Water is life - tales from my garden

When you have access to unlimited water, you just don't appreciate water the same way as when you are on tank water, the supply is limited, and you have to bucket greywater to each and every one of your plants that you want to live.

I wheelbarrow a large container of water back and forth, bucketing water from a greywater container onto my plants - much cheaper and also more helpful to my plants than a gym membership.  But it is hard work for the value you will much later harvest, and all the lifting can injure my back.  Since Auckland is experiencing drought conditions of the like of which I have never seen in my 9 years living here (but apparently in 70 years), the only water my garden has gotten in the past month or wo has been hand carried.

(Basically, instead of hosing directly from our water supply onto the garden, we use water in which we have washed our clothes first - since we have to do laundry anyways.)

I have stopped buying new seedlings, as we have the space in my veggie patch - but not enough water (or time and energy to deliver it).

In a documentary I saw, societies can only thrive if they have water - which is obvious - but in this situation of complete water delivery using my own energy along, I can feel exactly how related water is to life.

If a plant has water - it lives.  How much water I can afford, is how much life I can support in my garden.

Water = life

Auckland field

Maria McCloy and her African style

Portrait by Nadine Hutton

I love flipping around channels - you can find such beautiful jewels.

This jewel I found was Maria McCloy.

She grew up in England, and lived in a few different countries, with an English father and African mother.

She loves her African heritage, works as a publicist and journalist during the week - but loves searching vibrant urban markets for African prints, and turning them them into clutch bags and shoes covered in the prints.

During the interview (Inside Africa), she was wearing these large shining circular metal earrings.

Her love of amazing African prints and energy shone to me. 

NZ Herald article: Our plastic rubbish killing sea life / Sophie Barclay

Original article found here. 


Quote:

Our plastic rubbish killing sea life

by Sophie Barclay   

5:30 AM Monday Mar 4, 2013

To mark Seaweek, Element magazine's Sophie Barclay meets those dedicated to cleaning up the oceans

Dan Godoy with a turtle harmed by eating plastics.   

Marine turtles can't differentiate between natural prey and plastic. Photo / NZ Herald

Dan Godoy hands me a plastic jar. It's filled with rubbish fragments: fishing line, rope, plastic bag pieces, remnants of plastic packaging, the end of an old balloon and blue, jagged hunks of a bucket, about the size of a 20c piece.

The 224 pieces of plastic were found in the stomach of one turtle.

Plastics sit in a solid knot in the stomach, causing digestive problems. When turtles feed on normal foods, these begin to ferment, creating a buildup of gas. These turtles are called "floaters" and bob helplessly on the surface. They cannot feed and their metabolism drops.

"I've seen photos of turtles that have remained at the surface for so long that they get sunburned and their shell starts to peel while it's alive," says Mr Godoy, a PhD candidate from Massey University who is researching the biology of turtles.

At least 44 per cent of marine bird species are known to eat plastic. Last year a sperm whale calf found dead in the Aegean Sea contained all kinds of rubbish, including 100 plastic bags.

A floating plastic bag and a jellyfish look nearly identical, as do fish eggs and the tiny plastic resin pellets - nurdles - used to make plastic.

Mr Godoy says most plastics eaten by turtles are clear and white. "Marine turtles can't differentiate between natural prey and plastic."

Plastics are riddled with chemicals to create useful qualities such as flexibility or transparency.

Dianna Cohen, from the US-based Plastic Pollution Coalition, is supporting Waiheke Island's BYO Bag initiative, which aims to make the island plastic bag free. She says some of these chemicals, including bisphenol A (BPA) and hormone-disrupting chemicals called phthalates, have been linked to cancer, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's, autism, and a number of sexual problems like lower sexual functioning, sterility and infertility in humans.

BPA is allowed in New Zealand, and plastics containing BPA line our canned food. Its use has been banned in some products in countries including the European Union states, China, Malaysia and America.
Wind and ocean currents direct rubbish that has been dumped, dropped, buried or blown out of landfills into 11 patches in the ocean, over a period of about five years.

Of these, the best known is the "great Pacific rubbish patch" in the northwest Pacific which stretches about 700,000sq km.

Midway Atoll is also in the northwest Pacific, just over 2000km from Honolulu and 4000km from Japan. Evidence of humanity's "civilisation" litters the shore: toothbrushes, mugs, lightbulbs and lighters in an array of colours. And 8.6 tonnes of nets are washed up each year, often containing seals and turtles.

