Home education in australia. What’s it like? Are kids missing out? What about socilisation? Find out the answers to some common questions and more from home educated kids, teens and parents in this video by Lexi Smith.
Home Education: The Socialisation Myth from Lexi Smith on Vimeo.
I really like summer. It’s not our best season as far as weather goes. In fact it’s usually incredibly wet and we’re prone to cyclones where I live! But summer is full of promise of parties, growth, change, adventures… It marks the change from one calendar to the next here in the southern hemisphere, and for me that potential is exciting!
AT HOME: As usual I can never remember anything that happened around the house when it comes to reporting back on the previous season… I do know we did some major spring cleaning and decluttering, an overhaul of the pantry and food storage… Oh, and we got a new roof on our house! After again focusing on outside improvements, we are hoping to tackle a couple of room renovations during the coming wet season.
AT WORK: Spiral Garden is always growing and changing. It’s such a joy to work with amazing products and caring, lovely customers!
We love imaginative toys!
My volunteer work has been a little quieter these past months. I’m trying to find a balance with my involvement in community development. There are some amazing projects happening where I live - we are certainly an area in transition. I have learned so much and met incredible people through my community work. Being involved with the recent regional planning process has given me insight into our governance and the people involved. I was inspired in my role as a grass-roots networker and appreciated the feedback from people I’m not usually in contact with.
Hosting Polly Higgins at The Herbal Gypsy, Malanda
My article on Play was finally published in Stepping Stones first print magazine, and I also posted it on this blog. I came across some a folder containing old writing printed out a decade ago or so - I was such a prolific writer then! Whilst digging, I unearthed some unfinished projects - let’s see what comes of them…
ON THE FARM: We’ve been eating fruit from our trees - YUM! How delicious a plum full of sunshine tastes… And this Spring a bumper crop of tomatoes and beans because we had plenty of warm, fine days with just enough rain to keep everything growing.
Imogen’s new horse was bitten by a snake and died. It was really sad as he hadn’t been with us for long. Rosie, the mare, is quite lonely with only a heifer for company, so we’re looking for another horse right now.
The crows have been a lot of trouble with our younger and smaller poultry this Spring. I think the dry weather brought them east to us and I wish they’d fly on back to the outback! They particularly casued havoc amongst my Australorps because they were raised by hand and not with a mother, so they lacked instincts to hide from danger.
The wild dogs ended up wiping out our whole flock of muscovy ducks. This has happened before and is commonly the case. They will go to a farm and do everything they can until a whole flock of poultry (particularly water fowl) have been decimated, then they move on. Mostly, these are feral dogs and a real pest, but very hard to catch in the rainforest.
Pig is growing big and fat. In fact we were thinking of butchering her and might just move her on… I think to raise pigs you really need to want to eat pork (or get a mini pig who doesn’t hint at biting your foot off when you come too close!)
This is our swimming pool!
I wrote about Rocket’s battle with a paralysis tick at the Home Grown blog… We have had our share of dramas this Spring, haven’t we? On a happy note - we have 2 healthy and cute-as baby guinea pigs!
I’m having two months off milking, which is a surprising relief. It’s a busy time of year, so I’m glad for the break. I do miss homegrown milk and homemade cheese and yoghurt though! Lucy is due to calf right around Christmas day, so that will be a nice surprise. The borrowed cow, with her healed foot and fat belly, went back to her work at the dairy. We really miss her!
Wags, our homegrown steer, was butchered this week. I wrote about it at the co-op blog because it’s been a really interesting experience for me, a mostly-vegetarian!
We have had repairs to outbuildings, major earthworks and a bit of tree lopping mean that things look quite different outside at the moment. We’re looking forward to planting lots of trees this wet season to complement the changes.
Fun on a rock!
HOME ED: We attended the Australian Unschooling Conference at Airlie Beach a month ago. It was an amazing experience. We combined a whole-family holiday (us and the 6 kids) with meeting up with extended family, enjoyed an excellent conference and met new friends! I was a bit nervous about jamming all of that into one week, but it was just bliss!
Unjobbing Panel, AUC 2011
Two of the girls’ participation in the local theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd has keep us busy and focused on costumes and songs for some weeks. The show is half way through (3 down, 4 to go) and it’s really quite amazing! I have enjoyed snippets of this comedy/melodrama whilst volunteering on the bar at the theatre, and look forward to watching the whole show this week as a seated audience member!
