tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57149159169321257192024-03-11T13:24:11.652+10:00The Practical Frog BlogI am a bit of a practical, crafty, frugal greenie who likes to garden, cook, preserve, ferment and bake bread. I live with a bunch of chooks, a flock of quails, sixteen native bee hives, a cat, a dog and a husband. Please join us in our homesteading adventures! :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger288125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-27682218240909863392019-01-31T17:27:00.002+10:002019-01-31T17:27:57.735+10:00Liking Instagram & Facebook posts!When we moved house I though that I would have a lot more time to homestead and blog. That show how long it is since I last moved house and how bad my memory is!<br />
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A friend introduced me to Instagram a few years ago and I have an account that I share pictures with friends and family and it dawned on me Why don't I start up a Practical Frogg one so I can keep sharing but on the run rather than big sit down posts?<br />
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And so I did. I have got into the habit of sharing on Instagram instead of here of late so if you're so inclined - have a look at my Instagram feed and see if it suits you. If not, the same friend also hooked the account up to facebook and it automatically posts there as well if facebook is more your thing!<br />
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Part of my 2019 goals is to get back into posting on this platform as I do enjoy it and things are settling down a bit as the big jobs get done (Install water tanks, make gardens, insulate rooves, cut down massive trees that will fall on the house - you know, that sort of thing!) Time is slowly freeing up to get back into a routine that isn't work and sleep or renovate and sleep!<br />
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So if you're looking for a Practical Frogg fix or want to see what weve been up to - have a look at the Practical Frogg Instagram or Facebook page! Just click on a photo and it should take you there!<br />
See you soon!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-83915775870370952372018-07-06T08:16:00.000+10:002018-07-06T08:16:01.258+10:00What to do with Quail eggs!I have a flock of very cute Chinese painted quail (or button quail) and they are obviously very happy because they lay lots of eggs! They are just like chickens in that they can lay an egg every day or so and you can tell who laid which egg from the individual markings on them - just like a chook egg!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimKoFSP2K1O6Dc3-fIYU0wNLARNUNxWTJaMO3YifdWdy3C9qqhrsK7-MxHpBbc7RF2pSSfLsL5RSArXzLGV86_cnwSuDynorpoHflIzx1Pe8M2m6PP1ZEnahp869OENFLCtbk2aacQmo/s1600/20161024_090719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimKoFSP2K1O6Dc3-fIYU0wNLARNUNxWTJaMO3YifdWdy3C9qqhrsK7-MxHpBbc7RF2pSSfLsL5RSArXzLGV86_cnwSuDynorpoHflIzx1Pe8M2m6PP1ZEnahp869OENFLCtbk2aacQmo/s640/20161024_090719.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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But as cute as they are, they are not as practical as a chook egg. A couple of fried quail eggs on toast is great for the littles but the husband isn't so rapt with his dozen fried fairy eggs on toast!<br />
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I'm not about to give up the quails and they aren't about to stop laying so over time I have come up with some good ideas for using quail eggs that highlights their uniqueness rather than just adding four or five quail eggs to a recipe to replace one chook egg.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdT7RHrEDMm07u3h941Jm6ZQTBiYTx6nxR6dfSTVkZbSgCoVdPWmGdpRaDDP-F26EIN-IbyGxgWXozRbLJbVwWaU0kcpqo78VYgljW1K0SGM4wUSNKU_fnCNxA4rIKjuWBzuTQV0OU0d8/s1600/20161216_161717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdT7RHrEDMm07u3h941Jm6ZQTBiYTx6nxR6dfSTVkZbSgCoVdPWmGdpRaDDP-F26EIN-IbyGxgWXozRbLJbVwWaU0kcpqo78VYgljW1K0SGM4wUSNKU_fnCNxA4rIKjuWBzuTQV0OU0d8/s640/20161216_161717.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Here's what I do...
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Scotched eggs - bite sized version of the normal version. Hard boil the quails eggs, peel, wrap in sausage meat and bake until cooked. Cut a few in half so your guests realise they're not eating meat balls!<br />
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Dukka covered quail eggs are quite fun too. These make a good addition to the grazing type platters. Again hard boiled the eggs, brush with olive oil and roll in the dukka. Make a yogurt based Middle Eastern dip too if you like!<br />
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Hard boiled quail eggs on top of a salad are a fantastic conversation starter, whole or cut in half!<br />
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Tiny devilled eggs are fiddly to make... But very cute on the plate.<br />
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In a Buddah bowl, hard boiled quail eggs are an adorable addition.<br />
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Cherry tomatoes, whole hard boiled quail eggs and basil with some balsamic dressing - yum!<br />
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<a href="http://littlepracticalfrog.blogspot.com/2013/07/what-i-did-with-excess-eggs.html">Pickled eggs</a> are a great way to store eggs no matter what size and <a href="https://bellyfull.net/2015/06/10/soy-sauce-eggs/">Soy sauce eggs</a>, a quicker variation on this idea, make a great snack - large or small!<br />
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Tea eggs - where you crack the shells of a hard boiled egg to a crazed pattern and then steep in <br />
1/2 cup soy sauce, 3 cups water, 4 star anise pods, 3 black tea bags and a strip of orange peel for one hour. Drain and peel. The outside will have a yummy "tie dyed" effect.<br />
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Quail eggs make a great mini pizza topping when you crack them over the top of a bacon and egg pizza so their small size can be exclaimed over when they come out of the oven.<br />
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You can do the same thing with mini ham, spinach and egg quiches. Make the quiches as normal with chook eggs but crack the quail egg on the top of the mini quiches just before they go into the oven and surprise your family with the mini egg on the top.<br />
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Tiny egg in a hole - you'll need to cut out bits of toast with a cookie cutter and then cut a mini hole in that. Fiddly but kids love 'em!<br />
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Mini mini baked eggs. If I do this I use the eggs as a garnish, rather like the quiches above than as the main part of the dish. Use your favourite baked egg recipe but mix the chook egg up rather than leave it with a whole yolk, then just before it ready to go into the oven, crack a couple of quail eggs on the top for visual interest!<br />
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Hard boiled quail eggs are great on top of a pasta either in halves or whole too.<br />
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Mini fried eggs - just because you can!<br />
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If you're a crafty person - you can blow the eggs and use them in all sorts of crafty ways!<br />
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Do you have quail? What do you do with the eggs? Let me know in the comments, I'm always keen to find new egg ideas. We have a lot of quail eggs in this house!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: 5/5 for finding uses for a product you produce.<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness</strong>: 5/5 for not having to spend $ on fancy ingredients from the shops!<br />
<strong>Time cost</strong>: Quail eggs cook much quicker than chook eggs, you'll learn to time it!<br />
<strong>Skill level</strong>: Basic hard boiled or fried egg skills!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: Lots of fun and a wonderful conversation starter!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-18175800288218409612018-07-02T07:31:00.001+10:002018-07-02T07:31:47.741+10:00So many Chokos - So few ideas!? What can I do with all my chokos?I got given a couple of chokos that were sprouting by a friend and so having a garden that grows things these days, I planted it. Its been a while since I had a choko vine... I'm thinking upwards of 15 years or so and I had completely forgotten how many chokos a single vine can produce in so few weeks! And I may have planted more than one!<br />
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When the first few chokos appeared, I waiting impatiently for them to get big enough to pick. We ate them steamed with butter - de-lish-ious!<br />
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I got a bit more adventurous with the next handful and had them stuffed (good fun) and make fritters with them (bit boring - needs a good sauce) and then I plumb ran out of ideas.<br />
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The chokos however, continued to multiply and hung green and accusingly, growing plumper each day. I grated them into nachos, I chopped them into strews and I baked them with the weekly roast but still they grew! I got desperate to do something with my most successful garden crop and after a quick search on the net - a new realm of choko uses was opened to me.<br />
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Here's what I did...
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Preserves!<br />
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It turns out you can put chokos in relishes, pickle, jams and practically anything you can pickle, preserve, can, bottle or put in a jar!<br />
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So if your neighbours are "never home" when you and your wheel barrow of chokos turn up, here's some great ideas on how to cook, preserve and generally use up all those chokos!<br />
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<strong>In a meal:</strong> Young chokos are best for this.<br />
Strips in a stir fry.<br />
Baked in a roast meal with potatoes etc.<br />
Grated into pasta dished, nachos and other meals that you normally "hide" veges from your kids.<br />
Grated into fritters - but mix it with tastier veges, they are a bit bland on their own.<br />
Grated into sausage rolls<br />
Baked and Stuffed - like you would do a stuffed marrow or potato. Big old ones are good for this but the skin is too tough to eat.<br />
Roasted chunks in a salad or pasta.<br />
Young ones boiled and served with butter really are very nice.<br />
Really young ones can be diced an put in a salad raw.<br />
As a mash but you'll need to squeeze out the liquid first or you'll make choko soup. (Like I did)<br />
Soup - on its own (boil and blend, add milk/cream/coconut water, salt/pepper) or as part of a normal vege soup, minestrone or really anything that needs bulking up - you probably wont be able to taste the choko anyway!<br />
Mashed baby food.<br />
In a zucchini slice ( squeeze the juice out first though)<br />
In a curry or stew<br />
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<strong>Relish or Chutney:</strong><br />
You can add chokos instead (or along with) apples in a lot of recipes. I think they have a lot more moisture than an apple to you might have to adjust your liquid levels or cook it for a little longer.<br />
I've made choko chutney but really it tastes like a normal chutney as the vinegar, sugar and spices overwhelm any choko taste their might be. Now I just add it as a bulking ingredient and make things like peach and choko chutney and leave the choko part off the label!<br />
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<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/recipes/old-english-choko-chutney/8929286">Old English Choko Chutney recipe</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9QIYXYNrCEpwS6wvYvP_lnyM78iLtHJslFV213UKq1yqztSd-xqVaaJNts5jaE7tT4UCEzHPaB16wiR5gg4XzSrqojVh7yrh5pZbHcuNsNlK8Hfr77INg1yUQpPe6g3vZFCU3CnCdIY/s1600/20180421_104707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR9QIYXYNrCEpwS6wvYvP_lnyM78iLtHJslFV213UKq1yqztSd-xqVaaJNts5jaE7tT4UCEzHPaB16wiR5gg4XzSrqojVh7yrh5pZbHcuNsNlK8Hfr77INg1yUQpPe6g3vZFCU3CnCdIY/s640/20180421_104707.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<strong>Desserts:</strong><br />
Peeled and boiled in a sugar syrup and bottled for dessert recipes. It seems choko was used in desserts like apple or pear pies to bulk out the expensive or out of season fruit in days gone by and is a great way to add some extra fibre and nutrients to a dessert!<br />
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<strong>Cakes:</strong><br />
Grated into a carrot cake or other "vege based" cakes and loaves where zucchini, carrot and beetroot are regularly used - again, watch the moisture content. I grated the choko and then hand squeeze the juice out to reduce this issue. <br />
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<strong>Jams!</strong><br />
Chokos are great in jams or marmalades! I have made a <a href="http://brisbanelocalfood.ning.com/forum/topics/karla-s-choko-jam-made-famous-at-her-garden-visit">really nice pineapple and choko jam</a> with a 1/2 pineapple leftover from a party and 2 giant chokos. There are lots of great old fashioned jam recipes out there that use chokos I was surprised to find.<br />
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Lime, ginger and choko curd:<br />
Yup, you read that right - and as a bonus, its dairy and egg free! Pretty easy and quite tasty this one.<br />
Peel and core two to three chokos, dice and put into a blender. Add two to three roughly diced limes and wizz into a blended mash. Measure the resulting puree and place into a pot and add the equal amount of sugar. Boil until the sugar melts and it reaches setting point. Bottle into hot jars and seal. Smooth tangy lime with no dairy or eggs! Yum!<br />
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<strong>Pet Food.</strong><br />
If you make your own pet food, you can add chokos to the meat in chunks or grated to bulk out the vege part and add a few nutrients at the same time. I pop in grated choko or choko chunks when I boil up the dog food in the slow cooker and she seems to munch it up regardless. (Must be a bit of Labrador in that kelpie!) The cat wont have a bar of anything that isn't heavily biased towards fish or indeed is a fish but the chickens think cooked choko is a treat and gobble it up. For them I dice up left over chokos and pop them in the slow cooker and let them cook for the day. Then I mix the choko with their grain or just mash it and leave them to it. I don't give them this mixture too often as I prefer an ever changing variety of veges/plants for the girls rather than the same thing day in day out.<br />
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Do you have any idea for excess chokos? Id love to add to this list for next years crop - some one gave me a white choko and its sprouting in the fruit bowl as we speak, so I'm going to need more ideas in coming months I suspect! If you have any ideas, pop them in the comments below!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: 5/5 for completing the food cycle on your property!<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for finding so many ways to use a free vegetable!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> Normal amount of time to cook dinner.
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Easy to grow, easy to cook, easy to get sick of, Often hard to get rid of!
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<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: Great fun to find another way to hide a choko in the families dinner!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-63729767580605478882018-04-23T11:23:00.002+10:002018-04-23T11:23:57.615+10:00Bread : To bake or to buy, that is the question...I like baking bread! I love experimenting with different ideas, techniques, shapes, glazes, and ingredients. I'm not the worlds greatest cake baker - my friend Maureen holds that title, but I seem to have an affinity with bread baking. The other day a friend of mine asked where I was buying my bread and was very surprised to discover that I baked it all. He said he was paying $6 a loaf for stuff that looked like mine. <br />
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It got me to wondering if it was better to buy or to bake bread - what are your thoughts?<br />
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Here's what I do...
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Bread is a food staple. There aren't many people in our culture who don't eat bread at some point of the day - as toast for breakfast, sandwiches or wraps for lunch, as a roll on the side with dinner or even as the base of the pizza!<br />
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You can buy it as cheaply at about a dollar a loaf for the supermarket branded white mass produced stuff and up to $10 a loaf for the hand made, filled with good stuff, artesian loaf from a specialised bakery.<br />
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So why would you bake over buy?<br />
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I cant remember why I made my first loaf but I know I was in my early twenties and the man of the moment thought it could be used as a door stop - which between you and me had already occurred to me. I played with making bread randomly through my twenties never really getting the hang of it and buying the cheaper supermarket stuff which sufficed for my lifestyle at the time.<br />
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Once I settled into a relationship in my mid thirties, I started growing roots and my single lifestyle gave way to a more complex and contented lifestyle that involved a bit of navel gazing about life, the universe and everything. This lead to starting out on the frugal, crafty eco friendly journey that I'm still on and bread making rose higher on the "things I'd like to master" list.<br />
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I got a bread maker for my birthday (or was it Christmas) one year and that started a bit of a bread making frenzy that went for a few years. I loved the timer on the machine that let you wake up to the house filled with the small of freshly cooked bread! I also loved that the recipes hardly ever failed (unless you didn't put the yeast in and produced another door stop!) and that people were always impressed with your bread. Some people served home made cookies when visitors dropped in - I served warm from the oven bread. And they loved it.</div>
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But I think what really pushed the bread making into the foreground was our Sunday night pizza nights. We hosted international students for an English language school for years and years and since the buses home from the city stopped early on Sunday, the students had to be home about 5.30pm or they'd have to walk the last 10kms! Since everyone was home early together it became an end of the weekend ritual to make, bake and eat pizza together. The students would bring friends home, neighbours would drop in, family would visit - it was a very social night - all based around pizza.</div>
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When the bread machine finally gave up the ghost, I kept making pizza dough by hand and discovered that I could make really easy rolls from the same mixture. They needed to be eaten the same day there were made but with young men in the house the problem wasn't getting the rolls eaten but keeping up production!!<br />
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As my food knowledge grew and I started reading books by Michael Pollan, Joel Salatin and seeing videos like Food Inc, I started adding bran, grains, nuts and other bits and bobs to my bread. I experimented with all sorts of ingredients. I liked to cook (it runs in the family) and so as I figured out what worked and what didn't, my loaves got more successful and I got more confident. I think that is part of the key to incorporating home made bread into your daily routine (if that's where you want to go) is that the more you make, the more success you have, the more confidence you have and it becomes a positive upwards cycle.<br />
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Then as I got more interested in the food I was putting into my body, I read more, gained more knowledge and put those theories to the test with my own experiments. These days we eat meat more as a condiment/flavour ingredient than as the starring role. We eat a lot more veges and try and stay away from processed foods that come out of packets and have ingredients that I cant buy and I cant pronounce. And I bake bread from scratch nearly every day. Its a bit like cleaning your teeth. Its just something you do every day and don't really put much thought into when it gets done - it just happens!<br />
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To be fair, when we lived in Brisbane and had full time jobs, bread making was more of a weekend thing or when I found my self with a late start or a half day. Its become more of a daily part of our lives since we moved to the Hinterland and are 40km from the nearest shops! So for our lifestyle, baking fresh each day makes more sense than buying it. We can and do buy bread and pop it in the freezer but due to the amount of power cuts we have here, its not wise to rely entirely on the freezer for food storage. I tend to pop in a loaf or two of home made stuff into the freezer that got made but wont be eaten immediately or a couple when the local café has a slow weekend and lots of bread to get rid of before they close for a few days mid week.<br />
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So to buy or to bake?</div>
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I bake (more or less) out of necessity most of the time - and because I can, and because I enjoy it. The advantages of making are that you know what's going into the bread, the pride of accomplishment, compliments and the house smelling of baking bread!<br />
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The disadvantages are that you have to have the ingredients on hand and enough time to mix, raise, knead, proof, bake and cool the bread before you can eat it. Also a lot of the ingredients are going to come from the big supermarkets so you have to decide if this is a business that you want to support.<br />
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When I lived in the city, convenience and reliability of buying a loaf won out more often over the time needed to commit to making one. Being able to guarantee the quality of your bought bread is another important factor in buying bread over the chance of a loaf that doesn't make it out of the oven edible, <em>and</em> on time... Of course with the purchased loaf, you don't always know what goes into them and I notice the ingredient list on a supermarket loaf is longer and way harder to decipher than any recipe that I (more or less) follow...<br />
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Also - the purchased loaf can be filled with exotic ingredients you don't have on hand and wouldn't know where to start looking for. It gives you the opportunity to try something that you've heard about but wouldn't necessarily try to make your self.<br />
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Of course if you purchase from a small artisan type baker you'll also be supporting a owner operated sort of a set up rather than a corporation (a tendency I'm developing) and they will be happy to chat to you about ingredients and any other questions you might have.<br />
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I have a brown rice loaf proofing on the bench at the moment. If I get off the computer in time it may even get cooked in time for (a late) lunch but if not, yesterdays "herbs from the garden and home preserved garlic loaf" has enough left for a few pieces of toast to go with some soup!<br />
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I found I enjoy making bread more, the better I get at it. Its a skill worth developing for the lifestyle we currently lead. I may not have got this good if I had stayed in the city!!<br />
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So where do you sit on the buying or baking spectrum? <br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: ?/5 Depends entirely on where you are on the spectrum. Buying or baking is a complex question!<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness</strong>: ?/5 Again, depends on what your times worth, what you are putting into the loaf and your goals and lifestyle. Who said bread was simple?<br />
<strong>Time cost:</strong> About 4 hours from go to whoa if you make it and of course how and where you buy it!<br />
<strong>Skill level:</strong> Basic bread is quite basic - complex bread, more complex. Choose your own level!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: Marvellous fun to make and eat and just as much fun to discover a yummy bread you have never met before at a new bakery!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-21856348356035822912018-04-10T22:34:00.000+10:002018-04-10T22:39:27.816+10:00Pumpkin pollinating (and few other things Ive learnt about pumpkin growing!)We had a pumpkin plant of an indeterminable type pop up in the middle of a tomato hoop. Not realising what a monster we were unleashing, we let it grow. It was the biggest greenest thing in the garden and we were quite proud of it. One day we spotted a wee pumpkin growing from it and were SUPER excited. A few weeks later and we have a giant supermarket sized totally normal looking pumpkin growing in our garden! This was amazingly good fun. <br />
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When a second pumpkin started growing off the same vine we got a bit more serious about our illegitimate babies and decided to "grow pumpkins" (not they had needed our help up to this point!)<br />
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Here's what I did...
