Eureka!

Eureka Lemon, that is. What a champion this variety turned out to be. Three years old and when I went to harvest the bounty of fruits, I thought I would only need one basket to fit them all in...

How wrong could I be - in fact I needed more like three baskets by the end of my large haul. I was gone most of the morning too. But it was a wonderful day for picking lemons off the tree.

I knew for weeks I had to clean the tree bare, only I was a little too late for when the winds whipped up recently. Under the load of a fully laden branch of fruit, something had to give. Obviously it was this branch.

Not to worry though, as I did plan to thin the branches out anyway. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with our Eureka Lemon. A trip down memory lane - when I first planted our citrus trees back in July 2008. They were my birthday trees and we had fun hunting them down at two separate places. In fact, they were the first fruit trees to ever break ground at Gully Grove!

So many lemons though...what to do with them all? I've already made 2 batches of Lemon Butter, half of which I shared with the neighbours. I'm going to make a third batch to put in the freezer for later in the year. I love it spread on my sourdough toast!

I'm also going to squeeze most of these lemons and put the juice in the freezer too. I'll use it for cooking and I'm going to try my hand at making cordial in summer as well. I won't be able to drink the cordial with all that sugar in it, but Dave won't mind one bit! He loves lemon cordial. Once I juice the lemons though, I'll also try extracting the oil from the skins to use as a cleaner.

I'll report back when I know how it goes.

I did have fun experimenting with my Lemon Butter, in a cake made recently. When I baked it, the butter settled in the middle. But I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out. Flavour wise it was beautiful, but the pan was too deep and the curd too thick in the middle. I'm going to try a thinner pan and attempt a slice instead!

So next time Dave says he's going to water the lemon tree (common speak for "take a leak") I'll have to thank him for all his hard effort too! If the thought of that grosses you out: you don't know what your lemon tree is missing out on. Urine is packed full urea which is basically a concentrated form of nitrogen. Why waste it! 100% natural so 100% good.

Recycling in the garden is what we always try to aim for.

Garden progress

I've been pottering in the garden again and it's been absolutely wonderful! Even though it's still winter, the days are getting noticeably longer. One of the great things about living in this part of the Lockyer Valley, is that even in the middle of winter, you can have 20 degrees Celsius days outside. Plants are still growing in the garden, even if they're not growing as quickly as in summer.

Some of the swales still have water after weeks without rain

We've been working different sections of the garden - still digging our swales at the very top, and planting Lomandra Hystrix to combat soil erosion. These probably won't grow to the size we need this coming summer, but it's still a start and we're very relieved to have reached the planting stage.

There's still much to do on our swales as it's being dug by hand, but it's wonderful to realise some sections are being put to rest at last - given over to the hands of time, growing and maturing as nature decides. Another project we've been working on - probably as long as the front retaining wall (so about 2 years now) is the mezzanine garden, where all the ramps for our front retaining wall merge together.

All ramps merge in-front of this garden

We've slowly been collecting rocks from around the property which is why it's taken us so long to complete. We don't have many rocks, but you'd be surprised what we dig up sometimes. We even had some large ones, roll in from the storms earlier in the year. That's how strong the water flow was! But it was a great windfall for our little retaining wall project. You just have to wait for the right materials sometimes. It says something about instant consumerism, and the lessons you sometimes miss out on if it weren't for forced patience and miraculous opportunity.

There have been many occasions we've driven to the local landscaping shop to collect blue-metal, for behind our retaining walls, so we're no stranger to instant purchasing. But there's something deeply satisfying to watch your property bring forth what you need. Sometimes you don't even realise it's there, or haven't figured out a way to utilise it yet.

Never miss an opportunity to recycle in the garden!

You'll notice in our cobbled together garden, we've used logs to create mini tiers. These logs are felled spotted gums from our property, merely held in place with metal stakes. They grow like weeds around here and we try to get them out before they grow too big near the house.

Of course they'll decompose in a few years and need replacing, but that's all part of the plan. We try to utilise all the green materials on site - rather than cart them away. Actually, the mulch on this garden, is the recycled green material people take to the local tip. It gets chopped up and offered to the public for free, on the first Sunday of every month. We love the stuff and so does our garden!

