Our little patch of earth

I was out in the garden today.

It is looking more beautiful than ever. The native violets are flowering, and the new fronds on the tree ferns are unfurled.

The house should be ready for sale within a month now, and then we'll be moving. I'm looking forward to having a big garden, full of useful plants where I can grow food for my family and loved ones, and where I don't have to worry about how it looks for potential buyers, because we never intend to leave.

But I can't help feeling I'll miss my first little patch of earth. This has been our first home together - the home we bought because we could afford it, not because it was our 'ideal' in any way.

For most of my time here I neglected the garden. I neglected myself as well. Both of us went to seed, and I gained weight as the garden gained weeds. Neither of us was happy, or knew what we could be.

It is only in the last year or so that I have learned who I am and who I want to be. In that time I have rescued the garden from an overrun mess of weeds and insects to a beautiful oasis that is a pleasure to be in.

I wonder who will buy our home, and whether they will treasure our little patch? Will the tree ferns live on, uncurling their new fronds year after year? Or will the new owners do what our next-door neighbours did, and build a wood deck of sawn dead trees to cover their whole back yard, so nothing living can grow and thrive, with nothing but barren mud beneath?

I hope instead that some keen gardener will buy our home. I hope that they will plant, and sow, and feel deep joy as new life stirs in the warm earth, and new greenery twists and bends to kiss the blue sky and the brilliant sun above.

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You can see earlier photos of our garden from November and October to see how it has come along.

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About our garden:

• A new, drought-resistant garden!
  
• Update on our garden
  

The side effect that is climate change

I recently received a comment about climate change. Here's my viewpoint. Once again, I'm probably offending people, but - oh heck. Here goes nothing.


This is my response to climate change skeptics.

I’m not here to debate climate change. Unlike most people, I don’t see global heating as humanity’s biggest problem (although I do absolutely accept the masses of scientific evidence pointing to the undeniable fact that the earth is heating up due to humanity’s behaviours – and on this point we will have to disagree).

I see climate change as simply a side effect of the totally unsustainable behaviours and attitudes humanity is engaging in.

We’re overfishing, overpopulating, polluting our air, poisoning our lakes, rivers and seas, desertifying our land, destroying our topsoil, causing thousands of species to go extinct every year, dumping nuclear submarines in the sea when no longer needed (were they ever needed?), clear felling our forests, destroying our rainforests, decimating our coral reefs…need I go on?

If the climate is changing as a result of our actions as well, is it any surprise?

You can argue all you want about whether CO2 emissions are related to global heating. I just went to a debate the week before last where a very clever man was trying to argue that human CO2 emissions had nothing to do with climate change, and that climate change was a Communist conspiracy anyway. He’s welcome to his beliefs, and entitled to say what he thinks.

The fact is, the problem is not climate change, and it doesn’t matter whether you believe it is real or not. The problem is we are damaging beyond repair our only source of food, clean air, clean water, clean food, and livelihood. And it is happening right before our eyes. Climate change is just a side-effect of the damage we are causing to the only planet we have.

What matters is that we are destroying a very beautiful and fragile planet. There is not and can not be any debate that our planet’s ecosystems are in crisis, and there is hardly any place on earth that humanity has not touched and altered in some way. If you do not believe me, get a copy of Google Earth, and scan the earth to see how much we have changed the face of this planet. The scars of cities and suburbs are easily visible from space, stretching mile after mile from ocean to ocean across vast continents.

You are welcome to believe climate change is a conspiracy. But if you want simple, indisputable proof that earth destruction is happening and pollution is real, try drinking the water from any number of the 40% of earth’s rivers that are now too contaminated to drink. And you will see that the planet is sick, and desperately needs our care.

So stop wasting time debating whether climate change is real. Stop debating conspiracy theories, Communist plots, Michael Crichton’s aliens, and other such nonsense. Instead, start changing your behaviours, stop consuming so much and destroying so swiftly. Start caring for, and loving, this beautiful solitary gem in space just a little, tiny bit, before she dies even a fraction more.

And the new Miss America is...

Wow. An award. Gee. Ummmm. Thanks!

