Green Living Forums

A few days ago, I was sent an invitation to join an on-line forum called EcoLivingScene.com

This is what they have to say about the forum from the email I received;

"EcoLivingScene is NOT about eco-activism so much. It’s about average people inspiring and supporting each other to make simple and cost-effective lifestyle changes that everyone can make to help the environment."

I don't normally endorse or plug specific organisations mainly because I like to have an objective view and many of us can be unaware of greenwashing before we find out the reality of a good or service, but I can see that this type of forum is quite unique in Australia. I had a look around the site and even though it has only just been created about a month ago, there is quite a bit of information posted already. All fairly sound advice.

There are a few other forum that I subscribe to like The Earth Garden Path, and Aussies Living Simply, and I put up a post once in a while. They are all great on-line communities, and are good portals for sharing information, which, unlike a blog which is one way converstation (besides comments of course), these forums are interactive. When you post for advice, you usually get relies back in droves, and 99% of the time you receive the answers you seek.

Give them a go if you like. I have found them all to be a good source of information for those starting out on the path to a sustainable lifestyle.

Just like the Tropics

The little plastic greenhouse is nice and toasty warm. Today when I checked it at lunch time is was a wonderful 27 degrees C! The normal outside temperature was 11 so there is a very big differential between the inside and outside air temperatures. So much so, that two of the six tomato plants I have in pots are already flowering. It is the first time I have seen anything like it. So far some tomato seedlings have sprouted in two weeks, and the broccoli has sprouted in just 9 days, so it is ideal conditions for germination. Everything else is yet to pop through, but should be up in the next few days or so.

Hopefully, the ground temp will start to heat up over the next few weeks before these tomatoes get too tall for their own good. If I have to remove them early because I will need the space, it will be like traveling from Darwin to Hobart in one day! I hope it doesn't come to that, but I do have lots of seeds to put in the greenhouse this weekend, so it will be getting mighty full.

I checked the radishes yesterday and found a round one the size of an apple. They have been in the ground since Easter, and we have been eating them in salads every so often. They are close to going to seed, so I will have to find a recipe to do something major with them, very quickly. I also have a row of daikon radishes which have been very successful. They look like white carrots, but are quite different. A great spicy crunch, and they grow about 20 cm long. I let two go to seed and they have the most beautiful and delicate variegated pink and white flowers. They brighten up an otherwise green garden in the last month of winter.


Kim did think about making a rude photo, but I stopped her just in time. It would have been funny though. Let your imagination run wild, you know you want to!

The last of the chilies have been picked with most of them having dried on the bush. We picked a combination of jalapeno and birdseye chilies which I will string on a daisy chain and let dry properly. I think I will plant one jalapeno bush this year, just so that I can make my hot chili chutney. So wicked as a spread on fresh bread and butter, with a kick like a mule! Just the thing to warm you up on an otherwise chilly winters day.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Bread is good. Not the store bought white bread that costs a $1.50 a loaf and tastes like glue, I mean the real, honest, home made wholemeal bread. Kim has been busy in the kitchen this afternoon, and came up with these delights. The rolls are for Ben's school trip to the Werribee Open Range Zoo tomorrow. These are photos of just the risen bread just before she cooked them.

She even baked these tasty shortbread biscuits with one end coated in chocolate. How decedent! I had one this afternoon, accompanied by a cup of rooiboss tea, and the biscuit melted in my mouth. Great effort, love.


Why does freshly cooked bread smell so good? Does it take us back to our childhood, or bring back memories of the first time you had a mouthful of freshly cooked bread straight from the oven? Maybe both, but I have read that if you want to sell your house during an open inspection day, either brew a fresh pot of coffee or bake a loaf of bread. Apparently it helps visitors relate to a homely environment and you are more likely to sell your home. What a mighty power freshly baked bread must have over us. I know it has the same effect on me. Whenever I smell our freshly cooked loaf, it makes me feel at home and gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Kim and I bake bread every single day, and I have probably said this in a previous post, but it costs us about $1.10 a loaf, counting all materials and energy costs. Try and buy a decent 850g wholemeal loaf at Bakers Delight for that price! We make either normal tinned loaves, big or small, or rolls as in the photo above. One day Kim even made garlic monkey bread, but I will let her tell that story. It is about time she wrote a post!

Libraries are Cool and Free

Since my back injury a year ago, I have had a lot of time on my hands recovering. Now, I don't like watching commercial television because of the ads and product placement on just about every show, and only watch ABC or SBS at a push. My only two other options for entertainment and learning were the Internet, and books. I chose mainly the the latter, mainly because a good book does not use electricity, and you can take it anywhere you choose to read it. On the train, in the garden, on your lunch break, laying down or standing up (I can't sit for long coz of the injury), in bed or relaxing in the by the pool.

Now being the frugal bloke I am, and with books costing an absolute fortune for a decent reference, how to, or gardening book, I chose to visit our local library about three years ago. I thought to myself at the time, 'Gavin, you pay rates, why not use some of the services you pay for in the shire?' So I did. I was gobsmacked during my first visit. It was a relative smorgasbord of books (funny about that). The first topics I read about were Climate Change, but many of the books didn't come with viable solutions except maybe 'Heat' by George Monbiot. Once I had enough of that doom and gloom, I turned to the subject of Peak Oil. At the time there were only a few books on the subject, and there are many more now. One of the best was 'Half Gone' by Jeremy Legget. More doom and gloom, so where were the solutions, I thought? I turned to the self sufficiency section, and found books on organic gardening, how to make preserves and pickles, making beer, energy efficiency, Permaculture and many more. Even a book about worm farming and how to treat them with the respect they deserve. If I needed to keep a specific section in a book, I either wrote out the recipe or photocopied the page at the library. There were so many books about solutions, it helped me decide which actions were viable on the budget I had at hand.

I think that in the two years since I had my green epiphany, I have bought about 3 books in total, and all gardening or sustainability books. I lend them out as often as I can to interested friends, but they are all boomerangs, because I use them all the time for reference. Other than those, it is the library as the first choice for me every time.

This brings me to the really cool part about our local library. I was in Melbourne about 4 months ago and was in a book store, and this really cool book called 'Crap at the Environment' by Mark Watson jumped off the shelf at me. Mark is a Melbourne based comedian and was trained by Al Gore as one of the Climate Crusaders who deliver the slide show to large audiences throughout the country. He delivers his in a very comical way. Anyway, I resisted the urge to buy the book there and then ($35 I didn't have), and walked away hoping that the book was available at the library. I checked about a month later, but even though the library had it listed in the catalogue, it had not been purchased as yet and was not available for borrowing. So with my trusty library card in hand, I logged into the library website and put a hold on the book.


Guess what? Today, after about a month after I put the non-existent library book on hold, I received a letter in the post stating that the book was on hold for me at the Melton branch. The library staff had actually taken my suggestion and purchased the book from their allocated funds for the year. That is really cool. Not only did I get the book I wanted, I am the first to read our shire's brand new copy of it, an the kicker is that it was all FREE!

I have read the first 20 pages and haven't stopped laughing. It looks Iike a great journey of an average bloke who knew nothing about climate change, to someone who has risen to the challenge and is educating others about the crisis that we now face and got to meet Al in the process. If he makes a few buck in the process then good luck to him. I will do a bit of a book review once I am finished reading it.

