Natural Resources I Have Gathered And Used For The Train Layout

        Natural Resources I Have Used For The Train Layout

To make the rock walls and pillars to hang the gates on I have used these stones.

 

I have collected bark, different coloured soils, twigs, and gum leaves. I have sieved the dirt to get all the little tiny stones out and to not have anything in the soil that doesn't look like soil. 

Here I have ground down the green gum leaves. I also ground down the red ones separate and also made a mixture of green, red, and dried brown gum leaves, which I have used the most.

 

I found some banksias in a car park in Geelong thanks to some corellas that had a good feed on them and then dropped them on the ground. I thought they would be very useful for the train layout and they have been. I have used them as weeds, and will also make some agapanthus plants out of them and I will also use them scattered through the wheat field. When you pull the banksias apart there are 2 parts that I have found useful the very spiky stiff prongs and then a seed like stem. Both have been very useful. 

The stiff spiky stems from the banksias

The seed stems from the banksias.

Wood shavings and sawdust are very useful for the bush setting and the sawdust is also useful once died green for the grass. I ground down the wood shavings here.

These are some small branches from an Acacia tree. I have ground down the leaves and cut up the twigs which have made good firewood and wood piles. The little seeds had dried when I found these branches and thought they would make some lovely flowers. I am still yet to do these. I will make these when I get to making the park down in the Glennanburg Village. 

This is some straw from a paddock not far from where we live. While my hubby and I was out on our walk one day the owner was slashing the dry long grass there. I had been looking for some dry grass to cover our hay bales with and to add to the slashed wheat field. I looked on line for something I could use and couldn’t find anything. So I went to a Hobby shop near us in Ravenhall called Andrew’s Hobby Shop of when I really like and find really helpful. I asked him if he had anything like what I was after and he said there wasn’t and that I would be best to cut my own and blend it up in a blender. I have cut it up yet because my blender’s blades are very blunt. 

This is some sand that I have collected and will use around the Glennanburg Village Lake.

I never realized how useful our natural resources can be. Now when I go on my walks I see them in a different light wondering what I can use them for, you just never now.