Dragon Blue Egg Company Label

Exciting advances have been made with the Egg industry. I have created a label!

But first a sad story involving four scary chickens, one sad chicken and us. The saga of introducing Eggy into the fold continued for another week. (see last post) She was being picked on, but worse, after much investigation and experiment we discovered she was eating her own eggs. We are not sure if the eggs were so brittle that they broke upon laying - at which point she ate them, or that they were being eaten by the other chickens in revolt! Either way - unfortunately we had to return her to the produce store, no questions asked. We then went down to a local chook man in these parts and bought a Silky chicken. If you haven't seen these chickens, they are incredibly cute. I will post a photo shortly. She is being picked on as well - picked up and dragged by the neck. So A constructed a seperate little run for. Apparently if you keep a new chicken separate from the established clan for a week or so, then slowly introduce them - it works much better. Or get another companion for the new chook. In the meantime - I have created a label for our small free range eggs business - Dragon Blue Egg Compnay Just a bit of fun - but now that Blacky has started laying (as of today!) we will start to get too many eggs to eat - so give them away we must.

Dragon Blue Egg Company Label

Potato Tub

IMG_5506
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View

DIY Potato tub

This weekend we planted two lots of seed potatoes. This is how we did it.
1. Created chicken wire around 4 wooden stakes.
2. Dug the bottom ground a little
3. Small layer of cow manure
4. Small layer of hay - create a hole.
5. Put potting mix in an lay 4 seed potatoes (seed potatos are the special kind for growing)
6. another layer of potting mix to cover - then pat down.
7. Final layer of hay and sprinkle of blood & bone and hay.

We are suppose to now wait until the shoots come up about 30cm then cover with hay again until more growth etc etc. Then when they flower - that's when the crop is ready!

In this photo you can also see the new fence we have put up (sticks from the near by bush and some wire) around our vege patch. I am trying to keep our dogs from enjoying the occasional romp!.

We also acquired a new chook this weekend - Eggy. She is not liked by the others and her first egg was destroyed in a scuffle. We wait in hope that they make friends. It's all quite distressing.!!

IMG_5505
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View

The Pond

The Pond is looking healthy. The fish are very happy swimming about. Today we planted some extra natives around the edges - slowly, slowly it's taking formation.

The Pond
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View

Some garage sale finds

Very exciting trip to a garage sale on Saturday eventuated with two coffee tables ($20 each) and an old green ladder ($10). Sad story of a guy whose wife had left him and the house he had built for them, and he was selling everything. Even the house! One of the coffee tables was made out of the top of an old pier from Manly Wharf in Sydney.

Rendering the Studio

I have spent the past two weekends testing rendering the wall of the studio with a product from Dulux called "full coat" and a colour called "Aviva".
Step one - spend quite a while wrestling trying to get the lid of the 10 ltr pot.
Step two - spend about 30seconds with the 'specially made' roller before giving up and getting a paint brush and trowel.
Step three - very slowly paint the render on. - If you do this quickly you will get a awful patchy look which will require a second coat. (thus the second picture in the slide show below). Patience and old clothes is key to this exercise.
Step four - decide after hours and hours of finishing it off that the rest of the walls will be done in plain cement render or not at all. :) But all frustration aside - A & I are very pleased with the finished look.

Two cotton reels (two of the three)

This green cotton reel is my favourite.

succulent garden
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View

succulent garden

The start of the succulent garden is now in place. I am going to place it along a side fence which gets Northern sun most of the day. All these succulents are from clippings from my mum's own garden. One is from Hill End in NSW - from an arts residency I did there a few years ago. And all are sitting on one of those wooden cotton reels used to hose cables in construction. Which A nicked from her work.:) (actually 3!). I will also put some more pots on the ground along the fence as it expands.

succulent garden 2
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View

Beekeeping

This is something I have been keen on trying and this week I found this fabulous video posted on one of my fave blogs design*sponge. Check out this video. Isn't it inspiring?

Little coffee table

and now for the latest in exterior design! - The used chopping board coffee table. :)

Little coffee table
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View

Pond version 2

Yep. We re-did the pond. After a failed attempt at running the waterfall, we repositioned the big ironstone to the back and at a far greater angle. ( the water was mysteriously disappearing) - Lesson 63: Make sure the water isn't running back underneath the waterfall rock and out of the pond. We have taken out the middle fountain, and just left the waterfall outlet going. (well actually upon advise of my father we swapped them around and turned the pump on it's side. Works a treat.) We have also added some 'crazy paving' - weird term i know - but that's what it's called according to A. Made out of some beautiful offcut broken marble we picked up at a factory sale. Stay tuned for the the 'crazy paving' front path too! Everything is working beautifully and I have it running all day - while sitting in my studio. It's working as it should - relaxing me :). [if you are interested in the progress of this pond click here]

Pond version 2
Originally uploaded by Catch That Mountain View