Family, Garden, Travel

JUMP START THE SPRITE

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Dylan taking off the driveway gate in preparation for the Permablitz, Flemington

Pushing the Sprite car down the driveway in preparation for the Permablitz, Flemington

A large man in a small car is always entertaining

Push starting the Sprite car


Popping the Sprite hood

Water bottle in engine of the Sprite

Connecting jump leads to the Hilux

Connecting the jump leads to the cars

Austin Healey Sprite Logo

Jump leads

Austin Healey Sprite Dashboard

View out window of Austin Healey Sprite

An Austin-Healey Sprite has been holidaying at our house, but with deliveries of sand and stone on their way it had to roll on out. Purely for our own amusement we convinced our tallest housemate to take the wheel of this stylish sardine can.

Much to the glee of the RACV man visiting our neighbour initial attempts to roll start this “death trap” ended in a cough and splutter at the bottom of the hill. On closer inspection we discovered its owner had disconnected the engine, the boys made sure to thank him for remembering after we had run out of slope.

After an hour of jumper leads and noncommittal rumbles the engine jumped to life purring like a 500kg tiger with a bee in its bonnet. Taking a turn around the block, I had the unnerving feeling my bottom was just about to skim the asphalt, but anything as cute as this can be forgiven for being a tiny bit impractical.

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Garden, Recipes

ONE PERSON’S CLAY…

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Laura and Tom moving clay at a building site for our Permablitz

Dylan and Tom moving clay for our Permablitz

Dylan, Laura and Tom collecting clay for our Permablitz

Tom and Laura collecting clay for our earth bag garden beds for our Permablitz

Tom and the wheelbarrow at the building site

Dylan and Tom packing car with clay for our Permablitz

Unloading the clay from the car for our Permablitz, Flemington

Pushing car to have a spot for the clay for our Permablitz, Flemington

Cups of Russian Caravan tea

Pile of clay for our Permablitz, Flemington

The countdown to our Permablitz has begun and we put our new housemates to work not five days before they moved  in, after all manual labour is the building block of a beautiful friendship right?

Sadly, at our house the greater part of our subsoil languishes under a thick layer of bricks, concrete and, on preliminary investigation old rusted metal including the odd bike. The foundation of a  permaculture garden shouldn’t be built upon bought earth. We had to look elsewhere. You don’t have to look far when you are an architect.

After filling a few wheelbarrows of some quite uninspiring clay* we left the building site with Gracie dog in the back of the ute riding high on the mound. (She didn’t find it as amusing as we did.) Then a quick refreshment of Russian Caravan tea and a brief push of the vintage car that has been renting space in our driveway to make way for the mound of clay. Just your average Saturday really.

*Note: uninspiring earth is the best kind of earth for an earth bag garden bed.

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