tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-365736752012-01-30T11:09:55.776+11:00Thoughts on downshifting, simplicity, sustainability, ecological footprints, organic foods, grow-your-own veges and anything else related.garynoreply@blogger.comBlogger721100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-36002369148366758772010-04-09T16:54:00.005+10:002010-04-21T21:28:00.715+10:00

After a 17 month hiatus, I have resumed blogging. The new blog is called Our Sufficient Life Inelegant Sufficiency. These posts on Adventures in Suburbia will remain and have been migrated to my new blog, but I do not propose to add any new posts here.

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-6726708487248329952008-11-17T21:28:00.005+11:002008-11-17T22:05:44.811+11:00

Our adventures in suburbia are almost at an end. We leave Sydney at the end of the week for the New England area. For the first six-or-so months we'll be in something like suburbia whilst we rent in town, and we'll commence looking for a suitable property out of town just as soon as we've unpacked.My job has finished, tomorrow is the last day of school for a while.I'm not sure what shape, form or

garynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-80120715539749414572008-10-15T10:11:00.000+11:002008-10-15T10:12:50.235+11:00

It's been a strange position to be in - having a couple of modest vegetables patches that were crying out to be filled, but also being aware that they'll be under new onwership from towards the end of next month.Coming out of winter and leading into spring, I hadn't wanted to plant anything that wouldn't be able to provide us with something useful or edible by the middle of November.The broad

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-33797969712746816392008-09-30T10:42:00.000+10:002008-09-30T10:43:45.109+10:00

Many years ago my father brewed his own beer. It was a hobby that lasted a number of years and many batches. It was something that was strangely fascinating. In those days before premixed tins of extract he'd buy the hops and malt and sugar and yeast then boil up this concoction before it departed to the garage to bubble away for a week or two. The gurgling of the airlock was captivating. We'd

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-71024310235272771022008-09-26T10:13:00.002+10:002008-09-26T10:18:11.020+10:00

I've been crunching the numbers on our electricity usage and the likely configuration and cost for solar power and solar hot water for our new place wherever it is.Currently we have electric-everything - hot water, heating/cooling, hotplates and oven. Our average daily usage over the past two years has been 31kWh/day of which 17 has been standard tariff and 14 has been off-peak hot water. If we

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-72017394086605247912008-09-19T16:36:00.003+10:002008-09-19T16:44:42.539+10:00

Our house is sold and we settle in a bit over two month's time - an extended settlement.There's lots to be done - more culling, sorting, packing and tossing. Most areas are under control, but the garage needs some attention! There's a council cleanup this weekend so I may get into the accumulated garage stuff and sort it out. It shouldn't take too long, but there'll be a fair bit of stuff to take

garynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-58849287680294000452008-08-27T08:26:00.001+10:002008-08-27T08:28:23.550+10:00

There's nothing like putting a house on the market to muster the energy to get things cleaned up and sorted out. Our path to simplicity over the past few years has meant we've gradually being sorting, throwing, recycling, reusing and generally ridding ourselves of 'stuff', but there is always more to do (particularly with my stuff); and just he fact that we need to 'live' in a house means it will

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-43829077879307666282008-08-08T16:07:00.003+10:002008-08-08T16:09:44.410+10:00

I've spent a fair bit of time recently trying to get my head around the principles and foibles of crop rotation to formulate a workable, understandable yet relatively simple rotation plan for our yet-to-be-created organic vegetable gardens.I've consulted a few experts in the process - Peter Cundall, Lyn Bagnall and Jeff Hodges in their books or from websites quoting their approach; and the

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-15358403638204892492008-08-04T20:25:00.003+10:002008-08-04T20:36:29.234+10:00

No pigs being procured here. Instead, today we've signed up with a Real Estate Agent to put our house on the market.In a sense it is the first concrete step to leaving suburbia to begin to shape a new, simpler, more sustainable existence in the country. We've obviously taken steps to this point - a lot of reading and research, a couple of trips to our prospective country area, a lot of pondering

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-71010354480943614122008-06-30T11:04:00.006+10:002008-08-04T20:36:50.062+10:00

I'm a big fan of open-pollinated, non-GMO, organically grown heirloom seeds. The only seeds I buy need to be non-GMO and open-pollinated, and I prefer if they're heirloom/heritage seeds and they were grown organically. But if they're not organic then they will be once I get them and save some of the seed. Not only does their heirloom status (generally classed as being pre-WWII) indicate some

