The addition of another child to our family pushed me my office out of the house. We had looked at many shipping container conversions online and loved the idea. We ordered from a company in Brisbane and as soon as it was dropped on the yard it started working. It was instant storage, watertight and lockable.

We had a relatively level yard and the only preparation was to clear the space for the delivery. After some rain and it settled I got some bottle jacks under one side, sitting in a hole we dug under the container. We lifted it in the corners and put a few pavers under it to level it.

We needed to line the container to protect it from the sun and cold. The first step was to put up some framing to hang the plywood. We chose plywood because if we used Gyprock and the container had to be moved it would crack everywhere. Plywood was a bit more forgiving. It also seemed easier, went up quick with no plaster. 

Since the container is structurally sound in its own right the framing could be minimal. In the phot above we attached a stud to the top rail of the container. We then skew nailed the bottom into the container's ply floor.

On to this minimal frame we attached some metal roof battens.

Here you can see how the walls met the roof. The roof studs were drilled into the top rail the same as we did the walls.

Now some progress, insulation in and plywood on. The metal battens and the natural curves of the container provided a good lot of space for insulation. We ran the wiring for the powerpoints beforehand. We had chosen not to do any roof lights to keep it simple, relying on a floor lamp for the infrequent times we would be in it at night.

Now with all the plywood up.

Opening for sliding door boxed, out with traditional stud work and plywood.

Painted and powerpoints in. We could have left it in the plywood, we thought the white would add the feeling of space and maybe protect against condensation mould. The ply moved a bit, so to get a flatter result we could have used more battens, but I am happy with it.

Carpet and Airconditioning. We went for a stand alone unit with a exhaust fan behind it. These were cheaper and could just be plugged in, not a lot of installation work. The electrician added a new circuit to our fuse box to service the container.

Here it is fitted out as our office. One standup desk, one traditional desk, a bookcase and a cupboard. A little bar heater for winter, It takes little to heat or cool.  The top vent above the air conditioner was added for cross ventilation, It may not seem like much but it helps.

We have spent all the seasons in it so far and it is very comfortable. 

This is our new method for getting our vegetable garden started. 

In the front of the picture you can see our spinach seedlings, out in the sun. The onion and snow peas are still under some shade cloth. The spinach was under the shade cloth the week before but is looking good and strong. We will soon move the shadecloth off the onion and snowpeas and get some more seedlings in the third part of the bed.

The shadecloth is just held up with tomato stakes cut in half and a nail in the end to clip the shadecloth over.

This is a way to harden up the seedlings. Looking after them while they get going, aclimatising them. 

It is also a nice way to take  our planting in stages and encourage us to always be planting and tending. Previously we have planted everything and hoped for the best.

In this was we are doing more thinning too. Planting seedlings like the onion together so they can support each other and when they are stronger seperating them to encourage good bulb growth.

Anyway, that is what we are trying this Autumn/Winter. Always part of the gardening fun, trying new things out. I hope you are enjoying your vegetable gardening.

Here is our new aluminium window fitted. Hopefully no more leaks and a bit more secure.

This is the old aluminium window we had. The locks were broken, we had to put dowels in the rail to lock it. It leaked big time in certain rain conditions. We had recently finished re-stumping the house, so the olfd weatherboards go out of kilter and the rain came in. There was a lot of silicon on that wall.

Here we have the window removed. We decided to remove the two weather boards above the window so we could set up some good weather proofing. You can see the plain sisalation we added in the photo, but under that is also an Alcor bitumen coated aluminiun dampcourse. It is attached above the window and comes out at 90 degrees to sit above the trim above the window.

Here we are with the weatherboards back. The flashing and sarking in place. You can see the Alcor at the top and some poly flashing at the side with a silicon seal.

The final result with all the trim covering the flashing. Next up we have some painting to do.

My wife's Dad did this for us. He was careful and meticulous. Laying out the dampcourse with consideration of all angles of water, including from a garden hose.

While restumping our house we came across this at the end of a bearer. This is common with older timber foundations. The weather has got in and dry rott has flaked the bearer away. So there is no decent purchase for our new posts to screw into. Time to try replacing a bearer..

This is the full view of it. You can see my temporary stacks supporting the bearer as I remove the old piers.

This is a picture with the old bearer removed. You may be able to see the bottle jacks under the joists. These lifted the floor and wall. Once they were off the bearer I then knocked the bearer down and away from the joists and studs. They were nailed in. 

New cypress post cut to size and slotted in. It felt good to slide it in and lower the studs and joists onto it.

Now to get some new posts under it.

A white picket fence has seeped into our culture. Maybe from movies from America. Maybe memories of grandparents places. Anyway, we now have our own.

We started with some cypress posts. Laid out with a stringline and posts all plumb and level.

Then we cut notches in the front of the posts to fit the rails. The block slopes south to north, so we stepped the rails down.

Like all building, it is important to plan and measure and that everything it is level. Getting as much painting as you can done before putting it up would have saved us time. We needed to do two coats and between the pickets was tedious.

We balanced a level length of timber on top of the the posts and shoved the pickets up against it. This insured the tops of the pickets were level. The pickets were cut to length from undercoated pine. They were kept one side of a picket apart. It is important to check plumb on these as you go too.

Bit more expensive than colourbond but great street appeal.

Here is our latest chook pen design. This is our first chicken coop on our own property. Back in 2008 we built a chook pen but this was at a rental property.

Pictured is the finished product with happy chooks.

Here are the 4 posts we began with. These are the steel posts from a car port we had when we bought the place. We used a lot of corrugated iron from this carport too.

In the picture, we are stabilising the posts as the concrete goes off.

Now with the roof on. These are 25x50mm hardwood we got from the local building recyclers. Some additional structural pine as well.

Adding some walls, corrugated screwed into the steel posts. The door jams are connected to the roof and then star pickets we drove into the ground. 

Here is the chicken wire netting. Again wood on start pickets and some straining wire.  The wire is splayed outwards and pinned down under weed matting, to stop chooks getting out and dogs digging in.

The front of the coop we did  in some hardiplank and an old interior door, painted red. :)

We made nesting boxes from an old kitchen cabinet. Reinforced the top with doors, and put on a roost.

This is the chook feeders, we hung them from the ceiling and cut large holes for the chooks to get their head through. We did the same for the chooks water, hanging next to this one. 

One of the girls after a couple of grains.

This is our version of the ag pipe hoop vegetable enclosure. Adding bird netting over the top of an ag-pipe hoop attached to star pickets.

We started with 8 star pickets. The pipe goes inside the star pickets and is tied off with wire. We drilled through the pipe to do this. We did this because the bigger pipe to slide over the star picket was twice as expensive as the pipe we used. 

Once in place we did not get a lot of tension with this set up. So we added 4 studs, two each end. These are just 2x4s attached to another star picket.

We then ran stud bracing from one end to the other, making the structure rigid for our bird netting.

Here we have the vegetable garden bird netting stretched over the ag pipe. We just did this with tie wire. We also used weed mat spikes at the base to hold it in. 

Here is our first planting. Starting winter in Inverell we have:

• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Leek
• Brown Onion
• Snow Peas
• Spinach
• Silverbeet
• Celery

6 weeks later this is what the veges look like. Brocolli and Spinach doing the best. 

14th August - First harvest

15th September. Been harvesting for a while and adding new veges, going great.

This is where we started for our raised bed vegetable garden made out of pine sleepers. Here we have weed matted a whole section at the end of our garden.

