Personal Time Management

So many people ask me where I get the time to do all the things that I do.  I have been giving it a lot of thought of late, because everyone who asks me also adds that they are so time starved, that they could not possibly achieve half of what I have on my average suburban house block.

Now I am not going to regurgitate reams of tips from time management books, because in my opinion I have gained little from the ones that I have read, and they are full of unachievable rubbish.  There is only one thing, in my humble opinion, that will give you back the time that you think you have lost.

Live life with purpose.  

By that statement, I mean that by setting achievable goals, making simple plans, then acting upon those plans.  This is a life lived with purpose.  So little time wasted, and so much achieved.  It worked for me!

Okay, I fibbed.  I do have one more tip that I live by.

Do your brain a favour and turn off display screens more often, mainly TV, computer games and Facebook.  It gives you time to think for yourself.

You will be amazed how much time you get back in your life.  Just think, by acting on those plans and reaping the rewards, you will rarely be bored, and not seek the mindless garbage spewing out of the idiot box.  A simple philosophy, but one I believe to be true (except for Star Trek of course).

Before someone says that they have to use a screen to read this blog, and I used one to write it, remember that reading and writing this blog (and researching for it) are my goals (and probably yours as well) and therefore purposeful acts.  I do, however, appreciated the irony!

Opinions please?  Do you think that I am over simplifying?

An eBook Or Two

Yes dear readers, just when you thought I didn't have time to do anything else around here, I decided to write and publish a few eBooks!  People keep telling me that I have a flare with the written word and a distinctive writing style, so I figured that the natural progression was an eBook.

I am in the process of putting together the first one which should take me a few weeks, based on the first few months of my journey.  It will document how I lived before my epiphany, what happened that fateful day, and the beginning of the journey.  I expect that it will be less than 100 pages long, and I will self publish it via Amazon and Smashwords so that it will be available for most eBook readers.

Afterwards,  I am planning to write a series of sustainable living 'How To' eBooks that will be for sale for under $4.00.  Each of these publications will have much more detail than my normal blog posts, so will hopefully offer more information for those budding builders, and DIYers out there, or anyone who wants to build a sustainable lifestyle.

So, as you are all faithful readers of the blog, what subjects do you think I should I tackle first in the how to series, and dare I say, would anyone think about buying a copy if I did publish them?  I am open to suggestions.  You have the floor dear readers!

My First Grape Vine

On the weekend, Kim and I got stuck into a little landscaping in the pool area behind the house.

This is where we left off.  The deck is looking great, but the area around the rainwater tank that I wrote about here, is looking pretty crappy.

So, we pulled out all the weeds (fed them to the chooks), and then got rid of the excess concrete that the builder so kindly left behind.  Then I dug out a wheelbarrow full of thick, sticky clay to level the ground.  It was difficult work in the mud and my gum boot kept on getting stuck.  By the time I was finished, I was not a happy camper, and needed a rest and a big bottle of water to calm myself down.

Once rested, then we mucked around for a while trying to figure out what arrangement looked the best and after moving stone, pavers and large pots around about 5 times, Kim had finally settled upon a design!

Kim suggested that I make a box to go around the vine.  I got stuck into making a little planter box for the sultana grape vine that I bought with my birthday money, and found some scrap wood left over from the deck construction.  It was a simple 30cm x 30cm square held together with screws that were countersunk into the wood.  It looks quite nice and I didn't even have to cut it to size. Luckily I found pieces of scrap the correct dimensions.

I then cut into the weed matting that we had laid down under the Tuscan rock we landscaped with about 10 years ago, only to find the most beautiful soil that had been converted from thick clay to a dark brown loam by the earthworms who had been doing the work over the last decade.  I felt really good about the quality of the soil, and dug down about 30cm to loosen it up, placed the small planter box on top, replaced the weed matting (with a square cut out the same size as the planter box), and popped in the Sultana vine next to the post.

Then, I backfilled with some garden soil and watered it in well.  Hopefully the worms will keep doing their work and the vine roots will establish themselves before the vine goes dormant.  Either way, come spring it should have a flush of new growth that I will train up the post.  I am going to fix a length of strong wire from top to bottom of the post to aid in training the vine up it.

You can also see in the picture that there are pretend river pebbles that I carted 4 wheelbarrow loads from a great stone pile in the front yard about 20 metres to our newly landscaped area.  Kim raked the river pebbles into place.

The area is not quite finished, so I will hold off on the rest of the pictures until Wednesday, when we are set to finish off the work.  I have to build two more planter boxes, improve the soil around the other two posts and then finish it off with river pebbles.  That is on top of the Yucca and flax than Kim has asked me to re-pot into larger ones.  Looks like I have my work cut out for me on my downshift day.  I am also building a longer planter box to place in front of the rainwater tank and will attach a trellis to grow some Kiwi fruit on it.

