The Four Horsemen

I often mention The Four Horsemen in some of my posts, which I use as an analogy for societal collapse.  I am not a religious man and you can believe what you want to believe, however according to Wikipedia, the Book of Revelation, chapter 6 describes them as follows;

"Jesus Christ opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons forth the four beasts that ride on white, red, black, and pale-green horses symbolising conquest (or pestilence), war, famine, and death, respectively. The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the four horsemen are to set a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgement."

I am not a big fan of the horsemen, and hope they never, ever, come riding over the hill.  So that leads me to the subject of this post.  One of the comments on my last post was left by Samantha in OZ who said;

"Hi Gavin,

I'm very curious to know, when "the four horsemen ride over the hill", where do you imagine you will be buying the chicken feed, lye, olive oil, coconut oil, etc that your soap making and egg production depend on?

If the supermarket is no longer selling soap, why would it still be selling industrially-produced soap-making ingredients such as lye and olive oil?

I mean no offence by asking these questions - I am genuinely keen to understand your line of reasoning (which is obviously shared by very many people)."

Thanks for your comment Samantha, and no offence taken.  You pose a great question, and here is my line of reasoning.

You are absolutely right that supermarkets will be the first to run out of supplies in the event of a crisis.  We have seen how fragile our 'just in time logistic system' can be, and I described such an events in my post, Nine Meals from Anarchy.  This post describes events that may happen when the oil crunch eventuates, and ways to prepare for these types of disruptions.

As for your specific question, lets look at them one by one.

Chicken feed.  Chooks eat seed bought from the feed store that is true, however they do eat many other things as well.  They eat greens, kitchen scraps, worms, bugs, cockroaches, lawn clippings, meat, and just about anything else you throw into their yard.  I am sure that if push comes to shove, I will be able to muster up enough free feed for my little darlings, and if I can't, I will just have to thin the flock, thereby producing a few good meals for my family, until they get to a manageable flock size where I can feed them.  This will be a last resort, as the eggs are far more valuable  as a reliable source of protein, rather than their meat.

Lye.  The Romans made soap over 2000 years ago, and they produced lye by pouring water through wood ash filtered through straw.  I have been doing a bit of research and came up with this cool link on how to make your own lye at Wikihow.com.  It looks fairly simple, and I have a few large plastic buckets with taps that will do fine for the barrel.  I also have a few neighbours who have wood burning stoves, so getting wood ash will not be a problem in the short term.

Oils.  Soap can be made just about any oil or fat.  We have quite a few olive groves around here so in the short term getting olive oil would not be an issue, however in the longer term I would resort to tallow which is rendered animal fat.  It makes a hard, but usable soap, and once again very similar to the type that the Romans used to make.

These three examples aside Samantha, you highlight something that people should have a good think about.  Other ways I have prepared is to educate my family to better understand what may be coming down the track, and teach my kids the skills to grow their own food, be independent, think for themselves, and be able to build things from scratch.  I have collected quite a few how-to books myself that have helped me learn to do some of the projects around my home like basic carpentry, build a chook house, build garden beds all with hand tools. 

Also, I believe that self sufficiency is a myth.  You need strong communities with various skills to see you through.  I hope that in my small way, I have taken steps towards building those communities but still have a long way to go.

So, what would you, the reader, do if the supermarket shelves became bare after a disaster, whether it be for a short term or a longer, prolonged period of time?  Could you cope, and are you prepared?  Think not only the physical, but mental preparation as well.  It may or may not eventuate in our lifetime, but I am just as curious as Samantha.  Let me know in a comment about some of the simple things you have done to prepare for unforeseen (or foreseen) circumstances that maybe well outside of your sphere of control? 

Living In Another World - Gav's Response

This post goes out to Mia who blogs at "Becoming a Good Human", and all those who commented.  Don't despair, because I feel like that sometimes as well.

She describes how she feels that she is becoming disconnected from society and quotes a passage from Dave Pollard's blog "How To Save The World";

"But I’m beginning to think it’s not so much the limits of language as that, having rejected every notion of civilization culture, I no longer have anything to talk about with most people.


When I’m out in public I often listen to conversations, and what I hear is nothing but vapid time-wasting, echo-chamber reassurances, regurgitated propaganda, sob stories, unactionable rhetoric, appalling misinformation, self-aggrandizement, gossip, manipulation and denigration of others. I hear no new ideas or insights, no cogent discussion of how we can prepare for, and increase our resilience in the face of, the impending sixth great extinction and the economic, energy and ecological collapses that will push that extinction into overdrive and bring down the most expansive and least sustainable civilization in our species’ short history. And what else is worth talking about?

