The Greening of Gavin | Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

Ever thought of getting backyard chickens to augment your sustainable lifestyle?  Ever wondered if they smell, or attract vermin?  Not sure if they are right for you.

Well, let me help you out.  Let me introduce you to the way of the chicken!

I have over 6 years of experience with backyard chooks, and during this episode I step you through our decision process when we first decided to get chickens, way back in 2008.

I also talk about how I build our first chook house from second-hand materials, our first flock, and a fair bit about chicken hygiene.

During the episode I mentioned the following links;

* Chicken Day; the video I made on the day I brought home our first flock of chooks

* How to remove scaly leg mites; the Greening of Gavin’s most popular blog post

* The Way of the Chicken eBook; My second eBook about keeping backyard chickens in the burbs (scroll down to the second book).

As always, if you enjoyed the podcast, please pop over to iTunes and rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.

It would help me out so much, and it would elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

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Until next time, stay green and keep keen!

I put out an invitation via my Facebook page for podcast guests the other day, and a lovely lady called Kathy Finigan replied.  She is passionate about sustainable living and she is a qualified in agricultural science, urban horticultural and permaculture.  A handy person to have around, so I asked her to be my guest on the show. She has been a TAFE teacher for 29 years teaching general Horticulture, permaculture, organic gardening and  sustainability, but her passion is, and has always been growing organic food.

We talk in-depth at the sorts of things she grows, and about her website My Productive Backyard.  It is a wonderful site, that is a sustainable living newbies delight.  She has many, many courses available for download (for a very small fee).  Kathy also has a blog (link below) with lots of free information about how to grow your own veggies at home.

Links mentioned during this episode

* Kathy’s blog – My Productive Backyard

* Kathy’s business site – My Productive Backyard – Sustainable Backyard Food Production

* NRMA’s Australia’s Liquid Fuel Security Report Part 2 – February 2014

* Kathy’s Facebook page

If you enjoyed the podcast, please pop over to iTunes and rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs. You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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Stitcher Radio  Until next time, stay green and keep keen!

Lots of gold nuggets in this weeks episode all about saving money with solar.  This episode idea spawned from an email that my friend Jessie (aka Rabid Little Hippy) sent through to me.  Instead of just answering her question individually, I decided to record an episode so that all would benefit.

During the show, I talk about current installation costs, methods of getting maximum financial gain out of your solar system no matter what type of feed-in tariff you may or may not be receiving, and tips for when shopping around for a solar PV system for your home or business.

Solar electricity has never been cheaper, and is great for the environment as well.

As I mention during the show, I am the proud owner of a 2.8 kW system that I purchased in September 2007.  It has generated over 25,000 kW hours during its lifetime, which is excellent seeing that we living in a region that is quite cloudy in winter.

Links mentioned during the show

* Solar Choice Solar PV Price index June 2014

* My resource page that lists two recommended installers

Hopefully will be able to convince you to consider a solar system for your home in the near future.  You will never regret this decision!

If you enjoyed the podcast, please pop over to iTunes and rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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Until next time, stay green and keep keen!

A longer wrap-up from days two and three of the Climate Reality Leadership training.

What an amazing two days!  I am now officially a Climate Reality Leader (I have the certificate to prove it), and now my goal is to go out and perform 10 acts of leadership during the next 12 months.

The acts of leadership can be as simple as a blog post, or a podcast episode, or webinar, or even a letter to the editor.  However, I will try to present a few of the Al Gore type slide shows over the year, because I believe that is important to communicate this message as well.

Anyway, I took a few photos, but they didn’t turn out very well, so I have embedded quite a few pictures taken by other Climate Reality Leaders who tweeted about the event. Follow them on twitter if you like!

“We will prevail” Mr @algore beginning the second day of @ClimateReality ##CRinAU #inspiring pic.twitter.com/WVLuBHToxY

— Climate Girl (@climate_girl) June 25, 2014

   

97% of climate scientists agree on global warming @ClimateReality #CRinAU pic.twitter.com/AOYYFO6QsT — Climate Girl (@climate_girl) June 27, 2014

 

 

Learning how to embrace my ‘media tart’ with Brett from @Hootville #CRinAU pic.twitter.com/rMF84qJeFQ

— Kirsty Costa (@kirsty_costa) June 27, 2014

 

Meet Robin Gunning arguably Australia’s funniest entomologist + media tart #crinau @ClimateReality @AusConservation pic.twitter.com/ZKzuPZGOkI — Samantha Morris (@AusGreenie) June 27, 2014

 

2/3 of all discovered fossil fuels still in ground cannot be burned, to avoid warming more than 2degrees. #CRinAU pic.twitter.com/bUdYlIPLNa

— Julie Anne Genter (@JulieAnneGenter) June 26, 2014

If you enjoyed the podcast, please take the time to head over to iTunes, rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the shows ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

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A quick wrap up of Day 1 at the Climate Reality Leadership training here in Melbourne during the 25th June.

This episode is short but sweet, and captures how I feel right now, and what I have learnt so far.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Looking forward to meeting Al Gore tomorrow.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please take the time to head over to iTunes, rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the shows ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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 Until next time, stay green and keep keen!

