Wet, wet, WET!

Day 7  Monday 28th March
Absolute write off! In terms of the garden or sewing anyway.
We found a lump on L6's chest on Saturday, hard and about the same size as the bony lump on the outside of your wrist.  So Monday was spent visiting the doctor, getting a chest xray, visiting the doctor and getting a chest ultrasound.
Good news though - bones are perfect and no mass (ie read tumour) is present - looks like it is just an overgrowth of cartilage.  Though I haven't got the official results yet, I do know that the doctor has reviewed the report and cleared it for filing - meaning their is nothing urgent or scary.  Now I just have to wait until she is back at work (she doesn't work Tuesdays and was sick today) to get the definitive info.

Day 8 Wednesday 30th March

Garden
 Of course I felt like I was behind today, after not getting any gardening done on Monday - so I was keen to get a lot done.
Fortunately it was a brilliant day for gardening!  Gentle but steady rain, and warm but not hot.

I finished the no-dig beds!
3 more layers, manure, lucerne & mushroom compost.
The material that I had laid on Friday had already started compressing, but I tromped the lucerne down some more to flatten the beds so that the manure wouldn't just roll off the side.  I did the same for the second layer of lucerne as well.  And watered each layer in as well.
And here they are!

I think I would like to live here if I was a vegetable.  How about you? (And I do know that I have left a HUGE open door for some people here).

Now, remember all those extra straw bales?  I told you that I had another project that I needed them for?  Well I finished that job too.  Any ideas?
OK, I'll tell you.  I built another no-dig bed. This time a 'raised' one.  6 of the straw bales made up the walls of the bed.  I saw this idea in Mary Horsfall's book "Fabulous Food from Every Small Garden" and thought it was great - cheap, quick & easy (compared to many other options for raised bed construction).  OK, it's not a permanent structure, but that's not a problem here, my garden will change design when the kids' fort is no longer used, and the straw will gradually rot away to contribute to the soil itself.

This is the site, between the vege garden proper & the slide.  I raked & shovelled the forest mulch out of the way.  Underneath it is starting to look like lovely rich soil - but less that a year ago it really was just wood chips, large ones, on top of weed mat.  But after 10 or so months, with a fair amount of rain (remember those floods?  Yeh, didn't get to us, but we still got wet) and 3 chickens doing plenty of digging (and poohing) it is starting to compost down nicely.  I even saw a couple of worms!

And here's what the bales look like made into the walls of the bed.
All the layers are the same as the other beds - except I added an extra layer of straw on top, and covered that with my hessian bags.  After all, there isn't a fence to keep the chickens off this one!

 This was so easy! It took me less that 2 hours to construct, including trimming more sacred bamboo for the green layer!

And like all raised beds, it can be built pretty much anywhere - even on concrete.  So if you want a relatively cheap garden, maybe in a rental, this might be the way to go.

I plan to put the potatoes here.

The finished straw-bale bed (minus one hessian bag).

As it was so beautiful in the rain I thought I would show you a couple of other things in the garden.
Both the bottle brush, and our flowering gum are currently in flower.
Hope you like them.
Ravs

Bottle brush flowers glistening with raindrops.

Only one sprig out, but lots more to come!

Gum flowers in the rain.

Getting Down & Dirty!

Day 6 Friday 25th March

Garden
 Today I started building the beds!
Can you remember the supplies I had bought so far?
10 bales of straw (actually 11 because I already had one), 5 bales of lucerne, 8 x 25l bags of mixed manure, 5 x 25l bags of mushroom compost.  In addition to these I have been saving our newpapers for ages.

I am using the diagram on page 81 of Josh Byrne's (from Gardening Australia) book, "The Green Gardener - sustainable gardening in your own backyard" as my model.  Great book, really easy to read, keeps things simple, understandable & doable.  I won it as a door prize at one of those free seminars I have mentioned before.  Thank-you BCC!

But before I started actually building the beds I needed to mark out the path at the front so I have a way to get between them.  I used some garden edging / weed barrier that you are meant to half submerge into the soil (to act as a barrier to the grass).  I just put it a tiny way in to help stabilise it's position & then used the special pegs to hold it in place.

