- 2 days ago
We are sisters, Julia and Anastasia Vanderbyl. A few years ago, we began a journey to live a life in perfect harmony with nature. A life of caring for animals, growing fruit, planting trees, gardening, cooking, creating, building and learning to live with the land.
In this time, nature has taught us more than we could have ever imagined.
Our environmental films document the landscape, the lessons we’ve learnt and our work as regenerative farmers here on Bundjalung Country.
We live on the land of the Arakwal and Minjungbal People of the Bundjalung Nation. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Country we live on and recognise their continuing connection to the land and waters. We thank them for protecting this rainforest and its ecosystems since time immemorial.
Chapters:
0:00 Our art studio is made from junk (but we love it)
2:34 Restoring some abandoned antique doors
3:38 Termites! Lead Paint! Disasters!
7:29 I give up!
8:48 A morning at the art studio
11:35 Crafting a mosaic tile
13:35 Plumbing is my enemy
18:16 Fencing for the goats (getting distracted by guava harvests, sheep and ducks)
20:59 Baking from homegrown fruit
22:19 I finished the fence!
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In this time, nature has taught us more than we could have ever imagined.
Our environmental films document the landscape, the lessons we’ve learnt and our work as regenerative farmers here on Bundjalung Country.
We live on the land of the Arakwal and Minjungbal People of the Bundjalung Nation. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Country we live on and recognise their continuing connection to the land and waters. We thank them for protecting this rainforest and its ecosystems since time immemorial.
Chapters:
0:00 Our art studio is made from junk (but we love it)
2:34 Restoring some abandoned antique doors
3:38 Termites! Lead Paint! Disasters!
7:29 I give up!
8:48 A morning at the art studio
11:35 Crafting a mosaic tile
13:35 Plumbing is my enemy
18:16 Fencing for the goats (getting distracted by guava harvests, sheep and ducks)
20:59 Baking from homegrown fruit
22:19 I finished the fence!
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00So last week I started a big project. I'm renovating my art studio again. If you're
00:04new here this is our dad's old shed. It has been used for banana packing, it's
00:08been a donkey shed, it's been a tool shed and now it's an art studio. But it has
00:13its problems so I'm renovating it again and making it a little bit less junky.
00:17But of course in my journey of making it less junky I'm using it as much junk as
00:21I can find. Starting with these abandoned doors that I got for free from a woman
00:25living deep in the rainforest. Our family have a bit of a habit of collecting
00:30old junk and then trying to turn it into something. But if I'm being completely
00:34honest this habit isn't a bad thing. This whole place is built from junk and isn't
00:39it beautiful? Sometimes we store the junk for you know only six months but
00:43sometimes it's more like 30 or 50 years. But eventually it becomes something
00:48beautiful. These kitchen cabinets are old paintings, these ones are old floorboards
00:52that I did up to make kitchen cabinets. The kitchen top was from the tip, the old
00:55windows were collected from an old building that was falling down and our
00:59parents collected them and kept them for years and years. These windows were for
01:01free on the side of the road. These windows were only metal frames that were
01:05almost trash and then we restored them completely from scratch by adding glass
01:09painting them and restoring them to look beautiful and new again. These floors
01:12were seconds from the mill and they had all these problems with them, they were
01:15rough and then we restored them and now they're beautiful again. We had leftover
01:20floorboards so we made this door from them and while we were at it we also made these
01:24bookshelves that are also made from floorboards. Someone was tearing these
01:27covers out of their home because they were renovating it so we came and collected
01:30them for free, repainted them and now they're this. This sewing machine was old and
01:34broken and I restored it and now it sews so beautifully. These doors our parents
01:38collected from an old garage in the 90s and then they stored them in storage for
01:42many many years and then we restored them for this art studio. Old floorboards
01:47collected from a brothel. Old tin collected from a thousand different sheds. My
01:54second hand. Second hand. Second hand. This doggy is technically second hand. His original
02:00owner returned him because he vomited in the car and caused a car crash and we
02:04love him nonetheless. We love him more actually because he has so much character
02:08although he does vomit every time he gets in a car. It's worth it. It's worth it.
02:12At this point this whole place is second hand. It's all junk and I honestly
02:16couldn't be more proud. I think it's a way of living to see beauty in the broken and
02:21to always be collecting things and appreciating things and instead of
02:24constantly buying new things that will eventually end up in landfill.