Next we made the three raised vegetable beds. The side length was determined by the size the pine sleeper came in, 2.4 m I think. We then cut the other sides with a circular saw. We cut the weed mat out of the base. 

Here is how we joined the pine sleepers. Very simple. Just two coach screws. We predrilled these. It is important to select relatively straight sleepers, or do some mixing and matching to make sure they join. We did not dig out the ground before hand. We did not secure them to the ground. We liked the organic form they took with the lie of the land.

Here is the end result. We put large bark on the weed mat around the beds. We filled the beds with a top soil compost mix. We have a spongy black clay so with these raised beds and compost we hope to get to productivity sooner.

We are planning our new vegetable garden. We hope to have raised beds ready for spring planting. To begin we thought we would build a compost bin. If we start with composting then we will have some good soil to add to our raised bed.

Pictured above is our handmade compost bin. All from recycled materials. Hardwood joists, corrugated iron and even some fire resistant fibro. 

So we plan to use our grass clippings and forage the neighbourhood for other goodies. A friend has offered us alpaca poo :) So we will do a layer of green prunings and lawn clippings, then a layer of brown (leaves) then a layer of poo, then something else and repeat. Each time watering it in and covering it with hession to aid the compost process. Every now and then we will turn the pile to aerate it.

Once we are happy with the quantity and progress of one bin, we will cover it up and start on the next one. Constanting creating soil for our vege garden.

Here is the final result of our garage sale find. This 4 poster girls bed was fixed up and curtains added for a bed canopy. This is a dream set up for a girls bed suite. 

This is what we originally got home. A complete metal four poster bed. Very solid and paint in great condition. Some screws needed replacing in the canopy. A great find at $30.

It also did not have a base, it was designed for metal springs. We bought some hardwood fence palings and screwed them on. Cost about another $30.

Here it is in place. We bought a new mattress that will do our girls for a long time. So with the new mattress, new bed base and garage sale find this bed cost about $280. Gotta love that. We have salvaged the bed from the rubbish dump and given it another long loved life.

I thought hot cross buns were just for bakeries, I thought they would be difficult to make. It is a long process but I found it quite easy. See the results above, better than bought ones. They have a lovely mixed spice, juicy sultanas and a slight yeast taste.

Ingrediants

• 4 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1tsp salt
• 60g butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 x 7g sachet dried yeast
• 1/2 cup sultanas
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup luke warm milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup self raising flour
• 1/4 cup water, extra

Glaze

• 2 tbs hot water
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/4 tsp gelatine 

Put flour, spice and salt in a large bowl. Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar, yeast and sultanas. Make a well in the centre, add water and milk. Lightly beat one egg and add to mixture. 

Stir gradually to incorporate flour to make dough. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth and elastic. (3-4 min)

Shape into a ball and place in a clean, greased bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a tea towel, leave in a warm place for 1 and 1/2 hours.

As you can see, the yeast has done its work, doubling the dough in size. 

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently pat down. Cut into 16 pieces. 

Shape these into balls, place on a greased backing tray. Cover with tea towel, and leave to rise for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Lightly beat remaining egg and brush over dough.

Combine self raising flour and extra water in cup. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe your crosses.

Bake for 15 min or until golden brown.

Once cooked, combine water, sugar and gelatine and brush this glaze over the buns. 

Let glaze dry and serve.

On our new house block the old hills hoist was in the center of the yard. We wanted a more slimline clothesline to allow for open space for the kids. We gave the old Hills Hoist to our neighbour and made our own wooden clothesline.

I knotched a treated pine pole for the cross member to sit on. This was a sleeper I had trimed to size. We bolted these two together.

When the bobcat was leveling our driveway we got him to drill a couple of postholes for us. We dropped treated pine poles into the holes with quickset. We anchored the poles level with star pickets, like a tripod.

Finally we drilled holes for the clothesline and threaded it through, using a wire tenshioner to keep it taunt.

All up it was about $80. It was great to discuss size, height, span, number of lines. Make it yourself and you can have anything you want.

Here is where we moved our aluminium garden shed. It was in the middle of the yard on a concrete slab. We moved the garden shed to the side of the yard on a crushed stone / roadbase foundation, anchored with star pickets.

Where we wanted the shed foundation was on the old driveway, it was already compacted roadbase, so we could not dig out a foundation. To get a level area for the shed we used halved treated pine logs as formwork. We used tent pegs to hold this in place.

Here it is with the roadbase compacted. The side closer to us has more than the far side to achive a level foundation. We watered in some cement on top to create a more solid surface.

In the corners are our star pickets, they were about 60 or 80cm, driven in with a sledge hammer. We moved the shed over the top and anchored it with nuts and bolts. The aluminium shed is quite flexible, but it is imperitive to get the pickets square.

Here is a closer view of the star picket used to anchor the aluminium garden shed.

The roadbase was a very cheap alternative to a concrete slab. The pickets will anchor it as it is not in a high wind area. Great to have an open yard now.

Our new house had quite an overgrown garden. We cut down 10 of the 12 trees on the property. But 3 of these was privet so more weed than tree.

See the photo above of the "fence" between us and one neighbour. The neighbours have been great, we decided to build a colorbond fence and went halves in parts and labour.

First we cleared some space for a fence. Dad and I dropped the two big privet trees with an electric saw. Lots of fun, lots of discussion, the limbs fell where we intended.

Th Bobcat we hired made short work of all the weeds, the massive tree stumps and levelled and cleaned the site beautifully. He evened dug our post holes after we measured them out.

Next we started installing the colorbond fence. Here we have screwed together the posts and rails. 

One of our neighbours mates was the foreman/expert for the day. Highly recommended having someone onsite who has done it before, lots of little things help. Also a decent drill will make your life easier.

We dropped a panel in, got it level, filled the posthole with quickset and moved down the string line. Lots of level work and slight adjustments. You can see supports on the posts in the photos used until the concrete goes off.

Once the posts had set for a couple of hours we went back and put the panels in. We unscrewed one end of the top rail and slid the panels in.

Here it is finished, all the colorbond panels with a few temporary post supports. 

It is an amazing change to the look of the yard and a painless activity with our new neighbours.

Here is our new walk in pantry. The inside is mostly completed, the steps we took are detailed below.

Here is the kitchen of the house we are renovating. Those old cabinets were attached to the wood panelling and gyprocked around. The floor has at least three layers of vinyl flooring.

We had to patch the plaster where the cabinets were removed. I then did some stud framing. This is non load bearing. I used 90*35 pine framing with 450mm stud spacing or less, a bit over 20 metres of it in the end. The sliding door is a corinthian slimline cavity door, it went well and works well now. Next time I would spend a lot more time with my level.

This is my first house wall. I am learning a whole new building volcabulary. Top plate, base plate, studs, noggins. It is a lot of fun. I have been meticulously measuring, it is amazing what a few millimetres mean in building. I used a plum bob for the studs and even a level on my noggins. Renovating may be exhausting but as a second job I am enjoying it.

Here is the pantry during our gyprock and plastering. I also fitted a skylight. These work great. But in our old home with the false ceilings the tube didn't quite make the distance and I wrapped the last 2 foot in aluminium foil :) Provides great light throughout the day.

Finalling getting some melamine shelving in. We used 40*18mm undercoated pine. We drilled it into the studs. The melamine shelf was affixed with liquid nails and then we finished the shelf with melamine edging. 

What we have learnt from our first little renovation project is finishing takes a long time. Putting the wall up is quick compared to plastering, painting and finishing. Every problem from earlier stages is visible through the paint. So take your time, use the level and tape measure a lot. Also some things are important and some are not, make a quality product but understand what needs to be a quality finish and what doesn't.

