NOCC - Progression

It's happening!

For all those who have been watching the NOCC (New Old Chicken Coop) come to life, well, from that last attempt which we no longer speak about, to this! It is not yet finished, however it is well on its way. We have hit a few 'unexpected' issues along the way, but it has been so much fun to work through them with my awesome partner in these crazy ventures (Queen Cassowary).

So as a quick recap, we got an old van, and we are making it into a chicken coop, well, more an isolation coop for when we get new birds or a sick bird. We moved the van into place with no 'major' problems, however the first attempt at creating the 'living' area was a fail. We have switched to wood frame (instead of poly pipes) and it is working :) So far so good!!

So this is what it looked like when we started again. Poly pipes down and a lot more wood was brought up from our 'resource pile'. The great thing about collecting things that you might use later, is that when you think of something to make or do, we have 95% of it here already :) Wood, tin, pipes, screws, wires, and more... (including the odd fridge!)

Back to the progress, we redesigned the frame of the coop to be wooden, this was a challenge as the outdoor area is going to be about 3 meters high, and 4 meters wide, so it is not too small. The problem with the poly pipes was that they could not support the weight of the shade sail over that large distance. We did consider only using chicken wire, however when there are no chickens, ducks, geese or guinea fowl in the isolation coop (NOCC) then I will use it to grow something (veggies in a hydroponic bed most likely), so I wanted to have the shade to enable the area to be used for lots of different things. So wood it is. Problem with wood at this size is the weight of the wood. Getting it that high was a task and a half. The only ladder we have is a three step ladder (plus the part on the top) and we don't have the funds to get a bigger one just yet, so we make do.

This is the frame, made mainly from hardwood from an old shed frame. The screws that we used to hold the whole thing together are screws that have been kept from other projects, or saved from things that we have pulled apart over time. One of the most important things that we have found when recycling things, make sure that you sort things out. Put like screws together, put cables together, try to sort of everything you can as you pull things apart (or collect things) and add them to your growing 'resource pile' so that when you need screws, it is just a matter of getting the screw container, inside it you should have lots of little containers, or compartments) and working what fits where. It is nice when it all just happens, however sometimes you just have to buy things :(

From this part, we needed to connect the frame to the van, and to the other end of the fence (the part you are looking at now is the middle of the outdoor area. If you remember from previous posts, where the shade cloth is attached to the van, there is a wooden frame we made around the door, so we chose to use that as the far left point to connect to. That part was relatively easy, however really important to keep the whole 'shape' of the frame and support it later.

This is all we really needed (on both sides) just to ensure the frame would not move to much. Then the other side of the frame needed to come up. That was a new problem, as now the top of the frame was over 3 meters high, and screwing things above that was 'comical', however we did it. At times we joked "you know those 'health and safety on the work place' videos you see and think, yeah, sure, WHO would do that, who would balance on one leg on top of a ladder with a electric drill in one hand and a heavy beam of wood in the other, while looking at the 'view from up here'.." .. yeah.. that was us :) It was a really nice view though!

So this is the other side, the side that is attaching to the fence. It comes down on a slight angle to help water not pool at the top of it, hopefully it works. We do try to think of everything that we might need to take into consideration, however I am sure that we have missed one or two things, but we will catch up :)

Now, shade cloth time, so one end is already attached to the van (from the earlier failed attempt), no need to change that too much, just throw it over, nail it down as we move along.

And it is working! It is ALIVE!!! Under the shade cloth you can feel it cooler already, shaded and calming. Whoever goes in here will be happy :)
So we went along and touched it up, making the shade cloth as tight as we could, however realising as we along that there must be something more to this than just pulling it tight and nailing it on. There are some points where it sags a little, and some parts where it is not too even, but nothing around here is perfect so why should this be! :)

This is a view of one of the corners, just in the case that you are wondering. If you would like more information about whatever else (like how, when, where, etc) then please just ask, I have lots more photos and information, I just don't want to over load you.

We wanted to make a little gate at the end that is NOT the van end, so we supported the top of it (that will be the top of the door frame) and then built a gate underneath it. In the final view of the NOCC I will put up more details about how and why things are the way that they are.

This is Scarlet testing out the gate for me :) It is not finished, I have to put latches on it, and I am thinking about putting a spring on the inside so it automatically closes, fancy eh? :)

So that is the stage we are up to now, we are about to go and keep going. The shade cloth is up, a gate is up, the wire is looking good, nearly done! :)

I hope that you all enjoy the progress of this, I will let you know how it goes, but here are some other photos from the helpers that we have had so far in the project.

Scarlet on a coffee break, it is hard work supervising all the humans!

