Sun worship

Big news is that we have signed up for solar power. Right now a govt rebate means that it will cost us about $2000 AUD to get a 1KW grid connected system. This translates to a less than 5 year payback on a purely economic basis, however more importantly it puts solar within reach for us. There must be a hell of a lot of people signing up for this, and if what has happened in Europe is anything to go by then solar has a bright future. And critically its doing our part for a better future for everyone.

Synchronicity

I will keep this one brief seeing as no-one is reading. So its a diary for me. Had an absolutely awesome day today. Woke to T-mans smile and quiet presence. He rested his hand on my head and whispered "is the sun waked up Dad". After Brekki I collected the parcel that Rob has been frothing about. Its a special kids byke http://www.bykbikes.com/. Wicked. Cant wait to see T-man ride it, but its his 3rd birthday in 1 month so its a tough choice to get him on it now or wait for a month... The crazy thing is that for the last 6 months I have been dreaming about getting a custom geometry lightweight, big wheel bike for T-man. And here it is. Synchronicity as I understand it from Peter Russells works is the materialisation of your thoughts often attributed to co-incidence.

Then I had a Bowen massage, felt much better after that, even though it hurt at the time. But the best was yet to come. After a nice lunch and going to the library we decided to go out for the afternoon and were kind of driving aimlessly while talking about A. and how we wanted to go visit her now that she had moved interstate. All of a sudden wife says "theres A." and no s**t there she was. Back in town for a day to do a photo shoot on the river. So we hung out for the afternoon, watched the sunset over the water as we ate pizza and just generally enjoyed life.

I actually said to A. that she was my inspiration to re-start this blog. And so here I am tapping away and thinking of all the stuff that has happened which could be posted for posterity.

Oh and yes the vegies are going great. We did a big replanting in January and expect to harvest in from now till we head North for winter.

take the kids on your bike

We are still here, still growing vegies and doin loads of other cool stuff too. Like having babies, now its 2 little peices of heaven we share our home and life with.

Previously my ramblings alluded to a passion for pedalling, particularly off road. And its become apparent that this is going to be a big part of my kids upbringing. Mainly because unlike all the other sports I do, MTB is just super convenient and easy to take the kids along. Especially in winter when the water is too cold to take littlies surfing.

Basically since T-man was 6 months old he has been heading bush with me in the baby bjorn pouch. And that was cool, as he grew stronger I would go faster and with him in the superman position we belted down all the gnarly stuff me whooping and him ..... falling asleep. True story. Here I was thinking he was getting high on adrenalin just super stimulated by daddys bike skills when actually he was having a kip. At least it gives mum a break hey.

So at about 18 months he was getting pretty heavy and by 2 years intolerable. But he was really getting into the whole idea, often coming out with "wan bike ride in bush daddy" A new way had to be found. Now as a bit of background, I have a history of reinventing, and always baring things back to essentials for ultimate function. So of course all the bike seats on the market got the big thumbs down, too complicated, too bulky, too limited, no flow, no moment, and mostly no fun. So in a flash I came up with the system pictured below, and we have not looked back.

Specs: one pool noodle attached over top tube and stem. A timber T-bar attached to the down tube.
Cost: free, all the bits were in the shed. If you had to buy them maybe $10.
Why: Check out the videos in next posts, its way cooler than any other kid carrier. We are both as free and unencumbered as we could be.
Why not: If you are not a good bike rider dont do it. If your wife is the worrying type dont do it.

Man this is fun, I get goosebumps just thinking about the trail times we have together.

Peace.. Mat

Rain Rain go away

Heres those radishes, gorgeous healthy specimens and tasty as you imagine. In the background you can see the compost bin, which is a cheap plastic garbage bin with some holes drilled and 25mm PVC pipes jammed through for aeration. Like the rest of the garden learning composting is a work in progress. What a spectacular difference there is between this old photo and the garden a few weeks on. Most of our vegie beds are now obscured by towering plants, delicious juicy beans, rampant cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, and some soggy zuchinis. Unfortunately we have had to nuke the zukes because incessant rain is rotting them. Also they started to take over the whole bed, stopping anything else from growing.


The rain has hardly let up the last 10 days, pretty much halting what little work I was doing in the garden. Its so frustrating to see everything deteriorate, the vegies going soggy and ground untrafficable. I probably would have continued to work in the mudpit anyway but had a few days of limited bodily function due to some idiotic bicycle antics. Cycling is another facet to the whole eco way of life. In my case its more than that, because mountain bikes were my passion as a youngster, and still get me excited now. As my current nasty gravel rash proves. There are so many reasons to ride a bike - economic, environmental, social and perhaps the most important, its great fun.... until you stack.

On the proffesional front I am preparing to start a consultancy for emergent eco sports, including cycling particularly off road MTB. The way I see it, smart communities will begin to engineer their transport and recreation to suit cyclists. In fact they will even compete to attract active, sustainable residents and tourists. Of course those smart communities need expert advice to make it happen. Thats where I come in with an abundance of experience and knowledge about sustainable activities. Moutain biking, Kitesurfing, Hiking, Canoeing the list goes on.