Folk Festival 2011
Three of the children enjoyed their participation in a series of activites - Sound Structures. They did art and movement, story telling, stilt waking and more! Above is a photo from the parade at the Tablelands Folk Festival. Bryce is the bug on the right.
Our days are full of lego, music, Maths, reading chapter books, DVDs, Minecraft, script-writing, photography, knitting, NaNoWriMo, drawing, sewing, rehearsing, circus, new gardens, outings, cooking, friends and lots of laughter (and the odd arguement)…
Snapshot of me at Airlie
SPRING 2011
I travelled to… workshops, meetings, 1800s England (at the theatre), Airlie Beach…
I listened to… the forest come alive with critters celebrating the sunshine!
I read… more of Ancient Futures, magazines and News (too much going on in the world right now!)
I watched… lots of films - Aussie, comedy, chick flicks and more. I think I also watched my children growing before my eyes - they are incredibly tall people all of a sudden!
I wore… headbands to tame my dreadlings (baby dreadlocks) and bright flowing skirts. And bare feet! Yipppee!
I planned… for a busy holiday season.
I celebrated… with family and friends - the joy of coming together in laughter.
I dreamed of… rain, so I didn’t have to water the plants! But I was glad it stayed away for so long…
Self-face-painting - clever kitty!
Camp Panorama at The Beacon on Mt Tamborine, Queensland.
Mt. Tamborine Convention Centre 237 Beacon Road North Tamborine Q 4272
(30km from the Gold Coast and 70kms south of Brisbane)
It’s not too late to register for this fantastic camp aimed at 14-18 year old home educated youth.
This article was published in the current issue of Stepping Stones magazine.
In our society unlimited play is quite often seen as the realm of babies and preschoolers. Once a child enters the school years, they can certainly still play, but it should apparently occur outside of school hours, during holidays or in the very least be dominated by adults within the walls of the classroom. I can’t help but feel that four or five years old is a little too soon to impose restrictions on the magical realm of childhood…
When observing home educated children it is obvious that they feel free to play creatively for far longer than most of their schooled peers. At our local home ed meetings and camps it is common to see children aged 2 to 15 involved in an elaborate game with no props, direction or constraints.
This appreciation of imagination, multi-age interaction and lots of free time are some of the main reasons we have chosen to home educate our children for many years. To others it may seem an almost hedonistic lifestyle. They can’t fathom the liberty of sleeping in, eating a picnic breakfast in the cubby house, playing with lego for hours and similar activities - on a weekday! Most of us were raised to believe that weekdays are for formal learning, work and routine, and only on weekends should we relax and play.
Many of us were not encouraged to play at all beyond our preschool years, and were raised in a culture of work – good stable jobs, clean and tidy houses, neat lawns and a shiny car in the garage. Play seemed limited to occasional card or board games and organised sport. Families who included creativity, fantasy or magic (beyond Santa Claus) in their lives were unknown to me during my suburban childhood. When we first became part of our home educating community I witnessed parents who were musicians, storytellers and dancers - their children unhindered by the restraints of over-directed learning activities. Play was valued within this community for what it was – fun.
It was during this time that I understood more about my wish for my children to own open-ended toys – props for games of their own creation. We had never appreciated expensive gifts made of plastic containing batteries with flashing lights and artificial sounds, instead preferring basic blocks, dolls, dress-up items and, of course, nature. While we still furnished our home with various educational toys, puzzles, books and games, of equal value was the box of fabric remnants and bucket of recycled jar lids, the collections of seed pods and sea shells and any household objects our children chose to include in their lives of learning through play.
As an educator I had to learn to step back from my desire to lead my children in their exploration of the world, and simply observe their imitation and understanding. By providing opportunities for them to create and grow, by continuing to talk with them about the world around us and by allowing them time and space to play, I knew they could learn well.
A young home educated boy told me once that the best thing about homeschooling was that he could learn by doing. Play is all about learning by doing. We play when we cook, when we do our chores, when we grow our own food, when we fix things, when we go places and when we create beautiful things. If we approach all activities in our daily life as opportunities to discover, have fun and make a difference, then we are open to the possibility of learning. When we undertake tasks with a must-do attitude, and no joy, then our minds are less likely to absorb new knowledge.
This realisation is my greatest joy as a home educating parent. I have learned that it’s okay, even important, for adults to play as well. This challenges previous beliefs carried over from my own childhood and education - including my studies in primary teaching and developmental psychology.
