Happy Easter!

For those of you who get a break this time of year, I hope you are having a resting or active time, whatever be your fancy.

Having recovered from the unknown ailment, with no sign of shingles for the last four days, I would say that I am out of the woods.  Still taking aspirin as recommended by the GP, but no sign of any of the symptoms that I had on Tuesday.  Fingers crossed.

Speaking of crossed, on Friday, Kim whipped up a batch of home made hot cross buns, which we have been snacking on with herbal tea all weekend.  Here they are all cooling on the rack after Kim glazed them.  The taste of all spice and cinnamon was delicious.  Certainly beats the palm oil tainted buns that the big supermarkets were trying to flog!

After a solid days work of tidying up on the chook-house and pool parts of  the garden, we had a simple dinner is steamed fish and veggies.  Later, I made mozzarella for the family, who have been eating it as a snack with crackers whenever it takes their fancy.

Yesterday, I worked my butt off in the veggie patch.  I managed to harvest the last of the tomatoes, mostly broad ripple yellow current and a few tommy toes.  All the spent vines were composted, and the beds prepared for onions and garlic which I shall be planting tomorrow.  The pumpkins were harvested as well, with only 1 Aussie Butter, 1 Butternut, and 1 Qld Blue to show for all my efforts.  The summer heat was a killer.  There is one more Aussie Butter to be picked, but I am waiting for it to grow a little more.

I also harvested these beautiful eggplants (aubergines).  The cultivar is called Listada di Gandia, and I have been saving the seeds for five years now.  It is just a nice as the normal long purple cultivars, but far less susceptible to getting burnt in the extreme heat of summer.

In addition, I pruned the dead branches off the citrus trees, pruned the thornless loganberry, and trimmed and collected seed from the Warragul greens (NZ spinach).

Today, I worked two shifts at the local Bunnings BBQ run by the Melton Sustainable Living Group.  Always good fun, but we didn't raise as much funds as expected with the takings being over $600 down from normal.  Looks like we will have to write a few grant applications for our projects this year instead of relying on our own fundraising.  Not to worry.  There are lots of organisations who throw grants at groups like ours.

There is a bit more work to do tomorrow afternoon, however we are going to Ballan to visit Jessie who writes at "rabbidlittlehippy".  Looking forward to the lovely gift of organic chocolate she offered me, and a look at her chooks and ducks!

So far, a very grounding and relaxing weekend.

How about you?  Anything exciting happening in your garden or kitchen?

Good News Everyone

Well dear readers, I just visited my GP.

Thankfully there were no issues in the blood work, so it was either a virus that knocked me for six, or shingles in a few days. Numbness has turned into pain which is to be expected, but no telltale rash as yet.

I rested in bed all day and night yesterday, sleeping for well over 18 hours. Looks like my body was telling me to slow down. Candle burning at both ends will have to cease, and my after hours activities will need to go on the back burner for a week until I am fully rested.

Also, I would like to thank everyone for their heartfelt well wishes and overwhelming support over the last two days. It really helped me fret less.

Anyway, I am on the train now, inching to slowly towards work. I promise you that I will be taking it easy.

Rock on the Easter break for a relaxing long weekend. Some nice easy work in the veggie patch will be good, grounding medicine.

Thanks again

Yours in greening,

Gav x

Bit of a Turn

Not a green post at all, but I had to get this down.  I had a bit of a shock to the system today.

I left work early because I was experiencing tingling and numbness on the left hand side of my face, and pain in my left shoulder.  To add to that weirdness, I wasn't feeling well yesterday afternoon either, feeling faint for about 30 minutes.  However after a drink of water I felt much better.

Called Kim to book an appointment with my regular GP, but he was unavailable, so I managed to get in quickly with an equally nice doctor.  After I told him what was going on, he looked concerned and quickly ordered me to the pathology department to get an ECG and Cardiac enzyme blood tests.

I started to feel a little anxious, because I new that I had symptoms of a stroke.  Yes folks, quite serious.

The ECG was looked okay, however was inconclusive, so they rushed off the blood work to be tested.  I was told that it is probably not a stroke or minor heart attack, and more likely the start of shingles!  But being a cautious doctor, he told me to start taking aspirin to thin the blood.  Wonderful!  Just have to wait for the rash to appear (if it ever does), to get treatment.

So now I rest at home, not doing a heck of a lot, waiting to see him again on Thursday morning for results.  His parting words to me were that if it got worse, call 000 (911).  Nice.

