Wise Words Wednesday - Homeschool

Today's question comes from Michelle who writes a blog at "A Vision Splendid".  I believe that Michelle began to blog around a year earlier than I did.  Anyway, here is the email, with her permission.

"Hi Gavin and Kim,
Just wondering how the homeschooling is going ? We are seriously considering this option for our boys ( now almost 11 and 14). It seems like such a natural progression in the lifestyle path we have taken.

I have spent today talking to other homeschooling families, one in particular who now has two sons in uni and others still at home learning in a rich environment. These families started from the 'beginning' though so could not talk to me about the transition from school to home.

I was therefore hoping ( if you had the time) you could let me know of your thoughts on the transition and whether you have met any other homeschooling families around your area.

thanks in advance

Michelle" 

Now I did reply to Michelle, however if anyone else has had home schooling experience, I would love to hear how your transition went, for Kim and my benefit.  It would also help Michelle make up her mind as well.  So here is my answer.

Hi Michelle, 

The home schooling is going very well. We took Ben back a grade so he has consolidated for this month and will be starting year 7 work in a few weeks. The curriculum that we are using is from http://www.homeschooling.com.au/ which is set about two years ahead of mainstream ed so we started him off on what they call year 4. Our eldest daughter is a year 7 & 8 high school teacher so she knows where they are up to in mainstream education and we believe that year 4 in this curriculum is equivalent to year 6/7. We took the time to met Valerie at the homeschool place a few times now when we tested Ben and picked up the material. She wrote most of the books and we think they are quite good and easy to follow most of the time, and is quite the advocate for home schooling.  She also taught all of her children at home. With the books, at least the answers are in the back (which we ripped out and hid) for those of use who went to school a very long time ago. ;-) 

Kim teaches Ben from 9am to 1.30pm on the 3R’s, spelling, social studies (history, geography), and languages. After lunch he does art/home subjects, like drawing, painting, modelling, cooking and baking. I get to teach him gardening, animal husbandry, and DIY on weekends, and every second Wednesday, I take him on an excursion that relates to one of his subjects for that week 

As for Ben adjusting, he was a bit of a loner at primary school with only a few friends so he has adjusted very well. He is racing ahead of where he should be with this one on one attention and we can add in subjects as we see fit and according to our values. He loves it, as does Kim, because even with her mild MS, when she has a bad day with fatigue, she can set him some work and explain anything he doesn’t understand. He also does school work when he is sick! Also I get to spend some great time with him during the excursions, and now I feel like I am part of his growing up and a larger contributor to his education instead of being just a bystander and an observer of the process. 

As for socialisation, he sees his friends more now after school than he did before, and has quality time with them. He also actively participates in workshops and events we hold for our sustainable living group, like the worm farm workshop I just wrote about. We haven’t met any other home school families in our area, however, one of our friends also enquired about the process regarding registration here in Victoria. Talk about influencing others in a short amount of time! 

Hope this helps, and I really could not recommend it highly enough, if you are disgruntled with mainstream education, and have the time, or want to enhance your boys education with lots of sustainable living topic that are unheard of in our schools today. 

Warm regards, 

Gav & Kim

So as I mentioned, does anyone else have any similar experiences that they can share?  Kim and I would love to here your story if you have chosen this type of schooling for your children as would Michelle!

Parmesan Disaster

Attention all curd nerds!  Pop on over to The Little Green Cheese to see my latest cheese that I had to bring back from the brink of disaster.

The post is titled "Poor Parmesan", and is quite comical.  You will see what I mean if you drop on over.

My best tip to any budding cheese maker is make sure you have quality milk.  I cannot emphasise this enough now that I have had a few years of cheese making under my belt.  Just about every problem I have encountered has been from using poor quality milk, mostly 'no-name brand' type, which is basically an industrialised product from many dairies.  I now only buy biodynamic, organic or Jersey milk, and raw if I can get it fresh.

