Tag Archives: solar

The Climate Crisis – what can each of us do?

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It feels overwhelming, doesn’t it?

But we can each do SOMETHING even if we can’t do EVERYTHING. Each individual effort DOES make a difference no matter how small. And change begins gradually, so maybe there is one small step we can take and work towards bigger ones. But sticking our heads in the sand is no longer an option, WE HAVE TO ACT NOW. Here are a few ideas for living a more sustainable life and helping the planet. Pick one and hopefully more that you can do, or are already doing. See if you can aim for others. None of us are perfect. But we can all TRY.

* Buy an insulated 2 litre stainless steel WATER BOTTLE and take water from home with you wherever you
go (I also have a 5 litre insulated water container in the car as I cannot STAND ‘town water’ as we
call it, & when we go away anywhere we take 20 litre drums!

* Can you fit a RAINWATER TANK (of any size) to your house or unit so you can catch rainwater and filter
it for drinking or use it for washing or the garden? In the UK I ran water out of my mum’s 60 litre
rainwater butt into a domestic water filter jug to keep me drinking rainwater while away!

* What provides SHADE on your western side? We have planted trees for the long term and in the short
term have shade sail and trellis growing passionfruit to try and prevent the beating heat of the
afternoon sun. How can you keep that heat from invading your living or roofspace?

* How’s your INSULATION? Good insulation keeps a house warmer in winter and cooler in summer – what’s
in the roofspace & the walls? Talk to a builder.

* Roof WHIRLIGIGS release hot air to mitigate the heating effects of the hot aussie sun –
that might be a partial solution for you.

* Doors, windows and double glazing: Well sealed and fitting doors and windows help keep the heat
where you want it (in or out). Some windows (casement) really work to catch any little breeze while
others seem to do precisely nothing. New windows and doors are VERY expensive so keep an eye on eBay
and other such sites for bargains.

* SOLAR! There are no words to explain the good feeling in your heart and soul knowing that all your
power is coming from the sun. If you are a homeowner this is an investment in your property which
minimises bill stress, provides a reliable source of power even in blackouts (with battery backup)
& helps to minimise emissions. I can’t recommend it highly enough! Talk to www.thesolarexperts.com.au

* How can you MINIMISE YOUR WASTE output? Please never, ever, EVER throw food away.
Get a couple of chooks or worm farm or compost bin or pile but PLEASE don’t throw food into landfill.

* CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION: We all have to change the way we shop. Shop less often & buy better quality
as close as possible to the source. Get to know farmers, farm shops, farmers markets, farming co-
operatives and farmgate honesty boxes – seek them out! Meet the farmers, buy meat in bulk, eat
seasonal, fresh from the fields food.

* Buy a FREEZER. Yes, I know they use power but you will cook more and store some in the freezer for
days you can’t be bothered (& will eat better as a result), you can buy good meat and fish in bulk,
make pesto from your basil plants & passata from your tomatoes. You can freeze bananas for smoothies
and good bread from your favourite bakery. A freezer becomes a treasure chest, full of delights –
your very own takeaway store.

* Make a PANTRY space & buy bulk where possible. Using huge supermarket conglomerates as your pantry
and making daily trips for supplies means you are spending more than you need to and supporting big
businesses screwing farmers to the wall rather than purchasing judiciously from growers and provedores

* Bike, walk, train & bus where possible.
We are all so addicted to being coccooned in our own private tin cans, and some of us don’t have a
choice because there are no public transport options in rural areas. But just as those fumes will
kill us if we stand behind a vehicle in an enclosed space, so they are killing the planet.

* BUY AN EV! I wish . . . ! Well, save for one!

* Refuse PLASTIC – plastic bags, plastic wrapping, plastic toys, food containers, cups and utensils

* WRITE to your local MP and state your concerns. Write to the Prime Minister.
Get engaged, get involved, turn up, raise your voice. Our children’s future depends on it!