Other news in the world of green thumbs: I've been busy propagating plants in the our new Middle Ridge nursery. Lots of seed germination going on, re potting and I'm eagerly awaiting our new banana trees which should be arriving by mail soon. Being in Queensland, we required a permit to have them in the garden, which is free, so it wasn't too much of a drama to get one.

I'm sure to be doing a lot more pottering in the garden, in the months to come.

Our bush orchard

We are starting to plant out a bush orchard on our property line. We tried to do this about two years ago, but the neighbour's goats decimated anything we tried to grow there. One lone Grevillea (copper rocket) and an Ivory Curl tree survived the relentless stripping, until we decided to start some serious caging.

The trio of goats died unexpectedly after the Queensland floods, which wasn't an uncommon thing amongst property owners in this region - we lost 3 healthy chickens too. With the eating habits of the goats a thing of the past though (not being heartless, just practical) we're trying to get plants established in time for the Spring flush of growth.

So what's exactly contained in our bush orchard, and what do we hope to achieve with it?

Mandarin in fruit; delicious and nutritious
~ but not native ~

Well it's certainly not like an orchard of European varieties of fruit trees and shrubs, which most backyard gardeners are familiar with (apples, oranges and berries). Rather, it will have only native varieties which produce a crop of native fruits. Some of them can be used by us, in jams, dried or eaten fresh, but for the most part we wanted this bush orchard for the native animals.

Before I get into the whys about the orchard, I wanted to show the layout and some of the plant varieties we've selected. They're only very small at this stage, but still worth recording for future reference. The first plant, is a Davidsons Plum. Feel free to press on the link for more information.

Davidsons Plum
sourced from Daleys Fruit trees

The fruits of these plums are not as sweet as their European counterparts, but are reported to make a most excellent jam. Something I'm very much looking forward to trying in the kitchen. Another plant we selected for the purpose of stabilising the soil however, is a sandpaper fig.

Sandpaper Fig
sourced from Daleys Fruit trees

We hope to propagate it at a later date, for planting along the banks where we get some powerful water flows in storm season. Why is it called a sandpaper fig you may ask? It's leafs actually feel abrasive like sandpaper, and indigenous Australians used it to refine their wooden hunting tools. You betcha, I'm going to get a piece of wood and try this out for myself, only when the leafs are a little bigger!

Next is a peanut tree which is a rainforest tree, but shouldn't grow too big in this belt of trees.

Peanut Tree
sourced from Daleys Fruit trees

The nuts inside the fruit are said to taste "nutty", but we wanted it specifically because it's a native food source for birds and a lot of nocturnal animals we don't get the opportunity to see much of, like bushrats and bandicoots.

I also have a Burdekin Plum which I haven't planted yet, but it's also a favourite of fruit bats apparently. Before anyone asks if I'm crazy for wanting to attract fruit bats (Flying Foxes, otherwise known for their ravenous appetite for all things fruit) to our garden, the European trees (like paw paw and bananas) are going to do that anyway. Our native bats which are really quite adorable, actually prefer native fruits over European varieties. We wanted to cater to their natural diet. We'll still have to take measures to protect our other fruit trees, but we're hoping the "lure" to better food is going to keep them happily occupied.

Lemon Myrtle
sourced from local markets

The Lemon Myrtle or backhousia citriodora, is another bee and bird food source, but it's also a great herb to use in cooking. We're hoping to be able to substitute the leaves from this tree, instead of using bay leafs. After all, the bay tree can get quite big in the ground. A more native solution is going to meet the need with less impact to the environment.

In fact, any impact that will be felt in our bush orchard will be one of mass fertility as every possum, bandicoot, wallaby, bird, bat, echindna (yes, we get those too) and many other native animals, feast and drop their dung! This is what we want. We want native animals, filled with native food, dropping their gorgeous native dung absolutely everywhere. They will be our little beasts of burden, carrying their fertility around the property and hopefully spreading it around the region too.

But what about the layout? How does it all fit together? First, our property boundary which is noted by the neighbours white fence below: this faces approximately west. The trees are in a northerly facing line.

