Fossil Fuel Divestment - Bill McKibben

Over the past two years since my last post a lot has happened for me. The most significant being the starting and completing of an Advanced Diploma in Applied Environmental Management with the prodigious Ryde TAFE College. I also attended a few courses on Edible Forest Gardening including 9 days with Dave Jacke. These both conspired to enable me to design and build an Edible Forest Garden in Greystanes. More on that another time.

All this has led me to the question what's next. And for many years I've seen the single most important thing for us to do is to halt climate change.



So my thanks go to GetUp. I snatched up their offer of a free copy of McKibben's latest book 'Oil and Honey'. I'm not going to attempt to give a decent book review, as I'm attempting to ease myself away from my tendency for thorough studying and writing, at least for a while..

Bill narrates his partly reluctant journey to become a leader in the fight to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. From the previous success of 350.org, he convened and led an alliance of organisations in a new campaign to divest individual and college funds from fossil fuel investments. While this progressed, Bill kept himself sane and connected with the natural world by helping his friend, chemical free bee guru Kirk Webster, raise bees and harvest honey.

So until next time. My message of the day is put your bank on notice. Switch to a fossil free bank, and move your Super and investments likewise. Here's how > marketforces.org

Bill McKibben

The Ethic of Reciprocity - Hugh Mackay

You may have heard use of the expression the Golden Rule used just about anywhere. But it primarily refers to the Ethic of Reciprocity:

• we should treat others as we would like others to treat ourselves.

So why should we obey the golden rule? The author of 'The Good Life', Hugh Mackay, puts it this way. We are social creatures who depend on communities to sustain us. Communities don't happen by accident, we have to build and nurture them, and treating others with kindness and respect is the best way to achieve that. (The Australian, Sept 7, 2013)

A few days ago, I heard an interview with Mackay where he discussed this ethic and crystallised perhaps the core problem of Australian politics. Who has not been appalled at the way most of our National leaders persistently sling off at and insult each other in parliament, and in the public media? In regard the important matters of where Australia is going or being led, these displays by our leaders have numbed us onto an the emotional spectrum from despair to apathy.

Such consistent bad behaviour from senior politicians creates voter distrust and ‘tuning out’. With some exceptions, usually outside the two major parties, we rarely observe our leaders engaging deeply and honestly.

It has been argued that politicians are happy for us to tune out, not enrol or turn up to vote, so they get a licence to get away with whatever they like. Yet history shows that disrespect of citizens can lead to varying degrees of revolution. I think most of us would rather not have a violent revolution, but rather see steady progress to a sustainable and fair society.

It would seem that this would require those with power being kinder to those without power. The enormously wealthy citizens supporting and respecting those without.  The view that poor people are bludgers, misunderstands human nature. Truly poor people would love the chance to be self-sufficient, but often they may need years of help to obtain training, self-esteem and a spiritual connection.

Hugh Makay

We need to be civil to those we know and those we don’t, such as other road users, refugees and any citizen of the world and even politicians. How do we treat each other with respect?  A key first step is truly listening to each other. That is the kind of listening where you take time to absorb what they say and what is occurring in the life of that person before responding.

I'm cautious that our leaders may try to appear as if they are listening, without truly connecting with other people, their views and problems.

Now should be the time we take on for ourselves the work of Nelson Mandela and show compassion and respect for your enemies so we can move forward together, not fight each other.

Garden Irrigation Update

Over the past few months, the Crew at Addison Road Community Garden have been upgrading the drip irrigation system. We consulted Emma's brother, a plumber and Hydraulic engineer, for tips on how to build the system. After an hour of discussion, we had a basic plan requiring some further investigation and project management. My studies were finishing for the year and I had some spare time so I keenly volunteered to coordinate the project with garden members volunteering to take on tasks they were interested in and could manage.

Our first major break-through came when we rallied together at a Sunday working bee and rebuilt the crumbling 'formwork' so we could get a concrete base poured for the tank. Lloyd had obtained some solid recycled wood for free so he and Gavin led us in the building of the formwork. We let the momentum carry us forward and the following Thursday we got the concrete slab poured at a heavily discounted rate by taking the leftover concrete from larger jobs. We dashed to the garden just as the truck arrived and wheeled heavy barrows from the truck to the formwork while a slow drizzle of rain threatened to wash the concrete away. Result: rain held off and the concrete base is solid.