I feel like a bit of a ticking time bomb, sitting here with a numb face feeling sorry for myself.  If you think I feel bad, you can imagine how Kim felt during the whole episode.  Not pretty.

Look.  I feel okay(ish), but a bit worrisome.  I am sure I will be fine.

Sorry for bringing you down.

Gav x

Is Nuclear the Answer to Climate Change?

The other day I received a comment on the post "Call To Country" from Rachel, who asked;

Hi Gavin,  

I wonder what your position is on nuclear power as an alternative energy source? I have always been opposed to it but studying my Masters in Sustainability has opened my eyes to lots of things including the myths around nuclear power. DecarboniseSA is an advocacy website (not run by me!) which does a lot to educate people regarding the true story of nuclear.

It was founded by one of my lecturers, a passionate environmentalist who has no connections to the nuclear companies but merely an objective and pragmatic approach to finding solutions. As much as I hate to admit it, we are not going to reduce carbon emissions by consuming less (as a society), so I think nuclear (with renewables) is one of our only options.

Rachel

You know what Rachel?  Way back in the beginning, I too thought that Nuclear power may be one of the solutions to de-carbonising our society.  

Then after I finished my Diploma in Carbon Accounting, I started to look at the carbon emission life-cycle from digging the uranium ore out of the ground to generating Nuclear Electricity.

Besides the harmful nuclear waste that the process leaves behind, the claim that nuclear power generation is CO2 free is simply a myth.

During my search to find proof, I stumbled upon this great post. I cannot claim the words in this post. They belong to Dave Kimble from http://www.peakoil.org.au/ and they are wise and well researched words as well.

---

Proponents of nuclear power always say that one of the big benefits of nuclear power is that it produces no or little Carbon dioxide (CO2).

This is completely untrue, as a moment's consideration will demonstrate that fossil fuels, especially oil in the form of gasoline and diesel, are essential to every stage of the nuclear cycle, and CO2 is given off whenever these are used.

This is Ranger Uranium Mine's Pit Number 1.

All of the material removed from this hole, over-burden and ore, was moved by truck.

These trucks run on diesel. It would be interesting to know how much diesel is used for how much ore in a year at Ranger. If we are to increase the number of nuclear power stations, we also need to increase the number of these trucks (which obviously take a lot of fossil fuel energy to build), and the volume of diesel fuel. Currently Australia imports 50% of its diesel consumption, and this figure is rising as our oil production falls. The tyres on these trucks are also particularly energy-intensive to make, and there is a world-wide short of these tyres.

The ore is taken to a mill, usually nearby to keep trucking costs down. The mill crushes the rock to powder. The powder is then treated with sulphuric acid to dissolve the uranium, leaving the rock (depleted ore) behind.

The depleted ore is washed and neutralised using lime, and the slurry is pumped to the tailings ponds.

Maintaining the tailings ponds, with more diesel powered machinery.

Hard rock ores, such as quartz conglomerates and granites, are approximately 3 to 4 times more energy-intensive than soft rock ores (limestones and shales) to crush.

The dissolved uranium solution, including other metals, is then treated with amines dissolved in kerosene to selectively separate the uranium, which is then precipitated out of solution using ammonia, forming Ammonium di-uranate, or "yellowcake". All of these chemicals, sulphuric acid, lime, amines, kerosene and ammonia are energy-intensive to make, and the energy required is in the form of fossil fuels, that produce CO2 when used.

In the final stage, the yellowcake is roasted at 800°C in an oil-fired furnace called a calciner. The Ammonium di-uranate is converted to 98% pure Uranium oxide (U3O8), which is a dark green powder that is packed into 44-gallon drums for shipment.

Drums of Uranium oxide are stacked by forklifts, while they await shipment, sometimes to the other side of the world.

The next stage involves dissolving the Uranium oxide in Hydrofluoric Acid and excess Fluorine gas to form Uranium hexafluoride gas : U3O8 + 16HF + F2 => 3UF6 + 8H2O Hydrofluoric Acid is one of the most corrosive and poisonous compounds known to man.

The Uranium hexafluoride gas is then transported in cylinders to be enriched.

Naturally occurring Uranium consists of three isotopes: U-238 = 99.2745% ; U-235 = 0.7200% ; U-234 = 0.0055% Despite its tiny proportion of the total by weight, U-234 produces ~49% of the radioactive emissions, due to its very short half-life. The standard enrichment process for pressurised water reactor (PWR) fuel converts this mix to: fuel stream : U-238 = 96.4% ; U-235 = 3.6% tailings stream : U-238 = 99.7% ; U-235 = 0.3% The centrifuges are powered by electricity, so this stage can be powered by nuclear power. However building the centrifuge cascades requires lots of fossil fuels.

