A goat anchor

We didn't get our goat, Jorgie, with the intention of tethering her. I've read some horror stories of goats hanging themselves from their tether, of getting themselves tangled, spilling their water etc. It is just not an ideal way to keep a goat - or any animal for that matter.

So when we decided to buy ourselves a miniature goat, we built a suitable enclosure and shelter for her, and that is where she spends most of her time. 

Her enclosure is small though - big enough for moving around, sleeping and playing for a couple of goats, but not big enough for her to browse. 

We often take Jorgie for a walk to browse along the way, but you can only spend a certain amount of time doing that, and we have a few areas of our garden that grow beautiful browse that she could eat (that is, our lawns). We could let her free range in those areas, but as she is partial to roses, apple trees herbs and vegetable plants, I'm not sure she'd spend her time eating the grass and weeds!

So I did some research and some thinking and came up with a method of tethering her in those areas of the garden that I would normally have to mow. My tethering system reduces tangling risk, allows her to always access water, is portable and adaptable so that I can control where she has access to. 

And here it is:

It's an old car tyre (free from any tyre shop) that we have half filled with rapid set concrete. We lined the bottom of the tyre with a feed bag first, then poured in the concrete (and a few scraps of old concrete to make up more volume). While the concrete was wet, we inserted an eye bolt with a long stem and the washer and nut attached (they help to anchor the eye bolt so the goat can't pull it out of the concrete). We also pushed the base of a bucket into the concrete to make an indentation to support a bowl (or half bucket) of water. 

To tether the goat, we put the tyre on the middle of the area we want her to browse in (using a trolley or two people to move it because its really heavy!) then add a bowl of water (it needs to sit in the indentation and be shorter than the top of the tyre so it doesn't catch the chain) and attach the goat to the eyebolt using a d-shackle and a chain. You can adjust the length of the chain to meet your needs - that is, make it long for a big area, or short for a small area. 

The anchor has a really low centre of gravity, so the goat can't knock/pull it over. The water can't be knocked over as it is secure inside the tyre and in the unlikely event that the goats chain gets tangled on the anchor, she'll always have access to the water. 

It's a good system, but to be safe, always use it carefully. Make sure there aren't obstacles your goat can get tangled on; Check for plants you don't want your goat to eat within the goat's reach (plants you want or poisonous plants); make sure your goat has some shade, especially on hot days; make sure dogs or other animals (strange people?) can't get at your goat; And check your goat is ok regularly - ie. don't tether her when you're not home!

This isn't a long term tethering system, but is a great way to mow the lawns without using petrol and give our goat lovely fresh (and free!) browse. And the anchor cost less than $15 to build - bargain!

Goat people - if you see any problems with my design, please let me know, I'm hoping I've covered everything, but am open to suggestions!

Sew a mini tissue pack

Head Cold season has hit here. People all around me are full of sniffles, sneezes and coughing. It's gross, but inevitable. I'm still OK, a touch of a sore throat, but fine otherwise. The boys have full on colds though and so the stack of homemade fabric tissues I made last year are getting a workout! I love that using hankies gives no waste, and a massive stack of them means they can go in the wash after each use, therefore taking out the thing that gives hankies a bad name - lugging around a dirty hanky for repeated uses and therefore building up a pocket full of cold germs....ew!

Now I'm no germaphobe, but the snotty hanky in the pocket thing is really yucky, so I don't send hankies to school with my kids, and I don't carry them with me either, so when out and about, we use paper tissues. But being light paper, they're prone to tearing up of you just shove a handful in your pocket. That's why those clever marketing folks creating the mini packets of tissues. Great idea! But they're expensive and wrapped in plastic .... that is nearly as "ew" as the snotty hankies!

I needed a solution, and so this morning, while listening to early morning coughing and nose blowing, I decided to whip up these little mini tissue pouches and managed to make two in about 30minutes AND remembered to take photos* so I could show you how I did it! All before a cup of tea -are you impressed? ;)

 

*my camera has started playing up, so for the time being all photos are being taken on my iPod - apologies for the poor quality.