:-D

Trust me, who usually has waaaaay too much to say, to be lost for words upon receiving my very first blog award for Cluttercut.

The Shameless Lions Writing Circle created this award to "encourage and celebrate good, powerful writing on the Internet/blogosphere." I am feeling all dumbfounded and kind of pleased.

Recipients of the award get to post the cute lion award on their blog (see above), and talk about three elements they believe are essential for good writing. Here are my three:

1. A blog post must be about something. There's no point in waxing lyrical about...nothing at all. Say what needs to be said, even if it is painful to say it. I believe strongly that words are made great by the truth that lies within them.

2. Get to the point. Have you ever had someone try to tell you a joke? And they went on and on? And the joke meandered around and dribbled from point to point? And the Rabbi and the Priest and the Barmaid all got thoroughly bored? And by the end of the joke you were wishing it would end? But it didn't? And it went on some more? And then...just when the punch line was FINALLY coming...the joke-teller forgot the punch line.

Get my point?

3. Say it beautifully, and say it from the heart. I'm not too good at this one. Sometimes I stumble on words, and trip over what I intend to say. But at least I give it a darned good bash.

Try to make the world a more beautiful place. If you, like me, can't sing or paint with a brush, then try to make the world a little more lovely with the sound and rhythm of words.

So that's my three elements of good writing.

Now, to honor the Great Mauve Lion, I also have to nominate five other blogs that I believe are of note. Here they are, in no particular order:

Our Patch. Why? Because this blog typifies all that is great with the blogosphere - honesty, integrity, and a sense of humour. I only wish our political landscape were so well cared-for.

Reynards Feast. There's always something yummy and vegan to eat here :-) And the recipes are mostly originals by a good friend of mine.

Pondering the Myriad Things. Another blogger who dares to dream, to hope, to act, and to ask the question: "What if?"

Living The Good Life. Linda and her family lived six months without spending a cent - well, almost! Now they've moved to southern Tasmania, and their challenge to make the world a better place and lead by example continues. And buy Linda's book!

Towards Sustainability. I don't believe 'Crazy Mumma' is crazy at all. In fact, I think she and her blog are bloody fantastic and well worth a read. Certainly she deserves this award far more than I do.

So they're my five nominations. Check them out. Let me know if you agree. I'd have nominated my nominator - Chile Chews if it weren't bad form, but instead I'll just say thanks. Chile writes a great blog, so make sure you check her blog out too.

Too many humans!

I've been doing the Riot For Austerity in a bit of an ad hoc way for a few months now.

The Riot For Austerity, in short, is a group of homesteaders trying to

"cut their emissions by 90% of what the average person in the US consumes - the approximate amount people in the rich world need to reduce by in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming." (Source: Link)

I think this is a very fine thing to do. The western lifestyle (which I will refuse to call the American lifestyle because we Aussies are just as bad) is absolutely wasteful. We live like we are the last ones to dwell on this planet. If we keep going this way, we will be.

The Riot addresses different aspects of resource usage - gasoline, electricity, heating and cooking fuel, garbage, water, finances and food. Pretty full on. And admirable work is being done.

But nothing is said about population reduction.

Nothing.

They go down to solar power credits and rain barrels, and even weighing garbage, but nothing is said about the size of your family. So according to the "Riot" it doesn't matter if you have fifteen kids - as long as you weigh your garbage. Then if each of your 15 kids only uses 1/10th of the average US citizen, you're succeeding according to the terms of the Riot.

See the problem?

Okay, I'm getting personal here. I'm playing devil's advocate and that's not polite. And yeah - the Bible says go forth and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.

Well, I'm here to say that I think we've achieved multiplication, filling the earth and subduing it, and maybe a little common-sense and moderation in our numbers is now called for.

Now, I'm no statistician. But I do know a little bit about exponential growth and the human population growth curve. And I know that, say, five kids a family will pretty much do it, no matter how much you try to cut back on your gasoline use.

I don't suggest for a moment that immediate and firm population control measures would solve all the climate change and peak oil issues humanity currently faces. But I do know that they would make huge differences.

