Doing: Harvesting zucchini and picking parsley. Feeding the worms. Weighing my garbage! After asking everyone I know, I finally scored a small, hand-held hanging fish scale, which seems to do the job nicely :-) It's garbage collection day so I emptied all the bins this morning: 4.5kg "landfill" rubbish and 1.2kg recycling. I was a bit shocked by the weight of the landfill rubbish, as at a guess there was probably double that already in the main bin. Although having said that, our bin was about 1/4 full and next door's was chockers, as usual.
Making: Dishwasher powder.
Dinner: Baked zucchini risotto and garlic bread.
Challenge/s: Whether or not to feed our pets organic foods. From a health standpoint, I don't have any issues feeding them non-organic meat for example, which is certainly much cheaper. But from an ethical viewpoint, I feel I am supporting an industry that leaves a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended). We have stretched our budget as it is to accomodate the amount of organic produce that we already purchase, and given the latest interest rate rise, I have no idea how we could afford to feed them a wholly organic diet.
Solution/s: Using kangaroo mince? I've read much both for and against eating 'roo meat, but in the end I feel that it might be a reasonable compromise? It's a bit more expensive though (but nowhere near the price of organic meat). As for the rest of the dogs' diet (pasta, rice and vegetables), hmmm. I tend to use vegies that are past their best for making the dog food anyway and have lately taken to using the tops off the celery etc, and even (washed) potato peel mixed in, which is extending the organic vegie purchases. The cat? No idea!! I tried making my own cat food, but it was met with pretty rigid resistance unfortunately (and in recent weeks has taken to not using his eco-friendly kitty litter *sigh*) so we are still buying tins of - wholly imported - cat food, in the four flavours of the one (and only) brand he will eat. I shudder to think what is in it! I probably don't want to know. Ditto for the dry biscuits. I certainly know that the waste from all those little tins is makes me shudder, and it isn't doing my local vs. imported grocery tally any good either. Suggestions welcome...
Transgressions: Using plastic wrap on the leftover watermelon. I would normally use a plastic grocery bag but we haven't had any for ages, only bread bags (which aren't big enough). D'oh!
Reading: Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids by Stephanie Alexander.
Utilities for November: Gas 50.4MJ/day; Water 340L/day; Electricity 12.7 kWh/day.
Contemplating: How on earth we could ever reach the 90% reduction goals of gas 10MJ/day; water 78L/day and electricity 1.8 kWh/day.
8 comments:
"Contemplating: How on earth we could ever reach the 90% reduction goals of gas 10MJ/day; water 78L/day and electricity 1.8 kWh/day."
With the gas, if you have gas hot water I don't see how it's possible, either. You would have to change to electric or solar to manage it. Ours is 30MJ/day with the hot water heater turned to a temperature where we can shower with no cold added, and gas cooking; I think the cooking's not more than 10MJ/day.
Water in our two-person household we've got down to 135lt/day by four-minute showers, handwashing dishes, only doing the laundry when it's absolutely chockers, "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down", and grey water for the garden, also by generally being careful, like not leaving the tap running when brushing our teeth. It also helped that our water company offered a shower head exchange, so that the shower used 5lt/min instead of 10lt/min (thus saving 40lt on our 2x 4min showers), and gave us this doohickey you put in the loo so it only flushes as long as you hold the button down.
Electricity of 2kWhr/day could only be achieved by either ridding yourself of the fridge, or else using a green power credit. Most of Australia has a choice of power companies, you can choose one that offers greenish energy - the different ones are rated by the ACF here.
One note earlier you mentioned rubbish and recycling. The only breakdown of the different types of household rubbish we've been able to find is from a Perth study. They broke it down as,
3.9kg to recycling
7.2kg of rubbish to landfill
4.6kg of food/garden waste
So if you have a compost heap, that last category becomes easy to zero out. And if you just split it between "rubbish" and "recycling", then you should compare it to a "rubbish" total of 7.2kg rubbish + 4.6kg organic = 11.8kg.
Another consideration is the number of people in your household. If you find "per person" figures, then of course multiply them by the people in your home.
But if you find "household" figures, then the average Aussie household is 2.6 people. So, you tell us you're a "stay at home mum to three little kids." Rightyo, so any "household" amount should be multiplied by 2 parents + 3 kids, or x 5 / 2.6 = 1.92. So you should compare yourself to 192% the Aussie household average, not 100% it.
For example, instead of 11.8kg average rubbish and 3.9kg recycling, you'd have 1.92x11.8= 22.7kg rubbish and 1.92x3.9kg = 7.5kg recycling.