While I was doing this Mr Skivvy & Mum arrived.  I wasn't expecting them, but they were escaping from the painters, and gaining access to an operational kitchen (rather fond of their cups of tea, my parents).  Regardless of the reason, they were most welcome.
Mr Skivvy pitched in by moving all the bales of straw & lucerne from the lower hay shed (ie under the front deck) to the upper (ie under the shed verandah).  He discovered in the process that a bale of lucerne is considerably heavier than one of straw.  A fact that I later was able to confirm.

Mum joined me in the first job of vege bed construction - the newspaper layer.  The diagram (mentioned above) shows carpet as the first layer, but many people no longer recommend this due to the chemicals and non-biodegradable materials that may be used in its production.  Even a wool carpet may have a synthetic backing, sizing and stain resistant chemicals in it.  I wouldn't really want to have these leaching into the soil in which I grow my food.  The same goes for growing potatoes in tyres.

In truth, this layer was not entirely necessary in my situation.  Its purpose is primarily to smother the weeds so that they don't infest the beds.  My beds are being built on ground without much vegetation in evidence thanks to a layer of forest mulch and months of digging over by chickens.  But the soil is not particularly rich, and I had the papers available, so I saw it as an easy way of adding a bit more compostable matter.

Mum helping with laying the newspaper

I started by half filling a large tub with water & then placing newspapers in to soak.  I raked back the mulch from the bed & then we laid two sets of damp newspaper.

Once the newspaper was down I raked the mulch back over it.  Again a little different to the diagram which suggests a layer of dry leaves - didn't have too many of them, so used the forest mulch instead as a 'brown layer'.
Over time the wind, rain & chickens have caused a fair proportion of the forest mulch to find its way off the garden bed & into the playground area - so to properly cover the beds I had to collect some from here & replace it onto the vege garden.

The third layer in the diagram is grass clippings, weeds & soft prunings.  Didn't have any grass clippings as I forgot to tell Himself that I needed them prior to him mowing last weekend - and they all made their way into the compost bin, and around the sweet potato plants on the verge (which seemed to grow dramatically overnight afterward).  So here too I improvised - clipping back the tree branches I could reach over the garden, and trimming some of the sacred bamboo which forms a screen between our house and our northern neighbours (who very sadly are about to move).  I clipped the softer parts onto the beds.  Mum & Mr Skivvy headed off at this stage.

A mulched bed, and three with their 'green' layer

A closer look at the prunings I added.

Next came straw.  This I did do according to the diagram.
I carried one bale of straw to each bed, then, starting on the furthest one, cut the twine off & started to spread it over the prunings.
Slight over estimate - I only needed two bales to cover the four beds and the path as well. So lets do some math. I had 11 bales, 7 are for another job down the track, so I had four to use on the vege beds.  But I only used two, so I will have another two spare (at this stage).  Not a big problem, they will get used on the beds over time, and as nesting material for the chooks - but it will be a slow process.

I should  mention here that I watered in each layer before adding the next one.

The straw layer.

So manure next.  The diagram suggested sheep manure, but this wasn't easy to come by living in the city.  My sister in law, who lives in the Snowy Mountains, is constructing a wonderful native garden that she hopes to have in the Open Garden Scheme in about 5 years time.  And I really think she could, in fact I said so before I new that was her intention.  Anyway, back to the point, she & her husband have been able to source heaps of wonderful sheep manure for their garden by offering their labour to clean out local shearing sheds in return for the manure they remove.  Not so many shearing sheds round here though.
I could easily get horse manure - there are a couple of places along Albany Creek Road including the pony club - but I understand it isn't as good as cow and sheep manure, more likelihood of weeds.

So I am using the Mixed cow & chicken manure instead.  Another misjudgement re quantities here.  I bought 8 bags, thinking one per bed per layer.  But one bag barely covered the straw.  So instead I used two per bed - meaning I had none left for the second manure layer.  Here my parents have helped out again - I asked to borrow their truck today (Saturday) but they needed it, so instead they went & bought me 12 bags of manure & another 5 of mushroom compost (in anticipation of the first 5 not being enough) and delivered them to my house.  Yes I will pay them back!

Manure layer added.

Water in the manure & then add the first lucerne layer.
Anticipating that I would only need two bales after my experience with the straw I lifted this many up onto the garden.  And then only needed one!
Mr Skivvy wasn't wrong when he said the lucerne was heavier than the straw - the bales are at least twice as dense!
How many did I buy again? 5?  At most I am going to need two for this job (there is another layer to come) plus one for another job (the same as needs the 7 straw bales), leaving 2 bales spare, again.

