Last January post

Last night at 1am when we were setting the alarm for 5am, so we could get to the Torrens Island Market by 6am, we couldn't remember if there was a reason we'd planned to be there so early or if we'd just thought it sounded like fun when things were less crazy.

Four hours later we almost didn't get up, but we did because we wanted the adventure for the last day of the 31 Things. It was beautiful and surreil. The dawn was coming up behind us and the full moon was still glowing ahead of us. After a brief detour involving Garden Island and then the Torrens Island power plant, we found out (from the power plant security guard) that the market is actually opposite rather than on Torrens Island.

The moon was still up, but it was light by this stage. We sleepily wandered around admiring all the fruit and veg that seemed particularly large, uniform and sort of glowing with colour (in a healthy, dawn-lit, rather than the radioactive way that I've made them sound) and quickly spent our allotted $15 on: two pieces of pizza bread, onions, tomatoes, banana peppers, potatoes, plums, nectarines and eggs. The seller assured us they were free range, but in fact they turned out to be caged. Here's a link about caged hens. The compost bin will eat well tonight.
We took a lot of pretty photos, but I dropped my camera the other day and it seems to have developed a serious malfunction. I'm hoping to get them off the camera somehow later.

I'm still recovering from seeing "The Road" the other night. Researching into Peak Oil simultaneously wasn't the best idea. I honestly do not think the future after oil becomes scarce will be like "The Road", or anything like it. Later we'll be doing a long piece about it, but at the moment I think we've overdosed on unstructured, open-ended peak oil research and it hasn't been constructive. We're going to look at it further though and as the days go by the concept is becoming much more acceptable. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, we've finished or at least set in motion all of the 31 Things (minus one!) Check the list out below, with some comments.

The 31 things.

1. weed tea DONE
2. get Jules' worm poo DONE
3. make gift for Anne's baby DONE
4. pesto with zucchini and basil DONE
5. work on quilt, cut patches DONE
We're making a quilt! John cut some patches in January for the challenge. We're on the look-out for vintage fabric from op-shops, or if anyone's relatives have an old bag of fabric scraps, let us know! Anything up to '50s is great.
6. investigate home brew DONE
Coopers homebrew kits at the local Foodland, and Alison's partner Mike makes his own.

7. join Sustainable Communities started
We have the details, but no money to join til Thursday!
8. food co-op started
Flinders Food Co-op and Clarence Park Food Co-op are our options.
9. get shower timer and use it DONE
10. soil test started
There's a soil testing lab really close to us who offer a free kit. We've emailed for it.
11. investigate Peter Singer's thing about income started
This challenge was to try to work out what we thought about Peter Singer's book The Life You Can Save, about donating to charity to help end world poverty. I've read it and John's going to. The idea is about the ethics of giving as much as you can to reputable charities. I don't know if we can afford it; this challenge is about trying to work out what being able to afford something means in this context. Would we give up a few beers a week to donate to Oxfam, for example? A meal or two out? What's a luxury and what's a necessity in our situation? And so on.
12. call Rudd etc. DONE
13. call Harry re: rotten wood DONE
14. make a climate change info pack for Maja started
I'm putting together a "pack" of helpful links, not yet complete.
15. smoke alarm DONE

16. book permaculture course started
Bad news on the permaculture course front. Even with the early-bird discount, it's $1427.50 each! We'll do it eventually, but not this year . Meanwhile we'll read our books and maybe go to some short courses and workshops.
17. find a source of eggs DONE
Jules suggested a colleague from the Conservation Council who sells her eggs, so fingers crossed this will work out. After today's free-range egg deception, we're really over trying to find any free range eggs that aren't actual backyard pet hens. (By the way, check out the Con Council's website. I haven't been for a while and it's looking very swanky.)
18. get a compost screw started
We've contacted a permaculturalist guy I know who told us about compost screws ages ago, but have yet to hear back.
19. Torrens island market DONE
20. go for massage DONE
We went for a joint massage down the street in one of the many swanky beauty parlours around Norwood! My "massage epiphany" (the insight you get when you are relaxed and having a massage) is that I need to relax more! Yoga and exercise would be good. And more massage!
21. go for bush walk DONE
22. Tiny Towns pieces and zine and climate change zine DONE
23. go to an escapist movie not done
"The Road" did not cut it! Nor did "Sherlock Holmes". We considered "Fantastic Mr Fox" today but we were working on the last few pieces for the show on Tuesday and didn't have time. We were also knackered after the early market start. Here's what is a complete escapist treat, and it's embarrassing, but we don't care. It started in the heatwave, when we were zonked out, but we're watching it now: "Friends". That's right. "Friends". When I was cool in the 90s I scorned it to the point of not watching it ever. Now it seems to hit the spot - back to back episodes, funny, clever, social and good for John's facial recognition practice. What can I say?
Update - "Fantastic Mr Fox" was also not very fun, (despite the impressive stop-motion animation), with the Americanised woodland creatures being hunted and a horrible orange sky throughout. We'll keep an eye out for our escapist movie. Though we want to see it, "Precious" isn't going to be in the running either.


