My To Do List for the next few months

Well, here in Melbourne, Australia we are experiencing typical early spring weather in late spring. Our summer officially starts on Saturday! Christmas-New Year is rapidly approaching and I am busier than ever with community work and trying to do some business marketing too.

I am getting a bit anxious as next week I am part of a team of 3 presenting a talk on Permaculture Gardening, on behalf of our local council, to around 100 people. I used to do sessional tutoring at Monash Uni but never lectured. That was 18 years ago and I am feeling very out of practice I must say.

My part is a quick rundown on Permaculture before my 2 colleagues show how it is applied in urban gardens. Permaculture is such an expansive subject area. It is best presented at least partly in the outdoors. We have to present it in an auditorium, so less than an ideal setting.

My involvement has also got me on a steep learning curve of some of the more finessed aspects of presentations – when I was last at University, there was no Power Point! There was not even email or the internet for public use.

So, more specifically, my part is a quick rundown on “What is Permaculture”…. in about 30 minutes max! It is nearly 12 years since I did my Permaculture Design Certificate. That taught me What is Permaculture and how to use it in 72+ hours! (I even got to teach one small portion of our PDC.)

I love teaching but I’ve always presented to smaller groups so I am feeling challenged. Our presentation is not yet complete. One of my colleagues is taking care of the presentation slides. So, at least that is one less thing to stress about.

We are doing the presentation as representatives of our local Permaculture group – South East Suburbs Permaculture. The group is part of Permaculture Victoria. We have started forging a good relationship with the council since applying for (and receiving) a festival grant.

The group also recently launched a Beehive Hosting scheme. It is a community project to get help maintain healthy honey bees in the region. (Australia is very fortunate to have little beehive health issues.)

After next Wednesday I’ll take a couple of days breather and then I must get my head down with my Food Coach studies. I have a lot of work to do and I hope to get it all done by end of April 2015.

Over the summer I also have to put together another presentation for the council on Green Cleaning. I get to do that one on my own. I’m not sure if that is a good or not so good aspect.

On the more personal side, my husband’s family celebrates Christmas so there are two events to go to – the extended family and the immediate family. On my side we have a wedding. My sister is getting married in February.

We homeschool the kids so that means there is always something needing our attention. Having 5 chooks also tends to result in needing to stop them destroying something in the garden. (Sometimes they are assisted by the kids!)

On the business side of things I have plenty to do too. Update the webshop a bit. Launch my new project – Australian Raw Food Network. I am also setting hubby up with something too.

How about you? What’s on your agenda for the next few months?

Peace to all,
KISS for Life,
Miriam.

Is Crowdfunding just charity without the tax concession?

Have you heard of Crowdfunding? Do you know what it is?

I have done a lot of thinking about crowdfunding the last 2-3 years – both as a potential contributor and as a potential fund raiser. It is a little more complex in practice if you are not in North America.

This is what Wikipedia says:

“It usually involves the collection of finance from backers—the “crowd”—to fund an initiative and usually occurs on Internet platforms. The initiative could be a nonprofit (e.g. to raise funds for a school or social service organization), political (to support a candidate or political party), charitable (e.g. emergency funds for an ill person or to fund a critical operation), commercial (e.g. to create and sell a new product) or financing campaign for a startup company.[citation needed] One crowdfunding expert described it as “the practice of raising funds from two or more people over the internet towards a common Service, Project, Product, Investment, Cause, and Experience or SPPICE.”[2]”

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding )

Most crowdfunding platforms require the money seeker to give a reward to the contributor. Most also require that the money seeker apply to start a campaign. In The USA, crowdfunding can be used to raise business capital, but that is not the case here in Australia.

Usually, donated money is held in “trust” by the platform organisation, until the end of the campaign. There are several variations in the way the campaigns can be run – for some you can get all the money raised even if you fall short of your target figure. Many platforms do not let you have the money if you do not get the target figure (I believe the Australian ones follow this method).

I want people to be aware, that giving money to a crowdfunding campaign is just a pure donation. Even if the campaign claims that you will get a reward there is no guarantee and no-one can compel the honouring of that reward. However, campaign owners may get “black balled” if the platform company finds out.

