Independence Days: Camping With the Coyotes

This weekend Brendan, Zoe dog and I went backcountry camping up in the mountains with some of Brendan’s climbing buddies. We found a fabulous little clearing surrounded by boulders and pine trees and enjoyed being outdoors for the weekend. Brendan enjoyed some climbing and Zoe and I hiked in with them one day to watch and then spent the next morning back at camp where I read and Zoe kept an eye out for squirrels. It was quite cold at night and even with two layers of thermals, a polarfleece jacket and two sleeping bags, I was still cold. I think it’s about time I invest in a good cold weather sleeping bag. Despite the cold it was lovely sleeping out in the wild. We were awoken a couple of times through the night by the howling of wild coyotes. You don’t get that in the city.

On our hike from the climbing area to where we would set up camp for the night, we lost one of our party members. She ducked off to attend to the ‘call of nature’ and then we didn’t see her again. We backtracked to where we last saw her. After 20 minutes with no sign of her, we decided to head back to where the cars were parked, assuming she would make her way back to them. Unfortunately there was still no sign of her back there so we started getting worried, imagining that she had either been attacked by a bear, tripped and hit her head or been bitten by a deadly snake. As it was already dusk we decided to split up and go in search of her and meet back before dark. I waited at the meeting spot in case she found her way back while the guys headed off in different directions. Finally, just before dark descended completely she arrived back at the meeting spot in an unfamiliar car. All was well. She had just got turned around while out in the bush and ended up walking in the wrong direction. Luckily she eventually came across a dirt road which by chance some friendly climbers were driving along. I can’t imagine how many ways this could have ended badly.

This experience certainly made me think about a few things. What if she hadn’t found a road and come across someone to bring her back?  By the time we were hiking back to camp I was out of water. I hadn’t kept any aside because it was a reasonably easy trip back. Was she in the same situation? Did she have any water left? Also, it got down to near freezing during the night. Would she have tried to find somewhere sheltered to stay the night, or tried to keep walking in the dark? It just goes to show that even a seemingly innocuous outing could turn into a survival situation very easily.

Preparedness

• In light of this little adventure, I think I need to read up on some basic survival skills. I’ve taken these skills for granted because I learned that stuff in military training years back, but a refresher is well overdue I think.
• It was also good to see what sort of ‘stuff’ we needed with us for just one weekend of self-sufficiency. Shelter, water, food and hygiene all had to be considered given that we were nowhere near shops or even toilets. Water was interesting. We brought in our own but if we had got stuck there we would have had to find some more. The only water I saw was a muddy puddle so having a method of water purification is really important.
• Our backcountry camping kit closely resembles our Short-Term Emergency Preparedness Kit, so you can check out that list if you need some ideas.

Reduce Energy Dependence

• Having a small solar charging device was really handy to have to recharge batteries for headlamps or cell phones. You can get some really small and light devices which can easily be packed on a trip like this. It’s also included in our Short-Term Emergency Preparedness Kit.

Photo by: Vork 22

Independence Days: Refinding my Vision

This weekend I reconnected with my vision of voluntary simplicity, self sufficiency, sustainability and independence. I had been feeling a bit down about all the gloomy things going on in the world, but a healthy dose of vision and action always seems to help.

On Saturday I spent quite a lot of time in the garden: Taking out the last of the cool season crop, spreading the compost we’ve been ‘cooking’ for the last few months and mulching garden beds in preparation for planting of our warm season crops. There is something so satisfying about hard work and getting dirty when you know the outcome is going to be food to feed your family.

On Sunday, Brendan, Zoe dog and I headed up to the mountains for a morning of hiking. I just love it up there and even though it was a hot day, there was a cool breeze blowing and we could get some respite in the shade of the pine trees surrounding the meadow. Spring is in full bloom up there at the moment. I thought the flowers must have been done for the year, but I guess they come later at altitude. The meadow had seen snow this year, and it was the greenest I’d ever seen it. The wildflowers were swaying in the breeze and the insects and birdlife were humming with activity. We let Zoe off to splash in the shallows of the lake and saw that it was teeming with tadpole life. Most of them had their two hind legs already so in a few more weeks there are going to be thousands of new frogs up there. We stopped in a shady spot overlooking the lake and enjoyed the peace and quiet. It was just such a fantastic morning and I don’t know why we’ve left it so long since we last visited.

