The only leaf I cant compost

This species is a real problem...

It's easier to identify when I flip it over...

Scrap wood keeps my garden door going

We have a fence around the veggies to keep the dog out of there. The door frame is made from scrap wood. The base decomposed and is now gone back to the earth :) The rest of the frame is still hanging in there. Most of the scrap wood come from pallets and wine boxes. 

Where the old wood used to be...

Here is what the base looks like after surgery...

From the other side...

That funny shape wood is from a wine box...

The top joints were strengthened with just some nails and extra wood...

recycled bed base

 Someone threw this out. Looks like half a bed base frame. It was heavy. The longer pieces of wood were much better quality than pallets. 

Painted it with used motor oil. That should give it some protection from the rain.

4 July 2021: Found another bed base last week. More than 10 pieces of reasonable quality wood. Here are 3 of them...

They were joined together by some thick fabric. After spraying with bug spray, and leaving all out in the sun and rain for a few days, it was time to clean and cut it up. The staples holding the fabric were a pain to remove.

pump died

I have 2 pumps running. one is a powerhead with 2 outflows... the first to move water around the pond and the second goes out to an external filter and flows back in. the 2nd pump (the one that died) was on a timer and pumping dechlorinated water into the pond 3 times a day.

Bought this small powerhead to do the job.

Cut the 2pin plug off (voids the warranty but its so cheap I wouldn't claim it if it died under a year) and replaced with a 3pin power cable from some old device.

plastic in compost

 It's easy to spot the plastic in compost because of its shiny, bright colours. Even the claer plastics contrast more against the dark browns of the compost. I picked out quite a lot this time, the most I've had in one compost harvest. It due to getting scap veggie from the market. They dump lots of other rubbish in. 

This is about 80% of the crap I fished out. 

cat5 cables

I have a heap of category 5 network cables that are obsolete. Not as bendable as the other cables but still put to good use in the garden.

Better than ending up in a landfill.

Dog food bag compost bin prototype

Our current compost bins are about 2 feet tall max. Once they are full I leave them alone for about 2 months and then harvest. The garden and kitchen waste matter has not fully broken down, but I still use it.

So I'm thinking... these dog food bags are plastic lined, about 3 feet tall.

Two of them attached together would make a nice long bin almost 6ft tall. Cut the top bag's base completely, so it will just be one open ended cylinder. We used thick string made from some plant. Loosely sewed it to the bottom bag.

Tied the sided of the bags to our bamboo tree. I will find some taller potted plants to hide it a bit more. 

I wont put food in this, only garden cuttings. The plan is that once I have filled all 6 feet of it, the bottom stuff will be more broken down compared to by smaller 2ft tall compost bins. I have just poked some holes at the bottom to drain out the rain water, but hardly any will get in coz the bamboo leaves make a decent umbrella.

repurpose ceiling fan

Neighbour was upgrading their fans. I took 6 blades to use for part of my raised bed. Tried vertically too as a barrier for the dog.

old fan blades

One of the neighbours was upgrading his fans. The old ones were being chucked out. Salvaged the blades. They might make good barriers/walls instead of bricks. 

regular checks of equipment is a must

Things eventually give way, so regular checks are necessary to avoid major problems. Take this for example...

These hoses connect the pump in the pond to the external filter, and back from the filter to the pond. This one has split due to age, and the only thing keeping the water in is a layer of algae. 

If the hose from the pump in the pond to the external filter had split, it would have been catastrophic as the pump sits at the bottom of the pond. It would have drained out most of the water. I have placed the pump slightly elevated on a brick to lessen the problem in the event it does happen.

making a post from scrap wood

 This is a scrap piece I have that is a bit warped.

Used a jigsaw (invest in a good one) to cut a point.

That pointy end makes it easy to hammer the wood on the opposite end, to drive it into the ground. Before doing that I applied 2 coats of this clear paint, something like this. I even added a rough layer to the bottom one inch of my outdoor furniture.

I raised 3 of the 4 legs with bricks and painted the free 4th.

Erosion

A fair amount of loose topsoil gets washed away with heavy downpours. Spent this morning making a barricade with old roof tiles and bricks.

Ran out of bricks.

Artificial vinegar with a SCOBY!

haha just kidding. I placed my 1st attempt at ACV in this old vinegar bottle. 

