Seven Things Week 5

Note to self:  This is hard when it's your birthday.  That aside,  I am enormously grateful to my lovely family and friends for all their gifts.  They were without exception thoughtful and appropriate.  I love that you all "get" me.

Also, I've decided that the counting of jam jars and sauce bottles is just too hard.  If this challenge is about getting rid of the unused stuff, then preserving stuff is excluded.  We use them all the time and there's a constant ebb and flow.  Definitely keeping the SIAA component though - a lot of creative energy goes into transforming a piece of fruit into a gift or deep winter treat.

IN

• 1 stash bag (ie plastic blanket bag with zip) - GIFT
• 2 books (long term loan, possible rehoming, better count them in) - SORTA GIFT
• 1 GPS unit (shhhh, it's TOF's Christmas Present) - GIFT
• 1 compost bin - GIFT
• 8 pieces Tupperware $8 garage sale
• 1 apple corer/peeler/slicer - preparing for apple season and full on preserving mode $2 garage sale
• 2 books, 1 for TOF, 1 for me (AWW Biscuits and Slice book - always handy to have and I keep giving them away) $2
• 1 hand-knitted hand towel - GIFT
• 1 pkt cards - GIFT
• 1 Blue Willow trivet - GIFT
• 1 Blue Willow trinket box - GIFT
• 1 Blue Willow tea bag holder - GIFT
• 4 Tupperware spice containers - GIFT
• 1 framed photo - GIFT
• 1 gift bag homemade soap - GIFT
• 1 wooden toy - GIFT
• 1 set decorative candles - GIFT
• 2 reusable bags - GIFT
• 1 decorative hanging - GIFT
• 1 x 20l water container for verjuice making  $3 TIP SHOP
• 1 nutcracker $2 GARAGE SALE

OUT

• 2 cds - OP SHOP
• 1 dvd - OP SHOP
• 1 diary cover - OP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware soup cup - OP SHOP
• 1 magazine - OP SHOP
• 1 strainer - OP SHOP
• 28 men's shirts.  I collected a huge number of beautiful cotton men's shirts when Tiny's Green Shed was having a clothing clearout.  Originally it was going to be just a few for hankies, then I thought I'd patch myself some peasant style tops, then I was going to turn the fabric into yarn and knit or plait a rag rug.  Then I met a quilter who was looking for men's shirts for a very special quilt for her brother.  Her need was greater than mine (and more immediate).  I still have plenty for all the other projects I have in mind and I'd already removed all the buttons. - GIFT
• 3 rolls knitting nylon - GIFT
• 1 piece plastic ware - RECYLING
• 1 baseball - OP SHOP
• 1 wooden toy - OP SHOP

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT
20 jars of mulberry jam
17 jars/containers preserved nectarines

IN 34

OUT 41

NETT OUT   7

SIAA 37

Button It

And now you've heard about the history of dressmaking - cast your eyes over this blog post on dress fastenings by a volunteer with the Australian Dress Register.

So my button obsession is not so much compulsive collecting as amassing a research resource. 

Is so, too!

Image shamelessly pinched from The Shopping Sherpa because her pics are always excellent and mine suck.

Women's Work

Finally got around to listening to "A stitch in time: dressmaking in Australia" a recent broadcast on Radio National's Hindsight program.

To quote from the website:
Before the advent of cheap ready-to-wear clothing mass-produced in offshore factories, dressmaking was an essential and versatile skill in women's lives, something they could deploy to feel like a million dollars, or use to earn a dollar or two. This feature probes the role of dressmaking in the lives of Australian women across the generations, as a domestic economic strategy, a female accomplishment, an aspect of technical education, a livelihood.

Seriously, do yourself a favour, it's both fascinating and extremely well done.  It surveys the history from colonial Australia to contemporary bloggers.  Excellent.

The image is of Patricia Lee in the dressmaking class at the Canberra Technical College, courtesy of the ever fabulous ACT Heritage Library.

Seven Things Week 4

So last week was a nett gain.  A tempting way of coping with such weeks is to save things up for when not much is happening, tossing-wise or like last week, when I was just too busy to concentrate on decluttering.

The beauty of only having to find 7 things as a goal - one per day (where ever I am) is totally doable. I usually do more because I'm weird that way and very hard on myself, but if last week was 100 and this week is 7, that's fin e - it only has to be 7.