Good milk makes good cheese.

Help Required At The Little Black Cow

Kim Barnes over at The Little Black Cow blog has a situation in her community that she asked me to bring to everyone's attention so that more people can hear what is going on.  A Coal Seam Gas company is scouting around her region (Belford/Branxton) in New South Wales, which is bad news for the farms and environment.  Kim has done some research on the Lock The Gate website and she states;

"It appears that you can legally stop them coming on your land to explore, but once you have given them permission to explore...if they find gas, they have permission to mine . The other interesting fact I discovered though, was if you have stopped them coming on your property, if your neighbour gives permission for exploration...they can then mine under your neighbours land into your land .
The water I water my organic vegetables with could be affected.  We did not choose this.
Property sales of farmland will be damaged irrevocably. We did not choose this.
The tourism potential of this beautiful area could be damaged irrevocably. We did not choose this. 

These companies have an endless supply of money for advertising and making themselves look good on television and in newspapers. Farmers don't have that kind of money ....their money is in their biggest asset, their land .....and without that they are no longer farmers.
The coal seam gas companies also have an endless supply of smooth answers that tell us nothing. Real information is not in their guide book."

There is a local community meeting that you can go to if you are in this area, and here are the details

BELFORD/LOWER BELFORD COMMUNITY MEETING

5^TH March 2012

An invitation is extended to the residents of Belford & Lower Belford to a meeting at Kirkton Public School on 5^th March 2012 at 7.00pm to discuss the implications of Coal Seam Gas Exploration and extraction. Guest speakers will be present on the night to discuss their experiences with CSG and to answer questions.

MEETING WITH AGL AT KIRKTON PUBLIC SCHOOL

RECENT RESEARCH INDICATES THE FOLLOWING: UNTIL you are FULLY INFORMED and where necessary have sought the appropriate legal advice as to the implications of CSG exploration it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that:

•      you DO NOT sign any agreement with the gas companies

•      and that you DO NOT give any verbal agreement for the gas companies to access your land

Contact: christopher.robertson03@gmail.com or ph 65747194 mob 0418427320

Now there is something that the rest of us can do if you are willing.  To help all of those farmers that constantly stand by their gates watching for 'strangers' and protecting their only asset, the land they live upon and the surrounding environment, The Lock The Gate Alliance recommends the following;

What can I do?
Do not allow company representatives onto your land for any reason. Meet them at your gate for any discussion, preferably with a neighbour, but never alone. Record every moment, ideally with a video camera. Tell them you are Locking The Gate and refuse them access to your property. A simple "No Trespassers" sign on all access gates will keep them away. Your have a legal right to do this that will be upheld by the courts. 

The industry will try to charm you  and persuade you that their activities will be minimal. A typical line is "We have no plan to ..." .  However, experience shows that plans always change. Initial agreements and compensation may have seemed fair and reasonable, but many landholders have found that the development escalated well beyond what was agreed upon - without consultation.

If you allow access to your property you will lose of control of your life, your property and your business.  Once they are into the gas production  phase they have a legal right to enter your property with or without your permission.
Make sure you and your neighbours speak with one voice.  Remember, if you tell them to go away and they must go. Always say NO to requests for access. Do not sign anything. Seek legal advice. 

Where can I find help?
Many communities are affected. The Lock The Gate Alliance has formed to focus on the key issues, share information, provide support and mobilise broad community support through education and the media. 

We will bring about the change necessary to save Australia from a rapacious industry that will affect everyone unless we stop, think, demand change and restore balanceVisit www.lockthegate.org.au and join the Lock The Gate Alliance

Please help out where you can, and lend a helping hand to everyone in the same boat.  If you have watched the documentary Gasland, then you will appreciate that they are in for a battle.

Does anyone in the blogging community have any similar experiences or advice for Kim that they would like to share?

