My next project

With the trailer renovated I can now start on another project I've been meaning to do and start work on a solar water heater. I shall be somewhat copying the "inline collector" plans on the Mother Earth News website.

My arms are very tired at the moment having held a big grinder for most of the week so I won't be working so hard for a while. I also managed to melt my pants and "engineering slippers" when bits of molten metal hit them.

In the evenings I was too tired to potter in the workshop so I read a biography of the comedian Billy Connolly by his wife. I read that Billy was worried about meeting university educated comedians and thought that he was just an unworthy former welder. Well, I can tell Billy that having learnt how to weld this week, I regard it as a greater achievement than that useless degree certificate hanging on my wall.

Trailer finished

Well, as good as. I ran out of black spray paint. The important parts are painted so I'm happy. I need to get that 4x4 to pull it. One has been found so I'll take a look next week.

See "Renovating the trailer" for an account of the work done.

Hottest April for 140 years

I stopped heating the house at the end of March. Since then most days have seen me wearing a t-shirt. Many welcome global warming. "A 6C rise in average temperature would be wonderful," they say. "We would spend less on heating bills, the growing season would be longer and it would be good for tourism."

In the equatorial regions a 6C rise would not be "wonderful". It would mean unbearable heat, no growing season at all through drought and no tourists. Mass migration would ensue. The planet can't sustain our current population size. Imagine the current population and more squeezed into a small part of a much warmer world where life was still bearable.

Guardian - What a scorcher ... hottest April for 140 years

Renovating the trailer

I found this old heap by the roadside two years ago. A wheel hub had broken off its axle. I left it for two months to give the owner a chance to claim it. Nothing happened so I put it on my boat trailer and took it home.

A trailer would be very useful for carrying seaweed from the coast to fertilise my land. Also good for collecting manure from horse owners, again for fertilising. It can also carry building materials rather than having them dirty the car boot.

I removed various lumps of wood that had been holding the trailer together with an axe. The floor of the trailer was of plywood and had been carrying some heavy loads as it was propped with two hefty pieces of 2x4.

What was left of the original leaf suspension was cut away. I see many trailers abandoned by the roadside because old leaf suspensions have given up. It doesn't take that much to recycle, renew and reuse a trailer.

A slot was cut into the towing bar of the trailer so that I could introduce a new piece of 2x2 steel box tubing. This was to hold the new rubber suspension units. An existing piece of angle iron was ideally placed to buttress the box tubing against. The trailer's side walls were rusting and falling apart so they were cut out.

Once the box tubing was welded, mounting plates were welded at either end so that the suspension units could be bolted in place.

The trailer now needs to be cleaned of rust, primed and painted. Then some new side walls and a floor can be made from plywood, creosoted and bolted into place. The tail gate is fine so I will just paint it.

The finished trailer can be found here.

A lesson from the past

Archaeologists have uncovered lost inhabited lands that have now been covered by the North Sea following the last Ice Age. Lessons to be learnt by people living next to the coast or alongside tidal rivers.

BBC - Lost world warning from North Sea

Another pest

Every morning I go into the vegetable garden and see the beds dug up by blackbirds. Around every edge holes have been dug out and compost, I've spent months producing, flung out onto the grass.

I put the compost back into the holes knowing that I'll be doing the same a day later. "Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!"

Do I really need that?

I am currently looking for a 4x4 to pull my trailers and for some expected off-road work. Incidentally, the trailer is almost renovated. My neighbour Jan brought his welding equipment round and I was given a brief tutorial.

Welding is not as difficult as I thought it would be. I expected myself to convert the trailer into a pool of molten metal but after two or three goes I had the hang of it. I invested in my own mask so that I could see what Jan was doing without getting Arc-Eye in the process.

Jan has spare welding apparatus for sale and I see myself welding in the future so that will be a good investment. These days I always ask myself, "Do I really need that?" when I am about to get my wallet out. It's so easy to spend your way out of a problem rather than deciding whether you can make-do, mend or do without.

I initially thought of a Land Rover for a 4x4 but the engine size means I would be paying 900 euros per annum in road tax. As I expect to do most of my travelling on a scooter then those 900 euros could be better spent elsewhere.

