May 10

Supporting Renewable Energy

Posted on 2013/05/10 by Mick

Today we became household members of a new non-profit organisation set-up to provide funding for new renewable energy projects in Australia.

Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia – CORENA

CORENA has been setup to provide donated funds from ordinary people to start an round robin funding scheme for large and small renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. People around Australia are tired of waiting for the Government to really get behind renewable energy and they wanted a way to help kick start the process.

The idea is that donated funds provide an interest free loan for small community based systems that are paid back with the savings from using the system. As the funds are paid back they can be used to fund another small system. As more donations are received the project can expand until it is essentially self supporting with a funding pool sufficient to enable continuous rollout of small systems.

The donated funds can also be used to fund or part fund much larger commercial projects which can provide an investment return which can be added to the total pool for ongoing funding of projects.

It’s important to remember that this is not a monetary investment and the funds are donated. However, it is an investment in our future. If you would like to find out how you can help, checkout the website and facebook page at:

http://corenafund.org.au/
Find CORENA on Facebook

Go on, make a difference.

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May 10

A Wonderful Idea

Posted on 2013/05/10 by Mick

Sometimes you can forget, working away in your own backyard, that there are so many wonderful people out there who have the same concern and commitment to the environment and passion for sustainability.

Then along comes an event like this

A short documentary that follows the challenges of attempting to feed 2,200 people in the Sydney Opera House audience of TEDxSydney 2013 using only home grown & locally grown food.

Produced by The MilkBar, Sydney for TEDxSydney 2013.

You can find the original post HERE

A totally awesome idea that I felt compelled to share.

Perhaps we can each do it on a smaller scale in our own neighbourhood and create a grow it local event ourselves?

What do you think?

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May 01

A Cunning Chook feeder

Posted on 2013/05/01 by Mick

After much deliberation and procrastination, I finally put saw to wood and constructed the long awaited improved chicken feeder that I’ve been promising myself for ages.

Why a new chook feeder? Well, one of the problems with having truly free range chooks that are un-penned during the day (apart from the risk of Bloody Foxes), is that every freeloading sparrow, pigeon, starling, etc. comes from miles around to have a free feed.

This new feeder should fix that problem by allowing only the chickens to open the lid to get the feed.

Through a clever arrangement of levers the chickens can open the lid by stepping on the tread at the front of the feeder. However, other birds are not heavy enough to get the lid open.

Hey Presto! No more stolen feed.

If you want to build one yourself there are plenty of plans and photos on the web. One I found particularly useful is at http://www.woodworkingcorner.com/feeder.php.

Using a mix of spare plywood, recycled pallets, a bit of glue and lots of screws plus a great deal of sweat and cursing, I was able to cobble together a reasonably functional feeder.

The feeder starting to take shape now that the sides are connected to the back. If you look carefully, you can see the individual slats that have been rebated to fit together with a bit of overlap. The main problem doing it this way is the additional screws to hold each slat in place.

With the front, also made of individual slats, attached, the overall shape is well defined. It time to start on the treadle and the linkages.

The links were made by ripping the slats into 25mm wide strips and cutting them to length. Then drilling the holes in the links for the bolts. Drilling them in pairs makes sure that the measurements are the same on both sides of the box. It would be nice to have a drill stand (sigh). But that’s a toy for the future.

Tada! The finished unit with the feed access closed!

The finished unit with the feed access open…

…and with the hopper lid open for filling.

The feeder in place in the chook shed. The chooks looked bemused when I put in the coop but they seem to be using it without any problems. There is a screw in the side holding the access flap open so that they get used to it.

In a few days I will move the screw so that the access is only partially open so they get used to it moving and then, a few days later, I will remove the screw completely and the feeder will be fully functioning.

It’s taken a lot more effort than I anticipated but it will be worth it because I will be able to place many days of feed in the coop without worrying that the freeloaders will get it. Plus it’s always a nice feeling to make useful stuff using recycled or re-purposed material. It also saves a lot of money. Some of these feeders commercially cost hundreds of dollars. This one cost me less than $20 in bolts, screws and glue. The ply was left over from another project and the rest of the timber was from an old recycled pellet.

Very happy with the result. 😎

What have you made using recycled materials?

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Apr 16

A Little Flat

Posted on 2013/04/16 by Mick

Sometimes, a good idea doesn’t come off so well. This was the case yesterday when I decided to add some of the left over honey and water mixture left over from collecting the beeswax to our normal bread mixture.

Oops! There must have been too much sugar which stopped it rising properly and this happened…

I think (hope) there was some other reason as well. It kind of tasted like it would been nice if it had only risen properly and not burned.

Anyway, I quickly made another loaf on the fast setting of the bread-maker and used less of the honey syrup and ended up with a much better result.

This loaf would have risen more on the standard setting and was a bit dense, but yummy just the same.

At least the new chooks had a nice surprise today 🙂

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Apr 13

Waxing Lyrical

Posted on 2013/04/13 by Mick

	Another post about bees Or more precisely their wax And what to do when you simply have stacks Don’t throw it away or leave it in heaps where the honey and mess through it all slowly seeps Just gather it up into one pot the bit’s and the pieces and heat up the lot Together with water to wash off the gunk heat ’till it’s melted and floats on the junk The wax will go hard as it cools in the ooze you can then lift it off and use as you choose Use it for ointments or maybe a candle for polish and sealant it’s hard to mishandle You can even recycle it back to the supplier for the sheets in the frames that are strengthened with wire So think before tossing or throwing away this wax is worth keeping it’s the sustainable way!