Struan Farm

The Hidden Keys

Every once in awhile rainy days deliver. In this instance it was too wet for John to be outside working at Struan Farm, so he decided to make a second attempt with our recycled locksets and brass doorknobs in the Homestead at Struan Farm.

In the process of doing so, he discovered these interesting brass "half keys" on three of the Homestead's original locksets that had been painted over for years. Pretty cool, aren't they?

 

I keep wondering why they only used half a key, as if it were some sort of symbolic gesture, but that's me: yet again wanting to understand the meaning of everything!

Follow the Yellow (and Red) Brick Road

We're amassing recycled bricks at Struan Farm. Right now we've got piles in several places:

 

  
 
Yellow Huntly bricks from a deconstructed old chimney that will be used for our reincarnation of the pool area, and red bricks to be used for my veggie garden paths. Even some fire proof bricks that I suspect I'll use for a bread or pizza oven base at some point.

Chateau des Chooks

The phrase above makes me smile. I know, technically it should be "Chateau des Poules." The idea came to mind this past week when John and I were trying to decide how to redeploy some recyled copper panels. We were going to have a gazebo made with a copper roof for Struan Farm to overlook the tennis court, but have decided to regroup on that.

Instead we're going to use the copper panels hammered out from the Farm's huge old water storage tanks for other projects, including possibly the roof of a very chic chicken coop!

Picked up the recent reprint of New Zealand Lifestyle Block Magazine's special issue on all matters poultry:

 

I have chickens on the brain right now, also bees for some reason. Along with my chooks, I want to have some hives put on Struan Farm near the orchard, but that's down the road.

John's Hut: Home Stretch

The weather was such this weekend at Struan Farm that an inside project was in order, at least for me. John works outside in all conditions, I'm a little inconsistent on that score.

We managed to get all of the tool racks up, and the potting table in along with other gardening equipment and supplies:

 
 
 
 
We found the old Salter scale during the big clean out this summer. While I'm not keen on clutter, or on turning things into a museum with too many rustic items in evidence, we decided it was an "objet" to be kept since it looked interesting hanging from the ceiling in the corner.

 
 
Last but not least, the beautiful seed storage tin John brought back for me from his recent trip to the U.K., on top of an improvised twine storage box made by drilling holes on either side of an old wooden box and inserting a copper pipe:

 

Bus Stops

On my recent trip to Nelson I went into my favorite retro/vintage antique shop, Eclectic. As I entered the shop, I looked to the back brick wall and saw a long (10 ft!) black textile hanging with place names from the area in bold white letters: Nelson, Stoke, Richmond, and Tahuna amongst others.

 
It spoke to me, and I walked straight back to try to figure out what it was. I wasn't able to decipher the scribbled tag, so asked the gentleman at the till. He told me it was a "bus blind,"  the roll of changing destination names seen in the little window at the front of a bus. This one came from an erstwhile NZ company called "Newmans." A former employee had collected them over the years when they were due to be replaced and thrown out. They had a number of other shorter ones for sale in the shop, but I decided that the long one from the Nelson area was coming home since John and I had been married in the area.

It is destined to hang in our new Lockwood "Pio Pio." I figure it will look great hanging on the high wooden wall outside the kitchen, probably framed floating in glass with a black frame. I was expecting some raised eyebrows from John when I arrived home with it (he sometimes is just a wee bit skeptical of my more unusual purchases). But in this case he likes it and thinks it will look great in this space, one that sings out for something special and visually dramatic.

Of course that same weekend I picked up the May issue of "NZ House & Garden" magazine, where I discovered a framed bus blind from London featuring in one of the articles:

 
I am so onto these trends, aren't I?????

Upcycled Find

I know, I'm taking a pause in blogging until after Easter Monday/ANZAC Day, but I stumbled upon these candlesticks made from a variety of recycled glass pieces at a shop called "Small Acorns" in Wellington last week, and had to post them for all to see:

 
Yet another variation on the tiered cakestand idea. I thought they were pretty cool, if a bit over the top and Gaudi-esque, but the concept is a good one to experiment with. I especially like the small glasses at the top that hold the candles, although I think I'd play around with a thicker, shorter candle to avoid the Leaning Tower of Pisa effect.  

IMPORTANTLY: they were labeled "Upcycled Candlesticks," so the phrase "upcycled" is starting to be used more widely, at least in certain circles. Of course you heard it here first.....

