Even less bathroom plastic

Left - original blades in plastic holder

Centre - box of 200 new blades

Right top - New blades in cardboard box

As I neared the end of my first packets of double edge razor blades I ordered some more. 

I purchased a box of 200 as the price was low. To my delight they contain no plastic at all. Serendipity. 

Drying Out

 

In the wet weather I set up a clothesline in the workshop. I set up a floor fan to reduce the drying time.

Dumb meter

 After an prolonged delay the electricity retailer visited my house and replaced the spinning meter with a new electronic "smart" meter.

No instructions were provided with the meter, so I went to the internet. The retailers web site showed a single pdf page for three different makes of meters with confusing terminology and it did not cover what I wanted to know. Next I searched for and found the manufacturers instructions which included some standard definitions.

I learned that IMPORT means imported to the grid so what all the consumers call exporting power is defined to be importing because the terminology all is from the utility point of view. All perfectly understandable except that the information provided by the retailer does not explain it.

On my meter - EDMI Altas Mark 7C - there are tiny arrows in the upper left of the display window. 

The big red arrow points to the tiny left arrow - The left arrow means power is being imported to the grid. So when this is showing my solar is making more power than I am using.

The big blue arrow arrow points to the tiny right arrow - The right arrow means power is being exported from the grid to my house. So when this is showing I am using more power than my solar is making.

When I was engineering I was often hunting down the technical data for products and then analysing it. A sure sign of a poor product was a lack of technical data.

Spindizzy

 

Solar photovoltaic power is installed. My old meter is soon to be replaced but for now is spins backwards when the sun shines.

400 turns = 1 kilowatt-hour.

Change of Guard

I divided a native bee hive into two hives on the weekend.

The stingless bees flying around my face can be distracting. So I wore a headnet. I had bought the net for outback travelling. But there was a problem - the net is impregnated with an insecticide which made the bees fly erratically and, I presume, die. I need a different net.

When I opened the hive I found that the hive of Tetragonula carbonaria bees had been replaced by Tetragonula hockingsi. The different species look identical to the naked eye. But carbonaria arrange their nests as a spiral and hockingsi nests are more higgledy piggledy. 

Another example of environmental change - hockingsi prefer higher temperatures and used to live to the North of Brisbane.

A photo from a few years ago showing a spiral Tetragonula carbonaria nest.

Consider the long now.

I like the idea of a clock that will run for 10,000 years.

One is being built in West Texas.

It is programmed to play a different tune each day for 10,000 years -if someone is there to wind up the mechanism and occasionally if no-one winds it up.

It would be worth making a pilgrimage to hear a tune that will never be repeated.

Bunya

Six hundred and eight hundred year old Bunya trees are dying in the Bunya Mountains. The blame is put on a water mould soil-borne disease.
Previously myrtle rust became widespread along the east coast of Australia. Many different plants are susceptible including eucalyptus and melaleuca. It was very sad some years ago to see so many dead xanthorrhoea walking around Wineglass Bay in Tasmania.

This is why bushwalkers scrub their boots after walking through native forests.

Peak flow

The housing density in my suburb is increasing.
Formerly on a eight hundred square metre allotment there would be a single storey 3 bedroom house with a gravel driveway. Sixty percent of the area would be garden and trees. The downpipes from the roof would discharge onto garden or into a rainwater tank.

After development this same area will host two two-storey houses each with five bedrooms and a concrete driveway and a very small garden. The downpipes discharge onto the street.

The roofs and concrete driveways are impenetrable (I would hope) to rain so it must flow off. This makes the peak flow after a storm higher than before.

The solutions include rainwater tanks, soak pits and using gravel instead of concrete. Also leaving room for a garden would be nice.

Give a Crap

A friend made a mistake.

As an ethical consumer they ordered environmentally friendly toilet paper. But they ordered too much and generously gave away boxes of the stuff. I benefited to the tune of one bulk buy box (48 rolls). The paper was the premium product 3-ply bamboo toilet paper on double length rolls.
Its good stuff I will be re-ordering when I eventually run out.

The brand is Who gives a crap.

Light a candle

The Observer has an article about people becoming anxious about the climate emergency. I don't think being anxious helps the planet.

One of the factors of the emergency is biodiversity.

The local environment group plants native plants along a creek creating habitat for native animals. We also remove the worst weeds. The community enjoys the improvements. We feel good and the environment improves.

It is better to lit a candle than to curse the darkness.

The article refers to the Imperial Colleges Grantham Institute which has list of nine actions for ordinary folk:

Incidentally the book mentioned in a previous post gave similar answers with analysis: Time to eat the dog? - the real guide to sustainable living by Robert and Brenda Vale- ISBN 978 0 500 28790 3

Cough Cough

I'm coughing, the neighbours are coughing.
The towers of the city are barely visible though the smoke haze.
All day the heat has been intense though the sun has been dim.
The sunset was dim and diffuse.

Bushfire has made this city unhealthy and unpleasant.
Burning coal to extend bushfire season and make fires more frequent and more intense seems to be a bad idea.

Plastic bathroom

My bathroom practices seem to generate a lot of plastic waste.
So I am attempting to reduce the amount of plastic I throw away.

1) Snore strips
To aid my breathing at night I was sticking plastic strips across the bridge of my nose let more air in. But it meant that there was waste plastic every day. I now use a nasal spray. The spray still has a plastic spray on top of a glass bottle so it is a reduction not an elimination.

