the webbing of the main dome gets some more ties as we lose light for the day November 19, 2011
Finished Product September 17, 2011

Save your online stuff for y o u r eyes only

August 23, 2011

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Or.. “your guide to private browsing” Its not really necessary to land in someone elses mail, social network, blog or online dating account when you jump on computers (fair enough if its their own usually..). It’s no wonder the jump in peoples emails getting hacked and spammed, log out of your accounts people ! Or… [Read more…]

Self-directed study of Sinhalese language

July 28, 2011

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How to learn a language when you’re ‘on the road’? I’m keen on the immersion method, surround yourself in the culture and get a general feel for the way the language works rather than memorising a few key words here and there (although that’s also useful). I say this being a boring one language person… [Read more…]

No. You don’t need a website

June 1, 2011

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Well you certainly don’t need to pay for one. I cringe when I hear people saying that they’re paying someone or a techie friend of theirs is building them a website soon which will be useful for their enterprise, band, project, life etc – if they ever finish it. I went through the website alternatives… [Read more…]

chest fridge conversion

May 23, 2011

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This has been one of my favorite retrofits in terms of energy usage. Theres a few ways to convert an old chest freezer in to a super incredibly efficient fridge. One involves changing the internal thermostat to fridge temperatures and the other is a plug in version which interrupts the power supply to also maintain… [Read more…]

Adelaide Reskilling Festival

April 19, 2011

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Over the weekend I took a trip into town and a break from wwoofing to go to the Reskilling Festival at Glandore in the south east of town. It was super lovely and I was facilitating a skills mapping exercise and a barter workshop which were pretty damn fun (thanks to the energetic participants i… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Moles, Bullies and the Hungry Beast

April 11, 2011

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Laura Wills, a recent friend from here in adelaide town is quitting the duopoly. There’s a blog on it at molesandbullies.blogspot.com She put me onto a great visualisation of the situation which is below. whilst checking the creators out I found a few more great visualisations so here comes another rare video feast for this… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Urban Wwoofing turns 50!

April 8, 2011

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Ok so thats one of those sneaky titles but what I’m on about is that the urban wwoofing group on CouchSurfing has just clicked over 50 members, hooray!! I only know a handful of them so it’s slowly spreading nicely through the CouchSurfing community and perhaps a few other streams too. If you haven’t sussed… [Read more…]

Posted in: urban wwoofing

Urban Food Growing Course – finally the audio piece

April 3, 2011

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Chatting with 'transplant' Michele

At long last here is the mini podcast I was working on.. Originally recorded out of interest - then cut together for the live local project on ABC Radio National's '360 Documentaries' program. But we missed the deadline .. so its just up here.

Citified. Next to rAdelaide!

February 28, 2011

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Well I guess I was having a big blog break. Being in Melbourne after months of cycle tour home-staying has meant less time and energy for many things. But on the back of that healing coop post Ive made a great connection with a yoga centre here which has been a focus. d-yoga.org if you… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Electrified Kona Ute + Cadence e-bike reviews (in full)

February 28, 2011

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[declaration: So yes, once again I find myself in the amusing position of reviewing new products on a frugal blog. Ha! Ive been encouraged to review these bikes by Glow Worm Bicycles, whom I do some barter work for. They were very timely and useful loans for me, so I reckon it's more than fair… [Read more…]

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Posted in: projects, photologs

Healing Co-op: a reflection

December 17, 2010

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In early ’08 I was guest on the “Out of the Box” program on fBi radio  (a well-established local community station in Sydney). The program focuses on the life you lead, the music you love and how the they interact. Whilst on there I dropped this idea of a Healing Coop- here’s a 5min exerpt… [Read more…]

The Cycling Cellist rolling through Victoria

December 2, 2010

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Was lucky to catch Kristin in the local town whilst on my 4wk wwoofing stint here in central Vic. Victorians, be sure to catch here on tour and come out and support a great artist doing amazing things (on and off the stage) Her album is also available as a $15 digital download below via… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Urban Woofing page update

December 1, 2010

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As you may have noticed above, there is a little ‘updated’ word after the urban wwoofing page name above. Check it out, give me some feedback or get involved. enjoy.

