The new year cycle approaches, and what will it bring? What green commitment will we pledge to ourselves?. These are questions we should all ask ourselves, not silly goals realistic ones,a little less packaging,fewer food miles, they are realistic goals.
 I have the job of keeping a garden looking good and with a history of great cottage tradition, there is also a compost system to set up, with very strict instructions no smell no flies very low maintenance, and no rats.
 So an open bin could only be used for leaves , my thoughts are towards a HOTBIN  although cost could be  an issue, thoughts ?

Just a quick note to wish you all a happy Solstice

Welcome to the visitors from York, feel free to add your comments, or ideas  thanks for the views

As we head towards that time of year again,,,,,,I mean the solstice, its time to reflect on what has been and what might be in the future.
Its been a busy year i suppose with my move towards a greener lifestyle taking shape , more recycling, less packaging less take-aways, (how i miss them sometimes)  and the beautiful toastie Clearview pioneer 400 stove.Add to that the starting of this blog and my new ethical gardening venture ,, I am proud of how far towards my goals i have come, the addition of my lovely new chainsaw will hopefully help this venture too. On the down side the veg year was poor, and the garden i was using via Growing Opportunities decided to pull out, i must admit she wanted pristine rows of veg to look at and use, not my style so i suppose it wasn't too much of a loss, i can concentrate on my little garden plot now.
What next, well hopefully a caravan for the garden to practice some greener living styles, water harvesting , straw bail base insulation etc, solar and perhaps small wind power project  who knows.

Well here we are again , after many days of rain and much loss of property throughout the UK but as an environmentalist i must wonder how much of this is just a return to normality and is it just mankind building where we should not. Flood plains etc. Also, as it is so early in the winter, how much worse is this going to get with rain and snow melt, i fear the worst is yet to come.
 It appears that my Dalek composter has now stopped for the winter, the food i keep piling in is not moving, not even the fruit flies are bursting out. This seems to be a common problem, however a friend and blog follower says that his Hotbin is still nice and warm, this is a product i have considered, but £150 or more for a compost bin is still not an option.
 Onto my gardening job, still not much action here , but it is winter, next week hopefully should see the arrival of my new tool , a stihl 181c-be chainsaw, which should make short work of mall trees and logs with the additional use of supplying my log burner with food.. 
With Christmas around the corner or should i say the Solstice my thoughts turn to natural finds for decoration, Yew, Holly and a night venture may bring forth a tree or nice Yule log, to bring luck in the new year which will be a welcome change.

colder times

well this colder weather has really slowed the dalek composters down.  where do i put the waste? I have thought about putting a water lagging jacket round it to warm it up a bit,  any thoughts?

Watch "The Woodman's Cottage" on YouTube

If you ever need direction, do as i do,re-watch the house in the woods Grand Designs  inspirational build and my idea of Utopia. There are ideas a plenty .These may come in handy with the next stage of my life where i intend to spend some of my life in a caravan. I've been readindg about how one can use straw bails to stop cold air underneath  an idea that is cheap and can make a real difference in the colder months. I may look at small wind turbines for lighting,  L.E.D i think id love candles but fire risk can be a problem. On that note in time i intend to fit a wood-burner so anyone with knowledge of this please feel free to comment. The roof will also be used for rainwater harvesting for the garden , as this is where i hope to place this tin eco shed.
On a different note my gardening venture is slow with only the one job at present so please pass the word ,im here to help in the most eco way i can.

just a note to put a link on here,  hope you enjoy http://www.downsizer.net/

Finally my greener life or bust , garden maintenance venture is now a money making venture, my first pay i even decided to use non power tools for the laylandii, bow saw and then dug them out very ecologically sound but very hard work leaving them in the garden so the soil and its inhabitants return to the garden, ill then cut them up for the woodburner, so money and fuel as pay cant be bad. And even better the lady next door wants me to look at a tree in her garden. Word of mouth is always the best form of advertising.

First by mobile blogger

Fancy that ,putting stuff on here by phone.  A milestone.  put my new gardening venture on yell.com.  lets see if i get any responces

This evening decided to have a look at the new refit Morrisons store , and as a lover of different veg and mushrooms was very suprised at the quality and variety of both. The freshness looked good and the new hightech counter with its ice base and misting system gathered much attention, but i throw this one out there. " how much energy does this use , whats its carbon footprint? what is this ultra fresh looking veg area costing to run. I also found it sad to get to the check out and find the person there didnt even know what Purple Kale was, perhaps a little less tech and a bit more education may work wonders. But on the whole a well done for trying to bring a bit of GREEN variety back to the plate.

At last a start to my new venture, Greener Life Or Bust   gardening. Im trying to create a more ethical way of gardening, as little waste as possible. This job started with the dismantling of a small cyprus garden it left quite a large pile of debris  some was cut for logs to burn in my logburner , the thinner lenghts i used to repair a hedge by weaving, all succesful with no waste   job done

It was tidy day yesterday, an attack on the kitchen . Its surprising how much recyclable stuff just hangs around for no reason, bottles,jars plastic bottles ,sprays with just a few drops in, all i can say is it was a good day it was our recycle bin day.The fridge also seems to hide a proportion ov compostable veg which the worms loved it . One item i found in there was a soft Apple, what to do, well had a big roaring stove so thought i would have a go at drying it.  Worked a treat and the kids loved it.

