The Alternative Lifestyle Site

Sustainable Living: What Is Transition?

It’s an interesting word Transition, don’t you think?

I mean to me it’s much softer than the word Change and yet, at it’s deepest level it means much the same thing. I realise it means change but it has so much more potential.

I used to work in a government department that was charged with organisational change – in those days that was shorthand for a lot of people losing their jobs and everyone else being jollied along to pick up the workload. Transition on the other hand means change yes, but it also has the potential to mean “evolution” to something different and that has the potential to mean something better.

Now, my dictionary says that Transition is “the act of changing or passing from one form, state, subject or place to another.”

Now that sounds participatory and creative and interesting to me, whereas change sounds nasty, like a top-down decision that I’m just going to have to live with. Transition sounds like it can be pulled of by anyone, with a little style even and that is what I think the Transition Movement, which is spreading all over the world, is all about.

Now this movement under it’s current guise, started in the UK but it began spreading itself around the world very quickly, anywhere there are “thinking people”, it will find a home.

The basic premise of the movement is to come up with solutions to the massive issues of Peak Oil and Climate Change but the difference is that the solutions are being sought with the aim of making communities, local areas and regions strong enough, diverse enough, resilient enough to not just survive in a post oil society with a very different climate but to thrive.

If you click on this link, you will find the Transition Primer which will give you the heads up on the important aspects of this movement… it’s FREE so download it today. Of course, there is a book and a website and a forum, so if you are the kind of person who just might be looking for a bit of a plan to help you develop the mindset, the skills set, the community connections and the enthusiasm to face to coming transition with a modecum of style rather than the mass panic developing around the place, these resources could be just the thing you need.

If you click the links you’ll get more information from what I think are credible sources, the books I’ve read (mostly) and are great resources. There is a lot of information and access to a lot of other resources through the links provided above but I’ve also given you some specific links to book that I think are well worth reading. If you are lucky you may be able to borrow them but if you want to or need to buy them, consider doing so via the links below.

The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (Transition Guides)

If you have read about Permaculture, are an organic gardener or community garden participant then these books are a logical progression.

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

is another fantastic book by Permaculture co-creator David Holmgren and while I was searching for that one, I discovered a more recent publication (although as yet I’ve not read it) so take a good look around and find the things that resonate with you.

I hope they are of assistance to you as you continue to educate yourself about the very real things that are occurring all around us. I believe that we each have the power to influence how these things play out in our lives, if we educate ourselves and each other, support each other, work together we will build the kind of future where we can live well without biting the very hand that feeds us.

I’ll be outlining some of the projects, steps and connections my family is making in response to Climate Change and Peak Oil There is enough information (through the links in this post) to give you a really good idea of what is happening and perhaps a few very good resources and ideas to get you started on your personal transition to a low energy future. If we do it together we can make it a graceful journey that everyone can take.

If you would like to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the following “Transition Projects” posts, if you would like to gain access to a whole range of tips and advice on how to save energy (and money in the process) just put your name and email address into the box at the top right of this page. I’ve had so much fun making the videos so I really hope you get some great ideas from them.

Transition Projects #3: The House (part 1)

We first saw our home about 5 months before we decided to buy it. We didn’t even bother to take a look inside.

Nope, it wasn’t for us – too small, wrong position and frankly it just didn’t look like something we would even consider. Not that it was awful, it was just that unless we could buy a house that would meet all our eco-friendly ideals OR get some vacant land so that we could build with those ideals in mind, we didn’t want to waste anyones time.

So what changed?

We took a look at it with new eyes.

We decided that the fact that it faced totally the wrong way (for energy efficiency) could actually be an advantage. We decided that the fact that it was a weather board home would make it easier to retrofit. We decided that since it was quite, quite small that it was a reasonable thing to expand and extend it. And so we purchased this little house, facing the wrong way but with so much potential. Buy it and make it a sustainable home that was the plan and slowly, we are taking our steps in that direction.

So, what did we buy?

It’s a little house, sitting on not quite two acres, with some nice native trees on the southern and western boundaries, with 100 or so productive Chestnut trees to the north, twenty neglected fruit trees and lots of long grass.

Really, we would have preferred a couple more acres but properties in our chosen areas cost quite a bit so this was our compromise. Despite all the things that were “wrong” with our chosen purchase, there was so much we could do to make it better and we really started right away.

We did a couple of things initially to mediate against the Sun in Summer – blinds were attached to all the outside verandahs to stop the sun actually shining on the glass of our windows.

If the Sun hits the glass it acts like a radiator inside the house. Not a good idea when the temperatures are heading towards the 35 degree Celcius mark on a Summer day! We roll up the blinds in the winter and they really do a good job of cutting the heat and the glare in the summer.

In the winter we have a wood burning combustion stove, carpets, lined blinds on the windows and so long as the heater is on we are toasty warm. However, we use a lot of wood.

The ceiling and the walls do have insulation in them, but it’s not very thick and we know that to increase the level of insulation will make a lot of difference both in Winter and in Summer. Still (we remind ourselves) this is why we purchased this particular house.

We just knew we could take something at was doing just about everything wrong and turn it into something that does just about everything right! With that in mind, the plans were hatched to build an extension.

An eco-extension, “out the back”, on the western side of the house. We already knew what materials we would use and for us the material that touched our hearts was straw. Now I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in the wheat belt of New South Wales and was surrounded by paddocks and fields of wheat but this product just sets my pulse racing!