Duck Days

by . Posted on
26 Jan

We have three new little ducklings.  Ged is flat out like a lizard drinking at the moment, installing solar grid connect systems in nearby Laurieton and he saw a sign for ducklings at a local feed store.  After finding our last lot so difficult to get along with at first (crazy canards!) they have turned into lovely members of the family and it is a delight to look out of the windows and see them sitting on a log or gliding gracefully on the river, or flying up to the house for corn and company.  They like to have breakfast (before Ged leaves), lunch (when Ben and I go walkabout) and supper at 6pm on the dot.  We can pretty much set our watches by them – but at this rate they will become too fat to waddle so I am cutting them back to one meal a day (the buddha principle).  Anyway, we only wanted two more (we try to work to the Noah ideal) but there were three left so Ged had to bring them all home.  They are so cute.  Ged has made a pen for them in the shade under the myrtles and a lovely bed in a big wicker basket full of straw and they are very happy with their new home.  They have taken to Avalon like ducks to water, and wander round the garden, going twenty paces or so and then sitting down for a rest!  The big ducks are charmed by them too and have adopted them as their own young.  They lead them around the garden and then fly from the bank down to the river, leaving the littlies quite bewildered – what happened there?

The Oven Saga

by . Posted on
16 Jun

Well, the never-ending saga here seems to be the oven.  I was so excited when we finally installed my new oven in my sparkling new kitchen a week or so before the wedding.  But everyone involved in the baking of the blueberry tarts for the wedding feast (Jane, Marcel, Shirley and me) soon discovered that the bugger didn’t work!  Whether it was a faulty item or whether it was the solar system that it didn’t like, the truth is that we have had endless toing and froing with the manufacturer and reseller since we got back from honeymoon.  The thing is that gas ovens aren’t just  gas – no, no, they have electric fans, electronic ignition, electronic thermostats and every other bell and whistle you can possibly imagine which consume megawatts of electricity – presumably all designed hand in hand with the fossil fuel companies to keep us raping the planet, guzzling mindlessly and pouring megatons of carbon into the atmosphere . . . (really, don’t get me started!!)

Anyway, I had to go into full battle mode but FINALLY the people who sold us the stove – ‘The Good Guys’ agreed to give us a full refund plus $500 for my pains!!  And then I went online searching, searching, searching for a replacement.  I thought I found the answer to my prayers in Queensland so bought it and had it shipped down here.  Picked it up from TNT in Port Macquarie with great excitement (baked potatoes at last!) but when we got it home and unpacked the pathetic wrappings it had clearly been dropped and the front glass was shattered into smithereens.  Oh well, back to the drawing board.  As it turned out the bloody thing had an element which lit the gas – which drained even more power from the system so I am stymied once more.
We have been wracking our brains and the closest we have come to some sort of solution is a camping oven – all gas, piezo ignition, but the trouble is, they only have a 30L capacity (tiny) and we want 80L.  Any ideas, my brilliant friends, as we now have a gaping hole in the kitchen and my baked potato craving gets stronger by the day . . .

Real Rural Aussie Expats

by . Posted on
05 May

I went to an initial Pilates session to see if I liked it.  Mainly the woman just talked to me about being pregnant, but then we did eventually get down and do some floor work.  I didn’t really understand what I was  doing or why, and it didn’t feel like much at the time, but I sure felt the pain in the morning!  Still, she didn’t give me a programme to do, or a sense of what I was trying to achieve and I definitely didn’t feel like I’d done any sort of workout (you know me, I come from the ‘no pain, no gain’ Jane Fonda style of exercise) . . . think I’ll stick to yoga, thank you very much, so have been harassing poor Rosie for a pregnancy regime.

