Busy Buzzy Bee

It is finished! This busy buzzy bee vest has taken me about 12 months to finish with intense tutelage from my neighbour. It is the first garment I have ever knitted (not, however, the first I have started). Now finally it is finished and I am so happy it fits. Quin said he will wear it every day. He'd better!

Now I start the mammoth task of knitting Ads a vest (with beautiful op shop yarn). I can do it. I think I can I think I can...

Soap-onification

Last Christmas one of our Earth Carers volunteers gave a demo on how to make soap. Since then I've been hooked, so has my colleague and my neighbour. We are getting together on the weekend to try goat's milk soap.

Normal soap is a lot easier to make than you might think. Here are some of my first attempts. I pored the mix over my (home grown) luffa for extra exfoliation!



Basically you mix water with lye (caustic soda) very carefully. This causes a chemical reaction and the solution gets warm. Then you heat oil. Both the lye solution and the oil need to be between 32-43 degrees. Then you mix them together with a stick blender and you get a second chemical reaction, saponification. Pour the mixture into a mold, wait 24 hours, chop it up and Bob's your uncle, soap!

But don't try to make soap until you have read the full version on how to do it.  You do have to be really careful with the lye. Also you can't just use any oil as each type of oil reacts differently to the lye, so it must be recipe specific to the type of oil you want to use. I read the book 'Smart Soapmaking' by Anne L. Watson, which gives good and clear instructions and a few good recipes. Unfortunately she uses some palm oil recipes which I stear clear of.

Soaps make great gifts and can be sold for fund raising. Here is a load I made for my Dad's church fete.

You can use heaps of different essential oils and exfoliants, different shaped molds and colouring. Silicone molds from the op shops work really well. Here is one below with (home grown) poppy seeds and orange essential oil (I have all but given up on making sour dough bread so what else am I to do with my poppy seeds!).

Have a go, it's great fun and just another skill to bring on home. Don't be afraid of the lye. I think, these days, we have lost our nerve with home made stuff. We worry about botulism with preserving, burning our skin off with home made soap, meningitis in our potting mix, bird poo in our tank water... But what about the fun and creative satisfaction with all of the above. To me the risk is worth it. Anyway, it will never happen and if it does I'll die smiling!

The F word

No, not the rude one! I want to talk about flying. I am afraid to say that we flew over east on our recent holiday. We looked into driving (too slow and tricky with a 4 year old) and taking the train (about 10 times the price of flights and much slower), but it just didn't make sense. Of course the other option would be to not go, but we really missed our friends and decided to go anyway. I know I've probably disappointed some people (sorry bro and Ciaran). The last time we flew was to the UK about 3 years ago for my brother's wedding (yes Julian, it was your fault and when we get to the pearly gates and the carbon accountant gets out his calculator I'll tell him to put it on your account!) so we're not regular flyers by any means. I still felt bad about it none the less.

Maybe feeling bad is the best way to go. We emitted 7.8 tonnes  of CO2e according to an offsetting company, which is about a quarter of the average australian household's annual emissions. Let's say our family emits half of the australian average, this means that we have just emitted 6 months worth of our annual quota in about 8 hours! We should be ashamed of this and we are.

We could apparently offset that by paying for the planting of 47 trees at a cost of $167. No worries I hear you say, problem solved. But there's a catch. We made the emissions now and time is of the essence with climate change. Even if those 47 trees do sequester the right amount of carbon to offset our flights, it will take them 70-100 years to do it (I measure trees for a living so I should know). Do we really have 70 years to act? I don't think we do have time and I owe it to my son to minimise my emissions as much as I possibly can right now. Personally I think offsetting is at best a last resort and sometimes it can be a con (if you do offset I'd definitely choose a not for profit group). I could pay my $167 and clear my conscience but I'm not going to because I don't buy it. I just don't think it's the answer, so I'd rather live with the guilt and fly less (or not at all?). My family live half way across the world and I'd just like to say sorry I don't visit more often, but I hope you understand why.

Amy has a theory that people just shouldn't marry people more than a few hundred kilometres from their place of birth. That way we wouldn't have the ridiculous situation we have now where grandparents fly half way round the world every year to see their grandkids or kids having to fly accross Australia every school holidays to visit their 'other parent'. If we stayed all provincial, like in the olden days, no-one would have the heartache of leaving loved ones behind. Thankfully Amy formed this theory after she met me!

