A five year campaign in China to plant 12 billion trees has just ended. Every year there is a tree planting day where 3 million people pick up a spade and go planting. If we all planted just one tree a year then that would act as a carbon sink or alternative to burning a fossil fuel for heat. My intention is to plant 100 trees per year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1719546,00.html
Is your bubble about to burst?
I live in a "community" of some 65 (with three being built) houses. Only 17 (with four to come) houses are actually occupied 365 days of the year. The rest are holiday homes. I salivate over the prospects of picking over the bare bones of these houses when the bottom falls out of the tourism industry.
Unfortunately the bungalow blitz/blight continues unabated. The west's economy is fueled by the housing bubble (little else) and Ireland's government provides tax breaks to anyone foolish enough to build and even more foolish enough to buy.
In South Kerry hundreds of holiday homes are being built and hotels are being enlarged for tourists that hardly exist today and certainly won't be coming in the future.
Here's why - http://energybulletin.net/13119.html
Unfortunately the bungalow blitz/blight continues unabated. The west's economy is fueled by the housing bubble (little else) and Ireland's government provides tax breaks to anyone foolish enough to build and even more foolish enough to buy.
In South Kerry hundreds of holiday homes are being built and hotels are being enlarged for tourists that hardly exist today and certainly won't be coming in the future.
Here's why - http://energybulletin.net/13119.html
Back to the stove
We've almost used up the last of the oil we bought last year. I wanted to run down the supply before burning anymore wood. It's almost gone so the oil boiler is now set to come on in the morning only to provide some warmth and hot water on awaking. The stove takes over the heating responsibility during the day and evening. The immersion heater heats the hot water cylinder in the evening.
There's plenty of waste wood around after all the building work I've been doing these past few months so the stove has plenty of plywood and OSB to burn along with a few sufficiently seasoned logs. Most of the downstairs is warm apart from the day room at the far end.
The intention now is to put a solid fuel range in the new kitchen after the ceramic floor tiles have been put in. The range will heat a thermal store, which will heat the new radiators upstairs and any room on the ground floor not catered for by the stove, along with the hot water cylinder. The room in which the stove sits will have a wall removed so that it and the old kitchen become one larger and very comfortable evening room during the winter.
All of this will hopefully negate the need for buying anymore oil. With plenty of trees being planted on my land for coppicing, lots of driftwood to be found and the possibility of growing trees on other landowners' dormant land I should be okay for wood.
Ewww. Like this range. Must have it.
http://www.waterfordstanley.com/stanley_rng/donard.htm
There's plenty of waste wood around after all the building work I've been doing these past few months so the stove has plenty of plywood and OSB to burn along with a few sufficiently seasoned logs. Most of the downstairs is warm apart from the day room at the far end.
The intention now is to put a solid fuel range in the new kitchen after the ceramic floor tiles have been put in. The range will heat a thermal store, which will heat the new radiators upstairs and any room on the ground floor not catered for by the stove, along with the hot water cylinder. The room in which the stove sits will have a wall removed so that it and the old kitchen become one larger and very comfortable evening room during the winter.
All of this will hopefully negate the need for buying anymore oil. With plenty of trees being planted on my land for coppicing, lots of driftwood to be found and the possibility of growing trees on other landowners' dormant land I should be okay for wood.
Ewww. Like this range. Must have it.
http://www.waterfordstanley.com/stanley_rng/donard.htm
Psocids (bark, paper and book lice)
Having defeated my Psocid infestation I shall write a little about how I went about the problem. Psocids are a species of insect that include bark lice, paper lice and book lice. These are the most common that you will come across if you do have a problem. Don't confuse bark lice with wood lice. Wood lice are much larger. Psocids go through a variety of nymphal stages until they reach maturity and about 2mm in length. They are not a health hazard but are a bit of a nuisance. If you have them in the kitchen then they can spread bacteria around uncovered dry foods.
Bark lice will come in with your firewood so I recommend that you keep your firewood outside until it needs to be burnt. Make sure any container that you bring your wood in is left outside at night and regularly cleaned out. This will help reduce the chance of Psocids setting up home in yours.
Paper and book lice are the same and are found in damp and dusty paper, cardboard and books. The moisture combined with dust and paper create a mould in much the same way that nature creates moulds on dead wood for bark lice. This mould is what the Psocids feed on rather than the paper or dust. It is also where they lay their eggs so that the young have an immediate food source and can live to maturity to lay their own eggs.
Psocids live for about 90 days and lay in the region of 60 eggs. As you can imagine, an infestation can easily start in a warm, damp and dusty home. So the first thing to avoid such an infestation is to reduce the food supply.