Coming out about "Friends".

24. free hair cut for John DONE
25. leaflet for Critical Climate DONE
After the massage we walked past a local eatery, Vego to Go, and the guy called to us frantically to stop, then gave us some leftover apple and walnut muffins. We were then approached by another guy advertising a free wine tasting at the Norwood Town Hall, which we attended forthwith. When we were drunk, we still had to leaflet for local climate action group, Critical Climate, so we did, had a lovely evening walk, and discovered an old tram barn that had been turned into apartments. It's fun getting to know the neighbourhood on foot.


"Look at my tongue, it's wearing a purple sock!" At the Town Hall in Norwood. The guy in the background, who seemed to be in charge of the tasting, was, I swear, the same person who was in the pizza delivery to Kylie Minogue ad from the 90s. This must be his new line of business.


Leafleting in Norwood.


The old tram barn in Stepney.

26. go to gym once to twice a week started
We started, but haven't been going, because we're too busy doing the 31 Things. Ha.
27. make Moroccan lentils and send others a recipe DONE
28. bake bread DONE
29. research the depression and peak oil started
This is on the list because it's hard to do. It's started but definitely not finished.
30. go for a meal at Sterling Organic DONE
Yesterday we borrowed John's parents car and went to the Sterling Organic cafe in the hills. Then we spontaneously went to Murray Bridge, where it was boiling hot (we wanted to go to the butterfly farm, but it had closed years ago. Even the mechanical bunyip was broken!) It was nice, though, to visit the Murray. Despite the drought and lack of environmental flows, it felt good to look out over a big body of water where the locals were swimming, paddling, boating and waterskiing. We're so used to dry creeks in town, and thinking about the river as an abstract concept.
The land changes dramatically once you get over the Mt Lofty Ranges (the hills) and onto the plain between Mt Barker and Murray Bridge. It was so hot and dry and yellow it was like driving through a dried out Van Gogh painting. By contrast, the hills felt incredibly lush, weirdly so to some extent, a little micro-climate enabling a European fantasy on the edge of the aridlands. We ended up grabbing a punnet of strawberries from the Beeremberg strawberry farm and then eating tea at Grumpy's microbrewery and pizza joint near Hahndorf. Here are some pics.


Perusing the brochure at Stirling Organic.


Delicious spicy tahini, babaganoush and tabouli sandwich at Stirling Organic.


Hello, Murray!


Cheeseless wood oven pizza, strawberries and a pint of Tomcat at Grumpy's Microbrewery.

31. Make a zine or a blog or both about this DONE

We're done! That's it.

Follow-up posts on the 31 things started but not complete to follow, at a more leisurely pace. Meanwhile thanks so much for everyone whose taken an interest, offered advice or otherwise encouraged us. See you soon!
xx Cass and John.

STOP PRESS!!!
John became an uncle to Jessica Ellen, two weeks earlier than expected, on the night before the Fairyfloss show!!!
Welcome little niece!

A post from Rapsodie

Here's a post from Rapsodie from our Sustainable Communities Group. She is doing a 100% no car to commute challenge. Take it away Rapsodie!

Well this is officially my first blog! I've been so inspired by your blogs - i've set up a channel from the down pipe of the shed to my lemon tree (a la bathtub model), i'm very interested in the ankle support for walking and i've re-committed to the joys of lentils. Not a bad start
really.