I now know that the concept of active learning should not be limited to the early years. When teaching mathematics I seek practical explanations and examples to explain concepts to my children. With languages we use role play, conversation, stories and songs. How joyous it is to observe a 6 year old jumping on the trampoline chanting “January, February, March, April, May, June…”, simply because it’s fun!
Active, social learners are thinkers. They are confident and curious. They appreciate the opportunity to explore and discover. The world truly is their classroom – and their playground.
A friend shared a link with me today to a website called Harden Up Queensland.
Weather events are getting more severe and when a major weather event hits, you cannot rely on government and volunteer organisations help. You need to harden up by preparation, awareness and helping others.We’ve been working on evacuation bags. This is something new for us, even living in a flood-prone area for 12 years, we never packed a specific evac bag. It just seems to be popping into my consciousness everywhere lately - discussions with friends, in print media, blogs, newspapers, suggestions from local government… So here we are figuring out what to pack, what to pack it in, where to store the bags and so on.
The Harden Up site has some good resources for children. During the time we’ve been collecting items for our evacuation bags, our children have been asking lots of questions about possible scenarios where we’d need to evacuate. We live in a cyclone area, but are not prone to floods, bushfire, tsunami or other more common extreme weather events here.
The site offers some great checklists for evacuation and emergency preparedness, I recommend you check it out.
Winter here has been the perfect balance of sunshine and showers. We had some frosts, but we also got rain and fine days to bring the pasture back to life.
Pie by Abby
AT HOME: It was quite a cold Winter, but not so awful that we stayed indoors too much. Our inside activities have included Dr Who DVDs, knitting, reading, computer games and cooking.
We have enjoyed lots of bubbling soups and fresh-baked sourdough, and have been making more cheese. The girls have been baking sweet treats because we don’t buy anything like that normally.
AT WORK: Apart from co-op blog posts, I haven’t been writing at all this winter.
The Spiral Garden site is glitch-free now, and we’ve enjoyed sending parcels far and wide over the past couple of months. This week we’ve been buzzing like bees in the Spiral Garden office as we pack up Spring delights to post to excited customers. There are some lovely new products on the site and I feel blessed to share such beautiful objects with others who appreciate them.
Through my local volunteer roles I have recently been involved in our local council’s planning process, as they consult with the community regarding planning for the next 10 years. This has been an interesting experience and will conclude with a Regional Summit on September 14th.
I did some volunteer work at the local theatre during their recent production of The Female of the Species. I love our local theatre’s shows, and the people who come together to make them happen!
ON THE FARM: The new cow, who is with us for a few more months, is such a delight to milk and be around. Lucy is growing very rotund in the larger paddock with Wags and Poppy. We aren’t milking her again until after she calves in Summer. Honey, our first calf we raised on Lucy, had her own calf last week, so I am a Grandmoo! Honey and her baby Mable live with our friends about 40 minutes away.
Imogen has a new horse, named Foxy, who has been here only about a month. He is a sixteen year old gelding who seems really quiet. He is currently being fed and loved and has been ridden around the house paddock. Abby has been training and riding Rosie, our stockhorse mare, who is coming along nicely.
The 9 Australorp chicks we hatched in the incubator are now living in the big chook run and doing very well. We have just shared forteen eggs between 2 broody hens, so should have more little cheepers in 21 days! Poppy and India also had babies this Winter, and it looks like not too many roosters amongst them, so the flock should be nicely replenished with young layers by next year. We have been getting more eggs from the hens now that the nights aren’t so cold.
I think the muscovy ducks are secretly laying in the long grass beyond the fence, with the hope of ducklings! Our oldest duck, Pepper, was sitting on her eggs for over a month when recently we found the nest destroyed and Pepper missing. This was quite a sad discovery as she was our favourite duck. Her eggs were just days short of hatching and they were all eaten or broken.
We have a little orphaned piglet in a pen. Her name is Pig and she likes to drink milk from a bowl. She is quite timid and curious. I think she will become bacon…
Rocket the dog is a big boy now. He enjoys exploring the farm with the children and barking at the cows and horses. He is usually gentle with the poultry, plays with the cats, wonders about the pig and sniffs the guinea pigs. He sleeps by the fire and is perpetually hungry!
Rocket - six months old
HOME ED: Some of our routines have gone out the window this Winter. But I’ve learned over the 12 years or so we’ve home educated that this is okay. We will return to our routines when there is space in our lives to do so. Letting something go always makes room for something new too!