Dust your home regularly. Especially collections of paper, books, cardboard and wooden items. Keep these items on shelves rather than on the floor. Hoover floors. I find that carpets and countryside don't mix. It's like grassland to insects. Replace it with a wood or tiled floor. In the kitchen keep things like flour, spices and other dried food in airtight containers so that Psocids don't drag their dirty feet through it.
Reduce damp by opening the windows and airing your home often. Keep the humidity down by opening windows after cooking in the kitchen or bathing in the bathroom. A humidity level of 30-50% is best. Any more and you will create damp. Any less and you will suffer from problems like dry sore throats.
A frosty morning might see condensation on the windows. Use a cloth to dry your windows and dispose of the excess moisture into the sink. If you have wooden window frames then damp and dust will create mould for the Psocids to eat.
Whenever you see a Psocid just sqaush it then and there. You can also spray difficult to get at areas such as the undersides of tables or behind sofas etc., where you believe there to be a concentration of Psocids, with any insect spray containing Pyrethrines. It acts instantly. I once collected a few Psocids and sprayed them. Instant death. No dance of the dying fly as when you use Vapona on a bluebottle.
Remember
Remove dust regularly.
Keep humidity of the house between 30-50% through regular airing and moisture removal.
Leave firewood outside until it is to be burnt.
Store paper, cardboard and books off the floor.
Spray with Pyrethrine.
Bark lice will come in with your firewood so I recommend that you keep your firewood outside until it needs to be burnt. Make sure any container that you bring your wood in is left outside at night and regularly cleaned out. This will help reduce the chance of Psocids setting up home in yours.
Paper and book lice are the same and are found in damp and dusty paper, cardboard and books. The moisture combined with dust and paper create a mould in much the same way that nature creates moulds on dead wood for bark lice. This mould is what the Psocids feed on rather than the paper or dust. It is also where they lay their eggs so that the young have an immediate food source and can live to maturity to lay their own eggs.
Psocids live for about 90 days and lay in the region of 60 eggs. As you can imagine, an infestation can easily start in a warm, damp and dusty home. So the first thing to avoid such an infestation is to reduce the food supply.
Dust your home regularly. Especially collections of paper, books, cardboard and wooden items. Keep these items on shelves rather than on the floor. Hoover floors. I find that carpets and countryside don't mix. It's like grassland to insects. Replace it with a wood or tiled floor. In the kitchen keep things like flour, spices and other dried food in airtight containers so that Psocids don't drag their dirty feet through it.
Reduce damp by opening the windows and airing your home often. Keep the humidity down by opening windows after cooking in the kitchen or bathing in the bathroom. A humidity level of 30-50% is best. Any more and you will create damp. Any less and you will suffer from problems like dry sore throats.
A frosty morning might see condensation on the windows. Use a cloth to dry your windows and dispose of the excess moisture into the sink. If you have wooden window frames then damp and dust will create mould for the Psocids to eat.
Whenever you see a Psocid just sqaush it then and there. You can also spray difficult to get at areas such as the undersides of tables or behind sofas etc., where you believe there to be a concentration of Psocids, with any insect spray containing Pyrethrines. It acts instantly. I once collected a few Psocids and sprayed them. Instant death. No dance of the dying fly as when you use Vapona on a bluebottle.
Remember
Remove dust regularly.
Keep humidity of the house between 30-50% through regular airing and moisture removal.
Leave firewood outside until it is to be burnt.
Store paper, cardboard and books off the floor.
Spray with Pyrethrine.
A kind of growing I don't like
Every week a man in a suit will tell us how much the economy will grow by. Not only that he will also tell us how much we need this growth. He tells us that a declining population is bad and that if we don't do something about it then he knows where to get people who can.
I'm pretty sure that I'm not stupid. I have a degree in computing, maths and philosophy so I must have a brain of sorts. I don't have a degree in economics but I think my studies in mathematics permit me to calculate that year on year growth requires both infinite resources and an infinite population.
For the man in a suit, year on year growth is do-able and it must be done. He has a suit. He likes suits. He wants to buy another suit as soon as he has finished telling you to breed like mad and then go out and buy things. He wants you to buy anything, a suit perhaps, just anything. So long as you are breeding and buying, he's happy.
I'm pretty certain that in a stupid person competition the man in a suit would just nudge me out of first place. Only a stupid person would look on a planet of finite space and assume that it is filled with infinite resources and infinite space in which to put humans and all the rubbish he wants them to buy.