I can't hold off deliberately, that way madness lies. Sometimes I'm delayed by circumstance - just can't get to the op shop or other intended recipient of my junk largesse, and so they aren't counted until they are gone.  If I waited until the end of the week, though, I'd be paralysed.  Once the decision is made, I really want it gone.  This is one of the reasons a lot goes to charity rather than being sold online or through the newspaper or even freecycled.

Sometimes, though, I look at things and think I really should get rid of it, but I shy away.  These things go eventually, but I find I need time to let go.  Regrets come from letting go to soon and often result in an influx of unneccessary things to fill the emotional gap - it's a bit like starvation dieting followed by a binge.  Often it's because I really want to find the right home for it.  If I rehome it rather than just give it to the op shop etc, I feel I have done the right thing by it.  This is not the same as saving things to get rid of on a rainy day.

IN

• 1 Tupperware container (fits Collection Development Policy) GIFT from Tip Shop (the love us there)
• 1 George Foreman grill  (ours had an accient last week, we were going to get a new one but we got an as new one from the Tip Shop for $20)
• 2 paper patterns 50c each OP SHOP
• 1 Liz Jordan cardigan $4.50 OP SHOP
• 1 negligee BNWT $3.50 OP SHOP
• 1 shirt for TOF $1.75
• 1 bag SECRET SANTA
• 1 DVD (Ed Wood with Johnny Depp - I do collect JD on DV) $2 GARAGE SALE
• 1 pr bespoke down ski pants for TOF - Mont - we love local manufacturer Mont who will make to fit.

OUT

• 2 glass cannisters (more buttons rehoused) - OP SHOP
• 2 tops - GIFT
• 3 books -my vintage Billabong books with original dust jackets; gift to my niece who loves old books (can't imagine where that comes from!) - GIFT
• 1 decorative bottle.  Merely decorative and never used as a vase etc. - OP SHOP
• 1 casserole dish - GIFT
• 2 Tupperware chopping bowls, one I bought, one was a gift.  Only used twice, I prefer a good knife- OP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware sandwich box - OP SHOP
• 2 glass jars unsuitable for preserves - RECYCLING
• 2 novels, read and not going to be read again - OP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware jelly mould (small) - OP SHOP
• 1 electric kettle.  I bought this at Bing Lee Marrickville for a silly amount of money (or so I thought at the time).  I remember arguing with myself that I was allowed to have a sleek stainless steel look kettle rather than a ceramic jug left over from work or a plasticky nasty from the supermarket.  It took over a week to allow myself to buy it.  It's done me well, but it's too small at just a litre and I picked up a 1.7 litre jobby at a garage sale for a few dollars (between 1 and 5, can't remember) and can't justify keeping the old one as a spare.  Yes, I am aware how silly it is to tell the story of an electric kettle, but it's part of the release process. - OP SHOP.
• 2  plastic containers - OP SHOP
• 2 glass biscuit barrels (rarely cook and when I do, there's vintage tins and Tupperware) - OP SHOP
• 8 golf umbrellas.  We bought these for Happy Spider's wedding last year because it was a drizzly day.  They were used and then we stored them.  Spidey needed them for another purpose this week, so now they are hers. - GIFT
• 1 Tupperware sandwich box - OP SHOP
• 6 prs pantyhose.  I stockpile hosiery, but these are too small - GIFTS
• 1 calculator - OP SHOP
• 1 Bodum pear-shaped thing - OP SHOP
• 2 Tupperware vases - OP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware soup container - OP SHOP
• 1 bag - GIFT
• 1 plastic mug, damaged and unrecyclable - BIN

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT
Work has been brutal so no finished things this week

IN 10

OUT 47

NETT OUT 37

SIAA 0

Little Scrubber

In the quest to be more and more self-sufficient, including the use of discarded materials, I never thought I'd come to this point.

Knitting pot-scrubbers.

It's right up there with washing out zip lock bags.  Wait, I do that, too - often rescuing them from work colleagues as they stand poised over the garbage bin.  *sigh*

Anyway, these are great little scrubbers - harsh enough to move cooked on stuff, but kind on enamel and non-stick pans.  We still use steel wool on the cast-iron if it needs it, though.

The pattern is Ravelled and appears on Berlin Whimsy's blog. She gives instructions for repurposing tulle into yarn for this project.

