The Greening of Gavin

New Chooks!

2013-05-21T21:07:00.003+10:00

Our old girls are getting on now. Bunty from the original flock is 5 years old, which is like 120 in chicken years! The others range between 3 - 4. Well past prime laying age of 18 months.

Also according to my egg calendar, May is the leanest month for egg laying. Last year they only laid 17 eggs out of 8 hens, and so far this year we have collected 16 and are down to 7 hens. Only one of the large Isa brown hens is laying at the moment. The bantams have been barren for about 3 weeks, and all are finished moulting and have most of their feathers back.

So, over the weekend, Kim and I decided to purchase three new hens to make up for the drop in egg production. Once again, I have stuck with the good old reliable Isa brown hen, which are easy to come by.

To that end, Ben and I just travelled up to Gisborne South to the Macedon Park Emu Farm (I kid you not), and bought our new 18 week old chooks. We met Penny the owner of the farm, who was very friendly, and said that after dark was the best time to introduce hens into the flock, and it was very easy for her to catch them in the coop. They should start laying in about four weeks time.

We boxed them up and travelled home, dodging a few kangaroos in the process.

When we arrived, Kim was standing by with the torches. We opened up the box. They were so cute, and it really took us back to the very first time we got chooks. We placed them into the hen house, which resides within Cluckingham Palace, without too much fuss. The other chooks just clucked a bit and went back to sleep.

It was a very dark, so we didn't take any pictures. Tomorrow, I promise.

I dare say that the fun will begin in the morning when I go to feed them before heading off to work. Bunty has always been top hen, so she will assert her position. The pecking order should be re-established within a day or two, and Kim said that she was going to keep and eye on them during the day.

I won't get a good look at them until Saturday morning, as it is dark when I leave for work, and when I lock them up at night. Not to worry. I am sure everything will be fine.

Afterall, we are seasoned chicken ranchers now!

Wicking Bed Workshop

2013-05-19T21:37:00.002+10:00

I had the pleasure of attending a wicking bed workshop yesterday at my friend Michael's. He recently purchased a new home, which has a monstrous backyard. I believe that it is about 1400 square metres in area, which is just the right size for a food gardener as passionate as he is.

The garden beds are made from a hardwood, 5 metres by 1.2 metres. They are massive.

At the bottom of each bed is a level base of clean sand for the lining to rest upon, and so that no stones pierce a hole through it when the weight of all the gravel and compost is in the bed.

Michael had already stapled the liner to one of the two beds that he and his family had constructed. We then laid down the geo-textile, which assists with the wicking action.

Here is Carmen and Bunty posing in front of the bed before we placed down the fabric. Lovely ladies, and both keen gardeners.

This is the second bed, which we managed to partly finish. It doesn't show in this picture, but we managed to staple in the liner ready for the fabric and watering tube.

So once the fabric was put in place, we laid a pre-drilled long piece of 50mm pipe along the bottom with an elbow and riser at one end and a cap at the other. The riser is for watering the bed. Then we piled on about 40 cm of small stone gravel over the pipe. Even Ben helped out!

At this stage I got a bit busy helping out, so there are no more photos. I will describe what happened next.

After placing the drainage pipe (overflow) on top of the gravel, we then folded over the remaining fabric to form a barrier. Then we piled on compost from a massive compost heap that Michael made about a month ago. The heap was taller than an adult, and it was steaming hot inside and well broken down. We only made a small dent in it by filling up the wicking bed.

Then it was time to go home. I think that Michael was going to plant leeks into the completed bed, which he had grown from seedlings. During the workshop, he mentioned that he was planning to make 18 of these beds. He will be set for vegetables for the whole year with that much growing space!

It was great fun, and all the attendees learnt how to put one of these together. Looking forward to checking in of Michael to see how his garden is progressing.

A few seasons ago, I made a wicking bed, but much smaller in size. I used sand instead of gravel, but the principle is still the same. All the culinary herbs and the ficus tree that I planted into it are still growing strong and we had no problems over our very hot summer. I believe that this type of raised garden bed is going to be essential in our increasingly hotter summers. It prevents evaporation, as it is not watered from above, and the plants respond well to having ready access to the water reservoir. It usually needs to be topped up only once a week.

Have any of you seen this type of bed before, and what was it made of?

Why I Podcast

2013-05-17T23:58:00.000+10:00

Now I know what you are thinking. Why is Gavin making so many podcasts? Well, I have a confession. Lately, I have become obsessed with the medium. Blogging is great fun, but podcast just takes it to the next level. Let me tell you why.

You see it all stems from my passion for radio communications. In the late 1970's, when I was a teenager, my hobby was my CB radio. I would spend all my spare time talking to people as far away as I could receive, and tuning my equipment perform at its peak. This was well before the days of the Internet.

I managed to communicate to people as far away as the USA, New Zealand, and all of the Australian states. Heck, I even managed to talk to people from Tasmania, which I thought was simply amazing!

Then I joined the Navy at the age of 16. I knew exactly what trade I wanted to be after recruit school. You guessed it. A Radio Operator, and that is what I became! At Communications School I learnt how to type at 50 wpm, how to send and receive morse code, radio telephony (voice), and radio teletype (radio telex).