Year on year economic growth leads only to disaster. The men in suits are using us for their own financial gain. They move their money, our jobs and the poor around the globe just to ring the last bit of profit out of their investments. But they are too stupid to realise that when they have used up the world's resources, and filled the world to bursting point with people, they won't be able to enjoy their money because there will be nothing left to buy, no food to eat and nowhere nice for them to live.
A contracting population is good. It's economy will shrink and use less of the world's resources. If that economy somehow creates excess jobs then those jobs should be exported to poorer countries. The people of poorer countries should not have to travel across the globe to work because it denudes the country of their birth of an important resource, its labour force.
Since moving to my acre of land I feel much better about myself. Making do, producing my own food and warmth, being less reliant on others. All these things do nothing for economic growth and I'm so glad about that.
I'm pretty sure that I'm not stupid. I have a degree in computing, maths and philosophy so I must have a brain of sorts. I don't have a degree in economics but I think my studies in mathematics permit me to calculate that year on year growth requires both infinite resources and an infinite population.
For the man in a suit, year on year growth is do-able and it must be done. He has a suit. He likes suits. He wants to buy another suit as soon as he has finished telling you to breed like mad and then go out and buy things. He wants you to buy anything, a suit perhaps, just anything. So long as you are breeding and buying, he's happy.
I'm pretty certain that in a stupid person competition the man in a suit would just nudge me out of first place. Only a stupid person would look on a planet of finite space and assume that it is filled with infinite resources and infinite space in which to put humans and all the rubbish he wants them to buy.
Year on year economic growth leads only to disaster. The men in suits are using us for their own financial gain. They move their money, our jobs and the poor around the globe just to ring the last bit of profit out of their investments. But they are too stupid to realise that when they have used up the world's resources, and filled the world to bursting point with people, they won't be able to enjoy their money because there will be nothing left to buy, no food to eat and nowhere nice for them to live.
A contracting population is good. It's economy will shrink and use less of the world's resources. If that economy somehow creates excess jobs then those jobs should be exported to poorer countries. The people of poorer countries should not have to travel across the globe to work because it denudes the country of their birth of an important resource, its labour force.
Since moving to my acre of land I feel much better about myself. Making do, producing my own food and warmth, being less reliant on others. All these things do nothing for economic growth and I'm so glad about that.
In the news
Most Britons willing to pay green taxes to save the environment
Most British people would accept new taxes on goods and services that damage the environment, according to a Guardian/ICM poll which reveals a widespread willingness to make personal sacrifices to tackle the threat of climate change. Some 63% said they approved of a green tax to discourage behaviour that harms the environment, while 34% said they would not accept such price rises...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1714974,00.html
Comment:
I've always regarded tax in a literal manner. To tax is to burden. Taxes should be a burden to people if they are doing something that you don't wish them to do. Taxing people after they die just because they want to pass their wealth to others is an insult. It would be far more sensible to have zero tax on ethanol and bio-diesel rather than mixing it with existing fuels. The population would soon start buying flex fuel cars or having conversions.
Every little protest helps: campaigners unite in bid to cut Tesco down to size
An eco-warrior in Somerset is suspended 18 metres (60ft) above ground between the branches of a Scots pine. A typist from Stockport has drafted the latest in a series of complaints about her oversized local supermarket. And a vicar on the Essex island of West Mersea is warning parishioners about the unsustainability of international food trade...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets/story/0,,1714986,00.html
Comment:
With regards to global food markets, I think matters will have to get far worse before they get far better. It would take an end to cheap transport fuel to stop it. Enough to add sufficient cost to the imports to make them more expensive than local produce. Rosie and I use Tesco because it sells the cheapest petrol. That even includes the 70 mile round trip where we also stock up on foodstuff once a month. However, we also produce a lot of our own food so we are probably better suited to a sudden relocalisation of food should it happen. Most people in rural areas are similar to us. It's the city dwellers I worry about.
China vows to create a 'new socialist countryside' for millions of farmers
Against a background of rising rural unrest, China yesterday unveiled ambitious plans to help the 800 million people living in the countryside catch up economically with people in the cities...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1715078,00.html
Comment:
China has to eat and it can't have a cities full of factory and service workers and nobody out there producing food. If more people move to the cities then more energy is required to permit those people to live unsustainable urban lifestyles. China will collapse as soon as it rose, if it isn't careful.
City goes to the dogs for a new source of power
San Francisco has realised that where there's muck there's gas. The dog-loving city has decided to convert the 6,500 tonnes of faeces produced each year by its canine population into energy...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,1715191,00.html
Comment:
Maybe too little too late but every city is going to have to operate in a different way in the future. Producing as much of its own energy and food as possible to reduce dependence on the outside is one way. Banning all personal transport. Adequate inter city transport infrastructure.