A mother's perspective

I'm a mother - my son is aged 3 and my daughter is aged 9 months. And, to be perfectly honest, I would love to have more children. My kids are so amazing and so special that I'd love to fill a huge house full of them, Patridge family-style.

At the very least I'd like another baby. I think children give us joy and wisdom beyond anything we could ask or expect. I'm a healthy Mum, and there's no reason why my husband and I shouldn't go on to have another three or four kids. We can afford to, the Government wants us to, so why not?

We won't. We are making a firm and absolute decision that our family stops with two, which is technically below stable population numbers. We even actually debated having a second, and it was only after a lot of consideration that we went on to have my daughter. Despite calls from the Australian government to have 'one for the mother, one for the father, and one for Australia', we're stopping with a pigeon pair. We were lucky enough to get a boy and a girl, but had we had two of the same gender, we would still have stopped at two.

Avoiding the Big Issue

When we humans take serious measures in our behaviours to tackle climate change and peak oil, we are doing commendable work. But if we ignore various big issues because they are inconvenient to us, we do not do ourselves justice.

The issue of population control is difficult. I am not advocating infanticide, murder of people, or enforced sterilisation. But I do believe that the current status of various world governments, various churches and religions (including the Catholic Church and many orthodox groups), and many Green groups and world charities in ignoring this issue is irresponsible.

We need to reduce our numbers, in some parts of the world more quickly than others. A simple way to check whether a country is overpopulated is to check the average ecological footprint of a citizen in that country, then calculate the amount of arable land available in that country to see whether the country is overpopulated.

Of course, the statistics given on how much land is required to feed a human being are based on land fertilised and farmed with readily accessible petrochemicals and oil-based transportation systems. So those figures themselves may be dubious.

I think it is probably safe to say that the entire planet is probably currently overpopulated with humans, and that at the absolute least a marginal reduction of human numbers is required. The planet certainly has no need of or ability to carry greater human numbers than are already present.

I can see why this issue is avoided. Reproduction is seen as a human right, and let no-one interfere with that right! The issue is uncomfortable, sticky, is fraught with religious issues and awkwardness, and it's just plain uncomfortable.

It's like that other big nasty - the fact that the livestock industry causes more greenhouse gases than the world's entire transport systems. People like to have lots of kids, they like to eat lots of animals, and we like to look the other way on both these issues and change a few lightglobes instead because that's an easier change to make.

Which brings me to...

When I was at school back in the 1980s (yes, I'm that old!), I used to do the World Vision 40 hour famines. I thought I made a difference, saving all those poor children from starvation. I raised hundreds of dollars, as did my friends.

We'd have been better off distributing condoms. Because many of those kids lived long enough to have many more starving children of their own, and the AIDS epidemic has also spread like wildfire through Africa. Now the suffering is worse than ever. All our goodwill did was make the suffering last longer.

Of course, World Vision is a Christian organisation, so they're never going to consider family planning methods - oh no! Better that people reproduce unheeded and raise more starving people - that's the ethical thing to do, apparently.

I can't help but think that there was no point to my charity back in the 1980s. Because all it did was make me feel good, and help bring a new generation of poor children forth into the world to suffer needlessly. If we'd provided condoms as well as farming setups, the parents of those children would now be coping much better, and wouldn't be dealing with AIDS and dying children.

As a mother, I cannot imagine any nightmare worse than watching my child die and not being able to do anything about it. I feel for those mothers now, but as no charity that I know will distribute family planning methods along with sustainable assistance, I cannot in all good faith donate to them, and I feel helpless as I watch yet more children suffer needlessly, as their poor mothers look on in anguish. If this is the ethical way according to World Vision and their cronies, it stinks.

Why reduce our numbers? We're fine, right?

There's only one Earth, and at the rate we're destroying the ecosystem, it looks like we're far beyond carrying capacity already. We need to reduce. We need to think long-term, reduce our needs and our numbers, and set to work healing this beautiful earth of ours instead of tearing it apart.

Hate mail?