I've modified it a bit.  I use smaller needles to get a firmer scrubbie, knit it an inch shorter and use up the ends of rolls of knitting nylon that appear cheaply in op shops rather than cutting up tulle (although there's some mosquito netting just begging to be repurposed lying around here somewhere).

Using two strands of the knitting nylon and one strand of 8ply (or thereabouts) cotton and 5mm needles, cast on 15 stitches.  Garter stitch until work measures 10cm.  Cast off.  Sewing in the ends one strand at a time.

Not pleasant knitting, but quick and practical.  I use up little ends of reels and don't worry too much about colour matching - they scrub pots, they aren't art.

As a rule of thumb, you'll need three - one on, one in the wash and one in the drawer.

Oh, and don't knit them in public and wax lyrical about them if you don't want to spend the rest of your life knitting them in quantity for everyone you know and their Mums.  If you make that mistake, the going rate is a large soy latte and/or the sugar free berry muffin from that little shop around the corner - just so's you know.

Seven Things Week 3

I've been thinking about appraisal criteria this week.  As an archivist, appraisal for collection is part of my job and is ingrained.  In archives there are a few guidelines for keeping things - legal reasons, administrative reasons and the nebulous "historical" category.  The historical category is a bit of a catchall because not everything is necessary to keep, but the unecessary can be useful.  I tell my clients that apart from the legal and administrative records, you need to keep just enough to tell your story.

So what is my story? It's largely pragmatic with a smidge and a half of sentiment thrown in.

TSS uses the  William Morris "is it useful and/or beautiful" criteria.  We both agree that if we don't feel joy when looking at it, holding it or thinking about it, it is probably ripe for decluttering.  So keepers fill me joy, intense sentimentality or wry remembering or are just useful. It would be great if all my stuff filled me with joy etc., but I don't feel that way about the breadmaker. It's just useful.

Sometimes the useless and hideous are kept for sentimental reasons and that's fine.  I don't have a souvenir box as some declutterers do, but I do acknowledge that some things are just awful but meaningful. As we move through the weeks of the challenge, though, I know that I'll have to assess some "sentimental" things more harshly and develop some other criteria for retention. 

I'm beginning this process even now by applying an economic formula - if I had to pay to store it or move it would it be worth it? and a bit of emotional blackmail - If I hang on to it "just-in-case" am I depriving someone else of something they could use or need?  Would it bring more joy to someone else?

We've had a very bus.y week, with several unexpected family commitments (and the jam), so outs are not greater than ins, but we're still on track

IN

• 16 jars - donations from a colleague of TOF's who know we be jammin' - GIFT
• 10 Tupperware lids - ordered to fit some bargain buys without seals - PURCHASE
• 1 DVD - TOF got a TV series at a garage sale $6
• 1 pair boots  - new Blundstone safety boots for TOF at garage saled $10

OUT

• 1 book, novella bought last week read and released - OP SHOP
• 1 pair jeans with truly scary sparkly bits on - OP SHOP
• 1 lipstick holder - OP SHOP
• 2 glass jars (nearly done with rehousing the buttons) - OP SHOP
• 1 bottle (contained our red wine vinegar) - GIFT
• 1 deceased watch band - BIN
• 1 ex-battery pack thing - BIN
• 2 vases - GIFT

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT

• 39 jars cherry sauce and jam
• 7 bottles preserved cherries

IN 28

OUT 10

NETT OUT -18

SIAA 46

Cherry on top

A family funeral in Harden this week was an unexpected bonus. 

"Hard-hearted wench", I hear you cry - but not so.  It was a sad occasion but it was also a chance for the family to catch up and that's not bad at all.

And, as Bob Hudson so memorably said in the Aussie classic, The Newcastle Song, "Don't you ever let a chance go by, O Lord, don't you ever let a chance go by".*

So we left early and overshot Harden by less than 10 minutes to make it to Petal Falls Orchard and load the car with cherries.  When I say load, I mean 30 kilos of first quality at $5 a kilo for family and friends, and 10k of second quality at $2 for us for jam and sauce.  And a cherry pie for Junior.

It is still early in the season, so the fruit isn't quite at íts best, but we weren't sure we'd have time for another cherry run this year.  We spent two evenings pitting the 10 kilos of seconds in preparation for jam and sauce and we Friday night and most of Saturday performing the alchemy of preservation.