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-53179050716512950322008-06-22T18:40:00.002+10:002008-06-22T18:43:39.565+10:00

Our garage contains an assortment of gardening/digging/weeding/cultivating tools from spades to rakes, and hoes to forks. Some are long-handled and some are short. We've got a couple of long-handled rakes - presumably what would be called a leaf rake and a garden rake; a spade, a garden fork, a hoe and a three-pronged cultivator. For closer combat we have a small cultivator, a hand trowel, a

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-54952219819877695612008-06-06T16:06:00.002+10:002008-06-06T16:10:31.980+10:00

We've been watching the DVD 'The World According to Monsanto' over the last couple of nights. It's available for purchase from Arte Boutique. It had been put on YouTube and Google video and a raft of other sites but many have since been removed. Despite that, I've seen at least one site where the video is available to view streaming (as of yesterday, anyway), and there may be the odd bit torrent

garynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-30061444172214806072008-05-26T22:07:00.003+10:002008-05-26T22:20:03.564+10:00

The evening college woodworking course is now half way over. Progress has been slow, but I'm getting to see and use power tools that I haven't seen before. The item being constructed is a small display cabinet - perhaps 40cm high, 20cm wide and 10cm deep. Mine has one centre shelf and a single-pane door. Others in the class have opted for two shelves and either a one-piece or two-piece door. The

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-15956421662507138282008-05-03T08:56:00.002+10:002008-05-03T09:00:11.610+10:00

I've never been particularly 'handy'. At school a few decades ago I undertook the mandatory woodwork and metalwork in year 7. My wooden things never quite fitted together - a bit if a gap here, a bit uneven there. Usually some sanding and filling would make it presentable. My metalwork was less impressive. I was in awe of the fact that some students made adjustable wrenches.Around the home I've

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-35597658755303941542008-04-26T14:00:00.007+10:002008-04-26T15:20:59.191+10:00

Back in June last year Rhonda Jean at down---to---earth offered to send some luffa seeds to anyone who wanted some. I took her up on her kind offer and planted some seeds last spring. Two plants/vines made it to adulthood and have been adorning one of our side fences for the last six months. They are growing on trellises made of garden string or sisal strung between two star pickets.These first

garynoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-3509613353869487752008-04-25T14:42:00.003+10:002008-04-25T14:47:02.049+10:00

Not quite 12 months ago I started putting together a wishlist of rural living.On reviewing that list, there is nothing that I'd remove from it, but plenty I'd add - particularly in light of the introductory permaculture course I've just finished. So what would I add?ponds dams swales (water-collecting ditches on contour) a wider range of fruit trees a stack more nut trees heaps of leguminous

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-23806382399759008102008-04-13T07:23:00.003+10:002008-04-13T07:52:55.374+10:00

Our worms arrived safely and well and appear to be happy in their new surroundings.We collected them at Easter and let them settle in with the coir peat bed and shredded paper they came with. After the first week we began feeding them some vegetable scraps and have done so weekly for the past few weeks. The farm we opted for was the Can-O-Worms and it was obtained from S & J Worms along with

garynoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-15274121033645746102008-04-12T21:50:00.002+10:002008-04-12T22:03:16.831+10:00

One of the (paraphrased) principles of permaculture is to ensure that each plant or element in a design is fulfilling multiple aims. In that regard Comfrey is regarded as the darling of the permaculture plant world. It reputedly contains more nitrogen than horse manure; has deep roots that break up clay soil and mine minerals; it's edible in small doses; is a good edge or border plant because

garynoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-81605122414912991662008-03-19T14:16:00.002+11:002008-03-19T14:28:37.265+11:00

Week 5 saw a discussion of design methods including zone and sector analysis; map overlays; random placement and assessment to detailed observation and analysis.We then moved on to discussing patterns and spent a fair bit of time looking at mandala gardens and herb spirals.We finished up with a look at a video from the early 90's by Robyn Francis as she creates a small mandala garden replete with

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-36387642455401041202008-03-08T22:56:00.001+11:002008-03-08T22:59:19.569+11:00

Part of my permaculture course was an excursion to Kimbriki for a tour of the Eco garden and listening to some teaching from Peter Rutherford. Peter was both engaging and passionate about ecology; and the work that has been done at the tip is remarkable.We heard some theory about ecology, organics, soils, etc and saw some demonstrations about worm farming and composting.We need to get a worm farm

garynoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-71587272333596280062008-03-06T15:37:00.003+11:002008-03-06T15:44:23.106+11:00

