Our Tropical Location

And sure, we’d love to move to a more temperate climate! We’ve got our eye on just the spot, but for now, we’re based in Cairns, Far North Queensland, and aren’t escaping it any time soon.

The lack of projects and information about homesteading and self-sufficiency in such a hot, humid climate has led me to believe that there is a noticeable gap in the literature and a lack of representation for tropical climates. I cannot pretend to be any kind of expert (in anything!) I do feel we have something to share. Good old Shakespeare had something to say about that:

A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

William Shakespeare

Self-Sufficiency

Becoming self-sufficient means that mastering just one skill isn’t going to keep us clothed, fed, and housed. There is a basic requirement to become competent in many skills to be able to reduce reliance on supermarkets and big business. In attempting to reduce this reliance, we’ve been relying on skills we’ve learned from previous employment, or have an interest in and have either researched and taught ourselves or have learned from others.

Learning New Skills

When attempting to try something new or learn a new skill, I like to follow a 6-step process:

1. Identify the need
2. Research the means and method
3. Make an attempt
4. Test it out
5. Refine process
6. Start next iteration

I observe, analyse and take notes at each step. It’s a project-management oriented mindset. The Mr does things a little differently: he is very mechanically minded, and knows just how things go together, but our starting point is the same: identify the need, then go out and research! I’ve never met someone who researches as he does – 3 browser windows with 50 tabs in each is nothing to him.

There is a simple pleasure in doing things for oneself – and sometimes we have to adjust them to fit our warm climate. Big fleecy blankets when the temperature rarely hits 12°C aren’t the thing here. We’re trying to keep cool, not warm up. To do this, we’ve identified several key skills that we need to become proficient at.

• Gardening
• Crafting
• DIY renovations & construction
• Cooking
• Preserving
• Vehicle maintenance
• Animal care

The Refuge

Our house is a Besser block home built in the late 80s, complete with three tiny bedrooms, hideous wallpaper friezes, original narrow bench tops, and a super ugly Roman bath in shades of brown, brown and more brown. Previous owners neglected this house, with rental maintenance limited to “emergency” maintenance when something went pear-shaped. As a collector of random quotes “a stitch in time saves nine” comes to mind – and this is something that we are trying to actively practice as we restore and modernise the house. The shell of it is still as solid as ever – it has to be in a cyclone-prone area. Internals are dated, and the layout is not suited to a modern lifestyle, let alone our self-sufficiency goal. I doubt if a modern family would find this house easy to live in.

Long Term Issues

A truly bright spark planted trees that are far too close to the house, are completely unsuitable for the area, and let them grow to become problems, never thinking toward the future. For example, someone planted a Cuban Royal palm next to the patio as part of a screening garden. This palm grows to an exceptional size. A single frond falling damaged the roof, took out the major spotlight, and contributed to the uneven paving in the back patio area. After seeing how much damage the palm was causing, the previous owners opted to remove it. No such logic applied to the other palms planted in the same area, nor the umbrella tree right beside the water meter. The location of these trees was truly a decision made by someone who had no long-term goals.

Our soil seems to be rather sandy and does a great job at growing weeds – but not much else. We were lucky, and when we moved in over 10 years ago, there were three fruit trees in the yard. We have a mandarin, either an imperial or emperor variety, an orange of some kind that’s extremely bitter, and a grapefruit that has since died. A dragonfruit of unknown species has clung on tenaciously to life, but apart from one random fruit, has never fruited since.

Motivating Ourselves

This is our home for the time being, flawed but comfortable, and we seek to improve it to fit our mindset and conform to the lifestyle we try to lead. The satisfaction we find in growing this, repairing that, building this, all leads to our long-term future sustainability elsewhere, away from the suburbs. We dream of a temperate climate, an orchard of fruit trees, livestock grazing, and a home that is built for our lifestyle. Follow along and learn as we do. This entire site is the record of our attempt at becoming self-sufficient in a tropical climate, and hopefully a resource for others who live in the tropics and found information lacking.