Monday 18th June 07

Got up just before the boys left for school, and when Gill got in she was in tears as our eldest child was horrible and very badly behaved and is just about impossible to be with right now. I'll take them tomorrow as he doesn't mess me around.

Spent some time chatting and doing a little bit of housework before Catherine the new York Rotters worker came for a visit. We had a tour of the garden and then a cuppa, taking an hour before she left again.

I then bombed into town to take my bike to Cycle Heaven who are giving it a service, and on their Filibus bike, went to the bank and building society to do phone bill, cheque for phone book advert and pay in a couple of cheques from recent gigs.

Back for a late lunch, Gill had done a big clean-up and tidy, ready for the TV tomorrow. I did some tidying outside, and at 3 went to get the boys. They were very well behaved on the way home. I continued sorting stuff out in the front, as it's got very untidy with all the other things going on in my life.

At 5.30 I went to Cycle Heaven on the Filibus and picked up my old bike, suppsedly now roadworthy. I often do 'round trips' as this is more Permaculture than doing special journeys, and so I went on with my journey to my friend Y's house... she's fed up with her fly strewn compost bin and has given it to me. I was halfway there when the back wheel came loose and the wheel started to rub against the frame when I pedalled. I could push it, and scoot, but not cycle. I picked up the compost bin and sack of contents, and planted a cucumber plant in it's place.

I then walked and scooted home, via Out Of This World for a small pick up, and walked back home, getting in at 7pm, feeling pretty upset. I need my bike for tomorrow's filming and the shop doesn't open til 10.30 tomorrow or Weds, so I don't know when I'll get my bike fixed, it's infuriating.

I made my own tea, and did more work outside til 9.45, came in and showered as was smelly, and collapsed for a bit before doing emails, blog and chat.

Saturday 10th March 07

A weekend without paid work... but plenty to do. When I got up the boys were continuing their game of Superscrabble which they started a couple of days ago. To help them hurry up (we couldn't play it last night as their tiles were on the board) both Gill and I joined in and helped them. When everything seemed peaceful and good tempered we were able to slip away and spend 20 minutes upstairs, with no shouting or fighting downstairs. Bliss...

Later, I continued digging out a compost heap and putting most of the material in a builders bag, so I can reinstate the heap in a way which discourages rodents from making it home. After lunch, my usual pile of sandwiches, I cycled down to Cycle Heaven on the Filibus to collect my repaired Dawes.... the new front wheel feels fine, and will hopefully last as long as the frame will. The frame has already broken once, when I was transporting a huge load of logs and the bike fell over, fracturing the frame near the back wheel. I got it welded together by a lovely chap in Bishopthorpe, and I've been more careful since, especially as I think he's not trading anymore. I went on to a Freecycle contact who had offered me an ex-skip compost bin, minus bottom door and lid, but I'm sure I can resolve that problem. I spent quite a long time chatting and discussing gardening and other important issues over a coffee, a new friend I think.

A speedy cycle home via the veg shop and back rather later than planned. Gill had hoped that I'd be in earlier as we all could have visited a chap up Osbaldwick Lane, offering a second-hand computer which will enable my eldest son to catch up on his keyboard skills and speed, as he must be the only child in the class without a computer... and he's very slow in the ITC suite at school. I collected the Freecycled computer in the trailer, monitor, printer, scanner and keyboard, and we'll put it in the loft and let him have 40 minute sessions max at any one time. Our good friend Simon has offered to help set it up and show him how to get started, as well as provide some software for him.

I made my own tea, rice with pumpkin and sesame seeds and bits of other veg, all cooked up on the woodstove. Very wholesome and filling. Vegan too. Andy my Green Party friend called and came round, re paperwork for the forthcoming elections. Then Simon popped in as he was in the vicinity, and told us he'd help with our Freecycled computer.

A quiet evening doing various paperwork and 'office' tasks. Should be early to bed ttonight.

