Planet Savers blog

Just a bit of sun and those sharp, hard bullets of blackberries turn into sweet, lushious, melt-in-your-mouth packets of juice. Fortunately, blackberries seem to have evolved alongside our ability to eat them and have a way of spreading their fruiting period over several weeks. We can still see flowers alongside ripe fruit.

This is just as well because six pounds of blackberries takes some managing. Three pounds became jam, two were bottled or dry frozen (bite into one of these and it’s like eating blackberry sorbet – hmmm, there’s an idea…). The last pound was also preservedwith the help of sugar – and brandy! I think I’ll do another batch in vodka so that we can have fun at the comparison stage:>)

Before the Autumn takes hold, I wanted to get our polytunnel constructed. Hopefully, this means I will be able to get some seeds up and ready for planting next year but, most of all, I’ll stand a good chance of having some tomatoes that turn red before the weather turns. England must be the home of green tomato chutney!
All we had to do(!) was bury six poles into the ground a couple of feet, connect the frame parts together, and push them into the pole supports. If you have a nice flat garden with a good layer of soil this is probably not too much to ask. When you have a garden on a slope with topsoil of about twelve inches before hitting the chalk bedrock, this is a little more tricky.
Bobbie had spent a couple of days creating the level base before the weather broke. So, with good weather this weekend, he wanted to make the frame.
This involved sledge-hammering an iron spike into the ground in order to make a hole that he stood a chance of sledge-hammering the support into. It was a hard day’s work but he was well chuffed at the end to find that the frame was pretty much level.
I think the least I can do is imortalise his efforts in this blog :>)

I’m getting used to SolarTwin hot water now. On sunny days we get up to 60 degrees in the tank without any external asistance. The bottom of the tank might be ten degrees cooler, so there is plenty for showers and washing up.
On cloudy days it will be around 28 to 35 depending on how much the sun got through. I check the temperature when I get home from work and flip the heating on for half and hour of so and heat up the tank. Then off again until next evening’s check.
It’s fab :>)

If you do nothing else today sign this petition! It will be one of the most important things you can do.

It has been suspected for some time that pesticides have been killing off our honeybee. Much research has been carried out and now it looks conclusive.

The Soil Association are collecting signatures for the petition. They are validating the email addresses as well so expect a confirmation request:>)

This morning the clouds looked ominous, they even splashed a little rain on us and I was worried that Bobbie’s new shed doors would warp if they got wet. So, before breakfast I hasten to add, I was in my working clothes, brush and tin of Osmo Coutry Color in hand. By the time the doors were covered, the sun came out and, with the wonderful drying wind, they should be well protected from the next downpour.

Incidentally, Osmo’s main office is in Aylesbury but they don’t have a retail outlet there. You can get it from Town and Country in Chesham on the Amersham Road, just opposite the Red Lion.

Why do I use Osmo? Because it is made from natural oils and waxes and the company have an aim to be environmentally friendly.

I had an update from The Woodland Trust recently telling me about a new Ronseal product thus:

“Following the success of the high performance Eco range in 2008, Ronseal will also launch two new products to the premium woodcare range that boasts low petrochemical content thanks to natural oil and water based formulations; click for information about the full range.”

I’m sad about the “petrochemical content” but at least it is low. Anyone with a bit of an eco-mind knows that all the paints and finishes that we have thrown at us on the TV adverts are not particularly eco-friendly. Just pop into Focus and you will have to ferret around for the eco-products. Homebase now do a range of eco-paints by Farrow and Ball, I used one and found it pretty similar to othe eco-paints I have used, no smell or side effects and it went on a treat.

Osmo are specialists and they are not aiming at the mass market, as such you pay the premium. In my opinion, it’s worth it. But why do we have to ’seek out’ something that is eco-friendly. Judging by the choice these days, it can’t be hard to produce? Why is it not the norm?

Our wildlife is struggling to survive out there. We have disappearing bees, the once ubiquitous sparrow is becoming a rarity, birds and hedgehogs are often poisoned thanks to our insistance on pesticides – such as slug pellets which, in my opinion, should be outlawed – and yet you can still buy cheap eco-unfriendly products to coat all over our fences, our decking, and other garden items.

We need to get the message across that, if we don’t have things in our garden that go buzz and cheap, we won’t have any food either. These critters are amazing at working with us to help us live sustainably – so let’s work with them and use environmentally friendly products.

Here’s a view of our roof at around 21:00 this evening. Solartwin panel at the top with its little PV cell generating all the electrticity it needs. Two solar tubes underneath giving us enough light to work with until around this time of day.

The sun has just about slipped over the horizon and yet the panel is still registering input. We’ve both had our evening shower and look at the temperature of our tank.

Fab, isn’t it – more information gizmos to look at :>)

OK, let’s get the anorak. It’s now 23:15 and we’ve done the washing up. It’s now recording 31.9c. Now, I’d like to know if this is what we should be expecting. Anyone else got some stats?

Over the passed couple (or maybe more) of weeks, Bobbie has been constructing our new shed. When we looked at the price of off-the-shelf offerings, he said: “I can build one of those for less than half of that!”

And so he has:>)

There is still a little bit of trimming to do and we are going to line it with OSB and give it some insulation. Then a good coat of Osmo. So a 7′ by 7′6″ shed with solid frame and lining has cost us around £350. Admitedly, the expertise to design and build it came free!

A friend has just bought us an Efergy Elite Wireless Energy Monitor. He came over at the weekend to fit it.

It clips over the main electricity supply cable and monitors everything. It’ll be interesting to see how it compares with the bill readout but, since I am in the IT logging business, I don’t expect it to coincide.

It shows what you are drawing in real time and calculates your daily average. After four days we are up to 4.62kWh

This has now given rise to a new game:

Every time you turn on (or off) some electrical item, you have to  look at the monitor to see how much the reading has changed. It’s compulsive viewing!

I love Solartubes. Pat has now fitted the second light tunnel in our kitchen. It was a particularly dark area between bedroom and bathroom walls with no windows. Even on bright sunny days, it was too dim to work. Now that the ‘tube is in there, I just don’t think about turning on the light.

The SolarTwin hot water panel has now been fitted it to the roof and Pat  is currently connecting it to the boiler. It’s all getting quite exciting:>)

Our new home has gas central heating and gas hot water. The solar panel will soon replace most of our hot water requirement with top up, if required, from electricity (courtesy of Ecotricity). In Winter we will have the wood burning stove and we can top up on cooler days with electric heating.

That will leave me with an old gas cooker whose evergy efficiency is seriously in doubt! As soon as I can afford it, I am planning to replace it and get away from gas altogether.

I shall, however, be sad to see it go. I’ve got used to its foibles and I have to say that everything I cook tastes heaps better on gas than it did on my previous halogen hob and fan assised oven. So I’m not sue, as yet, what to replace it with.

However, gas is another natural resource we should not be frittering away. If not for that reason, this latest bid by the Russians should persuade us to wean ourselves off the stuff.