To cap it all off, both of my daughters, who up until about a year ago would not have been caught dead in a nerdy library, are both proud library card holders. Megan borrows lots of school related material and some fiction, whilst Amy mainly hires DVDs of Stargate and Angel. Each to their own, but at least they are using a wonderful and free facility. Lead and they will follow!

Also during the last school holidays, I took Ben to the library to see a show, starring Pete the Magician. I laughed so hard my sides nearly split. He had a great mix of kid and adult jokes and tricks (that some of the kids didn't understand) and it cost me $4 for the both of us. I was even in the show, with my wedding ring joined to two others from other audience members. It beats me how he did it, but I was a bit worried at the time! Now you don't get a magic show for $4 anywhere else! He was hilarious and very good at his profession.

So, here's to the libraries of the world, may they continue to aid helping the world to become a better place to live in by providing us with the wisdom of the ancients.

Seeds in the Mail (finally)

Not a very exciting day, however, my seeds from the Digger's Club have arrived via Australia Post, minus the Chilean Guava plant. That should be here by the end of the week.

So, it looks like I will have to make up a big bucket full of seedling mix and fill up the greenhouse to the brim with trays full of seeds. It is still a barmy 20-25 degrees C during the afternoon in the greenhouse (just like a winters day in Fiji, hey Kel), so I am hoping that some germination action will occur over the next few days.

I have made a promise to myself this year that I am not going to buy any seedlings and am going to germinate everything myself. Because last year was the first time I had grown vegetables since I was a kid (under supervision from Dad), I did cheat a little and buy some seedlings for my first planting in May 2007, and again in September 2007. So far this year, I have accomplished my goal, with the entire winter crop being grown from seed. Once you get the hang of it, plan ahead, and figure out when the right times are for planting, it is a cinch. So far in the greenhouse, I have six tomato plants growing well in pots, and two seedling trays that I planted out over the last two weeks, which contain some left over seeds from last year. I have planted two types of pumpkin, eggplant, beetroot, silver beet, capsicums, more types of tomatoes, and some broccoli. Check this previous post for what i will be planting this weekend.

I will wait until the soil gets a bit warmer around the time of the equinox before I sow any seeds direct in the ground. I found that last year this method worked well. Since I found the 6 bags of coco fibre a few weeks ago, I have been making sure that I have been adding it to two of the compost bins, with a sprinkling of dolomite lime, ready to add to the garden beds. The compost looks and smells so good, you could sprinkle it on your muesli (thanks Pete). I managed to prep the beds with the kids help in the first week of September and we let them settle down with all their new organic matter for about three weeks, and then plant around the 21st.

Everything grew fine during last summers crop, but I will do a bit of companion planting this year to try and keep pests away. A few marigold flowers in between the broccoli, and runner beans in with the sweetcorn so that they grow up the stalks and help with the nitrogen in the soil at the same time. I will do a bit of research over the next few days to see what else works. I have already learnt from last year that if you plant carrots and radishes in the same row, the radishes act as pioneer plants and assist the carrots in pushing through quicker. That was a tip from Dad, and it worked well (thanks mate). I also know that if you sow alternate rows of carrots and spring onions, it keeps the aphids away from the carrot tops, so I will be doing that again as well. If anyone has any suggestions of good vegetable companions, please leave a comment. It is always good to seek help from someone who has been successful previously.

I didn't have any issues with any of the tomato plants with pests last year, and will rotate the beds so that there is less chance of any diseases building up in the soil from planting the same crop in the same bed in consecutive years. The rotation I have implemented is working well, and so far no issues with club root in any brassicas, or nematodes of any kind. Just aphids and caterpillar moths! Nothing a bit of Gav's home made garlic, onion & chili spray can't fix!

Looks like I am in for a busy weekend of planting, which will be most satisfying. The kids will have to help, but I know they enjoy spending a bit of time with Dad in the garden. If someone replies to my wanted ad in Freecycle for some chicken wire, I might rustle up some mates and attempt to do some more work on the chook house as well! You never know what might happen.

I wish everyone the best of luck with their spring plantings, and bumper crops.

The Price of Petrol

Kim sent me this email today which is a thought provoking view of the price of petrol compared to other liquids that we consume. I think whoever wrote it has missed the point, but read to the bottom where I will add my commentary.

---

All these examples do NOT imply that petrol is cheap; it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are.
You will be really shocked by the last one (at least, I was)!!!

Think a litre of petrol is expensive?

This makes you think, and also puts things into perspective.

Can of Red Bull, 250ml, $2.95 ... $11.80 per litre!

Robitussin Cough Mixture, 200ml, $9.95 ..... $49.75 per litre!

L'Oreal Revitalift Day Cream, 50ml, $29.95 ......... $599.00 per litre!

Bundy Rum, 1250ml, $51.00 .... $40.80 per litre!

Visene Eye Drops, 15ml, $5.69 ... $379.00 per litre!

Britney Spears Fantasy Perfume, 50ml, $29 . $580.00 per litre!

And this is the REAL KICKER.

Evian water, 375ml, $2.95 ...$7.86 per litre!
$7.86 for a litre of WATER!!
and the buyers don't even know the source
(Evian spelled backwards is NAIVE!!)

Ever wonder why computer printers are so cheap? So they can hook you for the ink!! Someone calculated the cost of the ink at, you won't believe it but it's true; $1,040 a litre.
$1040.00 A LITRE!!!

So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Red Bull, Robitussin, L'Oreal or, God forbid, Printer Ink!!!!!

And - If you don't pass this along to at least one person, your muffler will fall off!!

---

So, this is my take on the email. All of the mentioned products are made by using OIL, the very thing that drives the manufacturing of just about every single product in our current civilisation. So when you do fill up your Car, SUV, or Truck, think about driving less and consuming less of the crap above (especially bottled water). Please take the time to think about the CO2 that you will be pumping into the atmosphere and oceans, when you next take that 2 minute drive, that would only take you 15 minutes of your precious time to walk. We evolved with feet, so use them regularly, or your muffler will not be the only thing that will fall off!

A Cockroaches View of Humans

Just imagine looking at the current state of the planet from the perspective of the humble cockroach. From their point of view, we are doing a pretty good job on wiping ourselves out by stuffing up our current civilisation and many other mammalian species in the process.

Also imagine, if you will, a website written by our cockroach friends, laughing at our own stupid destruction, and the kind of things that they would post, in an effort to urge us on.

Well imagine no longer, because for the last few months such a website is being written by our earthly Periplaneta companions! Take a look at "The Choking Planet" site, and tell me what you think. I think it is written in a humorous, yet thought provoking way. I have laughed at just about every post, and the roach (disguised as a human) who edits this blog has a very unique writing style. Parody at its best.

Long live the roaches, and keep it brown! (I am joking).

Lunchtime Gardening Advice

Yesterday, during my lunch hour, I met a lovely lady called Jacquie, who had contacted me via internal email at work. She was after some gardening tips, and had seen my profile on our company's Intranet. I have found that over the last few months, that when a new profile for a different person gets posted, I inevitability get an email or a call because my profile listed in the archive of that web page.

Anyway, we caught up, and Jacquie mentioned that the area she had available for her vege-patch was about 1 metre x 2 meters. She said that she was already growing herbs successfully in a window box, but lately they were going a little brown. I asked how often she watered them in winter, and she replied once a day. I suggested that she water about twice a week in winter, and that she might be over watering. I used to kill many plants in pots with too much love, with them getting root rot and dying. I also suggested that every two months she adds a little liquid organic fertiliser with the water such as Powerfeed, and water it in well but with out lots of it dripping out of the bottom. That way they should receive enough nutrients to grow strong, even with the occasional picking for meals.