On Friday I made the long drive up to Ballina on the Far North Coast to spend the weekend with a client, finally meeting her and her husband, attending, assessing and addressing a two day course of hers to  forge a plan of action for the future.  7 hours door to door was a bore but thank God for my little Tom Tom sat nav which warned me about all the speed cameras, told me how far away I was so we could all plan accordingly, and generally got me there safe and sound and in one piece.  Angela Davison (www.thehorseherbalist.com) lives on a 100 acre bush block in true ageing hippy style (despite the fact that she is a down-to-earth pragmatist of the northern England variety!).  She lives in a hexagonal home made of mud brick and 200 year old timbers from the old whaling station at Byron Bay.  The loo is an outdoor long drop, and rainwater rationing is very strict.  Four huge dogs in the house give off that distinctive odour, but there are some gorgeous antiques and at least I was allowed to just wee on the lawn for my hourly nocturnal antics.
It was FREEZING!!  These are people who don’t believe in closing doors and like to live an outside/inside life.  But I was amazed to find that their solar system supported electric blankets (just wait til I tell my husband!) and so as well as loading my bed with every blanket in the house, I had the hitherto unheard of comfort of getting into a toasty warm bed at night – lovely!  Actually, I have been sleeping really badly recently – what with all the visits to the loo and the electric dreams, so on the Saturday night Angela dosed me up with some of her proprietary ‘Settle Petal’ and at last I started to relax.  On Sunday night I slept properly for the first time since we came back from honeymoon, and in the morning my belly had popped out!!  Bizarre!  I went to bed looking like me, and woke up pregnant!
The course was interesting but poor Angela had the full critique on Saturday night, and was chagrined when her husband (who had been filming it) agreed with all my comments (and up til now he has resented my control over her business life!).  Never mind, she’s tough, and while I was snoring my way through the night she was thinking it all through!  Sunday was much better and on Monday we had the day in the office to organise all her email marketing, computer filing, and assess product packaging etc.  On Tuesday morning we wrapped up the outstandings and I left for a speedy visit to Byron Bay to check out a teepee manufacturer and the very lovely www.natureschild.com.au where they have all the organic nappies and essential paraphernalia little miss is apparently going to need when she touches down on planet earth.
Then home, late and weary to a newly sanded and varnished sitting room,  kitchen and bathroom floors and both dog and husband ecstatic to see me.  How nice to come home to a warm house, a warm heart and a warm welcome . . . .
Angela and students on the Equine First Aid course . . .

The ‘C’ word . . . Commitment!

by . Posted on
10 Sep

I have had lots of queries from you all about Ged so I suppose I’d better come clean.  He’s 38, 5’10, blue eyes and a reasonable head of hair except the Prince Charles bald spot at the back (but he is definitely going to look like Phil before long).  He is incredibly kind and sweet and loving and for some strange reason thinks that the sun shines out of my a**se (which, considering he works in the solar industry, is a real worry!)  He loves Phee and Tom and the horses and copes well with all their unique foibles – Phee trying to shag him, Tom regurgitating fur balls with monotonous regularity at the moment, and Tinkerbell using every wile and cunning at her disposal to break into the feed (again!)  Good thing I have one perfect Baby . . .

He has forsaken his Aussie meat pie and three dead animals a day diet and completely embraced my limited one.  He says he doesn’t miss the meat, wants to learn to cook the stuff I cook and has lost weight and is looking better for the shift. At this point my Mother will be screaming ‘quick, don’t let him get away!’ and quite possibly getting straight off a plane from The Rockies and on a Roo bound for Down Under so she can chivy things along!!

He’s completely house trained – does the washing up, washing, pegging clothes on the line etc.  He’s also a builder which is a bloody good thing at the moment and a farm boy which means that none of the realities of life on the land worry him one iota.  In fact he has 400 acres just up the road.  We met when he quoted me for the upgrade of the solar system here and during the long process of the purchase we talked regularly on the phone.

He doesn’t seem fazed by any of my foibles (burping, farting, scratching and snoring!).  Someone revive my Mummy!

He wants the 4 C’s – commitment, chaplain, children and did I mention commitment?  Now that’s one C word that I have an exceptional amount of difficulty with so I have been running around in ever increasing circles looking for a way out because it all seems too much, too soon, too unexpected.  And, of course, having been single for so long, I am used to my own company, my own space, the solitary silence that I share with the animals and nature and the peace of the solo sleeper in the double bed . . .