Now this tank is only 'new' to us in the sense that we have not previously connected it up and put it into use. It was found or donated to us a few years ago and had become an obstacle in the garden that we would deal with one day. We moved it on top of the base and poured some water in it to discover that it leaks at two opposite corners. The tank is a slimline design and has structural supports inside making full access inside it impossible. And what about all the leaves that had fallen into it over the years? I didn't want to mention the leaves as I couldn't imagine how we would fix the holes and I was having my own lack of faith with some of the ideas put forward. Then the next week our occasional superhero Gavin, flies in and figured out how to remove the lid off the top of the tank so we could clean it out and do a proper repair job. Gavin then flew out as other duties were calling and Christmas hit so currently we have a half fixed tank, waiting for better weather, time and expertise.

After researching the parts needed for the dripper line, I drafted a few dripper layout schemes for discussion and we settled on a system with three zones. Zones 1 and 2 will be fed by our existing two tanks and solar powered pumps. The third zone will be fed by our yet to be fixed 2000 litre water tank.

A few weeks after the concrete base was poured, Emma called another meeting to get us back on track. We did a trial installation to get the layout concept right. Members gave some support for the design I had drafted, so the next week I headed to the hardware for parts and purchased a large brass Y-filter online.

A week later, thanks to Matt, we got stuck into the dripper-line installation for Zone 1.We immediately improved the design on the spot by eliminating some of the elbow joints as they didn't seem necessary and  it also cut down on parts and cost and will keep the water flow smooth with the water pressure higher.

The most time consuming step of the installation is peeling back the weed mat under our path and digging short trenches down about 6 inches deep to connect new pipe to the existing main water line. Once this has been done, it's a fairly simple job of connecting an inline tap with black polypipe and 3-4 metres of dripper line. We've had this dripper line for years, donated to the garden waiting for us to figure out how to us it. It has drippers inside the hose installed during its manufacture and spaced every 30cm.

Many of our gardening crew had been developing an almost desperate desire to get the irrigation system up and running before the looming Christmas break. In previous years when we go off visiting friends and family over the Christmas holidays, it has been hot and dry meaning our precious garden plants die off. But ironically, it’s been slow going getting the dripper line in, partly as it has been raining so much. Hindsight is a great educator as the penny dropped for me a few weeks ago when inspecting the Bureau of Meteorology website and the Southern Oscillation Index chart. We have been in a 'La nina' pattern for the past 2 years which means that Australia gets a lot more rain. (D'oh, that's why we've had all those floods up north). Our plan for drip irrigation was born among the droughts of the 'El nino' pattern.

But drought or not, having the irrigation system fully functional will consume much less water and make watering much easier. Just before Christmas, Matt and I added a few more dripper lines when the weather was good. More recently I did some investigating with of the existing components of the system.

Firstly, I added a mains connection to compare the drip rate under pump pressure versus mains pressure. There wasn't any perceivable difference.  So then I tried to find the connection for the mainline in Zone 2, which I suspected was under our new herb spiral. I remember connecting it to a mains tap 12 months earlier but couldn't remember how I did it. So I added another mains connection to the pipework in Zone 2 and turned it on. Then came the next major realisation. Zone 2 was pressurised and Zone 1 was dripping. There was only one main line. There was never a previously separate two zone system. I seemed to recall twelve months ago, I'd connected an incorrectly plumbed inline filter to the local rainwater tap as they have the same thread. The tank and pump in the Zone 2 area was installed partly to flush a local loo. We had a tap to use the tank 2 rainwater in the garden, but we never had a connection to the old drip system.

Now we are pondering if we stay with the conceived Zone 1 and 2 or keep it as one system.

In the meantime, I found some awesome dripper line purpose build for gravity fed and recycled water systems. This will be perfect for our gravity fed Zone 3 system. Under our previous design we decided to install lots of individual variable flow drippers. This new line will save us lots of time installing and maintaining the line as the drippers can't clog up or fall apart. We just need that Zone 3 tank to be fixed and were in business.

Applied Environmental Management

Soon I will be starting a Diploma in Applied Environmental Management at Ryde TAFE, with the aim of being employed by a local council or an environmentally focused organisation.