This week, as a result of being a Facebook group administrator, I came across a post for a link to a new campaign. The campaign is by three Australians, using an American platform, to finance their purchase of a farm/rural property. They are using the “flexible funding” regime, i.e. they will receive all moneys raised/donated at the end of the campaign even if they do not reach their goal amount. I was rather concerned at the way the campaign represented what they were doing as the disclosure was very muddied. So, I messaged the campaign owner with some questions. One of my concerns was that they sounded a bit like a non-profit organisation – they even use a “.org” suffix on their url. This is the Campaign Headline:

Help the School of … buy land to expand their … programs …

My questions included – were they an RTO? What names were going to be on the title? There was no disclosure about the business name or registration (this is required in Australia) nor any disclosure about what percentage the funds represent of the purchase price.
At least one of the deed owners – a family of 6 – will be living on the farm permanently (this point is disclosed in the campaign). It is not clear if the other two people will be living there or not.

Currently, for their workshops and possibly for residing at, they lease a smaller rural property where they run weekend workshops on health & sustainable living techniques. They bring in/hire other presenters. They want this bigger property so that they can accommodate more people and more extensive courses as well as have somewhere “off grid” to live.

The campaign owner did not “get” my concerns about the lack of disclosure. Shame. People seem to think that just because it is now easier to circumvent a traditional loan, they do not have to disclose much about themselves and their motives.

Their whole concept is a good one – helping people be healthier, taking better stewardship of the planet, learning important skills. The execution was and is a bit short of my personal expectations.

Do not get me wrong, the crowdfunding platforms do require disclosure but in my opinion it falls well short of what it should be depending on the campaign.

Yesterday I did a quick online search on Crowdfunding. I came across this unfortunate wrap up of one campaign:

“Despite having raised over $560,000 for the adventure game, and having entered beta in 2013, developer Winterkewl Games has canned the project.”

( source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/07/17/cancelled-kickstarter-game-yogventures-raised-over-500000-in-crowdfunding/ )

Admittedly, this is somewhat a different type of campaign but it demonstrates the fact that not all campaigns end in a positive way.

What am I trying to say then? Basically, choose who you donate your money to carefully. You deserve to have all your questions answered. There are some wonderful campaigns seeking assistence via the various crowdfunding platforms. If you have never considered any of them, go take look. But – do not expect anything other than a good fuzzy feeling if you ever make a donation.

Peace to all,

Kiss for Life,
Miriam.

Sustainability & Green Washing

I was not entirely sure what to call this post. Read on to find out about my dilemma last week.

I want to tell you all about my recent research into disposable cups for a new aspect of the business. I will be required to use either recyclable or compostable disposable cups for the drinks I will be serving.

Being a Permaculturalist in business, I fully support such an ethically sustainable business practice. At least I thought I did – until I examined the so-called “compostable” disposable cups we have here in Australia. Do not get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with the notion of “compostable” disposables. It is the way this gets accomplished that irks me. As well as the fact that the term “compostable” is, well, misleading.

Firstly, let me tell you a bit about the two cup options. There are fossil fuel based plastic recyclable cups. Then there are paper cups coated in plastic. The plastic is chemically very similar to the other recyclable cups BAR the plastic is derived from either corn starch or sugar cane. It can be composted. This is the same as bio-plastic bag material.

That sounds awesome! I hear you say. I thought so too. BUT WAIT, there is composting and there is composting. These disposables are only compostable in a “commercial compost facility”. Oh, ok, so we will just take them to one. NO! There are none in Australia.

What the … you heard me right. So, they have to be sent to landfill! They cannot be recycled or composted. But it is not quite as bad as it sounds because the bio-plastic will break down – ahem, eventually (as does fossil fuel plastic) – and then the paper underneath will breakdown and there will be nothing left to worry about.

Just do not ask how long it all takes nor how much farming land for human feed is given up to make these non-compostable compostables.

Deary, deary me – the anguish of trying to do the right thing and be sustainable in all decisions.

Peace to all, 

KISS for Life,

Miriam.

International Permaculture Day - Sun 5th May

Permaculture is how SUSTAINABILITY must be in reality.

PERMACULTURE is SUSTAINABILITY in action.

PERMACULTURE is ALWAYS in co-operation with the forces of nature.

Dr David Suzuki has acknowledged Permaculture as the only true way for humans to live sustainably.

This coming Sunday is International Permaculture Day. There are hundreds of worldwide activities going on over the weekend to mark this year’s public celebration of what Permaculture has to offer.

