Cloth Nappying

We discovered a lovely surprise on arrival to Mudflower ..... there is no electricity or water pressure in the laundry.

At what point did I discover this you ask? Well it was AFTER the removalists had placed the machine in the laundry and I went to try and wash 4 days worth of nappies.

Could this pregnant belly and Damos broken spine move the machine into the bathroom where there is pressure and electricty? Not likely.

So what did we do? We ran an extension cord into the house and bucketed the water into the machine. Not a great deal of fun and this is how we will have to continue with washing until we get things fixed up.

We have had an electrician out to have a look and he will get to it when he can. I think he may just be the farmer across the paddock who does work for those he knows, our other neighbour recommended him. So we will just sit tight on that one. As for the water, the laundry is gravity fed from a small water tank. We need to look into a water pump and possibly a larger tank to fix the water. Something for when we have some money.

If the river water ever comes back on we will be able to fill the machine up with a hose. Fingers crossed something fixes up soon.

But all I can say is, if I can keep using cloth in these conditions so can you. I will no longer accept the excuse that it is too much hard work.

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Apples

The variety you get with homegrown organic apples are amazing. Above is our biggest and littlest apple together. Then just the littlest one to give perspective of size.

It was the cutest littlest most sour apple ever.

We have unfortunately lost a lot of our apples to coddling moth and even fruit fly. It is completely heart breaking throwing out kgs of fruit every day.

We need to try and figure out how to manage these issue organically. Hopefully we can and fast. Once we have chooks and ducks free ranging the numbers of these pests should be significantly reduced.

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Green Festival Organic Sustainable Green Living

Its Summer Time!!!!!

And with summer comes all the green! This past weekend I attended The Green Festival at Navy Pier, Chicago. It was a fun time and there was lots to see! 

I was invited by my friend Alice to go as she had heard about it. When arriving, we donated canned food at the door and got our wrist bands for free. Thats is always a good start. We were greeted by the Cliff Bar booth and sampled all their products, delicious. 

While walking around sampling on all the free organic food samples, we found a couple cool booths. MyTerraceFarmer.com had a cool idea.

It was similar to aquaponics but not quite. They set up a small worm composting bin next to their drip irrigated "greenhouse." The composting bin is placed ontop on the water reservoir so the vermitea (worm tea, compost tea, etc.) dripped into it adding the nutrients. Very cool idea.

Another booth we spent some time at was the Tower Garden, made by JuicePlus+. We talked with two very passionate representatives from the company. 

The Towers they had growing were looking great. This Tower is actually the home garden of one of the reps! She brought hers in to show the systems potential. As you can see it does quite well. Inside the tower, there is a pump which makes it "rain" down on the roots. this allows for an even and often water supply. The plants love it and it does not take up too much floor space.

We took advantage of the beautiful day and walked along the bike path to Millennium Park. One of the reasons I love Chicago has to do with the public art, it is everywhere! And it is AWESOME!

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