tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13447904536437669252024-03-16T15:08:19.878+08:00SustainaburbiaAmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-77814617997146851072017-07-27T22:00:00.001+08:002017-07-27T22:02:51.169+08:00Community Compost BankLet me start with a quote from<i> Organic Growing with Worms </i>by David Murphy that totally blows my mind.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">'...the organic matter (OM) content of the world's agricultural soils, which used to be 20 percent, now averages less than 1 per cent. If that were raised to 5 per cent to plough depth (approximately 25 cm) 150 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide would be sequestered into the soil...Annualy, our world generates about 15 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.'</span><br />
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So that means that if we raise the OM content of our agricultural soils from 1 to 5 per cent, we can sequester 10 years worth of carbon dioxide in our soil. Well then. That's good news, isn't it. There is hope yet and it lies under our feet. If that's not motivation to:<br />
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1. Compost at home<br />
2. By organic food to support organic farmers who's farming practices increase OM in soil<br />
3. Hate the idea of letting your organics go to landfill to produce methane<br />
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then I don't know what is.<br />
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I read <i>Organic Growing with Worms</i> many years ago but re read it in preparation for some composting workshops I was giving. This and a few other books I've read recently have made me totally recommit to buying organic. It also made me bring to reality an idea I've had lurking around since completing my PDC last year - starting a community composting bank at <a href="http://hiltonharvest.weebly.com/index.html" target="_blank">Hilton Harvest Community Garden.</a><br />
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We've had compost bays at Hilton Harvest for several years and they work super well turning our garden refuse, chook straw, grass clippings, mulch etc into lovely compost. But as bays are made in 'batches' it was tricky to let people just wander in and add their every day kitchen scraps. Also kitchen scraps could attract (more!) rats to the garden if left in an open bay. We have also started lots of weekly activities in the garden and didn't have a dedicated bin for that either (though the chooks and the worms took some, they are behind our locked part of the garden so not easily accessible to everyone). Another motivating factor was seeing the cafe up the road chuck all their waste into one bin (yes, I had a rummage) which meant precious organics were leaving our suburb and heading to landfill.<br />
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So at the end of last year I applied for and received a grant for just over $2,000 from our WA Waste Authority to implement the idea of a community compost bank made from several darlik style bins. And here it is!<br />
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With my fabo Monday Morning gardening crew, we installed the bins a couple of months ago. We have nine at the moment but room for more if we need. In Perth where it gets so hot in summer we set them up in the shade. We also put mouse mesh on the bottom and dug them in around 20cm to keep them stable and vermin proof. Already lots of people are using them - so exciting to see. We even got into the local paper! And just this week we got the sign in too! Hooray!</div>
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And I'm pleased to report that the Local Cafe is totally onboard. We didn't really give them much choice truth be told. Here are their instructions for the kitchen, new labeled bins and their green wheelie bin which we roll down the road to the garden each week to empty. The system works and I'm chuffed.<br />
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<br />Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-22077241655579739352016-10-25T13:31:00.000+08:002016-10-25T13:35:12.985+08:00'Amy, what is permaculture?'A couple of months ago my good friend Shani (from <a href="http://ecoburbia.com.au/" target="_blank">Ecoburbia</a>) revved me up to finally do my Permaculture Design Course. It had been on my bucket list for ages and I felt like I needed some inspiration. It would also be a good chance to binge on exclusive Shani time - we are often busy and when we do catch up there's usually a million other things going on. So we took the plunge and booked our course, booked our AirBnB, kissed the family goodbye and headed over to Sydney for two weeks. Eep! Two weeks away from home! It was the longest I'd ever been away from my boy - flying all that way for all that time was a big deal for me. Was it worth it? Oh my. Yes.<br />
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We were just a bit excited on the first day.<br />
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The good folks at <a href="https://www.milkwood.net/about/" target="_blank">Milkwood</a> really know their stuff. Our facilitators were Hannah (from <a href="https://goodlifepermaculture.com.au/" target="_blank">Good Life Permaculture</a>) and Brendon (from, well, I don't really know, just the world I think). They were not only fantastic facilitators but they taught us deep from the depths of their experience and generously dished it out for us day after day.<br />
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The first few days covered the ethics and principles of permaculture and for that bit we were lucky enough to have David Holmgren (co-founder of permaculture) teach us. When he walked in the room there was a hush and it was a bit like Jesus had just entered to bring us the good news that could save us. It was very exciting. David is just simply a lovely guy - humble, generous, wise and fun.<br />
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We went through the design process where we really learned how important observation is. We learnt about different systems to be aware of (climate, water, soil, etc). We then touched on some different elements you could include in a garden/farm system like bees, compost, aquaponics, annual garden (veggies), trees, and more. During all of this we all worked on our individual design projects, then our group project. I loved it all, especially our group project. We were a great team - hilarious, kind and productive.<br />
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After the first few days Shani and I started playing the 'What is permaculture?' game on our walks home from the community centre to our AirBnB. It was to prepare us for questions from our partners and friends when we returned. It goes something like this:<br />
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Amy: Shani, what <i style="font-weight: bold;">is </i>permaculture?<br />
Shani: Thank you for asking, Amy. Well, it's a design process. Um. And there are ethics and principles you follow to make your place efficient and so it provides what you need. And it's about the function of elements and how you use them. Or something. Augh! Your turn Amy. Amy, what <i><b>is </b></i>Permaculture?<br />
Amy: Thank you for asking Shani. Permaculture is... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm. It's a way to design your space with elements that interconnect and are multi-functional so you're more resilient. And it's also about your life and your lifestyle and your community. No, that's not really it either!<br />
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This conversation went on for two weeks and we never really nailed the definition. But for the record, here is David Holmgren's definition of permaculture: 'Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs'. I won't go through the ethics and principles. You can google that. But for my own purposes of revision I'll try to remember all the interesting and <i>practical </i>things I learned about and want to implement here at home and in the community:<br />
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More perennials - we mostly have natives out the front, but slowly we've been adding food plants like olives, soft fruit trees, and a macadamia. I'd like to add sweet potato, asparagus, ginger, rhubarb to make a lower story, ie more food forest style. If you have space and water, perennials are good because they are low maintenance, deep rooted and give you food.<br />
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Community composting - I was so inspired by Hannah's work on her various community projects and the idea of community permaculture I wanted to start community composting at Hilton Harvest. So I've chatted to the local cafe who are happy for us to take their food waste and I've applied for a grant from our Waste Authority for heaps of compost bins. So fingers crossed!<br />
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Composting toilets - because it is barbaric to pollute clean water with our poo.<br />
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Bees - I had thought this would be a bit of a longer term project, but a friend asked if we could host his hive the other day so maybe we can learn the skills a bit more quickly!<br />
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Trenches - to stop water runoff in our front garden. Slow, store and sink the water.<br />
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Mulch pits - for fungusy soils between the fruit trees. This one is already done, both at home and at Hilton Harvest.<br />
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So, you can see we have heaps of jobs to be getting on with. But the best things I took away from the course were hope, inspiration and wonderful memories of spending two weeks with a beautiful bunch of people who are all on their own exciting journeys. It was a little bit of magic when we all crossed paths and walked together for that two weeks.<br />
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<br />Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-87165869580811987932016-09-28T13:38:00.000+08:002016-09-28T13:38:05.438+08:00It's been a while but we're backHello, yoo-hoo, remember us!?<br />
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It's been a while but we're back. Where have we been? Just around, doing our regular thing but with a little less time. Despite our previous commitments to <a href="http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/downshifting-it-aint-that-hard.html" target="_blank">downshifting</a> Adam started working full time at the start of this year. We enjoyed a charmed existence through most of 2015 when Adam was working (very) casually. We had heaps of family time and time to pursue other interesting projects around the house and in the community but the time came for Ads to get a bit more structure and a little more income in his life. He applied for a few jobs then came his dream job - Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo Project Coordinator with <a href="http://birdlife.org.au/locations/birdlife-western-australia" target="_blank">Birdlife WA</a>. He coordinates the <a href="http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/southwest-black-cockatoo-recovery/great-cocky-count-swbc" target="_blank">Great Cocky Count</a> - a mammoth citizen science project plus coordinates surveys of nesting hollows and other side projects. Look, this is him cuddling a Carnaby's chick near Badgingarra. That thing is so ugly it's adorable. Only it's mother and Ads would love it!<br />
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Adam is really happy and motivated in his new role. As for the downshifting lifestyle, well, anyone who works for a not-for-profit can probably understand that we've got the <i>earning </i>less bit covered :) but that's fine. We can afford his pay cut and the upside is that Adam is learning a whole new set of skills and is enjoying his career more than ever. The full time work hours are a bit tough but he hopes to reduce his hours slightly as of next year. </div>