Ireland has a banded system of road tax depending on engine size. My scooter, with its 50cc engine, attracts a tax of just 37 euros each year. A car with an engine capacity of less than 1000cc would have a yearly road tax of 151 euros. That turned me on to old Suzuki 4x4s like the Samurai and the Santana. However, they are impossible to find in Ireland but are quite plentiful in the UK.

My problem in the UK is getting there, trying before buying, winning auctions, getting taxed and shipping the vehicle over to Ireland. Then I have to pay another of Bertie's taxes. The VRT tax is for importing vehicles into Ireland and re-registering them as Irish vehicles. The tax is based on the resale value so an old Suzuki jeep wouldn't attract too much tax. I guess there are a lot of used car salesmen who double up as TDs in the Irish parliament.

Still, it's a lot of palaver so I am looking at 10 year old plus Suzuki Vitara 4x4s in Ireland. That also has me looking at modification websites. I enjoy tinkering. After ten years stuck behind a desk I really enjoy getting my hands dirty. The idea of dropping the suspension to slide in some big knobbly tired wheels, roll cages, a winch and spot lights sounds like a mechanical dream. I have to ask myself though, "Do I really need that?"

For the time being I will just get the trailer completed, a small engined 4x4 with a tow bar and see how it goes. Only then will I know what I can do without or if I need anything that I can make myself.

Grim situation in Australia

When Europeans first set foot in Australia they said the inhabitants were primitive. The aboriginal Australians were (and some still are) hunter gatherers living off whatever the land provided for them.

The Europeans were having none of that. They cleared the land of odd looking indigenous plant life and planted European trees and crops. They introduced sheep. They introduced fondly remembered rabbits and foxes when the rabbits got out of control.

Now, Australia is in a mess. The longest drought in its history. Non-indigenous animals devouring the indigenous. Crops failing. Little water. Salinisation of the soil. Soil degradation. Over fishing.

Much of Australia's food travels for thousands of miles before it reaches the tables of Sydney and Melbourne. The remaining hunter gatherers don't have such difficulties. I wonder if the future will see many more Australians scratching around for their next meal.

BBC - Australians warned of water cuts

Same old

I couldn't disagree more with Professor Bill McKelvey who advocates more of the same to alleviate overpopulation. More intensive farming techniques to further degrade soil quality. More globalised food production that will deplete further our fuel resources. I guess the professor has his seat at university paid for by Monsanto.

I have almost finished reading Collapse by Jared Diamond. It demonstrates how many societies have collapsed through not appreciating their environment and resources. In a world of globalised markets for food and other resources we are now a single society with no lifeboat to jump into when things go wrong.

Guardian - 'Only intensive farming' will feed Britain

The dash for cash is now a dash to the toilet

Ireland's building boom has resulted in the worst water quality in Europe. Effluent is being pumped untreated into the sea and into lakes. The residents of Galway City are having to buy water from the supermarket in a land with high rainfall.

Effluent is entering the drinking water in Galway City resulting in many cases of cryptosporidium infection with the attendant stomach pains and diarrhoea.

Ireland has gotten fat on EU money and it's being wasted on second homes for the wannabe weekend rural folk. Also, rental houses are being built for the foreign workers to live in whilst they build other houses.

A downturn in the building boom will leave thousands of houses empty with no foreign builders coming here to rent houses and no tourists either.

There is no infrastructure for these thousands of additional houses. The 40 or more power cuts I experienced over the winter were as much to do with adding more houses to a struggling electricity grid as it was to do with the weather.

I'll leave you with an overseas report on the matter, which has nothing to lose from knocking the housing developers.

Guardian - Homes for all - water for no one

Where did the rain go?

Unless I emigrated without knowing it, it hasn't rained here for over three weeks. Our drinking water runs off the nearby mountain, is treated and then pumped to the house. Another few weeks of this and we could be dry.

I'd like to fill the water butt and water the vegetables with that but it's empty. Until it rains I will have to use valuable drinking water. I take showers rather than baths and there is not enough water from my shower to water anything but a small fraction of the vegetable garden.

Eco-debt

Eco-debt is that point in the year when you have used up allocated resources and have to buy (or steal) from elsewhere.