Even though I know this already, I’ve re-realised that it’s unlikely that our society is going to avoid some sort of collapse. I’m resigned to the fact that we just have to let it go and rebuild something better. There are weeks when I mourn the loss and get angry about our society’s lack of foresight. However, I hope I’m now back into the acceptance phase and once again moving into action . 

I’ve been reading more about building resilient communities and am excited at some of the ideas floating around in cyberspace. We need to concentrate on energy independence, food security and thriving local economies. I’m still brewing some ideas in my mind which we (Brendan and I) might be able to act upon in the next few years, but in the meantime, I can focus on my own plan for Self Sufficiency and Independence.

Getting off the economic grid

• Even though my debt is now paid off, we are still living frugally and are focussed on saving as much money as we can for tangible assets. We are buying items in the US which we know are going to be more expensive in Australia. When we get back home we have to make all our big purchases, such as a car and appliances so we are focussing on those aspects of our financial plan at the moment.
• Brendan has been doing some really interesting stuff with this renewable energy start-up. They submitted their first proposal last week with Brendan’s design and it sounds like it might be going ahead. Exciting times.

Stockpiling Food

• We are tapering off our stockpile of food in preparation for moving back to Australia later this year. Having said that, I’ve been pickling beets this last week. They are so delicious in salads on warm summer days.

Grow some food

• We have one garden bed already planted with a riot of food. I say riot becuase I’ve planted with no plan other that to abide by companion planting techniques. So, in garden bed #1 we have beets, garlic, onions, leek and a couple of new tomato plants.
• I spent Saturday preparing our other two beds for planting, by adding compost, mulch and plenty of water. We don’t till the soil after removing the crops. We just add compost and mulch as layers on top of the soil. If a plant’s root structure is big and deep, I leave it intact. I simply cut the top off the plant at soil level and lets the roots decay in place. This adds nutrients deep in the soil and aerates the soil when the roots decay to nothing.

Reduce Energy Dependence

• I’m back on the bike and riding to and from work. I stopped over the summer when roadwork made the trip dangerous and then we had a wet start to the year. All those excuses are gone now so I’m back on the bike. I actually find that with the traffic as it is, it’s quicker to ride home than it is to drive. Also, now that the roadwork is done, there is a brand new bike lane that goes most of the way to work. It feels so much safer and I’ve seen more people riding this year than during the last couple of years. 

Photo by: Nicholas T

Independence Days: We are moving back to Australia in 2011

It’s been a busy month as you can probably tell by my sporadic posting lately. The good news is that I think I’m over the worst of it.

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time this month completing an application and preparing for an interview for a new job next year. The good news is….I got the job! We’ll be moving back to Canberra, Australia in early 2011. Prior to learning about this job opportunity, I was really struggling to feel motivated about going back to work in Australia. My mindset has totally changed in the 2 1/2 years since I left and I couldn’t imagine what work I would find stimulating, challenging and rewarding. I think this job might just work out for me. It’s in a new program created recently to undertake reform in my organisation. Everything about the way we do business is open to change and I’ll be a part of the team making that happen.

I have also been working on a paper for the last couple of months which I hope will convince senior management that we need to prepare for a future where energy is scarce and expensive. My new job will be inside the program that will consider such things. I hope that will get me some leverage to make the required changes. I guess only time will tell.

Anyway, I now feel a little more settled knowing what I’ll be doing next year. Now we can just enjoy our last seven months here in the USA.

Now that life is getting back to normal, I want to start refocussing on my  plan for Self Sufficiency and Independence.

Preparedness

• My goal of getting back in shape was unfortunately put on the back-burner these last few months. Time to make it a high priority again. I do not want to come back to Australia with all those extra pounds gained in America.

Getting off the economic grid

• When we get back to Australia, we are going to have to set our lives back up. That means furniture and white-goods for the house, and a car purchase. This is a great opportunity for us to set ourselves up for more self-sufficient and sustainable living. We’ll be researching low-energy appliances and a fuel efficient vehicle. At the moment I’m leaning towards a diesel car, but I’m also thinking about something that runs on natural gas since Australia has a lot of that. Time to start saving our fiat currency so we can purchase everything with cash.

