ALS members Blogs

Principle 7: Design from patterns to detailsWe got our first three pullets (Golden Pencil Hamburg crosses) a year ago from my mate Dylan who was 'cleaning up' this rare chicken breed. I set up a temporary netted yard to prevent them escaping, which they were keen to do early on, using old children's play equipment as a chook house. I clipped their wings but found this an unsuccessful way to prevent these flighty birds from taking off. I eventually gathered the courage to let them out to free range and hada number of interesting episodes trying to get them to return home. On three occasions I'd given up on escapees, once in a neighbours yard (with a dog), once on another neighbours roof and once found at night in the reeds down the creek after the kids had chased them away - somehow we still have all three.We waited...

Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change While this project illustrates a few design principles, including produce no waste, I wanted to focus on principle 12 because I think that the proverb "vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be" is most appropriate.The plastic chairs that my got handed down to me are cracking up, ugly and unsafe. Outdoor plastic items don't seem to last very well, and end up in the bin after a few years, best avoided in my book. I think that it's just about time to take them to the tip, where they may be able to recycle them if we are lucky. We went to the local Scout car boot sale to try to find a replacement. We hit the jackpot with these pressed metal beauties that had been rusting away outside for years. My guess is that the...

Principle 11: Use edges and value the marginalLiving in a relatively small house (about 100m2 internally) requires smart use of space. I'm a big fan of making use of what's around me and so I've been designing storage systems within these parameters. The Red Gum bookshelf Shelving unit made from red gum milling off-cuts and recovered materials from bungalow deconstructionSearching through a large stack of off-cuts from the milling operation I came across a 3.5m long piece that caught my eye. Being flat on one edge made it relatively easy to work with a power saw. I cut the length in half, squaring off the ends, and measured where I wanted the shelves to go. I used a piece of plywood clamped to the timber to give me a guide for the power saw, moving it 5mm at a time. I then used a chisel to break up the fragile...

Principle 7: Design from patterns to details There have been a bunch of jobs that I've been working on while the family have been in Japan visiting family. The types of things that I can live without doing, but haunt me every time I walk past them. The details. The bathroom sink cover plate was quite a task, though a relatively small one. I tried to find a piece of timber that would cover the plumbing with a natural edge on the bottom. Of course there wasn't one suitable, so I had to make it up, gluing two pieces together. I made up a template to get the shape that I was after and transferred this onto the red gum. Getting the curve to fit below the sink was a bit tricky without the right tools. A band saw would be great, but a drill and some wood files had...

Principle 6: Produce no wasteOne year on, and mission of only using one rubbish and one recycle bin achieved. Christmas tree with mostly home made decorations made from recycled paper in background. Our 'binimum' mission of filling one recycle bin and one rubbish bin in one year has been successfully completed! There was even a little bit of room left for more recycling, but we wanted to hang onto some of our containers because they are so useful. I was pretty sure that we wouldn't make our rubbish goal with a couple of months to go, but some gentle persuasion (jumping on rubbish) we managed to get all of our household and shed waste into the rubbish bin. Unfortunately it was so well compacted that only half came out when the bin was 'emptied'! The recycle bin was less of a challenge, though it is twice the size of the...

Principle 4: Apply self regulation and accept feedbackAfter seeing the new Seymour branding designs at the local market I was inspired to write an article in the local paper offering an alternative to a military theme for the town, that being the railway. It seems that there was quite a bit of support for my suggestion, and others who supported the inclusion of the Goulburn River / Historic Bridge along with the Military and Railway. In fact nobody that I spoke to supported a Military theme on it's own.Unfortunately the recommendations made to council did not reflect this and figures supplied in the recommendations still suggested that 90% of people supported the military theme.I wrote this letter to the councillors just before their meeting: I write to inform you of my objection to the branding of Seymour with a Military theme and the process employed.The options provided to the public...

Principle 6: Produce no wastePrinciple 11: Use edges and value the marginal Snapper fish stock in the making A phone call from my mate Brian produced an unexpected frenzy of activity at our house recently. In preparation for a wedding reception at my old home of Commonground, three and a half large (20 litre) buckets of filleted Snapper fish frames (and one whole one) were made available to us. There were probably 30 - 40 of them, all caught in Port Phillip bay the day before. Rather than just compost these we decided to value add them, as Kunie was very excited by the idea of producing fish stock. We weren't really set up for dealing with such an abundant harvest, but got to task as soon as I came home with them. I chopped up the frames into more manageable pieces using a tomahawk and we filled up a...