Tonight the UK goes into eco-debt and will have used up all available resources within its own borders and territorial seas. In effect, the UK will be gathering resources solely through imports for the rest of the year.

The reason is because the UK is over-crowded. It only has resources for much less than half its current population of 60 million. Japan and Holland have a similar problem.

The world as a whole goes into eco-debt in October. We are mining the world's natural resources rather than harvesting them in a way that they can replenish themselves. Fish stocks are in decline. Trees cleared. Meat producing animals cleaning the landscape of vegetation so as to provide protein for our ever increasing population.

As more and more countries develop and desire first world lifestyles then the global point of eco-debt will occur earlier and earlier each year. There will come a point when the world can be mined no longer. Famines and economic problems won't be confined just to Africa.

Guardian - 'Eco-debt' Britain will have consumed this year's share of resources by tonight

Bio-diesel plant for Ireland

Construction of a bio-diesel plant in Wexford has commenced. It will produce 34 million litres of bio-fuel per year. The use of that amount of bio-diesel is the equivalent of taking 25,000 cars off the road in terms of fossil based carbon emissions.

RTÉ - Construction of biodiesel plant to begin

Digging for victory

The UK is seeing a 32% drop in the purchase of flower seed but a 31% increase in the sale of vegetable seed.

Many people are tired of eating industrial food from the supermarket. Allotments (plots of land rented from the local council for growing your own veg) are seeing a resurgence with many having waiting lists.

The difference in taste is obvious to all who grow their own vegetables. Not only that but you grow those varieties that you enjoy eating the most. I couldn't eat a friend's potatoes or onions even though he grows his own. I know what I like and only through growing my own do I get exactly what I want.

Guardian - Digging in: Britain's green revolution on the home front

Hand built drainage

The drainage is almost complete. In May of last year the septic system failed because it had not been constructed properly. There were three reasons for the failure. First, the septic tank was not connected to the soakaway pipe. Second, the septic tank was placed in a low part of the field that is prone to a build up of rainwater. This water would often overflow into the septic tank via the inspection hatches.

Third, the rain run-off from one side of the house roof was directed straight into the septic system. With so much rainwater entering the septic tank and no adequate soakaway the system was easily flooded, which caused the failure.

In the first photo we see a trench that was dug to drain rainwater away from the septic tank, which is amongst the trees at the top of the photo. For part of the drain a plastic perforated pipe was used. A stone drain was built around it to prevent it from being crushed. This was done by placing large rocks either side of the pipe and a large rock balanced over the pipe on top of the rocks either side of the pipe. This was done along the full length of the trench.

Next, smaller fist sized rocks were placed on top of the large rocks and the trench was filled to within a few inches of the surface. A layer of 1 inch stones was then used to cover the gaps in the larger rocks below. Finally, gravel was placed on top to provide a nice smooth surface for growing grass upon.

When complete cardboard from old cardboard boxed will be placed on the gravel. Soil will then be placed on the cardboard and grass seed sown. The cardboard will prevent the soil being washed through the stone during rainfall until the grass seed has grown. The roots from the grass will then hold the soil together whilst the cardboard rots away.

In the following we photo we see the other end of the trench with gravel at the bottom of the picture, followed by 1 inch stones in the middle and larger rocks at the end of the drain.

The soakaway pipe was found and connected to the septic tank. The drainage system is now such that excess rainwater is removed from the land without affecting the septic system.

In the final photo we see the tools of my trade. A riddler (in the wheelbarrow) is used to separate the material dug out of the trench into piles of soil (most of which is now in the vegetable garden), gravel and 1 inch stone.

Though the work was very tiresome it was very pleasurable. The cost was a fraction of getting a "professional" to do the work with machinery and lots of plastic that would get crushed. Most of the material to build the drain (stone) came from our property and yielded a lot of spare soil for the vegetable garden.

Rabbit proof deep beds

So far this year I have only seen hares in the garden. That probably means that there won't be any rabbits this year. Thankfully hares show no interest in my vegetables but to be on the safe side I have rabbit proofed my onion and carrot bed.