I have three more vines to plant, two Merlot, and a Crimson seedless table grape.  As I only have two more post remaining, I am going to plant the two Merlot in the same hole and wind them around each other as they grow and then fan them out in opposite directions when they reach the top of the arbour.  That will be in a few years time of course, but I am a patient man, and slowly but surely I am converting the pool area into a food garden as well.

To finish off the day, we sat in the front yard, each with a glass of wine and watched the world go by for about an hour very proud of our accomplishment.

Anyway, I am off to a good start even though when I woke up this morning I could feel every single muscle in my body.  Oh, it feels good to be alive, and I know this to be true because my body told me I was!

Meanwhile, In Germany...

An amazing thing happened in Adam's country of residence on Friday and Saturday just past.  The country produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour through the midday hours.  By comparison, in Australia, that is the equivalent of the peak output of 13.75 Hazelwood Power Stations!  Adam states that, "German efficiency wins again!"

Norber Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry told Reuters;

"Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch told Reuters. "Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over." 

The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed. 

Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources. 

Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Although I am very pleased for Germany and their foresight, at the same time I am sad and disappointed with Australia for being such laggards.  We have so much sunshine, so much space for solar PV and concentrated solar that we should be adopting this proven technology in droves.

However our governments continue with procrastination and drop further and further behind in the renewable energy race.  Even though Bruce Public thinks that roof-top solar is the best thing since sliced bread, our governments cut feed-in tariffs, slash installation incentives, and cancel major solar projects. Unfortunately, those in power are still married to the coal industry, without any indication of a messy divorce on the horizon!

That said, I feel proud that I have invested in the technology, and so have many like me.  Sooner or later there will be a tipping point by the public that will force the powers that be to act, probably sooner with all this scaremongering about the carbon tax!  People in my area are installing solar PV in droves.  In fact every third house in my street now has it installed on the roof.  It certainly is something to behold.

Greening The Office

Photo: Loungepark/Getty Images

I write a lot about greening my own home, but what about the workplace?  I do have a few tips that will save money in energy and help to green up the office by reducing the environmental footprint.

• Reduce paper. When printing, use both sides of a piece of paper in order to conserve. Keep a scrap paper pile for misprinted or unnecessary documents to either print on or write on.   Also, think before printing, you may not need a hard copy.

• Reduce your waste. Bring your own coffee cup or water bottle to work to avoid buying Styrofoam or paper cups and throwing them away every day. Also, bring your lunch in a reusable container rather than a disposable paper bag. Lastly, make sure your company has an easy-to-use recycling program and that everyone is educated on how it works.

• Be conscious of your supplies. Some office supplies are better for the environment than others;  Consider refillable pens and mechanical pencils rather than disposable ones.  There are even corn starch based pens that break down in landfill.  Most office supplies can be made from recycled materials and a cheap to buy.

• Office Equipment - Computers, printers, fax machines and photocopiers all contribute to an office’s electricity consumption. New office equipment has become more energy efficient and includes facilities to automatically reduce power when not in use. This is known as ‘stand-by’ or ‘sleep’ mode. For most office equipment the power consumption in sleep mode is between 5% and 50% of its operating power.

• Turn off equipment if it isn’t needed - This is the easiest way to reduce energy costs. A check at the end of the day (especially on Fridays) should be done to ensure all equipment is off.

• Install plug-in timers - Use plug-in timers to automatically switch off some equipment after hours. These are especially useful for photocopiers, printers and appliances which do not have automatic switch-off functions.  The continuous boil hot water in the kitchenette is a great appliance to target for a time!  TIP - It’s a good idea to post clear instructions on how to override timers for people who may require equipment out of hours. Otherwise you may find them disconnected by a frustrated staff member!

• Computers - Make sure all computers are turned off when not in use, especially overnight, weekends, and at lunchtime. A notice reminding people to switch off computers when not in use will keep staff aware of energy saving initiatives. Each desktop computer left on a lunchtime costs about $5/year if not set to low power or sleep mode.  Increasing numbers of computers can be responsible for the increase in office energy consumption.

• Switch off monitors - The monitor of a computer uses more than half of the energy consumed by the machine. Newer computers have functions that automatically switch off the monitor after a set period of inactivity. For older computers turn off the monitor, even if the computer itself is left running.

• Turn off the Screen Saver - most computers allow a screen saver to appear when they become idle for a certain period of time. Screen savers do not save energy, they are merely a protection device to maximise your screen’s useful life. They do not replace the sleep mode or switching the monitor off.

• Use laptop computers - Laptop computers use about one tenth the energy of a desktop computer. Connected to a monitor a laptop still uses about half the energy of a desktop machine.

So, if you follow some or all of this tips, you will save money for your business and lower your environmental footprint, and you will find that staff will feel more engaged because the company shows that they care about the environment.  Give yourself a pat on the back if you have already implemented some of these tips!

Are there any others that I have missed?

What If.....

A funny thing happened to me at lunchtime today and the experience was surreal.  Let me tell you about it.

It was cold, wet and blustery outside so I decided to forgo my regular lunch time walk and stayed indoors.  I was sitting on a couch in the lunch area at work, enjoying the rain falling across the city through the window perched 31 floors above street level.  Occasionally I took a glance at the green living magazine in my hand treasuring the moment.

