power bill be gone!

About this time last year, Frank and I were doing the ground work for solar power. Well, mostly it was Frank doing the ground work, and I should also acknowledge the kindness of the honourable Mr Kevin Rudd for making it all possible.

Well, we're not so hot at understanding solar power, and it turns out the suppliers weren't so hot at explaining it, and the power company wasn't so hot at connecting us to the grid. (it's a long story) So the panels weren't installed until May, and believe it or not, we weren't running solar until October. (like I said, it's a long, long story)

Finally, finally we have our first power bill post solar panels.

$1.36

Yup, you read it right. One dollar and thirty six cents.

How awesome is that?! Yeah, so it was a huge outlay... but hey, this thing really is going to pay itself off over ten years! Or maybe that's twenty years? Whatever... it will eventually be worth it.

(And you, my friend, may be using solar power from our house - how cool is that?!)

just hanging around

I rediscovered the library recently. Part of my efforts to spend less. If I borrow books I supposedly will not need to buy them. To date I have reborrowed and reborrowed until I can reborrow no more, hungrily scanned a chapter or two, scribbled random notes and, in the interests of possession, wanted to buy around half of my borrowings. Mixed success there I would say.

Today a book was due, one I was particularly reluctant to give up but had to, since I had reached the outer limits of loan extension. I returned it and picked up the book I had on hold. Tasmania might be small and cut off from the rest of the world, but believe me, the State Library is awesome. I can find any library book in any tiny library anywhere in the state, put a hold on it, and three days later it turns up in my local library ready to be collected. Fantastic. Not so fantastic that I am 65th in line to borrow Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, but you know, I'll get there eventually... I mean, I've moved up one place already.

So while I am waiting, waiting I decided I should prepare myself by reading Oryx and Crake. To be honest, I don't know much about either story, but I like Margaret Atwood (try The Blind Assassin) and with 65 people waiting The Year of the Flood must be good, and Oryx and Crake is apparently the first part of the story, so it makes sense to read it first and get things the right way around.

Book duly in hand, along with Girligami and a title pitched at helping me live green, I set off on the long walk home, weaving my way through my favourite luscious parks as I went. Passing through Princes Square I felt myself rather overwhelmed with longing to sit and linger under the trees and read a book, but I reminded myself I did not have time and kept on goi...

What? Don't have time?

Ha. It is for this very reason I quit my job - to have time to sit in the park and read. So I did. I pulled out my book, sat on a bench between the fountain and flower beds, and read.

Not for long, because one wouldn't want to, you know, enjoy things too much, or let the guard down, or forget that life wasn't meant to be easy. But enough to laugh and feel happy and be in the moment.

And the book was rather fine as well. I'm looking forward to it.

oh the restraint

Barbara Kingsolver has a new book out. I love Barbara Kingsolver and I want that book. In the interests of sustainability however, I am trying to reduce spending and consume less. So I checked out the local library, and hey presto, they have a copy or three in their catalogue. It was too much to expect it to be sitting on the shelf - oh no, that would not happen to the latest Kingsolver tome - so I placed a hold on it. Two weeks later I was beginning to worry I might have left it too late to go and collect it, so I ducked in today to check on it's progress.

Ho hum, more people in Tasmania like Barbara Kingsolver than I gave them credit for. I'm eighth in line, and with a three week borrowing period, that amounts to at least a three month wait.

'Three months,' I screeched (quietly, because it was a library), 'I shall have to buy it. Today.'

Then I remembered my commitment to a new way of living (aided by the remembrance that in four weeks I shall be almost penniless), tightened my belt and borrowed 'The Unknown Terrorist' by Richard Flanagan instead (and 'Making Money from Craft' in order to avoid being quite so penniless) .

The restraint, the restraint! (Then again I've read mixed reviews of 'The Lacuna' so maybe it's a good thing I saved my money) For now I'm shocked silly by Flanagan's take on Jesus as a terrorist, but my curiosity is piqued and I must read on.

not quite on my soap box again

So I'm concerned, worried, scared about the environment. Apparently the science is in and, apart from ignorant non-experts, everyone agrees global warming has reached crisis point. We've really stuffed it up. What I find most troubling is that we madly keep on with wrecking our home, despite the warning signs telling us something is seriously wrong.

There have been some interesting online articles recently, chewing over the reasons for, and implications of our refusal to address this issue. There is some evidence to suggest climate sceptics have fallen prey to an elaborate defence mechanism designed to prevent them from thinking about death. Never mind that avoiding the issue and denying climate change brings us all closer to the end of life as we know it. Just don't think about it. Say it isn't true.

Other climate change, brain function, behavioural scientists think the risks seem too remote for us. The earth is spiralling towards cataclysmic upheaval, rising sea levels, potential ice age, and mass extinction, but it's not happening tomorrow? Oh well. Turn the air-con up, drive don't walk, and eat as much meat as you like - it might never happen!

Then there's the industry lobby. Think of all the profit we'll lose if we don't keep on pumping carbon into the atmosphere! Seriously, the economy will fall apart. We'll all die if we don't have more money. So don't even think about charging tax on carbon emissions. We just can't afford that cost. Too bad that it might kill us all in the long run - economic growth is key.

I find it singularly depressing. No matter what Frank and I do to reduce our carbon footprint, it will never be enough, because too many other people don't care, or they simply love money more.

Shame on you.

But we'll keep plugging away despite all that. We have solar power on the roof. It's even connected now (after 4 months. long story) so we power our house from the sun all day. We've started charging mobile phones and tooth brushes during the day, to save drawing from the grid at night. We walk or ride the bike when we can. Meat makes much less regular appearances on our plate. Just about everything we do is accompanied by a quick calculation of its environmental impact. For example, tonight we cycled to the river front for fish and chips. The calculation runs something like this:

Cycling = carbon neutral. Fish and chips = unsure of stocks of fish we ate therefore unable to calculate accurately. Communal cooking = less environmental impact than heating oil at home to cook fish and chips ourselves. Overall = not too bad, but might be better if we ordered a salad instead.

We like to think it all counts. And of course it does. But is it enough? Only if everyone else gets on board! Come on people - time to make a difference for our planet.

that feel good feeling

I was feeling mighty noble today for two mighty good reasons.

First, yesterday I borrowed books from the library. A novel idea I know (though only one of them actually was a novel). I always mean to borrow books, but too often my library card is in a drawer at home, or I pop in for a quick look at the bookshop and can't possibly resist the gem I stumble across... and before I know it, that's another book for the shelf.

So big tick for sustainable book-borrowing-living.

Today it was gorgeous, sunny, warm, delicious, wonderful weather so I decided to ride my bike to the ChildSafe training session. Did I say it was gorgeous, sunny, warm, delicious and wonderful bike riding weather? Because it so was. I loved it (despite every Harley Davidson in Australia hooning past me as I tootled along). Hello??? Brownie points in order. Riding.bike. Sustainable living.

It was somewhat deflating when I left Coles to cycle home and found my back tyre was completely flat. There's glass on the road everywhere, so it could be a puncture or maybe someone played a mean trick and let my tyre down. I'll find out soon enough.

In the meantime I'll bask in the glow of clean living.

(Just thinking. Pride goes before a fall... is that why my tyre went flat?!)