A catalyst for change

I almost decided to not go to Bellingen today for the Energy Festival, it's been raining for a few days and the thought of being knee high in mud was not appealing. The sun was out this morning and the wind was blowing so off we went. Rah Rah drove into the headwind (good practice Moth had decided) and I'm so glad we went.

I always enjoy spending time in Bellingen, it seems far less stressed than Coffs. I did comment to Rah that all of the people I know in Bellingen are nice, therefore all Bellingen people are nice. He asked how many people I knew in Bellingen, I told him maybe about 5, to which he said it wasn't a very big sample size...kids! Anyway, we had lots of fun, and saw heaps of people we knew, although most of them from Coffs, seems we weren't the only ones to escape to heaven today! 

There were lots of interesting things to see, from the bicycle powered smoothie maker (you had to ride the bike around to make the smoothie) which I wish I got a photo of, to people making the most awesome baskets from natural fibres...I so want to learn how to do this! We bought some spices from the Jaaning Tree and tried some bliss balls as well, which I am going to try and find a recipe for, very high energy!

A lot of the stalls were giving information about solar energy. We are trying to learn more and do our bit as far as using environmentally beneficial technologies at home so I found this all interesting. We have solar hot water on both the main house and the boys unit at home. We have just paid the deposit for solar energy which will hopefully be installed in the next few weeks. We went for the biggest system our roof could cope with, essentially it will generate far more energy than we use, but it all feeds back into the grid so we felt it worthwhile. We also only use tank water (no town water at all) and also have a bore for the gardens. 

We are very blessed to live in a home that Moth's father built. He was quite environmentally aware, and has built the house on the right angle to get lots of winter sun in on the tiles to warm the house, yet in summer wide eaves and the angle of the house mean it stays cool. Anyway, I digress...but since I have, I'd like to share some pictures from around our place this weekend. 

Moth managed to find the last of the fallen pecans on the ground, yummm...maybe next year we'll get enough for some pecan pies, the tree is still quite small!

The autumn trees are starting to turn, I love the colour...reminds me of driving through Armidale in autumn, but on a much smaller scale! Our autumn trees were dwarfed by a few other trees that we cut down last year, so they are starting to look really good :)

The dam (aka syphilis creek) is full, the dam wall is holding up now, last year we lost it almost completely in one of the floods we had. Maybe now it's flushed clean, the dogs won't smell so bad after they sneak down there. Although I'm sure it's more about what they roll in when they get out that creates that 'special aroma'.

Lastly, I thought I'd show you our orange lime tree. It's way down the back of our block, on the back road access point. It's testament to my father in law's sense of humour, as he planted it just inside the fence line. Now what kid walking past a tree laden with yummy fruit couldn't resist leaning in and pinching one or two....?? They do often, one day I'm going to sneak down and see their faces when they bite into that yummy mandarin to discover it's a tart lime...my father in law took great pleasure in trying to convince his grandsons to try one too :) 

Hope your saturday was as much fun as mine xo