Fly repellent bin

It's a wonderful hot summer here in NZ. Wow it's so super hot and yummy. However with heat comes flies, lots and lots of dirty flies. Obviously now that we have chooks we have even more flies around. I have mint plants in my lounge and bathroom to help repel the flies. I also have flypaper hanging from the ceiling; gross I know but boy do they work well! 

I was driving past a skip bin the other day and found this cute metal rubbish bin. I love the trash some people throw away!! this bin was a little rusty on the bottom which is great so all I needed to do was get a hammer and punch a few holes in the bottom rather than having to drill holes like I did on my other metal bins. I filled the bottom of the bin with garden soil and topped it up with potting mix. I added lemon balm, lemon grass and mint plants. The mint is for flies and the lemon balm and grass repel mozzies. I put my new planter by our sliding door that I always have open. I hope that this planter will help keep some pests out of our home. Fingers crossed. Either way it looks great. 

Linked to cherished handmade treasures,

Pregnancy photos

I want to share a bunch of amazing pregnancy photos my girlfriend took last night. She did such an incredible job. Thank you so very very much Alix. Love you. I am SO going to print out a whole bunch of these for our bedroom. Aren't they amazing?!?

Check out our super cool water tower!!! 

 Aww love.

Cute!!

Magical. 

Super special. 

37 weeks

Wow I am now term! Wow this pregnancy has gone so super fast!!! I really don't think this baby is going to wait till due date (14 February). I've been cleaning like a crazy woman the last few days wow my kitchen is so clean!! I'd still love to get some pregnancy photos taken we got wonderful ones taken when I was pregnant with John. Here I am at 36 weeks with John this is my favourite photo. 

Will keep you posted.  

Seed bombs

I found this super cute gift idea on mademoiselle chaos. Such a simple and wonderful fun gift to make. 

What you'll need:

Newspaper
Seed packets
Water
A blender
A tea towel/ sieve/ container
Silicone molds
Cloth bags to present gifts in

What to do:

Shred the newspaper into smallish pieces and add enough water to thoroughly wet the newspaper. It doesn't matter how much water you add the more the better really as it makes it easier to put in the molds and also easier to blend. I blended mine in several small batches to make it easier on my machine. 

Once the newspaper is blended put it in the tea towel and removed some of the moisture but you still wanted the newspaper very wet. Add your seeds and mix through the newspaper. Just a warning any container (plus your hands) will be stained slightly black so wear gloves if you're concerned about this. 

John helped me push the newspaper into the molds. I first put a few seeds in the bottom of the molds as there is no way of knowing how many seeds are going to be in each bomb. 

You'll want to make sure your molds are completely filled with newspaper as there will be some shrinking when the paper dries. I think I overfilled mine to keep the mold's shapes. Now place the molds in a hot water cupboard or in a very sunny spot. I dehydrated my second batch of seed bombs as the first batch I made didn't dry fast enough and so all my seeds sprouted! So be warned to dry them as quickly as you can! 

Add your seeds bombs to any patch of dirt you like ie; in pots, in the garden, you could even use these bombs for some guerrilla gardening. Just put them in some soil and water.

I made seed bombs in four different molds so I put several different shapes in organza bags to give as Christmas gifts.
I loved making these seed bombs and it was wonderful that John could help with some gift making. I used mixed flower seed packets plus calendula seed packets but you could basically use any seeds you like; vegetables/ herbs/ flowers. Have fun. 

Linked to house of Hepworths, sugar bee crafts, home stories A to Z,

Compost tumbler

We made a compost tumbler for my sister in law for her birthday last year. This tutorial and information/ idea comes from Janet Luke's amazing Green Urban Living. 
You'll need:
A table of some type 
A plastic food grade drum
4 castor wheels
2 galvanized hinges
Screws
1 galvanized hasp and staple latch
1 carabiner 
Jigsaw
Drill 

Mr Ecochick made a small table out of old fence posts we had lying around. You could use a wooden plank for the wheels to be attached to it doesn't really need to be very high off the ground. 
I bought a plastic drum off trade me. This one wasn't food grade but it had ethanol in it which has now evaporated.  
Attach the castor wheels to the table. 

For the door of the compost bin draw a square on the drum.
Drill several holes at the corners of the square.
Use a jigsaw and cut the door out.

Screw the hinges to the door and attach to the drum.
Screw the latch on the other end of the door to keep the door closed. 
Keep the door closed with the carabiner.  

Drill large holes all the way around both ends of the drum for air holes. 

Put your completed drum on your table, add your garden waste and turn away.
Put the tumbler in a sunny spot and keep moist.
Turn the tumbler every day and in a months time you'll have compost.  

Here is a fantastic video from Janet showing you how to make and use the compost tumbler. 
Such a simple but effective idea! Happy gardening. 