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As for me, I'm still busy at work part time. This is me giving a worm farming workshop a few weeks ago at my second spiritual home <a href="http://earthwisewa.org/" target="_blank">Earthwise Community Garden</a>:</div>
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And me volunteering at my first spiritual home, <a href="http://hiltonharvest.weebly.com/index.html" target="_blank">Hilton Harvest Community Garden</a> giving a composting and gardening talk in May. Spot the difference!</div>
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Together with the other wonderful committee people, we have been really busy at <a href="http://hiltonharvest.weebly.com/index.html" target="_blank">Hilton Harvest</a> (and do check out the website - I've been managing that and am pretty proud of how it looks at the moment). I'm there every Monday morning with a little rag tag group of gardeners whom I love. We compost, weed, plant and generally potter about. We also have a work for the dole crew who are hard working and lovely, plus we run the Buds n Blooms interegenerational gardening group. All our activities are <a href="http://hiltonharvest.weebly.com/calender.html" target="_blank">listed here</a>, just in case you want to join us! We've got an amazing <a href="http://hiltonharvest.weebly.com/vision.html" target="_blank">vision</a> and helpful City of Fremantle people supporting us. I get so much out of volunteering at the Garden - way more than I put in. </div>
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So as you can see we have been working hard and are just about to choof off on a well deserved little holiday for some luxuriating in the warmth. I look forward to writing more posts soon as there is more to catch you up on including the wonderful Permaculture Design Course I did a couple of months ago and Ads is keen to share some geeky deets too. We are also mulling over a few interesting home projects including bees and special compost systems...stay tuned. We're back. </div>
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<span id="goog_714537148"></span>Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-74012842225513384662015-12-01T14:21:00.000+08:002015-12-01T14:25:14.308+08:00Our Green Christmas TreeI know, I <i>know</i>. Miminalism and decluttering are <i>the </i>things to do at the moment. I can dig that. We just got rid of a mattress and a bookcase on Gumtree this week. We're into it. But it's not my religion. The classic minimalist aesthetic is not my cup of tea. I love Bea Johnson's work on bringing minimal waste to the mainstream, but there is no way I could live <a href="http://www.zerowastehome.com/p/pics.html" target="_blank">in a house like that</a>! The inside of my bathtub has more character. And anyway, sometimes a bigger and better, new and improved thing doesn't have to be bad.<br />
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Introducing our new, relatively enormous CHRISTMAS TREE! It's beautiful, isn't it?<br />
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My little Quincey is 9 now. He is in the twilight years of his childhood and I want to make those years memorable and wonderful and warm. Will a new Christmas tree achieve that? No. But when we pulled the old one out of the bag and he said it looked scrawny and had probably shrunk since he was little and please could we get a new one, well, he did have a point. </div>
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This is our first and until recently our only family Christmas tree. We got it in the UK in 1998 at </div>
Poundland. Yes, for one pound. You have to gaffa tape the feet to the desired surface (or prop it up against the couch as pictured) for it to stay upright. It's shedding. It looks like an anorexic version of Oscar the Grouch. It's time.<br />
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So where do you head for a new Christmas Tree? Gumtree of course. Our new one was 15 minutes drive down the road. Perfect size. Pick up immediately. Cost $25. Bargain.<br />
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I was a little worried that we'd need more decorations to make our new one look good, but turns out we had enough with a few home made extras. An added feature of the new tree is the lack of fairy lights. We haven't had lights for years now and we still feel cheery when we gaze upon it. But I think that's because of the Angel Quin made in Kindy.</div>
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As for Oscar. I'm going to take him to work so he can brighten our days there. He's the perfect desk top size.<br />
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I really think I'm on a winner here with the advent calendar situation. All the cards came in just one cardboard box wrapped in plastic. So not bad waste wise, and definitely better sugar wise!<br />
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Happy Festive Season everyone!Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-55738386897910303842015-10-28T12:46:00.000+08:002015-10-28T12:46:24.460+08:00PV upgrade year 1 results<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been a year since we upgraded our PV system. We re-roofed our house and I thought it would be good opportunity to review the pros and cons of upgrading. We had a 1.1kW Kaneka thinfilm system with a 1.7kW SMA inverter, with some room for more panels. We are lucky enough to be getting the 40 cents Feed in Tariff (FIT) on top of the miserly 8 cents Synergy pay us for any power fed to the grid. So, my main thought was what will our power bills be after the FIT ends in mid 2020? Based on the current power prices (+5% price rises) they actually worked out to be quite high, mainly because of the low price for power fed to the grid. It would be nice to think that common sense would prevail in this area (eg parity with prices we pay them), but I doubt this will happen any time soon. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of paying bills, especially thinking of the future when I'm retired. So we looked into an upgrade.<br />
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I got some quotes and advice on upgrading. It turns out you can keep the FIT as long as you keep your original inverter. It also turns out that you can overload most inverters and we decided to upgrade to a 3.1kW system. The panels are REC 260PE's, with six facing due North and six facing due West. Spreading them in two orientations means that we will also use more PV power in the home, which is best post FIT. The system cost $4,650 installed with new racking, etc. We were lucky enough to sell our old Kanekas for $900 to someone who wanted to expand his system and needed the same panels to be compatible with the existing ones. All up this took the price to $3,750. Here are the first year's data:<br />
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To sum it up we had a yearly bill of -$612 (credit), the Business as Usual (BAU) bill (ie no PV) would have been $630 so we saved $1,242. This makes the payback time roughly three years, after that we'll have three more years of FIT and then we'll still have small to negative bills for the next 25-40 years. Apart from the economics, getting more PV is better for the planet too. Remember, business as usual is not an option if we are to keep the planet from cooking...<br />
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Here's the N facing set:<br />
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And the West facing set (on the garage roof):</div>
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Overall we're chuffed with the new system. Comparing the old system's generation to the new one is interesting. Theoretically a 3.1kW Kaneka setup would have generated 11.9kWh/day (based on last 6 year's data) compared to the 9.7kWh of the new system (although our roof would not be large enough!). I think the reason for this is threefold. Firstly, I think there is something the experts call clipping happening. This is when the panels generate more power than the overloaded inverter can handle and some power is wasted. Secondly, the West facing panels would be generating less power than the North facing ones due to low morning generation. Thirdly, I think the Kaneka panels are better suited to Perth's heat and produce more power than mono and poly crystalline panels. I have seen this effect at our local Primary school where two systems side by side are located. The smaller thinfilm system (2kW) produces significantly more power than the larger (2.3kW) monocrystalline system.<br />
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That's all folks. Food for thought if you're in the same boat as us.</div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-60442780805777004402015-10-24T16:02:00.000+08:002015-10-24T16:02:40.390+08:00Home grown chamomile teaA miracle has happened in our garden. I know, another one! A chamomile plant self seeded in the veggie patch. I've been wanting to get one for a few years now but just never got round to it, so now ones got me. I asked google and facebook who have both confirmed that it is indeed a chamomile plant - probably a Roman Chamomile. It must have self seeded from my tea going into the compost.<br />
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It has cute little daisy flowers on a small shrub about a foot tall. If it is indeed a Roman it should be perennial, I'll take a few cuttings and see.<br />
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So to make tea, all you need to do is pick and dry the flowers (not the leaves or stalks). It's easiest to kind of rake them off the plant between your fingers. Do this when it's sunny and the flowers are dry. Ideally they should be at their peak, but if they are a little old, that's okay too. There are few things more satisfying in life than sitting in your own garden, picking your own tea.<br />
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I then dried them on paper towel under a net cover to keep off bugs and dust. (Not sure why I used paper towel, surely a clean cloth would work just as well).<br />
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Its taken a few weeks for them to dry and they look and taste amazing. The flavour is a lot stronger than the tea I buy in bulk but I think that must just be because it's so fresh.<br />
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The plant itself is wonderfully productive for such a little thing. I collect about enough to cover the large cake holder in the picture and I've harvested it four times and I suspect there will be much more to come! </div>
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In the evening after Quin is in bed and the dishes are done we often share a little pot of chamomile tea together as our wind down ritual. It's something to chat over and relax with. And now this lovely little section of our day has just got better with the satisfaction of zero food mile, home grown tea!</div>
Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-65010299015610792852015-10-03T12:19:00.000+08:002015-10-03T12:31:33.374+08:00Fruit fly control<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We had about 500 people visit us for Sustainable House Day and about 200 asked me about fruit fly control (mostly due to this article in the local paper).<br>
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Fruit fly are a huge problem in West Australia and many other parts of the world and people struggle to control them. These days few people want to use nasty chemicals which many commercial growers still use. People are also busy so they don't want time consuming methods. So, here's my solution: a chemical free, set and forget method I call 'Net and Forget'.<br>
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We have two types of fruit fly here, the Queensland and Mediterranean types. Here's an example of public enemy number one.<br>
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First things first. This method works best for stone fruit and apples, for citrus see lower down. The first thing you need to do is prune your tree to a maximum height of 2-2.5 metres. This makes everything you do on the tree easier: pruning, harvesting, pest and disease control, netting, etc. Fruit above 2.5m will rarely be harvested anyway and will fall to the ground and spoil. Using ladders is dangerous and not even I want to risk a fall for a few fruits. Fruit trees are very hardy so don't worry about hurting the tree when you prune. The best time of year is after fruiting in autumn.<br>
