growin tool handles or an implement tree

  All homestead have implements of destruction  with broken handles. More  often than  not it is easier and as cheap to simply buy a new one  which leaves us all with a pile of  perfectly usable if they had a handle implements. We are no different and found ourselves with this nice assortment which we burned the old handles out of.

  Many years ago we ran across a web page  that showed an ol feller growing his own tool handles and we thought how cool, one day we are gonna do that.  Finally this year, the trees we had coppiced, for another  experiment, were ready to fit  the implements on and attempt to grow our own handles.   Who knows if it will actually work, how long it will take, or if the handles will be straight enough to   use. In the mean time, they implement trees will look   neat and be a conversation piece.

water features

Most permaculture experts recommend 15% of land mass be in water features. Given we have 15 acres of mountain terrain we will never be able to accomplish this, but we have been  consciously increasing  water features over the last couple years. In the few permaculture classes I have taken, the instructors say it does not matter how big or small the features are as they all enhance the biodiversity and any increase in  biodiversity is beneficial.   

A couple years ago when we scrapped the trailer I used the sink, tub, and toilet as  container gardens. All homes need rearranging from time to time so  the last couple  weeks we have turned the sink and tub into water features around the gardens.

The sink is  a bird  bath. As soon as we move more rocks  around the property I will surround it  and cover up some of the plastic ugly.

 This is down in the bowl  area where there is quite a bit of run off when it rains heavy so we made an overflow down to  a swale that is also on a slope. Once  the flowers grow this summer it should  all look quite nice.   I will continue to expand the garden there and we will likely work toward a few more swales and  possibly another small water feature.

tinman scarecrows

Stumbling around the  internet one day,  the manthing ran across  a tinman scarecrow. Knowing we had a pile of empty coffee cans and bored one day, he set about building  Spinnegan. 

We thought he was so cute that as soon as we had a stash of cans again he set about to building Rainbow Rosie. Since we didn't have  enough cans to give Rosie  arms or legs we decided to  clothe her and stuff  her.  Not only are they  kinda cute and serve a purpose, their heads are  also functional planters. Rosie still needs a bit more stuffing to even out her lumps n bumps.

No instructions  were  used  when making them. He just laid out the shape using different size cans, made holes in the bottoms, and strung them together using wire.