For her 2 sqm garden, I suggested a method called 'square foot gardening'. This is a method of dividing up a small plot and getting the maximum yield out of your available space and was first developed by a guy called Mel Bartholomew. I have read that it works very well and is one of the best ways to garden in a small backyard. Jacquie then went on to ask what vegetables should she plant. I suggested she starts with seedlings from a nursery, and then as she grows in confidence, that she tries planting her crop from seeds. I recommended a few different types of tomatoes, a cucumber cultivar called Spacemaster, Sugar baby watermelons (if she had some space around the patch), and to just stick with veggies that her family normally eat in Summer. We discussed the different types of tomatoes I grew in the Summer season, from Tigerella to Tommy Toe. She was amazed that there were so many types, and had never heard of heirloom vegetables before she had met me. Neither had I until I started my journey either! From my own experience, just plant what you know you like and you will find ways to eat, preserve or just give away excess. That way she could barter the excess if she a glut of something.

I also recommended a book to start her off, from the Digger's Club. I may have mentioned it in the blog before, but as I use it all the time, it is an essential part of my home library, so I will mention it again. The book is "The Australian Fruit & Vegetable Garden" by Clive Blazey and Jane Varkulevicius. It is one of the best introductory books for a budding Australian food gardener. It helped me understand just what I could and couldn't attempt to grown in my specific climate with the book using cold and heat maps to help you understand the various climates around our big brown land. I must have read it about 3 times before I even put anything in the ground when I first started gardening, just to make sure I hadn't missed anything! Jacquie said she would look it up and seemed very keen to get started. I have no doubts that she will get going as quick as she could. She was bubbling with enthusiasm!

She also mentioned that she had seen some TV gardening shows use plastic as mulch. I have only seen it used with strawberries to keep them clean, and she said she would love to grow strawberries. I suggested that she try and get some terracotta strawberry pots so that the berries keep off of the dirt or even try hanging pots. Either way will work, but during the hotter months she must remember to water them most days as all pots dry out quickly in the heat. I said that she could use the cold water at the start of a shower which should give her 20 litres easily from her family of four. That would get her around the water restrictions here in force in the Greater Melbourne area. I also recommended that she mulch heavily in Summer to keep the moisture in the ground by reducing evaporation.

We finished off by talking about the difference between shop bought vegetables and home grown, and that the taste and sweetness is to be believed. I said that once she gets going, she will find it hard to stop, and once she tastes her first crop, she will be hooked for life. Life doesn't get much simpler than that! We parted after about an hour, and she said she would keep in touch and let me know how she gets along. I promised that she could drop me an email any time if she had a question or got stuck with something. I just wish more people would ask for help with gardening tips. I believe that in any endeavour in life, it is good to have a chat with someone who has tried it before you. That way, you can learn by their mistakes, and some of their enthusiasm usually rubs off. However, I have found that it is by making mistakes (and writing down what works and what doesn't) you do learn a heck of a lot more when gardening yourself. Sharing gardening knowledge is fun, and to keep it to yourself is a crime as far as I am concerned.

My final advice was to grow more than you need and you will be so proud of your efforts that you will be happy to share, not only produce, but your experience as well. Well that is what I have found happens to me!

The Rat Race

For those of you who have been following my posts on excessive consumerism, here is a video that just sums it all up. This is exactly how I felt 3 years ago. Thank goodness for a sustainable lifestyle.

Enjoy!

P.S. I promise more posts next week, have been starting to get snowed under with work. How ironic!

Bartering Is Back

I like bartering. It is far superior than using money, because of the obvious fact that you don't need any to make a transaction between two parties. You only need to come to a joint consensus regarding the perceived value of the goods you are bartering.

So far this month, I have swapped;

• a big bag of spinach for a bag of Meyer lemons
• a big bag of spinach for three bags of wood ash (great for the compost bins)
  
• lots of home cooked meals for big hugs from the family, and
• about 200ml of petrol for 6 bags of organic coconut growing medium.
  

Lemons for hot lemon drinks to keep the colds away (working so far), wood ash as a source of potassium and other nutrients for the compost, hugs because I love them, and organic coconut stuff for the compost bins and for growing seedlings in. The last two might not really count, but I do think it was in the spirit of the bartering theme.

Bartering was invented way before the invention of a hard currency, and probably pre-dates civilisation itself, so in my books it must be good. Even better still, if you can get something legally for free, with no strings attached (like my wombling), then that is superior to bartering. As we begin to live, work and buy locally, bartering may become the norm. In fact, it may be the only way that transactions take place amongst locals, with national currencies becoming worthless. I have been reading a bit about Transition Towns of late, and especially about the original Transition town of Totnes in the UK, who's residents and retailers have even begun to use their own homegrown currency in the form of the Totnes Pound note. Have a read about the concept of Transition Towns, because I believe they make a lot of sense to aid in a soft landing during and after the 'energy decent' that is nearly upon us. I would love to help our local town to this stage, but am afraid that they are just not ready yet. I have been thinking long and hard as to whether to put my name down as a contact for interested parties in my area, and will probably bite the bullet soon, because I think that this type of project would be the next logical set in "The Greening of Gavin". What I mean by that, is that my initial project of living sustainably now needs to grow into something bigger than just our family, and outwards into the local community. I am finding more and more that my initial epiphany, and subsequent actions, have become larger than the original spark that exploded in my mind on that wonderful day in 2006. Transition Towns projects have been proven to be able to do just that with the assistance of willing community members.

Over the last few months, whenever I get a chance, I ask my visitors (politely of course) if they have anything cool to barter for my excess vegetables. Last season, we gave away quite a few cucumbers, tomatoes, and some herbs and asked nothing in return, and didn't expect anything either. This year, I am trying to drive a community spirit amongst my friends with this barter idea and see what happens. If it makes only one of them think green, then that is a good thing.

Kim is very active on our local freecycle, not so much swapping stuff, but giving stuff that we don't need to people in need of those goods. Freecycle is a bit like eBay without the auction, and without any payment. There are some simple rules to follow, and that is about it. You are solely in charge of who you give your items to. Usually we get about 5 or 6 requests for any offers we put up, and choose who we think it should go to. It is a great concept and keeps so much stuff out of landfill, where it would have otherwise ended up. I think we both have been freecycle members for about 2 months and have given away the following items in great condition;

• a video recorder
• a fish tank
• a dressing gown
• a child's city scape play mat

Tomorrow, Kim is placing a wanted ad up on freecycle for some chicken wire for the chook house. You never know, I may get lucky.

I wouldn't mind finding a fellow home brew enthusiast who lives locally, so that we could swap beer samples. That would be cool as well, as it would be nice to compare another style of brewing to my own. I still have quite a few preserves left in the cupboard, so what ever is left just before the next crop comes in, I will see if I can barter the excess for other home made or grown foodstuffs in return. Really, I am only after homegrown produce, because I believe a lot of love goes into growing your own food, and it makes the prize so much more special, and in my mind, more valuable.

So. there are many ways to get what you are after without cold hard cash, and without resorting to credit cards. Of course, before engaging in bartering or Freecycle, still think long and hard as to whether you really need the item you lust after. In that way, you are not swapping one form of excessive consumerism for another!

Happy bartering, wombling, or Freecycling!