This week was primarily a get your hands dirty kind of week.We did a bit of theory at the beginning of the class, but soon moved on. One of the things we discussed was the use of peat as a seed-raising mix. The view was that cocopeat is a more sustainable product. It is also available from Green Harvest.But to the practical: There's a garden area at the college that is being developed along

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-37373594089411807712008-02-27T13:20:00.003+11:002008-02-27T13:35:53.457+11:00

This week we got stuck into the primary design processes of permaculture: of site analysis, microclimates, sectors and zones. This is the connecting point between the ethics and principles on the one hand and the growing, established property on the other.It also encompassed a discussion about keypoints and keylines and productive, fertile land.Next week we get down and dirty in a practical

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-37322308695958892522008-02-20T11:11:00.002+11:002008-02-20T11:16:10.008+11:00

Week 2 involved the ethics and design principles of permaculture.The ethics are essentially:Earth care (soil, water, resources, etc)People care (self, family, community)Fair share (responsible consumption, distribute surplus)The design principles essentially ensure that appropriate elements of the garden/broadacre design are in the right place and support and are supported by the other elements.

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-14155799364604177782008-02-13T11:07:00.000+11:002008-02-13T11:13:28.990+11:00

The intro course I'm attending on Saturday's got off to a flying start last week with 18 people in attendance. The age spread was probably from twenties to seventies (without trying to be disingenuous to anyone) and peoples primary reasons for being there are just as spread - from those seeking to assist their spouses in their employment, to those considering or planning to relocate to the

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-68909504983505859752008-02-04T08:53:00.000+11:002008-02-04T09:05:15.184+11:00

It's all well and good to plant vegetable seeds and/or seedlings somewhere in our backyard, but it's even more helpful to have some idea what to plant when, and how deep, and how far away from its neighbour, and approximately when we may expect to enjoy its delights. I've often consulted a number of planting guides I have.One is the Digger's Club 'Sow what when' wall poster which I received when

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-45208286037194959042008-01-08T13:46:00.000+11:002008-01-08T14:00:10.690+11:00

Most of our modest vege patch is coming along nicely at the moment. We've got pak choy recently germinated near our luffas; we've got 5-colour silverbeet that's a bit ratty but still edible; we've got some sweet mini capsicums that have started flowering and setting fruit; we've got some cos lettuce that is going quite well; and we've got 4 tomato plants that are medium size and starting to

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-2468300070943250672008-01-07T09:54:00.000+11:002008-01-07T12:29:00.990+11:00

I'm not much of a cook. Whilst I can find my way around a kitchen (well ours, at least), I can't really get my mind around the difference between bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and don't really understand when to use a long straight-bladed knife versus a smaller, serrated one. Despite that, I enjoy cooking occasionally. One of our daughters and I will prepare a meal for the family every

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-90246131559595115242007-12-09T22:18:00.000+11:002007-12-09T22:41:19.056+11:00

One of the concepts that makes the most sense to me with regard to sustainable communities is that of permaculture. It's a word coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 70's and is a merging of 'permanent' and 'agriculture'. If I had to describe my understanding or definition of permaculture it would be designing and constructing aspects of a property to create synergies.A few months ago

garynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-16404527777268365752007-11-20T10:06:00.000+11:002007-11-20T10:20:23.403+11:00

Below is a pic of the three styles of candle I've poured so far. The back one is from the bought mould and is about 5cm in diameter by 16cm high. The front left is poured in a shot glass and will be burnt in it. The front right is made in a drinking glass. Its measurements are about 7cm in diamater by 9cm high.I've made two pillars, 5 shot-glasses and two squat. So far we've lit one of the tall

garynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-50529045837231713992007-11-12T22:10:00.000+11:002007-11-13T08:12:15.956+11:00

We like candles. We're not infatuated by them, but they add a certain ambience and they seem to usher in a 'slowing down of the world' kind of thing. Over the years we've gone through a fair few paraffin candles - big pillars, smaller tapers, tea lights galore.And so it is time to make some candles at home - but not from paraffin - from beeswax.I don't think we've ever used beeswax candles before

garynoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-18163203769466732842007-10-22T13:02:00.000+10:002007-10-22T13:03:43.294+10:00

