In a pickle

Or what to do when you go away for 4 days and come back to a garden full of courgettes going on marrow...

Step 1: Pick excessive quantities of marrow from the garden

Step 2: ????

Step 3: Profit!

Techno Cave

Several events have conspired this past week to limit boat construction progress. A long awaited call from the international freight company informed us that the shipment from Brisbane had finally arrived. This was fortuitous as it contains many tools and other essential items I required in the workshop. There was also other non-essentials like clothes, books, kitchen supplies and personal effects. The transport and unpacking process took several days, but our house is feeling a lot like home now. More importantly, the shed now has a reasonable complement of power and hand tools.

The first job was to install the most crucial item in any shed, a decent stereo and speaker system. My setup consists of British built studio speakers I found in an Op Shop for $8. The amplifier is a very cheap (Chinese sourced) kit that runs on 12V and can deliver 20watts RMS per channel. Now whenever I walk into the shed, an automatic bluetooth connection from my phone streams music. The quality is amazing and I think those speakers would out perform any new mid-range system. A pragmatic mix of old and new!

It might not have valves, but it does have a blue light! Simple 20watt amplifiers like this are available in kit form for $10 online

Zip ties! 

The next essential job was to finally adjust my simple old-style rotary push mower. With a decent set of spanners I was able to tighten up the wheels and drive cogs. Then I removed the cutting blade and sharpened it up with a hand grinder. I am happy to say the mower works a lot easier now, although obviously still harder than a petrol mower. One day, if I ever become physically fit I might consider a labour saving device, but for now mowing the lawn manually is a form of much needed exercise.

Hand cranked grinding wheel!

The blade is pretty old, and I did a rubbish job but still got an edge back on

Around the unpacking, shed organising and lawn mower repairs I also had to go back to work :-( However, I still managed to do a little bit of boat work and finished sanding all four side pieces true!

I see more clamps in my future

All four side pieces are now true (or close enough ;-p)

Garden Update

Arriving in mid-September, we were just in time to begin planting a few garden beds. Now, summer is in full swing and the garden is coming along nicely with kale, beetroot, snow peas and beans now regularly harvested. But pictures tell the story better, and pictures with captions better still!

The 'main' garden bed. The bed is not quite deep enough but everything seems to be growing well enough.

Tomatoes should be ready for eating soon.

Daisy's, Zucchini and pumpkin is growing well together

The broad leaves hide many a rogue zucchini

We have planted this bed very densely. Everything is doing well, but perhaps some are getting suppressed?

I mixed compost mix with an empty bed and planted with discount seedlings ($1.50 for 6!) 

Watering the new seedlings

Another new bed inbetween an agapanthus and the old concrete water tank

 A good variety of flowers are in bloom, giving a good feed for the bumble bees