Worms, worms, worms.........

A wonderful way to compost organic matter is to make a worm farm. Of course you could buy one ready made but as usual we decided to make our own lol... luckily we had an old laundry twin-tub sink that we could use. We covered the drainage holes with mesh to prevent escapees.

Cut a hole for a PVC "tunnel" between the two sinks and used silicone to seal it.
Added lots of bedding, we used straw and horse dung, other alternatives are shredded paper etc....Bought some composting worms, these are not the same as garden worms, and are great little workers.

Added some food and the worms to the sinks and covered with damp hessian. I have spared you the pics of the food as we are using our worm farm to dispose of dog poo! This means we won't be able to use the castings or worm wee on our vegies, but it will be fine to use on the flower garden. A great way to fertilise the garden, clean up the yard and reduce flies.
A lick of paint so it is less visible in the yard and a piece of tin for a lid and it's all done! The cupboard below provides great storage for the bucket to collect the worm wee. Shame I forgot that dog wormer kills all worms, so I will have to wait for a while before feeding the worms their special food.... until then it's kitchen scraps!

I looooove a good clearing sale......

Ian and I went to a clearing sale on the weekend, I love these sales, usually they happen when someone sells a farm so there's some great old goodies. This sale didn't have much, but we did get a couple of things, including this table.
We salvaged these great weatherboards from our old house. They still have some of the original green paint on them. Ian cut them to size for me and fitted them as a shelf for the table.
A good drink of linseed oil to revive the timber and it was all done! We think the table came from an old school house, it is covered in kids names lol..... I love having bit of history like this in our home.The table is in my kitchen, we have so much more serving and preparation area now, it's fantastic! Please excuse the washing up on the bench lol, I was a bit busy lol...... No doubt the stuff I plonked on the shelf below the table will be rearranged, but for now I reckon it looks pretty good! Not bad for $55 and a couple of hours work.....

From op-shop to prim........

I discovered this shelf for a couple of dollars at an op-shop (goodwill) a few months ago. It was painted a pastel blue, not prim at all. Time for a make-over!






We had some left over paint in a grungy green, so in the interests of economy I decided to use it to paint my shelf.

We have a tumbledown old house on our property, which I keep raiding for primitive goodies. One thing I have found there is some wonderful rusty pressed ceiling tin. It just so happened that this tin was just the right spacing for my shelf!

My darlin' cut it to size for me and I brushed it down, sealing it with a spray clear enamel. I fixed it to the back of the shelves and they were ready to hang!



This is my little stitching/reading nook. I love the shelf there with a few prim dollies on it. The chair is a very old one I bought at a second hand shop, and the cushions are all op-shop finds. It's such a cosy little spot, especially on a winter's day......

My tin-can melt warmer.

A dear friend Ann on P4P has corrupted me with her talk of scented melts so I splashed out and ordered some melts (tarts) from http://www.sugarcreekscents.net/store/Default.asp . There was so many yummy scents to choose from I ended up buying a mixed bag of 50 lol...... This then presented me with a slight problem - what to warm them in? Now I have an oil burner, but I wanted something just for the melts. So into the freezer went a tin can full of water. This morning I pulled it out, taped a simple design ( hearts and stars) to it and got busy punching holes using a nail and hammer.

I ran the can under the tap to melt the ice, took the base off it with a tin opener and sat it on a little quiche pan in which I had placed a tealight candle. I sat a pie pan on the top to place the melt in and there it was - my tin-can melt warmer!

After a couple of minutes the candle snuffed it so I ended up drilling some holes near the base of the can to allow the candle to draw more air. It now works brilliantly! Next time I will try a more intricate design, perhaps a willow tree? And I think using a bigger nail would work well too.

Merran's new bag....

I found this great idea using a pair of babies overalls on Kelle's blog http://twodancingcrows.blogspot.com/. What a great idea! I changed it a little, boxed the base and added the pom-pom trim and ric-rac. I also changed the buttons. Merran (10) loves it!

More pics of our place.......

Caramel is my gorgeous Jersey cow. This pic was taken when she was about 18 months old, that was about 2 years ago. Since then she has had a calf and my hubby Ian milked her. She has the creamiest milk - yummo! She needs to go back to the bull very soon, she keeps chasing Ian with an amorous look in her eye!

Why buy new when recycling is so much more fun? We made our letter box from a tiny old electric oven that we picked up for a song from our local junkyard. We bolted it to a post and put a tyre filled with dirt at the base to make it more stable. A few succulents in the tyre garden and it was finished. At least my kids know what I mean when I ask the to check the stove..... The neighbours have an old drum painted in spots like a fresian cow for their letter box. I love looking at all the great ideas people come up with, must be fun for the postie!

We used an old stock crate and recycled corrugated iron to build our chook shed. We bought old army issue eskies for nesting boxes and even used old paint to do the sign. If you look closely there is a little galvanised tin rooster on the top of the cage. The girls are off the lay at the moment so we need to get a few extra hens from the battery egg farm down the road. The owner lets us have his older hens cheap, and boy do they love coming to live with us! Their poor little claws are so bent from being locked in tiny cages, with us they are free range for most of the day so they must feel great. We only lock them up at night to protect them from foxes. The neighbour gives us scraps from the restuarant where she works in return for eggs, it works out great for all of us.