Wind-blown dust and dirt

Climate rap – scientists fight back

2011-05-11T13:51:00.025+10:00

Fresh from Hot topic.com.

That's it folks you're on your own from here on in.
Regards Jonesy Good luck one and all.

signing off

2011-03-05T15:52:00.002+11:00

Dear bloggy friends just popped in for a moment to inform you that due to some heavy duty health issues I can no longer concentrate on writing a blog. For the time being I will be pulling the pin. It looks like I will be out of action for a while. Hopefully, I will be back up and running soon, but rest assured I will be reading with interest and keeping an eye on your antics. So it’s goodbye for now and keep up the good work. Keep writing so I have something to look at. Regards to you all and thanks for your efforts, Jonsey.

Just a quick pic to let you know things are not all doom and gloom. Although the rest of the garden is pretty much on hold we do have this self sown pumpkin that has taken over. Even though its been pretty much neglected it has thrived and gone mad heading off over to the neighbors and has plenty of good sized pumpkin's on it. We will be eating well for a while yet.

Feast or Famine

2011-01-24T06:34:00.003+11:00

If there is one thing that gardening teaches you it’s how delicately poised we are between feast and famine. A season that started out looking like it would give us a bumper yield quickly turned to a not so great one. The late winter and early spring rain that gave us some spectacular growth also brought killer mosquitoes and a fruit fly attack that hammered our tomatoes. I did however with an intense program of baiting and trapping manage to save enough to get a few bottles of ketchup and enough pizza sauce to see us through the year.

Once the fruit fly had finished the mice attacked and clobbered the corn and the remaining tomatoes. The little devils where and still are eating everything in sight including the beans on the vine. Again I did get enough in the freezer to see us ok for most of the year but the poor neighbors missed out on the overflow.

Still it’s not all bad news, since the mice haven’t learned to dig yet we managed to get a decent crop of spuds. About 50 kgs from the new bed and I still have some to dig over at the neighbors in a patch that I commandeered while he wasn’t looking.

And as it seems the mice don’t like onions we ended up with a good supply of those as well. The plumcot I planted winter last has produced its first fruit which I saved from the fruit fly by bagging, so we got a taste of those.

My new PV system is on site and will be up and running shortly and the drive is progressing at a slow but steady rate. It should be ready for operation well before winter arrives and should deal nicely with any amount of rain runoff we are likely to get. I ended up fabricating another gutter form because casting one a day was just too slow. We have been sling them into place about every half dozen or so but boy are those great lumps of concrete heavy, definitely a two man and a boy job.

A flood of “Biblical” proportions

2011-01-12T02:52:00.002+11:00

Pinched from a post at Watching the Deniers on the Queensland floods.
More than 4000 years ago, the Epic of Gilgamesh described a universal flood that shattered the world.

The... land shattered like a... pot.
All day long the South Wind blew ...,
blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water,
overwhelming the people like an attack.
No one could see his fellow,
they could not recognize each other in the torrent.
The gods were frightened by the Flood,
and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu.
The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall.
Ishtar shrieked like a woman in childbirth,
the sweet-voiced Mistress of the Gods wailed:
'The olden days have alas turned to clay,
because I said evil things in the Assembly of the Gods!
How could I say evil things in the Assembly of the Gods,
ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people!!
No sooner have I given birth to my dear people
than they fill the sea like so many fish!'
The gods--those of the Anunnaki--were weeping with her,
the gods humbly sat weeping, sobbing with grief(?),
their lips burning, parched with thirst.
Six days and seven nights
came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land.
When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,
the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman
writhing (in labor).
The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind (and) flood stopped up.
I looked around all day long--quiet had set in
and all the human beings had turned to clay!

Who will read our poetry in four thousand years?

Who indeed, the way we are trashing the place it'll be touch and go if there is a life form that is capable of reading.
Every once in a while you run into something that smacks you right between the eyes.

A little video for Christmas

2010-12-27T00:13:00.004+11:00

After years of using my little power-shot G7 for taking pic's for my web page and the blog I've finally got round to using the video feature.

This is a short clip of the flood that's presently flowing past my back boundary, laced with a few stills from my library. It was shot today and edited with a bit of software I downloaded off the net this afternoon. The song "Cowboy take me away" is sung by local girl Lyla Quinn and can be downloaded from here along with other songs by some of our local talent.

Lakeside property

2010-12-22T22:30:00.003+11:00

We now have a lake at the bottom of our block. Flood water moving down the Murrumbidgee is starting to spread out of the river proper and into all the little side creeks. We have one at the bottom of our property that flows through the reserve.

This morning flood level at Hay town was 7.72 and rising with a predicted peak of around 8.5 metres by the 28th. The town is fairly well protected by a levee system and our Council think it unlikely that the Hay community will suffer any adverse flood effects from the predicted event. But it is causing a fair bit of excitement around town.

Our house is well above the predicted level so we are safe enough, but I will probably be able to cast a line from my deck. Or perhaps a yabby trap or two (Singapore chili ~~prawns~~ yabbies for Christmas lunch).

A bit of excitement and a nice view for Christmas, life's never dull out here in the boonies.

Drive update

2010-12-13T21:42:00.005+11:00

The bobcat came today to clear the spoil from my trenching. It's taken a few day to dry out enough but we can now get the car in and out without to much trouble. I have also started casting the gutter blocks that will make up the drain and garden edging. I had intended to box and free form the concrete but after an initial trial gave that up as a bad idea. I just couldn't get the shape I wanted with that method.

After a bit of head scratching I decided to make up a steel form that I could use to mold the right shape. A quick trip to the local engineering shop and a half hour on their sheet folder and I had my form. The form is made of 16 gauge black steel sheet and will give me a gutter block 1200mm long. Laid end to end and bedded on hard-fill these will form the drive edge.

Each block is a full barrow of concrete and they weigh a bit so I will have to make up some sort of lifter to get them in place. Since I only have one form I can only make one a day so I've got plenty of time to work that one out. I need about sixty to complete the drive so that should keep me out of trouble for a while.

The form is coated with used cooking oil as a release agent and the ends are clamped in place to contain the concrete. With the end caps removed I can spring the mold a bit to release the finished block.


Form ready for filling


Fill with concrete and vibrate

The next day the concrete is strong enough to be turned out of the mould and the whole process starts again.

The first couple are a bit rough but we will have it under control soon enough.

Just add water

2010-12-11T14:05:00.001+11:00

The place is turning into a jungle. By the time the tomatoes are ready I'm going to need a tracker and machete to get in there.

Shade-house jungle.

And the corn is as high as an elephants eye, Yeeow! Aye-yip-aye-yo-ee-ay!

Garlic in plaits, well rough old plaits but I was pressed for time.

First lot of beetroot, second lot will be picked before they disappear under the bush tomatoes.

We normally share these with the birds as the vine is mainly grown as a shade for the office window.

Not far off.

We'll be eating Scarlet runners soon.

And my pumpkin patch looking tidy as usual. Mixed varieties in there along with some watermelon just to make it interesting.

Frantic preparations, lucky escape.

2010-12-09T07:51:00.000+11:00

A couple of days ago I started making preparations for the 100mm of rain and and wild weather that was predicted to pass through South Western NSW by BOM. Last night the worst of that event passed us by with only a couple of millimeters of rain falling on us. I had spent time clearing and strengthening my guttering to cope with all the rain expected, redirecting storm-water systems and arranging a syphon set-up to drain the swales if required. Luckily for us none of this was needed this time but I will for future such events be making these improvements permanent.

