DIY wooden crate

Just something I knocked together (pun intended...hehe) the other day with a hammer and a few nails....

It went from this......

......which is off-cuts from this.....

to this........

The Captain was horrified at first, to see me hammering this box together with only nails, but after I painted it  and stencilled some numbers on there, he agreed it doesn't look too bad...hehehe. It's  very basic, perhaps even a bit ugly and a bit dilapidated old wooden crate/box for a corner in the garden, but I like it!

Happy day!

Fire lighters

With all the woodworking The Captain does in his spare time, he's  forever looking for a way to get rid of use all the sawdust that he gathers from him projects. He read somewhere about making fire-lighters with sawdust, candle wax and egg cartons and since we're still having cold evenings and making a fire every night to keep warm, I decided to give it a try. Glad to finally have another use for my egg cartons (besides the seed bombs I wrote about here), and of course, all the little bits of wax left over from the candles that I love to burn so much, this is what I did; 

You will need:

 a few handfuls of sawdust

 egg cartons

 leftover bits of candle

 Method:

1. Put the wax in a heat proof dish and melt it over a pan of boiling water
2. Stir in enough sawdust to absorb the melted wax
3. Immediately scoop the mixture into the hollows of the egg cartons and press down firmly
4. Allow to set and ................

 ready for use

 I break them up and use two at a time...

they burn so well, and you don't have that nasty smell that one can get with store bought fire-lighters

Seed bombs

 Remember the post about Guerilla gardening that I wrote about here? I've made my own seed bombs in the meantime and I am very happy with the results. I've found though that recycled egg-boxes worked best for these.
To make the seed bombs, I just ripped the boxes in small pieces and poured boiling water over. It soaked overnight and the following day I ripped the soaked paper into smaller shreds and squeezed out most of the water. The seeds  mixed with a good two handfuls of potting soil was mixed with the paper pulp - I guess you can purée the soaked boxes in a blender too.  I had no fixed recipe to work with, so I just followed my instinct here.
After it had dried completely,  I handed them out to friends (of course....hehehe) and "bombed" my own garden with the rest. To my surprise, it didn't take very long for the seeds to start sprouting...

We are just into the "last" month of winter here in the Southern Hemisphere and the soil is still very wet, but I'm looking forward to a few delightful surprises in spring when these little guys blossom in their full glory.

Links to sites for bomb recipes:

Guerilla Gardening
Crafterholic

Happy bombing!!