 

 

As you may know, I make home brew beer.  Not only is it economical at 20 cents a bottle, it deliciously thirst quenching, and quite welcome after a hard days graft in the garden.

Not that I am promoting consumption of alcohol, far from it.  Everything in moderation of course.

However, if you are into beer or cider, this podcast episode is for you!

So, as I am currently recovering from a knee operation, I took the liberty of ripping a recording I made way back in June 2010 that I made during a home brew workshop that I gave.  The information is still very relevant and is how I make beer here at home.  I talk about making cider from a kit, and how to make beer from a kit including primary and secondary fermentation, and how to bottle the beer.  There is also a Q&A at the end with audience interaction.

The audio is a little bit noisy, and I cleaned it up best I could, however the content is full of gold nuggets for anyone thinking of making their own home brew beer.

Also, if you want to learn more about home brew beer making, then this link will take to you all the blog posts I have ever written about the process; www.greeningofgavin.com/category/beer

If you enjoyed the podcast, please take the time to head over to iTunes, rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the shows ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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Until next time, stay green and keep keen!

Tonight, I attended a webinar hosted by the Australian Conservation Foundation that got me all fired up.  It was titled ‘Don’t drop the ball on climate action’.  It was great and Victoria  presented it like a pro.

So it got me so enthused that I just had to record this weeks podcast episode about the simple climate action that you can take right now.

Firstly, I must say that I did express my disappointment with our current Australian Government and their campaign against strong climate action.  However, with that said, after the 7 minute mark, I focus entirely on individual actions that you can take to lower your personal environmental footprint.  It also features other community actions that you can also take.

Hopefully this episode will put a fire in your belly and help you think deeply, take positive steps to climate action, and to living a more sustainable lifestyle.  Just like the webinar did for me tonight.

Also, here is the link to the petition that I mentioned during the show; http://www.action.org.au/keep-our-climate-safe

Please take the time to sign it and forward to your social media networks.

As always, if you enjoyed the podcast, please pop over to iTunes, give it a rating, and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.

It would help me out so much, and elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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Until next time, stay green and keep keen!  Take a simple climate action today.

Ever wanted to learn how to build a backyard clay oven?  Want to know how to cook in it effectively?

Well look no further for the answers because this podcast episode is for you.

I talk about design considerations, the build of our backyard clay oven, preparing to cook in it, basic pizza recipes, and most important of all; how to cook in it.

Our backyard clay oven has been in operation for over 2½ years, and is still going strong.

Links mentioned in this episode:

* http://www.greeningofgavin.com/clay-oven (eBook link)

* The Ultimate Clay Cob Oven video – http://youtu.be/Q70k2Pc8B1g

* My Backyard Clay Cob Oven update – http://youtu.be/2ULHg2C-47I

Enjoy the show.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please pop over to iTunes and rate it and/or leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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Until next time, stay green and keep keen!

During her visit, my sister Teena was telling me all about her balcony garden on Bribie Island Queensland, which sounded very impressive. So impressive in fact, that I just had to bring her on to the show as a guest to talk about it.

She lives over 1776 km (1103 miles) away from where I do in Victoria, so her climate is vastly different.  For example, she can grow tomatoes in the winter, which is unheard of down here except in a greenhouse.

With many tropical and warm climate fruit trees in pots, and veggies growing in tubs, she supplements her diet with delicious home-grown food in her rented apartment balcony.

But that’s not all, there’s more to this episode than just balcony gardening.

At around the 26 minute mark in the show, Teena also tells me all about quilting .  I had no idea about this age-old skill, so she goes into a fair bit of detail about how she reuses old fabric and transforms it into something amazing.   You can catch her quilting skills over at her Facebook page, That Quilt Lady.  Show her some love if you are into quilting.

Here is a sample of her work; she has many more photos on her Facebook page.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please pop over to iTunes and rate it and leave a review. You can also do the same within Stitcher Radio if you use that service.  It would help me out so much, and elevate the ratings so that others can find out about the podcast and learn about sustainable living in the ‘burbs.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS or iTunes or Stitcher for your portable device.  Just use the subscription buttons below.

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Until next time, stay green and keep keen!  One final thing if you please. I am sure Teena would like to answer any questions you have via comment where you can also thank her for a very interesting show. 

Has the recent Australian Federal Budget got you down?  Don’t know how you are going to stretch your income to pay all your bills and debts?

Well, we may have some help for you.  To strike while the iron is hot, this very special out-of-schedule podcast episode is about how we budget and tips to save money.  It is in response to the recent Australian Government budget which will affect many low and middle income earners over the next few years.

Belts are definitely going to need to tighten, and to make ends meet we are all going to have to be a little more frugal.

So to that end, Kim and I decided to put together a special podcast episode all about how we put together our fortnightly budget, and share tips on how we save money on all things in life.

We start the episode by talking about where we started with basically living from pay to pay, then a flush of cash when I landed an IT job and how our behaviours changed with all this disposable income. Then we hit our greening stage and sorted ourselves out by living a more sustainable lifestyle and living within our means.

Note: Neither Kim nor I are financial planners.  Our advice is just plain common sense, which anyone can follow to save a buck and to stretch your dollar further.  Our budget tips save money.  Frugal is not a dirty word!

So please join us by listening to our budgeting special edition.