Highway Hell

As it is my last day of Easter leave, I have been chilling out and doing a lot of reading. This one article in the Melbourne newspaper The Age got me thinking. It is titled "Stuck in our cars on the highway to hell". It describes the nightmare that is the transportation headache around Melbourne. Building new freeway tunnels and bypasses are not going to solve the problem. Our public transport system has not had a major upgrade for many years, and even India is upgrading their metro rail system. This means that the expanding western suburbs of the city, which have grown considerably in size over the last 10 years, cannot cope with the increasing amount of cars on the road. I will give you an example. When I first moved to Melton West in August 2000, it would take me 45 minutes to get to South Yarra by car, which is some 51 km. This was with me leaving at 0630 in the morning. If I drove to the Central Business district today, which is only 42 km from Melton West, it would take between 70 -120 minutes if I left at 0630. This is craziness, because if I did not have a Hybrid, I would be idling longer in traffic jams and stop/start driving is not very fuel efficient. When I do drive my Hybrid, I can't help to think about everyone else who's car/trucks do not turn off when idle, or don't use electric only mode when crawling along at 20-40 kph. All those emissions make me sick!

So what are the alternatives? Public transport in my area is a joke, but because of my painful bonus, I am forced to use it (I can't sit down for very long). We have a bus stop about 10 minutes walk from my house, and many times I have been standing, waiting for a ride to the railway station and it doesn't turn up. The buses have a frequency of about 30 minutes during peak and hourly off peak. Then when I do get to the train station, the platform is jammed packed with people, and a two carriage train turns up! Talk about sardines in a tin.

The train system out west is a joke. We have a single track, that is not electrified, and serviced by slow old diesel locomotives made in the 70's. There are some new fast trains, but the carrying capacity is nothing like what is required. I know trains are more efficient at transporting the same number of people compared to cars, but I am sure these old loco's need a tune up, you should see the smoke when they start moving! The train frequency is every 30 minutes peak and every 60 - 90 minutes off peak. The similar journey that I take by car takes me 75 minutes by public transport and walking part of the way. One very positive thing I will say for the Melbourne public transport system is the single ticketing system and the fares are very reasonable. An all day ticket from my area to the city of Melbourne is only A$10.20, and you can travel on any bus, tram, and train all day. Packed like sardines, but all day travel.

This country is addicted to automobiles and building freeways to solve the current issues. Our current climate change targets will never get met if we continue in this manner. Even if everyone changed to Hybrids, it would still not solve the problem for too long. In a few years, the volume of traffic would have increased further, negating the efficiencies of the new technology. The only solution I can think of is to beef up the public transport system, and to start making Electric Vehicles or Plug-in Hybrids, that have been charged by renewable energy, and do it very, very quickly. As in most citys, the urban sprawl is increasing every year, so the transportation and emission problems will only get worse, unless we act quickly. I am no expert on this subject, but I can see what is going on around me, and it is not pretty.

Another solution would be to decentralise the Central Business District. Take the business and industry out to the suburbs so that workers are local and not spread across the entire city. Just a thought, it might work. With modern communication as it is today, there shouldn't be any problems, except for the companies ego's worrying about the stigma attached to being located in certain suburbs. They will have to get over it! With this solution, car travel is reduced as most people could ride bikes! How fit would everyone then be? Obesity in this country would be a thing of the past, decreasing the strain on the public health system. The road toll would reduce, because a head on collision between bikes would not be a tenth as bad as two cars hitting each other (and easier to avoid). The air would be cleaner, and we would be well on our way to meeting any emissions targets that are likely to be set in Kyoto II. When Peak Oil does does happen, if it hasn't already, and global oil supply starts to decline rapidly, we would not free fall into a spiralling economic depression (maybe) because of transport issues. The railways would be freed up to transport more goods instead of using massive diesel powered trucks. Just like the good old days.

Well, I have had my rant for the week, and hopefully got you thinking about the transportation options of the future. As I said, I am no expert on these matters, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure all this stuff out!

I will leave you with this quote for the day;

“When the freeway disappeared, so did a lot of the problems. Now, the neighbourhood feels like a neighbourhood.” - Robin Levitt

Flower Beds and Beer Philosophy

I have been promising to plant out the fallow garden bed for a while, so today I put up a 2 metre trellis for the Sweet pea. I found the trellis behind our little shed, which was still in good condition, and hammered in two garden stakes for support then fixed the trellis with cable ties. It fits nicely at the end of the bed against the brick wall. I sowed about 15 seeds, and they should germinate in about 14 days. I will be able to train the plants up the trellis for a large bloom of colour. I then planted Nasturtiums in half the bed, and will plant the rest out with red poppy in a couple of months time. Lots of colour, as winter vegetable gardens don't have much, so it will brighten up the place. Kim is now very happy.

After lunch, Adam and I made a batch of beer. We used Coopers Canadian Blonde as the base mix and added 1 kg of Brew Enhancer #1 to it. We completed the first part inside, which was to mix the ingredients with 2 litres of boiling water, and then Adam carried the fermenter out to the rainwater tank and we filled to 23 litres. Adam then carried the heavy fermenter to the shed, and we finished of mixing and took the initial specific gravity measurement (1.045), then pitched the yeast.

I then philosophised with Adam and I proposed that yeast were kind of like our current civilisation. Let me enlighten you. Yeast multiply when there is an abundant and reliable food source (sucrose) and ideal living conditions (water temp between 21-28 degree C). They then produce waste that they can't dispose of (ethanol). If their water gets to hot, they die or too cold, they die (micro climate change). They then multiply rapidly until their food source runs out, and eventually their waste poisons their environment. Most of them die and fall to the bottom of the barrel! Sounds familiar, doesn't it. I can certainly relate to the analogy and so did Adam. The real question is, will we be like yeast, or will we stop being like yeast and change our behaviours and create a new way of living sustainably?

I vote for living in a sustainable way, as I don't want to end up like the yeast in my beer fermenter, which is at the bottom of the barrel!

Our Earth Hour

We have just finished our Earth Hour in Melton, and we had a ball. We lit up every candle we could find, and wound up the dynamo torch about 15 minutes before 8pm and shuffled the UNO cards. At 8pm we dealt our first hand, and played UNO by candle light. Quite an experience, because you can't tell the blue cards from the green in candle light, so there was a lot of cheating going on. Ben (our youngest) got a bit upset, mainly because he is not very good at the rules, and got angry when someone threw a Draw 4 card at him. We tried to explain to him, but to no avail. UNO only lasted for 30 minutes until everyone got bored or got cramps from sitting on the floor!