So anyway the sun is starting to shine, the garden is going off and the gravel rash is healing nicely. Happy New Year to all creatures great and small and may we all share in lots of fresh home grown organics..... and ice cream.

Mat

Tis the season to be growing

Hip Hip Hooray, we got the green outcome we wanted, and thats both in the senate and in our vegie patch. Its only been 2 months and yes our vegies have sprouted. in fact they are as big as me already and you would not beleive it but we are already eating some. Turns out radishes only take 4 weeks from seed to plate !! And yes it was amazing to taste the difference. I am on the verge of getting evangelical about it even though its just a few pithy radishes we have harvested so far. Picking something thats been lovingly reared without chemicals and eating it super fresh right there and then is incomparable. You simply have not lived right until you try it.

Apart from the radishes theres plenty of action as you can see in the photo below. The beans were first up closely followed by the cuces, zukes, radishes and marigold. Now we have all 3 varieties of tomato up to 2 feet high, as well as one or two lettuces. In fact we just put stakes in because all the plants are going crazy and we want to keep them vertical for efficiency and health. You will see those and more next post as these photos are a week old. If you look close you will see the gravity fed sprinkler and wifes crow attractor. (crows are the bane of our life right now)

Its rained heavily the last few days, filling our water tank to the overflowing and boosting the vegies. This whole process has been so fulfilling. There has been a whole series of wonderful little moments starting with construction of the garden boxes, then planting of seed. Then waking to the sound of rain and just lying there happily thinking of the moist rich soil. While I was interstate the phone call came to say "guess what, they are sprouting !" And 4 weeks after planting we harvested our first radishes and absolutely frothed over how good they tasted. Now the excitement of each days difference, from noticing flowers on the eggplant to tying up the prickly cucumber. What a lesson in life.

Its not all happy joy joy of course, in the herb bed theres not a lot to report with only a few tiny coriander and dill showing, plus we only got 2 lettuce to strike. Also the orange and plum trees got decimated by grasshoppers. And of the 3 precious mangoes I have been nurturing on our recently transplanted mango tree only one poor fruit survives. One atrophied, another got taken by those blasted crows. So wife sprayed the citrus, wrapped the mango and replanted all the herbs and lettuces today. Although we are not learned on permaculture their motto pops into my head "lots of happy little accidents and sad little failures" At this point you are wondering why wife seems to do all the work, its simple really like most males I am useless. Actually it has been a joint effort and very satisfying, I got to saw and dig, she gets to tend and care. And along the way we have a lot of fun, laughter and learning. Its no mugs game gardening thats for sure.

So we are stoked, our vegies are rockin on, and oh yeah... no nukes Kevi is in, filthy bush toady choward is out.

Merry Christmas you lot.

Mat

People get the government they deserve.

Well I am interstate for a week from tommorow, out of here at 4:30 am ... still have not packed, leaving it last minute as usual. Was mucking about with the garden until the mozzies got so bad I thought they had decided that sucking my veins dry was not enough, and why not chew me to bits as well. I was trying rather pitifully to water everything from our "no pump installed yet" gravity effect water tank, which is rather inconveniently positioned at about the same level as the garden beds... "doh". Its never simple is it.

Happily voting in our federal election was simple, I had to make an early vote cause not sure where I will be Saturday. Wife joined me cause being 8 months pregnant with a toddler, going to vote on her own could have been difficult. She is absolutely horrified that I share our political beleifs unashamadely on this blog. I am absolutely horrified at politics in general and the disgrace to humanity aka politicians haha, however it is a relevant topic right now. Anyway dont read any further if talking politics is taboo for you.

Before you vote I reccomend checking these two sites

http://www.votenuclearfree.net/ , and http://www.getup.org.au/blogs/view.php?id=590&dc=81,97135 - In breif it means that voting for a minor party is not wasting your vote, and QLD greens preference against the coalition.

Mat

Every day is a new day

Somewhere in suburbia, tonight a seed is germinating. Many seeds. A whole vegie patch full in fact... YEEHAA We did it, we planted our first vegetables. Lettuces, broccoli, tomatoes (3 types), aubergine (it even sounds round and purple HAHA) courgettes, beans, radishes the list goes on plus a whole bunch of herbs. I am excited. So excited I thought b****r it this deserves a blog.

So I created this one. My first blog ever. Firstly thanks for reading, I hope you like it, secondly dont think that its going to be regularly updated. Because besides being busy I reckon theres way too much crap on the net already. Maybe cyberspace is going to fullfill its promise and contribute to the next level of evolution, but right now I am just excited about growing vegies with my wife and little ones in our very own vegetable patch. Ahhh the simple things.



Just in case you did not realise, theres been a few months of sweat, a fair whack of coin, and many years of talking and dreaming leading up to today. I may elaborate later... or not. To start a blog my inspiration came partly from a friend Jo, and mostly from the hilarious comment thread on Kevin Rudds nose picking youtoob hahaha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ipvdBnU8F8 We vote green in case you did not guess and will hope it ends up tasteless Kevi over Sh**head Choward. If you are going to comment on this make it funny or else. Thats it for today while I see if I can upload some pics. Peace.

Mat