Green Electricty

Yesterday, I did some research into green electricity and what different service providers have on offer. I also looked up the cost of installing solar panels as there is a sizable rebate currently. It seems our current electricity company, if we sign up to green power, will only ever provide half of our yearly electricity from green sources. They also give you no choice what that green energy will be. Another provider will put 100% of your money toward green sources and you can choose from wind, hydro, solar, thermal mass or a combination of those. Much better. They'll get our signature. The same company also provides solar panels. It would cost us, after the rebate about AU$8000- ( About 10 Euros or American dollars!!!) so well, yep, thats a fair whack of cash. Still if we really want to do our bit, how can we afford not to?

I often respond with a vote to the latest Newspoll item on line. But yesterday, it was obviously written by the world biggest moron. It asked, and sadly I quote- "Should elderly people be seen holding hands." Why would anyone dignify that with a response? I have obviously awoken in the dark ages.

I have just begun watching the brilliant movie set of 'Down the Rabbit Hole' from the "What the Bleep' people. If you truly want to understand your reality and how you are creating it each moment ( in other words wake up ) you must see this. Do you want to take the red pill or the blue pill kind of stuff.

New Addition to Family

We found frog spawn in our frog pond. This is so much better that devils spawn of course, but how many dozen frogs can our converted wading pool hold?
I guess nature will sort itself out. For a while we knew there was a frog in there. At night we'd here an occasional BOK BOK. I think that occasional little BOK is going to sound like the frog version of that tune you may recall 'Popcorn'. Still it's exciting and soon I will have enough cash to get me a digital camera to show my pond scum around!
The children in the environment club at the local school have created a frog pond too and are looking for tadpoles. I could help them out but as it is I have marsh frogs from a friends pool in a different area and I don't even know if I should have them here. The kids have set up a pond that would be a froggy paradise but is it wrong to stick out-of-town frogs in an artificial set up? Like frog fantasy island. Mmmmm. I'll read up a bit I think.
On another note, is it just me or does anyone else get stuck between simplifying your home and saving stuff so you don't waste things coz you might use it later?
I end up with these excess bits of furniture standing around, which I frequently fall over, whilst I try to solve the dilemma of what to do with it. I have had big clear outs before and then, twelve months later needed it. I think my husnband has taken to nailing a few things down, to save them from my clearing urges. But really, theres so many ways to re-use and recycle things, I hate to get rid of thing. On the other hand, I want to keep things simple and clutter free. Arrrghhh! Conundrum doldrums!

Today, I'm excited to find the local newspaper has published my letter urging people to go see 'An Inconvenient Truth' and I hope that maybe it'll get a few more people to wake up about climate change. And if I fire up my hopes and imagination to full power, maybe some of those people will even try to make a difference. I may have more chance winning Lotto but heres hoping.
I offer at the local school to extend my helping hours with the kids environment club. I am rewarded with a request to tidy up the green house. Ha! Too easy for this super dedicated planet saver!!
Yep, but then during an episode of emptying waterlogged containers, I get covered in a mixture of putrifying weed water and dynamic lifter. I headed home stinking like sewerage and fancy I even saw a bird fall out of a tree as I passed.
Mmm. More work, less chest puffing.