02:27Instead we go to landfill and we find beautiful things there and we collect them
02:31and we build from them and maybe sometimes it goes a little bit too far but
02:35I think it's this resourcefulness that maybe comes from living with the land where
02:40you realize you can't just endlessly consume. You need to give back and you need
02:44to be able to appreciate all the things that
02:47are already littering that up on this planet. So my next big project that I'm
02:51taking on is a second hand pair of doors which I think is going to be hard work
02:56but I think it's going to be worth it because I think they'll glow in this place.
03:00Job number one is to remove the box.
03:02With your help. It's hard to get anything done with a big fluffy dog that needs an help.
03:07At this point I was blissfully naive I guess. For one thing I definitely wasn't
03:12careful enough with the toxic lead paint and I was also just so unaware of the
03:17magnitude of this project. My next job is getting off any reflating
03:21paint so that I conceal it and so I'm going to use this tool.
03:26This first job of scraping off any peeling red paint so that it wouldn't come off later
03:31it revealed some problems that I didn't even know about.
03:44So after what I thought would be a simple little scratch off of the paint that was
03:48already flaking off it turns out that these doors are way more rotten than I initially thought.
03:54Like way more rotten. Like probably past the point of saving them.
03:59But I just kind of feel more determined to save them now. They're so beautiful.
04:03It would be such a shame to just throw them out. But they are so wrong.
04:10I thought the rot was just down here so I could cut it but it's everywhere.
04:15It was around this point that I started to question if this was just rot or if the tiny round
04:20egg
04:21looking balls could be a sign of something much worse. This is the other door that we encased and it
04:26was all
04:26lead paint as well and it looks so beautiful so this is giving me hope because I really like this
04:32but I don't know if these ones too far gone. So I've done some research and I'm pretty sure that
04:37it's termites that have eaten all of these massive holes in the wood and they're a special type of
04:42internal termite that isn't like the ones that are normally in soil that kind of they can only stay
04:48in the soil and they have to have something connecting to them. They can't move in wood whereas
04:52these ones can't move from they could still the whole colony could still be alive in just this door.
04:58So it's a bit concerning and I can't believe I've brought it in here and I could be contaminating
05:02everything with termites. So I'm not going to give up yet. I'm going to take these outside
05:08and I'm going to treat them and then I'm going to putty them and fill in these holes and then
05:14I'm
05:14going to repaint some of it and I'm going to varnish some of it and then I'm going to put
05:17new glass in
05:18because I don't think it's worth throwing them out. They're so beautiful. They're old hardwood.
05:23They're just oh they're like picture where they were originally. They're too beautiful to throw out.
05:29I'll chop the bottoms off as well. That's one of the steps that I forgot. It's going to be many
05:33steps
05:34but I think it's worth it. And now I'm going to start restoring the other pair of doors which is
05:39putting all my eggs in one basket, all of my doors in one hope but I think it's going to
05:43work. I believe.
05:56So you might know that the reason that I'm renovating this art studio is for my sister
06:01who has had some complex health issues and she just had a major surgery a few weeks ago so
06:06she's in full recovery mode. She's doing a bit better now but of course she's just so worn out
06:12after such a big surgery. But that's actually why I wanted to talk about the sponsor of this week's video
06:17which is Cowboy Colostrum. Colostrum is a health product that comes from the cow's first milk and
06:23Julia has actually had so many recommendations from doctors over the years to take colostrum
06:27but I remember when she first got this recommendation I searched everywhere locally
06:32for an ethical source of colostrum and I just couldn't find any so we ended up giving up.
06:37But that's why I'm so excited because Cowboy Colostrum only collects the surplus colostrum
06:41after baby calves have already had their fill. Unlike other colostrum brands Cowboy Colostrum is
06:47true first day, whole colostrum, rich in bioactives like immunoglobulins and growth factors and it's
06:53really good for your gut, for glowing skin, for strong hair and mostly what we're interested in
06:57for steady energy. I have a dust allergy so after working in the shed I am normally such a mess.
07:02I am
07:03sneezing, I am wheezing, I am blowing my nose constantly. But colostrum actually has anti-inflammatory
07:08and immune regulating properties so I've been noticing a big difference. It's really easy
07:13to add to your routine. I like to just have it in my coffee or hot chocolate. Julia likes to
07:17add it
07:17to her matcha and it's just actually so delicious. For a limited time you can get 25% off your
07:22entire
07:22order just head to cowboycolostrum.com slash mountain and use our code mountain at checkout.
