October 2012

It's been a crazy, busy, turbulent month so this is just a quickie I'm afraid.

kWh electricity generated (per day):	5.5
kWh electricity used (per day):	3.3
kWh gas used (per day):	2.4
L water used (per day):	718
Rainfall mm (4 weeks):	24
Tank level (L):	500
km by car (per day):	28
km by cargo bike (per day):	15
Eggs laid (per day):	4.5

Power has shifted into summer mode now, with much higher generation than consumption. The higher sun angle has also meant that we have no shading on the solar hot water panel, so we've haven't needed to boost the hot water at all and won't until next April/May. Gas usage is way down since the gas heater wasn't needed. It was a dry month so the retic has gone on. Consequently the tank level has dropped from 13,500 to 500L, which is effectively empty since the pump shuts off at around this level. Hopefully we'll get a bit more rain before the big dry stretch. A bad transport month, but sometimes when life goes a bit pear shaped it's just easier to drive. Chooks still going strong, not too much broodiness yet.

We got crazy crabs for Quin. We've created some great crabitat and they seem pretty happy, if a bit hermity.

Hasta la proxima.

September 2012

The new banana bunch looks a bit weird. The bananas are really thin and long, not like they were before. I'm beginning to think it's because I wrongly selected a water sucker instead of a sword sucker. Oh well, the learning curve continues.

The pickled olives are still too bitter, so I drained the brine and put them in some fresh, less salty water. We have 6 kilos so hopefully this will last us a while.

The apple trees look a bit ghostly out the kitchen window. That's because I've netted them to stop fruit flies getting at our crop. I'll report back on whether it works out.

The almond is netted too, but it's to keep parrots not insects out.

The broad beans have been great this year, but now they've come to an end. Many people dislike them, but I reckon they either have defective taste buds or they've never had fresh ones cooked well. My favourite way to cook them is to pick them when the beans are around 15mm in size and simply shallow fry them in olive oil for a few minutes. Super yum.

We just got our thousandth egg for the calendar year. This is the first time we've done this and there are still 3 months to go. The brown chooks have been a revelation, pumping out eggs like clockwork. The Australorps are laying again now, but two have just gone broody on us. The broody cage is back in action.

The worms in the Gedeye compost bin are going mental.

The leaf rich compost brew we did turned out really well. All the fruit and nut trees have had a big dose of compost, sheep poo and rock minerals which should help them put on new growth and fruit and see them through summer. The last compost brew we did has gone cold too quickly and won't be that great. We didn't get the critical mass of one cubic meter which you need to have sustained high temperatures. It's a good lesson not to do a brew unless you have enough material and time.

Amy took the yarn-bombed wooly wheelbarrow down to the Sustainability Fiesta. In the cargo bike naturally!

And Quin got his first Honours certificate at school (for joining in discussions enthusiastically and for his knowledge of dinosaurs).

Solar power generation has made a big jump in the last month and usage has dropped lots because we haven't needed to boost the hot water much this month. The gas fire has been off and gas usage is down. For the first time this year we actually exceeded our average rainfall, by about 20mm. This has meant that the retic has stayed off, the vegies are happy and the rain water tank is pretty much full.

kWh electricity generated (per day):	4.6
kWh electricity used (per day):	4.1
kWh gas used (per day):	5.3
L water used (per day):	268
Rainfall mm (4 weeks):	108
Tank level (L):	13,500
km by car (per day):	34
km by cargo bike (per day):	19.5
Eggs laid (per day):	5

Oh, and our old dog Porridge passed away at the grand old age of (approx) twenty. RIP Podgy girl...

August

Wow, what a month. Just when I was speaking of how blogs can be untruthful because you just put the good stuff in, I had a bit of a melt down. So, what happened? Well around the middle of the month Quin and I both got the flu. It wasn't like any flu I'd had before, with serious fevers at night for a whole week, wierd nightmares/dreams, aches, running nose and feeling cold to the bone when I didn't have a fever. At the end of that week I had probably only slept about 14 hours and a funny thing happened. I felt overcome by a wave of sadness, which I think is my first episode of depression. It was awful and on top of this I couldn't sleep and felt really anxious. Amy helped me through. I had to go to the doctor and he gave me some sleeping pills. It was bliss to get my normal sleeping patterns back. He said that flu can release chemicals which affect your mood, but that there could also be other issues to deal with. Anyway, I won't go into too much detail, but I'm fit again and I think this has been a valuable lesson for me. I need to take care of myself more and there are changes I need to make in the way I live my life.

Quin's sixth birthday was a great day and cheered me up no end. The theme was Pokemon so we had a Pikachu cake and a pokeball pinata. We were a little rushed in getting organized so we didn't go all out and do home made hankies like last year, but we did put bamboo toothbrushes in the party bags along with the lollies (Amy wanted them to go in the pinata with the lollies but Quin did not!).

The garden looks great, with the almond tree in full bloom. This will need netting soon to keep the birds out.

I spotted our first ever Macadamia flowers. I'm pretty chuffed about this because I was considering pulling the tree out a while ago due to poor growth.

Caulies looking good.

The bikes had the month off due to sickness and the car got a work out..