A row of new natives in amongst the old

Even in winter, the sun is low enough to penetrate the canopy for secondary plants - or lower growing shrubs such as grevilleas, westringas and rosellas. All plants we hope to add more of once the trees get a bit more growth on them.

At this stage it's just a straight slope too, but we're already dropping leaf material, branches, dead grass and soil on the contour to create swales. These are not intended to be engineered for precision, or to catch and store large amounts of water. They're more to alter the energy of water running straight down the hill and to capture at least a small amount of moisture to last through times without rain.

The beginnings of a swale, which is just dead grass at this stage

The area above was the first section we actually developed when we first moved here, before the goats arrived. It has an emu bush (front) a westringia (mid) and small gumnut (rear) for honeyeaters and bees. The large dried gumnuts are great for craft, or just to have around the house for decoration:

I'm sure the ones which are left on the ground, turn into great humus eventually and make great hidey places for bugs and microbes too! Which is one of the reasons we're actually dropping the branches to make swales, rather than burning them off which seems to be a common practice in this area. Even though natives tend to decay slowly (especially eucalypt material) it's important to note we're not growing European trees here. The aim of this orchard is to feed the natives, which includes insects and microbes - burning off plant material, only robs the soil of it's evolutionary entitlement.

Felled acacias and eucalypts
but the dark-brown bark of the ironbarks remain

It's part of the reason we've also left some natives in this belt too. Endemic to this area (or use to be before land clearing and development took over) were ironbark trees. I love these trees with their gorgeous rough bark. The cockatoos love this tree for the very same reason! It's a great hidey place for bugs and when you've got a beak built like a commercial sized nut-cracker; you've got no problems stripping back the bark to get at them!

We are looking forward to seeing how this bush orchard develops and the interaction the native plants have on the soil. We've planted straight into natural dirt here, with only compost and gypsum added to help with acclimatisation. We hope to see the grass recede eventually to the shading of the natives, creating natural humus that only this landscape can appreciate fully.

Our garden bandaid over a massive cut and fill site

In stark contrast however, look at this area in-front of our house: the garden is maturing slowly to keep the soil in place, but it's not designed to feed natives. It will be a pretty garden and it has multiple purposes (all vital and functional) but the inputs in this patch of land were enormous!! First the earth mover which cut the land for the house to be built, then we had to erect the retaining wall and plant out; now we're tweaking the drainage to avoid water wiping out the garden again, like it did in the horrendous floods we experienced late last year and earlier in January.

Compare that to our efforts in this bush orchard, and it's laughably minimal. We've only had to remove a few spotted gums and acacia saplings (by hand) mown the grass in the growing season and mulched with bark. Eventually we won't have to mow this area at all - the system will look after itself.

Which is why Dave and I are looking forward to seeing how this experimental plot goes. We don't mind working hard, but we also don't like working against nature either. Been there, done and doing that, LOL! We hope to learn a lot from this new form of gardening, so that we can actually grow better European food trees as well.

There is much to learn from our native predecessors.

A splash of red

I got a tad creative after reading Linda's recent crochet post, about a Queen Anne's Lace scarf. Winter here in Australia, is the perfect weather for scarfs and I'm wearing mine as I type this entry! It's a beautiful, vivid red scarf and has been created with wool. I quite like it. What do you think?

I'm not a fashion model, but the scarf looks good!

It's very warm and very light - a little scratchy, being wool and all, but nothing too annoying. I love wearing it. Sarah wanted the scarf as I was making it, but upon trying it on, declared it too scratchy for her. I don't mind, all the better to keep my neck warm.

Linda supplied me with a link to the pattern, and after several attempts, I finally got it right! I suppose the trick is to pick the right hook size for the ply of wool/cotton, because my initial attempts came out rather bumpy.

The altered pattern is on the left, the bumpy original on the right

I altered the pattern a little to fix it. Feel free to use the original pattern, here, or follow my humble attempt at alterations below:

In Australia, we do our patterns in rounds, and basically the scarf is made up with attached rounds (or motifs). It's not as difficult as I'm making it all sound, the stitches themselves are basic ones. I'll throw in a few pictures along the way, to make it a little easier to follow.


