The biggest thing is that I have once again taken up ten pin bowling. In fact I am close to life best form. I am still using my trusty old Track Black-Gold Stomp and it is doing the business currently. In fact, often it is over reacting. The ancient Ebonite Grey Wolf is not doing enough and I think it is screaming out for final retirement, as such I do not often bring it out of the bag. Unfortunately with the Australian dollar plummeting at the moment it is not a good time to get a replacement. Hopefully, that will rectify soon and I can update my kit.

The garden is going stronger than ever. In terms of the harvestable plants there are strawberries being harvested at the very least weekly. I have several tomato bushes going strong, all have developing fruit. I am very keen to see what the yellow variety brings. The cherry tomato is starting now to bear ripe fruit. There is quite a healthy bunch of carrots, pumpkin, broad beans and beetroot developing. My capsicum and chilli bushes are beginning to flower so with luck there should be a nice crop coming. Finally on the harvestable crops I also have some lebanese cucumber seedlings in the crates.

In terms of the non-fruit bearing plants the White Bird of Paradise (Nicolai) is still yet to produce a flower. Nicolai though is in a well protected (gets windy here) corner of the outdoor area and so with luck will start to produce one of the most anticipated flowers in our garden. The established standard Birds of Paradise (those already in the garden) are producing prolific flowers with a number of double bangers. Makes the working day go quickly when you can look out at the flowers and bird bath. There is always something to see, unless theres one of the neighbourhood moggies on the loose. Yes, even in the new digs there a constant intrusions of the pussy variety in our yard. Thankfully though they are brief incursions, unlike the old place where they camped in our yard.

I also must congratulate socko who has managed to grow some wonderful Sweet Peas from seed. They are very fragrant and their odour is wafting through the room as I type this blog. socko also takes credit for the broad beans and generally managing the garden when I have not had the time or been bothered.

To all those interested in the drip spikes, I never got around to trialling my fixes before winter arrived. Now that summer is here I may pull them out and give it a go this season.

We have also been to the mecca of Australian motor sport, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. We were of course cheering on the Holden driver generally, and for me at least, the Sprint Gas/Tasman team of Jason Richards and Greg Murphy. Richards/Murphy were the consistent and always in the top 3 in practice. In fact Jason Richards became the second quickest around the circuit in history, second only to Greg. Unfortunately Jason did not get it hooked up in qualifying and as a result the grid position was back a little. Due to the grid position, and the fact the car was faster than where it was, led to an altercation with Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup tin can with wheels that ended up with damage to the Sprint Gas car, and eventually an early pit stop. This ultimately cost the race win to Lowndes/Whincup in an ugly red/silver F**d. The weekend though was great. It is always good to get away to Bathurst and escape reality for a few days.

Had the pleasure of seeing Greg in person at the motor show the week after. Managed to get his and Rick Kelly’s signature.

Anyway I think that is it for this post. I hope it will not be so long until the next.

My mind is contemplating strategies to overcome this problem, and one that immediately comes to mind is to get some PVC piping the width, and length, of the spike and sit the spike inside the tube. This will keep the soil away from the spike, thus it should not become clogged as easily as appears to occur now. Further, it still delivers the H2O directly to the plants root zone. Sounds like a trip to the The Big Kids Toy Shop is on the cards.

Actually, it will be a bit of an adventure visiting Bunnings Warehouse down here. All the ones I have seen look absolutely huge and I have not set foot in any of them. Definately time to correct that over the weekend me thinks. I need some more RichGro Pro Mix at any rate.

For those of you not aware of a MagSafe connector it is a great idea with magnets used to hold the power cable in place, instead of the traditional stick and slot approach. This means that is you trip over the cable for some reason, rather than drag the machine with you the magnet will release. It is a fantastic idea.

Mine though has developed a fault with the sensor pins within the connector. There are 5 pins that are supposed to spring in or out and make the connection to the machine. When disconnected all 5 should be out. However, over the past few weeks I have noticed 2 pins are sluggish to reset. In fact they have necessitated the odd tap on a hard surface to coax them out.