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When we found rogue, self set pumpkin we let it grow but directed the main vine to areas of full sun but not in the vege patch. (ie, the place where normal people would have grass!) Pumpkins take up soooooo much room that we have started encouraging them out of the garden beds and then we guide them around the garden edging. This works for us as we have got slightly raised beds and we wind the vines around the edges..<br />
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They are strong AND persistent so staking them in place has been working for us. We simply place a stick in the ground that stops the vine from heading in the direction that it wants to go and direct it where we want it to go.<br />
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Pumpkin vines seem to grow about 10 feet or so and then send off another vine on the side. Depending on how much room you have, you can cut the extra side vines off but they seem to put up female flowers (the ones that will grow the pumpkin) just off the side shoots of the new vine - or maybe its just mine that do that!!<br />
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This is an open female pumpkin flower - really easy to tell apart from the male flower - this will become necessary knowledge in a moment or two! </div>
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The embryonic female flowers can be identified even when they are only a few centimetres long and still curled up in the emerging vine tip. You can spot them even smaller than this one.</div>
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I track the location of these tiny flowers by putting a long stick in the ground next the flower. The girls flowers only stay open for about half a day and if they are not pollinated, there will be no pumpkin. We are having so much fun growing something (that is, pumpkins) in our recently built gardens (that look more like a Mars landscape than anything else) that we want to see how many pumpkins we can actually produce this year! So we are keen to make sure that each and every girl flower gets pollinated!</div>
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This is the male flower! See no swollen bit at the bottom! Super easy!</div>
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In the morning when I'm feeding the chooks, weeding the garden, drinking my cup of tea (and getting my PJ bottoms covered in mud), I check the progress of each baby girl flower. When one finally opens up, there's great excitement!<br />
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So this photo is the open female. If you cant tell from the baby pumpkin bit at the bottom, you will certainly be able to tell her from the male as the reproductive parts pretty much correspond to the human equivalents!<br />
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This is the inside of the male pumpkin flower. Now you <em>can</em> just get out a small paintbrush and tickle the inside of the boy flower attempting to get as much pollen as possible on the brush and then tickle the female flower hoping to lose as much pollen as possible onto the female...<br />
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But sometimes you have too much mud on your feet to make going back inside for a paintbrush a great idea, so you can simply pick the male flower and gently take off all his petals, leaving a small bowl at the base and taking care not to lose any pollen if you can help it...<br />
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Like so...</div>
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and then gently rub the two parts together to maximise the pollen attaching to the female flower.</div>
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You can use more than one male flower if you have them and want to be sure. You can also cross pollinate with another type of male pumpkin flower and see what happens! Make sure you shake all that male pollen down onto the female.</div>
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If you have successfully pollinated the female flower (or simply let nature take its course and let the bees do it for you) the flower will close up the same day and either fall off or wither away over a few days. The pumpkin will continue to grow as long as there is enough nutrients and water in the ground. <br />
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Eventually you will be able to prop the new pumpkin up the way its meant to go and I place a plastic container upside down underneath it to stop the new pumpkin from sitting in the mud. We get a lot of rain up here and I don't want to lose a pumpkin to rot because of the constantly wet ground.<br />
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Something I have noticed is that you get a flower at each leaf node. They are mostly male flowers like this one in the photo and so when I spot a female flower, I put a stick in the ground to show me where she is so I can keep an eye on her to make sure she gets pollinated on that half day opportunity when it arises.<br />
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I have also noticed that you get roots all along the vine. See the white roots in the background looking for a place to settle into the soil? These will help feed the vine and are a good thing. Moving the vine too often will mean these vital supply lines are cut off and the plant is relying on the main root ball. I try to guide the new growth to where I want it to go by staking it in place.<br />
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In this photo is also the beginnings of a new side shoot. I reckon you get a female flower within a few feet of the beginning of these side shoots. I am starting to consider pruning my pumpkin vines but think that if I cut the end off the vine, I will encourage the side shoots which might not be in the place I want them to be - these vines are soooo sprawly.<br />
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I have waited till the side shoot has a female flower and pollinated it. Once the fruit has set, then I cut that side shoot back to a foot or so beyond the new pumpkin. I read somewhere that I should put the cut end of the vine that's still connected to the plant into the ground to stop rot or disease from getting in but so far my ends have "dried" up a bit and all has been good.<br />
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Yesterday I discovered this pumpkin that I hadn't seen before climbing up in the choko trellis! This one grew from the compost that I put in the chocko bed and has managed to pollinate with out me - so the bees are doing their job well! I'm not sure how I'm going to support this pumpkin when he gets bigger as this trellis was never meant to hold a weight like his. I'm hoping to put him in an onion bag or in to a stocking cradle and support him by tying him on the star picket that's about a foot away...<br />
Here's hoping!<br />
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What hints and tips do you have for pumpkin growing? Id love to hear them! Link to your experiences in the comments section!<br />
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<strong>Score card:
</strong><br />
<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for growing your own food!<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for doing it without spending a cent!<br />
<strong>Time cost:</strong> Not a huge amount for pumpkins - just keeping and eye on them and guiding the vine where you want it - and pollinating!<br />
<strong>Skill level</strong>: Pretty basic gardening I think - Pumpkins can look after themselves!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> Great fun to wait for the girls to open and pollinate them - even more fun to watch the pumpkin get bigger and bigger... and bigger!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-36293899807082728442018-04-06T10:17:00.001+10:002018-04-06T10:17:40.624+10:00French Milled Soap - what you can do with all those waste soap bits and ends!We managed to collect a whole bunch of those types of mini soaps that you get at hotel. You know the ones that are too small to do anything with but are too big to "throw out" and so they just get collected... I have done the wet 3 or 4 and press them together thing to make a bigger, more useful bar of soap but I figured there had to be a better way. I had heard of grating soap and melting it and remoulding it but I didn't realise it had the lovely name of French Milling!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My home made French Milled Soap!</td></tr>
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Here's what I did...
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First I made sure that all my wee soaps were dry - much easier to grate them dry than wet and sticky!<br />
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And then as I'm sure you have guessed - I grated them. The smaller the bits you make the easier the next step will be.<br />
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If you wanted it, you could sort your soaps into colours and make white and yellow French milled soap or you can go the rustic (who can be bothered separating the soaps) type look and just mix in all the bits of soap for a more random home made look!<br />
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Dry soap crushes up quite well if you sort of rub it with your hands. the smaller pieces will melt down better than larger ones.<br />
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Now for the fun part - pop an inch or so of water in the bottom of your microwave proof bowl and pop the whole thing in the microwave for minute blasts...<br />
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The idea here is to get the soap to melt with the minimum amount of water. If you add lots of water, I takes a long time for the water to evaporate and the soap to set in the final stages.<br />
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The soap rises and bubbles in an alarmingly quick sort of a way so don't walk away from that microwave! When it seems to be bubbling like this, take it out of the microwave and give it a stir trying to get the mixture to a melted consistency.<br />
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This took longer than I had time for and I think is one of the reasons that this didn't work as well as I had hoped. I got impatient that I was running out of time and didn't melt the soap as much as it needed to be done. I did wonder if this couldn't have been done double boiler style and if the result might have been more consistent?<br />
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Next, I divided the mixture into two lots when it looked more like cottage cheese than cream cheese and I coloured the soap with a few drops of food colouring. This also might not have been a great idea! It seemed to seize the soap or maybe it was too cold or I was to impatient (My husband is voting for the latter option!) But I laboured on figuring I was learning something and soap can always be remelted at a later date if I don't get something useable out of it!<br />
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I used two clean empty cans with the white linings as my soap mould.</div>
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Using the spoon, I pushed the soap into the can as hard as I could.</div>
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I filled up the cans and left them on a shelf in a warm dry place for about a month (I totally forgot about them rather than that is the recommended time!) <br />
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I had this vision that I could cut the ends of the tin out and slide/push the soap out but the soap had shrunk and pulled away from the side of the cans and just slid out!<br />
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You can see that as the soap was too cold / not melted enough / seized by the food colouring, that it hasn't filled up the can to make nice smooth ends or edges. I think more melting and different colourings may have made a bit of a difference here!<br />
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I used my biggest knife to attempt to cut up the soap. I cut off both ends to make them even and then divided the soap into 2cm slices. It wasn't the worlds sharpest knife, but as the soap was full of holes, it was crumbly and some bits fell apart when I cut it.<br />
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You can see the different shapes of the unmelted soap in each slice.</div>
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Well, it certainly made a rustic looking soap with a definite home made feel!</div>
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I found that French milled soap seems to last a bit longer in the shower than a usual bar but Im not sure why... It could be that I'm watching my home made ones more carefully than the "shop" bought ones...</div>
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Once they have been used a few times, they smooth out into a more uniform bar - I'm sure that's just the effect of water and use rather than anything else.<br />
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Next time I would make the effort to melt the soap more and to pack it into the containers tighter. I wondered if I used cardboard milk containers if I could put it in the microwave after I had packed in the soap and melt it further in the container. I would also use more water and see if that made a smoother soap.<br />
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It was a fun experiment and one that Id certainly try again the next time I find myself with a small soap bar collection. I used these as part of a rustic basket of home made gifts and they were received well <br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: 5/5 for not wasting something that often ends up in the bin<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for making something out of scraps destined for the bin at no cost
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> Fair bit more than I expected. Probably an hour for the grating, melting and moulding. A months drying time in my case and 10 minutes cutting time...
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Mixing and stirring (I'm good at both!)<br />
<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> I'd say it was more of an interesting experiment than a joy filled activity!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-16324073415437492132018-03-27T13:19:00.000+10:002018-04-10T22:35:14.489+10:00Keeping Chinese Painted or King Quail - Our Experience!I'm fond of eggs. I love the shape of them, the colours, the feel of a freshly laid egg and of course the birds that lay them! One day some one showed me a really cool egg that I hadn't seen before. It was tiny and speckled and so, so so cute! I thought it was laid by a wild bird but it turned out to be laid by a quail! Well - I just had to get me one of those birds! Or nine as it turned out!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier2gL2F-p7v-x_zGqWKHQ8BtzqbbQ8I9skBE9wBbGZaFdgScDjDA5j2dWvDETi8kV3PjKkbb07aQh8A7y9EUAt3EMgXqL-_mDXmlkqBNzk8BDclTUP41ZkMbLgWNniZDwT5BIJi9Toco/s1600/20170508_112907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier2gL2F-p7v-x_zGqWKHQ8BtzqbbQ8I9skBE9wBbGZaFdgScDjDA5j2dWvDETi8kV3PjKkbb07aQh8A7y9EUAt3EMgXqL-_mDXmlkqBNzk8BDclTUP41ZkMbLgWNniZDwT5BIJi9Toco/s640/20170508_112907.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's what happened...
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Instead of doing the sensible thing and spending weeks researching quails and the many different types, I hit Gumtree and bought a trio for $15 - A bargain really! and so tiny. They are really just heart beats covered in feathers compared to the 3.5 kg chooks in the back yard!<br />
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I did organise a cage before getting the birds and I did spend a bit of time sorting that out but Quail Owning Tip #1 is to research the type of Quail you are getting and what their eggs look like before you purchase!!<br />
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I set up an old Guinea pig cage for my new babies. I put in a layer of dirt, a few grass plants, a layer of turf (hence the grass in the cage) and lots of logs, a wee house to hide/nest in, a dirt bath (that's the white square bowl) and had some shade cloth to make sure they didn't bake in the summer sun.<br />
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I put the cage on a plastic pallet on top of four stacks of two milk crates as these birds are ground dwelling and I wanted to be able to see them. I often pull up a stool and have a cuppa and talk to the quail and feed them greens and bugs, like caterpillars off my kale!</div>
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I put in a waterer that is normally used in a chook pen (the white tube with the red/yellow/blue base on it) but adapted to a smaller water pipe tube as they like water bowls and tended to walk and poop in the bowl I had for them originally. Like all creatures confined to a cage - water is vitally important and something that really needs thought. They will die quickly without water in our blazing Australian summers...</div>
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Something else they just adore is a dust bath! I've tried a variety of vessels for their dust baths - this one is the old cats bowl but something deeper is better as they flick all the dirt out in the first ten minutes if its too shallow! When I dust the chooks, I put a tiny sprinkle of mite dust or diatomaceous earth in the quail dust bath to help with any mites that they may have picked up.</div>
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I now have the seed in a baby chick container with holes in the lid as they like to spread all the seed all over the place as well and they just tip up the light plastic bowls...</div>
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Something I realised fairly quickly is that they like to hide! If you are small and tasty and close to the bottom of the food chain, that makes sense really! What I did was put branches on the top and back of the cage with pegs to help them feel like they were under a branch but so I could still see them. See the green bowl? That's the latest dust bath bowl and it works a treat. When they all hop in there, which they do regularly, we call it a quail Topped mud pie!</div>
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Like this!</div>
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This is one incarnation of their cage - I like to change it around every few months so I can "make improvements" and they have new things to explore. They like to hide, have things to scuttle in and under but they don't like to hide. In the first photo, I had made them a plant pot house and I could never get them to use it. They sleep outside in a circle, tails in, facing out in family groups as far as I can tell. I took the house out once I realised that they nested, well... anywhere! I've even found eggs in the dust bath!</div>
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I bought an original trio of the Silver mutant colouring - a boy and two girls and then the seller called me back and offered me some common coloureds (the brown ones) from the same brooder batch so I ended up with six quail, four girls and two boys. It took a few months but one day I saw an egg in the pen, just sitting in the grass!</div>
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At the time I had no idea who laid it but I think it was the oldest, Silverbelle and it was bright green like an Aracuana egg! Too cute and amazing for words!</div>
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Our very first Quail egg!</div>
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This gives you an idea of just how small the eggs are! I've read that it takes three quail eggs to make up a chook egg but that may be for standard quails that are much bigger than King Quail eggs!</div>
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This Lulabelle, a brown female King Quail. I didn't realise at the time that they laid the plain eggs - not that they aren't cute and fun to cook with but I had planned on getting the bigger speckled eggs that other breeds of quail lay! There's something to said for doing your research before looking for a seller! Not that Id swap my wee cuties for anything!<br />
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<em>From Wikipedia</em><br />
"The <b>king quail</b> (<i>Excalfactoria chinensis</i>), also known as the <b>blue-breasted quail</b>, <b>Asian blue quail</b>, <b>Chinese painted quail</b>, or <b>Chung-Chi</b>, is a species of Old World quail in the family <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasianidae" title="Phasianidae">Phasianidae</a>. This species is the smallest "true <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quail" title="Quail">quail</a>", ranging in the wild from southeastern <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia" title="Asia">Asia</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania" title="Oceania">Oceania</a> with 10 different subspecies. A failed attempt was made to introduce this species to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand" title="New Zealand">New Zealand</a> by the <a class="new" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otago_Acclimatisation_Society&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Otago Acclimatisation Society (page does not exist)">Otago Acclimatisation Society</a> in the late 1890s. It is quite common in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviculture" title="Aviculture">aviculture</a> worldwide, where it is sometimes misleadingly known as the "<b>button quail</b>", which is the name of an only very distantly related family of birds, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttonquail" title="Buttonquail">buttonquails</a>."<br />
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Here's a bunch of eggs from a cage clean out. They don't like you raiding the eggs and will lay in a different spot each time if you take all the eggs, so these days, if they are laying in a convenient (to me) spot, I leave three or four behind and they keep laying in the same spot! As the hens get older, the shell colour changes. So the oldest quail lays the darkest egg and the youngest, the bluest.<br />
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I found that they lay more or less like chooks do, one every day or so. It doesn't take long to get handfuls of eggs especially when you let them go broody to see what happens and next thing, you have babies running around (and falling out of the cage cause they are sooooo small) and in six weeks time they are sexually mature and rearing to go! Its fairly easy to tell the boys from the girls and so I've kept my original two boys as they have got on well and have no problems with fighting but taken all the other boys that have hatched to the local produce to become part of trios and pairs as the produce gets in other young quail. (Yes, that's how I ended up with nine quail)<br />
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I now take the eggs out when I spot one of the girls doing the broody thing as I'm not in the right place for raising more babies at the moment!<br />
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So, why would you keep Quail - especially some so small as these? <br />
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I have fun with the eggs from time to time in the kitchen. You can make bite size scotched eggs, tiny dukkah covered eggs, miniature devilled eggs and fairy sized fried eggs! I usually just boil them for a few minutes and peel them for salads. Always a talking piece!<br />
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The eggs also make the right size dose of tasty innocent looking protein to hide chicken/cat/dog medicine in - raw or hard boiled!<br />
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I love watching them as much as the chickens! Sitting on a stool and poking greens through the cage or changing out their seed bowl and having them run all over your hands is kinda fun! I love finding a bit of fruit they haven't seen before and popping it in the cage and watching the boys come and check it out before calling the girls over for a treat once they are sure its safe - its like a favourite TV show! The Quail Channel!<br />
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So, how much do you want quail now?? Leave me a note in the comment section, Id love to hear your thoughts!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: If you use the quail as part of your backyard eco system then 5/5 for using the manure on the garden and for feeding them garden weeds and pests!
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> Quail are very cheap to run. Maybe $5 in seed for the month for all nine of them!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> The usual feeding cleaning and maintenance time of any pet but lots of time will be spent tuning into the Quail Channel!
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Very basic care - they are pretty tough wee critters but you gotta make sure they cant get out. They can fly!