Reported Site Attack

Some of you may have come across a security warning if using Firefox as your browser or have the google toolbar installed in Internet Explorer. I can assure my readers that I have fixed the issue up.

Unfortunately, I had a link to Best Green Blogs on the side bar, which has been subject to attack because it has links to many malicious sites that forces your browser to download software without you permission or concent. I have removed that link, and have sent an email to the administrator at Best Green Blogs to ask him to rectify the situation.

Needless to say, it is always prudent to make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date with the latest virus signature files, and to heed the warnings that Google issue. Cyberspace is a scary place sometimes, so keep your wits about you.

Once again, my appologies, and thanks to my son Adam for alerting me to the google warning.

Gavin

Is it really about Saving the Planet?

Lets face it readers, it really isn't about saving the planet, is it?

The planet Earth will be here long after we are all worm food, and will be doing fine a few billion years after that. Its about making the environment around us habitable for the human race for just a little bit longer, and in the process, attempting to stop us from destroying ourselves and the other species that share the big blue-green marble with us.

It is really a "Save Ourselves Emergency". Our family tries to live a sustainable lifestyle, so that we can learn the skills for this emergency, and be safe in knowing that we can help others should the need arise. Just like the boy scouts motto "Be Prepared". At the same time, we are trying to build a sense of community in our area, but without much luck at the moment, but have started to meet like minded people and make friends. All worthwhile endeavours take time.

Here is some comic relief about the very subject; just be aware that there is some strong language in the video clip, but it makes a lot of sense.

An Afternoon Out With The Kids and a Slow Weekend

It has been a very long time since I have enjoyed an afternoon out with the kids. Today, I bit the bullet and decided to take Ben and Amy to our local cinema to see the new Star Wars movie "The Clone Wars". It took a bit of preparation as I knew that I might not be able to sit down for the entire movie, so I made sure that I had some painkillers on hand to make sure that I didn't spoil anyones fun.

Ben and I cooked popcorn before we went, and took two water bottles as well. Thank goodness we did because the equivalent at the cinema would have cost us about $15! I drove the Hybrid to the shopping centre which was only a 5 minute drive, but would have taken us about an hour at the pace I walk at this stage in my recovery. We met Amy outside of her workplace, I took the painkillers, and then proceed to the box office. I couldn't believe the price of the tickets! It has been a long time, over a year in fact!

The movie was pretty good, but it might have been because I started feeling spaced out after about 10 minutes. Ben and Amy enjoyed it, and because I was so zonked out, and didn't feel the pain as I expected, it was a bit of a trip. Nice colours man! Amy drove home, mainly because I was still out there, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. We told Kim all about the movie, whilst helping finish off the dinner preparation.

It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, and we managed to save a fair bit of money by taking our own drinks and snacks. By the looks of things, I think we were the only ones that actually thought ahead. The snack bar was packed and I didn't realise that people get sucked into buying all of that junk food, when they can walk 200 metres into the shopping centre and get it for a third of the price! Maybe it has to do with the total movie experience, or I am just not willing to fork out my hard earned cash on crap. Frugal to the core.

Even though we are strapped for cash this month, I still managed put some aside to celebrate (or commiserate) the 1st anniversary of my back injury by doing something I wouldn't have normally done (sit down). The kids enjoyed it as well, and it was a great feeling to do something for them for a change, as they have been doing everything for me during the acute phase of this last relapse whilst I was flat on my back.

Oh, speaking of backs, I forget to mention my visit to my neurosurgeon on Friday. The news was good as far as I was concerned. The MRI showed that there has been no further injury, other than the original disc bulge. Mr Maartens mentioned that a year is still a short time in the scheme of things for this type of injury and there maybe further relapses to come before it fully heals. So now we have finished what I am calling Plan A.

We both agreed to treat it conservatively for another 12 months, if that's what it takes, (I hope it heals before then), but there is a surgical operation if I really get desperate and if the pain gets worse. Apparently they can fuse the L5/S1 vertebrate from the front to relieve the disc bulge from pressing against the nerve roots that have been giving me the back and leg pain. We called that plan C.

Plan B, which I will begin working towards now, is an exercise rehab program that my work is paying for. It will help me build up my leg muscles and develop core muscle strength. I will be starting the program at the end of August, all being well of course. I am looking forward to it, because I know that this will help speed up my recovery, and get me back to work so I can get stuck into some interesting assignments. I will also be able to do more around the garden, but I certainly won't be doing any heavy lifting for a very long time, even after the back is fully repaired. I will just have to find a different way of doing things.

Unfortunately, after the smashing success of last weeks home movie Eco Boy, I didn't get to do much work on The Eco Boy - Episode 2, but at least I have the story board mostly finished. We will have to film it next weekend. Sorry about that for all the die hard fans of the wee lad. Ben took a copy of the episode that I burned onto DVD to show his class as his monthly school project on Friday. All the kids in his class loved it, so I am told, especially the bit where Butch the Wonder Dog makes an appearance and the word Poo. Ben said they all laughed really loud, and his teacher had to rewind it again and again.

I also didn't do much in the way of gardening this weekend, (still waiting for the seed order to arrive), but I made two wicked curries on Friday night, and a great Minestrone soup in the pressure cooker last night. I used home grown herbs for the soup, and some dried birds eye chillies in the curries. Nice and spicy, and full of flavour. I love cooking with home grown ingredients, but enjoy eating the meal even more!

Not a very green weekend, but certainly a cheap one!

Reality vs Perception

I believe that the world around us is 10% reality and 90% personal perception. In other words, there is how it really is, and what we think it is! Now, this may seem to some as a bit nutty, but as I observe the daily grind around me, I notice more and more that this belief is a good way to look at the world. If you think you are poor, most of your perception will be centred around that idea, and in your mind you will be poor. Conversely, if you think you are wealthy and rich (not in the monetary sense), you will see richness all around and be thankful and content. As some of you know, my goal is to help save the planet from ourselves and for future generations, and I am content and happy with my lot in life. However, I see many people around me who are not happy, but I understand that is their perception. Anyway, enough personal philosophy for one day, but I ask you to reflect on it whilst you read the rest of the post.

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Some days, I observe people that have no idea about how hard things are going to get in the near future. Maybe these people are so caught up in their own rampant consumerism that they just live pay to pay, buying the same old crap, thinking the same old thoughts, day in and day out. I will give you an example of an observation from earlier on in the week that puts what I mean into context.

I was listening to a conversation during my train trip to Melbourne for my MRI appointment (rude, I know, but they were so loud, I couldn't help but overhear). There were 3 twenty somethings discussing the up and coming weekends activities which mainly consisted of a haircut that one of the young blokes is going to get. Sure, he had long hair, and should be worried about getting it cut short (what a drama), but this exact conversation, by the same group, took place on the same train, in the same carriage two days in a row. It felt like groundhog day!

My point is, that you would think that with all the other real issues creeping up on civilisation as we know it, you would think that there would be something a lot more interesting to listen to for the 45 minute train trip each day than bloody haircuts. I should write it off as immaturity on their behalf, but I can see a whopping great big elephant in the room called climate change with its brother Peak Oil, with no-one looking at it, and most are staring into the bottom of their disposable coffee cups or talking about freaking haircuts.

Have we become a society of people that are so self centred, and so involved with our own petty lives, that we have ceased to care about anything else happening around us? Have the Australian people taken the "She'll be right mate!" attitude just that little bit too far? Or will we rise to the occasion, stop focusing on ourselves and our rampant consumerism in the next year or so and stop trashing the planet?