By this stage I was rather tired, and it was getting towards time to collect J4 from childcare.  So I watered in the lucerne, cut open 4 Hessian potato bags (obtained free from my local greengrocer) and placed them over the top of the beds, along with some largish branches that are too big to go through my mulcher.  Reason? To help keep the beds a bit damp and to prevent my hard work being blown away - the wind was picking up.  Then I tidied up my tools & went for a cold drink & a well earned (do you think?) shower.

Lucerne layer

Lucerne layer from the front, showing the height of the bed, and the edging & straw on the path

L6 & J4 enjoy climbing on the haystack this morning.

 Yet another very long post - does anybody actually read the whole way through?  Please let me know if you do make it this far!
TTFN, Ravs

Hot, hot, hot!

Day 5 Wednesday 23rd March

National Ride to School Day. Normally on Wednesdays (being a workday) I leave early with  J4 & Himself walks or drives with L6 to before school care.  But with me on LSL & us being keen cyclists we just had to participate in Ride to School Day.
We had already ridden in the Family Fun Ride on the last day of Bike Week, Sunday.  And both boys had ridden the full 10km under their own steam. - Not bad for a 4yo especially, and one who only started riding a pedal bike less than 2 months ago - never needing training wheels because of using a balance bike for the past 2 years.
Anyway - by the time I had ridden to & from school, via a longer than usual route to join with other riders, taken J4 & his bike to childcare, talked about bikes & riding to his class & returned home - it was already 10am & stinking hot.

Garden 
10am!  That mean's I had a total of 2 hours before I had to be at L6's class to help with Literacy Groups (I'm doing an extra session while on leave).  But that was OK - because it was too hot to garden anyway, way too hot!  In the mid-30's and humid.
Mr Skivvy (Dad) was right on time, and I jumped into the truck and it was off to that major Australian Hardware chain store.  The mission today?  8 bags of manure (I wanted cow, but they were out of that, so I compromised on a mix of cow, sheep & chook poo) and 5 of mushroom compost.
These bags are currently stored in our garage - too hot and heavy to cart them up to the shed.  Only problem?  Our garage is downstairs, and the ceiling isn't lined.  Yep, you got it, a small amount of the fragrance is permeating through the floorboards.  Thankfully it is not overwhelming, and they'll be moved tomorrow (Day 6).
I now have everything I need to construct the no-dig beds.  Fingers crossed for a milder day - I really want to break the back of it (and not my own!).

Sewing
I had always planned to attend Sisters of Stitch, as I rarely get the opportunity, but it was especially pleasurable this time- the library is lovely & cool, and finally being able to sit down for a coffee from the Coffee Hub (yes, Chermside Library has its own cafe), was almost blissful!

I don't know how many people were there - 50 perhaps?  Almost I'd say.  Very lively & some beautiful work being done.  It is impressive how many of the ladies in their post-retirement years are keen to learn a new skill.  One lady was trying tatting, another was doing some beautiful hardanger, her first attempt.
Me?  I just continued with a simple cross-stitch intended for my 5yo god-daughter.  I meant to finish it for Christmas, and then for her birthday a couple of weeks ago - but obviously I didn't make it.  Still it's getting closer.  I'm almost up to the back-stitch outlines.

So Day 5 was a busy one - but not with my projects!
Talk to you soon!
Ravs

Down on the Farm

Day 4 Monday 21st March
Garden
No sewing today.  Obviously at this point in time it is my second priority - it is easier to find segments of time for this activity than for the big jobs of the garden, and I am really keen to make significant progress over the next few weeks.

I borrow Dad as skivvy again today, and he persuaded me to borrow their 'truck' as well (a Toyota Land Cruiser used to tow the off-road caravan).  The reason?  To get 10 bales of straw and 5 of lucerne (or 'shedded hay') for the no-dig beds.  Even with the trailer attached we had to make two trips.  The 10 straw bales first, then unhitch the trailer & get the 5 lucerne on the second trip.  This sort of job really eats into the time for 'real' garden work.

We got the straw & lucerne from the same place we bought our chickens, guinea fowl & chicken tractor last year, Northside Produce.  I love visiting this place, even more so since they moved from Carseldine (opposite the Guide Dogs) to Albany Creek.  Now they not only have the chickens, ducks, parrots and fish, but goats, reptiles, pigs, the odd horse, pup & kitten as well.  Great fun and really nice people.  I get my chicken food here as well.  A genuine produce store.  It is more convenient now too, we can pop in on the way home from Mum & Dad's or soccer, therefore cutting our carbon footprint, and the time taken.