RIGHT-LIVELYHOOD AND EMPTY SHOPPING TROLLEYS

On a daily basis, I admit to reading snippets of the book 'Your money or Your Life '.
May I add here that bathrooms make great uninterrupted reading rooms. But only if you have a second toilet. Anyway, as I watched my unhappy husband prepare to head to his personal albatross for the day (work in a large IT company )I bravely parted with my book for the day so he could read the chapter on 'what is enough'. As in what do you really need to be happy, including what work you spend your life doing and how close or far is it from where you're truly meant to be.
He rang me to say, yes, he needed to see how far off track he is really was and boy is he way, way off.
But really this is nothing we don't really know. The problem is, we have a sizable mortgage, we like where we live and we want to further improve our place in an eco sense ie get off the grid, get off mains water, produce our own electricity etc at some point not too far away. And my husbands job pays well. But he's miserable. Changing companies helps for a while but eventually office politics and red-tape and the lack of staff care get him down. What does he love? He volunteers at the local PCYC gym helping people and keeping the gym in a bit of order.
Now it seems obvious to try to get a job in this industry BUT the pay is about a third. Now, I've done the math and with a little more income from me, we could just manage but the truth is we worry we'd change one worry for another. Things would be a bit tight and unexpected costs could be serious. Still, to have the time to stop and smell the roses.... This standing at the edge of big change has lead me to read and read and read in the search of an answer. Some voice that says yep, do it or whoa there, don't go there girlfriend.But really, there is only one answer, though difficult to accept. Will the Natalie of tomorrow kick the Natalie of today or will she hug me? Stay tuned for further clumsy adventures by clueless suburbanites!

And now a word from our supermarket sponsers...
We have a few prerequisites when we go shopping at the local supermarket.
Firstly buy organic where possible, avoid chemical colours and preservatives, avoid overpackaging, buy locally where possible and avoid impulse buys. I can tell you, theres not much in my bleeding trolley! And thats without cost. Of course I don't want spend a fortune either.
Well, I looked up Organic Market locations and although there isn't one anywhere in the vicinity, I'm going to go and visit one in the city just to see what its like and also check out that co-op, also near the city. Maybe if I share a car trip with some other people it might prove worth it. We shall see....

Well, people after re-reading my last post, I think we should we should take a minute to catch our breath and recover from that assault on our ideals!
OK maybe I got a little enthusiastic and carried away.
At least today I walked the children to school and the dogs at the same time. You could tell by the dogs expressions that they'd seen all this enthusiasm before and didn't belive for one minute it will last. Damn animal instinct!
I really am committed this time honest ( read: should be committed)

Green Fox Barking

ATTEMPTS TO SAVE PLANET BY NAMELESS DOT IN SUBURBIA BEGINS!

Action stations indeed. Time to pull a finger out. In fact include all digets and borrow the neighbours as well.
Before i saw 'An Inconvenient truth' I was about to advertise for four other families to join us in attempting to pay off our respective mortgages in five years, no matter how laughable the likelihood. Trust me, you'd have tears streaming if you knew what we still owe. Anyway the idea was to chuck all monies onto said mortgage but share support and idea with some others along the way. When I rang the local rag and explained what I wanted to advertise they agreed it was a fabulous idea but were not sure where in the newspaper it needed to go and so decided to call me back when they had worked it out. Now maybe they just never called back because they thought I was a fruitloop but I tended to wonder if it wasn't the right time to begin it. And in any case i was about to go see the above mentioned movie and wondered if my priorities my change after seeing it.
Well, of course they did rather and I discussed with my children the next day my new plans of attack. My eldest son, who so effortlessly notices the flaws in all my plans mentioned that it would really be better to go ahead and try and pay the mortgage off sooner as we could do far more for the planet if we were debt free and happy. In the end we decided to do both.
If we do many of the things in our home and with food and transport that are planet friendly, they will also help us save money althought possibly not all initially.

WHAT HAVE WE GOT SO FAR?
We have a 4000l water tank, but only for the garden so far.
We have a solar hot water system
We have two compost bins
We are growing a few veges and fruit, permaculture style
We have a water and energy efficient washing machine and dishwasher
About 30% of our groceries are organic
We joined the local Greens to help local environment and keep up to date with whats happening nationally
I Volunteer with Bushcare, a local environment group which weeds and replants
We support three environmental charities we believe in
I support the local schools environmental programs