Friday 9th March 07

One of my big 'sit and wait' compost heaps has for a while looked as if it needed turning and making less hospitable for it's rodent inhabitants, and I'll replace it with one built on top of a couple of pallets which are less rodent friendly to burrow into. So I got a 'duppy bag', the builders materials woven nylon one cubic metre sack and started forking the heap into it, as a first turn. I have to take out lots of contrairies and either bin them or chuck them in a container of rainwater which washes the composty nutrients off so I can pour the 'fertiliser water' on various garden plants. I then bin the plastic bits, as they're not recyclable. Also I can at this stage take out any unrotted sticks, fabrics, rubber bands etc, and pop them on the next heap, as they'll rot down in time.

After this I stacked some recently chopped and split logs and had an early lunch and cycled into town to give my bike to Cycle Heaven for a front-wheel rebuild, as my heavy loads plus heavy braking has worn away the rim. I get wheels built as an 'off the shelf' one wouldn't last long with the use (abuse?) I give it. I borrowed the lovely Filibus load carrying bike and went to Out Of This World to pick up a load, and to the Nationwide Building Society to bank a tax refund, always a nice thing to be able to do, will pay for the wheel rebuild!

Met a friend in Parliament St, Daphne who I met through AVP, who was pleased to see me and asked if I'd watched the Channel 4 programme last night on 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' which Gill recorded as I was out. She said I must watch it as it refuted many of the current percieved certainties that CO2 is responsible for climate change. I like scientific debate and will always listen to well-put arguments, as I do my best to keep an open mind. I look forward to watching it on video. Collected another 2 sacks of grot from Heslington Rd and brought them home for my favourite recycling methodology, the hot tumbler.

I picked up the boys, the Filibus bike again causing a bit of a stir as it looks different to a normal bike, and my youngest had a ride on the front load-carrying platform as a treat, just around the playground for a minute.

I did some more outdoor stuff before tea, and then at 7pm went out again, to the Yorkshire Museum to hear/see Dick Strawbridge doing a talk on 'How Green Can You Be?' He is a really good speaker, and really committed to living as sustainable life as he can, within his desire to 'be normal' and have motor vehicles, eat meat, etc etc. His house move and refit, and how his family coped was the subject of a BBC programme last year called 'It's Not Easy Being Green' which we watched and really enjoyed. I met his wife Bridget at the Big Green Gathering, and for Chrismas was given the book of the series. After the talk I asked Dick to sign the book, and he said he'd worked out who I was, as I'd emailed B saying that I planned to see D do his presentation.

Came home quickly so I could watch 'Castaway' with my wife, a pleasant, relaxing evening in, followed by washing up in scalding stove water and a good session with my laptop... hence another day's blog, my new addiction!

28th Feb 07

Another busy day, with a meeting to prepare for a meeting, AVP this time. Alternatives to Violence Project has re-organised its structure and AVP York has joined up with AVP Sheffield, AVP Nottingham and AVP Northumberland to become AVP North East and East Midlands. This new group has its first annual meeting in April or May and it'll be in York, so today a small group of us are planning that meeting.

I cycled up to New Earswick via a Freecycler who has offered my son a CD player. The lady I met was offering it on behalf of a friend in the same sheltered accommodation block ,who thought Freecycle was a great idea but didn't want to do it herself. The CD player was more than that, infact a compact radio, tape and CD system with seperate speakers. It's been in storage for a couple of years. I hope my son is happy with it, my wife and I will check it out tonight to see if it works.

The AVP meeting went well. I facilitated/chaired and took notes and offered to type them up and circulate. Such is the life of a hyperactive overenthusiastic sustainable communities idealist.