07:31After way too long of trying to renovate these doors I've finally decided that they're just not worth it.
07:36They are infested with termites and that was just the step too far.
07:41I've put so much effort into these doors already. I have driven so far into the hills to collect them
07:47for free and now I know why they were free. Then I brought them home, left them in storage for
07:52a year,
07:53then I took out all the glass, then I started scraping away slowly slowly at all the lead paint,
07:59then after that I made sure that all the termite damage was visible and then now I finally realized
08:07that they're way too broken. There's no way I can fix them. They're also just a hazard because they'll
08:13bring termites into everything else that we have so there's no way I can keep these. I don't think
08:18anyone will want them. I think we have to throw them out. It's just so beautiful! So now I'm just
08:23going to
08:23take off all the old hardware and keep that but the rest is having to go to the tip. Look
08:29at that,
08:30that's more termites. That's completely rotted. I can't believe that I ever wanted to restore these.
08:38Seeing these doors in the rubbish pile is such a sad sight but honestly it's where they belong
08:43and I think I should have accepted that a long time ago. Good morning. This week has been so
08:57frustrating so I feel like today I deserve a project that's just an extra little bit satisfying.
09:10Oh there's myths on the mountain.
09:18Good morning! Hi! Hi! Good morning! Good morning! Hi! Hi! Oh good morning!
09:35This week I learnt a lot of lessons and I just feel like for now I think I deserve a
09:42more satisfying
09:43project and I'm just going to not think about the doors for a while. I'm going to try to find
09:47some
09:48new doors that fit the spot and I'll probably have to restore them as well but for now I'm just
09:52going
09:52to do like a fun project that makes me feel a little bit better because I'm getting ready to go
09:57to a
09:58mosaic workshop that my friends are hosting so I'm actually really excited. I'm going to make
10:02a mosaic for the bathroom with a little tile and I think that's going to be a really fun project.
10:08Taya and Bailey are local artists and they have these mosaic workshops every few months
10:13and they're incredible so I'm really excited. Taya actually also lives in a shed house or she
10:18introduced me to the word a shouse. This kind of living is actually a lot more common than you'd think
10:23around here because there's lots of kids, valley kids that they move away to the city with big
10:29dreams and then they realize that there's an amazing thriving art community back here so they
10:33move back in with their parents and live in their shed and the shed becomes an art studio or a
10:38bedroom
10:39and there's a lot of us living in our parent sheds. Okay so I've realized that shout out is going
10:44to be
10:44really confusing to anyone that isn't Australian because basically to explain Australian is just like
10:49to shorten any word that is physically possible because we're lazy I guess so to put shouse
10:54in a sentence you'd be like boy you want to let it to the party I'm heading to the servo
10:58now to pick
10:59up some grog and then you'd be like yeah nah I'm bailing I'm chucking a ziki because I've got so
11:05much work
11:05to do on the shouse out bush it's been pissing down so it's dead set fully gacked. If that makes
11:13sense,
11:13if that makes more or less sense let me know.
11:33You might remember Tea from Bambooing and she's an incredible bamboo artist as well she does lots of festival
11:38installation and lots of sculptural art with all sorts of different mediums and then also mosaic
11:43because her mum has this incredible tile business with all of these tiles that are imported from all
11:50of these beautiful places in the world and some of the tiles get damaged along the way so for those
11:55ones she and Bailey have learned how to reuse them and find the beauty in them and turn them into
12:01mosaics
12:02and then teach that to others. I really enjoyed mosaic because it's this combination of building and
12:08patchwork sewing which are two of my greatest hobbies. If you don't quite have the perfect piece you can
12:12always hit the tile with a hammer and see what comes from it which is super satisfying too,
12:17especially after such a frustrating week. I decided to make a goat design because why not,
12:22I think it suits the studio shouse's eclectic vibe and Magnolia the goat just needs a mosaic portrait of
12:27herself. It was really fun to arrange all the tiles how you want them and it just felt like you
12:33were
12:33making your own puzzle and slowly a goat emerged. I love learning new skills and this is definitely
12:41something that I want to try another time. It would be so fun to do a large scale project one
12:45day.
12:46It was also so great to meet other creative people and make art alongside each other.