The water surrounding the island is littered with plastic detritus eaten by fish and mammals and regurgitated by birds to their chicks. Nearly all albatross chicks are fed plastic. Researchers found 17 bottle caps inside one adult bird's carcass.

New research from Dr Hideshige Takada, a Japanese scientist at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, shows that pieces of plastic suck in toxins in the seawater.

Dr Takada is researching persistent organic pollutants (POPs) - chemicals which include harmful pesticides such as DDT, and textile flame-retardants. POPs break down slowly. They can dissolve in oil, fat and plastic (a "solid oil").

"Concentrations in marine plastic fragments are millions of times higher than those in seawater," he says.
Dr Takada's study shows that microplastics are absorbing chemicals from the surrounding seawater and being transferred to the stomach tissues of plastic-eating seabirds.

POPs can harm DNA, affect the thyroid system and the brain, disrupt hormones and weaken the immune system. In 1998, mass deaths of seals in the North Sea were put down to high POP levels in the ocean.

Ms Cohen says there's more to stemming the tide than just cleaning up our beaches. The Plastic Pollution Coalition emphasises the four Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle and refuse.

About 225 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year. New Zealand imported nearly 210,00 tonnes of nurdles last year and 61 per cent of plastics made in New Zealand are used for packaging.

Single-use, disposable plastic accounts for 72 per cent of rubbish picked up on New Zealand beaches, according to research from Sustainable Coastlines.

Spokesman Camden Howitt says the public has the ultimate power to stop the plastic problem.

"Although nurdles on the beach seem like a manufacturing problem, it's really caused by demand for plastic-packaged products," he says. "Individuals can influence this simply by choosing to buy fewer products wrapped in plastic."

Essentially, says Mr Godoy, we need to realise that our actions have consequences.

"We always treat the ocean and the environment as though they are separate from us, but it's an integral part of us. It's our responsibility to acknowledge and understand what kind of impacts we have on a day-to-day basis."



Alternatives to plastic

Food storage
Glass, stainless steel, wood and ceramic containers.

Drink bottles
Plastic drink bottles last 500 years.
Steel or glass drink bottles cost about $20.

Bring your own bags
More than 40,000 plastic shopping bags are dumped in landfills every hour in NZ.
Cotton or hemp bags can be used thousands of times.

Alternatives to plastic
Plant-based "plastics" are made by manufacturer FriendlyPak and contain no toxic or dangerous ingredients.

Got a solution?
Submit your business ideas for solutions to single-use disposal plastic by March 10. Win $50,000.

Learn more
Dianna Cohen from the US-based Plastic Pollution Coalition will speak on possible solutions, Silo Park, tomorrow at 11.30am. Sustainablecoastlines.org has more information.

On the web
http://plasticfreeguide.com/

End quote.

Midway Island

 

The Kaipatiki Project (local conservation/education centre) shared this on Facebook - I felt I had to share it.

I read this introduction first:  

"This video is about an island in the ocean at 2000 km from any other coast line. Nobody lives, only birds and yet....You will not believe your eyes!!!!!!!"

How to make paper mache dinosaur banks (step-by-step)

This project was almost too major - I almost threw them out in frustration.  With Troy's dinosaur, I stopped after only half finishing the paper mache and then the balloon shrunk, so I had to do reconstruction and fixing.  I also left them out at another stage and it rained - so more reconstruction.  But in the end I was glad I hadn't given up because the dinosaurs had alot of character despite being imperfect.

For a smaller project, make smaller dinosaurs (blow up the balloons less).  Or don't stop the paper mache halfway through - or leave them out in the rain! 

We got this idea from a book based on the kids TV program called Art Attack by Neil Buchanan (ISBN 9781405307451).  These dinosaur banks were called "beastly banks".

Stage 1. Paper mache using white (PVA) glue and water.
 

Georgie and Troy (7), and Lucan (5).  Although he loved the banks, Luke didn't yet have the patience to make one.

Blow up a balloon, and tape on rolled up printer paper for the neck and tail.  Tape on toilet paper rolls which have been cut in half for the feet.  For extra structural strength, also wrap and twist wire to support head and neck - we found it essential and both dinosaurs were later supplemented with wire.  I also glue-gunned the wire construction to the dinosaur.  Get the children to tear up alot of newspaper, and get a small bucket with PVA glue (white glue) mixed with some water.  Dip the strips in the glue solution and cover dinosaur.  This is the time to "go with" the character of your dinosaur, bringing it out.  You can add ridges to the back with folded newspaper.