Linked to handy man crafty woman, living green Tuesdays, homemade Mondays, nourishing joy, the chicken chick, homestead barn hop,

Chicken herb garden

Chooks like to eat fresh greens there are no surprises there!!! Therefore I thought I would give them their very own herb garden to eat from. I figure they will "medicate" themselves as they need to. I had several old cinder blocks lying around that I keep thinking I would use as little gardens, I decided they would be perfect to frame the chicken coop. There is a lot of information out there about what herbs are beneficial for chickens. I chose to add herbs that I already had around the garden so I didn't need to buy anything.

I planted: 

Oregano; good for fighting coccidia, salmonella, infectious bronchitis avain flu, blackhead and e-coli.

Lavender; stress reliever, increases blood circulation and is an insecticide.

Mint; insecticide and rodent repellent.

Calendula; laying stimulate and can add colour to the egg yolk.

Borage; high in vitamin A, C and calcium. 

Tansy and nasturtiums; parasite prevention.

Comfrey; rich in calcium, phosphorous, potassium, iron and copper. 

Lemon balm; anti-viral and anti-bacterial. May be a rodent repellent.

Most of this plant information comes from the Lifestyle Block's How to care for your poultry vol 2 (a fantastic resource book that everyone who has or wants chickens should own!). 

So far only Chive (she just loves the herbs! and is so funny to watch as she tries to put her head through the wire to get to the herbs) and Nero are eating  the herbs but I'm sure the other girls will eat them as they need.  

New Sodastream flavours

Late last year Sodastream released some wonderful new flavours. The energy cola sounds wonderful I look forward to drinking this in the future. Sodastream were kind enough to send me a blackcurrant and red berry mix to try and review. Both these flavours are super yummy and nice and light for summer. They are not very syrupy or heavy so are a nice refreshing light drink. I'm not sure which flavour I like better they are very similar in flavour and I have bought both of them since my sample ones ran out. Both pretty much taste like red berries so you can buy one or the other but either way enjoy as I highly recommend both of these flavours.  

Sweet and savory mixed nuts

Another super yummy and easy gift to make. Or just make it for yourself as it's so tasty! The original recipe comes from homemade holiday gifts.

Photo taken by Ellen van Dijken.

1 egg white

1 teaspoon water
5 cups mixed nuts

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon all spice (or ground cloves)

Beat egg white and water together.

Add nuts and toss to coat. 

Add the rest of the ingredients into a small bowl and mix well.  

Sprinkle over nuts and toss to coat. 

Spread the nuts on baking paper and bake at 170C for c20 minutes, stir occasionally. Cool completely before putting into jars.

I mixed the egg white, water and all the spices together before adding to the nuts. It gives the same result as doing these separately but is so much quicker. so it's up to you if you do these steps separately or together. Either way enjoy.  

Linked to an original belle, 

How to start your own eco group

Last month Good magazine did an article on the eco mums group I'm a part of. I'm very lucky that these wonderful girls invited me to join their very inspirational group. I love spending time with all these ladies and we have so much fun together. They challenge and inspire me. Since this piece in Good magazine many people have asked me and the eco group how to start their own group so Ellen (one of the founding members he he sounds so official!) wrote an article for you all with some tips on how to start your own ecogroup. I know of one group that has already started in another part of New Zealand which is all very exciting.

 

Article written by Ellen van Dijken and photos taken by Debs Tobin:   

It has been great to receive so many enthusiastic responses to our little piece in Good Magazine. Some people wanted to know how to start their own group, and others have asked to join our Facebook group!

Unfortunately, the two sentences (We admit- it wasn’t much…) that explained how to start your own group were edited out. That was an important part because, as much as we would love to, we can’t include everyone in our green team. We strongly believe the strength of our group lies in the fact that it is small and local. We make stuff together, we frequent the same shops, we share our local little gems, we visit each other to steal ideas, etc.

Therefore, we are spreading the word on how our group started and how it grew, so others can follow in our footsteps. We will include some great eco-blogs and sites where you can find inspiration and like-minded people to talk to. There are many great sites available if you are looking to communicate with large amounts of people. Your own eco-group will benefit most from being limited in size.

So how did our group start? Well, it started with just two people! They decided to get together and share some ideas on how to make their own cleaning products. These two ladies met at Playcentre where quite a bit of chatting goes on… That’s how they found out they shared the same interest. A third friend joined the first morning tea- and a group was born!

All you need is one other person. One. We know that for some people it is hard to find that one person. The best way is to drop in conversation what you have been doing; when you talk to other people at school or kindy, in the neighbourhood, activities and of course amongst your friends. If there is absolutely no-one who seems to be interested, you could post in popular blog sites like NZ Ecochick or Good Magazine, or even post on Gumtree.

Our group grew as we were sharing with others what we were doing, and we were so passionate about it others seemed to come out of the eco-closet from everywhere! Of course with every new member the potential to find other enthusiasts grew exponentially. We now have around twenty members that live mostly within a ten km radius.