Last week I was given a good example of what to expect from a heavy rainfall event with my drive being turned into a mud hole when we received about 27mm in a couple of hours.

Over the last couple of weeks with the completion of the shed I have been working on realigning and weather proofing my drive. This involved grading down about 75mm for road base and building guttering to deal with the run-off. This year was probably not the best time to pick for such a project being one of the wettest years for a long, long time. Still when done the new drive will be a great improvement. No more mud tracked onto the deck or into the the shed or carport, my fearless leader will be pleased with that.

On the bright side the garden is looking great, the best production we have had in years. Spuds, corn, beans and tomato are heading for a bumper crop.

Garlic has been harvested and stored, along with the first crop of beetroot. The grape vines are looking like they will give us a good crop this year and I may even have enough for a couple of bottles of wine.

Duckie wants a Tandem

2010-09-27T21:35:00.000+10:00

I want one of these

There is also a great vid over at The Duck Herders that is worth a look.

A Changing Landscape: The Lawn

2010-09-12T18:30:00.002+10:00

I've been looking through my photo collection documenting progress on the house and garden and was struck by the evolution and changes over the last few years. We moved into the house in February 07 with all the major construction completed but a bit of the finishing still to be done, an ongoing process attended to as time and money permit.

Landscaping at that stage had not really been started, apart from some rough shaping of the block, a small veggie patch and lots of plants in pots. Although there was no formal plan for the garden we did have an idea of what was needed. The garden had to be water-wise first and foremost, provide a climate for the house, a habitat for the birds and bees and other creepy-crawlies, a bit of stuff for us to eat and look nice enough to keep us on-side with the tidy- town folk.

I have lots of pic's of the progress on the house and garden, way too many for one post so I thought I would start with the lawn.

Since we don't have a lot of spare water to throw round and I'm not to keen on pushing a lawn mower or spending the money on fuel we only have a small one (about 60sq metres). Small it may be but it is particularly nice as lawns go. ;-)

I'm proud of my lawn, but it did take some work, lot's of digging. The soil we have on our block is mostly clay, hard as rock when it's dry and sticky as toffee when wet. To get a workable soil I scrounged around the neighbourhood collecting leaves and lawn clippings from anyone who had some spare. This was all dug in along with trailer loads of horse manure from the local stables. I dug and rotary hoed that patch about five times before I was happy with it. The first attempt at a lawn was a native grass that I thought would be drought tolerant and hardy but it became infested with couch and ended up a total failure. So it got rounded up and dug over again, more horse poo and a mulch crop to finish it off.

After a bit of research I settled on buffalo as a good prospect for our area and purchased a few rolls of turf from a local supplier. This was chopped into small squares and planted out willie nilly over the levelled area, anyone who asked about the planting system was told I was setting up for lawn chess.

So far it has been a total success, thick enough to suppress any weed growth it requires virtually no more water than it gets from the rain we get from time to time over the summer. I try to time my mowing runs to just before we get a rain event and always use a high setting so it' stays around 75mm deep all the time. Worked like that it retains good moisture at it's base and is soft and cool to walk on. Any visiting kids love it and spend ages laying and rolling around on it.

It goes dormant in the winter and requires no mowing until spring. That's when I give it a good scalping and hit it with a bit of dynamic lifter, work it over with a fork for aeration so it's good to go for the summer. Although I'm not a great fan of lawns I am happy enough with this one and the neighbors are impressed enough to keep requesting the runners I cut off from the garden edges.

Blogging has resumed

2010-09-04T11:29:00.016+10:00

Well here we are, 2 o’clock in the morning and I can't sleep, so I thought I would have a go at a blog update. It's windy and raining outside so it looking like another miserable inside day for us today. There has been stuff happening since my last update, it's just that I've not been able to get motivated enough to write it up. Maybe it's the weird winter we have had this year that’s having a down in the dumps effect on us. There has been plenty of rain by the standards of last few years and everything is damp, damp, damp. This is due mainly to the lack of sunshine rather than the amount of rain. It's been unusually overcast this winter and as a result the garden has just been marking time, although, the last week has seen us with a bit of sunny weather that has perked everything up, and most of the fruit trees have suddenly burst into bud.

Anyhow on with the show.
The pay it forward vids have gone to their new homes with Nevyn and Ramsey, I hope they find them enjoyable and enlightening. A great idea, so thanks to Molly for getting me on to it.
The bubble wrap has been reasonably successful and even though its hard to tell how much difference it's made to heat retention overall (the house is well insulated anyway) its definitely helped with a major condensation problem we had with our large windows. The bathroom has really benefited from the extra insulation, being completely unheated it totally relies on heat from elsewhere in the house to keep it warm. The bubble wrap has helped there for sure, all in all it has been worth the effort. I'm thinking now that because it doesn’t look to bad or effect our views to much I will leave it in place through the summer to see if it has any effect on the cooling of the house.

The shed is still without a roof, another weather problem I'm afraid. I haven't been game to put it on until the rainwater tank is in place in case I end up with a flood, and I haven't been able to get the tank in place because the ground is to wet to do the landscaping required where it will be situated. The shed has been a bit of a marathon working by myself, I've had to find ways of doing two and three man jobs solo. I have a good neighbor who's been keen to help but since he is a mobile accident area I have tried to keep him away from anything sharp, heavy or high. Still he is handy for passing stuff to me when I'm up a ladder. The roller door was I major job to get in place solo but I managed that by walking it up a couple of planks bit by bit. The decision to put eaves on the shed meant a bit of extra work but the appearance of the building has been improved I think, so worth the effort in my book.

The rain overnight filled the swales and attracted this visitor, it's a Buff-banded Rail, although common to this area of NSW it's the first we have seen in the garden.
With all the moisture in the soil it's looking like we will have a good spring this year. In the garden we have broad beans ready to produce and the tomato plants I nursed through the winter are ready to start giving us some early tomatoes. Silver beet, swedes, cabbage and cauliflower are all powering on and we have pea bushes in flower. Garlic, onion and leeks are doing great and I've got some new beds ready for corn and more tomato plants.

The sharp eyed will have noticed that although its says 2 am at the top I didn't actually post until midday. That because I'm a slow writer and it takes me a while to knock stuff into shape, and I did have to have a nanny nap about halfway.;-)

Pay it forward winners

2010-08-01T09:30:00.009+10:00

The winners are Nevyn and Ramsey, if you can give me a postal addy guys I will get your DVDs off straight away. Email is jonseyattpgdotcomdotau

Pay it Forward

2010-07-27T09:42:00.005+10:00

Following on from Molly's "Pay it Forward" today I have on offer the DVD I received from her and a couple of my own.
If you would like to enter, just leave a comment to let me know which of the DVDs you'd like (first, second and third preference) and I will add your name to the hat, first drawn gets their first pref and so on. I don't mind posting international so it's all in. I'll do the draw this coming Sunday 1st August 2010.

The first is “Victorian Farm”, this is a historical observational documentary series following a team who live the life of Victorian farmers for a year. The team recreate everyday life on a small farm in Shropshire in the mid-19th century using authentic and replica equipment, clothing, original recipes and reconstructed building techniques.