P.S. I did ask permission to take this photo above, it wasn't taken in stealth.

Roadside Quest: Farm Eggs

I've been driving past this sign on the side of an old shed in Te Kuiti for years now:

 
I just love it, it speaks to me. This past weekend Clifford and I stopped on our drive back to Auckland to take the picture above. I'm sorely tempted to knock on the door of the closest house and offer to buy it if they ever were interested in selling it, particularly since it looks like it's been quite awhile since hens populated this chicken house.

I can see it in my kitchen, also maybe above the door of our chook house eventually. I'm a dreamer, I know!

Upcycling?

Last week I picked up the April issue of Homes & Antiques magazine, which is published by the BBC. Not one I regularly read, but I bought it because there was an article about making tiered cake stands from recycled china plates and egg cups, also cheese domes.

Yep, I've hit the op shops and will be cracking out the silicone sealant once again!

Raw materials standing by:

 

The one above will be 50's retro, the one below more tea party traditional:

 
In their sample they started with a huge base plate and built three more tiers up to a tea cup and saucer on top, so I guess it depends on what you can find.

In this same issue was an article about people making unique items for sale out of reused, old goods, a practice that has been coined "Upcycling." This is a new one on me, much as I do try to stay ahead of the curve. Information on these artists and their work can be found here, and yes, they have a Facebook page too.

Things People Save for Me

Jane from Collectamania in Ohaupo remembers my penchant for All Things Knitting and keeps an eye out. I stopped by for a quick browse on my way to Piopio this past weekend, and she told me that she'd been keeping this for me:

 
Who would have guessed there was a "Knitting Song," in addition to our secret handshake? This was the cover of a book of piano music, must date back to WW2, I'll get it framed for Struan Farm Knitting Studio.

p.s. also found twelve of these Crown Lynn plates from Hotel Nelson. John and I got married in Ngatimoti, outside of Nelson, it's a place that I love. I'll have to query the history of the hotel. Crown Lynn is highly collectible, and I like the shape of the plates, they'll get used.

 
 

 

Crinoline Ladies and Other Finds

I had time during a lunch hour this past week to poke around an antique shop in the Auckland CBD, one where I usually go in search of vintage buttons every few months when in need of a mental health break. The real finds this time around were some vintage linens, including this lovely embroidered tablecloth with ladies in bonnets on the corners:

 
 
 
 

 
Jane Brocket writes about them in an essay in her wonderful book "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" , and has photos of different versions, so I think they're meant to be somewhat iconic. She calls them "crinoline ladies," they were made using iron-on transfers.

 
 
I was happy to stumble upon this so soon after reading Jane's book. And yes, I did score two buttons:

 

 
I know, my names don't start with "N" but it was too pretty to pass up.

 

 

Hooks Reborn

Okay, we've cheated a wee bit on the John's Hut project. After an attempt on my part to strip and re-paint the recycled hooks from Piopio Primary School for our tool rack, I decided there might be an easier, more elegant solution to have them back to looking their best. I took them to Eden Electroplaters in Auckland, where they were cleaned and shined back to the base metal.

They can now be installed on the rack where they'll age to a lovely dull patina:

 

Cake Stands Fit for A Queen

I recently discovered Betz White's blog, Stitch Beautifully...Tread Lightly and have been inspired by her creativity. She has lots of craft tutorials on her blog; most use recycled materials, an approach that resonates with me. I have her book, "Warm Fuzzies," which features a range of felting projects, but now I'm a blog groupie of hers as well.

One tutorial is for a cake stand made using vintage glass plates and parfait glasses, something she calls Dish-play Cake Stand. I thought I'd give them a try, so went out and scoured our local ops shops for some raw materials:

 
Was happy to nab this vintage glass plate, obviously dating back to Queen Elizabeth's coronation, as well as these other two:

 
 
I decided three different shapes and sizes would be enough of an experiment. The Queen's plate set me back $12 at the Hospice shop, the other two were $3 each, and the cups/stands for the bases were $1-$2 each.

My biggest challenges were around using (and finding) the right adhesive sealant. Betz advises using clear caulk or silicone sealant. I learned belatedly from Kelly in Holdfast's  customer service area that there's a much easier product to use (Holdfast Silaseal RTV Silicone Sealer), which comes in a manageable 80 ml. tube.