At last my new Business cards have arrived and they look very good also a slight breakthrough in the website . At work a new employee happens to be a web  and IT specialist and says he will get a page up for me   My little green venture starts to move in a new direction of part time work any relief from the day to day hassle of sales.

since last i wrote, well, what has happened. The major commitment here would be our investment in a brand new Clearview pioneer 400  , and WOW this little metal box is the most amazing unit ive ever used.
From being five ive always had a real fire usually coal in the family, but i must say the heat this stove kicks out is beyond anything ive ever known, Just think a simple walk in the woods with a bag can gather enough FREE fuel for a week,not bad . My gas bills have almost gone except for a little hob cooking, even in cooking the electric oven element broke and we didn't replace and ive got to say we very rarely miss it.
we have suffered set backs too,  free solar power companies just keep giving various excuses, and with FITS dropping in value such companies must be on the verge of collapse in the market place. Food production also hit snags , the weather all but stopped this years crops , only a few new potatoes and some hardy onions tuffed it out.
 Ive also decided that my skills need to be passed on , so, im setting up a small gardening business called , you guest it  Greener life or bust. My aim to advise and help people with their basic garden work , lawns bushes small trees , in an ethical manner. ill try to recycle what i can, compost what i can and in some cases burn on our stove, if the latter  happens the timber will be part of my payment . Ill use our low carbon car that's if my bike and a trailer ( not purchased yet) cant be used.  So i thought ill buy a web domain  and so i did www.greenerlifeorbust.co.uk . But i cant work out how to use it with free web hosting sites or to use this blogg as my site, why is everything so complicated for us older ones who prefer paper ive got this domain for 2yrs that may be enough time for me to work it all out.

Sorry i havnt written much recently but hopefully i should change all that next week as im going to b stuck in bed after an operation for quite a while, i have lots to talk about including a major purchase and green commitment

As usual its been a while since ive been here and to be honest there isnt much to write yet, yet being the appropriate word, as tomorrow the first major step and investment to a greener life takes place .Our useless living flame gas fire gets removed ready for the install of our nice new Clearview 400 stove later in the week, and got to admit , with the weather as it is we may even get some use out of it.
One of the things im most looking forward to is the building of a log pile , strange i know but a log pile outside shows everyone you do care, you are trying to make a difference. This in turn may prompt questions and hopefully someone else may take it onboard thereby increasing my green effect

litter or recycling

Its been a while since my last blog but hey there has been much happening , including a spell of poor health but im back.As i was driving this morning in my so called greener car to drop off the family at school all at the same place i may add, i could not help but notice all the plastic bottles paper etc all over the roads verges and footpaths.all due to either poor filling of the recycle bin or just plain bad loading of the lorry, which i must admit seems to be the case, this also brought to mind my recent visit to a little village called Longwick , yes everything is divided , paper, bottles compostables and landfill, but in open little boxes, nett effect  open light articles blowing freely up and down the road, i ask the question again is this green or just a litter that's makes people feel better because they are doing their bit ?
On a more personal note all my new potato's are close to planting and seeds are in pots waiting to germinate including Portuguese greens which last 9 yrs and stand over a metre tall. My waste is still on the decrease, my landfill bin is only half full after 2 weeks and recycle bin looks on the way to half full after 4 weeks, not bad going with a family of 4.  Hopefully the log burner will soon be on its way too with the money almost here  from a road compensation scheme,, at least a new road will do some good even if it is to help my family become a little more efficient and less reliant on gas for heating. hopefully there will be more to write tomorrow .

inspirational Malmo !

Returned for a little passage, spurred on after watching a programme on discovery Science .Was all about we should not just be looking for renewable resources but multiples that act together, as not one alone will be successful .There were the non blade wind turbines that worked well in an urban environment , also a great piece on Malmo in Sweden where one area produces all the power it uses with solar and wind the buildings were inspirational with huge solar fins etc.as they said , if it can work there where sunlight is low in quantity it should work everywhere.This brought me back to an earlier post, even more solar roof panels are springing up , more each week in fact, just wish i could afford them as they are still over priced for the people who need them rather than using then as a cash investment.
Actually got round to making my own chutneys last night and successful they were too not only did i use reduced price tomatoes but used jars that i would normally have just thrown away. This does show yet again in the fact that my landfill bin is only half full after two weeks , before the new year it would have been full and with overflow into other peoples bins, i must be doing something right.

you know when its cold

Although not cold enough to now the weather has taken a chill with two hard frosts lately.These events are shown well  the compost bin,and with a family of 4 this can cause problems.On average we put at least half a carrier bag of compostables in the bin and the cold has slowed its workings down by quite a bit , even the worms have gone down into the warmer parts. We have a deliberation,get another composter on the go or cut down on our waste output, and as this stuff we compost is veg peelings etc. this is not what we want to do.If i turn the contents will the lower parts cool too much?  I will have to consult the oracle .

an interesting read

Had a quick look at the Green Choices website here there are some good articles One particularly about power used and standby  The fact that the average house uses around £35 to £50  of electricity a year with products on standby , even our tv watching costs us about £50 to £60 a year to run. It just makes you think about all your appliances really ,in isolation it doesn't sound much but add all your appliances together and wow!  look at your bill.