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So, now you've got your compact tree you can start on infrastructure.<br>
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You'll need the following:<br>
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Four 2m lengths of re-bar (steel reinforcing bar), 12mm gauge. Sold at your hardware store (cost $28).<br>
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Poly ethylene 25mm pipe, approximately 8-10m per tree. This is high density poly pipe which is strong and flexible. Sold as Vinidex PE pipe here in WA at hardware stores in the plumbing section (not retic). Costs $2/m in 25m rolls =$20/tree.<br>
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One nut and bolt larger than 50mm. Cost $2.<br>
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Fruit fly netting with 2mm mesh. These come in a variety of sizes and you'll need to measure your tree to find out the size you need. The best I've seen are from <a href="http://greenharvest.com.au/PestControlOrganic/FruitFlyControlProducts.html" target="_blank">Green Harvest</a> online, the 2.5 x 2.5m ones are great (cost $80). They're also sold locally at Dawson's and Bunnings.<br>
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Place the rebar half a metre into the ground so you have 1.5m protruding. These need to be placed around the tree in a square approximately 2m apart.<br>
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Then slot the PE pipe over one length of rebar and over to the other corner diagonally. Do this again with the other corners and you have a dome a bit like a tent.<br>
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Drill holes in the centre of the pipes to attach the pipes to each other with the nut and bolt.<br>
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This is your frame finished and you can leave it up all year if you want.<br>
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Then you throw the exclusion net over the frame and weigh it down at the bottom with some stones or branches. Now your tree is fully protected from fruit fly! You should put the netting on when all pollination has finished of course and do it soon since fruit fly can lay eggs when fruit is as small as a pea. When you've finished harvesting you should remove the net and store it ready for next year. Below is our apricot tree in the front garden.<br>
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If you think you may have fruit fly larvae in the soil under your tree place a trap inside the net for the first year, after that you should be OK. You can also do this for a week or so if you've trapped any flies inside your net. My favourite traps are Cera Traps and you can buy them locally at Dawson's or Bunnings or online at Green Harvest.<br>
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The cost of this system is hefty: up to $130 per tree. But the frame will last forever and the netting should last 5 years if you take care of it. So, over 20 years that's less than $20 a year. Think about the money you'll save on buying fruit too, how much do fresh organic apricots cost these days? Probably $20 a kilo, so if you get a kilo of apricots then you've made your money back.<br>
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One note: double grafted trees are not great for netting. One half often flowers at a different time to the other and it's very hard to net half a tree! For this reason I do not recommend buying multi graft stone fruits or apples.<br>
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A quick and easy method is to just buy the net and throw it over the tree canopy. Then tie it to the trunk and you're done. Any fruit which falls is caught by the net too. You will find that branches and leaves grow into the net and get distorted using this method.<br>
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What about citrus I hear you ask. Well, citrus are tricky because often you'll have flowers at the same time as mature fruit due to the slow ripening of citrus. This means you can't net them because pollinators need access to the flowers so you'll need to go for trapping. Again, I recommend Cera Trap, an organic and very effective type. Place a few of these around your garden for maximum effect. You can make your own traps with old plastic bottles with holes drilled into them and there are plenty of homemade trap recipes on the web.<br>
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Now, sit back and relax while your fruit ripen!</div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-23784345662381511132015-09-07T19:25:00.000+08:002015-09-07T19:28:29.851+08:00Sustainable House Day - We're OPEN!For some strange reason we are opening our house for <a href="http://sustainablehouseday.com/house-profile-view/?house_id=12366" target="_blank">Sustainable House Day</a> again this Sunday. It's a lot of work in preparation but we love it. We've opened before in 2011 and in 2013 and we remember the fun of chatting to people about gardening, PV, chooks and bikes <i>all day</i>. What a wonderful way to spend a day! What we tend to erase from our memory is the weekends full of weeding, planting, sweeping... but what the heck, I actually enjoy that kind of work anyway and our garden needs a good spring clean every few years so it's good motivation. We're exhibitionists, so we're just embracing it!<br />
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Looking through all the amazing houses that will be open this year I have stopped to wonder why we should open ours. Many of the other houses are new builds, all 100% solar passive and 9 star rated. Their houses look like Ikea magazines (minus the disposable furniture I hope!) and are all neat and shiny. Our house, by comparison looks like granny knitted it, what with our fridge worm farm, our chooks and our scruffy native garden (yes, that is a knitted wheelbarrow below).<br />
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Our house is a 1960’s brick veneer house which provided many challenges to retrofit to be more sustainable and energy efficient. We are located on the south side of a hill with a beautiful gum tree to our north (which we can't bare to chop down) and to start with we had no north facing windows. So there is no way we would even be on the star rating scale. Since we bought the house in 2001 we’ve made heaps of changes. But the main change has been with us, as in, our behaviour. <br />
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We are firm believers in behaviour change as a significant part of the solution to our current environmental crisis. One of the most inspiring person I've met, Colin Ashton-Graham (a behaviour change economist) starts his presentation like this:<br />
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See these light globes? Tell me, which one uses the least amount of power.<br />
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And of course everyone votes for either the LEDs or the CFLs and Colin goes, 'Sorry folks, the one that uses the least amount of power is the incandescent globe. It's the only one that is switched off.' Ha! That's how clever Colin is! He then goes on to explain that a sustainable house with unsustainable people in it is less sustainable overall than an unsustainable house with sustainable people in it. Our everyday choices like turning lights off when not needed, opening up the house to let in cool sea breezes in summer, only having one fridge, cooking more at home with local, organic produce, riding more, getting into community and purchasing less crap are central to sustainability. Having the latest sustainability gadget isn't really our thing (unless its bikes, that's Adam's weakness!).<br />
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So, while we do have some interesting stuff to show, especially our garden, we also hope the behaviour stuff will rub off too. Anyway, come and visit. We're open from 10am to 4pm this Sunday, September 13 - be lovely to meet you!<br />
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Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-38882087588309205152015-07-28T14:53:00.002+08:002015-07-28T14:54:16.061+08:00How to make bees wax sandwich wraps; no more glad wrap!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So here is the promised 'how to make a bees wax sandwich wrap' post!</div>
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These are so simple to make, we even did a Make Your Own stall at our local farmers market (to be the subject of another post). I've been using my sandwich wrap for about eight months and it's still going strong. I love them so much I also made some larger ones to use for wrapping my loaf of bread and also storing lettuce, celery etc in the fridge to stop them going limp - you know it's true, plastic does keep veggies fresher, but now there is an alternative!</div>
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<u>You will need:</u></div>
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<b>Cotton fabric approx 30 x 30cm</b>. This is a good size for wrapping sandwiches but of course you can make them bigger if you like. </div>
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<b>Pinking shears</b>. It's cute to use pinking shears to make the edges zig zag but not 100% necessary because the wax will stop it fraying.</div>
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<b>Bees wax.</b> If you have access to a hive you can <a href="http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/how-to-refine-bees-wax-from-sticky-mess.html" target="_blank">refine your own</a> but if not you can often get it from farmers markets or online. </div>
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<b>Cheese grater</b>. You can use your good one and once you've finished grating the wax clean it by pouring boiling water over it. You might need to do this a few times.</div>
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<b>Iron</b>. Best to find an old iron from an opshop but you can use your good iron by covering it in alfoil.</div>
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<b>Old towel</b> to iron on. I think this is better than an ironing board so you can spread your gear out. </div>
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<b>Baking paper</b>.</div>
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<u>Method:</u></div>
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Grate your wax. This is pretty time consuming but easy. It looks like parmesan cheese once grated and is endlessly fondle-able. You'll need about 1/2 cup grated wax for one 30 x 30cm wrap, but less as you make subsequent ones because there will be residue left on the baking paper. </div>
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Cover your iron with two layers of alfoil if you're using your good iron. Lay out your towels on a table for ironing on. Lay out your baking paper - you will probably need to overlap two sheets to make it wide enough for the fabric.</div>
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Cut out your fabric - here are the students cutting them at school. You can get some fantastic prints from fabric shops or if you want to be super sustainable you can cut up old shirts, bed sheets etc.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5ooGi7JEIJE/VZp9C0Ksc8I/AAAAAAAABhQ/KGv5VdpuDKo/s1600/20150623_113723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5ooGi7JEIJE/VZp9C0Ksc8I/AAAAAAAABhQ/KGv5VdpuDKo/s400/20150623_113723.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Lay your fabric on the baking paper and sprinkle on the grated wax just like sprinkling cheese on a pizza. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y5TRqZWdKwc/VZp8PqI_06I/AAAAAAAABg4/sYkZE-8xpOk/s1600/20150321_134502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y5TRqZWdKwc/VZp8PqI_06I/AAAAAAAABg4/sYkZE-8xpOk/s320/20150321_134502.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then lay over another layer of baking paper - again, you will need to overlap two pieces. Then get busy with the iron. It takes a little work to get it all melted and you have to be sure to sweep the iron from the centre to the edges to get the wax pushed out to the edges. You can see it going all melty under the paper so its pretty easy to judge how you're going.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ve_drriZqFo/VZp9DDnMnvI/AAAAAAAABhU/Bu8UYifgd_M/s1600/20150314_121137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ve_drriZqFo/VZp9DDnMnvI/AAAAAAAABhU/Bu8UYifgd_M/s400/20150314_121137.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once it's all covered and while its still hot peel back the top layer of baking paper and then peel off the fabric by the corners. Its good to have a helper at this stage to hold down the bottom layer of baking paper. It takes about a minute for the wax to dry, so you can just wave it around for that long or place it on a clothes airer.<br />
