I've got a shed...

It came with the house. It's about 6m x 3m and rests on an uneven concrete slab. It also came with some shelves (and the obligatory half empty paint cans). We have since added some ... er... other stuff...

We haven't yet unpacked all our boxes (I don't often turn on the light - that way I can't tell how much stuff I still have to sort out)...

Anyway the point of this post wasn't really to show off how much junk we can fit into a shed...but what I really want to do is set it up so that a) it's tidy and b) it's actually usable. I have visions of beer and wine bubbling away, shelves stacked with preserves and vegetables stored for use over the winter months.

But...there is so often a but isn't there...our shed has an inordinate number of red back spiders and who knows what other species of arachnids are out there hiding in wait in the dark corners. There are small gaps between the roof and the walls that while they don't really let in too much water, they do let in the cold (not to mention the above mentioned arachnids).

So today I'm asking for advice. I don't really want to get someone in to spray the spiders, but I would love a way to clear them out...I'm also wondering if it's possible to insulate the walls or, at the very least, cover the gaps with something to keep out the cold.

Do you have a shed? I'd love to see some ideas for sheds if anyone has links to any posts or blogs. One thing that continues to amaze me since I started reading blogs, is that when I start thinking about something, someone invariably writes about it...it's almost uncanny.

So all thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Sea Guardians and sustainable seafood

I have great memories of fishing with my grandfather up near Gosford, catching Bream and Whiting and Flathead on my little hand reel. I remember helping him scale and gut the fish and then we would BBQ them afterwards, wrapping the fish in foil.

I even went prawning with my uncle once. We headed out at midnight, and I'm sure we hauled in netfuls of prawns but I don't know if that is just my childhood memories playing tricks on me or if our catch was really that good. I do remember boiling them up and eating some of them as soon as we got home...I can still remember the taste, they were so fresh.

When I grew up, I became a scuba diver and now I see fish in a slightly different light. Don't get me wrong...I still eat fish; one of my favourite meals is fish and chips, with fish (usually flathead tails) we buy from the market and crumb at home and chips we make with potatoes roasted with rosemary and salt.

But now I also get to hang out with them and see what they get up to. I get to see sponges and corals that can be hundreds of years old. I get to see sharks that slice through the water in a manner so incredibly graceful and powerful. I get to swim with loggerhead turtles and hear the whales sing through the water. I get to see a whole complete world that is beautiful beyond comparison. 

I also get to see the degradation of the environment. I've seen the northern pacific sea stars that are interlopers that ended up here from the hull of boats passing through and eat their way through our native ocean environment. I've seen coral bleaching. I haven't seen a hammerhead shark or a blue whale and I hope to get the chance to before they're gone.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society was started in the 1960s to stop an application to mine coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Today they focus on getting more areas declared as Marine National Parks, they aim to make our fisheries sustainable and to protect and recover our threatened marine species. Another key focus is to educate and advocate against human induced climate change.

Overfishing, pollution and coastal developments are killing our oceans quietly. It is estimated that over three quarters of the world's oceans...yes that's the world's not just one...is over-exploited or fished to its limits. Scientists believe that 90% of the large predatory fish (such as sharks) are gone, wiped out. The cruelty of some fishing techniques is terrible, shark finning sees sharks caught alive, their dorsal fins sliced off before they are thrown overboard to drown or get eaten alive by other fish as they sink to the bottom unable to swim. Long-lines are literally long lines stretching for kilometres, their baited hooks indescriminately taking any fish that comes along...and let's not even start on the charade of whaling for 'scientific' purposes that the Japanese conduct on an annual basis.

There are small things we can do to help. I became a Sea Guardian through the Marine Conservation Society. I want to give them some money on a monthly basis to help them continue the work they do.

Even if you don't have any money to spare, you can help by not buying endangered fish or only buying fish that are caught or farmed sustainably. The Society publishes Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide:

You can buy the extended version from the website for $9.95 and you also get...

...no not six steak knives ... but a small business size version. I keep mine in my wallet.



This version briefly highlights the three steps to sustainable seafood:

1. Avoid overfished species (the full list is contained in this pocket guide).
2. Make a better choice (some examples are included).
3. Ask questions from your fish monger.

For example, Orange Roughy is overfished and is a big 'no thankyou' and is also sold under the name of deep sea perch or sea perch. (Orange Roughy are thought to have a life span of about 150 years and they don't start breeding until they hit 30 years old!)

