If you’re in Australia and have been thinking about getting a grid-connected solar power system, there’s a really good deal right now with Earth Utility. If you order before 15 December 2008, it’ll cost $2,500 installed (after rebates, RECs, etc and excluding utility connection costs).

WARNING: Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010)

I just [...]

Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to writing up these entries – last weekend I attended my first Illawarra Seedsavers meeting, and it was great.

There were about 10 people at the meeting. Being my first, I didn’t know what to expect, but the other people were all very friendly and welcoming. They’d [...]

It can be hard to find chickens for sale locally, especially if you’re after a particular breed. Here is a big list of all the places I found when I was looking:

Illawarra Mercury Classifieds (look under pets, horses and livestock, and for sale categories) Other local newspaper classifieds (Kiama Independent, Lake Times, etc) The Trading Post The Land Check [...]

If you’re into home gardening, don’t forget the SeedSavers meeting this afternoon at Dapto, from 3:00 – 4:00 pm.

I’ll be there!

I attended the Gerringong solar hot water information night on Friday. It was very well-run, and was a great opportunity to talk to lots of different suppliers all in one place.

The presentation by Jamberoo FutureCare was excellent. They don’t have any particular axe to grind – they just want to present the facts and help [...]

I’m really looking forward to the solar hot water information night on Friday. I’m hoping to find out whether it is possible to retrofit some kind of solar heating (or at least boosting) to my off-peak electric hot water system. It’s in good condition and it seems wasteful (and expensive!) to get rid of it [...]

I just found out about this on the weekend, and am hoping to get there. Seedsavers groups are a great way to get organic, locally-adapted vegetable plants, as well as to meet like-minded people.

Illawarra Seedsavers Network: “Preserve The Future Of Our Food”

swapping seeds and planting material sharing gardening and seed saving tips locally adapted vegetable varieties organic gardening/permaculture meet [...]

The Sustainable Illawarra event calendar for November 2008 is now available.

There are some very cool sounding workshops, including cheesemaking, gardening, backyard chook-keeping and water wise gardening. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to a few!

Last night was the official launch event of the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge, the programme that prompted the start of this blog.

It was a great turnout, with most of the 120 or so families participating in the Challenge represented. I was excited to see a few familiar faces – people I hadn’t seen for a [...]