The second is “The Thin Green Line” a documentary film, made by Australian Park Ranger Sean Willmore. In 2004 Willmore travelled the world, across six continents and nineteen countries, interviewing and filming the lives and stories of park rangers, recounting their experiences and extreme difficulties. The Thin Green Line is also the name of the not for profit foundation set up by Sean Willmore in the wake of the documentary's success. The aim of the foundation is to support rangers on the frontline, including the International Ranger Dependency Fund which supports the families of committed rangers who have lost their lives, or rangers who have been severely injured in the line of duty.

And the last is “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil”. A very graphic presentation of how Cubans adapted to limited energy resources. This documentary explores the economic collapse and eventual recovery of Cuba following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The dramatic steps taken by both the Cuban government and its citizens who pulled together, created solutions, and ultimately thrived in spite of their decreased dependence on imported energy. The major themes include urban agriculture, energy dependence, and sustainability.

Remember, the deal is you get to watch them and then pass them on free of charge to others.

And now for something completely different

2010-07-15T18:20:00.006+10:00

Support John Abraham,

Some months ago, professor John Abraham of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, released a detailed critique of a Monckton presentation given on October 14th, 2009 at a climate skeptic event sponsored by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.

Monckton is not used to such exchanges and has climbed out of his tree, he has authored a 99 page “rejection” of Abraham’s talk and sent threatening letters to both Abraham and his employers (University of St Thomas, Minnesota) asking for the presentation to be removed form the web site with a demand for money (in this case $110,000 to be paid to a charity of Monckton's choice),

In his attempts at intimidation of Abraham and his University he is now organising his minions via climate change denier blogs to send similar letters to the University of St Thomas. Monckton can’t be allowed to succeed in this campaign so it is important that supporters of science make the university aware that this sort of bullying is just not acceptable.

Gareth Renowden at Hot Topic is organising a way for you to make your support for Abraham known. Rather than flood St Thomas with supporting emails, he is collecting signatures for this statement:

We the undersigned offer unreserved support for John Abraham and St. Thomas University in the matter of complaints made to them by Christopher Monckton. Professor Abraham provided an important public service by showing in detail Monckton's misrepresentation of the science of climate, and we applaud him for that effort, and St. Thomas University for making his presentation available to the world.
If you agree, nip over and sign up.

Stone Soup

2010-06-28T15:59:00.007+10:00

A cold miserable day today so what better than a nice bowl of piping hot soup for lunch, and what better than my favourite, “Stone Soup”. This is made using the traditional family soup stone, part of my inheritance from Granny. Granny was a master cook who had served, in her youth, in the kitchen of “His Lordship” in County Derry, Ireland, (the old country) back in the olden days. The stone has been in the family for generations and I believe may have been a leftover from when Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway. I can't show you a photo of the rock (family secret don't you know) but here's a pic of the box we keep it in.

Rock on.

Usually it's just rock in the pot, a bit of salt and pepper, simmer till done. But sometimes a bit of variation is nice and since I had a bit of stock made from the carcasses of a couple of chickens I boned out yesterday, I started with that (the meat as well, don't want to waste anything). Now as this rock has done a fair bit of service a bit of thickening doesn't go astray, so I fired in a carrot, spud, apple and a bit of onion that I had laying around in the fridge. Rice, rice is good too so a handful of that as well, and, since I don't mind a bit of fire, a teaspoon full of curry powder just to sup it up a bit. Piping hot with some toasted home-made Chimichurri Bread you can't beat it, just the thing on a cold miserable day.

Stone soup is seriously good tucker, so good in fact I thought I should share the recipe. Of course if you don't have a family soup stone all you will end up with is plain old Mulligatawny soup.

Ingredients
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium potato peeled and diced
1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1Litre (4 cups) chicken stock
1/2 apple - peeled, cored and chopped
3 tablespoons basmati rice
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast fillet - diced
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch dried thyme
125ml (1/2 cup) very thick (45%) cream

Preparation method
Fry onions, ginger and carrot in butter in a large soup pot. Add flour and curry powder and cook 5 more minutes.
Add chicken stock and potato, mix well and bring to the boil. Simmer about 1/2 hour.
Add apple, rice, chicken, salt, pepper and thyme. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes, or until rice is done.
Stir in cream and serve.

Don't forget to put the rock back in it's box for the next batch, a good soup stone will last forever properly looked after.

Stuff's happening but the blogger's been slack

2010-06-13T22:32:00.015+10:00

Despite the winter chill things are moving along out here in the boonies, the gardens doing well with the bit of rain we had and the shed is nearing completion despite it. The frame is up and wind braced ready for the cladding, which should be done in the next week or so. I have made a few alterations to the standard plan so we are waiting for the extra materials to turn up. I have put a few extra roof girts in to take the weight of the solar panels I intend putting up there. I have also extended the eaves a bit rather than cut off at the wall, the standard with these sheds. I want to be sure there will be no water getting into the building.

In the garden we have broad-beans powering along, winter lettuce, cabbage, and Bok Choy. I've planted garlic, onion, peas, leek, and swede. A bug excluder has been constructed to keep the white butterfly from destroying my cauliflower and so far we're winning there.

The Laurence/Jones mansion has been bubble wrapped, we've taken a leaf out of Margo and Jerry's book and installed bubble glazing.

Simple, cheap and effective, well worth the effort, it has made a noticeable difference to the warmth retained over night. The bathroom especially has benefited, it's nice in there now and since I still wear the same PJ's I was born with (they're a bit threadbare now) the early morning dash is not such a chore (I'm happy with that). ;-)

Not totally kosher I know, we did buy a roll of the bubble wrap but will share it with any of our neighbors interested in installing it. We have used double sided tape to stick it to the glass, this allows a full seal and no problem with condensation getting between the glass and the bubble. We have covered all of the solid panes apart from one set of sliders that provide our main view and the Louvre windows in the bedrooms and office. I will make up some removable panels for the louvers as time permits, the main view window we can live with as is. More information on bubble glazing is available here

Shed update

2010-05-14T20:31:00.005+10:00

Finally, six weeks late we have our shed kit on site.

After suffering weeks of BS from the agent I finally lost patience and rang head office a couple of times. The second of those calls produced the desired result. The agent rang yesterday with a tale of woe that went on for about ten minutes and almost had me on the floor splitting my sides with laughter. Anyway, the upshot was that the shed was to arrive on site crack of dawn today, and, I was to get one of his men to help with construction free of charge.
Crack of dawn turned out to be after lunch (mid afternoon actually) and the offer of free help was turned down because I really don't want any more dealings with this guy, enough is enough.

My fearless leader is looking brighter now that the new sewing room is in sight and come Monday morning we will be cracking on. I think we should be able to handle it ourselves.

Pedal power

2010-05-11T20:50:00.016+10:00

On my last post LS from Down and Out In A Brave New World asked about the E- bike and I promised a reply post, so for you mate and anyone else interested here it is.

The e-bike is built around an old mountain bike frame that has been fitted with a hub motor. This motor is laced into the middle of the bikes front wheel. The axle of the motor is then secured to the bikes front forks. When power is provided it spins the wheel around the axle, driving the bike forward. This is a brush-less hub motor and is designed to provide peak efficiency rating of around 85%.

The hub motor was part of a kit I brought from DLM Energy (since vanished from view but you can get the same stuff here) and came already laced/spoked into a 26 inch rim. The kit included three 12AH 12V lead acid batteries in a battery bag, controller with connectors, twist grip throttle, battery cables and electric brakes. The batteries are wired in series to provide 36V, officially the motor is 200 watts ;-). Also provided was a charger, extra long stand and pack rack.