Worm Farm Workshop

Last Saturday week, I held a workshop at my house for the Melton Sustainable Living group.  It was a simple workshop, but fun to present.  It took me about an hour to build and populate the new worm farm (rectangle box in photo), and additionally, I showed the audience how to harvest worm castings from my existing worm farm (round one in the photo).  Both of these worm farm kits are made by Reln plastics, and marketed under the Tumbleweed brand (I have no association with this company, I just like the product).  They are made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic.  All of the packaging (except for a small plastic strap) is utilised in the construction process and eaten by the worms!

As you can see, it is all set up ready to go, and it also gave me an opportunity to clean at least half of the carport!

Now, in a moment of silliness, I forgot to give Ben the camera to take photo's during the workshop, so you will have to use your imagination.  Here are the basic instructions on how to put one of these things together.


1.  Locate in a cool position in afternoon shade. Morning sun is OK.  I place mine on the south side of the house, northern side for northern hemisphere readers, or somewhere where they will not freeze in winter.
2.  Setting up the base as per instructions.  Some have legs, others do not and my new one had legs that were unusually difficult to figure out and the instructions were no help.  Both my worm farms have legs.
3.  Put the first working tray on top of the base with legs, then fill a bucket with about 7 litres of water and place the worm farm bedding block in it.  This is made from coconut coir husk.
As the bedding block expands, start to break it up into an even mix. It took about 10 minutes. Use the
paper wrapper too because all the paper and cardboard packaging has been designed to be worm friendly.
4.  Fold and place your cardboard packaging into the base of the working tray, then spread the expanded worm bedding block on top of this. The worms will eventually eat all the bedding and cardboard.

5.  Spread your worms (minimum of 1000 composting worms) on top of the bedding, and cover with a a few layers of wet newspaper or cardboard.  The more worms you initially add, the more food they will compost for you.  I used an old cotton dressing gown soaked in water, that Ben had grown out of.   One of the audience mentioned that this must be the Taj Mahal of worm farms, and that I must love them very much.  I replied that yes, I do!

6.  Don't feed the worms at this stage, and let them settle in for one or two days.  Here some of them are their new home.  From experience it will take about 3-4 months for the initial 1000 odd worms to fill up their first tray.  Once the tray is full up to the lip inside, then pop on the next tray and start feeding the worms from the new tray.  Just make sure that the first tray is full enough to come in contact with the new tray so the little worms can climb through.

So now that I have a second worm farm, I have the means to create lots more worm wee tee and castings.  The worms can be fed most kitchen scraps but steer clear of onions and citrus, as it is a little too acidic for them.


As a guide worms will eat anything that was once living. This includes:

- Left over vegetable scraps, fruit and vegetable peelings
- Tea leaves/bags and used coffee grounds
- Vacuum cleaner dust or you hair clippings (also animal)
- Torn up newspapers, egg and milk or soaked pizza cartons
- Crushed egg shells (These will help with the pH balance)


As I mentioned in my post titled "Home-made Liquid Fertiliser", you can used the worm wee tea as a liquid fertiliser, so as they increase in number, I will be able to keep up with supply for the garden.

Just in case you wanted to know more, here are some worm facts that I found at ResourceSmart Victoria which also has instructions on how to make your own worm farm without having to buy a kit.

• There are 350 species of earthworms in Australia and most of those found on farms and in gardens are introduced species. Compost worms are rare in the bush because the conditions are not suitable. 
• Compost worms are a special type of earthworm. Compost worms are generally more active than normal earthworms. They thrive in the rich, moist and warm environment of a worm farm and can eat about half their body weight in one day. 
• The population in a well maintained worm farm doubles every two to three months. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, which means each worm has female and male sex organs, so every worm can have babies. But reproduction can only occur between two mature worms of the same species. 
• After mating, both earthworms form a capsule (or cocoon) containing up to 20 eggs. Even though each mature compost worm might mate every 7 to 10 days and produce about 4 to 20 capsules a week, only 3 of these capsules produce babies. Each capsule produces around 4 baby worms, which makes a total of 12 babies per adult per week. 
• Babies hatch after about 30 days and are ready to breed 55 to 70 days later. Earthworm eggs can survive in very dry conditions for a long time. The babies usually hatch when the soil becomes moist. 
• Although earthworms do not have eyes, they sense light as well as vibrations and temperature through special organs in their skin. 

