Introduce yourself to the community

[Jason]

Welcome to your Workshop. It is great to have you as a member of the community. We encourage you to say hello and introduce yourself.

Please reply to this post and tell us a bit about yourself. Whatever information you feel comfortable sharing is fine.

You might like to tell us about your current D.I.Y. and garden projects, your work, your passions, your hobbies, your dreams, what you struggle with, what you hope to learn from this community, and/or your favourite ice cream flavour.

And for something truly revealing about yourself - tell us what you call a barbecued sausage served on a single piece of bread.

We look forward to your post and getting to know you. Thanks for joining the discussion.

Jason

Community Manager

[Jason]

Wow @bas, that sounds fantastic. I'm sure that the rest of the community would be really keen to hear and see more about your fantastic setup. Perhaps you could start a new discussion in the gardening board and share some photos of your system. It would be really inspiring to other community members. We have a lot of keen gardeners who would be keen to learn from what you have done.

Let me extend a very warm welcome to the Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us. I'm looking forward to reading more about your projects and your plans. Please post again soon.

Jason

[raman]

"the only stupid questions are the ones you dont ask" fell in love with this line and that probably was the trigger for me to join this workshop.

i have to confess that i do possess a gardner in me somewhere which goes into hibernation for most of the times.

the only times it wakes up makes me n my young daughter go to the nursery and buys plants and whatnot.

have successfully planted flowers of many varieties and an occassional garlic plant in my balcony but these instances are too far and few.

though i would absolutely love to have my own kitchen garden but ......... something or the other does crop up and makes me leave everything in between.

i have a cactus plant on the terrace of my house which i am having for the past seven years. 

thats about it regarding my potted life so to say.

do kindly inform how to grow a substantial kitchen garden on my rooftop. i would love to have some sort of vegetables growing there as it has lots of sunshine and it attracts birds too which we have in plenty in delhi, India. love to have such places with so much bird noise and attention. the seasonal varieties include tomatoes, ginger, coriander, garlic, chillies both red n green, etc

am anxious to hear your views.

THANKS

raman

[Jason]

Hi @raman,

Many thanks for joining us and for introducing yourself. I'm sure the Workshop community can assist you to have a thriving garden. 

To ensure that your question gets seen by most community members, I would recommend you start a new discussion on the gardening board with a title of something like "Rooftop kitchen garden" and ask your question there. You might also like to share some photos of the space you have to work with to help other community members.

You might also like to browse some previous discussions on the site, including the following posts:

What should I plant in my courtyard?

Vertical herb garden

A new season of herbs

Recommendations for good vegies for planting in winter

Hope that helps get you started.

Jason

[trayzee67]

Hello, all members, just wanted to say Hello and Im happy to be on board. I think i will be getting ideas from others. Most projects seem to need 2 or more people, and id love simple ideas to jazz up my Tongue and Groove Home.Its is very tiny. I hardley know much about renovation and creating items , But certainly am willing to have a go. So I hope I can help you and vice vera. 

[Jason]

Hi @trayzee67,

A "have a go" attitude will get you a long way! And I'm sure you'll find that plenty of Workshop community members can give you a hand anytime you need it. Feel free to post with your questions. 

A very warm welcome to the community. We're so glad you have joined us. Looking forward to reading more about your projects and plans. 

Jason

[Mex]

Hi all, glad to have found this group. I'm getting close to retiring and have lots of renovating to do on my old farmhouse and couple of acres. Everywhere I look there is stuff that needs doing, so part of what I am hoping for here is some guidance in working out where to start. Some jobs have dependencies - can't put up the solar panels till I've fixed the roof, can't fix the roof till I've fixed the insulation, and maybe can't fix the insulation till I've got rid of whoever is living up there and stopped up all the places they might be getting in. I don't even know who to ask! Insulation specialists? Roofing specialists? Plumbers? Pest controllers? It's a bit overwhelming in some ways, but mainly exciting. As long as I don't make expensive mistakes I'll be fine. I'm looking forward to learning some of the basic skills that will make doing jobs a lot easier. For example:

• Can you trust a tape measure? If I hook the metal end over the end of a piece of timber, will it give me an accurate measurement, or might it be a ml or two out?
• What do I need to do to maintain my tools properly? Stuff gets rusty and blunt. I need to learn some basic tool maintenance.
• How do you draw a reliable line on a piece of wood? I never know if my lines are really in the right spot - see tape measure question above. And having drawn the line, do I cut on it, orto one side of it? How much can you fix before you have to start again?
• How do you decide what job a piece of wood is suitable for? I've been collecting bits of wood for years, like the floor of the old verandah. I'm not sure exactly what it is, and whether it's more suited for veggie garden edging or whether it's too good for that.