I mean, let's be fair. A couple of DINKs should not get the same allowance as parents with three kids.
On the one hand, it makes it easier for you since the starting levels are so high; on the other, it makes it harder for you because who can ever deny their children anything?
By the way, here is what I reckon your figures should be!
Electricity: Aussie average per household, 6,000kWhr. 5 person household, 11,520kWhr. 10% of that is 1,520 or 3.2kWhr/day
Gas: Aussie average per household is 100MJ/day. 5 person, 192MJ/day. 10% of that is 19.2MJ/day
Water: Aussie average per household is 625lt/day. 5 person, 1,200lt/day. 10% of that is 120lt/day
Rubbish: Aussie average per household is 11.8kg/week. 5 person, 22.6kg/week. 10% of that is 2.3kg/week.
Recycling: Aussie average per household is 3.1kg/week. 5 person, 7.5kg/week. 10% of that is 0.75kg/week. Bear in mind though that reducing rubbish sometimes means increasing recycling as you recycycle things usually discarded, or choose recyclable packaging over non-recyclable.
Transport: Aussie average per household is 15,000km annually, or for 5 people, 28,800km. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, trains and trams count for 6% of the distance travelled, and buses for 9%.
Good luck!
I sneak raw meat into my cat's diet by giving them all the stuff that is in the whole chickens (the kidneys, neck, etc.) cutting it up and putting it mixed in with their food. They were meant to eat raw food and they do eat it!
On the pet food. I am very pro roo meat for both human and pet consumption.
You've probably heard it all before but here I go... There are far more red and gray roos in Oz now than pre-European settlement becase of all the stock watering bores etc so it's they're definitely not endangered or anything. They live a natural life, don't get hearded on long hot crushed journeys on trucks to abbatoirs like our domestic animals. Are essentially organic meat. If you are worried about the myth that roos are full of parastic worms they actually found out a few years ago that those worms are symbiotic and help them to survive on poor quality feed. Anyway, I'd prefer worms in the intestine that I don't even eat to antibiotics and other chemicals. etc etc.
My old cat, who lives with my parents, loves roo meat and gets fed a small handful sized portion a day along with dry food. He's still fighting strong at about 15 years old.
So I say, go for it!
Hey Kyle! The people you 'see' when you don't have a gun! Just joking... Thanks for the constructive input. Your estimations for our (my) averages are about what I suspected upon further reflection last night, but I couldn't find a definitive number for the "average household", so I'm happy to go with 2.6 people. It certainly makes those figures you've worked out for me (thanks!) seem much more do-able, that's for sure.
Hmmm yes, with gas hot water I'm not sure how to get that figure down, especially since I am using the stove much more now? We've also turned down the hot water thermostat, which of course helped with the water use as well. I think to get it lower we'd have to look at building and using a solar oven, over summer anyway...
Water... yep we've done all those things too (best thing we did was to swap our showers heads for low flow). The biggest issue I have is the kids wasting an awful lot of water washing hands etc (and it's hard to train them NOT to flush at home but DO flush at preschool). Not much I can do about that but be vigilant and hope they get the message as they get older (our eldest is only just about to turn 6).
Electricity - We pay for 20% wind at the moment which would add a bit extra to our average figure (which I didn't factor in), but I think you are right in that 100% GreenPower is the way to go.
Hi anonymous, yep I've tried sneaking the raw meat into his food but he just stares at me with that typical cat look: "You want me to eat that?" Sigh...
Hi Zie, thanks :-) We eat 'roo too about once a fortnight or so, I quite like it (shh, don't tell the anti-roo eaters!). I have some issues with the way they are killed (I have heard many hunters aren't so accurate with their first shots), but on the whole I think it is a better choice than conventionally-raised (and slaughtered) animals.
Cheers, Julie
Hi I'm really enjoying your daily Back to Basics. thanks.
I'm wondering what you think of Stephanie Alexanders gardening with kids book? I've heard of it but haven't seen it. Is there much in it? Is it worth the money? Perhaps I'll just see if my library has a copy.
cheers Lenny
Hi Lenny :-)
It's a pretty expensive book new (I got mine 2nd hand on eBay), but it's quite interesting, although I am only a short way into the first section which is on how they set up their kitchen garden. The second section is recipes with instructions for (older) kids on how to cook the vegies that they've grown. I'd definitely be borrowing it from the library before you bought it - I had a reasonable flick through it at a bookstore before I went looking for it second hand. I'm hoping to get to use the recipe section with my kids as they get older (ie old enough to read, LOL).
Cheers, Julie.
Thanks Julie, I'll check out the library first and go from there.
cheers Lenny
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