This year’s theme is “Grow Local”, reflecting the increasing problem of Food Security.

To find an event in your region go to http://www.permacultureday.org and search the options there.

I am convenor of a group in SE Melbourne & we have an open garden in Ormond to mark the day:
http://www.permacultureday.org/event/se-melbourne-permaculture-group-ipd/
Also see our website:
http://sesuburbspermaculture.org.au/events/details/93-international-permaculture-day
If you use Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/South-East-Melbourne-Permaculture/111280568929341

We look forward to meeting you on Sunday!

Peace to all,
KISS for life,

Miriam.

Sustainabilty & Permaculture

There has been a big buzz in our home lately. Why? I think I have finally sorted out a great location as a home base for our Permaculture courses!

My brain has been running overtime planning bits and pieces - where would we go for site visits, who would be our guest tutors, can we get funding to subsidise places for low income earners, the design of our certificates (Bill Mollison used to issue the certificates but no longer does it so it is up to individual educators to take care of this), what little extras can be included in the course cost (text book/s, course notes, Permaculture Melbourne membership, beverages, snacks, etc).

What is "Permaculture" I hear you ask - well it is jsut the most suitable and practical philosophy and methodology to live a truly sustainable life. It can be applied to a household, a suburb, a town, a farm, a country, the entire globe!

"Permaculture is sustainability in action." Josh Byrne, Gardening Australia



We want to spread this knowledge far and wide to anyone who is willing to learn. Please join us - tell others about it. This planet will not have a healthy future if we don't take action and change the way we do things.

Please see the sustainability page of our website for more details -

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=14

You can also join us on Facebook -

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/PermacultureAust.NZ/

We look forward to chatting with you soon.


PEACE to all,
KISS for life,
Miriam.

Food Security

We can EASILY feed the world. We DON'T NEED any GMOs or CHEMICAL laden farms. While vastly reducing our carbon footprints.

Today I saw this story about a fellow in America growing a monumental amount of organic food.

He's doing it on only 3 acres.

How can he do this? Well, he uses greenhouses and acquaponics, together with vertical plantings. The heat from compost is used to regulate the temperatures. Fish ponds incorporate a low carbon quality animal protein into the system. More specifically, the system :

* By producing 10,000 fish


* Using 300 to 500 yards of worm compost

* By utilizing vertical space

* Having 3 acres of land in green houses

* Using 1 simple aquaponic pump

* Food is grown all year by using heat from the compost piles




This can be copied. It would make a great community project.

Watch this video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfScfxkmWw4&feature=player_embedded

Please share this great video around with family and friends.

KISS for Life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.

Clearance Sale on Selected Items

Winter is upon us here in Australia. However, don't be fooled by cooler weather - you still need to stay hydrated. To help out our valued customers we are offering a saving on Cheeki Stainless Steel Drink bottles via a "Lucky Dip" stock clearance.

These bottles are food grade stainless steel and BPA free. There are great designs you or family and friends will love.

Just go to our website and click on the specials button or the lucky dip option:
http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?pageStyle=h&idCategory=204

This offer is limited to current stock only - no backorders plus it is a lucky dip (you can specify a preference for a girl or boy focussed design but we cannot guarantee that it will be available).

Peace,
KISS for Life,
Miriam.

Water - Access Denied?

Water is a finite resource. Each generation uses the same water as the generations before it. However, the water degrades over time. Why? Because we pollute it with our chemicals from industry, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, livestock, mining and everything else we do.

Many people in the world do not have water authorities to ensure their water is "potable". Making water potable involves adding various chemicals.

The following video is about an Indian community that was able to reverse their drought. The drought was a product of man's activities and arrogance that we know what we are doing. Please take a few minutes to watch it. It is inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-tQ1xl8Z0c&feature=youtu.be

Peace to all,
KISS for Life,
Miriam.

Eco Mum Deals

We are excited to announce our new bulk buy deals - Eco Mum Deals. We have uploaded four (4) deals so far. Please check them out (see link below) as they are really great deals.

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?pageStyle=h&idCategory=202

We want people to change their lifestyles to be as sustainable as possible and we are willing to help you out as much as possible.

We have lots of products on our site that we can potentially offer to you via our Eco Mum Deals facility. More deals will be added over the next fortnight.