So we did a Strawbale Owner Builders course, purchased a book on the subject and we set about designing the changes to our little house.

This series of “Transition” posts will outline our journey and I really hope you will enjoy them. As I sit writing this today, there is a man on the roof putting on the last few sheets of iron that will finally link the extension to the existing house! Time for a bit of a celebration I think as now we have one roof over our plans and dreams and although it’s still a long way from finished, it is at last – one house.

If you would like to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the following “Transition Projects” posts, if you would like to gain access to a whole range of tips and advice on how to save energy (and money in the process) just put your name and email address into the box at the top right of this page. I’ve had so much fun making the videos so I really hope you get some great ideas from them.

Transition Project #2: The Chook (Chicken) Project – part 1

Transition Projects are those steps we have taken to help up move to a more sustainable lifestyle. Some of them are idealogical, some of them are practical and some of them are just dreams to be acted on in the future. Here we share some of our steps with you in the hope you will become inspire to adopt and adapt some of them to suit your circumstances.

We’ve been here on our property for about two and a half years now and the very first thing we did (after lighting a fire because we were freezing!) was construct a house and yard for our fine feathered friends.

We have both Chooks (chickens) and Ducks and they give us fantastic eggs, manure and garden maintenance services as well as lots of entertainment with their antics.

You can probably tell by now that we just love them.

They spent their first week or so living in our box trailer (with a mesh cage fitted to the top) and a tarpaulin and plywood on the top. They didn’t seem to mind too much and were happy to free range all over the place during the day.

As a ‘quick’ fix we purchased a flat pack steel garden shed and set them up a weather and fox proof home. It works OK but we would prefer to provide them with first class accommodations as they provide us with such first class companionship and services.

We built them a small holding yard from timber posts, welded “dog” mesh and corrugated iron. The iron goes all the way around the bottom of the enclosure and is dug into the ground to deter foxes digging underneath and also to help keep snakes out of their pen. We have some shade-cloth over the top to provide them with some shade and protection from the elements. I’ve planted a grapevine that will eventually grow up and over the yard and give them the kind of environment that they really love.

Chooks are originally forest floor birds and prefer a good cover overhead so the grapevine will give them shade, cover and even some fallen grapes which they will adore.

Our birds are only put into this yard (so they have access to their shed) in the evenings at feeding time. We let them out in the mornings and they range freely all over the property all day long.

This has proved a fairly successful strategy as they clean up all sorts of bugs in the garden, eat fallen fruit in the orchard and dig around in the fallen leaves all winter looking for tasty morsels.

Ducks on the other hand don’t really seem to mind. What they do like though is water. Now we don’t have a dam or a pond but they will find water wherever it is – as you can see from this photo. What we have done is rescue an old bathtub from the tip (rubbish dump) and dig it into the ground just outside the chook (and duck) yard.

We have lost two ducks to foxes since we arrived here but both of those were taken during the day. No chooks were taken at all so it appears our local foxes have a preference in what type of fowl they eat! Hopefully we will prevent any further losses as we now have some gorgeous dogs who also roam around during the day and this may deter the foxes. Sure hope so.

This post is Part One of the Chook Project because we’ve now decided that we would like to upgrade the housing for these wonderful animals who share our lives and we are in the planning stages for new and improved chicken coop building and perhaps an expanded holding yard just so that they have some extra room for those times when we need to have them contained.

There will be follow up posts giving you the low down on where we are up to, so keep an eye out for updates. Everyone can take Transition Steps To Sustainable Living and we’d love to hear about some of your Transition Projects – so leave us a comment.

Transition Projects #1: The Shade House (Growing Your Own Food)

Well Spring is attempting to poke it’s head through the clouds here in Australia – it seems to be a little bit shy so far, despite the equinox giving it the green light!

Needless to say I’ve been busy in the garden, well the enormous weed patch really.

We have a shadehouse that we constructed from timber that used to think it was a shed but now firmly believes it’s a shadehouse.

Pulling down the old shed was a real adventure – it was covered in ivy, jasmin and passionfruit vines… in the end we had to set fire to it to finally overcome all the greenery! I’m not joking, just check out the picture below.

We find that we need it in the summer to stop things getting burnt by the sun. The year we constructed it I went from watering twice a day (and feeling like I was losing badly) to watering about three times a week. A BIG saving in time and water and with Summer temperatures on the rise I think we may end up with more than one shady area around our food production.

The construction is very simple (like us really). An arrangement of star pickets (fence droppers), 2 inch poly pipe (which just happens to fit perfectly over the pickets) and a nice timber “spine” down the middle to keeps things nice and upright. We covered the lot in shadecloth with bird netting at the ends. We also had a door made up using some left over welded wire mesh and some corrugated iron.

We have a couple of raised beds in the middle and beds all around the edges. Right now they are without hard edges but our intention is to give them either hardwood or recycled brick edges and to put gravel around the pathways.

All in good time as resources become available.

I’ve already got my potatoes in.

There are also raspberries, strawberries, feijoa, blueberries, rhubarb, artichoke, currants and lots of different herbs. We intend to add an asparagus bed in time for next Spring too. In summer I’ll plant some soft herbs like corriander, basil and maybe some soft lettuce to have in salads.

The shadehouse has such a nice little microclimate for most of the season that it’s hard to go past all the yummy goodies growing inside it. Of course, they are all organic – I mean what else would you expect?

So what are you growing this season? Even fresh herbs can add a whole new dimension to your food, your health and your life. Go on – get planting.