Way back before the Internet, these were the only forms of long distance communication that were reliable (most of the time). Even satellite communications was not widespread like it is today. During my time in the Navy, I managed to visit many of those countries that I dreamed of travelling when I was a CB enthusiast. Consider my mind blown!

Anyway, radio communications has always been part of my life, and I yearned for a long time to get back in front of a microphone and communicate with others. With the advent of the Internet, the communications revolution took flight. Today I can video phone friends in the US, UK, New Zealand, Canada, and all around this big wide land I call home, all for free, in the blink of an eye, just like the Thunderbirds (now I am showing my age). Without the marvel of the Internet, even this blog, which is just a glorified personal journal, would never been able to reach the many thousands of people who read it each day.

But blogging wasn't the same as radio. Enter the podcast, which in reality is just Online Internet Radio that you can download anytime you like. I believe that on iTunes alone, there are over 200,000 different podcasts that cover just about any topic you can think of. Once I got back in front of a microphone, I felt like I had come full circle, back to my roots so to speak. Talking to you about cool topics that are close to my heart, and hopefully yours gives me great joy. The feedback after every show via email and voicemails have been humbling, and I love to reply to them, just like I do with the vast majority of comments on this blog.

Do you know what I like the best about podcasting? It feels intimate, and personal. People make a choice of downloading my audio about sustainable living and cheese making, and listening to my words when they jog, travel to work, ride their bikes, and walk down the street. I am inside their brain for however long the episode runs for, and I have their full attention. Unlike blog posts, people don't skim through a podcast. They, or at least I listen from start to finish, unless it is truly awful content. I believe that there is no other form of communication that is more intimate other than a face to face conversation.

So dear readers and listeners, that is why I podcast. Some people like to read, others like to listen. It is as simple as that. I will keep writing, and talking as long as you keep reading and listening. The day that I feel I have not more to say, then that is when I will stop. You will be happy to know that I have a lot more to give, and say, so I will not be stopping anytime soon.

Anyway, in case you are new to the blog, I do have two podcasts active now, with over 1500 subscribers on TGOG and over 800 on LGC (which is amazing in just 3 episodes). It must be the favourite Uncle in me that people like, as a reader mentioned in the last post. These podcasts are "The Greening of Gavin - Saving the Planet one episode at a time", and "Little Green Cheese podcast". If you would like to subscribe to either of them, just click on the podcast logos below. All the reader questions and voicemails with regularly feature on the shows are always greatly appreciated.

I have also been considering a weekly live show, but am still working through the details. I can host it free my own channel via Mixlr.com, but need some ideas for content. I have no idea how large the audience would be, but I just want to give it a go. I would base it around sustainable living, but much broader than the TGOG podcast which focuses on a single theme each month. Does anyone have any suggestions for live show content?

So thanks for reading my story about why I podcast. Hopefully you have learned a little more about why I do the things I do.

Facelift On My Downshift Day

2013-05-15T22:52:00.000+10:00

Today, on my downshift day, I have been having a bit of fun.

I have been learning the basics of graphic design. I decided that my original podcast needed an image face lift. This is what you are used to being served up if you subscribe to The Greening of Gavin podcast. The image was originally made by my son Adam, many years ago. Cool for the blog, but looks quite plain in the iTunes store against all the other podcasts made by professionals.

So after much artistic direction from my lovely wife, and some critique from Ben, this is what we came up with as a podcast banner. I used a free tool called GIMP to make it.

I had to figure out how to layer images upon images, make transparent backgrounds and many other little tricks. YouTube is such a wonderful learning tool. Subsequently, I have a newfound respect for all digital graphic artists. It was a long learning curve, and took me over four hours to construct. Anyone with experience probably could have made it in 20 minutes or less. At least I can say that I made it myself!

Anyway, it should appear in the iTunes store in a few days, replacing the old banner. Not really important in the grand scheme of things, but once in awhile, having fun whilst learning new skills is worth the time and effort.

Just like sustainable living I reckon.

Watching The Deniers

2013-05-14T21:50:00.002+10:00

The other day I was really encouraged when mainstream media broke the story about Global carbon dioxide levels on the 11th May. Mind you, I beat them to the punch with my article on 7th.

Just saying.....

Well that was until yesterday. Just when I thought that people were starting to 'get it', I saw this article written by well know climate change denier Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun newspaper yesterday, titled "Signs that warming scare is all hot air". It was a full page spread and the paper has a circulation of around 2 million readers here in Melbourne. My readership could never match such distribution (even though it would be nice).

I could not believe my eyes. I thought it must have been April Fools Day, but alas, it wasn't. Climate change denial is alive and well in this Murdoch rag.

Irony

Anyway, without getting too hot under the collar, I have also been reading a great blog. In fact it is an excellent blog, called "Watching The Deniers", which is written by Mike Marriott, who lives here in Melbourne as well.

As the title of his blog says, he reports on the antics of climate change deniers, here in Australia and abroad correcting the lies with facts. This quote from his blog sets the scene.

"“Belief” is a troubling word when used within the context of the climate debate.

Frequently people will ask me “Do you believe in climate change?” as if it is a matter of personal opinion.

I always answer (politely of course) “I accept the 97% consensus of climate scientists”. My personal views are of no consequence to the reality of climate change - it is simply what the overwhelming evidence has told me."

