Sarah’s Birthday Party 2008
For Sarah’s fifth birthday, she had a “princesses and pirates” theme.
Add comment July 5th, 2008
The Chinese Silky Chicks Arrive!
After a lot of searching, emailing and ringing local breeders looking for silky pullets, I finally found a lady up in Marulan with some chicks for sale. I originally didn’t want to get chicks because of the mucking around with heat lamps etc, but since it was the only way to get some silkies for the girls we decided to go for it.
We bought nine chicks, 4 for us and 5 for my mate Danny. Ours have been named Seraphina, Ro, Luciana and Molly (yes, Barbie movies are big in our house!). Turns out they’re not really that much hassle to look after.
First thing Hannah and Sarah wanted to do was draw pictures of the chicks, so they could show their grandparents and friends what they look like.
Rather than give them out to people, Sarah decided to turn her pictures into a book about chickens:
8 comments July 3rd, 2008
How To Speed Up Microsoft Outlook
Repair your .pst file!
Rather than copy the instructions here, refer to How To Fix Your Broken PST File.
It’s not just for use when Outlook stops working – it’s a useful preventative action you should run occasionally to repair little problems before they become big problems. Anytime Outlook starts running slower than normal, give this a try.
Add comment March 11th, 2008
How To Disable Yellow Print Confirmation Popups In Windows
The Problem: When I send anything to my networked printer, Windows XP pops up a yellow confirmation bubble telling me the item printed. How can I turn that annoying option off?
The Solution: In Control Panel, choose Printers and Faxes. Click File, Server Properties, and select the Advanced tab. Near the bottom, uncheck the box for “Notify when remote documents are printed” and also uncheck the box for “Show informational notifications for network printers”.
In Vista, follow the same steps, but uncheck “Show informational notifications for network printers”.
5 comments March 9th, 2008
Video: How To Make Compost (Milkwood)
Another great video series from Milkwood, this one explaining how to make compost without too much effort.
Don’t these videos have great music? I also really like the way they use the “Benny Hill effect” of speeding up the video, so you get a good idea of what they’re doing without needing to sit around and watch someone turn a whole pile of compost. Nice opening and closing credits too.
The web pages for each of these videos are worth visiting, as they have a lot of useful info:
The Videos
Notes
Making Compost – Part I
- analyse your compost components using the Milkwood Compost Calculator to make sure you have the C:N ratio right
- if you get the C:N ratio wrong, your pile will either fester and go rank (too much nitrogen) or take too long to break down (too much carbon)
- need at least a cubic metre of stuff for the compost pile to work properly
- water the site of your pile before starting
- layer your ingredients like a lasagne to make sure things are nicely mixed
- water each layer as you go: the bacteria and fungi need water to do their thing
- cover with a tarp – stops it drying out, getting too wet, blowing away, etc
Making Compost – Part II
- turning the compost pile
- squeeze a handful of your compost – you should get one drop out of it – water it if it’s too dry
- peel the outside of the compost pile to make the beginnings of the new pile, then dump the inside of the old pile onto the outside of the new pile
- mental note – next time, shred paper rather than leaving it whole!
- white powdery stuff is anaerobic bacteria, which is not really desirable – just keep turning and watering and it’ll sort itself out
- the pile should reach about 60 degrees Celcius around the 4th day, then cool down a bit more with each turning until it’s just warm by the time the compost is ready
- urine is a good compost activator if your pile is slow to heat up!
Making Compost – Part III
- this compost method is called the Berkley Method – it’s fast and easy
- ended up with nice dark compost – a little more sticks and lumpy bits than she’d like, but still pretty good
- wow, in January Kirsten was planning to starting a new compost pile every week!
Add comment March 8th, 2008
How To Stop Internet Explorer Opening Office Documents In The Browser
By default, Internet Explorer opens Excel and Word files within the browser window. This can be annoying if you want to work with them in the real applications. To get IE to always open these files using the correct application:
- click Start >> Control Panel >> Folder Options
- click on the File Types tab
- find the XLS file type in the list and click on it
- click on the Advanced button
- uncheck the “Browse in same window” option
- click OK to close the Edit File Type dialog
- find the DOC file type and repeat the above three steps
- click OK to close the Folder Options dialog
5 comments March 7th, 2008
Video: Soil Food Web – And Nature’s Soil
Notes
- Manzano Mountains, Central New Mexico, USA
- Michael Martin Melendrez, founder of Soil Secrets
- Michael is also well known for his coining the phrase and writing the first paper ever on the Soil Food Web titled ‘Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web’ in 1974
- sugar maples, drop leaves to provide a protective mulch
- we are told we need to change our soils from their natural alkaline state to a more acidic pH
- but the organic matter dropped by the maples hasn’t changed the pH of the soil where they grow
- the organic matter is turned into humus
- topsoil under the maples is very thin, with only a thin layer of humus
- so we don’t need to make a huge change to soils in order for them to support our plantings
- these forests provide an example of how we can use permaculture to alter a landscape without a huge amount of effort – we don’t need to completely change the soil in order to be successful
More videos about soil can be seen at the Soil Secrets web site.
Add comment March 5th, 2008
Video: Fallen Fruit
Here’s an interesting video about picking public fruit.
- Fallen Fruit is a group that maps local fruit trees and encourages sharing through group plantings and “forages”
- take people on walking forages to collect public fruit growing in the neighbourhood
- fruit growing on public property or hanging over fences onto public property is “public fruit” and can be legally picked
- streets with accessible fruit are “generous”
- fruit picker (e.g. from Home Depot) is required – all fruit at human-level gets picked before you get there
Add comment March 3rd, 2008
Video: Edible Estates
Watch the video at KCET, Edible Estates.
Notes
- why are people growing lawn?
- Fritz Haeg converts homeowners’ front lawns into working vegetable gardens
- Descanso Gardens invited Fritz to build a demo garden to show people what he does
- one third of the garden is planted as plain lawn
- two-thirds is planted as an edible vegetable garden to show people how good it can look
- lawn requires a lot of water, and takes a lot of time and energy to maintain
Add comment February 29th, 2008
Video: How To Grow Figs From Cuttings (Milkwood)
I’ve just discovered the Milkwood site – “Two city kids quit their jobs, pull up stumps and journey to a remote, empty, block of land to start an ultra low impact lifestyle from scratch”. Now these are people I’d love to meet!
Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar are documenting their trials and tribulations via both traditional blogging and short videos. The videos are great, and they really have a flair for making an interesting short film.
This first video is about how to grow figs from cuttings.
Notes
- spring time – growing time, making cuttings time
- able to obtain cuttings from an abandoned orchard near their property – lucky!
- besides being free, taking cuttings from local trees ensures that you are growing a variety that will do well in your area
- these appear to be hardwood cuttings?
- “follow the wrinkle” when taking cuttings
- instead of using commercial growth hormones for striking cuttings, use “willow water” – finely-chopped willow leaves dumped in a bowl of water
- fill pots with dirt/compost/potting mix/whatever
- fill the pots first, put them in a tray to make moving them around easier
- cut the hardwood cutting just below a node, then scrape the bark to stimulate root growth
- use a stick to make a hole in your pot
- dip the cutting into the willow water, getting lots of green bits on it
- insert into the hole in the pot
- repeat for all the other cuttings
- water them in
- done!
It’ll be interesting to visit the site again in a few months and see how the little figgies are doing.
Add comment February 24th, 2008