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And this is the final product! The bees wax has anti bacterial properties which I really like and they smell great! To clean them simply lay them out and wipe with luke warm soapy water - not hot or the wax will melt again. I haven't tried but my eight month old wrap is looking a little sad now but I suspect if I ironed it again between the baking paper it would come back to its former glory.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHwATzAlaeg/VbcKp5yTX6I/AAAAAAAABik/hXqxRHmCKT4/s1600/made%2Bwraps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHwATzAlaeg/VbcKp5yTX6I/AAAAAAAABik/hXqxRHmCKT4/s320/made%2Bwraps.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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Here we are making them at Hilton Primary School with the year 5/6 class. It really was such fun. The teacher had the kids working on other maths activities and we took three students at a time to the back of the class and made them. It took a couple of hours, but that's because lots of the kids loved them so much they stayed in at lunch time to make extras for their friends and family.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ACB_awtJ2aM/VZp9DWxi_6I/AAAAAAAABhg/ayP2mJWcq1I/s1600/20150623_113838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ACB_awtJ2aM/VZp9DWxi_6I/AAAAAAAABhg/ayP2mJWcq1I/s400/20150623_113838.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Lat weekend we did a second big event with a Hilton Primary School P&C stall at the local farmers market. We had four parents and three students helpers and we made about 70 wraps. I'll write a separate post about how to do that as a big event just in case you're as inspired as I am to cut the plastic AND get everyone else around you to too!</span></div>
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<br />Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-61274045438095769612015-07-24T12:45:00.000+08:002015-07-24T12:45:59.815+08:00Chooks paying their way<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The chooks are finally paying their own way. We have started to sell our eggs to friends and colleagues for $6 a dozen. We are selling 1-2 dozen a week now so this easily covers their food and hay costs and should pay for the next lot of hens too.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A7SBGuFJl98/VbG-F-EWu3I/AAAAAAAABh8/lqHyDcAc870/s1600/IMG_20150724_120253918_HDR%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A7SBGuFJl98/VbG-F-EWu3I/AAAAAAAABh8/lqHyDcAc870/s400/IMG_20150724_120253918_HDR%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Towards the end of last year we had 4 chooks laying an average of 1 egg a day (total of 7 eggs a week). We took the hard decision to cull the lot and we got 4 Hi-Line browns and two Australorps. They settled in well, with the browns laying straight away and the Australorps being a bit slower to get laying. We are now getting about 40 eggs a week and the chooks are thriving.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sbiLS0aZ3Kk/VbG-5zKyuGI/AAAAAAAABiI/zz3h7flWvv8/s1600/IMG_20150724_120329702_HDR%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sbiLS0aZ3Kk/VbG-5zKyuGI/AAAAAAAABiI/zz3h7flWvv8/s400/IMG_20150724_120329702_HDR%255B1%255D.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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One thing that has changed is that we helped our northerly neighbour to prune her Lily Pily tree and this has let lots more sunlight into the pen. This is a big help in winter when the sun angle is lower but won't affect the amount of shade they get in summer.<br />
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We're now considering buying 2 new chooks so we can do succession planning better next time around. Who says it doesn't pay to be green?</div>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-37425676617667883182015-07-04T21:32:00.000+08:002015-07-04T21:33:11.037+08:00How to refine Bee's Wax; from sticky mess to clean and usableI'm really into bees wax at the moment. It smells beautiful. It feels so interesting. I can't stop touching it. If you have a chew on the unrefined honeycomb it tastes like honey. Mmmm. It's one of natures miracle products.<br />
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My friends at <a href="http://ecoburbia.com.au/" target="_blank">Ecoburbia</a> have hives and after they do a honey harvest they have bucket loads of honeycomb wax left over. Another friend learnt how to refine it and she had been giving me her wax to make <a href="http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/luscious-honey-lip-balm.html" target="_blank">lip balm</a> and <a href="http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com.au/search?q=hand+cream" target="_blank">hand cream</a>. You hardly need any bees wax for these recipes, but then I learned how to make sandwich wraps with bees wax (which will be the subject of my next post), for which you need a fair chunk of refined wax. So I decided I needed to learn how to refine it myself. And I'm so glad I did. Turning a sticky, dirty, mess (bees apparently do not wipe their feet when they go home to their hive) into something amazing and useful is such fun! So here's how to do it.<br />
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First you need some gear from the op-shop. You wont be able to use your wax refining pots for food again, it gets too messy. You need a big stock pot, a smaller pot and a bowl to fit in the small pot for double boiling, a sieve, some fabric and some silicone moulds (actually I use these for cooking too). </div>
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Take your bucket of sticky honeycomb, complete with dirt, honey, dead bees, sticks and whatever else you find and plonk it all in a big stock pot filled with water. </div>
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Stir it and bring it to a hard boil for about 10 minutes or so. This dissolves all the honey and loosens the other debris from the wax. </div>
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Let it cool in the pot. I usually leave it over night. The wax floats to the top and the honey and much of the dirt is left in the water. When the wax cools and sets you end up with a disk of wax with all the remaining grainy debris on one side of it, sadly this often includes the bees too. Take out the disk and just pour the water away. </div>
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Then you simply cut off the grainy edge with a sharp knife, break up the cleaner bits and then double boil it to melt it again.<br />
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Once its all nicely melted in the bowl, pour it into the silicone moulds through a sieve lined with muslin or cheesecloth to catch the very fine bits of debris in the wax. I haven't found a way to clean the cloth and use again but somehow we always seem to have some kind of fabric around the house to use.<br />
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Let it cool for a 10 minutes or so then pop them out of the mould. And that's it. Beautiful, clean refined bees wax ready for further uses. And yes, I'll be sharing some of those other uses soon.Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-38572575787313353362015-06-18T21:10:00.000+08:002015-07-06T21:19:18.987+08:00Look what I found just around the corner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;">I went for an amazing and beautiful bushwalk the other day. Even though we are at the start of winter we saw some gorgeous and delicate wildflowers - Calatryix (the pink star flower), Hovias (the purple pea flower), sun dew flowers and more.</span></div>
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Plus, of course, the robust and unique Mensies Banskias, or Firewood Banksias and this particularly massive Australian Christmas Tree and this awesome Golden Orb Spider. I know the bush is this beautiful but what I didn't know was that this particular bit of bush it was hidden just around the corner from my place. </div>
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The walk was hosted by the lovely Kate Kelly from <a href="http://savebeeliarwetlands.com/" target="_blank">Save Beeliar Wetlands</a> who is passionate about our local bush and thinks it's rather a mistake to plough a six lane highway through it. Our idyllic one and a half hour walk was the route of the proposed Roe 8 highway, a part of the Perth Freight Link. According to the <a href="http://www.rethinkthelink.com.au/" target="_blank">Rethink the Link</a> mob:<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">'The Perth Freight Link is a $1.6 billion, 13 km 6-lane heavy vehicle freeway that will divide suburbs and destroy ecologically sensitive land.'</span></b><br />
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Kate reckons around 96 ha of this kind of bush will be destroyed and will result in keeping about 10% of trucks of our suburban roads. For a while. Until the Fremantle Port reaches its capacity, which it nearly has. The message the Rethink the Link group is putting out is that the freight can go on rail and the Outer Harbour in Kwinana Port, which is planned for, should be built asap. </div>
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Everyone knows that more roads equals more congestion. Roads are not the way of the future. They are from the olden days when we all wanted to hunker down in our individual quarter acre block and drive our gas guzzeling individual death traps of cars around so we didn't have to see, hear or know the existence of our neighbours. We didn't realize the effect this was having on our collective psyche or our health or the health of the planet. We <i>now </i>know cars suck. What we really want is fewer roads so we get to crisis gridlock on the roads then those able bodied among us can get on our bikes, breath clean air, be healthy and connected to community again. That, my friends, is the way of the future. I wrote to Mr Barnett to express my views. Here's my letter:<br />
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<i>Dear Mr Barnett,<br /><br />I'm writing to express my deep concerns about the Perth Freight Link project. The project will not have the effect the government wants, at $1.6 billion it will be expensive and come at the cost of our precious urban wetlands and the connectedness of our community.<br /><br />This project is poor urban planning and will devastate communities who live beside the the new road. It will slice us in half. Big roads are not conducive to parents walking with prams, kids riding to school or bike riders. No-one wants to live in a city where the only way to get around is by car. <br /><br />My family enjoy visiting the Beeliar wetlands often on weekends. We ride our bikes around the lake and enjoy spotting swans, snakes and even occasionally long neck turtles. PLEASE don't destroy this. It's a rare and beautiful piece of wilderness right by our back door. The same is true of the corridor of bush that had been set aside for the road. When Roe 8 was planned decades ago I'm sure we didn't know how precious our remnants of bush would be amongst our current landscape of urban sprawl. Don't squander it for the sake of a road, the world does not need more roads, it needs trees and bush. Every remnant is precious. <br /><br />I am also concerned about the effect of more trucks on the roads and the pollution they will bring us. Research shows that more roads only means more traffic. Thankfully there is a solution which is to rebuild and incentivise the use of rail for cargo to and from the port of Fremantle.<br /><br />I suspect the government is severely underestimating the community opposition to the Perth Freight Link. People have been working on this campaign for decades and there is no sign their determination is dwindling. Please do not be arrogant. Listen to us. We don't want it. We don't need it. We can't afford it. The last thing this world needs is a new road. <br /><br />Yours etc</i><br />