Yep, I'm a newbie alright. But dead keen. I just replaced a window pane, which was exciting, even though a very small job. I know I've got the bug.

Cheers

Mex

[Jason]

Hi @Mex,

I reckon you've come to the right place. We have loads of community members who generously share their time, experience and knowledge with others. I would recommend you hit the big red Start a discussion button and ask one question at a time with a nice descriptive title, making it easy for community members to see your question and respond.  

Here's a couple of previous discussions that you might find useful:

• Best way to clean up rusty tools

• Remove rust from tools

• What tools does a beginner need?

Many thanks for introducing yourself and a very warm welcome to the Workshop community. It's terrific to have you join us. I'm sure you will be right at home in no time. 

Jason

[Baretta11]

Hi Mex, welcome to the community.

You might be a newbie as you call yourself but if you fixed the window pane on your home and succeeded that's a great achievement!!

I am also a newbie but have an experienced hubby to help, so my first suggestion is to get yourself to your local store and join in on all the workshop activities, as there is a huge selection of things that get covered and I hazzard a guess, you'll meet someone like minded that lives close and he/she may become a helpful buddy.

As for your questions:

Yes you can trust your tape but buy a good quality one, a 10mtr tape and look after it by never leaving it outside or getting it wet and not drying it and don't use it for anything other than what it is intended AND never use two different taps for measurements, just stick with the one and buy yourself a builders bag that you can keep the tape, pencil ect... handy.

Depending on just how accurate your cut has to be, usually you cut the pencil line, afterall, that is where you made your mark, you will quickly learn how to do that over and over again!!

If you take yourself to your local store as I mentioned earlier, you will quickly learn what pine and hardwood looks and feels like and where each timber is best suited, ie: indoor for pine and hardwood can go indoors and outdoors.

One easy way at home, is to try to cut or nail a piece of wood and pine will always cut and nail easily over hardwood and pine also has those tell tale knots and yellowish colour, whilst hardwood is a straight timber and doesn't have knots usually, splits more likely if it's old and outside and pine is much lighter than hardwood of equal length, again you will learn quickly which is which.

As for what to start first with first in your "to do list" I say your insulation!!

First thing is you have to find where your unwelcome friends are getting in and address that, unfortunately in an old farmhouse with probably no rodent mesh between your wall space and flooring etc...you might find this job the most challenging and you might have to use baits forever and check regularly for visitations and after you think you have blocked all entries, then see what you still have coming in if anything and try to nibble down the entry points, they are usually quite large and obvious if you have rats more than mice!!

Good luck.

Cheers,

Barbara

[Fantus]

Hi Mex,

As for your question about can I trust a tape measure the answer is to go and buy a Engineers rule 300mm long from say total tools and chech it corrosponds with the tape measure once that's confirmed you shoud be fine, if you need to do long cuts and need a straight line a Chalk String line will do the trick, for straight cuts I've found the Multi Tools work so much better than a Jig saw or even a Circular Saw as you can change the cutters/blades to suit what you need to do, hope this helps.

Golden rule measure twice cut once, I measure three times because I'm Dislexic,so far so good,

Dont forget to wear PPE , and keep your fingers away from sharp things after you cut anything count your fingers, no Blood no problem.

[Fantus]

Hi Mex,

Meant to mention when it comes to rusty tools use wet and dry emery paper and oil to clean them, and some WD 40 won't go astray on them when you not using them, it will stop them from rusting, after 46 years in fixing machinery and things in Industry I have gained a lot of knoweledge which I'm more than happy to share.

Fantus