Upcycling - recycling but better.

Rhonda over at Down to Earth posted this week on recycling and asked others to talk about their efforts. My house, and the majority of it's contents are recycled in some way, in fact it's only in the last year or so that I have ever bought new furniture (although I did buy new whitegoods when I moved into my house as I had given my old ones away a year before when I moved from Sydney to the south coast to board with friends.

My garden beds are recycled from old fences, rabbit cage from an old chook cage that was chucked out on the side of the road, Some of my plants are recycled (cuttings, saplings from other gardeners, even a mature pear tree that someone gave us in return for digging it out of her garden.) About half of my kitchen equipment is recycled, handed down by an aunt when she replaces things, collected at op shops and garage sales etc. Clothes the same. The list could go on....

Probably my favourite example of recycling/upcycling is my wedding. (click on hyperlink to go to photographer's blog) I got married in June and a lot of things were recycled. Candle holders from op shops and markets, vases from a friend at church, ring holder made from an antique prayer book by inserting a secret hole by cutting out with a punch. We also had a friend drive me to the wedding in a recycled boat (he bought it worse for wear and did it up) some friends were taking bets that I would fall in as there wasn't a proper jetty and we had to walk off the front of the boat

The most important upcycled item was my wedding dress. I purchased it over ten years ago (about 9 or so years before I met my husband but anyhow, it was a steal) in a second hand shop as it was beautiful and fit me like it was made for me... It was a bit old in style though - think lace sleeves with frills over your hands, high frilly neck. I unpicked the sleeves and worked out that I could modernise the dress by pulling it to the sides. Lucky for me I have an amazing friend who studied fashion design and together we recreated the dress....
And it was an amazing wedding!

This last photo is a photo of us recycling a shed - It was originally recycled with old corrugated iron roofing, built around an old cottage fireplace with chimney - to use as kitchen for a camp, and storage when camp not on.

It was blown down in storms last year in September (on father's day - Aussies will remember the weather on the south coast) and we rerecycled it.

grateful for the garden

Thankful for chickens digging me up some sweet potatoes! I didn't even guess they would be ready. They were orange, decent sized and delicious.

Thankful for getting an egg from every chicken today - four brown and one blue/green (from speckles the bantam)

Thankful for willing teenage hands who were happy to mow the lawn in return for a free feed.

Thankful for the opportunity to invite said hands to church, and even more so that they came!

Thankful for the rain that fell last night (of course watering the garden will always bring that one on :)

Thankful for the bees and wasps, working hard to pollinate my flowers. Looking forward to apricots!

I could go on for so long, the garden is growing, the birds are laying, the fruit is ripening. I just need more time to get it all done. Last sunday I doubled the size of the no dig garden to surround the small walnut tree, need to do another layer on top before it's ready and then looking at planting a lot of my spring veges like beans and corn there. Can't wait to watch it all grow and then to eat it all.

Don't you love this image - Listening to Nature. It's by Rob Ryan who does the most amazing work with papercuts. Drop by and have a look.

A bike trailer

I have a bike trailer! I am trying to use the car less. Especially right now, as I had a little but of a ding and it's going to be written off in two weeks. Still completely driveable, all minor exterior damage, but because it's old and it's not really valuable, the work to fix it would cost more than them paying me out. I considered buying it back off them and fixing it myself, but then found out friends who are moving to UK are selling their car cheaply, and it has roofracks with fittings for my bike (and of course the kayak can go up there too!)

So, I will be getting a new car, okay so it's older than my current car by a year, but new to me.

Now, back to the bike trailer. I have been riding around town and have a small rack I can put a couple of things on, but unable to put much by way of shopping. Couldn't afford a new trailer. Then my friend started up a local Community Exchange group. http://www.community-exchange.org/ This is a cashless exchange system, you join up to your local area and start transacting.

To join up you have to offer 3 things, they can be items or services (eg old magazines you are finished with, cutting people's hair, washing cars etc) Then you can get on and see what others offer. When you purchase something you go into debit and the person you buy off goes into credit, but you don't have to have enough to pay them, so you are encouraged to spend before you earn, so long as you are committed to earning credit in the future. I have sold some seedlings, and given haircuts, and currenting have some mending waiting to be done to earn credit. Michael had offered to make bike trailers for people so I decided to take him up on the offer. Check out his blog for more of his creations.

Well, I picked it up the other weekend and Michael fitted it to my bike, it's a converted golf buggy, the handle still on so that you can detach it from the bike when you're shopping and use it as a trolley!

I've asked Michael to have a go at making me a rocket stove next. Check out the exchange, the more people join and offer, the better it will work. Oh, and they are all around the world, why don't you see if there's one near you.

Thanks to my Brother and his Girlfriend, (aren't they cute) for driving me and the bike out to Michael's place. Of course we went for a swim at the beach down the road as well.

And we couldn't leave without a tour of Michael's garden. Here you can see his chook tractor, with a repurposed real estate sign providing some extra shade for the chooks in the hot weather, and lots of healthy corn.

Michael's 10,000 Litre tank is enough for his household use, they use town water to water the garden. Beacuse Michael is on the coast there is much more rain that at my place, only 15 mins away. Microclimates!
His garden was doing well, tomatoes had been burnt in the sun just like mine have, but lots of things growing well, especially his eggplants which were covered in fruit.

E is for Eggs

Eggs aren't the only reason I keep chickens, but they sure are a good thing! I have 3 Barnevelder Chooks *who feature in the picture up above called Milly, Molly and Mandy (but don't ask me to tell them apart and two bantams (an aracauna and a leghorn) named Speckles and Sadie.

I love having chooks and have written about the benefits before on another blog. I have the big three in the run, and occasionally let them out in the evening, when I can be there to supervise (any mulched area is gone, which is okay when it's around a tree, but somewhat of a problem when it's my potato bed)

The bantams live in the chook tractor, and after my first attempt to let them have a wander ended with me chasing Sadie around the garden looking like a headless chook myself. I move them every two weeks, letting the spot rest for a week or two and then digging some new garden bed. I am currently just planting heavy feeders like corn in there, perhaps some brocoletti, or silverbeet next, and eventually that will be the area of the garden that is rotated each year.

The brown egg is from the Barnevelders, they were bred to lay these lovely brown eggs, and I usually get one from each every second day. The little white one is much smaller than the bantams usually lay, but they had stopped for a week or so altogether, and were to the point of getting threats of going in the pot when this weeun appeared. They are back to normal size again now (about 40g)

The chooks are also just great characters, always say good morning, interact with humans as well as each other and process my lawn clippings and vege scraps into dark rich soil which I put into the vege garden.

If you have any questions about keeping chooks, send them my way.