I have talked to people about my guilt about flying and most people just don't get it. They laugh and say that my footprint is so low not to worry about it, or some just don't understand what I'm talking about. We have such a culture of flying now that it's just normal to take 1 or 2 flights a year. A while ago I heard of someone who worked for the UN in climate change policy who commuted from London to New York every fortnight! And now we have the FIFO (fly in fly out) phenomenom in Australia, where tens of thousands of mine workers fly from cities to mines and back again every 7-14 days. The mining companies don't want to pay for building and supporting rural communities near their mine sites and of course they don't pay for the emissions these flights put out. This is a big blind spot for lots of folk.
EU flight emissions are up 110% in the last 20 years and India and China haven't even started flying in a big way. Let's just hope we get a price on carbon soon and flights start to become more expensive than trains. Please think about this the next time you plan a holiday. You could even make a pledge not to fly for 12 months at lowflyzone. It may be cheaper to go to Bali than a closer destination, but that's because future generations will pick up the tab. 

Flying, it's a four letter word in my book...

Solar year 3 ends

When we got photovoltaics (PV) on our roof 3 years ago I, like many people, didn't understand how it all worked. I really wanted to so I wrote a spreadsheet (Solar Tracker) to help work it out. Once a week I take readings from our inverter and power meter and enter them into the tracker. It has grown from a very simple thing to a vast sprawling monster spreadsheet which calculates way too many things, but I love it. I know how much power I use, generate, feed in, can predict bills, etc.....Anyway, our solar year runs from late to April so the exciting results are just in, so here we go. This chart shows weekly usage and generation (printed and scanned, still working out blog technology) and a summary below of stats.

The chart shows our usual pattern of higher usage in winter with low generation, then a cross over in spring to lower usage and higher generation. I'm pretty proud of the fact that we have continued to use less power than we generate with a very small system (1.1 kW Kaneka thin film amorphous grid connected, facing due North). Our usage is about a quarter of the average for West Australia. It was nice to get a credit of $167 for the year after 2 years struggling to pay our $20 bills! The reason for the credit is the introduction of a net feed in tariff to WA in August 2010. Under this incentive program the state government and utility company pay 47 cents per kWh fed to the grid, which is more than double the 22 cents we pay to buy in the power. Since we feed in 77% of what we generate we do quite well out of this program and next year our bill should be a credit of about $220. The feed in tariff is guaranteed for 10 years which has cut the payback time of PV from about 15 years to 5 to 8 years for most people. BAU means business as usual, so what our bill would have been without PV (so we saved $600 this year). Smart Power is a system whereby our power provider charges different tariffs at different times of the day. The advantage of this used to be greater for us but is lessened by the feed in tariff, but we still gained a bit.

The beauty of having 3 years of data is that we can compare this year with previous ones. Here is a chart of our cumulative usage in years 1 to 3.

This year we scraped in using slightly less power than last year (probably thanks to our holiday!). Our year before PV we used 6 kWh a day and we cut that by 25% in year 1. Then we cut our usage by about 8% in year 2 but it's getting harder now. I just found out that our answering machine uses 0.3 kWh a day, which might not sound like much but it's 7% of our consumption. If you try to call me and can't leave a message I'm afraid that's why (it's going to the op shop I think). So hopefully we'll be able to cut our usage to 4 but I think it will get harder and harder. One great thing about taking readings is that we can see the results of our behaviour change, it's a positive feedback loop which reinforces what we are doing. Before PV I didn't have a clue how much power we were using, even though it told me on each bill. By the way, if you're not sure how much you're using, your bill will probably say how many units you're using and a unit is 1 kWh. If you have PV, your utility company will estimate how much you're using based on the size of your system. If you want to know exactly you need to do some maths and take some readings. Take a reading form your inverter, which should tell you something like E total (numbers of Kwh generated since day 1). Then take a reading from your power meter, there should be 2 figures, 1 positive (taken from grid), 1 negative (fed to grid). Then take another reading a week, month or year later. Subtract the latest figures from the first ones for each reading and you'll have 3 numbers: kWh generated, Kwh taken from grid and Kwh fed to the grid. Then do the following equation:

Kwh used= kWh from grid + (kWh generated-kWh fed to grid)

Power use is very seasonal so to get the most accurate figure get a year's data. Now on to generation:

Perth is probably the best place in the world for PV generation since we get an average of 8 hours sun a day (it sometimes amazes me why there aren't panels on every roof!), so we are lucky in that respect. PV systems usually over perform in their first year, so there's no surprise that year 1 was our best year. The interesting thing is that year 3 was better than year 1. Most PV systems lose efficiency as they get older, so I was expecting this to happen with ours. I think it shows that the weather we've had is probably masking the PV cell efficiency drop off. We've had a very dry year which obviously leads to less cloud cover and higher solar radiation.

