our adventure

"We're going to try go six months without spending a dollar". We will create our own power via 18 X 80 watt solar panels. Harvest rainwater for all domestic and garden use Use a Composting toilet and either recycle or compost all domestic waste. We will produce our own milk, yoghurt, cheese with the help of 'Possum' the goat. We will eat our own eggs and use them to barter for staples such as rice, flour and sugar. We will grow our own food Make our own yeast, shampoo, scrubbing brushes, alcohol etc. This will be on our suburban block which measures 2180 square metres. We will transport ourselves using the extra fat we have been accumulating on our backsides for the last five years. We will pay for rates, mortgage, insurances and medical expenses (should they arise), as these are considered to be unavoidable and neccessary expenses. We will also continue to have the phone connected for many reasons, to maintain communication with Trev's older children Ehren and Leela, plus our far flung families; and to maintain this website. Did you know? it takes 9 calories of energy to provide every 1 calorie of food in Australia. each day the average family uses 15 to 20 kwh of power, the production of which created 5475 to 7300 kg of co2 annually. in undeveloped countries the daily average personal water use can be as low as 30 litres of water, The world average is 139 litres, in Australia: the driest country in the world, the average family uses 900. But our use doesn't stop there, industry and agriculture consume much larger amounts on our behalf. For every 100 litres of water in the world only 1 teaspoon of it is drinkable. Most families turn over 200 litres of drinkable water into sewerage a day. That's 73,000 litres a year. We no longer felt we could continue those same practises in good conscience. We came to the conclusion early on, that we can't change the way Australians live, but we can change the way we do. So we did. This is our adventure. We'll be sharing our experiences on this website on a weekly basis once we begin. Check the updates page. At this point we are planning on beginning in September 2004. main page

created 2004