the walking man walks
We’ve recently kick started our video collection. One of us has a Fine Arts degree and is really enjoying taking videos. Two of these were taken at Harts Creek bird hide walk way, the other a visit to the local Coopers Lagoon.
The goal with the Harts Creek videos is to create a 3min introduction to the walk and its various sights. Several visits will be required as the area changes quite a lot between seasons. At the moment they is a lot of tree fall from the willows that are being reduced to waste having been drilled and ringbarked in recent years.
Travelling up country
Images from a recent trip up to Flock Hill Station.
Travelling back from Christchurch
Recently we’ve been testing out our new GoPro MAX 360 and seeing what it can capture and thinking about what we might use it for. There are many ideas, here’s a few 360 images from a recent trip.
Lincoln area on the way into Christchurch
Lakeside
Coes Ford
Welcome to our compost bin
We have admired different compost bin systems online and have also considered building a box style bin out of untreated wooden pallets, and although this seems like a logical idea – we’ve gone with a bin made of lucerne hay bales. Some might say that not a bin at all, but it works. It is winter in New Zealand at the moment, and our compost is very warm and steaming even on days with -5ºC frosts.
- There are 8 bales required, each bale stands approximately 60cm on its side
- As the bales rot down they add to the end result, however, they retain their shape for at least a season or two
- The sacks over top reduce pests and increase heat being trapped in
- We add our garden scarps such as non-seed head weeds, excess harvest waste, etc
- We add our kitchen scraps – excluding meat and dairy products (although some diluted milk can be useful for increasing some microorganisms in other parts of the garden)
- We add in our lawn clippings, but we create a pile of these and sprinkle/dust in the lawn clippings between other layers
- We place a sack on top at the end of each delivery and allow worms and good bugs to do their thing
Adding to the compost on a regular basis means that there is a lot of greens and not as much brown at this time of year. The solution to this is that we turn one sacked area on to another, and this stirs up the worms and adds air into the pile.
Discovering a good quantity of worms and black beetles is always a healthy sign.
- We also add in comfrey tea as a diluted liquid to help boost the breaking down and nutrient richness.
- We find that after the pile has been turned that the heat increases again within 6 hours.
Applying pruning tips & visiting
Some of our family lives on a lifestyle block, and they have planted over the last few years a variety of pip and stone fruit trees. When we visited, we had in our mind to prune all of the trees not yet in the bud. As it is quite late in the season for pruning, we applied pruning paste to a few more cuts than perhaps we would usually – hope this helps the trees close their wounds.
No images of the pruning sadly, we got distracted with the task at hand. We dis discover some fungi growing on a rotting trunk and we did collect scion wood to experiment with grafting/root growth.