We have recently purchased our first home. A humble little 2 bedroom fixer-upper. Let the renovations begin! We now have lots of Family Projects to do and all of them on our own house and garden. 

The first job was to get stormwater to the street and not running under our house and amongst our wooden piers. As you can see in the photo the rainwater from half the roof was just going out into the driveway and then under the house. When I dug up the lawn we found two pipes, not connected and some parts broken with kikuyu growing down it. So we replaced the downpipe with 90 ml PVC and laid the same to the kerb.

Next job was a manhole cover. We could not find one and we wanted to get the electrical in this old house checked. So I climbed on the roof and took off a sheet of iron where I thought a manhole would be, at the end of the main hallway. We found it. I climbed through and found we had false ceilings! There was about 2 and 1/2 foot of space left. The rooms are probably too small to take advantage of this and the false ceilings are newly gyprocked so it looks good. The other suprise was the ceiling is double insulated. There is the air cavity for the false ceiling and then an old layer of insulation bats and then a new layer on top of these. No wonder our house feels comfortable. These are great little finds in an old house. 

Another early job has been taming the garden, bushes and trees, pruning and cutting.

There is a growing list of todos but it is so wonderful to work on your own house, making it a home for our family.

This is an easy, affordable and impressive ice cream birthday cake.

The first thing I did was line a spring form cake tin with baking paper.

I then used 3/4rd of a packet of plain chocolate biscuits and 60g melted butter to make my base. Just blitzing them with the handheld blender. I then spooned this mix into the tin and pressed it to a consistent base.

I started with 2 litres of neapolitan ice cream. I allowed it to soften and then divided it up.

For the 1st layer, the bottom layer, I used all the pink and half the white. I mixed in diced up turkish delight and spooned it in. I then put the cake back in the freezer while preparing the next layer.

Layer 2 was just plain vanilla ice cream, I used approximately 750g of ice cream from a different tub, about 4 large scoops, to get a layer about 3 cm thick.

For Layer 3 I then used the rest of the vanilla and all the chocolate from the neapolitan tub. I mixed it together with 5 crushed caramel Tim Tams. I then covered the whole cake with cling wrap and foil and put it in the freezer overnight.

These are the Sesame Street cup cakes I made up for my daughter's birthday party. 

First we have Cookie Monster cupcakes, then Ernie and Bert, then Elmo. Sesame Street was a big hit. I put them down and there was a swarm of kids in no time.

The hair for Cookie Monster and Elmo was done with a hair or grass icing  tip. Marshmallow cut in half for the eyes and smarties for ears and nose. And a choc chip cookie for cookie monster.

I started this birthday cake by baking some flower shaped butter biscuits on sticks. I then added some icing to decorate them as flowers.

I got a double unfilled sponge cake from the supermarket. Filled it with jam and cream and cut the top flat.

I then did a crumb layer, a thin layer of icing to begin with.

I followed this with piped basket weave. This is the first time I have done this and it got better as I went around the cake. I say just give it a go.

Next came the grass effect with a grass piping tip and some sugar flowers. I filled the centre with chocolate from a flake bar.

Finally the flower biscuits and candles were added.

It all came together so well. Very pleased.

This corrugated iron raised garden bed is a diy project made from mostly recycled materials. We set this up to grow vegetables and herbs. It is waist high, about 2.5m * 1.25m.

This first picture shows the internal frame. We sourced pine and corrugated iron from our local building recyclers. The iron is bolted onto the 2*4 with roofing screws. The H in the middle supports the tin under the weight of soil. I used 4 inch screws through the tin into this.

Here is where the work is at. There is a cubic metre of crushed concrete, followed by a cubic metre of soil/compost. Both were sourced from the Armidale Transfer Centre (dump). Their front end loader dropped a bucket into our poor little ute to struggle home with. At $12 a load, it is fantastic value and the soil is as good a quality as you would buy from nurseries for much more.

How did we get it from the ute to the bed? Shovels of course and a few breaks for water. I am not used to real work.

Here is some vegetable garden shade cloth. Trying to cut down the harshness of the summer sun. Also provides a framework for bird/moth/cat netting.

Finally the planting. We watered well, then dug some holes for the seedlings, a sprinkle of blood and bone to get them started, and some sugar cane mulch to keep the moisture in. Garden bird netting in place too.

We got seasonal planting advice from Gardenate. We planted broccoli, silverbeet, lettece, parsley, coriander. These are all due May/June. We plan to continue to harvest and replace vegetables and try to get the most out of this space.

UPDATE 27th Feb - We found the shade cloth was not working for the high summer sun. Pictured is our update. Milder winter sun should get in but the hot, seedling burning sun will be cut down now.

UPDATE 20th March - one month in and here ar the results. The spinach is coming along beautifully. We lost some seedlings as we were fixing the shade cloth. We are going to harvest some lettece soon and put in the next crop to keep things turning over.

The idea here is to make up a shopping list for your child when you go shopping.

The benefits we have found are:

• Engages the child in the process, rather than just dragging them along.

• Preparing the shopping list is good for fine motor skills.

• Gives them something to do over the time it takes to go shopping. Avoiding boredom and tantrums.

• Helps their pattern matching skills.

• Helps them understand chores and contributing to the family.

In this photo our daughter is cutting out pictures of products for her shopping list. 

Here is a finished list. We select an item from every couple of aisles. 

Think about the items too, watching our daughter pick up and bring the bolognese sauce to the trolley was a bit stressful. :)

It helps her self esteem too to know she helped. 

This was another case of seeing what these cats scratching posts retail for and thinking "I can make that".

I first cut out two squares for the base and top and rounded off the edges. This is ply I had left over from other projects. The covering is an old door mat. I cut the mat in the shapes to cover the ply and then nailed it on. The two bits of ply were then screwed to the 2*2 block of wood (also leftovers). 

I then wrapped some cheap rope around the pole and drilled a hole through the top to tie off a rattle ball. 

The scratching post has been a great success. The cat takes it out on the ball, the rope, or just sits on top of it. Sometimes you will hear the bell getting knocked inadvertently as the cat tears into the post, very amusing.

So we got a very cheap, cats scratching post, that works just as well as the "bought ones".

This project was not an attempt to be frugal, it was one of those things I needed to do. In a retirement village I would like to remember this, my daughter enjoying it with her friends and my wifes smile. This was a family effort too. Grandpa was visiting and so we engaged him to do some plans up for us. This is the first of our projects that were drawn up in autocad first! My dad and I built it and my wife painted it. My daughter is responsible for interior decoration with her chalk. This is the first stage where I have lap jointed the hardwood base together. These are 2*4s cut in half and the cubby dimensions are based on our ute tray.

This is the basic frame. Made from hardwood and treated pine. We had ideas in our head but Dad and I just talked through each step and went for it. We were suprised at how square it turned out.

This is recycled roofing material from our secondhand builders yard. Started cutting the tin with tin snips, then with gloves on I tore it. Just like a piece of paper, you can rip across the curves, very satifisfying. A bit of roof capping from the yard as well.

This cladding is very thin ply, something like 4mm. For three sides I just nailed the whole sheet on. For the front I cut it into 8 inch cladding. I gang nailed vinyl on one end to get some more light in the cubby, and then hammered the tin from the roof over it. I left the other end open as it will cool the cubby house down and that side is protected from the weather by the house.

This is the cubby painted. The colour was determined by what spare paint we had in the shed. Two coats as the ply absorded a lot.