Posted in: urban wwoofing

Buy Nothing Day + Carnivalesque Rebellion. Adbusters.

November 21, 2010

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Adbusters keep doing great stuff. The carnivalesque rebellion may or may not be up your alley but buy nothing day is for everybody ! Get into it. Other Adbusters related fun things.. Magazine Articles:The Logic of not Demanding – a great critique and suggestion for activism. In a perverse way our protests may actually be… [Read more…]

Heinberg, the prolific peak oil writer/speaker

November 21, 2010

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Future resource-depleted hip hop producers will totally sample this guy. [labrats style] Heres a little retrospective of his ABC media in the last few years, the man puts out a new book every little while. 22/08/2006 – Oil Depletion Protocol – Late night live ABC Radio National 19/06/2008 – The End of the Petroleum Age… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Some audio to present.. Stawell Men’s Shed

November 20, 2010

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Well finally ive got to post some of my audio on here. This was a quick rec+ post last week which I tidied up today. (It’s ideally digested away from computer so have it on later or download it for your portable device of choice.) Enjoy.

Peak Oil head speaks on Science Show

November 18, 2010

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I was impressed to hear this coverage the other evening at a hosts house (a friendly Beaufort local who had taken me in from the grocery store whilst on my bike crawl of west VIC). Peak oil, or perhaps more appropriately, energy descent inspire both this blog and my lifestyle outlook. So it’s refreshing to… [Read more…]

iGold.

November 12, 2010

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I missed this one. But was all smiles when I saw it on a bedroom wall today. I say this as some muso friends have me actually considering the non-phone music player version as an audio edit and looping tool – in cycle touring bag friendly size. Hmmm. Mrrrrrhmph. Besides, im not allowed. Im on… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

A moneyless community?

November 8, 2010

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As you may know by now, making net time for blogging is not my forte. So I’m dropping in some simple quick posts over here to keep things rolling. Mark Boyle, who is one of few ‘role models’ or point of reference which ive been able to find in my own adventures with alternative currencies,… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Hour of Power

November 6, 2010

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Bike touring / barter homestays in west vic doesn’t seem to lead to much net access. But a friend over here revealed her approach to tackling the web. She builds up a list of net jobs and hits it out at the library for one “hour of power” a week. I’m jealous. I think im… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Kill web ads for good.

October 11, 2010

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Call me the adblock evangelist, net nerd, whathaveyou.. but I feel there is a serious need for awareness of this gold little browser plugin. Ive enjoyed seeing firefox and other open source browsers come into the spotlight over the years but the awesome adblock plugin has not followed them. Ive been using it for years… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

dear blog..

September 22, 2010

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[an open letter to my dear little blog, whom I neglect so often. . sigh] Im sorry i forgot your birthday, I was umm doing stuff in the real world. You understand don’t you ? Wow one year old hey, you’re growing up big and strong!  You’ll be able to handle things on your own… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

No income, but still taking home bonuses!

September 12, 2010

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Cadence pic up

For this little suburban project ive been lucky enough to have some generous contributions from a few of my barter ‘workplaces‘. At the end of my last shift at the suv (barter labour trade at an organic kitchen/grocer) before coming out here, to my surprise I was gifted a pretty special wellness water filter for… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Pure sugarless sweetness – yyyum!

August 31, 2010

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[this post is in the suburban permi retrofit context, in short, a local living experiment in st clair, NSW AU for one month as a suburban wwoofing house-sit of my folks place.] We had a lovely little gathering round here on Sunday and the amaayzing food inspired me to whip up a little foodie post.… [Read more…]

Great recycled bicycle resource for Sydney

August 30, 2010

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My friend Maurice from Glow Worm Bicycles has recently posted up what is probably the definitive resource on sourcing secondhand bikes in Sydney. I’ve spent a bit of time helping out with the fit out of their retail shop in Marrickville recently as a barter trade and they have lent us an Ezee Cadence electric… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Special package: Permaculture Diary 2011

August 25, 2010

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Next years diary!