I'm sure I'm going to get hate mail over this post. I'll get the whole "Why did you have two children then?" question. I'll get the whole "How dare you! Butt out of my life, thank you very much! I have seven children and we're absolutely sustainable!" And I'll get the "How dare you question the Bible/the Church/Synagogue/whatever?!"

I question because someone has to. If I, as a human being, don't question humanity's actions, then who on earth will?

As I said, I am a mother. I am also a citizen on this most beautiful world. I want our children to live on a peaceful, sustainable planet, with enough food and good soil for everyone. That means we need to acknowledge our limits, and truly begin to appreciate the Garden of Eden that we have been given.

The Permaculture Concept (Part 1)

Watch it. This is one of the clearest, most entertaining, and enlightening explanations of Permaculture I've come across.

Cleaning windows, brickwork, tiles...

We're down to the last of the cleaning up, before the house goes to market.

I'll be cleaning windows again this afternoon. We only have seven windows in our tiny little home, but they take forever to clean. Everything has to be so nice and sparkling for potential buyers!

Next is the brickwork outside. I'll be washing it down with dilute vinegar. Giving it a good scrub. Making it gleam, and look as shiny-new as possible (the house is twelve years old). The rest of the garden is done, and that will be it for outside work, apart from keeping weeds at bay, and continuing to pour shower buckets on the tree ferns, laundry water on the lawn, and buckets from the bath on the flowers outside. Oh, and the lavender needs hacking back again - it's six feet across and starting to resemble a triffid.

Then there's the inside tiles (bathroom, entry, toilet, laundry) that need a scrub. The kitchen tiles also need renovating, but the professional guy is coming to do that. I'll be scrubbing with some seriously powerful green cleaners, to get them shiny-shiny.

This Friday the piano gets moved out to my husband's parents' home, where it will stay for the next few months until we buy. We don't dare move it back in across the new flooring (going in next Thursday). And on the weekend we move our furniture out from the living and dining rooms, in preparation for the flooring to be laid. This is the ONLY time in my life I've wished for a family room/alternative eating area, because then we wouldn't have the problem of where to eat while the flooring is happening. As it is, we'll be eating outside in the fernery, picnic-style.

So we're nearly done. I'll soon be able to ring the agent we've chosen, and say "Come sell our house, please!"

The Story Of Stuff

I watched The Story Of Stuff last night.

If you haven't seen it, do so. Right after reading my little spiel here.

You see, The Story Of Stuff explains Everything That Is Wrong In This World.

Simply. Clearly. Succinctly.

In short, planned obsolescence. Stuff is designed to fall apart, to not work the day after the warrant ends, to have a short life span, to look dated six months/six weeks/six days after you buy it.

Everything you buy is designed to keep you buying more. Nothing is designed to last. The whole of the western world is not filled with people, lovers, dreamers, activists, believers, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends.

Hell, no. It is filled with consumers. That's all we've become.

When we're tired, we shop. When we're bored, we shop. We shop on religious holidays (Christmas gifts, Easter Chocolates). We shop leading up to religious holidays (Advent calendars). We shop believing it will save the planet (solar powered peace wreaths and twinkle lights, organic cotton Santa sacks - yes, really!). We shop believing it won't. We shop if we don't give a damn. Shopping defines who you are - the 'Green consumer', the 'don't give a rats Hummer driver', the 'trendy iPod listener', the 'fashionista'. Or who you're not.

Even Good Old President Bush encourages US citizens to go shopping more. So it must be right.

The Story Of Stuff explains why we're not as happy as we used to be. The 1950s was when westerners reached 'Peak Happiness'. Now all we have is Peak Oil, Peak decimation of the oceans, rainforests and skies, and peak animal and human abuses - or maybe we're not there yet?

The Story Of Stuff also explains why, when my family and I did our Year Of The Cull last year, we still found it hard to stop shopping, to stop buying and to stop being consumers. Even now, when I know we have more than enough stuff to cater for our needs, I find myself dragged mysteriously towards those alluring adverts on TV, on billboards, on the radio. Shop window presentations are still attractive and lure me in, like a trout being dragged on a wire. I know I'm being played for a sucker, and yet I can't help it.

Those advertising executives are good at their job.

