Veggie Garden Makeover

Christine and I (and sometime the kids, but not often!) have been transforming the veggie garden. We wanted to have separate beds with paths between them (...and a shrubbery... -python fans?). We wanted the paths so you don't have to walk on the beds. The less you walk on beds the less you compact the soil and the less you have to turn it...that's what the worms are there for, to turn and aerate the soil.
As you can see from these early snaps, Christine is doing most of the work!
I have not taken snaps of the finished product but will post them next weekend maybe.

2 Weeks Leave

I have 2 weeks leave. It seems a long time since I had 2 or more weeks leave, honestly I can't pin point when it was, probably a few months ago, ho hum.
Not the point, the point is...
This is enjoyable, I like my place here in Joondalup, I am a bit of a home boy. So this first week is pretty much about me!
Day 1 (Tuesday) - Garden, Shed, biodiesel. - Kids at Mum and Dad's
Day 2 - Same. - Kids at mum and Dad's
Day 3 - Same. - Kids out with cousins
Day 4 - Same, but I promised to wash the floor. - Kids hanging out at home with friends.
Day 5 and 6 (Weekend) we are going to Badgingarra to get fire wood, sheep poo and hang out with good friends.
Day 7 (next Monday) - Garden, shed.
Day 8, 9 and 10 - Camping with family at Contos, just near Prevally, Caves Road.
Day 11 - Hang around, Forge intensive begins tonight.
Day 12, 13 Forge intensive, but I am also meant to be in Northam at a friends farm...not sure how to do both, hmmm
Day 14 - Chill read, centre myself to go back to work in the morning.

I have a list of jobs that need doing. They are pretty much run of the mill. A rattle on there car, a leaking roof, wire up the shed, relocate the bio diesel processor and the bowser. I want to install a water pump for the rain water tank. I would like to get some rocks from the farm for around my new pond (the pond was a bulk rubbish find!).

This arvo I sat out in the sprinkling rain looking at our efforts in the garden today. I felt quite satisfied. We grabbed a heap of green roof tiles from the tip and made raised garden beds. I bought some good organic compost and straw as well as a few big bags of saw dust to make paths between all the beds (as well as adding to my own compost). We installed the new pond and solar powered pump. This pond is not so we can have fish, but rather to attract more insects into the garden for cross pollination of plants. Some plants (Zucchini for example) wont grow fruit without a bee or insect (or Christine with a small paintbrush!) germinating them. Having a water feature helps create a greater and fuller life cycle or ecosystem inside our small back yard. The insects attract frogs, frogs eat slugs and bugs and mozzies. They say frogs are a healthy sign in a garden. Tonight after a drive to "dispose" of some waste product from the biodiesel production, I grabbed my head torch for a one more look over our garden work. I wandered around the new beds and walked up to the pond, what should be sitting up on the edge of one of the beds overlooking the new pond...a big shiny black frog! It was as if he was saying, "now that's what I'm talking 'bout!"

So here's to the good life!

Where have I been?

Been Slack on the Old Blog stuff, here is a quick update;

Going Where?
I have spent the last 2 weeks with Scripture Union. Camp one was with Mirrabooka High Yr 8 boys doing a selective boys to men type camp. 17 kids, lots of attitude and not all good. The last night we had to sleep out by ourselves in the bush under our own hoothchies, I was wet, very wet! The talks I did on Men as Lover, King, Monk and Warrior went well (Thanks to Mike's suggestions on this site!)
Last week's camp was a bit less intense, Winthrop Baptist yr 11's Kayaking on the Murray.

Reading What?
Reading a few books;
Mark Sayers, "The Trouble With Paris"
Rob Hopkins, "The Transition Handbook"
Henry DeWitt, "Fathering Daughters - Reflections By Men"

Watching What?
Last night watched Kung Fu Panda - Great Laugh, even some Python style humour!
Watched a 1999 flick called Pitch Black which was the first in the Chronicles of Riddick series, Vin Diesel - Good watch!

Playing With What?
My bio diesel processor...we made a batch of 50L, then 80L went great, then a batch of 150L, not so great but managed a rescue and it looks great now. Then a couple of weeks ago did a 100L batch and managed soap. Yes soap is an unfortunate bi-product of stuffing up with this process. Glycerol is one of the waste products, it is also the base product for soap manufacturing, stuff up some small element in the bio process and wham - you have litres of liquid sticky glue which is actually heavy grade soap. My mate Lance has done most of the rescuing as I have been away. It looks like we may have saved a good deal of the oil!