A day at home.......at last

This post will probably take all day in bits so excuse he bitty nature of it . After a much needed rest after a 9 day stretch at work its time for some comfort food, a wholesome veg stew, the reason for this is we took delivery of our organic veg box last night, this is my wife and my Christmas present from my wife's mother. We get a veg box every third Thursday from Pickering Organics, this is probably the most useful present we have ever had  Food Miles  about ten but as the owner of the company lives less than 3 miles away she can drop it off on the way home, a further reduction in food miles i would say.Its so nice to come home to a cardboard recycled box full of veg, veg for us peelings and box for the wormery, seems like a win win situation to me.
The stew worked really well with great taste as do all the organic meals we cook, its an old cliché but  the veg tastes like it did when i was a kid.

bin ratios

a week or so in and there are a few things that become obvious Firstly i will need bigger or more compost bins particularly in winter when composting slows down , rather than binning everything i can is composted.This has a knock on effect on the waste bin in fact it has half the amount in, compared to comparable weeks even the blue recycle bin has half the contents it did before  . This is probably due to me buying less packaged food particularly veg.How quickly these things make a difference has surprised me .

organic or not, financial or ethical

Decided this morning to head off into town early with a visit to our  market, a place i always visited as a kid. oh dear where has  it gone ?  i remember 5  to 6 veg stalls all competing on price now 2 and hardly a meat stall in view 2 i think The problem i find now is that prices were either more  expensive or at the least the same as large supermarkets .Yes i know the green in me said support these independents but i am on a budget and what are the differences, non stated organic or where they had come from were they any different ? A bit dissolusioned i headed on after buying a few bits, so lets think now  my next stop Fairchilds a local organic ethical retailer, shame i arrived on a day the veg hadnt arrived  but i did buy a nice squash not cheap but good quality . The owner , knew where it all came from , all the veg came from a local site and i could see the value of this knowledge, thanks for the chat Chris.
I can  see why families on tight budgets go for the pre-packed lifestyle and i too have done just that but i have made a desision to follow what i think is good for us as a family  as much as i can that is . Hopefully once the veg gets on the go in my gardens it will be all down to us .

09/01/12 nice mornings digging

Decided to visit my Growing Opportunities plot today and do a little winter digging, although how we can say winter this year is beyond me.I do like some winter weather, helps to organise your growing and lifestyle just think those T-shirts get twice as much wear. Also decided to drop off some bottles on the way as I have to pass a bottle bank,something im ashamed to say i haven't done for many years.Anyway on to the plot; for some reason i found some leek seedlings at home which i lost in the summer ,still in their little black tray,i thought that if they have lasted this long planting out in these springlike conditions could only give them a fighting chance and me , an earlier crop,heres hoping.
Its funny once you decide to be more "GREEN" what you notice, have a look around just see how many PV Solar panels have sprung up  even tempory traffic lights are using then now, i just wish my roof had been a couple of metres bigger, that would have meant i could have got free or a very cheap install, you never know things may change and i may qualify. Joy the post as arrived with my little parcels.Cooking is a bit of a passion so have always used a multitude of herbs and spices , but why buy in little glass jars, it costs more,i dont need the jars,i have to drive 3miles to buy them?  So onto the internet  it was , to find places like The Spice Cellar (www.SpiceCellar.co.uk) or The Spiceworks, both on Ebay,  Here i get the quantities i want, i have the choice of organic and they are cheaper and are delivered to my door. As i said one little change can make a difference.if you know of any-more please let me know.Sat here at the moment it (16:18),you suddenly realise that the nights are getting longer, and as i face south west it is very evident, this is also great news for reducing my heating costs as i have a large picture window which passively heats the front of the house ,i have just got to remember to shut the blinds to keep it in, but it is nice to watch all the Gulls coming to roost in the bay behind the house after a long feeding day on the Wolds.

lets get the ball rolling

Well here we go.After years of looking at various ways to save money and still live well, i sat with my wife and kids and said  "we need to be greener" a sweeping statement yes, but true, .For a while now we have dabbled , with food growing in the front garden,  then a bigger plot , actually half the back garden to be correct,  . The result our green food intake increased  and best of all, for free! My reasons may not be for the good of mankind but, start small cut the famillies financial outlay , eat better food  sounds good to me   . As they say  Reduce  Reuse Recycle  . All i can say is one day i will look back at all this and think we should have done this years ago much like my green mentors life  John Cossham.