Am I too old and entrenched in my ways to make room for someone who looks after me so thoroughly?  Or do I just need to keep running a little longer til I realise that there’s nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and that what’s good enough for the rest of the planet might just suit me too?

Luckily Ged (short for Gerard) is patience personifed because we all know I’m not!  In some ways we are very alike but I guess in the important things we are polar opposites.  He knows I’m a complete worry mutton, and he doesn’t (apparently I look very peaceful when I’m sleeping!)  He knows I always have a plan and normally just fits in with it .  He doesn’t drink very often (like me he had a battle with the bottle and can take it or leave it) he doesn’t smoke although he once did so snap there.  He’s also a Gemini which scares me witless and two generations back his family on both sides came from The Emerald Isle (Catholic) . . . .  smelling salts for my Daddy!

He insisted on taking me to meet his family this week which was pretty terrifying.  His father is a blue eyed farmer whose family came from Kangaroo Valley so he great tales to tell and we had mutual acquaintances to discuss.  His mother is a much harder nut to crack – wary, suspicious and assessing so I might have to get a spade and dig deep there if this goes the distance.  Mind you she reads Maeve Binchy and Dick Francis just like me so the heart beats true!  And she’s got the complete works of Banjo Patterson so I will need that spade after all . . .

Running, running scared . . . . . .

The Man from Ellenborough River

by . Posted on
22 Jul
There is light at the end of the tunnel!  Team solar turned up on Monday with the new hot water system. They dashed my hopes about hot water on Monday when they didn’t get the install finished but by Tuesday night I was luxuriating in a deep, hot bath (still green!).  Oh well, since the latest beauty fad for fashionistas in London is Nightingale poo face packs, I am sure that my green river water bath is actually very youthifying – although maybe not judging by the wrinkles my skin had acquired by the time I finally left my warm, wet paradise.

I still seem to be either shopping for renovation essentials or back in the Telstra vortex as I return their little wireless widget and while away the hours as they try and dream up new solutions for me.  Got a new lawnmower that is green, sturdy, fearless and invincible.  It’s true blue, dinky di – it’s a Victa and I have a feeling we are going to get along!

Went to see one of my neighbours who has a sawmill.  He has recently retired but agreed to cut the timber for the big beams and kitchen, laundry and bathroom surfaces for me.  He seems nice but boasts about how much water he uses to clean his teeth!  It is a sad fact that rural Australians who live on water and have unlimited access to it, waste it more than most!   They don’t have rainwater tanks, they don’t keep it, cherish it, store it, they just use it in the same way that city folk do . . . bizarre!

And the farm has come into its own this week with the arrival of 75 calfs to grow fat on the land.  Which brings me to George.  What a character!  George is 70 odd, he was ‘rared’ here (as the locals say).  He owned all this land – thousands of acres and George has sold it off bit by bit.  He’s a wiry, strong, lined and thin lipped Man from Snowy River type.  His Akubra is ancient, his RM’s battered and bruised and his horse’s bridle is more baling twine than leather.  He wields a chainsaw like a virtuoso violinist makes music with his bow.  His blue eyes can be steely or twinkle with humour.  He tells me he got in deep trouble with the drink and that’s when he found God and began to make sense of it all with the bible.  He’s a Seventh Day Adventist so he doesn’t drink or smoke or sin and he’s a vegetarian so we have something in common!  I tell him all my dreams for the place and he think them through.  He has his own clear picture in his head of what the land should be like and though he wouldnt even begin to know what I mean, his work is done with perfect zen.  The cattle are his and the deal is that he swaps the farm work for the agistment.  He’s a crafty old bugger – we always talked about 40 head and he turns up with 75 and a good story about how he always meant 40 mothers and calfs, so 75 little heifers is the same thing in principle . . . !!