Grow some food

• We’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden clearing weeds which have grown like crazy in the warm spring days.
• We’ve also cleared out most of the winter garden (except for some things we are letting go to seed).
• I’ve started a few tomato plants already, but we’ll need to start thinking about the rest of the summer garden soon.

Reduce Energy Dependence

• I must get back into riding to work. I’ve been really slack recently and have got into the bad habit of taking the car.

Plan to own some productive land

• Housing prices are still high in Australia and we continue to watch and wait for the correction. There are more signs that China’s bubble is popping which is likely to translate to economic pain in Australia. I’ve also been reading some articles indicating that a high percentage of ‘first home buyers’ are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments due to the rapidly rising interest rates. Who knows how much longer this bubble can inflate.
• While we wait for prices to become more realistic, we will be renting. Unfortunately Canberra rents are painfully high. I just hope we can find something reasonable, close to the city which will allow Zoe dog to live with us.

Photo by: Sam llic

Independence Days – Everyone’s in a house buyin’ frenzy

Photo by: mugley

Lately I’ve been having quite a few Aussies asking my advice about buying a house. I’ve been telling them that I think that the Aussie housing market is in a giant bubble and due to correct sometime in the not too distant future, but mostly that’s not what they want to hear.

I understand why they ask my opinion, since I have bought and sold a few houses in the last decade. What I don’t understand is why they ask my opinion if they’ve already made their mind up to buy the house. Is this just a case of people only hearing what they want to hear? Do they just want me to tell them they are doing the right thing? Do they figure since I bought properties in the past that I think that buying property is always the right thing to do?

During one conversation I was told, “But everyone on TV says the property market is going to go through the roof in the next couple of years!” And I guess this gets to the center of the issue. House buying mania has come to Australia. The media is sprouting on about how the market is just going to keep going up and if you don’t get in now, you’ll miss out. People buy into this, literally. The fact that a number of people in my life have contacted me this month is simply an indication that the mania has spread far and wide.

Bah! What do I know? I’m not on TV. I hope for everyone’s sake that I’m wrong. I really do. I’d like to be wrong about so many things, but I guess only time will tell.

Preparedness

• We had an interesting office function on Friday. It was an ‘Earthquake Preparedness and Team Building’ event. That earthquake last weekend has people here rattled (so to speak). Even long time Californians who are used to the Earth shaking said that they were scared by that 7.2. Most of them take Earthquakes for granted and I think I’m the only one in the office who has an emergency kit already prepared. Obviously we Aussies are not quiet so blasé about Earthquakes since they are rare on our continent. Anyway, the point is: After Friday, everyone has agreed to pool resources and put together a 72-hour kit for the office. This is great! I didn’t even need to be the one to suggest it. I think they already think I’m a little weird, but mostly they put that down to cultural differences

Grow some food

• I’ve been so slack in the garden lately. Watering, weeding and harvesting are all I’ve managed this week. I really should be sowing our Summer crops. Motivation…..Where are you?

Reducing Energy Dependence

• I think I briefly mentioned a few weeks ago that Brendan has been doing some consultancy work for a start-up renewable energy company here in SoCal. He has been designing a complete off-grid system to run some equipment for a large company. It’s been a big learning curve for him, but very worthwhile. He asked me last night whether we can go off-grid for electricity when we get back to Australia. Umm…..of course! I always planned to get off-grid solutions set up as much as possible. We’ll likely be renting for some time when we get back, so we’ll probably just set up a small, portable solution to power essentials like a chest freezer, some cooking, lighting and a laptop.

Hedge against disaster

• I’ve been reminding my friends here in America to make sure they have some cash out of the bank and on hand in case of emergency. I have an uneasy feeling about the US currency and the banking sector here. It is always a good idea to have some cash on hand in case the banks declare a bank holiday (it happened during the first great depression) or the ATMs stop working due to power failure. News from Citigroup just confirms that something is up:

Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change. Read more

Independence Days – Easter Weekend

Photo by: Aussiegall

It’s Easter weekend and I’ve been watching as all my Australian Facebook friends change their status updates to reflect the trips they are making over the four-day weekend. No such luck here in the U.S. Only the standard two-day weekend here, although being between cultures as I am, I have a three-day weekend.