I doubt it. Nevertheless, with the current economic downturn, we may, at least as a country, have no option but to reduce our current high levels of consumption and begin to live more sustainable lifestyles. So many more "working families" may need to cut back just to survive, hoping of course that they have the necessary life skills to adapt. Many of our citizens have lost the basic skills of simple living, that may have not been passed down by parents or grandparents or ignored by the current generation, i.e. growing food, cooking, building simple things, which previous generations could turn their hands to at the blink of an eyelid.

The fantastic thing about all of this perceived doom and gloom, is that there is still time for the determined of us to re-skill and learn how to live with less, but in the same breath live comfortably, before it is forced upon us all. Here is why I think this so. The service based skill set/economy that has served our country well over the last 20 years is not going to help us very much as oil prices continue to rise and climate change begins to worsen. With most of the manufacturing base of the First world economies now located in Asia, imported goods will continue to become more expensive due to manufacturing and transportation costs, until they become unobtainable, nay, unaffordable by the majority of the masses.

That is, unless, we begin to bring our manufacturing bases back to where they belong, which is in our own countries. Manufacturing, living, and working locally may be our only choice. I don't mean living in a commune to anything to that extreme (not that there is anything wrong with communes). At least with living, working and by buying locally within a radius that is able to be served by walking, cycling, Mass transit and rail freight, all which give us a bigger bang for our fossil fool buck, we are able to survive well into the current and future crisis. With the age of cheap oil well and truly over, our society will be forced to change their behaviours quicker than they realise.

To push home my point, I have been observing two behaviours that are already changing. I wrote this whilst riding a supposedly off-peak train during the middle of the day and it was absolutely full to the brim, with only one or two seat available (luckily, I have to stand, and find it difficult to sit, so it was no skin off of my nose). I have also observed that over the past few months an increasing number of commuters in Melton are switching from cars to public transport for their daily 100 kilometre commute, and therefore saving money in the process. Also, Kim and I have noticed that more parents are leaving their SUV's at home and actually walking their children to school (what is the world coming to!). These two simple changes are not minor events, and only goes to show that the rising cost of fuel is biting hard into the average family budget.

Once again, there is good coming from these behaviour changes. Less cars on the road mean less CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and gives me a glimmer of hope that we as stewards of the planet might just delay catastrophic climate change long enough to change our destructive behaviours permanently or re-skill in time to survive if we carry on business as usual.

But back to my original observation about the absolute lack of enlightenment most of the general public have about the tough times ahead. Some will make it and re-skill or change behaviours in time, but many may not. Unfortunately, the latter just don't know it yet. I do know that haircuts are the least of my conversational pieces at this point in time!

Now in the slim chance that the climate scientists are wrong about the severity of climate change, and that all of the geologists at ASPO are way off the mark by a magnitude of many decades regarding Peak Oil, then at least, in my heart of hearts, I know that the changes that our family have made in the last two years and have put in place have made us much happier, brought us closer together, made us less reliant on external influences that may beyond our control, and now we have most of the skills that will get us through during a crisis. These skills are not only physical, but mental attitudes or perceptions! If you believe that the end of the world is nigh, shock and grief sets in and you are too stunned to act effectively and swiftly, but by having a positive attitude, and knowing that you can make a difference in the future, you can get through any adversity with the minimum of fuss and adapt to the new paradigm quickly.

Change is a state of mind, with the planet being in a state of flux for over 4.5 billion years. Unfortunately, the human race caused this mess, and we need to have the courage and will-power to get ourselves out of it, but it will take a different perception by the masses to achieve it.

To put it all into context, here is a quote to reflect upon;

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Living Frugally for Real

I received a bit of a shock today. Because I have been off of work for 4 weeks, due to a workplace injury that occurred a year ago this week, my pay has been cut by 66% for the next fortnight. OMG was my initial feeling, and the next was how are we going to make our mortgage payment?

Thankfully, all of the hard work that Kim and I have been putting in regarding stockpiling, growing our own food, paying down debts at a rapid rate etc. has now come to serve us very well. Living a sustainable lifestyle means exactly that, "to live sustainably without little or no external input and try and do little damage to the world we live in". Look, you can tell from the pictures on my blog that I am no fat cat, but nor do we struggle on my income, it is just when you are confronted with a drastic cut in cash flow, you rethink a lot of things.

The first thing Kim and I have confirmed is that we can survive, meet our debt obligations, and live quite comfortably for the next few weeks. The energy bills are cheap as chips due to the solar installations for hot water and power, the food bills are nearly non-existent due to stockpiling, home grown produce and home cooking, and we don't have a huge mortgage and didn't buy a two storey McMansion like most of the new homes being built these days. So we are better off than most, and at least we have developed the life skills necessary for this kind of emergency.

What really strikes home the most, is that we only panicked for about 10 minutes, then did some sums in our heads and figured out that all would be fine, and that all the decisions over the last two years have been leading up to this one instance in time. It is as if the Universe is trying to tell us something, just like Nelson has told me before!

Kim mentioned to me that if this had have happened about three years ago, we would have been up the creek without a paddle, as we were living from pay to pay, with credit card debt up to our eyeballs. As Carl Jung surmised many years ago, that we attract the experiences we need in our lives. Now, when I first heard that phrase, I didn't understand, but now that I look at the world in a different way, I see that it is quite true. Amazing stuff really.

Anyway, I started back in the office today, starting off with 1 four hour day this week, mainly because I have an MRI tomorrow and Neurosurgeon appointment on Friday. I will be telecommuting for 4 hours on Thursday. Next week is pretty much the same, as my injury management team and I think it is best to return to work slowly than try and attempt full days straight away. A wise move indeed, because when I got home today I was knackered and had to go to bed for the rest of the afternoon. It will take a bit of getting used to, and I dare say that after two more trips to Melbourne and back this week, I will be a mess by Friday night.

Here is to good news medically and a relaxing weekend, I hope!

The Greenhouse

As promised, here are the photos of our newly repaired plastic greenhouse, or some would call a seedling raising tent!



It is amazing what some bubble wrap, gaffa tape and a determined wife can do!



Here is a better view of the top of the tent. The tomato seedlings are visible on the top shelf, as is the mandarin tree in the back left where they self seeded.



Today, I planted some Capsicums (bell peppers), Tigerella and Purple Russian tomatoes in seedling trays and put them on the middle shelf. I noticed that the temperature was a nice cosy 22 degrees C inside, which is just right for germination of these types of seeds. I will plant some eggplant seeds that I saved from last summer in the next few days.

This weekend we have been eating lots of lettuce and snow peas from the garden, and the very last two capsicums off of the remaining bush. There are still a few birds eye chillies on the bush which are drying naturally, and I will make another chilli necklace out of them during the week.

I still haven't received my order that I placed with the Diggers Club, but it should be here in the next few days. I will plan to plant some of them in the week they arrive, and then some again on the equinox, so that we get an extended season.

Speaking of seasons, yesterday we had a huge downpour of hail and rain. You could have sworn that it was cold enough to snow! Here is the remains of the hail next to the broad bean bed.



And here are the broad beans, all nice and healthy. I was a bit concerned that the hail might knock off some of the newly formed bean pods, but after a quick inspection this morning, they were OK. All of the bean stalks are getting nice and tall. A much bigger and better crop than last year, mainly because I planted many more, and planted them nearly two months earlier than last year. I also made sure they were well mulched, as last year they were not. I didn't realise how thirsty they really are and the sugar cane mulch has kept the soil very moist.