Then into York to see one of my favourite people, an unconventional professional and well-off woman who always has time for a coffee and chat. I don't entirely approve of her jet-setting lifestyle, always off to somewhere far-flung, but she intrigues me and we are good friends, just good friends! I moved off to Cycle Heaven to return the Filibus bike and collect mine... but my back wheel was still being built, so I went to Out Of This World to pick up compostables on the Filibus. Home for 2.40, just 20 mins for a late lunch before leaving to pick up the kids. Gill my wife has gone to Scarborough to see her Uncle who's in hospital. She'd made potato salad and quiche for the boys tea before going, so I had little to do when we got in. At about 4.30 my friend Mark came to visit for the first time, and I gave him a cuppa and a tour of our large garden and 30 compost systems. I think he was impressed!

Gill came back and met Mark, which was nice as I'll be working closely with him over the next few months, on the CrUST Green Gala scheduled for July. Mark left and we had tea. The boys wanted to go on the BBC 'Shaun the Sheep' website, so before bedtime I went online and got onto the site, but we couldn't really get it to work properly. A bit of a let-down.

My friend Justin Rowlatt emailed me to say I will be on Panorama next Monday, which is on Justin's 'Ethical Man' experiences as part of his job with BBC Newsnight. I must phone my Mum and Dad to tell them. It's nice to be able to do/be something they can be proud of, as for many years they viewed me as a failure and a dropout, but all that time I was 'incubating' my green-ness, which is now fashionable! Justin came to film last year as he was intrigued by my compost toilet. It's very satisfying to use the BBC media machine to promote sustainability.

Must go, I'm really tired tonight. But I'm loving blogging!

27th Feb 07

Today I had booked my bike into Cycle Heaven on Bishopthorpe Rd for a service, but as they didn't open til 10.30 I popped into Pauline to saw some floorboards for her. Years ago, when she saw my Clearview Stove, she was so taken that she bought one too. It's the smaller cleanburn model, the Pioneer 4.5kw, and she's always on the lookout for wood. She's got a friendly joiner who drops off bits and bobs, and she sometimes calls me to attack the oversize planks with my bowsaw. In return she plies me with coffee and, this time, gave me some reclaimed lego for my boys and a squeezy bottle with nozzle for making a jet of water which I'd requested on Freecycle. I wanted it so I could wash out my ears, something I've done since childhood, and my usual squeezy bottle has had the top lost by one of my family members.

Anyway, a useful, and as usual, lovely time with Pauline, then off to the cycle shop. When I take my 'Dawes Streetwise' for a service, Cycle Heaven always offer me a replacement bike to use during the time they've got mine. This time I had a new experience, a load carrying 'Filibus' bike was mine for the day. It has a platform in the front of the handlebars, and the front wheel is under this, connected to the handlebars via a connecting bar or rod, rather than being under the handlebars. It was a good ride, not much different to a 'normal' bike, and fab gearing, making starts and uphills very easy.

I cycled home. When I got home Gill told me that our eldest son had left his gloves at home, and he was due to undergo his first cycle training, and being a cold and wet day, he needed them. I volunteered to cycle them down to the school for him. I made best use of the Filibus and brought a huge log back, from an immense beech tree which was felled a while ago, and sliced up so that locals could take it away. The bike handled really well. I have fallen in love with this bike!

When I got back, Cycle Heaven had phoned to tell me that my heavy use of my Dawes had worn the back wheel rim through with the braking and all the loads I lug around. I need a new back wheel, and I need one building as if I buy one 'off the shelf' it won't last long. So that means collecting my bike tomorrow, not tonight. Never mind, I'll enjoy going back to school to pick up the kiddies, as there are a number of bike enthusiasts who'll be interested in the Filibus. And I'll be able to pick up another giant lump destined for the stoves.

During the day I'd gone onto my emails to check Freecycle, and someone was offering a CD player, so I emailed and told the offerer about my son's desire to have a CD player. During the evening, the offerer, Daphne, phoned, and said we could have the CD player. Brilliant! So tomorrow morning I'm going to pick it up.

I cooked tea for my wife... pasta (bought, wholemeal), tomato/onion/pepper stir-fry (all out of the rejects!) and carrot and cauliflower (free also), steamed. All cooked on the stove-top, all without fossil fuel. What a life, I love it!