Then we all sat at the dinning table with about 10 candles lit, and played a game called "what is a word in numbers on a mobile phone". For example, Adam = 2326. Obviously all mobile phones were banned from the table. It was good fun for a while. Then Kim came up with random words to make song lyrics. Here is an example, and all it needs is music written for it;

One hundred thousand islands with weirdo relatives and hippy dressed sheep. With dogs wearing thongs with moles on their bums.

Sounds like a David Bowie song in the making!

We actually kept on going past 9pm because we were having so much fun, and then Adam told Ben that it was 9.15pm and it was all over. How very hard it is for today's generation to live without electricity. Adam was having PC withdrawal symptoms about 45 minutes into the event.

So blow the candles out and another Earth Hour is over. Luckily we practice energy efficiency anyway and have a very low footprint on the earth. For our family, Earth Hour was just another excuse to light some more candles and have fun. Something we normally do on a Saturday night anyway! It was interesting to have a look out on our street and see that most of the lights were off in the houses. It looks like about 60% of our neighbours participated (or maybe they were out for the night), however the orange glow coming from the east was still ever present, signalling that most of the street lights in Melbourne were still lit. Baby steps, Gavin, baby steps (take a deep breath). Maybe next year they will have the courage to turn off the street lights!

Planting Peas, Salad, and Pickling

I have been a busy boy in the garden over the last few days. Friday I made some trellis out of some bamboo sticks I had previously used as tomato stakes. The trellis is for the Purple Podded peas (I saved the seeds from last season) and Snowpeas to grow up. They are a very simple construction, with four sticks in a pyramid shape and fastened at the top with a cable tie that I had spare. Then across the top lay another stick to finish it off. I then planted the seeds 5 cm apart in troughs around the base of each pyramid and watered well. The seedlings should be poking through in about 10 days. I couldn't do the entire row as you can see the eggplant and chilli bushes are still producing well because of the recent hot weather.

Adam and I moved Ben's little garden bed to the other side of the house where the main vegetable patch is. I had a spare bit of land that gets decent sun most of the year round, so it was the ideal place. Yesterday, I planted the winter salad garden into it. I sowed Wild Arugula, Mizuna mustard, Mesclun mix and, Goldrush lettuce. These are all loose leaf varieties that you pick as you need. There should be enough to feed the entire family for the winter. I just checked the root crop bed and the three types of radishes have sprouted and burst through. They really do not take very long to germinate!

Today, it has been raining on and off and all the excess rainwater is topping up the swimming pool. Not that it is pool weather, but it is better than going down the storm drain, as the tank is full to the brim! I started off the day early, and took Megan to the dentist for a checkup, and she had to have a filling (poor girl). Then we walked to the supermarket to buy a few things I needed for making some pickles. We got back home at about 0930 and I started to make a Green tomato pickle to use up all of the green tomatoes I had left after pulling the remainder of the tomato vines last week. It took about an hour but was well worth it. It tasted great! Then I made a second batch of Brinjal Pickle which is essentially eggplant in character, with some onion and chilli. It is great with curries, and we are half way through the first batch as it is so nice.

After the Brinjal Pickle was most of the way through cooking, I started to make a Hot Chilli Chutney to use up the glut of Jalepeno chillies that I had. The recipe was simple enough, and called for 450gm of chillies. I had more than that, so I used up all of the red chillies I had and left a lot of green chillies on the bush to ripen. The chilli chutney is very oily and I have modified the oil content for when next I make it. As you can see from the photo, there is about 1.5 cm of oil in the top of each jar, and by hell, the oil is hot. Maybe I should just siphon the oil off and put it in a small bottle and call it chilli oil! I finished it all off by processing all the jars in the Folwer-Vacola preserving pot for 45 minutes at 93 degrees C. This kills all the bacteria and creates a vacuum so that the food will last for over 6 months. You will notice that I used a few left over jars that have the little button on the top. I have found that these work just as well as the proper preserving jars, and you can process them in the same way.

We are all looking forward to Earth hour tonight, but as it is overcast and raining we probably won't be breaking out my telescope to have a look at the very dark night sky. Kim and I have a Chickpea curry for dinner that we are going to share by candle light, with some of the condiments that I made today. The kids are going to play monopoly by candle light which should be interesting. I will make sure that all of the candles are in a safe place so that we don't end up with a house fire instead of an environmental statement! Kim wants to walk around the neighbourhood and put little notes of shame for all of those people that don't have their lights off at 8pm, but I told her that this is bordering on extremism (but a great idea though). I am, however looking forward to the TV coverage of the event to see what difference it made throughout the world. Here is hoping, anyway.

Wilkins Ice Shelf and Denial

What an extraordinary day for Planet Earth. Why, do you ask? Well a 415 square kilometre slab of the Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica just broke off and is in the process degrading further. For those of you in the US, that is a piece 7 times larger than Manhattan Island! For those of us in Australia, it is larger than the size of Queensland's Gold Coast! Scientists have linked this phenomena to the warming of the oceans around Antarctica. Further proof that we must act a lot faster than we are to combat climate change. It just goes to show that if more of the citizens in the developed nations of the world lived sustainably, and we help developing nations skip the old technology that got us in this crisis, and if industry and government began to act quicker, then we may have a chance of reducing the effects of all this melting and other catastrophic global events.


I can't imagine going to visit Port Melbourne, St Kilda beach or any beach on Port Philip bay for that matter, and for as far as the eye can see would be sea levies keeping back the rising water and no lovely beaches. Talk about King Canute or what! I can just see our grandchildren now, quoting Dr Phil, "What were you thinking!", in relation to the slowness to act about the issue. The ice shelf news made me sad, and has made me even more determined to continue my journey towards our sustainable lifestyle.

No sooner did I read that dreadful news, that I stumbled upon this article about the sceptic element of climate change. This brought me back to a question I was asked last night at my presentation. Someone asked me what I thought of Andrew Bolt, a journalist from the Herald Sun, sprewking on the radio that climate change was an urban myth and that the planet is not warming! Well, I am all for a balanced view of global media, however Mr. Bolt uses the argument that Professor Bob Carter (a well known climate change sceptic) states that the planet is in fact cooling. That is not a balanced view, when the majority of climate scientists agree that climate change is real, and a few sceptics say it is not! That is like most scientists saying that the earth is round (which it apparently is) and getting a Flat Earther to debate it with me!

Well, after doing a bit of research into these sceptics, (by googling "exxonmobil" "Robert M. Carter"), I found that Professor Bob Carter belongs to a group known as "Science and Public Policy Institue" which received funding from ExxonMobil. Many other other climate change sceptics and lobby groups are also funded by by this oil giant, whose best interest is to keep the debate about human caused climate change in the media headlines. After all, they sell the product (oil) that causes the majority of greenhouse gas emissions. Once again, trace the skeptics funding and sure enough, you will find a link to oil funding. Here is a snippet of a CBC Canada show called Denial Machine that discusses the subject of ExxonMobil's campaign to negate the science of climate change. Make up your own mind.