The cost of the kit was $850 and I think well worth the money, when compared with the registration and running cost of a car. The e-bike is incredibly cheap to run, costing only about 2c per kilometer. With batteries full, it will travel around 32 kilometers without peddling or around 55 kilometers in pedal assist mode. No taxes, no parking problems, no licensing, no pollution and the motor is virtually silent.

This bike can scoot along a bit and the granny that rides it has been clocked at 40km/h on the flat. She scares the bejezzes out of the local triathlon riders on their training ride as she breezes past them like they were standing still. She also had the local BMX kids stonkered as to why they couldn't keep up with her, until I spilled the beans to one of them in an unguarded moment.

The e bike is Jan's work bike and because she works shifts it gets used a bit at night, a decent light is a must. The lights I use on all my bikes are home made 12volt 20W-halogen with a 23-degree spread. The spotlights, switches and connectors I buy from Jaycar electronics and mount the whole set-up in a piece of tube from a broken hang glider keel. The lights were initially run off a cheap battery drill pack that provided about 30 minutes of light, more than enough for Jan to get to work and back. I have since made up my own battery packs that run a bit longer per charge. Anyone interested in building their own bike light set-up can find information here at the The fat hippy's home made bike lights.

I'll do the rest of my bikes in another post sometime soon.

Rellie Attack

2010-05-03T20:29:00.003+10:00

We have over the last week or so been entertaining Jans' two sisters who popped over from NZ for a short visit. As a result blogging and blog cruising has taken a back seat, but we are back on track now so off we go.

While they were here we made them ride bikes everywhere as that is the way we like to get around, unless it's hosing down rain, then we take the car and of course out of town trips are also car days (it's 150km's to anywhere out here).

As luck would have it I happen to have a spare bike or two so finding a seat wasn't a problem. Just a quick tidy up needed and they where on the road (the bikes not the girls). ;-)

While I was at it I shouted the electric bike a new battery set as the last unit had shorted out and caught fire one day when Jan was coming home from work. It caused a bit of excitement amongst a few tourists who were crossing the bridge at the time, they noticed the flames coming from the rear and thought the rider was rocket propelled.

With the new battery pack I have changed from NM-HI to Sealed Lead Acid Batteries. I think they are a better bang for the buck system. The SLA's are less expensive and easy to maintain. A small ply box was built to contain the new battery set that should keep the whole system waterproof and trouble free. I think the cause of the fire may have been some dampness in the vinyl bag the NMHI were in.

The electric bike has been on the road now for about seven years and has been remarkably trouble free. Apart from three battery sets the only other problem was the controller shorting out when the main power leads got caught on an obstruction and where ripped out of a connector.

The next job is to build a new battery pack for the Fat hippy bike light.

No Shed

2010-04-21T07:13:00.008+10:00

I had hoped to be blogging about the new shed by now but it still hasn't arrived, already three weeks overdue I got a call from the agent to say I will not be getting it until the end of the month. So there will be no shed blog for a week or two. Still that has allowed me to ease back into work around the place as I'm still feeling a bit doughy after the surgery.

The cooler weather and a little bit of rain have been a great pick me up for the garden and everything is starting to fire up again. I've turned a bit of ground for the winter veg and planted swedes, turnip and parsnip seed. I've also started some cauliflower and cabbage in pots that I will plant out as seedlings when they are ready. I've also been making a bit more biochar.

I started playing around with this stuff about five years ago after watching a documentary on Amazonian black earth ("Terra Preta de Indio") and doing a bit of internet research on the work of Johannes Lehmann. While I did start out being all scientific and working with little test plots I soon got sick of that and now just use it everywhere as I make it. Whether it makes that much difference it's hard to tell, although my veg always do a bit better than my neighbours and the ground does seem to hold the moisture better where I have used it.

I make this char out of all the fruit tree prunings that are too big to compost. I just let them dry for a while and burn them in a big wood gas burner I made out of some old paint cans. The residue is charcoal that is broken up and spread on the garden. While doing the burn I can do a stir-fry, cook up a bit of rice or even a BBQ, saves wasting the heat that is generated with this stove.

There is a fair bit of research going on into the sequestration and land improvement benefits of biochar at the moment and also a bit of amateur interest as well. Who knows, it may have a lot of benefits in the future but in the meantime it's a way of getting rid of my prunings and seems to help my veg grow a bit better.

Back in harness

2010-04-03T11:45:00.009+11:00

I'm back! Blue-eyed and bushy tailed. The last few weeks have been full-on for sure. First off, I spent a couple of weeks digging footings and prepping the slab for my workshop, finishing up with a twelve cubic meter concrete pour. Turns out that that was just a bit to much for an old bloke who's way over weight. I blew a gasket and ended up with a 3 hour ambulance ride and a week checking out the hospitals and the ICU unit in Albury and Wodonga.

Anyway things are looking up again and I'm back in harness, but on light duties for a few weeks. Still we have a sewing room floor and the shed should be on site and under way in the next few weeks.

While I have been out of circulation the garden has managed wonderfully well by itself and is producing an abundance of fresh veg. The second lot of corn produced well and we got a few meals off that. We have beans by the truck load, capsicum and pumpkin on the vine. The rain that held things up on the shed worked wonders for the garden.

Broad-beans are leaping out of the ground and the mixed seeds I threw out on a bare patch have fired up. I have now got a heap of curly leaf spinach and beetroot seedlings ready to go. The spring onions are ready for thinning and lettuce will need the same in a week or so. Right now things are getting back to normal and it's all good out here in the long paddock.

Just because I feel like it

2010-02-12T20:33:00.008+11:00

Cruising the blogs

2010-02-09T23:01:00.011+11:00

I've been cruising the blogs again and getting a bit depressed looking at all the great produce everyone seems to be getting. Out here the harvest has been pitiful to say the least. Below is the tomato haul for the week, barely enough for a sandwich. But at least we have had a few. My neighbour though, has ripped his plants out in disgust and he's a gardener that could give Peter Cundall a run for his money.

This time of year four years ago we where swimming in tomatoes, we had tomatoes for drying, sauces and bottling. We had tomato's coming out our ears.

OK, that's the whinge out of the way now on to the good stuff. We had truckloads of rain late last week, around 65mm in fact. As well as giving us a heap of catheads it perked the garden up no end and, it looks like we will get a bit more before this week's done. The last couple of days have been pretty steamy, downright tropical in fact. And just like the tropics, today around noon the cumulus started building, so with a bit of luck we will get a bit of a storm that will wet us down again.

In other news from the boonies the washing machine is back in action after a couple of weeks resting up. It started making quite a bit of racket, and initial thoughts where it was bad news, it's long out of warranty and a three hour round trip to the nearest repairer. On closer inspection it turned out to be the pump, no big deal at all really, a job I could tackle myself. Our machine is a Fisher & Paykel, Smart Drive GW612 and the pump is a simple bayonet mount unit. The pump and other parts for most machines on the market are here if anyone is looking for them. I ordered my pump from here and received reasonably good service.

