Recycling Ideas Part 2

Hi All,

Welcome to Part 2 of my recycling ideas, as I mentioned before some are my ideas and some are "borrowed", here is one I came up with and just finished!

In the past 6 months or so i've loved the idea and keenly watched new and impressive ideas for using old timber pallets, as you would have seen on an older article I, with the help of my children, turned an old timber pallet into a garden feature.

Sadly a week of over 40 degree days killed my plants in there but once we get over the heat I'm going to replant this with fresh plants!

The new idea was to turn one of the timber pallets which had a flat plywood top into a mini table on wheels with the top turned into a chalkboard!

So, we found these pallets at the local carpet shop. I bought a new orbital sander and thought this would be perfect to test out on.

I gave the whole pallet a good sanding with some grade 60 sand paper, curved off all the edges and removed any splinter causing areas.

Adding castor wheels at the bottom gives the ability to move it around easier, these ones also have brakes so if you don't want it to be moved or children moving it while using it just flick it into lock.

This design was made purely to be placed in a child care centre, I wanted to come up with something that children could easily sit at and play, or put their legs under if they want.

I was able to buy a litre of black chalkboard paint from our local Bunnings for approx $15, I applied two coats to the top and has come up a treat!

For the sides and bottoms we decided to go with left over Pink paint the centre had left over, as their main colour for the centre is Pink we thought this would be fitting. The paint left over was a high gloss which was previously used on the doors, two coats of this and the pink really came out nice and shiny.

That's it, as simple as that. Now, not all pallets come with a plywood top, these are rare so if you see one grab it! If not Plywood isn't that expensive so if you find a good pallet you can easily fit a plywood top to it for added height.

Now the finishing product, Personally I'm really happy with the way this came out and reckon it looks awesome, from all reports the kids loved using it also with big chunky pieces of chalk! For child safety reasons I'm not allowed to show the kids using it but heres a photo of the finished product.

This is also easy enough to enlist the help of your kids just get them to wear some gloves until after the pallet has been fully sanded, choose a colour or multiple colours and paint away! The blackboard paint also comes as a green also.

Please try this at home, took me a couple of nights to do and all you need is the pallet, castor wheels, sander (my orbital worked really well), Chalkboard Paint and another Paint for the sides and bottom.

Sustainability & Recycling Ideas

Hi All,

Well recently I started looking at different ways our family can work with the environment rather than always buying new things to use!
I stumbled upon this website while surfing via Facebook: http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-turn-a-pallet-into-a-garden/

The owner of the site, Fern, shows some really interesting ideas for re-using items as simple as an old timber pallet and turning it into a real garden feature!

Please check her website out as I can take no credit for this idea, this article is more so to bring awareness to the idea and demonstrate how my family and I created our pallet!

Heres a list of things you'll need to get your pallet going:

1 Timber Pallet
1 Roll of Weed Matt
1 Roll of Sandpaper (Medium course)
1 Staple Gun with plenty of staples
5 Bags of 25L soil
10 - 15 punnets of plants


So, Step 1 is basically get your hands on a timber pallet, there are usually heaps lying around in nearly every suburb you drive through. I noticed this morning nearly all businesses have a pile out the back and you will also find one or two out the front of houses if someone has recently renovated...


Try and find a nice one but if possible one which has thinner wood than most heavy duty ones, you'll thank me later as the weight of these once soil added is huge!





Step 2, once you've lugged it home you need to nicen it up a bit with a solid sanding, my view on this one was the idea that little children can be involved so try and round off the edges, sand back any bits sticking out that could give off some nasty splinters and fix up any big bits that have come off.



Step 3, this bits easier, take out the weed matt and place it over the pallet, have enough extra on the sides as this can either be doubled up or trimmed off later. For extra durabilty we decided to double ours up on the edges just to make sure.

Once you've stapled them in, just run over all the staples with a hammer to make sure they're all in fully!