I have often had arguments with acquaintances in London about the sustainability of their lifestyles. They either don't care or assume that a saviour is round the corner. I put forward an image of blocking off all access roads to London and asking how long they would survive. There's never an answer.
Most British people would accept new taxes on goods and services that damage the environment, according to a Guardian/ICM poll which reveals a widespread willingness to make personal sacrifices to tackle the threat of climate change. Some 63% said they approved of a green tax to discourage behaviour that harms the environment, while 34% said they would not accept such price rises...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1714974,00.html
Comment:
I've always regarded tax in a literal manner. To tax is to burden. Taxes should be a burden to people if they are doing something that you don't wish them to do. Taxing people after they die just because they want to pass their wealth to others is an insult. It would be far more sensible to have zero tax on ethanol and bio-diesel rather than mixing it with existing fuels. The population would soon start buying flex fuel cars or having conversions.
Every little protest helps: campaigners unite in bid to cut Tesco down to size
An eco-warrior in Somerset is suspended 18 metres (60ft) above ground between the branches of a Scots pine. A typist from Stockport has drafted the latest in a series of complaints about her oversized local supermarket. And a vicar on the Essex island of West Mersea is warning parishioners about the unsustainability of international food trade...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets/story/0,,1714986,00.html
Comment:
With regards to global food markets, I think matters will have to get far worse before they get far better. It would take an end to cheap transport fuel to stop it. Enough to add sufficient cost to the imports to make them more expensive than local produce. Rosie and I use Tesco because it sells the cheapest petrol. That even includes the 70 mile round trip where we also stock up on foodstuff once a month. However, we also produce a lot of our own food so we are probably better suited to a sudden relocalisation of food should it happen. Most people in rural areas are similar to us. It's the city dwellers I worry about.
China vows to create a 'new socialist countryside' for millions of farmers
Against a background of rising rural unrest, China yesterday unveiled ambitious plans to help the 800 million people living in the countryside catch up economically with people in the cities...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1715078,00.html
Comment:
China has to eat and it can't have a cities full of factory and service workers and nobody out there producing food. If more people move to the cities then more energy is required to permit those people to live unsustainable urban lifestyles. China will collapse as soon as it rose, if it isn't careful.
City goes to the dogs for a new source of power
San Francisco has realised that where there's muck there's gas. The dog-loving city has decided to convert the 6,500 tonnes of faeces produced each year by its canine population into energy...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,1715191,00.html
Comment:
Maybe too little too late but every city is going to have to operate in a different way in the future. Producing as much of its own energy and food as possible to reduce dependence on the outside is one way. Banning all personal transport. Adequate inter city transport infrastructure.
I have often had arguments with acquaintances in London about the sustainability of their lifestyles. They either don't care or assume that a saviour is round the corner. I put forward an image of blocking off all access roads to London and asking how long they would survive. There's never an answer.
Hydrogen delay
Hydrogen was isolated as an element long before the first oil rig started pumping and yet all our cars run on petrol. Some run on diesel but if Mr Diesel had not have (in)conveniently fell overboard whilst on a ship it would have been peanut oil. Diesel fuel, after Mr Diesel's unfortunate accident, is now made from crude oil.
I can imagine there being a lot of inertia towards permitting hydrogen powered cars on the road. After all, many petrol stations are owned by the oil companies. They want to ring every last penny out of their barrel of oil. It takes a fair amount of investment to build a refinery, which needs to be recouped, and those oil executives like big salaries too.
Think what would happen if cars could run on hydrogen all of sudden. I won't argue for one method or another but hydrogen can power an internal combustion engine in much the same way that petrol powers our cars now or it can be used in a fuel cell to power an electric car. Hydrogen is easy to make. No expensive refinery needed. Not even a petrol station to sell it to car owners.
With some cheap machinery you could make all the hydrogen you needed at home. The raw material is water. Then all you need is electricity to split the hydrogen from the oxygen atoms in water and you are ready to drive. The oil industry loses income and governments lose taxes. I guess that is why GW Bush and all other political leaders are talking up ethanol and bio-diesel. It's harder to make.
Petrol stations would still be needed to sell ethanol and bio-diesel. There are some hobbyists making ethanol and bio-diesel today but when we all need it for our cars then the hobbyists will be squeezed out through economies of scale. The oil companies will retool for the new fuels and governments will still be able to track and tax the fuel.
I prefer hydrogen. Simply because it cuts out two middlemen that I can do without; corporations and governments.
I can imagine there being a lot of inertia towards permitting hydrogen powered cars on the road. After all, many petrol stations are owned by the oil companies. They want to ring every last penny out of their barrel of oil. It takes a fair amount of investment to build a refinery, which needs to be recouped, and those oil executives like big salaries too.