Low-enriched (3.6%) Uranium hexafluoride gas is then transported to the fuel fabrication plant.

The UF6 gas is converted to Uranium dioxide (UO2) powder, pressed into pellets, and baked in an oil-fired furnace to form a ceramic material. These are then loaded into a tube made of a zirconium alloy. Several of these tubes form one fuel assembly.

Zirconium is a metallic element derived from zircon, an ore of Zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4), which is a by-product of rutile sand mining (another energy-intensive business). Naturally occurring Zirconium is always found with Hafnium, which has to be removed (with difficulty) for nuclear uses. For every tonne of Uranium in the fuel, up to 2 tonnes of Zirconium alloy are needed.

Fresh fuel is only mildly radioactive and can be handled without shielding. The fuel assemblies are then transported to the reactor by truck or train. A 1000 MW(e) nuclear reactor contains about 100 - 130 tonnes of Uranium dioxide, and usually one third of that is replaced in rotation each year.

If you ignore the vehicles that the workers use to get to work, the reactor does not produce any CO2. But it does use electricity, as well as produce it, and to the extent that electricity is largely produced by fossil fuels, this needs to be counted in the energy balance.

It takes a lot of steel to build a nuclear power station, and steel is made by smelting iron ore with coking coal.

And a nuclear power station uses lots of concrete, which is made from cement. Cement is made by crushing limestone and roasting it, using fossil fuels, to drive off Carbon dioxide. So cement is particularly CO2-intensive.

Spent fuel rods 'normally' spend six months in cooling ponds located within the reactor building, so that short-lived radio-activity can decay, making the material easier to handle. In the US and many other places, these spent fuel rods stay at the reactor a lot longer than that, while politicians argue over what to do with it next.

Reactor waste moved by road and rail.

Spent fuel is kept under water until it is reprocessed. This keeps it cool and acts as a radiation shield. In the 'once through' process, the fuel rods are dissolved in acid, and the Plutonium is extracted, and the remainder including the Uranium becomes high-level waste. In the 'recycling' process, Uranium is also recovered.

Recovered Plutonium and Mixtures of Plutonium and Uranium oxides (MOX) are sent by road back to the fuel fabrication facility to be used in new fuel rods.

This is not really a waste repository, (it is the NORAD military bunker at Cheyenne Mountain) but this is what one might look like if one was ever to be built.

This is a security policeman, well , it does say POLICE on his bag. I do hope everything is alright.

Ah, that's more like it. How many miles per gallon do you get out of one of those ?

Security surveillance is needed to prevent terrorists from getting access to radio-active materials.

As you can see, every step of the nuclear power cycle involves the expenditure of energy derived from fossil fuels, which nuclear electricity cannot replace. Thus it is untrue to say that nuclear energy is greenhouse friendly.

In the paper "Nuclear Power : the energy balance" by J.W. Storm and P. Smith (2005) download here, the authors calculate that with high quality ores, the CO2 produced by the full nuclear life cycle is about one half to one third of an equivalent sized gas-fired power station.

For low quality ores (less than 0.02% of U3O8 per tonne of ore), the CO2 produced by the full nuclear life cycle is EQUAL TO that produced by the equivalent gas-fired power station.

So the question is :
Given that the greenhouse claims for nuclear power are false, and if the only way the nuclear industry can operate is with massive amounts of cheap fossil fuels, especially diesel derived from oil, and with oil going to be very much scarcer in the future, is this a good time to be thinking of increasing the nuclear industry ?

I think not!

---

Wise words indeed.  Renewable energy is far less carbon intensive, doesn't take years to come on line, and uses very little or no fossil fuels when operational (maintenance).

The best part is that renewable energy is beginning to take off in Australia now, and ramping up rapidly.  We have more sunshine and wind that we could ever possibly used.

Why would we even consider Nuclear power at this stage of our energy transformation?

Our Earth Hour 2013

It was a simple affair.  

Candles.  A beautiful sunset.  Chatting with Ben and Kim talking about life in general.  

Very peaceful, and electricity free!

It was so nice in fact, that we are going to go lights out more often, even though we are on 100% renewable energy here at home.  It was the mood and the company that we enjoyed the most, so we want to capture it again and again.  

You may have noticed a notepad and pencil in the picture.  That is because I got the urge to start another book.  Not non-fiction this time, but a short story based upon a dream that I had a few days ago.  You know the type, a really vivid dream that you swear that was real.  It was so fresh in my mind that I have already written the first chapter.