Robin was around a lot to ensure that the quality of the wood met her high standards!

And Charlie made appearances here and there, just to see if we had anything nice that she could eat, the answer was always no.

I hope that you all have a great day, we are going back out there to get this done! Enjoy your life, and be inspired by the beauty around you.

NOCC - a failed attempt

The van 'NOCC' - fail attempt 1

If you remember from an slightly older post I was changing an old van into a chicken coop, well I hit a 'snag'. They say that you learn more in life from failures, but with that said I should be so much smarter by now! :)

So the original idea was:

Using old 1' diameter rural piping (black hoses) we were going to create an arch and lay shade cloth over it, and up the sides run chicken wire attached to the bottom of the shade cloth, so there would be no spaces at all for the little chickens (or guinea fowl right now) to escape. Once we got the shade cloth and got it all up there, the weight of the cloth slowly caused the pipes to bend, once they got to a certain point, there was no stopping it :( Shame, but it is ok, we tried. So now I have two new ideas, and I am in an internal debate about which one to do. I think they will both work, but I am trying to think about all the other projects around the place, I would hate to use something here that I could only use on the next project.

So the two ideas, firstly I could use wood. The support around the van is currently wood, so I was thinking about using more of that. The wood that I am using is from an old shed (2 1/2 car garage) so there is more than enough wood to go around, and it is really nice hard wood. There are star pickets already in place, so I could just attach the wood to the star pickets, make a frame from that and done. Also the wood would be a lot stronger, and would enable us to make easy changes, like adding a hanging water feeder or watering system. 

The other idea is using reclaimed steel poles. These are galvanised steel from an old exterior structure. We are not metal workers, I have nothing to cut something that thick, or to weld on to something like that, but we do have a lot of the 'joiners' that link those kinds of metal poles together (like the supports for a chain link fence). The reason why I have such a big debate in my head, is that those poles would be 100 times stronger, last forever, and never give way, however, with all that said, they might be put to better use on something that needs that kind of structural integrity, not something that just has to hold up shade cloth.

I know what you are thinking "first world problems here!", and you are right, there are people with no wood to spare, and no steel poles just laying around their yard, and this is the reason why I take so long to make a decision, I would hate to waste it when I know there are people out there that could also use it. 

I think that I will use the wood. I have enough reclaimed and saved screws and nails to put it all together, as long as I have wood that is long enough to go the entire length (I could just join, but that always creates a weak point). Also I do feel more confident working with wood, don't get me wrong, I still have no idea what I am doing, but I have a drill and a hand saw - what could go wrong??

So, come Saturday morning, I shall start the process of making a large wooden frame for the new guinea fowl enclosure :) This afternoon (when it gets cooler, it is 30oC (86oF) 45% humidity right now) I will start to move some wood up there, same thing tomorrow after work I will move more and get the area ready, then come Saturday morning, let the drilling, sawing and nailing begin! :) And then hopefully by Sunday morning the guinea fowl are in their new house.

Again to recap, this is what went wrong, the support were not good enough, we used star pickets to support the bottom of the pipes, but the tops where the problem. So we are going to replace the plastic pipes with a wooden frame.

So, until I update you again on this, thank you for laughing at me, and I hope that you all are learning things as I am, and when it comes time for you to do something like this, hopefully you all get it right with minimal problems :)

Enjoy the rest of your day, and be happy with what you are doing in life, generally.

:)

Interesting Recycling / Reusing

Three interesting ideas

One thing I love doing, is meeting interesting people, by interesting I do not mean "I am interested to know how are you still alive", I mean those people that have ideas that when you hear it you think "wow, never thought of that, so simple". I love recycling and reusing, and I am always happy to hear ideas that people have in regards to what to do with 'old' things. We (as humans in general) create a lot of waste, products that are only designed to be used once, for only one originally intended purpose, and these are the products that generate the most landfill. Things like a fence are easy to reuse, worst case they turn into firewood (not treated woods of course), however things like this sparkling wine bottle, they were made never to be reused, they have no resealable top (a cork that will not fit back in), you can buy kits for resealing them, use waxes, makeshift a plug/bung, but the point is, they were not designed for that.