But that wasn't what the Takanini DIY store sold me, was it? It seems I sometimes learn these things the hard way, it's rarely a straight line to the finish.  I know, it's all about the journey, not the destination...

I came home with a clear sealant in one of those long plastic tubes with the nozzle at the end, which I then couldn't figure out out how to open! (Product packaging refers users to a website that didn't explain the first step in the process, opening the tube, so I went back to the DIY store, feeling like a complete moron... I also emailed the manufacturer's customer service department from their website--email was entitled "basic question from a silly woman," but it was over the weekend.)

Maybe this is just a girl thing: being somewhat intimidated by the prospect of toxic sealants spewing out on the kitchen bench or dining room table? Those of you who have tiled or do mosaic are probably ahead of the game on this score; it was a learning experience for me.

It turns out I needed a caulking gun, which the store hadn't sold me, plus a utility knife, commonly called a "Stanley knife," to cut the heavy plastic. Once I had the proper supplies, I was on to the next step, actually making the cake stands.

I did find it hard to press the sealant out of the tube with the caulking gun, needed to use two hands, but eventually I got it applied to the tops of the bases and pressed them into place.

 
Things learned from this project:

Hamilton-based Holdfast, a New Zealand manufacturer of sealants and adhesives, has a great customer service department that responded back to me first thing Monday, and an outstanding employee in Kelly, who deserves a gold star for persisting via email to come up with a product that will definitely work better the next time.  They've won a loyal customer in me, John already uses their products.

Black marks to my local DIY store, which didn't sell me all of the stuff I needed to use the product they sold me, requiring a second trip back to the store. They also could have sold me a product better suited to my project as Kelly has pointed out.

But isn't this a great idea? The stands can be used for cupcakes, cake, chocolates, even yarn!

Voila, cake (or yarn) stand fit for a Queen:

  

 

Weighty Matters & Op Shop Finds

We've been pretty flat out these past few weeks. Even for us. John and I think we're pretty high energy, we rarely sit down unless it's to eat. If we're not working at work, we're working at Struan Farm or in transit.

About a week or so ago the power blew at our house in Papakura, thanks to vintage wiring. This required all of the lights in the house to be re-wired. I was forced to work from home for two days while the electricians did their thing, the first while power was restored, the second while everything was re-wired.

I decided this event signified "overload," and that it was time for me to take a cleansing breath.

So when John told me that he would be coming up to Auckland for meetings next week, I decided I would stay home and take that much needed pause in the action.  

I slept in on Saturday morning (until 7 a.m.!). I didn't charge out the front door as if I'd been shot from a cannon, list in hand. After a relaxed breakfast I popped into town to do errands (note: not RUN errands). This included stopping into a few of our local op shops on a quest for vintage glass plates and parfait cups so that I could try making Betz White's recycled glass cake stands. Find her tutorial on these here, she calls them "Dish-play Cake Stands." I'll do a post once I make them to show you how they turn out, since I did manage to pick up the materials needed.

While I didn't find any glass plates at our local Salvation Army store, I did come across three vintage kitchen scales:

 
They spoke to me, and are going home to Struan Farm Knitting Studio.

 
The irony of this purchase isn't lost on me: I've stayed home to try to achieve better work/life balance and then promptly go out and buy three scales....... Perhaps I sensed I need a little help weighing it all up?

 

Let There be Light

We've had visitors the past two weekends at Struan Farm. It's been fun, but it has meant that we haven't done much more work on John's Hut. I've been weeding in the garden, and John has been out with the tractor and chain saw dealing with a few fallen trees, the aftermath of some storms with rain and high winds.

Yes, there's always something.

The good news is that we have made progress of some sort: Vaughn has been and hung the  light fixture we purchased from coppersmith Reg Parkes made from recycled copper:

 
It looks good, now to get the rest of the Hut done when we can.

There's More to the Story

After reading my recent post on "The Reincarnation of John's Hut," Carrick contacted me to advise that the metal hooks we're recycling for the tool rack in John's Hut came out of Piopio Primary School a long time ago. The School was renovated and Maurie was able to scavenge them for use at Struan Farm. Carrick also has some of the same hooks that he uses at his house at Lake Rotoiti, so there must have been quite a stash.

It's really cool to think that the hooks are alumni of Piopio Primary along with Carrick, John, Anna, Louise and Julie, and that we know their educational heritage. John now remembers them on the wall in the school corridor as coat hooks.