That worked well until yesterday morning when one of the pins has given up the ghost. The pin is permanently retreated in the head of the connector. No amount of tapping or prodding sees this pin emerge from its hiding hole. As a result the power cable never connects succesfully and my battery is now 100% drained.

So I am now awaiting the arrival of a replacement MagSafe. Until then I am forced to slum it on the work craptop. An IBM ThinkPad StinkPad T42 loaded with Microsoft Microshonk Windows Winblows XP and a paltry 512MB RAM.

Given Apples track record on prompt delivery the MacBook Pro 17″ should be up and running within days. Just hope their courier services the new area (refer to the Foxtel - Another Bunch of Fools post for that).

These seedlings remained in their seedling tray during the move as I did not want to torture them with a replanting before they journeyed to Wollongong. They were though replanted into good sized containers upon arrival in 5 containers. One container has 3 plants, the other 3 received individual pots. I then put them in two locations within the garden. Both locations share a similar sunny disposition.

All but one of the plants are thriving in Wollongong. They are getting sufficient water thanks to the mild and wet summer we are having. I have though lost 1 seedling, that though looks to have been the work of a bird with it going from healthy to vanished in the space of 24 hours.

So although still early I am relatively confident that the hex of the BlackJack Zucchini may be broken.

The spike basically connects to a spent PET bottle such as a Coke bottle that is pierced at the base. The spike is then inserted into the ground and lets water out direct to the roots at a controlled rate. There are 9 settings to control the drip speed. I now have deployed the spikes around the garden to a range of plants. All are on the slowest drip speed. Early indications look good with many of the bottles nowhere near empty after 24 hours of deployment.

I will let you all know how it goes over the coming weeks.

Also within the letter is a contact number advising that an ìEntertainment Consultantî (code for call centre operator) will be happy to assist. Upon ringing this number there is no ability to actually get through to them as they are performing a systems upgrade. Thus I decided to use an online form to contact a customer advocate and got the same message. Now having gone through the dramas with my web host I am not in the mood to chase down another company that offers no way to contact them in times of trouble or queries.

I am severely pissed off and have demanded an apology and a courier to be sent as per the original agreement. It is simply not good enough that a company the size of Foxtel can choose to make themselves uncontactable. It is the height of arrogance and would lead to clients leaving their service if they had an option.

Needless to say this confused my ISP. I had the accounts team call me to clarify the request, and during that call established that the original request was thoroughly misunderstood and that a cancellation order had been placed against the new account. Once the true requirements were understood the accounts team quickly attempted cancelling the cancellation orders and reversing penalty charges for early termination. This was thought to have been complete.

However, one key part of the erroneously submitted cancellation order was missed. This resulted in the ISPís contractor cancelling my account within 24 hours. Very efficient on the cancellation. I found this after relocating my router to a better wireless transmission location I was unable to connect to the internet. I was on the phone pronto.

As the call was made after 6pm AEST on a Friday I was informed that the account would be offline for the weekend, but should be restored on the following Monday. I was also credited a months worth of access as compensation for the service disruption.

On Monday it was no better. The Tuesday also showed no improvement. At 3pm on Wednesday I rang again and was informed that the provisioning team were delayed due to unusual demand. I was also assured that the order for them to repair the fault was lodged and escalated. I left it at that and was hopeful that the problems would be resolved on the Thursday.

Thursday came and went with absolutely no status change. So I called the ISP at 2:30pm AEST on the Friday. I spoke to the original representative from the ISP who was shocked that I was still offline. To his credit he took ownership of the problem and progressed it as far as he could. I was also given a second month of free access due to the tardiness of the provisioning team. I was though informed that it would not be repaired until Monday at least. I repeated my disappointment and that I was not happy but could not do anything more.

The call though must have gotten the wheels in motion as I received and SMS this morning that my job was picked up, then being processed, and finally completed. Clearly the provisioning teams backsides were thoroughly tanned, as they should have been.

I have no problem with the provisioning teams doing what they did in cancelling the account. They were simply following orders. What I am disappointed in was that once it was understood that order was erroneous it took over a week and two additional phone calls to repair! To further reflect the dismay I have in this situation is that the original account order was lodged on a national public holiday and connected and working 24 hours later.