After about 5 minutes of peace and quiet, six work mates (many who I have known for at least 5 years + and are friends), turned up fresh from the food court located at the bottom of the building, each carrying their choice of burger, hot chips and a coke.  I spied enough calories on the table to feed a large village in Africa for a week!  However, I digress.

I kept quiet, reading my magazine and just listened.  The conversation started with a one-up-man-ship about how much food each of them could consume (specifically meat) at some local all-you-can-eat joint down the road.  I briefly thought about the times that I used to do the same thing, and could scoff back half a cow in one sitting.  I also remember how sick I used to feel internally for days afterwards, and didn't envy them at all (I didn't really eat half a cow. I exaggerated to make a point).  However, what was about to occur captured my imagination.

The friendly banter soon turned to football, and the various codes that are played in Victoria.  On a side note, many men in Melbourne are football mad.  It is the first thing they talk about Monday morning, and spend all Friday afternoon wondering who will win the games over the weekend.

This football conversation ebbed back and forth between the blokes, each trying to outdo each other with their knowledge of the game and their favourite players.  It was about this time that I realised that even though I knew these guys well, I had no bloody idea what they were talking about.  It was like I was listening to a crew of Klingons without a universal translator to help out.

You know that the funny thing was that I didn't really care.  Now don't get me wrong, I pride myself as being as blokey as the next bloke, but it struck me that besides some aspects of work, I had nothing in common with these guys any more.  I was vastly different in my values, my beliefs and my interests.

Then a really amazing idea came to me.  What if, I thought, instead of the passionate banter and interest they had for football, that they turned their blokeyness towards sustainable living, as I have?  What if, instead of boasting about who's footy team had the best players, they bragged about how much renewable energy that their solar PV systems generated each day, trying to out do each other?  What if, they egged each other on about how many days in a row their chickens laid eggs, and who's hens laid the largest bun nuts?  What if, instead they talked about how much water they had in storage and how much rain they had harvested from all the rain today?  What if, all of these green topics were all talked about with the same vigour and passion as they have for football?  I am not bagging them, and I respect their differences, but what if?

Think how truly amazing that transformation would be for the environmentally apathetic blokes of this country.  Just think of how far the normal Aussie bloke's competitive streak could take us towards making a real, yes I mean real, difference towards tackling climate change and preparing for the end of cheap oil.  Instead of bragging about their huge 4x4 V8 SUV monsters, they might just brag about their Electric Vehicle conversion of said beast of a car and how many kilometres they managed to squeeze out of a charge, or how they souped up their bicycle with an electric motor!

When I finally hear that sort of banter around the lunch table, I will faithfully know that we are on the road to transition.  Until that day, I will dream of what if.......

Another Great Year!

Guess what day it is?

I had a fantastic day with family, and Kim cooked up a great Shepherds Pie that no one could tell it was vegetarian, with home made garlic bread.  Kim made the bread and I supplied the garlic from last years crop.  

The cake was to die for.  Kim made a double Victoria chocolate sponge cake with shaved white chocolate.

My daughter Megan took this picture which really captured the moment.  
Here is to another great green year!

Because It Is Our Room

Every so often I stumble across a video that tells a very good message.  This is one of them, which stuck me as just common sense.





So lets clean up our room!  It is the only one we have.

Producer vs Consumer

As I quickly approach my 48th birthday, one label that I intensely dislike is that of a 'consumer'.  Just about every news story refers to people as consumers, which on reflection, is quite apt in the consumer culture that we are currently burdened with.  I must admit that back before 2006, I was indeed a consumer with emphasis on consume!

That label may be fitting for some and my behaviours in the past, however, as I was pottering around the garden over the weekend, I thought to myself, that I have transformed from consumer to producer/consumer with emphasis on producer!

As I was walking around, I looked and thought about the things that I produce.  I produce food for my family from my fruit trees and vegetable garden from water that I have harvested.  I produce electricity from the Sun with both my grid-tied and stand-alone solar PV system.  I produce hot-water from the Sun.  I produce cheese from milk, bread from flour, eggs from kitchen scraps, and jam from fruit.  I produce beer from malt, hops and yeast.  I produce soap from vegetable oils.  I produce fertile soil from garden waste, and worm castings from coffee grounds.

But most of all, I believe that I produce joy.  Joy from living a simple and sustainable lifestyle for me, my family, and increasingly, my community.  It feels great to be a producer as opposed to a consumer.  I still consume, but when I do it is a basic grade of products from which I can produce something better and more sophisticated.   Being a producer means that I have learnt skills and wisdom that I would have otherwise ignored and left forgotten to generations long gone.  To be a producer is to reclaim these lost skills and to pass them on to our offspring and friends or anyone who wants to learn.

So my question to you all is, what do you produce, fellow producers?  How do you feel when you produce vs when you consume?