OK, so here is a quickly put together tutorial on how to make them. They're pretty straight forward, but yell out if anything needs clarifying.

You will need:

• Some fabric scraps cut into the following shapes (I used pinking shears so they wouldn't fray)
• One 13 x 9cm rectangle and Two 13 x 6cm rectangles
• A zip (longer than about 15cm)
• A sewing machine with a zipper foot, matching thread and the basic sewing gear (scissors, pins, iron etc)

1. Once you've cut out your pieces, take the two smaller pieces and iron over just under 1cm on one of the long sides of each.

2. Pin the folded over edges onto your zip. You want the fold close to the teeth and both pieces of fabric lined up. Make sure the right side of your fabric is facing up. Pin them in the middle of your zip - we'll be cutting off the long ends soon.

3. Use your sewing machine to stitch the zip to the fabric. You will need to move the zipper tag along the way - do this by making sure that the needle is down, then lift the foot and slide the tag along, then lower the foot and keep sewing. Sew both sides so you now have a rectangle with a zip down the middle.

4. Slide the zipper tag down so that it is open about 3/4 of the way down your fabric. Then with right sides together, pin your larger piece of fabric to the back. Make sure your open zip ends are pinned close to one another so the zip will close when it's all sewn up. Note that your zippered section might be a bit bigger than your backing piece. If that's the case, just trim them to the same size.

5. Now simply sew all the way around your little rectangle, making nice neat corners and sewing straight over the ends of the zip.

6. Trim the zipper ends and corners of the rectangle, then turn it all right side out through the zipper.

7. Iron flat and your done!

If your tissue pouch is for school, you might consider ironing on a name tag so it is less likely to get lost (update - Lachie came home tonight "I've lost my tissue case!"  I was furious!  But then a kid knocked on the door, he'd found it and returned it - the name touch was worth it). To fill the pouch, fold tissues in half and then in three, stack together. You should be able to fit in 6 tissues, just stuff in the folded pile. The other nice thing about these pouches is that they can be thrown in the wash occasionally.

Now make one for all your kids in personalised fabrics and a pretty one for your handbag too :). Have fun!

Ginger (or chocolate) bread houses (or sleighs)

Last year's mini houses.

One of the things I love about Christmas in our home is that we adopt traditions from all over the world and make Christmas all about us and what we like.  One of those adopted traditions is the gingerbread house.  Back when my kids were very little and my younger brother and sister were small too, I would have the four kids during the holidays.  It was at this time that my then neighbour gave me my first gingerbread house kit.  We had a ball!  I stuck the house together and the four kids attached a huge amount of lollies to it (and rather a lot in their mouths).  We left it on display and then after Christmas, I let them all dig in and eat it.  One of the best things about gingerbread houses is how pretty they look even if you let the kids do it all without any adult views to symmetry and clever decorating.

Our first gingerbread house was a kit version with people etc.

We've made a gingerbread house each year since then, and last year, I made my own gingerbread for the project.  Can I just say - the kits are great, but gingerbread is easy to make and you can cut it however you like and it tastes awesome when you make it yourself!  Last year we made a collection of small houses, some to give as gifts and some to keep for the kids.  They make lovely gifts, but the only downside is that I have friends who don't like ginger.  So this year, we have made some changes to the recipe and have ginger and chocolate bread houses to give away and a sleigh with reindeer that we will put together next week. 

I thought I'd share the recipes and template ideas with you.  I made a batch of each this year and had enough dough to make four of the small houses, 2 reindeer, a sleigh and a large pile of tree and gingerbread man shaped biscuits.

