The kids made their own solar oven

In a workshop run as part of the Orange Sustainable Living Week this year we participated in a solar oven making workshop.

What fun we all had making our own solar oven, here are some photos of the whole process.

Our instructions were clearly set out on this display board...

Selecting two boxes to make our oven.
There had to be about a 5cm gap between the boxes.

The gap between the boxes was filled with scrunched up newspaper.

We painted the inside of the smaller box black.

We made a reflector out of on old corflute real estate sign covered in
aluminium foil and  added a glass lid.

We did not get to test the oven yesterday as it was cold and overcast all day..
but it was sunny today so we put it to the test in the sun today.

In just over half an hour our cardboard box oven reached 100oC -
so you may even be able to boil your water in it.

My new wallet

I had been holding out for a while on purchasing a new wallet - my old wallet was falling apart and becoming non-functional.  After finally giving in the other day I went in search of a new wallet and this is what I found... produced from rubbish found in Indonesia with the money going back into the community to support environmental projects.

A card and note wallet made primarily from an inner tube

A wallet for coins and more cards made from a up-cycled dog food bag and SIM cards....

The dog food labelling inside the wallet

Sharing the load

Last Sunday we went out to a working bee at an orchard as part of our Central West Permaculture activities - the first for a while as we come out of another Orange winter.
 

It was almost too late to do much but this was an orchard in need of some care and pruning - and it's owner had recently lost her husband and was finding it all too overwhelming to look after.

Not sure how many trees we did - but everyone got on with the job.  We pruned apricots, plums, cherries, quinces, apple, medlars, persimmons, peaches, nectarines - and probably more types fruit trees that we could not identify.  The trees - although possibly not having large crops this year will certainly be bouncing back for the next year or two.  We trimmed out crowded branches and tidied up suckers from around the base of the the trees and generally made the trees so that we could reach the fruit when it does grow.

It was a great day and gave us a chance to chat and learn from each other and we are already planning a jam making / preserving day when the crops return.