Now the place is starting to look a bit like a farm - I have my own hay stack!

 OK, that might be a slight exaggeration - but I did add one more traditional farm feature - the gate to the vege patch closes with a very simple post & loop, just like I used to use on friends' farms as a child.

First you slip the lower end of the post through a wire loop (left).
Then lever the top, tensioning the wire gate, and slip the upper loop over the top of the post (below).
I had this set up from last year, when I tried to make a bit of a chicken run down the side of the house.  But we soon gave that up and have let them truly free-range (they often visit the neighbours & the nature strip).
Anyway, the wire was fastened about 15cm above the bottom of the post, which is needed to slip it through the wire loop anyway.  But it did mean I had to add some wire to the bottom to stop the chickens just walking under.
I cut the left over wire and folded it to have a smooth edge at the bottom (didn't want the chickens cutting themselves).  Then I used the wire that had wrapped the roll of chicken mesh to 'stitch' the pieces together.

The paving stones, from under the front deck (where the haystack is now), placed under the gate, stop the chickens being able to dig their way in.

But that is about all that resembles a farm so far.  Our only productive items so far are our chickens, averaging at least 5 eggs each a week, possibly 6, so doing really well, and our passionfruit vine.
Both our neighbour P and ourselves planted passionfruit on our boundary fence, two different varieties.  They grew really fast.  P read that chicken manure was good for them and asked if she could collect some.  Unfortunately it was only later that we discovered that the manure had to be 'aged', fresh manure 'burns' the plant.  P's plant started dying off dramatically.  Ours, fertilised with diluted 'worm wee' has gone great guns, and I have never seen bigger, or tasted richer passionfruit.  It is a Panama Red.  Mum & Dad were so impressed when they tasted some (they wouldn't believe J4 at first that they came from our garden), that they have bought a Panama Yellow and planted it against their fence.  We'll swap fruit once theirs is producing.

This is the produce from the garden for Day 4.  I could have picked more passionfruit, but I am only collecting the ones that drop at the moment - can almost guarantee they are perfectly ripe as ripe fruit should be easy to pluck from the vine.
It is also part of controlling fruit fly organically - by not giving them a chance to lay their eggs in the fruit & then the maggots get into the soil.
The last part of the day's physical work was to lay the pavers in the vege garden to mark out the beds, and provide a place to work from when tending the garden.  Now we can better see the size of them.  After all this I was exhausted - to put it politely, and desperately in need of a shower!

Over the last week I had gone through my two new Diggers Club catalogues / magazines and marked all the plants I was interested in.  I then went through them again listing the plants in four groups, Legumes, Root Crops, Fruiting Crops and Foliage Crops - to match the four vegetable beds, plus herbs, companion plants and some strawberries for the hanging pots.  This enabled me to see where I might need to narrow down, or add missing crops.  I've filled my shopping cart, but the site seems to be having some problems with 'checking out'.
I joined the Digger's club because they seem to be a well respected group who encourage & supply heritage fruit & vegetables.  They also maintain two gardens for testing & education.  Of course the lower members price on seeds is welcome (I will have almost saved my 2 year membership fee on my first order, so no complaints there).  But a really big bonus is their excellent information about the plants, and easy access to heritage open pollinated seeds, that I can then save seeds from (provided I'm careful about cross-pollination in some cases).  I also don't have to stand in a nursery, trying to make my mind up on the spot, without all the information I need.

Sewing
Although I didn't actually get any sewing done - I did meet some fellow sewers who have formed a new group on the northside.
Called Brisbane Sewing there were 4 or 5 girls with sewing machines in one of the meeting rooms at Chermside Library when I took J4 & L6 on Sunday.  It was their first face-to-face meeting, they hope to meet there at least once a month, on a weekend. They will post their meetings on meetup-com. This could be great for me as I can't make it to Sisters of Stitch, which is fortnightly on Wednesdays, seeing as I am usually at work.
At least one of the girls is involved in another group, Brisbane Northside Knitting and Crotchet Group - also listed on meetup.com and they also meet mostly on weekends to accommodate working members.  Promising.
Cup of green tea (& maybe a glass of wine) time.
Bye for now
Ravs

A Tidy Desk

Or rather - Shed

Day 3 Friday 18th March

A bit of a slow start to the Garden project today - L6 got a Star of the Week award at school, so as a proud mother  I took J4 along to assembly (our first time) to see it awarded before the trip to childcare (car this time), and the bike shop for spare tubes.
By the time I got home from all the errands it was afternoon, and by rights sewing time.  But the garden is the main task, and I was really in the mood so.....