Enjoying What?
Loved a walk to the library and then take-a-way and movies with my family yesterday arvo.
I am also enjoying the thought of 2 weeks leave over the July school hols. 3 days at Contos camp group near Prevally/Yallingup. 2 days up at the farm, lots of days just pottering at home.

Working For Whom?
I am still full time with Churches of Christ (3 days Youth Vision Ministry Coach and 2 Days OnEARTH/GMP). The SU (Scripture Union) stuff is really to keep a hand in with youth ministry experience as well as looking at options for next year.
I will be working for SU 2 days a week next year in their Neighbourhood Outreach/Forge area as well as doing a camp a term for them in Warriuka. Hopefully I can continue doing the OnEARTH stuff as it is hotting up a little.

Looking Forward to What?
Well 2 weeks leave, then 3 days in Sydney with Youth Vision, then starting up a 14 week study (OnEARTH/Ignition) which includes 2 weeks in Halls Creek with a crew from our Church as well as some others, I am also running a weekend leaders retreat in August which looks like fun.
Finishing off our new raised garden beds out the back, fixing my dead roller door, tidying up my yard a bit and generally slowing down and reading some more.

So that is it. Been way too busy, but feel ok. Not pumped. Always dreaming too much of a quiet life in the country, working less not more. But I need to learn to be in the moment more, "be where you are".

Living The Good Life

Some of you may remember Linda Cockburn's book I referred to last year. One of the greatest inspirations to my lifestyle for a long long time.
Our little garden is ever growing, in fact I must post some of our latest photos. We have dug even more grass out of our back yard and adding more structured beds. We have started more serious planning for the front garden, mainly fruit trees. In fact the front olive tree yielded its first 20 or so olives this year. They are marinating in the cupboard as we speak. The chickens remain a happy little family of 3 supplying us with a never ending steam of eggs...and a few mice mice, that we could do without :) The compost heaps (3) need some work, I think I am doing something wrong as I get little heat from them and for not long enough to kill seed, so I am learning, this is mainly my area, Chris is the main veggie girl, I am her labour. We occasionally come to heads about exactly what should happen in the garden and yesterday it was a decent fight over raised beds, how high, what materials, design etc. So I went and sulked at a mates house and played on our Apple Macs and made videos of our Tassie kayak trip and Chris did the garden - it looked great by the way - aghhh.
Christine made a wonderful basil pesto with bits from the garden the other day. I can't wait for a day when the olive oil might come from the garden too. So it is all going well, just keeping the balance between places where kids can play on lawn and places mum and dad want to rip up and garden...heck they have parks!

Have a look at the Today Tonight episode of our heroes Linda and Trevor.

Make your own Diesel

What about this hey -

"We turned our kitchen into a sort of illicit still and made a hell of a mess in there brewing biodiesel fuel out of about 60 litres of yukky waste cooking oil we got from behind McDonald's one night (they were happy to give it to us once we told them we didn't want to eat it). We were sure it would work, but we had to make it ourselves first -- we're not chemists, and if we can make it anyone can."

I don't own a diesel, but I am in the market for a new car, so imagine saving $50 a week on fuel!
It's not a 10 minute process, it takes a bit to get going but hey, a few early mornings out in the shed never hurt anyone!

I found some info in case you were wondering -

Biodiesel facts

The raw material -- used cooking oil.

Biodiesel is much cleaner than fossil-fuel diesel ("dinodiesel"). It can be used in any diesel engine with no need for modifications -- in fact diesel engines run better and last longer with biodiesel. And it can easily be made from a common waste product -- used cooking oil.