Amy bought an iphone. I can't say that I'm impressed by this, being a luddite and all. The last laugh is on Amy, who gets pestered constantly by Quin who wants to play games on her phone. In one of my wierder flu dreams I dreamt that iphones were taking over the world and being used to brainwash people. People were turning into zombies due to stuff on their phone (Quin's really into zombies right now). But then I thought that maybe that's not too far from the truth. How long will it be until Google and Apple run the whole world anyway?

Power use is still too high. Of course I have have a sneaking suspicion the iphone can be blamed for this too (needs charging every day). The sluggish PV generation has started its gradual rise thankfully.

We had a decent month of rainfall at last. It was still 50mm off the August average and we're 150mm below average for the year. The tank is full though.

The chooks seem very perky, even the old Australorps have nice red combs and are starting to lay now.

We got the cloche going at last. It's a bit late for it, but it should get some seedlings going which we don't have any space for in the garden yet. Our cloche is just made with some clay pavers, two bits of wood and a thick pane of glass we got off the verge.

kWh electricity generated (per day):	3.2
kWh electricity used (per day):	6
kWh gas used (per day):	8.5
L water used (per day):	257
Rainfall mm (5 weeks):	84
Tank level (L):	14,000
km by car (per day):	29
km by cargo bike (per day):	16.5
Eggs laid (per day):	4.1

Sustainable September is upon us. We're not doing it this year, but if you can make it to Sustainable House Day you won't be disappointed. It's on this Sunday 9th and there should be a house open near you. We'll be hanging around Hulbert Street in Freo for the Sustainability Fiesta, September 22-23. I'll be doing a talk on cargo bikes at some stage.

July 2012

Since writing garden goings on I've decided to do a monthly post on all things sustainaburban and this is the first one. It's a summary of what's been going on at our place, not just in the garden. You tend to write blog posts on good, positive stuff, which can make blogs a bit untruthful I find. So this segment will try to document the good, the bad and the ugly.

This sure has been a dry July and it's definitely nothing to do with my drinking habits. The driest July on record, 23mm chasing an average of 175mm. Thankfully we had a full tank to start the month and we didn't get anywhere near empty. I've drawn some markers on the side of the tank to take some guess work out of judging the tank level, which I do by banging on the side of the tank.

Being dry means it's been cold at night too, so our gas use for heating is pretty high this month. Power use is up too due to boosting the solar hot water. I've just set the timer to boost for 45 minutes every day at 4pm. This is the best time to boost since it's at the peak of solar gain and takes the least time to get the water hot enough for showers, etc.

The chooks don't seem to miss a beat in the cold. We're still getting 3-4 eggs a day from our four brown chooks. The Australorps have laid two eggs in about 6 months! Amy got sick and I made her chicken soup, which made me think why didn't I slaughter one of our own?

The vege garden's looking great, with broad beans in full flower, lots of broccoli ready to eat. The peas have been awful this winter though, really struggling to get going and getting brown spots on the leaves before dying. We should start getting summer seeds in the cloche now, but haven't got around to it yet.

We haven't been doing many preserves, just a beer brew (Pilsener, great to brew in the cold). We ran out of preserved tomatoes last week and actually had to buy a tray of tinned ones for the first time in about two years!

We went to the Murchison and saw outback olympics, well just one sport really. They had a big polocross carnival with teams from all over WA. Polocross is an amazing cross between polo and Lacrosse. The riders and horses are so skillful and fast it's hard to believe. Amy's parents will be leaving the Murch soon so this might be our last visit for a while. Quin, Freda and I made it to the top of Errabiddy bluff. A great effort for the younguns, Quin was so excited he just about wet his dacks!

We saw the Big Old Bears EP launch at Mojo's and it was great. You can buy the CD here.

The 28's (Ringneck parrots) are getting jiggy with it, munyin cruel hard or mating depending on how you like it. They are in residence in the bird box up our big gum tree in the back garden and hopefully will have another brood this year. Here's a pic of the male standing guard in the never ending battle with arch enemies the Galah's.

The Fr8 has had a work out recently. I've been riding it to work 2-3 times a week, a 40km round trip. It's been great, it takes 45 minutes which is half an hour less than the bus (and 20 minutes more than the car). I can feel my legs getting stronger by the day.

Plastic Free July went pretty well. It made us think hard about trying to avoid single use plastic. Rather than just being a temporary thing, there are a few things we will keep on doing. We found a good hemp shampoo bar which we like so no more tubes of shampoo. Amy made a yummy dip called labneh, which is easy to make. Just drain your (homemade) yoghurt with a sieve and muslin cloth for a few hours. Then you can have it straight with crackers or mix in any herbs and spices you like. Amy loves her homemade deodorant, she says it's much more effective than the crystal ones you buy at the shop. We've been ordering takeaway food and asking to have it put in our own containers. Most are happy to do this if you turn up a bit earlier so they can put it straight in. We bought four metal straws, they're $4 each but should last Quin a few years. If we eat out we take them with us for kid's drinks.

Vital statistics:

kWh electricity generated (per day):       2.5 kWh electricity used (per day):                6.2 kWh gas used (per day):          10.2 L water used (per day):           297 Rainfall mm (4 weeks):                 23 Tank level (L):               9,000 km by car (per day):                22 km by cargo bike (per day):    21 Eggs laid (per day):                  3.8

Sorry this is so late, I've been very sick. Now I need to get on with August...