Gingerbread

125g butter
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons golden syrup
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons of ginger
3/4 teaspoon of bicarb soda
2 1/2 cups plain flour

"Chocolate bread"

125g butter
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 heaped teaspoons cocoa
3/4 teaspoon of bicarb soda
2 cups plain flour

Directions for both types

With an electric beater, cream the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and beat well.  Add the other wet ingredient and beat well.  In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir, and then knead with your hands.  The dough will be relatively crumbly.  Form the dough into 3 mounds.  Roll out (with flour/baking paper/your choice of rolling out method) one mound to about 4-5mm thick.  Use your templates to cut out shapes with a knife and then carefully lift the shapes onto a lined baking tray with an egg slice.  Continue rolling out and cutting shapes until all dough is used.  Bake at 180C for 10-15min until just starting to change colour.  Cool on trays for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Decorating requires tongue sticking out levels of concentration!

Templates

Use cardboard from a cereal box to draw up your templates.  You can then cut them out, lay them on top of the rolled out dough (printed side of the box down) and use a knife to carefully cut around the shapes.  The templates can then be gently wiped clean and put away for next year. 

To make the mini houses you will need:
2 side walls 5cm x 8cm
2 end walls 5cm square with a 3cm tall triangle on top
2 roof pieces 5cm x 9cm

One of this years complete mini houses.

To make the sleigh, you will need:
2 sleigh side shapes
1 big square for the back
1 smaller square for the front
2 (or more) reindeer/horse shapes

Enlarge this image to fit on an A4 sheet and you should be able to use my templates, or feel free to make your own better ones ;)

This image is of my templates.  The bigger square is 8cmx8cm.  Feel free to copy the image and scale in your own program.

To assemble

Make up a batch of royal icing by gently beating an egg white and then beating in about 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar (I use the mixture, not pure) and a teaspoon of lemon juice.  Spoon into a piping bag (or snap lock back with a corner cut off).

Use the chocolate shapes, ginger shapes or a combination of both depending on your (or your gift recipients) tastes.

A chocolate house assembled and ready for decorating.

For the houses, I assemble on a foil covered coaster.  Run a line of the icing along the front of the coaster and down each side where the walls will stand (test the spacing with your pieces first).  On on of the end wall, pipe a line of icing up the back of the wall edges and place the piece onto the line of piping on the coaster.  Quickly glue the two wall pieces into place to hold it up, then attach the back wall.  Use more icing to attach the two roof pieces and fill in the gap in the top with more icing.  Your icing doesn't need to be neat, you won't notice it when you finish the decorating!

I like to give my house a couple of minutes for the 'concrete' to dry, and then go to town with the lollies!  Use whatever you like in terms of lollies, but we particularly like smarties, mini marshmallows and candy canes and tiny teddy biscuits make nice residents :).  Last year we used small chocolate bars cut on an angle to make chimneys and some fruit/musk sticks, and this year we used some licorice allsorts.  Use your imagination and have fun.

Lots of bright lollies make pretty houses.

To make the sleigh, I will join the four pieces and then stand the horse shapes at the front.  They will have pretzel antlers added and I have lots of decorating ideas.  I'll share a picture when its done.


Have fun!

15 recycled projects in our yard

Today's post is a response to Rach's very excited (!!!!! LOL) response to yesterdays post.

If you've been following my blog, you are probably aware that we are trying to reduce our environmental footprint as much as possible.  You may also have noted that I love gardening and am just a tad frugal.  So recycling in the garden is something that makes my heart sing! 

Recycling in the garden is popular, but many suggested projects use items such as pallets,tyres and old building materials.  These are great, and we use them a lot (see some below), but I believe the best recycling projects  are those that use items that were your own rubbish.  We find most of our inspiration by looking at the materials around us and seeing if they can be used to meet a need.  This saves us from throwing them out and also saves in fuel costs, time etc. 

Here are some the garden recycling projects that I found on my walk around the garden today (there are more, these are the easiest to explain though).