If anyone needs to tackle this job it is fairly straightforward. The procedure is as follows. First disconnect the machine from the wall (very important, both power and water) and pull it out so that it can be tipped back or, lift it on to a couple of saw horses. You need to access the pump from underneath (the only practical way in). Disconnect the two wires from the pump, flip the retaining clip back and twist the unit so that it can drop free. Put the new pump in and connect the wires again, now you're good to go. The bayonet mount pump seems to be a standard unit in the Fisher & Paykel top loaders so this repair is a reasonably easy home job .

Gardening Mates

2010-02-04T19:25:00.012+11:00

Things are looking up out here in the boonies. The last week has been a bit cooler than heatwave conditions and as a result the garden has picked up a bit. The corn is flying along and developing pollen heads. The pruned tomato plants are showing good signs of recovery and the beans on the end of the shade house look like they will give us a few more beans before they sign off. The dwarf beans planted outside the shade have had enough and called it a day, but I'll get some more going in the next few days so it won't be to bad.

Last night we got a bit of the rain that has been moving down from Queensland, about 13mm so far and we may get more tonight and tomorrow. I took the opportunity to plant out the seedling tomato's I had ready to go and with a bit of cool and some more rain they should be off to a flying start. I had a bit of help with that job as you can see from the photo below. This guy and his mate are a permanent fixture around here and as soon as he spots me with a garden fork or hoe he's under my feet looking for any grubs or worms that get turned over.

That's one of the neat things about having a garden, you usually get to have a bit of wildlife as well, and we are lucky enough to get quite a bit. Of course living close to the river and a river bend reserve helps. Along with the usual insects we get all sorts of reptiles both large and small, and I have planted to encourage them. The garden is a mixture of native and exotic and I have placed logs and bits of garden furniture to create a habitat for them.

Most of the lizard population is made up of small skinks and geckos. Occasionally we get a snake or lace monitor cruising through and from time to time a bearded dragon or shingle back will be seen poking about.

Along with the reptiles we get the birds that like to eat them, Kookaburra, Butcher bird and Magpie. The Kookaburra like to use my weather station and shade house as a diving board for bombing their meal. There is a family of about seven that visit regularly and because we will give them an occasional handout they have become quite tame.

As today is cool enough for inside cooking I have taken the opportunity to throw a leg of mutton in the oven, so, tonight we dine in style.

The grass was always green

2010-02-03T08:14:00.002+11:00

Something to think about for the people of a wide brown land.

"Will it ever happen, will the taps stop running? Will we become like the desert in Chile, where it hasn't rained for 300 years? I don't know. I sincerely hope not. Because if we think the shit is going to hit the fan when oil runs out, imagine what will happen if water runs out.
Oil has made life easier but without water we have no life."

Read the full post over at Nevyn's Place at the link below.
http://nevynsworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/water.html

Little Spinach pies

2010-01-28T18:19:00.010+11:00

I like Silver beet, so I grow quite a bit of it. It's a good value plant to have in the garden and it's tough, (you can't kill it with a baseball bat) out here we can grow it year round. As I'm not to worried about crop rotation I grow it wherever I have a hole. Because the roots store plenty of the carbohydrates necessary for additional leaf growth it can be quite denuded of leaves without a problem. Since we usually have way more than we can use fresh, I make it into little spinach pies and freeze them for a snack or quick meal. Just pull two or three out of the bag and into a hot oven for 10 minutes or if it's to hot for the oven, nuke them.

It's just a Spinach and feta fatayer recipe I have fiddled with a little. Fatayer are usually three cornered pies but since there is a bit of waste with cutting circles in the pastry I simply quarter the sheets and use a bit more filling.

Ingredients

500g fresh spinach or silver beet,

250g Persian feta

1 onion, finely chopped

2 big mushrooms

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Good pinch Cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon lime juice or fresh lemon juice

Frozen puff pastry sheets

Preparation

Blanch the spinach (no salt) then make sure that all the excess water is squeezed out, and roughly chop.

In a fry pan heat some olive oil; fry the onions and finely chopped mushrooms. Add the spinach, spice and lime juice and season with a little salt and pepper. Then add the broken up feta. Make sure all ingredients are mixed well then let the mixture cool.

Cut the puff pastry sheets into quarters and put about a heaped tablespoon of mix in the middle and fold in the corners.

Place the pies on a baking sheet and bake in a hot oven (200°C) for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

The heat has let up a bit over the last week so the garden has picked up a little. The tomato plants that where not looking to good have had a bit of pruning and are showing signs of life, we may get a few off them yet. I have some seedlings that are ready to go and if it stays cool for another week they will be planted out. The second lot of corn is holding up OK and it looks like we will get something there and, since the silver beet is doing fine I'm still getting my greens.

Bloggin on blogging

2010-01-25T00:26:00.021+11:00

Now, I have a few interests besides gardening and one of those is climate change, so I like to cruise around a bit to see what's going on. I'm firmly on the side of the Warmists by the way, but I do like to check out how the sceptics are thinking, so I spend a bit of time poking round in those blogs as well. Anyway, this last week I have been looking at one particular blog that has left me spitting, so much so that I had thought of dedicating a post solely to that. But, hey, it's a free country and he is entitled to his say, but by the same token I'm entitled to not have to listen to him, so I'm not. This particular blog is at what I consider to be the butt end of the sceptical and attracts the type of commenter's that can't quite foot it with the big boys. You know the type, takes weeks to scrub the stupid off after a visit.

Thankfully there is a saner blogging world outside those echo chambers and you will find a few of them in my blog list over there. <<<<<<< If you care to follow the blog lists on those sites you are sure to find thousands more. This is where the action is, these are the folk who don't worry too much with the bull, they just get on with the job. A community, sharing ideas, tips and tricks to make life a little easier in a changing world. I think these are the folk who will make the difference, they know the real problem is greed. If a few of those plonkers took a look outside their petty little world they would get the fright of their lives. There are people everywhere working on all sorts of stuff, from backyard wind farms to growing veg in a pot.

This is where I want to be, crack on folks we'll show those useless pollies and gabfest clowns how to get the job done.

PS. The cartoons are from an exchange I had with my American mate Glen, on a building forum while building my house. Glen lives in a real neat hobbit hole in California.

Time for a change of strategy

2010-01-17T21:52:00.015+11:00

Its been an up and down week and a bit since I last posted. We have had a bit of cooler weather and a good blast of hot. The garden has taken another pounding so bits of it are looking decidedly sad. On the good side the blackberries are doing OK in the shade structure I built for them, we have had a couple of good picks with a lot more to come. These are destined for the trading post as we already have a good supply in the fridge.

The beans I planted outside the shade areas have been dealt to by the hot wind and are not looking too perky but I think they will pick up if we get a bit of cooler weather. Those in the shade house garden are fine. I have given up on the first corn crop and planted another lot with a bit of wind protection, I think we will get them through to maturity before it gets to cold. The first plants did produce a few cobs but definitely not the best corn I have seen. I will pull them out and get the ground ready for a few tomatoes I hope to carry into winter. Last winter we had tomato plants growing well right through the winter. The tomatoes we got off those plants at the end of winter where some of the ugliest looking things you would ever see but they had a taste you wouldn't believe. It was the first time we have had tomatoes survive a winter outside. They stayed happy and healthy right through with very little damage from the unusually light frosts we got. This year I will try them in a polytunnel and see if we can have them fruiting in the winter, we get enough light so if I can keep them warm it could be a winner.