Watch The Story Of Stuff. Before you buy those last-minute Christmas must-haves. And ask yourself:

• Will Jesus really be disappointed if you don't cut down a tree for Christmas? Just imagine how many millions of trees around the world would be left growing if you decided to plant a few trees instead of chopping one down or - God forbid - having one of those lasts-500-years plastic monstrosities in your living room!
  
  
• Will your friends really hate you if you don't send cards this Christmas? Why not phone them instead, or meet them and go for a picnic in the Botanic Gardens? Spend time - not money - on your loved ones.
  
  
• Will God really hate you if you don't make a turkey and/or a pig suffer this year? Why not have a vegetarian Christmas, and let an animal live, for a change? If your regular Christmas is seafood, why not let a few more fish or shellfish survive, and give the dolphins and larger animals (and the environment) that depend on these smaller creatures for their very survival a chance? Fish farms aren't any better, often feeding their animals fish meal - a rendered product made from 'unwanted' species caught at sea.
  
  
• Will the kids really hate you if you teach them the real meaning of Christmas? If you claim to celebrate Christmas, do it properly. Forget the consumerism, and instead go to Carols By Candlelight, celebrate Midnight Mass, donate old toys to charity, spend time at a soup kitchen, help out Trees For Life, take the kids camping for the first time, buy the kids a fruit tree instead of a battery-operated piece of plastic, try fasting this Christmas in thanks for the years of peace and plenty you have been given, help out at an animal shelter. There are more ways to celebrate the deeper meaning of Christmas than I can list here.
  
  
• Stop being a 'Consumer'. Stand up. Right NOW. And say out loud:
  
  
  "I am NOT a consumer!
  I am a human being who lives, loves, laughs and believes
  I am a person who thinks, reasons and feels.
  I am a part of a planet that needs my time, my love and my care.
  I will take time to think before I act.
  I will do my best to do what is right.
  I will no longer be part of the machine that is consumerism
  - The machine that hurts people, animals, and our home."

Now go watch The Story Of Stuff. Get your friends to watch it. And we are a community - no-one stands alone in this world. To make a real difference, you must pass on what you know and learn.

Because together we are strong.

The Story Of Stuff: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Year Of Transition

This year has been hard.

By comparison, last year was easy. We dubbed 2006 "The Year Of The Cull" and that is where our journey began - with clearing the clutter, emptying our trash, selling the possessions we needed no longer, or perhaps had never needed in the first place.

In the process we decluttered ourselves - I lost 30 kilos (about 70 pounds), and changed my diet from being a junkatarian to being a whole foods vegan. I slipped down through eight dress sizes, learned how to respect my body and give it the food it needed, and learned how to value myself in a real, genuine way - both physically and emotionally.

It was a challenging, thrilling, deeply rewarding time.

But this year has been hard. Starting with the homebirth of my daughter, who came late with the drought that seemed endless. The summer waged war on us, the creek dried up, the trees died, we lost two of our tree ferns and most of our greenspace. We also lost our own sense of time, sleep and self, as a demanding baby took every ounce of energy, woke eight times a night, screamed apparently without reason, refused to settle, and confounded even the experts.

Now everything has settled. My son grows older, and is becoming more independent by the day. My baby daughter is almost sleeping through the night. We are reclaiming our intelligence from the exhaustion that dominated the first three quarters of the year. We are beginning to catch up with friends again, and return from the wilderness of being parents of a 'challenging' baby. Our family and our clan-friends are united in purpose.

And now I understand what this year has been about.

This year was The Year Of Transition. From youth to full adulthood. From unopened bud to full, glorious flower. From innocence to experience. This is the year that challenged us, marked us, made us hurt, made us cry, made us scream for the agony to stop, and still it went on. This was the year that brought wisdom into our souls and strength into our veins. This was the year that our family became a real family, because we worked through our challenges together and together we became strong.

Transition is always hard. Often we don't understand what is happening when the transition is taking place - why everything is changing and why it is all so difficult. We don't understand why our friends cruise through life yet we struggle at every turn. It is not until the struggle ceases a little while that we can stop, take stock, and understand that it is those very twists and turns in our lives that make us who we are. It is the challenges in life that make us strong. We cannot rise from the ashes without first being burned and scarred.