• Biodiesel fuel burns up to 75% cleaner than conventional diesel fuel made from fossil fuels
• Biodiesel substantially reduces unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter in exhaust fumes
• Sulphur dioxide emissions are eliminated (biodiesel contains no sulphur)
• Biodiesel is plant-based and adds no CO2 to the atmosphere
• The ozone-forming potential of biodiesel emissions is nearly 50% less than conventional diesel fuel
• Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions may increase or decrease but can be reduced to well below conventional diesel fuel levels by adjusting engine timing and other means
• Biodiesel exhaust is not offensive and doesn't cause eye irritation (it smells like French fries!)
• Biodiesel is environmentally friendly: it is renewable, "more biodegradable than sugar and less toxic than table salt" (US National Biodiesel Board)
• Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine
• Fuel economy is the same as conventional diesel fuel
• Biodiesel is a much better lubricant than conventional diesel fuel and extends engine life -- a German truck won an entry in the Guinness Book of Records by travelling more than 1.25 million km (780,000 miles) on biodiesel with its original engine
• Biodiesel has a high cetane rating, which improves engine performance: 20% biodiesel added to conventional diesel fuel improves the cetane rating 3 points, making it a Premium fuel
• Biodiesel can be mixed with ordinary petroleum diesel fuel in any proportion, with no need for a mixing additive.
• Even a small amount of biodiesel means cleaner emissions and better engine lubrication: 1% biodiesel will increase lubricity by 65%
• Biodiesel can be produced from any fat or vegetable oil, including waste cooking oil.

Have a listen to this radio interview.

For the Farmers Amongst Us

Check out this method of farming. My mate Stuart sent it through yesterday, he owns property near Northam, WA.
If you are into land/soil growing etc or if you have a bit of a heart for the farmers, check out this Ray Martin story...

Our Crop

We are getting quite the regular handful of veggies each week and sometimes each day from our little garden. Along with eggs from the chooks and fertalizer from the worms, we have quite the mini-farm happening...sadly some infestation of looper caterpillar is also enjoying our little farm at the moment! But still, they are food for chooks! It's like a war zone out there I tell you!

Joondalup Community Garden and TEMENOS

Temenos (τέμενος) is a Greek word meaning "Sacred Space".
I desire our new community garden to be just that, a sacred space in which our lives intersect with each other and with God as we journey together.
Not everyone in our little group in the northern suburbs will be keen gardeners, but my prayer is that we all might discover a safe, even sacred space in this dedicated block of land in Joondalup. Maybe a place of prayer, work, worship, mate-ship, a place of service and community - who knows!

Presently it is a pile a weeds, black sand and rubble.
Presently we are a confused group of dreamers not too sure if this dream will become anything like we have dreamed about, but willing to give it a go and willing to make the construction stage just as important as the ongoing seasonal stages of sowing and reaping.

We have decided to create a separate blog mainly for people connected to the garden in some way shape or another.
So if the community garden thing presses you buttons have a look.

This is Gold

Ten Ideas for Living Intentionally in the Suburbs.

A great list that resonates with my heart.
click here.

Water

I stuck in a water tank last week to save some water and yesterday Chris, the guy next door put in a pool...is that ironic? Got a guilt free pool to swim in though :)

My Backyard and Water.

Now it's got me thinking... 2 weeks ago I ripped up a heap of lawn and brickpaved a big area...composted the lawn, got all the bricks from next door, they are putting in a pool and had exact same bricks...love free stuff! All to save some water and have less chemical sucking lawn.

So it's all about saving money - right? No, wrong.

Sometimes I get mixed up between living economically and living sustainably. Sadly the 2 are not always the same.
It does cost to save the planet.
For example. My water tank is a 4500L tank. Big guy!
Because our government fails to put a significant dollar value on water, most of us fail to think of it as valuable. I suggest we should at least quadruple the cost of water!! Ok, maybe treble.

The 4500L of water is worth just $4.00 yes FOUR DOLLARS.

We would be idiots spending $1200.00 on a tank (getting all of $50.00 rebate!) just to save $4.00 a tank. Nope it's the water we are wanting to save, not the money...any ideas on how we can save some money? Aghhhh

Let It Rain

It is raining right at this moment, this is a good thing for many reasons.
- We need rain in Perth (and WA) to fill the dams for Summer.
- Christine and I planted lots of new veggies on the weekend.
- MY WATER TANK IS FINALLY CONNECTED!

Remember this post? And this one?

Here is the old picture...


















And here it is 10 minutes ago with the first rain dripping into the tank...yes I did a little dance and let out a 'wohooo'! It has been, like most of my projects, very slow. I think I chopped the tree down over a year ago, pulled out the stump in May - June, then bought the tank a week ago, got the (free) gutters delivered Friday and a weekend of guttering and dada!

