Today has proved to me that paying for things should always be a last resort.The supermarket in Woodend has community notice boards outside that are full of event notices and people with things to sell or trade. Anji and I have a lot of materials we would like to kick start our gardening adventures and we thought we try our luck at getting these for free. So last night Anji made posters asking for free bricks and manure, we thought at the very least we would get an offer of cheap supplies. Well we went into town today and put up the posters after grocery shopping. Well a full 20 MINUTES LATER I got a call from a lovely local lady who had free bricks and manure! She was just about to put up a poster of her own advertising free bricks and by sheer coincidence she also has two horses and a large pile of manure that she wanted to get rid of. Jackpot!

So within three hours of putting up the wanted ad we had a trailer full of horse manure and a 4WD full of bricks. We are going back on Saturday to get more too. I think a lot of people have surpluses just waiting for someone to pick them up. All you have to do is make it known publicly what you are after. Maybe I can advertise for a free farm 

Anji and I are putting in extensive vegetable gardens and we needed a lot of bricks and manure. The bricks are for a solid border between the beds and paths. The manure is for a lot of things but this particular load is to put down under our sheet mulch of cardboard to feed the worms and help to compost out the grass we are smothering.

We are hoping to get regular loads of manure from different sources so we can make piles and piles of compost, mostly for us but also to sell too.

On a side note – and who cares really? – I got a job working in a meat processing factory. Fun times. I’m sure it will be boring but I have bills to pay.