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<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: So, so, so much fun!!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-85356346802801873482017-09-06T21:47:00.001+10:002018-03-25T14:22:19.592+10:00How to make marmalade in the slow cooker!A friend gave me a bunch (a bushel? a peck? a lot, anyway) of Pomellos that he had growing on his tree. Pomellos are a bit like a really big grapefruit. Its a citrus at any rate! Since I had a ton of lemons and a couple of oranges already, I decided to make a tri-citrus marmalade!<br />
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I wasn't in the mood to stand at the stove all day since it was so glorious outside, and when I was washing up the dishes (yes, from last night) I looked at the slow cooker and wondered... "can you make marmalade (or jam) in a slow cooker?" <br />
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It turns out the answer is yes!<br />
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Here's what I did... <a name='more'></a><br />
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I had made some straight Pomello marmalade when the Pomellos first arrived at home. I googled it and found a <a href="http://spectacularlydelicious.com/2009/12/10/persian-grapefruit-marmalade/#grapefruitmarmaladerecipe">"boil and blend" recipe that sounded different</a> and a bit more interesting than others. It worked really well and so I decided to use that recipe but use the slow cooker instead of the stove to do the actual cooking - that way I could multi task, make marmalade and do some gardening both at the same time!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">First peel your citrus.</div><div style="text-align: center;">It doesn't matter how many you are going to use as the recipe says about two cups of sugar to each pomello - and you can taste and adjust later on!</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQodtTq9miQi5V6NyAf3cZ3VXapsdiCWYyMy_2cwXxKZy2LScTle0uTvyZmLm0U22IFiZ0ZG4gLT-ibl7TCB4fIfJfXGhuJQBYaWDVbDRc_3ivC6ZkgniIBPglBpBfCcWpTDqwRk5KE3M/s1600/20170813_160116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQodtTq9miQi5V6NyAf3cZ3VXapsdiCWYyMy_2cwXxKZy2LScTle0uTvyZmLm0U22IFiZ0ZG4gLT-ibl7TCB4fIfJfXGhuJQBYaWDVbDRc_3ivC6ZkgniIBPglBpBfCcWpTDqwRk5KE3M/s640/20170813_160116.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVBz20HzFNLptpOBc7OEY1OzKDmS4gpQ7t21cBkYzqPWmtlQ23QvTCET8uu3-8QH8g3GpKbcNCZMaLE2vtfY0HD71s6zo-Kwnc8j8R6B1A3dxXLOPDRQXeMDpRVF8RhSPAji8knc6eY8/s1600/20170813_155513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVBz20HzFNLptpOBc7OEY1OzKDmS4gpQ7t21cBkYzqPWmtlQ23QvTCET8uu3-8QH8g3GpKbcNCZMaLE2vtfY0HD71s6zo-Kwnc8j8R6B1A3dxXLOPDRQXeMDpRVF8RhSPAji8knc6eY8/s640/20170813_155513.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Cut as much of the white pith of as possible unless you like really bitter marmalade.</div><br />
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Then cut the pomello/orange/lemon/lime into segments leaving out the tough membrane in between. This bit doesn't break down blend in well, so its best not to have in there then you wont have to fish it all out later!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQodtTq9miQi5V6NyAf3cZ3VXapsdiCWYyMy_2cwXxKZy2LScTle0uTvyZmLm0U22IFiZ0ZG4gLT-ibl7TCB4fIfJfXGhuJQBYaWDVbDRc_3ivC6ZkgniIBPglBpBfCcWpTDqwRk5KE3M/s1600/20170813_160116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div> This bit is fiddly. Not so bad with the huge pomellos but not so great with the smaller fiddly citrus. I can tell you its worth it though - and it gets better from here on in!<br />
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Pop all the skins into a pot of water and boil them for about 5 minutes. Then empty the water out and do it again, And then again. Three times is usually enough to take out a lot of the bitterness in the skins. Then either cut the skins into skinny slices... or pop them in the blender!<br />
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Put all the fruit pulp that you painstakingly cut out of the membrane into the blender and then add the skins and hit the high button!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg45SWYoDsZhZK6gXdG8oFyh-2RduPGcdTb4vNpd8zhqM3m3NCxokl2nqJX-au7zD66Z2qKszQA7BfxMePxW1QpHnl9mzdp5SFMgA8lea3tIswcizSvm6K8jKXM2vhBIMngY4ZNpPnMl4M/s1600/20170813_164431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg45SWYoDsZhZK6gXdG8oFyh-2RduPGcdTb4vNpd8zhqM3m3NCxokl2nqJX-au7zD66Z2qKszQA7BfxMePxW1QpHnl9mzdp5SFMgA8lea3tIswcizSvm6K8jKXM2vhBIMngY4ZNpPnMl4M/s640/20170813_164431.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The result is this creamy mixture that when added to sugar and heat will make a really yummy thick, creamy marmalade, even if the photos are upside down and wont rotate no matter what I do!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> What I did next was measured a cup of sugar for each rough cup of pulp and popped it all in the slow cooker on high for about four or five hours. I checked it from time to time and added a bit more sugar towards the end but let it cook until the sugar had dissolved.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Once I was happy with the way the marmalade had cooked in the slow cooker, I popped a few clean jars with an inch or so of water in them into the microwave on high and boiled the water in them for a few minutes. Then I spooned the hot jam into the hot jars (after emptying the water out!) and sealed them with clean lids that had been put in boiling water as well.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I left them to cool until the lids popped down, labelled them and put them in the pantry. Job done! Yum!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was a great way to make marmalade and I'll definitely do it again the next time I have a bunch of citrus sitting on the bench.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you find the marmalade to bitter, decrease the amount of skins you put in (maybe half not all) or get rid of as much of the white part as possible. The pith is what's making it creamy... and bitter.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I made sure I labelled it bitter marmalade so no one gets a fright expecting sweet marmalade.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I really liked the slow cooker as I had heaps of time to do other things and didn't need to check on it every few minutes in case the marmalade got burnt or stuck or over cooked. The slow cooker was - well - slower, and I found it really worked for me. It was much easier to taste and check the consistency as it wasn't at a boil or simmer, and spitting at me.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Have you made marmalade or jam in the slow cooker before? Let me know how you went and what you thought in the comments section below!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><strong>Score card:</strong> <br />
<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for using fruit that was in season and falling off the trees! <br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for getting six jars of almost free marmalade ( I had to pay for the sugar!) <br />
<strong>Time cost:</strong> About 5 hours - but there's at least four hours worth of gardening in there as well! <br />
<strong>Skill level:</strong> pretty basic cooking and cutting skills!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> Great fun to have marmalade and be able to play in the garden!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-12197349104082592582017-08-19T07:19:00.002+10:002018-03-25T14:16:05.267+10:00Using leaves as deep litter in the chicken pen.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVMKajzz13qZuf1Bsy10Jcf3g_o_d-i-nehjKvsc_VxvezSSzK0CnPxMCiu1yhPWNNNtPxQqh4M2j0VD_46htoCVBlvs1e0pyUT6YXzVke2q5SwBzMNxvR-1In1hEMkwIvlGWL1GxcU4/s1600/20170614_103044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVMKajzz13qZuf1Bsy10Jcf3g_o_d-i-nehjKvsc_VxvezSSzK0CnPxMCiu1yhPWNNNtPxQqh4M2j0VD_46htoCVBlvs1e0pyUT6YXzVke2q5SwBzMNxvR-1In1hEMkwIvlGWL1GxcU4/s640/20170614_103044.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
We get seasons up here in the Hinterland! This means that we get lots of leaves on the ground as well. This is a resource I haven't had before as living in Brisbane, there are very few deciduous trees around to collect leaves from. It turns out that some people up here sweep the leaves into big piles and burn them or collect them up into bags and take them to the dump!?<br />
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I have a friend who has an avenue of deciduous trees and he wants all the leaves off the grass. He was keen to blower vac them into a gully, I was keen to collect them all in the trailer and bring them home. It took about ten trailer loads to get the bulk of them home (and he thinks I'm mad into the bargain) but how could I pass up all those lovely leaves?<br />
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Here's what I did with them... <!--more Read More Here!--><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8Tq4U59IM1zaVdPQbrpVAWsJ0h8UtLMeA6jXFibbfgHquykHSc4fECyyZwiumXoo5HR19LMhxL6TTMBvrU9b0ynaT_R42EpwMehCFw3DDEnIP3h-G-ictLC0CVey1zZgLGAIvHRanYo/s1600/20170601_163552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8Tq4U59IM1zaVdPQbrpVAWsJ0h8UtLMeA6jXFibbfgHquykHSc4fECyyZwiumXoo5HR19LMhxL6TTMBvrU9b0ynaT_R42EpwMehCFw3DDEnIP3h-G-ictLC0CVey1zZgLGAIvHRanYo/s640/20170601_163552.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
The first few trailer loads went into the chook pen on the floor. I piled all the leaves onto a tarp and then dragged them into the pen and upended the tarp. It made a messy big pile that covered the stump and branches and the bread crates that were to give the chook some dry space for preening, When we got up here it rained solidly for the first few weeks and they were always in the mud. The branches gave them a place to perch, preen and get out of the wet.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1uPg3I0H_1sJqQfVnppfAbMoe0TOkCWUur-BYcdNpMnKJUrQCsL8dPOkZ7lX_iate3W0Qs8UfoRDIoBKG-U-MGYQxVRYIqFLo19KzeUjmE1xvsPM6j-9ywTyYcREhYSdRSCd5YH_c_6Q/s1600/20170601_163541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1uPg3I0H_1sJqQfVnppfAbMoe0TOkCWUur-BYcdNpMnKJUrQCsL8dPOkZ7lX_iate3W0Qs8UfoRDIoBKG-U-MGYQxVRYIqFLo19KzeUjmE1xvsPM6j-9ywTyYcREhYSdRSCd5YH_c_6Q/s640/20170601_163541.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
It didn't take them long to decide this was an amazing thing to happen to them and even though I really don't think then leaves were full of bugs and worms, the chookies thought that they might be in there and flattened the pile across the pen in less than an afternoon.<br />
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My reason for putting the leaves in the pen was threefold.<br />
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First I hoped the leaves would soak up a bit of the water lying around in the pen while it was raining.<br />
Secondly, it give the chooks something to do. A bored chook is fairly destructive and sooner or later they will pick on the youngest, newest or weakest for entertainment. Mine are free ranged in the backyard each afternoon so its not so much of an issue for them but like anyone, they like new things, something to do and scratching through piles of leaves is, as Joel Salatin would say, letting the chicken express it chicken-ness - or was that Michael Pollan? At any rate, I like the idea of my chickens expressing their chicken-ness and bringing me to my third reason, they have turned over every leaf a hundred times with those claws, they are making great compost and mulch for my gardens!<br />
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I think deep litter for the chook pen is a good thing on a number of levels. It uses up a free resource that would be wasted otherwise. It brings more organic matter onto my property boosting the potential fertility of my place. It amuses my chooks for hours on end (and happy chooks lay much better eggs!) it soaked up all the excess water in the pen and eventually, it was raked out and put on garden beds and they were given another trailer load to play with and start the cycle over again with.<br />
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Another thing I tried this winter was deep litter in the hen house. As it didn't get that cold in Brisbane and the girls were all born and bred in the subtropics, I put a single cardboard layer inside the coops each winter as insulation and had the usual newspaper covered in sawdust or straw to soak up the droppings. Winter up here in the mountain is much, uch colder and Even though I put a few of the packing boxes to good use as insulation, I was still worried about how cold it was for them.<br />
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So I put a pile of newspaper on the bottom of the coop, followed by the usual straw and instead of cleaning it out when the poop levels get to high, I covered it with a thick layer of leaves. After a few months there is a substantial amount of compost fermenting away in the bottom of the coop producing a bit of heat (I hope) and insulation (Im sure!)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDNxjrfp9dhyphenhyphenH6tIhq17gmQLkvs7OhOunID5C3t3aSNbmNwUWV1x9ypwomqD5E59FZljzj8w5dzLGBzbDiXOv6kTg3ZSAKgG9lc3UXw1YDbmHqlFJ-Y1VqYOxTwc__m6HfXUOZiWftvs/s1600/20170602_142330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDNxjrfp9dhyphenhyphenH6tIhq17gmQLkvs7OhOunID5C3t3aSNbmNwUWV1x9ypwomqD5E59FZljzj8w5dzLGBzbDiXOv6kTg3ZSAKgG9lc3UXw1YDbmHqlFJ-Y1VqYOxTwc__m6HfXUOZiWftvs/s640/20170602_142330.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
Normally I would be keen on keeping the poop from building up inside the coop but each time I put in the layer of leaves,the smell goes away. I know its not good for any animal to be sleeping in its own poop but once a thick layer of leaves goes in, there is no visible poop for them to stand in and the ammonia smell disappears too. I have read about American Chicken keepers who do this sort of thing in the Winter when their chooks cant go outside in the snow/storms/blizzards and they just put a new layer of straw/hay/whatever on top every few weeks and clean it out in the Spring once the chooks can go outside again.<br />
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This is the principle I am trialling for this coop this winter. The coop is a temporary one (like everything at the moment) and in time we will put in a proper coop and run for the girls when we decide on a more permanent set up for the whole yard. If this works and I end up with some great compost and there is no detrimental effects on the chooks, then I'm guessing I'll be keen to set up the "proper" coop to do this for next Winter.<br />
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Using the leaves on the inside of the coop and outside in the pen has been great so far and I'm quite pleased with the results so far. Have you used this system before? What did you think? What were your reasons? Id love to hear what you think!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong> <br />
<strong>Green-ness</strong>: 5/5 for using a natural resource that would go to waste otherwise! <br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> Only the petrol cost. If the leaves were closer I would have wheel barrowed them home but 4km was a bit far... <br />
<strong>Time cost:</strong> About an hour to get two or three loads a day depending on how we were feeling. Most of the time was in raking them all up. <br />
<strong>Skill level:</strong> Raking, raking, raking...<br />
<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: Flinging leaves at each other was great fun even if it wasn't getting the job done!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-222144046559477442017-08-11T09:16:00.002+10:002017-08-11T09:16:42.539+10:00My free, chook proof (so far) scavenged garden fence! Since we moved to the hinterland I have been keen on getting a vege garden up and running for a couple of reasons. One, because the shops are so far away and two, because the soil and weather should allow us to grow veges!<br />
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So I waited a few months to see where the sun fell, where the rain water flowed and what sort of winds we had - actually I had too much unpacking and rearranging to do to worry too much about anything else, but while I was hanging curtains and putting boxes in the trailer to go to the dump, I was noting the sunny spots, the drowned out tank over flow patches and the areas that never got any sun!<br />
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Once the inside of the house was sorted (well, lets say its liveable) I turned my attention to the prospect of a small herb and vege garden. I have no money to spend on this garden so it was going to be small by necessity rather than choice. I also have a flock of hungry chickens who think that all things green are for their dining pleasure (goats may be less destructive than my horde of chooks!) so it will need a chook proof fence. Permaculture principles state that a vege garden needs to be close to the house or I wont go and get the veges... So with these points in mind - <br />
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Here's what I did...
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I decided to start small and expand - better to have a small success than a large failure was my theory - and chose a morning sunny corner. This bush was already there and has had a prune - you can see the dirt showing that it was much larger. My initial theory was that the shrub could stay - but I wish I had taken it out at this stage rather than when I was almost finished building the garden...<br />
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I collected bits and bobs from around the yard and our junk pile. Some Koppers logs from a defunct front garden and a couple of hardwood planks decided the garden dimensions. Four star pickets became the corners and an old piece of dog fencing became my base fence. I thought the chooks would be able to get through the wire - especially if they are motivated by the sight of fresh green lettuces and so I started cutting branches and weaving them through the wire to make the holes smaller. <br />
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I put the star pickets in to hold each corner and then wove the picket through the wire to hold it in place.<br />
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The Besser block is to raise the down hill corner a bit - partly for aesthetics and partly to raise the corner so the plants don't get water logged. I put one of the middle posts on the inside of the garden to keep the fence from sagging outwards. I started this fence with fairly robust branches.<br />
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I cut the dog wire to the right length and then curved it around a star picket gate post to fix the ends of the fence. I happened to find a bit of dog fencing wire from the fence that got taken out that fitted the wood base of my garden. So I ended up with four corner star pickets and two star picket gate posts that support my fence.<br />
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I haven't got a photo of it, but when I was filling the garden with an old compost heap that I dug out of a neglected part of the garden, the chookies could walk in and out of my garden at will through the branches and wire and enjoyed digging in the dirt I was putting in there. The gaps in the fence were big enough for the smaller chooks or the bolder chooks to get through. I started collecting skinnier stick to put in the gaps and then decided to put taller ones in as well to discourage the chooks from flying over the fence.<br />
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The stick that I used as the palings were reasonably heavy and this down hill corner was "sagging" a bit so I used a piece of wire across the corner (the bright shiny piece in this photo) to pull it together and provide a bit of stability. This fence isn't going to survive a decent storm but as a temporary, lets try a garden here fence, it will do!<br />
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The gate is the original door to the "hospital cage" that got an upgrade when the Quail spent a month in it waiting for their big cage to be erected. It was originally off a home made aviary. I put a few long sticks through the gate to discourage any chooks from flying over it too.<br />
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I used a couple of cable ties as the hinges and a coloured rock as the lock. Its a very light gate. A determined possum or wallaby would be able to get in but I'm hoping the presence of the dog and the six foot high chain link fence around the rest of the yard is deterring them from coming near my garden at the moment!<br />
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Before I planted anything in the garden, I put a couple of "bait plants" in there for a week or so. Nice big green seedlings in a pot were sitting enticingly in the sea of brown compost. I had the gate and fence finished and the chookies hadn't been able to get in for a while but I wasn't prepared to plant it out and discover that they needed the motivation of expensive seedlings to prove they could get in.<br />
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The chooks showed a lot of interest in the bait plants but after a week they hadn't got in. Nothing else had touched the plants and so I took the risk and planted out a punnet of mixed lettuce and Asian greens seedlings - so far so good. I haven't planted anything close to the edge as the chookies can still get their heads through some of the holes. There's a couple of sprouting onions and potatoes in there too somewhere!<br />
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I think the tall sticks also deter the cockatoos and other parrots as they move in the wind and aren't strong enough to take the weight of these birds. So far they haven't shown any real interest in the garden and the few seedlings have remained unmolested.<br />
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Its certainly not a garden for the pages of "Better Homes and Gardens Than Mine" but if you are into rustic or interesting garden fencing, then this free, chook proof (so far) one might be the one for you!<br />
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It took a bit of time to collect the right sized branches and sticks. I weaved them through the fencing but found that they bunched up a bit and in some places I have five sticks in some places where I'm sure one well placed one would've been sufficient. I could have wired the branches in place or cable tied sticks to stay where I wanted them but I'm trying not to use plastics these days and didn't have an easy to bend wire to hand. This style works for me as I collected sticks on my afternoon walks with the dog and wasn't in a hurry. Its still cold at night here, around three degrees and so I wasn't in a rush to get the seedlings in, just in time for a cold snap or a frost.<br />
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Ultimately we will put in a large covered completely animal proof garden that (hopefully) will provide all our greens and a few other veges - but until then, this will be our place to learn and see what works and what doesn't. I'm sure you'll see a few more posts featuring this garden in the future!<br />
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What free garden fencing have you made? Post some pictures or links in the comments!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: 5/5 for using items that <br />
<strong>Frugal-ness</strong>: 5/5 for not spending any money on the garden and fencing!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> About 2 weeks to get the basics in place plus waiting time to see if the chookies could get in.
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Confidence and desire to do it!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness: </strong>Great fun to see my veges growing on the inside of the fence and the chooks on the outside of the fence!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-46391400930866530412017-08-04T23:07:00.004+10:002017-08-04T23:07:48.614+10:00Small Scale Backyard Hugelculture!I read an article, ages ago, about a woman who never let a shred of organic matter leave her property. She also collected as much greenery, dead leaves, left over food from a local day care and any organic matter that she could lay her hands on and turned her yard from a barren moonscape into a lush suburban oasis. This long-ago-read story has been my basis for not getting a council green bin and not allowing my husband to take a trailer load of anything organic to the dump - even though its free for us to do that!<br />
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So what do we do with all those random branches that fall during a storm? What happens to the bottom of the chook coop when it needs cleaning out? What do we do with all our prunings and rakings after a garden tidy?<br />
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What doesn't go into the formal compost heap gets put it in a pile in a hidden part of the garden and after a couple of years, its all composted down and is a really good place to plant new plants! It turns out that this "no waste / cant leave the property" policy that I have, is also called Hugelkulture in some circles!<br />
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Hugelkulture is usually a large scale gardening technique where you take whole tree trunks and put them in a pile and then cover them with progressively smaller and smaller branches and finally leaves and a covering of compost and dirt. The idea is to then plant out the top dirt layer. The plants draw their nutrients from the rotting branches underneath. The tree trunks eventually also rot out releasing their nutrients to the plants above. This system also soaks up water well, stays hydrated longer and is a really, really good way to absorb all those nutrients locked up in the tree and your garden waste!!<br />
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Here's what I do... <br />
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In our new place I wanted to revegetate the back third of the garden. Its heavily shaded by a giant Moreton Bay fig and a large number of other large native trees. A vege or flower garden wouldn't work in this heavily shaded space and it seems like a good place to grow trees to screen the fence and to enhance both our view, and the neighbours view!<br />
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So as I was taking out various weed trees, cutting back unruly bushes and attempting to eradicate the bamboo patch, I ended up with a pile of smallish branches that normally people might take to the dump or put in a green waste bin. Instead I used them to start my "garden beds" and piled them up in the areas I want to revegetate.<br />
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As Winter progressed, I met people who were getting rid of Autumn leaves (?) and discovered that people will generously reward you for arriving with a trailer and a rake and taking the leaves away for them! These, I added to my piles of branches! (The leaves, not the rewards - I drank them!)<br />
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Another neighbour took out a tree and didn't need it for firewood or garden edging and over the period of a week we removed the whole thing, branch by branch and piled it into my Hugalkulture piles in the back yard and also covered them in a trailer of leaves. <br />
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At the moment they just look like a pile of sticks and leaves. I need to have another go at them with a pair of loppers and break the branches down a bit more. My husband sometimes just puts his boots on and stomps all over them - its a crude but effective method of breaking the branches down I have to admit!!<br />
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The way I make Hugalkulture beds isn't an instant system. I'm attempting to mimic Mother Nature, but in a slightly faster time frame! She knocks a tree or two over and then slowly they break up and disappear into the mulch and eventually grow new trees where the old one stood. I'm just breaking the branches down quicker and bringing the mulch to the tree. If I had access to dirt or compost, I'd be adding that too!<br />
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You cant really see them in this picture but I have started planting native tree seedlings that I've collected off neighbours and friends and have been making a hole for them, filling it with compost and planting my wee tree in amongst the mulch. Hopefully they will start to grow and create a forest of native trees on my side of the fence... soon?<br />
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The soil here is pretty good, being volcanic and we also have a fair bit of rain here too which helps! I think the tree branches and mulch will help protect the seedlings as they grow and eventually provide them with all the nutrients they need to get bigger.<br />
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Its not a "pretty" gardening method, I have to admit, but works for me in that we are trying to recreate a natural looking forest with paths through it, not a parkland. I have also noticed that the chooks don't like to climb on top of the piles as they aren't solid and so aren't digging too much up at all. If you need a more aesthetic garden bed, put some wood chip or other cover as your top layer and don't let the chooks near it!<br />
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I have been putting grain on areas that asparagus fern weed grow and this encourages the chooks to scratch at the roots and if not eradicate it, certainly weaken it. I'm a bit worried that my light version of Hugelkulture wont smother the asparagus weed but nourish and cosset it and it will grow like the weed it is! So I'm putting the girls to work on it before I start on my mulch piles in that spot.<br />
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According to the little bits I've read about this gardening method, the idea is to make a huge pile of trees/branches/organic matter, cover it in dirt and start planting. The insides of the pile will rot and collapse over time allowing you to plant deeper into the layer of composted organic matter that gets deeper each year. I don't have huge trunks to put on the bottom of my piles, nor trailer loads of dirt for the top so, again, taking my cue from Mother Nature, I just put whatever comes to hand on top of the pile and let time do its thing with minimal help from me.<br />
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I wish I had photos of the places in the old place that we piled fallen branches, garden pruning's and grass clippings. We picked a spot each year and made what were really just informal rough compost heaps and then after a year or so found a new spot to put all this garden "waste". We popped a plant into the top of the old informal "compost heap" and within a short time the plant grew too big to see where the pile had originally been. The photos would all just be of happily growing plants if I did have them!<br />
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If we had a bare paddock in the blazing sun and access to dead trees on a large scale, I could see the sense in using Hugelkulture they way it was designed but as I have a small shaded backyard, this light version of Hugalkulture is working really well for me!<br />
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If you are keen to explore this concept a bit more, these websites have been really helpful for me to learn about Hugalkulture from.<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nwedible.com/half-ass-hugelkultur/">North West Edible Garden - Half ass Hugalkulture</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur">Wikipedia - Hugalkulture</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.hugelkultur.com.au/intro-hugelkultur/">Hugalkulture.com - Introduction to Hugalkulture</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.permablitz.net/how-to/hoo-guh-what-hugelkultur/">Melbourne Permablitz - hoo guh what?!?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.niftyhomestead.com/blog/hugelkultur/">Nifty Homestead - Hugalkulture</a></li>
</ul>
Let us know what your experiences with Hugalkulture have been like in the comments below. If you know of a great Hugalculture site, link to it in the comments and we can all go and have a look at it.<br />
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Happy Hugal-ing!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for not letting anything organic leave the property!<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for getting mulch for free!<br />
<strong>Time cost</strong>: Whatever time you have. Its a long term commitment this Hugalkulture stuff...!<br />
<strong>Skill level:</strong> Just raking, dragging, piling skills with a lot of patience!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> I'm really enjoying collecting branches from around the garden and its been a great way to get to know the neighbours - especially the ones with deciduous trees!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-89699794648027415072017-07-28T21:27:00.000+10:002017-08-04T23:08:19.550+10:00Eating weeds! Trying Plantain Lanceolata for the first time!<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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There is this big paddock down the road from us that I walked the dog at the other week. It seems to be quite a few acres and has lots of areas for us to explore next to the creek. Walking the dog here coincided with reading a post about eating weeds. On our next walk I saw huge quantities of what we called, "soldier seed plants when I was a kid. We played a game where you picked the seed head on a long stem and then swung yours at the other persons, who was holding it still. The idea was to take turns and break the head of the other persons soldier to win.</div>
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It turned out that this weed to also be an edible plant!<br />
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I did a bit of research and discovered that this weed I have spent my life walking over and never knew its real name is actually a member of a nutritious vegetable family!<br />
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I so had to try some!<br />
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Here's what I did...