I personally believe the sterling work of the IPCC, who have been working diligently to ascertain the impacts of human induced climate change, and have released their final report and summary for policy makers.

I will leave you with this quote, which sums up the debate as far as I am concerned;

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
- Upton Sinclair

Presentation Night

Last night, I gave a presentation about Sustainable Living to the members of the Melton Rotary Club. I arrived at 6.10pm as the meeting started at 6.30pm. Thank goodness I arrived a little early, as the set-up of the projector, laptop and screen took about 10 minutes, and then I discovered that there was no power extension cord to connect the projector and the laptop to a very distant power outlet. Thankfully one of the members helped me out and we managed to find a power board and an extension cord. After a quick test, everything was ready to go.

I had a chat with a few of the members who were curious about what I was going to talk about, but I did not give much away. The gong sounded, which meant that I had two minutes to grab some Dutch courage in the form of a glass of red wine to calm the butterflies building in my stomach. We all toasted our country and then sung the national anthem and then we sat and the formalities commenced, with the President's weekly address.

After dinner finished, the Sergeant at Arms started his session, which was quite funny, and everyone had a good laugh. Then it was my turn on centre stage. I took a minute to start up the equipment and then got the show on the road.

My opening statement was that I was not here to plug anything, or convert anyone. I was just here to talk about what I had learned, and what my family and I had achieved over the last 19 months during our sustainable journey. I then explained what I thought sustainable living was by definition. I had two definitions, one from the dictionary which was OK, but the one I made up was better. Sustainable Living is never having to say sorry to your grandchildren and great grandchildren about the way you lived and the consequences of that. I believe that this statement hit a raw nerve with most of the audience as many members were over 60, and had children and grandchildren. I also discussed my experience of when I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" for the first time, and that I cried as I walked the 5 km back to the office from the cinema with huge blisters on my feet, and the feeling of guilt that I had during the next few days!

As I worked my way through the presentation, I noticed that I had about 99% of the audiences attention, especially when I got past the first few slides about CO2 concentrations and the warming effect. I actually got gasps when I said that within the next few years there will be no Arctic Ice cap during the Northern Hemisphere's summer. Then I realised that there were not many people that knew that these things were going on globally! After the doom and gloom, which was only about 4 slides to get my point across, and the reasons why we choose to live sustainably, it was into the fun part of the presentation. I went through the following challenges that we as a family tackled;

• Transport
• Energy Efficiency
• Power Generation
• Natural Gas
• Water
• Waste
• Organic Gardening
• Preserving Excess, and
• Home brewing Beer (a big hit)

I then got to the summary and stated that "One person can make a difference, and so can a family" and that "Energy Efficiency and growing your own food are the easiest to achieve and make the biggest impact on you environmental footprint" and to finish off "If you build it, they would come!" I then gave Earth Hour a small promotion and showed my blog address if anyone wanted to learn more. It was now question time, and I got asked about 5 questions, which I think I answered to everyone's satisfaction, from no dig gardening, to "Not everyone can afford to do this" (I agree, but they can be energy efficient), to "can I buy a half a PV system and add to it later" (yes you can, get a bigger inverter first). It was during question time that I mentioned my 2006/07 summer quarter power bill ($700), and compared the 2007/2008 quarter power bill this year ($150). I said, why wouldn't you do these things, if this is the type of savings you can make. That made people think!

After question time, I was presented with a nice glass with the Rotary International Wheel engraved on it and thanked for an excellent presentation. When I sat down in a state of euphoria, I had about 6 other people talk to me and ask me further questions. Most people were really interested, and I think I opened up a lot of minds to new ideas, and gave many members food for thought.

I have managed to create a movie file out of the Powerpoint slides, but just be aware, there is no sound, just the slides. It takes 15 seconds before it begins.



I had a fantastic feeling of achievement, and I believe I delivered an informative and entertaining insight into my world of Sustainable Living!

Winter planting and rain at last

Yesterday, Adam, Ben and I started the plantings for this winter. But before we begun, I had a few things to do. Firstly a haircut and a beard trim! I was starting to look scruffy, and as I have a presentation to give at our local Rotary International Club about Sustainable Living. After my very nice self serve haircut with my 12 watt clippers, it was into the compost bin with the hair!

Next, I gave the garden beds a couple of watering cans of rainwater each, and then turned each one over again, and transplanted the strawberry plants that survived over the summer into some lovely terracotta strawberry pots made locally in Northcote. It was nice to see pots not imported from Asia. Adam then came out and helped, and we convinced Ben that it would be good fun to help with the seeds and to be the water boy. We planted three garden beds, in accordance with my crop rotation plan. The first bed was planted with two packets of early crop broad beans. The next bed was planted with white onions, spring onions, spinach, and leeks, and in the third bed we sowed french breakfast radish, round radish, parsnips, daikon radish, and two rows of beetroot.

I left one bed fallow for the time being and will plant some sweet peas, poppys, and nasturtium late in April. I also sowed some basil and garlic chives in pots. Hopefully the basil will grow, as it is very late in the season for it. After all the sowing was complete we watered well from the tank and called it a day. We still have two other beds to plant out, but I will do that tomorrow. I am going to plant these two out with Purple Podded Peas, and Snow peas. I collected all of the seed myself from last seasons crop and we will see if they germinate! We had a good time and were very sweaty by the time we finished, and I am happy to report that the Water boy did his job diligently. Thank goodness we finished when we did as it was getting very humid and it looked like a thunderstorm was on the way. I went for a swim to cool off.

After lunch, I started on my presentation for the Rotary club. I have a 25 minute time slot, so I whipped up 25 Powerpoint slides about our journey so far, gave my blog a plug and promoted Earth Hour on the last slide. I am excited about giving the presentation, and to catch up with some old friends. You see, I used to be a member of Rotary myself, but I had to give it up due to work commitments. When I figure out how to convert the slides to pictures, I will add them to the blog for all to see.

Then, as I was settling down to write this blog, a huge lightning show started out to the North west. I quickly jumped on the web to the Met Bureau rain radar site and there was a huge rain storm coming our way in about 10 minutes. So the entire family turned off all the lights and computers in the house, lit some candles and watched the show. It was so enjoyable to have a good downpour, and the garden, family, and my rainwater tank loved it. The tank is now three quarters full, and I have about a months worth of water for the garden now! The rain died down after about two hours, and out come the stars and the moon. What a great evening had by all.

