Beginning to prepare

My beau and I have been hearing about Peak Oil a lot more recently and it's giving us the jeebies!

There's now no denying this is happening.

Lyndon's dad is a geophysicist who worked for a multinational oil exploration company. He's telling us to seek alternative power sources.

We are using our common sense. Oil is clearly a finite natural resource. There has not been a major oil basin found since the 70's. I think we are very close to the top of Hubberts Curve. Then what are we going to do?

Eek scary stuff I know. I'm not going to go into all of the details of Peak Oil. If you don't know about, research it if you'd like, if not that's fine it's up to the individual to decide what they want to know about.

But now that I have researched it extensively, I am absolutely 100% convinced that one day we will run out of oil. We're oil babies. Born into an era where everything is based on the supply of cheap oil. We don't know any other life. So when we run out we will be forced into finding alternative ways to transport ourselves, our food, create electricity, etc.

This is one of the main reasons we are working on becoming self-sufficient. We are a long way off but I feel better knowing we are doing something.

While discussing Peak Oil on the weekend, we came to the conclusion that emergency preparedness was an area we were severely lacking in. And not only for the initial effects of the peak oil crisis, but also for weather emergencies or any other reason that we would be trapped in our house without the luxury of going to the shops to get supplies or have to leave the house quickly and live in the car for a while.

Funny that we were talking about it on the weekend. This is the local stream that seperates our house from the city this morning after almost a week of constany heavy rain

Usually this is a metre wide stream. This raging torrent is only a few metres below the road that I use to get home and it's still raining! Don't worry I'm leaving work shortly to get home before it goes over.

So what if I couldn't get home? Or what if I was home and cut off from all shops? Or worse still what if there was a major catastrophy that meant all services were down, roads were cut and if was unsafe to go outside?

I know that sounds really drastic, but I would rather be prepared than not prepared.

Have you discussed an emergency plan?

When we started discussing things like "where I will go if I can't get home after a disaster and can't contact my partner?", "what should we take with us if we have to run out the door, get in the car and just drive?" I started feeling very under-prepared! We hadn't ever discussed anything like that. The Government agencies tell you to have an emergency plan in place, why hadn't we listened?! Because you don't think something like that will happen to you. The news reports with all of those terrible natural disasters, wars, conflict, social upheaval happen overseas, not here.

But I think it is a very responsible thing to think about. I've started looking at stockpiling, what should be in  emergency packs that you keep near the door, in the car, or even at work, and I'm starting to get together lists of items I should start collecting.

We are only beginning to really think about being properly prepared for an emergency so I'm feeling a little uneasy should anything happen in the meantime.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on if you have an emergency plan and the details. What's on your list of essentials? Do you keep a pack near the door or in the car 'just in case'? I'm such a newbie at this and would love to hear any info you may have learnt through your research.

Be safe
x
Kim

Need your advice

We have these little ant mounds all over our neighbourhood and, more annoyingly, all through our yard.

Do you know how we can get deter them?

Finally time in the garden

I am loving having my weekends back after the month of working EVERY DAY!

The weather has been fabulous as well which makes it extra fun. We have a lot to work to do in the garden and also in increasing our knowledge but we're not stressing ourselves out just taking it slow and enjoying the process.

We are already seeing results! We are at the point where we don't need to buy lettuce anymore and that is ideally where I would like to be with the vegies we currently buy. The more we can grow ourselves, the less pesticides we are ingesting, the cheaper our grocery bill will be and the more nutritious our food will be YIPPEE!

We have been able to harvest broccoli, lettuce, tomato's so far

Check out the growth of the broccoli and potato's in this garden bed in such a short amount of time!

From this in August......

To this at 40 days later!

So satisfying. And the lettuce....

Before

After

We have had a big job ahead of us. When we moved in to this place only a few short months ago the gardens were empty. Since the glorious beginning-of-spring rains and with me working like crazy the past month, this was the site that confronted me everytimeI stepped outside. It was quite depressing and made me wish I was not on my way to work but rather digging around in my patch.

WEEDS!

A thick blanket of weeds engulfing all 6 of the garden beds! Well I am very proud to say we now only have 1/2 a bed left to weed. We have been laying weed mat down over the weeded beds for now because we just don't have the number of plants and mulch to fill all the beds just yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But some plants that I have planted in the refreshed garden beds are.....

Raspberries YUMBO!

Strawberries (can you tell I'm a berry fan?!)

Luffa - excited about seeing the results of this one!

Plus, more tomato plants, the cumquat seedlings (that I grew from seed from the fruit of my very first batch of jam -NOSTALGIA right there!), passionfruit, and 2 peanut plants. I'm very excied about the peanut plants, sounds very intriguing to be growing my own nuts!

I also have a pumpkin vine that has popped up from underneath the compost bin and another few vines in the back gardens that I'm willing to let loose over the back lawn.

It's very exciting to see these plants come to life under my assistance and to actually produce food for us to eat.

We are one step closer to being self sufficient. But we are making sure we enjoy the ride not just eageraly waiting for our future goal to be upon us. I think that is important.

Happy simple living!

Council Collection

Do you have these in your neighbourhood? Where you put out large items that you don't want anymore and want to through out? The council sends a letter to let you know when their next collection is and a few days before the whole neighbourhood has their 'junk' out on the kerb?