Steam Train
Our home ed outings this term have been interesting and varied. The Steam Train ride at Ravenshoe and historical walks at Herberton were my favourite days out.
Building has been the focus of the last month or so - making forts and stone walls, fixing the go-cart and playing in ‘houses’ in the forest. It’s amazing what some imagination, wood pallets and a bucket of nails can become…
I hope your Spring days are happy and fun!
Bel at Kuranda - new dreadlocks!
WINTER 2011
I travelled to… lots of meetings. And I travelled back in time, by visiting our district’s historical attractions!
I listened to… the crackling wood fire in our lounge room.
I read… recipe books, magazines and some books about The Great Depression.
I watched… more great documentaries, and a few good films - also a couple of series of The Good Life! So funny!
I wore… jeans and boots for months on end! And a new-to-me red coat. And shiny purple gumboots. And beanies of all description! Oh, and creations from Mama Yali - love my funky jewelery!
I planned… a holiday, Events and pantry solutions!
I celebrated… my 37th birthday.
I dreamed of… feeling the warm sun’s rays on my bare skin, ripe tomatoes, a cleaner and sleeping in…
It has been a beautiful couple of months here on the farm! Life has been full and busy, but very gratifying.
AT HOME: It has been freezing! So the empty master bedroom has turned back into a teenagers’ bedroom because of the cold nights - too cold to sleep in the caravan! Nothing else is new around the house and to be honest I have barely given the renovations another thought lately!
We’ve been getting vegie boxes through a new buying club which started up locally. So I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen, inspired by the lovely, fresh, organic, local produce we’re buying and harvesting from our own garden. I’ve been menu planning to make sure it’s all used up by the next week’s delivery. I’m also regularly making sourdough bread, yoghurt and feta cheese. Such abundance!
We have been enjoying our birthday season - lots of presents and lovely dinners, cakes and celebration! I was rapt to receive all of my favourite things for my recent birthday - thoroughly spoiled!
AT WORK: I just wrote an article on Play for Stepping Stones magazine, the publication of the HEA. It’s kind of like full circle for me, because the original Stepping Stones magazine, created by Grace Chapman many years ago, was where I first had my writing published!
Spiral Garden has been quite slow. We had a couple of major technical hiccups with the website, which means we couldn’t upload all of our wonderful stock from Mercurius and new products for awhile. But everything is working again and we’re having a quick stocktake sale!
As usual I have been very busy with my volunteer work. We have implemented new systems to ease my workload a little and I’m blessed to have some enthusiastic helpers. Some friends and I are restarting the Seed Savers group around here, so that’s really exciting as it’s something I feel strongly about (local, open-pollinated seed).
We are currently farm sitting for some friends up the road - they have cats, chooks, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl and goats - as well as lots of permaculture gardens to tend and harvest. It’s an inspiration to observe a long-term system in action.
ON THE FARM: I have recently updated the Home Grown blog with our winter happenings. It has been a busy time in the garden and despite below-zero night time temps and frost, everything is coming along nicely.
The sunshine has really helped us get back on track after the long, messy wet season.
As of today, I’m milking a new cow. She’s here to visit with us for several months and is really quiet and lovely. Lucy is excited to have a new friend in the paddock! Lucy is expecting a calf and will have a holiday with Poppy and Wags in the bigger paddock until she’s nearer to calving.
HOME ED: Our group schedule was busy and varied this term - we always have so much fun visiting different places. Last week we spent the afternoon soaking at Innot Hot Springs, which is west of here. Bliss! Term 3’s outings are in the planning stages, but it looks to be a lot of fun.
Our new routines with extra Italian classes (at home), Australia studies and Wordsmith course are going well. The sewing we haven’t been getting time to do, but the girls have been practicing their various instruments more often, and Bryce has picked up the guitar a few times as well. Everyone seems to be doing more art, and Immi finally created the flower garden she’s wanted to tackle for awhile. Everyone seems to have discovered book series they are mad about, so there’s plenty of reading happening around here - lovely snuggly winter activity!
Nature Kids Club with Queensland Parks is over now, as are the extra art classes. We have 2 weeks ’school holidays’ now - some down time before any activities start up again. We’ll use this time to do a bit of spring cleaning (can’t wait till spring, we always have a bit of a de-clutter and do some dusting during school breaks.
