Made a couple of planters

Just finished building a couple of planters for next season's strawberries. Because we don't want to use treated wood to grow things in I used macrocarpa for the wood surround because it is naturally resistant to rot. Macrocarpa is part of the cypress family (more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupressus_macrocarpa).

Here is the pictorial story. What you can't see very well in the pictures is the sweat it took to build these planters.

Getting the fill was easy enough with the tractor. I just filled the bucket with good soil and transferred it into the planters with a wheelbarrow.

The planters are layered with compost, old hay, manure and top soil with some dolomite lime on top.

Once the planters were filled we let the soil settle for a few days, after which we planted the strawberry plants.

This was topped off with some bird netting to keep the birds from eating all our strawberries when they ripen.

It's winter

Winter has arrived at Elwin Farm and very picturesque it is too. Of course our firewood consumption has gone up a fair bit. At night I always light the Stanley wood range since I have to cook on it anyway and the fire is needed to heat the water since the solar panels don't do quite so well during the winter. We have both fires going at times which means that we're using up about 3 cubic meters of firewood per month. The wood bins are starting to look rather empty.

Consequently I have started chopping and splitting next year's firewood supply already. Just in case I need to use some it this winter. Doing this now gives the wood the best chance of drying out. If it turns out that there is enough firewood to last this winter then next year's wood will be really dry. So far I've dropped two trees, cut them into rings and am busy splitting them with the splitting axe I made from an old axe head I found in a paddock here. I do have a hydraulic splitter as well but it turns out that using the axe is faster and it doesn't use any electricity. Of course it keeps me warm as well, and fit too.

Here's what it looks like in our little bit of snow. It's nothing like the snows in Canada, the US or even most parts of Europe but it's cold enough to convince me that it's winter. Specially when the Southerly winds are blowing and bringing up that cold Arctic air.

Bliss is coming to Paradise

Yes, I know I've probably said it too often already; I live in paradise and my email address reflects that ....@paradise.net.nz

As if my joys aren't complete yet I've decided to add to them by installing a hot tub in the garden. Imagine sitting in the hot water under the open skies at night watching the spectacular stars above. For you city dwellers this might be a bit difficult to imagine, what with all the light radiating from the city blocking out the night sky. Here in the country on a clear night we have the most glorious skies but it gets cold at night and lying on the lawn looking up at the sky just doesn't appeal very much. That's why I decided to make a hot tub. Partly because I'm not about to pay a small fortune for a new one but also because the new ones are all designed to run only with chemical laden water and I want to sit in clean, pure, heated water.

So I scoured the online auction sites and finally managed to buy an old spa pool for $20. I did have to go and get it and had to drive some 30 km on unpaved roads to get to the place. When I got there the vendor wasn't home but his daughter was and she, very generously, helped me load the pool onto the trailer. While I was prepared, and able, to load it on my own her help made the job so much easier. Once I got it home Jenny and I lifted the pool over the fence and I then moved it to more or less the spot I wanted to put it.

Out came the spade, pickaxe and wheelbarrow and having double checked that the pool wasn't going to interfere with too many other, established, things like plants and the deck, I set to and, together with help from one of our roosters who took care of the worms, I dug a hole.

It wasn't long before I had the pool sitting in the hole and I'm now ready to attach all of the plumbing. That will have to wait until I can 'score' the necessary bits and pieces cheaply from people's discard piles. I do have an old fire with a wetback that I'm going to use to heat the water with. To do that I have to put in a small concrete slab for the fire to sit on, as well as build a surround to protect the fire and the fire wood supply from the weather.

It will probably be a few more months before the entire project is complete because I will also have to build an extension to the deck with some steps into the tub. And, of course, a nice surround for the tub to sit in and a cover to keep the leaves and, possibly, animals out of the tub when we're not using it.