To start:

Chain 6 and join with a slip-stitch, to make a ring.


Round 1:

Chain 3, work 13 double crochets into ring. (Do not join at this stage) Chain 1, turn work. Single crochet into next 2 double crochets. *Chain 4, single crochet in next 2 double crochets*. Repeat (**) five times to make 6 loops in total. Chain 6, turn work.

It should look like this after completing round one ~
notice how it's not joined with a slip stitch

Round 2:

Slip stitch into first free 4-Chain loop. Chain 3, turn work. 13 double crochets into the 6-Chain loop. Slip stitch into the first single crochet of the first motif. Chain 1, turn work. Single crochet in next 2 double crochet, *Chain 4, single crochet in next 2 double crochets*. Repeat (**) five times to make 6 loops in total. Chain 6, turn work.

After round two

Round 3:

Slip stitch into first free 4-Chain loop of adjoining motif. Chain 3, turn work. 13 double crochets into the 6-Chain loop. Slip stitch into next free 4-Chain loop of adjoining motif. Chain 1, turn work. Single crochet in next 2 double crochet, *Chain 4, single crochet in next 2 double crochets*. Repeat (**) five times to make 6 loops in total. Slip stitch into next free 4-Chain loop of adjoining motif. Chain 6, turn work.

After round three and it's starting to make sense

Round 4:

~This is where I've altered the pattern a little - see where I've bolded ~

Slip stitch into first free 4-Chain loop of adjoining motif. Chain 3, turn work. 13 double crochets into the 6-Chain loop. Slip stitch into next free 4-Chain loop of adjoining motif. Chain 1, turn work. Single crochet in first double crochet, *Chain 4, single crochet in next 2 double crochets*. Repeat (*) five times to make 6 loops in total. Slip stitch into next free 4-Chain loop of adjoining motif. Chain 6, turn work.

Repeat Round 4 until desired length is achieved. Try it on a couple of times as you go. I didn't want a heavy scarf, so stopped when I felt it long enough to work. Once you've ended off your work, weave in the long strands and enjoy your scarf!

After round four and on and on it goes...

Basically the little alteration I made, flattened the centre of the scarf, making the ends slightly frilly. This may just be specific to the wool and hook combination I've used however. Speaking of which, I used an 8 ply wool (2 x 50g) with a 3.50 hook. If you want to follow the original pattern however (without my alteration) feel free to omit Round 4, and repeat Round 3 until desired length is reached

My scarf totaled 1.2m in length with 64 motifs.

I'm going to experiment with more yarns and additions because it's quite a simple (and enjoyable) pattern to follow. Thank you Linda for the wonderful idea which is keeping me warm and a tad bit more sophisticated this winter.

Glad I snagged him

As I was writing the last post on our no-spend year, I went through some of our old wedding photos, so I could capture a picture of us on our wedding day. Didn't it bring back the memories though.

He was buff and handsome, while the glow in my cheeks came from being a blushing bride and six-months pregnant! We hadn't met our beautiful daughter then, but she was squirming in my tummy most of the day. Didn't I feel the extra weight when we trudged all around the Japanese Gardens for our wedding photos too. It was all pretty special.

So I couldn't resist...I just had to share more of the photos from that day, and to show you all why I'm glad I snagged him. Reason one:

Refreshments?

He's a bit of a ham and loves to make people laugh. Our wedding party was seated under one of the pergolas at the garden we had photos taken, when our camera man suggested we crack open the bubbly. Dave decided as he was pouring the first glass, to pretend to be half-tanked already. This picture says, champagne ham anyone? Reason two:

Best man speech

Dave brings out the cheekiness of others. It's his blessing. It's his curse. This is his older brother placing a set of horns behind his head, with a table napkin, as he delivered his speech at our reception. Trouble much, should I be worried, LOL? Reason three:

Pregnant, on the dance floor

He's a great kisser and says the sweetest things sometimes. He comes across all cocky and confident, but inwardly he's quite shy and I get to see all those wonderful parts expressed in the one person. Reason four:

Did I mention he's a Chef! We catered our own wedding and I made the wedding cake. Dave goes to great pains to ensure his family always has good, healthy food on the table. Okay, pizza when we're really desperate but he prefers homemade pizza. Reason five:

He looks great in a tuxedo!