It’s been a really good week; very productive. After my week away in D.C. I managed to get a lot of work done in the office and have spent the last few days working on an assignment I have to complete for some post-grad study. Yes, you heard it right. I’m spending the long weekend writing an essay. The funny thing is, I’m actually enjoying it. I’m using the opportunity to write an essay on how Peak Oil will affect the organisation I’m working for. No point wasting a perfectly good essay on some other mundane topic when I could actually be informing the organisation about something I consider to be big news.

Yesterday we had a picnic in the park to help celebrate our friends’ daughter’s first birthday and then Brendan and I went to a beginner beekeeping class at City Farmer’s Nursery. Bees are fascinating to me and one day when we have our land, I hope to have our own hives. Without bees, half our food wouldn’t get pollinated which I don’t think many people realise. They just see them as pests that sting. As with all things, it’s an education process.

I also finished a really interesting book last night called The Year of the Flood. It completely captivated me and I had it read in a couple of days. I would say it’s the ’1984′ of our times.

Margaret Atwood’s latest book The Year of the Flood is another of her dystopian offerings. It’s many years in the future (Atwood never gives an exact date), and humans have finally managed to destroy much in the natural world. Many animal species are extinct, pollution is rampant, weather is out of control, and society is buckling down to live out the days the best they can. Into all this comes the “waterless flood”, a disaster that has wiped out nearly all the humans in the world. At least two have survived: Toby, the manager of a high-end spa who has barricaded herself inside; and Ren, a dancer/prostitute who was in the “sticky zone” (a type of sick bay) when the disaster hit.

Today is a gloomy day out, so I intend to keep working on this essay while I remain motivated.

Grow some food

• Plenty of snow peas and leafy greens this week. I haven’t had much time to get into the garden, but I really must make the time to start our summer crop seedlings.

Plan to own some productive land

• This week we learned how to keep bees. Although this is a long-term goal, keeping bees on our property will be part of having a healthy ecosystem on our land.

Independence Days – Earth Hour and My Week in Washington DC

Sydney Harbour Before Earth Hour

Last night I flew back home to San Diego from Washington DC. In the process I missed Earth Hour. Instead of turning off my lights to show solidarity with a very worthwhile movement, I was undertaking one of my worst environmental impacts…..flying. *sigh*

This morning I decided to have a look at the Earth Hour website to see how it all went. I was very pleasantly surprised to find some fantastic ‘before and after’ shots from around the world. I am flabbergasted to see the huge difference that was made to the skylines of some of the most famous cities in the world. There must have been a lot of people behind this and that gives me hope. Now we just need to convince people to lower their electricity use every day of the year rather than for one hour. Baby steps I guess.

Sydney Harbour During Earth Hour

I really enjoyed my week in Washington DC. I caught up with a lot of people I haven’t seen in a while and attended some very interesting briefings. Let’s just say that is appears that the U.S. Govt is well aware of Peak Oil and the potential ramifications of the impending reduction in oil supply, even though nothing is being said to the public about this issue. Interesting times ahead.

I also attended a Ball in DC with the Australian Ambassador to the U.S., Kim Beazley. He’s very well-known in Australia so it was great to actually meet him. He had some very interesting stories to tell.

Yesterday I got to tour the White House, which was another fantastic experience. It is absolutely beautiful inside, with gorgeously decorated rooms complete with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the White House lawn. I imagine that when it was built the White House would have been so impressive…in fact it’s still impressive in this day and age. It was also a beautiful sunny day in DC and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. All in all it was a great week, but it’s also good to be home.

Photo by: jdanvers

As far as my Independence Days update, I don’t have all that much to share this week for obvious reasons.

Preparedness

• I added Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills to our home library. It’s a fantastic reference book full of useful information on skills long forgotten by most humans.

Grow some food

• Looks like I’ll be spending much of today in the garden. I’ve already been weeding this morning and pulling out some of the collards which have gone to seed in my absence.
• Our fava beans have finally started producing some pods. I’d given up on them, but it seems the pollinators have been busy recently.
• Our snow peas are really productive now as well. Looks like snow peas are on the menu most nights this week.
• Some of the beets are ready. I hadn’t checked them closely in a while so I was surprised to find how big they were. I think I’ll pickle a few of the biggest ones and then we might roast some of the smaller, more tasty beets.