Summer tomatoes have been almost a total failure this year, even the shade house ones have produced only a few small fruit. The hanging pots have kicked the bucket, another total failure. The pumpkins have suffered badly with only a few runners surviving. Today I pruned those back a bit and planted a few seedling pumpkins I had ready to go. I may have to work out some shelter for them to get them through the next month or so until it starts to cool a bit. Surprisingly some NZ yams I planted have made it through everything the summer has thrown at them. They are not a heat loving plant and usually turn their toes up if it gets over 35 degrees. I managed to get hold of a few seed yams last spring (even though they are rationed by most seed suppliers) and planted them in the shade house. As it warmed up I planted a row of dwarf beans on either side of them in the hope that cooling effect of the transpiration from the beans would help them. So far it's working and we may get a crop off them.

The Kumara are powering along under a rough shade cover and should provide us with a feed or two. The summer so far has been pretty tough and it looks like this is going to be the norm for the future. From here on it looks like we will have to start our summer crop at least a month early so they are well established by the time the heat gets at us. The shade cloth structures are going to be a permanent fixture around here, along with some wind breaks to keep the hot northerly winds from giving us the blast furnace treatment. It looks like we have to find new ways of doing stuff if we are to have any hope of an easy life on a Tough New Planet.

Managing your money

2010-01-13T12:34:00.003+11:00

From Rhondas blog

" Who knew that having a cup of coffee five days a week would cost you about $750 a year. That's an extra mortgage payment."

down---to---earth: Managing your money

Well worth the visit.

Another scorcher

2010-01-12T09:56:00.004+11:00

Ten in the morning and it's already past 35, one of my crazy neighbours is out mowing his lawn down to the dirt. Tonight it will be water everywhere trying to make it grow again, some people just can't get their head around drought. Anyway, as it's forecast to reach 43 today I made an early start, (4.30am) I've finished all my outside chores and have retired to the computer to get on with a bit of blogging. Since it is going to be another hot one I thought today's blog may as well be about our keeping cool strategy.

When I designed the house it was passive solar all the way, but of course for us passive solar is as much about cooling as keeping warm, it's quite a mild winter climate out here. We have a wide verandah around three sides of the house that keeps the sun off the windows for most of the day. To the east my neighbour has some decent trees that keep the summer morning sun from frying us and I have supplemented that with a shade cloth awning. On the western side there's a grape trellis, a carport and now a pergola. To the south I have a shade garden that supplies cool air into the house through louvre windows. House pages here and here, you may also notice that I weakened and put in aircon, but, hey I'm a senior citizen now and I melt in high temperatures.

The house is fully insulated, walls, roof and under floor so it maintains temperature quite well. At night we open the place up to the cooler night air. In the morning as soon as the temp starts rising it's batten down the hatches. Most hot days we can get away without turning the cooler on until late in the day. Some days though, like the last few and when the nights are hot that baby gets cranked up early I can tell you. The system we run is evaporative, not too hard on power but it can get through a bit of water, so we like to use it as little as possible. It's a bit of a dilemma though, water shortages and evaporative systems, but we do manage to keep our water use under 250 litres a day average for the year. Next year I hope to have it running on tank water, we'll see how it goes.

One other trick we use is quilt insulation on the windows. My fearless leader is a keen quilter so she knocked up some that fit snug in the window frames (they're not snug in these pics because I needed light for the camera work). They work a treat hot or cold. I made up some permanent rod holders and they are simply hung as the need arises.

Working hours around here when it's hot are, early start 4 - 4.30 am, weeding or watering by the light of the moon or the street lights on the nature strip. Any other quiet work until 8 am then as much noise as possible until midday. Lunch, then a nanny nap until it cools down enough for the evening shift. In this neck of the woods it's Mediterranean lifestyle all the way.

It's official!

2010-01-08T21:34:00.005+11:00

According to my bank I am now a senior citizen. As a bonus for making the grade they are no longer going charge me for the embarrassment they feel at having to look after my money. It's like getting the 100 year telegram from the Queen, I am honoured (cheeky devils).

Anyway back on track. Although I have been a bit slack with the blog over the last few weeks I have not been totally idle. I have managed to get my pergola built without getting my brain fried, we have had a few days of less than 40 degrees over the new-year period. The pergola shades the north-west corner of the house and is built over a brick courtyard where the clothes line is. No more sunburnt washing and hopeful I can look forward to looking like a rainbow in my colourful smalls (no more sun bleached underpants for me).

The garden that had been a bit frazzled with the heat started to pick up a bit with the cooler weather over the last week or so, but the forecast is for more heat over the next week, so it will probably go backwards again. Still, the shade house has done its job and we have had a bit of produce. I think next year we will start the summer crops about a month early and use the shade house to hold them through the heat.

This is so Seuss!

2009-12-24T17:53:00.000+11:00

Copenhagen

2009-12-22T16:50:00.003+11:00

I hadn't intended to use this blog for climate change commentary but the political bastardry that was Copenhagen does deserve some mention. It demonstrated perfectly that our political leaders respond only to pressure put on them by their corporate paymasters. It clearly shows when it comes down to it that "we" will continue to be shafted. We the ordinary people lack the power and can therefore be safely ignored. Every politician at Copenhagen knew and had been told plainly by their scientific advisers that there was a bare minimum that needed to be done now if we are going to prevent the worst impacts of climate change; they all refused to do it.
So where does this leave us? At least we know now that scientific evidence and rationality are not going to be enough to persuade them. If they are not going to sort this out we need to make them.

Outside of the echo chambers of the denialist blogs, amongst the reasonably informed, there is a genuine anger for the shameful failure of these leaders to broker any meaningful agreement. Over the next few years as climate change bites harder, that anger will grow, until ordinary people refuse to tolerate it any more. If they haven't got some inkling yet of how pissed off most of the public are these clowns in power are about to find out. I think they are about to get the wake up call.

The cost of trashing the planet needs to be raised and they need to feel that cost.

This post about nails it.

And for your further reading pleasure: Circus time in Kopenhagen

Looking at the future

2009-12-17T22:16:00.011+11:00

What a mongrel day, one of those days when you can smell the heat. That heat building up at two and three degrees an hour until, smack! it drops ten degrees in one. The wind, howling through from the North, hot as hell and over 65 km/h with peak wind gusts exceeding 90 km/h, and after the front passes, from the south just as strong. Trees and plants getting flogged to death and anything not nailed down sailing off to the neighbors. That spooky pink glow in the sky as half of South Australia blows past our door. It's not looking good Clive, seems like this sort of weather is becoming all to common around here.

This area is an arid place for sure and it can get darn hot at times, but it seems as if there is a lot more anger in the heat these last few years. Anything not protected from the direct sun is getting fried. Even plants that can usually take a bit of heat are getting knocked about. Any of those plonkers that think climate change is not a problem should spend a bit of time out here. I'd like to see how they're travelling at the end of a summer like this one is stacking up to be.

More shady business and some Apricots

2009-12-16T17:30:00.008+11:00

Last year along with almost everything else in the garden my blackberries and rhubarb copped a flogging from the heat. They are in a bad spot though. Being on the western side of the block, up against an iron fence they get the full force of the sun for the best part of the day, so it's to be expected they would suffer. Since I had a bit of poly pipe and some shade cloth left over from the veggie shade house, I have built another one to make sure my rhubarb and blackberry pies are up to scratch. The same construction method as before but as this is only a half hoop I made up some tube holders that have been welded to the top rail of the fence. The poly is simply screwed into them and forms the peak of the hoop. The difference this bit of extra shade has made is noticeable so I'm looking forward to a good batch of berries this year.