I hope your winter days so far have been as fun-filled as ours…
AUTUMN 2011
I travelled to… Mareeba, Ravenshoe, Cairns and many places in between!
I listened to… the birds celebrating the sunshine.
I read… A Goat in My Bedroom, recipe books, gardening magazines and seed catalogues!
I watched… lots of great documentaries, some funny films, and episodes of Little House on the Prairie too.
I wore… jeans and boots already, as it seemed Winter came early.
I planned… the garden, a camp kitchen and our weekly menus of course.
I celebrated… The start of the birthday season in our home, a wedding anniversary and the return of the sun!
I dreamed of… making changes.
I can’t believe we’re heading toward the middle of 2011 already… Time truly does fly!
AT HOME: We’ve finished lots of caravan renovations. Now we have an empty room to start on - our room! Though I’d like to get going on the entrance/dining area too… But how much mess can we handle, at once?
Our new pet, Rocket the puppy, has settled in so well. He’s like one of the family (and he knows it!)
AT WORK: I haven’t been writing much, apart from blog posts and a submission to Otherways.
Spiral Garden has enjoyed a few changes in the office. We have been sourcing some different stock lines and we have a competition running currently! It’s lovely to wrap and send gifts for Mums for Mother’s Day next Sunday.
I’ve been busier than ever with my role as LETS co-ordinator. Our group is growing and changing quickly, and I can barely keep up!
ON THE FARM: We are really catching up after the cyclone now. Some open spaces have encourage new planting. And the gardens are having an overhaul. I have been updating over at the Home Grown blog.
We have repaired outbuildings, removed vines, built compost bins, collected mulch and mowed grass. Lots of mowing! Now the rain has slowed down, and we have had sunny days to work outdoors - what a blessing!
HOME ED: I just finished this term’s calendar in time to gather families for Ten Pin Bowling on Thursday. It was lots of fun. We only have a 9 week term, with lots to fit in - horses, first aid, farm visits, art, theatre and more. Lily is doing some extra art classes, and Lily & Heath will do Nature Kids’ Club with QPWS for six weeks. We’re not meant to be doing extra activities this year, but I thought I’d squeeze these into our schedule as they seemed too good to miss!
Keep in touch!
Jo suggested I do a guest post for her popular Quirky Cooking blog to compare storage solutions for bulk food purchases this week.
Storage Tips for Bulk Buying is my post.
It follows on from Jo’s Bulk Food Buying and Co-Ops.
And if you haven’t checked out Jo’s Quirky Cooking blog, I highly recommend it!
AT HOME: I felt like brightening up our surrounds this New Year. And since it was never good weather for painting these past months, I bought new linen for most of the beds, and some new towels and kitchen linen. I bought a new chair for the loungeroom, and replaced the last of the floral curtains in the entrance/dining/study area with fresh, clean blinds. I also sewed some red curtains for Brit’s caravan and changed a couple of rooms around! I just received a chest of cane drawers (in a timber frame) to use as a phone table/junk storage area. It replaces what must have been the ugliest phone table on earth (chipboard/contact/gold trim) and I’m rapt. I also tidied out a lot of cupboards and got rid of some extra things - which always makes me feel lighter!
A new book available from Spiral Garden
AT WORK: Spiral Garden has had its ups and downs this wet season, with continual rain, roads closed, freight delayed (and some lost), etc. We are enjoying a change in direction though and now have in stock a good range of gardening items - seeds, books, tools, pots etc and an increased range of homeschooling titles as well.
I have been extra busy with my community work, LETS is really taking off and we are holding frequent events across the region.
I haven’t been doing any writing apart from blog posts (mostly the Simple Green Frugal Co-op blog). There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours to write lately. Hopefully with the cooler weather I’ll catch up.
Galangal from Greenharvest
ON THE FARM: I posted about my garden and Cyclone Yasi on the Home Grown blog. We also farewelled Honey the heifer last month, she has gone to live with our friends about 40 mintues away.
Immi’s horse Chilli passed away last week. He had been unwell with big head (Bran’s disease) since we got him, but this summer just got worse quickly. He was only young, so it was sad to lose him already. Rosie, the mare, is beside herself.
I am still milking Lucy, just getting 6L a day. She’s overdue for AI so I’ve been charting cycles!
A kiss goodbye from Honey
HOME ED: We aren’t doing many extra activities this year - mostly just home ed group. At home ed group, we’ve done some craft, swimming, had a St Pat’s Day celebration and more. We’re currently planning a fun-filled Term 2.