"What was that Chris, I didn't quite hear you..."

I said, Reason five: he looks great in a tuxedo!!!

"Oh, I knew I'd marry a shrewd woman with taste."

Of course you did Sweetheart, and here I am back at the Japanese Gardens in Toowoomba...one of those Doctor Who, timey wimey things we fans are so good at.

Toowoomba Japanese gardens

I made my own wedding dress, because being six-months pregnant with an ever expanding waistline, I wanted to wear something that would fit me on the day. All the gold embellishments and fringes - even some of the lace was carefully stitched by hand. I also made the bouquet because I didn't want the fuss associated with fresh flowers. My older sister's wedding had nothing but dramas with fresh flowers.

All of this resourcefulness however, was taught to me by a very special person in my life: my mum...

There are three generations of ladies in this picture, the last one was yet to be born. We all took part in the wedding in some way or another. Dave inherited all of us, and we inherited him.

Double trouble in the making, and yet I'm still glad for the day I snagged him...and he, me. What a lovely kind of trouble we are in together now. Life, with all it's ups and downs - how we've disappointed each other sometimes and yet made some kind of magic in between. He romanced me with cheese and wine in the beginning, even though I'm not a drinker. He joked about the cheese going off if I didn't agree to a date within two weeks, LOL.

My kind of guy - a little bit extravagant and a little bit frugal. I always hate to see food go to waste, how could I not date him. He played the food spoilage card and we were destined to be married!

Not a day with him has been wasted though. Not a single day...

If you want to join along, please blog about your dearly beloved and leave a comment. I'd love to see others, prepared to be as cheesy as we are, LOL. It's a great excuse anyway, to go through your old wedding photos and reminisce how your own story unfolded. And if you're a guy, don't feel left out, tell us why you were glad to snag "her". :)

The no spend conclusion

Whatever happened to the no-spend year challenge we planned for 2010? Were you wondering if I was ever going to return to it? Like much of our life since moving here, everything takes it's good sweet time. Things need time - plants, seasons and grey matter for that matter, to filter all the nutrients of life into something useful.

My last entry on this subject, was back in November 2010 but in all honesty, the no spend year probably ended 3 months into the challenge.

I wouldn't consider the challenge a failure, simply because we didn't meet the allotted time or the agreed limitations we placed upon ourselves however. Because over the 12 month period we DID avoid spending on things we would otherwise take for granted. No more automatic trips for pizza when we didn't feel like cooking. No more weekly DVD rentals on cheap Tuesdays. It didn't happen straight away, but we ever so gradually became accustomed to making ourselves cook when we didn't feel like it. After a few costly late fees too, we decided to borrow DVDs from the library instead.

We got the end result we desired, which was to comprehend our spending habits, but more importantly, the behaviours we were thrusting upon our budget to meet. Which brings me to the really juicy bit of the challenge that's worth sharing too. Dave and I were quite naive at the beginning - as you would be with something new - but by conclusions end, we wised up to a very important fact...

If you're talking about financial issues, you're really talking about marital issues.

Chris & Dave, plus a bun in the oven!

If it wasn't for this challenge, Dave and I, may never have faced our individual relationship to money. Dave grew up middle-class suburban with a nuclear family. I grew up borderline poverty with a single parent. Therefore we had totally different ideas of what constituted financial security.

When life changed our circumstances (with or without a no-spend year challenge) we both wanted to alter the rules in favour of our individual vision of security. For example; when money slowly leaked from the bank account I wanted to cut spending more, to make it back up again. Dentist appointments are a pretty big leak, amongst other things. On the other hand, Dave wanted to keep spending on the things that made him feel like a successful working husband and father. He wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

Our kitchen, where many a discussion has taken place

Both of our approaches, weren't necessarily wrong, but we both couldn't appreciate each other's individual relationship to financial security. He was trying to say, let the family enjoy itself and I was trying to say, we will when we get out of debt. The stubborn force meets the immovable object, LOL.

