I am mum to two young beautiful girls and we are building an off-grid cob house.  After working myself silly so the banks would let me borrow money !!!, we bought 5 acres in the tropical rainforest of North Queensland mid last year, put in a driveway with bridge over the seasonal creek through to the back of the property.  Here we set up a basic camp while a basic timber/iron structure was built, and we now camp under that.  Because we are off-grid (without mains water or power), I have set up a (very) basic solar system, outdoor gas hotwater shower, rainwater tanks, made a little compost toilet and our refrigeration and cooking is by gas.  We have a open fire most nights, shower outside under the stars and live in the beautiful tropical fresh air.  I have planted edible gardens, tropical fruit trees and are now ready to start building our rock/cob walls.  Cob is an earth mixture made with clay, sand and straw.  It is built on top of rock walls, I can’t wait to start mixing cob, it is soo much fun !!  We have had alot of adventures with the wildlife including big 3-4metre curious pythons, hungry goannas, hungry wild dogs, hungry wallabies as well as a beautiful orchestra of birdlife – whipbirds, catbirds, scrub turkeys, lester sooty owls and of course the cheeky cockatoos !!! So that sums up where we are at so far, watch this space as I regularly post the adventures of living off-grid in the rainforest ….