Yet, all around me, people who have not had the luxury of time and resources, as I have, to learn how the world really works, and what is really going on, and to imagine what we might do about it, and how we might live better, carry on as if nothing much is wrong and as if everything in our unsustainable and doomed culture somehow makes sense, and will somehow continue, and get better."

Dave is a very astute observer of the human condition we call society. I agree with both Mia and Dave, and I see it all around me.  For me, Gavin, it kind of goes like this;

A sense of loneliness, an abnormal feeling of my sanity vs the insanity around me, trivial and manipulative behaviour, football conversations, gossip, affluenza, consumerism gone wild, the same old crap regurgitated day in and day out on TV, a society distracted by everyday bullshit and girlie magazines, disconnectedness, denial, "does my bum look big in this", shallowness, people walking around in their own iPod world with a total belief in the status quo and that the market will save us.  I want to grab people and shake some sense into them, but know I can't, for it will make me look like someone who has escaped from the asylum.  The only problem is that we are all in the asylum already with only a few of us ready to take on the role of the Chief and through that washbasin through the window and escape the funny farm.

There is so much more that I haven't managed to articulate, and I find it difficult to hold a conversation along any of these subjects when I know what is about to go down.  I did try to describe it once in this blog post, "Cognitive Dissonance", and the response was overwhelming.  Others did feel like I did, which was comforting in a way.  Misery loves company, or so they say.

Long time readers will know that I totally believe that resource depletion, climate change and mass extinction is happening right now, and kind of understand why everyone one around me just doesn't get it, or even tries to understand where we are all headed. The only positive think I know I can do is prepare, educate others, build community, and be there for one another when TSHTF.

However, one thing of late that has helped me deal with the reality we live in has been the latest book by Clive Hamilton, "Requiem For A Species - Why We Resist The Truth About Climate Change".  It has helped me transition away from blame, to just accepting that the shit storm is approaching, and there isn't much that you or I can do about it even if with some massive miracle every government in the world suddenly set 80% emissions target and actually started to enforce them.  The world will change, and we are in for a hell of a bumpy ride before people accept things are not going to business as usual any longer.  Clive writes a very convincing argument.

Call me a fool, but I have yet to give up hope.  I will still do all the green things that I do in the hope that others will wake up and smell the oncoming storm before it hits.  I will continue to re-skill because these skills have become valuable not only to my family, but to others in my community.  I know where I am going for a bar of soap, and some fresh eggs when the four horsemen ride over the hill.

I suppose that is all anyone can do, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.  Oh, and lead from the front, because the view of the future is much nicer from up there.

Water Drama

We had a bit of a water problem here today.  Here is how the story panned out.

Kim decided to do a bit of weeding in the front garden, and plans to do one bed a day for the next week.  As she was weeding the first bed around the garden tap, she noticed that the ground was particularly wet compared to the other beds.  The weeds were also much higher around this area as well.  She checked the tap for leaks but found none, so she began to dig a little deeper, literally!

She dug down next to the pipe connected to the tap and found that as it was galvinised pipe, it had begun to rust.  The water also began to pool as she dug deeper, which indicated that there was an underground leak.  She called me up at work to let me know and decided to turn off the mains at the meter and call a plumber.

About an hour and a half later, our regular plumber turned up, and found that the pipe had burst due to rust and he told Kim that it should have been copper.  Who ever installed it should have known not to bury steel pipe as it rusts over time.  He was worried that the horizontal pipe leading into the house might be the same, and would have to be replaced, so fingers crossed he kept digging.  Kim told me that she breathed a sigh of relief when the plumber told her that the horizontal pipe was copper so all he had to do was replace the riser, which he did.  Kim even found a nice piece of 2x4" hardwood plank to bury and attach the tap to give it rigidity.  It was a great job and the plumber only charged her $160 for two hours work and parts including call out fee.  I was most impressed.  If the horizontal water pipe had have been galvanised instead of copper, we would have been up for thousands to replace it, and a totally trashed fruit orchard to boot.  A big well done to Kim for taking decisive action and stopping the flow.

Now, as for how much water was lost and how long it was broken for, the plumber couldn't guess.  I did an inspection when I got home at 1530 due to a splitting headache, and found that the ground around the pipe was saturated to a radius of about 4-5 meters.  That is a lot of water, however, as there was no surface run-off, it was all saved in the soil, which is the best place for it.  Tomorrow I will dig up (pardon the pun) our last water bill for the previous reading, and do an estimate based on the current total less our daily average consumption.  That should be a fair indicator on how much soaked into the soil.  I bet I am in for a shock.

Looking on the bright side, I can see a Cox Orange Pippin apple and two Plum trees that are going to love all of that stored underground water in the spring time.  As our soil is a heavy clay, it should stay moist for a very long time.

So a lesson for all. If you see particularly tall weeds concentrated in one spot, have a deeper look into what may be causing it.  You may be in for a nasty surprise.