We now take weekly readings of gas and water consumption, kms travelled by car and cargo bike and also egg production. So stand by for more geeky installments. Embrace your inner nerd. Geek, c'est chic.

Home is where the heart is



We just got home a from a holiday in mid north NSW. Blog worlds collided in the real world (Potato Bug) as we went to visit our good friends who moved there from Freo to become self sufficient, sustainable farmer, hillbilly types. It was lovely to reconnect with friends and see how they have fitted so wonderfully into their new life. They are very happy and we are very happy for them (though we still miss them so!). They converted an old dairy into their home and have two calves, chooks, ducks and a veggie garden so far (plus an orchard in the planning stages).

There is heaps of space for the kids to go crazy

and have wicked bonfires that I hope they will remember forever.

 

We seemed to have lots of time for tea drinking, walking, gardening, knitting and easter pinata making (it's the old double headed rainbow coloured easter bunyip we all know and love, of course).

The property borders state forest

 

So you will forgive us for contemplating packing up and moving to eden!

In many ways it was a very confronting and confusing holiday. We were constantly weighing up our suburban life to that of our friends and wondering how far they will be able to take their dream and indeed how far we will be able to take our dream of sustainability in the burbs. The main thing they took into account was the fact that the area is predicted to get wetter, while Perth is predicted to get dryer. We did notice a fair bit of wetness, growing and general greenness about the place. Our friends have some challenges too; they have frosts, as well as problems with fungal diseases on their veggies, clay soils and long weekly commutes in to town for supplies.

Here in Perth we are limited by water, sandy soils and on our block we are limited by space (I really do want goats Linda Cockburn style, but this will take some serious lobbying to Adam as well as my neighbours whose garden I will need for said goats). But even so, we really don't know our limits yet.

The more I think about what we want to achieve here the more I see we are limited by time. We could be much more effective gardeners, chook breeders, soap makers, bakers, preservers, aquaponic-ers, composters, cyclists, house refitters, bee keepers and all round super dooper good guys if we had more time. As it is Adam works full time and I'm part time. Eventually we hope to both work part time or less  to free up time for new skills. As for space, well, we have a new and cranking community garden that is about to start work on an orchard and our whole front garden is natives which we could convert to food production. As for water, we have not installed an approved grey water system yet (this is next on the list) and with more time we could water more effectively, use shade and mulch more thoroughly.

So maybe it is just a case of the grass is always greener. But on the other hand, maybe I'm just too emotionally attached to my home to see clearly. I missed my bike and my bellydancers. Home is where the heart is. And thankfully it rained the day before we got home. How wonderful.

And yes, we all had a great Easter!

The coolest dunny in the west

Our dunny (that's a toilet for non-aussies) is right on the north west corner of our house and the outside western wall has no summer shading. This means that on sunny days it heats up a lot in the afternoon as the sun angle drops and hits it.  In Perth this is a big deal as we have 8 hours of sunshine a day on average over the year and temperatures can hit 35C on a regular basis between December and March. This makes going to the dunny very uncomfortable (unless you want a sauna) and the heat radiates through the back of the house.Our house was built in the 50's using single brick veneer, which is basically a single brick on the outside, with a small air pocket in between gyprock/plasterboard on the inside. Not only does this mean there's no insulation, it is actually the exact opposite of what you want (thermal mass inside to retain winter warmth and summer cool). As an architect said to us, "Oh no, you've got brick veneerial disease!".

So there are variuos ways of combating this disease: you can plant deciduous trees/vines to the west or east to block the summer sun: rip off the gyprock and insulate and replace the gyprock; inject insulating foam through the bricks or deflect the sun by cladding on the outside. We decided to use the last option, we have planted apple trees to the west but they'll take a while to grow enough to do the job. After suffering through the hottest month on record in February (25 days straight over 30C and 15 nights straight above 20C) without aircon we finally got around to doing the job. We got a few tips from our friend Tim and another kind friend helped us out (thanks Alex + nibbler). Here is a pic of the wall with a few pine battons up:

The area is only about 2.5m by 2m. The plan was to put battons up against the wall attached with dynabolts. Next we tacked aircell insulation (like bubble wrap with reflective coating) to the battons:

Then we attached more battons right on top of the first lot of battons. Lastly we attached zincalume metal sheeting onto the outer battons:

