Tuesday 1st November 11

A hard-working day.  I went to Ginnie's to dig out her coal hole.  I'd spent some time thinking hard about this issue. 

Ginnie moved into the house about 20 years ago and there was a pile of coal in an outhouse... they didn't use solid fuel and it sat there.  She's selling up and wants the place as tidy and clean as possible, so she asked me if I wanted the coal.  Our stoves are 'multifuel', meaning they'll burn wood or coal in a smoke-free way, so that meant I was in a position to say yes.

However, this carbon was fossil carbon, extracted from the air millions of years ago.  And I've made a conscious decision to be as 'low carbon' as possible... that's mainly fossil carbon, but it also pertains to not wasting renewable energy too.  So, a dilemma.  What to do with this coal?  Should I say, no, I don't want it, and let her find someone else to dig it out, bag it up, drive it somewhere and burn it?  Or should I spend time bagging it up, to help Ginnie, and then take it to Hazel court to be landfilled, or find somewhere to bury it?  These last two options would mean the fossil carbon would be locked up underground, the ideal situation. But if I used the coal, it would add a little to my carbon footprint... which is about a twelfth of the UK average... so this 'carbon expenditure' wouldn't make my footprint particularly large, just a bit bigger than it would be if I'd just carried on using wood.  It would add carbon dioxide to the air, probably a similar amount that the logs would, that I would need to burn to get the same amount of heat. There is a theoretical difference between carbon locked away millions of years ago and that sequestered by plants more recently, although the molecules of CO2 are exactly the same.

I decided to help Ginnie, and to bring the coal home, and use it to supplement our log piles. 

So I filled lots of sacks and bags with the whole lot, probably about 250kg, and did several cycle rides back home with them in my trailer.

Later, I asked my facebook friends what they suggested I do with it.  Several said 'make an artwork' out of it (my mind boggled at how I should do this!) and several others said yes, just use it, as my years and years of being low carbon would not be undone by this small high-carbon act.  The burial solution was mentioned too, but by this time I'd spent several hours digging the stuff out, and the idea of chucking it away wasn't that appealing.

I'd love to know blog-readers' opinions.  Am I a hypocrite?  Am I just taking advantage of a freebie?  Does this 250kg coal being burnt 'matter' in the bigger scheme of things?  Should I burn it with a clean conscience?

Friday 26th Novbember 10

Spent the morning sorting out stuff for tomorrow's work in Huddersfield, looking at maps ant train times, contacting the market people... who were uncontactable and didn't get back to me... so I think I know what I'm doing, but it would have been good to have it confirmed.

I did a bit of assorted garden work, despite it being cold, and a visit to Country Fresh, and I sorted out a load of dried fruit for sale at tomorrow's LETS fair. I did 10 bags of 12 apple rings, 2 half pears, two half plums, two bananas, two kiwi slices, two pineapple slices, two persimmon slices... and labelled these for sale for £2 or £1 + Y1.  I also did  quite a few jars of fruit, again for a sterling and Yorky price, or just a sterling price.  I hope they all sell!

After tea I cycled down to Heslington to take the fruit to Melody.  I brought home a small bottle of truffle oil which had been prepared by their 12 year old entrepreneurial son.  He'd bought a 35 Euro truffle whilst on holiday in Italy and had worked out a way of recouping his money.  I now owe him £3.50's worth of dried fruit, which he loves, as a swap.

We all watched a good programme on the science of plants, and after that I had an interesting conversation with both boys based on an incident I'd read about because of a link in facebook, about a man who'd lost £80,000 from the roof of his car whilst driving to work, and a completely dissimilar event when our youngest found a pound on the sofa.  So we discussed the various ethical issues involved with finding lost money.  If you find a pound in the street, nearly everybody would just put it in their pocket.  Would you do it with a £2 coin?  A £20 note?  A roll of notes adding up to £100?  £1000?  Where is the cut off point?  What amount would you put in your pocket and think 'lucky me' and have no conscience, and at what value would you think 'I ought to report this find to the police'?  Obviously there's no 'right answer', it's one of those ethical dilemmas that occasionally people have to deal with.  This conversation led to a discussion about laws, speed limits, drugs, the age you can get married and more.  It meant they went to bed a bit late, but it was an interesting chat.

I did some more fruit later, and had a shave and a bath.

Thursday 21st January 10

I got up early to go and pick up some 'cached' compostables from Freshways! I walked my bike down with the trailer and picked up a sack and 3 small boxes. Walked back, removed the trailer and walked it down to Cycle Heaven... well, I freewheeled some of the way downhill, and I chatted to a policeman on some of the way too, so the trip was quite quick. Ash heard my tale of woe and said he'd sort out my dynamo, brake, pedal, rear mudguard, chain and anything else he came across whilst giving the bike a once-over.

