TOCPCs – The Elite Geeks Blog

Last weekend, the efforts began to oil up the floor boards in the house – they were sanded, and ready to oil with a 50/50 mix of Orange Terpene and Tung Oil.Movie Get Out (2017)Movie Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)

The mix worked well, the house stinks of orange, and the oil is on the floor. The problem I have at the moment is that the oil is no longer soaking into the boards (after 5 litres). So, we have pooling on the boards that needs to be rubbed away, and dried.

It won’t dry if the weather is raining. We are off to Bunnings today to get some rags to rub the oil in, and hopefully we’ll see some dry weather soon.Roblox HackBigo Live Beans HackYUGIOH DUEL LINKS HACKPokemon Duel HackRoblox HackPixel Gun 3d HackGrowtopia HackClash Royale Hackmy cafe recipes stories hackMobile Legends HackMobile Strike Hack

The rain isn’t all bad news though, our solar generation is going to be poor, the floorboards won’t dry, but the garden beds are getting a good drink of the nitrogen rich rain, and since I managed to get one of the 1000L collapsible rain water tanks setup, it’s filling up with the clear gold from the granny flat’s roof! I checked earlier and the tank seems to have a good amount of water in it – apparently for every 10mm of rain fall, up to 250L can be collected.

I reckon we’d get more too if I glue shut the weep hole in the bottom that allows water to get away – the issue is, the rainwater diverters are designed to be used for garden beds – they collect some water and send it to a garden bed. I’m using them to collect to the tanks.

The shed has round downpipes so needed adapters to be glued onto the rainwater diverters, and I didn’t get the second one of those glued together in time. Today, I glued the weephole shut and the round adapters to the other diverter – when it’s dry I’ll cut the downpipes, paint them with rust preventing paint and fit the diverter.

The rain causes the plants to take off (due to being nitrogen rich from my research), and so will be more beneficial for the  plants – nothing else needs to be considered with the rain either, as that’s what falls on the plants when it rains anyway.

The collapsible tanks collapse too easily – they will hold and build out with water in them – but when empty, they fall over. I wanted them to stay ’round and upright’ all year round.

I can think of a few ways to do it – one of which is find a way to exert force at the top of the tank, to push it out, the other is to remove some of the standard feet, and get some stakes, place them in the ground and that keep them shaped out.

Our garden has another issue too – we are out of space in the sense that the planting needs to occur monthly for some crops, but harvest is some 3 months – there’s a good 8 weeks before the first seedlings will fruit and the next seedlings will be ready to plant (and likely suffering due to the pots they will be in).

Perhaps expansion will be necessary – I’m not yet clear on the full yield of our efforts – and whether this will be too much, need expansion or be ‘just right’.

If I used our Zucchini plants as a guide, we have 20 or so of buds on those that will grow into Zucchini, properly cared for – after which the plant would continue to fruit, hopefully for a second crop before the plant will expire and need replacing.

Companion planting still hasn’t happened either – we need to do it but seedlings have not began / just beginning, so we’ll have to progress more in that area.

Unfortunately, rain means we aren’t capable of doing much in the garden!

So, I’ll have to find time to fix up the hot water system sensors, and get the solar data pages live – soon. The hot water has worked really well lately, I’ve seen it top out at 70oC regularly lately, a sign of our impending summer.

Each time a problem comes up, we find in some cases, a fix can be implemented, and others, drag on due to external factors preventing resolution.

One such issue for example, is our back tree. I saw yesterday, that our garden beds were shaded to 11am, and then 1pm we were drenched in rain.

I know that 4pm, the sun over the neighbours fence and tree causes shading as well. To be productive, it needs a good 6 hours of sunlight a day – something it is just barely getting, and so needs to be improved upon.

The easy solution is to lose the tree, and therefore the shading, if it weren’t for the council legislation that requires approval for removal and extensive pruning, and the criteria aren’t easily satisfied, and then the issue of pricing it’s removal / heavy pruning.