These projects may not always look pretty, and yes, our yard is messy - its a working yard.  I don't pretty things up to take photos for you, sorry! :)

Arch for cucumbers

This is only part recycling, and part purchased.  It is simply 4 bamboo stakes banged into the ground.  Then we wove some wire mesh over the stakes (bamboo and wire mesh both from the local hardware - total cost $16).  We used a couple of taller hardwood stakes that we already had in the centre, to give a bit more support to the wire.  Then, with recycled poly pipe, we formed 2 arches.  The poly pipe is pushed onto the stakes and held in place with a screw on each one.  Ours has a bit of a church window arch shape because I accidentally bent the poly pipe when I was trying to give it a gentle curve.  I like it, but if you want a more rounded shape, be careful when bending the pipes :).

Seedlings pots and labels

I made all if our seedlings pots from newspaper.  We don't buy the paper often (just the local paper when we want to go garage sale-ing), but as it only takes half a sheet of newspaper for each pot, it is easy to get enough.  The labels in each pot are made from a cut up milk jug and written on with sharpie.

Cold frame

Our cold frame was built from pallet wood and a window we picked up at the  tip. I even recycled some nails from the pallets to make it. It is lined with a cut up feed bag to stop weed growth.

Compost bin

Simply three pallets tied together (with strong twine like binder twine) made a huge new compost bin for us.  We can untie them to access the compost when the time comes and then rebuild it.

Cloches

Cloches are covers for plants that give a warmer micro-climate than the local area.  I am using cloches in the garden this year when my seedlings have true leaves and are ready to come out if the coldframe, but are still in need of protection from cold and the occasional spring frost.  My cloches are made from juice bottles with the  bottom cut off.  I will leave the lids off the bottles to reduce the humidity inside and harden the plants a little.  Having this small opening won't be a problem for frosts (here at least) as the rest of the bottle will still protect the plants.

Chook house

I built our chook house a few years ago entirely from recycled materials.  I used corrugated iron that used to be a fence for the roof, pallets and the old timber decking from our verandah for the walls and old drawers, a cupboard door (and a scrappy piece of lino for weather protection) for the nesting boxes. The door was an old one from the house and  inside the floor is lined with recycled bricks and the girls have an old metal slatted bed base and some branches for roosts. It is by no means the most beautiful chook house in the world, but it was free, recycled and made by me so I love it! It has also worked well for the last few years, which is a plus!

Garden beds

I've talked about these before.  Built from pallet timber and lined with feed bags (instead of weed mat). I can't wait till these are full of vegies!

Tree guards

Feed bags again! Mum gave me heaps and I just keep finding uses for them.  This simple tree guard protects from animals, frosts and lawn mowers and was simply made by cutting the bottom off a bag and uses some prunings (or stakes) to hold it in place.

Vegie garden cat protection

If you (or your neighbours) have cats, you know how much they love digging in garden beds.  I used some old chicken wire to lay over my beds.  It isn't attached so I can remove it for weeding, planting etc.  The cats don't bother digging because it isn't comfortable and it can just be  removed when the plants get big enough to be safe.

Bean teepee and plant supports

As we have been pruning away this year, I've held onto any long straight branches.  I have used some of them to create this bean teepee and support for our berries. The are held together with cut up holey socks and recycled binder twine.  The rest of the branches will be used for other plants that need staking.

A kiwiberry tunnel

My kids weren't using their swingset, so, with their permission, we removed the swings and will be adding some wire to the long sides as our kiwiberry (planted centre front and guarded with some recycled wire) grows so that it can grow over one side.  Eventually, I intend to grow one on the other side too so  we get a plant tunnel.

Snail traps

More plastic bottles! This time as snail traps (blogged about here). We use the dregs from the homebrew in these and they're working well.

Strawberry bed

Ages ago I talked about my strawberry patch and how I'd lined it with cardboard.   It seemed like a good idea, but the snails and slater bugs had eaten much of the cardboard *sigh*.  So I revisited the  black plastic idea using the heavy duty bags that the sheep manure I bought at a farmgate was packed in.  I don't like buying plastic, or getting it if there is a choice, but finding ways to recycle plastic makes it feel much better.