Pictures of the past few days.

Some snaps of the last week -





Sophie and I finally pulled out the stump I had been working on for months! Well mainly me, but she promised to pull out her front tooth if I got the tree out that day...the tooth came out some days later...but we think she swallowed it!
Now I get to build a tank stand for my new water tank.








I took off for a few hours in our local National Park, just over the road with the the kids for a walk. It was a long walk for Sophie but she handled it well. Lunch under a big gum tree then back home just as the rain came down.














The kids fascinated by ants getting caught in the sticky plants.














Yesterday and this morning Casey and I took a few hours to climb Mt Cooke, the highest in the Darling Rangers I think. It was...as they say...a walk in the park.










Nice and easy.

Nice and cool.

Nice and wet.








The hut had 9 campers including us in it. 2 of them were heading off in 2 weeks to do the Kokoda trail. The other group had in it...wait for it...gear testers.











Explanation - there are some people in this world, highly blessed by God [maybe I should say god, as in the 'god of backpacking'!!!] They get FREE GEAR to test, and they wander the tracks of the world with all the latest hiking gear and gadgets.







This one guy had a Steripen - LOVE EM!












He had a Kestral thermometer, with wind speed, and wind chill factor readings.
He was sleeping in a Black Diamond Tent, single skin, so not so good, but hey, that's the life of a gear tester.

All in all, every consumer bone in my body was stimulated, especially when my old sleeping bag kept me frozen most of the night and I slept fitfully dreaming about a warmer bag.

Agh, the simple life of spending less and living more...Maybe a rug from Good Sammys would have worked for me?

Backyard Update

One of the things I like to do on this blog is journal the life around my house. I do lots of thinking about my small pad of land in Joondalup. I have big dreams for the way I use my house and land to honour God, people and the environment.
Anyway, here are some snaps around the place.

The organic fertilizer working a treat, we have these fellas all over the place!

We have recently extended the veggie patch. This section is filled with pea straw, ash from the fire and chook and sheep poo for a few weeks before we plant in it. The tree is an olive tree that we are putting in the front yard, it was Christine's mothers day present...no it has nothing to do with asking for peace!

An extra veggie garden in the foreground. BUT...in the background is the stump of a tree I have trying to pull out for 3 weeks, every day after work. So far I have split a pipe, blisters all over my hand and have a very sore neck! This thing had a brick wall concreted all around it which makes digging particularly hard!
After the stump comes out I will build a tank stand for a 4500L water tank which will catch the run off from the patio roof.

Christine inspecting the Brocolii, Cauliflowers, lettuce, peas, tomatoe and Cabbage for worms etc.

New Book

There is this family who tried living without spending any money for 6 months, well they had to pay rates and house insurance but pretty much everything else they generated themselves at home...I mean everything! They even made their own soap. They traded flour for eggs and had solar panels and water tanks.
It was an Aussie experiment and Christine and I are reading their story. Actually it was a good find by the Gazman while we were pottering through Oxford books yesterday (one of the best little book shops around!).

So I think I will post a few extracts from it. Bit and pieces of useful info about the way we use our resources in Australia and ideas for living more sustainably...it is true that more than any other nation we we the squander award! We waste a lot of stuff!

Oh, the book has inspired me to prepare the site for my water tanks and today I expanded our vegi garden and got rid of a good patch of water wasting lawn!

Veggi Gardens, Chooks and Long Walks

Mikaela and I walked the walk today!
We walked home from Whitford church to Joondalup via the plant shop to buy some seedlings for our little veggie garden.
The walk took 2 hours, we enjoy each others company lots, she is 10 now and a real young lady...mostly!
We bought cauliflower, Cabbage, brown onion, and a mixture of lettuce, we also have growing from seed some string beans.
The chooks wander around and eat the bugs and leave the plants so we don't need pellets or sprays, love these chooks.
BUT - I thought we might get 1 egg each a day, but it's only one egg altogether per day. Not sure of it's one busy layer and 2 slackers or they are taking it in turns.
I have now let Max the dog and the chooks all free together in the back yard, he loves it, wants to play with them...they are still checking him out. Although they wander up to him now and stare at him, close, like 50cm away, all one big happy suburban farm, The Joondalup hillbillies!

