Being Climate Smart

In my attempt to reduce our carbon footprint, save electricity and generally help the planet we signed up for the state government (Queensland Australia) ClimateSmart initiative. Its pretty good. For fifty dollars an electrician comes out to your home installs up to 15 energy efficient light bulbs and a water saving shower head. The best part is you get this cool little device that lets you know how much electricity you are using at any one time. The end result is you can see which devices are the big energy guzzlers (like the kettle!)

The electrician is also supposed to compile and send out a plan for you to help you use in the future looking at your current habits. As we rent, I found this to be a little pointless as "install solar panels" is not really under our control, nor was any of the other suggestions. I wonder if anyone else found the plan a bit of a waste of time? Otherwise I highly recommend it!!

I want chickens

I really really want some chickens! We had chickens when I was a kid. Without my parents permission (when I was about 8 yrs) I bought 4 "cosmic" chickens from the school fete. Cosmic meant they had been dyed different colours. Of course they all turned out to be roosters and they were the meanest group of chickens you would ever come across. They were leghorns- I think the breed is a bit like that.

Well not to be discouraged, I want to try again. I think it would be just magic for my kids to see where their food comes from, help with the care and egg collection and all the other good things that come from chickens.

We rent here in the suburbs, so I had to check with the local council restrictions and luckily the block is big enough, and the real estate agent gave us the all clear so time to choose which type of chickens to get.

Worms

I thought I better do a post about worms. Yes I have joined the worm farm bandwagon. I actually have had a worm farm for a while now; I inherited it from my parents. Mum liked it for a while until the ants got into it. I bought a box of worms from Bunnings, grated them up some carrot and of we went. Or so I thought...

I to then had problems with ants. There is nothing more horrible then seeing your captive worms, squirming and wriggling as the ants move in. Of course I discovered the invasion when I had toddlers hungry for breakfast and I was supposed to have left the house in 15 min. I had heard that ants don't like water so throwing away all worries about water restrictions I flooded my worm farm with the hose. And I mean really flooded it. Then I had to separate the levels to help get rid of the left over ants. It was a big job!! I have had this problem a couple of times but not lately. Has anyone else suffered from a ant invasion? Any ideas what set them off? Right now though the worm (and I) are at peace, happily eating up the grated (yes they are a little precious) carrot and potato.

In search of a kitchen garden

Well I have started this adventure by gardening in pots. I wasn't such where to begin so I thought Bunnings would be a good start. I got us a dwarf lemon, a dwarf lime, some blueberry plants, rosemary, a bay leaf tree and some parsley. As I am new to this I don't want to do too much too soon and end up chucking it all in. I also got some lettuce seedlings from the markets for the ridiculously cheap price of 12 for $1.80.

Taking Stock

So before I start I thought I better take stock of what resources I have available. We live in a rented property, it's not a bad size 640ish square meters. Which is actually quite big for the area. We don't have a water tank (although I did ask the landlord if they had some spare cash lying around if they could put one in). We don't have solar (no real surprises there). We have a strip of garden bed about 1m wide at the back but most of the plants in there have died in the drought.

Here are some of the pictures I have taken of the yard before we begin the journey.

A beginning

So here I begin. I realised something the other day. I don't have confidence that the governments/ powers that be are going to get coordinated to so anything significant about climate change. And it's not even just climate change. The Murray Darling River system is polluted at the source; Adelaide could run out of water; and don't get me started about the Snowy River. The oceans are becoming acidic, they don't think the Great Barrier Reef can be saved, and apparently there is a huge sea of rubbish floating around the ocean bigger than Victoria! Salinity, species extinction,the list goes on... this is not a legacy I want to leave to my children. So what to do?

I live in the suburbs with my husband and two small boys (ages 2 and 1 years). I am fortunate enough to be able to stay at home with the boys until they start school, when I will go back to teaching. So money is a little tight. We rent, we have two cars, and we eat meat. So what I actually realised the other day is that I have been sitting around waiting for someone else to do something, while I continue to maintain and expect to continue the lifestyle that has contributed to getting us into this mess in the first place. Well no more! In this blog I am going to share my journey in becoming more environmentally sensitive to the world I live in.

Just don't ask me to become a vegetarian.