What did we learn from all of this? Money has a way of dictating how people relate to each other. It also has a way of dictating how we relate to personal ability. Dave and I could have been ATM machines, the way we seemed to constantly engage via financial transactions: insert logic, expel cash. We didn't just do it to each other though, we did it within ourselves. How could we truly relate to our logic when it's all based around financial transactions?

The no spend year that was, then wasn't, then was again (only in a different format) has been a very enlightening one for this family at Gully Grove. It delves beyond mere financial considerations, and brings it back to the very basics of human nature - relationships. We are always free to have those, but how many of us choose to invest as eagerly as we do our weekly shopping sprees?

You can never have too many baskets though!

An interesting development which has tested this new found understanding, came through the Queensland floods earlier this year. There's a myriad of experiences I could describe during that time, but I'll single it down to the pure financial aspect. We lost a lot of our savings, recuperating from that experience. About $4,000 worth. A pittance compared to some people's losses, but for us it meant we couldn't get the wood heater this winter. Which means we're going to pay for another large electricity bill, now that electricity suppliers are increasing costs for power, yet again.

It also meant we didn't have the money to fix my car when it broke down (still waiting for the shop) and we now have our fingers-crossed, Dave's car doesn't succumb to the lovely new sounds it's developing. This isn't a big pity party for us though. We figured this is just another set of life circumstances which asks, what are you made of guys?

Obviously it's not money, LOL, but we didn't lose ourselves along with the savings account either. And that's really the trick question. How much ability do you have, when you take the emphasis off financial security? Because that seems to be the trend in our current economy. Money is leaking everywhere and people are finding themselves more vulnerable to the economy of transactions. When the ATM doesn't appease you with the cash carrot any more, where do you go from there?

The answer is back to ourselves, back to the things which make us human and unique amongst all other animals. We crave relationships to the things (and people) which are important to us. We have all appeared to have forgotten that along the way to pursuing financial security.

Bringing this back to our no-spend year however, what did Dave and I ultimately change in our behaviours towards spending? Well, Dave had to understand what happens to the money he earns. I actually took responsibility for managing our finances, because hey, I'm borderline poverty chick and can pay bills out of an old shoe, leftover roast and a one-cent coin that cannot be traded any more. This wonderful ability of mine appeases our debtors, but wasn't helping Dave register what all his hard efforts at work, actually achieves. There were limitations I lived with every week balancing the books, but he never understood it existed as a threat to our financial security.

Dave has since gotten in touch with his personal ability to understand money on a whole new level. It's not just something which represents personal freedom, it's also a responsibility that must be understood, to know what you can do with it. He's making real efforts to engage in that process first, before the enjoyment of money comes into it.

What did I have to understand more of, considering I'm probably one of the most responsible people with money I know - apart from my mother, LOL? Well, this is what I love about relationships. This is why I'm glad I married an immovable object, which refused to move out of the way of my stubborn force. He actually had a point and he stuck to his guns. My issue was with enjoying money and he showed me that.

You see, borderline poverty chick knew what it was like to go without shoes, food and merchandised toys growing up. I had lived something I wouldn't want my own daughter to experience (except for the merchandised toys part) and that has consequently made me super vigilant to every cent which crosses my palm. To the point, in fact, that I don't enjoy money.

I've since gotten in touch with my personal ability to let money go, without it being a heinous crime to my personal values. I really needed this step to understand my relationship to spending, and more importantly, to experience financial security in a different light. I can now appreciate that one person's version of "wasted" money, can be another person's version of a gift. Think Judas and Jesus, when it came to having his head anointed with oil. Judas rebuked the woman who spent the money on oil, instead of feeding the poor - yet Jesus said the oil had been saved for her to anoint his head.

Did you catch that part...saved? Yep, you can save money for all sorts of reasons too - like paying off debtors and/or giving gifts. The intent is always at the feet of the person who spends the money. From the outside, with our own version of financial security, we won't always see someone else's intent. Which is why I'm glad our little family at Gully Grove, has now come full circle.