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First do a bit of research and make sure you know exactly what you are planning to eat and make sure you are getting your "weeds" from a place that hasn't been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides. Then grab a pair of scissors and a basket/bucket/bag, the dog and maybe a book that ID's the plants you saw and head off to fetch yourself some free nutritious veges!<br />
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I decided to pick my vege weeds from the edges of this paddock, away from the places that other people might be walking their dogs... Just in case!<br />
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Then I started by looking for the tell tale seed heads of my target plant, Plantago Lanceolata - they seem to produce seeds all year round - and checked my book to make sure.<br />
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And... Yup, It sure is! Also known as Lance Plantago, Rib Wort, Narrow Leaf Plantain, English Plantain, Ribwort Plantain, Ribleaf and Lamb's tongue. It has a well known and easily recognised relative,<a href="http://momprepares.com/broadleaf-plantain-food-medicine-beneath-your-feet/"> broad leaf plantain</a> that is also edible but quite different to look at.<br />
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When I arrived at the paddock this particular afternoon we had had a bit of rain and there was lots of young leaves and since I had plenty of time and a huge paddock of these leaves to choose from, I picked the youngest tenderest ones I could find.<br />
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I collected a number of plants along with my Plaintain. I wanted to properly identify some that weren't in my book and I collected a few that I knew the chooks would love. I couldn't resist the daisy or a piece of Tibocina flower for the vase whilst I was there.<br />
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I had also identified "cats ear" (Hypochoeris radicata) and read that it was also edible. As there were lots of these plants there too I collected a few of them too.<br />
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The cats ear look like dandelion on first acquaintance but once I found <a href="http://identifythatplant.com/dandelion-and-cats-ear/">this website</a> that shows you the difference between the two plants, I could properly identify what I was looking for. I chose to try the cats ear and plantain together for my first "weed" mead!<br />
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First I rinsed them in a colander to get off the dirt and grass and what ever got tangled up when I picked them. I can say after doing this a few times, that its better to do all your sorting in the field. I now pick through and only take home the best leaves and try not to put grass etc in my basket. It makes the preparation at home quicker and easier.<br />
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Then I steamed/boiled them on a pot of boiling water. They cook down to practically nothing! A basket full will cook down to only a very large handful!<br />
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I used a pair of tongs to fish out the bits that shouldn't have got this far (grass coloured grass is so hard to see in amongst grass coloured leaves) and to toss the leaves about to cook the evenly. <br />
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I wasn't sure how long to cook them for but being Winter, I figured they would be tougher now than in the spring rains and went for a full 5 minutes.<br />
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Then I put them under the cold tap to cool them and stop the cooking and squeezed out the water. I cut them up into small bits with scissors while they were in a clump. They were surprisingly tough still so I made sure they were quite small pieces.<br />
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I popped them in a bowl and added preserved lemon, mint, flour, egg, garlic, salt and pepper to make a thickish mixture to put inside pastry.</div>
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Using a standard sheet of bought flaky pastry, I popped the mixture on the top and rolled them up and popped them into the oven.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5XVVx8XBTJ3kqtmlo7SLQDKvoq1gwBY8XFu14q6CpvLMOo0fiFPibXF6Mw-6eeRXESmXyQiK5s9H62XOaLD-nf1qPgwl2D2XWyPELOqMv9P1_LPwCguF-MehrknzHenytENGAOyQEEc/s1600/20170714_193136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5XVVx8XBTJ3kqtmlo7SLQDKvoq1gwBY8XFu14q6CpvLMOo0fiFPibXF6Mw-6eeRXESmXyQiK5s9H62XOaLD-nf1qPgwl2D2XWyPELOqMv9P1_LPwCguF-MehrknzHenytENGAOyQEEc/s640/20170714_193136.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And they didn't look so bad!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRG-LLAfujq_1HBCsB0XpNNr7ZkGtCw8B7Sclw1ApXUZbP68Yao1GFR_pPUBq_hpB4xJH6QxLjdckwnCqH70F2zqPS6oflU70lRfVh0-Cgiqn4b_TS8E6G1yo4c8swFDR11Bd0lvyzZQ/s1600/20170714_193350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRG-LLAfujq_1HBCsB0XpNNr7ZkGtCw8B7Sclw1ApXUZbP68Yao1GFR_pPUBq_hpB4xJH6QxLjdckwnCqH70F2zqPS6oflU70lRfVh0-Cgiqn4b_TS8E6G1yo4c8swFDR11Bd0lvyzZQ/s640/20170714_193350.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And so we ate a lemon, mint and garlic flavoured "sausage" roll where the primary ingredient was a weed! It is a much more robust taste and texture to spinach, I would almost go as far to say its a bit mushroom-y in texture. It was certainly very tasty and we had no adverse effects what so ever! </div>
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Since then there has been the plantain, caramelised onion and cheese tarts which were really, really yum. The plaintain held up better than a spinach base and is chewier and less watery.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhp5e_d6Ep4JA0kq046SUUowj6Dk81d2kiP6FPcp_EGl0m0tqHHhcZCxq6X45sPoV5z1JQ40Xci6lSeEeN1CTN5fgw0WZCulMIan8LXPbmyWIpYLauiC3i0er_F9OYBmiqxmDXRRT-kM/s1600/20170715_184048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhp5e_d6Ep4JA0kq046SUUowj6Dk81d2kiP6FPcp_EGl0m0tqHHhcZCxq6X45sPoV5z1JQ40Xci6lSeEeN1CTN5fgw0WZCulMIan8LXPbmyWIpYLauiC3i0er_F9OYBmiqxmDXRRT-kM/s640/20170715_184048.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2_bFkEboz3I0vBlT19heIOT9K9HXpFkDKAD0wmK2pCgyL4BcpbNakA4sNRpNOnFAHSKUwijJYN-8Hfh2DcwO23nmIQ6-6nta8YHR3TLg_hOkJva3hGrYxLfokMWcAiHxZ5XBh4b0WXo/s1600/20170715_184445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2_bFkEboz3I0vBlT19heIOT9K9HXpFkDKAD0wmK2pCgyL4BcpbNakA4sNRpNOnFAHSKUwijJYN-8Hfh2DcwO23nmIQ6-6nta8YHR3TLg_hOkJva3hGrYxLfokMWcAiHxZ5XBh4b0WXo/s640/20170715_184445.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And then there was the vege bake with left over roast lamb, roast veges, cauliflower etc in a cheese sauce. The plaintain was chopped up fine rather than the starring ingredient.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMoU0BonbRFtuCR38xv3yLsXCS-Um4PHnXHbeLZh9GAFDdnk450xsjM7Tl3iUvaRFLTD39DKVFcwNJKQxuS3_3XgX5-KTUZlum7yZ0vEiVBQadr3txajjRrIhEftBk01c3YAsMazbiko/s1600/20170718_181639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMoU0BonbRFtuCR38xv3yLsXCS-Um4PHnXHbeLZh9GAFDdnk450xsjM7Tl3iUvaRFLTD39DKVFcwNJKQxuS3_3XgX5-KTUZlum7yZ0vEiVBQadr3txajjRrIhEftBk01c3YAsMazbiko/s640/20170718_181639.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Its been a fun thing to incorporate into our lives, It seems that plaintain is grown as a crop in some countries, is chock full of vitamins, fibre and is a really sustainable vegetable to grow.<br />
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Have a look at some of these websites that help identify the right plant and give you an idea of what health benefits are attributed to them. For my two cents worth, We noticed we slept better and don't get up to the loo so many times in the night after a meal with plaintain in it!<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://identifythatplant.com/dandelion-and-cats-ear/">Identify that Plant</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.eattheweeds.com/white-mans-little-foot-dwarf-plantain-2/">Eat the Weeds</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/p/plantago-lanceolata=ribwort-plantain.php">Natural Medicines</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/self-sufficiency/getting-to-know-and-use-edible-weeds.html">Herbs are Special - edible weeds</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/self-reliance/common-plantain-zm0z11zhun">Mother Earth News - a weed you can eat</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ediblewildfood.com/ribwort.aspx">Edible wild foods</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/introducing-plantains-multi-yielding-plants-permaculture-system">Introducing the Plantains - multi yielding plants for permaculture systems</a></li>
</ul>
If you decided to try it - let me know what you thought!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for eating greens provided by Mother Nature
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for walking down the road for a basketful of organic, pesticide/herbicide free greens that cost nothing!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> 10 to 15 minutes plus walking and consulting book time - also don't forget to bring the dog home and stop and smell (pick) the flowers!
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Just positive identification and a large dose of faith!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> You really start to look at weeds in a different way. I have been tempted at the lights to leap out of the car and grab some weed that I'm sure is edible growing on the traffic island! Its quite fun to be able to identify free food!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-92132088849916966882017-07-21T21:09:00.001+10:002017-07-21T21:09:45.867+10:00Making a bench seat legs with stumps and milk crates!We were given a wooden table with two long seats set by a friend who was moving house. They were all a bit past it and we meant to paint them and do them up a bit, but never did.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCY4XVoQX-suz_mZEaenRl2RN2ufqmVDmeiAmtqCEzqoujp1MWvpKrj8HOJWi6bDrjJSNeUb-W9LiS8b19-2acCNRlcCkqH2c6YM7UNxyOPShco8XLejLSJDsZsySEPWadjU0yq1r11kg/s1600/IMG_0891.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCY4XVoQX-suz_mZEaenRl2RN2ufqmVDmeiAmtqCEzqoujp1MWvpKrj8HOJWi6bDrjJSNeUb-W9LiS8b19-2acCNRlcCkqH2c6YM7UNxyOPShco8XLejLSJDsZsySEPWadjU0yq1r11kg/s640/IMG_0891.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Eventually the legs on the seats rotted out taking the back part with them. The seat part of it was fine and I still wanted to keep that bit, just in case we figured out a way to put new legs on them... one day.<br />
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And we did!<br />
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Here's what I did...
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJP9WawVNsyQLhw4SNtJVqCRrbHC2VvwZKTH32MCk8V1pqu3je4e9lBAZt_4s4E9X-R9VBb4vaz2pvLP8HzvNcLvwsqq8K_WQkZqkIdFAhnssWJnwl9aRmSnYK38SkZZ4fS5Ty3ChoDo/s1600/20170528_133143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJP9WawVNsyQLhw4SNtJVqCRrbHC2VvwZKTH32MCk8V1pqu3je4e9lBAZt_4s4E9X-R9VBb4vaz2pvLP8HzvNcLvwsqq8K_WQkZqkIdFAhnssWJnwl9aRmSnYK38SkZZ4fS5Ty3ChoDo/s640/20170528_133143.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The first incarnation involved simply putting them in the garden on a couple of milk crates after I painted them again...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMmc2O8amC9RaREx_Rtjtywxem6YOFHTYb2n_VfcwliLYHOUxi2uDObcssfAozKiroJPutwdiPO-sa-MQL4kyVRdEo5SeF_qoTTSr0WaiM6gYKHZ4nE1O9Kk_NVGKeDVYRnB9Ea1mLgc/s1600/20170528_133444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMmc2O8amC9RaREx_Rtjtywxem6YOFHTYb2n_VfcwliLYHOUxi2uDObcssfAozKiroJPutwdiPO-sa-MQL4kyVRdEo5SeF_qoTTSr0WaiM6gYKHZ4nE1O9Kk_NVGKeDVYRnB9Ea1mLgc/s640/20170528_133444.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Simple, weather proof, cheap, easy - but granted, maybe not the most glamorous bit of garden furniture you have ever seen...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQtHcwhh8PfZ011VZ_xMTY0NkP1lPajN0KGY09hN_Z0XJ6YdwHBkzSTYpHn6ayq4CsVveWHo_Us1d69s6KYPCnKgQPsJ16KB2g99W7TLxi6BkV95tXnPwZPKNEf5rGEadJDSLJDsKJWI/s1600/20170607_162418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQtHcwhh8PfZ011VZ_xMTY0NkP1lPajN0KGY09hN_Z0XJ6YdwHBkzSTYpHn6ayq4CsVveWHo_Us1d69s6KYPCnKgQPsJ16KB2g99W7TLxi6BkV95tXnPwZPKNEf5rGEadJDSLJDsKJWI/s640/20170607_162418.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMmc2O8amC9RaREx_Rtjtywxem6YOFHTYb2n_VfcwliLYHOUxi2uDObcssfAozKiroJPutwdiPO-sa-MQL4kyVRdEo5SeF_qoTTSr0WaiM6gYKHZ4nE1O9Kk_NVGKeDVYRnB9Ea1mLgc/s1600/20170528_133444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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And then on the way home a few weeks ago, we saw a guy giving away "free firewood" from a gum tree he had cut down in his driveway and just wanted gone. We filled up the boot with the ones we could carry (hardwood is very heavy we discovered) and so the tree stump legs for the bench seats were created! This one works really well. Its got a couple of rocks on each side of the stump as a chock to stop the log from rolling away. Its quit low, but for kids and short legged people such as myself, that works well!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zUQqEeMwmpiQHj-y8ptMhzsqWpJ8aQlyMJ9HyEan6BRFOzwHLPNWdV8VWFAre3GQehCly9poO9WPOtUXDw0kQ5gAXm_zvjaK3eUVMzs1qeUZvN22hNDyaKt9OMvoJyuDCKl2kkcGUYA/s1600/20170607_162220.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zUQqEeMwmpiQHj-y8ptMhzsqWpJ8aQlyMJ9HyEan6BRFOzwHLPNWdV8VWFAre3GQehCly9poO9WPOtUXDw0kQ5gAXm_zvjaK3eUVMzs1qeUZvN22hNDyaKt9OMvoJyuDCKl2kkcGUYA/s640/20170607_162220.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbQtHcwhh8PfZ011VZ_xMTY0NkP1lPajN0KGY09hN_Z0XJ6YdwHBkzSTYpHn6ayq4CsVveWHo_Us1d69s6KYPCnKgQPsJ16KB2g99W7TLxi6BkV95tXnPwZPKNEf5rGEadJDSLJDsKJWI/s1600/20170607_162418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
These stumps were skinnier and taller and this set up in the front yard is much higher. My feet "dangle" when I sit on this seat. The sheer weight of the stumps makes it quite stable but it wouldn't be the best way to do this if you have littlies who might not respect the weight of the falling stump when climbing up on it. You also need to make sure the stumps are cut level so your seat is not sloping side to side or end to end.. If not, you could dig the stumps into the ground in such a way that the top does become level. Or you can screw a piece of wood to the downward sloping side to even it up - that turns out to work better than the rock I put in there for the first few days!<br />
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We already had the bench seats from the set we were given, and with a coat of house paint on them, we hope to get a few more years out of them yet. The original legs weren't painted and didn't take long to rot out completely in the nice wet tropical summers we had in Brisbane. The milk crates probably would last a heck of a long time being plastic and all. The stumps are hardwood and even though they haven't been treated or painted, I think they will last us a few years - until the next bench seat incarnation anyway!<br />
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What have you made garden furniture out of? Anything unusual? Something different?<br />
Share it with us in the comments section below!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for recycling and reusing
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for not spending a cent on garden furniture!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> As long as it takes to find some one cutting down a tree!
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Strength. Brute strength for lifting hardwood stumps in and out of a car!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> great fun to be able to sit in the sun on a cold winters day!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-35084127165961538912017-07-14T21:59:00.000+10:002017-07-14T21:59:59.386+10:00Where to put a sick or injured chicken...We have been keeping back yard chickens for about twelve years now and sooner or later you get a sick chook that needs to be separated from the others for its own safety (Chickens will attack and kill a weak, sick or injured chicken sometimes) and in case what it has caught is contagious and so the other don't all catch it.<br />
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I spend a lot of time watching my chooks (we don't have a TV remember!) and as a result I pick up on things that don't seem quite right quite quickly. If I see a chook limping, sitting a lot, staying away from the others, not joining in when you throw treats on the back yard or just not seeming right AND I can catch her pretty easily, then there is definitely something wrong.<br />
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This post is not so much about why the chook is sick but how I "hospitalise" them when they are.<br />
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Here's what I do...
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I spend a bit of time watching the chook in question so I can see what she can and cant do before I catch her. Can she walk? Is she eating? Why did she get my attention? <br />
Sometimes I take a video on my phone or camera. This saves me having to "make her" do the thing that is obviously hurting her again and again to show the vet (and other people) what the problem is.<br />
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I only attempt to catch her when I'm sure I've seen all her behaviours. Obviously if the chook has been mauled by a dog or is stuck in a fence etc I wont spend half an hour watching this but if I think I'm seeing a cough, a limp, a sitting chook or a wobble of some sort, I want to be able to answer all the vets questions with confidence and actual knowledge.<br />
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Chickens are social creatures and if I cant "treat" her ailment in the pen I do. If not I separate her out into our "Hospital Cage,"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7WGxv3S8bwiwoVszJTSmPRK2Mi8XpmV4zJGzbJmk0NW6PfAYZ3AOcjJ-2arkJSmZFPF7ky-DRKiaD6JyW2qMnlK1SiaPeJmi4YYWQAgoEfpd0e4MD8c1X1_X80N072MV2U_IghjiWBKA/s1600/20160304_063423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7WGxv3S8bwiwoVszJTSmPRK2Mi8XpmV4zJGzbJmk0NW6PfAYZ3AOcjJ-2arkJSmZFPF7ky-DRKiaD6JyW2qMnlK1SiaPeJmi4YYWQAgoEfpd0e4MD8c1X1_X80N072MV2U_IghjiWBKA/s640/20160304_063423.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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If I think they are hurt rather than contagious I leave this cage in the pen so they can still see the other chickens and are still part of the flock. If they just need some medicine, pain killer or to stop walking this works well as its big enough for them to walk a few steps and stretch but not to go anywhere. Its waist height so I don't kill my back trying to catch or feed her with a cage on the ground. Its wired so nothing can get in and she cant get out and the door opens sideways to make access nice and easy. It was a home built aviary of some sort that we got from the "dump shop".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJok40BdTospliR3eCJzzCEkTDNFE-a1WznmY5TV3__ko3dtzK4sct7c1k8z0taIJgULs3X8ungF_LEbdfw_uXZgmw0zGs3aFdmqIqnKx_UpAM_kIwsuu2oDQATBJx58UUPMuy4eQDN0/s1600/20160304_063158.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJok40BdTospliR3eCJzzCEkTDNFE-a1WznmY5TV3__ko3dtzK4sct7c1k8z0taIJgULs3X8ungF_LEbdfw_uXZgmw0zGs3aFdmqIqnKx_UpAM_kIwsuu2oDQATBJx58UUPMuy4eQDN0/s640/20160304_063158.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I put roosting perch in there for those that can and want to use it. Its a branch that's been screwed onto a piece of dowel and then screwed onto a thick base that can hold 3kg of chook with out toppling over. The base is mostly hidden in the shredding.<br />
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I also put a jar in the corner for the chook to drink out of - its harder for them to tip it out or stand on- and if I need to I can tie it to the corner with a cable tie or piece of string. I can sterilise a jar if I need to and I can measure small amounts to medicate her if required too. I have found that all of my chooks would rather die than willingly drink medicated water, so generally I will "force" the medication down their throat via a syringe while holding a their head in the other hand. Once they get used to this, its easy, but until then, it can be a challenge. If they fight you a lot and its too hard, wrap the whole chook up in a towel so they cant flap, kick or scratch. Get some one else to hold them firmly around the belly and chest and then attempt to hold the head in one hand, use your thumb and middle finger to prise open the beak with the hand holding the head and aim the syringe straight down the gullet with the other. They really aren't keen on this but if you make it quick and they get a treat afterwards, they seem to accept it a bit more. Remember a chook that lets you handle it easily if a very sick chook indeed... A fighting chook is a good thing!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQlopj3gPfXPluqe2tk4s7hrUj65xhFshr9rcpqCCNCfpOxDP6IWSGXJu2SFzNWKTjVnue3gcxIO8ef6dFtlmarSZmFIpBc5DVhPQuESVeDhGDfFxSBEfx_w3tfqPQ6v_sbr80tB_X_Y/s1600/20160304_063701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQlopj3gPfXPluqe2tk4s7hrUj65xhFshr9rcpqCCNCfpOxDP6IWSGXJu2SFzNWKTjVnue3gcxIO8ef6dFtlmarSZmFIpBc5DVhPQuESVeDhGDfFxSBEfx_w3tfqPQ6v_sbr80tB_X_Y/s640/20160304_063701.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I put shade cloth on the side if I think its too sunny for them and offer things like grass or greens on the side for them to peck at if they are in the mood. The greens need to be pegged or attached quite firmly so they can "bite" off a piece small enough to swallow. A chook that's not eating her greens is probably very sick...<br />
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This is Cloud, a white hybrid layer. She had egg perontinitis. That's where the egg is "laid" inside the chook and goes rotten. It then blows up and then when all the infection and swelling goes down her insides were so mangled and scarred that her dinner wasn't able to go through the system properly. She was slowly being poisoned to death with rotten food stuck inside her. She had a big hot tummy (the infection) that finally came down and then she got more and more listless and spent a lot of time just sitting with me. She liked the company and needed to be kept away from the others as they just attacked her. We ended up getting the vet to euthanise her as egg perontinistis is usually incredibly uncomfortable and fatal due to the damage done to the internal organs. Cloud was carried around everywhere with me when I was at home once she got to the point of not wanting to forage on her own. You know you have a sick chook when instead of chasing them out of the house, they will sit quietly with you when you are sewing or reading - inside or outside.<br />
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This is Splash, a white or light Brahma. She had paralysed legs and what I now think might have been (Maraks?) growths or cancers on the leg nerves. She was limping one day and falling over the next. She couldn't run and was too easy to catch. She went through a month or two of losing all the use in her legs no matter what we did. The bird vet we use (Adrian at Brisbane Bird Vet ) thought it might be neurological and he had some student vets with him who spent hours testing her and testing her for everything they could think of with no conclusions. We kept her in these tomato boxes as they slotted together and made a great wee spot for her to hide in while her legs went through this weird paralysis. Just as we were thinking this is no life for her and wondered about euthanasia, she started getting better. Slowly but surely gaining strength and finally walking and running again. She was eating properly and still pooping while she was paralysed so we kept feeding her, massaging and moving her legs and bathing her when the poop built up on her too much. She ended up back in the pen and was great for another 6 months or so before she went down again with the same symptoms but died in a fortnight this time.<br />
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The box worked well as chooks like secluded dark places to wait out their illness. Most vege shops will have them and be happy to give you a couple. I put shredding in the bottom for softness and then put a layer of newspaper and then a towel for Splash to sit on. I also used old face washers as "nappies" so I didn't have to wash to towels all the time. A sick chook still produces a lot of poop and it all has to be cleaned up at some point. The smell will make sure you do!<br />
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At one point we had two sick chookies. Thunder was bit off colour for a few days. She had a pale comb and was too easy to catch. We thought she may have been coming down with whatever Splash had but after a couple of days of sitting in the box with treats and antibiotics she decided she was all good and jumped out the box, pooped on the bedroom floor and found her way outside.<br />
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Any chook that stays where you put it really isn't well! I use old towels over the top to help them feel secure and to cover them at night to keep them warm. A sick chook might not be able to generate enough body heat to stay warm at night, especially in winter. Sometimes I pop a hot water bottle in the box as well for them. In Summer I might give them a rotating fan to help keep them cool.<br />
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I like to keep an eye on my sick chookies. I tend to keep them in the bedroom with me at night and in the lounge or dining room during the day. Its up to the individual. As long as you are keeping the chicken clean, its not much different from having the cat or dog (or rat or guinea pig or budgie) inside as many families do. Our laundry or garage was no good for this sort of thing.<br />
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One of our chookies got this weird epilepsy thing where she would literally have some kind of flapping fit that lasted 30 seconds or so. She would sit quietly in her box listlessly all day and then out of the blue four or five times a night, she would freak out and flap and squawk in a most disconcerting fashion. I was more frighted of the damage she could do to her wings while she was fitting and in the end she slept in the bed with me (us!) where I had her wrapped in a towel and when she had a fit I could hold her close until she stopped and then we could all go back to sleep. She seemed to like the company and in the morning would sit on us contentedly preening and watching us while we got around to getting up... Its was kinda nice and very Disney like, until she pooped! This lasted a week or so and then she stopped fitting, got well and went back into the pen - we think maybe it was a heavy metal poisoning, but we really don't have a clue.<br />
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Something new I am trying with a lot of success is dried leaves instead of towels or newspaper in the bottom of the box. It has the advantage of being free and very available, being Autumn/Winter at the moment. We got a trailer load of fallen leaves from a friend and popped it the chook pen for them to rummage through. When Misty sprained her leg and needed some time out I used the tomato box filled with leaves at night and bought her inside (although I think this one is a mango box from Christmas time). I am wondering if died grass or dried lawn clippings would work as well - leaves are mainly a seasonal thing... This is Soleil in the picture, a French Wheaten Marans. She is a poddy chook. She was hand raised, then cossetted by the husband who wanted a tame chook. Now she has no fear of anything, thinks she is human and believes she can go anywhere and do anything. She walks through the house at will and jumps in the car... Hilarious and very entertaining unless you are the one cleaning up the chook poop all over the house and in the car. If she didn't lay such magnificent brown eggs she might not be quite so tolerated...<br />
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I find that the poop is dryer and easier to handle when I use leaves in the box. I can wrap/scoop it up in the leaves and just chuck it in the garden/compost, fluff up the leaves and pop the box in the sun to dry out and/or kill any bugs that may be in there. During the day Misty is the hospital cage by the front door so I can see her a lot and check on her. We have also filled that cage with leaves and find the smell is much less and its so much easier to clean as well.<br />
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We have used paper shredding, towels, newspaper and everything in between to line the chooks night hospital boxes over the years. I find the leaves have been the most successful in keeping the chook smell down. They really lengthen the time the box can be used and don't need to be washed like the towels do. I have had Misty in the lounge overnight in her box and didn't smell her presence in the morning as you usually can. Somehow the leaves absorb most of the smell. I top up the leaves when I need a few more to make a comfortable nest for her to sit in and because I know its a sore leg, I fill it as much as I can to be nice and soft for her.<br />
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I use the smaller boxes at night as they don't move around too much and the bigger boxes during the day for the ones who aren't wanting to be in the sun during the day but need a bit of room to stretch and move around a little. The boxes "lock" together to make a bottom and two sides. Another one can be used to make a "back", although you may need to figure out a way to make it stay there with a bit of packing tape or just the weight of a towel. A towel suffices for a roof and a front cover for the ones who really want to hide from the world. I find that the chooks tend to sit and stay in them if they feel safe enough and the towel over the top helps them to "hide them from predators". <br />
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If the chook is escaping from this set up, see where they are going. Is it darker? More secure? Smaller? Then you need to make their hospital box like that. Are they in the kitchen knocking over the compost bucket? Then they can go back outside with the others or need to be in an isolation cage on the grass somewhere. I take my cue from the chooks actions and try to set them up in a place that they feel safe and comfortable. I always have fresh water available for them and something to peck at. I try to give them a bit of sunshine if they are up to it each day and have grain and greens on offer. I also offer the baby bird feeder mix from the produce shop as it has lots of calories in it if they aren't eating much.<br />
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I get them to the vet as soon as I can. Chooks are very good at hiding their weakness and usually by the time you work out that something is wrong, make an appointment and get there, its often too late. Birds have fast metabolisms and when they finally let you see that they are sick, they are pretty far gone.<br />
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Its not much fun having a sick chook but I find that a few days of a dark place, lots of good food and peace and quiet along with an antibiotic/medication can work wonders after they've seen the vet.<br />
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How do you house your chooks when they aren't well? Let us know in the comments - we'd love to hear you sick chook tales!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for using a naturally available leaf base for the boxes
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for getting a free tomato box and not having to pay for a sick chook bed!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> 10 minutes to set up if you have it all ready - just in case...