Probably spent close to 4 hours over the weekend weeding a modest patch of our modest vegetable patch. The weed was primarily wild carrot weed, with the odd bit of other weedy stuff thrown in.Weeding is not always something I enjoy, but I do get in the mood to weed every now and again. Is the effort futile? In the long run, yes. Is it beneficial? Yes on a few levels. The things we intentionally

garynoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-77306629097609187062007-10-16T15:09:00.000+10:002007-10-16T15:26:20.683+10:00

We've had our third harvest from our broad beans. The first one was meagre to say the least - maybe 10 pods of small to medium size. The second and third were bigger and better - probably 20-25 pods with 4 or 5 full-sized beans in each. The first lot was around mid September, the second lot about 10 days ago, and the third lot just yesterday. By the look of the plants, we may get another harvest

garynoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-2145406586579965502007-09-17T09:33:00.000+10:002007-09-17T09:47:27.714+10:00

With the advent of spring, the imminent removal of our flowering broccoli, and the equally-imminent extraction of our generally-failed onions, it was time to think about sowing some seeds in spring for summer vegetables.Having had poor success with sowing seedling into punnets, I thought I'd give it another go - especially since we've been saving plastic bottles to create mini-greenhouses for

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-77910178413047754992007-09-16T08:51:00.000+10:002007-09-16T09:07:32.359+10:00

The potatoes have been in for about 6 weeks now. The first two-to-three weeks were spent waiting for them to appear, and the past three spent waiting for them to get tall enough to warrant throwing some extra straw (read sugar cane mulch) around them.I think the theory is to wait until they protrude by around 20cm about the mulch level before adding more. Ours ranged from 10cm to 30cm so

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-4709996291714913372007-08-04T11:54:00.001+10:002007-08-04T15:08:17.817+10:00

Our potatoes went in today. They are King Edward certified seed potatoes from Diggers.We're trying the potato cage method - but without the cage yet. Thev method was to mow the patch, lay newspaper, spread some compost thinly, place the potatoes, cover with straw (sugar cane mulch in our case), then a bit more compost mainly to keep the straw from blowing away too soon. Before and after the

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-15883154390870811542007-07-21T22:17:00.000+10:002007-07-21T22:24:22.174+10:00

Another step towards conserving water in our household was taken today when I installed our Every Drop Shower Saver.It's a brilliant device that allows you to stop the flow of water through the showerhead without having to readjust the hot and cold flows. It is simply a valve that is situated where the showerhead exits the wall.It's beautifully simply, was easy to install, and could save us

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-40087759501096060882007-07-13T13:37:00.000+10:002007-07-13T13:48:13.092+10:00

But hopefully not too many fat pigs in sight; and I certainly don't plan on buying one.Tomorrow we head off to our relatively local farmers' market. It's open on the second Saturday of every month. We've seen evidence of it before when we've driven past, but this will be the first time we've actually gone. It'll be interesting to see what sort of stuff they have, and the quality and price. We

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-69807856059317063982007-06-25T12:58:00.000+10:002007-06-25T13:10:08.493+10:00

Well, another step taken on the path to better living... We've received our Schnitzer grain mill and so we can now grind our own wheat and other grains. We used it on the weekend for one loaf of bread and also for some chapatis. The bread was slightly smaller than our usual loaf and so we'll need to try adding gluten/gluten flour into the flour. As with most things new, it'll be a matter of trial

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-62164194283544983382007-06-15T10:45:00.000+10:002007-06-15T10:46:22.530+10:00

The events of today are some that I have anticipated for 21 years - the paying off of our home loan. Since about June 1986 we've had a home loan of some description on the three different places that we've owned over that time. But as of today the total outstanding has been repaid and all we owe financially is what's on our credit card which is paid in full every month.We haven't discharged the

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-30605400397901064682007-06-01T14:00:00.001+10:002007-06-01T14:19:43.383+10:00

How much space does a chicken need? It's not a trick question, though it could reasonably be the start of a joke.But it relates to chicken runs in the backyard and how much space a chook needs. Also considered is whether it's 'permanent storage' or the chicken can range during the day.My thinking is slowly evolving - that something small enough to move and yet large enough to accommodate enough

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-86225179080953643162007-05-30T12:39:00.000+10:002007-05-30T12:44:51.281+10:00