So, what do you do with them? You can grind them up into small glass shards/dust and do something with it. You can smash is and make glass mosaic things. You can put candles in the top (if you own a restaurant) and make an interesting center piece. The two things I heard about yesterday for these bottles are very interesting and I wanted to share them. I met a beautiful young lady yesterday who read a post I had offering these bottles (and the springs below), so I dropped them off at her place and got chatting about what she was going to do with them. She has two ideas for the bottles;

1- paint and decorate the outside of them, and fashion a new cork for it, and distribute them as 'potion' bottles, a beautiful idea for decorating a shelf, especially in a meditating room, or a dark kitchen designed for creating things in vats or cauldrons :)

2- garden edging, she is thinking about placing them around in a circle and securing them using clay/dirt and filling the inside of the circle with dirt, and that is the garden. I think that it will glow with color when the sun hits it, can't wait to see it done, I will request photos so I can put them up here, so anyone following along will understand what I mean :)

Now, this is her idea for the springs, firstly these springs come from an old trampoline, I acquired trampolines for the purpose of reusing the frame and the 'netting' for garden related tasks, however I have no idea what to do with the springs (short of a metal recycling company), one idea that was given to me was to automatically shut gates, this is a brilliant idea, and I am implementing it on the cat-eo gate (from a previous entry). The idea that this lady had in mind though is something so simple, so easy and so logical, yet something I didn't think about at all. She is going to put up a square shade sail, she will use the springs in each corner before attaching it to the supports. This will then allow the shade sail to have a little more 'give' in it and stop it from ripping in a storm.

Well, I must be going, the day is coming to a start. I hope that you all have a fantastic day, think outside the box, but make sure you share with others so we can all work together to make the world a happy, clean and friendly place.

Enjoy your day, be happy :)

Some ducks....

Chickens, ducks and geese

This little clip is an experiment to see how well linking my little clips of my crazy girls will go on my blog. So far it looks a little slow and choppy, but we will see :)

I talked before about setting up a YouTube channel to put all the clips onto, I think that will be the way to go, and link them from here.

Here are some of the ducks and geese. The geese are so interesting, they are so curious, whenever you do anything, there they are to check out what's going on. Chickens will get in your face to explore things, they will jump in a hole as you are digging it, or try to examine a chainsaw while you are using it (not too smart), but geese are different, they don't put themselves in harms way like chickens do, but they still want to be involved :) They still like to know what is happening, and if they can eat anything that is happening (as you can tell by this page alone, nobody is starving here!)

The video clip at the top of the page was just after throwing some seed (you can see some girls in the background actually eating what I gave them) and the ones in the foreground (mainly the Muscovy ducks!) are asking for more or something different, they will not get it, they never do, but they always like to ask, The Muscovy's especially like to eat out of your hand, I think it is their way of ensuring that THEY are getting all the food, and there is no 'waste'. I love them all, and their 'special' personalities :)

I will look into how to get the YouTube thingy happening, I have a lot of little movies like this one, movies about what I have been doing, or just the animals being, well, the animals, very cheeky.

I hope that you all enjoy your day today, hopefully it is filled with chickens, ducks, geese and the rest of life, not stuck in an office somewhere not wanting to be there.

Be happy, I'll talk to you all soon! :)

The Van... progress of NOCC...

New Old Chicken Coop

Well, if you remember not that long ago I said that we got an old van and we were going to make it into a extra chicken coop, that is what we have been doing this morning.

I will run through what we have done so far :) We have paused this outside game because it is so hot right now, went shopping for things, now time to hide from the sun until the evening and keep going :)

Wait... before we start, I need (want) to explain something. All our animals are free-range, in the end. When we get new additions to our family we put them in an "isolation" pen, which is not anywhere near the others. This is for a short period to asses them and make sure they don't have anything that might spread to the others before we can contain it (ticks, fleas, lice, etc.). There is one other pen that we are building, which is the one that the van is turning into. This is for new additions to our family that can not be trusted yet, ones that need to know where home is. This is because they are either older and have a home and might try to return to it, or something (like the new guinea fowl) that have such are large home base (meaning they fly around and do what they want during the day) and they need to establish a home so they know where to come home, where is safe. So that is what this is for, so the Guinea Fowl can live in there for a few months, get the hang of things, and meet the other ladies through the wire, then get introduced properly when they (hopefully) know how to know home safely and on time (or they WILL be grounded).

Back to what I was saying, so what have we done?

This is the van, we towed it into place and chocked it with bricks for now. The idea is that it will lose its tires and have a small breathing space underneath it (bricks holding it up). I will keep stripping it every chance I get (taking the engine out, the interior etc, cleaning it into an empty shell), and we are building a cage to attach to the outer side of this picture. Digger and Scarlet are just assessing the area and ensuring that it is all in order.