Right on! Anyway back to the Bolt. Mike is taking Andrew to task with a series of rebuttals over the next few weeks. Factual, and not emotive, unlike Mr Bolt.

Keep an eye out for updates over on Mike's blog http://watchingthedeniers.wordpress.com/. Also, while you are there, read some of the comments. They crack me up.

I am sure it will be informative, accurate, and put a smile back on my face.

Solar Citizens

2013-05-13T20:24:00.001+10:00

As our planet passed through the symbolic 400 p.p.m. CO2 barrier, I received this excellent email, which I hope will make a difference to your day if you live in Australia. Finally, we as citizens have an advocate group just for solar PV owners. This initiative has been launched by 100% Renewable Energy.

"Dear Gavin,

Are you a solar owner? Do you one day want to be one? Do you want to see a solar panel on every Australian rooftop?

100% Renewable is delighted to today be announcing a new project to give a voice to Australia’s 2.5 million solar home owners - and all those who want to go solar.
To find more info and join up please visit our new website at Solar Citizens: www.solarcitizens.org.au
Australians are enthusiastically embracing solar power. Over 2.5 million Aussies now live under a solar roof, and $8 billion has been invested in panels across the country. Solar is the best way for households to take control of their energy bills and do their bit for the environment. Together ordinary Australians are taking back control of energy production.
But there are a number of threats to current and future solar owners. Big power companies want to maintain their control of the energy system and are making it harder to go solar - threatening to charge big fees and refusing to connect some people.

That’s why we are launching Solar Citizens - to be a voice for solar owners (and solar supporters!), to ensure the poiticians and the big power companies hear that voice, and to make sure that every Australian can take advantage of the sun, cutting energy bills and creating cleaner power along the way.

We'll be back in touch with more info on specific campaigns shortly, but for now we are delighted to take this opportunity to invite you - as existing supporters of renewable energy - to join Solar Citizens: http://www.solarcitizens.org.au
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like more information about Solar Citizens. I look forward to welcoming you to the community.

Yours for a sunny future,

Geoff Evans
Solar Citizens Manager"

Cheers Geoff. I joined up straight away once I heard of this group. Hopefully with large membership numbers, we can sway our decision makers in Parliament to increase feed-in tariffs and stop cancelling funding for renewable energy projects, all the while propping up the fossil fuel industry with rebates and taxpayer handouts.

For those up early tomorrow, tune to Ch 7 - Sunrise breakfast show at 6.45am. Geoff will be joining Mel and Kochie on the breakfast lounge.

I am in, are you?

Cheese Making Podcast - Episode 2

2013-05-11T18:04:00.000+10:00

Hailing all Home Cheese Makers!

The next episode of the Little Green Cheese Podcast is now live.

This week on the Little Green Cheese podcast, we have an interview with Liz Beavis, who writes at http://eight-acres.blogspot.com.au/ and lives in Nanango, Qld. Liz has two dairy cows that her and her husband milk each day. With the excess milk Liz makes raw milk cheese for her own consumption.

The fun doesn't stop there. There is Cheese News, The Cheese of the Episode, and a listener question.

Pop on over to Little Green Cheese to listen to this informative and entertaining episode.

Seed Saving with Kate Flint - Podcast Episode 36

2013-05-10T12:00:00.000+10:00

This episode is a great interview with Kate Flint, who recently starred on Gardening Australia. We talk about seed saving, and food security.

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Also, here is the information about the rally that Kate mentioned and asked me to share.

Please read and spread this through your network of friends about Monsanto's mandatory Seed Registration and the criminalization of Heirloom seeds which the EU is trying to get passed into law ..... a horrifying thought! Once this law gets past in the European Union it will only be a matter of time until it will be enforced in Australia as well. That this is happening makes me want to urge you to join the March Against Monsanto happening May 25th, everywhere around the world. 284 cities are participating so far, and more are being added each day. There will be protests in most Australian cities including Hobart (if you are not in Hobart please click the list below of participating cities) and I thought you might be interested in participating yourself.

Please click here for info on the Hobart Rally on the 25th of May:
http://www.facebook.com/events/490782504308370/

Click here to see the complete list of cities:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0Ah7h2ApbBPnpdGhOMElaSVg1QUQtRlJQWm1FaUZISlE&toomany=true

The official website for the event is: http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

So get onboard. Grow your own vegetables and save your own seed!

Assessing The Situation

2013-05-09T18:30:00.000+10:00

About this time each year (around my birthday), I reassess the things that are important to me and where I am on life's highway.

As a gauge, I look at what my values are, what progress I have made over the last year, and figure out if I am still holding true to them. I also look at society in general to see what has changed (for better or worse), and what I as an individual can influence.

So what is my current assessment? Well, I still hold true to my values and main goal of lowering personal and my family's consumption and emissions, and to educate others, whatever form that may take from here on in. I believe I am still on track.

As for society, it feels like everyone around me is scrambling for a seat on the express train that is hurtling towards the edge of a cliff. Even those clever enough who want to avoid disaster are getting sucked along slowly by the train's forward momentum. It seems inevitable that the cliff's edge is approaching faster and faster, but no one else can see it.

All I can do is put on my own brakes and hope they (whoever they may be) hold on long enough so that the train driver (whoever or whatever form that takes) can wake up to apply their own, or at least enough passengers realise that they are in peril and pull the emergency brake chain.