Hazelwood To Close (kind of?)

When a state government facing an uncertain chance at the polls, they are liable to make announcements that are not fully thought through.  Today is one of those days.

Today the Victorian Government announced that they are closing down Hazelwood Power Station.  I for one welcome the announcement, however there is a big catch.  The government don't actually own the power station!  International Power own Hazelwood.  So that means some sort of deal with the owner that has yet to be brokered, so an announcement that the power station will incrementally close down generators is a little premature.  Here is an extract from The Age to put it into context;

Victoria has been forced to go it alone after the federal government ruled out setting a price on carbon until after 2012 in a move the premier said threatened investment in green energy.

"We've got new investment which has been deferred indefinitely until there is certainty in relation to Hazelwood," Mr Brumby said.

"I've made our position very clear today and that is that if you want to tackle greenhouse (emissions), if you want to tackle climate change - you can't do that without tackling the worst of the coal generators, which is Hazelwood."

Hazelwood produces about a quarter of Victoria's energy.

Shutting down two power units would save up to four million tonnes of emissions annually over the next four years. This equates to about 28 million tonnes by 2020.

The government has set a 2020 emissions target of 20 per cent of 2000 levels, or about 30 million tonnes.

All fantastic news, especially the emissions target which will be a first for Australia, however there is no articulated plan on how to cut the emissions except the closing Hazelwood piece.  But here is the rub;

International Power spokesman Jim Kouts stressed that while there was a preliminary discussion about closing Hazelwood "there is certainly no agreement".

Shutting down Hazelwood "would require governments to support the phased closure of all generating units over an agreed term in return for a fixed capacity payment," he said.

So no deal struck, just talk, and no plan on what to replace it with renewable energy (that I have seen).

Gee, that reminds me of another post I wrote recently about climate change policy!  I will rejoice if it comes to fruition, but I still hold my breath.

More info about this plan when it comes to hand.  I will have to read the 30 page white paper and get back to you all.

Gav

Climate Change Policies

Well so far I am not impressed by either of the two major parties in the up coming Australian Federal Election.

I have been waiting with baited breath for the Labor announcement, and was sorely disappointed.  With an already delayed ETS postponed until 2013, this is the policy we are meant to believe will reduce carbon emissions enough to limit CO2-e to 450ppm and keep global average temperatures below 2 degrees of warming.  350ppm is what the real target should be but no western government seems to be aiming for what the science tells us is required.


An extract from ABC on-line:

"A re-elected Labor government would ask a new "citizens' assembly" for climate change advice, under a key part of the ALP's new climate change policy set to be launched by Prime Minister Julia Gillard today.

The ABC understands Ms Gillard will outline plans to set up a committee of scientists to advise the Government on climate change.
The committee will be paired with a citizens' assembly, consisting of 100-200 volunteers who will gauge feeling of the community on its attitude towards putting a price on carbon, and feed it back to the Government."

WFT???  Another bloody committee?  Sounds like the 2020 Summit all over again that was simply a gab fest, and another tactic to delay on real action on climate change.  I could have drafted an better policy in my sleep.  I though that the Federal election was the 'citizens' assembly'.  I know where my vote is not going to go.  This citizens assembly has already confirmed via feedback on this blog and many others that people of our country want action now.  Just get on with it Julia and stop piss farting around.

But wait there is more. As reported by The Age;

"Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised standards that would ban the building of new "dirty" power stations - but her policy would not cover up to 12 coal-fired plants already proposed across the country.
Launching the first piece of a revised climate policy, Ms Gillard proposed greenhouse gas emissions standards that would rule out new brown-coal fired stations in Victoria unless they came with "clean coal" technology.
But the standards would not stop the development of new black-coal power plants in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia."

12 more freeking coal fired power stations?  Why do we need more of these planet killing factories?  What happened to the massive investment in renewable energy.  We can power our entire country on renewables if you believe Beyond Zero Emissions, which by the way, I do.  We just need the political will power to make it happen.  The PM also announced;

*Introduce a Climate Change Commission of experts to inform the public about climate science and report on the level of international action to cut emissions.
* Reward industry that made early cuts by promising to keep emissions trading compensation at the levels promised last year.
* Invest $1 billion over the next decade in the electricity grid.

Even Kevin Rudd promised more in the lead up to the last election.

To be fair, lets look at the Liberal Climate Change policy as reported in The Age;

OPPOSITION leader Tony Abbott has hardened his position on climate change, declaring unequivocally there would be ''no carbon price on consumers under a Coalition government''.
The opposition leader's tough line sharpens the divide on climate, which had narrowed when the Rudd government deferred its plan for emissions trading. Dismissing the likelihood of a binding global agreement to tackle climate change, Mr Abbott said the Coalition did ''not believe in artificially imposing a carbon price on consumers''.
An international deal to limit emissions was a ''most unlikely hypothetical situation'' given it was ''very, very unlikely'' India and China would deny themselves the opportunity to improve living standards. ''I say that you can be certain under a Coalition government that there will be no carbon price imposed on consumers,'' he said.