Visions Of A Sustainable City

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a function held by the Alternative Technology Association.  The ATA is Australia’s leading not-for-profit organisation that promotes sustainable technology and behaviours to ordinary householders. The ATA provides services to members who are actively walking the talk in their own homes by using good building design, conserving water and using renewable energy.  All plugs aside, it was a 'Thank You' for their business partners and supporters and was well attended.

Suffice to say it was a great evening, and I met the CEO, Ian Porter, and lots of very interesting people, some of who commented that they regularly read this blog (hello to you all).  Some wanted to know about the inner workings of a blog (the technical aspects), and others just wanted to talk about gardening and what was best to plant in our region at this time of the year.

Besides all of the networking, there was also a guest speaker, Professor Rob Adams, Director City Design at the City of Melbourne.  His presentation was about  “A Vision of Melbourne as a Sustainable City”.   Prof. Adams was quite visionary.  Being the Director of City design, he has been able to influence the fabric of the cityscape.  He talked about walkable neighbourhoods, curbing suburban sprawl, increasing population density near tram lines, increase of proper bicycle lanes that are shielded from traffic, increase of public space, increase of trees, increase of water efficiency, many of which have been implemented.  He did mention that there is always room for improvement, and that there are new projects under way in conjunction with partners like increasing water storage in parks and gardens, so that they become almost self sufficient.

The most impressive part of the presentation was what he thinks we should do with the suburbs.  His recommendation is to curb suburban sprawl by increasing inner city density to about 300 people per hectare, and make them the lungs, distributed energy producers, and food bowl of the city, something that I am totally on board with and which I actively participate.  The plan is to attempt to reverse the Victorian State Governments current thinking around building into the green wedges of the city, and leave the suburbs as they are.  I love this plan.

Increasing urban density up to 8 stories high along the tram corridors is achievable, in fact around the city it is already happening.  It is far cheaper in infrastructure costs to increase density in the inner city than to let sprawl continue.  All of the infrastructure is in place, and can be augmented to cope, without too much effort or cost.  Increasing density alongside well provisioned public transport has been proven to reduce car ownership, which in turn decreases traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.

Also, I found out that the city of Melbourne has a congestion levy.  It places a levy on each privately owned car park space ($910 per space in 2012) which goes into a fund with which the city uses to fund tram super stops and bike lanes, and other sustainability projects.  That was something I didn't know the city implemented, but I don't live there so it goes to reason.  They have designed it without the hassle of a park and pay version in places like London.

Prof. Adams presented evidence that people around the urban fringe in the outer suburbs are actually a lot less healthier due to inadequate public transportation.  Reasoning is that if you catch public transport you are more likely to walk to it, exercising an average of 40 minutes a day, however if you drive to your workplace you would be lucky to exercise for just 10 minutes a day.  I know this to be factual because as I found out when I rarely drive the 50km to work, I hardly get any exercise those days, and have to compensate with a long lunch-time walk.  For more information about the drawbacks of living in outer suburbs and working in a city, take the time to read this study titled "Unsettling Suburbia: The New Landscape of Oil and Mortgage Vulnerability in Australian Cities" by Griffith University.  The university created the VAMPIRE (Vulnerability Assessment for Mortgage, Petroleum and Inflation Risks and Expenses) index which identifies the relative degree of socio-economic stress in suburbs in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.  You can get a copy of the report at this link.

Another factoid I learnt was that 20% of the cities trees have died in the past decade due to climate change and the 11 year drought we just experienced, with another 20% of the trees expected to die by 2020.  They are replanting with native species, as most of the dead trees were non-native European species such as Dutch Elm, and Oak planted many years ago in the early 20th century.  Prof Adams mentioned that they have begun to install water traps near curb side tree plantings that help to water the trees from storm water runoff.  A great idea to water them and to reduce runoff into Port Philip Bay.

These were the only bits I remember, however it has given me a fantastic idea.  Over the weekend, I am going to document my vision of my town of Melton becomes in 2030!  I have a fair idea what needs to be done around here to make it sustainable, adaptable and resilient, and will even include a map or two so those not familiar with the area will have some idea of what I am banging on about.  Like last night, it should be fun.

In closing, a big thank you goes out to those hard working people at the ATA who made the night so special.

What is your city/town doing to become more sustainable?  I would love to know, as would all of the readership.  Leave a comment if you know of great projects happening in your area.

Energy Independence 4 - More Amps!

As I am beginning to run more and more appliances off of my battery bank (including my hair clippers), I have found that I needed more capacity.

Over the last month we saved up another $200 to buy a second 105Ah AGM deep cycle battery.  I picked it up this morning, then popped in to visit my friendly local auto electrician to see if he could make me up some battery interconnection cables with 8mm lugs.  It turned out that he could for $15 each, which was cheaper than I could find on eBay (with postage).

The cables are 300mm (1 foot) long, about AWG 3 (25mm sq), and are crimped with a 60kg crimper.  Rated at about 400 amps, it will easily handle the 13 amp charge and 90 amp discharge across the two batteries.