He gave me a replacement bike to get home on, and I popped in to Country Fresh to have a natter with Rich and pick up a single box of goodies.

Home, and the postie had delivered the tax people's letter which means I can fill in my tax return online! Yippee!

However, I was unable to do it today as I couldn't find the accounts books. Booo!

So I got on with other things, things like washing up...

After lunch I went to Debbie Fricker's funeral. She was a friend of my friend Debbie, and I met them together on quite a few occasions over the past couple of years. She was a lovely woman, only 3 or 4 years older than me, and very open about her alcoholism. Last year her liver packed up enough for her to go to hospital, and she died last week. She was unable to stop drinking.

I went partly because she was a lovely person who liked me and I liked her... However, I made a decision not to get too involved in her life as I felt she might become a regular visitor and we have enough going on here to have to deal with that sort of visitor... a bit of a cold hearted decision, but sometimes you have to look after yourself. I did take advice on this, it wasn't just my own decision, but someone else suggested not letting her know where I lived or visiting her. It's at times like these when you reassess this kind of ethical dilemma... was it the right thing or the wrong thing to do? If I'd allowed her into my life, our lives, or got involved in hers, would anything more positive have happened?

I also went to support my friend Debbie, who is very upset about what has happened.

So, I cycled over to the Edward the Confessor church on the borrowed bike, and sat through the service. I don't really like Christian services but Debbie was a Christian so it was appropriate. I don't like hymns or prayers, but actually, at this service, two of the three hymns were ones I liked... The Lord of the Dance, and Morning has Broken. So I sang along with those... it's been quite a few years since I sang either of those! One of Debbie's old friends gave a very moving talk about her school days and her teen years, and the friendship they had for 35 years. I thanked her afterwards. I am very sorry that such a lovely person should die so young, and be so troubled. Life is not fair.

I didn't go for 'refreshments' afterwards. I cycled back to Cycle Heaven to pick up my mended bike. Ash had fitted a new back block, chain, front chain wheel, replaced the brake pads in the front disc brake, filed down the broken right brake lever and fixed the back mudguard. It's virtually a new bike!

I picked up a box of compostables from Country Fresh and got home. Felt subdued all afternoon and evening. Just had soup for tea, as wasn't very hungry.

Sorted out a unicycle wheel after tea, prior to my gig on Saturday. It wasn't a puncture, just a loose valve! Duh.

Tuesday 12th January 10

Quite a good day... got a letter from a reader of plants for a future, to which I contributed a comment, with some seeds as a swap for some tubercles of Diascorea batatas (sometimes known as D. opposita) or Chinese Yam (see this blog post). I also had a phone call from a West African man living in Worcester who'd bought a cinnamon vine in a pot from Country Fresh when he was visiting York, asking me about how to look after the plant... and I promised to send him a few tubercles when they were harvested.

So I replied to both with a letter and information about looking after the plant, and tomorrow will put a film-canister of tubercles with the letter and send them off, one to Worcester and the other to Maldon in Essex.

At 10am Lynn came round as she had asked if I still had any spare bananas... and by chance, I had got some more bananas yesterday so she came round for a chat and to pick up some bananas. We chatted for over two hours.

I popped round to Tang Hall Library to take some children's books back, and got milk from the Co-op on the way back.

Rice and home-made baked beans for tea, and then off to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel for 6.30, where there were just two applications to deal with. However at the previous meeting, just before Christmas, only two people were able to attend, and they disagreed over an application, so the Clerk had emailed round to canvass opinions and gather more comments. The other person had said this was underhand and wrong, as only the opinions of those present at the meeting should count. So we had a very heated discussion which lasted until we had to go, at 7.30. We realised that we had no ground-rules for this situation so the Clerk is going to ask the Council for advice, and I'll ask my Fishergate Planning Panel friends if they have rules about being quorate (having a certain number of people there in order for the meeting to make decisions) and whether people not actually at the meeting can contribute to the discussion or the vote. Difficult ethical and procedural dilemmas.

A late evening with children and homework.

Tuesday 27th October 09

I had a nice morning with the family and dealt with various phone calls and things around the house. Late morning our eldest made a cake with Mum and youngest helped me with some hedge processing in the garden.