Anyway, that was our Earth Hour 2013.  What did you do for the event?

I'm Switching Off

And so are many others.  Switching off for Earth Hour.

We're switching off and switching on to renewable energy.

Watch the video.  You may get a surprise and see someone you know!


How about you?  Are you switching off for Earth Hour?

Join my family and I, and many millions of others on 8.30pm on Saturday 23rd March, all around the globe.  Pledge below, to make a stand for renewable energy!

Curds and Whey

Today's post is over at the Little Green Cheese and is about Curds.

Readers have been wondering why curds are cut at different sizes for different types of cheese, so I documented the facts in a post called "Cut Curd Size".

Then, one of my Canadian cheese making friends asked what the term Flocculation meant, so I wrote another post titled "Flocculation Method For A Better Curd".

That's enough curd to make Miss Muffet jump from her tuffet!

An Introduction to Sustainable Living

If anyone is interested in hearing me talk about how it all started, and what we have achieved so far, then join me tomorrow night here in Melton West.

Kim and I would love to meet you if you live close by.  The more the merrier!

Details below.

An Introduction to Sustainable Living 

Ever wondered how to start living a more sustainable lifestyle? Come along and hear Gavin Webber (award winning writer), talk about his journey over the last 6 years, and how he transformed his suburban home, gardens, and family into an energy efficient, money saving, food providing, and thriving household.

Sponsored by Melton Sustainable Living Group Inc.
Venue: Arnolds Creek Community Centre, 19 Claret Ash Blvd Melton West VIC 3337
Date: Wednesday 20 March 2013

From 7.00pm – 9.00pm

Cost: $5.00 Entry - Tea / Coffee Provided

See you all there!

Veggie Roast

Hands up if you love a good roast dinner?  Keep your hands up if you think that a roast is still possible without meat?  I saw a few hands go down then.  

So what if I told you that it was extremely possible to make a roast dinner without any meat!  It is true, look at the picture below.  Yorkshire puddings, home-grown roast potatoes, steamed carrots, cabbage, and broccoli, and a meatloaf.  Or is it?

Kim substitutes the meat with a Veggie Loaf, and it tastes delicious.  So delicious in fact that she regularly gets requests from the kids to make it.  

Now being the nice lady she is, she offered to share the recipe with you all, so here it is.

Kim's Veggie Loaf


Serves 6 adults, with seconds!

Ingredients

1 x 400gm can of Lentils, drained
1 x 400gm can of 5 Bean mix, drained
1 x 400gm can of Cannoli beans, drained
1 cup of cooked white rice
2 carrots, grated
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup zucchini, grates
1 large onions, chopped finely
2 cups re-hydrated soy meat, or Quorn mince
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup stuffing mix
1 cup grated cheddar, half for the topping
2 Tbsp Parmesan, grated
1 Tbsp Italian herb mix
1/4 cup BBQ Sauce
1/4 cup Tomato Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method

• Thoroughly mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
• Press into a greased loaf 1 kg (2.2 lbs) loaf tin.  Here is usually enough mixture for smaller loaf pan.
• Cook at in the oven at 180 C (360 F) for 1 hour 15 minutes, until golden brown on top and firm to touch.
• Turn out onto a chopping board to slice into 2 inch slabs.  It will not be firm like meat, so be gentle with the slices.

We have not had a meat based roast since we started to reduce our meat intake, back in December 2011.  I am not missing roast meat very much at all.

Who else has a similar veggie dish that they can't get enough of?  I would love to hear about it.

Earth Hour This Saturday

Yes dear readers.  It is that time of the year again, and this years Earth Hour has a fantastic theme.

Switch off for good, and switch on to renewable energy!

I wholeheartedly support this global campaign, as I do every year, because it makes people think.  Individuals can make a difference.


Sure you may get a the odd person who thinks that turning off your lights for an hour a year is doing their bit towards climate change, but I think that they are far and few between these days.

My house is powered by 100% renewable energy, and have been since 2006 (I even buy carbon offsets for the natural gas we burn).  It is easy to switch over.  Just call your retailer.

 I think that more people could switch over to GreenPower to support renewables.  Lets help to tip the scales towards renewable energy sources.

But hang on a minute.  What is GreenPower?

Well, the GreenPower site has this explanation;

"By switching to GreenPower, you can help to promote renewable energy in Australia and reduce your impact on climate change. GreenPower works by offsetting your household’s electricity consumption with renewable energy, which is added to Australia’s electricity grids. So when more people choose GreenPower, the demand for renewable energy in Australia increases, in turn generating a greater supply of energy from renewable sources.

