Family Bonding Day

Today was a huge family bonding day, although we didn’t all spend it together. Megan and Grace went up to Sydney with the Peterborough school for the Rotary Club of Turramurra and Pathfinders Jumbo Flight. Qantas donated the use of a jumbo jet, pilots and cabin crew donated their time, and Rotarian volunteers provided ground… Continue reading Family Bonding Day

Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge

We have signed up for the [Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/The-SuperChallenge.html), and Monday night was the official launch of the programme. The idea is for 120 households across the Illawarra to spend the next 12 months moving towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Sustainable Illawarra provides participants with information, workshops, guidance and resources (as well as some… Continue reading Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge

Wicking Beds

**NOTE:** I have moved this post to my other blog, [Green-Change.com](http://green-change.com), as it fits in better with that blog’s theme of suburban sustainability. For futher updates check out [Wicking Beds – Water Efficient Gardening](http://green-change.com/2009/05/01/wicking-beds-water-efficient-gardening/). A wicking garden bed uses a waterproof container or layer below the soil surface to form an underground reservoir of water.… Continue reading Wicking Beds

The Chicken Ark

An updated version of this post is available over on my suburban green living blog, Green Change: [Chicken Ark Plans](http://green-change.com/2008/11/17/chicken-ark-plans) When thinking about a coop for our chickens to live in, we wanted something practical, non-permanent, and space-efficient. Looking around the net, the [‘chicken ark’ or ‘chicken tractor’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tractor) concept seemed the best for our needs.… Continue reading The Chicken Ark

The Good Podcast

It might sound daggy, but lately I’ve been watching the old BBC series [The Good Life](http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/goodlife/index.shtml) (a friend at work lent me the DVDs). Megan thinks I’m getting old. You’ve got to admit, though, that there’s something about Barbara Good (Felicity Kendal). It never sat right with me that that Tom guy wound up with… Continue reading The Good Podcast

Video: Soil Food Web – And Nature’s Soil

##Notes – Manzano Mountains, Central New Mexico, USA – Michael Martin Melendrez, founder of [Soil Secrets](http://soilsecrets.com) – Michael is also well known for his coining the phrase and writing the first paper ever on the Soil Food Web titled ‘Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web’ in 1974 – sugar maples, drop leaves to provide… Continue reading Video: Soil Food Web – And Nature’s Soil

Video: Fallen Fruit

Here’s an interesting video about [picking public fruit](http://kcet.org/explore-ca/web-stories/sustaining/fallen_fruit.php). – Fallen Fruit is a group that maps local fruit trees and encourages sharing through group plantings and “forages” – take people on walking forages to collect public fruit growing in the neighbourhood – fruit growing on public property or hanging over fences onto public property is… Continue reading Video: Fallen Fruit

Video: Edible Estates

Watch the video at KCET, [Edible Estates](http://kcet.org/explore-ca/web-stories/sustaining/edible_estates.php). ##Notes – why are people growing lawn? – Fritz Haeg converts homeowners’ front lawns into working vegetable gardens – Descanso Gardens invited Fritz to build a demo garden to show people what he does – one third of the garden is planted as plain lawn – two-thirds is… Continue reading Video: Edible Estates