We come to the end of 2007 with a 9 month old daughter who is talking already, is bright and beautiful, and who has already taken her first, faltering steps.

We come to the end of this year with a three year old son who can dress himself, program a DVD player, sing songs, feed himself and have a conversation - none of which he could do at the start of the year.

We come to the end of this year with a marriage ten years old and stronger than ever. My husband is my rock, my lover, my friend and my soul. I am him and he is me, and we bring out the best in each other.

We come to the end of this year with a home ready to sell and with dreams and plans of a new home, a sustainable livelihood, a food forest instead of a lawn, and home sovereignty in electricity, water supply, basic foods, waste disposal and transportation.

2006 was The Year Of The Cull, in which we swept away the old, unsustainable ways of living, assessed who we wanted to be, and began a tentative transformation.


2007 was The Year Of Transition, in which we worked through pain, through confusion, through stresses and challenges, and have emerged victorious, butterflies ready to spread our wings and take on our futures without fear.


What will 2008 bring? Our plans are for unity as a family, connection with this beautiful, rich earth, and friendship within our community.

I do not know what 2008 will bring, but I know that I have the strength in me to face my future without fear.

Floors and pianos

We've booked the new flooring.

It will be laid on the 19th - a few days before Christmas. We've chosen sustainably grown and harvested Tasmanian Oak (plantation grown), and it should look fantastic. More to the point, it should add thousands of dollars in value to our home, which is why we're laying it. The place will be unrecognisable when it's done.

A few days prior to the new floor going in, the piano will be moved out. It won't be coming back in - it's off to be looked after by my in-laws, until we've bought our next home. Moving it back in over the new wood floor is too tricky and risky - we don't want scratches, and the piano is very heavy.

After the flooring is done, we've just got a bit of tile renovation to do in the kitchen - regrouting, and replacement of two broken tiles. Then we move out a fair bit of our stuff, to make the place look more spacious and tidy, clean the house top to bottom (wash windows, scrub floors etc.), and we're ready for sale.

I'll be glad when we're done! Here's to a quick sale, a great price, and an easy move to our next home!

Trash and Treasure 2 - Done!

Trash and Treasure 2 is done.

Total cash haul: about $300 buckaroonees.

I'm very pleased.

Better yet, you can see the floor of the garage now!

Something to make you smile...

...and maybe cry a little.

I did.

After I posted "The End of America" the other day, I felt depressed.

I know it's old, but when Dubya was voted back in again, the website http://sorryeverybody.com/ appeared.

In response, the rest of the world (which is us!) created

http://www.apologiesaccepted.com/

In short, we're all in this together. Together we are strong. And that makes me feel better.

"And the light shined in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."
- John 1:5.

Another check off the checklist...

At this time of the year, most people are buying all sorts of useless things for Christmas. We're doing the opposite - getting rid of all sorts of useless things for a nice tidy profit. This may be the very first holiday season we end up richer, rather than poorer - or we would, if it weren't for the renovations! But even they will pay off when we sell our home early next year - we hope!

The painters have been and gone, and we are now back home, after spending two nights in an apartment while the painters painted and the fumes cleared out (low VOC paints, but they still smelled).

The house looks so much better, and we haven't even put in the new flooring yet.

Next job is the floors through the living room and hall, and then floor tile renovation (regrouting) in the kitchen. We still need to paint the main bedroom as well - we're doing it ourselves, and have painted the toilet and bathroom ourselves too, to cut contractor costs.

Then a quick and thorough tidy up, wash a few windows, and we're ready to sell.

Phew!

It has been really hard doing all this with two young kids (a toddler and a baby), and no-one to help babysit - we don't have any grandparents to help in our city.

Our goal is still to be ready to sell at or around Christmas time. We hope to be on the move before the end of March. Amazingly, we're still on schedule.

I am very much looking forward to finishing all this. Then, no doubt, we'll buy our next home - which will need lots of things done to it - and we'll be doing it all over again.

I guess by then we'll be experts. Maybe.