I placed the new battery into the battery box, and before I hooked them up I had to figure out the best way to draw current from them.  I found this site that suggested that the best method to connect 12 volt batteries in parallel was to add/draw current from the positive terminal of the first battery and the negative terminal of the second battery.  This way both batteries charge/discharge fairly equally.  You can read how to connect the multiple batteries here.  I chose method 2 for obvious reasons if you read it.

So you can see that I have the two new cables connected positive to positive (red to red) and negative to negative to keep the voltage at 12 volts.  The red inverter cable and +ve charge controller are connected to the positive on the left battery, and the negative inverter and -ve charge controller are connected to the negative terminal on the right hand battery.  I then tested everything and the voltage was all at 12 volts wherever I tested.  Once turned back on, the charge controller began to bulk charge the battery bank, after my haircut.

I am very pleased with it and estimate that I now have ample capacity as an emergency backup for the fridge or whatever else I want to run from it (under 1000 watts).  The water pump is only drawing a small percentage of the total capacity every few days when the garden beds start drying out, and if on during the day, it runs draws current straight from the solar panels, and bypasses the batteries.  Looking forward to using it more and more.  I am now looking to string some permanent LED lighting up in the carport instead of the 6 very old fluoro tubes that are installed.  That would give me enough light to work on projects or on my seed table at night.  All for free, and without cutting into the grid at night!

Speaking of haircuts, lets see if Kim posts a comment about the funny thing that I did when I cut my hair today.  I made a silly mistake but she can tell the story!

Almost Vegetarian Update

Kim and I have really taken to this change of eating pattern.  We are really enjoying it, and I feel full all the time.

In fact word is getting around.  Our local paper were looking for some vegetarians and contacted me (as the President of the sustainable living group), and wondered if I knew anybody that would talk to them.  I mentioned that I was 'almost' vegetarian with a goal of 80% less meat in our diet, and the reporter locked in an interview.  Here is the story: Vegging Out.  I was the odd one out, but at least I am trying my best.

We have replaced meat products with a range of things, mostly lentils, beans, pulses and some veggie substitutes that I have mentioned in this post titled "Almost Vegetarian?"  However, Kim recently found a really tasty meat substitute called Quorn, from the UK that has started to appear in the major supermarkets here in Australia.  The company website has this to say about the mock meat;

"Mycoprotein is the common ingredient in all Quorn products. It's made from a member of the fungi family (the same family that morels and truffles belong to) and is a high-quality meat-free protein that's low in fat, high in dietary fibre (important for your digestive system) and is a valuable source of amino acids."

I like it, but the food miles are atrocious.  The price however is comparable to real meat, so it has not hit the back pocket.  Kim only buys it when it is on special, so it is even cheaper.

We still eat biodynamic bacon every second Sunday morning which eggs from our chooks, as we believe that if you are going to eat meat, it better have lived a happy life, free range and chemical free.  Occasionally, the odd anchovy lands on my home made pizza, but I can't seem to do without the salty little suckers.

Anyway, all good so far, and I feel very healthy and my insides have never worked better!  I can't remember if I mentioned it, but my cholesterol test was good, and was getting lower due to this conversion to almost vegetarian.  Love the benefits!

You will get a few more years greening and blogging out of me yet!

Group hugs all round for being 'almost' vegetarian.

Crouching Jasmine, Hidden Pumpkin

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had harvested all of my pumpkins.   Well it seems that one was hiding from me and went rouge.

Kim was outside today talking to the chickens (or something like that), and happened to notice a big orange thing in our jasmine vine.

You can see it in the middle of the vine.  It is an Australian Butter Pumpkin that I must have missed.  I do remember pulling a pumpkin vine out of the creeper, but didn't think much of it. 

It wasn't connected to anything, just hanging there.  A few more windy days and it would have hit the ground and smashed open!

Luckily for me, it still had about 7cm of stem attached, and was undamaged.  It will store well and is about the about the same size as the other pumpkins that I harvested.

So now I can up the tally for this year to 8!  I just love pumpkin surprises.

Bridge Of Power

My son Adam, who lives in Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany,  took a bike ride with his girlfriend Sina to Bonn, the old West German capital.

Don't they make a lovely couple.  Anyway, on with the story.

Now, some of you may know that Germany is a renewable energy leader, which many countries could learn from, and it is not surprising that Adam and Sina found this when they arrived.

In the distance they saw the Kennedy Bridge over the Rhein, and noticed something sparkling on it.

As they got closer they saw that it was covered in solar panels.  392 panels @ 230 watts each, producing 90 kW at peak to be exact!  The installation was completed in May 2011.

The display reads that it was producing 57.6 kW at the time of the photo, and had generated a total of 66 MWh since it was installed last year.  I think that is amazing.  It would take me 3666 years to generate that much electricity with my system!

Don't you wish there were more prominent installations like this in your neck of the woods to show the benefits of renewable energy?  I know I do!
 