Tip: You can create a reptilian wrinkly texture for the skin by adding toilet paper to the wet surface.  But don't touch it too much or it will ball up and tear away!


Coin slot and cork hole underneath
When you are done the paper mache and it is dry, cut a coin slot in the top, and a circular hole underneath in the belly, the same size as the cork you are using.  Coil up a piece of wire around your cork to size it, and paper mache the metal ring to act as a hole liner to give it the hole strength.  (I originally gluegunned in a plastic tube, but since it rose up too high with its ridge inside the money couldn't get out - so I had to cut it out and do this later with a glue gun and fabric.  It would have been far neater to do it at this stage.  Photo below.)

Stage 2: Paint with white primer. 

Tips: We used really good quality white primer paint (usually as a prep for walls).  This paint provides a great base for decorating and fills in and seals the sculpture.




Stage 3: Decorate your dinosaur bank using acrylic paint and/or paint store samples. 

Get the kids to mark out their designs with a marker first, and then they can start filling in.  After they have done what they can handle, help them finish it off nicely so they'll be proud of their dinosaurs.

When they are done, they are like characters - encourage the kids to name them.  Polka-dot and Tiger are friends - as the girls who made them are.

Great ideas for activities to do with kids - building concentration and unleashing creativity

1. Make bread dough they can make creatures out of - which they can eat after.

Number One on my list because this is my kids (and their friends) favourite thing to do at our house.  It's actually really simple to make basic bread dough.  Here is my no-measuring method.  As long as you have some of all the ingredients below - and enough flour, you can't really go wrong:

First, get about 3 cups of warm water in a mixing bowl.  Then, sprinkle yeast (any kind) over the top of the surface.  Sprinkle some sugar to feed the yeast.  After a minute or so, it will start to foam up.  (You don't have to wait, but you can.)  Then, add a sploosh of oil (optional, but this added fat will make it more of a treat, and also decrease stickiness).  Add a large pinch of salt.  Don't stress about doing it perfectly - as long it all the elements are there, you will have dough.

At this point you have the brew to make the dough.  Mix it with a wooden spoon (or any spoon you have), then start pouring flour in, slowly.  It will at first make a sticky soup.  At the point where it becomes hard to stir, get your clean hands in, stir and mix around with your hands, adding more until it's - just barely - no longer sticky, or only just.  Try to get it to cleave all together as one mass.   

The kids may or may not be waiting on you.  You can do this ahead of time and place a dish cloth over it so it will rise up - but you can also whip this up on the spur of the moment and give them a chunk to play with.  It will still have the same educational and creative value!  (And it will still taste fine.)  After all their playing, and the time it sits in a greased pan, it will have risen enough.

Anyways, make sure when you give the kids their handful of dough that you keep the surface on the table in front of them sprinkled with flour as they won't be able to deal with very sticky dough.  You can keep a bowl or cup on the table for sprinkling the dough or table as needed.

Ideas for making things - start them making balls or sausages.  Cookie cutters and child sized rolling pins to use.  If they aren't afraid to make things, just let them go, but their experience will be much improved by you participating and showing them how to make things.  After they are rolling, you can let them go.

You can use pinto beans to make great eyes - but limit their use of them - they are hard and not really edible.

It's important to set a greased pie pan or baking pan beside them for them to place their finished, focused creations into as it gives them a sense of accomplishment when they can see what they've made.

Have the oven heating up to 160 degrees C (or 360 F).  Even little kids can brush butter and sprinkle sugar over top their finished creatures.

Troy made me laugh as I was filming her and Luke for my blog, she just started hosting her own video tutorial on how to make a dough critter.  I didn't stop her - their video is below.

 

2. Make things out of junk or scrap materials.  ie houses, cars, animals, whatever they want to build.

 Josh (above) loved making armour and and a sword for his clay creature out of a bottlecap, wire, cloth, a toothpick, bit's he'd found.  The monkey guy also has a drum set made out of bottlecaps.