So my pledge to you is that I will keep doing what I do, write about what I write, on this blog, my podcasts, and by other mediums, any chance I get. Hopefully not boring you all to tears in the process (If I am boring, I hope someone lets me know!).

However, I think it is not only time to continue with the small, individual actions like we have been doing, but also time for very big, and bold actions. To that end, my daughter Amy and I am going to attend the Bill McKibben Do The Math tour Down Under, when it comes to Melbourne on Friday 7th June. Date and ticket informations at this link. Currently politicians won't listen and act, so lets see what Bill has to offer us as an method of action. I do like the cut of this mans jib.

Onwards and upwards, as they say!

Greening Their Canadian Balcony

2013-05-08T18:30:00.000+10:00

My son Adam, and his lovely lady Sina are currently living in Toronto, Canada. Sina sent through this wonderful update today, and said that I could share it. I am very proud of them both.

"Hey Guys,

You would be very proud of Adam. He spend the whole saturday with me cleaning our balcony and planting my tomatoes and herbs. We have 3 different kind of tomatoes now and i am very excited watching them growing. The weather over here is very beautiful now and it is amazing to enjoy our new balcony.

Don't mind our pots, we had to improvise a bit with draws from our bathroom and bin bags with holes on the bottom to save some money.

Also when our little plants get bigger we will put some sticks next to them so they can grow better.

The types of tomatoes we have are: Ultra boy, Grape and Heirloom. We also plant some herbs: Thyme, Rosemary and Basil.

On Sunday we were in the biggest park of the city, the High park, to see the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival. Since the weather is so lovely now, we are very motivated to plan all the trips we like to do for the time we are in Toronto. (Adam looks hungover, or has hay fever)

Also am I allowed to introduce to you our new annoying but also a little cute house-mate who lives on our skylight and does behave very similar to our other housemates.

He sleeps all day and goes out at night to party and always wakes us up when he comes back! We call him Ralf the Racoon. (very cute Sina! I wonder if Adam came up with that name)

Thanks for the update Sina. Love Ralf, and love the fantastic job you did planting out your balcony. I bet Ralf is as noisy as our possums over here!

Have any other reader planted out their balcony this season? Do you have a Ralf the Racoon keeping you awake at night?

Climbing Through 400 and Beyond

2013-05-07T20:18:00.001+10:00

I am worried, dear reader. Really worried about the human race's inability to take decisive action against climbing greenhouse gas emissions that we are spewing into the atmosphere and oceans.

We, dear friends, are about to cross over into unknown territory for our species. Carbon Dioxide levels are about to exceed 400 parts per million in the atmosphere, and doesn't look like abating anytime soon. For more information, have a read of this article in Nature, "Global carbon dioxide levels near worrisome milestone". Please note that when a scientist refers to the word "worrisome", they are actually screaming DO SOMETHING! They are a conservative bunch.

Comfortingly, the planet is not about to end anytime soon, just because we will pass this level. We might, but it won't.

It is just symbolic. This concentration of the gas has not been seen in the last 3 million years, according to climate scientists.

As many of you know, we are already well past the "safe" limit of 350 ppm CO2. According to many, we have already locked in 2C of warming for at least the next one hundred years.

At 400 p.p.m. and beyond, the warming planet's climatic system just gets scarier and scarier, being more unpredictable each passing year.

Dear readers, I am not going to offer you false hope in this post. It is what it is. Information. I believe that it is up to you to figure out what this information means to you personally.

To me, it means that I have to work harder. Harder in my efforts to adapt in place, and reduce our own private emissions in the vain hope that other will follow our example. That is of course that we, as a species, miraculously reduce consumption of everything, lower emissions to a safe limit, and live happily ever after. I can't see this fairy tale ending anywhere on the horizon, can you?

So I won't harp on about what you can do to prevent climate change. It is already too late for that now. It is already well underway. What we can do now, and I thought I would never have to say this, is limit the severity of the change, by transforming our energy mix to one that is less reliant upon fossil fools, to a less dense and more renewable one.

No longer can we have our cake and eat it. By the way, I am not depressed, just angry of our current failings, mine included.

Do what you think is necessary. The story should be picked up by mainstream media soon, I should think (or not).

Around The Suburban Farm

2013-05-06T22:04:00.001+10:00

This weekend was so very relaxing, with just a little going on.

Saturday was clean out the chook house day, and treat the big girls for scaly leg mites (a thankless task). A quick dunk of their legs in vegetable oil does the trick, and you can learn more about how to get rid of these little beasties in this post titled "How To Remove Scaly Leg Mites".

The little pekin bantams also had their house cleaned out and rebedded, and upon inspection, they had clean legs, so I didn't have to do the Benny Hill chase around their run (who can hear yakety sax in the background?).

I used half of the really fresh manure in the compost bin. This was because the bin was getting a little wet from all the kitchen scraps. The other half was scattered over the broad bean garden bed to keep it weed free.

I noticed that the cabbages, which I planted in late March were getting gnawed by cabbage moth caterpillars so out with the Diepel to nip them in the bud. The leaves were quite holey, but the powder soon got rid of just the caterpillars.

After fertilising the citrus trees with weed tea, I called it a day.