I like this idea of committing to a challenge to start the year. Maybe it'll give me a bit of a shake up. Although I do a fair few activities to reduce my impact on this earth, i'm busy (like everyone) and my priorities get skewed with the hustle and bustle. I don't like driving much so I've
set myself a 100% no car to commute challenge. It started off great! Work is only 5km away but i'm a bit ricketey so it takes me about 25 mins. I've allowed myself a couple of escape clauses to ensure it would all go to plan. Firstly I'm allowed to catch the bus if its 35 degrees or more - don't want to get too hot and bothered. Secondly if i'm meeting someone in town after
work, I can catch a ride with them in their car home. My usual pattern for work is I ride my bike 1 - 2 times a week, catch the bus once (usually when i have a meeting in town) and drive a couple of times. I live in Stepney and work on South Terrace - so the car journey always seems like the
quickest and easiest - a 10-15 minute journey in peak hour plus a ten minute walk from the 4 hour parks. All up about 20 minutes from front door to desk. I have to move my car at lunchtime to another park which is another 20 minute walk round trip. The bus stop is about 10 minutes walk and then another 5 minutes at the other end and the journey is about 30-35 minutes so
all up a journey of about 55minutes - 1 hour.

So Monday went beautifully. Spent about an hour packing the bike. It's like i'm touring. I've got the work outfit, my lunch, the water bottle, bike lock and the kitchen sink. The lemon scented gums were at their finest - the early morning air transformed by the subtle wafts of eucalyptus
lemon. Galahs and parrots were everywhere and it just felt good to be outside and feeling my body work. I'm very lucky, my journey takes me along Osmond Tce down Victoria St across Victoria Park and on to South Terrace - very leisurely. It feels so good to be starting this challenge - when i arrive at work I feel invigorated and calm.

I don't usually ride 2 days in a row so Tuesday was a tad harder - I had to stop at the servo and pump up my front tyre (probably the touring load was getting out of hand) - and by Wednesday I wondered whether perhaps I wasn't as young as i used to be. I needed to pick up a couple of things at the supermarket on the way home on Wednesday - strangely this was much easier
than i expected it to be. It was quite hot (about 34 degrees) and I had to ride a bit further and carry a bit more on my already overloaded bike (minus lunch) but it was easy albeit that i had to unpack all my 'stuff' onto a trolley and cart it around with me while i shopped.

Thursday was bus day (39 degrees) - it was lovely and cool on the bus. I didn't get a seat until town but I always love watching all the people on the bus trying to imagine what their mornings have been like and how they're going to spend their days.

To my enormous disappointment - Friday I failed in my challenge. The plumber came early to do the final bits to connect my rainwater tank to the toilet and he struck a cracked pump head. This was my downfall. Unfortunately he didn't finish til 10.10am and it was 39 degrees - so it was
bus day but not an hour to spare to get to work. Always with these sort of personal challenges its tempting to chuck it all in at the first failure but I'm wise to this and I'm going to get back on the bike (after the 43 degree bus day on Monday!).

I'll keep you posted on how things go. I think i'll need a good book this month because i can see a lot of bus days coming up.

Cheers, Rapsodie

Thirty days have September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31...

Hey there,
We are Cass and John, a couple living together in Adelaide, South Australia. We are artists, writers and environmentalists.
Where we live, the weather has changed noticeably in the last ten years, and in the last 5, the changes have been dramatic. We've known about climate change for years, but suddenly it's too hot here, not just summer fun heat, but regular heatwaves that burn our gardens, and trap us inside for days at a time. There's also less water than there used to be.
There's also the knowledge that this is a global situation and that for most people it's going to be a lot worse than fried lettuce, buckets in the shower and aircon guilt.


Our little town-city, on the plain between the hills and the sea.

At the moment we're trying to balance the fun and excitement of making a house and garden together with our attempts to come to grips with what can regularly feel like an overwhelming crisis. (Just a nod here to Peak Oil, the cousin of climate change in terms of scariness and the potential for generating sustainable behaviour.)
If this introduction seems to be seesawing between cutesy optimism, and genuine freaked-out grief, it's because that's how we're feeling. This blog is our attempt to marry the hope we have for the future with the knowledge that this future is being shaped right now and that our current activities are a part of it.
We think it starts at home, so the fun times around the house are part of our active local response to the crisis.
The 31 Days thing came about through a neighbourhood group we joined last year that's part of a global movement to build resilient communities. It's very similar in concept to groups that are part of the Transition Towns movement; both are about sharing skills and knowledge, supporting local businesses and communities, reducing our dependence on energy and our ecological footprint, all on a very local scale.
We meet once a month, and at the December meeting we decided that in January we'd all take a challenge to do something sustainable.
Now it's the first of January 2010 and we have a list of 31 things we're planning to do this month.
So this will be a very short, very frequently updated blog.
Please feel free to comment!

Cass Flanagan and John Willanski