Author: Darren
-
Processing Chickens
That’s the euphemism for those that don’t like to say “slaughtering and butchering chickens”! I processed the last two roosters from our first batch of chicks today. We’re keeping the one female from the group to join our layer flock. This photo is from the start of June – I just realised I hadn’t taken…
-
Chicks Taken By Predator!
Some sad news, I’m afraid – two of the three chicks that Girlie hatched have disappeared. We’d left Girlie and the chicks in the main chicken run, since they had a safe indoor area that the rooster can’t get into (the entrance is just small enough that he can’t/won’t go in). Things had been going…
-
Organic Fruit Fly Control and Hatching Chicks
We had a fantastic presentation today at the Jamberoo Community Growers meeting, by the people from Organic Crop Protectants. A big part of the talk was on organic fruit fly control, using their “eco-naturalure” male fruit fly trap and attractant/insecticide products. It looks like a great system to keep these frustrating pests down. You simply…
-
Chicken Tractor Lifting Handles
The chicken tractor I built with my father a couple of years ago is still going strong. Since moving to Jamberoo we’ve been using it to build garden beds – we place it where we want the bed, leave it there for a few weeks until the grass has been cleared, then move it along…
-
Dapto Markets
We went to the Dapto Markets on Sunday morning to try to buy a few things we need around the yard. What an awesome place! The markets are a great place to buy second hand clothes, toys, tools, etc for very good prices. Or if you’ve accumulated a whole bunch of that sort of stuff…
-
Thinking Different
My mate Gavin has a post over at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-Op about how he “thinks differently” from most of the people he knows. I can certainly relate to that! Me, I can’t help thinking about all the unused bits of land I see when I drive around. I see a park, and think…
-
Jamberoo Community Growers – Overwintering Garden Beds
The next Jamberoo Community Growers meeting is this Sunday, 4th July, at 2:00pm in the Jamberoo Anglican Church Hall (next to Jamberoo Primary School). The speakers this week will Robert Curll and Darren Collins, talking about green manures, building up garden soil, and overwintering garden beds. All the good stuff you can be doing now…
-
Visualising The BP Oil Disaster
Thanks to the web site IfItWasMyHome.com, this map gives some perspective on the size of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico (click to see full-size image). I’ve centered the spill around Kiama (NSW, Australia) to show its sheer size in relation to the Illawarra region. You can see that if the…
-
Kiamasphere Web Site Launch
I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at the launch of Kiama Council’s new Kiamasphere web site on Thursday. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll probably know that our sustainability journey really got going when my family joined the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge. It gave us the impetus to…
-
Fridge BuyBack Scheme Pays $35 For Old Fridges
I’ve had an old second fridge in the garage for a long time now, and I’ve been meaning to try out the Fridge BuyBack scheme to get rid of it. It’s extremely energy-inefficient. If your fridge meets the requirements (over 10 years old, over 250 litres, working second fridge) and you have less than 6…