From this angle you can see some star pickets that we have driven into the ground (they will come into play shortly), and a door that doesn't close (I have started pulling things apart, I have learnt that you should probably leave the door closing thingys until the end :)

Ok, this is a big stick, a really big stick. You might be thinking 'why do you have a big stick leaning against such a high-class over-powered beast of a van?' Well, it will be used as a frame against the van. So the grand idea is that there is a 'cage' attached to the van, running along the fence until it gets to the other fence (I know, I am lost also), it is about 10 meters long (about 32 ft) and about 3 meters wide (9 ft). This wood is about to be cut (using a hand saw) in roughly half, more important I measured it against the van to where I want it to be, cut it, then the left over part I measured against the part I cut and did it again (because I need two pieces of the same height).

This is what I mean, I got the big long woodie thingie and put it on some bricks (to get it off the ground) and cut it, then cut the other big again, now I have two bits the same size (bottom of the picture) and the bit at the top is now spare, for a different project perhaps.
So here is a little tip. If you don't have fancy 'saw-horses' or whatever you call the bits to keep wood off the ground, use what you have. You don't need to spend money just to cut a bit of wood. I had bricks laying around, so I stacked some up (so the wood was off the ground) and made sure that when I used the hand saw it didn't hit the ground, and done :) The wood is cut, and I have not spent more money than I needed to, happy times all around!

So these are the bits of wood cut to size, they are going to be roughly there and I will have a large piece of wood across the top (it is on the roof of the van in the picture) and that will be the 'door way' frame. The idea is that only that large sliding door will gain access to the pen, the front door of the van is for humans to go and do human-like things (like cleaning), and the sliding door on the other side is to open the place up so all the girls can have fun anywhere they want to when they are not in some form of lock down (this place will also serve as a hospital isolation ward for injuries that mean the girls can't get in the water (sad for ducks) but things like bumble-foot)

So, from a far:

These pipe that are airborne are going to support the wire, and the star pickets are going to support the vertical wire, so it will be like a big arch way. There are trees and life inside here, and that is something that I am going to have to deal with, I just don't know how right now, I am thinking about pruning the trees and keeping them shaped (I normally like to let things go wild).

Just in case you are wondering (and thinking about doing something like this yourself), This is a close view of the pipes, I have the chicken wire tied onto the pipes, this is about 6 ft high chicken wire, I will attach more as we go along (hence the shopping trip today).

The sun is starting to get really hot, and this is a view from near the van facing away. The structure is getting there, but it is hard using mostly recycled parts and just myself and Queen Cassowary doing the job (neither of us actually know what we are doing, but we fake it well!).
Ok, now we stopped this, went shopping then went inside (had lunch and wrote this page), we will keep going shortly and then again tomorrow morning, then hopefully it is done :)
The cleaning out of the van will take a bit longer, then making it into a livable home for the new Guinea Fowl, but that will happen this week.

So here is where we left it, most of the wire on this side is up, the pipes are in location and tied up, the van supports for the cage are cut and ready, just need to finish it off! Exciting!!

I should mention about where these parts all came from, so here we go.
Van = donated by a lovely man in the local area who heard that we could use it for this project
Star pickets = 1/2 purchased new at the hardware shop, the other 1/2 are from the old fences in the area that we have pulled up
Wire = left overs from the other million jobs around here that needed wire (people just don't throw that out)
Pipes = found as broken and mistreated pipes, hidden on the land by the previous owners (thinking we would be upset by finding this?)
Wire Ties = old wire from other jobs, the off cuts that were kept
Wood Frame = an old shed that I scored (if I pulled it down for him)

Well it is coming along, I have a few more things to do inside the house while it is still too hot to play outside, but I will update you all soon about how things are going with this and everything else :)

Thank you for reading this, I hope that you all are either inspired, happy or motivated by what I say to you, and like I have said before, if you want me to do something on this land, if you have an idea that you have wanted to try but don't have the materials or land, please just let me know. I am more than happy to try new things out, and I will let you know what I find out :)

Thank you again for visiting, please come back again and see how things are with this project and so many others.
Have a great rest of your day!

An anamalistic overview

I was thinking about what to blog, blogging requires inspiration I think, however I am tired, it is Saturday morning, I don't sleep too well these days and I don't really like sitting on the computer, I find it boring and un-inspiring. With that said though, I get to look through some photos for my blog, it is nice to reminisce and see how far things have changed in such a short period (for better or worse)

So, while thinking, should I write a blog on the update of the van/coop.. yes, however I don't have the photos on the computer yet *sigh* too much effort some days! :) Then I was thinking, what about my water moving projects, projects designed to move water around the area; either for power creation, irrigation or aeration. So that was what this morning was going to be, a quick document about the different methods I have tried so far, what I have found, and what I am going to do, but then I got caught up looking at cute pictures of my babies, and said "no, on a Saturday morning people want to see cute animals, not water projects".

