Our Little Araucanas

On Boxing Day our Araucana chicks hatched and have since grown into beautiful, albeit strange looking big chickens. The little rented incubator we assigned to our teenage daughter's room so she could enjoy the unfolding mini-drama.

Now five months later, we have four roosters and three hens. Sadly we lost one rooster a few days ago to unknown causes although we suspect it was either a dog attack or consumption of polystyrene insulation installed under the floor of our house. Not a lot of crowing yet but we live in anticipation of having to move these boys on to a better place once the early morning wake-up calls begin. Its been a happy time watching them grow and introducing them to our mature Brown Shaver collection of egg layers. Neighbours visited many times planning their own chicken coops and discussing ideas. We even developed a good sharing network with others who grow vegies in their gardens.

Now that winter is settling in however, the egg production has dropped considerably. Yet our feathered friends still need to be fed and watered twice a day. My husband assigned himself this task in summer when he was simultaneously planting palms, frangipani and white ginger and generally hanging out in the garden enjoying the nice weather. Not quite as much fun when the rain begins and it's cold, and it's slippery, and it's dark and...half a dozen eggs costs only a few bucks at the grocer just up the road. I sense his enthusiasm is fading.

He's hanging in and defending the price of free range organic eggs to anyone who cares to listen to the perils of slipping in the mud in the dark or getting pecked on the tummy while laying prone in the mud, attempting to repair and cover the polystyrene insulation. It's an on-going adventure.

Egg-laying we're told, will resume when the daylight hours begin to extend once again after June. It's been a somewhat expensive and time consuming exercise, but we can hardly wait for the first little blue egg to appear.

As an aside, my husband just burst in the door informing the household loudly that a bag of fruit just went through the washing machine! Upon questioning, I found that it was only a little bag of soap nuts I had placed in the previous load of washing. Nothing to worry about of course but it does remind me that this going green thing certainly presents some new and interesting challenges. Overall though, we're enjoying the journey.

Plastic soup

It's amazing what you learn when you attend an eco fair. Recently, while setting up our ebode stall at the Waitakere Eco Day in early March, I started chatting with a fellow 3 x 1 metre stall holder accross the isle who was promoting biodegradable 'plastic' products. Did you know that there are shopping bags made from cornstarch available to purchase by our grocery store chains that could totally irradicate the need for the plastic ones? Yep, and they're available now. Why the big food-chains have yet to grasp the urgency around the need to stop using plastic bags is beyond me given their environmental impact. Is it an urban green myth that the mid-Pacific ocean is one huge washing machine rotating hundreds of thousands of fish choking bags in a 'plastic soup'? Sounds horrific. They can take between "400 and 1000 years to break down, and their constituent chemicals remain in the environment long after that. Made from crude oil, natural gas and other petrochemical derivatives, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used to make the bags the US consumes each year." (http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/235707/In-US-plastic-shopping-bag-still-rules). The average American family of four throws away about 1500 bags a year, and as much as we'd like to think that our consumption rates are somehow different in New Zealand, there are some strong paralells.

In California, the city of San Francisco has banned the use of plastic grocery store bags altogether, as has most of Europe, Africa and Asia. We seem to be behind the curve as a nation on this issue. Waitakere City's Mayor, Bob Harvey wants the city to be the first in New Zealand to become plastic bag-free. I've decided to take the plunge and buy my own corstarch versions. When I rock up to the local grocer I'll be able to whip out my own biodegradable, compostable bags. It may not change the world, but it's a step in the right direction.

If you're interested in learning more, here are some good places to start:

http://www.edengreennz.com/CornstarchStore.html
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/waitakere-takes-aim-plastic-bags-2539427

My sustainable wardrobe

Magazines like Good are helping us all to begin to see some bright and more sustainable alternatives to our old habits by conserving what we have and buying less overall. Aren't we all sick of relentless shopping anyway? I mean, how much stuff do we really need in our closets?

A friend of mine was telling me over the weekend about how her father in the States, a "typical consumer" who buys and accumulates lots of stuff, wraps items in a current newspaper before putting them in the attic. That way, he knows what year he packed it away. He said he was really surprised when he recently discovered (a household item) he'd wrapped in 1976! Seeing the folly of this mind-set, she challenged him asking why on earth he would keep anything for that long that he didn't use? He replied that he never knew when he might need it again. She then said "But Dad, you didn't even know you had it, so how could you use it?"

My sister in law in Dallas has so many clothes, her wardrobe is the size of a large NZ bedroom. Many of the items have never been worn and still have the original tags! Her excuse is her fluctuating weight.

Personally, I've been enjoying getting more mileage out of my wardrobe lately. Another Kiwi friend of mine who lives in NYC recently visited in between films where she's a wardrobe stylist for the uber famous, and works on big name films. While in NZ, I asked her to rifle through my closet and advise me how to transition to 50 with elegance, and without having to spend too much money? She calls it "wardrobe-reassignment". It works like this: she plucks things hanging up in your closet and puts them together with other things in your closet in ways you may not have considered before. It was amazing. I was looking at the very dressy end of my closet suddenly being shoved together with bits from the more casual end (where I select what to wear to the grocery store for instance). Indian silk scarves that I saved for evening (but never wore because when you're 50 you don't hit the clubs like you used to) being reassigned to my t-shirts. A lot of it focussed on how I felt about particular pieces - what make me feel good or what colours looked better next to my skin. I actually got rid of very little, felt better about what I already have and learned ways to reinvigorate neglected items - and it didn't cost a bean. Brilliant, and the kind of thing you could do with a friend who has a good eye and knows you pretty well one rainy day, then exchange favour.

For more ideas, follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/clothingcare.shtml#quickjump