I will leave you with this quote to finish off today's post;

There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. ~Mirabel Osler

The Story of Stuff

I just watched a 20 minute movie about consumerism, and how we use stuff.

It was produced by a U.S. lady called Annie Leonard, and describes the way in which we use resources for our consumerist needs.

The funny thing that struck me whilst watching the movie, was that it was all true, and explains in a simple way, what I have been going on about ad nauseum for what seems like ages in this blog.

If you would like to watch and be enlightened, as I have, watch the Story of Stuff!

Preparing for Winter planting

On Good Friday, it was all hands on deck to prepare the garden beds for planting. Adam, Ben and I got stuck into a good morning of hard work before planting on Monday, whilst Kim gave Butch a haircut. I had to pull Adam away from a riveting game of World of Warcraft so he could help me out. He was complaining about not being able to fight wizards in Azeroth, and about winning lots of epics or something like that. The lad really needs to get a reality check some days!

Firstly we picked the last of the summer crop. Ben and I picked the last of the heirloom tomatoes, pulled the last few carrots, and harvested what was left of the silverbeet (Swiss chard). Then, Adam and I started to pull out all of the old, spent plants and prepared for composting. Adam had the wonderful task of loading up the wheelbarrow with the contents of one of the three compost bins. The compost smelt fantastic, just like earthy goodness. Once the wheelbarrow was full, we put that to the side, and began to refill the bin. In went the corn storks that I had allowed to dry for a week, then the tomato vines, and the few capsicums that I pulled. Then we added a little of the old compost as a middle layer to start off the compost process again. Then we added the roots of the silverbeet and the long watermelon vines, added a handful of Dynamic lifter to the top and some Dolomite lime. It should start to decompose in about two weeks and will be ready to use in about 3 months. I will keep adding kitchen scraps for a while, and stir it weekly to keep it aerated.

With the beds all cleared, we started to add organic matter to them. As we were preparing three beds, we added a third of a wheelbarrow of compost to each, and then added some well rotted horse manure (Melton is a harness racing area in Victoria) from my Aerobin into each bed. Then I added a couple of flower pots worth of dynamic lifter to each bed and a handful of dolomite lime to lower the acidity. Adam then churned it all up with the pitch fork to mix it all in well. This took at least half an hour to really do a good job. I had to get him to redo it once, and said that I will have to call up Grandpa John (my Dad) and tell him that he was not farming like he had shown me all those years ago, and that Grandpa would open a can of whoop-arse on him. We had a good laugh, and Adam mentioned something about my backward country boy upbringing under his breath!

Some of the horse manure was still in big clumps, so I broke up as much as I could with the rake. After this was complete, I used the rake to level it all up and watered each bed in so that the dynamic lifter would start breaking up and the lime soaked in. Hopefully it will rain over the Easter weekend to help with the process.

After all of the outside work was done, I got busy in the kitchen. I had to blanch the silverbeet in boiling water for 2 minutes so that I could pack it away in the freezer. Kim asked me not to include any of the white stalks, so I cut them off and gave some to the worms and put the rest in the Aerobin. We will use the silverbeet as a substitute for spinach, and put it in quiche's that Kim will make when it gets colder, and they are the best quiches on the planet!

I then made some curried carrot soup with the carrots Ben and I pulled. Here is the recipe I made;

Curried Carrot Soup

1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons butter
1 medium brown onion, chopped
750 gm organically grown carrots, chopped (freshly picked)
4 cups chicken stock (low salt)
1 half Tablespoon curry powder
freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Melt butter and oil in a medium saucepan, add onions and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and curry powder and a couple of twists of the pepper mill. Stir, bring to the boil, then cover and simmer until the carrots are very tender (about 15 minutes). Blend soup with a hand blender or food process, being careful as it is very hot! Return processed soup to the saucepan and reheat. Serve hot, with crusty bread. Makes 4 large serves.

It was fantastic, and all the kids raved about it, even Ben who is adverse to trying new things. A very satisfying start to a meal. Home-grown vegetables are simply the best I have ever tasted.

Democracy in action

Last night, I was inspired to write a few letters to my local councillor about the lack of action regarding climate change in our shire, and to our state politicians about renewable energy feed-in tariffs.

Here is the content of the local letter, and it was addressed from all 6 members of our household;

Dear Councillor Rowan,

As our local ward representative, we feel the need to write to you about a very important issue. As we have seen with the recent Federal Election, climate change is an issue many Australians are deeply concerned about and want strong leadership on.

We care about climate change because Australia is a great place to live and we don't want to ruin it. What concerns me most about this issue is that we only have a short window of time to act.

To reduce our greenhouse pollution, we have personally committed to:

- Switched my household power supply to 100% accredited GreenPower

- Installed a 2.8 kWh solar photovoltaic system

- Installed two water efficient shower heads

- Installed a 2300 litre rainwater tank

- Set my washing machine to wash my clothes in cold water and reuse the greywater.

- Turn off computers and screens overnight at work and home

- Eat two less serves of meat a week

- Checked and installed adequate roof insulation

- Avoided all domestic air flights this year

- Drive 20 kilometres less each week and ride a bicycle

- Reduced my household electricity and gas usage by 75%

- Installed a solar hot water heater

- Grow 50% of my own fruit and vegetables

We want Australia to be a country where we are all doing our bit to look after the environment. To see what we have achieved to date look at http://greeningofgavin.blogspot.com.

Ordinary Australians are doing what we can, but we also need your leadership. We are really pleased that Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and is committed to working towards a new global agreement to tackle climate change. We would like you, as our elected council representative, to step up to the challenge of reducing Melton Shire’s greenhouse pollution. Will you commit to ensuring our pollution levels turn the corner and start to decrease within three years?

We need to do everything in our power to make sure that global warming does not exceed 2°C, otherwise we will see more droughts and bushfires in Victoria. Will you introduce a program of action and awareness regarding climate change in our shire, which all shire residents can be a part of?

Smarter use of energy is the quickest way for Australia to immediately reduce its emissions and will also bring significant economic and productivity benefits. Will you commit to world's best practice in energy efficiency for the shire’s buildings, cars and appliances and set efficiency target this year? Will you initiate an energy efficiency program that all shire residents can be a part of?

We ask that you raise these important questions with your fellow councillors and let us know the Melton Shire Council’s position on them.

Please acknowledge receipt of our letter. We look forward to receiving a prompt response to our questions.

Sincerely,

Gavin ,

And here is the content of the letter to my local state member regarding feed-in tariffs;

RE: Feed-in Tariffs for renewable energy generation

Dear Mr Nardella,

I welcome the commitment of the Victorian state government to introduce a fair price for solar electricity generated on rooftops and fed into the electricity grid. I believe that a move toward renewable energy is an essential means of addressing climate change, and solar photovoltaic (PV) micro-generation has an important role to play in boosting Victoria’s renewable energy share.