My plan is to contribute, facilitate and lead their programs in various sustainable programs such as bush conservation, waste management, water management and energy management. I see this is as implementing permaculture in a business environment.




I've selected a fulltime schedule which is 12-15 hours per week for 72 weeks. This will definitely keep me engaged over the next 2 years.

First semester in 2012 includes:

• Contribute to environmental decision making - 9 weeks
• Implement principles and practices of ecologically sustainable development - 9 weeks
• Map, interpret and communicate features of the natural landscape using various media - 18 weeks
• Collect and evaluate local catchment area data - 18 weeks

I'll be aiming to incorporate my studies into my worklife and volunteer activites as much as possible. The future is unknown, but I definitely will continue my community focused projects at the Addison Road Garden, worm farming, teaching, facilitating and the recently invigorated Sydney Permablitz crew as a designer and facilitator.

So look out 2012, here I come.

Strawbale Chookhouse Photo Story

Crossing the Hawkesbury River via the Webb Creek Ferry at the town of Wisemans Ferry.
I didn't know there are two ferries at Wisemans.

The slab with gravel and a bale. It's an Octogon so a chook can't get easily cornered by other chooks,
and as octogons look nice and provide us with a challenging learning experience to make bent walls.

Making a half bale from a whole bale.
The needles poking out of the bale are used to pull string back through the bale and tie it off.

The octagonal A-frame roof structure. One full A frame, and six half A frames to make an eight sided roof.
Four of these half A-frames needed pointed ends to fit tightly together.

The end of the first weekend. Here we have Frank Thomas, Richard, Salman, and Wolfgang.

Strawbale Chookhouse

Why a chookhouse
Well why not. Chooks lay better if kept warm in winter and a strawbale house will do that well. And it gave us a chance to learn the basic techniques on a small scale.

The bales and roof are on at the end of the first weekend.
Wall rendering still to come of course.  

Why Strawbale
Strawbales are cheap and locally available and provide incredible insulation. Their resistance to heat transfer is around R10, which geeks will recognise iss a high value. They will keep you cool in summer and warm in winter. The walls will be sealed with render to stop the straw decaying and make it rain proof and fire proof for 3 hours, but the render will enable the wall to breathe too. The low level of moisture in the dry straw of a new wall, will mostly, slowly, be expired.

Even better, in the distant future if you want to knock the building down, the raw materials are not hazardous and can be reused or left onsite.

Method 
An octagonal concrete slab was built 3-4 weeks prior to construction. On top of that, a loose gravel base contained with a wood frame around the edge of the slab. Bales, placed on top, were mostly bent and occasionally cut to fit the octagonal wall shape 2 bales high. Planks cut to fit were placed on top of the bales which were then strapped with wire vertically and horizonally through the wall. The wire was tied together with gripples which compressed the bales to no more than 10%. This makes a surprisingly solid wall. We repeat this with two more layers of bales and then put on a wooden A-frame roof which we also build from spare materials on site.

Render
Next week we will render the walls and finish the roof and trimmings and I will update you then.

Where is this Chookhouse?
We built this chookhouse at Bandusia Country Retreat at Upper Macdonald / St Albans, where Penny Peytt and Frank Thomas ran a workshop on this topic.

Irrigation System Is Go

Summer at ARCG can be quite hot and dry putting our plants under stress and so we have devised an improved drip irrigation system. The existing system depended on someone turning on the solar powered pump which would run for 20 minutes before the battery ran out.

Our vision is to make several improvements. We are only funded by membership fees and so we are making most changes using materials that have been donated to us over the last few years.
Firstly we will add a new tank at a higher location in the garden to use as a continous drip feed system. We will use our pump to transfer rainwater from the collection tank to the drip feed tank. We will increase the pumping time by adding an additional second hand battery. We will also be able to fill the tank with town water if or when needed.

We will salvage what we can from the existing and donated drip pipes to create a new system with a greater feed area. The Addison Road Centre is arranging to clean out the roof gutters as they are overflowing with leaves. The leaf guards don't work perfectly and we lose water over the gutter instead of into the tank. Hopefully they will also trim our over hanging tree.

Once this updated system is in place, I'd like to run and additional gutter pipe from a neighbouring hut to our collection tank as there is more rainwater that could be put use.

Also follow me on Permaculture Global Network