Everything got a great soaking, and the vegetables lapped it all up. Here is one of Kim's artistic shots of the garden in the rain. It truly is beautiful here when it rains!



I have also noticed that the plum tree is beginning to flower, which is another thing of beauty. Once it is in full bloom, I will post a photo of it, hopefully next to a completed chook house. There was no work on it this weekend, as the movie making and the freezing rain took precedence. I know that with a couple of days hard work, it will be complete and ready for some girls in about mid September. Well that is the plan anyway. Until then, the little chook house remains dry inside, which is a fantastic sign that I have managed to waterproof it sufficiently, especially after all of the rain we have had this weekend. Not a drought breaker, but enough to keep us going!

The Eco Boy - Episode 1

After an exhausting weekend of directing, filming, and mostly editing, here is the first episode of The Eco Boy. I hope you all enjoy it. We had a family viewing last night, and for a first run, everyone was very happy with our collective work.

It has been so much fun making it, and just about everyone participated in its creation. Episode 2 should be out in about a weeks time. Stay tuned!

Fixing the Greenhouse Day

Today was fix the greenhouse day. Here is the background. Last year I suggested to Kim that other green bloggers and many books I read mentioned that it was much cheaper to grow your own seedlings from seed than to buy the seedlings for $5 at the nursery for 6 plants. So, she went about having a look and buying a great present for her hubby from eBay, for which I thank her dearly.

I ended up with a pretty cool plastic covered greenhouse that stands about 1.8 metres and is about 70 cm square. I used it last year in August with a fair bit of sucess, however because it was out of site, it was basically out of mind, and I kept forgetting to check if the seedlings needed watering, or re-potting or even checking if it was too hot. To add to my problems, somehow the snails found their way in and ate just about any seedling that managed to break through each night. I never did get to plant any rockmelons last year like I had hoped. They were just to irresistable for the snails!

Just before May this year, we moved the greenhut to the main vegetable patch, however, because we did not secure it to anything, it blew over about 5 times due to heavy winds (you think I would have figured it out after the first time), and about the 6th time it blew over, something ripped a huge hole in the top of the plastic cover and being PVC, it became brittle. Now being the keen gardener I am, I didn't want to throw away the greenhut because of a simple tear, so Kim decided to repair it for me today. I found her some waterproof gaffa tape, and she broke out her massive roll of bubble wrap, and low and behold, she had constructed a new roof where the tear was, and had tied it to the railing that surrounds our deck quite securely. That way, we see the hut every single day, as it is in clear view. I even had a spare thermometer that was given to me at the Sustainable Living Festival in February, and tied it to the inside of the hut with string. It was 13 degrees outside, but a nice warm 20 degrees celcius inside the plastic hut! Just the right temperature for tomatoes, chilies and capsicums to germinate before spring starts, so that I get a good head start.

It would be about now that I would insert some pictures for everyone to see, which I did take this afternoon. Unfortunately, someone who shall remain nameless deleted the pictures to take some videos of Ben running around in my Captain Planet cape and cuffs! Not to worry, because not only will we have photos of Kim's repair work tomorrow, we will also have photos of the six tomato seedlings that are about 20 cm tall that I re-potted today from around the Mandarin tree that we have growing in a very large pot. The tomatoes self seeded, and we are pretty sure that they are of the Tommy Toe variety, because that was the only variety that wrapped itself around the tree early this year. Some of the fruit must have fallen into the mulch under the tree and germinated. The same thing has happened under the thornless Lemon tree which is the next row over (which has thorns, ouch), but we thinK that they are either the green zebra or tigerella variety because they were the closest variety to that tree's pot.

I took it very slowly so as not to flare my back up again, and managed to extract half a 10 litre bucket of home made compost and the other half filled with my newly aquired organic coconut planting medium and mixed the two together. What a fantastic potting mix it made, with lots of nutrients and water absorbing properties! I then kneeled at the manderin tree like I was praying in church, and carefully transplanted each of the six tomato seedlings into old plastic pots that I had saved from last year. After watering them in with a weak solution of seasol and water, I placed them in the newly repaired greenhut, and then hung up the thermometer and took the photos. Like I said, you will get a treat tomorrow, and get a look at Kim's great handy work. It even withstood the hail and thunderstorm that we received at about 4 pm this afternoon, so it must be ready for the growing season! I think we received about 2mm of rain in about 30 minutes, which was welcome by all of my plants.

We have also figured out, as hinted at previously, that we can take about 6 minutes of good quality video with our digital SLR camera. We really hadn't tried it out before, but had some promising screeners of Ben running around this afternoon. Ben is writing a script about saving the planet (pretty good for an 8 yr old), as he is currently reading the book "True Green - For Kids", which is written for kids in a language they can relate to. For example, you should have seen him a couple of days ago when he found out that we can feed dog pooh to compost worms. He wanted to make a new worm farm there and then. I promised that we would give it a go this weekend, as I have two plastic boxes that I found about three months ago on one of my wombling trips. As I have more than enough compost worms, we can make some bedding with the organic coconut mix and then add the worms and slowly add Butch's daily doings. As Butch is now mainly being fed vegetables with a little bit of cooked chicken each day (he is getting old and needs the fibre), I don't think the worms will have too much trouble with the faeces. It is better than bagging it in compostable cornstarch plastic bags and sending it to landfill. Those bags cost a fortune let alone adding them to landfill!

Anyway, we are hoping to put together a little "Save the Planet, by saving energy" video in the next few days, starring Ben of course, and the older girls if they let me. Stay tuned, because my video editing skills are a bit rusty, but it should work out fine, and as I said earlier in the post, photos tomorrow, I promise!

Wombat Warrior Award

What a great morning!

As mentioned yesterday, our friends Stacey and Phil came for morning tea, and Phil presented me with the inaugural "Wombat Warrior Award", which he made up himself. Here is a photo of the presentation ceremony in our front room. Phil is the guy that I have mentioned previously, who is going to ride a recumbent tricycle around Australia towing a trailer starting March 2009. Regular readers may have noticed that I have added his blog to my blog roll, Camp Quality Country Mile Tour, so we can all keep up with his progress.


The wording of the award is as follows; Awarded to Gavin for his devotion to "Sustainable Living and the Protection of the Environment", dated 6 August 2008. They also gave me a picture of Captain Planet, a "How to make your own Superhero costume" kit, and a book called "The Miracle of Mulch", by Mary Horsfall. I can't wait to read the book! I think I should have smiled for the photo, and could of had a shave, but I honestly didn't expect photos today.


There is one condition to receiving the award. The recipient must find another worthy candidate in one years time, make up a similar certificate and add a little gift with the award. And obviously, a presentation ceremony goes without saying! It was really cool of Phil and Stacey to come up with the idea which is a fantastic way of motivating someone to strive to new lengths to achieve their goals. I think that if I meet anyone worthy of this fine award sooner, I may just issue it earlier, and will certainly keep this new tradition alive and well.