The above picture is a quick look at a lot of animals in one picture :) You can see that there is wire between the two cats and the birds, this is a look from inside the 'cat-eo' (if you recall the cat-eo from a previous blog). It has been upgraded since this photo, there is now a flooring instead of natural, which has been met with mixed responses from the feline owners of this house :) So, who is in this picture? Well, starting from the most obvious, Pants, she is on-high to survey the area and ensure that her kingdom is running smoothly, under her (in many ways) is Binx. I have not talked about Binx yet, he is (was) a beautiful cat that we were cat-sitting for a period while a friend was moving houses. Unfortunately for Binx he did not fit in too well. He comes from a home that has one cat, Binx, and that is all there is in life. Being thrown into this house upset him a little since there was already a hierarchy, and he wasn't included. Also being a "complete" cat (all our domestic pets are desexed) I think that he felt out of place. Nevertheless I know that he did have some fun times (mainly with Thunder Cat).
Next in the photo are some chickens mixed with some ducks :) There are two (of our three) breeds of ducks in that photo, The larger ones, I am not sure if they have a breed, cat you have riffraff ducks, is that a breed? They are just mutts I think :) Lovable though. And in the back you can see two of the three Mallards that we have, these little ladies are so cute, so soft and quiet, unlike the riffraff ducks! :)
And then the geese, not much needs to be said for these beauties, you either know geese, or you are afraid of geese, simple. They are so loud, obnoxious, clumsy but so adorable and lovable. When I come outside they stand up tall, open their wings wide and run at me as fast as possible. If I didn't know these geese I might actually be a little weary of this, but they are just trying to get to me ASAP to get all the food! So cute.
The ducks (mainly) like to hang around the cat-eo, because it is also under the kitchen window, and any time we walk past the kitchen they can see us and they let us know that they are still there, I think with the hopes that food will appear for them, hopeful :)

While on the topic of Binx, another picture of the little man (little is relative), and Buttons :) These two didn't get along really, Buttons being the alpha-male in the cat hierarchy and Binx invading his turf (and checking out his woman!), but it never go too bad, a few scratches here and there.

This is Charlie, she is a strange little chicken, lays the cutest little eggs :) She was a rescue chicken from only days old, sad, but happy now :) She bosses nearly everyone around in the fowl world. She is the smallest of all of them, but she will tell the geese (largest) off if they do the wrong thing. It is very funny to watch! :)
She was hand raised due to the fact that she was so small and weak when we got her, but as she got bigger she slowly got introduced to the other girls (only have 5 chickens at that stage) and slowly took over as chicken-on-high, I fear for any rooster that attempted to join this flock!

The last picture I will leave you with is this picture of Scarlet 'protecting' this Brazilian Cherry. The tree was given to us (lovingly) by two very good/beautiful friends of ours, Matt and Juliana. It is growing so nicely, and hopefully it will give us years of joy and fruit :)
Scarlet of course is doing what she does best, being cheeky, poking her tongue out. Scarlet is such a beautiful puppy, she has the best nature about her, but when her heckles come up and her teeth come out, don't poke her! :) Right now she is trying to get to know the Alpacas better, I think she believes that since they share a similar color with her, they must be related (I never said that she was the smartest puppy!) She is a very loyal dog, and protects her heard/flock/family all the time. All our animals live together (except the cats, they just share with the dogs), but the dogs so in and out all the time, they hang out with the ducks and chickens, everyone gets along nicely :) I don't like leaving the dogs alone with the chickens for too long though, Scarlet (especially) likes to go into the chicken coop and search for eggs, I know what you are thinking 'good girl Scarlet for finding eggs and bringing them inside'...no... they are a lunchtime snack for her, and Digger likes to eat the chicken food.. we do have some confused animals out here!

Well, I must depart, the ladies are starting to sing their merry song to me. On a leaving note however, I will be getting a YouTube 'account' up and running soon, and on there I will be putting a lot of movies, movies about the things I am doing around here, and projects, and the crazy things that the animals do, so stay tuned for that one! :)

I hope that you all enjoy your day, and if you have to work today, or you are feeling down, just picture Scarlets little face, poking her tongue out at you :)

Crazy beautiful garden

This morning I wanted to share with you some photos more than anything else. These are photos I have taken of some (small) parts of my gardens. There are so many beautiful things in the world that get hidden away in plain sight, but if you relax, take the time and enjoy the things around you, you will see so much more.

Like this, under one of the tomato plants is this little guy. I am not saying that he is a good mushroom, or beneficial (might be the worst thing in the world to have growing near my tomatoes) however he grew there by himself and appears to be very happy with life. It is such a delicate little mushroom, I am afraid that one of those little tomatoes could squash it easily!