The same sort of logic came up in work lately as well – I’ve had a severe dislike of my current task for a little while now. But then it’s work from home, so it’s not all bad – it’s just not very creative, it’s boring. An issue was stemmed within my tasks, and difficult to find a path through.

The ‘difficulty’ though was indeed in my approach to it – I let frustration get the better of me, that impacted my attitude, and so the approach was way off the mark.

A fair bit of thinking later, and I concluded a new approach was necessary, the solution? Don’t let frustration get the better of me – and so, the attitude issue self corrected, the method to address the issue couldn’t have been more perfect, and the issue seems to be addressed now.

Of course, when it comes to addressing problems, there are many solutions often, and so the solution could be to ‘fix the problem’, ‘remove the problem’ or ‘move the problem’. The problem wasn’t fixed or removed, but that’s not for me to concern myself with! The problem is moved – out of my sight (out of mind).

This hasn’t ‘dissolved’ the issue, but moved it, in a sustainable sense, the issue isn’t addressed –  but in the frustration, the band-aid solution works well!

Now, if some sort of thinking would apply for the tree issue. I could take out the shed, and plant out the yard space that provides, which will solve a lot of our shading issues, but then the storage it provides.

Moving the shed down the drive way further, is a solution, but a costly one – building a new shed will require council approval, so cost a lot (the actual expenses of constructing a standalone shed are pretty reasonable – treated timber, dynabolts, roof sheeting, 2 roller doors – fixed!

The tree is far easier to attack, take out the large branches, take out the tree, and then plant a few smaller ones in its place.

We’ll need to see what removal quotes come in at – and still seek out other solutions (if there are any).

When it comes to flooring, we had the choice of leaving the carpet in place (but it was later discovered to be rotted, black in areas), laying new flooring over the old, or polishing up the old.

The choice to use the old boards was made after we saw it wasn’t all that bad, a bit of sanding to remove paint, a few (hundred) staples to remove, and the job is nearly done.

Tomorrow, I’ll sand them back ready for oiling.

We had a good think about oils, Howard Products have a Tung Oil product which is ready to apply, a mix of Tung Oil and Orange Oil, both naturally occuring products, and offer the same transparent finish. A bit more looking into it and we found this other product, Wood Oil, from The Wood Works.

The decision to avoid polyurethane based products is an expensive one – we need about 7L of oil for the flooring areas we are doing, and this comes at $180 delivered (savings compared to Howard Products, Orange Tung Oil, at $270+).

Polyurethane finishes (e.g. CFP from Cabot’s), would have come in cheaper, $110 for 8L from Bunnings, but then the floors would have had a fake feel, and in looking into it, polyurethane, once cracked, would see more issues resulting in a sanding later on.

A natural oiled floor is easily fixed – just a little more oil, a little more buffing – fixed.

So, this weekend, we clear up – apply the oil to the floors, and repeat every 24 hours for the next 3 days. Move back in – no more need for anything other than a quick broom and maybe a mop and water for clean up.Watch movie online The Transporter Refueled (2015)

The boards, in the bare form do actually look pretty good, so assuming the transparent finish is achieved with the oil (or close enough to it), they won’t attain a brown varnish like finish.

We have a tree in the back left of our place, the tree has a short trunk, but branches that expand nearly the full 15m of the block.

A week or so ago, we were wondering where the chook pen was going, and our garden beds have so much growth that we now need to relocate all the vines over to the back fence to allow room for the growth to actually complete.

The tree, was the first thing I looked at and ended up with the conclusion, it must be cut back and eventually go. A few branches came off, there’s signs on the tree where others have also taken off branches, much thicker then the few we’ve seen come off.

I wanted it gone, it would free up so much more of the backyard, and make natural light to the new fruit trees better, and allow for expansion.

But then, the tree has just as much a right to exist, as will our fruit trees, so the issue was to decide why get rid of it, and if we could even consider getting rid of it.