It may look scrappy to us - but their imaginations are firing away. Get a glue gun - wire, pliers, use a drill to make holes in plastic things, or just sew things together with a big needle (even cardboard).  Double sided tape, card, old interesting objects you come across - save them in some designated area (if you can mentally handle the chaos).  Real order can come out of the right amount of chaos.  Too much and you are a hoarder.  Too little, and you are a fusspot.  Get the right balance for craft activities as you go!

I still remember the endless possibilities I imagined when I found a neat object.

It's so cool to hear their ideas come out.





3. Make your own toy out of clay 

Sculpey

Craft stores sell a type of clay that hardens when you cook it in the oven ("Sculpey" in NZ, "Fimo" in North America).  Sculpey even sellsglow-in-the-dark modelling clay!  A bit expensive- around $7 for one block from Spotlight ($5 if you're a member) - but worth it for a special gift, as plasticine which stays squishy forever quickly gets ruined.  I did have Troy practice on squishy plasticine first -

The dog in the photo below has glued on felt eyes as the eyes Troy made didn't stand out.  Always fix screw-ups in a positive way - it teaches the kids that lesson.  We named him "Snifter" - as apparently he likes sniffing rear ends.  The horse I helped Troy with in your hand on the left we named  "Spirit".  He glows green-white brightly in the dark.

3. Take them to the library 

They need fuel to fire their imaginations.  They won't have anything in their heads, ideas of what to make, without stories.

I remember when my mother first introduced us kids to the library - and all the worlds that were in there to be found.  She just took us there and let us choose whatever we wanted, but also at times introducing us to great books.

Let the kids choose anything they are interested in.  My mother would occasionally show me something she had heard of that was supposed to be good - famously, to me, C. S. Lewis's Narnia series.  This series ended up being one of my ultimate favourite.

This is not a small idea - this idea is essential.




4. Make a creature or animal out of paper mache, then paint it.

The polka dots on the dinosaur bank on the right (named "Polkadot") were all drawn by Georgie (7) and painted by her.  Then Troy painted the green back ridges for Georgie, and added glitter. I was able to tie it all together for her by filling in around the polka dots neatly, painting with a bright sample of wall paint.  

For the dinosaur bank  on the left ("Tiger"), I admit I took over and painted it after Troy (7) got frustrated with marking the stripes.  But she gave lots of input.  I mixed red acrylic paint in to the blue-green colour I was using to shade the belly and feet.  

This project will definitely need your help.  But there is lots for the kids to do themselves (like ripping up paper - and helping with paper mache - and painting).  In the paper mache "piggy banks" above (they have slots cut in their tops, and corks under their bellies) the kids have helped paper mache them with strips of newspaper dipped in PVA glue (white glue) and water.  The base was a balloon, with toilet paper roll feet cut in halves.  The neck is rolled and scrunched paper.  Some wire was needed to provide structure and support to the long neck and long tail.  For more details on how we did it, click here.

We got this idea from a book based on the kids TV program called Art Attack by Neil Buchanan (ISBN 9781405307451).  These dinosaur banks were called "beastly banks".

 

Seeing the light: switching to rechargeable batteries

 

I have been slowly and slyly converting all of our family's batteries over to rechargeable, over the past year. 

Yes, they most definitely cost more at the time - but it's that long term benefit that I can see that makes me do it.

It's about $30NZ to get 4 rechargeable batteries.  But the benefits are that far less toxic batteries are generated (by far my only reason for doing it).

However, there is a great financial blessing when you switch over to rechargeable batteries - as well as an ease of stress when using digital cameras...however "cheap" you get them, you don't have to buy batteries any more, which feels great. 

Personally, I just enjoy the absence of guilt.

This is our family's personal battery stash from before switching to rechargeable in the photo above - I had been collecting and saving for a very long time, waiting to turn them in to the city's hazardous waste pickup locations (like that's going to happen).  You can also turn these in to your local "transfer station", and they will dispose of them properly for you.

I recently found a way to replace Shane's trusty big ole flashlight (photo below above on the left).  They don't make rechargeable batteries that size.  The bulb was broken by one of the kids.  I went to the auto parts store to look for another.  I found they don't even sell this type of flashlight anymore - the same brand one is made with an LED now.  So I bought a very affordable ($15) flashlight that runs on 3 x AA batteries, and has heaps of LEDS on it on the side, and on the end  - it's very bright.  It's supposedly for fixing cars.  Works for me.  Look at the difference in the waste it would generate in 2 years (give or take).