On the topic of mushrooms, these little guys don't quit! They look so soft, like you could just push down on them and they would spring back up (not recommended), they look like a cloud of mushrooms

Majority of my property is Australian native plants, and native to this area, however there are some things that the previous owners have planted that I will never destroy because they are still alive, they are still doing so much. I would not have chosen a lot of them, but they are here until they don't want to be anymore :)

This little flower is so interesting, in a sea of ferns and palms this little one decided to bring some color into the area. I am not complaining.

Some more of the slightly odd plants for this area, but they do what they do :) 

They add some "diversity" into the scene, and a lot of birds and spiders are calling this place home, adapt and overcome.

Something again from the eatable side of the garden, I am more into natives (native to the area) and eatables. I don't see a huge need to add things that are just beautiful (I have Queen Cassowary in my life and that is more than enough beauty for my garden (and of course my princess Pants) because in creating an eatable garden, you bring with it all the beauty of the flowers that assist the veggies, like this one.

And... then there are carrots. These are some of the carrots that we don't talk about in public, the test babies. I have learnt a few things about growing carrots since these ones (which tasted fine so I don't mind what they look like)

Ok, my ducks are politely requesting that I let them out now (just on sunrise), so I must go and attend to the other living things around here.
I hope that you see the beauty and uniqueness in life just as in these carrots :) They might seem twisted but they are just as tasty!

Enjoy today and everyday, I will keep updating and blogging (hopefully for your enjoyment)

A reused life..

These are soda bottles. 1.25ltr soda bottles. Why am I taking a photo and talking about these? Well, did you know that they are also currency? That's right! Junk like this is actually something that other people want, that other people will pay you for. Maybe not for cash, but for something else, I know, it does sounds a little sinister... maybe it is. I traded 20 of these empty soda bottles for 2 full ones, full of home brew ginger beer, completely home-made, organic, natural, whatever :)

So why are people paying me in ginger beer, and why do I want ginger beer? Well, that is not the point. People want these bottles because they are making home made things, whether it be ginger beer, soda, salt and pepper shakers, green houses for seedlings, raft floaties, etc. people want them for the same reasons that I do most things, because they don't want to see our planet filled with rubbish, rubbish that will not biodegrade in our life, and for money saving. Lets face it money is important for the society that most of us live in, and if we can save $1 by making something ourselves, or reusing something someone is throwing out, then go for it!!

This post that I am putting on is simple, easy and fast. I just want to tell people that you can recycle, you can get something for it also. People are very self-involved, of course we are, we are alive and we care about being alive, but for the people that think "why should I put things in the blue bin to recycle them, stuff that I will just put everything in one big bin and let God work it out".. well, if I told you that you could get something for that recycling bin, if you found out that you could (instead of giving it to the council to recycle) give it to someone else that actually wanted it, that actually cared about it, that wanted to pay you for that fact, maybe more people would start to recycle. When I say recycle I do NOT mean the recycling bin, what I mean is that you should ask people in your area. Use social media to reach out, use community forums to talk to people. You will find some really interesting people that want things that you were thinking was just rubbish.

I have traded old pots (the plastic plant pots) for seedlings for tomatoes, I have traded horse/cow/dog poo for pumpkins, old feed bags from chicken seed for empty bottles (which I then traded for carrots)... the list goes on. Just because YOU think that it is trash doesn't mean that someone else thinks that it is. Please, think about ALL the possibilities, if you can't find a use for it yourself (and google doesn't help) then advertise it on Gumtree, Facebook or some other social and local media that will reach people in your area. I have had people come 30 mins away for some 3 ltr juice bottles that would have just filled up my bin, and for 10 of those she gave me 2 pumpkins and some parsley.. She wanted those containers to make seedling beds for. People want soda bottles to make little green houses for seedlings to protect them in winter, or make something to scare away birds.

Please, think twice before you throw out anything, ask people if they  want it. What is the worst that could happen? You keep it for one extra week THEN throw it in the dump.

So.. enough about my rant on recycling and not killing the planet that we so love and cherish (or we should at least), I will head off now. I hope that you all have a fantastic evening/night/day and love life for what it has given you.. and think of others

A bunker, a shed, a fortress.. it's endless!

This is our 20' shipping container.Weighing in at a max weight of 30 TONNES (over 2 tonnes empty), this is 1170 cubic feet of pure awesomeness.

Why? Why do we have a 20' container of awesomeness in our yard? Firstly, because we can, secondly (and more importantly) because Queen Cassowary said I can, and thirdly, why not?