Here is a flowerbox we added with plastic flowers and operational window shutters. You can see our daughters artistic paintings inside. We love seeing her enjoy it or invite us in for tea. It is one of those projects I had to do in my lifetime.

Here is what you need:

• 2 Cups Plain Flour
• 4 Tablespoons Cream of Tartar
• 1 Cup Salt 
• 2 Tablespoons Oil
• 2 Cups Boiling Water
• Food Colouring of your choice

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Sprinkle bench with flour and kneed playdough until it becomes a good consistency. Add more flour to bench as needed. Enjoy the texture as it warms.

To keep your playdough from getting crusty, keep it in a plastic bag when not in use. Enjoy.

(See Bec's comment below, rice bran oil can help longevity).

Here is a small sample of the flashcards we made for our daughter. She is just stringing words together and gets frustrated trying to communicate sometimes. We thought she would learn quicker with items she knew rather than commercial childrens flashcards from the US or UK. So we took photos of everyday things in her life, added the word to the bottom of them, and printed them out like normal photos very cheaply. As her vocabulary expands we can take photos of new things and introduce them to the deck.

I bought three packets of plain sponge cakes, they were about 30 x 20cm each. Here you see two side by side with a layer of jam and cream.

Here you see the jam and cream filled sponge base and the second layer using just jam.

I then used plain butter icing for the first layer. I concentrated on the sides as the top would be covered with green grass icing.

I made two batches of green icing, one a light green colour and the other dark. I then spooned a scoop of each into the icing bag so that one side of the piping bag was dark and the other light. This created a mottled grassy effect. The flowers are premade edible sugar flowers.

This is the completed cake, the plastic figurines are from the toy department and are about 10cm high. After the birthday they became a regular toys.

I got a car shaped cake tin from our local party shop. I hired it for a week for $20. You can see the resulting cake in the picture (with the windscreen done, I got a bit keen before taking photos). I found this recipe on the web and it worked out great for quantity and flavour. taste.com.au vanilla buttercake recipe

Now the fun part. I piped the icing on with a florets tip. This gave me great coverage. I then smoothed this with a hot knife. The windows, writing, and logos were done using Queen writing icing.

Here I am hollowing out the wheelarches to fit mini wagon wheels. I surrounded the windows with licorice.

The final product, with jube headlights and a spoiler from a toy car, 50c at vinnies. Thankful birthday boy recognised it and the driver and thankfully devoured it.

The timber I got from my local reclaimed timber yard. A sheet of three ply and some 3x2 framing pine. You can see the nails and gyprock glue still on the wood. I ended up needing another length of 3x2, this was one of many trips back to the yard and hardware shop. Part of the joy of these projects.

I started with the bed posts. The height was arbitarily based on what I thought would be good for my daughter to get in and out of. These are just dowled and glued. The curved timber is for shaping the three ply later on. You might be able to make out my key workshop tools, a hammer, saw, right square, and beer.

These are the bedheads. I did a circle from the centre of the ply with a pencil tied to a fixed length of string. I then used printouts from the internet to trace designs and cut them out with the jigsaw.

I then screwed and glued the ply to the curved bedhead. The bedheads were joined; the length determined by the cot mattress size.

I put in some shaped ply on the sides. Gave it an undercoat and then this "lovely" pink and orange/yellow combination. These are non-toxic oil based paints. The cot slats and mattress will fit right in. I will update you with a photo when we make a move from the cot.

We got this bike from our local tip. It was in poor condition, brakes broken, chain and body work rusted. It did have some redeeming qualities.

First step was to take it all apart. We discarded the brakes as they were rusted and not functioning. We rubbed the rust off the frame with a steel brush and then finished it with a fine sandpaper. We soaked the wheels in diluted bleach. We cleaned and soaked nuts, bolts, washers and the chain in oil. We then spot painted the frame with kill rust.

I then hung various parks of the frame on the clothesline and painted it with a spray can. Fluorescent orange. We chose orange because it is not pink, she will love pink soon enough. The chain didn't have a master link and I had no chain tool, so we bagged it and masking taped it. The paint dribbled due to the nossle shape and my application. Maybe take more time.

The final product. I added a new braking system, this bike did not have a back pedal brake, so it needed calipers, but being new they work very well. I had to cut the cable to fit. We might do something about the seat. The bike runs smoothly and will easily see our daughter through this initial biking phase.

Our daughter is obsessed with dogs. Tiny pictures in magazines, glimpses in ads, barks from over the fence. These all result in an excited gasp and monkey sound. I now cut out any dogs and other things of interest as we come across them.

I then paste these pictures on coloured A4 paper. Grouping them together. We currently have Dogs, Cats, Horses, Fish and Other Animals.

I then slide these pages in the plastic sleave of a portfolio book from the newsagent. This means the little one can't tear the pages, it wipes clean, is durable and you can add pages as you go.

This concentrates our daughters interest, she nearly expodes with excitment when she looks through it. We can then expand on the experience with making noises, pointing out colours and other things in the pictures.

These retail for $60+ We built this one for $11, it is bigger and better. A lot of people are not aware of the free stuff you can get. Surplus to our consumer society. I approached our local motorcycle dealership and a kitchen design place. At the first I could take whatever packing crates the motorcycles and mowers came in, both steel and timber. At the second place I got some useful melamine offcuts. All freely given after I asked and explained what I was doing.

The two solid lengths of timber I got were 6 ft each. I needed three legs, so my easel was then 4 ft high, based on my available timber. I got two legs and then joined the third leg with a halved joint and glue and screws. I then cut the tops as seen in the photo and drilled a hole through them for the bolt. This bolt will allow the easel to spread and collapse.

Next I braced the two front legs with a length of timber from the one way pallet. On top of this I scew nailed a melamine offcut to hold the textas, crayons, paints etc. To the front of this I nailed part of the mdf we would use as the backing board. I screwed a chain between one front leg and the back one to provide some more stability, but it is pretty solid and not too heavy.

Here it is in action. It will provide many years of service, as you can see my daughter can grow into it. We have yet to give it a protective coat of paint. Also we thought we would get some blackboard paint for the back of the mdf to make it into a blackboard as well. Anyway, many hours of fun ahead. Cheap, sturdy and didn't take long.

Here is a picture of the slab sponge cake and template. I decided to buy a cake so that I could concentrate on the decorating and other aspects of the party. I ordered this slab from my local supermarket. The template I drew based on the cake size. We have a few people attending and naturally I wanted my daughters first cake to be grand.

I then cut the butterfly shapes out. I am using two, with jam in between. I found the cake crumbled if I sawed vertically along the template. It was best just to line the knife up to the template and do normal broad slices. My father-in-law enjoyed cleaning up the bag of offcuts.

This is the butterflies stacked together with jam between them.

Now iced. This is butter icing. I did a layer covering the entire cake. Refrigerated until it set.

I then used licorice to mark out the different coloured sections. This would be covered by the frosting, but was a yummy combination with the icing on the day.

Finally, hundreds of florets placed with a piping bag. I started with the lightest coloured icing and incrementally darkened it for each section. I had to refrigerate the cake and icing bag a few times as the icing was melting in the bag. It was a truly magic day. I have looked forward to doing this for such a long time.

I started looking through some of the commercial alphabet charts for kids. They seemed a bit tacky and weren't really australian. I decided to make my own. I was inspired by a notebook magazine template and other images I had. Some pictures were a bit difficult to decide on, but I kept looking and was happy with the results. The letters were printed from my document software in a font I liked. The photo shows my initial layout on a grid of cardboard.