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Basic observation, love and attention!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> No fun at all having a sick chook I'm afraid...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-35410123449229162732017-07-07T09:28:00.000+10:002017-07-07T09:28:11.829+10:00Painting native Australian bee hives black for winterWe have been keeping Australian Native bees for about six of seven or years now and have ended up with quite a few hives... we think we have 16 or so at the moment. We have the very social and easily domesticated Carbonarii and Hockingsii and just recently acquired an Autralis hive as well! There are 1700 odd Australian Native bee species but most of them are solitary. The hatch, eat, pupate, find a mate, lay eggs and die without hanging out with any other of their bee friends. As I said, solitary bees! <br />
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There are (I think) five species of social native bee in Australia and they are all tropical bees. The keepers spend a lot of energy keeping the hives cool in the Summer and so the standard hive is painted white to reflect the heat, especially if the hive is kept in the full sun. Now this works really well if you are living in the tropics and if your hives are in the sun. We recently moved to the Gold Coast Hinterland and its decidedly cooler here! The hives are only in the sun for a few hours a day at the moment as its Winter and we have a lot of tall trees around. The bees only get up and forage at a certain temperature and we were seeing that these girls were only up and active for short periods of time each sunny day. <br />
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Of the four hives we bought with us, the Hockingsii was struggling before we got here (they should have stayed in Brissy but we had put lots of friends and family under enough pressure to "Winter" our other twelve hives of babies as it was, so we took the risk and bought them with us). Not only were they struggling, but I came home one afternoon to find the hive smashed on the ground as it had fallen off its shelf - so these girls were going to need all the help they could get, they were really on the back foot.<br />
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Here's what we did... <br />
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The girls will only forage when the temperature is at a certain point, so we started by putting them in the sunniest place in the yard with the black fence in the background hoping that would bring up the ambient temperature.<br />
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The wooden hive is the Hockinsii hive. Its housed in a <a href="http://littlepracticalfrog.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/native-bee-hive-split-froth-design.html">"FROTH" hive (Froggys 'Riginal Other Type Hive)</a> rather than the traditional long Felhaber hive. It has a half height honey box and a tropical lid. It was finished with a beeswax oil mixture known as <a href="http://littlepracticalfrog.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/how-to-make-your-own-bread-board-and.html">breadboard butter.</a><br />
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The white hive is a standard<a href="http://nativebeehives.com/oath-construction-plans/"> OATH hive (Original Australian Trigona Hive)</a> with a full size honey box and tropical lid on it. It is painted in the standard white.<br />
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This is the Australis Hive. - Its a standard hive made by Nick Powell and is brand new with just a fist sized brood in there. This one has a piece of ridge capping meant for a house roof on the top to protect it from the worst weather as this one was originally on a shed roof. Australis are a lot more cold tolerant than the others so we popped them in the sun and gave them a black polythene cover. They don't regulate their hive temperature. They just get on with it! Their entrance hole gets blocked up every night and they break a piece off when its warm enough in the mornings and stick their little black faces out and check the weather. If its a lovely day, they are usually the first ones up and about. If they don't like look of the weather, they block that entrance up tight and disappear inside to watch movies and snuggle under the doona! <br />
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Our first attempt to raise the temperature of the hives was to cover them with black polythene and bluetac it on. It certainly raised the air temperature between the plastic and the hive as we could feel it with our hands. This might have worked - but it was always falling off, wasn't tight enough and didn't convince us that it was working well enough. We discussed painting them black but have been indoctrinated our whole bee keeping lives about keeping the hives cool not warm and it seemed counter intuitive...<br />
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And so one sunny afternoon just before the Winter Solstice, I decided to give it a go. The black paint was just sitting there, the husband and cat were having a snooze, and I figured they could always be painted back to white if we over heated them. My theory was that its easier to cool things down than to heat them up!<br />
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So I started painting on the sides. The bees were out and about and didn't seem bothered at all by the paint or fumes, not that I could smell much. I kept the paint well away from their entrance at first. The black paint dried really quickly in the hot sun and a few bees did land on it but seemed to fly off quick enough. It did feel much hotter to my hand than the white patches. We ended up putting two coats on each hive in an hour as it dried so quickly. </div>
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As soon as the husband woke up and discovered my activities he was drafted into painting the tops as I was too short to see them and because the bees didn't seem bothered in the slightest, we got closer and closer to their entrance. You can see the influence of Play School with the square, arched and round window shaped entrances on our door designs!<br />
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The idea is that a black hive will hold the heat longer and allow the bees to be at foraging temperature longer each day. My theory is that if you only get up for three or four hours a day to shop, build and tidy the house then you wont get as much done. In an established hive, this wont be a problem in the winter. But for our struggling Hockingsii girls we want them to have the maximum time each day to rebuild their home and get all the things they need for their babies hatching inside.<br />
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We (I, really) did no preparation whatsoever to the hives and used a basic acrylic black paint from another project. Its not the worst paint job in the world, but I think its a good contender for the title!<br />
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We could kid ourselves that the bees are up earlier and stay out longer when the sun is shining. We never see them when its overcast, raining or windy anyway. We did order some temperature thingos on the internet to measure the temperature inside the hive but they never arrived and we ended up getting the money back for them. We would rather have had the gauges as we were hoping to see what the internal temperature was before we painted them and then again afterwards. So for now, we are running on anecdotal observation. <br />
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Our current theory is that come Summer, we can move them to a shady spot, cover them with a white reflector box, paint them white or make a shade cover if we think its too hot for them. Hopefully by then we will have those temperature probes and we will know for sure.<br />
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What have you done with your hives over Winter? Are they just going about their business because you live in the right place for them or have you got some out of their natural range and do things to help them out? If you do, Id love to hear about it. Leave a note in the comments section!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for having Native Bees!
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<strong>Frugal-ness</strong>: 5/5 for using something I already had!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> about 10 minutes per hive.
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<strong>Skill level</strong>: Basic slopping paint around skill but advanced bee in the paint alert skills!
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<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: Great fun to be able to do something practical to look after these hard working girls that we are so fond of!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-7326371815486000942017-06-30T07:38:00.000+10:002017-06-30T07:38:07.027+10:00Making coasters from natural tree branches!When friends come back from holiday in places like Tasmania, they sometimes bring home coasters made from tree branches. I love them and have always been very envious of people who have them. While looking through a friends wood pile a few days ago, I spotted an older piece of wood about the diameter of a coaster and wondered if I could turn it into a set of coasters to go with our "rustic" more natural homesteading style?<br />
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I asked for the piece of wood and was given bemused permission as the owner knows we don't have a fire place (yet) and bought it home.<br />
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With a bit of help from the husband and his collection of power tools, I gave it a go.<br />
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Heres what I did...<br />
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My first attempt to cut the branch onto slices involved the pruning saw and I never got through the first slice. Its really hard work to hold a small piece of wood still while you hack at a piece of hardwood!<br />
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Once the Husband realised what I was doing, he got out his power saw and set it up for me with a jig attached so that my slices were all the same depth. I simply slid the branch along the base plate until about 2cm were past the cutting blade (and it was hard up against the piece of wood held on with a clamp acting as my guide or jig) He got me to do it myself. It was the first time I had ever done this as this piece of machinery scares me silly with its power and noise but with all the safety gear on and plenty of caution, I managed to cut most of the wood into slices.<br />
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I had chosen a hard wood (some sort of native that had fallen in a storm a while back) that was on the bottom of the pile. It had been there a while and had "aged". My husband had tried this exact thing with a piece of the Apple Gum when it dropped a branch a few years ago. The branch was "wet" and fresh and he cut it into slices and then as each slice dried out, it split and warped. So I knew I needed a piece that had been out in the weather and was a "grey" colour rather than a fresh rich brown and wasn't split. The longer its been out in the weather (or off the tree) the more likely it is not to split was our theory.<br />
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Oce I had all my slices cut, I used a sanding block to neaten up all the edges as the saw left them all rough with burrs on the edges.<br />
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One scary thing that happened was discovering a hole in the middle of one of my slices. Actually that wasn't so scary, it was following the hole through a few slices and then discovering a wet patch... where I had sliced some big white grub thing in half. I gave the grub halves to the chookies and wiped the grub juice off the slices and left them in the sun to dry. It seems grub juice doesn't stain the wood...<br />
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Really interesting shape hole. He must have entered the tree in another part of the branch as we couldn't find the entry hole at all!<br />
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At this point I made the decision to remove all the bark. It was falling off and the only way to keep it on was to glue it on. It seemed like a lot of hit and miss as it crumbled as well as falling off in big chunks. It was easy enough to pick off the sides and I threw it in the garden to add to our layers of organic material!<br />
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I wanted to seal the slices so that they didn't stain or go mouldy if a drink got spilt on them and when I was hunting through the shed for some varnish, I found a spray can of varnish stain (that I didn't think to photograph)and decided to use that.<br />
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I popped them on an old moving box (I have so many of them at the moment) and simply pointed the can at them and sprayed. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfc8hjL594hkJghhCmHU0qcBDhujlavcoRfwv4baNJICb5bOrQ9uJ8oJbOiEzOPpDJ9Jmp9sT1wmXutejHcnqC2UNk1W3BivPoBZy6fNiNGl3cBRqS297zzmigLa6TqCD0oOkpVrl6mqo/s1600/20170607_133445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfc8hjL594hkJghhCmHU0qcBDhujlavcoRfwv4baNJICb5bOrQ9uJ8oJbOiEzOPpDJ9Jmp9sT1wmXutejHcnqC2UNk1W3BivPoBZy6fNiNGl3cBRqS297zzmigLa6TqCD0oOkpVrl6mqo/s640/20170607_133445.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I did a coat each day for three days on each side. Its quite cold up here and the can said 24 hours between coats. I did sand the first 2 coats but left the third. I turned the slices each time and made sure I got the sides as well as the tops and bottoms of each slice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XdUKL36bDnamtjLCopWYzUcDd4A1_QOWvrTmAfQtupcai9DJV9DfjMjCyMyz6r-eRjXTDWx9F4A7n2OJCU-ecd5rGBUNRfyqr6LHDGBBStasP6CkcK2BC59rq9WFpV0AZZVjDqW536g/s1600/20170628_204735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XdUKL36bDnamtjLCopWYzUcDd4A1_QOWvrTmAfQtupcai9DJV9DfjMjCyMyz6r-eRjXTDWx9F4A7n2OJCU-ecd5rGBUNRfyqr6LHDGBBStasP6CkcK2BC59rq9WFpV0AZZVjDqW536g/s640/20170628_204735.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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So once they had their three coats of varnish each and were dry, they came inside to be used on the table. The grub hole isn't for every one but its certainly a conversation starter and my admiration for these grubs and what they can bite through has definitely improved!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiRk8pk9bmlUkP-Gea-n3Zii-xEeRhkJEh3G2xPg-RHXqzYVILRdGo6Wa5EFhv2BzV_5ln9OCiCHsX03mrR5nKzllTSLDcWeHvnkZ4v9YxZDyV78ceBbb369TNjXtt_g8ooRhDaaLTwDk/s1600/20170628_204908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiRk8pk9bmlUkP-Gea-n3Zii-xEeRhkJEh3G2xPg-RHXqzYVILRdGo6Wa5EFhv2BzV_5ln9OCiCHsX03mrR5nKzllTSLDcWeHvnkZ4v9YxZDyV78ceBbb369TNjXtt_g8ooRhDaaLTwDk/s640/20170628_204908.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I can see some slight splits forming - I'm guessing the older the wood the less chance of this happening there is. I don't know if a different (thicker) sealer would help... If you do know, please let me know in the comments. I think Ill end up making more and it would be good to hear from people who know more about this than I do.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi423uJ6rwOazRikfP0HompFx-uHBolwRc-6SI77LLjUvPJwyqY8eWfXpbGzDJF46jNvQs62WCAucDrrRiV3dAlKPHMnmITcIljMh6y7TGxFKQRW0UtNM7JG5YbYGfY9oO0f6LqWhuKavA/s1600/20170628_205016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi423uJ6rwOazRikfP0HompFx-uHBolwRc-6SI77LLjUvPJwyqY8eWfXpbGzDJF46jNvQs62WCAucDrrRiV3dAlKPHMnmITcIljMh6y7TGxFKQRW0UtNM7JG5YbYGfY9oO0f6LqWhuKavA/s640/20170628_205016.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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At any rate, they cost nothing and are I think quite successful! It wouldn't be hard to glue a piece of felt on the bottom of each slice to protect the table top if you felt it was necessary. You could colour coordinate the felt with the rooms colours or the wood itself - depending on how you feel.<br />
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Have you made these before? Let me know how you went and feel free to link to your post about making coasters from a natural tree branch!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
<br />
<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 4/5 for using something natural that was laying around rather than buying a piece of plastic to do the job!
<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> If you have the varnish or sealant laying around already, its super cheap!
<br />
<strong>Time cost</strong>: About 2 mins to cut, 2 mins to sand and 30 seconds to spray - over a week though!
<br />
<strong>Skill level:</strong> Guidance or experience with power tools - the rest is sanding and spraying!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: It was a great fun project and I'm quite chuffed with them - I'm thinking Christmas pressies for the family now!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-91327535577559038002017-06-23T09:12:00.000+10:002017-06-27T21:19:27.229+10:00HELP - My pet has hurt a wild bird!Since we moved to the Hinterland we have noticed the amazing and very abundant birdlife. We are really enjoying seeing the tiny Yellow Eastern Robins, the curious Crimson Headed Rosella's, the noisy and completely unafraid Cockatoos, the bright red headed King Parrots and even the bold but boringly colour Shrike Thrush...<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUeSji4mJqulCyD0x4j21ayuZ5KKtz07GhdJlM2k0D9rd4BjyuRlz-UxnmmDBl5hPGoriH0L53_I_Yau1f_YGHdnWNoPpZnNiH4ob-rlOH2fF6EoydePYP0ZPvAv49EwXI5EkaUubxZuw/s1600/Eastern+Yellow+Robin.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUeSji4mJqulCyD0x4j21ayuZ5KKtz07GhdJlM2k0D9rd4BjyuRlz-UxnmmDBl5hPGoriH0L53_I_Yau1f_YGHdnWNoPpZnNiH4ob-rlOH2fF6EoydePYP0ZPvAv49EwXI5EkaUubxZuw/s640/Eastern+Yellow+Robin.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellow Eastern Robin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqyoaWuwgl7zjP1zbf8KEHAIJP5yRd7ssk8jI3FVefhmPtJTEilObKHghC7YsYy2h5EhQaGylcU2OaJHUh3wJOt8nLFQr5RV3WXEjef6YtiDNMcWB2trQJrwaRCN-xflQGZvO___puUY/s1600/3+x+Cockatoos+feeding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="1038" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqyoaWuwgl7zjP1zbf8KEHAIJP5yRd7ssk8jI3FVefhmPtJTEilObKHghC7YsYy2h5EhQaGylcU2OaJHUh3wJOt8nLFQr5RV3WXEjef6YtiDNMcWB2trQJrwaRCN-xflQGZvO___puUY/s640/3+x+Cockatoos+feeding.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sulphur Crested Cockatoos </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6XYfJd49CyDi3tcDD-O2v126Vjb8dn_9GF3BJRGtSPC3FSet8hTfDz7bLqSBmNrFF3RBEgwCaWT6nd4veR_zlDViChs6yu76qR77InegPRldfYaT6o_nP_VFPn7CM-La_ME4hS-S2C0U/s1600/Crimson+headed+Rosella.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6XYfJd49CyDi3tcDD-O2v126Vjb8dn_9GF3BJRGtSPC3FSet8hTfDz7bLqSBmNrFF3RBEgwCaWT6nd4veR_zlDViChs6yu76qR77InegPRldfYaT6o_nP_VFPn7CM-La_ME4hS-S2C0U/s640/Crimson+headed+Rosella.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crimson Headed Rosella</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzC-fZCyIzpjYajzoYsAhleFYun932HDXxlEvabl6ZXkE_MlPtSf6oSAATRohpOAbRF6CM70WqqRD1hOq5TtaMgMH603BigCL_Zt1WjixX1BAq3-Ea-gAkzWiDZspG9GFLyWvUTCDLNnM/s1600/Tawny+frogmouth.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzC-fZCyIzpjYajzoYsAhleFYun932HDXxlEvabl6ZXkE_MlPtSf6oSAATRohpOAbRF6CM70WqqRD1hOq5TtaMgMH603BigCL_Zt1WjixX1BAq3-Ea-gAkzWiDZspG9GFLyWvUTCDLNnM/s640/Tawny+frogmouth.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleeping Tawny Frogmouth</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3EKIX0wiJ_HEFG_l8UgeV7C3q06_FwoaLLUhnqMzd2pMvOEknPPns4SvfPx2wahWkSGvej7zCAOGbaXdtW6XmqabT5T0t7CMBSgE2sglkruHGvU3ZJb6OOFlETYcbyN7J25oLNsHgMQ/s1600/Unknown+bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="1600" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3EKIX0wiJ_HEFG_l8UgeV7C3q06_FwoaLLUhnqMzd2pMvOEknPPns4SvfPx2wahWkSGvej7zCAOGbaXdtW6XmqabT5T0t7CMBSgE2sglkruHGvU3ZJb6OOFlETYcbyN7J25oLNsHgMQ/s640/Unknown+bird.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now identified, Lewin's Honey Eater</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And so is our 14 year old cat...<br />
<br />
She is far more interested in the birds here than she ever was back in Brisbane. I thinks its because the Robins flit around in the front yard and come right up onto the windowsills and jiggle and twitch in a very eye catching and enticing way that push all her predatory buttons.<br />
<br />
Our cat hasn't caught one up here but with all the renovations and missing and left open doors as we fix up the new house, we found her outside yesterday half heartedly crouching, bell tinkling, tail swishing and definitely thinking about catching a flitting flirting Eastern Robin for morning tea.<br />
<br />
That prompted me to check what I need to do if she manages to get out and does manage to get one. I picked up a business card at a Brisbane City Council Office from an organisation called BIRO - <span style="font-family: inherit;">Birds Injured Rehabilitated & Orphaned that gave some great advice a few weeks ago. When I got home I had a look on the net at their website which was great and decided to share this information here as I know how hard it is to keep a cat inside and if the worst happens, its good to know what do before it happens.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>______________________________________________________________</em></div>
<br />
<em>From the BIRO website:</em><br />
<em></em><br />
"There are many reasons why a bird may need to come into care. e.g. injury, out of its nest, habitat loss, road victim, orphaned, etc.<br />
We are here to HELP, but we need your HELP too.<br />
Please keep this in mind that the bird has just gone through some kind(s) of trauma such as:<br />
- An injury<br />
- Shock and stress (an open mouth and panting, does not mean it wants food)<br />
- Pain<br />
- You - you represent a threat to the bird (you are not part of their usual environment).<br />
<span style="color: red;">VERY IMPORTANT - DO NOT FEED IT, NOR GIVE IT WATER.</span><br />
Do not assume BECAUSE IT LOOKS ALRIGHT, THAT IT IS ALRIGHT.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: medium;">PLEASE FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE STEPS:</span><br />
- Place the bird in a box or cage <br />
- Keep the bird warm by covering box / cage with a large towel <br />
- Place it in a quiet room <br />
- Do not let your children or pets near it.<br />
<br />
Then call for help - your local vet or the numbers below.<br />
<br />
Following these steps will give the bird its best chance of getting back into the wild."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.biro.org.au/links.html">Links to helpful websites and phone numbers on the BIRO website</a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>______________________________________________________________</em></div>
<br />
I hope that I never have to use this information because of something our cat does, but since there is so many birds here (and so many tourists) I'm sure that sooner or later I will find an injured bird and now I know I'll be able to do the right thing and help it back into the wild where it belongs as soon as possible. In the meantime, The cat and I will enjoy having a cuppa at the kitchen table in the morning and enjoying watching the birds going about their daily business - albeit from slightly different perspectives!<br />
<br />
Let me know if you have links to other Bird Rehabilitation organisations in the comments section below!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-70256320475286167552017-06-16T09:33:00.001+10:002017-06-16T20:14:05.852+10:00How I recovered a old lampshade with gathered fabric and fringing!I got given a set of lampshades about 15 years ago that I loved but are now a bit worn and dated. I did clean them and revamp them but as my décor changes (depending on what available at the op shops) I was finding that they don't quite fit with my current decorating direction! (that would be shabby opshop chic!) and when I spotted a piece of fabric that I fell in love with on sale, I just had to recover the lamps and then find accessories to match!<br />
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I'm not so much of a sewer as a constructor and I tend to feel my way through a project with out too much in the way of exact measuring or cutting to a pattern!<br />
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Here's what I did...