If you are wondering how much this little "investment" would cost you at home, well if you live near where I am (SE QLD, Australia) it would set you back around $2500 delivered to your door (just don't put it in front of your door, once it is in place, it can't be moved by hand). As mentioned above, it has a weight of 2,400 kg empty, so you need to make sure you know where it is going before you get it.

What am I going to do with this box? Well, you read a lot of things about people putting these underground and making bug-out shelters, bomb shelters, hide-aways, etc. and you also see a lot of people just using them above the ground as a shed. That is my use for it, a shed. It is being used to just store "things", things that I intend to use/make/fix/develop but don't have the time right now, and I don't want them to get destroyed in the open air/rain.

Normally a giant metal box in your front yard would stand out and attract attention (opposite of what we want in life), but around these parts, it is normal.

I am planning on building a root cellar (underground pantry essentially) however it will not be a container dropped in the ground, the details are still a little sketchy, but I just don't want to be conformed to the measurements of a container.

The first photo was taken in November of last year (11/14) when the container was first dropped off, the below photo was taken this morning (just now) as a comparison, mainly the growth around it. You can see such a nice change in the place, we have done so much work, not just on the house and with the animals, but in general with the land. It has taken time, money and effort, but it is all coming together

What I am going to do with this container in the near future is to build a roof for it, you can notice behind the container (to the left) is a large concrete water tank, the previous owners had disconnected it and let it sit there, doing nothing (I think they had a phobia of water). We are going to utilise the roof of the container and catch water in the tank behind it, then using that tank to water the gardens (and potentially store water for the front dam).

Well, I must be going, I have to get to work, this page has taken me over 1hr to write because I have been doing things between it (sorry for not dedicating all my time to this :) ). Until the next update, thank you all for viewing my blog, I will keep you informed of what else I am doing and how things are coming along. BTW, if you are wondering about the container, it was a great buy, I am very happy with it and it is doing just what I wanted it to do (stay there).

I hope that you all have a great day, and don't work too hard for someone else, keep your energy for what you want to do :)

Digger and Scarlet

Digger and Scarlet at the dam, investigating 

In the below two pictures Digger (the black one) and Scarlet (the brown one) are checking out the front dam just after we had a lot of rain. This is the first time the dam started filling since we lived here. It was an exciting time as the dam was broken when we got here (the previous owners didn't want that much water...) so we fixed the wall and it started filling :) Happy times (this makes two small dams on the property)

This is what happens if Digger and Scarlet get too much exercise in one day, they are out!! :)

The bed that Digger is in looks like a human bed, in fact it is. It is my side of the bed. Anytime that I am not in the bed Digger tries to take over the family! :)

 And this is Scarlet snuggling up on the couch, about to watch some TV and have a little sleep with her blanket

The Alpaca

Clive and Stuart

Recently we got two Alpacas, why you might ask? Who gets Alpacas, why wouldn't you just get a horse or a sheep, why an Alpaca? Well, let me tell you the journey we took to getting Alpacas.

When I say we I am referring to Queen Cassowary, author of "A Preppers Wife" (yeah, it's about me), so on the 5 acres we have a lot of native trees (large trees) and other types of natural debris (logs, sticks, shrubs, etc.) so mowing is not really a possibility. So why not clean up, you ask? Well we are trying to make this a natural sanctuary (if you will) and restore it to what it should be like, Australia native bush. But, in trying to do this we don't want to encourage nastiness like snakes that will eat me while I sleep, even though I say I want the natural environment, I don't like to die either. So we need to ensure that grasses are maintained, the chickens, ducks and geese do this also, but they are so cute and little that it would take them a year (if the grass stopped growing) to even think about clearing 1 acre! So, we needed a bigger, faster (and so what cuter) solution. Alpaca. Why not horses or cows? Well, we were looking into horses and cows, and after looking at the land that we have, we have seen the devastation that the horses and cows hoofs make on the ground, we needed a better solution. I know a bit about goats, and I know that they would love to eat all the baby trees and plants before doing what I want them to do (the grass) because they are like that, and we have planted about 50 new trees and shrubs on this land since we have been here, and I didn't want them to be a light snack. 

So, after a search, we found out about Alpaca. They don't have the same feet as horses and cows, they are from the same family as camels (and lama) and they do little when they walk on the ground (they do leave cute little foot prints in the wet soil). 