It turns out our council has policies in place to protect pretty much all trees bar a few pests (we don’t know if ours is in the ‘pest’ category), And anything above 3m gains that level of immunity.

The tree is probably already in our sewerage pipe looking at it – but even that’s actually not good enough, they would want to see an expert report stating it’s in danger of destroying the sewer main, and if so – is encasement of the mains an option.

i.e. We’ve got more hope of getting the entire sewer system moved then we do of that tree simply going.

They do stipulate on the application form too, that you may be required to plant natives if they do approve an application to remove a tree.

I decided against removing it, the costs would blow out, and not only that, the chooks would benefit from shade.

So another good look out there this afternoon revealed an alternative solution – we keep that tree pruned back and try and control it’s leafy growth some more (short of treating it with Round Up – which would probably do nothing to it anyway), Our fruit varieties are the dwarfing varieties, so we need only them to grow 1.5-2m tall, and if we keep the growth at the bottom below 2m from the top tree, the sun is still plenty as the north and west gets right in under it, where the trees will be, providing shade to the chook pen.

That then frees the back fence, but there’s a shady issue generated by the raised garden beds, that would mean the vines, whilst grow, not as well – so Reject Shop have containers – $12, they are about 400mm high – exactly what we made the raised garden beds at.

5 or 10 of those, the trellis screwed down, some pest management for the snails and the like that seem to eat the leaves, and we should be all set for that entire space.

The tree lives on, the birds can play in the tree, our fruit trees grow, the chooks get shade – all seems too good.

Well, it is if you don’t like leaves dropping on your plants (think cross contamination). The fruit trees should be more tolerant though, and we are out there daily anyway, so it’s not a massive management issue.

Saves the tree, right? I’m not convinced it should stay, but until we can find a solid reason for it to go, it should probably stay where it is. Council charges $110 for an application to remove it, and what I’ve been reading, it’ll probably fail (no solid reason for it to go).

We lifted up the carpet in our hallway first.

My expectation was that the floor boards outside the bathroom would be wet, soaked, water stains visible – even possibly rotted around the edges.

Not so – they actually are pretty dry and look good. We can’t say that about the carpet though, so full of dust, dirt, sand, stained, and … crap- We had THAT on our floors.

The floor boards have paint, where some careless @#!$ had forgot a drop sheet, and so the ceiling white needs to be sanded up, along with the skirting board paint sprinkles.

That’s all OK, I got some 80 grit sand paper specifically for the paint spots we found, the sanding, whilst a little time consuming is OK.

The oil we plan to use (but are yet to actually decide on), is a product called “Orange Tung Oil“, which is a blend of orange oil and pure tung oil. Tung oil has benefits over linseed oil, and the orange oil, apparently will make it apply easier. It’ll be all natural as both items are natural products to begin with.

We’ve asked a few questions of the supplier, to see if the finish will be as smooth as a polyurethane finish, or if we could achieve a similar result, and to clarify the required amount of oil.

My partner had the idea to rip up the carpet, no idea what her thoughts were, but she sold it to be on the basis we’d have little problem cleaning it. The lack of dust will make the job worth it. A simple sweep.

The kids love it too, the first night was the hallway, we had it relatively clean, the kids used that as the play area instead of the carpeted, 4 x 3m play room.

The devil is in the detail though, the floor boards all have staples around the outside from where an older carpet installation had just been ripped out, and staples left, then then put the newer tack style stripping down, and laid the carpet on top of that.

So, we have to pull several staples out, and try and do so with minimal damage to the boards.

The other issue, floor boards and echo. Sound bounces right off them, and so our hallway has an arena or basement effect when some noise is going on, this became very evident to the kids, who decided it would make a great area for making noises of insanely high decibel values.

Today, we finished the playroom, which was actually pretty good with the orbital sander, and the lounge room, which had a disturbing black, dark patch in the corner. We had our lounge there, so it wasn’t us. The tenants in here had a coffee table with a LCD screen above it, so perhaps they spilt something there – it stunk.

