DIY device for cleanly filling freezer bags. The truncated yoghurt container holds the bag open and steady, so that the food can be quickly filled with hot food without risk of mess or spilling.

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Freezer bag filling Make freezer bag filling easy with hot or cold food in preparation for freezing as convenient serving portions. No mess or need for help and easily regulate portion size. Small freezer bags make a wonderfully efficient and hygienic way of containing feed sized portions of food forRead More →

Forever Sharp kitchen knife. A wonderful indispensable kitchen knife that makes many kitchen tasks quick and easy. I even have one in my fishing kit to fillet big fish that are too thick for my regular filleting knife. It cuts through the rib bones so easily and safely.

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A great kitchen knife A Forever Sharp Carving Knife is an indispensable and great kitchen knife. It makes kitchen tasks quick and easy, especially if you are into serious home food cooking and preservation. Get an extra one for filleting big fish. Introduction to the great kitchen knife This greatRead More →

Micro ceramic stick stove light.

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Experimental ceramic stick burner A report on an experimental micro ceramic stick burner made as an inverted J-burners. It is made from largely clay free loam soil and sodium silicate. It is configured for; natural or forced draft operation. It also was designed with an optional fussed quartz charcoal-burner glassRead More →

A small test disk of 'crab hole mound' and sodium silicate DIY refractory that has 'puffed' during firing. Despite the puffing, it is very hard and strong.

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Sodium silicate refractory firing A range of cheap DIY refractories can be made with sodium silicate as a bonding agent. These can be made with various mineral, metal oxides and even fine soil when mixed with a little sodium silicate (alkaline water glass). The current post describes the careful butRead More →

A crude pipe made from post-hole soil and sodium silicate. The pipe has been air dried and the ends have been ground flat on aluminium oxide 'sandpaper'. The pipe is very hard and is ready for curing and then firing.

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Refractory mixing An easy in-bag mixing method for sodium silicate refractory mixes is described. It allows the mix to have a stiff consistency with low water content. The resulting ‘plasticine’ texture makes handling and molding easy. In my previous post about dense DIY refractories from sodium silicate, I have intentionallyRead More →

Solar PV array (up top). Eevacuated tube heat collectors for hot water service (below). Top of solar kettle (low down to the right of centrer.

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This post describes the performance of a large grid connected domestic solar power system. Introduction My solar power system comprises 24 Sunsaver PV panels with a capacity of 4.2 kw and a Sunny Mini Central inverter. The panels face North and are fixed at 60 degrees of horizontal and areRead More →

Solar evacuated tube heat collectors for a solar hot water service.

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The running of an off-grid solar hot water service, in a cool climate, with only occasional electric heating is described. Introduction I have supplemented my large 4.6kw PV solar system with a solar/mains powered hot water service to reduce my use of mains power for water heating. “The backroom BoffinsRead More →

A spreading Oak tree that I planted when I started at my workplace. Much has changed over the years, but a good tree is a constant thing.

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This post is a story about the acorns, that I collected from Carnegie Primary School (my childhood school), and their distribution to grow giant oak trees. Introduction In my post on using Plane Tree leaf mulch for vegetable gardens, I have referred to the giant deciduous trees that grow onRead More →

A giant London Plane Tree. It is one of a number of beautiful European trees that according local stories were planted at the instigation of Victoria's famous Baron von Muller.

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This post is about using Plane Tree leaf mulch to make vegetable gardening easier and less weedy. Introduction As children, we often encountered the fluffy stuff from the crushed fruit of Melbourne’s ubiquitous London Plane Trees. We quickly learned its properties and called it ‘itchy wool’. We did not tryRead More →