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Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-61696681381737978932015-05-25T11:52:00.000+08:002015-05-25T11:52:18.352+08:00A sustainable wedding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well, after 18 years of being boyfriend/girlfriend/partners Amy and I finally tied the knot. It was a great day and of course we tried to give it as low a footprint as possible.<br />
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The biggest factor in this is probably travel. We certainly didn't want people flying to Bali or Costa Rica just for our big day due to the air miles. So, we went ultra local: in our back yard! It just made sense for us, we love our home and garden, we have the space and it made it lower stress as well. We could set it up as we wanted, not having to rely on other people to do things like waste management, decorations, etc. Sure, it made a bit more work for us but Amy and I had time off work to do this. In the end two people out of seventy flew to the wedding and everyone else drove or rode a few kms.<br />
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We borrowed almost all the plates, cutlery, etc from Amy's parents church. We also borrowed chairs, tablecloths, cushions, lighting and more from friends and family. No plastic involved there and no cost. Amy made decorations, lots of beautiful bunting. <br />
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We paid some great local artists help out with <a href="http://www.neilwallace.com/" target="_blank">photography</a>, dress making, catering and <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/ewanbuckley" target="_blank">music</a> and we even had our friend Tim from <a href="http://www.sandsculpturewa.com/" target="_blank">Sand Sculpture WA</a> to build us a sand sculpture as a wedding present to us.</div>
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With waste we put all the organic waste to the chooks or compost bins. All recyclables fit into one yellow Sulo bin. This was mainly bottles (wine and beer). We considered getting a keg of beer but in the end we didn't think we'd get through 50 litres and a lot would get wasted. This turned out to be true since we only used about 20 litres in the end. Most of the beer and wine was from WA, some from over east.</div>
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The flowers were flown in at great expense from the front garden (Banksia menzeisii and prionotes). Amy's dress was made from an old table cloth and she didn't buy new shoes or a tiara! The food was all vegetarian, made from mostly local and some organic produce. We even managed to use some of our own produce: home dried cherry tomatoes and pickled olives.</div>
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The power was 100% renewable, either from our solar panels or from Synergy's natural power. The water came from the rain water tank.<br />
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We had a great time and definitely recommend backyard weddings if you have the time and space.<br />
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-53568246823588738112015-03-05T12:56:00.000+08:002015-03-05T13:37:48.890+08:00The humble hanky<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wow, I thought taking a redundancy would give me more time to blog but it hasn't been the case at all. I think I'm busier now than I ever was! Anyway I have 10 minutes to shoot out a small post.<br>
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I grew up in the UK and I've always just had a hanky (or hancherchief) on me. I guess my Mum used them and so did we. So I always thought they were normal and everyone had one. I never really noticed that they weren't that popular. When I was about 20 I went to Cananda and blew my nose in a Uni class and an American girl said "Wow, what is that thing? Can you do it again? I've only ever seen them in old movies". That was when it really hit me, I was a freak with an out-dated mode of nose blowing.<br>
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This hasn't stopped me though, maybe I like to stand out from the crowd. The main reason I love hankies is because you don't need to chop trees down, process them in to paper and package them up and transport them around the place. You just get one from a drawer (or my pocket, I never leave home without a hanky) and put it in the wash when it's dirty. No fuss, minimal waste and no it's not unhygienic (my pockets can't get my germs as far as I know).<br>
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So now our whole family use them. Amy has even made hankies out of old shirt fabric and they're pretty good. Here is a Ben Sherman model (a swanky hanky). And no, you don't need to iron a hanky!<br>
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It always dismays me to see people who should know better grab a tissue. So the humble hanky should make a comeback, why don't you give it a blow?</div>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-37757792145176124092014-12-29T19:31:00.002+08:002014-12-29T19:31:33.292+08:00Let us collect lettuce seeds<div dir="ltr">
I really used to lament over our hot dry Perth summers. Last year we had no summer crops because we were away for seven weeks and as we gardeners know, a good food garden needs daily attention so we just didn't bother. But this summer, so far has been fantastic. We have had a bumper tomato crop, heaps if apples, bananas, boysenberries, lettuce and lots of other veggies.</div>
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Our new wicking bed is crankin' and will hopefully keep us in greens for a while to come. But of course, as seasons flow, some crops finish.</div>
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One patch of lettuce bolted a couple of months ago and now it's time to collect the seed. If you're new to seed collecting, lettuce is a great one to start with. I've been saving these seeds, which I originally got from our good friend Ben, for several years. They are red cos lettuces.</div>
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So first if all you need to do is resist picking from your best lettuce plants. Just let three or four go to seed. They look like this with fluffy seed heads when they are ready to collect. </div>
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Once they flower, seed and dry you just take the seeds. So simple. I just roll the seed head in my fingers to loosed the seeds and let them fall into a container. </div>
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And there they are, all ready for my next crop which will be in a few weeks time. I'm really trying to keep the greens rolling this summer. I have to remember how lucky we are in Perth - with care, we can grow most veggies most of the year round. <br />
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November and December are a time of year we really look forward to. We have apples, boysenberries and my favourite vegetable, globe artichokes available from our garden. I rave about artichokes to people and so many say "But how do you cook and eat them?". Well, here's how my Dad showed me and it's delicious.<br />
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First, pick the artichoke when they're fairly big but before they start to flower. They flesh out lots as they grow but if you pick them too late they'll be too stringy and less tasty. Cut them just below the globe, leaving maybe 10mm of stork on. <br />
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Then boil them immersed in water for about an hour with the lid on. To test whether they're ready pick a petal from low down on the globe and taste it. This is done by putting the petal in between your top and bottom teeth and scraping off the flesh at the lower end of the petal. If it's still hard to chew it's not ready yet.<br />
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When it's nearly ready put some knobs of butter in small bowls and microwave until melted. <br />
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Remove the artichokes from the water when done and serve. Place a large bowl in the middle of the table for discarding eaten petals and the choke. Now dig in. <br />
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Simply pick petals and dip them in the butter. Most of the lower, bigger ones have some 'meat' on them, the smaller ones higher up have less. When you've eaten most of the petals, stop before removing them all. If you do this you'll get into the 'choke', the upper part above the heart. This part will choke you if you eat it, hence the name. </div>
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This part should be removed, as should the stringy stork below the heart. Remove the stork with either a sharp knife or kitchen scissors.</div>
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Then remove the choke by cutting horizontally between the choke and heart with a sharp knife, as below.</div>
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Discard the choke and eat the heart, smothered in melted butter! <br />
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They work really well as a starter, but not a main as there's not that much to them.</div>
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Have a go, it's the ultimate umami taste...</div>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-84114640072874676852014-11-17T12:09:00.000+08:002014-11-17T12:09:15.150+08:00Kale chips (this post is not about wellness)<div dir="ltr">
I don't believe in wellness or health and well being. As a population, humans are pretty healthy. Especially <u>us</u> white ones. I don't think we need to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa" target="_blank">deprive South American countries of their staple foods</a> so we can purchase them as over packaged, organic, fair trade super foods at our gourmet shops just for some over researched vitamin or anti oxidant I could get from an egg my girls lay me or a bit of kale. Based on food waste stats we'd just throw half I'd it away anyway. I think all we really need to be well is to not eat junk, work less, spend more time with our loved ones, exercise incidentally by riding a bike, dancing or kid wrangling. And <i>always </i>garden. Okay I'm sound a bit like a cat poster but just think all this wellness stuff is a bit narcissistic. We are the most overpopulated species on the planet. <i>We </i>are well. The planet, sadly, is not. </div>
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So this post is about kale chips for the planet, and they also happen to be good for you.</div>
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Kale grows so well. Is doesn't need heaps of water and is pretty disease resistant. Often you can keep them going over summer too. In Perth that's really saying something! <br />
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This is the <a href="http://%20http//www.1millionwomen.com.au/2014/01/11/no-waste-vegan-cheese-kale-chips-and-kale-stem-pesto/">link to the recipe</a> I used. I found it worked well to use the sun oven too. It took much longer for them to crisp up but they did eventually. <br />
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They will be great for Quin's waste free lunchbox which his school is starting this term. However, I suspect the chips won't last long because they are soooo delish! I'll definately make them again! <br />