4 kilos went to jam and 5 kilos went to sauce, the other kilo mysteriously disappeared (some spoilage, some noms).  We also processed another 4 kilos in preserving jars, poached some for breakfast and had some with icecream.

Any basic jam recipe is fine, such as this from Taste.com.au. I doubled the mix each time and added the juice of a lime and a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon.  I also forgot to double the Jam Setta, so it took a couple of hours to reach setting point, but that's ok.  For cherries, you really do need the added pectin.

The sauce recipe is one we trialled last year.  I call it Cherry Christmas Sauce.  Also from Taste.com.au, we substituted cherries for cranberries.  While the recipe is billed as a jam, this stuff won't set and we've found it great as a saucy ingredient in main meals.  I'll write up what we've done with pork belly, lamb mince and kangaroo fillets another time, but it's well worth the cherries.

And jewels for the store cupboard - 5 small jars of preserved cherries, 1 large jar of preserved cherries in port and another of preserved cherries in brandy.  We've got dessert for Chrismas sorted, anyway.

*if anyone has access to the album this appears on, it also has a song "Librarian Lady" - would love to hear it!

Thursday we can knit - my favourite

Wednesday is mending day

Tuesday we iron

Seven Things Week 2

It didn't take long for the seven-thing agonising to kick in.

Last time, there were many looooong conversations with TSS about what constitutes an in or an out and just how creative counting could be.

Last week, was my diary insert an in?  If it is, then the old one is an out.  What about the bonus note paper that came with the insert, and the little plastic stamp holdery thing and the lovely leather bookmark? - all bonus gifts.

It doesn't really do to overthink these things.  The spirit of the challenge is to acquire less and let go of more.  I need the diary insert, it's definitely consumable and it cancels out anyway - it's not counted.  I don't need the note paper, the plastic stamp holdery thing or the book mark and if I did need them I could have made or readily improvised them from materials around the house- they are counted in.

Although TOF agreed that "hiding" things at his house or at the caravan would be wrong, he thought if he bought it, I didn't have to count it.  Nope, that's just sleight of hand.

Stuff that either TOF or I buy for joint use are definitely ins.  The fact that we operate separately and together out of three houses and a caravan (actually 2 caravans but that's another story) makes it logistically difficult but the principle is the same. 

IN

• 1 electric BBQ hotplate from some caravanning friends who didn't need it anymore - GIFT 
• 17 books (we went to the local church fete.  Only 4 are really for me, but them's the breaks) - FETE
• 1 food thermos.  It will fit pies for the footy or soup or stew.  At $10 it will make it's purchase price back in two uses - ONLINE AUCTION
• 1 knitting magazine - Can't resist Yarn Forward
• 1 bucket.  Actually it's an old 20 litre paint tin we picked up by the side of the road.  It's better than the little plakky bucket we were using for waste water at the van. - FOUND
• 1 copper based frying pan which matches the saucepans we took out to the van.  I bought the saucepans at DJs nearly 30 years ago and they've done me proud. $3 TIP SHOP
•  gift (no peeking) $2 TIP SHOP

OUT

• 20 cuddly toys collected for my favourite Westie breeder and slackly not sent.  Sent now.  - GIFT
• 4 precious Fowlers' jars lost in an avalanche in the storage area under my house - BIN
• 13 empty jars/bottles unsuitable for jams or chutneys - BIN
• 1 mixing bowl another jaralanche casualty - BIN
• 1 audio book - OP SHOP
• 1 camera case - OP SHOP
• 1 CD - OP SHOP
• 1 man's belt left by the previous owner of our caravan - OP SHOP
• 6 home decorating books - OP SHOP
• 1 cheap plastic container that probably arrived in a bulk lot of something else - OP SHOP
• 1 vintage Tupperware milkshake maker (we don't need 3) - OP SHOP
• 1 computer mouse (dead) - BIN
• 1 telephone headset (dead) - BIN
• 12 tshirts and shirts.  The summer stuff came out of the bag and these didn't make it into the wardrobe.  They were hand-me-downs or ill thought out bargain purchases from the op shop, so they can return - OP SHOP
• 2 Tupperware sandwich boxes - OP SHOP
• 1 thermos, came as  freebie and is replaced by our schmick new food thermos  - OP SHOP
• 3 cheapo measuring cups - OP SHOP
• 2 "green bags" - OP SHOP
• 1 glass jar - the button boodle continues its migration to Tupperware as suitable sizes are unearthed - OP SHOP
• 22 cook books.  - OP SHOP
• 4 lots wool and fibre - GIFT
• 2 prs trousers - 1 to the bin, 1 to the OP SHOP
• 2 shirts - wrong size for TOF, wrong fabric for repurposing - OP SHOP
• 1 coffee pot and 1 tea pot.  Even though I love these vintage Crown Corning pieces, they are totally unnecessary. - OP SHOP
• 2 Tupperware salt/pepper shakers.  We have enough and prefer the grinders anyway.  OP SHOP
• 3 novels.  Read and not part of the permanent collection - OP SHOP