Sunday was spent catching up on emails from readers, setting up a few interviews for the cheese podcast, and performing a bit of weeding. The weeding took no time at all, because I have been keeping on top of it once a month, during the dead moon (waning crescent).

So far this season, I have the following vegetables growing in the garden.

Purple and Sugarloaf cabbages

Onions (hunter river brown), radishes (3 varieties) and carrots,

Garlic (Australian purple) and Red Spanish onions,

Broad beans (fava),

and Snow Peas.

Note the recycled fence panel that I rescued to make into a trellis for the peas. A great use for something that others would have thrown out.

Also, as we have not had our first frost for the season, there are still lots of scarlet runner beans, and chillies growing in the garden. Once the frost hit, they will be no longer until spring when they will reshoot.

I also planted five self sown sage plants a few weeks back, which are doing very well.

All in all, I am very please on how the garden is progressing this year.

After weeding and feeding, I went inside and decided that it was a great day to make cheese. I got out my cheese book (a great feeling), and made Caerphilly, which is my favourite semi-hard cheese to make and eat.

My mate David visited around the same time, bringing with him a nice bottle of local red. So Kim joined us whereby we talked, joked, and laughed in the kitchen as I made the cheese.

It is so much more fun making cheese with old friends and wine. The process just seems to flow (like the wine). The Caerphilly should be ready to eat in about three weeks. We are all looking forward to that, and more wine!

So as you can see, not much happened, being a very slow weekend. No workshops, no meetings, no rushing around. Well, slow for us, anyway :-).

What did you get up to over the weekend? Did anyone do some food gardening or make cheese?

Breathe

2013-05-05T17:43:00.000+10:00

Kim and I made a very big decision in our lives last week.

Well, it wasn't really last week, we have been discussing it for over a month.

Here is the email that we sent all of the members of the Melton Sustainable Living Group on Friday;

"After many weeks of discussion, Kim and I have decided to step down from our positions as Secretary and President of the group, and will be tendering our resignations from the Melton Sustainable Living Group effective 30th June 2013 so that we can focus more on our family and lifestyle.

We realise that this may come as a shock to some of you, but we feel that after four years serving in these two roles, it is time for others to carry the group forward into the future. Therefore these positions will be vacant and will need to filled by other persons in the group. If no one fills these roles then the group will unfortunately fold.

Our last event will be Saturday 15th June at the BYO Pizza Oven evening commencing at 5 pm. The first hour will be an AGM to discuss the future of the group and put forward any nominations that may have been received. All nominations to be received by Saturday 8th June 2013."

This has not been an easy one for us. As founding members of this community group, to take a step back and reassess our lives is a big deal. We found that we have been running at full throttle for far too long. This could have been part of the reason for illnesses, and the like.

Anyway, I hope that a few people step up and take on these roles, as I would hate to see the group fold. But if that is what happens, then so be it. It has been great fun, but tiring.

So that is our news. I think it will be a shock to a few.

Kate the Vegetable Vagabond on TV

2013-05-03T22:04:00.001+10:00

My lovely friend Kate, who I interviewed in this podcast titled "Episode 13 - Interview with Kate", is going to be on Gardening Australia on Saturday night, May 4th at 6.30pm on ABC1!

Look out for her spot with Tino Carevale. If you miss it you will be able to watch it on ABC iView the next day.

Kate is one of the most passionate seed savers I know and has a great philosophy about food gardening. It will be well worth your time to watch the show.

For more info, visit Kate's blog - Vegetable Vagabond

Cheese Making Podcast - Episode 1

2013-05-02T23:35:00.000+10:00

Calling all turophiles!

Do yourself a big favour and pop on over to my new podcast over on the Little Green Cheese, where I introduce my cheesy self and why I make cheese at home.

Also, I am looking for home cheesemakers who would like to be interviewed for the show. Interview will be conducted via skype. If you are interested please contact me via an email: gavin (at) littlegreencheese.com

I am sure that you will enjoy this brand new monthly podcast.

Winds Of Waubra

2013-04-30T22:02:00.002+10:00

The quaint little town of Waubra is only 105 km (70 minutes drive) from our place, so we decided to take Pam (Kim's mum) for a tourist trip. It sports a very large wind farm, which I believe is the fourth largest in Australia. It is such a pleasant country journey which I really enjoy.

I have written about our first visit to Waubra in this post titled "Waubra Wind Farm", and also busted some wind farm myths in this post titled "Busting Myths About Wind Turbines". I am indeed a fan of this type of renewable energy (pun intended)!

Anyway, here are a few photos from our trip. I have also posted a video on The Greening of Gavin Facebook page which shows how quiet these things really are. We were only 200 metres from one turbine, and could hardly hear it. The wind itself, was louder.

Benjamin posing for his mum, with turbines in the background. We were tying to get his head positioned so that it looked like they were growing out of his head, but it didn't work ;-)

The view on the way out of town. So picturesque.

We pulled up at our favourite turbine for a thermos of coffee that I prepared before leaving home. It was a welcome break under a very large turbine.

This is the turbine we took the video footage of.

The rolling hills covered in turbines, looking to the east. A magnificent site for a cup of coffee.

The man with his fan, or is that he is a big fan?

Ben gives the Waubra Wind Farm a double thumbs up! He really enjoyed himself, which was part of his science lesson for the day. Although Pam and Kim were not in any of these photos, they were actually there with us. Both of them could not stop talking of the majesty of the wind turbines, and how spectacular they look. When I told Pam that these turbines provide most of the electricity for Ballarat, she was simply amazed.