You can also add compost worms to standard compost bins or heaps, as long as you do not let the contents of the bin get too hot.  About 2 years ago, I put a big handful into my Aerobin, and they have multiplied greatly.  They don't live in the top 20 cm as it is too hot, but prefer to work at a lower level.  I just keep piling on brown and green garden waste and they keep gobbling it up.  When I take compost from the bottom, there are no worms to be found as they live higher up.

I also saved the old laundry sink, since we have just had this room renovated, and will be turning this into a worm farm in the next few months, so more on that further along the sustainable living journey.  When I was a teenager, my dad used to use an old bath tub as a worm farm and it was most successful in producing many worms that we used for fishing.  I think he used Tiger worms, however most worms that you buy in boxes or from a large worm farms today are 'Red Wrigglers' and 'Indian Blues or Dendra's'.

So, hopefully this post has given you enough information to start your own worm farm.  The good thing is that as pets, they don't bark, bite, kill birds, or annoy you in any way, and their droppings are the most useful matter on the planet!  To finish off, here are some wormy quotes;

“Worms are the Intestines of the Earth”
ARISTOTLE

"It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as these lowly organised(sic) creatures”
CHARLES DARWIN ON EARTHWORMS, 1881

“Without the work of this humble creature, who knows nothing of the benefits he confers upon mankind, agriculture, as we know it, would be very difficult, if not wholly impossible”
CHARLES DARWIN ON EARTHWORMS, 1881

Ceres Community Environmental Park

As it was downshift Wednesday, Kim and I took Ben on a home school excursion to Ceres Community Environmental Park.  We had a great outing, picked up some organic fruit,  some seeds and plants for the garden and checked out all the fantastic eco stuff.

Let me take you on a little photo expose courtesy of Ben himself.  He was the designated photographer for the day, and he has a great eye for detail!

This is the organic market.  We bought some apples and peaches.  All of the produce had the food miles listed against each fruit and vegetable.  Most of it was very local.

Then there were lots of chickens that looked like they were very happy.

The organic shop was so full that we couldn't get in the door, so we had to skip it.

There were a few craft stalls selling clothes and things.

There was a bakery, that was not in use on the day.  The oven was massive, and just a little bit larger than my one!  I was impressed.

This is the renewable energy education classroom.  There was a high school class in the room at the time.

We then headed towards the market garden and on towards the cafe for a organic coffee.

Along side a neglected area, but it was home to quite a few more chooks.

There was even some chook art!

And a shade house for seedlings.

We came to the cafe,

round the corner,

past a very old workshop covered in a grape vine and lots of very old solar panels,

on to the cafe for a muffin and a coffee.  We talked and ate, and noticed that all the local mums used the cafe as a meeting place, as there were so many enjoying the surroundings with their little toddlers and babies.

There was lots of art work dotted around the park.  This mosaic piece caught our eye,

as did this beautiful sacred kingfisher.

After morning tea we stopped past the bicycle repair area, where there were lots of spare parts.  I believe that this is open on weekends for anyone who wants to fix their bike.

Then there was a lovely gravel path meandering towards the community gardens.

This sign told us all about storm water and what gets washed into the sewers and local waterways.

There were maps of the park at most locations so that you did not get lost.

This grand old fellow must protect all of the trees in the park.  He does a great job.

This is one of the community gardens.  It had tomatoes, pumpkins, and a very large grafted eggplant.  It was at least 5 foot tall and very healthy.

