LJ70 Build Thread!

[clivehorridge]

Great update Ben, Lexi looks smart as well as cute, a bit of a dangerous combination in a female

As for compost, trust me, I'm no botanist, but I would have thought no air would have promoted rotting. For example, if you see farmed silage on a big scale they bind the grass up tight in a sealed plastic bag. You can do this yourself with grass cuttings in a black bin liner, air squeezed out and tied tight. It will be a stinking soup within 6 months, where grass can take 2 years or more to decompose out in the open. Just my thoughts mate, you'll get where you want with some practice, trial and error!

All good stuff, keep up the hippy life, you'll be listening to Neil Young next

 

[StarCruiser]

A tip for your compost, get some carpet and cut it to fit over the top of the compost. I built two wooden compost bins for Lynn that rotted at the bottom quicker than they made compost. you might want to cut the bottom off that but the holes in it might well do the trick. Lynn has started using a piece of carpet and it has turbocharged the compost production.

The key is to keep the heat in but to provide some ventilation and good drainage. I think my wooden bins gave too much ventilation and the stuff just dried out.

We did get some compost after a while and I spread it all over one part of Lynn's vegetable plot when I built it up. Next thing we knew was we started getting potatoes growing. Got a pretty good crop just from the scrap spuds that went in the compost and grew. [emoji4]

Leeks are easy. Butternut squash take over (the whole garden if you're not careful). Courgettes are good (aren't they Chas? [emoji4][emoji6]) but turn into mega size if you leave them too long [emoji4] which is no problem really.

 

[Chas]

Courgettes? remind me.

 

[StarCruiser]

Courgettes? remind me.

Ratatouille Chas, ratatouille…[emoji4]

 

[ModelMakerMan]

You might want to reconsider putting the compost bin on the decking Ben. They tend to leak out a brown liquid that eats through just about anything except plastic; wood doesn't last long. My Dad built a raised compost bin which drained into a bucket and uses the brown liquid as a fertiliser when watering the fruit and veg plants. Tomato plants love it!

 

[Shayne]

I agree with Clive the vents are to let gas and heat escape not to let air in .

 

[clivehorridge]

Hey guys, we're all hippies

 

[Chas]

Ratatouille Chas, ratatouille…[emoji4]

Ah yes! I remember now. AOS

 

[StarCruiser]

You might want to reconsider putting the compost bin on the decking Ben. They tend to leak out a brown liquid that eats through just about anything except plastic; wood doesn't last long. My Dad built a raised compost bin which drained into a bucket and uses the brown liquid as a fertiliser when watering the fruit and veg plants. Tomato plants love it!

Agree, they're better off on the soil which lets the worms in. Lots of worms =good compost. [emoji4]

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

I cant find the link to the page I found when I was searching DIY compost bin options. But it said that maximum air flow helps the decomposition process and that drilling holes all over a large plastic container was a good way of doing it.

It also said to try and layer what you put in so that its mixed up a bit and to give it a good shake/turn over regularly to get plenty of air into it. Some people also insert PVC pipe with lots of holes drilled through it down into the middle of the compost to help aerate it.

Good point Dave, about it leaking on the deck.

Moving it might be tricky as from what I've read its better to keep them in a shady spot so they dont start smelling, and everywhere else in the garden gets sun. Might see if I can find/make a drip tray to go under it.

 

[Ben]

I worked in a factory Monday and Tuesday making stainless steel medical trolleys. It was quite interesting and I learnt a lot about sheet metal. I learnt the quick way to scribe multiple bend marks onto sheet metal and I also learnt how to do a safety fold which not only creates a nice safe edge on sheet metal it also adds a lot of strength to thin sheet if you are bending up a box or table top for example.

But after 2 days I had had enough! It was hot, boring, repetitive work. It also felt quite demoralising doing a job that was such a waste of my skills and the money was shit! So I quit and had Wednesday at home looking for jobs.

Managed to pick up some agency work for yesterday doing carpentry on a huge site in Brisbane building a 100 bed nursing home. Was a good job and money was reasonable but they only needed some one for one day so I've got another day off today.

Thinking ideally I need to get away from the agency work and find some more permanent sub contracting work direct for a building company. Its all about who you know and sadly I dont know that many people up here yet.

In more exciting news we took Lexi to Bunnings!

Bunnings is a huge chain of DIY/building merchants over here. Its basically like a huge mix of stores we get in the UK such as Travis Perkins, Jewsons, Build Center, B&Q, Homebase etc all rolled into one and its awesome!

They allow well behaved dogs in the store so we wanted to take Lexi to get her out of the house and get her used to people. She absolutely loved it and didn't stop wagging her tail the whole time we were there and everyone stopped us for a pat and said how beautiful she is!

 

[Paddler Ed]

Is Lexi fully vaccinated or is she only on her first round of jabs?