Think what would happen if cars could run on hydrogen all of sudden. I won't argue for one method or another but hydrogen can power an internal combustion engine in much the same way that petrol powers our cars now or it can be used in a fuel cell to power an electric car. Hydrogen is easy to make. No expensive refinery needed. Not even a petrol station to sell it to car owners.
With some cheap machinery you could make all the hydrogen you needed at home. The raw material is water. Then all you need is electricity to split the hydrogen from the oxygen atoms in water and you are ready to drive. The oil industry loses income and governments lose taxes. I guess that is why GW Bush and all other political leaders are talking up ethanol and bio-diesel. It's harder to make.
Petrol stations would still be needed to sell ethanol and bio-diesel. There are some hobbyists making ethanol and bio-diesel today but when we all need it for our cars then the hobbyists will be squeezed out through economies of scale. The oil companies will retool for the new fuels and governments will still be able to track and tax the fuel.
I prefer hydrogen. Simply because it cuts out two middlemen that I can do without; corporations and governments.
Willow propagation
Trees are wonderful things. They've been on this world longer than we have and have so many uses from keeping us warm, to providing us with food, furniture and medicine.
Many trees are simply propagated by the taking of cuttings. Today, I was trimming my willow in the polytunnel for planting in pots and eventually outside. Alder is another tree that can be propagated from prunings.
Taking cuttings from a tree has to be done when the tree is dormant during late winter. Once a tree's buds start to grow it is then too late as new roots won't form as the branch is totally committed to growing above the soil.
In the first photograph we can see my donor golden willows. These will grow in the tunnel for a few years producing 10-inch long cuttings and a few larger ready-to-go trees.
Next, we see a cutting. I have pruned off some of the lower branches.
The cutting is then pushed into the soil with a few inches above the soil to allow buds and branches to develop over the coming year. This small cutting will put on 6-feet of growth in just 12 months.
Here is a longer cutting from one of the donor trees. I felt that it would make a good tree in itself. The main stem will thicken by about half an inch over the year as it puts on another 6-feet of growth. The branches will thicken too and will have many thin spears-shaped light green and yellow leaves.
My aim is to plant about 100 willows this year and in two to three years time start harvesting 3-inch wide logs for burning. Smaller sized waste will be shredded for mulching, composting and wood gas generation. I want to set up a demonstration to show to people with land to spare, help set them up and get a little return in wood too.
I see too much tree cutting locally and no tree planting. In the past the population was such that nature was propagating trees faster than the locals could cut them. With money grabbing developers concreting any part of south Kerry they can, and more people looking for the good life, tree cover is beginning to recede.
Links
For progress after one month of growth see - Willow propagation 2
Some useful PDF documents about short rotation coppicing - Short Rotation Coppicing
Many trees are simply propagated by the taking of cuttings. Today, I was trimming my willow in the polytunnel for planting in pots and eventually outside. Alder is another tree that can be propagated from prunings.
Taking cuttings from a tree has to be done when the tree is dormant during late winter. Once a tree's buds start to grow it is then too late as new roots won't form as the branch is totally committed to growing above the soil.
In the first photograph we can see my donor golden willows. These will grow in the tunnel for a few years producing 10-inch long cuttings and a few larger ready-to-go trees.
Next, we see a cutting. I have pruned off some of the lower branches.
The cutting is then pushed into the soil with a few inches above the soil to allow buds and branches to develop over the coming year. This small cutting will put on 6-feet of growth in just 12 months.
Here is a longer cutting from one of the donor trees. I felt that it would make a good tree in itself. The main stem will thicken by about half an inch over the year as it puts on another 6-feet of growth. The branches will thicken too and will have many thin spears-shaped light green and yellow leaves.
My aim is to plant about 100 willows this year and in two to three years time start harvesting 3-inch wide logs for burning. Smaller sized waste will be shredded for mulching, composting and wood gas generation. I want to set up a demonstration to show to people with land to spare, help set them up and get a little return in wood too.I see too much tree cutting locally and no tree planting. In the past the population was such that nature was propagating trees faster than the locals could cut them. With money grabbing developers concreting any part of south Kerry they can, and more people looking for the good life, tree cover is beginning to recede.
Links
For progress after one month of growth see - Willow propagation 2
Some useful PDF documents about short rotation coppicing - Short Rotation Coppicing
Hurricanes, Petroeuros and Nukes
Hurricanes
It promises to be an interesting year. Oil addicts have to fork out more to their suppliers. Will the price peak again? Last year was a record year for hurricanes in the North Atlantic, which affected oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. When the supply decreased and demand did not change then the price had to give by going up.
