Lexi, Work & Me Becoming More Hippy Man!
Lexi!
These are the pieces I had to add to the stairgate to stop her escaping.
I had forgotten how much puppy's sleep!
She fell asleep outside in the rain the other day and didnt really even wake up when I picked her up and carried her in.
She seems to like playing in her bed but I've not actually seen her sleep in it yet, she prefers the cold tiles at the moment.
Work.
This is the sporting pavilion I've been working on which is being built for the council for next years Gold Coast Common Wealth Games.
My main job has been helping them finish attaching sheets of ply wood to the underside of the roof.
Its right on the water where they are reclaiming part of the sea, Dubai style, to create a piece of artificial land where they are building a big swimming pool.
Looks a bit better on a sunny day!
I finished the roof.
Its a shame that site is almost done as it was a nice place to work. I've met some great contacts though so hopefully I will get some more carpentry work soon.
I'm working in a factory Monday making stainless steel medical trolleys. The good thing about doing this agency work is that I only have to finish the day/shift I'm working and then I can tell them I'm going to a different job if I want. So if one of the agency's I'm registered with finds me some more high paid carpentry work I will be leaving the stainless factory and going back on site!
Hippy!
Being on a building site proved very useful for getting building materials for my vegetable/fruit garden!
I was nearly out of pallet wood.
Although I have gained a big pile of firewood for the next 4wd trip as pallet harvesting can be quite messy and wasteful.
Anyway.......................
So I got some lengths of 3x2 and 4x2 that were destined for the skip.
Cut them up with some fancy angles on the ends.
And screwed them all together with some pallet wood to create a sort of horse shaped raised tomato planter.
My ultimate goal/dream is to be completely self sufficient with regards to fruit, vegetables, chicken and eggs!
Another thing I'm aiming for is to have zero waste going to landfill!
We're very good at recycling in this country and up her in Queensland, like much of Australia we have a big 240 litre wheelie bin that we put all our recyclable items into such as glass, tin, alluminium, cardboard and certain plastics, that then gets emptied every 2 weeks.
So I've been looking at what waste we can stop sending to landfill and a compost bin for all our vegetable peelings, banana skins, egg shells, tea bags etc. seemed a no brainer, especially as it will also provide me with good compost for my vegetable garden.
I found in the skip at work a box that they sink into the ground with a man hole cover on the top and run all the services inside.
They must have drilled the holes in the wrong place and that is why it was scrap.
I decided to cut out the section with 2 of the holes and add a door there to access the compost.
Drilled hundreds of random holes all over the box to ensure maximum airflow to speed up the decomposition process.
Cut some ply I also scavenged from the skip, on the saw horses I also managed to acquire at the end of the job.
Drilled through the ply and through the box in the correct position and added some bolts through to give me some studs.
This bottom door/cover could then be bolted on with wing-nuts.
Cut another piece of ply for the top and added some simple rope handles. Sat it up on some blocks of wood to help with airflow and thats my compost bin done!
I'm blown away by how well and how quickly stuff grows in this climate! Its much better growing conditions than Melbourne!
The strawberry plants were virtually dead for a year back in Melbourne despite me watering them regularly and sitting them in a sunny position.
Now there huge and are about to start producing fruit!
I built a simple stand to raise the planter up which has the tomato plants in, up away from the puppy.
They too have shot up and are about to start producing fruit! I've got my first tomato on the vine.
The tomato seeds that I saved from a shop bought tomato, germinated in my cupboard and then planted in pots have produced lots of little healthy tomato plants!
Some will be getting planted in my horse shaped planter and some will go in another one against the fence.
The seeds I saved from a shop bought capsicum/pepper, germinated in the cupboard and then planted in pots have also started growing into little plants.
So my little deck based vegetable/fruit garden is going great!
Cant wait until we can buy some land and I can build my off grid eco house and start growing fruit and vegetables on a much larger scale and be as self sufficient and off grid as possible!
Oh almost forgot.........................
I've got 2 4wd trips coming up soon hopefully!!
One in the Northern New South Wales hinterland and one to LandCruiser mountain Park.
