pickle or brine the remaining olives on our trees as the J5’s are a larger olive and are excellent for this purpose.

Watch this space for the launch of ‘Shaken Down Olive Oil’. Delicious quantities of oil will be available for sale….

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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It all starts with a ball of String

In the beginning, our ambition was to build a house that would be 100% off the grid, to be self-sufficient, to Unplug from all that we have come to depend on to maintain a home life…

Welcome to our ‘Unplugged world’…were it all starts with a ball of string.

The site was cleared over a few days and the profiles were set to ensure our ‘Little Big House’ would be pin point accurate in dimension. 78m2 and views to die for.

First levels of foundations are laid with tonnes of metal and topped off with sand. This is the lower level of the house where the living room will be, we jump up 600mm to the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom from here.

After the builders’ head home, we race down to site to check on the days progress. It’s always exciting to see what’s ‘new’. The sand is packed down firmly and levelled to receive the Rib Raft, the next step of foundation work. In this image, the dogs decided it would become their playground for (only) a few minutes, but the displacement of sand was pretty epic! We quickly grabbed some rakes and re-established the sand. Luckily the next day, the builders packed it all down -phew!

Rib Raft http://www.firth.co.nz/residential/foundations/ribraft/ is an innovative method of concrete floor construction sits 'on' the ground not 'in' the ground making it seismically strong. The system uses polystyrene pods, steel reinforcing rods, plastic spacers and RaftMix™ concrete. Each of the components fit simply together, dramatically reducing labour time and costs

Once these technical components were in place and signed off by council inspectors, we had the opportunity to work with the building team ramming the concrete in and around all the edges of the Rib Raft. Melv and Steve, our awesome builders, worked tirelessly running back and forth with wheelbarrows of concrete, it was a race against time as the concrete sets quickly. Great work out for everyone…

Next step was levelling the actual concrete floor level and once again, Melv and Steve worked meticulously with focus and close attention on achieving a stunning outcome for us. We will be polishing the concrete floors throughout the house and a well finished, initial stage will produce the optimum final stage i.e. beautifully levelled polished floors.

And here we go to the upper level where the metal and sand foundations are complete. The front end of the sand is where the kitchen will be situated, this will capture those beautiful views and look over the living area. Our goal was to have a multi-functional kitchen space where yes you cook, but you also have views all around you, you can access all areas of the house easily and are outside in a couple of steps. If you look down on the house from above, it’s a bit like a cross or aeroplane shape with the kitchen dead centre. Smart design from our Architect Tonia. Again, it’s about getting maximum use of the small space.

As the builders build the house, we got in on the action and started construction of our vege gardens. We hammered, we sawed, we banged in posts and transferred about 200+ wheelbarrows of soil into the space and after around 8 hours, we had our first vege garden complete.

Deliberately situated beside the water tanks and in the suns pathway, we have set it all up for success, just letting nature do its thing now…

Once the concrete is poured on our upper level, we are officially out of the ground and ready to start our much-anticipated SIPS journey. The Far North is about the receive its very first building made from Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPS). You can read all about SIPS here http://www.formance.co.nz/

It has been a long journey by many, there’s no denying it’s so exciting to finally get to the point of readiness, but in a few short days, our slab will be poured and ready to welcome SIPS, it’s companion for the rest of its life.

As you read this edition of our Blog, our SIPS panels are being manufactured and in a few weeks, they will arrive on site, we will document the whole process of the installation of the panels as it will not only be a first for the far north, but for anyone interested in experiencing the speed, efficiency, accuracy and aesthetic appeal of this process, this will be one to watch.

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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Murphy Brown - A Life Lived

Dedicated to our darling Murphy Brown who, on Monday 26 March 2017, joined her big sister and brother and crossed over the rainbow bridge.

11 Years ago, we came across a litter of puppies, up for adoption at the German Shepherd Rescue Trust http://www.gsdrescue.org.nz/ and amongst these little bundles of joy was number 434. She was boisterous and climbing all over her siblings. We just looked at each other and said, there she is.

We had to wait a few weeks to get her home as along with her Mum, the litter had been abandoned at a very young age, and we had to wait the standard 10 weeks until she could come home.

We wanted to name her something to do with dark beer like Guinness, but the name Murphy just seemed to fit. It wasn’t long until she was being called Murphy Brown, Little Miss Murph, Smurfet and a few more befitting names depending on what she was up to…

Murphy has lived in 5 homes with us, had 5 playmates and most importantly, she had 5 wonderful months up here in her new home, in the Far North of New Zealand. Not a bad innings for a wee Orphan.

