Freebie: Facebook Status Cards for Pocket Scrapping

Freebie Facebook update cards

So I’m totally love Pocket Scrapping – aka Project Life Scrapping. I love it so much, that I decided I needed to make my first set of cards.  Now, something I’ve always had trouble with, is how to incorporate my online presence into my scrapping album – I didn’t really want to be re-writing everything each time, or copying/pasting etc etc.  So I figured I’d start with my cards, and then I stumbled across this video which introduced me to the ‘snippet tool’ in Windows which I’ve never seen before. Voila!! Enter the word of copy/paste including pictures and text in a way that can be resized in photoshop or other editing tool (hopefully)

And here are my free Facebook Project/Pocket Scrapping cards (opens Google Drive) for you to enjoy.  They’re basic, but hopefully they’ll get the point across in my albums.

Let me know what you think!  (or if anybody remakes them coz I’d like prettier looking ones lol)

Chicken Garden – planning process

So our Summer has started with new Wwoofers joining us!  I am quite pleased to have people working with us again, as it is so much fun getting to know new people, as well as seeing the farm get some love and attention after the Winter/Autumn storms.

I have several projects in my mind for this Summer, and one of them is to build a chicken garden.  I have been reading up about herbs and the essential oils within those herbs for nesting boxes, and I have often wondered about making part of the chicken shed’s surrounding area into a garden?

Some of the run is underneath pine trees, and so the pine needles drop and have killed all the grass and poisoned the ground underneath.  So far I have been using old boards on the ground to attract the bugs, and after about a month, flipping the board to let the chickens get into the bugs.  Do I turn this area into raised garden beds (which can be blocked off with wire) and plant some veges and herbs/plants for them to munch on (like barley).  Or do I section off some of the ‘good growing’ area that is away from the trees and use that as my chicken garden.  The benefit of using the ‘good growing’ area is that the chickens will stop escaping under the fencing!

I haven’t quite figured it out my plan of attack yet.  Maybe I’ll do a trial garden under the trees. Or maybe that will end up a waste of time, because the needles will fall and poison the plants.

Thoughts anyone?

Wwoofer Projects Come to Life Part 2: Front Gate

One of our troubles faced on the farm is chickens and goats getting into spaces they shouldn’t be… mostly my front door.  The veranda goes 3/4s of the way around our house and with the washing line also being under the veranda, it was important Star (the goat) couldn’t get to my washing.

Getting the hang of Pinterest

I love Pinterest.  I love it so much, I’m not sure how I used to organise my ideas without it – oh that’s right, I remember, I used to print stuff out and put it into folders – what a mess!!.  I have had a few enquiries as to what this Pinterest thing is all about.  So now, I’m going to share my addiction with you and maybe you’ll find it useful too!

Pinterest home page

Tips on How We Survive on One Income

Trawling through Pinterest always fills me with hope, excitement and a thought of, “I can do that!” or, “That’s an awesome idea.”  Today I came across the article “How to Survive on One Income.”  This writer (I think it was Janna) has gone to a lot of effort and thought about how her and her husband survive on one income in a world that has quickly changed into a two-incomes-are-essential world.  The writer is from the US (from what I can gather from the articles). So it got me thinking about how we do it here down under in Kiwiland? The following are my hints and tips to how me and my family survive on one income.

Woofer Projects Come To Life: Part 1 – Planter Boxes

Having Wwoofers continues to be an incredibly rewarding experience.   I’ve already touched on how they have gradually completed much needed projects around our property.  I shall post a few photos and stories to illustrate my point. 

Completely recycled pallet planter boxes including nails!

Babies on the Farm

Darling Son finally got his hands on the feed container and started hurling pellets everywhere!

One thing that has been a little tricky for me has been getting out on the farm with Darling Son.  I haven’t quite made up my mind if this is easier now that he’s walking or not!

Fencing – living or not living

One of the challenges we have had on our farm is fences.  When we moved in, they were in need of repair. Three years and five beef cattle later, they are in desperate need of repair.  The trouble here is, we don’t particularly have the time or the cash flow to put into decent fencing, not to mention we actually need more fences than were originally built 30 years ago.

Typical baton and wire fence – image thanks to http://autawa221blog.blogspot.co.nz

A type of living fence likely for the home garden rather than being stock proof.

The Aim of the Game

Over the past few months, I’ve spoken to our various Wwoofers about what our aim is for our property.  I’ve written a little about why we moved here, now I guess it’s time to talk about what we’re doing here.

What’s The Point?

Many people over the last few years have asked us, “What is the point of buying a lifestyle block?”

One of my now very ex-no-longer-speaking-to employers even went as far as to actively discourage me and Darling Husband 2B from purchasing our property, sighting a psychic reading (- nothing against psychic’s; however this one was computer generated from the Internet) and said that no child wants to grow up on a farm and nobody goes back to the  land once they’ve lived in town. Well I went back to the farm, and nearly three years on, I’m still loving every minute of it.