If she's only had her first round, I'd be worried about Parvo, there's quite a bit going around in some areas - we have it around here and it's one to think about as it doesn't need direct contact with another dog as it stays in the environment for a long period of time. It looks like you're taking reasonable precautions by not letting her on the ground, but still...

 

[jezza]

It's been a lot longer than usual since your last post Ben I hope all is well and there has been no disasters


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ben]

Is Lexi fully vaccinated or is she only on her first round of jabs?

If she's only had her first round, I'd be worried about Parvo, there's quite a bit going around in some areas - we have it around here and it's one to think about as it doesn't need direct contact with another dog as it stays in the environment for a long period of time. It looks like you're taking reasonable precautions by not letting her on the ground, but still...

She gets her final vaccination this Saturday and then we can finally take her out properly!

Cant wait to take her to the beach and out 4wding and camping!

It's been a lot longer than usual since your last post Ben I hope all is well and there has been no disasters


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks mate.

All going good just nothing really to report sadly.

Decent work is certainly a lot harder to find up here and thats been a bit of a surprise!

Hopefully something decent will come up soon.

I sacked one of my agencies last week as they kept offering me low paid work, dangling carrots, saying "just do this low paid work for now and we will get you on the better stuff next week" and generally being rude to me on the phone.

The other 3 agencies have been much better and I've had some good jobs paying $40+ per hour but its involved a bit of traveling up to Brisbane everyday which isnt great with the traffic, so its 2+ hours in stop start traffic a day.

If I cant find any decent work on the GC I'm going to look into working away.

On a happier note.............................

Hoping to pick up a Yamaha WR450F Enduro this week!

Atleast then weeks like this one when I have no work on I can get out in the day and have some fun exploring the local tracks!

 

[jezza]

Hoping to pick up a Yamaha WR450F Enduro this week!

Atleast then weeks like this one when I have no work on I can get out in the day and have some fun exploring the local tracks!

Very Nice!!

 

[Ben]

The weather has been sensational lately! 25-30 degrees everyday with lots of sun, so we've been spending a lot of time on the deck!

The deck fruit & vegetable garden is looking great.

I was running out of space though so I built and added some extra boxes.

I bought a pineapple last week at the monthly artisan market in Byron and planted the top so that it will grow into a pineapple plant.

The strawberry plants are doing great!

I planted some of the runners off the strawberry plants, so hopefully next year I will have even more strawberry plants.

The tomato seedlings are also doing well!

As I was running out of pallet wood I only had short pieces left, so I had to get creative with the final 2 planter extensions.

Lexi is doing great and is now completely house trained toilet wise.

 

[clivehorridge]

Lexi is lovely, you'll soon be able to start training her...

My brother's pup is now grown up and an old timer, but he's learned a few tricks over the years, he loves it!

 

[Ben]

Thanks.

Great video! Its no wonder they are the words smartest dog!

There is a guy from Sydney I've been following for a few years on facebook who has 2 beautiful BC's which he has trained to do some amazing tricks!

He was on Australia's Got Talent this year and his dogs Holly & Ace have been on TV a few times.

This is one of his many videos.

https://www.facebook.com/DAI.AOKI1974/videos/vb.1157886062/10206934616821409/?type=2&theater

 

[Ben]

Yamaha's

Its over a decade since I last had a bike on the road. My last one was a Yamaha DT125R and for a little liquid cooled 125cc 2 stroke it was pretty quick!

I blew the engine up more times than I can remember from riding it flat out everywhere! I used to give my good mate Nelson a lift back from technical college on it when we were both apprentices and we would sit on 75-80mph the whole way.

This was the bike:

(I didn't like having photos taken back then hence the less than impressed face )

So Wednesday night I went and looked at a new bike, a Yamaha WR450F.

Test rode it and shook hands on the deal.

As I had a days work yesterday (only one of the week ) up that way, I took a trailer and picked it up after work.

Took it for a ride up Tambourine Mountain last night which is only a few k's behind our house.

Excellent views of the city and the coast below.

It goes really well and has a ridiculous amount of torque and power. Pulling the throttle back in anything but 5th gear, sends the front wheel skywards.

Going shopping for some Moto X gear today, need a helmet, goggles, gloves, boots, kidney belt, body armor, knee pads etc.

Theres loads of bits I want to get for the bike to improve it, but I might have to wait until I've worked a bit more.

Hoping to go off road for the day on it on Sunday!

So the toy collection is getting better! Just need a duel cab 79, a jet ski and a canoe now and I will have all the toys I want!

 

[fridayman]

It's worth putting some protection on the bike like a decent bash plate, case covers and bark busters or similar. I also carried a small, carefully selected, toolkit with tyre levers and a spare tube with me. For longer trips I also had spare brake/clutch levers and a backup clutch cable (routed next to the working one).