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT

• 2 pairs socks - all knitted and the ends sewn in - will blog them later.
• 2 knitted pot scrubbers - ditto
  
  
  IN   23
  OUT 111
  NETT OUT 88
  
  
  SIAA 4

Monday is washing day

Sunday we play

Saturday is cooking day

Friday is cleaning day

Terriers Toil on Tea Towels

It's no secret that I'm a sucker for vintage linens, hand-embroidery, second-hand bargains and Westies (and Scotties). 

It would take a woman of more will-power than I to resist a combination of all of them.

Last Sunday at the R-Shop (Mitchell Waste Transfer Station), I spied this in a rummage box.

Sweet vintage hand-embroidered and cro***ed tea towel.  It's 30 inches wide and 28 inches long.  Crocheted on the bottom long edge only.

The worker of this was not an expert needle-woman.  The towel is selvedge to selvedge and machine hemmed on the top and bottom.  I assume she cut a 30 inch square of the fabric which is lightweight and unevenly woven. Mum says she'd seen nappies made out of it in her childhood.  You'd be constantly changing nappies made of this stuff, it's so thin.  The scalloped cro***et on the bottom is, even to my eye, unevenly executed.  The back of the embroidery is reasonably neat (always a test of needle-skill according to my mother when she repeatedly had me unpick mine at an early age).

I was delighted to find it and clutched it to my chest.  All TOF would say was "you know you want it".  He's a lovely man, but does nothing for my won't-power.

Imagine, then, my glee, when another browser said "Here, lady" and thrust a further 6 of them into my hands.  "Dunno what they are, but you seem to like them" he continued gruffly.

Sweet frugalling angels!  It was a Monday-Sunday set of hand worked teatowels and mine for the princely sum of $5 which included all our other purchases (Bodum ice bucket, Tupperware, jam jar, cricket ball for the kids).

I spent the evening wondering if I could transform them into anything.  Skirts, cushions, summer frock?  Then, laying them out together, it struck me - the most perfect cafe curtain, ever.

So each day for the next week, I'll post the toiling terriers and show you the finished curtain (eventually).

Seven Things Week 1

Thanks for the encouraging comments, emails and 'phone calls.  Apparently some people find other people's junk fascinating - hang on, I find othe people's junk fascinating, that's the problem.  Ah well, entertainment coming and going.  For those of you joining in - GOOD LUCK!

The first week of the challenge is always easy.  There's a top layer of stuff that's begging for decluttering.  The only difficulty in the first week or so is getting it out of the house quickly enough and finding containers to put them in.

The stash of shop bags etc. went early in the last challenge and as we don't buy much retail and most groceries and op-shop items go into re-usable shopping bags, there's always a scramble to find suitable receptacles.  I'm starting with the so-called "green" bags that are inconveniently shaped for grocery shopping.  If we need more shopping bags, I can make them from fabric in the stash.

Also, even after the post about the pavers and the trailer during the week, I didn't reckon on the effect equipping and improving the caravan will have on this challenge.

We spent yesterday writing Very Long Lists (fear my lists!) of our immediate, short, medium and long-term plans for the van and what that would require.  I'm going to have to be particularly tough on the "outs" to accommodate the "ins" for the van.