By offering a premium price for electricity generated on rooftops and fed directly into the grid, feed-in tariffs recognise the wealth of benefits which arise from the adoption of this technology. These include: environmental benefits from reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants; network benefits from reduced transmission losses and generation closer to the source of consumption; economic benefits through lowering of peak wholesale electricity prices; and social benefits via diversified electricity generation and job creation.

However, for a feed-in tariff to create the level of take-up required to achieve these benefits, it is essential that it is paid at an adequate rate, for a long enough time, and on the total production of the solar system. I call on the government to mandate a feed-in tariff at:

· 60 cents per kWh;

· for at least 15 years; and

· paid on the entire output of a system via gross production metering

A feed-in tariff set at this level will provide the necessary incentive for individuals to invest their personal finances into solar PV systems, safe in the knowledge that the price paid for electricity generated will adequately pay back this investment over the next 15 years.

Feed-in tariffs have been remarkably successful in over 40 countries internationally, and an adequate feed-in tariff in Victoria has the potential to build an industry in sustainable solutions to climate change, provide an alternative to polluting brown coal, and position the state as a leader in renewable energy in Australia.

Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing Victoria. I trust that you, as my elected representative and Ministers, take this issue seriously and ensure that this policy measure delivers a major expansion of renewable energy leading to real reductions in greenhouse gas pollution.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin

Hopefully, I should get a reply. As I mentioned in a previous post, if I don't write these letters, who will?

Organic Pest and Weed Control

As I attempt to grow my vegetables in line with organic farming principles, without artificial fertilisers and petrochemical pesticides or herbicides, sometimes after a really hot day my broccoli and other brassica get attached by cabbage moth caterpillars. You see, the heat makes the usually strong plants wilt and I don't know if they have an immune system like up, but I do know that this is when the beasties are more likely to attack. Our part of the world has just gone through at least two weeks of temperatures over 35 degree C. This is very unusual for March, so you see my dilemma.

I started picking off the caterpillars at night with a torch by hand and throw them over the fence for the magpies (they love them). That works for a few days and then it is out with the torch again for another caterpillar throwing contest.

There had to be a better way, I thought. There must be some friendly way of deterring the little buggers (no pun intended). I performed a little research and there were only a few products on the market that are organically certified. I went to our local Bunnings Hardware store to check out the pesticide section. I was gob smacked with the so many types of poisonous products on the markets just to grow vegetables. I can just imagine all of the harmful chemicals that you would ingest if you used these sprays and powders. I found only two organically certified pest control products out of about 60 that were available. Some people must not understand the issues with using these type of poisons, or they wouldn't buy them and the chemical companies would stop making them. Anyway, the two type available were Derris Dust and a product called Beat-A-Bug. Derris Dust is made from the Derris root which is native to Central and South America and contains a compound called Rotenone. It is long lasting and relatively safe for humans. It is a poison in large quantities, so follow the instructions on the label. I have found it very effective on brassica and silverbeet. It stops the caterpillars in their tracks. Just make sure that you don't use it if rain is expected as it is water soluble.

Even though Derris Dust is a good deterrent, it is not very good for sorting out aphids which is another pest I have to deal with. Aphids suck the life out of the new growth and they stunt the growth of just about all the plants they attack. This is where the Beat-A-Bug would come in handy, but it is quite expensive for a 1 litre bottle, so I make my own version. It is called the "All purpose onion, garlic and, chilli pest spray", and I found the recipe in a gardening book called "The Organic Garden" by Jeffrey Hodges. The spray is also a mild fungicide, antiseptic and antibiotic and has a very strong odour, just like someone opening their lunch box on a hot day that contained onion & garlic sandwiches! Here are the preparation directions;

"Combine 2 finely chopped onions and 6 cloves of freshly crushed garlic with 1 tablespoon of hot chilli powder (or 6 finely chopped red chillies), cover with 2 cm of water, stir well and allow to steep for 24 hours. Dissolve 1 cup of pure soap flakes in 5 litres of warm water, and then add the strained onion, garlic and chilli mixture and stir well. Use within 24 hours."

Now with most things there are some safety tips.

• Always use gloves and wear a long sleeved shirt and trousers, as the chilli in the spray really stings on bare skin.
• Make sure that if you do get some spray on your skin to wash it off immediately with soapy water.
• Don't spray in windy, rainy, or very hot conditions. The best time to spray is early in the morning as the bugs are less active.
• Don't harvest sprayed plants for about 2 days. Natural sprays will breakdown after about 12 hours unlike petroleum based sprays. And of course you don't want you fresh vege to stink of garlic and onions.

I make the pest spray up whenever I need it and spray the next day. I have also found that the plants go through a growth spurt a few days after spraying for pests, so the plants must absorb some of the nutrients in the spray! An beneficial side effect in the best possible way. I use the spray about once a month to keep things under control and hand pick caterpillars or aphid damaged vegetation in between sprays. If you really don't want to mix up this potent natural pest spray, try Beat-A-Bug instead. I think that the only extra ingredient it has is pyrethrum so it is a good alternative if you can afford it.

Now that you know about organic pest sprays and powders, the weed control is so much easier. Mulch is the answer to all organic gardeners problems. Mulch thickly in spring and summer and the weeds hardly get a chance to germinate. Any of the few that do get through, I pull by hand and throw in the compost bin. Any grasses that manage to pop through the week matting under my paths are simply killed off by pouring boiling water on them. They die within a week as their cell walls bust and the plant wither and expires. I use left over cooking water or boil up a kettle of water. It works well and beats having to pull them out by hand. It is also very friendly on the garden and is so much better than using glyphosate (roundup and zero) which is harmful to all life and causes cancer in humans.

By using these easy tips, I hope you avoid the poisons and switch to organic pest sprays, and that you have a successful and healthy organically grown garden just like mine!

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is taking place on a global scale this year and is being held on the 29th March 2008. After last years success in Sydney, the event has expanded to many more cities in Australia and across the planet. The event is a simple and symbolic one. The idea is to turn all of your lights, including the television and PC screens (after all they are lights too) for one hour starting at 8pm as a sign of action against climate change. A kind of grass roots uprising if you like, but in a non-violent way.

The event was created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and last year over 2 million of Sydney's residents and over two thousand businesses took part and reduced the city's electricity consumption by 10%. A pretty good effort with just lighting. Imagine what would happen if everyone turned their lights and all appliances off at the wall! I did read that the Queensland government are encouraging their citizens to participate in an "Unplugged Day" on the 3rd of April 2008. I hope they get a good turnout, as we did here at home when we had our own unplugged day! I think that they will get more out of it than just emissions savings for both Earth Hour and Unplugged Day.