So I hear you ask am I looking for a new ISP? The answer is no, this is the first issue I have had with this ISP in over 7 years of subscription. I am confident that this was an isolated incident. If it proves not to be though I will happily jump ship.

As you can imagine gardening is a very small niche and is often only frequented by those that are keen gardeners. The general run of the mill netizen is not all that interested in the subject, however I am capturing some interest from these netizens. This is by keeping the content straight forward and understandable. Also a smattering of geek and personal news intersperses the gardening articles. This keeps people hooked I have found. Although I do try and stay faithful to my niche and am being careful not to flood the blog with other non-related materials.

The Drop Strategy
The second part of the strategy is the card dropping methods I have been employing. In large this is a bit of a rehash of a comment I left at On Blogging Australia and a summary of a thread at the Aussie Bloggers Forum, for those that have now read this a number of times apologies in advance.

The card dropping strategy is very straight forward and has proven very successful with my site being in the top 3 of the Home and Garden category since about the second week of participation. I am a chain dropper, however I do take the time to scan and read some of the articles. I even comment on a number of these sites and participate in the community. I have discovered many sites of great value to me across a wealth of topics.

1. Drop on those network of fellow bloggers that I am familiar with through forum discussions. For me this is a collection of contacts from the Aussie Bloggers Forums and Blog Catalog. These contacts always reciprocate.
2. Those that have taken the time to consider my site and are willing to advertise are next on the list. My clients are often more than happy to reciprocate with a drop back or two.
3. The next hit list are those fellow Entrecard participants that I wish to, or am, advertising with. Showing them that I do take the time to look at their site, and not simply clicking from the Dashboard is an important step. Often too these sites will be the ones with the more interesting articles, and I will be moved to participate within their blog.
4. Return the favour to those Drop on those that dropped on me. As per above, even the chain droppers, have taken the time to visit my site.
5. Drop on those that drop on me regularly that are in the top 10 from the details page. Even if these guys do not participate in a discussion, they are constant visitors and my hope is that sooner or later one of my articles will arouse their interest.
6. Next on the drop parade are those blogs that threw me the most traffic from previous advertisements. They are also the ones that I am likely to advertise with again.
7. Drop on the new arrivals. These are the credit poor people of Entrecard and are often thankful for the credits. Some I also try to advertise on, but these spots are snapped up lickety split.
8. Complete drops by dropping on the smaller categories. Those categories are often the ones with <20 members and do not attract much attention from the world. As such they are often more than happy to reciprocate.

I have also begun performing similar drops for Sockos Spot. Again that is reaping rewards with numerous advertising requests coming in from sites that did not know about Sockos Spot in the past. It is building a readership and that in turn is improving the reach of the sites.

Thanking my Advertisers
I am also now sending a personal message of thanks to those that have decided to place an advertisement on my widget. The idea was inspired by the excellent article Entrecard: Social Advertising for Bloggers that in turn was inspired by The Cheap Gourmet. The reason for this thanks is that these are the people that have taken the time to evaluate my site and make the decision to advertise on my screen real estate. The act of thanking will encourage that client, and that is what they are, to advertise again. It also opens up another social network opportunity on Entrecard.

Thanking Those That Allow me to Advertise
By admission I have been a little lax here, but I am making every endeavour to thank those fellow Entrecard members that have permitted my advertisement on their widget.

Remember that Entrecard is a social network of sorts. So be social in its use.

Internet connection is yet to be arranged in the new house. The phone is there, so it should just be a matter of getting the ADSL/ADSL2+ programming done. However, due to that I am at large portions of the day without any connection, a real pain especially when it is overnight.

The lack of connection also means for all my Entrecard droppers I am unable to reciprocate the drop quickly. So if you drop on me can you please comment on this post and I will reciprocate as best I can. I know that looks like a grab for comments, but I want to ensure that you all get rewarded for your drops. So, if you take the time to comment I will drop 10 points into your kitty, as such it will be worth your while.

For the Entrecard advertisers thank you for choosing my blog to advertise on. I have sent you a thank you for advertising already.

For the potential Entrecard advertisers watch the advertising price drop. Now is a great time to advertise on SCHWOIT so get your checks ready. At the time of writing this I am at 306 credits, I expect that to crash soon.