Personally, I don't think this year's North Atlantic hurricane season will be like last year's. A lot of people have jumped on a single year's outstanding statistic and assumed it's a global weather catastrophe. I don't. Even though I am environmentally aware, and do my bit for conservation, I never latch on to any weather statistics.
We have only been taking meteorological reading for barely 150 years. The Earth is 4,500,000,000 years old. It has been a lot hotter than this and a lot cooler, even without human intervention. The Romans had vine yards near Hadrian's Wall to supply its Legions guarding Britannia against the Picts and Caledonians. You can't do that now. Earth isn't warm enough! People used to ice skate on the River Thames during the winter. Not during my lifetime they haven't!
Petroeuros
When purchasing oil then no matter if you wish to buy it in the US on the NYMEX, in London at the IPE or from OPEC, you have to buy it in dollars. All part of an agreement in the early 1970s.
It's great for the US. It prints dollars. No need to work too hard for your oil. Just raise some debt, print the dollars and get your oil fix. Add value to the oil by making it into something, not forgetting to add a little inflation and then sell it back to whoever gave you the oil. Only this time their dollars that you just printed aren't worth what they were. An easy way to build the world's largest economy.
However, on March 20th this year Iran is to open a new exchange where an oil buyer can purchase oil in Euros. What the result of this will be, I don't think we can be totally sure. The dollar is the pre-eminent reserve currency. All those US dollars sitting in foreign reserve banks are there to lubricate the wheels of global commerce so businesses can buy oil and trade with the US. They won't need so many dollars if they can buy oil with the currently strong Euro.
Foreign reserve banks will want to exchange some of their reserve for Euros so many billions of dollars will head back to the US. What will all those extra dollars lying around do to the US economy?
Nukes
Two countries are entering the nuclear club. South Africa is to build a pebble bed reactor. Without going into details it's a lot safer than older designs and can only be used for electricity generation. Meanwhile Iran is using an old fashioned design and insists on using reprocessed fuel. This reprocessed fuel can also be used to make atomic weapons.
If Iran cared to use a pebble bed reactor then I'm sure everyone would be happy. However, Iran's nuclear ambitions coupled with the insane comments of Iran's president with regards to Israel and the aforementioned Petroeuro based oil exchange mean that things might get hotter in Iran before global warming is hardly noticeable.
Yes, 2006 promises to be an interesting year.
It promises to be an interesting year. Oil addicts have to fork out more to their suppliers. Will the price peak again? Last year was a record year for hurricanes in the North Atlantic, which affected oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. When the supply decreased and demand did not change then the price had to give by going up.
Personally, I don't think this year's North Atlantic hurricane season will be like last year's. A lot of people have jumped on a single year's outstanding statistic and assumed it's a global weather catastrophe. I don't. Even though I am environmentally aware, and do my bit for conservation, I never latch on to any weather statistics.
We have only been taking meteorological reading for barely 150 years. The Earth is 4,500,000,000 years old. It has been a lot hotter than this and a lot cooler, even without human intervention. The Romans had vine yards near Hadrian's Wall to supply its Legions guarding Britannia against the Picts and Caledonians. You can't do that now. Earth isn't warm enough! People used to ice skate on the River Thames during the winter. Not during my lifetime they haven't!
Petroeuros
When purchasing oil then no matter if you wish to buy it in the US on the NYMEX, in London at the IPE or from OPEC, you have to buy it in dollars. All part of an agreement in the early 1970s.
It's great for the US. It prints dollars. No need to work too hard for your oil. Just raise some debt, print the dollars and get your oil fix. Add value to the oil by making it into something, not forgetting to add a little inflation and then sell it back to whoever gave you the oil. Only this time their dollars that you just printed aren't worth what they were. An easy way to build the world's largest economy.
However, on March 20th this year Iran is to open a new exchange where an oil buyer can purchase oil in Euros. What the result of this will be, I don't think we can be totally sure. The dollar is the pre-eminent reserve currency. All those US dollars sitting in foreign reserve banks are there to lubricate the wheels of global commerce so businesses can buy oil and trade with the US. They won't need so many dollars if they can buy oil with the currently strong Euro.
Foreign reserve banks will want to exchange some of their reserve for Euros so many billions of dollars will head back to the US. What will all those extra dollars lying around do to the US economy?
Nukes
Two countries are entering the nuclear club. South Africa is to build a pebble bed reactor. Without going into details it's a lot safer than older designs and can only be used for electricity generation. Meanwhile Iran is using an old fashioned design and insists on using reprocessed fuel. This reprocessed fuel can also be used to make atomic weapons.