One Finger Cannot Lift A Pebble

Thanks to a reader (Shirley), I happened to read a wonderful article written by Ernest Callenback, better know as author of Ecotopia.  He died at 83 on April 16th, 2012 - leaving behind a final unpublished document on his computer.

For those who have a spare 20 minutes today, have a read of his final document, "Epistle to the Ecotopians: Last Words to an America in Decline".

I have never read any of his works, but now that I have a taste, I will be ducking down to the library to see if I can find some of his novels.  From what I have read on Amazon, they are right up my alley!


For those who only have a few minutes, here is the quote of the day;

"To my fellow swimmers there is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift, that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore, they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know that the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our heads above water . And I say see who is there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves, for the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves. Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for." - Hopi wisdom prophesy

So rejoice, let go of the shore and see who is there with you! Remember that we are all in this together and that one finger cannot lift a pebble.

Gav

Mozzarella Video Tutorial

Curd Nerds rejoice!  I have made another cheese video tutorial.

It has been a while since I put a cheese-making video together, so as I was making mozzarella on last  night for pizzas in the Cob oven tonight, I thought I should document it.  It took just over 45 minutes to make due to filming every step, but it worked out well.





If you would like the full recipe, then visit my cheese blog post titled "30 Minute Mozzarella" over on Little Green Cheese.  It is so easy to make, and tastes delicious!  Mozzarella is a great cheese to start with if you are thinking about embarking on the wonderful world of cheese-making.

Roasted Chestnuts

I discovered roasted chestnuts when courting my wife Kim in the UK, in 1995.  We had just visited the British Museum and spied a chestnut vendor, of which in the colder months there are hundreds all around the city of London.  Having never tried them before, we bought a bag and found that they were just simply delicious, even though we ended up with charcoal all over our hands.

Back in Australia, these tasty morsels are a self serve option, and I rarely see a street vendor selling them.  So when Kim's friend gave us a bag I jumped at the chance to roast some up.

Now remembering the black, sooty fingers on my last encounter, I decided to scour the net in search of an easy, clean method of roasting chestnuts in our kitchen oven.  I found one, and this is how I went about it.

Firstly I washed the chestnuts in cold water to remove any mould or dirt.  Then turn your oven on and preheat to 220C or 425F.

Then with a sharp bread knife score the shell of the curved side until you just touch the nut.  It is pretty easy and you can tell when you are through.  I have heard some people use a cross, but I think this was much safer.

Put them in a pan and just cover with water, and bring to the simmer.

Once simmered, take them out and put into a roasting tray.  The chestnuts have split open a little wider.

Set 15 minutes up on the timer. and pop into the preheated oven.

Once roasted, then cover with a clean tea towel and rest for another 5 minutes.  This helps to steam them a little which helps removed the shell cleanly.

Remove the cover and start peeling.  Any chestnuts that are black on the inside discard as they are rotten and taste foul (I know, I ate one thinking that it was just over cooked).

Only the creamy coloured ones are good for eating, however I don't think it would hurt the chooks any if I gave the black ones to them.

The chestnuts peel so easily with this method, and look no black, sooty hands.

Here are a few that I peeled for myself and Ben.  Kim had already scoffed her share by then!  So delicious and so simple to cook.  It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish, not including the eating which happened in only two minutes.

Luckily I kept some more aside for tomorrow night!  Yum.  So if you have a chestnut tree in your neighbourhood, scrump a few bag fulls, and roast them up.  They are so nice on a cold evening.

I wish I could find a tree close by.  The owners would be my next best friend.

Positive Visions Give Realistic Hope

As I was searching around for a few examples of positive visions of the future, I happened to visit Dixiebelle's facebook page as I do on occasion.  She left me two wonderful videos that show the very future that I was talking about.  For those hard of hearing, you can enable closed caption text on both of these videos.

The first is by Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics.  It is his enlightening vision of the future.




The second video is a vision of what a post-consumer society could look like.  It is title Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth.




These are two very good examples of a positive vision of the future.  But it can't be all beer and skittles.  We are daily bombarded with messages of doom and gloom however,  hope is a more powerful motivator/driver than fear ever is.  It motivates individuals and communities to do and achieve amazing things together.  Sure, fear does have a part to play when initially learning about the two big issues we face, but they must turn into hope, or we wallow in despair and depression.  Let me borrow a few paragraphs from the Transition Handbook to drive the point home on why we need to be realistically hopeful;

"The end of the Oil Age is a confusing time. We are constantly exposed to bewildering mixed messages. The media presents us with headlines such as "Steep decline in oil production brings risk of war and unrest, says new study", and "Carbon output rising faster than forecast, says study" yet at the same time advertising puts across the conflicting message that business as usual is the only way forward, that globalisation is the only model that can feed the world, and that just buying this next thing will make us happy. Indeed the contrast can sometimes be striking, with an article about the melting of Arctic ice-sheets next to an advert for a new car or cheap flights.
The media to which we are increasingly exposed continually give out double messages,
which can leave one feeling perplexed."