IN

• 1 leather bookmark, 1 plastic stamp holder thing and 1 set note paper for my diary - I won a giveaway of a PocoProfile diary refill off TSS's blog.  The lovely Victoria included these things as bonuses.  - GIFT
• 15 besser blocks (for work at the caravan) - TIP SHOP
• 1 Bodum ice bucket (for the caravan - wine gets warm too quickly) - TIP  SHOP
• 1 jar (for this season's jams and preserves) - TIP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware container and extra seal - TIP SHOP
• 1 set vintage hand-embroidered tea towels, totally unnecessary, but wait until you see them! - TIP SHOP

OUT

• 1 vintage letter holder - OP SHOP
• 6 glass jars - these held some of the buttons boodle. The buttons they contained are now in Tupperware which nest better, take up less space and break with less disastrous results when dropped on timber floors. *sigh* - OP SHOP
• 1 bowl - OP SHOP
• 1 Tupperware mixing jug (we don't need 3) - OP SHOP
• 7 books - OP SHOP
• 13 specimen vases.  Collection of tiny cut glass and crystal vases - OP SHOP
• 2 "green" bags - OP SHOP
• 8 teaspoons - GIFT
• 5 knives - GIFT
• 6 forks - GIFT
• 4 dessert spoons (all cutlery donated to our workplace tea-room. There are never enough clean spoons or forks - the knives are a bonus) - GIFT
• 1 teabag holder (my brother's MIL collects Royal Albert Old Country Roses - she gets this melamine teabag holder I picked up at Vinnies' a while back) - GIFT
• 1 three-hole punch (new in box and has been for 16 years. It's going to work where it will be used) - GIFT
• 1 large bundle copy sheet protectors going to work, we use a lot of them and the budget is tight - GIFT
• 1 ream copy paper, also going to work - GIFT
• 1 microwave oven (not needed in the caravan) - DONATION
• 4 headbands uncovered in an avalanche from TOF's bookcase - we don't really know how they got their either - OP SHOP

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT

• 6 padded coathangers - STASH

IN  23
OUT 63
NETT OUT 40

SIAA 6

Warm reception

We have internet access out at the carvan - the mobile dongle thing works.  Woot!

We've spent our first night at the van and I've spent the whole morning writing lists of things we need to do and equipment we need to have.

Most of the equipment etc. we can bring from home.  Some of the things we need to do will take more time and more resources.  If anyone has a good double mattress they don't need, for example, do get in touch.

As usual, we are re-using as much as possible (see previous post on pavers).  No photos today, but I'll be documenting our progress.  Stay tuned.

Hang 'em high

Sometime in the late 1980s I started padding coathangers.  Not the nylon lace knitted covers so beloved of my grandmother, but an improvisation on what was to hand.

I needed a wider hanger as my clothes were wider than most.  I needed a way to avoid the horrid "angel wing" effect of coathangers on clothes, I wanted delicate fabrics to maintain their shape and I needed to be able to do it for nothing or next to nothing.

So not much has changed, really.

I came up with a way of using materials readily available - wire coathangers available for free from clothes shops and the shoulder pads that were on the wane fashion-wise and available cheaply (or occasionally free) from op-shops.

The best shoulder pads to use are the fat, shoulder-shaped raglan pads.  If there is velcro attached, so much the better for gripability.

A pad is folded over the end of the wire coathanger and whip stitched into placed.  For extra width allow the padding to extend the hanger 1/4 to 1/3 the length of the pad. 

 To help the pad stay in place, stitch through the pad around the metal end.

On these hangers, I can hang wet shirts in woven or jersey fabrics to dry in small spaces and after ironing, rehang them to preserve the shape - no "angel wings" on my tops.

This week, I found a bag of raglan shoulder pads rescued from an op-shop. I whipped up six padded hangers using the last of the shoulder pad stash.

Timing

Just as well I started seven things on Monday or we'd have had to count these.

Something like 500-600 pavers we bought and moved in a storm on Saturday and in warm weather on Sunday.

Did I tell you we bought a caravan?  No?  Well, we bought a secondhand van in June.  It's on site outside town on a bush block.  We want to pave around the van to make a kind of patio and as the budget is non-existent, we're picking up second-hand materials when and where we can.

The two trailer loads on the weekend, and a load a few weeks back, came from Tiny's Green Shed at the Mugga Lane Tip.  We love Tiny's.  It's a second-hand shopper's delight.

A casualty of the second load, though, was a tyre on the trailer.  Once we'd unloaded, TOF unbolted the wheel and we left the trailer with the van.

We have a summer of paving to look forward to.