The floors now are pretty clean, we had the kids running circles around the lounge room for the afternoon (again, noisy), and that remains empty, so we setup camp in the playroom at the moment, which is a much more cosier, more comfortable place for a lounge room. Too bad it’ll be the Kitchen in a few years.

They appear to be Cypress Pine boards, so will clean up and the Tung Oil will give it a transparent finish tadalafil tablets.

No vacuuming, no stains, quick water clean up, no dust build up, easy maintenance. I can’t scientifically say “Better Air Quality” – the carpet holding as much ‘crap’ as it did, would suggest we would have better air quality. Aside from the noise (and the job made that much more difficult with hundreds of staples to remove), I’m not sure of any serious negatives.

We found our first pest today. It was eating the leaves on the apple trees.

I noted it yesterday after seeing the leaves had a few holes and signs of being incomplete, nothing was on them, nothing in the base of the black rubbish bins we specifically chose to house the trees in.

The pest was a snail. It was monitored today, scaling the back fence, reaching the tree leaves, then advancing to eating them. I think my partner fully understands the words “Snail Mail”, having seen the pace of the snail and also dealt with Australia Post.Roblox HackBigo Live Beans HackYUGIOH DUEL LINKS HACKPokemon Duel HackRoblox HackPixel Gun 3d HackGrowtopia HackClash Royale Hackmy cafe recipes stories hackMobile Legends HackMobile Strike Hack

The solution to it was very simple. The bins have ‘ridges’ where the rim of it is. The snail can’t possibly conquer it. The fence was obviously utilised since it was capable of advancing to the leaves.

Pull the pins back away from the fence, the snail can no longer reach the leaves. Remove the snail from the tree, solved.

There’s a lot of growth showing on the plants since we started them as seedlings, they did go through a slow patch after they were well and truly out growing the punnets and pots. In the ground, everything has taken on new growth.

The lettuce now has a lot more leafy growth on it, and is far greener. The sunflowers have grown significantly, but still could be fit to be rated seedlings. The Zucchini leaves have shown the most promise of them all, reaching about 6 times the original size in the mere 2 weeks. Tomato seedlings have doubled in size.

The trees are the best, showing all new leafy growth at the top. They moved in just last weekend, and all show fresh growth (the nursery leaves had a water residue on them, not present on the new growth).

This weekend, I’ll try and get the trellis in for the already flowering tomato and passion fruit plants so they have something to climb on.

.. in the making.

My partner bought some interesting points to me recently – this article is one of the few showing the benefits of growing and maintaining your own fruit and vegetables.

The other angle is pesticides, sure, you wash the food, but the soil the food is grown in isn’t the best. My thoughts there are pesticide + pesticide = double the pesticide.

Farming practices aren’t the best for the planet – the above link shows the wider picture of just what going to the supermarket to pick up 1 apple contains.

The loss of nutrients is incredible as well:

In terms of loss of nutrients consider the tomato:

• Green harvesting loses up to 25% of its nutrients
• Transporting loses up to 25% of its remaining nutrients
• Storage loses up to 50% of its remaining nutrients
• Canning loses up to 83% of its remaining nutrients
• Cooking loses up to 50% of its remaining nutrients.

This leaves the tomato with 2.39% of it original nutrient content.

I wonder if we’ll ever see fruit and vegetable signs in the shops that state ‘2.39% tomato’.

<a href="http://www.happyearth.com sites.au/the-answer-is-the-soil/”>HappyEarth is a website maintained by people in Wollongong – they’ve taken their 900m2 block and planted it out massively.

The link shows what does make sense, “You are what you eat” is the old line I associated with it. I wonder what Farmer Joe does to improve the soil / crop / his profits.

We don’t wish to deprive the kids of that backyard space, so about two weeks back, I built 5 raised garden beds out of Colorbond and Merbau Decking material – the price worked out much better than buying the smaller and awkward Bunnings variety and the material is perfect for the purpose.