You can choose the amount of accredited GreenPower you would like your electricity retailer to purchase on your behalf – 10, 20, 25, 50, 75 or 100 per cent of your electricity account.

If you sign up to 100 per cent GreenPower electricity, you can reduce your household’s emissions by half, significantly reducing your impact on climate change.
The more GreenPower you buy, the more you support renewable energy in Australia. You can rest assured that the money you invest goes to renewable energy generation because GreenPower is audited by the government."

So this Saturday, 23rd March 2013, Switch off, and switch on to renewable energy.  Take the pledge at http://earthhour.org.au/.  You may even find an Earth Hour event close to you.

All Cheesed Out

What a great weekend!

I ran a "Preserving Demonstration" and discussion on Saturday with the Melton Sustainable Living Group.

We talked about the water bath method, blanching, solar drying, vacuum packing, and canning. My friend Stacey and I have the main demonstration, then everyone joined in with their own experience or questions.

Then it was general business where we discussed verge/medium strip gardening.

But where is the cheese, you ask?

Well, I did cut up a 2 year old Parmesan for the demo and show how to vac-PAC it, however that was not all the cheesy action this weekend.

I have been working feverishly to get my cheese making eBook finished. I finished work at 00:10 this morning!

"Keep Calm and Make Cheese is now in its second draft, ready for editing and illustration! Kim now gets to weave her magic to help make this beginners guide come alive.

So a few more weeks editing, proof reading and corrections and it will be ready to publish.

I am very excited. Are you?

Don't forget that you can sign up to the notification mailing list to be informed when the cheese book is released.  Details below;

Cheese eBook release notification

Email Address

Call To Country

Our country will end up being just one big hole in the ground.  Grant another coal mining licence here, grant another Coal Seam Gas (CSG) well there.  When will it stop?

When our climate gets so hot that other countries will force sanctions upon us to stop the export of these fossil fuels?  When our water tables become so polluted that we cannot drink it?

Both fossil fuels are equally as polluting, and don't let anyone try and pull the wool over your eyes and tell you that CSG is less carbon intensive than coal.  It is on par.  CSG is not the miracle transition fuel that the industry is trying to create a social licence for.

So, why are we still letting this happen? 

I don't know the answers, but I do know that there is a failure of leadership.

Things have to change.  If our so called leaders won't do anything, it is time for people to act strongly.

Great organisations like Lock The Gate Alliance and the Victorian Wind Alliance are doing a fantastic job of spreading the word.

To read more about this campaign, visit http://www.lockthegate.org.au/calltocountry

So I ask you to get behind these campaigns, participate where you can, or donate if you cannot, and lets make our country a better place to live in.

Bloody Heat!

I am over it!  Stinking hot days, and sultry hot nights.  Can't work in the garden.  Can't sleep well at night.

Summer was supposedly over twelve days ago and all we have had since then is unseasonably hot weather.  The maximum temperature at our home on Monday was 37.8C (100F).  Today, the temperature is now passed above 30C so it has just surpassed all consecutive days of 30C records dating back 156 years.  It is forecast to be a maximum of 37C again today!

Melbourne has only posted eight consecutive days of 30 degrees or more on four occasions - in 1890, 1898, 1951 and 1961 - in records that go back to 1856. Each of the previous stints fell in January or February.

Our last day under 30 degrees C (86F) was on the 3rd March.  The average maximum temp for the month has been 32.3C (90.1F) which is +8.3 above the long term average.

In fact, this heat is predicted for another two more days until a cool change passes through (fingers crossed), so all previous records will be broken.  Nationally, it was the hottest summer since consistent records began in 1910.

Subsequently, my summer garden tidy up has been delayed, as has my winter planting in the veggie patch.  It is simply a case of keeping the garden alive at the moment, and certainly no time to be planting seedlings, unless I want them fried of course.

It is not just the garden that has suffered.  People suffer as well.  Some of you may know that Kim has Multiple Sclerosis (MS).  She was diagnosed back in 1999, two months after Ben's birth, and went technically blind for two weeks, with a full recovery after two months.  Difficult times for both of us, but we got through it stronger.

What has that got to do with the heat, I here you ask?  Well the vast majority of MS sufferers are dramatically effected by hot temperatures, and they suffer from heavy fatigue, much more than non MS people.  As the temperature rises during the day, you can visibly see her draining of energy, whereby I step in quickly and take over whatever task she was attempting to perform.