 So how will you be reducing carbon emissions Tony?  By shutting your mouth I hope.  Maybe some of that hot air will then not make it into the atmosphere!  That is not a policy, that is a cop out and a delaying tactic at best.  Saying that you will just sit back and wait for an international agreement is just climate suicide!  Someone has to act first, then others will follow.  Sound like a mob of sheep waiting for the first ewe through the gate before they all take off!


And now what do the Australian Greens have to say.  Listen to what Senator Christine Milne had to say on ABC AM this morning.  Not trying to be biased one way of the other, at least the Greens are openly stating that they will implement a price on carbon as a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  More than I can say for the other two parties.  Here is the some more of their policy as reported on the Australian Greens website;

•  take a leading role in negotiating a multilateral emission abatement treaty which includes binding emission targets for all countries.
• establish binding national emission targets for 2012, 2020 and 2050 supported by a detailed strategy to reduce emissions from the energy, transport, industry, waste and land management sectors.
• drive the equitable transition to a low carbon economy through a range of market-based and regulatory mechanisms reflecting the real costs of greenhouse gas emissions.
• address the social impacts of the transition to a low carbon economy.

At least they are clear and concise, and we know what they stand for.  De-carbonising our economy is a great step to lowing our countries emissions.

But don't let me sway your decision with my green bias.  Vote for who ever you like, but just make sure you are informed about what each party promise they are going to implement in an attempt to avert climate chaos and a warming planet.

Gav

Changes at the Co-op

Today's post is at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op and is titled "Living Through Changes". 

It describes the various stages of change and how it may help you when either you instigate change, or it is thrust suddenly upon you.  It is a subject that I have written about before but have hopefully articulated it a little better this time.

I hope you will join me at the Co-op to learn about change and how to adapt during one.

Feed-in Tariff Follies

The never-ending saga of attempting to receive the Victorian Premium feed-in tariff continues.

On Friday, we receive the second electricity bill since having the co-gen smart meter installed.  The meter was installed on the 21st of January and I wrote about it in this post titled "I Have The Power... At Last".  Looking back, I was a bit ambitious to think that it was all over and that it was smooth sailing ahead.

The previous bill that was issued in April had a feed-in tariff of 23.5 cents in lieu of the 66 cents per Kwh that was expected.  After all, I signed the agreement in December 2009 when the new Premium Feed-in Tariff was legislated. We were short a $250 credit!  Kim called up our electricity retailer who blamed the wholesaler and expected it to be rectified in the next bill with the appropriate feed-in tariff applied with a credit.  We let it slide for that quarter thinking that things would be fixed up for us.  How wrong was I.

As I mentioned above, the bill for this quarter (April-June) arrived Friday past, and the was still listed at 23.5 cents.  I nearly lost the plot!  Straight on the phone to the retailer who instantly pointed the finger at the wholesaler, but admitted that the new tariff of 66 cents should have been applied to the bill from the 6th of April.  I gave them a blast and asked for the bill to be reissued, which they agreed. 

However, when I challenged the cut-over date of 6th April, because I was led to believe that the new feed-in tariff would be applied two weeks from the installation date of the meter, fingers were pointed back at the wholesaler.  I asked for their phone number to sort things out.  I am beginning to believe that the retailer, Origin Energy, did not want to pay me the Premium tariff, or wanted to make it difficult for someone to actually apply and receive it!

Anyway, I called up my wholesaler, Powercor.  They confirmed that the meter was installed on the 21st of January, which I already knew because I was present at the installation, and that we should have received the new tariff about two weeks after installation.  They told me to ask Origin to raise a Service Order to investigate further.  All I wanted was the money that I believe that I am entitled to, which is about 6 weeks worth of feed-in tariff at the 66 cent rate.

So, I call back Origin, ask them to raise the Service Order to investigate, and let them know that if I do not get prompt resolution, I will take the matter up with the Energy Ombudsman as I have done so in the past.  Shaking in their boots, they asked me to wait for the 10 days that Powercor have to reply, and they should be able to resolve my issue.  I hope so, because quite frankly, is am pissed off with the whole affair.  Being an advocate of renewable energy, I try and promote it where ever I can, however the electricity companies just make it so difficult.  It should be bloody easy, and simple enough so that there is huge growth away from coal fired electricity generation.  But who am I kidding?  Both companies make swags of money burning coal, so why would they want to help the average Joe put renewables on their roof and become less dependent on their dirty electricity.  Just not enough incentive for them if you ask me. 