We enjoyed our day out. Wind farms are cool!

Clay Ovens, Soap, Pumpkins, Cheese, and Pepinos

2013-04-28T19:26:00.001+10:00

What do all these things have in common? Well not much normally, but in my week of fun, quite a lot!

My Dad and his partner Norma, and Kim's mum, Pam have been visiting over the last few weeks.

I have been spending time away from the blog and the internet in general to spend time with them all.

Meal times have been quite hectic, but otherwise, very enjoyable and relaxing time has been had by all. I have also been on annual leave since 25th April, and go back to work on 2nd May.

So we really have had a full house, but getting lots done. Kim and I have also made a very difficult decision that took us two days to finalise, however I cannot share it just yet.

Anyway, heaps of work in the veggie patch. Brown onions, garlic, Red onions, Red cabbage, Sugarloaf cabbage, Raddishes, Carrots, Snow Peas, and Broad Beans all planted in the main garden beds.

The last of the Australian Butter pumpkins have been harvested, and some of the vines composted.

The Pepino bush has been very productive as well. Here are just four of about twenty fruit that are still on the vine. Now a tip for Pepinos if you are going to harvest them. Wait until they are this colour (custard), but make sure the purple lines have not faded. With these lines bright it mean that it will taste like a cross between a banana and a rockmelon (cantaloupe). If the purple lines have faded, the fruit tastes like old school cough medicine. So keep an eye on them as they turn from green to custard colour and you will be right as rain.

The clay oven got a workout on ANZAC Day (25th April). Dad and I headed up the oven for 3 hours, with our efforts lubricated with a few bottles of home brewed Fat Yak. A very relaxing afternoon, with lots of catching up and laughter. Between us, the chooks, and the two dogs, we had a wow of a time.

Oh, the pizza and calzone was good as well!

Friday, Dad and I made five soap mould boxes. I nearly took out my belly with a few bits of flying wood, but all good now! Oh what fun it was to get back into woodwork again.

Today, Kim and I taught a soap making workshop to four lovely ladies at the Melton South Community House. You can see that I was raring to go just before everyone arrived. My demo table was at the front, with the two workstations set up at the back. Four in the class was just right.

Here are two of the ladies being instructed by yours truly. I teach all the science stuff, and Kim demonstrates how to cut and mature the soap near the end of the lesson.

We had a ball, as we always do. Pam joined us for the fun and games as well.

Dad and Norma depart for South Australia to catch up with family tomorrow. It will be sad to see them go.

However, the week doesn't stop there. Tomorrow we are driving up to Waubra to have a picnic under the wind turbines. Pam has never been up close and personal with a wind turbine, so it will be a treat for her. For me, I just love the countryside, and the wonder of renewable energy (and the food of course).

Pam departs on Tuesday night, which will make Kim sad, but I am here to cheer her up.

Finally, on Wednesday, we have a Mozzarella course being held at Roxborough Park Homestead. Eight students and lots of fun.

I did miss blogging, but after all these years, I do know when to take a step back when family is around. Everything in balance.

Oh, and my latest eBook "Keep Calm and Make Cheese" has been well received. Over 50 copies sold in less than a week on this site, and various retailers. I also implemented a shopping cart system on the eBookstore so that I don't have to manually send the PDF files anymore. I didn't think the customer experience was satisfactory, so I made the change.

It is all automated now, with the eBook file delivered to the customer by the shopping cart system. I am quite happy with the end result, and the cheese book was a pleasure to write, although the research was a challenge at times. I love the brilliant illustrations by Kim! They are like icing on a cake.

So dear reader, what cool sustainable living things have you been up to lately?

Terraforming Planet Earth

2013-04-23T19:21:00.003+10:00

I was looking for a pertinent post for today, following on from Earth Day yesterday. I kept stumbling across this old post of mine, so it was destined to be posted again! I wrote it way back in the first year of this blog, but it is still just as relevant today, if not more so, see that we have still done little to preserve the Earth.

I got the thread of this idea from a permablitz newsletter, and have expanded on it somewhat. Just go with the flow, and no plagiarism is intended.

Wikipedia describes it as follows:

Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it habitable by humans.

Not quite possible yet, however many sci-fi books have been written about the subject. Also quite a few Star Trek episodes have covered off the process of terraforming (Search for Spock comes to mind on planet Genesis).

You may think that terraforming is out there in sci-fi land, but have a think about it. On a global scale we are reverse-terraforming our one and only planet, as I write this post. I think that this is all very strange that humanity is trying is darndest to stuff up this planet and making it uninhabitable to humans.

Ever increasing volumes of greenhouse gasses being pumped into the atmosphere, the polluting of our oceans and decimation of fish species by overfishing, the mass extinction of nearly every mammal on the planet (except our own), and overpopulation by humans.

All of these events have begun to erode the habitat for the very species who began the process. That would be you and I for those who haven't figured it out yet!

So here is a question to all of you. Do you think we can begin to terraform our own planet back into a habitable environment? Well, famous sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson, of the Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars trilogy, says we should start thinking about terraforming planet Earth. He says that permaculture is a way to terraform for the better.