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Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-83977449227904804792014-11-14T12:25:00.000+08:002014-11-17T12:11:44.093+08:00Commuting: electric bike is best<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have a 20km journey to work. Over the years I've made this trip by car, bus, bike and electric bike and the latter is my mode of choice these days. It ticks all the boxes: low emissions, time, health, cost and pleasure. So, let's go into the reasons. The table below shows the ratings for the criteria I think are important and I'll go through them one by one.<br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 436px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 4124; mso-width-source: userset; width: 87pt;" width="116"></col>
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<tr height="38" style="height: 28.8pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="38" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0.5pt solid windowtext; height: 28.8pt; width: 87pt;" width="116"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mode of
transport</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emissions</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cost</span></td>
<td class="xl64" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Time (minutes)</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Health</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext black; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 0.5pt 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px; width: 48pt;" width="64"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pleasure</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="19" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt; height: 14.4pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Car</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">High</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">High</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">30</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Poor</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Low</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="19" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt; height: 14.4pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Public
transport</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Low</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Medium</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">75</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Poor</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Medium</span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="19" style="height: 14.4pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="19" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt; height: 14.4pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bike</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Very low</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Low</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">50</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">High</span></td>
</tr>
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<td class="xl63" height="19" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt; height: 14.4pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ebike</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Low</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Very low</span></td>
<td align="right" class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">40</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Very good</span></td>
<td class="xl63" style="background-color: transparent; border-color: black windowtext windowtext black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 0.5pt 0.5pt 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Very high</span></td>
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</tbody></table>
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Emissions from cars has impacts on both climate change and localised particulate pollution (eg smog). Most forms of public transport also emit these, however because they transport many people at a time the emissions are much lower. There are no emissions from a bike, except possibly methane escaping in the saddle area! The emissions from ebikes are minimal. My 40 km round trip uses about 1kWh of energy and since we have solar panels most of this is from renewable resources.<br />
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The costs of running a car are huge. It's estimated that the average Australian car costs about $12,000 a year to run. This includes registration, insurance, fuel, maintenance and depreciation in value. On fuel alone it is the most expensive way to commute by far. I'm amazed to read in the news that Australian's number one financial worry is the cost of power, when the cost of running a car is far higher. My 40km round trip costs $20 a day if you calculate it at 50 cents per km. If I did that every work day of the week it would cost around $5,000 a year. The cost of public transport is quite high too. My return journey costs $6.60 a day. Riding a bike is free and the ebike costs around 25 cents to charge. I've put the cost as very low due to the fact I don't go to the chiro any more (see health section). The exercise I get means I don't need to go to a gym to stay fit. Three years ago we replaced our second car with an ebike and we've probably saved $8,000 a year since then. Here's the old bomb off to the scrap yard.<br />
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Time is the only area where the car wins and time is precious. The big loser here is the bus. I have to walk to the bus stop, wait a few minutes, get off the bus and change at Canning Bridge, then wait a few more minutes until the next bus arrives and then walk for a few minutes when I get off the second bus! The bike beats this easily and the ebike isn't far behind the car.<br />
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Health is a big deal, in fact it's one of the most important things in life. There is no exercise value in driving a car and since most of us sit behind a desk all day that's not good. I've also had two accidents on the way to work in the last eight years, with people rear ending me resulting in minor whiplash both times. Except for the walking bit public transport isn't much better. In fact, if you consider the fact that you have to be in close proximity to people who may be sick it could be worse. The health benefits of riding a bike are huge. Why did I put good for bike and very good for ebike I hear you say. This is what I've found: riding a bike is good exercise but it's also very tiring. This can cause wear and tear on the body and result in injuries. This doesn't apply with ebikes. I can set the level of assist on my ebike to suit how hard I want to push my body and this means if I'm a bit sore I take it easy and still get to work on time. I've also found that I ride my ebike much more than the normal bike. There's no exercise value in a bike collecting dust in the shed. These days I ride to work three times a week (I work 3 or 4 days a week). In the past I've had chronic back problems which need regular trips to the chiro (every 2-3 weeks), but since I've started riding so much I don't need the chiro any more. This probably saves me about $800 a year.<br />
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Pleasure is different for everybody, but I find I get the most out of riding my ebike. I love the feeling of gliding along without too much effort, of overtaking cars stuck in traffic along the freeway bike path and of arriving at work energised and ready for the day. The down side is the weather, but we're lucky in Perth. It's mostly sunny and rain rarely stops me riding. I quite like going by bus too because I can relax and day dream or read a book. The car I just find frustrating, you have to concentrate so much and the traffic and waiting at lights is just boring.<br />
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So there you go, that's my take on commuting. And here's the bike I use, a Workcycles Fr8 with an Ezee electric conversion. 10,700km on the clock and going strong. I can load it up with enough gear to go away for a 4 day work trip and can pick and drop Quin from school too.<br />
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-57724894410327002692014-10-24T10:35:00.000+08:002014-10-24T10:35:00.065+08:00New roof<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Having just finished the reno the last thing on our minds was spending more money. Then one thing led to another and we ended up splashing a lot more cash.<br />
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Firstly, Quin was diagnosed with a mould allergy. This meant that our slightly leaky roof was a big problem and possible allergy trigger. Then our builder recommended a roofer to us and said you won't regret going to tin from terracotta tiles, it will make your house way cooler in summer and warmer in winter. This sold us of course! We love our old house but she ain't the best insulated and we suffer a bit in the more extreme months.<br />
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So, tin it is. It cost an arm and a leg ($15,000) for the new roof, including Anticon insulation underneath for the best thermal rating. We are very happy with the early results, no leaks and it looks mint. We'll give an update when the thermometer reaches 40C, which will hopefully happen later rather than sooner.<br />
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Now, no more spending for us after a crazy expensive year. Let's see if we can pay off the mortgage before it all goes belly up again!</div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-7567405662335591912014-10-21T21:10:00.000+08:002014-10-21T21:10:58.464+08:00New PV system<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We first got PV (photo voltaics or solar power) 6 years ago and the 1.1kW system has done us well. We recently had a new roof put on so we had to remove the solar panels and I thought it might be a good idea to upgrade our PV system at the same time. This is how the old system looked.<br />
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The 1.1kW system cost us $6,500 and in 2010 we qualified for the new WA Feed in Tariff (FIT). This pays us about 48 cents a kWh that we feed to the grid. The FIT runs for 10 years to 2020. A while ago our energy provider (Synergy) decided to reduce the amount they paid people who don't get the FIT for power fed to the grid from parity to what they charge their customers (28 cents) to about a third of parity (8 cents). That got me thinking, when the FIT ends what will our power bills cost us? The amount shocked me, about $600 a year for us measerly 5kWh a day users. I thought well I'll just upgrade my system in 6 years time and we'll be right. Then I thought wait a minute, why don't we upgrade now and the new, bigger system will pay itself off much more quickly with the FIT. I checked the rules which state that you can keep the FIT if you keep your original inverter. Luckily we got a larger inverter than our system required, a SBA 1700 which allowed for a bigger system.<br />
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So, now to choose new panels and sell the old. I thought it would be hard to sell the old Kaneka thin film panels considering new panels sell for under $1 a watt these days. However I was pleasantly surprised when an ad in Gumtree got many people interested. The first offer was $900 for the 1.1kW Kanekas, an offer I couldn't refuse. It turns out that the buyer wanted to upgrade his own system and needed that vintage Kanekas to be compatible with his other panels.<br />
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We were told that we could overload the inverter by placing some panels facing west and some north, so we decided on around a 3kW system. The choice of panels was between Yingli, Daqo and REC. The first two are good quality chinese panels, the third very good quality European. We decided on the RECs which should give better performance over a longer period of time and have a world leading energy payback time of one year. The REC 260PE polycrystalline panels are now installed in two strings of 6 panels, giving us 3.12kW. This is the west facing, tilted array on the garage roof.<br />