 
Carrick is sending us one that he isn't using, and we've just found two more in the Homestead garage (which is being cleaned out prior to de-construction). I'll get around to painting these hooks soon for their next gig; the transformation of John's Hut continues. 

The Lettuce Trough

I needed a better spot to grow our salad greens near the Homestead. John offered to drag one of our old concrete troughs, formerly used for watering stock, from the Pet Paddock with the tractor to a spot near our small raised veggie bed. The raised bed has been taken over by thriving crops of beans and tomatoes, no room for salad greens this year. 

Once pushed into place we filled the trough with soil, and now rocket/arugula and oak leaf lettuce are starting to flourish:

 

Suffice it to say that we're on the recycling/repurposing bandwagon. We've got a few more of these troughs kicking around. They're exceedingly heavy, so we need to be sure of what to use them for before any attempt is made to move them. I'm noodling on it.

The Reincarnation of John's Hut

 
We hadn't planned this. Even if John's Hut had been on our master worklist. Far too much clutter had accumulated, spades and rakes barricaded the doorway. It was a situation crying out for order, right near the Homestead, Maurie's workshop and the pool.

John resists having a worklist, particularly one devised by his wife. He prefers to tackle whatever particular project inspires him on a given day. I don't contest this since we have more than enough work to keep us busy for quite some time.

I have been interested in converting John's Hut into a usable garden tool and potting shed: "a place for everything and everything in its place." We had agreed that it was to be a joint project given the amount of stuff to be sorted through, especially native timber, as well as rustic/vintage items to be recycled or taken off to the dump.  I anticipated uncovering a few "objets" that might be repurposed.

The Hut started its life as housing for Struan Farm's "single man," then became a sleep out for John when he lived at the farm before going overseas to the Solomon Islands on the VSA program (NZ equivalent of the Peace Corps) and attending university. In more recent years it has been used as a general storage shed.

Our routine over the holidays at the farm is for John to rise early and head off outside. I require more sleep so am usually left to slumber blissfully.  On this particular morning I went into the kitchen to make coffee, and looked outside to notice through bleary eyes that John had started the clean out without me. I cried foul, gulped down caffeine, and proceeded to get stuck in.

Later that day, with the contents of the Hut spread out on the lawn, John decided he was going to put a new roof on using our surplus used corregated iron, while I was on hands and knees washing/scrubbing the walls and floor in anticipation of a major internal renovation/repaint. At one point all we could do was laugh and wonder if we were truly mad!

While we might be mad, and work like mad, we do take time to stop each day to enjoy a healthy, civilized lunch looking out on the garden (note: American iced tea, that great thirst quencher):

 

The Hut's mint green walls and ceiling are now white (it took three coats!). Pulling off lino revealed nice native timber floorboards, which was a bit of a dilemma. We had some discussion about sanding them, but sanity prevailed-- it is a shed after all. So the floor and window frames were painted green, with peg boards painted and hung for tools.

 
 

 
 
 
Originally we thought we'd remove the old louver windows and put in other old windows from our collection, but after taking them out and realizing the glass was in good shape and the louvers were good quality steel and brass, John sanded and repainted them.

 

We went to see Reg Parkes, a coppersmith in nearby Te Awamutu, to purchase a small funky copper light fixture made out of recycled copper:

 
We dug out a stash of old hooks, to be painted green and used for a tool rack to run along the walls:

 
Two found "objets" in the clean out included an interesting enamel pot, that John sanded and painted white for me:

 
 
And these little copper knobs, that I'll clean up and use for something interesting:

 
I've also got some old wooden crates to use as shelving, which should be rustic and useful.

So the project continues post-holiday. Next weekend I'll polyurethane the floors. We've got the electrician booked to come and install the light, then John will put up the tool rack once I finish painting the hooks, I've already painted some boards green to use as a base for the tool rack. We pulled out a rusty old sink and will install a stainless steel bench and sink removed from the old Homestead during our renovation, it's perfect for a garden shed.  I've got a potting table to be moved in.  We'll install an old copper water tank to collect rainwater from the roof for the sink, most likely after the exterior and the roof get painted.

This is one of those satisfying projects where you can see you've made major impact with a major amount of elbow grease (for me also bruised knees) but very little cost. We used recycled materials entirely except for paint, the copper light, and the cap for the roof. 

There's also immense satisfaction (for me) in clearing out clutter (feng shui?), looking after tools properly, and giving this cute little Hut its next incarnation.