He goes on to say;

"It would be really good if ecological and permaculture principles were taught in schools as a basic part of the science curriculum and one's general education. I think to an extent this is happening, it's getting more common to learn ecology and earth sciences by studying where your food and water come from, and the energy and carbon and water cycles, and so on. These educational basics are needed to make sense of the oncoming problems of this century. It would help also if this education led to a more realistic economics, in which there wasn't so much false pricing based on theft from the future generations. This would take legislation and run into opposition from "free enterprise" (read free to steal from the future).

Making things cost what they really cost; this would be part of any real solution."

You can read the full interview with Kim Stanley Robinson here.

I also believe that by learning the principles of permaculture we can change the way we look at the environment around us.

So instead of dreaming of changing distant planets to become the new haven for humans, why don't we focus on saving our existing planet and learn as much as we can about living on the land sustainably. This is the very essence of permaculture, creating a sustainable place to live, that can feed and nurture its inhabitants.

What are you waiting for? Lets get to it. We certainly don't need Khan or the Genesis device to start this big bang!

P.S. Did I ever tell you that I like Star Trek? :-)

Happy Earth Day!

2013-04-22T21:25:00.002+10:00

For all my North American friends and readers. May your Earth Day be green, happy, and joyful. I hope you choose everyday to be Earth Day, free from green commercialization and green-washing. I also hope you take the time to connect with the Earth and the great outdoors. Mother Nature will thank you for it.

Just a note about the photograph. This beautiful picture was provided by a big fan and reader, Tasos. It is of his baby daughter, posing for mum and dad. They are going to hand the photo out as gifts for Earth Day. Absolutely delightful, I reckon.

Thanks Tasos for allowing me post the photograph on this special day.

Keep Calm and Make Cheese eBook Available

2013-04-21T21:44:00.001+10:00

Finally, after four months of hard work, my cheese making eBook is now available for purchase. It has been a labour of love, and great fun to produce.

Here are the book description.

Keep Calm and Make Cheese - The Beginners Guide To Cheese Making at Home

Have you ever wanted to make real cheese at home, but didn't know where or how to start? Well look no further, as this book makes it easy for the beginner to jump right in and make cheese.

Keep Calm, and Make Cheese steps you through the process of home cheese making with 24 tried and tested recipes for the budding home cheese maker to follow and create.

With over 60 pictures, and links to 12 of the author's simple to follow cheese making video tutorials, the whole process becomes much easier to achieve success than you would by reading a normal cheese making book.

After reading this book you too will be able to "Keep Calm and Make Cheese", in your very own home.

For more information about where you can buy this great beginners guide, visit my eBook page.

As retailers begin to distribute it, I will update the eBook page with fresh links. It will be available for Kindle in 24 hours.

What a day!

The Diderot Effect

2013-04-20T09:48:00.001+10:00

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for" -Epicurus, Greek Philosopher (341 BC - 270 BC)

I found this quote when stumbling through the web the other day, and it got me thinking. a while back I remembered reading about a psychological effect that describes this quote to a tee.

Please let me explain.

Have you ever purchased something, something you really wanted, only to discover that it made the rest of your stuff seem a bit old and dated?

Rather than accepting some variance in the style against your older possessions, have you then been tempted to upgrade your old and dated stuff?

This is called the ‘Diderot Effect’, named after the French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–84) who first described the effect in an essay titled "Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown". In this essay he describes how a gift of a brand new scarlet dressing gown leads to unexpected results, nearly making him bankrupt in the process.

How do you become bankrupt just by receiving a gift of a new, sleek and beautiful scarlet dressing gown (aka smoking jacket)? Well the effect kind of tricks you like this. Have you ever bought nice new shirt, and thought that your old pants now look shabby against it? So you go and buy new pants to match, and shoes, and a handbag, and a belt, etc. You get the picture, right.

The same can be said for putting a new piece of furniture into a room of existing pieces. Soon you are shopping at the mall or high street to buy new furniture and fittings to make the original purchase look at home probably to the detriment of your bank account.

The same thing happened to Diderot or so he wrote. He thought that his new robe looked so nice, that he thought that all the stuff in his apartment looked drab and ordinary against it. So he bought lots and lots of new and expensive stuff to spruce up his abode, with a big hit on his financial accounts. In the end he had this to say,

"I was absolute master of my old dressing gown, but I have become a slave to my new one … Beware of the contamination of sudden wealth. The poor man may take his ease without thinking of appearances, but the rich man is always under a strain.”

Between 2001 and 2006, I too was a victim to the Diderot Effect. I would buy a new stereo system, only to think not long afterwards that I needed a new media player or DVD player to go with it. The old one was in good working order so I was behaving irrationally. When I bought a new computer, I would also upgrade the display, even though the one I had was perfectly okay. Same goes with a lawn mower that I had, which just needed a little TLC, but I dumped it and bought a new one. My old petrol (gas) can was old and rusty, but still functional, but I bought a new one, and threw the other away with the old mower. Yes friends, I was wasteful as well.

These are just a few example of being sucked in by consumerism for consumerism's sake. Today I would call it the 'steak knife effect' after all of those infomercials that start off flogging you one product, but then throw in a whole bunch of other stuff (that you never wanted anyway) just to justify the deal in your mind!