We got the tin second hand for free, so the whole project cost about $200. The key to this is that there is an air pocket in between the metal and the aircell and then the aircell and the wall. Lots of heat will get deflected by the metal, but some gets through. Some of that heat will rise up the air pocket and escape and some will be absorbed by the aircell. Most of the remaining heat that gets through this layer should then rise and escape in the last air pocket. The theory is that by the time it gets through to the wall there will be virtually no heat getting to the brick. I borrowed an infrared thermometer from the library and did a few before and after readings. Before the cladding project the outside of the wall would get up to 57C on days around 33-35C, the inside would get to between 35 and 43C on these days. After the cladding the inside wall doesn't get above about 28C on days of 35C, so i reckon that it has made that wall about 10 degrees cooler. In winter the sun sets further to the north and has much less power in it so we don't actually lose any thermal gain at that time of year (thermal gain is highest in the east and west in summer and in the north in winter or south if you live in the northern hemisphere). So here's to a cool dunny!

Slowly but surely we are getting on top of our house's thermal issues. One of the reasons I am so anti aircon (apart from the obvious waste of energy) is that it is just too easy to flick a switch and not bother to fix these kind of thermal leaks. An analogy I like is if you get really bad toothache do you go the dentist or do you just take really strong pain killers and forget about it. Most people would agree that trying to fix the cause of the problem is the way to go. So aircon is like a pain killer, it's ok for a temporary solution but don't forget to go to the cause of the problem and fix it (or better still bare the heat and fix the leaks). Here are a few other ways we've improved our heating/cooling issues. External shading over Quincey's east facing window for summer heat protection. When sun rays hit windows the heat waves actually become more intense, so you really need to stop them before they get to your glass. We remove this shade in autumn.

Another thing we have done in Quin's room is to install a pelmet. We got 5 beauties someone had chucked out onto the verge and at some stage we'll get them all up. By far the best way to insulate your windows inside is by using good quality double lined curtains and pelmets.A pelmet is a box type structure fixed to the wall above curtains. They stop heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. In summer, air between the curtain and the window heats up. This warm air rises and escapes over the top of the curtain. This air movement sucks cool air in from the rest of the room to window. This cool air warms, rises, and so it goes on in a convective process. In winter the air by the window cools, sinks and draws warm air to the window in the same way and the process works in reverse. Pelmets can prevent 25% of heat loss from or gain into a room (source: sustainability.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/Window protection.pdf).

Over our north facing back door we have a solar pergola which our very clever friend Ryan built (thanks mate). A solar pergola has angled fins which allow sunlight in in winter for solar gain but block it in summer for cooling. The angle and dimensions of the fins are critical so that you get the right amount of sun through when you want it. Ours lets winter sun hit our windows and warms the thermal mass of our cement and tile pad. From mid October the sun is totally blocked out until mid March.

Lastly we have a grape vine to the north which also blocks summer sun and stops heat radiating off our paving into our house. It drops its' leaves in autumn to allow the sunlight through. It also gives us some yummy seedless grapes in summer. It did a pretty good job in its' first summer, next year we're hoping for full leaf coverage and an even better result.

Most of this stuff is based on solar passive design and permaculture principles, so if you want to learn more just do a search or go to the local library. Future projects for us include more pelmets, plastic shrink wrap double glazing, under floor insulation and lots more cladding. Just remember, roof insulation is great but if you don't stop heat coming into your house from walls and/or windows you can make your house into an oven. So after spending many hours in our dunny oven I can tell you right now, it stinks!

Go go cargo!

We just bought an electric cargo bike and we love it so much we want to spread the word. Cargo bikes have been around since about the 1920's; in their modern form they originated in Holland (or Denmark depending on who you talk to) and are really popular over there, mainly as a means of transporting children around. They are bikes with big wooden (or aluminium) boxes on the front, like this:

They are the SUV of bikes, being up to 2.5m long and able to take big loads (up to 80kg in the box). This means they are perfect for taking kids to school (up to 3 or 4 in the box), doing the shopping, going to the park with our 18 year old dog Porridge who can't make it on foot any more, going to the beach, etc....

We've really struggled cutting our car mileage (we're a 2 car family I'm afraid), so this should really help. About a third of car trips in Perth are less than 3km in distance, meaning many could realistically be done by bike. If you've got some gear a regular bike just doesn't cut the mustard though.  We even ride ours to work every now and then without any cargo (40km round trip). It's not your ideal commuter bike, but it's pretty good to crank the motor and head home into the sea breeze. And how ideal is a car in terms of sustainability? Amy was driving to work recently in our station wagon (on her own). Stuck in traffic, she looked around her and wondered "What I am doing bringing an arm chair, 3 seater sofa and spare room to work with me?" It's a good point, what are we thinking (or not)?