Next, I prepared a canvas by painting it white. I then drew the grid. I traced the images and letters as you can see in the photo.

I then started some delicate work, hand painting. This was in acrylic. It was time consuming but satisfying to be making something beautiful and educational for my children.

The final result. I decided not to colour all the images so that the letters stood out. It was also a little simpler. I used this same process to make charts for my nephews. The results are colourful and personal.

This is another bit of furniture for our daughter. Here is the project of our first childrens wardrobe for her clothes. We picked up this dresser at a local garage sale for $10. The wood is in good order. The drawers are solid timber and the joints are dovetailed. As you can see from the stickers and crayon this has been previously loved.

My wife did the majority of this project. The first stage was to get rid of the old paint. She used a heat gun and removed most of it, she wore protective gear for the paint flakes and the fumes. Some areas did not come off well, so she sanded it back smooth and clean ready for the paint.

My wife was keeping her eye out for a good mirror for this project. One day she came across one at a local second hand goods place. She raced home measured things up and went back haggling the guy down to $45. Next we sanded and prepared it. Routered the top of the dresser to fit the mirror flush. Then we attached two lengths of timber to the back of the dresser and the mirror. 3/4 of the way up the mirror and to the base of the dresser, with 6 wood screws per side. The mirror was now stable and securely affixed to the dresser.

Next, was a lot of sanding. We also used wood putty on a couple of blemishes. Next was several coats of paint. We spent a long time in bunnings staring at the handles shelf. We came away with some nice ones. So a $10 garage sale bargain, a $45 mirror and $32 for handles. All up $87 for a beautiful dresser. We are very pleased with the result and we are sure our daughter will love it.

Here we have a seed tray of Corn, Spinach, Snow peas and Marigolds We got our seeds germinated with our little hothouse. We put rows of seeds in this seed raising tray and sit it on the top, hottest shelf till they get started. This tray has had some seedlings removed, while others continue to come along.

Next stage is into the newspaper seedling cups, pictured above. This is just old newspaper rolled around an aluminum tin. Take if off the tin and fill with seed raising mix. Here we have Beans, snowpeas, tomatoes and corn. This tray now sits on the second shelf of the seed germinator. Not quite as warm as the top shelf but still protected. Once these seedlings are established and the weather outside is good we plant the whole newspaper pot in the vege garden. This process will continue all year. Seeds germinate, get moved to paper pots, grow and harden up, get moved to garden. When a seed tray is empty I will fill it again.

These are our seeds about three weeks from the start. The first tray is the tray in the photo above. The rest I have been gradually moving from the seed trays to these paper pots. Nearly time to put them out in the vege patch.

We had priced commercial seeds germinators and hot houses and thought we could make our own. We had experimented with the concept here - Seed Germination and were wanting to expand it. We had a sheet of 25 ml mesh left over from the rabbit cages. To start with we bent some sides the width of our seeds trays.

Next we added some shelves. These were made from old timber we had and some more mesh. We cut the timber to length and held them in place. We nailed into the shelves and then bent the nail to hold the shelf on the vertical mesh.

Next we covered the top of the mesh with old cardboard. This will protect the plastic cover from the mesh. We also covered in the bottom with old laminate mdf, this should provide better insulation for the seedlings.

The whole frame will act as a heat chimney. Put it in sunlight and the top shelf will store the most heat and be perfect for germination. If the temperature does not quite get there we can raise it with the device above. It is an old hose, with a funnel to put hot water in at one end and a tap at the other end to drain it. this will heat the structure when the sun isn't up to it.

Next we sealed it with a plastic cover. This is from a cheap roll of builders plastic. We wrapped the frame like a present with packing tape. We have since cut it and added velcro strips to get in easier. So, the idea is to put trays of seed on the top hottest shelf, once they have germinated move them down a shelf. They will still be protected and at a good temperature. Bring on spring. The family eats well this year!

This is the first raised bed assembled. We cut our corrugated iron about one foot wide. We then cut four 4*2 posts the same height. Bolting the iron to these posts we created a frame.

We repeated the process four times. I shoveled the beds up and dragged the frames in to sit over the mounds. The frames are flexible enough to follow the contour of the land.

Finally I collected horse manure from the local showground. I then took our compost that has been decomposing since last November and built up two beds. The new compost will be ready for the other two beds come spring. This garden is going to pump out some veges.

I was amazed at how easy this is. What a bargain also, you get 10 litres of goo for under $1 I would say. I still have plenty of ingredient left over to make more. It is very effective too. After searching the web there didn't seem to be many variations on the method I followed below. What you will need is: Soap flakes (lux or grate up a bar of soap like sunlight) Borax Washing Soda. In the above photo I first dissolved 1 cup of soap flakes in 1 and 1/2 litres of water over medium heat.

Next I added 1/2 a cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda. I mixed it, until it was all dissolved and thickened a bit. It will thicken a lot more later. I then poured it into my 10 litre bucket and filled the bucket with hot tap water. At this stage you can add essential oils. I didnt on this try.

I then left this overnight and this is the goo I was met with. It has a wonderful consistency and very exciting to see the change. I then add a scoop like shown to the washing machine. I start the load off with some hot water to dissolve this then add the clothes and the rest of the load on cold. I also add a little vinegar as a substitue for fabric softener. The vinegar also cleans the machine of soapy residue. The clothes come out clean, no manufactured fragrance. Bit of sun and you're good to go. Some eucalyptus oil every so often deals with stubborn odours. Other suggestions on the web was to substitute part of your grated soap for sard wondersoap. Also every so often to give your whites a napisan soak if your not happy with the results.

Update: We now mix the goo with hot water before the wash. Scoop the goo into a bottle. Add hot water. Shake. Add dissolved mix to cold water wash. We are still impressed with the results. The vinegar and sunshine are working well. This mixing was just a refinement that improves the process.

Update 10th August 2008: Made our second batch today, I added some eucalyptus oil after mixing everything in the 10L bucket today. 

So lets say a kilo of shop bought powder costs $2.50 and does 20 washes. Thats about 12.5 cents a wash. Now for the goo, the approximate costs are:

Borax: 0.70 (1/5 $3.50)

Washing soda: 0.33 (1/6 $2.00)

Soap Flakes: 0.25 (4 soap cakes for $0.99)

Total - $1.28 for 10 litres of gel.

Our first batch did us from the 15th June to yesterday. Thats 56 days. We have a new buby, we wash every day. So lets say 50 washes. Thats comes out at about 2.5 cents a wash. A nice saving, great results in the wash and the satisfaction of hand made.

The picture above is my ginger beer plant. This is my recipe:

• 1/2 teaspoon dried yeast

• 1 dessert spoon raw sugar

• 1 dessert spoon ground ginger

• 300ml water

• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

I mixed this all together and set aside a lid. Each day for seven days I then added a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of ground ginger. This was a thrill, another aspect of slow food that I just love.

So after seven days I strained the ginger plant. Here I am using a funnel and some scrap material. Recipes suggested muslin or a looser weave. This worked okay I think, just squeezed it out tight. You are left with a clay like substance that you can halve and continue to grow another plant. 

I suppose I could keep the plant and continue to grow it for 40 years. Maybe that could be the only inheritance for the kids. Or all the inheritance goes to the kid that took the plant. Oh well, I digress.

Next I added 3 cups of sugar to 20 cups of water. Our cold rainwater just dissolved the sugar fine after a bit of stirring. I used raw sugar for a nicer colour. I mixed in the ginger plant solution. Adding 1 tsp citric acid to the mix before bottling is a good suggestion for getting more bubbles. Sterilise the bottles (Thanks Matt), then fill them. Plastic ones can be used too, I just like these and my bottle capper.

