Monday 7th March 11

A grumpy day mostly.  I got up early as Gill was taking our youngest to school in a taxi. and then going on to the Credit Union to put some money aside so we can pay the Steiner School for the second term in May.  So they were ready more or less on time and as they got going, the taxi broke down.  So they had to wait for a replacement one.  Apparently they weren't very late and people were rolling in behind them.

I tried to do some home education and failed. This is what caused my stress today.  I was glad to see Will, who arrived just before 11, to do some maths with our home-schooler.  Gill arrived back then too.

I helped Gill do some sorting out, as we have Hector coming to install a new sink tomorrow, a Freecycled stainless steel sink which we hope will be less yukky than the white enamel one we have now... He's also going to put up a new shelf, which will give us more storage space.

I managed to get outside and do some more prep for getting the 50 sacks of compost up to the front.  I think I'll need to do this for the best part of a day... but maybe it won't take that long.  I stacked a load of cut logs from the front into the covered shed down the garden, and dismantled another compost bin ready for re-installing it in a rat-proof  way, up off the ground more than it was previously.  They like hiding places, so the less cover they have, the less likely they will be attracted to the heaps.

At 2pm I set off with some of my circus gear to the Steiner School, plus our youngest's bike on the trailer. Angela, the class 8 teacher, had requested that I go in and help one of her 3 children (yes, a very small class!) with his 'walking ladder' trick.  I cannot do the walking ladder, but as I do assorted other physical skills, including balancing and unicycle, I was able to go through some of the science.  So I covered pendulums (as a ladder or unicycle are similar to a metronome or upside-down pendulum) and gravity, and how best to learn (little and often) and how playing and experimentation is the best way to learn too.  The 50 minutes seemed to go well. 

I cycled home with our youngest, a good ride, but as he arrived home he too had a teen turn and this didn't help my headache. 
Ros came round and needed help with her bike, as it had a flat tyre and her pump seemed to be letting more air out than in... However, I managed to get it hard and ride-worthy. 

Gill made toasties for tea.  Then, although I wasn't feeling like it, I went to the LETS meeting, as I have an obligation to go... and within about 10 minutes of the company of my friends there, I'd cheered up considerably.  It was a laughter-filled meeting, minimally chaired by Melody.  At the end of the meeting, I gave a copy of 'The Curious Incident' to Kay and Ben (to give to Jill).  After the meeting I went looking for the skip which had the beer in it a few days ago, but it had gone, so no rooting around in that tonight.

I was happy to get home and warm up as it was cold in the pub.  I did one batch of washing up and then got trapped into facebook and Jango.

Sunday 27th February 11

Another quite relaxing day.... although I did do some hard work in the garden.

But the day started with a telly morning... Country Tracks, which I enjoyed, interspersed with washing up, which I am bored of.

But a good lunch... Gill had bought some tasty tomato bread and I had some with hommous in, really good.

In the afternoon, I did some moving stuff around in the garden.... half emptied the Compostumbler which has only half composted the last batch, but I need the space so I transferred the material to a half-full dalek which is now completely full.  I put about 10 bucket loads of gunk into the Compostumbler, including a load of compost worms which will find conditions in there very favourable, I'm sure.

Toward the end of the day I visited Richard at Country Fresh to do his resource recycling for him, and got a bag of reduced price veggies in return.  I picked up a large sack from Freshways too.  All this went down the garden and went either in one of 3 tumblers or a static pile, depending on the materials.  Anything that rats really like eating (for instance, potatoes and avocados) go in tumblers where rats can't get at them.  Things like cauliflower stalks and mooli are not so tasty to rats and go in an ordinary 'open' heap, one of the New Zealand bins raised up off the ground to reduce rat ingress. 

I got a text from Debbie but by the time I responded, she'd gone out but I had some conversations with the feral children who live near her, and they enthusiastically got some aluminium cans for me, and stamped them flat too.

Lots of Scrabble in the evening, and assorted conversations about the Census, and a zero-growth economy, and the fact I look a bit like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, apparently.....

Friday 18th February 11

An interesting day.... our youngest wasn't well so he didn't go to school, but Gill was volunteering in the shop so she went in, and then went to town afterwards to visit charity shops.

Our eldest wasn't feeling great either so he didn't go to Maria's, so we all had a very quiet morning.  I did a pile of washing up and assorted online stuff.

I then spent quite a bit of time down the garden.... I emptied a pallet heap into a builder's bag (over a cubic metre) and then dismantled the pallets and sorted out the rodent home underneath.  Much though I like nature and animals, I intend to make life as difficult as possible for unwanted beasties under my compost heaps.  I've found that if they are raised up on top of other pallets, they are less of a comfortable place to live.  So I bagged up a load of finished compost and moved stuff around so I can reconstruct a rat-proof compost bin.  I had a constant companion with a robin, and I enjoyed listening to all the other birds.