Kim fancied this old wrought iron gate for our yard, but it was just too heavy to carry in my backpack! ;-)

This billabong had lots of creatures swimming around and very healthy plant life.

We approached the energy park.  There are large mounts that hold many solar photovoltaic panels.

Here they are in more detail.

 Part of the energy park featured wind power, including a water wheel and an old school wind mill that was used to pump water from bores.

We moved on to the inverter room which had a display with gauges that I believe once worked.  It was broken which was a bit of a disappointment.  I would have loved to know what the output of the energy park was at the time.

Then on to the nursery.

There was just so many plants,

and fertilizer and wind chimes.

The wheeley bins were converted into basic water barrels.

 These chairs were made entirely from old tires.  Ben said that they were very comfortable and bouncy.

It is a beautiful nursery.  So many things to look at.

Of course everything is for sale, and the plants were quite reasonably priced.

I spied these massive specimens, which look quite like a zucchini and I have seen these on other gardening blogs.  What are they?

The final picture is of a wise old owl that was protecting all of the plants from the mice.  It must have worked because I didn't see any sign of mice anywhere!

We had a great day out, and if you in the city of Melbourne, or more specifically Brunswick East, then pay it a visit.  It is free and open every day.  Here is a link to their website.  It was just like visiting a great big version of my place!

Chicken Intelligence

After yesterdays post, I have been on the prowl for a video about how clever chickens are.  It is no news to me, because having lived with them for nearly 4 years now, I know the sorts of things they get up to.

A big thanks goes out to Stewart over at My Veggie Garden for posting this on Facebook for me to find.




I also found this thought provoking comment posted underneath the video on YouTube.  It really made sense to me.

"he's a dumb bird brain... she's a greedy, filthy pig... he's a disloyal dog... she's a fat lazy cow... he's a stubborn jackass... he's a cowardly chicken... so much propaganda that animal enterprise businesses use to ingrain in peoples' heads that animals are stupid, filthy and worthless with no redeeming qualities.If people realized how similar animals are to us in all the "good" ways, how could they ever reconcile what horrors have been perpetrated upon them & continue to participate?  blakmira"

Quite true when you think about it and I never thought about these sayings in that way before.  What do you think about the video and the comment?


P.S. I don't have a question to post for Wise Words Wednesday.  If anyone has a burning question they would like answered by the readership, please send it through via email.

Voiceless

My chickens have no voice, but I know that they are happy because I treat them kindly and with respect.  I love my chickens, and everything they do in return for me.  They are well kept, have space to free-range amongst the garden beds (when empty), and they provide our family with entertainment and an abundance of healthy eggs!

I have been quiet on the subject of factory farmed animals for quite a while, and learnt a few facts yesterday at the Sustainable Living Festival, so it is time to break the silence.

Voiceless Australia have launched a campaign highlighting the conditions that factory farmed pigs and chickens are kept in around the country.  I support them 100%, and believe that we are way behind European Union standards for animal cruelty laws.  As Hugo Weaving (ambassador for Voiceless) says, "If I treated a dog the way pigs and chickens are treated on these farms, I'd likely be prosecuted".

These animals are treated like objects, and without respect and dignity.  Having watched pigs as a kid on our dairy farm, it does not surprise me that it has been found that they have the intellect of a 3 year old human child, and as for chickens, they each have their own personality and social structure.

So pleased be warned that these two following TV ads may disturb some readers, but they are factual.  I personally don't think they are hard hitting enough, but they certainly do get the point across.



 


Now I am not asking you to stop eating pork and chicken, but just take the time to think of where that cut of meat comes from when you buy it at the supermarket.  Most of all, by being aware of where our food comes from, we can make better choices, and advocate cruelty free products.  
So lets speak up so that we end these cruel factory farming practices in Australia, and indeed the world.

SLF Fun in the Sun

We had a great day out today, and just got back from the Sustainable Living Festival a few hours ago.  Ben and I left at 0900, picked up our friends, David and his son Liam, and headed off to Federation Square.