After much merriment, and a few cups of tea/coffee and biscuits, our guests headed off home. Kim went outside to collect the mail from the front yard. She took a little bit longer than normal, which I thought odd. I was only concerned, because Magpie nesting (swooping) season has just started in our area, with the birds keeping people away from their nests. It is quite funny to watch, but horrible to experience first hand. Kim usually takes an umbrella with her when walking Ben to school during this time of year, and opens it up for protection so it keeps her safe. I think that the Magpies have every right to protect their eggs and young, as would any other parent. I have only been hit a few times in my lifetime, and even though it hurts for a little while, it is the fright of being whacked on the back of the head unexpectedly that hurts more than anything else.

Anyway, the reason Kim was detained, was because she stopped to introduce herself to our new neighbour, Danni (sorry if I got the spelling wrong?) and her little boy Mason. She mentioned that her hubby Dale and her purchased the place a few months ago. They have been so quite that we didn't notice much, but knew that someone had moved in. Maybe, I had just been going about my business of being green and recovering.

Danni mentioned that she wanted to start a vegetable garden and keep some chooks, and hoping not to sound too eager, both Kim and I invited her to have a look at our progress so far. I showed her the chook house work-in-progress, and the pea plants in one garden, then through the pool area to the main garden. Danni got quite a shock as we entered the next part of the yard, because she thought that the pea garden was the only one I had! After showing her all the different beds, vegetables, the worm farm and compost bins, she asked where I got my seedlings from. I mentioned that I grew them myself from seed purchased from the Diggers club, or just planted the bigger seeds in the ground, and have attempted to collect seed where I could. I promised that I would give her the advice she needed to get started, and to help her get into the swing of things. I recommended a good book to start off with, and this blogs address. She is probably reading it now, and wondering what she has got herself in for, living next door to a family who try to live a sustainable lifestyle and attempting to reduce our carbon footprint a little each day.

Don't worry if we seemed a little eager, we are a harmless mob, and are just a family trying to save the planet in our own little way, and more than willing to show others how to grow their own food. It tastes better when you grow it yourself!

Making a Difference from Bed

Some days, it takes a while to think of something to right about, so I don't try and force a post about something random and meaningless. So, every so often I will skip a few days and do not write, but just do stuff and jot down ideas during the day! Writing about sustainable living is one thing, but actually doing something about it is another.

For instance, yesterday, I had a bit of a small setback with my injury, with my legs aching for most of the day. It was probably all the moving around I did over the weekend! However, the time that I needed in bed to recover was well spent. I finished of a few books from the library, being "Saving the Planet - 52 brilliant ideas for rescuing our world", by Natalia Marshall, and "Outdoor Kids - A practical guide for kids in the garden", by Jamie Durie.

The first book is one of those "how to" books of which I have read so many times. I really didn't find anything new in it, but it would be a fantastic starter for anyone just beginning a green journey. I did find one fantastic quote that I will share;

"If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room." - Anita Roddick (founder of the Body Shop)

What a powerful statement and it helped me get through the day!

The second book was so that I could get a few ideas on how to drag Ben away from his PC (besides turning it off), and get him to willingly volunteer to help in the garden. I got a few ideas, but will try them before writing about them. The one I did try during our winter planting, which works, was to get him to plant his favourite vegetable, broccoli, and help tend it for the season. That way, I noticed that he took an interest in its growth and helped keep the caterpillars off of them. But alas, I planted them too early and the aphids attacked them, so he lost interest in the other vegetables.

After I finished reading, Kim and I ordered our seeds from the Diggers club for our summer crop. We still had a fair bit of seed left over from last season, so I did a quick stock take of seed stock, and we ordered a few different things this year. Here is the list;

• Lazy Housewife Beans
• Capsicum Mixed Italian Fryers
• Eggplant Heirloom Mixed
• Melon African Horned
• Spring Onion Red (grew last year)
• Silverbeet Five Colour Mix (grew last year)
• Tomato Elfie
• Tomato Broad Ripple Yellow Currant
• Tomato Mortgage Lifter (grew last year)
• Tomato Tigerella (grew last year)
• Tomatillo Purple
• Chilean Guava

We are both quite excited about all the new fruits and vegetables, especially the Horny African Melon (did that come out wrong?), and I don't think we will have any trouble finding anywhere to plant them. The total cost including postage was $49.80, which is fantastic value for money, especially when the Chilean Guava is a perennial. That amount used to be our fortnightly fruit and vegetable bill, and now it lasts a whole season and then some when I preserve some produce with the Fowler-Vacola kit. The annuals should last me for two seasons, even though I did plant far too many tomato seedlings last year, and half of them died because I didn't re-pot them soon enough. Not bad for our first summer of growing though. We had so many tomatoes, that we ate them nearly every day, and had to preserve some near the end of the season for pasta sauce, because the plants just kept producing!

These seeds are not the only ones I will be planting. I will still sew most of what I did last year, especially the cucumbers, chilies, salad greens and different types of tomatoes, and of course the sweet corn that is now destined for the front yard. I also had a breakthrough yesterday. Kim is starting to go off the ornamental in the fruit tree side of the garden, so I am going to ask Adam to rip out one of the jasmine vines and we will prepare the soil for a couple of black passionfruit vines I have been nurturing for quite a while now. It will be great to see edibles growing, even though jasmine does look fantastic in the spring. But, we are starting to realise that if you can't eat it, then we are just wasting our time, water, and money on a non-productive garden.

I also caught up on my blog reading and left quite a few comments on my usual reads, and found a few new green blogs. All good reading, and many thought provoking posts as usual.

I have managed to cook dinner two nights in a row now, without too much pain, both meals being simple, hearty fare. Last night, I added to the chicken stock I made on Sunday night from the leftovers from the normal roast chicken, to make our usual Monday night chicken soup. I added a little curry powder this time, and it was very delicious. Home made stock is definitely the best tasting stock I have ever tried. It beats that stuff you buy in a tetra pack or stock cubes any day! Tonight, I cooked up a very easy creamy mushroom sauce that I ladled over some ravioli. I bought the ravioli from NQR, and never again, as it was terrible. At least the sauce gave it some substance.

Tomorrow, our friends Phil (Wombat064) and Stacy are popping around for morning tea, so we can catch up and have a good chat about all thing environmental, and the recent WWOOF'ing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), that Phil did for a few days locally. It should be a good catch up.

It is amazing the green things you can get up to in bed!

Emission Trading Scheme brings out the Sceptics

Having read a bit of media sensationalism in my time, I have definitely read some crap about climate change in Australian newspapers over the last month, so I thought it was high time to put on my angry hat again and tell it how it is.

With the proposed introduction of the Emission Trading Scheme being heavily promoted by the Federal Government, the sceptics and the Federal opposition party have been out in full force spreading the climate change denial message, just like back in the Howard Government years. The Federal opposition have even been having trouble making up their mind on a specific year when to set a date to introduce their own ETS, which makes little difference to the here an now, as we are three years away from an election. The scientific consensus has not changed over the last month, just the political climate and the heavier than usual push by lobby groups. Have a look at this article "Despite sceptics' noise, scientific consensus is growing", for more information. Its about time someone in the media started paying attention to the real facts, and not the smokescreen that vested interest groups are attempting to blow in front of the Australian public. Boo bloody hoo. If you pollute, you pay. It is that simple, now get over it, and lets get on with fixing it.

Also in the news, Mighty Big Oil in the form of Exxon Mobil have confirmed that they have been funding climate change sceptics and denying groups. They have now promised that they will cease funding these groups after enormous pressure from the Rockefeller family and Superannuation groups in the US. Not wanting to steal any articles thunder and regurgitate the story, you can read the article "The Climate Change Smokescreen".