There are only two ways for her to recover after a 'meltdown'.  Sit in a cool room with an ice pack on her head, which only works sometimes, or go for a swim in our pool.  It has been very difficult keeping any room cool, even with air conditioning, so she has been swimming morning and night to prevent any big meltdowns from occurring.  She is managing okay at the moment, but if summers continue to become hotter, as they are predicted to become due to climate change, I am not sure what our options are going to be.

We could move house to a cooler climate, but even Tasmania has been affected by the heat, so going further south is not really and option.

Yesterday, we decided to save our pennies and get the house weatherized by professionals.  I don't care how much it will cost, or how much longer I have to push out my retirement, I just want our home to be a comfortable retreat next summer.

Additionally, over the winter, I will be building shade structures for all my raised garden beds, to keep the direct sunlight off the vegetables.  This adaptation method should increase yield and productivity.  Anything has got to be better than vine fried tomatoes, frazzled peppers, and cooked zucchinis!  Cooking is for the kitchen not the veggie patch.

The chooks have lots of shade now that the mulberry tree in Cluckingham Palace has doubled in size in one season, and we are topping up their water twice daily.  So they are coping okay.  Got to look after the girls, and I am so glad that I build CP a couple of years ago.

Anyway, I found some tips for those in our local area which you can check out in the info-graphic below (click to enlarge).

You know, I really hoped that we - the human race - would have been well on our way towards combating climate change by now, seeing that we have known about it for decades.

Looks like we are well on our way to frying ourselves, if we don't do something soon.

How are you handling the heat here in Greater Melbourne?  Is anyone else suffering from their own bout of extreme weather?

The Benefits of Wind Power - Podcast Episode 33

During the Sustainable Living Festival, I had the pleasure to attend a talk given by members of the Victorian Wind Alliance.

The presenters talked about the benefits of Wind Power and the real facts behind this type of renewable energy.

I really enjoyed the details within the talks regarding community ownership, and community support.

I recorded two of the presenters which I have included in this episode with their permission.  You will hear from Dan Cass from Hepburn Wind, and Peter Reefman from Portland Sustainability Group, who both had very interesting talks.

You can find the Victorian Wind Alliance website at http://www.vicwind.org.au/

Love the power of the wind!

Podcast Powered By Podbean

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download the MP3 file direct.

Also, you may have noticed a new feature on this blog.  I have added a sidebar widget that lets you record and send me a voicemail, via the widget if you so desire.

It is a very simple process as long as you have a microphone connected to your PC, which most do these days.  You can leave me questions or suggestions, that I may talk about in podcasts or write about in the blog.  I will always ask permission from you before posting your content.

So, don't be shy.  Keep the questions and suggestions coming.

Peak Oil and Economic Contraction

Now that we have reached the bumpy plateau of Peak Oil, the inevitable economic contraction awaits us.

As you know, I am an advocate of re-localisation.  I have written many posts about Peak Oil, and the suburban fiasco that awaits us.  The time to re-localise is now, not a few years in the future, because it takes time to learn the post peak oil skills required to run a low energy society.

Contrary to the popular media belief that the end of Peak Oil has arrived like this article at Bloomberg (read the comments, which tell the real story), the real experts at the Oil Drum and ASPO, still predict a global contraction of the oil supply sooner rather than later.

So just to refresh everyone about exactly what is at stake, I found this video that explains the link between Peak Oil and Economic contraction.



I followed the link on the video and found a very cool spreadsheet, if you want to figure out if you are in a decent position as we get closer to the long descent.  The originating website is www.poaec.com

You can find the MS Excel spreadsheet titled POAEC_Report_Card_v1.4.xls at the link which will help you figure out your current status.  It even has lots of solutions should you want to learn more from decent sources.

I used the spreadsheet and this is the score I received.

It goes to show that I am not perfect, as we do not have essential medicine on hand for our health issues, or have reliable rainfall in our local area.  Our local community network also has to strengthen before I am comfortable that we are resilient enough.

The only thing I found at fault was the lack of consideration about potential climate change impacts.  I would have asked questions about height above sea level and things like that as well.  It would make it a more rounded test.

So, why don't you have a go at the spreadsheet (if you can) and let me know your score and potential areas to focus on via a comment?  I think it would be a discussion.  Tag, you're it!

Our Soap Making Workshop

Sunday was busy, busy, busy.

Kim and I taught our first public soap making workshop!

It was over-subscribed, which was great news for us which tells us that there is a lot of interest in the course, so there is an overflow session which will be on Sunday 28th April so that no one misses out.