I then capped them with my capping machine. Next is the 2-3 week wait till they are ready. I put them in a plastic crate in a cool, dark place. The crate has a lid, in case they decide to pop as so many people are happy to tell me will happen. I will update this when they are ready to tell you how it went. I hope this inspires you to have a go. This is what happened in times before Coca Cola.

UPDATE 23rd Oct 2008: This went well, it is this slow food mentality, because of the effort and time you put in, you savor the product more. My last batch was too sweet, this one had a nice sugar/ginger balance. I am a bit disappointed about the bubbles, I wanted more, I have to get the yeast consistently working. I remember my grandparents ginger beer, I suppose after many batches you get to a drink perfect for you, that is what they had done. Good luck.

So this was my original concept. Based on what I had seen of commercial ones. You have a nice big storage of food, holes in the bottom and then have the bottom tray's sides higher than the holes. I found it didn't work, I didn't make the sides of the tray high enough and had to add gaffa tape to make it work. Also, the tray was so wide the chooks kept spreading grain on the ground and since there was always new grain coming they wouldn't eat it. The water was also wrong, this got dirty real quick just from them digging. They even stood in it sometimes to eat. So scrap option one.

This is option two. I got two old buckets from the local cafe. They used to hold margarine or something. I cut holes in the side and hung them from the roof of the chicken coop. The chooks put their heads inside to eat or drink. Grain is not lost and the water rarely gets dirty. The hose in the bottom of the photo links up with the pickle drum water tank that catches rain off the roof. I love it.

This is another improvement we made. People advised us that chooks liked to feel protected while laying. So I closed in the nesting area as you can see in the photo. I used an old tv cabinet from my Dad. It was chipboard, I cut it up and nailed together some boxes. The nest was lined with sugar cane mulch. We then added some fine wood shavings. A friend is a woodworker and has heaps. The coop smells beautiful. This is meant to help reduce mites etc. I regularly scrape the poo up and put it in my compost.

I first investigated flatpack pantries. We wanted a double door one to go in the bathroom for linen, shampoo, toilet rolls etc. They were about $220 - $300. My hippy/scottish ancestry kicked in and said 'I could build one for less than that'. I sourced some melamine from the local Wilair Building Supplies. I created the basic structure above. The shelf size was determined by the width of the melamine we got and what sort of things we wanted to store in the cupboard. We ended up lying toilet rolls and shampoo on the board and getting our heights. The shelves are screwed in but next time I think I will router a groove to slide and glue them in, this would avoid having to countersink or cover the screwheads.

We then added the backing board. This was also melamine due to the dampness of the bathroom. This was just tacked on with cabinetry nails. The skirting board was doweled to the melamine to provide added rigidity and a base for the feet, and to look good. We ironed some melamine plastic on the top where the chipboard was exposed.

Next I nailed on the door surround. I fitted two doors inside this. The doors where doweled and glued and the surround held them while they set. I added some thin melamine board on the back of the doors. We were going to use small corrugated iron or material, but this was there and looked okay. I planed off some of the doors to create space for the them to swing and for hinges. We then fitted the doors and sanded. The hinges I got looked good but the screws were very delicate.

Finally we gave it a coat of estapol. I affixed two wooden handles and put on two clasps for a nice sounding click when closing the doors. We learnt a lot. I would say about $170 in materials. We are quite pleased with the outcome. Next up some bedroom furniture or a kitchen.

I found this is one of Dad's sheds. He was using it for odds and ends, some tools and things. He was more than pleased to see it restored for his grand daughter. This is it in its original glory. A nice shade of yellow. Large door knobs. Dirt and mold. Loose panels. Rotten feet. Broken draws.

First I removed the old paint. I used a heat gun and stripped it off with a paint scraper. This was very effective. Took a while to get to optimal heat and sometimes got too hot and melted the paint before I could get it off. When it did work, great strips of paint were lifted in one easy move.

Next I removed the rotten feet. I affixed all loose panels with small nails, this provided the wardrobe with greater rigidity. I mended the three draws so they fitted and slid in and out smoothly. I used wood putty on various gaps and gouges. I did it three times over with an electric sander. Each time with a lower grade sand paper till we had a nice smooth surface.

Next was making some new feet. I got some skirting boards from my grandfathers place. My parents were doing some renovations and had discarded these. I cut them to size and affixed them to the existing supports with wooden dowels. Where the boards joined was nailed.

Finally painting. We got some old paint we had and gave it two coats. Here you can see the three drawers, shelves and hanging space. It only comes to about 1 and 1/2metres, it is very endearing. Door clasps were from the original, cleaned up a bit.

I bought it shiny new handles. I also cut my daughter's name out in wooden letters. My wife painted them to sit on top of the cupboard. So all up I would think this cost us $30. For sand paper, handles, nails etc. My dad gave it to me and some other parts but originally it cost them $45 second hand. We are very happy. Much better than some souless furniture from a factory.

I wanted a structure to support bird netting and shade cloth. I needed to deter the birds that ate my bean leaves and the white moths that ate my broccoli. I put two 12 foot steel posts in and bolted 4*2s to the fence posts. I then drilled holes in them for strainer wire. I put screws in along the fence to hook the netting to. To join the netting I used cable ties. I can lift up the netting to get in. I have noticed moths hovering around it. Bees can get in and out fine. Next I would like to put some form of shade cloth over part of it for the intense summer sun. For now it is very nice to get inside my garden enclosure. It is alongside my chook pen too so I can throw them veges and weeds. I picked my last tomatoes today, they are ripening on the veranda. My winter crop is set and growing. Broccoli, capsicum, beans, garlic, onion, lettuce and spinach.

Next Raised Garden Beds

I like using up all the soap, especially when you have made the effort to make your own. Jamming them together each time you get a new soap sliver, or melting them down into a liquid soap base did not appeal to me. The picture above shows us sewing a simple kitchen sponge. We cut the original sponge in half. We folded that piece in half. Then we sewed two sides together, leaving one end open.

Next, we took all the slivers lying around and pocked them in the pocket. The first time it takes a bit to get it soaped up, but once you get going its great. Not the most elaborate project but does induce hippy satisfaction.

To begin with I did lots of reading. On the net, at the library. I was trying to get a handle on the chemical process. I also was a bit wary of using lye. In the end it turned out okay. The process deserves the respect some of my reading demanded, but I am more confident and happy with refining my recipe. The important part at the outset is to get the proportions right. This is where a lye calculator becomes invaluable. I began with cheap oils and didn't try to do fancy stuff like colour or essential oils. The photo shows my ingredients: Caustic Soda, (Sodium Hydroxide, Lye) Olive Oil Supafry (Tallow) Frymaster (palm oil) Copha (coconut oil) Milk or Water A large pot to mix in A heat proof container for the Lye mix A tray for the soap to set in Scales for measuring Safety equipment Candy thermometer

I first made my lye mix. This reaction is exothermic so it needs an appropriate container and time to cool down. The recipe I was following said it needed to get down to 35 to 50 degrees. I measured out the Lye for the quantity of oil I was using. I then gradually added the lye to the milk. I set this aside to cool, safely on the veranda to reduce the heat and get rid of the fumes. At times the mix was above 100 degrees.

Mixing and melting the oils. This is where I felt like I started to enjoy myself. I carefully got through the lye stage and it was all coming together. In the picture is me adding the olive oil to the tallow, palm and coconut oil.