12:50After arranging the pieces it was time to glue them down which took a very long time.
13:01Then the next day it was time to grout. This was kind of terrifying to cover the piece and I
13:06was so
13:07scared for a second that I would never see it again. But also it was really satisfying to seep the
13:12grout
13:12into each tiny crack and Taya and Bailey assured me that my goat wasn't lost to the mud.
13:22The next step felt like what I assumed being an archaeologist would feel like,
13:26slowly uncovering what was lost.
13:37Ta-da! It looks so good here! Oh, Maggie's gonna be so happy! Okay, as a little celebration of putting
13:47my new mosaic in, I'm going to finally fix this bathroom. It has been for 18 months since I
13:54last renovated this little outdoor space. It's been doing this.
13:59And then it just gets my feet wet. It's really not good. And I've had the plumbing stuff here
14:04and I've been meaning to do it this whole time, but I was missing one piece so I just didn't
14:09do it.
14:10Okay, so it turns out I'm really bad at plumbing. Every time I try to plumb anything I normally just
14:14end up
14:15giving up or failing miserably. So I had this piece and I needed to get it to a 40mm pipe.
14:21So I went to the hardware store and I bought this piece because it's got like the thread
14:24and then it's 40mm. I came home, it doesn't fit. So I went back to the hardware store and I
14:32bought
14:32this piece again, thinking it was a different piece. Came home, it still didn't fit. And so I took
14:38myself back to the hardware store a third time. And I've asked so many people about this, but I got
14:45this piece, which is special. And it goes into this piece. It converts it from 40mm to 32mm or
14:54inch and a half to inch or something. I don't know my inches. Okay. And look at this. It converts
15:02it
15:02from the plug to 40mm pipe. And I'm so excited. I can't believe I finally did it. Plumbing is not
15:10my strong suit. The next step that I need to check is if this fits into the pipe that I've
15:16already made.
15:16And if it doesn't, I honestly, I don't know if I can go back to the hardware store at this
15:20moment.
15:21Like I've embarrassed myself so many times just returning the same piece to buy the same piece.
15:26So many times. I can't go back there. I can't show my face. Okay. I'm honestly terrified.
15:34It fits. Oh, this is so exciting. Oh my God. I'm going to have a real plumbed pipe. Am I
15:45a plumber now?
15:46I think I'm a plumber. So all I'm doing is plumbing the water to go from the sink down and
15:52then out a
15:53little bit. So it really shouldn't be that hard. And I think I have all the pieces. Okay. Does it
15:58hold water?
16:01It holds water? I think. Then does it empty water?
16:09It does. Oh, this is so exciting. Pipe jointing is a trade skill and should only be executed
16:18by qualified persons. Sorry. I am not qualified. This is my nightmare. This is my kryptonite. I hate
16:28this stuff. The smell of it and you have to do it quickly and I get stressed and I probably
16:35should
16:36leave it for the professionals. But here I go again. Okay. So that needs to go into there.
16:41Oh, nothing's glued. Apparently my dad had a habit of never actually gluing plumbing and just leaving
16:48it to see if it worked first and then it would always fall apart. And I kind of just want
16:52to do
16:52that. But I wonder if I should learn from his mistakes because his plumbing is always falling apart.
17:04I can do this. Okay. So it comes out here and now it needs to go that way. So I
17:13have a turn,
17:15turning one, and then I'm going to put that in there.
17:19That is the neuggest plumbing job I've ever done, even if it's tied with a piece of string right now.
17:24Okay. Are you ready? Look who's applying. Oh, are you not supposed to do it until it's dry?
17:32I know this probably looks very simple and you're probably thinking, Anastasia, you just joined two
17:40pipes. It's really not that hard, but I don't think you understand the block, if you will, that's a pun,
17:45that I have with plumbing. It is so hard for me. I don't know why, but it's impossible. So please
17:51congratulate me on my pipe. Tell me I did a good job. I want to hear it because I did.
17:56Okay. Be nice.
17:58So while I'm still rethinking these doors and trying to make decisions on what I do next,
18:05I think for the rest of the week, I'm just going to do some much needed fencing for the goats
18:09because
18:10I need some time to really think. When you're fencing for goats, you always have to think like
18:14a goat. So right now I'm jumping on this like I'm a goat and I would definitely be able to
18:19escape.