Independence Days – Spring Cleaning is in Full Swing

Spring has sprung and for some reason I feel like cleaning. If you know me well, you know I never like cleaning. But something is in the air and I’ve been de-cluttering and tidying up various nooks and crannies around the house. Perhaps it has something to do with being stuck inside for weeks when I was sick but whatever it is, I’m embracing it while it’s here. Who knows how long this will last.

I’ve been a little quiet around the blogosphere this week, so my apologies for not coming by and catching up on your blogs. No excuse, just haven’t felt like being on the internet. We also had a visitor from Australia who we’ve been catching up with. I’ll be even quieter next week because I’m heading to Washington DC for the week with work.

Anyway, on to a very short roundup of my activities this week.

Preparedness

• Our 72 hour emergency kit is nearly ready. I bought a few more essentials which should arrive next week, but the rest of it is all packed neatly in a bag and ready to grab at a moments notice. In case anyone is interested, the items I purchased were a MSR MiniWorks Water Filter, SteriPEN Water Purification System Pack and a Self-Powered Radio with Flashlight, Solar Power and Cell Phone Charger.

Getting Off the Economic Grid

• Would you believe that Brendan has had another business proposition this week? On top of his personal training and bicycle repair businesses, it looks like he is now doing some consulting work for a renewable energy start-up. We don’t have all the details yet, but it looks like Brendan will be designing systems and managing projects for off-grid wind and solar systems. This is exciting news. I hope I can share more in the months to come.

Grow some food

• Plenty of weeding after all the rain we’ve been having
• Sowed seeds: Tomato, Basil. WooHoo! Warm season crops are starting!
• Eating: Collards, Snow Peas, Spinach.

Photo by: johnnyalive

Independence Days – My ‘To Be Read’ Pile Expanded

I’ve been taking it easy this weekend because I do not want to risk a relapse of the illness that’s been dogging me for two weeks. After a couple of cups of coffee yesterday, my brain recovered from the fog and I managed to get to the library. This is my ‘To Be Read’ pile at the moment. I don’t imagine I’ll get through all of these books this month, but I like to have a variety of books at home to choose from as the mood takes me.

The Librarian noticed I was checking out Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and began singing Jared Diamond’s praises. Apparently he comes to San Diego most summers to give a presentation at the Natural History Museum. I’ll have to keep an eye out for him. I really enjoyed his documentary Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Because I’ve been housebound all week, I’ve also been listening to quite a few podcasts. These are a fantastic editions to any iPod and I listen to them all the time when I’m travelling or when I want to give my eyes a rest from reading. One podcast I can recommend is Radio Ecoshock. I think it started out as a scientific show based mostly on environmental issues, but since I’ve been listening there has been a wide variety of topics including energy depletion and societal collapse. Two of my favourite authors, Dmitry Orlov and John Michael Greer were on last weeks show. You can also subscribe to Radio Ecoshock on iTunes.

Ok, onto this weeks roundup based on my self-sufficiency, independence and lifestyle planning goals

Preparedness

• We finally bought a first aid kit for the car. We got the large Johnson & Johnson First Aid Kit, which is surprisingly comprehensive for a such a compact box.
• Brendan also bought the Energizer Rechargeable Compact Charger and Energizer DUO USB Charger to recharge all the rechargeable batteries in our headlamps, portable lanterns etc. We have a couple of small solar panels which Brendan is going to try to adapt so that they can charge our batteries via a USB cable. He’s smart like that, so I hope it works.

Getting Off the Economic Grid

• Brendan’s bike maintenance business is still growing. One of our neighbours popped over the other day to see whether Brendan could fix her daughter’s bike. This is fantastic, because Brendan had been hoping to break into the ‘local’ market rather than continuing to rely on other ex-pats for his work.
• Brendan also starts conducting personal training down at our local park this week. Finally, after more than two years here everything seems to be falling into place. I guess it helps that we aren’t always travelling this year. It just goes to show that it really does take time to make yourself a part of a community.

Stockpiling Food

• I finally dealt with all those collards in my garden. I chopped back about a third of the leaves, then blanched and froze them to eat some other day.

