Freaking out

Anxious about peak oil? Try Peak Oil Blues.

I’ve linked to this before but I thought I would again as I’m in the middle of a bit of a peak oil “freak out”. It’s just the weather I think and the constant talking/reading about the less than ideal economic conditions around the world at the moment. And while on the one hand I’m completely aware that I’m very lucky to be living in a fairly water-tight home with a huge backyard which I’ll be able to fill with food producing plants, on the other hand I feel like we’re all going to starve slowly if we have to rely on what I can grow. And that’s when I start getting panicky because like so many people we are actually not much more than 2 pays away from bankruptcy and gardens take a long time to establish and get running efficiently.

Argh. I’m rambling sorry. What freaks me out most of all though is that so many people are so oblivious to what’s coming. It’s very stressful being a Cassandra.

*Deep breath*

Back to the plan. I’m slowly cleaning out the house and starting to organise some serious food storage (for great discussion of this see Casaubon’s Book) as well as getting new garden beds organised. And for some nearly-instant mental health improvement I’m planting up lettuces in pots for my kitchen windows (Ta for the idea Sandra ;>).

More Crafting

I love my mum.

No sooner than I’d said to her “I’ve just heard about this new craft magazine”, my mum retrieved her copy and pressed it into my hands. This magazine was made for me! The first issue told me how to re-cover my sad little 1950s dining chairs with salvaged billboard vinyl (let’s just pretend I will actually do this) and the second issue told me how to build a coldframe out of an old window and skip timber. How cool is that!

World Sweet World

Provisions

So, my garden isn’t feeding me but it’s ok. I have beer.

(Thanks to a very kind and generous friend who has shared his equipment in exchange for the space. Resource sharing is GREAT!)

Irrational

Sometimes I just feel like the garden hates me.

Yes, I know. Irrational.

It’s just the winter garden thing and feeling more frustrated than usual about the rain and cold and lack of money. The only solution is to go outside right now and build the new garden bed. Right now. I’m turning off the computer right … NOW.

Good News

Photos! Yay for photos. This is my stag beetle shirt. I’m still pretty chuffed with myself but would add that the bold, shiny effect in the final photo didn’t survive washing. The final effect on the t-shirt is more like a strong stain.

Mock freezer paper:

Ironed on:

Final result:

Not Good News

Climate Scientist James Hansen revises his estimate of ten years to turn around the rate of climate change to ONE year: story here.

Rats!

I don’t hate rats. I just don’t want one living in my compost bins (bins! ha! Because despite my previous compost anxiety I’m doing pretty well on the compost front. I’m even at the stage of trundling up and down my street with the wheelbarrow scooping leaves out of the gutters for my piles and weaving new bins as needed out of scavenged chicken wire and tomato stakes…)

Anyway, I don’t feel the need to kill it; I even admire the clever neatness of the tunnels it has made, and, as I think Lynda Hallinan* pointed out recently, a rat in a compost bin means that the compost is warm in the middle – and that’s actually a good thing. Except I want to use some of my lovely, wormy compost and I don’t really want to put my fork through a rat when I open up the bin. So I’m not sure what to do. I’ve taken the top off the bin so that the local cats can get in and have a sniff and hopefully the rain will make the bin a lot less cosy. But I’m probably just going to have to tuck my pants into my gumboots, take the sides off, harden up and just stick the fork in and stir.

*I think it was in one of her Get Growing Campaign emails. They’re pretty useful and it’s nice feeling like part of a movement of local gardeners ripping up the lawn to plant vegetables. And I’m very responsive to emails which arrive on Friday night with a list of jobs to do in the garden right now. That’s how the garlic finally got planted!