My Fair Share

For more than a year, I have had concerns about the sustainability of the industrial economy, in which I am a vocally critical, (but so far hypocritical) cog.  
Healthcare is part of this economy, and one that I am troubled by how we manage.  I can advocate home-growing of food, and I can’t see a [...]

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I went away for ten days, and a lovely, helpful neighbour watered my containers and kept the pots alive.
I returned to an empty fridge and made a meal for four from some dry goods and the kale, beans, lettuce and tomatoes that had grown.
Then I turned my back for one night and a possum devoured [...]

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At her blog, Casaubons book, Sharon Astyx writes eloquently about most things, and most humorously about bringing spouses with you on the journey. This is a difficult but worthwhile subject for me, and I will try to treat it with complete honesty.
It’s important that the people you live with, are prepared to live [...]

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Originally posted at Question Marque, April 28, 2007.
We’ve just returned from visiting cousins on the other side of town, and it was strange to feel our lives had so diverged. The kids entertained themselves in front of Foxtel, we ordered pizza, and they poured my little ones big glasses of Sprite.
I felt overprotective and paranoid, [...]

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Originally posted at Question Marque, April 29. 2007. 
Some weeks ago we ran out of dishwasher powder and I dreaded a return to sharehouse days when bowls could be piled more than a foot high (and none left to use) before anyone did the washing up by hand.
It didn’t happen. We do some handwashing almost daily [...]

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No Impact Man posed an interesting question some time ago about what, in the final analysis, we’re willing to give up in the interests of sustainability: What is the balance to be maintained between preserving our “way of life” and our efforts to keep the planet healthy? How healthy do we want the planet to [...]

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One way to entertain kids in a cramped car is to tell jokes. I’m not (as you may recall) very good at jokes, and no better at G-rated jokes. Here are some of the exchanges that occurred with my four-year-olds yesterday, which I (and possibly only I) find very entertaining. Please excuse [...]

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The assumptive close is something you learn to use with toddlers. “Would you like to put your socks or your undies on first?” or “You can choose which fruit you’d like for dessert.” It spares you the creative answer to the open-ended question, “I want ice-cream.” Preschoolers aren’t quite so gullible (see postscript [...]

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Originally posted at Question Marque, May 1, 2007. 
For those who’d like to start with smaller changes, I thought I’d start a list of what to me have been complete no brainers – having no noticable impact (or a net positive impact) on my lifestyle. It’s cheating really – warm and fuzzies for nothing.
- We don’t [...]

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Originally published at Question Marque, June 7, 2007.
Having been a second-hand-only (almost) buyer for some months now, I’m starting to understand a few things about brands and how they evolved into such powerful beasts.
Because when I search on eBay, there’s little to distinguish wool jumpers – other than the brand. If new, I can judge [...]

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