I will let you know how this folly pan out.

Butch the Wonder Dog

Butch is 15 years old and in dog years that is 105 years old.  He is partly blind with cataracts forming over both eyes, partly deaf and can't hear very well (except when you call him for dinner), and is becoming incontinent.  No surprise really given his age, but he can still give you a lick on the nose, loves a scratch under the chin, and trots around okay without too much trouble.  I call him our "Grumpy Teddy" because he looks like a toy teddy bear.

We had a bit of a scare concerning him this week.  On Sunday night, he coughed continuously all night, and there was not much we could do for him except stay up and calm him down.  We got into the local vet on Monday afternoon, and she said that his left lung was very constricted, and due to his age it could be a growth or cancer pressing against his lungs.  So we booked him in for an X-ray to see what was going on, but could not get in until today.  The vet gave us some antibiotics to give to him in case it was a chest infection.

Over the next few days we feared the worst, but the antibiotics had taken the edge off of his coughing.  He was still quite sprightly and moving around alright, and his appetite was not impaired in any way at all.  After all, we keep him around to dispose of some of our food waste, as well as the unconditional love he gives us of course.

So, today we took him to the vet again for the final prognosis.  Once the X-ray had been taken and developed, the vet called us in with a serious tone in her voice.  Firstly she showed us what a normal dogs chest should look like.  Fine we thought, fearing the worst. 

Then she showed us Butch's X-ray.  It had lines all over where his lungs were.  She informed us that Butch has severe bronchitis, however he can be cured with a 3 week course of antibiotics.  She also told us that he does not have any growths or tumours and is still quite healthy for his age. 

Kim cried, I breathed a sigh of relief, and Ben gave Butch a pat on the head!  Crisis over, and back home with the dog.  When we arrived home, our other dog, Holly, gave Butch such an ear bashing for leaving her alone at home that Butch looked like a hen pecked husband down on his luck.  So funny, and thank goodness he is still with us and recovering well.  Even though he is not human, he is still my friend!

Kev's Patch Revisited

It has been a while since we had an update about this campaign, and thanks to Michael of Canberra, we finally have an outcome for Kev's Patch.  I had admitted defeat in a previous post and mentioned that it was not a success. 

How very wrong was I!  Kev and Therese actually planted out a veggie patch at the Lodge, and to drive it home, they had chickens as well.  See these articles titled "If there's dirt under the PMs fingernails, it's because he's going for growth" and "Lismore 'chook tractor' for Rudd".   So cool, but I wonder what happened to the patch and the chooks when he and his family moved out of the Lodge last week.  I hope he took the chooks with him and that someone is watering the patch ready for the next PM to arrive.

In fact, it makes me look at the bloke in a whole new way.  Anyone who takes up growing their own food cannot be all that bad.  What upsets me the most is that I didn't have the chance to send him a congratulations letter in the post before he got ousted by our new Prime Minister.


All I can say is that small actions work.  Many thanks to Darren and JulieG for working on the campaign with me and to everyone who wrote letters to the then Prime Minister.  It obviously influenced him in some small way to follow the growing groundswell of home vegetable gardeners.  Well done Kevin, Therese and kids.  I just wished you had have promoted the fact a little bit more and started it at the height of your popularity.  Other Australians just might have followed suit.  Such a wasted opportunity.

My House

I have had a few readers ask how big my piece of land is that I do all my green stuff on. 

Well, it is a mere 779 sqm or 8385 square feet or 0.19 of an acre.  More than most around my area where the houses are getting bigger and the land getting smaller.  McMansions abound!

Here is an aerial shot of the house which I sourced from www.nearmap.com.  North is at the top of the picture and I have marked our boundary in red, with some of the stand-out features labelled and circled.  Hopefully it has put all the other outdoor photos that I have taken to date into context.

As you can see if you click on the photo to enlarge we have used the space quite effectively.  There is not one bit of land that is unused except for the most of the pool space where I store extra water when the tank overflows and the new citrus trees are against the back fence.  However, before I had to fork out a small fortune for dental work, I was going to put another 5000 litre water tank in this area, but I will have to wait until I save up a bit more cash before I reconsider my options.

There is room for improvement in the front yard, as I am planning on planting in some fruiting shrubs and putting some drip irrigation in for the existing fruit trees.  Only a lack of potable water is holding me back at this stage, which seems like a funny statement considering the size of the bloody pool.

However, all in all, I wouldn't have it any bigger and certainly not much smaller and I find that I can manage it in the spare time that I have available.  I am happy with what we have. 