Here are some ideas I came up with to do during Earth Hour;

• Have a candle lit dinner with a loved one,
• Play a board game with the kids,
• Hold an Earth Hour party and chat with friends,
• Relax in a bubble bath surrounded by candles,
• Invite a friend who can play a musical instrument and sing songs,
• Discuss climate change with your family and plan to take at least one simple action each week for the next few weeks to promote energy efficiency around the home.

So jump on-board, and have a go, because the simple act of turning of lights will make others take notice around the world, and will send a message to our leaders that we want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem! I am one of the blue dots on the globe, are you? Be part of a revolution today!

Inspiration at last!

Before I start today, I must apologise if my last few posts have been a bit down in the dumps. Being in pain for most of the day doesn't help, neither does reading about the end of civilisation as we know it. I have promised Kim that from today onward, I will be more positive in my posts, as a depressed blogger is not a happy blogger. I am truly sorry.

I started the day in a little pain and feeling sorry for myself, until I stumbled upon this website called the Path to Freedom, which journals the story of a family from Pasadena, California, who have done pretty much what I have, but maintain their "homestead" as a full time occupation. They maintain a fifth of an acre about 100 metres from a freeway, and grow enough salad greens to sell to local restaurants and catering firms.

It certainly made Kim and I think a little bit more about what we could do around our house. We even went out into the front yard to see if we could convert some of it to food production! We decided that we would concentrate on an area around the clothes line first and tackle the front yard in a few years time.

I have posted a video of their exploits which inspired me for today's post. Hope you like it!

Junk Mail

What a blight on modern society! Junk mail in this country magically appears in your letterbox every day, and the volume seems to be getting larger every month. I now apologise to all distributors of unaddressed catelogues.

Sorry, I don't want to buy your imported food special of the week. I don't care about the latest High Definition TV receiver. I don't want a bra that make my breasts look fuller (I am a man after all). Forgive me if I will not rush down to your dealership to buy the latest planet killing SUV. I am so sorry for not wanting that huge chainsaw that I will never use. Thanks for thinking that I need to keep in touch with the latest fashions from Europe, made by sweatshop labour here and in South East Asia.

See what I mean? And furthermore, most of this consumerist junk is printed on virgin paper and not recycled paper stock. Yes my friends, they cut down the lungs of our planet to deliver this stuff to your letterbox each and every day.

There is a very simple solution that from my experience works. You can order a sticker that says "No Advertising Material, Thank you" and put it on your letterbox. The flood of junk mail stops instantly! I did it in style with a little brass sign screwed in just above the letterbox that states "No Junk Mail Thankyou!" about three weeks ago. I don't think it will fall off in a hurry. And guess what? The postman must have read it because I have junk mail no more. Just think if more people did this. How many trees would we save? I estimate that I would receive about 150gm of junk mail each day which used to get delivered about 5 days a week. So that is 150gm X 5 days X 52 weeks a year. That equals 39 kg of paper a year per household. This story in the Sydney based Daily Telegraph shows how bad this issue is getting. The article reports that;

"This year, eight billion unaddressed catalogues would be distributed, mainly to household letterboxes, an Australian Catalogue Association spokesman said."

That is one hell of a lot of paper that may not be recycled, that litters our neighbourhoods on windy days, and advertising that tries to make us buy stuff we don't really need, with money we don't really have, to make us feel better about ourselves, and to show to people we don't even like. The same old consumerism gone totally out of control. It reminded me of many other things in our civilisation that have gone the same way!

So, all I ask, is for those of you that don't have a sign on your letterbox and hate junk mail, please put one up to help keep some of our old growth forests intact, and to cure just a little bit of the Affluenza that is rife in our society.

Edit: If you really want to read catalogues, have a look at this site. My dad pointed it out to me!

An Excellent Visit

On Labor Day afternoon we had the pleasure of being visited by our local Environment Education Officer, Linda Bradburn and Alan Pears. Alan holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Environment and Planning at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT). He teaches such things as;

• Energy Policy and Management (including links to urban development, transport, buildings, demand management and renewable energy technologies, and energy market reform)
• Climate change policy and mitigation measures,
• Technology and Environment

Linda contacted us earlier in the week about the visit and we were more than happy to accommodate.

It was a very hot afternoon with the temp around 36-38 degrees C. When they arrived, we got out of the heat in the nice cool house and sat and talked about all things sustainable, from energy efficient air-conditioners to peak oil. After about 30 minutes I took them both on a tour of our house to show them (mainly Alan, as Linda had already had the privilege) the technology we use to reduce our carbon footprint. We looked at the solar panels, the grid connect inverter, the panels again (they do look nice!), and the solar hot-water system.

During the tour, I posed this question. "What do you think will happen to Melton after Peak Oil". Alan and Linda described a not so nice outcome. I shall paraphrase, "As Melton has 85% of its population working outside of the shire boundaries, its residents will find it very difficult to get to their place of employment as petrol prices rise through the roof. If the public transport system is not expanded to meet the extra capacity of the soon to be non-driving public, then the town would be hit with a huge economic crisis. It would become a slum similar to most suburbs far from the city." I believe that the citizens of Melton will have two choices, move to the city or country, or stay and rough it out and develop a village in which more food and jobs are sourced locally. Not a rosy picture for the outer areas of major cities. At least the freeways will be clear for me and my Civic Hybrid car!

We continued by looking briefly at the front yard and Linda mentioned that there are some very drought tolerant local flora that look nice and would survive well in the present conditions. I must email the Melton Environment Group to find out where I can get them from.

After the tour we went back inside (cool!) and had a final chat. They both were very impressed with what Kim and I had achieved in such a short space of time. Alan and Linda mentioned that they had travelled from Gisborne which is about 23km away from Melton in the foot hills of the Great Dividing Range. Alan told us that he was kind of mentoring a couple who have started an energy efficiency and home auditing company. It is a good time to start this type of business for two reasons;

1. Growing awareness of Climate Change and the willingness of ordinary Australians to take action and,
2. The Federal Government promised to provide low interest loans of A$10,000 to make home improvements to lower residential carbon footprints nation wide.

As mentioned previously, two really good reasons to start this type of company. I suppose someone has to facilitate the governments scheme, and it will create many jobs in this growing job sector. About time, I say!