18:20So today I'm thinking about extending this fence up because we got this tree cut down. It's an
18:26invasive campy laurel tree and it's so big that the goats can jump over it. And there's also a hole
18:30in the fence. I have so much fencing to do, but I'm trying to distract myself. So I'm picking guava
18:39instead.
19:03There is nothing like a red guava. Straight from the tree. I might make a guava crumble out of this,
19:10like an apple crumble, but with guavas. It's a hundred times better. Or maybe some sort of slice.
19:16So it's been a very typical day of my life today where I went out to do a fencing job
19:20and then got
19:20there and realized it was a way bigger job than I thought it was. And there were multiple holes,
19:23not just the one hole. So then I distracted myself by picking guavas for the next however long.
19:28Then I finally got into it and came to the fencing shed to try to get some fencing supplies. But
19:33then
19:33I got distracted because I realized it's persimmon season and there's only one persimmon left in the
19:38tree and I've barely utilized the beautiful persimmon season. So now I'm picking a persimmon,
19:42then I'm getting the fencing gear and then it's probably, there's probably no time left to fence today.
19:48So I'll probably fence tomorrow. And I realized that I should find the sheep and feed them.
19:57So I'm going to take a walk and see.
20:12I'm going to take a walk and see.
20:23How can I complain about this kind of distraction? Hey Afri Didi? You're so beautiful.
20:29Afri Didi's turning nine? No, you're turning 10 this year. You're such a big girl. No, nine.
20:36Nine years old. Come on, come on.
20:42I'm good.
20:43Yeah, I'm good.
20:44Yeah, I'm good.
20:47Yeah, I'm good.
20:55I'm good.
21:12I'm bad, you're not bad.
21:15Well,
22:10After a few distractions from fencing along the way,
22:12this is exactly what I needed anyway to give me the energy to fence a warm guava crumble.
22:18Yum.
22:19I've realised that so much of my life moves around my techniques of always using junk,
22:24and a lot of the time things are slower because of it.
22:27I spent a week restoring doors that ended up being destined for landfill.
22:31Plumbing the outdoor vanity was only so hard because I was joining a sink that I got secondhand
22:36off marketplace with a piece of pipe that was left over from another plumbing job.
22:40And this fencing project.
22:41Fixing a fence yet again with some old scraps of wire and a few poles that I salvaged from
22:47our scrap pile that my dad originally salvaged from the rubbish tip.
22:51Job number one is done, which is getting the hole in the fence covered so the goats can't
22:55get through that.
22:56Job number two is creating a very high fence so that the goats can't jump over.
23:00So I've got these, which are old things that used to hold shade cloth, like to roll it out.
23:06And we kept them because we thought that they would come in handy one day, and they have.
23:11So I'm going to use them as like pole extenders and then I'm going to add a new fence.
23:16Look how tall this fence is.
23:17I'm so proud.
23:18No goat is getting over that.
23:19The final job on my list is to get this so that it stops falling over.
23:23And apart from that, I think that this fence is, I shouldn't say it, but it's goat proof.
23:28But I will touch wood because these goats, they're smart and they'll find a way.
23:32But this will be the first test and then I'll put them in and see if they escape.
23:37I think in this endless appreciation for old things and this endless repurposing and reusing
23:43everything in life, then sometimes that kind of extends beyond just junk piles and the rubbish
23:49tip and it extends into your real life as well.
23:51So you end up appreciating just everything, appreciating it all, appreciating life.
23:55But I don't know, maybe this is too much of a positive take.
23:58I'm going to find out if I agree by going to check on the goats and seeing if they escaped
24:03the paddock.
24:04I put them in there this morning and they normally don't last a few hours and normally they run
24:09home and they haven't come home yet.
24:10So I'm feeling hopeful, but I'm going to go check on them now and fingers crossed.
24:14Look who didn't escape.
24:16The goats came home.
24:17I'm so proud of them.
24:19They were such good goats.
24:25Good goats.
24:26Look at these sweet goats.
24:28They didn't escape all day and now we're walking home.
24:31I am so proud of you all and I'm proud of myself for doing all the fencing.
24:35Thank you so much for watching and come again next week because I think next week I will
24:40get some doors in no matter what.
24:42I will find some doors, I will restore them and they will be beautiful.
24:46Thank you so much for watching and thank you to our Patreons for your support on our journey.
24:50It means so much.
24:51And thank you goats for not escaping.
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