It has taken me a few years since my green epiphany, and a lot of thought after reading a book by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss titled Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough, but I am no longer influenced by this effect or most advertising for that matter. I only replace what I need, when the old item is beyond repair, and only after I have gone without it for a few weeks to see if I can get by without it.

Case in point, my clothes dryer that broke a few months back. You can read about how we adapted in the absence of this so called laundry necessity on my post titled "Ditching the Clothes Dryer". This is a classic example of rethinking and changing my behaviours for the better.

My warning to you all is beware the Diderot Effect and get off the consumerist treadmill which will help you stop the upward creep of material desire. Knowing how much is enough is a powerful skill to possess in this, the age of rampant consumerism.

Despite what advertisements tell us, stuff just doesn't satisfy our desire for meaning, and it is a very poor substitute for your sense of self worth within a manipulative and demeaning society. I don't mean to sound preachy, but it feels to me that consumerism in western society is totally out of control for all the wrong reasons.

So to sum it all up, treasure what you have. It will save your bank balance, and might just save a few resources in this ever declining, resource strapped, finite planet of ours.

Have you succumbed to this effect and regretted it later on? How did it make you feel?

Thanks Friends!

2013-04-19T07:33:00.001+10:00

Dear healers.

Thanks so much for your sage advice.

Chicken broth with green veg and rice noodles, home made of course, was the get well remedy.

To supliment, I have been drinking green tea with sliced ginger and honey. All seems to be on the improve and I feel much better. I rested well, in bed for 3 days, and got lots of healing sleep.

You have all been a great help, and I will investigate many of your suggestions over the coming days, especially the dietary advice.

A special thanks goes out to Nurse Kim, my very special lady, who took very good care of me over the last few weeks. You are amazing darling!

Yours in greening

Gav x

Save Power on Your Money Bills

2013-04-18T22:17:00.000+10:00

It seems like that sometimes, doesn't it? All back to front.

As posted yesterday, I gave another presentation for the Melton Sustainable Living Group, as part of our year long education campaign. I managed to get through it by drinking lots of water before hand and during the talk.

Besides a very croaky voice, and a coughing fit before hand, I had a great time last night presenting "Save Money on Your Power Bill". After the talk, we watched "The Human Power Station", which is quite excellent and informative. Kim made an informative display that you can see on the right of the picture. Click to enlarge.

The audience was not large in number, with only twelve in attendance (half were group members), but they were interested in what I had to say and show.

I was a little disappointed with the attendance numbers. I really did think that we would have attracted more people, with a subject as pertinent as power bills, which every body I talk to likes to have a good whinge about, especially as kilowatt unit costs are rising as well as network connection fees.

It just didn't make any sense to me, as I thought we would have a full house. For $5, which covered tea or coffee, we thought it was a bargain.

We advertised in both local newspapers in the community events section, even though the snippet appeared in the news in brief section. We even put up flyers on all of the local community notice boards, that lots of people see. Heck, we even put a notice on the Melton City Councils website on the front page!

Anyway, the people really enjoyed the presentation and the documentary and I got a big round of applause, so it was all worth it. Personally, I would be happy if just one person went home and implemented one of my recommended actions. That is what it is all about really.

Did you wish you could have attended? Well dear reader, if you thought you missed out on the fun, I have a treat just for you. Here is the slide presentation, followed by the documentary. No sound unfortunately.

Save Money on Your Power Bill from Gavin Webber

Here is the Human Power Station documentary via YouTube. I believe that you will really enjoy it, as did the audience last night. It is 57 minutes long, but great stuff. I felt very tied after watching it (you'll see ;-))

It was quite eye opening, wasn't it?

Save Money on Your Power Bill Presentation Tonight

2013-04-17T07:44:00.000+10:00

Do you want to save precious cash instead of paying it to the power companies? Come along and learn how to save energy around your home and how to reduce your power bill.

The Melton Sustainable Living Group (MSLG) will be giving a presentation followed by a Documentary titled “The Human Power Station”.

Venue: Arnolds Creek Community Centre

19 Claret Ash Blvd Melton West Vic

Date: Wednesday 17 April 2013

From 7.00pm – 9.00pm

Cost: $5.00 Entry – Tea / Coffee Provided

MSLG members Free

Home Remedies Anyone?

2013-04-16T12:36:00.001+10:00

Dear readers.

I have been poorly again. It never seems to end. The result of my last issue, where I thought it was heart issues, then shingles, really turned out to be Parotitis (inflammation of the parotid gland). Oh, the parrot and pirate jokes keep coming from friends and work colleagues!

Two weeks of antibiotics, a couple of days of bedrest where I had to take more sick leave the week after Easter. I managed to get back to work all last week.

So why am I asking for a home remedy? Well, because my immune system is a bit low, I managed to catch a chest infection over the weekend, as well as loosing my voice. Maybe i shouldn't have been so quick with my cheese podcast announcement :-(

More time off work, and lots of bed rest, which is where I am now. More antibiotics.

I need a big boost to my immune system, so hoping that you can help with suggestions of natural ways to achieve this. I have been making thyme tea to clear the throat, but the chest the real problem. I don't want to catch anything else.

I need to have a voice by tomorrow evening, as I am presenting "Save Money on Your Power Bills" for the sustainable living group. I do have a backup speaker, but I would really like to do it myself.

Over to you! Hope you can help out.