Step 4, lay down the pallet and proceed to add fill with soil, remember you need to make sure you pack soil at the bottom and top of each railing, pack it in really tight once plants are added to ensure the soil doesn't all drop out.







Step 5, the fun part! With the soil already added part the middle of each row to create a channel for you to add the plants, for ours, we managed to get our hands on super cheap punnets of flowers for only $1.50 each so we ended up buying 24 of them which helped give it an already established look.



Step 6, once the plants have been added now pay particular attention to filling the gaps up with soil, with a spare mini bucket add clumps of soil around the outside and inbetween plants and press it in firmly - this will help ensure that the plants and soil don't dislodge when you stand it up.




Step 7, give your new plants/pallet garden a thorough drenching! New plants love a big drink once they've been added to new soil and new surroundings so fill the water container up 3 or 4 times and drench it!




Now Step 8 is really up to you when you do it, stand up your pallet and attach to wall via bolts/brackets if thats how you intend to use it.

Myself, and I believe Fern via her website did also, couldn't resist and stood ours up not long after the drenching - I was too eager to see how it looks..

Must say, the sheer weight of my pallet was immense and I struggled to move it against our shed! So make sure you have two people to move the pallet and help you secure it.

I found this to be a really enjoyable little venture, it was fun to do and the kids loved helping too! This is a really family friendly thing you can do, it not only gets the kids outdoors and active but teaches them to think outside the square and see what you can create out of items which are usually discarded!

My boy Noah helped me throughout the whole process, my younger daughter Mia more so got involved with the planting side. I think this is a great venture schools and childcare centres should look to adopt, my only concern with it is the weight, so if anyone out there is considering doing this please make careful consideration to how you will use it after its finished. If its to be a feature against a wall standing up you must look at bolting it or some other way to ensure this can't fall over - the sheer weight would seriously harm a child or kill them if it landed on them! I'm definately no expert in this side of things so would consult a tradey or even pop down to your local Bunnings as i'm sure their team of experts will guide you!

Mine is placed nicely on a slant, my kids are big enough now to know not to climb or pull it over however I wouldn't recommend every do this if kids under the age of 6 are present..

With that in mind I still think this is a great, fun, environmentally friendly venture anyone can do! The pallet can be loaded with your favourite plants, or, whack a heap of herbs and veggies in there to grow fresh consumables!





Here's a list of the plants I used in the trenches:

Pansy

• Pussycat
• Masterpiece
• Caribbean Sunrise
• Priscilla
• Breaking Dawn

Viola

• Space Crystals
• Harbour Lights
• Babyface

Dianthus - Gemfire

Once it was stood up and against the shed I originally just had some potts sitting on the top as I was experiencing soil loss on the top level, I found some gutter mesh I had left over in the shed so added that to see if this would stop the soil running and dropping out - worked a treat!

So with the soil now sitting nicely I added some Brussel Sprouts, Snow Pea and a couple of other small flowering plants (Can't remember their names...). With any luck we will get some yummy sprouts!

The first pallet cost me approx $60 but some of the items such as Weed Matt, Sandpaper and Staple gun can be used for multiple pallets - i'm hoping to get around 3 more pallets out of the initial purchase.

Give it a go and please share your experience and if you rate this as a good venture to do or get your children involved with! The beauty of the pallet transformation is you don't have to stand it up! This can also be used as a new veggie patch laying down instead of digging out one and fencing it off!

One of Adelaides Gems - The Coffee Barun

I would like to share with you what i refer to as one of Adelaides Gem businesses.

The Coffee Barun which is situated on Main North Road in Sefton Park is the business, for me its one of the greatest cafe's around. The owners, Mark & Kate Barun know everything there is to know about coffee and have taken their business from the humble beginnings of selling coffee beans at the Pooraka Flea Market, to establishing their first shop just metres where their current one stands today.

Ok, I am a little biased in my opinions as i have known them for some years now, their eldest daughter used to go to child care with my eldest boy and they were the best of friends for some time.