With the visit over, we said our goodbyes. Kim and I agreed that it was good to chat with like minded people who felt the same way we did. A breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant part of the world. The parting remark from Alan and Linda was that I should get more active in local politics and should attend some council meetings to get the feel for the political climate. I know just from living here in Melton of the lack of action by our local council regarding environmental matters. Recycling is about the only thing they report on, and they sponsor some local re-vegetation of the so called "green belts" around the shire. There no energy efficient buildings (apart from ours) in the area, no promotion by council about energy efficiency, or any other local awareness schemes of that nature. The only energy producers are a few residential houses with PV, so all of the shires energy needs are imported.

We need action now! If the council do act, the shire can make a name for itself and be a shining example to the rest of the state. It is not hard, look what we have done with a limited budget and a short amount of time. Once there is buy-in by the local public (who are probably waiting for the council to act anyway) there will be a lot of excitement and people willing to assist in creating a better future. As they say "Think Globally, Act Locally!"

Kim and I will be attending the next council meeting, so I will keep you posted on what happens next!

Clean coal is a pipe dream

I am not very well today. My back has been playing up for the last few days so I won't be writing a long post.

Those of you who live in Victoria will know that we use Brown Coal to generate most of our electricity needs. There are those in the coal industry who are trying to bamboozle the general public with the promise of clean coal. What a crock and a diversion. Lets spend more money on proven renewable energy technology now and not wait for some pie in the sky technology that may not even get off the ground.

Listen here to what Dr Karl had to say about "Clean Coal". He is a respected pop culture scientist in Australia and I believe what he has to say.

Happy listening!

Unplugged Day

In early February I read about a movement starting in the U.S. called Unplug day. From what I understand the movement encourages others to turn off lights and appliances on a nominated day each month. The premise was not to save power but to bring people together! I thought that this was a wonderful idea, as the kids spend far too much time watching television and playing computer games. Sure, we have dinner most nights around the dinner table and we talk, but I had been observing that the conversations were beginning to become less meaningful.

So to combat the lack of conversation and to bring us closer together for at least a day, I approached Kim with the plan. She was all for the idea, however there were conditions. It was not to occur on a hot day, and the fridge had to stay on. I agreed with the conditions and set the date for February 8th, 2008, as the weather forecast was favourable all weekend. The hours for unplugged day were to be from 6am to 10pm with only the fridge to be running.

Now I devised some conditions of my own. The children were to stay home all day and not visit friends, and that we were to spend the time together. Pretty easy, or so I thought! No sooner had I announced my cunning plan at dinner that evening, I began to be lobbied by various parties, stating that it was too long, the wrong day, that they would be bored, miss their PC's, and miss the idiot box (TV). After stamping my proverbial foot, there was no more discussion until the day before the event. Apparently the kids had been chewing Kim's ear off all week about the proposed unplugged day, and she had buckled! She then cleverly convinced me that it should be moved to the Sunday and that the time period should be from 12pm to 6pm. Now I know how politicians get lobbied. So for peace in the house I agreed and now my plan was complete. Finally a happy household.

Sunday 12pm arrived and all the kids began turning off every appliance at the wall! Amy got into the spirit straight away and brought out some very dusty board games and to my surprise, Adam, Megan, Ben and Amy played. It is the first time in a very long time that I have seen them all playing together. They were having such a good time that Kim, Kim's mum Pam, and I sat outside on the patio, read books and chatted. The children kept themselves amused for 4 hours before they came looking for us. Once they joined us, Adam began to tell us some stories about his weekend with his mates. Some of the crazy things he gets up to when out on the town took me back to my youth and adventures. Everyone laughed so much at his tales, that I didn't want him to stop. However, a promise was a promise and it was now 6pm. I gave the nod, and you should have seen how quickly all of the PC's came on again. It was such an eye-opener.

We had such a great afternoon and I think they all learned a valuable lesson. That was that you don't need digital distractions to enjoy yourself. It is all about the simple things in life, good company, sharing, and love. They also learned that each of us needs each other. I learnt that I couldn't force my will upon the family and that a series of negotiation produced a better outcome that everyone bought into. I re-affirmed that Kim as a very special lady, who goes along with my crazy ideas. Of this I am truly grateful.

My little experiment proved that community, or in this case family, is far more important than material things. This is because when we take away all the stuff that clutters our lives, community/family is all we have left. Our western society has lost its sense of community. With far too much consumerism and brainwashing by media advertising, we have become slaves to the market. We all buy too much, with money we don't have, to make us happy, and to show off to people we don't even like! Most of us living in cities don't even know who our closest neighbours are, let along talk to them. It is a sorry state of affairs when people own multiple mobile phones to talk to friends, but can't be bothered to lean across the back fence and converse with their fellow man (or woman). We need to bring back the sense of belonging to a community if we are to survive the troubled times ahead.

I know it can work. Cuba, who over the last 17 years, have gone though an artificially induced Peak Oil crisis (due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990), and have survived, but only because of their sense of community. Read here about how the Cubans achieved it and how they are a lot better off today because of their actions. They are a shinning example of what can be achieved in the face of adversity. Think of their story as an example of what may happen to all of us when global Peak Oil hits, and we enter the downward side of the peak.

We, as a family enjoy our time together, partly because of what happened on unplugged day, but mostly because I believe that family comes first above all else. Kim and I instil these values into everything we do, by leading by example foremost.

I love them all so much. Now, how do I tell them that I already signed the family up for Earth Hour in three weeks time?

Gav's Eco Beer

Everyone now knows that I love jam, however only a few people know that I also make my own beer. Beer consists of Malt derived from barley, Hops, Sugar, water and yeast. Homebrew beer is simple to make, is easy to store, and drink, and does not attract a tax excise in this country. I started making beer in 1992, but stopped producing when I moved to Melton West in 2000 for about seven years. I don't really know why I stopped, maybe I was lazy and switched to wine at the time. When the green bug bit me on the bottom, I took it up again last year.

I believe that making your own beer has the following environmental benefits;

• Less packaging for the finished product,
• Reuse of bottle instead of recycling which is energy intensive,
• Lower transport emissions to deliver the finished product,
• All ingredients are manufactured in Australia (lower food miles),
• No plastic six pack rings that hurt wildlife, and
• No litter from single use drink containers.

I use harvested rainwater during all the fermenting and sterilising, so my water is not being diverted from rivers or lakes. So I think that my homebrew is fairly low impact on the environment.

I prefer Coopers home brewing equipment and ingredients as this company advertise that they have a low carbon footprint at their brewery in Adelaide, South Australia. It is also only 650km from where I live and is the closest manufacturer of beer products to my location. The Coopers commercially brewed beer is based on bottle fermentation and has a small layer of yeast in each bottle. This negates the need to charge each bottle with CO2 to carbonate the beer during bottling.