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1EnyDQx7RjhJa6WkmTEbk8_F82LT2n2LK2B9wkiHmlaC9M7JepaM1MscmbUivE__HuNcNlgKj0lAcMp7IBe13eT8CY7RSKoo4JrKemsw9TanouhoTHq8-iJSzSMoFl-B0J8JHe4lU54/s1600/IMGP3839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1EnyDQx7RjhJa6WkmTEbk8_F82LT2n2LK2B9wkiHmlaC9M7JepaM1MscmbUivE__HuNcNlgKj0lAcMp7IBe13eT8CY7RSKoo4JrKemsw9TanouhoTHq8-iJSzSMoFl-B0J8JHe4lU54/s640/IMGP3839.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>
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The original lamp where you can see revamp number one with leaf skeletons glued to the inside of the lamp. Its plain when its off but have these lovely leaves when its on. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGsbEt_nLxcgFOXSxhBsedZUTHgzrCQA5lvjPJBoDq0XbtKd4y13KF6a_QQdWzB8iYl7BsF23lQRRKjJBBCVmeE4gGEzNB5-3Brxn7YkbAiXraSxJ83_ycv1PZsGgliNnAJ-tV9l9DuU/s1600/20161203_112954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJGsbEt_nLxcgFOXSxhBsedZUTHgzrCQA5lvjPJBoDq0XbtKd4y13KF6a_QQdWzB8iYl7BsF23lQRRKjJBBCVmeE4gGEzNB5-3Brxn7YkbAiXraSxJ83_ycv1PZsGgliNnAJ-tV9l9DuU/s640/20161203_112954.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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First cut a length of fabric that will fit all the way around your shade a couple of inches too long and with a hem of a centimetre or so top and bottom. So a long rectangle is what I needed.. Hem the ends neatly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78TaHyfG0rCST0rbmehcoP7WxC6DjdG2Hm6NfVGv1TNsbSY53L6FFZOw0OoJ6JvbYGyXZ8NBwpKsmNev7yrS8TGfhuahcHx8RtF1uLksNoW9PK7GUeca5hBUULtdYc1OWLyBeHn41fLU/s1600/20161203_113143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78TaHyfG0rCST0rbmehcoP7WxC6DjdG2Hm6NfVGv1TNsbSY53L6FFZOw0OoJ6JvbYGyXZ8NBwpKsmNev7yrS8TGfhuahcHx8RtF1uLksNoW9PK7GUeca5hBUULtdYc1OWLyBeHn41fLU/s640/20161203_113143.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Hem the bottom of the fabric with a big loose stitch and long ends (you will be gathering it slightly later) and then using paper clips attach it to the shade level with the bottom. You could use normal clothesline pegs if you don't have large paper clips handy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0SWdBpl-I1GOx2PltPiJDIzaByD-lF-6lNZI1RawB2_d2I-A0ske1xcZcDu7-76mZl0FQ6_Rk44w7R1Y6zyRcoyQSCXCHSfduZ4Yi4ZwL495xGNQZbYno0Pehl2ixFv0yRyGxf6J9Zw/s1600/20161203_113313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0SWdBpl-I1GOx2PltPiJDIzaByD-lF-6lNZI1RawB2_d2I-A0ske1xcZcDu7-76mZl0FQ6_Rk44w7R1Y6zyRcoyQSCXCHSfduZ4Yi4ZwL495xGNQZbYno0Pehl2ixFv0yRyGxf6J9Zw/s640/20161203_113313.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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You wont need much overlap at the bottom. Most of the gathering will be at the top. If you can use the selvage edge, you wont need to hem it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7yofsfzZRbG5WxabMkue8lbl_UMv36L9rk10ev3aVql8CtHckxw2iYx4290m9Zs_uZodsAwPQQjAqAhSgHNz_Nbflcm5nib6sqj0W6lAKR0TY7ij0D7v50IM3NJJU7Rxc82BHkfZGRM8/s1600/20161203_113442.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7yofsfzZRbG5WxabMkue8lbl_UMv36L9rk10ev3aVql8CtHckxw2iYx4290m9Zs_uZodsAwPQQjAqAhSgHNz_Nbflcm5nib6sqj0W6lAKR0TY7ij0D7v50IM3NJJU7Rxc82BHkfZGRM8/s640/20161203_113442.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Now fold the top of the fabric into the shade to hold it out of the way.<br />
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Attach the base of the new cover to the shade all the way around the bottom with paper clips firmly.<br />
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Now pin your fabric so that the top is level with the lamp shade all the way around. This will give you the right size covering with out having to measure anything!<br />
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Now take it all off and cur the excess fabric off if you need to and again, run a line of stitching close to the top with a long loose stich so that you can gather to the top in. To gather the fabric, gently pull the bottom thread and push the excess material along it until you have reached the desired length. Breaking the thread is a major pain as you will have to pull it apart and start again. <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Gather-Fabric-into-Ruffles">This link is quite a good tutorial </a>if you have never gathered fabric before. Paper clip the whole thing <em>loosely</em> where you want it before starting to glue it on to make sure it fits and you are happy!.<br />
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I glued a little at a time starting at the bottom and paper clipped it tightly as I went along. I just used standard white crafting/PVA glue and its held the fabric to the shade really well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2EVhksPvh04nQJjQ7SxyRnCHdo8_Pl1kxPfci8FBRL6Bjqs2Gqd2Uo2i5murfOXjrfLpDhTKHr-xpyR923w2qT045ycHg0BtkddLqMZlJeHNGD1O7XVzH97vXVKFTFLz2ZodExJCnq4/s1600/20161203_124747.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2EVhksPvh04nQJjQ7SxyRnCHdo8_Pl1kxPfci8FBRL6Bjqs2Gqd2Uo2i5murfOXjrfLpDhTKHr-xpyR923w2qT045ycHg0BtkddLqMZlJeHNGD1O7XVzH97vXVKFTFLz2ZodExJCnq4/s640/20161203_124747.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Paper clip the bottom as you glue, taking care to spread the gathering around as you go.</div>
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Then do the same with the top glue , gather, paperclip, keeping the gathering even as you go.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaci3VKyjL1fNTfxzBFTD42lbYtbib-SItpHA48ejkTbpx9dcMyO7rl_9gDbDfPzy_MhwouFG8vdqCd7a1CS1uXebGVbBsYs9EKJvYEeYaEY-c-I8W5yoPawE4degrFtwGJt12rPlIFbw/s1600/20161203_125541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaci3VKyjL1fNTfxzBFTD42lbYtbib-SItpHA48ejkTbpx9dcMyO7rl_9gDbDfPzy_MhwouFG8vdqCd7a1CS1uXebGVbBsYs9EKJvYEeYaEY-c-I8W5yoPawE4degrFtwGJt12rPlIFbw/s640/20161203_125541.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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When you get to the edges of the fabric, choose the neatest (hemmed) end to go on the top and try and use a gather or fold to hide it in.<br />
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Pop lots of paperclips (these are bigger than standard ones, you could use pegs instead) around the top and bottom to hold it all together while it dries. Once its all dried and holds on well the clips can come off and you can put the fringe on. <br />
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I found the perfect piece of green fringe at the markets for a dollar one Sunday morning and came home and put the fringe on that night!<br />
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Starting at the join in the fabric (that will be the back of your lamp) glue the shade for a couple of centimetres with the same white/PVA craft glue and peg or paperclip the fringe on. I didn't cut my fringing. I don't trust my measuring. Just leave it the whole length and cut it when you get back to the beginning.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_28nNeG6fb0xcRy-vGdB9oJ1yOzVdUL2hSBevGTeqvdmWcYYn5t4-YB3gUhGTlifswXKVJ8QK4LWdtc8dfdwMmIrwra4lsMG6EPu-M-R9Zgqq-fhRiZVoWowBStrTXn9A_nzUW1Tddno/s1600/20170605_190044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_28nNeG6fb0xcRy-vGdB9oJ1yOzVdUL2hSBevGTeqvdmWcYYn5t4-YB3gUhGTlifswXKVJ8QK4LWdtc8dfdwMmIrwra4lsMG6EPu-M-R9Zgqq-fhRiZVoWowBStrTXn9A_nzUW1Tddno/s640/20170605_190044.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Work your way around the base gluing and pegging...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCOjoAvfgwvSstJvlCy1vF-1eb-N90ROdRGjP9H7XuePdjkMIJWUCBwaA9HFA08pxDnFQZH3IpTxO-KKf5Z2mts5gPGL6T0U1382WQzj3ZHVWCYXq9EdSsXJpB3G4OcuAeII9XxW8Y4r4/s1600/20170605_190327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCOjoAvfgwvSstJvlCy1vF-1eb-N90ROdRGjP9H7XuePdjkMIJWUCBwaA9HFA08pxDnFQZH3IpTxO-KKf5Z2mts5gPGL6T0U1382WQzj3ZHVWCYXq9EdSsXJpB3G4OcuAeII9XxW8Y4r4/s640/20170605_190327.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Until you get back to the beginning. Cut the fringe so it joins perfectly at the base and glue in place.<br />
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Put on extra pegs if you think it needs it and wait for the glue to dry.</div>
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And voilà! A new lamp for the bedroom!</div>
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I think they are kinda fun and fit nicely with my mix and match shabby op shop chic décor!</div>
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I think I need to find a piece of matching piping for the tops. The gathering isn't so attractive from close up. I have a scrap piece of the fringe sitting in my coin purse so next time I go into a fabric shop I can match the fringing to a piece of piping and know I got it right.</div>
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It was very quick and easy to do once I had all the bits. I did "measure" the lamps while I was looking for fabric so I knew how much I would need when I found it. I know the lamp shades were a few inches wider than my hand span and at least 5 hand spands around!! As long as I got slightly too much fabric I was going to be ok! Oh and I need twice that to get the two lamps covered!!!</div>
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I chose not to take the shades off as these are more for mood lighting than for reading or detail work. It does reduce the amount of light getting out of the lamp but it provides a solid base for the fabric to rest on without me having to worry about it touching the light bulb and setting itself on fire!</div>
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I think if you took the old shade off you would have to sew the new cover onto the wire. I'm not sure I have the patience for that! </div>
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for continuing to use an old item
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Frugal-ness: 5/5 for finding a piece of material and fringing at the markets!
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<strong>Time cost</strong>: Probably an hour to cover the two lamps and 20 minutes to put on the fringing
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> cutting, gluing and pasting - oh and a bit of fabric gathering!<br />
<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: it was great fun to plug them in and light them up with their new covers!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-90070297819676083862017-06-09T20:03:00.000+10:002017-06-09T20:03:00.167+10:00Easy, cheap,good looking temporary fix for a broken window..!When we moved into our "new to us" home a few weeks ago, we discovered the previous residents had left us a couple of windows that weren't entirely whole!<br />
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While we had the "Great Wall of Boxes" up against them, we didn't realise that the cold night air was sneaking silently in through the holes but as soon as those boxes moved, we discovered that not only are (very attractive) light summer curtains not good at keeping the cold air out, but that the holes in the windows weren't helping either.<br />
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They look like a stone from the lawn mower type breaks and whilst we can fix them, its just not an overwhelming priority right now as we sort out where everything is to go - and then of course where we put it when we need it!<br />
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I wondered if I could use the clear packing tape that I had been using on the boxes as its so wide, but I knew that would look a bit uglier than I would like... and then I found an easy solution!<br />
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Here's what I did...
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqZGcK_feoyjmF4_rWt30svYxNAJRW7M0WNjJZefp9HqisCJGHJh_vX2qKZvi1r5yVnthWTGiXbPP7I7y56N_62BVavV5j_zLbE_J8zVihKljpgn5HwS5bJSAi8grW-bZ-o4F3uMkTkA/s1600/20170412_171016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqZGcK_feoyjmF4_rWt30svYxNAJRW7M0WNjJZefp9HqisCJGHJh_vX2qKZvi1r5yVnthWTGiXbPP7I7y56N_62BVavV5j_zLbE_J8zVihKljpgn5HwS5bJSAi8grW-bZ-o4F3uMkTkA/s640/20170412_171016.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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This window actually has a piece of glass missing as well as a crack that leads off across the glass in three ways. So I very gently taped it up on both sides with the clear packing tape and then stuck a couple of stick on 3D butterflies from a $2 shop!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kQqnSG3rANQRCnOw1wVpiN_NbuOcXKe7hMD2FZL_zN5rMqlA9-vmrxIDHMR2sOZTCQZH4tTuLjl48BBtvkj63dseaA4yA6qQX0oZqo9ZGRLqyWDE4Fxy-cJMPeWcWx6zUPbhD_MGmwY/s1600/20170511_151522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kQqnSG3rANQRCnOw1wVpiN_NbuOcXKe7hMD2FZL_zN5rMqlA9-vmrxIDHMR2sOZTCQZH4tTuLjl48BBtvkj63dseaA4yA6qQX0oZqo9ZGRLqyWDE4Fxy-cJMPeWcWx6zUPbhD_MGmwY/s640/20170511_151522.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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They don't look so bad and your attention is on the butterflies rather than the broken glass behind them. I tried to place them on the worst bits to hide them. They actually look better in real life than they do in this image... They are a double butterfly. A flat bit that sticks the wings down on the glass and then another set of identical wings that stick up. I cant see why you couldn't just put a normal clear/leadlighty type sticker on it instead of a 3D one if you happen to have something suitable lying around.<br />
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From the outside the break and the butterflies aren't so obvious due to the reflections on the window. I could have put more butterflies on it but I didn't think it needed it. I have since run a bit more tape along the crack as the house moves and the crack keeps growing. The tape is on the front and the back of the window for strength and safety.<br />
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The other break was a hole punched through the window - again my guess is a stone from the mower.<br />
It was a much smaller hole and I suspect the glass is either a different type - maybe a safety glass - or the stone hit at a really funny angle to make a hole like this.<br />
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The fix was really easy though - just a single butterfly straight across the hole and, Voila, no sneaky cold air rushing in the hole at night!<br />
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What I really liked about this fix is that it was quick, cheap and easy and will last a few months until we are up to replacing windows and painting things like the window frames. <br />
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I don't think the colours on the butterfly's are going to last. I don't think they are going to be very UV stable but I had them sitting around, they look good and I only need to get a couple of months out of them and they will have been worth every cent of the $3 I paid for them a long time ago for another project!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness</strong>: 5/5 for using things you already have for repair.
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for not spending any money on a temporary repair!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> About 5 minutes!