Murphy fell in love at a very young age and like a real life love story, she only ever had one true love: As soon as she cast her big hazel eyes on Mr Kodak, it was love at first sight, well it was for her anyway, Kodak found her somewhat annoying, irritable and puppy needy, after all she was so young and had been round the block a few times…her persistence paid off eventually and soon Kodak had a constant companion to run with, to swim with and to groom. She wound him round her little paw and even gained his approval to share his favourite dog bed….

When it was time for Mr Kodak to cross his rainbow, little Murphy Brown took it real hard, and we would often find her lying under the house, keeping herself to herself, wanting almost to grieve for her lost soul mate. In her own time, she would eventually re-join the pack. We hadn’t planned on bringing another dog into the family, and had resigned ourselves to being a 3-dog home…. but!

In June of 2015, Brooke spent some time over on the Island of Nuie with the Zoo as they had to hold their new Elephant, Anjalee there in quarantine. Whilst there, she met, and fell in love with a street dog…and yes, you’ve guessed it, 3 months later, a whole lot of paperwork and red tape, and our pack was now 4 again. Not a replacement for Mr Kodak, but we did have another male in the house, which did intrigue Miss Murphy somewhat. The pack dynamic changed for the better and we were now seeing Murphy up on the deck a lot more, enjoying the sunshine and watching the other 3 find their place with each other. It was at this time, Murphy found her place too. She would become Matron Murphy (another name she inherited) and would often step in with the others, or when she just wanted quiet, she became the watcher, the listener, the peacemaker…. she found her place.

These past 5 months have been, without a doubt, the happiest times for our family.

The wide-open spaces, the beautiful river, spending everyday together and choosing happiness as our constant companion has enlightened all of our lives. Murphy just loved getting amongst it, running with her pack, swimming, even getting on the paddle board and most of all, she was content with her life and new home.

We learned over time, not to expect Murphy to come to us for cuddles or kisses, it wasn’t her, but when you initiated cuddles, or gave her a gentle back rub, she always welcomed it. You might get lucky and be rewarded with one of her (rare) quick kisses. But, the love this little dog emanated was so powerful, you could feel it. It’s a lesson we learned very quickly, that to have Murphy in your life, was to have pure, unconditional love too. That’s when they say, don’t go trying to find love, it will find you.

The past month has been one of the most difficult and yet meaningful too. We knew she wasn’t right, she had slowed down and there was some swelling around her abdomen that wouldn’t subside. The Vet team examined her, took bloods and x rays and determined there is something ‘lurking’ but couldn’t be conclusive without further, more intense examination. She was given some medication that seemed to perk her up, and for a few weeks we got our ‘Girl’ back. She was eating and swimming and interacting with the others and it was a joy to observe.

Last weekend we saw another change, she went downhill quickly and became very lethargic not wanted to eat, but wanted to drink lots. On Sunday night, she collapsed and we rushed to the emergency vet who diagnosed increased internal fluid and prepared us for the worst-case scenario.

At 1.30am she relapsed and we all knew her time with us was coming to its end. Her farewell was graceful and powerful at the same time. She went gently across her bridge where her one true love would be waiting, tail wagging and a big goofy kodak smile to take her to their forever playground.

A lesson on Life – A lesson on Living – A lesson on Love

Murphy Brown

19 March 2006 – 25 March 2017

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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Garage Installment

Our Total Span garage is now complete, and as our first building on the property it was a very exciting installment to observe. We certainly have an appreciation of the work and thinking that goes into the foundations. In this case ensuring the garage floor levels worked in with the landscape and driveway height, preventing water run off from heavy rains flooding into the garage.

Two 25,000 Litre water tanks are positioned at the back of the garage and set up to receive the rain.

Our builder Melville of Doubtless Bay Builders, managed to construct amongst the olive trees. With only one tree sacrificed the end result makes the garage seem like it has always been here, nestled into the trees.

Our furniture arrived out of storage and although we paired down on ‘stuff’ before we left Auckland, it was bitter sweet to see it all again - after caravan living we really haven’t missed our ‘stuff’ at all.

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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Caravan Living

Our Caravan living experience began on November 3rd, 2016, so how has this experience evolved over the past 3.5 months?

We have been big fans of the Tiny house movement http://www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/ for many years and wanted to build our own Tiny house one day. The attraction is tenfold from de-cluttering your lifestyle, living with what you really need rather than what you think you need and most of all living simpler. The opportunity to experience Tiny living in our caravan is giving us a taste of things to come……so how is that going?

To achieve the optimum outcome for two people and 4 dogs living in a small space there are 3 key factors that must be adhered to no matter what!

Quantity – Respect – Control

Quantity – Having the right amount of stuff i.e.; clothing, bedding, plates, pots, food, power etc.

