Today I set up the new Heat Mat and currently have two trays on it coming up to temperature in readiness to start sowing seeds. I have a few varieties to choose from, but overall plant numbers will be greatly reduced this season.
Here's where I'm at today (28/07) with 4 varieties sown.
I bought myself a new present, well a Heat Mat is what it is, after giving my big mats away after Christmas to my friend at Wonthaggi. This new mat is a two tray Heat'n'Grow Propagation Mat which means it takes two seedling trays, it's thermostatically controlled (a must have) and will be used next week to start my tomato seeds off for the coming season.
More to come on this as I start using it.
We have plenty of greenery among the plants in the garden, but their growth is slow with a cooler Winter this year. Pea, Parsnips and Silverbeet are shown here, with a few peas every few days and parsnips when required, while the silverbeet goes to compost.
I blew a headlight globe this week in my Nissan Patrol, so spent the afternoon yesterday to replace them. It is recommended to remove the grill, indicators and headlights to replace the globes, but I didn't do it that way. There is another way, that is removing the airbox, but you have to remove the nuts in the wheel arch and hope the bolts don't turn on you while doing it.
I took the straight forward approach and work on the rear of the globes, but the left hand indicator is very close to the airbox and if you have big hands, you're in trouble. I did the right hand side first which is relatively easy, then the fun began on the left side. Getting the wire retaining clips off was quite difficult as getting to it with your fingers was difficult. I ended up using some wire to hook on each, making it easier to get the both sides off. All good with the rest apart from getting the retaining wires back in place, the wire used again, making it easier.
We decided that we'd drive to Golden Beach for a walk on the beach, then grab something to eat at the store then head home. The drive from Sale was through thick fog at 11.30 a.m., clearing at the Loch Sport turnoff.
The walk part was fine as we walked about a kilometre up the beach (east), then turned and headed back to the car. Back at the car we headed for the store, with a hamburger in mind for a quick lunch, but the full car park at the store changed our mind, as we pulled back onto the road and headed for Sale. Jan headed one way and I went the other and we both ended up with something different and sat in the car at a shady spot we found, then ate our light lunches before heading home.
A couple of odd jobs completed this week are the new tops on my Saw Stools and a repair to the shed door. The saw stools were bought over 30 years ago from McEwans in Cranbourne when they were there and have been well used over the years. The 90 x 35mm pine tops were lucky to have got through the period of time I've had them, but were used when we built our house on the edge of Wonthaggi in the late 1980's and suffered a few saw cuts along the way, making them fragile.
Then the repair to the shed door, where a hook and eye catch had been riveted to the door to prop it open, but the wind had weakened the iron on the door so much it had cracked the iron. I welded a piece of steel on the inside and riveted a new eye to it, so it should last a fair while now.
Finally got a replacement, this one is working well. I actually bought a Desk Lamp from Buy & Sell to use with this grinder, which lights up the wheel in a dark dingy shed.
