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Showing posts from July, 2014

What happens when a chicken moults...?

All chickens moult. Its a normal thing for them to do, and, they need to do it. Moulting gives them a rest from laying eggs and a chance to build up the reserves of various mineral and vitamins that they used up when they laid all those eggs for you! Chickens tend to moult as it gets colder, so Autumn-ish time, in most climates. Here in Brisbane, it doesn't get terribly cold in Winter. Our sub-tropical winters are quite mild by comparison to most, and as such, my chickens seem to moult whenever they damn well please! In colder climates, they seem to moult, grow back their feathers but not start laying properly again until spring creeps over the window sill. I noticed my wee Pekin bantam had gone off the lay and so I tried to get some photos of the moulting process so you can see what it looks like. Its not always easy to spot, but the first sign is usually that they go off the lay. Chickens tend to lay on a 25 hour cycle and so will lay an hour later each day on average. Its got

"The high price of materialism" - a video by Tim Kasser

I was cruising some blogs that I read and came across this video on No Impact Man - Colin Bevan 's blog and just had to share it with you in case you hadn't seen it yet. Its called "The High Price of Materialism" and expresses things that I had thought but hadn't been able to put into words (or pictures!). I think people who read green-y, eco friendly, homesteading, values based lifestyle type blogs and websites probably consciously or maybe even unconsciously, would agree with a lot of what Tim Kasser says; and draws! Its a very succinct and basic answer to the question - How do I live my life, if my life isn't about buying things and getting the next payrise...? Building and living a life that expresses and promotes intrinsic values is the answer. How each of us do that is an individual response. Some will have no TV's, others limit the time the spend with it on. Some garden and produce their own food, other buy local organic veges. Some of us will

Patching big holes in the seat of jeans!

Just recently I have had a hole patching frenzy with lots of jeans in this house! It can be very frustrating to rip a hole in those favourite oh-so-comfortable jeans and render them useless. Unless you have no neighbours to be offended the sight of a bit of backside hanging out of your jeans that is! I got quite good at patching those stress tears that happen across the worn seat of your jeans, and sometimes, on the inner thigh. The patch isn't going to stand in for a $200 a seat Gala Charity Night outfit, but will be just fine for casual, garden or around the house wear. Here's what I did...   You can see the stress tear across the seat of the pants. Its not a tear where its been caught on something, just where its worn out, and then you bend over - that's all those jeans could take!   First I pinned them together with long quilting pins as well as I could, so that the two halves of the hole are where they should be.   Then I turned then inside out a

Refilling old candle holders with new home made candles!

I had a number of nice wee candles that had burnt down to the bottom of their containers. They were too nice to throw away and I decided that I might be able to refill them with some more wax that I had lying around and use them again. Jumping straight in as I am apt to do.... I learnt a bit about candle making the hard way! Here's what I did...   First I gathered up all my old wax. I scooped the wax out of old candles by either melting it for popping the whole container in the freezer for 10 minutes or so - most of the wax just popped out of its container after that!   I bought a length of candle wick from my local handcraft store. This was 6 meters and cost me $4.   I used the double boiler method of melting all my wax together. I used an old tuna can as I was only planning on filling four small candles. Don't let any water boil over into your wax. It will make your candles go funny...   I gently stirred the wax as it melted.   I measured

Making a lucky horseshoe for a wedding!

With my niece getting married next weekend, I thought I had better get started on making the horseshoe I had promised to make her. Her Mom had sent me a sample colour and I had my own one made for me for my wedding by my Aunty as a template... so all I had to do was get started. Its not easy to make something for someone else when you are in another country and can't easily see the style's and themes she is thinking about - but I gave it a go, The one my aunty made me for our wedding! Here's what I did... I used the sample to match the ribbon and flowers to. I didn't want it to be just two colours so I chose lighter and a darker blue flowers to go with the sky blue as well as the white and some silver ribbon to add a highlight. I managed to find a couple of very cheap and almost plain horseshoes at the op shops and used them as a base by taking off the decorations already on them. I discovered later that there are cardboard templates that you c
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