2) Cotton tips
I remember that when I was a child they were rolled-up paper with cotton on each end. Now most brands are plastic sticks with cotton on each end. But, good news, the rolled up paper ones are available - only one brand in one size packet and not the jumbo containers of the plastic ones. Still available is available and still pretty cheap.

3) Soap
I have been using liquid wash from a plastic bottle with a pump dispenser. Soap bars are still available but try finding one without palm oil. Palm oil mostly comes from plantations that used to be rainforest. Even Palmolive seems to have mostly palm with little olive. But some research revealed The Australian Olive Oil Soap made without palm oil and no plastic packaging.

4) Shampoo
My beloved has found a that the hairdresser will refill bottles with shampoo and conditioner at a reasonable price. The formula supplier produces a product without palm oil and is committed to ethical/green principals. The brand is Everescents.

5) Next is shaving without a disposable plastic razor. I shave with a safety razor for the first time last night.

Wash less

Having recently read in Time to eat the dog? that washing clothes reduces their life, I saw the same message on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) website. It also uses resources.
As I am in charge of laundry at our house I will be implementing a policy of selectively airing clothes instead of washing and giving several wearings before washing. Will my beloved notice the change in policy?

Eat the dog!

A book with the analysis on how to live sustainably, with some friendly calculations:
Time to eat the dog? - the real guide to sustainable living by Robert and Brenda Vale- ISBN 978 0 500 28790 3.

The summary for what is under my control:
1) FOOD - eat organic food and eliminate waste food. Eliminate packaging. Grow your own or buy local from open air markets.
2) ENERGY - Use less and eliminate waste. Make short showers. Use cold water in the laundry. For me this would be using the fan not the air conditioner.
3) TRAVEL - Cycle, walk, use public transport, use cars to capacity
4) STUFF - Maintain things, repair things, buy less, buy second-hand, share
5) HOUSING - build smaller, share more (bathrooms and bedrooms), renovate less, use the patio and verandah
6) HOLIDAYS - don't fly.

Smokey highway

I had plans for a caravan holiday but the many bush fires made a leisurely outback caravan holiday inadvisable. Instead we travelled the coastal highway to the big smoke.

I drive a newish (2018) Mazda CX-5 Diesel. I am still learning about its features.
It is a great leap forward from my previous car a 2005 Ford Falcon (LPG). Very impressive on the highway was the control to set a maximum speed limit and a set a distance to any car ahead. Occasionally it looked like a string of cars had this feature with a line of cars going near maximum speed but maintaining good distance inbetween.

The sky was all smoke haze for the whole trip. I monitored the local ABC AM radio to ensure the way ahead was clear. AM radio is fantastic for emergency broadcasts - it is resilient long distance communications infrastructure. It is longer distance than DAB+ or FM and less prone to failure than mobile telephones or internet.

The big smoke was indeed smokey with public health authorities advising all to stay indoors. Radio personalities were mocking those who were seen to be doing exercise outdoors. The days I travelled were not the most intense fire days and still there was a hazy white sky with the sun a fuzzy glow.

Only parts of the bush are burning now. There is lots more that could burn next fire season. Is it possible that extended intense fire seasons will make the areas east of the bush fire zones undesirable or uninhabitable because of the prevailing winds?

Water less

The bushfires burn and will continue until it rains. Dam levels here are at 60% -and we are lucky, other towns have no water. The desalination plant is turned up to full capacity - so we get more water and more carbon dioxide.

I have modified the toilet to reduce the flush. I have restricted external watering to vegetable garden only.

The creek is no longer flowing and only deep pools remain. I can access the foot of the bank to plant native species into areas usually difficult to reach.

The bright side:
The smoke haze reduces the heat of the sun.
The cane toad tadpoles (Bufo marinus - pest species) are dying as the creek dries up.

If trees were planted upwind of the dams catchment then it would rain more. Refer to Thom Hartmann, The last hours of ancient sunlight : The fate of the world and what we can do before it's too late, revised 2004 page 45 (ISBN 978-1-4000-5157-1)

November 2019, Los Angeles

I have seen Blade Runner - The Final Cut at a movie theatre. A fantastic movie about what it is to be human.

The pollution, the crazy weather, and disappearing animals are the background - they have come true. Though the weather in California is more wildfire than rain. Flying cars and interplanetary migration are still fantasy.

One thing that is quietly in progress is the robot revolution. There are ten-storey warehouses being built in Australia for major grocery retailers. No people handle the goods - all de-palleting, storing, repalleting, scheduling is by robots and algorithms. There are no lights because they are not needed. Each warehouse replaces hundreds of jobs.

If you liked the movie there is a great novel set in the same universe -
Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero.
Another book with a similar theme - of being human - is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Capture the cool

Today the weather was predicted to be extremely hot with a hot wind. So, today, when I woke I closed the windows to the house to trap the cool air inside.
now near noon the interior of the house is much cooler than outside. Tonight when it cools off I'll open the windows to get cool air inside again.

I learned this years ago in Melbourne at an engineering consultancy. The consultancy was upstairs in a historic building with thick walls and openable windows. On pleasant days the window were open admitting the sounds of the street with the breeze. When extreme heat was forecast the principal mechanical engineer ensured that all the windows were closed to exclude the heat. When the cool change came through the windows were opened again. It was very pleasant when the windows were opened to hear the hooves of the horse pulling tourists in a buggy and the surge in sound of the lunch time crowds.