OK. The weekend has come and gone, and I sowed more seeds - direct this time.So what's in? Three rows of onions, two rows of broccoli, three rows of spring onions and then two rows of pak choy. The broccoli is probably too crowded, but the others should be OK. Suggested spacing is 10cm between plants, and 30cm between rows. I opted for about 10 x 20 instead.And as proof of concept, I also

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-21391077875963702392007-05-25T12:53:00.000+10:002007-05-25T13:21:28.177+10:00

My inability to produce growing, transplantable objects from seeds is almost confirmed.A few weeks ago we sowed broccoli, onion and spring onion seeds in seed raising mix. Most seeds sprouted, and produced stems of 2-3-4 centimetres in height. Since then it's been primarily downhill. Some sprouts have shriveled and disappeared; others have keeled over.But this is exacerbated by the fact that most

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-14185579943323723812007-05-24T16:14:00.000+10:002007-05-24T16:20:46.682+10:00

One of our next steps towards simplicity and sustainability is to ditch our current array of laundry powders and liquids and to go for the home-made batch. The recipe is simple:Grate a cake of plain soap (Sunlight, in our case).Dissolve that in 1 1/2 litres of warm to hot water on the stove.When dissolved, add 1/3 cup of sodium carbonate (washing soda).Stir well.Pour into a bucket with hot water

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-72950327842050499942007-05-17T14:04:00.000+10:002007-05-17T14:17:57.386+10:00

If/when we get out of the city and find some suitable land in the country, there are few things I'd like to think we'd do on it. This is the first in a series of brainstorms:grey water recyclingrain water harvestingchickens - with a large run and some free-range spacea number of vegetable gardensgeese?composting toilet?passive solar energy useroof & wall insulationconsideration towards some sort

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-9446581767107494942007-05-14T10:39:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:44:55.179+10:00

As recorded last week, we planted our broad beans and garlic last weekend. It's been interesting watching them appear over the week. The first signs of garlic were after only a few days. On Friday we counted 9 shoots out of the 30-or-so planted. Saturday morning was around 10 and then 12 by the afternoon. Sunday morning we got to 15 but 22 by Monday morning.Funnily enough we'd also looked at the

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-69116828117319489112007-05-07T12:52:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:44:55.180+10:00

Whilst it sounds like a good thing to eat: broad beans sauteed in garlic, that's not what this is about. Instead it relates to the weekend plantings: about 30 cloves of Australian White Garlic went in, as did 16 broad bean seeds (Aquadulce).I'm not sure if I've done the right thing with the broad bean seeds. Since they are fairly big, I planted them about 5cm down. The theory is to have them

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-50783481221562912292007-05-03T11:33:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:39:46.896+10:00

In something of a revolt against chemicals on my head, and less money in my wallet; and following an 8-week long experiment being run through a local radio station, I've decided to try the 'no shampoo' hair-washing regime.The basic idea is that you don't use shampoo (but can use conditioner), and that you wash your hair using only water at the same frequency as you have in the past. Your hair

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-70570597814120146312007-05-01T13:37:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:44:55.181+10:00

Saturday saw me and the young man prepare pots of seed-raising mix and sow seeds for our broccoli, onions and spring onions. The seed-raising mix is indeed a mixture - most of it is 50% peat moss with 50% perlite, but some of it is 50% perlite and 50% seed raising mix. There are around 13 pots in all comprising something like:4 pots of broccoli for a total of around 24 plants5 pots of onions

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-22353301471545741552007-04-10T12:25:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:44:55.182+10:00

We've moved from summer into autumn and so now the thoughts turn to suitable vegetables for winter.We had mixed success across summer. The Pak Choy was a hit, and the self-seeding tomatoes were excellent. The beets were basically non-existent, and the lettuce and capsicums were non-existent.The vege garden will be cleared, weeded and turned over this week, and so we've got our order in for winter

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-80673366429442608832007-02-22T12:31:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:38:55.920+10:00

Our thinking on simplicity and sustainability continue to evolve. At this point we're coming to grips with permaculture which, if I grasp it sufficiently, is so planning and organising ones land and property such that synergies and interdependencies that exist in nature can be created and used beneficially in the property. Chickens are a great example of permaculture. They take in food scraps and

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-15763408785507708272007-01-17T11:52:00.001+11:002007-05-17T13:38:38.817+10:00

Around the middle of September last year, our family instituted the "Mellow Yellow Toilet Flushing Philosophy". Four months on and we see the first results of its impact via our water rates received the other day. (We could read our meter every day/week/month, but we don't). Our water consumption has declined by around 180 litres per day. That's akin to 65 kilolitres per year - enough to fill a