Respect – Use everything effectively i.e.; wash up straight after meals, do weekly washes at local laundry for $4 a wash, shop wisely and be mindful of using up what you have first, grow your own veggies, use the beautiful soil and experience the taste of homegrown, wholesome food.

Control - Time is precious, control what you do with it, get outside, do physical work, come inside to eat, sleep, watch TV, shower, change etc. Manage your power, use only what you need when you need it and then turn it off, water is precious when you are off the grid, rather than running a tap, fill glass bottles up and keep them cooling in the fridge.

We’ve come to realise that we don’t live in a Caravan, we live here, on our wee piece of paradise and a caravan is part of that life. The Caravan is a wonderful part of our life, its complimentary, even encouraging us to get ’outside’. It has a role in our life and it performs it very well.

We keep it very tidy because you can’t get away from yourself when you’re inside it, you leave any clutter or dirty dishes around the place, well, they are hanging out with you, therefore there is a real desire to keep things in order.

Inside the Caravan is 5m x 2.5m, it comprises of lounge/bedroom, kitchen, shower room and toilet. Storage is all around the upper part comprising of 15 little compartments, a wardrobe and under seat compartments, plenty of space for what we have and for what we need. The little fridge is compact but complimentary to our ‘Respect’ factor and our full-size cooker is ‘all mod cons’, we can cook anything we like, no restrictions. There’s even a wee set of bunkbeds which we have converted into a worktop for kitchen prep.

Outside the Caravan we have a full-size awning which takes care of the 4 dogs and their beds, as well as the tool dep’t, laundry basket and some storage boxes for the ‘stuff’ we thought we’d need but hardly use.

The Garden and Deck is a well-used and welcome addition to our wee place. The garden was created as a by-product when we relocated the decking to the site. We inherited 2 shipping containers from previous owners that we had to get rid of due to council permits and they had some useful decking that we kept. We wanted to have a place to step out onto from the caravan and when we placed the decking onto the site, we also relocated a heap of soil to level it with the Caravan, and hey presto the extra soil became the gardens. Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and beautiful herbs are now in abundance.

Around the Caravan is a temporary fence to keep dogs from taking off (to the building site) without us. We’re surrounded by Olive trees which we’ve hung our hammocks on to enjoy afternoon reading time. A little BBQ has served us well and a neat little storage table holds our fuel cans and some gardening items.

We’re living quite simply, and really enjoying living consciously and respecting what is precious. Our build is coming along and one day we will move out of our little caravan and into something a little bit bigger, but not too much thankfully.

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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The River

January has been a great month, the sun has been shining non stop, we received our very first visitor from Auckland and our fence has been installed around the house boundary site.

It was wonderful catching up with our dear friend Jane, thank you for bringing up an array of delights and for giving paddle boarding a go (you were pretty awesome at it by the way)

Establishing a fence around the house site boundary had to have been achieved in January as earth works and building works from late January would have been in the way of the fencing team. DBL contractors are a brilliant team. They were meticulous, detailed, hardworking, precise and particular about their workmanship. This pleased us no end as this type of team are exactly who we like to work with.

As well as achieving a beautiful ‘to look at’ fence, we also achieved a significant milestone in securing an area for the dogs when we are off site where they have shelter and security as well as the all important containment component.

Our beautiful River holds significant historical value in the Mangonui area and recently we came across a book called “The River, The Valley and The People. A story of Oruaiti spanning 140 years”. The story tells of the first immigrants from the UK who settled along the river from 1840 and shares the journey of their families throughout the years as they expanded along the long river establishing their farms and lifestyles. It’s not only a wonderful read, it talks of our wee piece of paradise and how it connected two particular families.

The ideal way to experience the River and all her historical secrets is to join her as she meanders her way throughout the valley, hugging the river bank, revealing the 150 year old Magnolia tree and revealing little pockets of wonder along the way. We hopped on our paddle boards and explored the Grand old lady.

and the fence worked!

#River

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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Christmas at Northlanding

All we wanted for Christmas was our Building Consent application approved. Having it this side of the year would mean we could welcome in 2017 with this important piece of work and milestone achieved.

Here’s the opening line of what arrived in our inbox on Christmas eve:

“Hi there

Congratulations, we are pleased to advise that your Building Consent application has been approved and Building Consent has been issued.”

We found it tough going throughout the application process, we struggled with the quantity of questions, clarifications, evidence to support certain aspects of the build and the documentation associated to all of this. It’s the first time we’ve built from scratch, but Tonia, our architect quietly and regularly assured us this was all ‘very normal’ and not too stress too much…

Between ourselves, Geotec Engineers, Surveyors, Architects and John (the wonderful man who has nurtured our Olive grove from day 1) we got there and with the ‘squeaky wheel’ very much in motion, Council delivered the best Christmas gift we could have asked for. To everyone connected to this unique build, we thank you.