There might even be a few spaces still available so if you are interested and live locally, please contact the ladies at the Melton South Community House on 03 9747 8576 who will organise your booking. 

Here is our set up.  We had four lovely ladies willing to learn a new skill.

We had one demo station set up on the right, with chairs in front so the students could see the safety brief and how I made the first batch of soap.  After they chose their colour and fragrance, I stepped them through the process, so that they felt comfortable when it came to their turn.

On the tables against the wall (where the power outlets were), we set up another two stations for the students.  I helped them as they followed the process making sure that they understood all the steps and treated the caustic soda with the respect it deserves.

Once all the students had completed their soap, they got to take home one of my home made wooden soap moulds as part of the course fee.

Kim then showed everyone how to cut the bars after the block of soap has cured for 48 hours, so they understood the entire process.

You can read more about our soap making recipe and watch our video tutorial at this post titled "Secret of Good Soap".

We had great fun, and am looking forward to the next workshop in April.

Oh, by the way.  I wrote and submitted another article for Grass Roots Magazine the other day.  It is all about soap making and the process we use.  Look out for it when it hits the newsagent shelves.

So, who else has recently taken up making their own soap.  What fats or oils do you use?

How I Self Publish eBooks

Have you ever wanted to write a book? I bet you have thought about it once or twice in your lifetime.

There is an old saying that there is a book inside of everyone just waiting to be written.

I know that for many years I thought it was all too much trouble and hard work, but if I have learnt anything on this journey, it is that it is the hard things that are definitely worth the doing the most.  Heck, this whole blog is a testament to that revelation.

Now, as always, the devil is in the detail.  So in this post I am (with permission) going to share an email sent to me by Ohio Farm Girl, and answer her questions about self publishing.

I dare say that many of you may have similar questions.  If you have a book idea gaining momentum inside your brain, then this post is going to be one you won't want to miss.

Hi Gavin! 

Liz from Eight Acres interviewed me in the same series that she did with you - I'm so glad to find your blog.

I was also thrilled to find your ebooks. I've been considering doing some ebooks as well - would you mind if I asked you some questions about your experience? Don't worry tho - I don't think we are competitors... I'm considering publishing some of my "Not Entirely Fiction." stories: http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/p/not-entirely-fiction.html

For the longest time I thought people were just being polite when they said they liked the "Adventure Tails" but there might be something to it. I know it's not literature but it's fun. So I'm interested in the self publishing process.

I know that Amazon has a program for self publishing - is this what you used?
What did you learn about writing your ebooks (about yourself and/or the process). Would you have done anything differently? Did you have an editor? How did you balance your life and everything you do normally with taking 'time out' to write? What activities did you do to market your books? 

And I guess the big question is.. was it "worth it?"

With very best regards, 

OFG

Well, where do I start OFG and dear readers?  At the beginning I suppose.

The thought of writing books came into my consciousness around March 2012, when I noticed that lots of co-workers brought their e-readers into work to read at lunch time.  I asked them how many books they read a month, and most replied that they read about four or five.  That got me thinking.

I did a bit more research and found that for a while now authors have been able to self publish eBooks and get them distributed via on-line retailers with a minimum of fuss.  I found a great article on c-net which documented how to self publish an eBook.

This article was a wealth of information, so I visited the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords sites because they offered everything I needed for free (my kind of price), and whilst there, downloaded their free style guides.  Here is the link for the Amazon Kindle style guide, and here is the Smashwords style guide.  Another great book that helped formulate ideas was the free eBook titled "The Secrets To eBook Publishing Success".

I read and digested these two guides for about a month before I even began to write anything.  I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was getting myself into before I put pen to paper.  The Secrets book really helped as me follow best practices during the process.

When I felt confident enough, I issued a proclamation to the world via my blog, stating that I was going to write and self publish an eBook.  I found that by doing this, it kept me driven to strive for the prize.

From the day I announced my intent I worked on the manuscript every single night after work for a full month.  It was like having a second job.  I really burned the candle at both ends.  Luckily it was winter and there was not much going on in the garden, so I spend entire weekends writing as well.

My goal each day was to write at least 500 words, and once I got to that limit I stopped.  I didn't review, or correct anything as I went along, I just wrote.

After three weeks, I had something that resembled a manuscript and I took a break for two days.

Then it was on with the editing.  Early on, I found that by reading aloud, which really helps by the way, I found so many spelling and grammatical mistakes and had to rewrite entire pages so that they made sense.  It took me an entire week of late nights to edit the first book "The Greening Of Gavin - My First Year of Living Sustainably".

