narrating kayoz

Rioting for the Future

About a year ago I first read about Sharon Astyk's Riot for Austerity and posted about it on Sustainable Suburbia. I was inspired and wanted to join in, but we were prepping for our overseas trip, and as usual I already felt I had taken too much on, so I let it slide.

But just now I read an article in Grass Root's magazine from Asphyxia, about her version of the Riot (using Australian figures, yay), and calling for readers to join in.

Can we do it? The idea is to cut down to 10% of the average use of resources in 7 areas. In the June/July issue of Grass Roots this year Asphyxia has covered how she went about doing that in the area of food (not cutting down on eating, as such, but on the resources involved in getting the food).

Future issues are going to have articles on the next 6 areas, plus there's support through the Grass Roots FB page.

Since food has been my particular focus this year - eating more local, cooking more from scratch etc (and on that subject, can I just say I've just discovered the wonders of pressure cooking and I am SOLD), it seems fated.

I always feel like I'm trying to do too much, maybe something to do with having three kids, a part-time job, running several websites and trying to write a book (I haven't blogged about it here, but that is my Big project at the moment. Around the subject of urban homesteading, but that's all I'm going to say at the moment), and maybe sell a few articles along the way... but we are all about trying to live more sustainably anyway, and somehow the idea of putting some figures around it - even if we make it a 'quiet riot' and try to cut down to say, 50% in some areas - makes things feel more doable - or at least, easier to know what we are doing and what we need to still work on.

So, I'm going to talk to my family about it. We've just switched from cheap milk to bloody expensive but far more ethical (and local) milk. We've been getting seasonal organic fruit & vegies delivered most weeks (I love this because it doesn't give me the chance to not buy vegies I don't usually cook with - I just get them and have to figure out how to use them).

Of course, all this is costing more. The dairy alone is costing us around $30 extra per week (my kids go through a LOT of milk). I read Frugavore earlier this year and have been trying to put some of her advice into practice, like buying organic chicken carcasses and beef bones to make stock with, and cooking more with legumes, like lentils and beans, using dried (the pressure cooker is going to come in handy there) rather than canned beans and chick peas.

But. Cost is still an issue. And, we want to go o/s again (this time to live for maybe half a year) in 2014, before Liam starts highschool, so... I'm hoping I can parlé that into motivation to help us cut down on other resource use. Because mostly, cutting down should cots less, not more.

Right now though, I'm off to check out the Grass Roots FB page and see who's there.

Where is all the "men's art"?

This:

Part of the problem is when a woman writes about her experiences of trying to find out who she is it’s generally considered an insight into the female experience, but when a man writes about the same topic it’s considered an insight into the human condition (the same problem also happens for people of colour, LGBT people and other minorities, obviously.) In an interview, Heti stated, “‘Women’s fiction’ doesn’t sound like anything but a slur to my ears” and I tend to agree. This novel is important because the more books like this (and films and songs...) that are made and supported, the closer we get from moving from the idea of something being “women’s art” to it simply being “art”.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-culture/why-everyone-is-talking-about-this-book-20120717-227oz.html

Is your dream urban, suburban or rural? Are you living it?

Are you happy with your home? Or do you dream about living somewhere else? Kate @ Foxs Lane had a lovely post the other day, about getting home to her farm and being home. "As much as we pride ourselves in being cool farmers that can straddle the country/city divide, we really are the happiest here in the forest," she said. "At home."

It's wonderful to know where you belong, where home really is.

I've spent much of my adult life dreaming of a home in the country, or perhaps on the coast, but for me, I've finally realised, I'm in exactly the right place here in suburbia. I love visiting friends on their rural blocks, I love holidays down at Mossy Point, on the South Coast, and I love trips to urban Melbourne.

But I am happy here. Admittedly, I wouldn't mind a slightly larger suburban block. And I am still working on defeating my bigger-house envy. But I have enough space to have my own chooks, and grow far more of my own vegies & fruit than I yet do.