It is so true.  To overcome this fear, or doom and gloom mixed with a consumerism dichotomy, we   need realistic hope combined with a positive vision.  This is a very powerful tool that can be used to break this confusion.  We need to begin preparing as well as projecting this future.  I personally am totally engaged by the Transition Handbook, and am nearly finished it, and then with look for a copy of the Transition Companion which is a more up to date text.  It has so many brilliant ideas, which have been at the back of my mind.  Our town certainly needs this type of initiative as it is about as resilient as a chicken house surrounded by foxes with the door slightly ajar!  No local food, poor public transport, no local economy, however there are many strong community groups and a sense of community among the older folk.  To quote Bec;

"It can be hard staying positive at times, and things like that keep me going... there are lots of great ideas like that out there. Not about "what have I done", or "how good am I", but from the perspective of "look how great humanity can be, look at what we can achieve for a better world"... together!"

She certainly has a way with words.  Worth their weight in gold, if you ask me.

Positive Vision

Whilst reading and studying the Transition Handbook, I can across the concept of creating a positive vision of the future.  Now I do try and write with a positive vision in mind when I compile with my How To posts, and trying to capture the essence of what I do, but sometimes I fall into the trap of doom and gloom which simply alienates people.

This is why I wrote my latest post over at the Simple Green Frugal Coop, titled "Creating A Positive Vision of The Future".

As this is my main post for the day, please pop on over and let me know what you think via a comment.  Any feedback is appreciated.

Gavin

A Few Good Stories

I have been a green story teller now for four years and it all started out with a vision.  That vision was an "Effort To Reduce Our Family's Carbon Footprint So We Can Start Making A Difference For Our Children and Future Generations To Come", which we have strived for daily.  The stories have been written by yours truly, and are my family's journey along the path to a sustainable future.  My vision, which I turned into a mission and goals, has mainly come true (insofar as lowering my carbon/environmental footprint).  I have discovered that I am only beginning to scratch the surface regarding the power of story telling with positive vision about an abundant future.  This is a vision of the future which is energy-lean, time-rich, less stressful, healthier and happier.  I  have also come to realize that our very own story, is indeed an abundant vision of the future, which we are now living daily.  It took me a while to realise this.

However, of late other people have been joining in to help tell my family's story.  These stories began as a local media frenzy after I was awarded the Blog of the Year by ReNew Magazine and it has been a great way to spread a very simple message.  That message is that living a more sustainable lifestyle is not difficult nor costly when put into perspective against our current societal behaviors which are costly and destructive.  I believe that these stories are helping to communicate the message far and wide.

So to share, here are a few articles and few radio interviews that I have given over the last month.

Interview on The Good Earth radio show, Part 1 with Part 2 airing next month.

Building Blogs of Change, The Age Newspaper (Domain section) by Michael Green

World Wide Webber A Hit, Melton Weekly Newspaper

Melton Man Prepares Garden Bed, Melton Leader Newspaper

ATA Webinar - Retrofitting Your Home For Energy Efficiency

Interview on Environmentality radio show.

Gavin Webber - The Green Bloke, by Greg Foyster

Original ReNew Article that started it all.

There are also two more articles in the pipeline, one about being 'Almost Vegetarian', and another about establishing traditions, which focuses on my cheese-making obsession.

Now, not wanting to sound narcissistic, I have also written another Grass Roots article which I think appears in the next issue which is about "How I built my Clay Cob Oven".

I think that media outlets find my family's story interesting, because it helps to balance the doom and gloom of current events (politics, disasters, finance), and documents a feel good environmental story of what is possible if you put your mind to it.  I feel humbled to be that messenger, but I certainly feel up to the task.  However with all that said and done, there is nothing quite like writing a good blog post, which obviously got their attention in the first place.

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you
plant.  - Robert Louis Stephenson

How Resilient Are You?

So we know what resilience kind of looks like, or at least we have a definition now.  Before we get into solution mode, I want you to take a little survey that I found at Yes! Magazine (thanks to Gustoso for pointing it out).

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/how-resilient-are-you

It only takes a few minutes, and there are only 20 multiple choice questions.  This questions certainly made me think and query a few of my behaviours, however I just scraped in to the upper limit with a score of 70.  Rainwater tanks, a food stockpile and an independent power supply helped to raise my score, however I don't think there was enough emphasis on growing your own food.

Let me know how you scored in a comment with areas you think you may have fallen short.  It is not a competition, just a tool for seeing what areas we may need to work on.  I need to work on local finances and local economy, so I will have to think about that a bit more.

Have a go, because at this early stage, there is certainly nothing to loose.  We still have time.

What Is Resilience?

I have discussed before in my post Peak Everything, that the due duel impacts of climate chaos and peak oil, will in the near future impact our ability to keep the current consumer kultcha alive and kicking.  The way we are partying like it is 1999 is just not going to continue ad nauseum (thank goodness).