Grow some food

• In addition to freezing the best of the collards, the less than perfect leaves became compost tea; a very efficient way of turning something inedible into free fertiliser!
• We’ve been eating beet greens, collard greens, spinach, snow peas, onion and leek fresh from the garden. We’re also still enjoying tomato relish, orange relish, apple jam, tomato sauce and cayenne peppers from our garden reserves.
• I’m still amazed how much food we’ve actually managed to produce in the last year given the small space we have to work with, our complete novice status and limited time we’ve had at home. This started out as an experiment but I think it’s turned into a way of life.

Reducing Energy Dependence

• A few months ago Brendan did a hands-on course on Solar PV Installation and Design. He’s very much a technically minded person and has a real interest in energy auditing and efficiency. This week, he has been working on designing a generic document to help some friends in Australia understand the various credits and tariff systems available and determine the correct sized Solar PV system for their circumstances. It seems like there are a lot of people out there ‘investing’ in Solar PV without understanding all the details. There doesn’t seem to be much unbiased advice available so people are relying on what salespeople tell them, and unfortunately that means they are buying Solar systems that are much larger than they need (which can cost many thousands of dollars more than it needs to). If anyone is interested in the information, I’m sure Brendan will write-up a post for this blog.

Hedge against disaster

• When Brendan and I recently undertook some short-term disaster planning, it became obvious to us that the most likely type of disaster we could face would be a house fire. Of course we have insurance to cover the replacement of items that might be lost to fire, but there are some things that simply cannot be replaced. For this reason, we purchased a fireproof box this week. In it we’ll keep important documents, passports, photos and backup hard drives for our computers (although I’m not sure that the data would survive the heat). The one we have is rated to survive in fire for an hour which I figure is reasonable based our proximity to neighbours and the fire department.

Independence Days – So I Hennaed my Hair

Photo by: Henna Sooq

It’s been another exceptionally quiet weekend. I’m starting to get quite accustomed to slow days after a hurley burley couple of years. Apart from dinner at friend’s last night, the highlight of the weekend was dyeing my hair using henna.

I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time, but had been warned that it was time consuming and that I should set aside half a day. Yesterday was that day. I used Light Mountain Natural Color The Gray in Dark Brown and I must say I’m very happy with the result. Yes…it takes longer than chemical treatment and it’s a bit messy to deal with, but the colour looks fantastic and my hair is lovely and soft today. My grey patch is completely covered and looks like golden highlights now. I might set aside some time to write a post on the whole experience if anyone is interested.

Apart from that, it’s been raining here again this weekend. We can almost set our watch to the rain since it’s arriving so regularly on the weekends. This is not the Southern California I’ve known until now. This morning we were supposed to go on an Edible Bike Tour around some local gardens organised by San Diego Food Not Lawns, and I’m so disappointed that it’s pouring with rain. I’m hoping they reschedule.

In the meantime, I’m watching the documentary Collapse featuring Michael Ruppert. It’s excellent, but does cause one’s heart-rate to rise somewhat.

OK…onto this week’s update.

Preparedness

• I’m making the most of the rainy weekend to work on our 72-hour emergency kit. We have most of what we need, it’s just spread throughout the house. Time to get it all in a To-Go bag. Once I have it all together, I’ll let you know what we have in it.

Getting Off the Economic Grid

• Brendan got a new client referred to him this weekend for his bike maintenance business. He’s really enjoying working on different bikes and learning new skills. This week, he’s also taught himself how to build bicycle wheels so he can now do pretty much anything to fix a bicycle. We’re looking for 2nd-hand bike trailers on Craigslist so we can also transport loads on bicycle in the future.

Stockpiling Food

• This week I tried something new with our oranges. We didn’t much like the Orange Marmalade I made last year, so this time I tried Orange Chutney. I haven’t tasted it yet, but Brendan assures me that it’s delicious. We love relishes and chutneys and since we don’t have any of my regular ingredients (apples, tomatoes or peppers) growing in the garden at the moment, I’m pleased to have been able to expand my repertoire.

Grow some food

• I may have mentioned previously that we didn’t have much success growing carrots from seed this last couple of years. Of 100 seeds, this is our one success. It’s a little stumpy, but at least it’s the right colour! We had a little ceremony to celebrate the unearthing of our one carrot.
• See our lovely snow pea plants in the background? They are  monsters and now over 6 feet tall! A friend of mine wants seeds so he can grow them for the beautiful flowers they produce. Clever peas…they suck you in with pretty flowers so humans do the dirty work of spreading their seed!

