Shade sail project

In 2006 we moved into a new house on a 2 ha paddock block. The block had no trees at all and I had a whole lot of children who wanted to play outside in all sorts of the weather. The weather range in the New England of NSW is a winter of below 0 (degrees Celsius) with wind gusts that will blow a grown man off his feet and a summer where the temperature climbs up to 40. I realised that the trees I planted 2006 would not grow up high enough to cause shade till the children were adults. A shaded play area was required and it would have to with stand the most extreme weather conditions. 

I put my brother and father (both engineers) to the task of designing the structure. They designed a six pole shade sail structure. The six poles were angled out from the ground to provide strength and the poles were different lengths to hold the shade sails tight (see photo).

I ordered six square metal pole with an extra 1 metre on each pole to secure them in concrete filled holes. I marked out where I wanted the holes and a friend with a bobcat drilled six holes (1 metre deep and 450 mm wide). I then drilled holes for the chain eyelets and screwed the weather caps to the top of the poles. I did this before putting the poles into the ground as it was a lot easier to work on them while they were on the ground. 

Now came the tricky part I had to form up the poles to pour the concrete. I used some old form work boards and large clamps to hold the poles. As each pole needed to be angled out from the ground I had to form all the poles up at the same time to line them all up by eye. Once the form work was finished the shovelling began. Lucky for me I had got an electric concrete mixer for this. After a day of mixing and pouring and a couple days allowing the concrete to set the poles were very strong. 

I then put two shade sails up with strong chains and a set of turn buckles for tenioning onto the eyelets. Then the job was done.  I would recommend that what ever parts you look at getting always buy the heaviest duty parts you can get do not underestimate the strenght of the wind

  

Kid proofing the kitchen with a wooden gate

In 2006 I moved into our new house with a pregnant wife and two children, since then our family has grown to 6 children. The open design of this house looks great but is a nightmare as far as keeping the children out of the kitchen. I was faced with a problem as the walkway into the kitchen was over 1 metre wide and there was no commercially available kid safe gate wide enough to block the walkway.

One day I visited my brothers house and noticed that he had built a picket fence style gate for his back veranda that leads down to a 3 metre set of stairs. I got some engineering advice from my brother and got down to designing my own gate.

One of the important things to consider when using timber is, the stronger the gate is the heavier it will be and the stronger the hinges and mounting bases will have to be to handle the weight. At first I attached the metal gate hinges to a narrow strip of timber that was screwed into the chip board of the kitchen bench. This worked for a while till one of my evil toddlers climbed the gate and it pulled out of the kitchen bench. I fixed this by reinforcing the gate mount with a narrow strip of timber on the inside and outside of the kitchen bench. I replaced the wood screws with three large bolts that went all the way through. The bolts were anchored with washers and nuts.

While the two kitchen benches on the sides of the walkway looked like they lined up they were out of line by about 5cm. I had to make a raised timber mounting plate to line the latch bolt to the catch squarely.

Tools used:
#Electric mitre saw or docking saw
#Set square
#tape messure
#hand saw
#pencil

Timber (pine) sizes used:
1000mm x 90mm x 35mm x 2 rails (top and bottom)
1050mm x 90mm x 35mm cross brace
800mm x 40mm x 20mm x 11 pickets
800mm x 40mm x 20mm x 2 hinge mount reinforcment strips 

With a quick paint the gate was ready for use. This gate has been in use now for two years and is still keeping the toddlers at bay.

    

Vote for the donkey says Mark Latham

Former leader of the Australian Labor Party Mark Latham has had his 15 minutes in the spot light in an election where he is not even running. After Mark's loss against John Howard in 2003 he disappeared from public life till about a month ago. The Channel 9 show, 60 minutes decided to give Mark a soap box to stand on. With a camera crew in toe Mark went out wearing a media pass and joined the media pack. Mark used guerilla journalism tactics to ambush Tony Abbott and Jullia Gillard as they were walking to events. As the campaigns were getting boring the media pack turned their attentions on what Mark was going to do next.

On Sunday the 15th of August the article aired on Channel 9 and I must admit it was well put together with interviews with the Greens leader Bob Brown, former pollie Pauline Hanson and people on the street. The article looked semi serious till the end where Mark told us all to donkey vote. That's right he wants us not to vote at all in a protest against the two major partys. Well one of the parties is going to have to win and I would like to think that I had a say who it is.

Grey water for gardening during the drought

In May of 2006 I moved into our new house that is on a 2ha paddock block. The block had been used for cattle farming and had no trees or plants on it. In July of that year I started planting native trees around the block and gardens closer to the house. The plan was that the gardens and trees would grow up and turn this paddock into a wooded oasis. But I was not factoring in that we were in the middle of one of the worst droughts in recorded history.