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And here's the North facing array with the solar hot water system alongside.<br />
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This upgrade cost us around $4,600 including removal of the old panels. Subtract the $900 we got for the old panels and the total cost was $3,700. It should pay itself off in about three and half years and then we'll have another two and a half years of FIT before we go back to the stingy rate. Our power bills will be in the negative (ie a credit) for the foreseeable future so the money is a great investment as well as good for the environment. Despite being bigger in kW, this system is much smaller in physical footprint and this allowed us to move the solar hot water system further up the roof into a less shady spot.<br />
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Now, let the sun shine all day and the rain come at night...</div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-53466760956707927382014-10-05T16:59:00.000+08:002014-10-05T16:59:00.036+08:00A preemptive strike against feral honey bees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We had an emergency situation here yesterday. Who did we call? Batman! The situation was a imminent swarm of feral honey bees about to move in to our nesting box. We noticed quite a few scouts hanging around and really did not want a swarm on our hands. Its happened once before and its quite frightening. Bees are loud and serious when they swarm and if they move in to a nesting box they will sting and kill baby 28s and make their hive. </div>
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We called Joe from <a href="http://www.natsync.com.au/" target="_blank">Natsync</a> (aka Batman because he loves bats, possums and parrots - in fact all things Australian native). He was here in a flash to rid the box of curious bees armed with his bee suit and ready to unleash his secret weapon! Actually he didn't need the suit for just a few scouts so Quin quickly tried it on!</div>
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He took the box down and we found a dead fledgling in it. It was quite a mature one and Joe suspected that it was stung but probably the brothers and sisters had escaped. </div>
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Luckily we had the secret magic bee repellent growing in the chook yard - wormwood! Joe packed it in a little mesh thing and placed it in the box. We put the box a little lower in the tree so in future we can stuff wormwood in the box ourselves next time it attracts the attention of some unwanted bee scouts.</div>
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So now our nesting box is all go for another clutch of 28 eggs. We're hopeful. Only a few hours later the box was being inspected by a lovely couple of 28s. I could just hear them chatting to each other. 'It looks lovely inside, Love'. 'Hmm, but its a little low on the tree, Dearest'. 'Yes, but you know, its all about location...'<br />
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We hope they move in!<br />
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Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-44081375651338898622014-10-03T13:30:00.000+08:002014-10-03T14:01:53.463+08:00Sustainable raw dog food<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since we got our Whippet puppy, Okey, we've looked into the best diet for him and concluded that raw food was the way to go. Wild dogs have evolved over millions of years to eat raw food and it makes sense that they still thrive on it. Most modern dog food is junk in comparison. Meat and other products that are cooked lose much of their goodness. Did you know that there's no requirement for dog food to have a good balance of nutrients and vitamins, etc. Instead it's full of the waste products from human food, like grains and other cheap fillers. Dogs aren't built to digest carbohydrates, they just pass straight through them with sometimes harmful effects (including hip and elbow dysplasia). Dry kibble or biscuits are also very low in moisture, mostly 11% compared to around 70% for raw food. This means that pets fed on this alone will often struggle to keep hydrated. The benefits of raw food include improvements in skin and arthritic problems. Anyway, I won't rant but I'll just say do some research yourself if you're interested. The book I've read is "Real food for dogs and cats" by Dr Clare Middle. Other useful links are <a href="http://www.barfaustralia.com/" target="_blank">BARF</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHvPQtDyy90" target="_blank">a good Youtube video</a>.<br />
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We started off by buying BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food or Bones and Raw Food) patties. These are easy because it's all prepacked and frozen. The big downside to them is the cost. 12 patties of 227g cost $25 here. That works out to $9.20 a kilo. The other factor which concerned us was the sustainability aspect (all the packaging, transport, issues over how the meat is farmed, etc). So, I decided that I'd look into making my own raw food. After a few tries I found the youtube video linked above. I liked that it was an easy recipe and it was really raw (unlike others with cooked ingredients!). I've amended it a bit and here's my own version. Your dog will need between 20-30% of their body weight per week of raw food and raw bones.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
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3kg muscle meat, usually 2kg lamb and 1kg kangaroo for Okey<br />
300g offal (a local pet store sells offal including tongue, liver, heart, kidney and brains, yum!)<br />
2 whole raw eggs (shells included)<br />
6 tablespoons yoghurt<br />
300g vegies<br />
2 cloves of garlic<br />
6 whole sardines<br />
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Here's how I make it. First I pick most of the vegies from the garden and I add lots of variety. This brew has silverbeet, celery, parsley, brocolli, kale and carrot. They're mostly organic and local produce.<br />
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These are then blended along with the eggs, garlic and yoghurt.<br />
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It looks like this afterwards.<br />
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I used to blend the local sardines too but we found that Okey loves them straight from the freezer (doggy icey poles!). If you want you can just pop fish oil tablets in when you serve the food, we just prefer this method because we know the fish source is local and sustainable.<br />
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It was interesting finding out why some of these ingredients are used. The vegies and yoghurt contain most of the vitamins dogs need and replace what wild dogs get in the stomach of their prey (partially digested vegetables, fermented mother's milk).<br />
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Then I add the meat and offal, it's all from WA and preservative free.<br />
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I'd like to use all roo (free range and the most sustainable local meat) but Whippets are quite lean dogs and need fattier meats on the whole, so lamb's a good local choice. Here's what it looks like. It's not much fun for a vegetarian but it goes with the territory when you own a carnivore...<br />
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Then I simply put it in containers and freeze them.<br />
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When I serve it I add a pinch of Kelp powder and alfalfa or coconut oil. This brew costs us about $17.50 for 4kg, which works out to less than half the cost of BARF. Sure, it's probably cheaper to buy other dog food, but we figure that we should save money in the long run with lower vet bills.<br />
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Okey loves it. We also alternate feeding him a high quality grain free dry food which we add water to when we serve it. It's also important to feed raw meaty bones, so we give Okey lots of these (chicken necks and roo tail mostly). Soon we're going to fast Okey once a week, according to Clare Middle this is a great way to detoxify the liver and keep your dog even healthier.<br />
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-9761985956692719932014-10-03T13:00:00.000+08:002014-10-03T13:00:38.509+08:00Downshifting: it ain't that hard<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
So, what
is downshifting? Well firstly it has nothing to do with changing gears in a
car. Downshifting is when someone voluntarily decides to either work less or
work in a lower stress job. Amy and I have been attempting to downshift for
years now and I think we've got a good balance now. Amy has gone from full time
to 0.6 and then 0.5 and I've gone from full time to 0.9 and just this week
started to work 0.7. This means I work 3 days one week and then 4 days the
next. Sure, we get paid less but we'd rather be time rich and ok money wise than
time poor and rich. It makes a lot of sense for us since we have secure jobs
and we live in the richest city in one of the richest countries in the world.
At work people have been saying how lucky I am and how I'm living the dream and
it made me think why don't more people do it?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think one of the reasons is that bosses are too
inflexible and employees are afraid to ask or are afraid they'll slip down the
career ladder or won't earn enough to afford the nice things in life. There's a
great book called<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://clivehamilton.com/books/affluenza/"><span style="color: blue;">Affluenza</span></a>: When too much
is never enough, by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. They define Affluenza as "1. The
bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up
with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness
caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction
to economic growth". Sound familiar? It's a great book and I recommend you
read it. The thrust of the book is that people are working longer hours, with more stress and that is impacting on their health, relationships and general quality of life.<br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A 2009 survey of 450,000 Americans found that the optimum income for happiness was $75,000 a year. "As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness" (see<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/09/07/the-perfect-salary-for-happiness-75000-a-year/" target="_blank"> <span style="color: blue;">this blog post</span></a> for more info).</span></span> Earning more could even make you less happy. To get that promotion
do you need to work longer hours or miss out on some leave? Do you need to deal
with more stress and take work home with you? Is it really worth it if it
doesn't increase your well being?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Where did
the 40 hour work week even come from? I read an <span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-reason-for-the-40-hour-workweek-2014-6?IR=T" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">article</span> </a></span></span>by David Cain recently which
said it originates in the mid 1900's as a way to stop exploitation of workers
doing 14-16 hour days. So why hasn't it changed in the last 150 years? Cain's
theory is that it's because it's good for the capitalist economy. People who
are tired, time poor, cash rich and unfulfilled need to have a release and the
way they do that is by buying stuff they don't really need but that fills a
whole in their lives. It may be a jet ski, a new 4WD or a quick trip to Bali
and it keeps the wheels of industry turning. But we're not hamsters so you can
jump off the wheel if you want!</div>
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So here's
my to call out to employers and bosses. The next time someone asks you if they
can work part time please say yes instead of the default no. Yes Jill, why
don't we give it a try and see how it goes? Jill will be over the moon and work
harder for you. You might even find that she does the same amount of work in
less time (the average office worker does 3 hours productive work in 8 hours).