If you buy/ borrow Wendyl Nissen’s ‘Domestic goddess on a budget’ you have an excellent resource to start brewing your cleaning and personal care products. We get together one evening a month, but of course anything goes. We have new posts on Facebook pretty much daily now and have been for an eco-weekend away plus had an afternoon together making Christmas presents. Great fun! We have become a group of friends that enjoy spending time together outside of our eco-activities as well.

Find that one person and your own team is born. We are always available to provide advice and/or inspiration! Enjoy!

Basil pesto

It's summer time and that means lots and lots of yummy fresh herbs. I went a little overboard with the basil (I bought 3 bundles from Awapuni nurseries) well you can NEVER have too much basil! I've never had a huge amount of success growing basil until I read my byrd house's tip on pruning basil. Basically you take the top leaves (c2 cm) of the basil plant rather than the side leaves; this has resulted in lovely healthy, beautiful abundant basil plants. Woop woop success!!! So what are we doing with all the basil? Eat it in everything of course! Pasta sauce, silverbeet and cottage cheese lasagna, toasties and so much more. The bunny and chooks are enjoying the odd leaf or two as well. Wow my bunny goes crazy for basil it's like bunny nip!!!

We decided to make pesto too. Pesto is so yummy and super expensive at the supermarket! We worked out that the amount we made cost less than $5 the same amount would cost about $15 at the supermarket and ours frankly just tasted so much better!!

What you'll need:    

1 cup well packed fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 Tbsps cashew nuts (or pine nuts)

2 cloves garlic

salt

60g grated parmesan cheese

Blend basil, oil, nuts, garlic and salt until smooth. We used a food processor which made the job super easy and quick.

Once blended pour into a bowl and stir in cheese. 

Store in the fridge or freeze.

Eat on toast, crackers, chips or cook up some spaghetti and simply stir the pesto through. Was so yummy!! I want to make some variations of this ie sun dried tomatoes or feta and spinach or coriander. Yummy.  

Linked to nourishing treasures,

Communal bath

I just had to share this super cute video we took of our birds having a communal dust bath.

Cranberry and white chocolate oaty biscuits in a jar

I made a  lot of my Christmas gifts last year but I couldn't post about them until after Christmas so this is the first post in my series of Christmas gifts. I love gifts in a jar; they are fun to make, give and receive.  You can download labels and recipe cards for these cranberry and white chocolate oaty biscuits I made from home style. 

This recipe fills one 1 quart jar or another large jar that is around 1L or a little less. 

What you'll need to add to the jar:

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup dried cranberries 

1 cup white chocolate bits

1 cup brown sugar (or as much as will fit in the jar to fill to the top)

On the recipe card write or print out a recipe card:

1 egg - lightly beaten

1/2 cup butter - softened

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180C.

Empty the jar into a large bowl.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix with the back of a large spoon.

Roll the dough into 4cm balls.

Place the balls on a baking try and bake for about 10 minutes.  

TIP: for any recipes in a jar use a bottle to compress each layer of the mixture to allow room for all the layers and also to separate each layer neatly. Make sure you wipe clean the bottom of the bottle between compressing each layer.   

 

 

Chickens!!!

So my chooks are finally here!!! So very exciting!!! Introducing my new girls (from left to right); Sage (a grey orpington), Olive (a charcoal/ brown orpington/ wyandotte cross- I hope), Chive (a charcoal orpington) and Nero as in cavolo nero (a black orpington). Aren't they cute? I got my cute new chooks from my girlfriend Ami who writes every sensory. She has so many beautiful chooks and breeds on her farm. Thank you so very much for my new friends. 

Plaiting garlic

I planted garlic last year but the cloves only doubled in size and didn't really grow extra cloves. This year my garlic was a rather different story. I'm not sure why my garlic was more impressive this year; maybe it was the mushroom compost? or rabbit poop? or better stock of garlic cloves (though I got these and last years cloves from the same place). Either way my bulbs were rather impressive. Home grown garlic has such an amazing flavour and so worth growing. I've always wanted to grow garlic so that I can plait it!!    

Plaiting garlic is not as easy as it might appear!!! I'll try and share how I did it (below you'll find a really useful video as well). I took my garlic out of the ground with a fork and then left the garlic to dry for about a week in the sun. I hung the garlic upside down as I read this means the water in the steams is not drained into the bulbs.

Once the garlic was dry. I cut off the roots and removed the top layer of dirt and any mouldy skins. 

I chose three bulbs and tied them together with a rubber band. I then plaited the steams once as you would plait hair. Once I had crossed one stem across the others I added another bulb then crossed another stem then added another garlic bulb and so forth. When I added a bulb I added this to the centre stem.

I know this is rather complicated and very fiddly but it is well worth it. My plait was rather messy but boy am I proud!!

Hang your garlic in a dark place cut off bulbs as you need them. I am very proud of my garlic!!! I can't wait to eat some. Yummy!!!!

For clearer details watch this fantastic video.