Sump Oil and Pony Poo

Day three of the Easter weekend and still not much has eventuated around the yard. Typical really... Paul decided he wanted to go to Willunga Bakery for breakfast [dog free] and I agreed, as long as we came home with some pony poo. Lo and behold, most people didn't have any out for sale the day I want some!! With a quick emergency stop in Meadows [we were running on empty for about 12ks and had no mobile with us], we headed towards Echunga, Hahndorf with no pony poo in sight, and then on through Cherry Gardens. Cherry Gardens was fruitful fortunately! I managed to find 6 bags of the delightful and delectable poo!! Four bags had already been composted, which is really handy. The dogs went nuts when we got home with a boot full of manure!! They jumped in and had a wonderful sniff. Spot had the biggest estatic grin on his face and kept sticking his head into the open bags.

Peggie [left] and Spot [right] with the poo Our poo stash.

Like all skiving, procrastinating men, Paul decided his car needed a vacuum...at the car wash, and thus disappeared for an hour or so doing that. Meanwhile, I was out the back removing the treated pine edging from the veggie patch. The veggie patch is being made wider and shorter, and is going to be edged with some hardwood sleepers that I picked up as freebies.

The back garden after edging was removed

Paul finally got home and set about doing something constructive...flushing out his engine oil. It does sound like he was procrastinating again...but for once, I needed that horrible horrible oil from his car for my next task. When I snaffled the sleepers, quite a few were in bad condition and had started to rot out in some spots. To stop the sleepers rotting further I painted the sleepers with the dirty sump oil to seal them and stop anything trying to eat them get inside. Nice messy job!!

Painting the sleepers with the oil

The finished sleepers

The oil gave the weathered sleepers are nice dark, rich colour and look. They are going to look striking once they are in place, the veggie garden is thriving and there is lawn growing out there.

Meanwhile Paul is cutting metal pins to anchor these sleepers in place. Cutting a larger metal rod into 40cm long sections, he sharpened one end to make it easier to penetrate the hard clay ground [and any stray pipes that might be in our way!!]. These pins will go in pre-drilled holes in each end and the centre of the sleepers and hammered into the ground until the pins sit flush with the top of the sleeper. This will ensure that the sleepers wont fall over from the pressure of the soil in the garden bed behind it.

Finished Pin

Peggie, Paul, his pin and Spot

Well now I think its time to go water my seeds and herbs, and maybe think about making dinner at some point. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit more productive...