Hypertufa

Hypertufa is a simulated stone made from cement, peat moss (or sawdust), and water. They are permanent because of the cement in them and they are light weight because you substitute peat moss or sawdust for sand or rocks. Add vermiculite or perlite to make them even lighter.

Hypertufa bricks can be painted or carved. People make pots, planters, stepping stones, grots, castings, statues, columns, and many more decorative things out of hypertufa.

One favorite thing to do seems to be to take a styrofoam ice chest and coat the outside with hypertufa and use it as a planter. It looks very much like a heavy, carved, antique, limestone, horse trough from England. The stone those troughs were made from was called tufastone - hence the name.

Click here for recipes and ideas.
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I found this on the internet long ago - don't know who to attribute it to.

Recipe for Adobe Bricks

Recipe for Six Adobe Bricks
Time required: about one month (most of it waiting for bricks to dry).Cost: little or nothingMaterials:

• One five-gallon bucket


• One mixing stick or old wooden spoon


• 1/2 bucket of adobe clay


• 1/4 bucket of sand


• 1/8 bucket of straw cut into two-to-three-inch pieces


• Enough water to make a doughlike consistency


• Six empty half-gallon waxed milk containers OR six 4 * 11 * 22 inch wooden brick molds, which can be made from 2-by-4s nailed together


• Waterproof tape

Directions:

• Thoroughly mix the adobe clay, sand and straw in the bucket; add only enough water to create a workable consistency


• You can use either the wooden brick molds or the waxed 1/2 gallon milk cartons. To make the molds from the latter, cut one side from the carton (which becomes the open top of the brick mold). Cut and flatten the folded spout end and tape the carton firmly into a rectangular shape.


• Pack the brick mixture into the cartons, filling each about tow-thirds full. IN 15 minutes to 24 hours, the brick will be firm enough to tip out. Each batch is different' you will have to judge when your mix will maintain a brick shape.


• Place shaped bricks in a sunny location and turn repeatedly as they dry. (A completely dry brick is uniform in color, inside and out.)

Tools for the DIYer

BASIC TOOLS for the home:

• TAPE MEASURE: one that is 3/4-inch wide and 16 feet long is best for most around-the-house jobs.


• STUD FINDER: locates studs behind finished walls, for anchoring purposes (such as hanging a mirror).


• PLIERS: Get several types, including slip-joint pliers for gripping large items and pipes, lineman pliers for snipping wires as well as gripping, and needle-nose pliers for bending wires and gripping in tight spaces.


• SCREWDRIVER: various sizes and heads or a single screwdriver with a variety of interchangeable heads.


• C-CLAMP:  Two or three clamps of various sizes are recommended.


• HANDSAW: There are two basic types - a crosscut saw, which cuts across the grain, and a ripsaw, which cuts with the grain. If you have to go with one, get the crosscut; 22-inch, 10- to 12-tooth size.


• HAMMER: with a claw, a 16-inch handle and weighing about a pound.


• LEVEL: a 9-inch tapered one; or two, a 6-inch and an 18-inch.


• ADJUSTABLE WRENCH: A medium size will do for the vast majority of jobs.


• UTILITY KNIFE: The blade should retract into the handle.

IN ADDITION to the tools listed, these tools and supplies also come in handy:

• Allen wrenches of various sizes.


• Bevel gauge for making accurate angle cuts in wood.


• Wood Chisel for chipping out cuts in wood.


• Circular saw.


• Cordless drill.


• Electrical extension cords.


• Glues and tapes.


• Plumb bob.


• Plunger.


• Pry bar.


• Rubber mallet.


• Sander (manual or electric).


• Screws and nails of various sizes.


• Staple gun.


• Stilson wrench for turning pipes (aka pipe wrench).


• Carpenters square.

MOVE UP from the basic level of do-it-yourselfing with:

• Heavy-duty corded electric drill for work that is too big for a cordless drill.


• Jigsaw.


• Portable table saw.


• Nut driver for tightening or loosening nuts and bolts (works like a screwdriver).