Its not a bad start. We live within walking distance to a train station which my husband catches to work each day. Ok, he hates the job, but at least he isn't driving there. The school is also walking distance. We could walk more often, this walks the dogs at the same time.
We have a 1998 Subaru Forrester. It's a great car and I fill up the tank about every 2-3 weeks. We would love a Hybrid car, but the cost is a bit out of our budget! Our home is smallish and is clad. Ceiling insulation only. Would like to do walls but cladding is asbestos so taking it off is a problem in itself. We do have reverse cycle air-con and plan to replace this with excellent insulation, an evaporative cooler fan and maybe a combustion stove. Then again with the planet heating up, maybe we'll skip the stove! We use grey water on our small back lawn and thats the only water it gets. We compost most of our raw food scraps but we could compost more paper out of the recycling. We have water saving fixtures on the shower but we could time showers. We need to put up afew awnings to the north to keep the heat outside. We could put in another few water tanks and use tank water for everything. We would like solar panels and get off the grid but it's a bit pricey right now. In the meantime we'll use Green Electricity. As for food, we do eat meat and could eat less animal food altogether. When you do an eco footprint questionaire to see how big an impact on the planet you make, food makes a huge difference. We used to get home delivered organic groceries but they tries pyramid selling on us and in offence, we dropped them like a hotcake. I't's not easy to get organic groceries round here. The big supermarkets carry a reasonable amount of drystuffs and a small and polyurethaned amount of fruit and vege. We'd like to support a farmers market but it needs to be organic. Not easy where we live. Half an hour away is a good food co-op I'd like to join but it would have to be a once a month visit to be practicle. Anyway, I've begun with a few reminder notes around the house. we are going to do an electricity audit around the place to see whats guzzling our power the most, ring the elecricity co to change to green electicity, get some watertank prices and check out eveporative coolers. Oh, and plant the tomatoes, capsicum, mini-melons and climbing cucumber.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH- NOT POPCORN TIME!

After veiwing the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth ' last night I feel rather exhausted to say the least. It's not a movie you buy popcorn to watch because the state of the planet is not entertaining. Al gore says several times in the movie that he initially believed that scientific evidence alone would be enough to get people into action. But no, not even close. There is a wonderful cartoon example of why this is so. A frog hopping into a beaker of boiling water hops out imediately, but the same frog hopping into a beaker of cold water which is heated very slowly just sits there and in fact never gets out until it is rescued. If you were told that in ten years a big monster is going to get you, its likely you panic at first and make some plans. But after the initial shock wears off, well, ten years is so far away. Why waste time worrying about it now when yoy can enjoy your life. In your ninth year you can go back and prepare.
He explained that so many people when they finally comprehend the terrible state of things go straight from ignorance to dispair with not one shred of action in between.
Not me, I want to quadruple my humble efforts. I was surprised then, straight aftyer the movie when my friends discussed finally putting in those energy efficient globes. Is that it I thought? Yeah do that and about sixty other things.
Just before the planet as we know it goes down the toilet, people will remember the evidence given of all that was to come and people will say- "Yeah, I saw that movie too. "

EEEEEEKO ECO

Another voice calling out into the universe!
A creative voice. A parents voice. An eco conscious voice. A worried about the state of this damn planet voice.
How do my choices effect the state of the planet?What sort of example do I set for my children?After all, they copy what you say and not just the swear words.
This weekI go to see the Al Gore movie. I'm scared what I will see and excited in a morbid-can'thelplookingovermyshoulderatthemonster kind of way. Will I come home and double my compost bin or go straight to ark construction?
But today is a beautiful day and I tell my husband so whenI phone him. But there is no windows where he sits and lacking x-ray vision he is unable to see the sun through the three foot of concrete. He works in IT. Infinitely tedious.
There is so much out thereI want to do to help the state of the world. I am an incurable idealist. I think I spent to much time in Narnia as a child. Where is Aslan when you need him?
When you begin on you list of ways to fix the world, how does washing the dishes slip back in there? And if i want to halt climate change why do worry if the toilet is clean when people pop over unexpectedly.
These questions and eleven more tomorrow.