Here is a picture of us close to the magic saponification. I had gradually added the lye mix to the melted oils and was waiting for the lye to starting eating the fat. It is like cooking custard, that moment at the end when it turns from a liquid to this luscious viscous mix. It took a lot of mixing for me to get to this stage. I would say it was 20 - 25 min with an electric beater. It will be different for my next batch, different temperature and batch size. But I need to be patient, to get a nice smooth end product it is good to blend it right through to when it starts to get solid. At this point I felt brave and added some whole oats, to give the soap added texture.

Once it has started to solidify I poured it into the tray.

Next comes the 2-3 weeks of curing, this is where the last of the lye gets used, leaving you with lovely pure soap. This batch is a bit crumbly, I suppose I need to beat it longer, smooth it out better.

Now the final result in use. I like the ratio of hardness to lather. It lasts well but still lathers okay, nothing luxurious. The size is good too, its nice to have a large chunk of home made soap. The crumbly bits weren't a problem. Just have to experiment with blending and temperature to get then saponification started. Or just mix for a while and then set aside. Oh well, we are happy soapers with more adventures to come.

We started designing this for timber. Some second hand Australian hardwood. When we priced this though it was pretty expensive. We investigated new steel and decided to use that instead. One of our friends kindly lent us his mig welder. The photo above shows the raw materials. We have 2 sheets of 25mm galvanised steel mesh. 2 sheets of old corrugated iron. Our local steel market cut the 25mm structural steel to length for us. We based the size of the cage on the size of the mesh, 2m * 1.2m. The structural steel is then 4 * 2m lengths, 6 * 1.15m and 6 * 0.55m (height).

This photo shows Dad doing some welding. This is our basic box structure. We laid out one rectangle, measured the diagonals to get it square, tacked it in place and then welded all the joints. Mig welding is so much better than stick welding, and the light sensitive mask we borrowed was amazing. With a bit more use of it we would get better. We would also measure more often to ensure a plumb structure.

Here we have welded on the mesh. The bottom of the cage is an uncut sheet of mesh. The sides are 1m * 0.6m, the end is 1.2 * 0.6m. We determined the height based on cutting a sheet of mesh in half. This also gives ample headroom for the rabbits.

Next the corrugated iron. We pop riveted the iron onto the frame. One section is hinged to get access to the rabbits. We also cut some rubber tubing and slid it over the corrugated iron edges. We pop riveted these on too. These are just to protect us and kids from the sharp edges. Before attaching the iron we also painted the whole frame with kill rust, just to give the cage a bit more life. Pop rivets are amazingly useful, I had bought screws for the hinges but a couple of pop rivets held them fast.

Here it is in use. The wood holds down the hinged roof. The PVC pipe is for the smaller bunnies to hide. To move the cages I lift one end and slide a round bit of timber under the cage. I then pull the cage over this wood to the next section of grass. The cage to the left is our first attempt and has mesh on half the roof instead of a complete roof of iron. We get a bit of rain here which necessitated the extra cover. The breeze circulates well in both models. I put extra grass in with them, and other treats like carrots and corn, harder food like privet branches are good for keeping their teeth down. They get their water through a drip feeder, they have rabbit pellets in a custom made PVC pipe attached to the side of the cage.

update, The fine mesh worked great, as I dragged the cage, new grass came through. I ended up not moving them for a few days and taking cut grass to them. But they also pull the grass through easily. The benefit of having them on the ground is they don't get sores on their feet which you will find from raised cages. I was in suburbia at that stage and so one of the bunnies got an ear infection from the dogs around. We gave him drops, but he still got too sick and we put him down. They ended up being less resilient than chooks and I didnt want to put another animal through that, my wife also didnt like the meat, so my rabbit growing has stopped.

We finally got some chooks. It is great to see them wandering around. It has taken them a couple of days to get settled. When we released them in the pen they would not leave each others side. They were used to being caged tightly together. The first couple of nights I trained them where to roost. They were happy to roost on the ground in torrential rain. I donned the raincoat and moved them to the perch inside. I had to do this for the first 4 nights. In spite of the rain they picked a position outside which was the highest northern point in the pen. The coop is lower down the block. The perch is 75 cm off the ground but this has not been a problem, they jump/fly up.

In the photo above is our chook feeder. It is an old garbage bin. It has a large tray (pot plant water tray) attached to the bottom. We cut rectangles out of the bottom of the bin allowing the grain to drain through. The base of the bin remains, it just has holes around the side. The rim of the tray is higher than the holes. It has been working great. We can leave them for long periods as a lot of grain fits in the bin. The feed is half poultry mix, half cracked corn with some shell grit. The water is in another plant pot tray.

I had put guttering on the chook pen with a pickle drum for a water tank. A hose at the base of the drum enters the chook pen to the left and a overflow hose goes out to the street gutter. The hose inside the shed has a simple garden tap on it with which I can fill the chooks water. If I left the tap slightly open I could have continuous water for the chooks.

This is a picture of the laying area. Hopefully the chooks will lay eggs here. It is the same height off the ground as the roost, on the opposite side of the shed. We have added sugar cane mulch for comfort and wood shavings to fight lice. We are also growing tansy in the yard as this is good for their digestion. We have other plants on order that are beneficial. No eggs yet but soon, they couldn't have a more comfortable existence.

Happy Chooks, Happy Omelettes.

Stage 3 - Chook Feeders.

I had read that heat was the main trigger of seed germination. Soil has to be loose and light, so there is room for the roots between the soil particles. Water is important too but not so wet that it fills the room for the roots. Enough so the seed knows there is water around to get started. So heat, good soil and some water. Some seeds need certain daylight hours to trigger germination, like the longer hours of spring. Mainly the light becomes important as the plant grows.

So I put together the structure in the photo above. This has a board about an inch think. I put some nails in it to guide an old garden hose around the base. the hose is synched off at the end in the middle to stop the water and the hose to the left leads off to a funnel. Into this funnel you pour hot water. The seed trays sit on top of this hose, which heats the soil. I haven't got a thermometer but it is meant to be about 23 degrees for most seeds. To change the water I unsynch the hose in the middle and blow the water out. Close it off again and fill it with water from the kettle.

The photo above shows the seed germination system covered. It has simple heavy gauge wire wound abound the base and some clear plastic laid over the top. This keep moisture and heat in and amplifies the heat from the outside.

So this is the results after 6 days. Compared to 3 weeks when we just put seed trays on the veranda. Average outside temperature during this period has been 19 degrees. There has been lots of rain too so not much sunlight. I changed the water twice a day, morning and afternoon. From left to right is lettuce, spinach and beans. I am getting my winter crops ready. I will be transplanting some of these beans this afternoon. If I was to do this again, I would try to make emptying the water easier. I would have the hose in the middle, feed through the board to a tap or something.

A U-Beaut system would have a thermometer in the soil linked to a release valve on a hot water supply like an urn. The dream continues, but this works well, and gets us healthy seedlings quickly.

See version two here - Next Stage Seed Germination

The bare basics. I started out with a stretch of lawn below our veggie patch. We wanted a decent size chook run. We initially got a lot of designs off the web but finally settled on a simple shed, four walls and roof to keep the rain off. I have stacked out the shed here, very exciting. Measurements were based on "hmmm that looks good", a bit of the boundary fence and away we go.