Put Solar On It

350.org have a new campaign to encourage world leaders to set an example and put Solar PV on their official residences.  A great idea, and one well worth getting behind.  I sent our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard a message, asking her to come to the party, so to speak.  Mind you, we didn't have much luck with Kev's Patch, but hey, it is worth a shot.

If you would like to let your nation's leader know that you would not mind him or her spending a little bit of your taxpayers money on a few measly solar panels on their official house i.e. Whitehouse, the Lodge, Number 10 Downing St, etc.  and help send a strong message to their constituents, then pop on over to http://putsolaron.it/ and sign the petition.  Bill McKibben and his crew will forward these petitions to our leaders to let them know that we need them to set an example and set strong emission targets to avert climate chaos.

Oh, and don't forget to check out more information about 350.org global work party scheduled for 10/10/2010.  It should be a date to remember, and I am thinking of something special to do on that date to make it important in my life and to my family.

Don't forget that 350 is the most important number on the planet.  Up until a few years ago, I thought it was just like any other number.  Don't be fooled, as looks can be deceiving.  It is important to understand why.  Click on the link above to find out more details.

Have Your Voice Heard

In Australia the Federal Election is just about to be called.  Now, being a guy who likes to have his voice heard loud and clear, I know of only one real way of getting it heard is to vote.  The rules around enrolling to vote have recently changed, so get in quick because as soon as the election is announced, the electoral role will close.  Don't be one of the 100,000 people who missed out last election to have their voice heard because they didn't know the rules about enrolling to vote.  So don't waste your first time!







Now, I don't really care who you vote for, as long as you are clear in your mind which party(s) will tackle the really big issues like climate change.  I personally don't care for budgie smugglers, promise breakers or Ginger Meggs, but hey, that is just my own unique view on things.  I will be voting for a party who may be in the minority, but are actually in touch with the people and the real issues facing Australians and the world at large.

All I can say is go Green in 2010!

Cheese Fridge Humidity

I had a question from a reader today about the cheese fridge.  Here it is;

Hi Gavin,

I stumbled upon your website as I am trying to figure out how to convert my wine fridge to make cheese.  This is such an usual task that I was glad to your your site.  If you don’t mind I would like to know how you made the wine fridge work to make cheese.  How do you keep the humidity at 95%?  Did you have to drill a hole into the fridge in order to pump humidity in?

I appreciate any time you have to answer my questions.

Thanks,

Maeve

 Well Maeve, the solution is a lot less technical than you think.  Have a look at a photo of my cheese fridge which is quite simply a wine fridge with the shelves replaced.

Yes I know that there is only one wheel of cheese in the fridge (Parmesan), but look, there are four bottles of Shiraz-Cabernet maturing as well!  Now the reason I show you the fridge is to point out the little bowl of water down the bottom.  I fill it up each week as it evaporates and create the right humidity for the cheese to mature.  Also, if you wax the wheel after a few weeks, then this goes a long way to maintaining the correct moisture content in your cheese.  Yes friends, it is that simple.  No need to change your fridge radically, just add water! 

This is great for non-mould cheeses, but how do you keep the humidity high for mould inoculated cheese without infecting all the normal cheese.  Well that is also easy to solve.

Find a container long enough to store your cheese with room for a little bowl of water to keep up the humidity.  You can get it up to at least 95% in this manner.  This is a shot with the lid on.

As you can see, it is very moist, which is just right for Camembert to mature as is the case in this batch.

So without any complicated modifications, you can easily use any wine fridge as a cheese fridge as well.  

Blogging Mojo

If there is such a thing, I seem to have lost it.  My blogging mojo that is. 

Every once in a while it just happens.  You run out of steam, and no amount of fantastic ideas swimming around in your head can make you write it all down in a post.  So my solution was quite simple.  I thought I would write a quick post about loosing it, and see if it would come back again.  Lets see what happens tomorrow, because I think I can feel another post forming in my head already.

Please bare with me during this writers block, but I do believe that every now and again, you have to take a step back, take a break and evaluate.

Gav x

Who Likes Tomatoes?

Well if you do, and you live on the Eastern Seaboard of Australia, I don't think you will be able to satisfy your hunger for fresh tomatoes and capsicums in a few months time or be willing to pay for the massive price hike in these vegetables.  Check out this hot article titled "Seedling sabotage devastates farmers" from ABC online.  Nothing like a unhealthy dose of Round-up to stuff up your year!

It just goes to show that our food industry is susceptible to disasters, and supply cannot be guaranteed.  It make a very strong case for becoming a locavore, and growing your own fresh produce. 

We haven't purposely bought a fresh tomato since 2007, of which I am most proud of.  Kim may have slipped the odd punnet of cherry tomatoes in the shopping trolley out of season, but certainly not the norm for us.  As for the other vegetables mentioned like capsicums, eggplants and melons, all of these will be quite scarce in a few months time, so it looks like we will all be eating food that is in season. 