If Iran cared to use a pebble bed reactor then I'm sure everyone would be happy. However, Iran's nuclear ambitions coupled with the insane comments of Iran's president with regards to Israel and the aforementioned Petroeuro based oil exchange mean that things might get hotter in Iran before global warming is hardly noticeable.
Yes, 2006 promises to be an interesting year.
Everything onion
A day rarely passes when we don't eat an onion. Be it stews, curries, pastas, Mexican or Spanish dishes there is always the ubiquitous onion. It adds greatly to the flavour.
Planting
We grow our onions (Ailsa Craig variety) from seed and start planting the previous year in September. We plant about 40 seed at a time, once a fortnight and continue doing so until about March. That spreads the cropping over the summer and autumn months so that we are not inundated with onions at any one time. They have to last right through to the following year.
Ailsa Craig produces delicious and often large onions. Some are the size of grapefruit and can be cut in halves, one for today and the other for tomorrow. When the bulbs are young and small they can be harvested for spring onions too.
We've never used onions sets (small onion bulbs grown the year before, dug up and stored for replanting the following year) simply because we have no problems growing from seed. The seed is much cheaper anyway. A euro would buy a hundred onion sets but many hundreds of seeds.
A percentage of sets go to seed immediately on replanting without growing to a large bulb thus increasing the cost of a single onion. Why bother growing onions, digging them up at young age and then start growing them again the following year? Seems like a way for lazy people to buy and grow onions without the trouble of seed trays and transplanting. Sets are not for us.
We have heard that you can cut the bottom half inch off an onion and plant it and its roots back in the soil for a fresh crop the following year. I did try it but without success. Maybe Ailsa Craig is not a variety that permits that. There are onion types such as shallots and potato onions that can divide and self-propagate perennially. Something to look into but for now I love my Ailsa Craigs.
Harvesting
When the bulb is fully formed the top will collapse and all the greenery will lie on the soil. The onions can still be left in the ground, as with our potatoes the best way to preserve some vegetables is to leave them where they are until needed. Onions should not be left in the ground over the winter like leeks as they will begin next year's growth and the flesh won't make good cooking.
At some point you will have to lift the crop to cure and store them. Onions that will be required over the next few months can just be cleaned and left in the fridge. I haven't tried freezing any yet as I do with say my carrot crop but it is something I will look into.
Usually though onions are cured and stored. Remove the roots, clean off the soil, and leave in the sun to dry. This will produce a dried brown outer layer of skin that will help preserve the onion and prevent new leaf growth. Personally, we don't create onion braids (a la French onion sellers on bicycles) as we don't have the time and storing them plainly suits us fine.
Planting
We grow our onions (Ailsa Craig variety) from seed and start planting the previous year in September. We plant about 40 seed at a time, once a fortnight and continue doing so until about March. That spreads the cropping over the summer and autumn months so that we are not inundated with onions at any one time. They have to last right through to the following year.
Ailsa Craig produces delicious and often large onions. Some are the size of grapefruit and can be cut in halves, one for today and the other for tomorrow. When the bulbs are young and small they can be harvested for spring onions too.
We've never used onions sets (small onion bulbs grown the year before, dug up and stored for replanting the following year) simply because we have no problems growing from seed. The seed is much cheaper anyway. A euro would buy a hundred onion sets but many hundreds of seeds.
A percentage of sets go to seed immediately on replanting without growing to a large bulb thus increasing the cost of a single onion. Why bother growing onions, digging them up at young age and then start growing them again the following year? Seems like a way for lazy people to buy and grow onions without the trouble of seed trays and transplanting. Sets are not for us.
We have heard that you can cut the bottom half inch off an onion and plant it and its roots back in the soil for a fresh crop the following year. I did try it but without success. Maybe Ailsa Craig is not a variety that permits that. There are onion types such as shallots and potato onions that can divide and self-propagate perennially. Something to look into but for now I love my Ailsa Craigs.
Harvesting
When the bulb is fully formed the top will collapse and all the greenery will lie on the soil. The onions can still be left in the ground, as with our potatoes the best way to preserve some vegetables is to leave them where they are until needed. Onions should not be left in the ground over the winter like leeks as they will begin next year's growth and the flesh won't make good cooking.
At some point you will have to lift the crop to cure and store them. Onions that will be required over the next few months can just be cleaned and left in the fridge. I haven't tried freezing any yet as I do with say my carrot crop but it is something I will look into.
Usually though onions are cured and stored. Remove the roots, clean off the soil, and leave in the sun to dry. This will produce a dried brown outer layer of skin that will help preserve the onion and prevent new leaf growth. Personally, we don't create onion braids (a la French onion sellers on bicycles) as we don't have the time and storing them plainly suits us fine.