In the afternoon, Gill took the boys into town and I went to the University to attend a lecture by Professor Uta Frith about how autism helps us understand how our brians work. I had got the room number BO20 in my memory, and hadn't sussed that it was in the Psychology block. I asked someone if they knew where BO20 was and they told me it was in Biology, where all the room numbers start with BO, apparently. I went looking round Biology but didn't find the room. I eventually found someone in a 'help' office and after another 10 minutes looking through the University website, they found the lecture... in BO20 in Psychology. But by this time I would have been at least 15 minutes late so I cycled home.

But I made good use of the time, I popped into the old chap on Windmill Lane who wanted help removing a cherry tree trunk and asked him if he'd like me to do it in ten minutes... he was delighted so I cycled home, picked up my chainsaw and went back to him. The job was actually much easier than I thought it would be. The difficult job was getting the log to the front of the house, but I walked it end over end. He offered to drive the thing round to mine, I accepted as I don't think my trailer would have coped with such a heavy and long load. I don't do that very often.

I cycled home and cooked some pasta and had the remains of the tomato and trombone squash thing, and Gill and the boys arrived home, having eaten something in town.

At 7pm I set off for a long-arranged meeting with Di, a new Transitioneer, who wants to start a Huntington and New Earswick Transition group. I popped in on my friend Keith on the way, to pass on a message from two of my friends from long ago who want to be in touch with my old partner, and Keith said he'd pass on the message. The meeting at Di's was good, her neighbour Angelica came too and we had a good talk through what would be a good way of starting a local Transition group.

I left soon after 9.30 and got home at 10ish. A bit of a fraught evening as I have a dilemma about what I'm doing this next weekend. I have arranged to do one thing and now there's a chance to do something else... decisions decisions...

Tuesday 1st September 09

Another good day, no timed things to do, kept busy.

One of the main things was that our friends round the corner were due to have their big conifer tree taken down, and they had invited me round to ask the contractor if he would like to offload the logs my way.

So, quite early, we saw the chap up a ladder cutting side branches off with loppers and a bow saw, and then cutting the tops off the tree with a chainsaw, on the top of the unsecured ladder about 10 metres off the ground, without a harness or any other safety equipment. I was astounded as tree felling is a dangerous job, and I wondered if he should have had to put on a harness or whether it is a choice. I went round to see the neighbours and they too had wondered why the tree-feller wasn't wearing a harness.

I spoke to the chap, not about his safety, but about whether he could let me have his waste materials. He told me that he sold logs and that the tree he was taking down would give him £50 worth of logs. I was happy to hear that, as I'm always happy to hear of businesses connected to renewables. I wished him well and came home.

I decided to ring the council to find out if he should be using safety equipment, and they put me in touch with the Health and Safety Executive, who took my details and basic details about the tree feller/tree fella, and asked me to email them with any photos, the address he was working at, etc.

An hour later, I was building a logpile next to the front door and the chap arrived, saying he was happy for me to have 'as many logs as I wanted'. I protested, saying that I was happy for him to take them and sell them on... he almost insisted that I take the wheelbarrow round and pick up a few lengths. What a dilemma! I had almost shopped this guy, and he turned out to be very friendly and generous. What to do? I had a chat with the neighbours and they were initially upset I'd had a conversation with the authorities, and we had a long talk about the wider effects of dangerous behaviour. The guy had his young son working with him, and my argument was that the father was risking his livelihood and even his life, and at worst, his son could lose his dad. I felt very uncomfortable with the situation, and only took two lengths of tree trunk, and didn't go back.

I decided to not email the HSE with the photos my youngest had taken, nor inform them of the chap's details, as I thought it very likely that he would work out who had 'grassed him up' and could come round and be less than friendly. But I still feel that he ought to have taken more care, not just for his own sake but for his family and the wider community.

Later, whilst I was doing more woody things, there was a huge thunderstorm and I came in. I only went back out later after dark to do a bit more wasp-nest management.

Lots of York Green Festival email traffic today, also putting up posters, and some Fiddlesticks stuff too. Also chopped up a half dozen mangoes to dry them. One of my favourite dried fruits.

Tuesday 16th September 08

I took our youngest into school as Gill had been up from 6.30 getting packed lunches together and the boys' bags, persuading them to get dressed, etc.

In the playground I had a chat with Mrs P. the headteacher, primarily about the four sacks of finished compost that I removed from the final compost bin where it had been all summer. I needed to know if it was OK to leave it with the other Green Thumbs stuff or whether there was a better position for it. The reason is that the school grounds are not secure in the evenings and youths often use the grounds, and if they were injured or harmed by the sacks of compost or their contents (!!!) they could possibly sue the school. Ridiculous I know, but that's the situation...