Garden
For the past little while, whenever I have needed something from the shed, I have risked life & limb climbing over all the stuff spread over the floor.
The shed is only new and we don't have any storage or benches in it yet, so things have just been dumped, basically.

I felt that I would be able to work more efficiently, and safely, if I tidied it up.  The camping gear was to move down to shelves in the garage, and the bikes up to the shed (which will also make the garage safer).
I used the wheelbarrow to transport things, trying to make sure it was full in both directions to minimise trips.
I am much happier with the outcome (below), than with my starting point (above).

While I was at it, I also started on pulling up the pavers underneath the front stairs.  This is where one of the tanks is going, and there is no point wasting them.  These filled the wheelbarrow on some of the upwards trips.  Though I could only manage 4 at a time.  Heavy!
You can see what it looked like before in the photo below.  This is looking from the side fence into our front garden - which is all natives, and mostly ones indigenous to Brisbane.  A tank of 3 to 4 thousand litres is going in under the deck here, and a 5 thousand litre one in the garden bed you can just see on the left lower corner.

With the tanks behind the shed we'll have at least 12 thousand litres to play with!  I am looking forward to that.

This is what it looked like afterwards.  I still have to rake the gravel over to cover the gaps.  The pavers weren't concreted in so were easy to lift.  Thankfully.

The Esky in the corner of the photo is over 40 years old.  It no longer keeps things cold for very long, so I asked my parents if I could have it - it is still watertight & airtight, and has its original bung.  So, much to Dad's disgust, it is now used to ferment weeds.
You see, you can't put weeds with seeds, or with tuberous or suckering roots, directly in the compost, as they will just grow again when you put the compost on the garden (unless you are hot composting, but few back-yard gardeners do this).  But you can put them in after they have fermented, because this process makes the seeds etc non-viable.

You just need a large watertight container with a well fitting lid, and preferably a tap at the base, but this is not essential.  Chuck your weeds in and cover them with water.  Close the lid & leave for 6 or so weeks.
After 6 weeks or thereabouts, the weeds will be sufficiently fermented to add to the compost heap, and the liquid, when diluted, is a great fertiliser.

You can keep adding weeds and water to this, I suggest wearing rubber gloves & putting a peg on your nose (or just breathing through your mouth might be more comfortable) - you know what silage smells like?  Well you will after you have stirred this brew up!

As the fluid is added you can drain some off to fertilise your garden.  Just make sure that there is still enough inside to cover the weeds.  Then just empty all the weeds into the compost when the container is full, making sure the last lot have been in at least the 6 weeks to kill the seeds.

I learnt about this from one of the free seminars on Sustainable Living that Brisbane City Council ran last year.  I went to about 4 of them, and all were fantastic!  I hope they run another series this year.
But in the book 'Fabulous Food from Every Small Garden' by Mary Horsfall (CSIRO publishing) she says, when talking about Green Weed Tea that you can use it after 2 -3 weeks.  She doesn't mention when you can add the weeds to the compost though, so I am going to stick to the 6 weeks for that.  Another site says not to leave the liquid too long, or it will be too decomposed to use as a high-powered fertiliser.

I borrow this book from the library after seeing it at one of the seminars mentioned.  I renewed it a couple of times, read it from cover to cover, and then bought my own copy to keep.  I highly recommend it.  Although it doesn't make it obvious it only talks about organic gardening. Suits me.

Back to the task - I did manage one more job before pick-up time for J4. Laying some of those pavers out in a path from the top of the grass ramp to the shed side door.  They haven't been properly bedded in yet - wanted to contemplate placement for a while.
What do you think?

Planning a challenge for Monday - time to get on to those no-dig beds!
Bye for now
Ravs.

The Bountiful Source

I thought I would tell this story now, while I have time (kids & husband asleep).

The two jackets mentioned in my post "Don't Fence Me In" came into my possession in the following way.

