Category Archives: diy

Plastic-Free July: Making a feed-bag picnic rug

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in art & craft, diy, livestock

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Asher tests out the upcycled feed-bag picnic blanket

Over the last couple of years we’ve assembled an impressive collection of woven polypropylene sacks. Typically used as bags for stock feed or pasture seed, in the spirit of Plastic-Free July, I thought it was time to put these single-use plastics to use and upcycle them into a patchwork, water-proof picnic blanket.

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Asher demonstrates correct operating procedure, also showing the heavier backing.

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Farm hack: Making a sheep working race

11 Saturday Jul 2015

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One of our hoggets, sizing up the new facilities.

We’re great fans of temporary. Not aiming for permanence tends to mean that ideas can be trialled inexpensively, can be easily changed and that learning from failure can be quick and low-impact. In that spirit, as we develop the sheep enterprise of the farm, we’ve tried to keep things low-key. For yards, we use locally-made portable panels, but when working closely with sheep, we found the mesh sides problematic due to the ease with which horns or feet can become entangled. In more established circumstances, yards would have a working race for such a purpose, but the cost of a manufactured race can be steep. It was time to get out the tools and make our own.

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The ‘new’ working race in position, with sheep, also in position. As a further refinement, we need to attach bracing to the far end to help it stand up to the inevitable knocks and bumps.

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Planting and preparing trees for El Niño

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in diy, ecology, propagation, regeneration, trees

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A baby, or a nest, are not essential for tree-planting, but they help.

We’re in our third season of tree planting at Yarnauwi now, working to revegetate sections of the property for habitat, shelter and timber. We’ve planted about 1,000 plants a year, from groundcovers to future woodland giants. Once they were guarded from marauding roos, we’ve necessarily had a philosophy of leaving the plants to survive without too much intervention. Even in a dry year such as 2014, we had a modest 60ish percent survival rate, but with El Niño tipped to recur in 2015, we’ve tried to further refine our approach to give our trees an improved chance of survival. Of course, there are absolutely no guarantees it will work, or will work for everything, but it’s worth a shot.

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The bunyip water level: bringer of contoured joy to young and old alike.

This year, we’ve also planted our first, experimental, woodlot of river oaks (Casuarina cunninghamiana) in an awkward corner of the farm. The paddock was too small and inaccessible to deep rip, so we began by marking contours with a bunyip water level, an essential DIY tool for measuring and marking slope (see Brad Lancaster’s guide to bunyip construction and usage here).  Continue reading →

Farm hack: reusing livestock water

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by in diy, livestock, regeneration

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The new Trough Hose Outlet Mark 2 (aka. THOM2), in position.

When our livestock are moved into the next paddock, or the trough needs a clean, the contents, up to 450 litres of water, are dumped into the pasture. While we’ve tended to hold a ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ mentality for our tree planting, we couldn’t help but feel that this water could be better directed on nearby seedlings. So, a little while ago, we whipped up our first attempt at a stock trough water diverter that would do just this.  Continue reading →

Snag-a-Palooza: Celebrating with sausage!

02 Monday Feb 2015

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IMG_5603We celebrated our first sheep harvest with Snag-a-Palooza, our inaugural sausage-making fiesta. An entire beast was put through the mincer, so we invited a number of mutton-connoisseurs and aspiring snag-o-nauts to come and belt out some bangers. With several sausage fillers on the go, including a couple of 5kg hand-cranked machines hired from a butcher, the group made short work of the meat and had a vast amount of sausages ready in time for a barbeque lunch. Despite having armfuls of library books to prime ourselves, there were a few handy tricks we developed over the day to make the sausage-making a little smoother:

  • Don’t tie the end of the sausage while you’re making it to allow air pumped out by the sausage-maker to escape,
  • Allow about 10cm of empty casing either end of the sausage to allow for squeezing the filling to eliminate air bubbles,
  • Construct one big sausage, then make the links afterwards by pinching, then alternate your twists forwards and backwards for each small sausage,
  • Feed the casing out slowly, allowing the mince to inflate the casing with minimal air bubbles,
  • Avoid making sausages in your loungeroom, as explosions, followed by mince showers, are possible.
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Guiding fresh sausage into its spiral.

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Making the most of mutton

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in diy, food, livestock

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A mutton and lentil stew, with mutton consumed.

Back in December, we conducted our first slaughter from our flock, selecting some of our more senior ewes and a handful of lambs to be dispatched at the local meatworks. We’ve discovered a great deal of buried enthusiasm for the merits of good mutton. From the likes of Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall and Prince Charles with their Mutton Renaissance campaign, to various friends who fondly recalled being raised on the more mature meat.

At its best, mutton is renowned for being a fine grained meat, with a complexity of flavour reflective of its diversity of forage. With Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describing mutton as the beef of the sheep world, fellow foodie Sophie Grigson has gushed over mutton as “beautifully tender, firm-grained, and with a rich but not aggressive flavour,” offering, in comparison to lamb, “more depth of flavour, a more complex rounded taste, more ‘umami’, if you like.” Continue reading →

A moveable sheep shelter: the sequel

05 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by in diy, livestock, trees

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With recent temperatures climbing into the 40s (about 107 degrees Fahrenheit), and tree-induced shade still a few years away, we’ve constructed another moveable sheep shelter to ensure our sheep and alpacas have a cooler place to recline on the most hostile of days.

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Employing the off-grid carpentry prowess of Jeremy and Pete, we knocked up the second shelter to the same rough plan as the original: salvaged hardwood for a sled base, allowing it to be dragged from pasture to pasture, fallen redgum for uprights, and tin reclaimed from the gullies for the roof. The previous life of the tin means that a hole is already cut for the installation of a pot-belly stove, should the sheep find one that fits their budget. This sheep shelter also includes a perch, should passing birds need a break while searching for a tree. Continue reading →

Making eucalyptus-inspired printed papers

22 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in art & craft, diy, ecology, trees

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Eucalyptus woodland-inspired wrapping paper

We’ve been gradually easing into the festive spirit, and this year attempting to create our own wrapping paper. This design was inspired by the gums we’ve become so acquainted with, and unexpectedly, one of our red gums is already flowering enthusiastically. The prints are hand-carved from rubber printing blocks, and printed using acrylic paints. Season’s greetings!

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Printing using acrylic paint, it’s thinner than block ink and I find it easier for stamping.

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A few colour options.