As my son Adam is quite fond of saying, "Dad, you have the skills to pay the bills", and in this case I believe that I do have the skills to keep up our food supply in any sort of disaster to the normal industrial food complex.

I believe that growing your own organic food not only provides for the here and now, but is insurance for the difficult times ahead of us.  Please take the time to learn now, whilst there is still ample time available before the zombies are knocking on your door!  As I have stated before, we are all only nine meals from Anarchy.

I rest my case.

Unusal Green Thoughts at the Co-op

Today's post is over at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op and is titled "Thinking Differently".

I talk about my unusual thought pattens, how they seem perfectly normal to me, and not to others!  Please drop by and let me know if you too have green thoughts that differ from the mainstream.

How To Begin???

I receive many emails a day asking me for green living tips and the like, and the other day I received this lovely email from Melissa, who has given me her permission to use it as a post.  Here is the question(s);

Hi Gavin

 

Thanks so much for your blog, it has really helped to open our eyes to the various things we can do as a family to help create a better environment and future for our kiddies, and we are green (hee hee) with envy over your new kitchen!!  I was just reading your latest post (carbon addiction) and was wondering if you could give me some hints on the first few steps you and your family made/took ie reductions, energy efficiency etc to change your lifestyle? I know that is a pretty broad question, but we are taking baby steps and i feel like we are getting a little lost!

 

Thanks again for putting yourself out there (so to speak).

 

Take care

Melissah

Well Melissah, as Maria said in The Sound of Music;

"Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi"

When you go green by begin with ???  Which leads me to doe a deer.... No, not really, but where do you begin when you want to start to change towards a more sustainable lifestyle and begin weening yourself off of your carbon addiction?  Well, you begin where you begin I suppose.  Cryptic, I know, but everyone does it differently. 

This is the order that I went about our changes.  I haven't listed everything, just the major events.  I will list the links and titles and a bit about each section;

1. Green Epiphany (September 2006) - Where it all started, and how confused I was about everything.  My reality had been turned upside down, and it was as if I had taken the red pill in the Matrix!
2. Low Emission Transportation - Bought a Hybrid Car
3. Water Saving Front Yard - Ripped up the lawn and landscaped the front yard
4. Electricity One and Two - Electricity efficiency and the steps I took over the first 16 weeks.
5. Natural Gas - How we reduced our natural gas bill
6. Water - rainwater harvesting and grey water reuse around the home.
7. Waste - how we reduced our landfill and began composting and worm farming
8. Reducing Food Miles One and Two - How to build a veggie patch and what we grew in the first season.
9. Solar Hot Water - Installation of our hybrid solar hot water system.
10. Solar Photovoltaic - Installation of our 2.8 kW Solar PV system
11. Making Jam - My first plum jam, one of many types I have made over the years.
12. Preserving Fruit and Vegetables - Our first preserves made with our Fowlers-Vacola kit bought on Ebay.
13. In the Media - My first newspaper interview
14. Peak Oil Realisation - The moment I realised that there were now two shit-storms coming our way.
15. Recommenced Beer Making - The first time I made beer in many years to finally drink something that had taste.
16. Decided to get Chickens (April 2008)
17. Chateau le Poulet - Building the chicken coop over many months
18. Stockpiling Food and Essentials - What to do for food in case of natural disasters or emergencies.
19. Home made Bread One and Two - We began to make our own bread and bread rolls
20. Chicken Day, and Chicken Day - The Movie - Arrival of our first four chickens (we now have 8 feathered girl friends)
21. Very Eggsciting! - Our first egg.
22. Walk Against Warming - My first climate change rally, it felt good to be a part of something bigger than just my own greening
23. Introducing Gavin - Invited to write at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
24. Carbon Accounting Course - (January 2009) Started to up-skill for a low carbon economy
25. Homemade Feta Cheese - Learning how to make cheese for the first time.
26. First TV appearance - I was interviewed for an article on Today Tonight.
27. 160 Km Diet - The family starts to eat locally
28. Soap Making - Our first attempt of making soap.  We are still using it and we haven't looked back.

As for the rest, well, you can look in the archives in the sidebar if you like.  This is the way I did it, and in hindsight I would not change a thing, because everything had a purpose and helped me grow.  The way that you have or may change your lifestyle will depend on your own brand of determination and personal circumstances.  We are all individuals, and that is what makes the world such an interesting place to live in.

As for the cheapest thing we did, it was energy efficiency which was the biggest carbon and money saving for the least amount of outlay.

I don't know if that specifically answered Melissah's question, but to state it any other way would be misrepresenting reality.  I hope it helps you figure out what is the most important thing for you to start on, as I can only really give you options and not specific solutions.  The only real suggestion is to keep smiling and having fun as you do it, and enjoy the little successes and learn from the mistakes, because it is the little things that really count.