A very good friend of mine asked me to help her sort boxes & boxes & bags & bags of used clothing that, for some reason known only to herself, her mother had brought over in a container with her furniture when she 'moved' from New York to Brisbane.  The lady in question returned to the USA approximately 12 months later (about 5 years ago), leaving all the furniture & clothes behind (correct me if I am wrong A).
The clothing had belonged to various people, my friend (when she was in her teens), her two sisters, her grandmother, probably her stepfather, and her mother.  Who really knows how another mind works?
Being a keen op-shopper & having just got into refashioning, you can imagine what I said.  YES! of course.

It took several sessions, over a number of weeks to go through them all.  We sorted into the following categories.

• A to keep (not much went in this pile)
• Rags for A
• Op Shop
• Rags for Op Shop
• Me to keep (stuff that was the right style & size).
• Me to refashion (stuff that basically fitted & had great fabric, but that needed a bit of restyling).
• Me to repurpose (especially woollen jumpers, but more of that later).
• and lastly to sell, probably on Etsy.

This last group consisted of items that I said "No way are you sending that to the op shop!", but that really weren't my style, didn't fit, or were totally unsuitable for Brisbane and deserved a loving & caring home.  Things like
a calf-length, pure silk (lining too), heavily beaded cream dress or;
a pink bolero length Vogue of Paris jacket or;
a fur cape.
The list goes on - for three BIG bags full.
Aren't I just the luckiest girl?

I took the items home & put all of the ones from the last four categories that were made from protein based fibres (silk, wool, fur etc) into bags & then the freezer.  Like with my flour and rolled oats, this will kill any moth eggs and caterpillars that might otherwise damage the fabric.

After sorting them again (reclassifying some items) I checked the state of them & sent ones that were stained, but that I thought could be rescued with careful treatment, to my mother (I trust her skills far more than my own in the laundry department).  The rest went into those vaccuum bags, to seal & protect them from mould, & moths, until I get around to refashioning them, or putting them on Etsy .
When I do photograph them, & put them up, I'll let you know.  Might even post some photos here as well.

Now, back to those woollen jumpers.
These I cut the arms off & then put them (in light & dark batches) into the washing machine.  Temperature turned as high as it goes (I usually wash in cold water).  They came out beautifully shrunk & felted, even in my gentle front loader.
One of the items, which had started out as a long, daggy, grey cardigan, came out looking like quite a trendy short sleeveless jacket (when I dress it up a bit with some appliqué) - potential for my brother's partner in Tassie.  And the sleeves were sooooo soft they called out to be made into a soft toy for a friend with a baby coming due.
This is what eventuated.

Now, normally I am anti-rabbit (they are just too big a pest in this country) but, with those lovely long ears to grab & suck, it just had to be.
Completely my own design I call him 'Recycled Rabbit'.
His body, arms, legs & back of ears are made from that lovely soft felt; the tail & front of the ears are made from the sleeves of a lacy jumper I felted at the same time; the jacket is from a felt calendar, double layer with the writing inside so you can't see it; the face is embroidered with thread left over from other projects, he is stuffed with scraps of wool & cotton batting left over from my quilts and the bag is a piece of fabric that was wrapped around a present I received.  How's that for recycling / repurposing?
I am thrilled with the result, and I really hope R's new baby girl J grows to love him!

Bye for now.
Ravs.

Don't Fence Me In!

OK - I won't, but I will fence you out!

Day 2 Wednesday 16th March
"Hang on, where did Tuesday go?" you say. "This should be Day3."
"Ahhh." I reply, "but I'm only counting child free days, because it's impossible to get anything really significant done when J4 is home."
"Right" you nod with understanding.


Garden
As it was 'Ride to Work Day' and I just had to take J4 to the members sausage sizzle at the RBWH Cycle Centre (I tow him to work & childcare in a Chariot attached to my bike). So I was a little delayed getting started - but I had planned for that.

Today's job was, as you might have guessed, to fence the chickens out of the vege garden site.  And, aside from the entry gate (which I'm still thinking about) we got it done. In an hour & a half!