Principle 5: Use and value renewable resources and servicesKunie collecting vegetables for dumplings while Nana, Sen and Kai watch from the tree house Over the past four months the stark box in a tree has transformed into a treetop wonderland. As the canopy regrows after the heavy pruning it provides a ever changing shaded play space that overlooks the gardens and activities below. Pruning continues ad hoc as the internal area of the tree house is used in imaginary games (fishing, cooking etc). It's envisaged that the larger surviving branches will be tied together to create an espailered dome after the leaf drop, further enhancing this creative space that continues to evolve.Kai in the tree houseKai preparing a meal of 'bacon and eggs' for Nana in the tree house Original linkOriginal author: permie...

Design Principle 2: Catch and store energyI spent quite a few months thinking about the best way to build a 7m long pelmet, and came up with this approach...Living room pelmet under construction with extra support added to curtain rail to prevent sagThe finished pelmet, made with lining boards recovered from the original bungalow, oiled and varnished ...90x45mm pine battens were screwed into the box beams on the ceiling, supporting the structure. 75x19mm pieces of pine were attached at an angle to the battens so that they run vertically and a small chock of wood was added to brace them onto the rail brackets. The weather boards were nailed onto these mini studs. I added some extra support in between the curtain rail brackets using metal bracing off-cuts. I added a plain pine cornice and oiled and varnished the lot, so that it ties in with the rest of the...

Principle 1: Observe and interactWinter solstice, the day of Sen's first birthday, is the shortest day with the longest shadows. I thought that I would take some photos around midday to record the extremes - fortunately the sun came out to help me.Observing the solar gain in the living room at midday on winter solsticeSunlight heats most of the slab during the shortest day Whilst not necessarily the coldest time of the year, with temperatures hovering between 5ºC min and 14ºC max there have been a few frosts. Average temperatures get lower during the next month or two as the thermal mass of the earth cools down, a bit of a delayed reaction. During this time of the year we see sunlight (when it comes out) cover most of the slab, providing us with valuable radiant heat which is stored in the thermal mass of the concrete, helping to stablise...

Principle 1: Observe and interactOn a walk through the Seymour Market recently I noticed a council display putting forward some logo designs for the new town branding. All four of the designs were a Military Theme. As it happens, I have been reading a book about the history of Seymour called 'New Crossing Place' by H. G. Martingdale. The impact of the railway on the town was enormous, and I felt that council should consider, and offer as an option, the branding of Seymour as a Railway Town. The Yarra Parlour Car (1906), refurbished in 1964. A stunning display at the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre that was originally used by people who thought that first class wasn't good enough, and paid for the privilege.A detail from the Parlour Car showing one of the lights (originally gas), pressed metal ceilings and lead light windowsThe X31 loco (1966) at the Seymour Railway Heritage...

When I bought this property I inherited about a dozen wild Cherry Plum trees. I've retained most of them with the idea of grafting on other fruiting varieties. Using the Cherry Plum as a root stock gives me the ability to graft on varieties of the Prunus family: Plums, Peaches, Necatines, Apricots, Almonds and Cherries. The Cherry Plums were all out of control, I removed a few of them and have been gradually prunning back the rest of them, using a few different approaches.The ground level pruning approach, with lots of young whips coming up.  The hack it back really hard approach, with pretty good recovery.  And the slowly, slowly approach which leaves some mature branches to bear fruit and still offer shade for the summer. I've used this later approach in prunning the established apple and pear tree, with a three to four year vision for bringing the tree...

Principle 11: Use edges and value the marginalThe tree house, which should soon be overgrown with new foliageI had been wondering whether or not to remove this large tree from the backyard for some time. I've had it identified by a couple of people but never written down the name and forgotten it promptly. It's an elm of some descrition I think and I'm pretty sure that it's considered a weed. It's a fast growing and brittle timber, very light like balsa wood. I prunned it heavily to about a third of it's height about a year ago. There have been a few good reasons why I've kept it, even though it shades out my minimal prime vegie growing land. It's deciduous, providing shade in the summer for the kids to play under, it can provide an ongoing timber source (firewood, garden use) and I saw potential for it to...

Principle 4: Apply self regulation and accept feedbackProduce available for swapping and sale without packaging at our second Black MarketOur mission to only fill one rubbish bin and one recycle bin for the year is hitting some challenging times. Our 240lt recycle bin is about 70% full, but our 120lt rubbish bin is about 90% full. I feel confident that we can use just one recycle bin for the year, but I'd pretty much given up on the idea of only using just one rubbish bin. Then an interesting development unfolded, Kunie and the kids decided to go to Japan for a couple of months to visit family, while I stay at home to finish off some projects. So we might still be in with a chance to reach our goal after all. With a more productive time in the garden ahead as Spring begins, there will be less need...

