Happenings in the Greenhouse

At the end of summer i took cuttings from some of my fruit trees to see if i could get them to root over winter in the greenhouse. I removed the bottom leaves, soaked the stems in water for a few mins and then dipped each one in rooting hormone and popped them into the grow pots.

Signs of Spring

We have had next to no rain this year, until that is when it started to pour down last Saturday afternoon and continued right through until early this morning. It is still grey and cloudy but the sun peeks through every now and then to say hello and the rain is starting to lighten up.
While it has stopped for the minute i thought i'd have a walk around my yard.
 Most of my orchid looks like this with their bare winter arms.

 However i also see signs of spring with the blossom taking a chance on some of my fruit trees.

Our water tank is full again, as you can see from the over flow barrel. The wire is so birds can drink and not drown in it, as was the case before we added the wire.

My chooks have been doing a great job up in the vegetable garden, digging it through and eating up anything that was leftover in the beds. It still needs digging through before we redo the beds for planting.
I have been asked before why we used white netting over black, the reason is with the white netting the birds can easily see and don't get tangled in it. The black is a lot harder for them to see. We have a lot of birds here i probably see at least 10 different species a day, even more of the ones i can hear and not see.

As you can see my lemon tree still has a few fruit on it. Lemon Pudding any one?

The orange tree down in the chook yard has some fruit on it. This morning the Magpies were steeling food from the chook yard, its a mama and her two babies and they are defiantly not scared when you approach them [no photos as it was raining].

It is starting to rain again and i can see from my window that the Rosella's are eating the blossom from one of the plum trees and picking through the grass. The Bower birds are in the loquat tree making a racket and i see small fruit starting to form.

The grass has started to turn from brown to green. Even tho it is cold outside it feels like spring is on its way or maybe it's just because i see so many trees with flowers.

Soon all these seedling trays will be full again, oh Spring the time of everything new and fresh.

Linked here
Backyard Farming Connection
Motivation Monday # 104
Homemaking Monday # 14
Momemade Monday # 94

Chook Feeder

When we went out to the Mudgee Small Farms Show the other week we came home with a new chook feeder.

Mr GoingGreen walking through the top orchid going down to the chook yard. New feeder in one hand and a bowl of hot breakfast for the girls in the other. That hot breakfast was rolled oats, grated carrots, garlic, cabbage and milk mmmm.

This is the old plastic feeder with the open top that held about 2 kg. If it got spun around too much the green base would come off. We have it hung on an old cooking tripod.

The new feeder holds 9kg of feed and has a lid and the base is attached. It was $30, i don't know if that's a good price or not and i'm not all that happy with it.
 I think that it lets out too much feed all at once and lots more gets wasted either on the floor of the shed or to all the blasted birds who think its a free for all.
When i move the girls up to the vege garden for the day i just close the shed door so the birds cant get in. A couple of times i have put the feeder into 44 gallon drum at holds all the bulk feed and get it back out again in the afternoon. I cant just close up the shed when they are in the yard or they will lay their eggs outside.

I did find a set of plans for a Treadle Chicken Feeder and i think that i'm going to get Mr GoinGreen to make me two of them. The reason for two is that Miss Black is mean and does not always like to share. We did see the grandpas metal chook feeders at the show as well as another company's but at $195 each its just way out of most peoples budget and if you order on line you can also add Aus Post charges on top of that.

I would love to hear about what sort of feeder you have for your girls?

Anne here is the link for the Firewood Permit you asked about, we are headed out there tomorrow and we will be picking up a couple of boxes of apples, at $10 a box you cant go wrong.



Linked here Say G-Day Saturday Linky Party #97
and here From The Farm Blog Hop
and here Old Fashioned Friday #78
and here Simple Lives Thursday #203
and here Simple Saturdays July 26

House Tour

Thought id give you a little picture tour of our house its been a few years [well 5 to be exact] since we became home owners and we have been slowly renovating it. its almost finished and i think it has turned out great.

We will start at the front of the house with bedroom 1.

These are the before pictures of this room, the walls were pink the wardrobe, door and floor were varnished timber. We put in all new architraves and skirting boards. Now its painted Antique White USA on the doors, trim & floor the wall colour is called Seascape.  Its a very calming room and i love it especially the floor as it was the first room i did white.

Floor Rug

Bedside Table

 This is as you walk in, you can see the difference between the limed boards and the white boards

 A large picture window covers pretty much the whole wall. We had new thermal backed curtains made.

 I saw something similar to this on line [i cant find the link]. i made this with some of the wall colours i used throughout the house. The boards were from a packing crate.

Bedroom 3

This is bedroom 3, it started out yellow then went to white with one blue wall & now its Bleached Spruce and again the Antique White USA for the trim, doors and floor. This was son # 2's room now its the spare room.

 When it was a bedroom

Now a work room

Bedroom 2 was son number 1's room now its my work room.