I built a frame using bamboo sticks that were cut from a nearby wood. This part of south west Ireland is bathed in the Gulf Stream so many exotic plants grow here. That means that I don't have to buy my bamboo sticks!

The sticks were lashed together with bailer twine to form the frame. A net was suspended from the frame using those plastic pipe cleaners (do they have a special name?) that hold power cables together in packing cases.

For planting and weeding it is just a matter of lifting the net and working away. The onion sets I produced last year have sprouted and so too have the carrot seed. I still have to lay down slug pellets though. Nothing is going to keep them out.

Making a water butt

Here is a water butt I made from a big blue barrel. These barrels are blow moulded (if my physical chemistry diploma serves me right) so it consists of one single piece of polypropylene plastic.

Using an electric jigsaw I cut out the top of the barrel so that water could flow in from the gutter pipe. The gutter pipe was originally further along the wall and fed directly into the septic tank, which was not good at all.

Near the bottom of the barrel I drilled a hole slightly smaller than the tap fitting. This allowed me to screw the tap into barrel, which provides a better seal. A nut on the other side of the barrel wall holds the tap firmly in place. The tap was the only purchased item and is made of weather resistant brass.

As rain is plentiful here I shall make an overflow connection at the top of the barrel and take that overflow to a nearby ditch that goes to a lake and thence to the sea.

A sensible company decision

I've never seen the point of garden heaters. If you want to heat the sky then fine but what's wrong with a bonfire made of waste wood rather than valuable propane?

It's nice to see a company taking a stand. Wyevale, a UK garden centre, has decided to stop stocking sky heaters and also to stop selling peat based products.

To many here in Kerry a peat bog is wasteland that needs draining and a hotel placed on it. When complete the hotel will have destroyed the habitat that many tourists come to see. There are no sandy beaches, no blistering heat and no 24/7 nightclubs for youths. I'm sure some genius is working on it though.

Guardian - Garden chain drops patio heaters

Bio-fuels are not the answer

Two articles in the news today demonstrating why bio-fuels are not the answer to our oil addiction. Asian palm oil and South American sugar cane production will destroy bio-diversity and limit the amount of land available for growing food. It would increase the likelihood of collapse and mass migration, which is far more serious than our wanting to drive down the road rather than walk.

Guardian - Palm oil: the biofuel of the future driving an ecological disaster now

BBC - Castro in new US biofuel attack

Green electioneering

The Irish government has raised road tax on large engined cars, which is good. However, it put a levy on incandescent light bulbs, which is a waste of time. The price of these light bulbs is a fraction of compact fluorescent light bulbs that the levy won't stop those who habitually buy incandescent bulbs.

If you look at any Irish political news or blog website you won't read much about green issues or the environment. Irish people are just not interested. It's the "We're too small a country to make a difference" attitude that means Ireland produces twice the amount of greenhouse gas it is permitted.

RTÉ - Light bulb levy, higher VRT in climate plan

What to do with all that plastic

I tend to shop locally on my scooter these days. The village has most things that I could need and I make the occasional visit to town for hardware. I use the scooter's seat well to carry things and take a big army rucksack if I need to bring a lot of stuff back. I've seen photos of scooter owners in the far east carrying enormous things so I look forward to the day when I need to transport a couple of 4X2s from the timber yard.

My main plastic waste consists of bottles, which are either made into mini-propagators (see photo), for settling out used paint thinner for re-use, as watering bottles for indoors plants, else taken to the recycling dump.

I try to avoid plastic packaging but it is hard to do. Any I get is washed and wrapped into a small ball. These balls are deposited in the village bin. I wish that such plastic could be banned.

There is no waste bin in this house. Anything organic goes into compost heap. As already mentioned, plastics are dealt with. Metals and glass are recycled at the recycling dump too. There is a charge at the dump for non-recycled waste so I only go there with things to be recycled.

I'm glad to say that I don't make any personal contributions to landfill sites. Though my little balls of plastic do end up somewhere, which I am not happy about. A lot of plastic wrappers are used to cover supermarket meat or processed food. Needless to say, buying meat form a butcher and cutting down on processed food makes a big difference to the amount of plastic you end up with.

It is easy to cut back on waste and I'm glad to see so many others doing so.