So, lets discuss business, why are they so good?

Simple, for one to sell coffee, one must understand everything there is to know about coffee, a true barista. This sums Mark up perfectly.


Ever since i've known the Baruns, i've known them as the guru's in coffee. Mark sources specialty coffee of the highest quality, nothing less. I have never seen someone so passionate about coffee before, for me its something that comes easy - coffee is made before my eyes and i make zero effort to get the coffee... for Mark, its not as easy and cut and dry as that.


He sources the best, roasts them himself and on my recent visit was doing some interesting work with what i'm sure looked like a bunsen burner and sciencey looking glasses...

My wife and I had the day off today so we decided to head there for breakfast, here is the Barun Breakfast which we order each time we go there. Eggs made how you like them (for me it has to be poached....) generous amount of bacon, stunning beef sausages from an award winning maker in Adelaide, tomato, hashbrown and a beautiful mushroom all served on sliced foccacia.


As usual the breakfast does the job, beautiful fresh produce all super tasty. To compliment, we also enjoy a large cappucino of Marks finest brew.

 

So, if your a coffee enthusiast or know absolutely nothing about coffee like me, then do yourself a favour and visit The Coffee Barun, located on 217-219 Main North Road, Sefton Park. They also have a website too you can visit: www.thecoffeebarun.com

Perfect Coffee?

Hi All,

I wanted to let you all know of a little secret i've discovered in my new view to all things coffee..

I stumbled upon this little coffee machine whilst on a journey to find a new TV. Its the MAP Perfecto Capsule Machine....

Cost only $99 and is a perfect way to plunge headfirst into making expresso coffee and yummy cappuccino's...

The Pods for this machine come in 4 different styles, your Strong, Medium or Weak but also have a Hot Chocolate Pod for those Chocco lovers!!

Personally i love the Strong & Medium pods, one packet costs $6.95 and you get 10 pods. Not bad considering when i buy a coffee from the shop next to my work, a large costs $4.50... now i'm only paying $0.695 per cappuccino...

This machine is so easy to use, simply fill up the water tank, turn on, insert pod and select the size of coffee you want to make...

Beauty of this machine also is it comes equipted with a frother so you can froth your own milk and not have to worry about having to buy one later...

So, here is the machine, I got mine from Harvey Normans for $99, not sure if its still at that price but go and check out, also seen it at the Good Guys too...

Regards

Bo Gas

Telstra T-Box

No this isn't a senseless advertising plug but if Telstra want to throw stuff my way well woohoo

Thought i'd let u know my experience so far with the T-Box

I previously had Foxtel so I could watch my beloved Richmond FC but we loved watching channels like Fox 8, TV1, Lifestyle etc.

But at $90 a month really just so I could watch footy live each week it was time we looked at other options...

I can't just go the games as I live in Adelaide, hard being a supporter of an interstate team sometimes..

While walking past one of the Telstra stores I noticed T-Box advertised again and finally thought I'd check it out, service was good and I soon learned that u can get Foxtel cheaper through your T-Box! Most of the channels from foxtels usual service are on there only just missing a few but u barely notice.

Couple of downsides though but these are easily overlooked...

1) the foxtel through the T-box is run over your Internet broadband connection, so the quality isn't as good sometimes especially with some sports...

2) if your Internet is down tough luck no foxtel will come through until
It's back up... Which can be frustrating especially in the 4th quarter and Tigers just infront...

But in all honesty, the two above I barely notice anymore, the quality u can put up with as I'm still getting it for half the cost of normal foxtel! Connection issues are really rare and I put it down for me as having an old modem which is due for upgrade...

So from me, an Adelaide based Richmond supporter who loves watching every game and the occasional reality or tv show it's a massive thumbs up from me..

Yeah it has it's minor negatives but at half the cost of normal foxtel and I can run it just like foxtel IQand did I mention it has a massive hard drive for recording stuff!!

Check it out and compare, you won't be disappointed.