Once I thought I had edited it to death, I printed it out and handed it to Kim to edit it further.  She is great at editing because we have a relationship where we know that we can be critical of each others work and not hurt the other persons feelings.  If you are thinking of writing a book, seek out a person like this or hire a professional editor.  I guarantee that it helps make the final product more readable.

I rewrote entire chapters and even added some new ones.  I gave it back to Kim who, after some minor editing, gave it the big thumbs up.

I then sent it through to Kim's mum, Pam.  Pam is retired now, however during her career, she used to proof read scientific papers, so I took up her kind offer to proof read my final manuscript.

I was amazed at the spelling and grammatical errors that she picked up.  I swear that I read that manuscript aloud twice and found nothing before I sent it too her!  Anyway, I fixed up all the mistakes and then began to format the book, following the style guides.

It took about two days to get this to a point where I was ready to upload the book.  However, in my haste I had forgotten a blurb and a book cover.  Many references state that after writing a bloody good book, you need a bloody good book cover.  Otherwise potential readers will just pass over the book in whatever catalogue you have it listed in.  I used MS PowerPoint to create the book cover and converted it into a JPEG file, resized it to the correct dimensions and then showed it to a few people for feedback.

Long story short, I gave it my best shot and hit the upload button.  Smashwords has this converting program, called the meat-grinder that takes an MS Word document and converts it into most eBook formats.  It reports back any formatting errors for you to correct.  I reckon it took three more revisions and uploads before I got it right.

With the book now published on both Smashwords and Amazon KDP, I started marketing.  A really great marketing guide is the one available free on Smashwords called "Smashwords Book Marketing Guide".  I followed the guide meticulously, because I had little experience in marketing.  One of the best tips that I learnt was that after you have written your first book, you should write another, then another, etcetera.  Once people have read one good book that you have written, they will more than likely read another.  Your first success will lead to many more successes.

Launching an eBook can be quite difficult because there is nothing physical to tout.  It is not like you can do a book store tour or anything like that.  A blog post was the best method I could think of, so I wrote one and found that it was well received.  Subsequent books had better launches.  My latest eBook launch of "Build Your Own Backyard Oven" was the best so far, and it even had a podcast embedded in which I read a few chapters of the book, and the video I made when I built the oven.  It was the best eBook launch ever, not that I am biased!

I also promoted the book on social networks, which got shared around and helped with sales.  I also came across the term 'build a platform' which basically means that even before you decide to put pen to paper, a budding author needs to have a means of building a following.  Unknown authors do not sell many books.  Authors with a following do sell books.

I only have to cite the example of Rhonda Hetzel and her fantastic book "Down To Earth" as evidence.  Rhonda whipped up a frenzy on her blog each week as she documented the entire process of writing and publishing her now famous simple living book.  It kept people interested, turning them into book fans.  From what I have read, she sold out the first run of 12,000 hard-cover books and the publisher is printing another run.  She is a lovely person who deserves every success.

The big question is do I think that it was worth it?   Well, I believe that a resounding Yes is the answer.

From a personal perspective, I have a great sense of pride knowing that I am now a published author, and pride from the knowledge that I did it mostly myself.  It was hard, but rewarding work, and I am chuffed to bits really that people take the time to read them.

From a financial point of view, which was very low on my success criteria, self publishing has been pleasing.  However, don't expect to become a millionaire overnight.  Even Stephen King took many years to establish a following and financial success.

After six months, I am selling about 80-90 eBooks a month via many on-line retailers.  Royalties range from 35 - 75% of the book price, which is much higher than via a regular paper book publishing house.  I consider the cash flow as a nice little annuity as I slow down and focus on things that really matter to me.  If the Internet is still around in years to come, it will help during retirement and keep the chooks fed.

Update: May 2013.  Since this post was originally written, I have implemented a shopping cart system for the PDF file delivery section of my eBookstore.  It uses e-Junkie whereby you create an account, upload the book files, and everything is then handled for you, including payment, delivery, and invoicing.  Great value at US$5 per month for my needs, and there are larger plans available.  Click on the icon below for more information.

My final word of advice for all budding eBook self publishers is that you should go for it.  The only barrier to entry is your own self doubt (and lack of a good book)!

Is anyone considering writing their own book, or mulling it over?

Addendum:  One thing I forgot to mention was that as these two distribution companies are located in the US, I had to apply for a US tax file number.  The process on how to get an EIN (Employee Identification Number) by filling out form SS-4 and how to submit form W8-BEN to Amazon and Smashwords is located at this link on Amazon.com.  If you are a US citizen then you can just use your Social Security number.