Unsustainable potatoes
I'm having to get my seed potatoes from the UK now. I wanted a particular variety and as my local supplier is just an awkward, useless hippy I cancelled the order. It's not good that my seed potatoes will be traveling hundreds of miles from another country.
However, I am forced to go abroad by unhelpful local suppliers and the difficulty of searching the Internet because Irish companies can't afford expensive rip-off .ie domain names. I had no problem finding a UK supplier on the Internet because .co.uk domain names are reasonably priced and lots of competitive companies allow me to choose what I want at the price I want. Ireland has a lot to learn before it can enter the 20th century let alone the 21st.
I should get my seed potatoes next week and then I can chit them ready for planting at the end of March. Bit of a gale blowing at the moment. I had to screw the door of the polytunnel shut so that it wouldn't smash itself to pieces overnight. As soon as the wet weather abates then I must complete planting trees.
However, I am forced to go abroad by unhelpful local suppliers and the difficulty of searching the Internet because Irish companies can't afford expensive rip-off .ie domain names. I had no problem finding a UK supplier on the Internet because .co.uk domain names are reasonably priced and lots of competitive companies allow me to choose what I want at the price I want. Ireland has a lot to learn before it can enter the 20th century let alone the 21st.
I should get my seed potatoes next week and then I can chit them ready for planting at the end of March. Bit of a gale blowing at the moment. I had to screw the door of the polytunnel shut so that it wouldn't smash itself to pieces overnight. As soon as the wet weather abates then I must complete planting trees.
Eco Eye
A new series on Irish television called Eco Eye has started, detailing solutions to our increasing energy and conservation problems. Today's programme showed how Austria is forging ahead with sustainable heating using wood pellet stoves in passive homes.
An interesting innovation is the Austrian designed Energy Cabin. This is a "bolt on" solution for existing homes consisting of a wooden cabin that sits in the garden. It contains a pellet stove with pellet store, solar heat collectors on the roof of the cabin and a 10,000 litre heat store inside. The stove only needs to be fired once a week to heat the store. Looks like I am going to be building one of those for myself.
Today I was planting out more trees.
An interesting innovation is the Austrian designed Energy Cabin. This is a "bolt on" solution for existing homes consisting of a wooden cabin that sits in the garden. It contains a pellet stove with pellet store, solar heat collectors on the roof of the cabin and a 10,000 litre heat store inside. The stove only needs to be fired once a week to heat the store. Looks like I am going to be building one of those for myself.
Today I was planting out more trees.
Spring cleaning the polytunnel
A belated Happy Imbolc. February 1st is the Celtic first day of spring though it felt like spring at the beginning of January. I get a twinge in my teeth fillings when winter begins and ends. The twinge came on January 5th.
Well, with the official first day of spring I was out clearing weeds from the polytunnel. Enough to fill a bay in my compost heap so already I've reaped a good harvest. I intend digging up the middle of the tunnel this year to create another 48-inch wide growing area. There will be narrow 18-inch compacted earth tracks either side of it so I can access the existing 48-inch wide growing areas at the side of the tunnel.
Last week I moved alder saplings out of the tunnel and planted them in a corner of my acre. I will chop up the willow in the tunnel into 10-inch sticks and plant them in a slit trench I am digging to the north of the tunnel. Eventually, I aim to have a quarter acre each of trees, grass, vegetable garden and house/tracks/workshop area.
No word from my seed potato supplier. I'll rattle their cage on Wednesday. If they don't have them then I shall order seed from the UK instead. Last week I pruned my apple trees too. Hartley the Hare had left plenty of droppings nearby so I'll have to fence off the young trees.
Well, with the official first day of spring I was out clearing weeds from the polytunnel. Enough to fill a bay in my compost heap so already I've reaped a good harvest. I intend digging up the middle of the tunnel this year to create another 48-inch wide growing area. There will be narrow 18-inch compacted earth tracks either side of it so I can access the existing 48-inch wide growing areas at the side of the tunnel.
Last week I moved alder saplings out of the tunnel and planted them in a corner of my acre. I will chop up the willow in the tunnel into 10-inch sticks and plant them in a slit trench I am digging to the north of the tunnel. Eventually, I aim to have a quarter acre each of trees, grass, vegetable garden and house/tracks/workshop area.
No word from my seed potato supplier. I'll rattle their cage on Wednesday. If they don't have them then I shall order seed from the UK instead. Last week I pruned my apple trees too. Hartley the Hare had left plenty of droppings nearby so I'll have to fence off the young trees.
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