Principle 4: Apply self regulation and accept feedbackPrinciple 6: Produce no wasteSmall energy meter used to measure the watts used for our 23 year old washing machineEnergy audit During the last 12 months we used about 2.9kWh of electricity per day, this has not varied much over seasons, which surprised me somewhat. The Jan - Mar quarter is the hottest time of year when we were running the ceiling fans frequently, electric bread maker and also an electric fruit drier which helps explain the higher usage.July - Sep 2010 (87 days) 238 kWh = 2.74 kWh per dayOct - Dec 2010 (91 days) 250 kWh = 2.75 kWh per dayJan - Mar 2011 (98 days) 315 kWh = 3.21 kWh per dayMay - June 2011 (89 days) 245 kWh = 2.75 kWh per dayTotal power usage for the year 1048 kWh = 2.87 kWh per dayI purchased a small energy...

Principle 1: Observe and interactIt took about seven weeks before the system was actually turned on, fortunately this has been during mid-winter, the time of year that generates the least amount of electricity. The hold up was the time it took for the electrical inspection and meter change over. I have not yet received a bill for the meter change over, the total cost so far for the 1.5kW system is A$3390.I have taken a lot more interest in seeing how our power is being used since we have had the system turned on, while observing our system generate power and feed into the grid. We have generated 54kWhs, exporting 41.8kWhs and importing 18.1 kWhs over the past two weeks, using (54 - 41.8 + 18.1 =) 30.3 kWhs. This is an average of 2.16 kWh per day, which is significantly less than our average over the past year of...

Principle 3: Obtain a yieldPrinciple 4: Apply self regulation and accept feedback Gourmet combustion stove in full swing, cooking on stove top, drying clothes, boosting hot water, heating oven and warming our houseWe obtain multiple benefits from using our combustion stove, because it is designed as a stove / oven / heater and hot water booster, which helps to maximise our yields. We also get the added benefit of a glass door, which creates a fantastic ambiance and allows us to more easily monitor the fire to ensure that it burns hot, key to a longevity and low emissions. One of the inefficiencies with this style of cooker is that we use more fuel than we would for a specific task focused model, because we are performing many functions from the one task. In our case, the advantages multiple functions outweigh the disadvantages. Some of the other functions that we...

Principle 5: Use and value renewable resources and servicesPrinciple 8: Integrate rather than segregatePowerline maintenance crew drop off a load of mulchEach year the electricty provider sends out a crew to prune trees that are getting too close to the overhead power cables. I noticed them doing this recently, leaving branches on the nature strip. A couple of days later I heard a large mulcher at work, and went outside to watch. When the workers were finished I asked them if they wanted a place to unload their mulch. When they were next in the area with a near full load, they did just that. During the drought, a few dollars was handed over for the favour, but since we've had wetter weather noone seems to want mulch anymore. I got this load delivered for free. Can't get better than that! With the rains constantly filling the infiltration basins around...

Principle 5: Use and value renewable resources and services8 x 188W panels installed giving a total of 1.5kW, more than enough for our needsOn this cold and frost morning two young men arrived to install our new solar system. It's been just over one year since we moved into Abdallah House, a fitting gift to celebrate the anniversary. I know a little about solar systems, having installed a very small system on my VW Kombi about 12 years ago. Gearing up for a home system has been a much more complicated process, especially with all of the changes to rebates along with the hundreds of different types of systems available and **FANTASTIC OFFERS** that flash brightly before your eyes. Justifying the purchase of a photovoltaic system has been difficult, hours of research, contimplation and discussion are behind the image that you now see.SubsidiesIn Australia solar systems are subsidised by the...

Principle 6: Produce no wasteRubbish Bin (120lt) is about 60% full, Recycle Bin (240lt) is about 25% full.I noted in my previous binimum entry that I wasn't sure whether I should include my workshop waste in the exercise, as that increases our load considerably. Well I have, and we are now 'over budget' with our hope to only fill one rubbish bin for the year, but it's still a posibility. As we adopt this approach as a way of life we find that we are reducing our rubbish more and more without effort.One big change has been the amount of food that we preserve. This is a everyday part of our lives now. There always seems to be something sitting in a box ready to be bottled, jars ready to go to the cellar, fruit ripening in the sun, something bubbling away on the bench. It's a busy and rewarding...