In my quest to define resilience, I could find no better explanation than the one given in the Transition Handbook;

Walker et al. define it thus:“Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change, so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks.”In the context of communities and settlements, it refers to their ability to not collapse at first sight of oil or food shortages, and to their ability to respond with adaptability to disturbance.

I have written before about the consequences of not being resilient in my post, "Nine meals from Anarchy".  It is worth a read before proceeding any further, but it doesn't give you the whole picture.

Economist David Fleming argues that the benefits for a community with enhanced resilience will be that:

• If one part is destroyed, the shock will not ripple through the whole system

• There is wide diversity of character and solutions developed creatively in response to local circumstances

• It can meet its needs despite the substantial absence of travel and transport

• The other big infrastructures and bureaucracies of the intermediate economy are replaced by fit-for-purpose local alternatives at drastically reduced cost

So what can we do to our communities to make them shock proof?  Well not wanting to get too far ahead, that will be the subject of the next post!  

Can you think of another definition?

Big Weekend

Kim, Ben and I have a big weekend ahead of us.  

Out and about town early to run some errands, then back home to listen to the radio just like the good old days.  Yes, I am on community radio with my new friend Mick O'Connel.  Here is the info from his site:

"The Good Earth

Got a ripper show coming up this week on the 1st Saturday in May with Michael O'Connel when we interview Penny Woodward about pest and natural remedies in her new book Pest-Repellent Plant.

And if that wasn't enough, we present part 1 of an interivew with Gavin Webber whose blog "The Greening of Gavin"www.greeningofgavin.com won Alternative Technology Association's sustainable blog competition.

Plus our usual segments including "This Month in the Garden". Don't miss out - set your alarm for 10:00am Saurday and your radio on 94.1FM 3WBC or live on the web at www.3WBC.org.au."

We will be tuning in at 10am Australian Eastern Time tomorrow.  For those readers not in Melbourne you can stream live via the web.  Part 2 will be next month.

Then, I have lots of gardening and odd jobs to do around the place.  Planting the snow pea seedlings, cleaning out the chook houses, and putting a solar light in the chicken run, so I can see what I am doing when I put them to bed at night now that the nights are dark early.

I will also be installing a hose outlet somewhere after the new pump so that I can connect a garden hose to water the herbs and trees in pots from the rainwater tanks.  Haven't quite figured out where or how, but I am sure I will sort it out.

On Sunday, up early to get the Sunday Age newspaper, because there is a story about this blog and I in the Domain liftout by Michael Green.  It should help to spread the word about the benefits of simple/sustainable living.  I am very excited to hit the mainstream media.

Then we are all off to Castlemaine to visit the Farmers market, see the Steam Train, have lunch in the Botanical Gardens, and visit the Museum.  It should be a great day, and I believe it is one of the sustainable towns within Victoria.  Should be lots of like minded people to take to.

I have also been reading lots of research papers about peak oil, community resilience and psychological resilience.  I am also half way through the Transition Handbook, which is a fantastic read.  Stay tuned for a few very interesting posts about resilience over the next few days.

I hope you all have an exciting weekend ahead of you.  I promise to take lots of photos to put up on the blog.  Have fun!

Resilience - Podcast 28 - Craig Ambrose at Atamai Eco-Village

Resilience.  How do we build it into our communities?  Can you build resilience from the ground up?  Well Craig Ambrose from Motueka, NZ thinks so, as do many like minded people throught the world.  Originally a Melbourne lad, Craig moved to NZ to seek a resilient community.

Craig and his son William at Atamai Village Commons

A short distance from the small town of Motueka, in the northern part of New Zealand’s South Island, Atamai Village is well underway in its goal to provide homes, food and economic security for 50 families in a well-planned, permaculture-inspired development.  You can visit their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/atamaivillage

Please join me as we listen to Craig talk about his family's journey and efforts to help establish this resilient community.

Here is the mp3 file to download

Also as a special treat, here is a video about the village made by some WWOOFers who visited them.


Enjoy!

Building Resilience

After a few days of thought on the subject, I decided that I would start another series of posts on resilience within our communities.  One of the main reasons that this thought occurred was a great post by Bec over at Eat At Dixiebelles, titled "Home Is Where You Make It, where in typical Dixiebelle style and grace, she has an argument with herself on the pros and cons of moving to a tiny cabin in the wilderness, or making a go if it in the suburbs by adapting in place.  It is the "adapting in place" that I will be writing about, in the similar vain as my Suburban series last year.  Similar, but not the same, as I will be talking about different ways that communities (not just suburbs) are attempting to become resilient in place, or even taking the initiative, mustering the courage and creating a new and purpose built community for the challenges that are rapidly approaching us.  In Bec's own words, "the grass is greener where you water it!"

So to start off the series, I can think of no better place to begin than with someone who started the concept off in the modern era, and that is Rob Hopkins of Transition Town Totnes fame.

Please have a listen to Rob, and his observations of why the Transition Town concept has been so successful, and is beginning to spread as a resilience model, where once there was just an unsustainable one.






So my question to my readers today is, What does resilience mean to you?  I would love to know before I kick off this new series.