Permi8 at Helen's

Our February permi8 gathering at Helen's was arranged weeks in advance and contained the caveat "not if it's raining". Of course most years we'd think it funny she even bothered to mention rain for a February event. "Not if we're under ember attack" or "not if it's over 40 degrees" is probably more like it! So when the email came through at lunchtime saying "Still on! Not too wet", with 60mm in our rain guage since the previous night and buckets still falling, I did wonder.

However, just as Helen had assured us, by the time those who braved it were gathered at the entrance of her property, the rain had stopped and we were treated to a lovely gathering that was practical, social and educational.

We first heard how Helen's family came to live in the Indigo Valley and the farming that they've done there. We checked out Helen's enormous vegetable patch by "dry creek" (flowing very nicely at present, thank you!). It's not so common to have a vege patch quite a long way from the house, but in terms of the microclimate, this is an obvious choice. Soil type and depth, shade in summer, protection from wind and frost and relative flatness of the site all contibute to the patch's success. We harvested gorgeous sweet corn (many other permi8 people found this year a poor one for corn, us included, but not Helen), snow peas, zucchini, tomatoes and tree onions. 

Check out the mist, and the countryside!

We moved closer to the stream, where Sandy gave a talk on worm farming and the use of worm castings as an alternative to fossil fuel based fertilizers.

At Helen's house we dined in the open air, catching glimpses of the Indigo Valley as it appeared and disappeared in the mist. You could have sworn it was the middle of winter with the lush green growth across the Valley, the low clouds and mist and the wetness of the air and plants. But no, it was warm and muggy. 

As usual the shared permi8 spread was a feast of home-grown and home-made goodies. We ate the sweet corn we'd just picked - Helen zaps them for three minutes in the microwave in their husks - as well as the masses of other offerings.

Looks more like winter, huh? There was a valley out there a minute ago.

Helen's father, Paul, shared with us his analysis of weather from records he has kept since 1951 when he first arrived at the property. The discussion turned to the BOM (bureau of meteorology), La Nina/El Nino and the effects of the Indian Ocean dipole. [If you haven't already seen it, check out the Vic DPI's 'climate dogs' series of animations that explain these influences on our weather in a way that is simplified but therefore digestable, and also entertaining.]

Paul's weather records!

So thank you Helen for hosting and to those who were able to come and contribute. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, not to mention the armfuls of Helen's excess corn, elephant/Russian garlic, apples and tree onions that many of us took home.

A postscript to our visit - this week's Living Lightly article in the Border Mail was written by Helen about millipedes, permaculture and the permi8 group. If you missed it in the paper, you can read it here.

Spring numbers update

The Bill Busters participants weren’t the only ones using meter reads to track their progress.

Here are some of our ‘numbers’ for spring (I’m a bit slow getting around to posting them). See here for how and why we’re tracking this stuff.

Average town water use: 58 litres per person per day
Average electricity used per day (total): 2.7 kWh
Average electricity generated per day: 7.8 kWh (for those interested in comparison, it's a 1.7 kW system)
Cost of electricity for the quarter: -$352.61 
(represents service fee and electricity used totalling $73.39, and income of $426.00 from the gross feed-in tariff ... note that even without a feed-in tariff, our generation would cover both our electricity used and the service fee)
Average gas use per day: 3 MJ
Av. petrol used in car per week: 14.4 litres
Percentage of car travel that was for work (excluding commute): 47%
Percentage of car travel – commuting to work: 20%
Other personal use car travel: 33%

We were interested to note that our electricity use was 15% less than the same time last year. Presumably our fridge upgrade helped, but we also used the solar space heater more and spent more time at home than last spring, so we were pretty happy with that outcome. The lower our use gets the harder it is to find more opportunities to reduce ... but we’re still improving, which is our goal!

Our town water use was a bit higher than last spring. Not much had changed in terms of our appliances or behaviours for water, so it seemed a bit strange at first. Then we realised that although we both worked from home last spring, it wasn’t as much as this year. That extra water use is pretty much extra toilet flushing. In the longer term, we plan to install a composting toilet that won't require water to deal with our toilet waste at all, but it's still a way off. Needless to add, I have implemented a plan to address it. I’m just working out where the line is before you tell me “that’s too much information!” so I’ll save the details for another time. Stay tuned!

Wanted: metal bottle caps

It all started innocently enough. I thought I'd turn my hand to making some mosaics this summer. While I am rarely associated with anything remotely creative or arty, my friends are and they assured me mosaics are within my abilities. The bit where it went a bit pear shaped was when I started considering the opportunities to use recycled or reused materials for the mosaics. Quite simply, the possibilities are endless. So I am still intending to learn (and hopefully complete) some mosaics this summer, but I've scored an idea for another project as well.

You see I came across the work of some very clever folk who have turned metal bottle caps (beer stubby lids and the like) into art, and I'm also keen to give that a go. For those who need some visuals, see here (delightful series of fish), here (insane number of lids in each piece), here (portrait in lids), here (on the side of a house), here (chameleon from a zillion lids) and here (painted caps on print).

The collection begins ... with some help from some friends

Rest assured my efforts are likely to be far simpler than any of these!

Bottle caps aren't accepted as part of household recycling collections (in our area). The reasons being that they 1) get caught on the back of the sorting machinery, causing expensive problems if not cleared out regularly; 2) can't be baled with the other metals (tin cans and the like), so they don't make it to the recyclers and 3) the little plastic bit inside adds an extra degree of difficulty if you're recovering them for the metal.

Beer lids have long annoyed me as something that felt like they should be re-useable, so I am pleased to have a project that might find a 'use' for some of them. Please feel free to collect your lids and I'll be happy to take them off your hands. Or go one better and show me what I should be aspiring to by creating your own beer-lid masterpiece.

Build-It Bloke thinks it's great - he says he's supporting the cause by drinking more beer.

What am I going to make? I don't know yet. I'll see what colors (and how many!) lids I can muster and take it from there ... stay tuned.