Butt Monkey
Posted: Thu 23 August, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green 2 Comments »One thing I forgot to mention while whittling on about our current garden set up is the sheer number of water butts we’ve now got scattered about the place.
Near the house we’ve currently got two 100L water butts connected to the garage on one side, and a 750L butt on the other side. All these are currently full, and we’ve another 100L one on order at the moment.
Down at the other end, by the greenhouse, we’ve got another four standard 200L water butts – again, all full.
All told, that makes 1,750 litres of rainwater that we’ve currently got stored. I make that 385 gallons of water. I think we might be OK in a drought – not that one’s going to happen this year…
Mind you, I still don’t see the point in water butts shaped like tree stumps and the like.
The Good Life
Posted: Mon 20 August, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Green 2 Comments »Ye Gods, we’re going to have to change our names to Tom and Barbara if we’re not careful.
The garden at the new house is turning out to be very productive. Considering that we’ve done close to bugger all in the garden this year (well, since moving in three months ago) it’s really quite surprising.
The greenhouse has produced – OK, for the pedantic, the veg in the greenhouse has produced – five or six cucumbers, about 50 chilli peppers, a bundle of tomatos (both cherry toms and larger plum toms) and a selection of normal sweet peppers, although they haven’t been great. We’ll try a different type next year.
The veg patch produced three full rows of spuds, of which we’ve currently only harvested one row. The rest’ll be coming up soon, believe me. It also produced more radishes than we could use, and about four or five meals-worth of broad beans. There’ve also been plenty of courgettes (and a couple that’ve grown into marrows) as well as some pumpkins that’re developing well.
And then we get to the fruit trees. The plum tree is awash with fruit, even though we’ve already taken about eight Kg off it. The two apple trees are equally laden- we’ve taken about 5Kg of fruit already, and there’s probably three or four times that on the two trees. The pears are still growing, so hopefully they’ll take a couple of weeks to sort themselves out before we have to set to with them as well.
Over the weekend we ended up buying a decent preserving pan, as a lot of the fruit is going to be made into jam. Should be fun.
And then at the start of next year, we’re considering getting some chickens. (If nothing else, it’ll be amusing to see how Hound and Psycho Cat handle that development!) And yes, Razorhead, I’ll be asking for advice on that one sometime soon, bearing in mind your copious knowledge…
So yes, it looks like we may somehow be becoming refugees from “The Good Life“. Oh dear….
Rain at last
Posted: Mon 7 May, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green Leave a comment »Ah, May happens, Bank Holiday happens, and bang, it’s raining again. Happy, happy day.
The downside of it is that we haven’t got all the water-butts set up and connected in to the guttering and downpipes at the new place, so we’re going to be wasting a lot of the current downpours. Bummer.
But at least a lot of it will be going on the garden, the veg patch, and the couple of water butts that we do have set up, so it could be worse.
And well, at least it’s proper rain. That’s definitely good…
Motorway Energy
Posted: Wed 2 May, 2007 Filed under: Green, Travel 2 Comments »There’s an interesting idea talked about here, creating a windfarm in the middle of a motorway (sorry, freeway) that uses the draught created by passing cars to generate power.
In this instance (in New Jersey, USA) they reckon it could power a light railway, thus enabling more commuters to get to work in a greener fashion.
Advance Warning
Posted: Wed 25 April, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Green, House Work, Thoughts 4 Comments »Now here’s a thing that’ll strike fear in the hearts of any sane individuals who read D4D™ on a regular basis…
Because we’ve bought a wood burner, over time we’re going to need logs. It’s a logical thing, I know. Now, obviously it’s better if you can source your own supply of logs, or combine with other people in the area, in order to source that supply. Apparently, these groups are called ‘chainsaw groups’ who will go out, and deal with a tree between them.
You can see where this is going, can’t you?
Yes, at some point this year I’m going to be taking a course to learn how to properly use a chainsaw. And, probably, buying one.
And if that concept isn’t enough to engender fear in your heart, you probably need to go see someone.
Guilt Art
Posted: Sat 21 April, 2007 Filed under: Green, Photography, Thoughts Leave a comment »(via Gordon)
I’d love to see these pictures/prints/paintings at the true life-size – they must make an impact on you similar to the way some of Andreas Gursky’s ones do.
Basically, they’re artworks displaying our conspicuous consumption, and when done to life-size must be truly huge/impressive.
In fact, Chris Jordan’s entire site is pretty phenomenal.
Gotcha
Posted: Mon 29 January, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Green Leave a comment »Ah, the joys of seeing someone hoist on their own petard – in this case, a former environmental advisor to President Blair, who now commutes 500 miles weekly by plane, going from Gloucestershire to Edinburgh.
To coin a phrase from the Government’s rulebook
Do as I say, not as I do