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-47383953109578282282007-01-12T14:46:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:38:21.663+10:00

Apart from home-grown veges, one thing that surely sets apart a standard urban residence from one pursuing domestic sustainability must be chickens.I've checked out our local government regulations and the broad guidelines are that chickens are allowed, without roosters, and that they cannot be kept closer than 4.5m of a building or where food is prepared. The floor below roosts and perches

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-20809206174899673462007-01-05T15:14:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:41:46.392+10:00

One of the things that has been on the list for quite a while is repainting many of the interiors. First off is our master bedroom, then the lounge room. Work has begun on the bedroom - we should get the ceiling done tomorrow, and colours are picked for a feature wall and the remaining walls. A hallway, then combined dining/kitchen will follow, then the family room. One child's bedroom will fit

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-81248233300083425262006-12-26T16:39:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:44:55.183+10:00

Today, Boxing Day was set aside for the first day of the fourth test between Australia and England, some weeding of the vege garden, and a third sowing of Pak Choy and Chioggia Beetroot.Something like another 20 Pak Choy and 15 beetroots were planted. These should be edible in the later part of February through March.I think second, third, fourth, fifth sowings are one of the keys to regular,

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-59643083562527138682006-12-18T16:40:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:44:55.183+10:00

Yesterday saw the first 'harvest' from this season's vegetable garden crop. I picked 5 bunches/plants of Pak Choy. They were marginally on the small size, but I needed to thin out the planting and so we figured we'd try them at that size. They were the primary component of a vegetable-only stir fry - along with some onion and zucchini and carrot - and rice.The leaves were tasty - that slightly

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-63219098535551158002006-12-11T15:57:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:34:06.654+10:00

One thing my wife and i always come back to is the need/desire/issue of decluttering - of getting rid of stuff that's hanging around, taking up space but not contributing (and not threatening to contribute anything) to the utility or enjoyment of our home.In many ways it comes back to the quote I wrote about a couple of weeks ago:Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-72239422692051298812006-12-08T11:07:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:37:18.045+10:00

Another thing on the list has been achieved - a 'no junk mail' sign has gone on the letterbox.The good news is that we're polite. The sign says 'NO Junk Mail Thank You'. I wanted one that included 'thanks' because I realise that it's a source of income for the deliverers, but I also wanted to be emphatic that we appreciate and are exercising our right to not receive unsolicited advertising. It's

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-35163979877815709032006-12-04T10:59:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:36:58.644+10:00

Saturday saw me purchase a further swag of long-life, low-energy fluoro lights. These ones are for each child's bedroom, some for our reading lights and the family room lamp. I also bought a couple of cool white globes for the kitchen rather than the warm white. The warm casts quite a yellowy hue and so we'll see how the blue/cool one goes.The only rooms/lights that are the old incandescent style

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-48029160011247149362006-11-28T09:25:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:45:43.524+10:00

Some time ago whilst reading SockknittingMama's downshifting-path to simplicity, I came across a quote from William Morris that reads:Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.His words strike me as very simple and yet extraordinarily profound. It's a measure that can be applied to everything in a house to ascertain whether it should stay or go. It

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-30696715132156382762006-11-27T13:22:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:45:11.748+10:00

To my mind, one of the milestones on the road to greater domestic sustainability is making your own bread. It's better tasting, lower in preservatives and other additives, is better for you and has, to me, considerable rustic charm. In a sense it is symbolic of a different style and pace of life. It is one of the staples of our diet - for breakfast, for lunch and as an accompaniment to some

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-70168257841128332372006-11-22T15:22:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:47:36.434+10:00

For the past couple of months our toilet flushing philosophy has followed the colloquialIf it's yellow, let it mellow.If it's brown, flush it down.I can't recall where I first read the above, but it seems to be a fairly commonly known expression. We've adopted that particular philosophy at home and I'd estimate we can save something like 30,000 litres of water over twelve months. That's a

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-50118118474118817542006-11-21T16:07:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:36:04.597+10:00

One of the weekend activities was to begin swapping out our normal incandescent light globes for the compact fluorescent globes.We started with our 'high-usage' areas - lounge room, dining room, kitchen and study. The kitchen and lounge room have 14 watt globes that roughly equate to 75 watts; and the dining room and study have 11 watts equating to 60 watts. The globes were relatively cheap at a