We arrived at about 10am, and did a lap of the green market place that took us about and hour.  There were so many stallholders with information and goods, that we just had to stop and talk to most of them.

At 11am we stopped at the presentation under the gum trees, and listened to a talk about Permaculture in the Suburbs.  This talk was given by a bloke called Dan Palmer, who was one of the originators of the Permablitz concept and a founder of Very Edible Gardens.  It was great and I learnt a few things that I will put into practice like growing my own mulch, and the benefits of ducks! By the time I swung around to take a picture of Dan, Pete the Permie jumped in his spot and started to present 'How to make apple cider'.  I should have hung around but the kids were hungry, so we skipped this one.

So we popped down the the food area, and both Ben and Liam had a non-dairy ice-cream which they said was very yummy, and on the way back we washed it down with a glugs of water from the tap.  We then had lunch which consisted of a veggie burger.  It was delicious.  We sat and talked for a while before heading off to the next presentation.

Then it was into the BMW Edge theatre where we waited for 15 minutes whilst a small army set up for the next presentation.  This was titled 'The Great Australian Home Retrofit' presented by Beyond Zero Emissions.  They believe that instead of giving part of the Carbon Tax proceeds back as cash to householders, it should be given as a rebate to entice people to retrofit their homes and make them more energy efficient, therefore providing a longer term benefit via reductions in energy bills.  Fair point, I reckon.

They had managed to make a set that looked kinda like a home and showed everyone how easy it was to retrofit the building fabric with insulation, double glazing, window awnings, and draught proofing around doors and gaps.

They changed appliances, light fittings to LED, and even swapped out the gas stove for an induction stovetop.

Then it was champagne all round for a job well done.

It was about 2pm so we had about 30 minutes to kill.  David was convinced that he needed to find out more info about solar hot water, so we found a vendor and got a few pamphlets of information so he could digest it later.

We stopped outside the fix it tent where one could take a broken item and learn how to fix it.  This tent was powered by a small PV array.  I talked to one of the guys who was looking after it, and he said that the 600 watt system was enough to power this tent all day.  I initially thought that the inverter was a bit of overkill, however as it was totally off-grid it also had the storage batteries in the big white box.  A nice portable system for this kind of event.

By this time David and Liam needed a coffee and hot chocolate respectively, so we waited for the slowest barrista in Melbourne (so David told me) whilst his coffee was made in a fully decomposable coffee cup.  The coffee was nice as well, being organic, fair trade.

Then it was on to my favourite part of the day.  It was off to see Michael Reynolds for the second year in a row.  The auditorium was packed to capacity and people were even sitting in the aisles.  The Garbage Warrior put on quite the presentation, and he was funny, enlightening and inspirational.  The guy and his team (Biotecture) travels the world making Earthships, which he calls Sustainable Autonomy For Everyone, or SAFE for short.  A fantastic building concept that uses recyclable materials and is fully self sustaining.  You can even grow you own food within it.

I had a great day, as did everyone else and I will certainly go again next year, however I am going to lock away the entire weekend.  The reason I didn't go to some presentations on Saturday was because I was presenting my own workshop for the Melton Sustainable Living Group called "Building a Worm Farm", but more on that in another post.

I was reflecting today after I listened to Dan give his talk under the gum trees that this weekend charges my sustainable batteries for the year, and it gives me renewed hope that we will indeed solve the big issues of our time, in time.  Just being among so many like minded people gives me the strength to keep on fighting the good fight, and to continue to promote this way of life as a solution for reducing our environmental footprints.  Next time I write a post about doom and gloom, can someone please remind me that there are so many of us out there trying to make a difference, that all is not hopeless, and to reflect back upon this post! Or just kick me in the pants and tell me to get a grip.  Either way will work!  
:-)

So did anyone else from Melbourne manage to get along to this event, and if you did, what did you think of it?