However, another very interesting situation has progressed over the summer. The Health and Safety Executive (and local Environmental Health) visited the Japanese Garden which was constructed last year. Regular readers will remember that as the old, tarry sleepers were being unloaded from the contractors lorry, I told the school that I was fairly sure that old railway sleepers were not meant to be used in Children's playgrounds or schools. The next day I gave a letter into the school with the details of the EU legislation (Directive 2001/90/EC) which states this. The contractor was either told or worked out that it was me who had done this and gave me loud publc death threats in the playground, which was most upsetting. The work continued, despite the warnings that I thought that it was illegal. (See also UK Statutory Instrument number 721)

So, the HSE sent a letter (which I haven't seen yet) telling the school that they would have to remove the smelly and possibly carcinogenic sleepers and replace them with untreated ones. However, their reason for this wasn't that it was against the law, but apparently because I had reported that my son was "made to eat his packed lunch off one of the sleepers by Mrs P." which is totally untrue. I had reported to the HSE person that my child was made to (or asked to) eat his packed lunch in the newly opened Japanese Garden and he that afternoon reported to us that the smell of the sleepers had made him feel sick and that's why he hadn't eaten his lunch. So the HSE people had got the story completely twisted up and wrong, and very unfairly blamed the situation on the Head. If I get a copy of the letter, I will write to the author/s and ask for a correction as this situation has given the Headteacher a lot of stress over the summer. The reason they should have given is that the work contravenes an EU Directive. I don't feel that good about it as I'm partly responsible, and I'm sure the head feels bad about it as she ignored my initial advice, before the sleepers were installed. However, I am glad the garden will be made fit for use, although I'm sorry that this will cost so much more than if the situation had been sorted right at the beginning.

In searching the net about information offered to members of the public, I found this site which is offering illegal advice to use treated sleepers in gardens as planting containers. http://www.railwaysleeper.com/railway%20sleeper%20treatments.htm I had an email discussion with one of the people at this site about the way it seems to suggest that it's ok to use treated sleepers as plant containers, and was assured that they communicate the facts of the legislation to all customers. However, I was still unhappy to see photos of raised beds growing vegetables made with creosoted railway sleepers on this website, when this is explicitly prohibited.
So my advice is to only use UNTREATED sleepers if you have any doubts as to the suitability of their purpose. They cost a bit more (ie they are not 'waste'!) but don't smell awful, leach carcinogenic chemicals onto skin or clothes, or run you the risk of being told to replace them.

I had a low-mood day as I've been feeling unwell, headache, tummy ache, tired. I went to bed for a while and haven't eaten much... Gill persuaded me to have a fried egg sandwich but I ate it without enthusiasm.

Sunday 4th May 08

A very peaceful start to the day.

The day continued peacefully.

I half-watched Countryfile whilst doing a huge pile of washing up, the only complaints were that I'd made the living room too hot by lighting the stove to get washing up water.... but not a problem. I'd rather light the stove and burn a kilo of waste wood to get some hot water than put on the gas for a few minutes.... and it helps dry the bananas which are sitting on the wok-stand on top of the two-gallon pan.

I had an early lunch and set off with my eldest son to Rowntree Park to attend the York Rotters Worm Charming contest, with Gill and our youngest following on afterwards. I helped set up the grid of 16 squares 2m x 2m on the grass, and entrants started registering, including our two boys. I did some announcing with my loud voice and soon the event was underway.

Gill and I joined in with our boys attempts to get worms out of the soil and we got four by the end of the 15 minutes allotted time. However, a minute later, I spotted another one and I didn't stop to think and popped it into the pot. When the adjudicator counted the worms, our team was in equal first place with 5 worms. So there was a 'charm-off' with the two top teams going back to their plots and the first team to charm a worm was the winner. Gill and I encouraged ours to do lots of jumping up and down, and suddenly, there was the winning worm...

So they walked away with their prize, a 'Junior Wormery' by Original Organics, and I cycled it home. However, I had a niggly thought that I had cheated by putting in a charmed worm after the time had passed... and I shared my feelings with my eldest who has a keen sense of fair play and honesty, and I admitted to my wrongdoing. We decided that the best thing to do would be to tell Catherine the Rotters project manager, and to give the wormery prize back so it could go to the real winners. I offered to give one of my wormeries to the boys as a consolation, as I have three different types. This made me feel better. I blame my lack of impulse control and lack of 'thinking of consequenses', both of which I am aware of when I stop and think.

In the evening I came accross a good blog http://gco2e.blogspot.com/ which is worth reading if interested in carbon footprints etc.