I have seen these guides around and about ... so if you ask around you'll probably be able to pick one up somewhere.

The oceans make up about 72% of the surface of our planet...it's amazing how easily they are overlooked. Without them, we can't survive and I think it's important that we make them an essential part of our sustainable lifestyle...

A garden update

It's been a frustrating few weeks in regards to the garden. We've been busy on the weekends and I've been sick for the last few days so outside has really been left to fend for itself!

The side we spent so long clearing over Easter is still exactly how we left it...



but Sim picked up a couple of bags of manure down on the Bellarine Peninsula last week so we plan to mix in some of that soon. It's a mix of cow, chicken and sheep and the farmer said it was quite potent so we're hoping the two bags will go a fair way. 

The small bed that we planted out with a seedling 'Winter Harvest' selection from Bunnings (just to get us started) is going strong ... you can even see a cauliflower forming



- and that's from the plant that the dog dug up. Something has just started eating the leaves so I'm going to head out one dusk and see if I can see any little critters having some dinner where they shouldn't be.

We've started planting a few seedlings ... we have made the mistake of not labelling them as we go though so in some cases it's a surprise as to what we're going to get. We do know this punnet has sugar snap peas, oakleaf lettuce and leeks:



This punnet is a bit of a mystery...pretty sure there is parsley and pak choy but as for what else...Sim can't quite remember!



We've tried to plant a couple of scarlet runner beans, although I think it might be too cold, and not much has happened yet. I'm enjoying the surprise of not knowing quite what we're going to end up with but I think when we start trying to plant more seriously, it's not quite going to work. 

We have since invested in some labels for future plantings.

Hopefully we can get back out there soon...

A decadant lunch

I love bread making … it doesn't really matter if it's in the machine or the oven or a combination of both; there is nothing like the satisfaction of getting the dough to rise and the smell of freshly baked bread….and I'm still only a beginner. I made bagels on the weekend (I've made a couple of batches before) but for the first time I began to understand how the dough should feel when you've kneaded it enough.

I don't know why, but I always though bagels would be difficult to make but they're actually not…a little bit fiddly maybe but not hard at all.

Ingredients:
6 cups of white flour
2 tablespoons of dry yeast
2.5 cups of warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 egg
Sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds

I usually mix the yeast and the water together for about 10 minutes to let the yeast activate…I have also read that this is an unnecessary step but I have found in my very limited experience that I get less failures if I do this step first.

While the yeast is activating, combine 5 cups of the flour, the salt and sugar in a bowl. Pour the yeast and water in and mix until a shaggy lump of dough forms. Put on a floured board and knead, adding the remaining cup of flour as required. When I first made these, the mistake I made was thinking that I had to add the whole cup…but I've since discovered that isn't always the case. What you want is dough that is smooth and elastic. (I actually only used half a cup of flour this time.)

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until it's doubled in size (about an hour).





Remove the dough from the bowl and divide into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten slightly and put a hole in the middle. Cover and leave to rise for another 20 minutes.

And now comes the fiddly bit…get a pan of lighlty salted water to a rolling boil. You need to boil each bagel for about 2 minutes, turning every 30 seconds. I used a fry pan and could fit three to four bagels at a time. When you boil them, they puff up slightly and hold their shape better…but don't boil them for too long or they'll deflate and then they're no good.

Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water, brush the tops with the beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Put them in a 200 degree celcius oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.



We have been having the most decadent lunches with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers on the bagels, or breakfast with toasted bagels with cream cheese and vegemite (and this is another of Sim's combinations I highly recommend).

The Great Easter Garden Clean-up

Four days stretched out before us, four days of getting the garden sorted, de-cluttering the house, baking bread, cooking delicious homemade meals…before those four days suddenly flashed by in the wink of an eye and I'm once again facing my concrete wall at the office before I'm quite ready to.

I realise now that our list of tasks was somewhat ambitious…but we did actually achieve quite a bit:

One part of the garden went from this:

To this:

To this (all ready to get some no dig beds prepared):

We started a herb garden around our pond:

We built a gate (don't look too closely it might fall apart!)

And next weekend's job will be to hang it.

It was probably one of the first long weekends that we have spent the majority of it around the house or out getting things to use around the garden...and it was entirely enjoyable, I don't feel that we missed out on anything and besides, there's still plenty on the list to keep us occupied.