Wine bottle pot waterers

I haven't done this yet, but I have the bottles there ready for when we go away.  Here is the tutorial I found for them. I'll be using these to water my herb pots over summer.

Garden candles

I made this tin can tea light holder for Stu for our wedding anniversary (10 years is tin - see my cute love hearts?).  We intend to make a collection of them to hang around our pergola with citronella candles in them for summertime parties.  They're a lovely easy project to do.  Simply fill you can 3/4 full of water and freeze.  The frozen water then makes it easy to punch through the can using a hammer and nail.  A scrap of wire makes the handle and inside use a little blue tack to hold you candle in place.


I hope I've given you a few new recycling ideas for your garden and that you've enjoyed your wander around mine. 
Have you got any more ideas?
I'd love to hear them or see projects that you do following this post - please leave me a message.

Bread bread bread

We make all our own bread and bread products.  We have done for about 6 months now, only resorting to shop bought in emergency situations (like when I get signed up as an impromptu birth partner).  A new friend asked me today how I organise myself enough to bake our own bread.  So I thought I would share my (somewhat variable) routine.

I bake when I need to.  Depending on factors such as whether we've had visitors or whether we're in a toast or cereal for breakfast faze, this varies from every second day to a couple of times a week.  I choose to bake a good quantity and freeze some as it saves time and electricity.

On baking days,  I start my bread in the morning, usually after a cuppa and breaky.  I start my bread in the bread maker, throwing in all of the following ingredients in order:

• 600ml warm water (leftover in the kettle)
• 2 flat dessertspoons dry yeast (i buy big containers and keep them in the freezer)
• 4 heaped dessertspoons sugar
• 4 rounded dessertspoons milk powder
• 2 flat dessertspoons bread improver
• 2 flat dessertspoons of salt
• 4 dessertspoons of vegetable oil
• And a 1kg bag of plain flour.

All the basic ingredients (which I keep a good supply of always) go into my (thrifted - yay!) breadmaker.

Now before I go on, I want to defend explain some if my choices.  The big one is the plain flour.  No, I don't use bread flour.  I have tried it, and the bread I made using it was, at best, as good as my plain flour loaves.  We found it didn't last as long, and it ended up more expensive.  Go for it with your '00' or strong or bread flour if you like, I choose good old plain flour.  I also choose to use bread improver.  I've tried without and found it makes a profound and worthwhile improvement (that would be why they call it 'improver' I guess).  The only trouble is that the bread improver I like is (as far as I'm aware) only available at the supermarket I don't shop at, so requires the odd special trip and the yeast I like is only available at the other supermarket - why?  just to annoy me I think.  The oil - I used to follow Rhonda's recipe which called for butter or margarine. I find that unless really soft the butter doesn't mix in well, and I no longer buy margarine, so I use a simple vegetable oil - olive oil if I'm feeling fancy.  Use my recipe if you like, or follow your own, but mine is much loved by my family and highly praised by outsiders, so I'm sticking to it.

Ok, back to the bread.  I switch the breadmaker to the dough cycle, press start, help it with the initial stir (i cook twice as much as the breadmaker is expected to and if I don't help here, it doesn't work) and then go do something else for an hour.

When I come back, the breadmaker is still working.  I use this time to make a cake batter or some biscuit dough and put it/them in/on appropriate trays.

The breadmaker then chimes to tell me its done.  I turn  on the oven to 180c before I get the dough out.  The dough is usually quite wet, so I add enough extra flour as I knead it for a good 5min to make the dough a good consistency. 

A big blob of dough, straight out of the bread maker.

By this time, the oven is hot, so I pop in the biccies or cake (these don't make the bread better by the way, but the routine works and saves oven running power).  I cut the kneaded dough in half and prepare it as needed. 