Here are the specs of our Bakfiets long bike:

• Factory fitted with a 24V 10 Ah Li-ion pedal assisted electric motor. It's a pedelec system, which means that the motor only engages when you are pedalling. This is good for safety and for conserving battery power (but Amy sometimes finds it hard to take off, especially uphill where a throttle system would help).
• There is a controller on the handle bars which tells you how much juice you have left in the battery and allows you to change the level of assist you get (5 levels). We've just installed a bike computer and seem to be getting about 50 km+ per charge. A full charge takes 6 hours and uses 0.4 kWh, which costs between 4 and 10 cents depending on the time of day we charge it (that's 10 cents for 50km, a bit cheaper than the car). It just plugs straight into a power point (and no, I'm afraid it doesn't recharge under braking like Hybrid cars). We really recommend the electric version (especially if you don't live in super flat Holland) because these bikes are very heavy (40kg).
• Shimano roller brakes front and rear for very smooth and effective braking (important for up to 200kg total weight)
• Shimano Nexus 8 hub gears (very low maintenance compared to derailleur style)
• Low in step and quick release saddle means Amy and I can both use it and swap riders easily
• Dutch upright style frame (good for the dodgy back)
• Integral locking system makes it very hard to pinch and impossible to forget the lock
• Stabilo 4 legged stand makes for easy parking, loading and unloading
• It's unique, so you get lots of looks if that tickles your fancy (Amy).....

I could go on for a while, but maybe the technical stuff's getting a bit boring. The question most people ask is "isn't it hard to ride?" and the answer is a definite no. It is a dream to ride, probably easier than your average bike. It seems effortless and it's so comfortable. I've never driven a Bentley before, but I think our bike rides a bit like a Bentley car drives (stately and sedately come to mind.....). It is 2.5m long but the width of most standard bikes (63cm). It is so much easier to manouevre than a 'tagalong', which many parents will know of. Tagalongs are articulated which makes them tricky to manouevre sometimes and almost impossible to reverse. No such worries with a cargo bike. By the way, kids absolutely love these bikes (I would pay off the bike pretty soon if i charged $1 a ride.....).

So, what's the down side I hear you say? Well, the only one I can think of (except for where the bloody hell do we store a 2.5m bike) is the cost. Cargo bikes are pretty pricey, especially the european made ones. But I think it's worth it. A bike mechanic friend who has a chinese made one told us to get the chinese one, but when he saw the Bakfiets he said that it's worth the extra (about twice the price). It will last us many years and give us many miles of pleasure and if our plan comes to fruition it will soon pay for itself. You see we're going to rob a bank with it..... No, what I meant was our plan is to get rid of our second car within a year and the cargo bike will be an essential part of that. Amy and I both work and we need two means of getting around with room for Quin and other gear, so it would be pretty hard without the cargo bike.

I think transport is a weak point for many people (including ourselves) in terms of their carbon footprint. So many people who otherwise have a low footprint blow it all by flying for example, but that topic's for another post. But cars are huge users of oil and in this age of peak oil and climate change we need to find alternatives. The car may still be king for now, but its' days are numbered. If Amy and I can become a one car family then we will have made another big step towards a lower footprint. We will also save ourselves lots of dough since the average car costs $12,000 a year to run. By my reckoning you could run an electric cargo bike for at least 25 years on that. As the Weezer song goes, "You take your car to work, I'll take my board, and when you're out of fuel, I'm still afloat"......(it's a surf song, but replace board with bike and you get my drift).

And I know what you're thinking, yeah well that's a pretty cool bike and all, but you can't do stunts and cool stuff like that on it. Well, check this dude doing a cargo bike wheelie:

Oh yeah!

Cargo bikes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so you should find one that will suit you (and you don't have to have a child, they're an optional extra). Here are some links if you want to know more:

Australia: Dutch Cargo Bikes (where we got ours', Melbourne), Cargo Cycles (they sell chinese ones)

Europe and elsewhere: Workcycles (have dealers worldwide), Bakfiets en meer blog, Dutchbike co (Cambridge, UK)

USA: Joe Bike (Portland, Oregon)

These bikes will help save the world. Happy cargo bike riding!