garden spring 2011

Did heaps of gardening today to get rid of weeds and string up some tomatoes

Bird Attack

A few amusing phots of birds disturbing our breakfast in bed...

Birds launching their attack...

Liz looking annoyed.

Liz saving her breakfast and Louka looks on.

Check out Louka's eyes...

Bird just waiting in the trees.

Rozella culprit...

Forgot the name of this one.

DIY Roller Coster

DIY roller coaster at Green Valley Farm

Camper in the Wild

The camper was never really designed for wet weather. On the first night it rained and rained and the canvas got wet and kind of started wetting ur

bed clothes. Fortunately we packed a plastic tarp. The combination led to a dry night sleep. It also doubles as a bit of insulation for when it is

cold. In short, all is good.

It looks a bit cramped to sleep in, but it is not. There is a good amount of head room and a window towards the front - which is sheltered by the

rain by the tarp. On the tray proper are are tiled rubber mats perfect for muddy environments.

We are at Green Valley - a manual amusement park in the middle of nowhere off a dirt track. It is great. The roller coaster makes an absolute acket

and you have to push it yourself all the way to the top before you jump on and go for a ride. I have got to take some photos.

Home Automation

I've put in some home automation to automatically turn on/off lights. I totally recommend the one from Jaycar. It is very versitile and has battery backup. It is in parallel with the normal light switch, so you can do one or the other.

camper van

Here is is in photos. Not really shown in the dual battery set up.

There is a window in the back that opens. A smaller one as well on the front side. It has fly screen to keep out insects.

The matress sits on the shelf below. We got a latex 5cm thick matress and it works well.

Ute Camper - Squaring Up

An age old problem with mounting doors is squaring up the frame so the door does not sag. I went for the over designed industrial solution - mainly because that is all the materials I have...

Camper

We are going on two week camping holiday in a month. Time to build a camper.. The super structure is basically complete.

Corbels Again

My DIY concrete vibrator seemed to work well - see previous post. As bonus, the corbels make good chin up bars ;) Nice and chunky - suits the garage.

Here is my very dodgy form work... I wet downed the concrete blocks before placing the concrete - it makes it stick better. The concrete was a fairly dry mix. It is amazing that the mix can go dry to wet in just a cup of water.

I accidently covered some of the screws with the chip board and had to do some cutting. Not for the faint hearted is an angle grider with a multi cutting blade...

Off comes the form work and now appears the green concrete. I used a wire brush to create a bit of texture...

Baked Cheese Cake

Base:
1 cup of Arnotts Scotch Finger or Nice biscuits
6 table spoons of melted butter
3 table spoons of sugar
Filling:
375g of cream cheese (softened)
2 eggs
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
1 table spoon of vanilla essence
1 cup of light sour cream

Bake at low temp for ~ 35 minutes.

Pork and Peanuts

3/4 pound of cubed pork
2 tablespoons of oil
1.5 table spoons of soya sauce
1.5 table spoons of brown sugar
3 oz of unsalted peanuts
2 carrots
1 small onion
2 green peppers

Fry up the sauces and oil in the wok as a reduction. The idea is that this will coat the meat and veggies.

Kids should love it.

Concrete Corbels

Here is my diy concrte vibrator... It seems to work well, tomorrow I will find out.

Concrete Corbel

I placed the concrete. Big, chunky and texture matches the wall...

I welded up some steel brackets for some shelves. The advantage is that they are perfectly level and each shelf has a theoretical working design load of 600kg per shelf (if you trust my welding). Anyway each bracket can support my weight on the tip.

Corbels for the Garage

Bent the steel with my reo-bender (that I bought for the steel re-inforcing for the house) and araldited them in using Sika anchor fix. I should have heated up the stuff in my heating cabinet to make it flow easier. The welding was just to hold the steel in place.

I used WD-40 to get the coach screws all the way in. Together with an impact driver, they made it all the way in - 200mm !

I put some (temporary) brackets in to support the concrete form. I used packers to level it up - :). I estimate it will need to support the setting of around 100kg of concrete. BTW, have no fear. The wall is a solid re-inforced concrete filled wall. One N16 rod mesh at 400mm squares.

Steel Supports

Lots of drilling today - 60 13mm holes in steel and 64 masonary holes. I'm getting ready to araldite steel reinforcementg into the wall. This particular one is 50mm closer to the posts than the others - hence the washers. I only have an auger bit that can drill 150mm and a box of 200mm coach screws.

Steel Supports

As part of the garage renovation, I wanted to reinforce the bearers and posts. I bought some 8mm thick angle steel, some bolts and some coach screws.

Drilling into the steel (13mm holes) was a lot easier than I expected. Especially with one of those cheap 1/2 horse power drill presses from kmart. Admittedly 2hp would have been better. I drilled a 4mm pilot hole and then the 13mm. I kept lubricating with wd40 to keep it cool. It took around 1 minute to drill. I set the drill to its lowest speed. The steel came off in nice little sharp spirals.

Here is the end result (kind of). Coach screws to go in, steel to be painted and of course so is the concrete. The holes down the bottom are for rebar.