It is now time to move the worms and the garden tubs into the truck and move them to the Gong.

Anyways back to the back breaking move.

On the Aussie Bloggers Forum I have been offered moderator status, and have accepted. I am rather excited about this project as it focusses on the Australian blog community that often has little chance to network effectively on the other social networking sites, often due to the time difference between down under and the rest of the English speaking world. I am happy to share my experience with this community as they are with me. It is a great sociable place.

The Blog Catalog forums give me the opportunity to socialise with the rest of the world. Many discussions start up there and I enjoy it immensely. Again, it is another helpful bunch and many great contacts are being formed.

In fact across the night I have been thinking about some off beat stuff and have started a thread on the Blog Catalog forums around what cartoons we all watched, or still do watch. My absolute all time favourite was Battle of the Planets, however many people would know it as G-Force. It was one of the original manga cartoons. You can see the intro in the below YouTube video.

Strange what late nights make you think isn’t it.

Basically the issue is that the soil has become water logged due to not enough holes in the tub. This was the first of the recycling tubs converted to sizeable planters. It has exposed a problem with the design. Basically I need to double the number of drainage holes in the tub to allow sufficient run off of excessive water.

The soil is now a rather wet sludge and if I was to attempt to pour the excess water out I am fearful that the entire soil structure will also float out. Now that would not be an issue given there is a spare, though rain water filled, crate that could be used to replace it once converted in the now proven design. However, I do not want to cause the plants even more shock by transplanting the cucumbers given they will also be suffering relocation stress due to their impending move to Wollongong.

Thus, I am in a pickle as to which way to jump. Do I transplant and take my chances? Or do I wait it out? I will be taking a look tomorrow when hopefully work pressures will be relieved. If there is still a pool I think my decision will be made for me and an emergency transplant will have to ensue. I will keep you posted.

The first of these changes has been the elimination of a large percentage of the unhealthy beverages from my diet. In the first week I have seen a significant reduction in the amount of coffee I am consuming. I have replaced it, except the morning cob web cleaner, with an organically grown Rooibos tea. Rooibos is an African tea made from the Rooibos bush. It is great tasting tea and is much the same taste as you standard Lipton from the supermarket, but I enjoy it more. For those of us that drink Lipton Ice Tea it is the tea in the Red Tea variety.

On the Red Tea ice tea I am using that and water to replace the consumption of soft drinks and energy drinks. I still have to odd soft drink, but am choosing Coke Zero or Sprite Zero. I can not stomach the Diet varieties with the exception of good old Bundaberg Ginger Beer. The others taste like strained compost, but less healthy to consume.

On the diet front I have been eating much healthier. We have all been eatting healthier with much more cooking going on within the home, which is fantastic. When it was not practical for us to cook I have been opting for a healthier option in a six inch six grams of fat or less Subway sandwich with no dressing. I have also walked to the store to obtain my sandwich so am getting exercise just getting my bodies fuel.

As documented in the A Change is as Good as a Holiday post we have been looking, and found, some new digs. This lead to a celebration on Friday night of Chinese food at our favourite, soon not to be, local restaurant. I restrained myself rather well, certainly much more than I normally would.

I have also managed to introduce a regular walking regime into my routine. I went for a 20 minute walk which quickly stepped up to 30 minutes. Then all of a sudden I was walking for an hour or more. Since the last of those big walks it has rained pretty much solid and limited my regime. Tonight was the first night that it has not rained, and as luck would have it work got busy and confined me to home. Also, I had to pack and clean the house.

This week is going to be a bit of a loss in terms of organised exercise, however incidental exercise will increase. We will be moving a lot of our belongings from Thursday, hence I will be quite active moving boxes, fridges and couches for the weekend. I expect that will compensate for the loss of some of the organised exercise. I will be compensating from next week though I expect as I will be keen to explore the new area.

So now you no doubt want to know what all that has achieved. Well I have managed to increase muscle mass and stamina for sure. I have also dropped 7 kilos to 137.4 kilograms (302.915 pounds). So I am a stilly definately a fatty, however I believe I have made the crucial first steps in becoming a much leaner and meaner individual. Only time will tell.

