Sunday 22 February 2009

Sunday 22nd February 09

Not too early a start, but once up got the stove going so I could do the washing up, and watched 'The Big Questions' which was from York. Good to see my friends Claire and David Kennard being interviewed, although I'm not sure why they got front row... they always talk sense though, I have a lot of respect for them.

I recorded Countryfile and half-listened whilst I washed up, and at 11.30 cycled off to the allotment, hoping to get to the lottie shop before 12 which is when it closes on Sundays. However, I got waylaid in Country Fresh by a student journalist called Joel who was doing a piece about the shop and was interested in how the shop reduces it's waste stream. I 'paid my penny' for the bag of resources which in most other shops would be put in the bin as waste, and cycled to the allotment, missing the shop by 3 minutes, damnation!

But I did spend the next hour and a half doing my composting... emptied out a dumpy bag of overwintered and mature compost, and filled it back up with some nearly done compost from one of the pallet bins, removing larger sticks to put in the current heap.

I left at 1.45 and got home just in time to listen to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4.

A quiet afternoon... did some stacking of Brazilian Pine and used the Compost Mate tool to aerate the current hot garden heap, which is still being added to and is risking getting compacted.

Gill did rice for tea. The boys did their homework. I washed up again.

Later, Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and she won for a third time in a row! I'm obviously losing my touch... too much Facebook Scrabble... perhaps it's sucking all my strength?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm eating an incredibly healthy diet and I'm farting like a bullfrog - is this normal with a high fruit and veg diet?

Keep up the good work.

Compost John said...

I didn't know that bullfrogs farted, but yes, if you have a higher fibre diet, you may indeed pass more wind.

However, measurements show that a human with an exceptionally flatulent disposition might pass up to 20 litres a day, this a mix of carbon dioxide, methane and a few other gases.

If you look at an average beef or dairy animal, a cow, bullock, etc, they burp out perhaps 500 ltres/day of methane, so if you are worried about contributing to the greenhouse effect, reduce your consumption of meat and dairy, especially ruminant meat, beef and lamb/mutton.

The lowest carbon diet is vegan, using locally grown fruit, veg, nuts and grains, and in season.
Vegetarianism (I'm vegetarian) has a slightly higher impact, but the fewer animal products consumed, the lower the overall impact.
John (trying to work out who the farty frog might be!)