Creative laziness

We can be inventive to create work or save ourselves from doing the same thing over and over.  Creative laziness is about doing something to stop having to do something else so you can do something to stop having to do something else - SO FAR as clear as mud!!

Back in 1986, before it was gucci, we decided to live off the electricity grid for the simple reason, neither of us wanted to keep working to pay the big end of town for a utility that was at best ordinary in its delivery yet the cost of which would continue to rise with no compensation for brown outs and blackouts.  Created an off grid solar system so we had no more power bills to pay.  Moving on........  I have a fully automated very low voltage watering system for the hanging plants on our verandah.  In summer we would need to water them every second day.  Creative laziness: Have the solar installed (no cost to use power) installed a variable DC voltage selector >>> took the battery house out of a 4.5 Volt DC garden irrigation timer and attached the battery wires to the variable voltage selector >>> programmed the water to turn on second daily for 10 minutes and attached a dripper system.  When the top hanging containers are fill, they overflow to the planters on the ground.  Excess water keeps the grass around the house green to minimise the risk of bushfires in the grass around the house.  Now to the water, we installed a tank above the roofline of the house and using a 12 volt timer, system,pump water into it three days per week and one of the outlets is connected to irrigation system.  Once per month or if the pot(s) look dry, the drippers are checked and cleaned. Creative laziness saves hours in watering the pots and allows me to get into the garden or onto other projects.  OR enjoy a really good red wine on the verandah while watching those who are not so lazy.

Next project, automated chook shed door opener and closer.

Creative laziness rawks, and I'll go to lengths now, to thoroughly revel in my laziness, later. Auto- chicken door opener - check! Double 5gal chicken nipple water system - check. Stacking strawberry planters, to water 36 plants for the time expense of 3 - check... But, this year, I'm going to put the chicken watering system on turbo-auto. 55gal (food-safe) water catchment outside the run, that gravity-feeds to a second one inside the run, with a float shut off valve and chicken cups instead of nipples. The first will also be set up with an overflow valve to a 3rd drum, also set up to flow into the 2nd, with a float shutoff. The whole thing will also work to add thermal mass for both summer and winter temp stabilization, and so be set up for minimal sun blockage to the run. All I should need to worry about is adding raw acv occasionally.

Carla Burke wrote:. All I should need to worry about is adding raw acv occasionally.

Great CL skills Carla.  Something to be very proud of.  What is raw acv? It is something that I am not familiar with.
Happy CL-ing.

Paul Fookes wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:. All I should need to worry about is adding raw acv occasionally.

Great CL skills Carla.  Something to be very proud of.  What is raw acv? It is something that I am not familiar with.
Happy CL-ing.

Thank you! It's raw apple cider vinegar. Bragg's is probably the most commonly known brand, but is also something you can make at home. It helps immensely, as a probiotic, with preventing bacterial issues in livestock guts, as well as other health benefits for them.

Another CL moment for the winter down under coming up
Easy fire starters at no cost and without having to look for anything.
Materials:
1 X dunny (bathroom/ toilet/ little boys room) roll cardboard inner
1 X sheet of newspaper - ours is sent to us from a seniors group we belong to so no need to buy it
Quantity old cooking oil
Method:
pack newspaper into toilet roll cardboard, leaving a candle wick out one end.
drop into dish of used cooking oil.
add to fire (3 usually works well one behind the other)
and get cracking with the bigger timber - no need to get kindling or smaller timber CLing at its best!!
Light the candle wick end of the first home made fire lighter.
Clue to better CL: save the materials during the year and store near to the fire or make in a free moment and store in a leak-proof container.  Oil also moisturises the hands during the making .............

Small wood and leaves or other things that would normally be used to get the fire going are available for building or adding to the hugel and perhaps go for a BB

My husband watches a Youtube master mason/concrete guy named Mike Haduck. He often says, "When you don't know how to solve a difficult problem, just ask the laziest guy on the job site. He'll find the easiest way to get it done."