We’ve been working on the Dolch word list for spelling, which is going really well. Lily is reading a lot more, and always writing messages, notes and letters. Lily and Heath did a couple of art classes not long ago, which they really enjoyed. We’ve had more time to catch up with friends now we’re not always running back and forth to different classes. Immi and Abby are still doing two shifts a week at the local small supermarket, and Brit is enjoying her chef apprenticeship.
SUMMER 2010-11
I travelled to… town and back, town and back! We haven’t been many places - Atherton, Lake Eacham, Ravenshoe, Yungaburra. Oh, and Ingham, in January!
I listened to… rain on the roof!
I read… There’s a Cow in my Garden and heaps of old magazines - Owner Builder, Warm Earth etc that I got from LETS.
I watched… a good doco recently - Food Matters. Part of our Movies that Matter series.
I wore… headbands a lot, as I am not coping with my new haircut - longer hair with a pony tail was so easy!
I planned… a holiday at Airlie Beach later this year.
I celebrated… Xmas with all the Smith clan, a 70th, a 60th, a 21st. My baby turned seven.
I dreamed of… blue skies.
Me
Cross-posted from the Simple Green Frugal Co-op Blog
Collaborative Consumption Groundswell Video from rachel botsman on Vimeo.
Interested in joining this movement? It’s not just goods which can be exchanged, services are equally swap-able. Here is just a sample of the initiatives thriving worldwide right now -
A to Z Barter
AirBnb
Alternative Currencies
Babysitting Clubs
Bartercard
Barter Bank
Book Crossing
BookMooch
Community Exchange System
Couchsurfing
Food Swap
Freecycle
Friends with Things
Garden Share
Home Exchange
Landshare
Lending Club
LETS Australia
OzRecycle
Small Mart
Swap.com
thredUP
Shared Earth
Urban Garden Share
WhatsOnMyBookshelf
Zilok
Zipcar
And don’t forget local city libraries and toy libraries, seed bank groups, community gardens and textbook exchanges. Do you know of a fantastic collaborative consumption opportunity? Please share a link in the Comments section!
Cross-posted at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-Op Blog.
Plato said that society is “just a few meals away from babarism.” And I guess it is more true in our modern age than ever before. Apparently, the British M15 use a ‘four meals away from anarchy’ scale to evaluate threats.
I typed ‘food crisis 2011′ into a search engine and got over 54 million results. Okay, so I don’t watch or listen to much news, but am I the last person to hear about this?
I don’t really understand enough about the global food market, but it seems like there are predictions of ramifications for all of us this time, not just those nations forced to import food or those having issues growing their own at the moment. It seems everything is so out of balance that the crisis will be felt globally. Usually, because we live in a wealthy country, we seem to just absorb the cost when grain prices double overnight (as rice did a couple of years ago, and wheat has before too). But what about when more than one crop is affected? And what about our neighbours?
It seems to me that there are several causes to consider:
Our government doesn’t value the agricultural industry
A lot of our country’s farms are foreign owned
Peak Oil
Climate Change (or a lot of bad weather, if you don’t subscribe to the climate change theory)
And there are things we can all do:
Eat local - grow your own if you can
Eat less meat (or stick to grass-fed, wild and other, more sustainable, choices)
Food shortages have been an ongoing global issue for much of modern history. But I bet there wasn’t over 54 million search engine results until 2011, when the majority of the western world is facing something most of us have only witnessed through the media to date…
How do you feel about the current food crisis situation? What are you doing personally to prepare? What about your local community?
Further Reading:
Food Security
Local Food
Peak Oil
Climate Change
Transition Network
We were totally sidetracked during this Challenge by our own real-life challenge! Cyclone Yasi interupted our daily routine for the past couple of weeks, but preparedness sure has been on our minds!
Well, I’m trying to keep up with the challenge posts over at Gavin’s blog, and thought I’d update how we’re going…
I obtained some used-once 10L yoghurt buckets, cleaned and stored them, got my roll of masking tape and permanent pen) and cleaned out some cupboards - wiping, checking dates, spraying my herbal bug spray on the shelves etc.
As a result of the current floods which covered 75% of our state, our family have been discussing food security issues. We’ve talked about buying more local food and growing more of our own. We’ve also discussed how the floods affected some households in limiting their access to food supplies, and how some areas required emergency supplies to be delivered within just a few days of roads being closed.
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