Page 182 - Exile-ebook
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182                     AN EXILE OF THE MIND                                                                 WHERE THE COWS SLEEP AT NIGHT                      183
















































                  It took five years to build the two storey mudbrick house.                          to let in the morning sun in winter  controlled  planting of melaleuca
                                                                                                      through a wall of French doors that  trees  indigenous  to  the  area.
          ingredients to build this homestead  batteries. Solar panels, still in their                heated a floor of dark slate and helped  They  yielded  powerful  high  grade
          in true pioneering spirit, with  no  infancy, sucked  in the  photons  of                   warm  the  house.  Thick  mudbrick  antiseptic tea tree oil. Handy to dab
          electricity  to  drill a hole  or turn a  light from  the sun and provided                  walls also served as a thermal mass  on the many cuts and abrasions from
          power saw.                           12-volt power to light up the house                    and contained heat for many hours.  the knocks and bruises of building.
            Wind turbines, made from bicycle  and its  appliances.  Home-made                         In summer the multi-faceted roof  Thursday Plantation,  famous for
          wheels  with  tin blades  folded  onto  collector  panels thermo-siphoned                   shaded the walls from the hot sun.  its tea tree products, was only a few
          their spokes, spun atop the  roof.  steaming hot water to the shower.                       Heating and cooling devices were  kilometres away to give inspiration.
          They powered  small dynamos that        The  solar-passive house, using                     never needed.                           A retired  ship’s captain from
          trickled electricity  into a bank of  greenhouse principles, was designed                      We cleared  over 10 acres for  Norway and his South African wife
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