queen_of_denial's blog

It's good to see that the completely environmentally unfriendly V8 races in Hamilton are at least providing recycling bins around the track for the public to use. It's probably just a token gesture to make themselves look better but it's better than nothing. I can only imagine the rubbish that will be generated as a result.
Will there come a day when events like this don't happen anymore? I can imagine there will.

http://hamilton.co.nz/page/pageid/2145832723

The other day the drought made me think about fires...what happens if your house is on fire and the brigade comes out only to find you have 1/2 a tank of water left?. I assume they always bring a tanker to a rural fire...but I don't really know. What if the tanker wouldn't fit up your driveway? I guess your house just burns to the ground. The horrific fire at Tamahere yesterday brings that to the forefront. Getting water to the fire was an issue. Something to be considered by all country folk.

As I sit here breathing a sigh of relief at the gentle rain falling outside, I am amazed at the stupidity of people and their use of water.

I admit that a drought in the Waikato is unheard of...but once we had gone for a couple of months without rain you would think people would have cottoned on to the issue and tried to save water...but no.
Councils have to be the worst offenders...they wait until there is no water before putting on sprinkler bans just because they don't want to upset anyone and I suspect they don't want the extra expense of spying on people breaking the rules.

I went to the stockcars in the holidays and had a strong twinge of guilt at the mindless waste of fuel involved. I started thinking about whether there is any effort being made in this industry to improve its wastage of resources but a google search failed to unearth very much. This was the only article of much interest:
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/motorsport/story/0,,2244924,00.html

I'm over buying fly spray and got the idea to start making my own fly traps using old coffee and milo tins from work (they seemed too good to throw out)
Just hunting out the best fly trap plan on the internet and then will attempt to construct a couple for a trial run. I know you can buy them from rural stores and off trade me...but why bother when you have all the ingredients at home for free! Will take piccies if sucessful (or a failure!)
Goodbye to pesky country blowflies forever (hopefully)

I might not have a vege garden yet but things are growing well in the orchard which consists of:apple, plum, apricot, peach, nectarine, cranberry, guava, mandarin, pear, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, tangerine, lemon, grape, olive, feijoa.
We don't do any spraying and most trees don't get watered much either but the lawn clippings are used for mulch around the base. Ocassionally they have a drink with some liquid pig poo.
Only problem is keeping away the possums and the birds.

Bought my first xmas pressies from Oxfam yesterday...my mother is giving the gift of a goat for xmas and I also bought some oxfam condoms that will be going under our tree at work.Giving those reusable grocery bags is something else I have in mind for xmas pressies as well. Who wouldn't use them if they had them?

Read an interesting article on how much water varying types of livestock require and it's something I hadn't really thought about before.
Cows were the worst offenders followed by horses, pigs, sheep and poultry.
I can certainly see in the future that if things don't change dairy farming could suffer severely.
Might be time for everyone to wean themselves off beef and milk now!

I have a couple of Kunekune pigs...they produce an extraordinary amount of poo between them. Currently I remove it all from their paddock and store it under some trees. I have been making liquid fertiliser out of it for the garden and it seems to be working out OK (well nothing has died!)
I have to wonder if there isn't enough animal dung in the world to make all the fuel we need?
Anyone got ideas for any other uses for loads of pig dung?
p.s. they are strictly vegetarian pigs so its high class dung.

It's often easier to be environmentally friendly when you live in the country..your options are greater...so I guess you should try to do more than your share to compensate for townies.
You control your water and sewerage for a starter, you have heaps of room for composting and can grow your own meat,veges and heat.
The downside is you often use more fuel for travelling (and all those farm toys) and more power for running pumps and electric fences etc.

We grow our own firewood and have a new efficient wood burner. ( I still think wood is better than heating via power and gas)