I was very pleased to receive a little package yesterday. It’s the next permi diary; why on earth am getting a diary in August? Well this diary, now in its third year, is usually pretty special with a mixture of normal diary pages and then stories/ photos interspersed throughout. The diary was one of the… [Read more…]

The Joys of the Cul-de-sac : Immersion #2

August 22, 2010

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This post relates to these previous ones: Livelocal experiment : suburban immersion + A chilly taste of the ride out here.. : Immersion #1 Well, im certainly immersed that’s for sure. So immersed I haven’t been posting, perhaps you noticed . . After the flurry of activity finishing projects and collecting up all the things I was… [Read more…]

clip-post of the Bicycle Music Festival

August 17, 2010

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I guess i haven’t done much cross posting of other blogs thus far but this one left me so smiley that ive felt the need to share. Ive had my eye on these folks for a little while and this popped up the other day after their recent annual event. Hope you enjoy too. Unfortunately… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

A chilly taste of the ride out here.. : Immersion #1

August 11, 2010

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I thought i’d start the suburban immersion experiment posts off with a rough audio experiment i did with stuffing a little ”point and shoot” audio recorder. Not my usual tools or methods of choich but since I recorded the stuff I think i’ll just post it up here anyway. .. and since i already have… [Read more…]

Suburban Permi Retrofit update #8

August 9, 2010

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Well since ive started the suburban immersion stint i should probably catch up on the post from last visit.. Heres the last of the ‘SPRU’ series for now.. We don’t have a camera at the moment as the family one is o/s with the folks. Hopefully we’ll find a decent used one on ebay for… [Read more…]

Livelocal experiment : suburban immersion

July 28, 2010

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My folks are heading to Sri Lanka for a month and for the first time we have a veggie garden which needs looking after.. It will be a bit different to my recent main stay “The Barn” – a creative artist warehouse near Alexandria south of Sydney town. Im going to take the oppurtunity for… [Read more…]

Suburban table story

July 18, 2010

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My folks have one of those aluminium + glass table sets: y’know the obligatory one that goes with any pergola or backyard area which have emerged in the last few years.. I never liked the thing – i can’t put anything heavy on the glass top and its usually shrouded in a big tarp over… [Read more…]

Suburban Permi Retrofit update #7

June 23, 2010

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This is the 7th update in the Suburban permi retrofit series. Well this is a belated update on the suburban permaculture-inspired retrofit project. There was a period of absolute lush-ness recently. After some strict taming the pumpkin vines are being productive.

Urban Residential Compost Loos

June 17, 2010

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harrison st house - erecting the hand-crafted pergola

Earlier this year whilst staying at a wonderful urban wwoofing property in Melbourne I helped out with a re-design of a compost loo and helped flesh it out into complete composting system. I had recently re-read the poo-bible: The Humanure Handbook which – more recently – has been made wonderfully and freely available by its… [Read more…]

Relocation of Bike Club (archival post?)

May 29, 2010

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This was my first blog post on 12/05/08 whilst I was deeply immersed in the land of figureight sustainable event production. I was trying to promote some of the community connections which our events enterprise was developing through the blog format on our fresh website. Since the original site content didn’t make it across to… [Read more…]

Posted in: frugal musings

Five fingers report back..

May 27, 2010

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I have some sad news friends. You see, the back-end of this blog has a whole world of stats which shows how many people are reading and where they're coming from. Unfortunately for a frugal blog, a disturbing number of readers land here from searching for those bloody five finger shoes (ie: expensive, new, consumer product!). It's Ok, I won't get mad, but now just for you I'm doing a report back on these unusual pieces of footwear.

Garden sharing.. + urban wwoofing interest growing

April 12, 2010

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Just saw a little pic of me on the permaculture principles (PCP) site, I was aware that it was on a photo blog hosted there but just discovered it linked on the main page -nice. There has been growing interest in the Urban Wwoofing concept recently, im currently working on an article for the permi… [Read more…]

Posted in: urban wwoofing

On Boyle, creative frugalism and my approach

March 21, 2010

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A friend passed on a Guardian article by Mark Boyle a few months ago, this character had spent a year living without money. He had previously studied economics, was a writer and hung onto his laptop during that time. His article late last year sparked a fury of interest – polarising the audience largely into… [Read more…]

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