Gavin x

My Name Is Gavin and I Was An Addict

Yes, you heard it correctly folks, I am a recovering carbon addict!  A bit of a shock I know, but I am working on reducing my addiction.  I am not the only one of these recovering carbon addicts, because it is not unusual to find many of them lurking here on this blog, reading these pages.  However, you may be surprised to learn that we have a major social issue right under our noses and that there are full blown carbon junkies all around us.  They might even be standing right next to you as you read this post.  Suffice to say, that if you can read this post, and are a user of the conveniences of modern 21st century life, then you are or were addicted to carbon at some stage of your life.

We burn it in our cars, make things with it, ingest it in our food, and generally use the stuff every minute of the day.  Unless you have totally removed yourself from 'the grid' or live in a yurt or cave, the unfortunate news is that you are a user!!!  There is a big downside to a planet full of carbon junkies.  The ramifications are events such as Climate Change, Fossil Fuel depletion, resource depletion, environmental damage, mass species extinction, to name a few.

So if we are all carbon junkies to varying degrees, who are the pushers?  For every addiction, there is a supplier of the goods that cause the addiction.  Well, I can think of a many, but I will just mention a few big, well established ones;

1.  Fossil Fuel pushers.  These shady characters lurk all over the globe.  They are the oil companies, coal companies and suppliers of natural gas that we all use.  They provide the raw materials for our addiction.  Some like Exxon-Mobil try and keep us hooked by stopping us from reducing our use by the use of dis-information campaigns, and others like BP are big on high risk operations with little thought for the consequences.

2.  Auto manufacturer pushers.  Some of these pushers make big petrol guzzling, hydrocarbon burning monsters that satisfy some legitimate needs, but mainly are used to further inflate the ego's of heavily addicted carbon junkies.  They have been know to stifle competing, non carbon addictive modes of transportation.

3.  Advertising pushers.  All forms of advertising attempt to convince us to want new shiny things made with carbon or manufactured with the help of carbon based energy supplies.  Without these advertising gurus, we would not be so quick to get the violent urge to buy stuff that we don't need and therefore satisfy our addition with a big hit of stuff.

4.  Economic pushers.  The modern economy is constructed in such away that it needs to grow at all costs or crash into recession.  When it hits a finite resource boundary, such as fossil fuels, growth becomes impossible in its current form.  By growing, we use energy, and most of human energy is generated by carbon laden ancient sunlight stored in fossil fuels.  The economy drives our addictive needs.

I could list more pushers like fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide companies that permeate our Industrial food complex.  I could list fast food companies who have transformed the way we eat and grow our food using these carbon derivatives.  I could list the real estate developers and the housing industry for giving little thought to the sustainability of suburbia.  You get the general idea by now.  However, just because I have pointed out a few obvious pushers, it doesn't mean we are not partly to blame for being addicted ourselves.  Pushers don't exist without junkies.

So if we are all addicted to carbon it is many forms, what can we do about it?  Well lets take the example of the three junkies that I met on the train the other day and turn the conversation on its head.  What if, instead of talking about methadone, they were actually articulating their carbon addiction.  This is how the conversation might have transpired;

First bloke, "How many tonnes of carbon are you on?".
Chick, "55!"
Other bloke, "Shit, I am only on 40 tonnes!
First bloke, "Fuck, I am down to 30.  Where do you get your stuff?"
Chick, "Down at supermarket, see, I got some in my shopping trolley."
First bloke, "You aught to go to rehab love, there is a free one in Fitzroy, for six weeks."
Chick, "I need six fucking months mate!"

So as 'First bloke' said, and he really did hit the nail on the head, we all have to go into Carbon Rehab, just like any other addicted person would have to.  Whether it be self imposed or legislated by governments, it has to start right now.  Bleeding obvious, but just like an addict, very hard to give up for good.  Hey, I am no angel, I still use the stuff, albeit in much smaller quantities.

During my family's journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle, we have also found it hard to kick the habit, and to ween ourselves from carbon.  Our society is not geared up to go carbon cold turkey, even if we wanted to.  Like our family did, I suggest small reductions over time, tackling the easy and cheap methods first like energy efficiency, which will give you the biggest reduction in carbon usage for the least amount of cost.

Let all try to reduce our addiction, before it is forced upon us.  Peak Oil is looming and in the similar way that any addict gets withdrawal symptoms, we too will all suffer from a carbon shock if the current supply is taken away suddenly!  Anger and denial will be common place unless we take decisive steps now to kick the habit. 

So avoid the junkies if you can, and the road to being clean is a rocky one, however by all weening ourselves together, we might stand half a chance of survival on the other side of the peak.