Make your own compost tumbler

For a total of $35 I made my own compost tumbler. I spent $15 for the old cherry barrel from the markets and $20 for the castor wheels from Bunnings. I had a panel cut out and a hinge and latch screwed on to act as a door. I also drilled some holes along the top and bottom of the barrel for ventilation. Just a tip, don't make the holes too big or a lot of dirt will come out when you tumble.



The castors where bolted to Josh's old play table that he no longer uses so it was great to recycle it for this project.



Close up shot of one of the castor wheels.



Close up of the latched opening.



Close up of the hinge on the panel.



Tumble away Josh!!

Management Centre

Ok I must confess that the idea of a home management centre is not new to me. It's just that since Joshua started walking last year I had to pack it all away and shift it to different parts of the house which meant I slowly started to become disorganised again.

After reading a post on An Organised Mums's blog today about this basic concept I decided it was time to get it set up again. I've put it back in the same spot, next to the stairs and this time I have added a cork and white board.
I used electrical tape to create different areas on the white board. It's not meant to look perfect, I settled for practical. I have areas for:

Bucket
For things to be donated to the op-shop

Basket
Library books currently out on loan

Desk
1. Home Management Folder
2. Price shopping book and recipes
3. Diary
4. Bills to be dealt with
5. Stapler, hole puncher, calculator, pen and notebook
6. Laptop

Side desk
Financial folder (I use this on a weekly basis to keep track of bills and to update our financial position)

Corkboard
1. Shopping (blue sheet of paper)
2. "This week" page from my diary
3. Current recipes I want to try this week
4. Basic homeschool ideas

Whiteboard
1. Appointments/to-do overview (Mon to Saturday only)
2. Menu planner
3. Notes




Now the hard part will be keeping Josh away!! He is still curious but at least he is old enought to understand a stern NO!. I think as long as he has some paper and crayons he is happy to sit on the floor next to me whilst I get some work done - let's hope :)

Toddler playroom

Josh has his own playroom that I set up for him in the family room. It has been a work in progress over the last 2 1/2 years as I've changed it as he went through different developmental stages. The way it is at the moment will be the way it will stay until the end of his primary school years.

He has a couch to sit on, a unit with a TV,DVD player and a radio, a play table, small cupboard and a large 9 shelf toy cupboard. For christmas this year he will be getting a Vtech Smile Motion Learning Console so that will be added to the unit.


I've done a major cull of his unused toys - some have gone to his younger cousin who is 1 year younger than him and the rest have been donated to the local charity shop. I've only kept the classic toys which he has access to play with whenever he wants. These will be added to or upgraded over the years at birthdays and christmas so his collection will grow and drive me crazy!!

1. Large cars
2. Animals
3. Wooden Building blocks
4. Lego Duplo
5. Hot Wheels cars, blaster and tin
6. Pixar Cars race track set
7. Thomas Wooden Railway set
8. Books
9. Leapfrog learning laptop
10. Magna Doodle




All his drawing, painting, toddler trays, craft material, puzzles, playdough, dress up box and educational learning toys are kept upstairs in the spare room cupboard as firstly there is not enough room downstairs in his play area but secondly I don't want the play area to become too messy or these toys to be damaged. Games, birthday presents and christmas presents are also stored out of the way in this cupboard.

Outdoor Shower revisited

Ok, well my shower is set up temporarily until I pimp it up a bit. I need to put up some sort of appealing structure as the back drop and left side wall. Also some sort of shelving system would come in handy. For now it works a treat. The solar shower bag and 20litre jerry can sit to the right (you can't see it in this picture) and they both heat up the water magically on really hot days. I have to get some cold water from the tap so that I don't end up burning myself. We have all had some showers there although I win hands down as the most frequent user. I took these photos tonight as it was a beautiful summer evening and Stephen and I were enjoying being out in the backyard.

Love how there is a lamp post to illuminate the area and I couldn't have set it up this way if I had gone to the trouble of designing it all myself.

Outdoor shower

I found it! The floor of what will eventually become an outdoor shower!



I was walking home from mum's last week and as I came around the corner, there it was! Later that night when I asked Stephen to go pick it up for me he refused. But today he went down to the shops in his ute and when he came home he told me to look in the back and it was there. I gave him the biggest kiss ever - it was like Christmas.

Old fashioned floor mopping

What you see in this picutre is my floor mopping system. Yes, it is old school and like most things done yesteryear, it is more physical work but it is so cheap to set up and great for getting a workout that I love it.

I have 2 buckets (one filled with fresh hot water and the other with hot water with 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 capful eucalyptus oil and 1 drop detergent) and 2 microfibre cloths.

I dip into the bucket with the cleaning products, squeeze and then fold the cloth into four. I wipe as large a section as I can then turn it over and wipe further along. Then I open the cloth and fold it the other way round and do two lots of cleaning on this side. So that's four wipes in total then I rinse it out in the fresh water, squeeze and dip into the product, squeeze and continue. Once I see the fresh water starting to get yucky I dump it out and top up with some fresh water. Once I see that the cloth is not as clean anymore, then I rinse it under the tap the next time I get a fresh bucket of water. When that cloth is no longer getting clean after the rinse under the tap I replace it with a clean cloth.

What are the pros of this method?
1. The floor dries lightning fast: usually by the time I have come back from getting a fresh bucket of water the floor is already dry. I don't have to tell anyone to stay away whilst I am mopping and I can do it around whoever is in the room at the time.
2. Minimal financial outlay: Just the cost of 2 buckets and 2 cloths.
3. Minimal use of cleaning products: just 1 bucket full does my whole house
4. You can really see where the floor is dirty and get to clean it thoroughly
5. You are not cleaning the floor with a dirty mop and bucket of water.
6. You get a great workout: on the days I mop I don't bother with a seperate cardio workout, although I do do some stretching.

What are the cons?
1. It's more physical work: I don't bother to mop on the days I am not feeling tired or unwell
2. Need to continually replace the bucket with fresh water: so perhaps a little bit more water usage is needed.

Hmmmmm.....that's more pros than cons...............

Josh & Zac

Josh loves spending time out in the backyard with Zac. He put his gumboots on by himself and spent a whole hour hanging out with him. We definetely need to get him his own dog.

Joshua

Well this week we are minding Stephen's sister's dog, Zac, as they are in between houses at the moment. He has already escaped once today since arriving last night. We found him sniffing around 2 houses up. Josh loves him and I caught him sharing Zac's breakfast.

As we have been having such nice weather I also took us both out to Bulli beach.

Skip bin carted off

Stephen and I spent the entire last weekend filling up the skip bin with tree debris and general household rubbish. We certainly picked a bad weekend as the weather was over 35 deg on both days! I got a great garden workout though and finished off the task with a much needed yoga practice.

Skip bin clean up

Size 8 skip bin being dropped off. The clean up begins!

Fixing up the yard

Joshua playing on the mound of mulch that was made from cutting down the trees and Stephen doing temporary repair work on the fence until we get it replaced.

Grumption

I use Grumption around the house to get crayon and pen marks off the walls, furniture and toys after Joshua has gotten up to mischief. I even used it on his magna doodle board today. Works a real treat!