Metalwork Flowers

Yesterday we kicked off our Metalwork day at 8.30am after picking up the sheet steel from RAW Design & Fabrication. We started our day of “flower making” with a few people coming a little bit earlier in the hope that we could all eventually finish a project this year. It was quite obvious that the plasma cutter was a hit with the ladies and everyone managed to make a flower of some description, with all of them looking a little different in one way or another, which was lovely and very inspiring for everyone.

The coffee and cake got forgotten for a while and I think that we definitely did more of the “Ag” than the “Chat” this time around. Everybody made a flower of some description which made the day easier on me, as it was really helpful that everyone was happy to help guide each other in one way or another and they managed to keep what I had told them in their memory banks to pass it all on to the next person.

Many thanks to Buster who also helped out on the day (I think he was in more of a panic than I was because I hadn’t cleaned up the workshop enough….wow you should have seen it a few months ago when the mice were around!) and also with his welding and general handiness in the shed.

Thanks also to Kim for the food and thinking of taking something down to the shed, and for the ladies who had to venture up to the house and prepare your own coffee and tea. I am so glad that everyone enjoyed themselves and had a lovely time just being able to “make" something!

Liz and Felicity using the plasma cutter to cut out flower shapes.

Kim on the bench grinder cleaning up rough edges on the flowers with Felicity and Carol waiting.

Kim thought her flowers would make a lovely bikini!!

Jo and Anne drilling holes for the stem.

Jo helping Lisa weld the petals to the stem.

Anne with her flower.

Lisa with her flower.

Our finished products!

Merrill, Felicity, Vicki, Michelle, Heather and Kim

Positive Update on our Microfinance Loan

We received an email update this week from Kiva about our microfinance loan we made to Rosine from Rwanda for her fruit and vegetable business. She has made her first loan repayment to us on time! She has 3 monthly repayments to go until she has repaid the entire amount. So by December Rosine will be debt free. She must be a very good businesswoman to have made her repayments on time. As soon as we have received all our loan amount back we will search for another worthy lady to help.

Update - Rosine repaid her loan to our group on time, so now we can re-loan that money to another worthy lady involved in agriculture!

Cheesemaking at CSU

On June 9th Ag n Chat visited the Charles Sturt University Cheese Factory for a lesson in making cheese.
Barry Lillywhite is the local cheesemaker and taught us how to take milk from it's "raw" state , to curd, then removing the whey to form table cheese.

Felicity, Heather and Lisa heating the milk.

Maureen and Jo during the curd formation process.

The curd is cut to remove the whey.


Forming the cheese into wicker baskets.

The final product which is now maturing for a tasting session in a couple of months.