I came in as it got dark and had tea.  Gill took our eldest down to see Simon for his computer graphics lesson.  I had a phone chat with a student called Daniel, who's doing a dissertation about greening festivals.  We chatted for an hour, I answered his questions and I was very pleased to have helped him. He said I was the most enthusiastic person he'd interviewed, and knew most about the issues!

I got a phone call from a woman involved with a special school in East Yorkshire, wanting to book me for next Tuesday.... which is great, apart from I'll miss a workshop on the same day called Climate For Change.  How annoying.

I sent off a bunch of emails and facebook messages to London-based friends asking them if they'd like to host me at the end of March, as I've been invited to talk at UK Aware about urban composting.

At midnight, I went to wait outside the house as two of my student friends had invited me to go 'skipping' with them.  There's a supermarket which deliberately leaves it's gates open so that the bins are accessible; I think the stuff which is taken means they pay less for their landfill charges, or maybe they have a conscience.  It was just amazing what had been thrown out; bread, cakes, sandwiches, wrapped biscuits and cakes, a luxury curry in protective atmosphere packaging, in date, loads of potatoes, Cauldron veggie sausages and curries, cranberry juice, onions, plums, raspberries, little oranges, apples, cashew nuts, a tub of hommous, a tub of mango chunks, a bunch of lovely fresh carrots, a shrink-wrapped cabbage, lots of ready to eat salads, bunches of roses, and vast numbers of bananas, about 3 bin bags full.  The students planned to cook up a big meal and share it with their friends.  We cycled home to their place to share it out... and I was home before 1am and then had a lot of sortig to do!  Freeganism is fun, but I have mixed feelings.  I'm saddened, no - disgusted -  by the amount of waste just on this one night.  This is multiplied by 365 every year, and by I don't know how much by the number of supermarkets and shops that have this kind of waste.

Tuesday 23rd February 10

A peaceful start to the day and at 10, Michael, a German chap who has a son at our son's school arrived, as he had invited himself round to find out how to make a compost heap which didn't attract rats. He lives near a farm which has lots of rats and his 'dalek' bin has regular rodent visitors.

So we went down the garden and I showed him the various 'dalek' bins which are on concrete or paving stones, and one on a proprietory plastic base, all of which are rat proof (OK, rat resistant!) and haven't ever been gnawed through or tunneled into. I showed him the GreenCone, which has (or had, as I set a trap) a rat living in the basket under the cone, having tunnelled through the soil and munched through the basket. I showed him the 'New Zealand Bins' made of pallets, which I construct on top of several pallets to raise them off the ground, and line with chicken wire. These are also rat deterrant, as the only way they can get in is through the top. I showed him the Compost Mate tool which I use to disturb the heaps, making rat peace and quiet impossible.

Then I showed him the four sorts of tumbler, all of which are either rat proof or would be really difficult for a rat to get into. He really liked the Sun Mar Compost Flow 400 litre jobbie, and I asked him to let me know which one he decided to get.

So then the next 'feature' of the day was lunch, and whilst having lunch and after, I contacted several organisations through their websites, to ask about using some photos for the website I am working on.

Then I emptied the wheelbarrow (sacks of compostables) and used it to take the logs I cut yesterday and took them to the new logpile for fresh logs which is on a pallet in the shared pathway between us and our neighbour. Some needed splitting too, which not only helps the thick ones dry faster, but makes the stacking easier and safer.

I had tea early, a pile of pasta parcels, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin, as the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel was at 6pm today, rather than the usual 6.30. We had a lot to deal with, including some quite complicated applications, and ones where we disagreed.

We finished at 7.10 and my next meeting was at 7.30 in the Black Swan, the first planning meeting of the 2010 York World Naked Bike Ride. Tony and Hugh came... Tony is the main organiser, and he'd prepared a check list/agenda which we worked through, including the route, publicity, police/council liason and assorted other bits and bobs. A good meeting, and on the way back I checked out a logpile, some of which found it's way into my trailer.

On the way out of St Nicks Fields, I saw two youths running off up one of the paths, from a rubbish bin which they had just set light to. There was another chap there, just standing and using his mobile phone. I stopped and looked into the bin, saw that it did indeed have some contents on fire. I parked the bike and said to the chap standing around that it ought to be put out, but I'd just had a pee so could he help? He declined, so I scrabbld around to find enough snow to chuck into the bin to eventually put out the small fire. The only thing the chap said was in response to my saying 'I wish there was more snow'.. and he just said 'you don't hear that very often'. I tried to chat to him a bit more but he was in a world of his own.

I came home, unloaded logs, put the bike away and came in, tired but happy that the meetings had been productive.