Giant Radishes and Compost

One of the giant raddishes removed to prepare the garden bed. Past their eat by date.

About 6 months worth of compost going into the vege patch. Really smells. Wheely bins are great for composting. The holes in the bin clogged up, so I enlarged them to 8mm.


I visited Edcon Steel for some angle iron. Their customer service was spot one, amazing, helpful and well priced. I can't wait to purchase more steel.

Concrete Path

After about 4-6 hours, the concrete was set enough to finish the step...

I added a contraction / crack gap in the middle and a micro spoon drain at the end. Hopefully the water will run off into the garden.

Concrete Path

The path has to be done. I thought and thought and decided if I am going to make the concrete path, it would be good to get it over with. I only used 7 20kg bags of cement and I took a bite out of the excess sand I had from the driveway.

I had to form up a step and here it is. In a few more hours after it does its initial set, I'll take off the front timber and finish it with a broom finish.

Suddenly the mixer stopped - it over heated. I waited a bit and then pulled out a server fan for extra cooling. This is a very good reason not to get this mixer for trade use. You don't want any delays when concreting.

Opps, spare concrete. I though I would box it.

Louka's Throne

Just went to Ikea to buy Louka a comfy chair in washable fake leather. Being a small child, I made a platform for the chair and now it is a thone/highchair. The platform also serves as a step for her to get onto the chair and I doubt whether she will be able to tip it over. I'm going to line the base in carpet so it can be slid along the floor.

Concrete Repair

This is a crop from an old photo of what the path use to look like. You can just make out the rough concrete. Kind of looks like an awkward path.

Here I have moved the hose reel and the platform at the top of the stairs looks stable and usable. More concreting to go to replace the pavers.

A close up of the concrete repair a week later.. You can barely notice the "seam" and definitely no cracking or crumbling.

Concrete Path and Being Sick

Inspite of having a dreadful virus (sore muscles, sore throat, flem etc), I thought I would soldier on and fix up the path.

When I first put in the steps up from the garage level, I had to remove one because the head clearance over the step was a bit low. This left me with some jagged concrete and exposed re-inforcing.

To fix up the jagged concrete, I used my angle grinder with a diamond blade (+ Liz continuously spraying the blade with water) to cut out a 50mm deep rebate below where the step use to be. Then came out the cheap almost useless Ozito jack hammer to remove the concrete. I also cut down further the exposed re-inforcing. I used non-shrink grout to fill in this rebated section.

Also in the photo you can see the corner slab and the added step. You can also see the contraction joint between the corner slab and the repaired concrete.

I had to wait around 4 hours before the concrete had set enough to remove the step form and do the finishing.

I'm really hoping that because I did such a deep rebate, used non shrink grout and put in a conctraction joint, the repair will work and not just crumble.

I also buried some 100mm diameter agricultural pipe to run pipes and cables through.

Ozito Cement Mixer

In spite of some initial concerns with the cement mixer groaning, after mixing a total of around 3 cubic metres of concrete, I'm pretty happy with in. It does a full bag mix and it is also great for mixing soil.

I found that during my driveway laying, the cement mixer was almost always going. After it finished mixing, I'd dump the concrete into the wheel barrow and start up another mix. I would only start placing the concrete once the next mix was going. I think it would be a bit tedious to use a smaller mixer.

Certainly mixing the cement yourself, you don't need any helpers. Possibly one person full time on the mixer to guarentee 100% utilisation may be worth it for a big job.

I'd use it to put in a small slab for a small home workshop - say 2 x 3 metres but that is probably about it. It is great for DIY paths.

By the end of half a day's mixing, I really needed to blast it with a pressure cleaner to clean out the bowl.

Controversial Jacaranda Tree

The controversial Jacaranda tree

Mum at Manly

Queencliff Freshwater Tunnel

If you ever visit Manly, on the far side of the beach, there is an ancient tunnel to explore.

It is a secret passage between Manly (Queenscliff) and Freshwater beaches. It is easy to get to from the Manly side, but it is a real adventure to make it all the way to Freshwater beach.

Suitable for my mum, Louka and anyone really. The warning sign is just about falling rocks.

The tunnel entrance...

The reward, it is this tunnel, it is suprisingly long and opens up to a sun filled ledge - unfortunately there are no seats.

Finished Driveway

A picture of the finished driveway. One of the tracks is 30cm shorter - thanks to the burst pipe. It is all seeded and ready to grow. Also the moved hose. In a much better position.

DIY Potting Mix

Potting mix is expensive, so why not mix your own.

I bought yet another cubic metre of compost from the recycling centre $35. They used a massive front end loader to load it. It took them 4 "bucket loads" to fill my ute tray simply because the bucket was twice the width of my tray and they didn't want to spill anything.

Anyway, with my trusty cement mixer, I sure made quick work mixing the compost, sand and a bit of ammonia sulfate. It mixed very quickly and very well - a minute per wheel barrow load.

I found that you can no longer get ammonia nitrate nor potasium nitrate (thanks to alkada and a paranoid government).

I lowered the blocks just so there is a level pathway beside the driveway

Forming up fro the concrete around the stormwater pits...

The finish product, complete with native violets