We set out and talked to some Alpaca breeders and picked out two. We don't like having just one of an animal, because it would be lonely for them, and having 107 Alpaca might just be slightly overwhelming for our little 5 acres, so two was the right number :)

The other really appealing part of getting the Alpacas is their wool, it is nice and soft and durable, and can be used to barter as a raw product, or can be made into a lot of different things, and as mentioned in other posts here, I like to make and do everything myself, so having a source like this on the land is very beneficial. Also the poo, they are relatively clean animals, they will have "piles" where they like to 'go', so for gardening reasons it is really really handy :) My gardens will love it!!

This is Clive, the is the older of our two boys (both de-sexed because we have no interest in breeding at this stage (and to boys can't breed)

And this is Stuart,I think that he is a little more handsome than Clive, Clive is kind of goofy looking, but he does his job :)

Well, I must head off, the day is starting without me and the ducks are yelling at me already, but I will leave by saying that these Alpaca are great, if anyone was considering them, I would recommend them. They make beautiful soft noises when they talk, they defend the area from wild dogs, and when they walk around they act as a snake deterrent because they are big and heavy and noisy, all the things that snakes hate :) 

I hope that you all enjoy your day, and enjoyed reading about our two new babies. I will keep you updated about these Alpaca and the rest of the monsters as our saga unfolds. Enjoy life, be happy :)

Buttons. Terror or Angel?

This is Buttons

This was Buttons

It is amazing what some tuna will do to a cat! :) Buttons is around 2 years old now, unfortunately for the little monster the vet believes that he has now developed an irritable bowel :( This is really sad, especially for such an active and interested cat. Buttons would eat anything (and I do mean that). Cats are carnivorous (this means they eat meat, just meat, so all those wacky vegans out there that believe that your cat should be vegan also, you are wrong. It is not their life style choice, it is the way they are (like suggesting that you should start to breathe water and life at the bottom of the ocean, no, you are not a fish))

Back to Buttons :) So he is now on a very specific diet, Hills Science Diet, yup that DOES sound expensive doesn't it. Forever. The vet suggested trying to get him into other foods gradually, foods that he can digest easily (nothing with heavy complex proteins), but I don't want to hurt him. This means that he eats in the bathroom, locked in, and Pants and Thunder Cat eat where they normally eat. Once both parties have completed (or leave the area) then Buttons is released back into the wild (rest of the house)

Now, why might I be asking the question (post title) if Buttons is a terror or an angel, looking at the above two photos you must be thinking, surely this is an angel if I have ever seen one, look at his little nose, and his cute belly and HIS PAWS (no doubt you are crying with happiness at the sight of his cute little fluffy paws) however, there is another side to Buttons.... a dark side...

This is a picture of Buttons. You might be thinking "Oh my, that is so cute! It looks like he is taking a side of selfie and the little man knows how to use your phone and he is going to call other cat friends and share information on his little facebook page and...." blah blah blah.. (downwards spiral of cute little cat noises and tears). This is NOT the case, this is not what it looks like when Buttons is using my phone, do you know what it looks like? It looks like 0100 (yup, that is one o'clock in the morning) Buttons jumps up on my bedside table, looks at me for maybe 30 seconds, then starts to softly stroke my face with his fluffy soft warm paw. Right now you must be thinking "wait, that sounds lovely, maybe this guy is not a cat lover", no, I am, I love my little #fluffykillingmachine, all three of them. So what IS my problem? The problem is that my phone is on that bedside table, Buttons will put one paw on the screen (which lights up due to his warm touch) and it will make an eerie glow under him, just like a horror movie, still kind of cute though? If I don't get up within about 15 seconds (or three pats) Buttons will start to use some of his little claws, those little fluffy paws of his hide claws, razor sharp claws of terror.

Why? Why does Buttons do this? Clearly he is hungry. Well, we have taught him to use the computer and look for recipies, he knows how to cook, so I don't get why he doesn't just make himself a snack?

I don't think it is because he is hungry. Sometimes (yes I am guilty of it), I will get up at 0100 and give him (and the other two) some food. Just some of Buttons' special diet dry food and they can all have some (treat of the others), but then within an hour he comes and wakes me up again :( 

I feel for the little monster, I really do. Sometimes he will just sit there and cry :(

Enough sadness, this is Buttons relaxing in his day bed. He likes to nap, he is so adorable.... when he is not waking me up all night with his fluffy claws of doom!

Well, it is getting late in the morning now, I have to get ready to go to that place that no-one ever likes going to, the place that steals you mind and your time and rewards you by slapping you, yes, work.

I will leave you with this picture of Buttons, the #SuperCat, he likes to practice being aerodynamic, in case one day his plan to fly works out, the last thing he wants is more drag!

I hope that you all have a great day, enjoy life, and if you love kittens enjoy them also :)