Here you see the four posts and roof up. The other posts will support the chickenwire. The corrugated iron is half buried in the ground. This was to protect our chooks from foxes and dogs. We intially went to the local tip looking the second hand timber. We found some but more importantly ran into our local vet who kindly supplied a lot of old timber and iron. The posts on the building are 4*3s and the strainer posts are 4*2s. They are buried 2-3 foot in the ground. We didnt go for cement footings as these hardwoods will last ages in the ground and we might want to dismantle the structure.

Other strainer posts in, you can see the two lines of strainer wire at the top and middle. This wire leads from one side of the building to the door jam where we have ratchets in place to tighten the wire and hopefully the chickenwire. We put triangular supports at the bottom of the post but they still pulled into one another. Not really a problem, the netting is pretty taunt and posts work fine. The rest of the iron was dug into the ground. Massive trenches the size of your shovel head is the way to go. I initially started digging just enough to fit the iron down. Just dig it all out, a nice long trench, set the iron in place and fill it back in. The door came from one of Dad's sheds. It had the hinges attached and we just drilled it onto the shed. Dad did this with a real drill. I haven't seen one before, I am used to the household "put some shelves up" drill. This thing of dads just powers the screw it. However it can also break your arm, Lots of fun. The corrugated iron goes below the door too, if anything thinks of digging under the door they would soon meet up with 2 foot of iron.

Here we have the rest of the wire on, we used a staple type tool. You put a 1/2 inch bent wire in a pliers like tool and bend into around the two bits of wire you want to join. Very nifty. Anyway we used heaps of staples to attach the chickenwire to the strainer wire and also the chicken wire sections together. The chickenwire goes to the ground inside the corrugated iron. We put small screws through the iron and the chicken wire hooks over them. We had to put two wooden crosses up to hold the wire up. They are buried in the ground like the other posts. This was a last minute idea as the wire sagged. it turned out great inside, nice atrium atmosphere for our chooks. the wire roof was to stop crows stealing eggs and otherwise protect our chooks. The shed is now clad in corrugated iron. This adds rigidity to the structure. The nesting box level and roosting level are about waist height, 75cm, again what we read on the web. This allows them to feel high enough to be safe but a easy distance to jump down. This adds structural support too. Other advise we read was to have one level of roost. Different levels encourage hen pecking and isn't real hygienic. The base of the shed is a deep litter sawdust which we can shovel out and replace as need be. Inside is very cosy and nice. Ongoing adventures - Chook Pen 2.

We ordered seeds from eden seeds online. They have a great variety and we wanted to get more than the local seedlings offered and also support the diverse amount of seeds in the world. It was very exciting to receive the seeds in the mail. You can see the little seed envelopes in the picture above. We bought everything we eat, the dream being to feed ourselves. Broccoli, marigolds, tomotoes, roma tomatoes, corn, cucumber, spinach, capsicum, coriander, passion fruit, lettece, basil. It has gone relatively well but our advice to first time gardeners would be not to overstretch. Find what works well in your local area and you enjoy eating. Vines always work well, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin. Next year we plan to do just tomatoes, zucchini, beans and corn. We will get these right, producing good quantities and then expand gradually.

For planter trays we used BBQ aluminum trays with holes punched in the bottom. These were cheap but for some seedlings they were not deep enough, corn for instance. The seed raising mix is essential, or make you own, it has to be loose and easy for the root to develop. Heat and water are the main triggers for germination. Soil and growth come later. I would advise starting seeds way before you need them, so you have strong seedlings ready to go. Next year we might try at the end of winter to simulate the conditions needed for germination to get them going earlier. Maybe a hot water bottle under the tray or something fancier.

Our beans were the strongest performers in germination and seedling growth, so if you have kids you want to interest in garden these would be good, large seeds, quick growth once the conditions for germination have been met. Corn also grew quick and were quite hardy. Spacing of seeds is important too, I threw a lot in, wanting a lot of plants or trying to account for non germination. It is better to sprinkle a few evenly spaced so they have strong independent roots. Get more seed trays if you want more plants, but allows the seeds you have space to grow to decent seedlings.

Preparing the soil. Being a first timer, I concentrated on the seedlings and making the garden look nice. Soil is very important so while your seedlings are getting established spend some time turning in manure and blood and bone. I just dug it over and mulched it and put the seedlings in. I then tried to put some compost in and it was difficult at this stage working around the young plants, better to dig everything into the soil at the start. Anyway, above is a picture of what we started with.

Now magically with no weeds. I did this with a shovel and fork. Cut out shovel size squares of turf and turned them upside down to die. Later returning to get the turf and weeds out of the soil with a fork. It was hard work and we had considered a rotary how but this was cheaper and I enjoyed the sense of achievement.

Then I cut paths and mounded the soil into sort of raised beds. At this point we watered in some blood and bone but this stage I would expand apon next year. Taking our time, letting the soil process all the manure and compost we give it.

Next we used old shade cloth to simulate a raised bed. We would have liked timber sides because all the tv shows have them. But now I think there is no need for them, I would just raise the soil a bit to loosen the soil and incorporate compost and lighter materials for the plants roots. If I were to raise a bed I would do it right to waist height so you don't have to bend. Sugar cane then as mulch, we found this worked great to suppress weeds and keep water in the soil. Hay had seeds in it that created a weed nightmare. The paths are covered in sawdust to inhibit snails and slugs. This worked well, except in the wet as the saw dust become flat and easy to move across for the snails. We then used a small amount of snail bait. The other tactic that helped was to put up a shade cloth barrier along the fence to reduce access. We also went around our property removing snail habitats such a rubble and other cool wet shady areas.

This is our garden actually growing stuff. I have added two more beds. In this shot you can see from the top bed, beans, corn, carrot, capsicum, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini and corn.

Here we have a bit more growth. We had a problem with birds, satin bowerbirds we think, just pecking and eating leaves. The beans were hit first then the tomatoes. We have hung up cds to reflect light and plastic shopping bags to make noise to startle them. May have to consider some way of covering the garden. At this stage we have eaten beans, carrot, capsicum, potatoes and zucchini from our garden. It is getting lush and we are seeing veges grow each day. We are always learning and having a great time at it. ongoing adventures - bird netting the vege patch.

Here is our next stage Vege Garden Bird Netting

Dorrigo has an annual charity auction for the local RSL club. People bring lots of junk from their sheds and other unused odds and ends. From farm equipment to wardrobes, anything and everything can be found. I went along and had a great time amongst farm men and hippies. I bailed out of a contest for a old kids scooter. I dropped out of a lawnmower at $90 to see it go at $100. I did however win the above beauty for $30. It is an old kelso with a great solid structure and only surface rust.

Step 1 was to take it apart as shown above. Some bolts holding the barrow onto the frame required some angle grinding to get them off, others came away with some brute force. I then took to it with a wire brush. Just to get rid of any rust and to rough it up to hold some paint. I wasn't too fussed about the finish.

Next step was the painting. This was a lot of fun, something I haven't done since I was a kid. I first did everything with a killrust spray can. Then I got some cheap red and green spraypaint. The finished result you can see above. I ended up doing two coats after the killrust coat. Be aware of how your nozzle is shaped before starting on the real thing. Spray a test area of cardboard and see how it comes out. I wore gloves the second time as my index finger got coated. As the can advises is how you end up doing it, 20-30 centimetres, even coats.

Bolting it back together. I got some new galvanised bolts for the final stage. The bolts went in fine, maybe a few were a bit long. I reused the rubber handles. I did not strip the wheel and grease the bearings as it was still turning okay when I bought it. Maybe a job for later, if I can get into it. So all up about $50 for sturdy kelso barrow. Not to mention the small smile I get each time I see it or pick up the handles.