Worm Farms

What a great way to contribute towards reducing carbon emissions....

- Feed organic waste to your worms (instead of contributing to land fill where it would generate nasty methane!)
- Have the worms produce a great compost for the garden
- There's also something called worm "juice" or "tea" which is a fantastic fertiliser
- and the whole thing can be contained in a box not much bigger than a shoe box.

It's only a small contribution but the kids love it and can learn a lot from it!

Carbon Emmissions from Driving...

Today has been a great day! We've managed to get rid of the Kia Grand Carnival "Bus" and will be replacing it with something(s) more practical....

The Kia did have its uses but I always hated the idea of having a people mover but there were bona fide reasons for the original purchase. Thankfully these reasons no longer apply.

Now if I'm going to Walk the Talk so to speak, as a "Greenie", having a 3800 c.c. V6 powered "bus" was never going to be a good look!
So, we are now going to be the proud keepers of;

• a VW Polo 1.4i, and
• an Alfa Romeo 156 Wagon

The combined capacity of these 2 vehicles is still 400 c.c. less than the SUV so it is certainly a step in the right direction.
The idea is that Ains will use the Polo for everyday commuting and I will drop of the kids at daycare with the Alfa and hopefully, use my bicycle as my main form of transport to and from University....

What I'd really like to know is how much this will ACTUALLY reduce our cabon footprint by. I know there are websites around that give figures but these tend to be for new cars - not the likes of these that are fast approaching 10 years old. I'll come back to this blog when I have researched this a bit further.....

In the meantime, thanks to "Granny" Choate for funding our transport in these, our desperate times!

Setting New Goals

Over dinner with my lovely wife, celebrating my birthday on Saturday night, I was challenged to set myself five goals to be reached by my 45th Birthday. So here they are:-

1. Become a regular contributor to a publication, for example G Magazine with knowledge and advice on green issues;
2. Start a blog and get familiar with the latest social networking systems available on the internet;
3. Take the family away for a break for a week;
4. Can't remember the fourth one!
5. This one was a fitness related goal which I may change...
   

Now I know these aren't S.M.A.R.T. goals but please, let's just take this one step at a time!

A Fresh Start

Just set up my "blog" on the Blogger web site. Have barely even looked at a blog before now! Not sure how this is going to go but I do feel compelled to keep a record of my progress towards gaining ( I hope) a PH.D....

The focus will be on Environmentally Sustainable Design, which is such a broad subject I don't even know where to begin!

The most exciting part I think is that it feels good. Really good. I've been disillusioned with architecture for far too long now and I know I have to take this opportunity (yes, being made redundant is an opportunity!) to really get my juices flowing again.

I know I'll keep saying this over the next few weeks, months, years but I need to make sure Ainslie, my wife and bread winner knows how grateful I am for this opportunity.

Hopefully, over the next few days I can start the process of organising my thoughts and planning my time efficiently. I'll be back soon......