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500px / Photo “If You Go Down to the Woods Today…” by Mieke Boynton on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/33982578

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[wholistic]

I recently completed a small pavilion style building. It was the second building that i've build entirely by myself.

If you want to know more about the stages of construction and costs check out my full post at wholistic.com.au

http://www.wholistic.com.au/wordpress/projects/day-hut-idea-design-build

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Dragonfly

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Taking a cue from nature - we have room to grow and live wherever are.

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I've finished work for the day. I'm going to climb a mountain stream with barefeet. The iPhone autocorrects barefeet to carefree! That's great!

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There are some great charts and stats here from as recently as 2010.

This year, the U.S. industry may install 2 gigawatts of solar. The last nuclear power plant to come online in the U.S., Watts Bar 1, has a capacity of 1.1 gigawatts -- but that took 23 years to complete, not two years.

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A spectacular sunset on the way home from work today. I had to pull over the car to watch.

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A late night loaf, sourdough Kamut this time. I'm working on the recipe, 3 minute movie and distributing starter.

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Here is a logo that I made for some friends who are launching their own brand of chocolate. You can get it at the Blue Knob Farmers Market.

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A sunny midwinters day. Perfect time to chop some wood ready for the cool evening. 

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A noisy visitor. it's unusual to see echina's walking around during the day.

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Djanbung Gardens Open Day 2011

Toni Talks about Weeds

Julian Exploring the Inner Landscape

Jenny gets into gourds 

Jenny weaves some magic for the crowd

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My Backup System

My Backup System

I have invested some time and money in a peace of mind data backup system recently.

Losing all your stuff is a bit of a rite of passage for anyone that uses computers. Which is everyone.

The Nature of the Universe is that things are breaking down. Unless you are consciously putting energy into your backups, sure as the Sun, one day you will lose your digital work.

With that knowledge and the bitter experience of hard drive failure, here is my current system.

1 computer

10 years of photos from travels around the world, 100’s of projects

1,000’s important files

10,000’s of hours invested,

100,000’s of words written &

1,000,000’s of megabytes of stuff i’d miss.

I think the system has me covered. 
The multiple copies secure drops, spills, run of the mill hardware failure and (less run of the mill) simultaneous hardware failure, The offsite storage is in case of my house being robbed and everything stolen or a catastrophic fire that even destroys the safe (rated for half an hour at a 1000 degrees).
As the probability of risk decreases, so does the frequency of the backup.

A lot of the data does not change from day to day so the time capsule is best used because of it’s in the background smart backup of only changed documents. It also has the ability to go “back in time” to recover individual files from accidental deletion.

The Time Capsule is managed by the built in OSX Time Machine and runs automatically on the hour when plugged in. It runs on the days the sun in shining.

I complement this with a program called Carbon Copy Cloner, and I have it scheduled to backup automatically. It pops up a message and I just need to get the drive out of the safe and plug it in. It incrementally updates and creates a bootable drive. If my hard drive fails I just plug in the cloned drive and carry on as if nothing has happened. Not even 5 minutes of disruption, I can then get a replacement in my own time.

Consistency

Backup Day is Friday. It’s also the day I get all the photos off my camera, rate them, put them on my ipad and write a little story about the week. Monthly backup day is the last Friday. For backup’s to stay fresh the system needs very little friction. I put the time in researching the best practice & software.

I’m happy with the flow and now it is just part of my groove. I’m confident that i’ve done the best I can to prepare for the inevitable. Perhaps there is some freak case where it all goes pear shaped like massive solar flare or a nuclear explosions electromagnetic pulse and all is lost, but there isn’t a great deal I can do about that. My data loss would be comparatively minor and I could probably reframe it as a lesson from God about non-attachment.

Links

Shawn Blanc has a well written article on off-site backups too

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Hut Med is Happening

I finally cleaned up hut med, and it is beautiful!

Sitting up here in a comfy chair on my land, looking over the McKellar Ranges, my house, my garden and my trees. I feel so blessed. There is still work to do on it, the door needs securing with two long pieces of ply. There are several holes in the fly wire. But on the whole it is awesome and comfortable. We moved the big comfy chair (the ratty one) from the deck so I am off the ground. There isn't a whole lot of space left, but enough. I love it.  

I have a whole new perspective up here, it is beautiful I don't even mind the mosiqutoes, because they are bouncing back and forth into the fly screen that (almost) fully encases me. This is a sublime spot. I am so blessed and lucky. I didn't come up here to reflect on my good fortune though. It needed this chair to be comfortable. And I needed this ipad and keyboard to be able to type. I love it.

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An ideal space to write my journal. Building a room of your own is worth learning how to build.   I do need to be mindful of the tree branch situation thought. I am surrounded by Massive Trees. Can't get your arms around them sized trees.   I want to improve this little space around the hut too. I want to my it flat and open with a ground cover so that I can train my martial art here. I want to build my office out of the piles of wood that are lying around. Sitting here I can see them.   I am so lucky to have this spot. This space in the world. I am so grateful.  

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A change in the seasons

The loquets are flowering, we have never beaten the birds to the fruit. Maybe this year?

Bath Frog has moved back in after an extended and unexplained absence from the faucet.

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Other friends of the house are back too, looking for a place to stay for the winter but still catch the sunny days.

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