I had planned to attach the support wires with staples (that's nail in ones, not the sort you use for paper), but Dad pointed out that they can be right b*&%^$'s to nail in, and he is right, I've done it before.  So he found our one & only drill bit that is long enough to pass all the way through the fence posts - and discovered it is the largest one that will fit in the drill bit (weren't we lucky?).
After marking each post at three points we drilled the holes & started threading the wire through.  Once I had tied one end off (wrap around post then around itself multiple times) we had to tension it.  We wrapped it round the head of a hammer & PULLED using the hammer handle as a lever.  Not quite the way the professionals do it but, as I said to Dad - we're not dealing with cows or horses here, just chickens and Brush Turkeys.

This is not a Brush Turkey, this is Fasty Africa, our Guinea Fowl, he helps keep the chickens pest free, and is rather cute!

So we ran three wire strings along the front, then did the right hand side separately (does anyone else have to concentrate every time they spell that?).  Next we attached the chicken wire.
Now, on a farm you would have a giant roll of the stuff attached to a special fitting on your tractor, it would unroll beautifully as you drove along and somehow would keep its tension  - well, we just manhandled it.  Smaller quantity & no room for a tractor.
It was actually quite quick & easy once Dad had figured out that you put the links in the crimper & then around the support & fencing wire.  Rather than the way I started, which was positioning the links, then trying to get the crimper in place with my sausage fingers in the way!

So here it is - finished, and good enough for our purpose, though hardly a work of perfection.

In that space there are going to be 4 vege beds, each 1.5m wide by 1.7m deep, so I can rotate my crops to maintain soil quality & reduce disease.  I am going to make them no-dig beds as well, and lay a drip irrigation system, with automatic timer, under the top layer of mulch (I plan to qualify as a lazy gardener).  Might start laying the pavers to mark out the beds on Day 3.

 Sewing
Helped out with literacy & maths groups in L6's grade 1 class, which is fun & enlightening, so I don't really mind that it cuts into my sewing time.  I was reading 'The Cat in the Hat' with L6's group today, talking about rhyming words.  They came up with some great ones. How's 'game' & 'maim' or 'fox, box, dots, lots, socks, blocks & clocks'?

Anyway - it was way too hot & humid to spend at the machine in the sewing room.

It doubles as a guest room, by folding up the cabinets & opening the sofa bed (on right).

So I decided to do some handwork, sitting on the deck, watching the chickens & contemplating my new fence.
The project I chose was the refashioning  of a jacket that had come into my possession (and I will probably tell that story another time).  Loved the fit of the bodice & the fabric, but the arms were too short, and, let's face it, jackets don't get an awful lot of wear here.
So - turned it into a low-backed waistcoat/vest and a scarf instead.
Today's job was finishing sewing on the binding over the cut edges.  I machine sewed the first side weeks ago.  The jacket has/had a cotton velvet collar, plackets and covered buttons.  To look any good the binding had to be the same - and I was lucky to find what I would consider a perfect match.  But turning cotton velvet into bias binding? Not a lot of fun.  It doesn't hold a crisp fold very well.  Next time (?) I'll use some spray starch I think.  Still, the binding is on & has turned out OK.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of lost weight & removed fabric - it makes me look HUGE! Because (as you can see below) there is not much fabric left at the back, the sides gape, making me look much wider than I am.  I had intended this to be a 'sexy' backless number, but as it is it would be positively indecent!
We (Mum & I) think we can improve it somewhat by putting a small tuck/dart at each side underneath where my arm sits in the photo below.
I also may add a ~ 4cm wide strip down the spine, flaring out at the bottom, or from below the shoulder blades to join the base.  This would leave the back still fairly exposed, but prevent the collar riding up and causing the front to gape again.
What do you think?  Black lace? Net? Other suggestions?

The other thing I made from the jacket was a scarf, from a design by Junky & very basic diagrams & instructions in their book Junky Styling (which I found at my local BCC Library ).
Very little of their stuff would be my style (very London street) but I liked this one.

To make it you
a) take the sleeves off the garment, cut perpendicular to the length.
b)Cut another length of fabric twice the width of the cut end of the flattened sleeve (or two pieces once the width) plus seam allowance.  The fabric needs to be long enough to wrap comfortably around your neck, see picture.
c) Sew this piece into a tube and, leaving it wrong side out, insert one sleeve, so the right sides of the tube & the sleeve are together. Pin the ends & sew using the free arm of your sewing machine (ie you maintain the tube).
d) Do the same with the other sleeve at the opposite end. But with the sleeve oriented so that the buttons (or whatever you are featuring) faces the other way to the first one (you'll see why in a sec.)
e) Pull one sleeve through the other to turn the whole scarf right-side out.
f) If you now lay your scarf flat on the table the buttons will be facing up on one sleeve & facing down to the table on the other.  This is necessary because you are going to fold the downward facing sleeve back on itself to form a loop.
e) Check this loop is large enough to slip the other sleeve through, and then stitch down.