Bedroom hallway one wall painted Daiquiri Ice its a very nice orange, the other walls are Harbour [this colour is used in bedroom 4]

Front door entry painted  Harbour, double door cupboard, lime washed doors the same as the kitchen cupboards. It has a metal vent at the bottom as half the cupboard is used for the home server.

These are the before pictures of the lounge, yes another yellow room. The lounge has two entries, one from the front hall and the other from the kitchen and both have glass sliding doors. As with bedroom one a very large picture window covers one wall. All new architraves and skirting boards.

 The new wall colour is called Biz Wiz and again all the trim is in Antique White USA. It took 16 metres of sheer curtain to cover the window.

The Coffee Table my son made as his year 10 major wood project.
The TV/Sofa table was made by my brother in law as a wedding gift.

My wonderful husband made this bookcase for me, i really like it especially the scallop trim at the top & bottom. the cupboard part holds stacks more books. I like to learn new things so i buy lots of books.

He also made me this great wood box, I will be making a cushion for it so it can be seating when its not fire season.

From the orange and blue hall to the Green Kitchen hall. On the left is the built in pantry we added a wire fly screen door. I wanted to paint it red but could not find a true red so antique white it is.

Kitchen Coat Rack 

 Kitchen Renovation

Kitchen Renovation part 2

Love the black granite island bench top, excellent for rolling pastry, kneading bread, making pasta and working with chocolate.

The brushed stainless splash back is a dream to clean.

Family/Dinning area is the best room in the house. It gets all the sun as its north facing, the windows are double glazed so toasty warm in winter and cool in summer. The sun heats the tiled floor and radiates through the whole house. We had block-out roller blinds made so you can watch TV during the day.

 Family/Dinning

The colours we used are Sea Urchin on one wall and Ocean Wave on the other three.

 Before it was a bedroom

Before it was a bedroom part 2

This room was once my work room and bedroom 4, i loved working in this room, now its son number 2's room as he has a kingsize bed pus all his other stuff i decided to give up my room to him, besides all that in bedroom 3 was ridiculous you could not move.

The only rooms not done are the bath/toilet and hopefully we will be doing those in the next few months.

Bathroom / Toilet

New Toilet

Also not pictured is the Laundry we are redesigning that as well, we were going to extend it but decided not to, this may also happen in the next few months.

Hot Water System

Sally Girl guarding the fire, pretty much where she spends all her time over winter. If its not going in the mornings she comes to wake me up to put it on, its why her name changes to Fire Dog in winter.
I hope you enjoyed the house tour :o)

New Work Room

My craft  room use to be in the other large bed room but i decided to give up my awesome room to my son. Room # 1 Room # 2 Room # 3 will show you what it was like.

The room i moved into is bedroom 3 and was also my eldest sons room, when we moved in it was this hideous canary yellow colour.

 Then my son painted it this dark Aqua i really like the colour but i wanted something new so

I went with this grey called Sea Urchin & painted the trim & floor with Antique White Usa

I love how it turned out. The white floor makes the room look a lot lighter & bigger, well that was until i filled with all my stuff.

My last room was twice this size so i had to work hard to fit every thing in. It mostly went well, however i could not fit in my corner computer desk so my computer is now on one of my work tables.

As you can see above, my desk is so close to my kitchen dresser that i can only open one of the bottom doors.

The other thing i could not fit, is my big book case & it remains in the other room & is still filled with all my books. I do like that my sewing table is in the middle of the floor it makes it a more usable surface.

The wardrobe was mostly empty so i was able to fit quite a lot of things in there.
My son had one of his mates over & they moved every thing in 2 hours including all his furniture as well. As the room is a lot smaller it is easier to keep tidy, well i have only been in here for two weeks so i guess we will see. we only have one more bedroom to paint & then its onto the bathroom when we have some money that is.

Bedside Table

This two draw bedside table i purchased at a furniture store that was closing down it was $65 but i got it for $40. I picked it up after work & carried it all the way up Katoomba Street, on the train & home. It may be small but boy did it get heavy real quick.

Here it is in the shed ready for some paint & as its raw pine i did not have to do anything to it first. don't know why the picture kept loading sideways.

The paint was left over from my sons room it a Dulux colour called Zunni. a real nice dark aqua colour.
Left it to dry for a few days & then dry brushed flat white over the top.

Then just a light hand sand & a coat of varnish.

The knobs i got at the Antique store in Blackheath Victory Theatre Antique Centre. You cant see it but they have a star burst pattern on them. I also add wheels to the legs.

Here it is in my newly renovated bedroom [more on that another day]. The chair i purchased from one of those linen/home-wares stores it was quite expensive at $69, but after 3 weeks of thinking about it, i just had to have it for my new room so i saved up for it. It came as a set but luckily you could purchase it separate. 

Linked here at be different act normal