The Greening of Gavin

Archives for December 2009

Christmas Cheer to One and All

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Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year! T’is the season to be jolly.

Thanks to all my wonderful readers during the year during 2009, and here is to a fruitful and energetic 2010.

To finish off the year, as I will be a bit scarce between now and New Year, I will leave you all with the very personalised video that Kim put together for all of us.

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Have a great, and relaxing week, but most of all, treasure the little things!  It is the little things that count and last the most after the excitement of big things quickly die away!

Gavin

Summer Solstice

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Early this morning, the Summer Solstice passed us by here down under.  This marks the longest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is all the way down hill now until the Winter Solstice hits in June.  Our first sunflower is massive and beautiful with a few more to bloom in the next few weeks.  We also picked all of the ANZAC Peaches tonight, and they taste absolutely delicious.  I have never had a peach quite like it!

When people were more connected to the land and in tune with the Earth, it marked the beginning of the Summer season, but now for some reason, here in Australia we begin Summer on the 1st of December.  I realise that the equinox and the solstice were marked by pagan ceremonies, but I am unsure of their origin and why we changed the dates of the seasons. 

If anyone knows why, please leave a comment.  I am not up for a round of research on Google tonight.

Solstice blessings to you and yours.

Gav

Chicken Run Redesign

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The weekend was a busy one!  The redesign of the chicken run continued in earnest with three main objectives in mind;

  • Reclaim the garden bed in the run to plant a crop of chillies,
  • Reclaim the path to the shed so I didn’t have to sweep it every day, and so that I can brew some more beer, and
  • Allow easy access to the nesting box without having to enter the run.

After two more days of hard work, all objectives have been achieved!  I built the picket gate on Saturday, and painted it, hung it, and finished the remaining fence on Sunday.  I even scrubbed the path clean and planted six chilli seedlings in the garden bed. 

Here are a few shots of my handy work;

 Before the final clean up.

A nice clean path to the shed.
 
A proud tradesman.
 
Nice gate!
 
Inside, looking out.  Happy hens.
Easy access to the nesting box.  No more stepping in chicken poo to get the eggs.
Chilli bushes, all in a row.  The old bush will finally get a chance to grow some leaves.
Kim was so proud of my work as am I with the end result.  The temporary gate and fence that has been in place for about 6 months has been removed and I even put a single paving stone at the end of the nesting box to avoid muddy feet after rain.  The hills hoist clothes line will stay put for now as we have no where to store it.  We have been hanging our washing under the carport for the last year, so decided that it would be a permanent arrangement and give up the backyard for the chooks.  All that remains to be done is to install low pressure drip irrigation to the garden bed and my work is complete.  Sounds like a job for my Christmas break!
It looks and feels like a petting zoo, which is just the affect I was after.  I want to show visitors how easy it is to care for backyard poultry and that it doesn’t take a lot of space to keep 8 hens happy. Kim even suggested that we get four more.  Don’t tempt me honey, be careful what you joke about!