It’s super important, yet easy to forget, that sometimes, giving ourselves permission to acknowledge what has been achieved is allowed. The ‘to do’ list tends to somehow take priority and what we have done just goes by the by. We’ve only been here 8 weeks and in that time the happiness of achieving what we have is so warming. I believe we can be easily conflicted with the simple word ‘deserving’. Letting go of past experiences and making the space in your life for ‘new experiences’ is a work in progress. But it’s powerful when you do get a wee glimmer, a burst of ‘newness’ that enters your very being and confirms to you that you are ‘deserving’ and you are making a difference to yourself and the world around you.

The Garage has arrived…Gulp!

A big truck arrived and reversed all the way down our long and narrow driveway into our site. The driver was so jovial and full of optimism and confidence that we couldn’t help but enjoy this experience. He expertly negotiated around corners and stopped right where we needed him too. He used his Hiab to lift the flat pack Total Span garage http://totalspan.co.nz/locations/far-north off and placed it very neatly onto the ground. He then proceeded to tell us his next drop off for the concrete water tank he also had on the truck was to a place that no-one has been able to get to yet! Again, he was so optimistic, we’re pretty sure he would have made it.

Early start for our Plumber

Luke, our plumber http://www.justaplumber.co.nz/index.html is part of a successful family business, going strong after 40 years and they are a gang of grafters with an excellent reputation for fairness and integrity. We choose Luke and his team because they were recommended by a good friend up here. Luke is keen to crack on early into the New Year and have a lot of his work complete prior to building works in early February. He will get onto the drain laying, water tanks and septic installation.

Don’t fence me in

Dave ‘The fencer’ and his team will commence work mid-January on the perimeter fencing. We’re going for a post a rail look to blend into the environment as well as ensure the doggies are well contained.

Special Christmas times in Northland….

We’ve managed several day trips to some special places and you can access all of them within 1 hour. KariKari Peninsula is spectacular with its rugged coastline and its natural beauty, it’s a must do for anyone visiting the North. The weather has been spectacular for holidaymakers and the locals. There’s Mangonui Markets on Saturday mornings and on Tuesday evenings where you can buy local produce, Arts and crafts and general brick a brack. The locals are friendly and accommodating. I think it’s the fact that there’s time to just stop and chew the fat. This is where people live and work, people know each other and its helped us connect with the community so much. January will bring a lot of visitors to the North and we will have the pleasure of catching up with some of our closest friends too. Bring on January.

Well friends, that’s our wee check in for the week. We’re excited about the next few months, and so thankful for the past 8 weeks. May 2017, bring you happiness and experiences to make your hearts sing.

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sheeka11-blog · 8 years ago

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Chooks among the Olives .................

Along with us settling into our new digs, it was super important that Harry and the girls settled in too. Initially we put a soft, temporary fence around their chook house to create a bit of security for them and to have them become familiar with their Hen Hoose. After 3 days we opened the fence up and it was ‘game on’

There was an old aviary left on the site when we bought it, and before the chooks moved up, we took it apart, relocated it, rebuilt it and made it into a wee house for them. We got some ply sheets from the timber yard and boarded up the sides, took some old drawers we had at Warkworth and made them into the nesting boxes and cut some old Olive branches down and made them into perches.

They seem happy enough.

Harry venturing outside with Georgia

Settled.

From the first day we opened up the fence, the chickens immediately made their way up to the caravan and settled themselves in and around the Olive trees. They can dust bathe here, go lay eggs in the gorse bushes (and then we have to go searching for them) and they love foraging and chilling out under the shady trees.

Happy Hens, happy Harry

Over the past 5 weeks of us being here, they have widened their roaming zone to pretty much the entire site, we’ll be out walking and suddenly there’s a few chooks at our back just wandering behind us. They just love a bit of company and we’re more than happy to oblige. The dogs are awesome with them too..just as well eh!

They enjoy little treats and will come over to hand feed. Harry particularly likes to have his treats in bite size pieces then he can quickly swallow them before the girls seize them out of his beak..he never seems to mind though.

Nina & Simone

These two are a right pair, always together, first over in the morning and last ones to leave at night. They are always looking for something from us, often poking their heads through the fence to grab a piece of whatever the dogs have forgotten to eat...they're a funny pair, they look like they're having a meaningful conversation..who knows, maybe they are!

We are incredibly thankful to our chooks, every day we are gifted with fresh eggs and their happy, clucky company. It’s also really special to be here all of the time, you get a perspective and clarity on what is important. Being around the things that you hold very dear and realising that happiness is a choice, its a way of being...we choose happiness as our constant companion....

I do hope you are enjoying reading about our journey in the North. Thank you.

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