2 balls of well kneaded dough - you know it is ready when a finger indent 'bounces' back quickly.

• It can be rolled in some flour and baked in good tins to make lovely, square, white sandwich loaves.  It can have a multigrain mix kneaded in well and then shaped to make multigrain bread. 
• It can have a couple of dessertspoons of brown sugar, a tsp or two of cinnamon and about 1/2 cup of soaked dried fruit kneaded in to make a spicy fruit loaf. 
• It can be shaped into rolls - round, knot or long (I get 12 from half of the dough) and then sprinkled with sesame seeds or flour. 
• It can make a freeform vienna or cob style loaf, slashed with scissors and brushed with egg white to give a crusty top. 
• It can be used for pizza bases.
• Or it can form something more creative such as cheese and bacon scrolls or a cheese and chives pullapart. 
• The options are pretty endless - use your imagination.

Once the shaping is done and the bread is in/on lightly floured trays, I put the trays into the grill compartment of my stove, which is deliciously warm from the oven.

I check the biccies/ cake and make a cuppa, the bread needs to rise for about half an hour.
After about 25min, the oven is cranked up to 220c.  Once it reaches temperature, in goes the bread.  After 10min, I turn the oven down to 180c again and turn the trays.  The bread will cook in 20-35min total, depending on its shape.

Then I'm done! The bread cools on racks and is then tasted (of course!) and stored in the bread box or freezer.  By starting early in the morning, it is ready for lunch - hot and delicious.

Not bad for a couple of hours work - 12 rolls, a delicious cheese and chive pullapart, 12 choc chip muffins and a batch of Currant Spice biscuits.  YUM!

I always wanted to bake bread, but until this year, never had a lot of luck with it.  This recipe is my adaption of other recipes/procedures, and it works really well for me.  It produces yummy bread, but also really practical bread they keeps well, cuts easily for toast or sandwiches and makes great rolls for lunch.  Best yet, my kids occasionally get a piece of shop bread somewhere else and then tell me my bread is sooooo much better. :D

Do you bake bread? Just sometimes or all the time? Tell me about your routine, or let me know if you try mine out.  And one day soon, I will share the other bread recipes I use for soft flour tortillas and naan.  mmmmm..... time for lunch I think :)

The Ole Snail Inn

 

Ah snails.... I once collected them (to use in a university experiment) on top of my akubra hat while walking in the rain.  Did you know that you don't need ethics approval to use snails in experiments? Not that I hurt them, just wanted to know whether they would eat my native tree leaves. They didn't, but they do eat my vegie seedlings these days.

 

I've tried being organic in my garden, but snails have always beaten me. The last couple of years I've used snail bait just so I could get some veg. This year however, I don't want to. I'd like to go out and have a chat with the snails and explain what they can and can't eat, but I don't speak gastropodian. So I have to deter or kill them some other way.

 

I've decided to take a threefold plan of attack. Method one is gumboot stomping. I rather like this one. I go out in the garden on damp mornings in my gumboots (preferably with a cuppa and still in my Pjs, it works better) and I stomp on any snails I find. They're easy to find too - on the driveway and lawns making their way back to shelter after munching plants all night. I used to collect them for my chooks instead, but my chooks are real Aussie girls and don't go for French food.

 

Method two is untried, but i'll give it a go. I found this method in Jackie French's 'Earth Gardener's Companion'. You collect a few snails in a bucket, pour over boiling water to kill then and then leave them in the wate for a few days to ferment. Then you spray the fermented snail soup on and around the vegie garden to detract the soup-ees friends. Ewwww.... But i'll give it a go. (you need to respray every time it rains or there is a heavy dew though).