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Basic sticking - but be careful with the broken glass!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> Its fun when people notice the butterfly's and comment but don't see the broken window until you point it out to them!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-36824655270623219442017-06-07T19:39:00.000+10:002017-06-23T09:14:17.822+10:00Wow - A TEDx event near me!!!The amazing people at the Helensvale library decided to hold a TEDx event and I applied for a free ticket online (you couldn't get more than one) and was randomly selected to be one of the only one hundred people to attend!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExwL-fzjI3MD406cT5SOXriCIdzYN3coM-QaLDXyBi-ycNl0kj8p9U0qV9M6nrElJV4XoAFDe6tJAUDHMNpBbrM5YIYeZa13wyNNjZwO4eW8nzPUCeQ6vfeGHdR_cgCX094DDOa7U8hM/s1600/20170602_185457.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExwL-fzjI3MD406cT5SOXriCIdzYN3coM-QaLDXyBi-ycNl0kj8p9U0qV9M6nrElJV4XoAFDe6tJAUDHMNpBbrM5YIYeZa13wyNNjZwO4eW8nzPUCeQ6vfeGHdR_cgCX094DDOa7U8hM/s640/20170602_185457.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The TEDx Stage at Helensvale Library</td></tr>
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So who is TED and what is a TEDx??<br />
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TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Their catch phrase is "Ideas worth spreading" and they invite speakers on topics as diverse as Artifical Intelligence, building buildings based on fractals, conservation, racism, aultruism, autism and really anything you can think of. There is a TED website where you can watch videos of the various TED talks held all over the world and there are podcasts (audio talks) of all the TED talks and then there is an hour long hosted TED talk in a radio format that examines a topic that was covered by a number of speakers (a really good one was the seven deadly sins!) I tend to listen to the TED radio hour at work as one of my jobs is simple repetition and I can listen to audio easily. Now I'm not listening to my Uni lectures, Im loving the TED talks and come home full of ideas worth sharing with my long suffering husband.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJkDbz9gT_Wmg43dKLKJR5y_yXzSr-paz9IaoTxsEVWWlTpWN9PZ0ruULB_YJP1jdYFRYN3ZwgeqlOOXRxUSBx9e7B416AzY0xiy0_aK61_VWh53zcxbbkoPXpIM0RVLoRMKjPeGgULo/s1600/20170602_184033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJkDbz9gT_Wmg43dKLKJR5y_yXzSr-paz9IaoTxsEVWWlTpWN9PZ0ruULB_YJP1jdYFRYN3ZwgeqlOOXRxUSBx9e7B416AzY0xiy0_aK61_VWh53zcxbbkoPXpIM0RVLoRMKjPeGgULo/s640/20170602_184033.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The foyer full of thing to be "making it"</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-VVPiUbgljk5KHLNjTr43-zyHmElgJuzvXki7HYSO47JSgXI_OgUJBgJ8Jes7yj45TR9Rx-XGY2Hqcqm-Xf6fnCP3VWwG5BxA6IsnLrZAwLDYs0I3O8arYlUGM5Li4JWlkjPVbDlX24/s1600/20170602_184004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
So to discover that the Gold Coast Library was hosting a TEDx (Licenced and sanctioned but community run rather than run by the actual TED head office) I was thrilled and applied instantly, citing <span style="background-color: white; color: black;">a </span><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;">"The danger of a single <span style="font-family: inherit;">story" by </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"> as one</span> of my favourite TED</span> talks and received an email a few weeks later inviting me along!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzj5LsVDsosOT7HVV_aPvMBXZ3gzPN3x36-w5pRMlvL4LKWRtbUdDDfgl2-SPFl-QibXOUiTttHimzoubrvRk7AKJV7NfoNGO9rwPrUJCPPoldtqDAYrxCHT8zjFJqeUA2StjPTRrHCDw/s1600/20170602_181150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzj5LsVDsosOT7HVV_aPvMBXZ3gzPN3x36-w5pRMlvL4LKWRtbUdDDfgl2-SPFl-QibXOUiTttHimzoubrvRk7AKJV7NfoNGO9rwPrUJCPPoldtqDAYrxCHT8zjFJqeUA2StjPTRrHCDw/s640/20170602_181150.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My word was Amazing in the middle left of the E</td></tr>
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The theme for this TEDx was "Making it" - and that was open to interpretation by each speaker so we heard from an Architect who uses fractals to design some of the most iconic buildings on the Gold Coast (including Q1). We heard from a Circus performer who now runs a circus school for autistic children. We heard from a Mum turned NASA astronomer. A surfer tuned anti plastic bag campaigner and a busker musician who loves his life. There was a ballerina who now teaches grit, determination and teamwork and a woman who now runs a domestic violence charity after hearing a sad story on the radio. There were also a couple of videos from other TED talks in the States. It was entertaining, enlightening, mind opening and just plain good fun!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5s6RsOxs8K_fslUuDXhvf_mfuTrGlIwrxJfbZ3H-OhdDTuz4JSEh7ulv4-tJt9Z4LBH6oEZYb5C-0qDFebPNrVF64PwX0P5sx53Hj5LEE4crRyD0y0dcURNOjCsUZJQfkBAG342NX-cY/s1600/20170602_182658.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5s6RsOxs8K_fslUuDXhvf_mfuTrGlIwrxJfbZ3H-OhdDTuz4JSEh7ulv4-tJt9Z4LBH6oEZYb5C-0qDFebPNrVF64PwX0P5sx53Hj5LEE4crRyD0y0dcURNOjCsUZJQfkBAG342NX-cY/s320/20170602_182658.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the badge I made - Green Eggs and Ham! Just like the eggs three of my chookies lay!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDG3QGFSpn1HpnSKFnA0e1wim0L9AfYoph1CtoA4drP63eohNGw9LpbVt3DmWKEvbbcgjQw82z4ptU9RLrAjJTb-18ji0hW29MQhlImp7s5zfbWpTqXF_yscd6Y_f5hrzygI3cKQeL5Ak/s1600/20170602_183155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDG3QGFSpn1HpnSKFnA0e1wim0L9AfYoph1CtoA4drP63eohNGw9LpbVt3DmWKEvbbcgjQw82z4ptU9RLrAjJTb-18ji0hW29MQhlImp7s5zfbWpTqXF_yscd6Y_f5hrzygI3cKQeL5Ak/s400/20170602_183155.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With my official TEDx badge! :)</td></tr>
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The Library had organised a bunch of things to do around the theme of "making it" and so I dutifully (and delightedly) made a badge (or two) strung "what made me, me" (mines the purple string) and made the little bot things follow lines that we drew on paper! So cool!<br />
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There was food, more food and cuppas and cake and biscuits and nibbles and live music and star gazing and really friendly staff and cool people to talk to other activities that I never got around to doing - and this was all BEFORE the TEDx started! Oh- and it was all completely free!<br />
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If there is a TEDx any where near you, (you can check on their website to see) I really encourage you to check it out and get thy bum to a seat near you!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-VVPiUbgljk5KHLNjTr43-zyHmElgJuzvXki7HYSO47JSgXI_OgUJBgJ8Jes7yj45TR9Rx-XGY2Hqcqm-Xf6fnCP3VWwG5BxA6IsnLrZAwLDYs0I3O8arYlUGM5Li4JWlkjPVbDlX24/s1600/20170602_184004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-VVPiUbgljk5KHLNjTr43-zyHmElgJuzvXki7HYSO47JSgXI_OgUJBgJ8Jes7yj45TR9Rx-XGY2Hqcqm-Xf6fnCP3VWwG5BxA6IsnLrZAwLDYs0I3O8arYlUGM5Li4JWlkjPVbDlX24/s640/20170602_184004.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Awesome job, Helensvale Library staff - thanks for volunteering your time and putting on an awesome event. I'm kinda hoping you'll do this at least once a month!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-53412363141356581422017-06-02T20:31:00.000+10:002017-06-02T20:31:04.328+10:00Improvising warmer curtains, cheaply without sewing! Having recently moved from sunny, subtropical Brisbane to our wee home in the Hinterland behind the Gold Coast we have found the drop in temperature to be "quite noticeable" :0<br />
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Not only is it already dropping below 10 degrees at night but apparently its only going to get colder as Winter progresses. <br />
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The obvious thing to do is turn on the heater since our new place doesn't have a wood fire, but this seems a bit pointless if we don't figure out a way to keep all that expensive heat inside the house. We have put on extra jumpers, pulled out the winter sox and bought proper PJ's (that you couldn't wear in Brisbane) and even put an electric blanket on the bed in our journey to get and stay warm. <br />
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We want to heat the air in the rooms at some point and looking at the windows we knew that that all the lovely hot air would just rush straight out the windows via the glass and while the house is slightly insulated, the glass is the biggest weak point and needed to be dealt with before we got too excited about heating the place. With whole walls of glass and three glass doors we have wonderful views of the rainforest, amazing summer breezes and one hell of job ahead of to stay warm in the next few months without paying Energex's CEO's salary all by ourselves!<br />
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Here's what I did...
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First thing we did is start haunting Op Shops for curtains. The thicker the better! These ones cost $20 each but are a beautiful thick tapestry and between them cover the whole glass front door. We had to put up a curtain rail but with them all the way across the door and covering part of the wall they seem to be doing a wonderful job of keeping the cold on the outside and the warm on the inside.<br />
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Finding these type of curtains were random luck to find but its worth the rounds of the op shops and the cost to find them.<br />
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Another random lucky find was this set of four curtains that were so big that they covered the whole wall of windows in one hit. The curtains that were there were tab top summer ones that gave privacy but wouldn't have made any difference to the temperature weather they were pulled or not. These ones are lined with block out material and the extra gathering are creating pockets that are a type of insulation themselves.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0Y-muWFIopPfcekPKLOe6AebOy5EQ0kRsJ_EvkDcncU9EjBIxh65kUhASlCIhaf7DHEbgJH8Q0DEzS3XUWKI19WRnzGJqReuLYwwaY_s-6UFT2URqW5yRbqx7-uoiD29tg_eaokoGYY/s1600/20170531_183255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0Y-muWFIopPfcekPKLOe6AebOy5EQ0kRsJ_EvkDcncU9EjBIxh65kUhASlCIhaf7DHEbgJH8Q0DEzS3XUWKI19WRnzGJqReuLYwwaY_s-6UFT2URqW5yRbqx7-uoiD29tg_eaokoGYY/s640/20170531_183255.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
As you can see though, there is this gap were the curtains sit away from the window and because of the arch you cant pull them all the way across and seal the windows with curtain. The bulldog clip is not a "Better Homes and Gardens Than Mine" solution but it works!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT0GMTs9Wg_ImBSUTafoNOrLvPuj6Zi28J4otiJlL31Cv_Kggpd5SteNk4O2BH9B3TmyE5EPN5oxiscMx-P4nlejd5WHkB-TXozB4i2tBtiLjYcKL-Wknb4cZ2O1YgkfVd4NdoPNd1pBM/s1600/20170531_183248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT0GMTs9Wg_ImBSUTafoNOrLvPuj6Zi28J4otiJlL31Cv_Kggpd5SteNk4O2BH9B3TmyE5EPN5oxiscMx-P4nlejd5WHkB-TXozB4i2tBtiLjYcKL-Wknb4cZ2O1YgkfVd4NdoPNd1pBM/s640/20170531_183248.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Without the bulldog clip you can feel the cold air coming in. With the clip joining the curtains the seal is better and you cant feel the draught at all! During the day the curtains are pulled into a curtain tie back and the bull dog clip is hidden in the folds making it easy to find when you pull the curtains in the evenings.<br />
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I was lucky enough to be gifted a few sets of curtains by various friend just before the move but as we all lived in Subtropical Brisbane, they are beautiful to look at but really aren't thick enough to keep out much cold but I found some cheap easy solutions...<br />
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I had packed and taken with me some old curtains from our old house that I knew were thicker than what was already in the new house but I wasn't so fond of the colour. I had figured that when I was cold, I would care about the colour but I ended up using these old thick not so attractive curtains to line the attractive light ones!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifF60VyYJheS5tst4vFy91muN4GJx7Kq5mIpfEDoPHulVqGm0DdH2wk_sIovG1Jjxy18_gV0YyJHC70-_mjn4mIdsTq4Ohq6-1tJvYmZNu4BUijFFe4VRkRXfplD-fXsd4bysoLxclvUI/s1600/20170531_183343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifF60VyYJheS5tst4vFy91muN4GJx7Kq5mIpfEDoPHulVqGm0DdH2wk_sIovG1Jjxy18_gV0YyJHC70-_mjn4mIdsTq4Ohq6-1tJvYmZNu4BUijFFe4VRkRXfplD-fXsd4bysoLxclvUI/s640/20170531_183343.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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The attractive set were eyelet curtains that threaded onto the pole and the ones I used to line it with were hook ones that would hook onto rings or sliders. I simply hooked the old curtains onto the eyelets and it doubled the thickness of the curtains!</div>
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When they are pulled back you cant see the blue curtains from the inside or outside. You can see the blue from the outside at night when they are pulled over the window, but since its pitch black and freezing cold, you are welcome to critique my curtains if you happen to be lurking in my back yard one night. I'll be inside nice and toasty!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOmfi3aRvTU3NI2V5o2UFfGUFCQXEJniJOo8Ql81_0BniaG0baQThNvAxqO55eQQpgGh13ZPxOlo7yyt-UEJ4YZQEo14dLUSTEMv3Gd2e3DbIPum00gJIk0idmPd4CHXFlWsPkO0Q4cMY/s1600/20170531_183357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOmfi3aRvTU3NI2V5o2UFfGUFCQXEJniJOo8Ql81_0BniaG0baQThNvAxqO55eQQpgGh13ZPxOlo7yyt-UEJ4YZQEo14dLUSTEMv3Gd2e3DbIPum00gJIk0idmPd4CHXFlWsPkO0Q4cMY/s640/20170531_183357.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Not the best images but it gives you the idea if you want to try it your self!</div>
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I had two sets non matching purple eyelet curtains but one had had some bleach leak onto them. They were nice thick velvet curtains and I had this vision of making a skirt or something out of them one day, maybe, sometime. You know how it is! Bottom line, I still had them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4H5kLFKcnmvlVQhBNtyFqrALTe00Yuk6vANJjW9Z01YFLjXZV7sFhcky2dYKuG34vGs2dqznfxn_1YQapOVI4BpPH9sFltQ7tKT23MCLiYDnIpq2Vvxnqk2AcoGLEJi6lms_vHNw29Wc/s1600/20170531_183506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4H5kLFKcnmvlVQhBNtyFqrALTe00Yuk6vANJjW9Z01YFLjXZV7sFhcky2dYKuG34vGs2dqznfxn_1YQapOVI4BpPH9sFltQ7tKT23MCLiYDnIpq2Vvxnqk2AcoGLEJi6lms_vHNw29Wc/s640/20170531_183506.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I Ummed and Ahhhed about taking them with me but when I discovered a second set at an op shop for $5 that almost matched I was glad I kept them. As they are both eyelet ones I simply threaded them onto the pole at the same time back to back with the holes matching and instantly, I have double thickness curtains - again with the marked ones on the outside for backyard night lurkers to comment on.<br />
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Really hard to photograph but if both sets are eyelet one, simply lay them on top of each other with the holes matching and then thread them on!<br />
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I did the hooked curtains onto eyelet curtains in the bedroom just like in the lounge but the curtain behind the bed needed to be shorter than the others.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_mjaVFUdvAgLAGSR-xqLWlx5dUuSMO4goH-2TXAe1-B6q8R3wrpzWoX8tOSyM_-mnfeH2ZQq305T0zZwTq0wu3XdK8qnMvc9vtJ5hLasURIg0iRRCfRfyg215BqoVipe_iacYzhFWaU/s1600/20170531_183720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_mjaVFUdvAgLAGSR-xqLWlx5dUuSMO4goH-2TXAe1-B6q8R3wrpzWoX8tOSyM_-mnfeH2ZQq305T0zZwTq0wu3XdK8qnMvc9vtJ5hLasURIg0iRRCfRfyg215BqoVipe_iacYzhFWaU/s640/20170531_183720.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Since I'm not sure if this is the final arrangement of curtains due to the random nature of Op Shopping for curtains rather than ordering custom made ones, I decided to hem these ones with safety pins!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_msrrkcw2oV3Zf1hJK_COWVYKFU785EXS7FcziHeUk2piVg1AMK5CMP5Z3fJVT_lHl8S-kMf8bvStOR0-pvU6jQoA_OYsTEo1S6al5UyT3aluqg3VEX4SKksGPVrZ-jFv8pIRlwtJ6iw/s1600/20170531_183735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_msrrkcw2oV3Zf1hJK_COWVYKFU785EXS7FcziHeUk2piVg1AMK5CMP5Z3fJVT_lHl8S-kMf8bvStOR0-pvU6jQoA_OYsTEo1S6al5UyT3aluqg3VEX4SKksGPVrZ-jFv8pIRlwtJ6iw/s640/20170531_183735.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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As it turned out, the curtains were different lengths and so I hemmed them separately with safety pins. Not particularly elegant but eminently practical! I still have my double thickness curtains and the flexibility to move them to a different spot should another pair appear and I want to move these ones somewhere else. I'm enjoying playing musical curtains!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwO0Mj_PrKlWd90BJE0Z5rTQv_eNjOkDNEO0ESwke8TlxvweaNGiwS33Cef_N67dQ7Cs8JdnHLtKQmSIKsw9HvpGA2vdrCYPHl9BrTjtFnmTZaCCZXUP7jYvGYxlFjO28JvW9hFoLCv6U/s1600/20170531_183748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwO0Mj_PrKlWd90BJE0Z5rTQv_eNjOkDNEO0ESwke8TlxvweaNGiwS33Cef_N67dQ7Cs8JdnHLtKQmSIKsw9HvpGA2vdrCYPHl9BrTjtFnmTZaCCZXUP7jYvGYxlFjO28JvW9hFoLCv6U/s640/20170531_183748.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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One last set of curtains Id like to share will never make an edition of an interior decorating magazine except in the "how not to do it" section are the ones we put up between the lounge and the spare bedroom. We aren't using that room on a daily basis and it doesn't have a door on it. This means we are heating extra space or trying to keep unused space warm for no reason depending on how you look at it. <br />
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So this one is hooked curtains put onto a ring that slides on the pole we put up as we had a matching one lying around. <br />
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The pretty curtain has been backed with a heavy blue hooked curtain by hooking the blue curtain hooks onto the pale curtain hooks that are in turn hooked to the rings.<br />
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Again, not the expensive custom curtain solution but so far I have paid about $50 all up to put thick lined curtains through out the whole house and its made a difference. We haven't put the heater on more than a few times and we have actually gone to bed early a few times as the electric blanket is quite seductive when its chilly but we are almost ready to face the Winter chill here on the mountain... as soon as we work out the cheapest way to heat the place that is!. <br />
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However if Mother Nature decides to bestow a very mild record breaking warm Winter on us, I wont mind too much!<br />
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I had thought of lining curtains with blankets but am liking the no-sewing, flexibility retaining aspects of using thick not so attractive curtains that I got for free, to line the attractive thin existing ones I didn't pay for. Do watch out for how much weight you are putting on your rings and rails though. I found curtains to be quite heavy. And make sure you have a stable platform to work from when you are hooking both the front and back curtains up!<br />
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I have discovered that Op shops often have a plethora of curtain hooks, rings and miscellaneous bits so check them out before you hit a "Curtains R US" type place or a chain hardware shop and spend a fortune. Half price days are also worth waiting for at the local op shop. I picked up wooden curtain rings for 12c each that day rather than $7.50 for 5 at a big hardware shop!<br />
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Have you managed to devise ways to improve your curtains ability to keep the cold out? Please let me know how in the comments - I've still got the office and laundry curtains to do!<br />
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<strong>Score card:
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for using second hand items and giving them a second life!<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for buying good cheap curtains and embracing the mismatched shabby chic look!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> About 10 minutes to attached the second curtain to the first curtain once its up.
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Super easy!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> Great fun to not only get a bargain but to stay warm and still look great!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-5604877142675525322017-05-27T21:45:00.000+10:002017-05-27T21:45:13.478+10:00Moving House - Our Experience! Recently we made a move from suburbia Brisbane to a smaller house an hour an a half away in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Its absolutely stunning up here and we love it.<br />
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Its been well worth the hard work of moving.<br />
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I hadn't shifted for well over a decade, and not for nearly 27 years in the case of my husband and so it was quite a feat to downsize, declutter and work out what we were really going to need and what we thought we might need when we had such a large collection of "stuff".<br />
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Now I've done it, I would do the next move a bit differently... but like a mother who has just given birth, Im not so keen to do it again in the foreseeable future!<br />
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Here's what I did (and what I'd do next time)...