How do you like it?
The extra striped fabric is from another, pure wool, hand tailored, Japanese style jacket (from the same source) that I unpicked and felted. The side against my neck is more of the cotton velvet I used to bind the waistcoat.
I think it is probably more suited to a man than me, and it certainly looks good on the bloke in the book, so I might make a present of it.  My brother lives in Tassie, where he would get more wear out of it due to the more frequent need for scarves.  Not sure if it is his style though.


That's it for Day 2.  This blogging business could get addictive! But tell me if it is too long.
Ravs

Let's Begin!

Here goes nothing!  Completely new to this blogging business, but hopefully you'll find something interesting here.

Started Long Service Leave (LSL) on Monday - 6 weeks with 3 days a week child free!

Selfish?  Not really (I think) - I have a plan, it involves finally getting a heaps of projects completed.  Primarily involving the garden, and sewing.

 Here is the back garden viewed from the deck, taken the day before I started.  New shed on the left, posts ready for the vege garden fence at the back, to keep those chickens from digging up or eating all our food!.

I'm not sure how much difference will be visible at the end of my leave, but hopefully it will be noticeable.

I've made a list of jobs, which will probably be added to, but it is a start.

Day 1 Monday 14th March.

Dad came over to help as some jobs need extra hands, and the first one on the list was one of those.

He held the ladder while I cleaned the gutters and installed the gutter guard on the shed ready for the two 2kl tanks that will be going in.  Can't have veges & fruit without water.   I'll get a professional in to do the house - no way I am climbing that high!

Job 2 goes against my generally organic bent, but some things just need a bit of extra help - non-voluntary euthanasia for the sacred bamboo behind the shed!

I had already tried cutting it back and digging it out.  The roots might only be about 10cm below the surface, but they are matted like a Turkish Carpet! And I discovered my back can really only manage about 10 minutes with the mattock before I feel in danger of long-term injury.

So out with the Round-up.  Dad cut the bamboo back, and I, very carefully, applied the poison direct to the cut surface.  This is also the only way I have found to get rid of that dreadful weed, Asparagus Fern due to its underground rhizomes.

The plan is to garden in the morning & sew in the afternoon on my child free days.

Starting with two environmental projects. The first was to (finally) make my muslin vege bags (that's the Australian use of the word, not the American, see curves patterns and pins for more on this).  No more of those plastic bags for my cucumbers, grapes etc.

I managed to get 8 out of the fabric I had.  Because they are purely functional, and don't need to look pretty, I was able to do this really quickly.

Muslin Vege Bags - Method

a) Take your fabric & fold selvage to selvage.  The selvages are going to form the open end of the bag, the fold the bottom.  This works best with a 90cm width fabric, otherwise the bags are too long.

b) Fold the fabric lengthwise, until it is a width that you like for your bags. I had about 2m, so folded it in 8ths which gave me about 25cm widths.

c) Cut along these folds to separate into individual bag pieces.

d) Sew along one side of each bag, fastening off by backstitching at start & finish.  Use string-piecing to make this quicker.

e) Do the same on the other side of each bag.

f) Turn the bags inside out & sew down the sides a second time, sealing the raw edges inside the second seam.  This neatens the edge, but more importantly makes the bags much stronger, they would never stand up to use for carrying veges otherwise.

g) Feel virtuous for reducing your environmental impact by cutting out another source of plastic waste in your life!

The second project was making dishcloths out of some of my stock of fabric nappies.

No longer needed in bulk for protecting clothing from 'possets' or cleaning up 'accidents' (yeh!), I am going to make a whole heap.  I can then have clean dish/bench cloths everyday if I want & just chuck them in with the rest of the wash.  No more unhygienic & throw away sponges for me!  Provided I can get hubby to go along.

Because they are pure cotton they can even be composted when they eventually fall apart completely!

I got 6 from one nappy.  Just cut it up and hemmed the raw edges.

The muslin vege bag (with broccoli) is on the left, the nappy dishcloth on the right.  No fancy or creatively stimulating sewing - but feels good to have it done.

Ravs.