The ACV was not as strong as I wanted so relegated it to washing veggies and cleaning. It grew a healthy-looking SCOBY though.

apple cider vinegar number 3

Time to clear out the freezer. Accumulated 1 kg of apple scraps, 1032g to be precise.

Ori recipe calls for 1 heaped teaspoon sugar per apple. According to Google, medium apple is about 180g so added 6 heaped teaspoons of sugar.

200ml of my ginger bug to act as the yeast at the start of stage 1 in the fermentation.

Enough water to cover, which was 1400ml.

Weighed it down with a bag of water.

Will leave for 2 weeks before decanting and adding the mother from the last batch.

 

cheapest one way valve for brewing/fermenting

When making ginger beer, I gather from reading the forums that you actually dont want oxygen to get in. I think it makes the process faster of yeast eating up the sugar and turning it to alcohol. 

So far I have been doing it wrong by putting a breathable cover (cloth) on the top. It will still work but putting a one way valve would be better. The CO2 can escape without letting the O2 in.

This is my el-cheapo solution....

... a balloon over the mouth. I washed the balloon inside and outside first. And made sure it was dry and not sticking to the opposite balloon wall before placing it on top of the bottle.

After one day the ballon has expanded...

Just prick a hole with the thinnest sewing needle you have. Dont worry it wont burst like when you do it after blowing up the balloon to full size.

Hard apple cider & apple cake

Bought this for 8.99 from Lulu. Under rm1 per medium apple is a bargain for apples not from China.

Plus it was a mix of sweet red and sour green apples, exactly what this recipe called for...

Two were badly bruised but luckily weren't rotten. I used most of it.

No waste... these bits will be going into the outdoor vinegar I have fermenting... 

The result after running thru the masticating juicer... 974ml. The recipe calls for 1 litre so close to perfect.

The pulp was 114g. It will fo to making an apple cake. The juicer spits out pretty dry pulp so hope it tastes ok.

I scraped quite a bit of juice for the cider and pulp for the cake from the juicer parts...

The hard cider day 0...

20Sep2020 day2 update: Its bubbling! Taste sweet. That's faster than the instruction video (I was going to add a ginger bug if it didnt bubble after 72 hours). All looks healthy on top...

21Sep2020 day3 update: Bubbling well! Taste a lot less sweet. Top still looks good. You can see from this side pic (taken after I stirred)  how high the pulp got pushed upwards by the CO2 bubbles...

******

Now for the cake made with the pulp. I used this recipe. Just picked it from the first page of results...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened =113g

1 cup sugar = 200g. I reduced it to 185g

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon vanilla. I used artificial vanilla flavour.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour = 150g 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shredded peeled apples. I used 114g pulp 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Replaced that with 61g almond slices

The cake from the pulp...

Baked for 41 minutes at 170C.

The cake verdict? I will let you know in 10 minutes...

10 minutes later update: Nice! The cake was not too dry.

But lots of room for improvement...

- could have reduced the sugar 

- The apple taste was there but I should have added at least 1 normal apple instead of 100% pulp. Anyways it was an experiment.

- More of the sour green apples would have worked well too.

- A bit too crumbly. A quick search led me to this. Too many variables! I will settle for crumbly cake.

Mini project - change pump's 2pin to 3pin plug

 The 2 pin plug the pump came with is not made for this country's power points. I can fit but not well. 

I got an old 3pin plug and cord, cut from a spoilt appliance. 

I'm holding here the cut ori pump 2pin plug... 

Joint the blue and brown...

All wrapped in more tape. 

The joint will be in a covered container so no chance of getting wet and water seeping into the wire connection.

added more Indian almond leaves

The fish aren't doing well. I think I'm missing a couple of climbing perch, and what I thought was markings on one, looks like it's spreading to the other perch. Added more Indian almond leaves to hopefully help medicate the fish. I think I will add some salt too. And over the next few weeks I am going to add a few leaves every couple of days.

Added to my aquariums... For the main guppy tank, I put the leaves at the back so they arent too visible in the front.

The view from the back...

Close up...

The back aquarium is just a pile of stuff to see if I can encourage daphnia growth. I let the leaves just settle wherever they wish...