So to cap it off for this post, here are a list of debunked myths about climate change that will help settle (or invoke) the argument. Once again, instead of repeating some good work by others, read "Common Myths" by the Sydney Morning Herald written by environmental reporter, Ben Cubby. Keep up the good work Ben, I like your style.

I, for one am not looking forward to another year record high temperatures for this Summer, or the continued drought in most of the our country, because of the effects of climate change. Nor do I jump at joy with the continuation of rising record fossil fool prices following the course of the end of the age of cheap oil, and therefore the cost of everything in our lives! So, lets get on with the solutions, and leave the problems and the conjecture behind. It's not that bloody hard!

My Big Day Out

After three weeks of 16-18 hours a day in bed, resting my back, I fancied a walk. In fact, I looked forward to it. I got up early, if you call 10am early, and made Ben and I some breakfast, and got ready to go out and clipped on my pedometer just to make sure I didn't over do it. I promised Ben a walk to the new housing estate so he could play on the big rocks and hills of dirt, but my real motive was just to get some exercise and see what I could scrounge from the rubbish piles that were laying around from the road and services construction for the continuing construction of our chook house.

As the housing estate is only at the end of our street, it wasn't far and we soon started our adventure, as Ben called it. We walked past about 10 new houses that were not standing last month, in various stages of construction. As I am an honest womble, and don't steal stuff, from construction sites, we walked straight past them all and off to the new roads that were in the process of being constructed. There was stuff laying everywhere e.g., telco PVC piping and electrical conduit that is pre-installed before the house lots are sold. Some of those building contractors are so messy.

We had to walk for about 20 minutes before we got to the big rock piles that Ben likes to climb, and it was even bigger than I remembered from last walk. The ground around here has volcanic basalt about 5 metres down, with clay on top of that, with about 1-2 cm of decent topsoil. I pity the poor homeowner who thinks about starting a garden straight away, because all the housing lots have had the top soil removed by the road contractors and developers. What a crime! All the topsoil, which is hard enough to come by anyway, has to be brought back in to grow anything, usually at an extra cost to the homeowner.

After the rock climb, we found a rubbish pile about 50 metres away, and started to find some useful stuff. I needed some edging to dig in around the bottom of the chook cage. This is what I found.

With this being the reverse side, which I will use. As the chooks can't read, I don't think they will mind the bright orange side facing inwards.

It should screw onto the frame quite easily with self tapping screws but I will dig it down a bit first so the chickens can't dig under it. It is about 5 mm PVC. We only found one of these, until we got to the big dirt hill, that looks like all of the topsoil that has been scraped off from around the estate. It is about 15 metres high, and of course Ben had to climb it. So with him occupied, I had a look around some more rubbish piles and found 5 more of the PVC electrical covers pictured above and a similar length of corrugated iron. And then I found the real treasure of the day. Six 50 litre bags of coconut planting medium, just dumped from someones landscaping effort. Normally this stuff comes in compressed blocks, but the stuff in the bags was loose.

This is what the stuff looks like if you haven't seen it before. It is shredded coconut husk, and holds water well. The compost worms love the stuff, and a compressed block actually comes with the kit as their bedding if you ever decide to buy one. It also is fantastic mixed in with compost, which is what I am going to use it for, to make a great potting mix for the seedlings that I will plant out during this month, (tomatoes, chillies, capsicum, eggplant, basically the ones with tiny seeds).


Now, I wasn't silly enough to carry all of this wonderful booty back home, as it was about 20 minutes walk away, and I am not a back mule. So once Ben finally got to the top of the dirt hill, and managed to get a splinter in his finger, we began to walk home again, with him whinging all the way home about his sore finger. I told him not to touch it, because I could still see a little bit of it sticking out, which we could get out with some tweezers, which Kim did as soon as we got home. He was a brave boy all the way home, but had a bit of a cry when he showed his Mum. After about 10 minutes he forgot all about it as kids do.

By that time I managed to con Amy into driving back to the dirt pile where I had stashed my booty, and thankfully it was all still where I left it. Amy loaded all the heavy bags into the boot and I picked up the light PVC panels. She piled the bags near the compost bins when we arrived home, and then I raced inside to show Kim. She was very impressed and said that it was time to plant the Apricot tree in the front yard. So Amy got all the garden tools required, out of the shed, I prepared a good rich organic mix so that they could dig it into the spent soil, and Amy took the half laden wheelbarrow around to the front garden. By the time we got there, Kim had picked the ideal spot that gave the tree a bit of room to expand, being about 3 metres from the fence, without creating too many problems when it gets bigger. Here is the tree in all of its glory.


After a bit of effort on Kim and Amy's behalf (I had to supervise, and was the most frustrated gardener ever, which Kim suggested I write a book about!), the tree was in the ground with good organic soil around it and well watered in. It probably would not need watering now until the buds on it start to burst in the Spring, as it is showering nearly every three days. We are only receiving about 0.6 mm of rain in those showers so not enough to wet the soil more than about 5 mm deep.

Our garden now has an Apricot tree (of course), an Apple tree (1 yr old), an ANZAC Dwarf Peach tree (1 yr old), a Blood Plum tree (20 yrs old), and four citrus trees (18 months old) in pots in the vege patch garden. Kim wants some Raspberries this year so I have found just the spot in the front garden up against a wall and will order them from the Diggers club. It is the only full sun area I have left, and I should be able to espalier the canes as they grow. The only other fruit tree that I want to plant is a Locut tree, of which I have 5 little seedlings that are now about 30 cm high, growing in a pot. I scrumped the seeds from a tree that overhangs from someones back yard into Ben's school yard. I will transfer the seedlings into a bigger pot as individuals, keep the biggest two and give the rest away via our local Freecycle. They should be snapped up in a jiffy, as they hard to find in local nurseries.

Kim and Amy also cleared a garden bed of the surviving agapanthas and replanted them into one of the other beds in the front yard. We have decided to grow our sweet corn in this bed this year with some runner beans in between each corn plant. That way the runner beans will grow up the corn stalks and I won't need to put in supports. Here is the cleared bed which is right in front of our bedroom window. That way, it will remind me to water it. As you can see, there is a down-pipe right next to it, so I will rig up some sort of water butt to help water the plants in the front yard this year. Money is tight because of the back injury, so a rainwater tank is out of the question.


We will clear away the bark mulch and re-use it on the other garden beds to add depth for the anticipated hot summer. Then we will add some more compost, dolomite and dynamic lifter before planting the seeds and mulch with sugar cane mulch.

After all of that exciting stuff, and with a big well done going to Kim and Amy for all the hard work, it was nearly dinner time, so I whipped up some home made pizzas on some pitta breads, which we cooked at the same time as the daily loaf of bread to save on energy. A nice simple dinner with some ingredients coming from the garden. I used up the last two capsicums (bell peppers), and some rosemary that I chopped up and sprinkled sparingly over the top to give them a little herb flavour. Very nice.

What a great day, and at the end of it I checked my pedometer, and I had clocked up 6100 steps without much ill effect. That gives me hope that my back is improving quicker than I anticipated. All the rest is definitely helping. I still have another week signed off work as unfit, and will continue to rest, but one great day out of bed after three weeks is not a crime in my books. My mind is not injured, just my back, and only temporarily, even though it has taken 11 months and two relapses, to heal so far. It will get better, I can just feel it in my water!

Not a bad days effort and we all had fun, living our simple and sustainable lifestyle.