The temporary pots are recycled pots for larger plants in the garden. This will give the plants something to grow in and prevent getting root bound in the current seedling tray. It will also the easy transportation of the plants to Wollongong next week. Once in the Gong I will be performing another recycling tub conversion to a planter.

In order to make a few changes to this attempt I have bought a bag of Debco Organic potting mix. The reason for going with this alternative planting medium is that I wish to eliminate the RichGro Pro Mix from being a potential contributor to my previous disastrous attempts to grow this plant. This medium is coarser and does not contain the soil wetting agents or slow release fertiliser that the Rich Gro does, however given that I will have an abundance of worm juice and vermi compost that should not be a problem.

Why will I have an abundance of the worm produce? I will be deploying a second worm farm in Wollongong. In fact I am seriously considering going larger and marketing the worm juice and compost. That does need a considerable amount more investigation. However, a second farm is a certainty. The construction of that farm is yet to be decided. I am considering the Cheap Worm Farm Construction idea, but that is largely dependent on the above plans.

From this article there are two things that are certain:

1. All attempts will be made to grow these plants successfully, I am sick of having a nemesis, especially one that I enjoy.
2. I am yet again in need of more worms.

This is a bit of a bonanza for the garden in preparation for the move with all my plants receiving a monumental soak. The plants were struggling at times with an extended dry period prior to this rain setting in. The plants have now had an extended soak and are looking healthy once more successfully recovering from their heat stroke or other dilemmas.

Generally the garden was coping, however as happens with container gardening the combination of thirsty plants and evaporation the moisture was leeching quickly. Those plants that I had mulched in the two sessions I mentioned in my Mulching Day post were doing better than the others. However, it is fair to say that most of the plants were spending the day starved of moisture and looked forward to a daily drink.

On this problem I have some products to try and fix this that will deliver moisture, and liquid fertiliser directly to the roots of the plants in a truly recyclable manner. That said given our impending relocation to Wollongong I am holding off implementing these measures until the plants are settled once more. Back to the plants.

The plants that have benefited the most seem to be the 2 varieties of lettuce and spinach. The Green Coral lettuce was suffering due to its transplanting. This would not have been a major issue, except the heat caused it to continually dry out and struggle. Now it has regained its former vigourous growth and green foliage.

The Red Coral Lettuce was already struggling prior to its transplant. Remember this is the lettuce that looked like a Christmas tree. I had to free it from its previous dilemma, and then it was struck by the heat extremes and the constant lack of moisture. It is now looking very good and finally beginning to spread and look more like a lettuce than a Christmas tree. I am happy for that as I have been unable to havest anything from this plant to date due to it being a runt when bought, then crowded by the Green Coral lettuce in the shared accommodations.

My perennial Spinach was also struggling with the heat. The paradox of this plant is that it loves full sun, however that means that it dries out constantly and then wilts. This plant was starting to benefit from the rather deep mulch that I had placed around it on Mulching Day, however the constant soaking has turned the plant right around. It has once again resumed vigorous growth.

The only plants that a really struggling are a number of very immature sun flower seedlings. They are struggling not through a lack of care, but because something has pecked off their leaves. The stalks are thus back in the home made green houses and are remaining green. With luck they may produce some new leaves and grow, however that is more hope than anything.

So all in all the garden is very healthy, which is good news given that in less than 10 days time they will be facing a new challenge in a new post code. The weather in Wollongong will be reasonably similar to Sydney at this time of year, if anything a bit milder. That is a good thing for both the garden and the gardener in my opinion. As such I do not expect much of a culture shock for the traveling plants. The plants will have some months to adjust to the area, prior to winters onset that will be a few degrees cooler than Sydney.

In terms of moving the plants we shall be using a truck and ensuring there will not be wind shock on the journey. So I expect the plants to travel well and simply assume a new position in the yard of the new digs. The thing that I will need to prepare for transport with much more care is my worm farm.

I have been trying Google over the past few days, however drawing a rather large and consistent blank on the subject. I am thus thinking that I will drain the worm juice, remove any usable vermicompost to some storage containers (to use at the other end), and then tether the three layers together. The tethering should keep the layers in place and reduce the chances of the farm separating in transit. If anyone has experience, or knows someone who has had experience, in relocating a worm farm please let me know of any ideas.