The design is chemical free – we are going to use absolutely no pesticides, no treatments that aren’t natural. The nutrients the plants will source from worm compost – which is to be setup.

We started the seedlings back in August, the seedlings took off like lightning, growing out of the punnets and overgrowing the pots we bought to start the seedlings in – a sign that at least, we can get seedlings moving.

It’s not a far stretch to get a seedling tomato vine into a full grown tomato vine, likewise for the various other edibles that can be progressed.

Food production holds a massive impact on the planet at large, the farming process is flawed in that manner. Transport and keeping foods frozen long enough for someone to pick the ‘freshest’ from the week or months old pile is wasteful.

We hit one fundamental issue back in the planning stages – what do you eat when the particular food is not in season. Apples aren’t out all year round, likewise, Potato. So, to eat when it’s not in season – what do the supermarkets do? Buy in from where it is in season ? Transport. Freeze last seasons stock in advance? Wasteful!

So, we plan to change eating habits too – seasonal. If it’s not in season, you shouldn’t be able to have it.

And I thought more about that. What did the aboriginals do for such food ? They lived off the land, no shops – no freezers. They must have only ever ate seasonal foods – along with the hunted fish and meat they did not mass produce.

There is the waste of the mass produced items going off – in the event they are not consumed – no one wants mince that’s green. Likewise, Bananas that are black aren’t ideal – so they get wasted, the whole farm, harvest, transport, package, freeze, transport, display processes are all wasted if they end up in the bin.

The rainwater tank is the next idea to be pushed in – then if it’s not sunny, and raining, we are at least getting benefit from it.

We’ve got some fruit trees further back that we’ve added – two apples (they need em for pollination), mandarin, orange and lemon. The lemon tree was truly the lemon of the lot, with barely much leaf growth on it – the ones it had at the nursery were all pretty brown. There was some light new growth on it (that was pretty good), I figured I’d try and save it as opposed to one which had some more greener growth.

We won’t be able to get anything out of the trees for at least 6 months – so it’s got time to be revived.

We’ve looked further into it before we decided to go ahead – mostly at the impact it would have – then the desired growth and harvest numbers, and lastly the financial benefits derived.

The impact it would have wouldn’t be a lot – on a worldwide scale our minute change would only mean we are not contributing to the larger problem. We would however be slightly more self sufficient, so that was a plus.

The desired growth and harvest numbers were to be enough that there was a meal possible out of the forest grown for the week, with excess allowed for plant failure. I figured seeding weekly would allow for enough – turns out that was too much, we have watermelon seedlings occupying a 2m by 1m bed with exception 6 rockmelons (we planted them close together). We saw reports of Bananas – 125KG of them off the one bunch – Amazing.

Whilst it’s always going to be the case that this will work (else I would not have started). The project / experiment will be how far can this go, to removing demand for packaged and processed foods?

This website here, links to an experiment they conducted back in 2005. A very interesting read. It’s notable they broke their self imposed rules a few times (they wrote about them, but they don’t count them as they should do).

The short of that was they tried to live without spending a dollar. The test would be interesting if they didn’t focus on dollars, but I think it shows that one can manage to live in a world without currency, if they first have established a source of a replacement.

Take a dollar, replace it with a corn kernel, take a corn kernel, replace it with a lettuce leaf – etc.  That would always happen if the world at large lost faith in currency, the people at the top with the most money would be at the bottom, the farmers who grow the most used resources would be toward middle to high income earners, and the highest would be those who needed nothing at all.

I’m probably off the beaten track here now.

We’ve looked into it extensively, the benefits are hoped to be:

– More nutrients that our bodies require actually reaching our bodies.
– Less waste caused by supporting practices that aren’t ideal.
– Some adventure and self education in plant life.
– The kids get a better idea of how to be self sufficient (if we ever reach that ultimate goal).

We’ve got the backyard space for it, we would be nuts not to.