Jill will be happier because she has more time for reading, yoga, etc. Husband
Jack will be happier because the kids are happier (more attention), the dog's
happier (more walkies) and because his wife's happier. Jack's thinking
"She's less stressed, more relaxed, she's lost weight. In fact she looks
pretty fit at the moment!" Now that can't be bad for a relationship can
it? It's a win win situation, Jill's happier and her boss is saving the
business money. She might even stay with the business longer and save them
heaps more by avoiding recruitment and training of new people.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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There's a
chance that things slip at work and the boss says you need to go back to full
time, but it was worth a try. How about this radical solution though, the boss
says to Jill how about we hire a new part timer? Bob is an environmental
scientist who's been unemployed for a year and gets the job. He's been
depressed and stressed working 40 hours a week applying for non existent jobs
for heaven's sake.He's over the moon to get a new job and realises he never
liked full time work that much. His partner Jim's happy too, but
enough of that...<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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Now isn't
that cool, making many people happy for the price of one!<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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Here's my
call to employees. Ask your boss if you can go part time if you want to. If he
says no, just nag him until he says yes. Tell him to read this post, tell him
about Jack and Jill for Pete's sake, he'll get it. Don't be afraid about money,
you'll probably be ok and you won't regret it.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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But wait
a minute say the naysayers. There's a catch, it's bad for the economy.
The economy is the most important thing in the world ever as our
politicians like to preach. Well I'm not an economist but it seems we're always
going on about productivity. How is it good for productivity for someone to get
paid for 8 hours work and do 3? Isn't it more efficient to work less but
better? Sure, there may be a drop off in jet ski sales, but big deal. Maybe
we'll get the next GFC a bit sooner this way but I kinda think we need it for
the planet's sake. Most consumerism drives climate change, creates waste and
pollution and we or following generations will be hit with the bill sooner or
later. Why not give Mother Earth a break and bring it on. So I say nay to the
naysayers!<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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I plan to
do more of the stuff I enjoy, like gardening, walking the dog, blogging (I
wrote this post on my first day off!) and spending time with my son and heir
(his inheritance may be smaller but he'll be happier). Have you ever had a weekend and on Monday thought, gee i need a weekend to get over the weekend? Well I don't get that feeling anymore. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Haven't
we lost sight of what's important in life? Isn't it more important to be there
for a child's first steps rather than earning another dollar? Happiness is not measured by the amount of superannuation you have. Don't defer happiness until it's too late, live it now.Time is more
precious than money I say. Go on, whether you're a boss or a worker give it a
go. Work less, live more. Enrich your life not your bank account.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Happiness is contagious, go make some ripples...<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></div>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08366555870844713776noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-74488542092518078632014-09-30T13:42:00.000+08:002014-10-03T12:57:46.775+08:00Home made hand cream for a beautiful midwife <div dir="ltr">
My sister is a beautiful soul and has been a role model for me throughout my life. She was with me when Quincey was born and was such a source of strength and comfort for me - then and at when ever I've needed her. I don't know what I would have done without her at times. Now though, its my turn to help her as she is returning to work after several years off with her own young kids. My sister is a midwife and to be sure, the best sort of midwife you could hope for - calm, non-judgmental, reassuring, honest and skilled.<br />
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She is also very good on general hygiene, ie washing her hands at work and has really dry skin now, so I made her some home made hand cream. My friend made some for me recently and I just love it! Its Creme Galen Cold Cream and according to the recipe was created by the Roman doctor Aurelius Galenus (AD 129 - 217).<br />
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<a href="https://lh6.ggpht.com/-0i2SMudMox8/VBgt20C62lI/AAAAAAAABL8/EsaMUdicBT0/s640/20140907_154627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0i2SMudMox8/VBgt20C62lI/AAAAAAAABL8/EsaMUdicBT0/s640/20140907_154627.jpg" height="224" width="400" /></a></div>
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5 oz rose water<br />
1 oz unbleached beeswax<br />
6 oz extra virgin olive oil<br />
8 drops rose essential oil<br />
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Grate the bees wax. Gently heat the rose water in a glass bowl in a hot water bath. In a separate bowl combine the beeswax and oil and then gently heat until liquid. Remove both bowls from heat and slowly pour the rose water into the oil and wax blend. Mix with a stick blender until combined. Add the essential oil and stir. Before the liquid cools and sets, pour into clean small jars or tins.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P7zVS8h7eV4/VCZGQb-SsaI/AAAAAAAABNA/hdTH0UZMZcU/s1600/Home%2Bmade%2Bhand%2Bcream.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P7zVS8h7eV4/VCZGQb-SsaI/AAAAAAAABNA/hdTH0UZMZcU/s1600/Home%2Bmade%2Bhand%2Bcream.JPG" height="222" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></div>
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It was particularly satisfying making this because I used bees wax from a friends backyard hive and olive oil from our last <a href="http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com.au/search?q=olive+oil" target="_blank">Great Hilton Harvest Olive Pressing</a>. Okay, the rose water was from Syria and I'm not sure about the rose oil.<br />
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I use the cream at night as it is quite heavy and makes my skin shiny. In the morning I just slash my face with water and away I go. I use it on my hands, legs and face. I don't understand why people need a hand cream, a face cream and a body cream. Last time I checked my face and hands were a part of my body!<br />
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<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GFnRFW75LFc/VBgtxayCyXI/AAAAAAAABLs/12hsfjMfdI0/s1600/20140907_154310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GFnRFW75LFc/VBgtxayCyXI/AAAAAAAABLs/12hsfjMfdI0/s640/20140907_154310.jpg" height="224" width="400" /> </a> </div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Flh6.ggpht.com%2F-0i2SMudMox8%2FVBgt20C62lI%2FAAAAAAAABL8%2FEsaMUdicBT0%2Fs640%2F20140907_154627.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://lh6.ggpht.com/-0i2SMudMox8/VBgt20C62lI/AAAAAAAABL8/EsaMUdicBT0/s640/20140907_154627.jpg" -->Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1344790453643766925.post-79465158338361621762014-09-27T13:00:00.001+08:002014-10-03T12:58:19.992+08:00Mulberry season!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Perth is a tough place to grow food. However, there are a few exceptions - sweet potato, olives and most fun of all, mulberries. Here in our suburb, there are several cracker mulberry trees right on the verge. Great big trees, great for climbing and getting mulberry stains on your school uniform. </div>
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Luckily we often ride to school and we have been watching the fruit on our favorite tree getting plumper and darker over the last week or so. And now they are ready to pick!</div>
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We picked enough to take some home and put in a pie. Funny thing was we collected them in an <i>unused </i>doggy poo bag. That freaked me out a bit because from the outside of the bag it looked like we were the very responsible owner of some kind of massive great dane. </div>
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Anyway, once home we whipped up this yummy pie: </div>
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<ul>
<li>Short crust pastry: half a cup plain spelt flour/half a cup wholemeal flour or what every flour you prefer, a few tablespoonish scoops of butter. Rubbed in to the flour, add a tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of salt, add a little dash of water and a little dash of milk and combine with a butter knife. Not sure why we always use a butter knife to mix it, but my Granny said this was essential. Who am I to question her wisdom?</li>
<li>Mulberry mix: chuck in a good few handfuls of mulberries (no need to destalk), a peeled and grated granny (fruit, not the Grandparent), and a tablespoon of brown sugar - no water as the berries are full of juice. Let it reduce a bit. </li>
<li>Roll out the pastry, put it in a greased pie dish and pour in the mulberry mix and bake, 180 degrees for 20 mins or so.</li>
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Vola! Great with whipped cream!</div>
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I just love making use of food that would otherwise go to waste. Mulberries are so sweet and fragile, they only last on the tree a day or two before they drop and are ruined. So while they are in season its great to take advantage of them. You can munch them straight from the tree or you can juice them. We also freeze them in containers to keep us going between seasons. People often ask how they can get berries plastic free - well this is the answer for Perth peeps! They are great on ice cream or in smoothies after they have been frozen. You can also make mulberry jam - but be warned they are very low in pectin so you will need to add heaps of lemon juice (which can effect the flavour) or add commercial jamsetta. </div>
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Go forth with your doggy poo bag and enjoy the bonanza!</div>
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Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11518295099979646537noreply@blogger.com0