• Reciprocating saw (i.e. Sawzall) for rough cutting.


• Router.


• Set of open-end wrenches.


• Set of socket wrenches.


• Spiral saw (i.e. RotoZip).

Chicken Saga VI

The days are starting to shorten, so the chickens are laying slower.  We are getting about 1 egg each day now.  I’ve read that putting a light in the coop for a few hours can keep the egg production up.  We may do this, if production continues to slow.

Dog Kills Chicken

We are down to 2 chickens now. While we were out for the day Blue, a dog we were watching for my mother-in-law, killed Babs, our golden sex-link hen. Our dog, Max, became more aggressive towards the chickens when Blue came over. Blue used to live with us, but that is a long story, involving a large amount of dog poo on our living room carpet. Anyway, Max was always causing trouble that Blue got blamed for. We finally realized that, for example, Blue didn't get the loaf of bread off the counter, Max did - Blue just ate it and got caught. Same with the chicken. Max chases chicken, Blue thinks its a game, Blue catches chicken, dead chicken.

We've apparently dealt with death pretty successfully with our children. We never hide death from them. We explain it simply, saying "they won't be around any more, they went to live with Jesus with (insert list of all people and animals they know are dead). After two dead fish, a dead cartoon dinosaur, the passing of my mother and my wife's grandmother, my three year-old's only reaction when saying goodbye to Babs was "Blue! Don't kill chickens!"

Maybe...

...I should have named this blog "Sonoran Chicken Coop"

Chicken Saga V

We have egg!

I repeat - We Have Egg!

One of our hens (Mac, we think) laid her first egg yesterday, between 07:00 and 17:00. It was perfectly egg shaped, light brown, and smallish - weighing about 1 oz. The yolk was a medium yellow color.

Chickens Suit

"The idea for suiting a chicken came in a dream. A dream of a chicken that was covered with hair instead of feathers. Well, you can't take a chicken's feathers off and then glue hair on it - can you? This is how the chickenssuit came about."

Chicken Saga IV

We are coming up on egg laying time. According to the McMurray Hatchery, they could lay as early as August. We still need to make nest boxes, otherwise we're likely to have to go on an egg hunt every day.

McMurray Hatchery Information and Frequently Asked Questions

• Most hens will start laying between 5-7 months of age. They will lay best at 1 to 2 years of age. All pullets (female chicken under 1 year of age) lay small eggs at first and after a while will lay larger eggs. Younger hens will lay 1 egg every 3-4 days. A hen 30 weeks old can lay 2 eggs every 3 days. Some have been known to lay an egg a day. All breeds have different laying abilities.


• By nature, hens like dark out of the way places for laying eggs. The nest you provide can encourage them to lay where you can get at the eggs for collection. Nest boxes for heavy breeds should be about 14" wide by 14" high by 12" deep. Allow one nest for every 4 to 5 hens. Nesting boxes can be purchased. Nests should be 18 to 20 inches off he ground.


• A fresh egg contains little air so it will sink. An older egg will float. Also, if you break open a fresh egg into a dish, the white is compact and firmly holds the yolk up. In an old egg the white is runny and the yolk will flatten out.

Chicken Saga III

Mac, Babs, and Rocky

A view of our front yard.

We pruned up the two trees so they don't look like lumps of green any more. They are growing fast, the jacaranda in particular.

Chicken Saga II

Our chicken coop, enclosed in a portion of our (future) garden. The roof is a work in progress. The rabbit hutch will house some silkie chicks we are acquiring. Our hope was a queen's wreath vine would grow up the trellis, but the hens keep eating the tender shoots, so it isn't getting much bigger.

New Planting Bed

This is where the shed used to sit. Moving it really changed the feel and look of the yard. There is a lot more usable space, even tho' the shed is only 8'x10'. The yard feels much larger. Yesterday we planted some plants we scrounged from mom-in-law: begonias, gardenia, some kind of ground cover. The irises came from my late mother's iris patch. Her patch is almost as old as me. That's a spider plant coming out of the toilet basin. Some kind of viny succulent in the tank. The border is made up of bits of concrete curb we broke up from another part of our yard. All in keeping with our theme of "artistic reuse and recycling"

No more ugly gate!