And at the same time I'm close to my parents and father-in-law, straight down the freeway and better yet a direct school bus route from a wonderful Steiner school, near to cousins and to my kid's friends and to many of my own. And yes, close to libraries and parks and rivers and mountains, and even cafes and museums and art galleries.

Plus I get to do a couple of days a week keeping my web skills up - or developing them even - in my day job. Sometimes I fantasize about quitting that job in favour of more writing, but really I do enjoy it, at least most of the time. I like the department I work in, both on a philosophical and cultural level, and also the team I work with. It's fun to be around adults all day, and it's fun to learn new things. We'll be moving our external websites to Drupal over the next couple of years, so I'm looking forward to more learning there.

Chris and Liam went on a father-son bonding weekend camp recently, out at the yurt farm near Goulburn, and the guy running it asked Chris why he stayed living in the city. Chris told me afterwards he didn't quite know how to answer, but the conversation we had as a result really cemented things for me - and for him I think - about why we do.

For me, as well as being about conveniences and about, quite frankly, not really loving the manual labour that a larger block of land implies, it's about a sense that urban and suburban is where it is going to be at, for a large part of the world's population, for the foreseeable future.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying some lovely rural living, and certainly I don't see all our food production ever being done within city limits. But I think the sense that we hippy-dippy sustainable living types often have, that sustainable urban living is second class, that while we can have chooks in suburbs, of course we'd all rather be living out of town, is misplaced.

Cities aren't going away. What we need to do is to learn to live sustainably within them. To drive less (also a big issue for rural living of course), to produce more of our own food, to create sustainable, supportive communities and live more simply, with less stuff.

It is a learning curve, because the way we've been doing urban and suburban living for the most part has not been sustainable, up to now. That's partly why I started Sustainable Suburbia.

It's taken me a long time - I grew up in suburban Canberra, and once I'd moved away for a while, I really did not expect to end up settling back here - but I finally realise that I love it here. It's a great feeling, and in some ways it frees me up to enjoy visiting my rural friends more without instantly starting to fantasize about being them. This is home, and it's where I want to be.

Gratuitous kid pic - Mikaela climbing in a tree out the front of our house.

If men returned to their rightful place...

Antoinette Brown Blackwell pictured a world where women moved from "bound to rebound," between the home and the world, with energies for both. She was one of the few who argued that this would only be possible if men returned to their rightful place as full participants in domestic life. 

Shannon Hayes, Radical Homemakers, p. 48.

This Moment: Sibling Harmony

Ingredients: One Big Pile of Mulch, Two Crisp Sunny Days, Two (or Three) Kids.

Posing:

Working:

Two rooms & a tunnel:

Posing again, at a hot chocolate break:

Inspired by SouleMama: {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo [supposedly!] - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Queensland looking at biggest reversal of gay and lesbian legal rights, ever

From Blue Milk today

Queensland is looking at the biggest reversal of gay and lesbian legal rights in the world, ever. Your adorable queer parenting community needs help. And here is how to help them from Queensland lesbian mama friends of mine (they sometimes comment on my blog and you’d love them if you knew them, and god knows it is a small world and you probably do):

"We need your help.  In 2010 the law changed in Queensland so that children of same-sex couples were able to have both parents recognised in law and named on their birth certificates.  Many of you helped with that campaign and it’s a pity we need to ask you to help again. Unfortunately it looks like the LNP Government is going to reverse that reform, as well as the reform to the Surrogacy Act.  This means that our unborn child would only have one legal parent.  If the laws are retrospective, our existing child could lose his other mother as his legal parent.  We find it heartbreaking that these rights could be taken from our children.

"The changes are expected to happen fast and with very little or no consultation.  Parliament sits again next Tuesday, 10 July.  In considering the legislation in the party room, the elected LNP representatives need to be aware of their constituents’ views so that hopefully cannot ignore these views when they speak for them."

More at Blue Milk. And Rainbow Families Queensland.