We're better equipped to navigate what money actually means to our family - it's a cash carrot, not a relationship banquet we should be dining from every day. A very subtle difference, but nonetheless a very important one.

I think many people of our generation probably get snagged on the same confusion around what money is meant to represent. What can it actually achieve? They have been coaxed into believing money enables people, when really, human labour is what does anything. As lovely as that sentiment is, it's not going to pay your debtors (if you're in debt) money still does that job; but we should still be in control of our ideals and what we value first. Money should never be in control of ethical priorities. The person comes first, the money, last.

Do we really have a choice though? Yes we do, but it's never an easy one to stick to when life suddenly gets harder. Sharing that responsibility with someone else is harder still. Then again, you could stand to learn something really wonderful and unique about them that you didn't know before.

Ask yourselves: if my financial security was taken away tomorrow, what would I do then?

Middle Ridge gets a make-over

Middle Ridge
November 2008 - construction finished

When I first made Middle Ridge chicken coop - I envisaged a large flock of chickens. With that large flock however, soon came the need for more space. It wasn't long before I made another chicken coop. It was aptly named "Hilltop", because we built it on top of a hill.

Hilltop
September 2009 - construction finished

Going between the two coops (uphill and downhill) planting new plants, digging drainage trenches, fencing and dealing with the regular household things; it soon became apparent we had to love one chicken coop only! It was great to push the boundaries of our poultry empire, but there were other things vying for place of importance too.

The recent floods in January this year, really clinched the deal. I decided to give away all of my chickens and much of the building materials I'd saved for making chicken coops. Was it hard to do? Yes, and no...

It was time to turn that page towards other endeavours of self-reliance here. Not being made of money, we had to start divvying up resources. We had to allocate portions of importance, to other pursuits. One of the major ones lacking lately, has been plants. To buy the amounts required for our 5 acres, would take another small mortgage. Not something we'd like to do! So Middle Ridge was assigned our new propagating area, with ready shade-house attached.

I'm really glad I decided to give away much of my building materials, as it made me have to look harder for solutions. When I went looking, I discovered I still had plenty of "stuff" to re-purpose. Enter an old spring bed, a couple of pallets and some metal grates, and we have...

New propagation area - May 2011

...a new bench for plants to be propagated and eventually hardened off. The metal grates had been in our garden shed for a while, and meant for the driveway, but we soon realised these ones were too small for what we wanted.

Re-purposed drainage grates

Yet, they were the perfect size for the up-turned wooden pallet. Plus they had the added advantage of drainage holes built in. I was really happy how perfectly they fitted - the EXACT length! Too easy to put together. It wasn't long until I started rounding up the plants that had managed to survive on the verandah.

In use!

This is quite a lovely area inside the coop. There's minimal wind but plenty of ventilation, and the winter sun manages to come in at this angle too. The plants on the left were some natives/bushfoods I ordered from Daley's Fruit Trees recently. Many were purchased with the intention of feeding native animals and bank stabilisation for the gully.

Notice the tall white containers on the bench - these were 10 litre ice-cream containers we recycled from Dave's former work place. I have soil in one and hardwood cuttings in the other. There were other things lying around the place however, which needed a new purpose too. Like this metal frame!

More storage solutions

A few recycled pallet planks and the one grate I had left over, and I made more space for plants, empty pots, even drying potatoes! Less junk lying around the place, and more useful spaces to make gardening happen.

Affordable yet stylish!

What I loved about all of these structures, is I didn't have to use one power tool. All the pieces fitted together so well, plus it's easier to pull apart and move again if I want to.

Vertical space

The metal frames original purpose was for - you guessed it - a chicken tractor! But it had these sticky-out things that made it impossible to attach anything flat to it. Makes a great tool holder now, don't you think? There are two hooks to each side, and I'm imagining drying herbs or plaits of onions from them as well.

Of course, all this work inside gave us the opportunity to fix the area outside Middle Ridge as well.

...and then

But I think I'll save that adventure for another post! Oh yes, and we did keep three hens (so Hilltop Chicken Coop is not completely empty) but that story will have to wait for another day too.