Well I was driving home from the Brisbane Organic Growers Fair on Sunday and I kept driving past piles and piles of stuff' on the kerb that people were just throwing out. Perfectly good stuff, but stuff they obviously didn't want. Hadn't these people heard of Freecycle?

Well who could pass up such a good opportunity as this?! As soon as I told Lyndon we were in the car driving around the neighbourhood, slowing past every pile of 'stuff' to see if there were any goodies! We scrounged at a frantic pace and before we knew it we had collected and brought home 4 car-loads of those goodies! (I only have a tiny Holden Barina so it may sound more than it actually is!)

Now I don't know what you're view on this might be, but I don't have that big a problem with it. My biggest worry is "oh god what do those peple think of me?" talking about the people on their verandahs watching us rifle through their junk.

So what did we end up with:

• 4 perfect camping chairs (we only need two but will give the other 2 to my sister and her husband for Xmas)
• 3 bikes that Lyndon has been able to get working (he's a bike collector, these bring his total to 10)
• a push mower in perfect condition
• a full length mirror that I will put in my sewing room
• 2 worn 1950's style chairs (to go with our 50's style house when we fix 'em up giving me some sewing practise!)
• a rug that we will use under the house
• some beautiful retro material off an old mattress (I will find material anywhere to practise my sewing on!)
• stereo system for under the house
• a working breadmaker (my find of the day!)
• and lots of other stuff I can't even remember now

It's funny, when we were on our scavenge we discovered there is a whole community of people that do the same thing, there's even professionals!

I know it may seem a little scabby to be digging through someone else's junk but just think about it. Every item we collected is now 1 less thing going to landfill and it is 1 less thing that I am going to spend money on saving me money.

I'm pretty happy with that.

The best lunch!

I had the best lunch I've had in a long time today!

Why?

Well
1. The festival is over and I have my weekend's back and this is the first one where I have just sat and relaxed!
2. I used bread that I had baked myself (this was one of my pledges to learn before the end of the year, see my post about it here)
3. I used lettuce, tomato and basil that I had grown myself in my new garden beds without any pesticides
4. I used butter. Real butter. See my next post about using real foods
5. It tasted damn good!

Unfortunately it tasted so good I didn't have a chance to get a photo so you'll just have to believe me.

Now I'm wondering did it taste better just because I knew I put the effort in to grew those ingrediants myself or because homegrown produce has a better flavour? I think a combination of both.

What has been a dish you've cooked that has tasted great from homegrown ingrediants?

PS. it's good to be back! I've had a hiatus for a while dealing with work but now I am back and determined as ever to continue on my path to living simply

SNAKE in suburbia!

Not quite on a plane, but still as shocking!

Taking the garbage bins to the kerb yesterday afternoon, I saw the long grass moving wildly from where we just moved the bins from.

Is it a worm? Have I finally lost my mind and am now hallucinating? No it actually was a snake! Albeit a small one, definitely a baby, no maybe more than that, a toddler snake?!

It was about 30cm long which is long enough for me to have a freak out and do that little dance when you think it will run over your feet (I wasn't wearing shoes!) and scream to my boy to 'do something with it!'

So my macho (hmm little exaggerated as he also did the little dance and he was wearing shoes!) man came over to investigate after telling me it must be a worm.

By this stage it had freaked out enough by seeing us and was looking for an easy escape. It had started down a crack in the concrete. Lyndon very hesitantly grabbed its tail to pull it back out of the hole. We hadn't thought about what we would do when it came out of the hole, probably throw it wildly in the air would be my guess, but it didn't come to that because ..... IT'S TAIL CAME OFF! Like how a lizard sometimes loses it's tail. Yes that's right we dismembered the snake.

Well the screams were almost deafening, very much like you hear at a 5 year olds birthday party. Yes and that high-pitched too! Lyndon wildly threw the snake tail and it landed in the garage and continued to wiggle. It was quite surrealy to see it keep wriggling like that when the snake was still in the hole.

We reasoned with each other that it could grow it back like a lizards and continued in our quest to put this potential monster back into the wild (if we could actually get to that point), so Lyndon once again grabbed hold of the now stumpy and bleeding end of the tail and started bringing it out backwards. Oh my god, I can't even write this.........ANOTHER PIECE OF ITS BODY BROKE OFF!

So that was it, we knew we had killed the snake by ripping it apart. We looked from the bloody snake pieces to each other in disbelief and realisation at what we had done to this poor creature at the beginning of its snake life. The pain we inflicted on it. Oh my goodness, my heart wretched like I'd seen a human die in front of my eyes. It was the most horrible feeling.

We both walked off in different directions and in silence still shocked and disturbed at what had happened. I started silently weeding my gardens and Lyndon went into the garage to work on his bikes.

So I'm officially apologising to Mr Toddler Snake for contributing to his death. I didn't think the snake would kill me but I still had to have it gone, and look at the consequences of that. Oh and I'm sorry to Mama Snake who I hope won't hold a grudge against me and come looking for me while I sleep.

My life for the next month....

This will be my life for the next month....

The 25th September is a LONG way away and I will be working my butt off the whole time. I have looked at my calendar and so far do not have 1 day off the whole month! Lucky I love it!

If you live in or around Brissie, come check out some fabulous events, that we have been working tirelessly on for months http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/

So.... that means I will be a little absent here for a while. Don't worry I manage to sneak in a little time every few days to check out everyone else's blogs, but will only posting intermittently myself.

Have a lovely September!

:)
Kim