Fingers crossed I will get a shot at the garden tomorrow as I need to dig out my black mondo grass from the front garden bed and plant it in some pots. I am buggered if I am leaving the plants that first kindled my interest in gardening behind. They are good to look at and drought resistant, and thus need to come.

Thats it for now, and please any fellow vermiculturalists with experience relocating worms please contact me via a comment to this post.

Recently though I participated in a discussion at Space of Reality around whether or not there is a valid reason for white lies. Today I was shocked and thankful to see that this fellow blogger has gone to the extreme of handing out rewards for the commentary. I have thus won an Honest Blogger Award, which is the badge below.

This is a great incentive to continue returning to Space of Reality as it demonstrates the willingness of Hye to facilitate a discussion. Thanks Hye.

Transformation of SCHWOIT from a general run of the mill social commentary site that was infrequently updated, to a frequently updated and niche focussed blog was the beginning of turning the blog around. I went from discussing many subjects that enthused me for a week or so, and then they faded into the distance. Now I have a passion for gardening and am more than happy to share my experiences in my developing passion. Whilst I am not an expert by any stretch, I am willing to learn and research. So sharing my experiences, and nifty inexpensive ideas is giving me a constant content source. Content is after all king in the blogging game.

Another part of the transition was to a new clean skin for the site. The new skin is a complete departure from the old scheme that had a black background. The new skin is much more readable and complementary to the content. The old black site was one that I liked and was around for many months, however I am much happier with the new skin.

The second part, and the bit that has seen the traffic numbers is my embracing of some social networking sites. The first being Blog Catalog. A great social networking site that has made many people aware of the sites existence. It is important to be a regular contributor to be seen in the forums. There are a great number of really knowledgeable and helpful people there from around the entire globe. Many topics are discussed from religion (ugh), blogging tips and development, and general idle chit chat. I have found many a useful tip or had a good chuckle.

Site number two is a forum for Aussie Bloggers at Aussie Bloggers Forum. The forums again reward active members that involve themselves in constant communication. Many of the members of the forum are very knowledgeable in the blogging fraternity, and all are friendly. Many of my regular readership are now from the forums and I am happy they are.

The third site is Entrecard. Entrecard is a site that allows bloggers to advertise for free by exchanging Entrecard Credits. A bloggers 125 x 125 banner is displayed on a fellow bloggers site for a 24 hour period. This allows for other people to discover your site. Primarily fellow Entrecard users, but other curious people also can click through to your site. Of late many sites have been discussing the validity of the traffic and the service. However, Entrecard has brought SCHWOIT many new readers and participants. In fact I will credit it with the majority of the credit. I will discuss my strategy for success in a subsequent post.

Another site that I am about to begin partaking in heavily soon is Blotanical. This is a site for gardening bloggers to discover one another and share tips. I have not been too active yet, however will with time permitting be starting to leverage its offerings. If nothing more than to research what others out there are growing and how. I believe it will be a stellar information source that will enrich my own sites content, and thus help keep the interest of the readership that I have built up.

All this took less than a month to achieve and it does require working at. However, this and similar strategies are rewarding for bloggers as we like to know there is other people out there that are listening. I fully appreciate all the traffic, even the chain dropping Entrecard users that many whinge about. The reason is that if I can convert 2% of those users to a regular visitor and contributor then my efforts are worth it.

So now I have done my geek post for the week I will get back to gardening. Time to research the best way to prepare and move worms and plants from the big smoke to the Illawarra. On that the sites tag line will remain, the Gong is still an urban jungle. It is just not an old growth forest!

Now for some photography of the place.

That is it folks. I am sure looking forward to getting into this place now across the Australia Day long weekend. We will though be doing the ocker thing on Australia Day and will be bludging the day away at the beach in anticipation of some fireworks. The days surrounding that Saturday though will be hectic.

I probably will be unable to blog on those days, so am now going to formulate some scheduled posts for the period. Rest assured it will become increasingly cheaper to advertise on my Entrecard for those of you interested.