This is a shot of the planting bed we are building next to our carport. We moved the shed into the open gates. That was a real treat - HEAVY!! We had to take the walls and roof off of the base, move them, then reassemble. We are going to be putting shrubs and annuals in here. The shrubs you see are rose bushes surrounded by garlic and onions to ward off pests.

Chicken Saga

I've been reading about how chickens will eat fresh fruit and table scraps, but nothing compares to actually witnessing the act.  Our chickens go nuts over rice, watermelon, refried beans, tortilla chips, tomatos lettuce, pasta, shredded cheese. 

 

So far the only things I've seen them be picky about are apples, and falafel.  I think they would eat over-ripe apples.  They ate half the falafel I gave them, but I think it got too hard.  They are like little garbage disposals.  Supposedly this diet will give them diarrhea, but I haven't noticed anything.  We also feed them "maintainer" crumbles.

 

They are getting quite large.  We expect they will start to lay in a few months, so nest box construction is on the agenda, perhaps for this weekend.

Native Seeds/SEARCH

Native Seeds/SEARCH

This is a great place to get native seeds for the southwest. They have many varieties, and they give you guidelines for planting.

Their purpose is to save genetic lines of crops from our land's past. Most of the varieties are the same that native people were growing centuries ago.

El Cerdo de Juego Maracas Fabuloso

Howard Garrett - The Dirt Doctor

I just found this site. It has a lot of information on organic gardening. Looks like Texas' version of The Garden Guy.

The Dirt Doctor

Poultry In Motion

Daily Egg: I feel like...

I was looking at my blog after posting a picture of our new chickens, hit the "Next Blog" button and found this...what an interesting chance.

Babs & Mac - our two newest additions to our backyard flock. We have 3 now (not pictured is Rocky). We're hoping for fresh eggs & fertilizer. No doubt about the fertilizer...

The Garden Guy

Here is a cool web site about gardening in the Sonoran Desert (specifically Phoenix area). The guy does everything organically, so it is a good resource for that type of information, and he guides you on when to do pruning, weed control, and things like that.



I am getting very interested in gardening around my house, and I like to use organic approaches.
Here is a method of weed control that I got from the site:

*
Weed Control Recipe
Mix:
1 gallon white vinegar
1 oz. citronella or citrus oil
1 tsp. Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap (Wild Oats, Sunflower Market)
Put in a pump sprayer and apply to weeds.
*

My first approach to gardening will be to get some pallets and make a compost area behind my back wall. We are going to need a lot of compost once we reach our final garden configuration. My mom composted when I was growing up, and it still pains me to throw away vegetable peels and such. My mom didn't turn her pile or anything - we just dumped the stuff. Eventually, it would decompose. In the spring, we'd get some really good tomatoes off of the plants that sprouted from seeds we had dumped the year before."

Citrus Oil for Insect & Pest Control

This is from ThriftyFun

'Make citrus oil to keep aphids, white flies, fire ants and mosquitoes away! Soak the rinds of 2 orange peels in 1 gallon of water (closed) for about 10 days. Strain out the rinds/peels and store in mason jars until ready to use. If you will be applying to fire ant mounds, apply full strength. If spraying on plants, dilute 2 ounces of citrus oil with one gallon of water to avoid burning plants.'"

A Sonoran Desert Garden

I've been messing around with blogs for a while. I don't put a lot of time into them - I'm not into writing much, nor do I want to take away time from my other interests to do so.

One of my blog experiments didn't have much of a focus, but I noticed more and more postings on (mostly organic) gardening and landscaping. So, I decided to focus on that, this blog being the result.

I will be posting some of my experiences with my garden and yard, as well as material I find on the web that seems pertinent or interesting. If its useful to someone other than myself - Great!