Wow, what a month. Just when I was speaking of how blogs can be untruthful because you just put the good stuff in, I had a bit of a melt down. So, what happened? Well around the middle of the month Quin and I both got the flu. It wasn't like any flu I'd had before, with serious fevers at night for a whole week, wierd nightmares/dreams, aches, running nose and feeling cold to the bone when I didn't have a fever. At the end of that week I had probably only slept about 14 hours and a funny thing happened. I felt overcome by a wave of sadness, which I think is my first episode of depression. It was awful and on top of this I couldn't sleep and felt really anxious. Amy helped me through. I had to go to the doctor and he gave me some sleeping pills. It was bliss to get my normal sleeping patterns back. He said that flu can release chemicals which affect your mood, but that there could also be other issues to deal with. Anyway, I won't go into too much detail, but I'm fit again and I think this has been a valuable lesson for me. I need to take care of myself more and there are changes I need to make in the way I live my life.
Quin's sixth birthday was a great day and cheered me up no end. The theme was Pokemon so we had a Pikachu cake and a pokeball pinata. We were a little rushed in getting organized so we didn't go all out and do home made hankies like last year, but we did put bamboo toothbrushes in the party bags along with the lollies (Amy wanted them to go in the pinata with the lollies but Quin did not!).
The garden looks great, with the almond tree in full bloom. This will need netting soon to keep the birds out.
Caulies looking good.
The bikes had the month off due to sickness and the car got a work out..
Amy bought an iphone. I can't say that I'm impressed by this, being a luddite and all. The last laugh is on Amy, who gets pestered constantly by Quin who wants to play games on her phone. In one of my wierder flu dreams I dreamt that iphones were taking over the world and being used to brainwash people. People were turning into zombies due to stuff on their phone (Quin's really into zombies right now). But then I thought that maybe that's not too far from the truth. How long will it be until Google and Apple run the whole world anyway?
Power use is still too high. Of course I have have a sneaking suspicion the iphone can be blamed for this too (needs charging every day). The sluggish PV generation has started its gradual rise thankfully.
We had a decent month of rainfall at last. It was still 50mm off the August average and we're 150mm below average for the year. The tank is full though.
The chooks seem very perky, even the old Australorps have nice red combs and are starting to lay now.
We got the cloche going at last. It's a bit late for it, but it should get some seedlings going which we don't have any space for in the garden yet. Our cloche is just made with some clay pavers, two bits of wood and a thick pane of glass we got off the verge.
Quin's sixth birthday was a great day and cheered me up no end. The theme was Pokemon so we had a Pikachu cake and a pokeball pinata. We were a little rushed in getting organized so we didn't go all out and do home made hankies like last year, but we did put bamboo toothbrushes in the party bags along with the lollies (Amy wanted them to go in the pinata with the lollies but Quin did not!).
The garden looks great, with the almond tree in full bloom. This will need netting soon to keep the birds out.
I spotted our first ever Macadamia flowers. I'm pretty chuffed about this because I was considering pulling the tree out a while ago due to poor growth.
Caulies looking good.
The bikes had the month off due to sickness and the car got a work out..
Amy bought an iphone. I can't say that I'm impressed by this, being a luddite and all. The last laugh is on Amy, who gets pestered constantly by Quin who wants to play games on her phone. In one of my wierder flu dreams I dreamt that iphones were taking over the world and being used to brainwash people. People were turning into zombies due to stuff on their phone (Quin's really into zombies right now). But then I thought that maybe that's not too far from the truth. How long will it be until Google and Apple run the whole world anyway?
Power use is still too high. Of course I have have a sneaking suspicion the iphone can be blamed for this too (needs charging every day). The sluggish PV generation has started its gradual rise thankfully.
We had a decent month of rainfall at last. It was still 50mm off the August average and we're 150mm below average for the year. The tank is full though.
The chooks seem very perky, even the old Australorps have nice red combs and are starting to lay now.
We got the cloche going at last. It's a bit late for it, but it should get some seedlings going which we don't have any space for in the garden yet. Our cloche is just made with some clay pavers, two bits of wood and a thick pane of glass we got off the verge.
| kWh electricity generated (per day): | 3.2 |
| kWh electricity used (per day): | 6 |
| kWh gas used (per day): | 8.5 |
| L water used (per day): | 257 |
| Rainfall mm (5 weeks): | 84 |
| Tank level (L): | 14,000 |
| km by car (per day): | 29 |
| km by cargo bike (per day): | 16.5 |
| Eggs laid (per day): | 4.1 |
Sustainable September is upon us. We're not doing it this year, but if you can make it to Sustainable House Day you won't be disappointed. It's on this Sunday 9th and there should be a house open near you. We'll be hanging around Hulbert Street in Freo for the Sustainability Fiesta, September 22-23. I'll be doing a talk on cargo bikes at some stage.