All you have to do is buy in bulk. You may not always get a choice of colour. So, get your friends, relatives, colleagues, and/or club members together and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE while you GO GREEN!

If there is a product on our website (or not) you would like to see with an Eco Mum Deal, please contact us

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?pageStyle=h&idCategory=202

and we will do our best to help you out.

KISS for Life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.

Permaculture is Sustainability in Action

Permaculture Day - 1st May 2011 - is rapidly approaching. There are many activities scheduled in Australia to promote and educate people about permaculture. (http://www.permacultureday.info/)

Here is a really good video to get you in the zone, thinking about the issues involved and how useful Permaculture philosophy and sytems are to us all, no matter what our circumstances.

 http://youtu.be/8nLKHYHmPbo

Permaculture is a wonderful KISS philosophy.

We run courses and NPOs for those interested in learning more.

KISS for Life
Peace to all,
Miriam.

Human and planetary survival and climate change are intertwined

Climate Change is doing severe damage all ready (latest example in my country is Cyclone Yasi).

The way we operate broadscale agriculture is one thing that urgently needs to change. It is doable, it is not so difficult, it is rewarding for those doing it and it can be applied practically anywhere.




How we all live our lives - especially in the West - needs to alter quickly.

Reduce your carbon footprint NOW. Even if you all ready do and you don't think you can any further, reflect on it and how you live. Try helping others to reduce their footprint by at least 10-20% over the course of 2011. Explore ways you might reduce your own further if you were able to form groups or partnerships with others to accomplish various things - share garden/farm for fruit and vegies; car share/pool; cargo bike share; share composting and worm farming facilities (have a larger system, collect scraps from local business); create biofuel communally - lots of things are possible.

Want a hand? http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=3

KISS for Life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.

New Year's Resolution

Do you have a New Year's Resolution? Common ones sound something like these:

Lose weight?
Eat right?
Reduce your toxic load?
Live more sustainably?
Grow your own food?
Get involved in your community?
Help the less fortunate?
Start a community group.

Many are totally self centred. That is not always bad but life exists beyond the self and the self will not survive without considering things beyond the self.

Sorry if that's a bit too deep and meaningful and/or cryptic. I want to get you all thinking outside the square and beyond your comfort zone.

Let's get back to basics and support each other and see where that takes us.

Peace to all,
KISS for life,
Miriam.

A New Beginning

WOW! We finally launched our website late last week.

It's been quite a journey and a number of products still need to be added or have their image modified.

I started this process nearly two years ago (and had a couple of false starts over the last 12 years). I spent about a year researching the best way to do my website given what I wanted to do. Everyone I contacted, of course thought I should use their software/method.

In the end I chose not to go with open source software but an ecommerce software package from the USA. No system is perfect but this one allows me a lot of freedom and flexibilty. I have a good consultant/web designer to work with (happy to make recommendations - see www.cameronsloutions.com.au).

The hardest part was coming up with a design - both Lisa and I spent many hours trawling istockphoto and my own photos for ideas. I had the logo, which I designed 11 years ago.
Eventually, the design was borne and I love it. Thanks Lisa.

Please visit the site - there's a lot on offer. It is a dynamic enterprise, like life. Enjoy. Tell us what you think - both good and bad. Make suggestions.

KISS for life,
peace to all,
Miriam.

The story of bottled water - part of the Story of Stuff project

Here's the latest from Annie Leonard, creator of the Story of Stuff, about bottled water at http://www.thestoryofstuff.org/.

Remember, the best way to avoid the problems associated with too much stuff, ie. waste materials used to make products that companies convince us that we need, is to ignore the marketing and don't buy the stuff.

If something is called or marketed as "take-away" there is probably packaging involved that is bad for the environment (eg. plastics and polystyrene) or it's a very poor nutritonal choice or it cost hundreds if not more times what it would cost you to take from home in the first place or all of these things!

Recycling is not always a good option either. Some plastics are recyclable but they are generally downcycled - the new product is inferior to the original.

Here endeth the lesson for today.

If you are interested in these sorts of issues and/or products and services that can help you live more sustainably, or you would like to make a comment, please contact us:

info@betweenskyandearth.com.au

See our website:

http://www.betweenskyandearth.com.au/

Thanks for your time. Enjoy the rest of the day - plant some seeds and see what happens.

Miriam.