• I’ve almost given up on broccoli. Last year they got mauled by caterpillars, and this year they aren’t growing very enthusiastically. Maybe they sense my disdain. One seedling bolted almost immediately after producing a head the size of a quarter. At least it’s pretty.

• On a positive note: collards, spinach and snow peas are all producing nicely.
• I sowed the following seeds this weekend: bush beans, onions, leeks and beets. It’s time to start warm season crops, but until the collards are done I have no room for them.
• My herb garden has also grown back nicely after a dormant winter.

Reducing Energy Dependence

• We had a good long chat with our friends last night about reducing energy dependence. They even let us look at their gas and electricity bill and were open to suggestions about how to reduce their consumption. I think when we told them how much we used (less than half their usage) they might have taken it as a personal challenge to cut back. We’ll see.

Independence Days: Mountain Bike Races and Snow in the Mountains

Yesterday was another rainy day here in San Diego. After two years of drought, all this rain is a pleasant change. The vegetables are thriving and I only need to hand water the seedlings. I expect our water usage has gone down this year since we haven’t needed to use the drip watering system for at least 6 weeks.

Today has been a beautiful sunny one, so we headed inland to watch the first stage of the US Cup Mountain Bike Race series. Brendan used to race mountain bikes in Australia, but these days he’s just happy to watch and cheer on the one Aussie in the race. Afterwards, we drove up into the mountains to see if there was still some snow remaining. Snow is not common here, so I was keen to experience it before it melted. I needn’t have worried because there is still an inch or two coating the ground. Just enough to give everything a lovely white coating and give the local kids an opportunity make snow-men in Southern California, but not too much that we couldn’t hike through it.

Ok…onto this weeks roundup of Independence Days activities based on my post on self-sufficiency, independence and lifestyle planning.

Preparedness

• After yet another massive earthquake this weekend (this time in Chile), I’ve done some more work on my short term preparedness planning. I’ll post more on that later this week.
• I’ve finished week 7 of my exercise program and I’m feeling strong. I think I hit the wall during week 6 because I injured myself. I was worried that I wouldn’t get back into it again, but this week has been fine. One more week until the routine changes again.
• Yesterday we were talking to our friends in Alaska about visiting them in the summer. Alaska is a beautiful place, and this trip will be the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time in the outdoors. I had better get a move on to get fit enough to go backpacking while we are up there (not to mention kayaking and maybe even mountain-biking). Can’t wait!

Getting Off the Economic Grid

• Brendan’s all set up now for operating his home-based bicycle repair business. He’s just finished overhauling two bikes for his first customers and has been handing out business cards all over town. Hopefully he’ll get some more clientele soon, but even if he doesn’t it’s been a good learning experience for him. It’s good to know we now have a barter-able skill at our disposal.

Grow some food

• Plenty of greens this week. The snow peas are coming thick and fast and are oh-so-delicious. I’ve planted four more seedlings so we’ll hopefully have a constant supply for the next few months.
• We can’t keep up with the Collards. I’m almost to the point of offloading some of them onto the neighbours. It’s the same problem I had with squash in the summer, but at least I could freeze them. Anyone know how to preserve collards, or do we just keep eating them until we are completely fed up?
• Our oranges are ripe and delicious. I’m tempted to try some more orange preserves. The marmalade I tried last year was a bit tangy for us, but we are nearly out of relish. I wonder if there is such a thing as orange relish? I made some from our apples last year and we loved it. Why not oranges? Hmmm…I might go search the internet.

Reducing Energy Dependence

• This weekend I’m trying something new in the laundry: Strip washing. It sounds saucy, but it’s not. It’s simply a technique used to rid clothes of any unwanted odors. After washing only in cold water, some of our gym clothes were a little on the nose, so today I’ve been washing in hot water with no detergent – repeatedly – until no suds are visible. Apparently it removes oil and detergent residue from clothes and does a great job of freshening them up. I’m about to hang the clothes out so the verdict will be in next week I guess. If we can revive these clothes then we won’t have to buy new ones.

Photo by: Temari 09