The Prodigal Blogger

Well its been a long time between drinks! I'll not try to catch everyone up on the last month, just try to get things going again with the blog.

First off, a water saving measure. The running loo. Being a veteran of the leaking loo now, I correctly diagnosed the problem (worn inlet valve rubber grommetty thing) and, after a certain amount of colourful language aimed at a stubborm split pin, managed to dismantle the works, replace the rubber thingy, reassemble and bask in the glory of my toilet maintenance skills. While I was there I popped in a toilet cleaner thingy too.

Yesterday I bought a lemon tree. It came with 2 lemons in situ and a heap of blooms. The trouble was that I had no idea what to do with it. The wind was blowing a glae and I had no clue where to put it. I eventually decided to build a planter box for it out of a few sleepers I had kicking around. Here is the result.

I am pretty pleased with the result. I will put some herbs around the outside once the lemon is settled in. The wind has given it a bit of list at the moment so I think I will pop some stakes in and give it a bit of support against the gales.

A few sleepers and some hoop iron (and a crap load of nails) and there you have it. Not a bad looking planter box. A few bits of random (and warped) timber to make the bottom and 4 of the chook house pavers to lift it off the ground. A layer of newspaper in the bottoms, a barrow load of lawn clippings, a barrow load of dirt, and a bag of compost completes the package.

Yesterday I also visited the worm farm (it was in Pialigo where the nurseries are in Canberra). Actually to be mosre precise I wsa going to the worm farm and dropped in to the nursery and bought the lemon tree on a whim. I'd like a lime to go with it, but they only had 'tahitian' limes. According to the tag though they are susceptible to frost. I'll have to do some research and figure out what lime trees are the most frost resistant.

Anyway back to the worms. I bought 1000 worms and a bag of 'worm topper' from a very helpful lady at the worm farm. I'm not entirely sure what the worm topper is but you basically toss a cupful on top of a heap of food when you feed them. Anyway, I have the worm farm situated now beneath the big red-ish tree. Here is a photo.

I've been listening to more of the lecture series on my ipod. I've finished the Shakespeare lecture series and the Classical Mythology lectures. Now I have moved on to 'Famous Greeks'.

I just got back from a brilliant movie. 'Stardust'. It was very enjoyable indeed. I recommend you all run out and see it straight away. A brilliantly executed fairy tale (not that there were any fairies you understand). But a real feel good movie and tremendously fun and entertaining too.

For those of you who have been following the drama, Greg popped in after the movie and after an hour and a half of battling with the PC managed to solve the problems I had trying to log into the Dawn of War online servers so that I should be able to join the other guys in playing cooperative online games of Dawn of War with my mates.

The big news of the week is, however, is that the curse may be broken. Up until now, I have been great at building infrastructure, but terrible at getting anything to actually grow. So today I was overjoyed to spot a seedling growing in my seedling trays. Ok so 1 out of 144 might not be a great strike rate but at least its not 0% anymore! I am calling it my $500 cabbage. I'm not entirely sure how much I've spent so far on the veggie garden stuff but it sure makes that one cabbage seedling a pretty expensive cabbage hehe. Ben has a couple of trays full of seedlings an inch high and a careful comparison of our two techniques has revealed that the secret may just be in watering them. Who would have thought that right?

Anyway this has inspired me to plant out a third propagating tray of seeds. This time 5 different types of bean from the 'magic bean mix' packet.

The last thing I did in the garden today was to make the lid for the chook nest box. I made this out of a small sheet of plywood I bought for the occasion, some bendy timber I had, some random screws from the salsa jars in the shed, and some old door hinges (complete with old paint) I have carried from residence to residence in a takeout container along with other sundries such as a door lock and an old drawer handle. This will end up as the handle to lift the lid of the nest box shortly. Ok the odds and ends battens, that I used to join the lid pieces together, look a bit odd but they are functional.

I've also got a lead on some chooks. One of the consultants we use at work , and with whom I've become friends over the last few years, learned of my chook house adventures. She has a friend who breeds orpingtons (the Queen Mother's favourite breed) and Isa Brown-Barnevelder crosses. So big-bottomed egg-layers all. The only proviso is that I must call one of them 'Val' after the consultant. Which just makes it funnier really.

Finally, its worth mentioning that the walnut tree that was given to me by Raechelle (one of a pair she brought from the old walnut at New Norfolk) is starting to shoot with spring green bits. Here is a photo of the walnut (the tree is healtheir than my photography skills).

The last thing I will mention is the flurry of lamb roasts that seemed to happen today. I bought a roast lamb to cook tomorrow. I was talking to Rae on the phone and she mentioned that Nan was at Mum and Dad's place today and that they had roast lamb for lunch today. Ash went out to get a roast lamb while Rae and I were chatting. So it seemed like everyone was up for roast lamb today.

Ok I think thats enough news for a prodigal blogger return post.