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As soon as you know you are going to move, try to plan how you think you are going to live. A bit more detail at this stage would have influenced some of the decisions we made about what to pack and take and what not too.<br />
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Ask your self / spouse/ family questions like,<br />
<ul>
<li>How will I spend my days?</li>
<li>What will stay the same? What will be totally different?</li>
<li>Why are we moving and what will be the priorities in the new place?</li>
<li>What activities will we be doing in the new place?</li>
<li>How will life change in the new house?</li>
<li>What is different between the houses? What is the same?</li>
<li>How much storage is in the new place? More? Or less?</li>
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In some cases I image that people pack up all their stuff, move into a house more or less the same, unpack everything and out it where it was in the old house and get on with their lives. There are also the lucky ones who are moving to a bigger house and so getting rid of things isn't too much of an issue for them. We moved from a small house with a ton of storage into a slightly smaller house with NO storage! Getting rid of stuff was a priority to be able to fit into the new place.<br />
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We had been on a bit of a decluttering, sorting, getting rid of excess stuff binge for a while before our move and I think that really helped with what to pack and what we needed to take with us as we weren't wading around in so much clutter to be able to see what was important.. <br />
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Going from a high set house that has a house size storage area underneath to a smaller lowset house with no shed, no garage and no built in storage really rammed home out how much "stuff" we stored because we could. I read some where that storing things that you don't use is just storing unmade decisions... We had a lot of those, simply because keeping something instead of sending it to the dump/charity/friend/selling it on Gumtree was easier and exactly as I had read - an unmade decision. The move forced us to make those decisions.<br />
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Next time I would compare the storage area and plan where each item in the old house was going to live in the new house. Doing this more thoughly would've highlighted the fact that we were both planning to put different things in the same place thus halving the tiny amount of storage that we had. Once we wrote a list of what would fit into which cupboard in each room, it became quite obvious that a lot of stuff was simply going to have to go. Check in with the whole family as to where they think the things they are packing are going to go. You'll be surprised how many of you have plans for the same space!<br />
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Unless you want to live with boxes and clutter until the end of time - a place has to be allocated in the new house for each item that you pack in the old house. This tip is the crux of what to pack - if you don't have a place for it, does it really need to come with you?<br />
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Packing boxes of stuff that you don't use often early in the packing process also has a major drawback... I found that by starting to pack by packing thing I didn't use much meant that I had a lot of things that I don't need very much at the other end... When you start packing early because you have the time or want to be organised, there isn't the pressure to get rid of things that there is the week before you move! Of course the boxes you pack first end up on the bottom of the pile or at the back of the garage and you cant get to them until moving day - and then its too late. I was quite ruthless closer to moving day, far more than I was months beforehand. Most of the stuff that's gone to charity or the dump since we moved came out of those first packed boxes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6b_1R1gzJVStxU1PJAP_4VaEaNfK6BjPv_IDPmcEANfwq-iTJ8aetfelZo8fDMZsWNtrtHQisMkk3cIV_DwnwVXY0dKytYQfpR-SGiDyej8pfP72eSSNaLjMJ-qvFtPyTzAze0Nane-I/s1600/20170418_145856.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6b_1R1gzJVStxU1PJAP_4VaEaNfK6BjPv_IDPmcEANfwq-iTJ8aetfelZo8fDMZsWNtrtHQisMkk3cIV_DwnwVXY0dKytYQfpR-SGiDyej8pfP72eSSNaLjMJ-qvFtPyTzAze0Nane-I/s640/20170418_145856.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Another thing I would do next time is decide on an item to pack - say linen and then put ALL my linen in a pile and make decisions that way. I packed all the towels I wanted to take in the first few weeks as they came through the wash and then proceeded to use the left over and random towels over the last few weeks to pack around breakables. Then I used old beach towels to line boxes or to fill in empty spaces on the final days. By the time we got to the new house, I had bought every single towel with me including ones that were earmarked for charity or should've been dumped!!! Sort out what coming and get the rest out of the house asap when you are packing. In the last few days its seems easier just to pack it and think about it afterwards but I wish I had made a lot of the decisions sooner and been more ruthless.<br />
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Books were another big problem. We love them and had lots of room for them. I managed to cull mine down to one bookcase that was designated "my bookcase" in the new house. I emptied that bookcase, gathered up every single book I owned, chose the books to go in the bookcase, and put them in it so I knew they all fitted. I then got rid of all the other books and packed my chosen books into boxes. Once we got to the new place I knew where my book case would go and what would go in it. My husband still has boxes of books to unpack and no where to put his as he just packed them as they came to hand without wondering where they would go! This tip works really well with clothes too. Hunt the house down for all your clothes before you start. There will be jackets and scarves at the front door, back door, in the car and in places you don't even think of. Once you see it all together you can see you have five jackets and three sets of gumboots, for example. Its hard to keep track of what you have and what you need to pack if you do the wardrobe only first, then the stuff by the front door a few days later, the stuff downstairs a different week, the hall cupboard just before you go.<br />
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You don't have to pack it all, especially if you use those things all the time but as long as you get rid of what not coming or wont fit first, you can pack it over a few weeks rather than at the last minute. Don't forget to label your boxes accurately. "Trinkets" is really uninformative in the new place. "Stuff from the shelf above the mantelpiece" was much better! Its frustrating not to be able to find which box a much needed item is in without having to unpack them all. If you are packing a miscellaneous box, mark it with everything that's in it. Stuff that's always gone together can be labelled as a group. A box lable that says "Stuff hanging on the front door hooks" is ok, youll remember what that is. "Photos" isn't ok unless you only have one box of photos!!<br />
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If you have the space in your old house to measure out the moving truck space, that will also give you an idea of how much room you really have in the truck. A friend moved a few years back and discovered that they had to hire a ute on moving day as by 10am it was obvious that it wasn't all going to fit in the truck and she didn't want to pay for them to come back and do a second trip (I'm not sure the stress of the ute trips was worth the savings though...) Another friend pretty much had the same thing happen only months ago, after a marriage break up and half the stuff was already gone. I swore we would be more organised but we ended up with at least 4 car and trailer loads of strange shaped stuff, stuff that the movers didn't recognise as precious possessions and things from outside that we simply forgot about until the house was empty. That was fifty square metres of truck packed to the roof and we still couldn't fit the contents of a two bedroom house in it... (One bedroom was a filled with someone else's stuff so we only had a bedroom and an "office bedroom" to move!)<br />
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One method that worked for me was packing one room a week - declutter it, plan a new home for each item left, pack what's not essential to daily living and get into "camping mode" for that room after you've packed it up. When I packed up the kitchen we got out the camping gear and cooked and ate off that for the last fortnight. That way I only had to wash and pack up the camping stuff and I was done on moving day in the kitchen. The cupboards and drawers were all empty. Using the camping gear to cook and eat off meant I could just pack up the whole kitchen in one hit and move on. If you are going to pack up your kitchen, make sure you plan meals that can be cooked with the equipment you have in your camping kit!<br />
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It will cost more to move than you think. Even if you do it yourself! Unpacking the truck is about half of the time to pack the truck. And driving the truck to the new place is almost double the time it takes to get there in a hatchback! Ask the removalist how much time/money they estimate and then add on another 25-50% and hopefully you'll get change. Also check how they want to be paid. Some removalists want cash on the day and some can and will take a credit card. Its embarrassing to have to go and get more cash or exceed your limit on your card on moving day!<br />
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Find a reliable supply of boxes. You'll need more than you think you will. I got into a routine of buying 10 boxes a week from a local removalist for $1 each and then attempting to pack those 10 boxes before the next 10 were due to be purchased each Thursday. I packed over 70 boxes on our move. Boxed stuff is sooooo much quicker and easier for the removalists (and for you) to handle, stack and pack.<br />
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Find a way to get rid of those boxes after the move! We were lucky enough to be able to give most of our boxes to the people moving into our old place as there was a reasonable gap between the two moves. You can recycle them as the local waste disposal or maybe sell them back to the company you bought them from. You could sell them on Gumtree or Ebay. Have a plan for them or they will sit., and sit. and sit.<br />
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Buy lots of tape - consider it a moving expense and get the good stuff. Get a tape gun too while you are at it. Our first packed boxes had the tape coming off them on moving day. Cheap tape didn't last very long on the boxes in the garage at all...<br />
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We found an H shape on the box was strong and didn't use excessive amounts of tape. The first run goes along the join of the two flaps and then a run down each of the unfolded sided was economical and still strong. Do the bottom, fill the box, write on the flap as you fill it, tape it down and move it to a pile. The removalist will love it if all the boxes are in a couple of piles rather than scattered around the house.<br />
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We did the move first and spend two weeks cleaning up and sorting the old house before we turned our attention to properly unpacking the new house. Other people I know have spent two weeks cleaning and sorting the old place and never come back to it after moving day is over and then spend a fortnight or so unpacking. It seems, from talking to people who have moved, that its roughly a four week process. Two weeks to get out of the old place, no matter when you move in that fortnight and about two weeks to unpack the new place more or less completely assuming you are still having to work in that month too.<br />
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Accept offers of help. If some offers to make lunch on moving day, accept. If someone offers to help you clean the old place (or the new place), accept. Friends that will do dump runs, charity drop offs, make dinner (especially close to the actual move) do some babysitting or pet minding, provide muscle power, sell stuff on Gumtree for you or even just be company when you are packing or cleaning can make the world of difference to your state of mind, even if it doesn't make the job go quicker. <br />
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Remember that moving is a really stressful thing to do on so many levels, so be nice to yourself and to your family. Don't put yourself under extra stress by looking after grandmas blind dog the week you move, don't try to lose weight, run a marathon or do anything that takes time and energy away from the moving process. Give yourself a break from time to time and the odd rewarding experience to keep moral high.<br />
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Eat well, sleep well and drink lots of water. Keep reminding yourself (and your family) that moving house stressful and its not as much fun as it looks in the movies. Its more expensive than you anticipate. It takes longer than you hope. But hopefully the new place is well worth all the stress!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-79420500285047932452017-01-27T06:14:00.000+10:002017-01-27T06:14:01.567+10:00Making home made Ghee from butter!After reading a lot about the benefits of eating real foods, I decided to go a bit more "natural" with my cooking oils. I have come to realise that a lot of vegetable oils are made using all sorts of awful chemical processes that I couldn't hope to replicate in my kitchen - making them so altered from their natural state they couldn't come under the heading of real food anymore.<br />
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Olive oil has been a standard in our house but its not so good at high temperatures, so I needed something that was able to withstand the heat of a stir fry for example, and then I remembered Ghee.<br />
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Its just clarified butter. Butter is nice and natural and can be made in my very own kitchen so therefore its not a complicated industrial process. Ghee is even simpler and quicker to make than the actual butter itself.<br />
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The reason butter smokes and burns is that its full of dairy "solids". Once you melt the butter and start to heat it, those solids start to burn, turning your butter black and burnt in a few seconds flat at high temperatures. Clarified butter has those solids removed and leaves you with just the butter fat that doesn't burn and can be used at nice high temperatures.<br />
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Once I understood that, it was a case of making a batch of clarified butter to use when I wanted to fry at high temperatures.<br />
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Here's what I did...
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Make or buy a block of unsalted butter and pop it in a pot and melt it. Let it come to a bubble and then you will see a layer of lighter coloured solids come to the surface. Don't let you butter get too hot or it will burn and you will have burnt butter not glorious ghee!<br />
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Once the solids have all come to the surface you can skim them off or you can just filter the melted butter through a sieve or funnel lined with a few layers of muslin or a clean Chux cloth like I do. I use the funnel as it directs the ghee where I want it. I find the sieve tends to spread it out and splash the butter about a bit more.<br />
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I filter mine straight into the container that I store it in in the fridge. Carefully pour the butter from the pot into the funnel making sure that the ghee is going onto the cloth and not pouring over the edge as the idea is to remove the solids from the liquid.<br />
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If you think there is still some solids in the ghee restrain it through a smaller sized filter or double the layers of cloth and pour very slowly. If it burns when you use it, it definitely did have some solids in it still!<br />
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The ghee should be a nice bright clear yellow not a cloudy opaque yellow like normal butter. If the solids rise to the top when your ghee is cooling just scrape them off and use them in garlic butter. Its especially tasty if its salted butter that you used! Make sure you still keep the ghee in the fridge like you normally do with butter though.<br />
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My "after" picture wont load today so I'll post one next time I make some ghee so you can see the difference between butter and ghee. There are plenty of ghee photos on the net if you cant wait though, if you need to see the before and after shots sooner than I can post them! <br />
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Ghee allows me to have an oil/fat to fry at high temperatures without having to put a highly chemically processed substance into my body. Ghee also tastes much better than any vegetable oil that I've ever had before! It cuts down on another bottle of "stuff" I need to buy and takes a few minutes to make. If I'm desperate, I can make enough on the fly to get dinner sorted because its so quick and easy to make. I melt the butter in the frying pan and filter it back into the pan rather than a container and just keep going!<br />
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What are your ghee making experiences like? Let us know by posting in the comments section!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 especially if you use home made or organic butter!<br />
<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for making your own!<br />
<strong>Time cost:</strong> About a minute and a half!
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<strong>Skill level</strong>: Melting butter - almost as easy as boiling water!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> Good to know its one less bit of rubbish going into my family body!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-67509953471045482182017-01-21T15:02:00.003+10:002017-01-21T15:04:00.667+10:00Homemade dog treat toy!<br />
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We have an Australian kelpie called Tia. I think she is a red kelpie crossed with a normal kelpie but at any rate - she is a kelpie through and through. She gulps her food like she has never been fed and also like to bury bones and other bits and pieces to the delight of the chickens who promptly dig it up and eat it themselves.<br />
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In order to give her a treat that she cant bolt down in a half second and also to be able to leave something for her to find later - we created a time lapse capsule dog toy for her!<br />
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I had seen something like this at our dog sitters place but it was free standing on a frame and moveable. I didn't have the skills, time or patience for something like that so decided we could use the same principals and make something similar with what we had.<br />
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Once you've seen it - you don't really need instructions but I'll run you through what I did so you at least know the pitfalls to avoid and the improvements to make!<br />
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Here's what I did...
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<br />
<span id="goog_99950624"></span><span id="goog_99950625">I fished a couple of soft drink bottles out of the recycling bin and gave them a wash. I started by using a craft knife to cut holes in the sides and then when the husband caught sight of this activity, he got out the power tools and cut nice neat-ish holes the right size with a mouse hole drill bit.</span><br />
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As long as the holes are more or less opposite each other on the side of the bottle, it should be all good.<br />
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Thread the bottles onto a piece of dowel that you find lying around in the garage looking lost and alone. If you cant find an orphaned piece of dowel, a broom handle or a straight-ish stick from the garden will work just as well.Check that the bottles spin freely - although now our dog has got the hang of getting the treats out, I wish I had made some of them a bit firmer so they didn't spin quite so easily.<br />
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I then found a couple of small star pickets, also looking lost and lonely, and banged them into the ground so that they were positioned as far apart as the ends of the stick. I used a cable tie to hold the dowel in place but a piece of wire or string would work too. It will need to be fairly firm as the dog isn't going to be gentle with this toy!<br />
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So now you have a string of bottles that will spin along a stick that is held off the ground by the star pickets. And that's it - you've done it! Now the really fun part! Put some small biscuits, like cat biscuits (Tia raids the cat bowl for these all the time) or broken up dog biscuits into the bottles and show them to your dog.<br />
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Even though Tia watched me put the cat biscuits in the bottle and could smell them, it took her about ten minutes of sniffing around and looking at them before she worked out how to get them out.<br />
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I pushed the bottles and made them spin a few times. She saw the biscuit fall out and finally twigged how to get them out and started pushing at the bottles with her head and paws to tip them up.<br />
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Once she had the hang of it she was away and seemed to enjoy making the biscuits tip out. The chickens can see the biscuits but can get at them even though they peck at the bottle from all angles for ages! <br />
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Since then I have cut holes in the sides of two of the bottles and put the lids back on those ones to make it a bit harder for her. I leave one bottle "easy" so she gets an instant reward and wants to stay for more, but the other two are harder to get the biscuits out as upside down isn't enough anymore. She has to balance them or tip them slowly so the biscuits slide over the holes to fall out.<br />
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I cant say it takes her longer than a few minutes to get them out, but it does make for a good way to distract her when you need her out of the way for something. I often put a few biscuits in the bottles on my way out the door so she gets something fun to do when we leave the house.<br />
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I've seen her wander over and have a sniff to see if the biscuit fairy has been at all, which usually triggers the biscuit fairy to put her book and cuppa down, get off her backside and deliver said biscuits!<br />
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This doesn't replace not walking your dog or paying attention to it but I see it as an activity that she can do by herself and uses a bit of brainpower to get the reward. We don't feed her exclusively from the bottles - Its just where most of her treats go now. It hasn't stopped her from begging at the table nor stopped anybody for falling for the big brown eyes and slipping a titbit under the table to her.<br />
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Maybe I should serve dinner to the family in one of the devices!? ;)<br />
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If you have one of these or know of something similar, pop a link to it in the comment section and share it with us all!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for creating something new with what you have already
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> 5/5 for not spending a cent!
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<strong>Time cost:</strong> About 15 minutes all up.
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<strong>Skill level:</strong> Cutting round holes in the side of slippery plastic bottle - so not that easy!
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<strong>Fun-ness:</strong> Great fun to watch the dog snorting and snuffling around for the treat when it finally falls out of the bottle!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5714915916932125719.post-32472232838832581752017-01-09T12:30:00.001+10:002017-01-09T12:55:31.827+10:00Making a Terrarium out of an old Moccona jar!<br />
I have always loved terrariums! The whole concept of an ecology system in a jar on my bench really appeals to me!<br />
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There was a workshop at <a href="http://www.capalabanurseries.com.au/">Capalaba Nurseries</a> on making Terrariums for Christmas and so I went along to see how it was done. It was a fabulous hands on workshop with a great instructor called Emma who is unflappable and full of hints and tips as well as really knowing her stuff.<br />
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After I attended this workshop I tried making my own at home for Christmas gifts and was really really pleased with the results... Here's what I did...
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Starting with a largish jar (the Moccona on the right is about a 2 litre capacity) I gave them a good wash and clean to make sure I wasn't locking any nasty moulds or bacteria in with my plants.<br />
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Next comes a decent handful of rough rocks and gravel for drainage. Since these are going to be seen, its good to make sure they fit with your overall colour and/or theme. When I went to buy gravel for this project, they guy handed me a gravel menu!!! It turns out there is blue, pink and green gravel along with brown and grey - as for the sizes - A Chinese meal menu would have had a smaller selection of choices! There is a lot of gravel choice out there people!<br />
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The next layer is a sand layer. Both the gravel and sand are for drainage so your plants don't drown. While there isn't as much variety in the sand department, there is still a fair bit of choice. If you know what your finished product wants/needs to look like then you'll know if you are after rough coarse brown sand or silky smooth white sand. To add some interest we made our sand layer a bit uneven, just like in the real world, rather than have it all in perfectly straight layers.<br />
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An important part of the terrariums structure is the big spoonfuls of activated carbon that goes in at this point. It soaks up the impurities and keeps the terrarium smelling good. We put a couple of decent tablespoons on top of the sand layer.<br />
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Next is a layer of good quality potting mix with a bit of fine compost in it. This is the layer that your plants will be getting all their nutrients from so it needs to be full of goodies for the plant rather than fillers for the manufacturer to make $ from...<br />
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At this point make just a thin layer as once you have the plants in, its easier to fill up a bit more then than to dig holes now. I was aiming for a jar that was 1/3 soil/gravel and 2/3 plants and air as I thought those were good proportions. Step back from the jar occasionally and check to see how much of the jar you are filling. Remember, you are trying to make a terrarium not a pot plant!<br />
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If you haven't already, now is the time to select your plants. The smaller the better! I've always loved the "wet" look in the terrarium, some people love the succulent desert thing, some love the beach theme and some love the fairy garden, so I chose a fern as my main plant.<br />
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I put him in a bit off centre so I could put a contrasting plant in next to him. At this point I pushed the plant into the soil but not too much as I don't want the roots down in the drainage area.<br />
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See how the fern is a little off centre leaving room for another plant or "decorating element"!</div>
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For my second plant I chose this little red veined Fittonia to sit next to the bold green fern. I thought it was a nice contrast. The Fitonia will out grow the jar - but as long as you are happy to cut it back or replace it sometime its not a problem. Once you have got the plants where you want them, add some more potting mix and tamp it town with your fingers or a stick so that the potting mix is firm around the plants. <br />
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To get the potting mix where you want it, try using a piece of card as a funnel and direct it where you want it. The less mess you make the easier it is to clean up later. Once the potting mix is more or less in place, use a stick or your hand to tamp it down around the plants firmly.<br />
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The next layer is a small decorative gravel (like what you often find in a fish tank) that is used as a mulch to help the surface stay moister longer. Its easer to put it in using a piece of card as a funnel than to try and spoon it in or use your hands to scoop it in.<br />
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I made a slope in my jar to add a bit more interest. I used each layer to exaggerate it all a little more. Its a bit more interesting than straight lines!<br />
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I also really like being able to see some of the gravel at the bottom of the jar. It also allows you to see how much water you have in the terrarium and if you need to leave the lid off for a day or two to dry out a bit or if you need to add some water. <br />
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We used the squirty bottles you can see in the background to dampen each layer to make it sit well and to wash down the sides of the jar when we flicked dirt or gravel onto it.<br />
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Next you get to play with the non-living decorative elements like rocks, wood, trinkets and anything else your heart desires! I decided on a rock and a piece of old wood with a bit of moss on it.<br />
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My final terrarium had two plants, one rock and an old piece of wood in the background.</div>
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To get the water off the sides of the jar, I used a bit of loo paper to wipe the water off with. For the bits you cant quite reach...<br />
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roll a bit of loo paper around an old gardening fork and push that down the inside of the jar to dry up all the water that's been squirted around.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLH6j3rcdMyZ3YIpaovmMi4abFkPjIFHyfK9zynGIF6LfB69ryyXYlEIzPrAOfKr_Hq8rgYG6rCEKJrMJ4a8_DTkfJmsdihIi9UZaDOl1aBi2_FIOLDjvahV64ztvHpXy23ZB8wkGDRQ/s1600/20161126_160741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLH6j3rcdMyZ3YIpaovmMi4abFkPjIFHyfK9zynGIF6LfB69ryyXYlEIzPrAOfKr_Hq8rgYG6rCEKJrMJ4a8_DTkfJmsdihIi9UZaDOl1aBi2_FIOLDjvahV64ztvHpXy23ZB8wkGDRQ/s640/20161126_160741.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A close up of my finished terrarium!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHZgQAbVYZuwVsgDLdSW9TACmGuJQ3Ds_SSSyxO-LMMmwTtycGQddufLpRrD4vVpD518j7M7fYXICC9a6Mg4q0aQKa4GmGJZKSYpiB8EC9AYIPMjYw6_oQcNxNRVaBbQQ6Zhx3ai4_lo/s1600/20161126_173919.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHZgQAbVYZuwVsgDLdSW9TACmGuJQ3Ds_SSSyxO-LMMmwTtycGQddufLpRrD4vVpD518j7M7fYXICC9a6Mg4q0aQKa4GmGJZKSYpiB8EC9AYIPMjYw6_oQcNxNRVaBbQQ6Zhx3ai4_lo/s640/20161126_173919.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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For my second terrarium, I used contrasting plants and went for the "wet" look again. I used a few more rocks and made a "pile" rather than having just a single specimen and used the wood more like a log this time.<br />
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I really enjoyed this project!<br />
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I ended up making a few for Christmas presents for my friends as I found a spice shop shutting down and selling 2.5 litre jars with lids for a dollar each! The gravel, sand and potting mix can be had at any soil supplier or even a good nursery. The activated carbon is the same as the stuff used in fish tank filters and the decorative gravel can be found in nurseries, cheapy shops or in pet shops in the fish section.<br />
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Make sure you get really small but healthy plants as the stress of putting them in to your terrarium might be too much for a plant that's not so happy to start with. I was continually surprised at how big a small plant really is!<br />
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If you aren't sure what type of terrarium you want to make, there are a few really good websites around to help you with ideas for your terrarium. Click on the images or links to go to the websites!<br />
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<a href="http://inhabitat.com/how-to-make-your-own-terrarium/jar-terrarium/"><img alt="http://inhabitat.com/how-to-make-your-own-terrarium/jar-terrarium/" data-height="591" data-permalink="cow-terrarium" data-width="728" draggable="false" height="324" src="http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/08/Cow-Terrarium.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://inhabitat.com/how-to-make-your-own-terrarium/jar-terrarium/">Inhabit.com</a></div>
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<a href="http://happyplaceterrariums.com.au/product/classic-coast/"><img alt="http://happyplaceterrariums.com.au/product/classic-coast/" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdLlgPcG1-lgPuHwMetmqPGo7CQIyVFVPTNya5ePKMP6Vi3qf5wd7Qgf8McnYlYMkKJmN5y7ptNNM-bekadaB5MUWmvyS13RoS53ZajXDfUEXgHCHjdM_pE8nHrhD8mUjwRmjYWLwg5I/s400/Capture.JPG" width="388" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://happyplaceterrariums.com.au/product/classic-coast/">Happy Place Terrariums</a></div>
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<a href="http://notapaperhouse.com/the-urban-grow-terrarium/"><img alt="il fullxfull.775268983 qdoa The Urban Grow Terrarium" class=" wp-image-6647 aligncenter" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" src="http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa.jpg" srcset="http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa.jpg 1216w, http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa-243x300.jpg 243w, http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa-830x1024.jpg 830w, http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa-1024x1263.jpg 1024w, http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa-400x493.jpg 400w, http://notapaperhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/il_fullxfull.775268983_qdoa-265x328.jpg 265w" title="The Urban Grow Terrarium" width="324" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://notapaperhouse.com/the-urban-grow-terrarium/">Not a paper house.com</a></div>
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<a href="http://elusivenewportbeach.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/make-your-own-terrarium.html"><img alt="Image result for terrarium" class="mainImage accessible nofocus" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ATrmzRGaf9M/VPJQOQSHGiI/AAAAAAAAnP8/NRRwq0dsGsg/s400/Terrarium-Workshopx.jpg" title="View source image" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://elusivenewportbeach.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/make-your-own-terrarium.html">Exclusive New Port Beach.blogspot</a></div>
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There are a at least a million and one, and probably more, ideas for terrariums out there! If you have one you'd like to share, pop the link in the comments section and let us all see it and be inspired!<br />
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<strong>Score card:</strong>
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<strong>Green-ness:</strong> 5/5 for repurposing jars and for using things you already have!
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<strong>Frugal-ness:</strong> ?/5depends wether you have a lot of the bits needed and if you can resist buying all the wee knickknacks to go in a terrarium or not...
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<strong>Time cost</strong>: Once you know what you are doing (after the first one that is) you can make them in about 15 minutes from go to whoa if you have all the bits to hand. <br />
<strong>Skill level:</strong> Basic gardening knowledge!
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<strong>Fun-ness</strong>: So much fun to be able to create a world to sit on your desk!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3