 

My third method is the good old beer method. If you don't know about this, basically, snails are like most men - they are crazy for beer. The very smell of the stuff makes them come running (well, sort of). But, being gastropods, they're not overly bright (like some men) and given a puddle of beer, they will dive right in, get drunk/drown and die. This is supposed to be a good and effective way to rid your garden of the buggers, but if you just put beer out in a saucer, it'll evaporate on hot days or get washed away on rainy days. So some clever person invented these:

image from here, where the price tag isn't too high :)

Nice huh? But they come with a price tag, so I'm not keen. Some other smart cookie came up with this:

Image from here, with a tutorial if you like them.

But we don't drink much soft drink and I have other uses for the soft drink bottles we do use. So I came up with this:

 

We have heaps of milk bottles, so I can make heaps of these and they only take 2 minutes to make. Here's how.
 

• Cut the bottom 5cm or so off the bottle with scissors or a sharp knife.
• On the top part of the bottle, cut doors for the snails that are about 8cm high on each side.
• Add a jaunty sign to welcome snails in (or not....).

• You're done!
• To use it, bury the base into the soil near your seedlings so the top is near the soil top.

• Pour in some beer (perhaps some of your husbands home brew?).

• Push the top of the bottle in.
• And wait.

 

Hopefully the next day you'll find smiling dead snails in there.

 

Have fun!

 

PS. If you don't have beer, you can use a mix of yeast, sugar and water. Snails are dumb, they won't know the difference.

Juggling balls Tutorial - two ways

Following on from my post about homemade gifts, Wendy from South Africa asked how I make my juggling balls.  Juggling balls make a great gift for boys (and girls) in that hard to make for age - ie. 7-adult!  My kids go to a lot of parties for 7 year olds at the moment, so these are a popular gift in our household, but I know my teen and adult relatives would also like a set.

So here are two ways to make them.  Note the second method makes nicer and sturdier juggling balls :)

The first is a no-sew method - VERY easy and probably with items you have hanging around.

Materials (per ball)

• 1 small freezer bag
• 3 balloons
• 2/3 cup rice (or bird seed)
• sticky tape
• Scissors

How to do it:

1. Put your rice into the freezer bag nd tape the bag over to make sure the rice is secure
2. Chop the tail off your balloons
3. Stretch one balloon over the bag of rice and mould it into a round shape with your hands
4. Stretch your second and then third ballon over the top, covering up the hole in the first with the second and finishing with all balloons overlapping for a decorative effect.  You can cut an extra hole or two in the third balloon too to allow the other colours to show through.

NOTE: these are great, but won't last forever if used a lot.  The next ones are better for that.

  

The second is a sewing method.  Also easy (if you have a sewing machine) and made with small fabric scraps, so budget friendly too.

Materials (per ball)

• rectangle of fabric about 22 x 11cm - could be any non-stretch fabric (I used denim and cotton poplin, both either recycled or scraps from other projects)
• sewing machine threaded with matching thread
• about 1/2 cup of rice (or you can use bird seed or the plastic beads from craft shops)
• scissors
• iron and ironing board
• funnel

How to do it:

1. Cut your fabric into rectangles about 22cm x 11cm and iron flat.

2. Fold your rectangle in half lengthways (you will end up with a square) and using a straight stitch, sew around the bottom and side of the square.  (you can do 2 lines of stitching for strength if you like)

3. Fold over about 1cm all around the open end of the pocket and iron it down (don't skip this step or it is too much of a pain to sew!)

4. Turn your pocket back in the right way way, then take the two sides and hold them together.  This will make your triangular shape.

5. top stitch along the opening, leaving a section open at one end big enough for the end of your funnel to go in.

6. Fill up your triangular (kind of) shaped sack with rice.  Use the right amount of rice so that the sack is fairly full, but also so that you can finish sewing up the gap.

7. (this is the trickiest bit) Fiddle around a bit to get your juggling ball back under the sewing machine and stitch up the gap. 

8.  Make a couple more in the same or different fabrics and then either package them up with juggling instructions (lots of the web) or start juggling!

I'd love to eventually crochet some juggling balls too, but I'm thinking that will be less quick and easy......

Let me know if you make some and post a photo! :)