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-10860290334982578662006-11-19T15:56:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:44:55.184+10:00

Two weeks after the direct sowing of the beetroot and Pak Choy; and the indirect sowing of the Cos lettuce and capsicum into my newspaper pots, it's time to fill in the gaps in the vege garden.I sowed around 40 seeds of both the Pak Choy (above) and beetroot (below), and maybe half of each has germinated. I'm guessing that some was sown too deeply to germinate, some too shallow and has been blown

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-85318981314026898182006-11-18T22:58:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:35:54.804+10:00

Well, last weekend's Farming Small Areas expo was vaguely successful from my perspective. Unfortunately for all the weather was quite hot and somewhat unpleasant.There were less information booths than I would have thought, and a few more vendors (presumably selling what was produced in small farms) than I'd anticipated.A good assortment of tractors, mowers, water tanks and other equipment was on

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-5928332442732028972006-11-10T16:09:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:35:23.879+10:00

Today and tomorrow the Hawkesbury showground at Clarendon is hosting the Farming Small Areas expo. I saw a reference to it coincidently whilst making the newspaper pots last weekend and kept that page aside.We'll head off there tomorrow for part of the afternoon. It'll be part fact-finding, part fun, part 'see that the kids think of this sort of stuff'. I'm guessing it will be akin to the Royal

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-64222171220038627222006-11-06T15:08:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:41:23.416+10:00

One of the great issues that rears its head when considering downshifting and some moves towards greater self-sufficiency is the adequacy of the land to be able to reasonably provide enough food to make the whole venture something more than tokenism.Our land is close enough to 700m2 or 7,500 square feet. It also accommodates a house, garage, shed, clothes line and various pieces of children's

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-51220910894672730092006-11-04T22:23:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:35:14.056+10:00

Well, here's the completed collection of paper pots: 16 Cos Verdi lettuce and 9 mini sweet capsicums. I'd expect germination in around a week's time because there's a cool week forecast, but with some heat later next week around Thursday. From there, I'd expect to plant them out in around 3-4 weeks time.The insulated box is currently uncovered, but I'll see if I've got some plastic that can fit

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-86647775993122252932006-11-04T11:00:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:29:37.078+10:00

I was searching the web for information about standard seed raising mixes and came across this recipe at Self sufficient 'ish.com. I haven't tried the recipe, but was intrigued by their link to another page on their site about how to make seedling pots from newspaper. It avoids transplant shock, they're fully biodegradable, and, whilst perhaps not exactly 'fun', it wasn't a bad way to spend some

garynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-32353403583441396372006-11-03T08:07:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:43:51.020+10:00

This weekend will see our modest (ie. small, very small) vege patch planted out with a range of seeds. Five varieties are in the wings:Beetroot - ChioggiaLettuce - Cos VerdiPak ChoyCapsicum - Mini SweetTomato - 5-colour heirloom mixThe beetroot, capsicum and tomatoes are all heirloom seeds: having been available before the Second World War. These are open pollinated and the plants that grow are

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-71120821399998004132006-10-30T10:55:00.000+11:002007-05-17T13:44:22.422+10:00

To my mind (as ill-considered and ill-formed as it may be) downshifting and simplicity should be accompanied, as much as practicable, by home-grown vegetables. I guess that presupposes that one of the hallmarks of simplicity is a reduced reliance on external providers for 'stuff'. Simplicity doesn't translate to easy or lazy, but more the capacity to do without extraneous thingsIn our case, I

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-1161840026803045122006-10-26T15:19:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:26:28.358+10:00

I did a rough calculation the other day. Out of my standard 40 hour/5 day working week and basing this on after-tax pay, I'm working:9 hours a week for groceries7 hours a week on the mortgage5 hours a week for savings8 hours a week for transport and utilities4 hours a week to give away7 hours a week for 'stuff' including clothing, leisure, books, etc.These are pretty rough numbers. We do track

garynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36573675.post-1161751569986670932006-10-25T14:40:00.000+10:002007-05-17T13:27:39.436+10:00

This is the first post about adventures in suburbia. The adventures are about spending some time looking at the issues of downshifting, simplicity, sustainability, ecological footprints, organic foods, grow-your-own veges and anything else that reasonably falls within that scope.The aims aren't to be self-sufficient, but to look at ways in which our lives, and others can be enriched by giving

garynoreply@blogger.com0