In other garden news, we have put down a supply of apricots for the off season. Although I don't have a tree myself, my mate Bill does. He inherited it when he brought his house, and for a supply of apricot jam has kept us in fruit for the last few years.

As well as jam there was enough for 15 blocks of stewed fruit to go with my ice cream.

For this job we use recycled fast food containers (every once in a while we lash out and dig into a bit of Chinese food from the local takeaway). These things are just the job for freezer packs as they stack nicely and don't take up too much room in the freezer. Easy to label and just enough for a meal or two. If we run out of containers we simply turn them out into bags and keep them as ice blocks

Great breakfast bread

2009-12-10T22:05:00.012+11:00

Being a connoisseur of the ham sandwich I do like good bread. And since we don't have a small, independent artisan baker close at hand we are stuck with the soggy, flavourless, junk from the supermarket. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid so I make my own. I’ve been making bread for a few years now and enjoy the work of kneading and the smell of the hot bread fresh from the oven. I love making the stuff from scratch and bake a couple of standard loaves about twice a week. But every once in a while I get a taste for pizza and since I have two mixing bowls and only need one for the pizza dough, I like to try out a bread that's a little different. Today's bread is my version of Argentine chimichurri bread, a great breakfast bread, toasted under a poached egg.

The Recipe.
2-1/2 cups plain flour & 1 cup whole grain flour

1-1/4 cups warm water

2 tsp dried fresh yeast

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Good pinch cayenne pepper

3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 clove garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons chopped red onion

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Method

Combine the fresh yeast with the water and honey in a bowl.

Leave the mixture to rest in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until frothy on the surface.

With the flour in a large bowl mix in salt, onion, garlic, parsley and cayenne.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast liquid, mix a little then stir in the olive oil and vineager.

Using either floured hands or a wooden spoon, mix together to form dough.

Turn out on to a floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Return to bowl and cover with glad wrap and tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.

Turn out on to work surface and 'knock back' by punching the dough. This releases any air bubbles which would make the dough uneven.

Return to bowl and let rise again, turn out and knock back then form the loaf, let it rise further before placing into a hot oven, about 200C for about 25 min.

The oven is a gas fired pizza oven and is the bees knees for bread baking. I brought this little beauty because cooking inside in the summer is impossible, it's just too hot.

The trading post

2009-12-07T20:42:00.009+11:00

Its where all the extra produce goes and is traded for stuff we don't have on our side of the fence. Our neighbour is also a keen gardener and despite growing mostly the same type of produce our gardens never seem to be quite in synch, so having the trading post means for the most part we both end up with the veg we need when we need it. There are also a few things we each have that the other doesn't, he has chocks, I don't, so eggs are in demand on our side. I like to try my luck with odd fruits and berries so any extra makes it's way to his place. And I've got lots of rhubarb, there's none on his side of the tin fence. Its not only garden produce that's traded, John (that's his name) is a dab hand at chutney and jams while I'm the master baker, although, I've had to put him on rations in the cinnamon scroll department after he beat me into second place in the chocolate cake event at the show this year. Anything that we can't handle eventually makes it's way to the wider community.

Hanging pot tomatoes

2009-11-30T19:43:00.015+11:00

As I had planted a few extra tomatoes to use in the the hanging pot experiment, I thought rather than throw all my eggs in one basket and just trial the upside down version I would use one for another idea I had. This is simply a hanging pot with longer hangers. The idea being that the tomato would grow the right way up and the longer hanger could act as a staking system or cage for the growing plant. Still useful if you are short of space or don't have any actual dirt to grow them in or if you just like hanging plants. So here's what I did.

I cut a couple of lengths of 6mm poly rope (4mm would be fine) at about 4 metres, found the center and tied a loop knot in them. Next I found a pot with a good strong rim and drilled four holes in it. The pot I used is about 250mm and is about the smallest I felt would give the plant enough root space to grow. A bigger pot would work just as well but it's a trade-off between growing space and weight. The ropes are simply passed thought the holes and tied off under the pot. You could if you are keen on craft and wanted to get fancy, make these holders using Macrame, (all the rage in the 70s).

Now plant the tomato and watch it grow. Too easy. I think this method has a few advantages over the upside down pots and would just be a better way to go. The pots hung like this would not be such a problem in the wind as the weight acts as a dampener, the whole thing swings rather than just the plant getting flogged around. The plant is happier growing the right way up and the long ropes make a perfect staking system.

I added a piece of ply near the top that acts as a spreader so the ropes don't crush the pot sides. And with the pot at a manageable height watering and feeding should be a breeze.

Over the next few weeks I will do some updates on how the two systems are progressing, in fact it could become a bit of a Hot Topic.

Upside down tomatoes

2009-11-29T22:07:00.020+11:00

The idea of growing tomatoes upside down was something I had come across some time ago while cruising garden blogs on the nett. The idea seemed to be that growing them upside down would eliminate the hassles of weeding, pests, digging, staking out or using tomato cages. And for people with limited space, hanging the plant upside down might be a good way to go. Some sunny balcony or deck might just be the perfect place for growing a few tomatoes this way. But as space was not an issue for me I didn't bother following it up.

This year, after a request from one of my daughters for ideas on growing a few veggies in the limited space of her small unit I decided to revisit this method of growing them. But not being confident that upside down was the best method, I decided to also try another idea I had for growing in hanging pots. I will detail both methods in separate posts.

While there are a variety of commercial products available for growing tomato plants the wrong way round, I preferred a home-made solution and settled on some 200mm pots I had laying around. As the cherry tomato and small-fruited varieties seem to be considered the most suited to this growing method and I had a couple of extra plants of this type this is what I will be using. They are black cherry, a small fruited, climbing tomato.

First a hole needs to be created in the “bottom” of the container. Then some newspaper or fiber mat slit to allow the seedling to be planted through is placed in the bottom of the pot. The pot is then filled with the growing mix, I used a mixture of soil and compost. At this stage some sort of lid is needed to keep the soil in the pot. When the pot is filled with the soil mix it is then inverted and the seedling planted in the hole.

As growing the plant upside down puts some stress on it as it will still want to do what comes naturally, you will need to grow the plant right side up until it is about 300mm high. This will make sure that the plant has some decent root growth and will be large enough to be out of the shade of the pot. It is important for tomato health that they have at least 6-8 hours of sun a day so this will also dictate the hanging spot.

Once the plant is big enough it can be hung in it's chosen place. A few things need to be considered here. First upside down pots weigh a bit when filled with damp soil and a large tomato plant, this makes hanging them a challenge. Also, an upside down tomato plant will swing a bit in a stiff breeze, so make sure you take that into consideration as well. If you are going to hang one from a wall or ceiling, make sure all of your hardware is strong enough to hold all the weight. There would be nothing more soul destroying than having the whole lot come crashing down ruining your work and weeks of loving care.

The photo above illustrates one of the first problems with this method of growing tomatoes. Within eight hours the plant has twisted around and started to grow upwards. Nevertheless I will continue with the experiment and from time to time update progress.

As well as the hanging pots I will be looking at growing some tomatoes in wicking boxes. I will probably use some of the bush variates for this and grow them later in the season. Roma, Siberian or Taxi are a few of the tomato variates that work well here when its cooler, I may even throw in a few Black Russian.