As I have mentioned, beer making is simple, however I used to try and make fancy beers in my younger days, by adding different malts, different sugars, or adding extra hops to the wort. The wort is the pre-fermented beer before you pitch or add the brewers yeast. The beer I now make is less work, because I believe that the home brew concentrates have improved since I first began making it.

I start off in the kitchen, with either a Coopers Lager or Draught concentrate, and a packet of Coopers brewing sugar. I sterilise the 25 litre fermenter drum, which is made of recycled food grade plastic. I use sodium metabisulphate as the sterilising agent and only use a teaspoon in the drum. Once the fermenter is sterilised, I begin to prepare the wort. Soak the can of concentrate in hot water for about 10 minutes, as this makes the mixture easier to pour upon opening. Empty the can into the drum and add the desired amount of brewing sugar. 500gm for light beer and 1 kg for full strength beer. Then, add 2 litres of boiling water and mix with my sterilised long handled spoon, so not to introduce wild yeast into the wort. I then ask one one of my strong teenagers to carry the barrel around to the rainwater tank, where I add water to make up 23 litres. The chosen teenager then lugs the covered barrel to the shed where the remainder of my beer making equipment is. I then stir well, then check if the temp is in the correct range of 22-28 degrees Celsius so as not to kill the yeast, and once OK, I take an initial specific gravity reading with the hydrometer and then pitch the yeast. I simply sprinkle the dry yeast over the wort and gently stir it in, making sure it doesn't stick to the sides of the drum. The fermenter drum now gets sealed with the lid that has a large o-ring around the thread to ensure an airtight seal. I then fit the airlock (filled with sterilising solution) and then press in the sides of the drum do make sure that bubbles pass through the airlock in the desired manner. Once that final check is made, the initial part of the process is complete.

I usually go back and check the airlock after about 3 hours to ensure that fermentation has commenced and that the temp is still OK. All I do for the next 4 to 6 days is to check once a day to make sure that everything is bubbling away as it should and that the drum does not start getting over 30 degrees. If it does, I place the drum on the cool cement floor of the shed and this usually cools things down again. During summer, fermentation takes about 5 days and in winter it takes up to 10 days because of the cooler weather.

When the airlock stops bubbling, I take a final specific gravity reading which should read between 1.008 and 1.010. If it is any higher than 1.010, I leave the beer for one more day and recheck. If all is OK, then it is on to the bottling phase.

I use PETE plastic bottles that have a brown tint. They come with a standard screw cap with a plastic seal inside. Firstly I clean all the bottles with a bottle brush and mild detergent (only if they have been previously used) and then rinse with sterilising solution. The solution is safe enough that you do not need to rinse again. I then set all the clean bottles on my workbench and add a heaped teaspoon of white sugar to each bottle via a small funnel. This extra sugar is need to start secondary fermentation which generates the wonderful CO2 bubbles that a good beer is known for. Once the sugar is loaded, I then fill each bottle with beer, leaving about 2 cm space from the top and seal with a cap. As I have, what Kim calls, sensitive I.T. hands, I have to wear gloves to seal the bottles, or otherwise I get blisters. I know, I am a wuss puss. I then invert the bottles to stir up the sugar and then store the finished bottles in a cool place that remains at about 22 degrees under the workbench.

The beer is ready to drink after 14 days, however the taste improves with ages. I keep my beer in storage for at least one month before sampling the first bottle of the batch. If the beer is still a bit "green", I leave it for a further 2 weeks.

The finished product is delightful to drink in moderation and to share with Adam and my friends. Kim likes the low joule cider that I have made her, and sometimes has a shandy (beer and lemonade). Even Ben has helped me make a batch of non-alcoholic ginger beer. It only took us 4 hours in total as it doesn't require primary fermentation. You just mix the concentrate in the barrel with water, add a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle and seal. The ginger beer is ready to drink in 3 weeks and is very refreshing and a nice alternative to beer on a hot day. Ben enjoys watching me pour an icy cold ginger beer to share with him. So do I!

Home brewing is a great hobby and it also saves me money. The first batch cost A$2.67 a bottle taking into account the price of the brewing kit, however each following batch only costs 40 cents a bottle. That is great value for the environment and for my wallet!

I will leave you with this little quote;

He was a wise man who invented beer.
-- Plato

Heat!

It is hot! Today the temperature is 37 degrees Celsius here in Melton West. Walking outside is like opening an oven door. It is supposed to be Autumn here in Victoria, and I can't remember the last time we had decent rainfall.

I got up at 0600 this morning, knowing that it would be hot. Working in the morning, before the Sun rises, seems like the only solution. I gave all the remaining vegetables a good soak from the rainwater tank so that they would survive the extremes of the day. I also watered all the pot plants around the outside of the house as they would have died as well. The rainwater tank is now half full and as I use about 150 litres every time I water, that means that I only have 6.66 days of water remaining! Not a good situation to be in.

I worked until about 0800, then came inside. The temperature outside was 25 degrees even at that early hour. All I can say is thank goodness for great insulation in our house. We have taken some pretty drastic measures to keep cool today without consuming vast amounts of electricity. All the outside doors are closed, as are the windows. The vertical blinds are drawn and closed and Kim has put on selected ceiling fans in the main rooms. We have all of the PC's turned off to reduce heat generation, and are only using laptops where needed. There will be no cooking inside tonight and we are having a BBQ out near the swimming pool, and are hoping that the expected cool change should arrive at about 1900. Lets hope so or I will be cooking the barby in the pool! So with all these measures it is a cool 26 degrees inside without air conditioning. Pretty good I reckon.

As we have a public holiday today, I was going to begin to prepare one of the garden beds for my winter crop of root vegetables. Well, that plan has now been delayed until next weekend as any
seedlings I would have planted today would not have survived until dinner time! It will be all hands on deck over the Easter holidays to get the crop in. I am sure the girls and Ben will help me out. Hopefully we will have cooler weather!

This type of extreme heat just presses home to me that all global citizens need to act now to avert catastrophic climate change. Imagine if this sort of heat became the normal weather pattern. However, I am sure that most people would simply turn on their split system air conditioners and cool down, without giving it a second thought. I can guarantee that all of Victoria's Brown Coal fired power stations are in overdrive just to keep up with the demand of all those air conditioned homes. I can just visualize all of the tonnes of CO2 leaving each smoke stack right now.

This is the main reason why Australia needs to move to renewable energy sources as fast as we can. We are currently in an ever spiraling road to disaster with our present power generating methods. As I mentioned in my previous post on Peak Oil, I am sure that there must be a peak for coal as well.

Our Federal Government has set a target for reduction of GHG of 20% by 2020. I hope we last that long!