New Family Members

Well they have arrived...3 new add-ons to our family of 8 (that's 5 humans, 2 crazy crabs and Max the dog). Now we have 3 "Isabrown" chickens.
Chook1, Chook2 and Chook3...until further id is available...and the kids don't stop changing their minds about what to call them.
It's all part of a bigger plan to go fully ferral, with dreadlocks just like my good mate 'J' and grow our own organic veggies and have solar pannels and rain water tanks and hairy legs...oh I already got them! Trust me I will have the last laugh, while you all are wondering how to fill your thirsty cars up at $10 a litre and pay for your fruit and veg at $400 per week, I will will be turning my soil and riding my scooter, my kids will be running naked around in the backyard and my wife will be pregnant with #16...oh not possible...over-did the stereotype right?

My Backyard

You know, one day I would like to start a blog called just that - "My backyard". It would have stories of sheds, building stuff out of wood and metal, it would have pictures of great sheds and projects I and others attempt and ideas for people, like how to make a great compost heap or look after your chooks ... if in fact you are allowed to keep chooks in your suburb, which, so I discover - we are! So I am building a top looking chook shed and finding 3 chooks from somewhere. Free eggs! But I think my worms will miss out on some food, unless you live near me and want to donate your food scraps ?
In other "shed news" I built a small cabinet for Christine's Creative Memories photo albums. It is a hobby/business of her's and these photo albums were starting to crowd out some of my book shelves (these bookshelves were a project I did some years ago...for Christine actually, so I guess it is her right to use those shelves however she wants...but hey they are book shelves, not photo album shelves!). Now she has a little unit just for albums. I will put a picture of this here and later on I will post about the chook pen, maybe once there are chooks in it! But today I will head out there to see if I can (re) make the gate...it fell apart yesterday, my first attempt at biscuit joins!

Got water?

$46 billion - Amount spent per year globally on bottled water

$1.7 billion - Amount needed per year beyond current spending to provide clean drinking water to everyone on earth

More than one billion - Number of people worldwide who lack reliable access to safe drinking water

80 - Percentage of world illnesses due to water-borne diseases

Ever Thought Of Becoming a Vegetarian?

The environmental impact of our diet (USA Stats only)

Only two percent of the world's water is fresh water suitable for human use or agriculture. Burgeoning population demands and increasing pollution of groundwater by sewerage, industrial pollution and agricultural nitrates and pesticides will make fresh water a desperately short commodity in the coming century. Livestock production uses more than half of all water consumed for all purposes in the USA. Producing a pound of wheat requires 25 gallons of water while a pound of beef requires 2500 gallons of water. Raising one average steer uses enough water to float a navy destroyer. The Ogallala Aquifer, the major source of water for agriculture in the great plains, is being rapidly depleted primarily by grain crops grown for livestock.

Seventy percent of the total US grain production is consumed by livestock and half of the world grain harvest is consumed by livestock. Sixteen pounds of grain are required to make one pound of beef. One third of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by the U.S. are devoted to the production of livestock. More than 38,000 children die as a result of malnutrition and starvation every day (one every 3.6 seconds) while 66% of US grain exports are consumed by livestock. If Americans reduced their intake of meat by only ten percent; 100,000,000 people could be fed using the land, water and energy that would be freed up from growing livestock feed.

An acre of prime land can produce 10,000 lbs of Green Beans, 20,000 lbs of apples, 30,000 lbs of carrots or 20,000 lbs of potatoes. The same land can produce grain for 250 lbs of beef. Sixty four percent of all cropland is used to produce livestock feed (By contrast, 2% of all US cropland is producing fruits and vegetables.). About 35 pounds of topsoil are lost in the production of one pound of feedlot steak.

Animals raised for food produce 130 times more excrement than the entire human population. US livestock produce 86,000 pounds of excrement per second (that's two trillion pounds per year). The typical adult hog produces urinary and fecal waste equivalent to three adult humans. (There are ten million hogs in North Carolina and only nine million people and the impact on the local infrastructure and environment are disastrous.) The tons of methane produced by the collective digestion of 1.3 billion cows on the planet are a major contribution to the global warming effect.
(Holy crap!)

info found here