Shade-houses are cool

2009-11-26T17:43:00.029+11:00

Last summer our veggie patch was absolutely smashed by the heat. I did however manage to save a few tomato bushes and a bit of corn with a last minute jury rigged shade-house. I promised myself then that I would be ready for it this year and set to work researching hoop-house design on the nett. This site had a pretty neat looking set-up so I decided that this was the model for me. You will find a full construction manual and parts list there so I won't go into any detail here. I did however make a few minor changes to my hoop-house to accommodate my needs. Rather than run the shade cloth along the length of the structure I have it across and have fastened it with butterfly clips and ropes, tarpaulin fashion. I have done it this way so I can remove it easily in the winter to give me more light. It may even be possible to cover it with some greenhouse plastic and make it into a large cloche.

This shade-house was built to cover my new beds so post spacing was about 2.1 meters. This is not shade cloth width so a little bit of bodgie work was need to cover it. If I was starting from scratch I would make the whole thing cloth width modules, i.e. posts at 1.8 centres and a bed set out similar to the wicking bed layout here.

I have also left the structure relativity open to allow easy entry and exit of pollinators. One end is covered with shade cloth, the other is a bean frame. And as the sides are a simple tie-down set up I can easily work the beds from the outside. As the cloth is lose over the main part of the frame I can if needed slip some extra cloth under it for added shade as required. My hoop-house is 6.5 meters long by 3 meters wide and a tad under 2.4 meters high at the centre. The cut length of my poly-pipe was 6.5 meters and the whole thing was adjusted for evenness when I put the battens on. These battens come in about 6 meter lengths but are easily joined by simply overlapping and pop-riveting. Cost wise, not too bad at about $200 for the whole she-bang but I did get some of the poly free and I had a bit of spare shade-cloth and a few star pickets hanging around.
So there you have it, one cool shade-house thanks to the folks at Easy-Grow Vegetables, I do like it when people are keen to share neat ideas.

We don't know how lucky we are

2009-11-26T11:43:00.008+11:00

Well I'm flabbergasted, absolutely astounded, you could knock me down with a feather. More Rain! I had thought a trip to the stables for more horse poo was on the cards for today but it looks like I get to stay inside and do a bit of blogging. Or I could bake a cake, maybe a practice run on my entry for the chocolate cake comp at the local show next year. Or a book perhaps, or maybe ten minutes in the beanbag, I'm spoilt for choice.

Update: It was 12mm and the beanbag won.

Rain on the plains

2009-11-22T12:11:00.006+11:00

We're blessed, it's rained, good rain to, about 19mm in the last two days. That's about 225mm for the year so far but still around 138mm shy of the long term average, so we will require some heavy duty rain in the next couple of months to catch up. Still what we have is welcome and things have livened up in the garden now, it's like magic, plants are popping out of the ground everywhere. I even found a Kumara I had planted for slips and forgotten about. A dwarf lemon tree I had to move the other day because it wasn't doing so well where it was, has picked up and even has some new buds on. I had given up hope of it ever making the grade so that's a bonus, we may even get a lemon or two off it yet. The swales are wet and the water tank got a top up so it's all good in the land of windblown dust and dirt.

The raised bed is dead.

2009-11-19T19:06:00.018+11:00

When I started our veggie garden about 2005 I built a raised bed system and although initially it worked well and was reasonably productive, I have since demolished it in favour of a more traditional on the ground system. The problem with the raised bed was that it was too water intensive and a pain in the butt to garden. Being at an odd height it meant I was always having to bend and reach, putting a stain on my back. Sitting on the side was no better as it meant twisting to reach any plants that where not near the edge. The only way it really worked was to climb on the bed and work from there, which sort of defeated the idea of having a raised bed in the first place. As I also wanted to extend the garden a bit I decided to rip it all out and start again. The new layout is two beds about a meter wide that I can work from both sides, with a narrower bed across the back . A narrow path splits the two beds and is paved with old bricks. The whole area takes up about 20sq meters and will be gardened in a variation of the French intensive gardening technique.

With this method the soil is worked quite deep and enriched with compost and humus to produce a light, fluffy soil. This encourages healthy plant growth and the production of deep roots.

An astounding array of crops can be produced in quite a small space when the garden is well laid out, and when space is limited it's an extremely efficient way of gardening. With this system plants are typically grown very close together, with the leaves of the plants creating a cover which reduces weeds and helps keep the soil moist, acting almost like mulch.

As well as the dedicated veggie patch, I have, mixed with the native plants in the more formal parts of the garden a number of fruit trees and vines. We grow rhubarb, thorn-less blackberry, grape and strawberries. There are a number of fruit trees scattered around the place as well, these include tamarillo, pear, plumcot, fig and gooseberry trees. We don't as yet have any of Adam's apples.

Hot as hell in Hay and Booligal

2009-11-18T21:31:00.010+11:00

This from the Bureau of Meteorology today.

New daily maximum temperature records for November have already been set at Wilcannia (45.2ºC) and Broken Hill (43.4ºC) on 16 November. Many stations across NSW are likely to set new November daily maximum temperature records over the next two days, Griffith and Cobar are both forecast to exceed their record temperatures on Thursday with temperatures of 45ºC. Broken Hill is likely to smash it's very recent record, set Tuesday, with 45ºC forecast for Thursday.

In addition to daily temperature records many sites across southwestern NSW are now setting records for a consecutive number of very hot days in November. Locations such as Hay, Deniliquin and Balranald have now experienced a record 8 days in a row above 35ºC. Broken Hill has set a record of 9 consecutive days over 35ºC and 6 consecutive days over 38ºC. With high temperatures forecast to persist in this region until at least Saturday these records are likely to be significantly extended.

It's looking like another long, hot, and miserable summer for us again this year. And we already have plants burnt by the sun.

A little history as a starter

2009-11-18T16:53:00.021+11:00

As this is my first post on the blog it is probably a good idea to give a little history as a starter. About mid 2003 we started building a new home for ourselves in Hay, southwest NSW. The house we built was pretty much stock standard every day type construction (didn't want to scare the neighbors to much) with a bit of tweaking here and there to make it as much as possible passive solar. I stayed away from alternate building methods mainly for resale value and durability issues. But we did where possible use recycled bits and pieces in the construction. We moved into the house in February 2006 and finishing up has been an ongoing process attended to as time permits. For those interested in the building saga the link is in the side bar along with links to a few other sites of interest. So far the house is living up to all the things I expected of it and we are really happy with the way it has all worked out. This blog will also be a continuation of my house building web page so from time to time I will catch up on a few of the things I didn't get round to documenting there.

Hay is a small country town in the Riverina area of NSW. The Murrumbidgee River flows through the town, and is approximately 100 meters from the north boundary of our block. We have been in a drought for the last 10 years and river flows are reduced because of lack of water in the dams that supply this area. This has caused a dramatic drop in agricultural production in this area and most towns on the river are implementing water restrictions on their populations. Winters here are mild and temperatures rarely get below freezing, so this is our better growing season, although lack of rain in the last few years has caused us a few problems. Summers are hot, commonly in the mid 30's to mid 40s, and that makes summer gardening a challenge, the 2008 summer was particularly bad with a series of heat waves that destroyed most gardens around here. This year I will be ready for it and I will be doing some posts that will look at some of the ideas I am trialing to deal with it.