Living out of town there is no town sewage. We have a Garden Master sewage system that pumps out the waste as grey water through a sprinkler system. The sprinkler is on a 30 metre long hose that has to be moved around the lawn every couple of days. Our fresh water supply is a 20,000 litre plastic water tank off the side of the house. It gathers rain water from the roof and a limited low flow town water supply. Therefore using the fresh water supply for the garden was competing with our domestic needs.

I had seen an 80 litre wheeled bin converted to a grey water tank in a gardening store. The bin had a tap at the bottom and a hole in the lid. The store wanted about $150 for the bin. I took one look at the bin and realised that I could easily make one.

I than went to the local hardware and bought the following:

#180litre plastic wheeled bin 

#Plastic tank tap kit 

#20 mm hole drill

#Brass tap 

#Hose attachments

Costing about $120

Tools required:

#cordless drill

#hack saw

I cut a hole into the bin and pushed the pipe through from the inside. I had to lay the bin over and climb inside while my wife screwed the outside nut and rubber washer onto the pipe the thread.

Once the pipe was secured to the bin I measured the minimum length required to screw the bass tap onto the screw thread. I used my hack saw to cut the pipe down to size before screwing the bass tap on. I then attached a plastic screw thread for the hose attachment. Now I was ready to use it.

I disconnected the grey water sprinkler and put the hose into the top of the bin. I closed the lid on the hose and put a brick on the lid to stop the hose sliding back out. I could have cut a hole in the lid but I wanted the lid in one piece, in case I wanted the bin for another purpose when the drought finally breaks. 

I placed the bin up hill from the gardens and trees I wanted to water and waited for the bin to fill up with grey water. I then attached a hose and opened the tap to water the garden by hand. The flow of the water was low but if you have the time to put the hose on the garden or trees for while it is a good way to get a deep soaking. One of the draw backs with the wheel bin is that it weighs 180kg once full and can not be moved. If water is a concern on your property it is worth considering using grey water .

Product Review - Campmaster Portable Toilet

Campmaster Portable Toilet


I have just come back from an 8 day long holiday road trip with my wife and 6 children. During the week we travel 2135 kilometres and most of these kilometres were done on the first and last days. Both these days involved early starts and 14 hour driving days in our Toyota Hilux Commuter bus. The disadvantage of living in the isolated countryside of Northern NSW is that towns and toilets are far and few between. After years of stopping behind trees and holding on till you almost burst I decided that this trip I was going to be prepared.

I went out and bought a 10 litre Campmaster Portable Toilet (CM6010) from our local Big W. At first I believed that and this would be the first time that no one in the bus would have a sudden and pressing need for a toilet stop in the middle of no where. However, in my family there are 6 children aged from 6 month old to 10 years old so within the first couple of hours the toilet had got a workout.
Not having to stop at places with toilets meant that we could stop at rest areas and parks saving us money that would have been wasted at service stations buying dodgy pies and overprices chocolate bars.

The toilet was kept in the bus the whole week and used regularly by my toilet training toddlers who for some reason refuse to use public toilets.

I emptied the waste tank a couple of times during the trip. I was a bit dubious about having to purchase top tank rinse and tank sanitiser but when it came to emptying the waste tank they proved their worth.

The toilet worked well and only leaked when one of the children unscrewed the fresh water cap while we were driving through hilly terrain.

With plans for a lot more road trips in the near future this toilet will definetly be on the packing list.

Election 2010 - Sex Party Vs Family first

This morning I watched a debate (using the term lightly) on Channel Seven's Sunrise Show. It was between Fiona Patten of the Sex Party and Wendy Francis of Family First Party. It is a shame that two parties with valid points had such a problem expressing them in a debate forum. Except for the first thirty second intros both Fiona and Wendy were busy interrupting for either argument to be heard. After watching a second time on the internet I realise that the debate covered;
#Government censorship of billboards
#The internet filter,
#Gay marriages,
#Tax exempt status of religions

Wendy did seem to have a very narrow idea of the Family. The text-book husband, wife and children has gone by the wayside and I don't think that Family First realises it. It is true that when I grew up there were only a limited amount of kids at school from blended families but now it is the norm. Most marriages end in divorce these days and some people live together in defacto relationships. It might be good to live in the fantasy world of the good old days but the reality is that politics is a contest and the voters want their politicians to represent their way of life. I cringed as I watched Wendy publicly speak out against Gay Marriage she has just lost her party the votes of every gay person and every person with gay people in their lives.

As Fiona and Wendy were debating over whether Religion should be tax exempt Wendy said, "Well I think it is a free society". What the! So it is a free society when religious groups want to build churches but when it comes to freedom of speech on the internet and advertising on billboards the government should step in as a controller.
I know that these parties are politically poles apart but if you think about it on a social level they are a cause and effect. Without Sex in most cases you will not have a family to worry about. I have six children and yes I knows what causes it. But just because I like sex does not mean that I do not want to protect them from the evils in the world.
In my opinon while the debate was badly managed making it look more like an episode of Jerry Springer it was better than the Gillard Vs Abbott debate.
Sunrise Sex Party vs Family First Debate.