Fun at the DJ Festival

All I can say is that I believe that our stand at the DJ festival was a success and fun to boot. Not only did we get the message out into the community that we exist, met many like minded people from other environmental groups in our shire, we made $121 for the group by selling plants grown by Michael, Jan and Gavin, chicken and duck eggs donated by Jan, and T-Shirts and hats for members provided by Kim. I must say the the Sunflower plants were the biggest seller of the day followed by the salad gardens and the multitude of heirloom tomatoes.

It was a great day, and it was good to see that many members and volunteers were able to man the stand throughout the day. Here are some photos of the event taken early in the morning.

Setting up at the start of the day

The first shift. Left to right; Amanda, Amy & David

Inside the marquee as you move from left to right; The Gardening Panel.

Green Cleaning and Energy efficiency panels

Poultry and Preserving & Baking panels

Finally the Waste and Water panels.

There were free ReNew and G magazines, lots of informational booklets and even a renters guide to going green. We gave away about 40% of the booklets, so there was quite an interest in what we were doing. We had 10 people who were interested in further information about the next meeting, which I thought was fantastic.

All in all, a great event. Many thanks to all who contributed to make it as successful as it was. Special thanks to Iramoo for the loan of the display boards; Sustainability Victoria, Environment Victoria, Iramoo, Melbourne Water, and the ATA for all the educational material; and to Kim for all the hard work on the pictures and laminating.

See you all at the next meeting as it will be very informative. It is a workshop at Michael Howard’s house and we will be learning how Michael prepares his veggie patch for the scorching summer ahead and how to still have a productive patch.

For details of the groups activities and when meetings are held, please call Kim on 03 97473616 for further information.

Warm regards,

Gavin Webber, President

Comments

Clay Oven Workshop

On Saturday, the group held a clay oven workshop at Gavin & Kims place which was well attended by members of the Melton Sustainable Living Group. We had ten willing workers at our disposal, and we managed to occupy them all on various tasks during the day. So from this: To this in two hours (plus one day's drying and sand removal)! So let me step you through what we did during the workshop. However, be warned, there are lots of photos (click to enlarge). Before everyone turned up at 10am, I received an order at 8am of 1 cubic metre of packing sand, which has a high clay content. Kim and I had to shift this sand from the roadside to the area where we were making the oven. It took me the good part of an hour to do this work alone. After a cuppa and a biscuit, I made this template for the sand dome. It is 50cm high and 85cm wide. This picture shows how the sand dome was being formed. Four people on a quadrant building up sand. ...

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by Gavin Webber I find teaching people new skills exciting and very satisfying. Saturday was no exception. This workshop was offered to members of the Melton Sustainable Living Group and if we were desperate for numbers, it was going to be open to friends. However it turned out to be so popular that we had 12 interested members within a week. I offered my services for free and each student paid $15 to cover organic milk costs and ingredients. As I mentioned in my last post, I split the workshop participants in half, and I taught two back to back mozzarella cheese making workshops, the first from 10am - 12pm, then a break and the next from 2pm - 4pm. Both classes were fully booked, however we had a late cancellation for the first class. You can see the setup below. This is the undercover area just at the entrance to the house. Nice and clean and out of the weather. You can see six small camp stoves, rubber gloves, and cl...

Backyard Chickens Workshop 16th April 2011

Yesterday, my friend Jan and I presented a workshop to the Melton Sustainable Living Group members and friends. The workshop is one of the regular monthly activities the group holds on the 3rd Saturday of each month. I believe that it was informative and I certainly had a good time presenting it. As requested by one of my readers on The Greening of Gavin , we captured the highlights on video and I placed it on YouTube. I hope you enjoy all the chicken antics and my presentation! Gavin Webber President, MSLG Inc.

Melton Sustainable Living Group

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