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Showing posts from December, 2012

Wind Farms - The real story

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Principle 5: Use and value renewable resources and services The local campaign to support the proposed Cherry Tree Wind Farm has taken a step forward with the publishing and distribution of this flier that I put together with the help of Leigh Ewbank from Friends of the Earth and the team at BEAM . There will be a letterbox drop in the local area and the flier will also be distributed throughout the region. The flier has been put together in response to the misinformation that is being regurgitated by local anti-wind groups. One of the latestet claims of which is that Wind Farms should not be placed in high risk fire areas as they can start fires. This comes after news of a grass fire near the turbine site a couple of weeks ago, which (from what I've heard) was caused by a lightening strike to a tree. On investigation further I discovered that lightening strike is the main cause of bush fires. The Wind Energy Fact sheet produced by the NSW state government concludes that fir

A well hidden tree house

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Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change I've been having fun transforming this 'weedy' tree into an adventure playground, a nice shady space for the kids to play in during summer. I built a platform a bit over a year ago, after prunning the tree heavily, the space evolves as the tree continues to grow. I experimented with bending the branches over to form a dome like space within the tree canopy, which would eventually grow leaves to hide the inhabitants. It has turned out better than I could have hoped. Left to grow after heavy pruning last year, the young branches were tied down in winter to form a dome - shown here as a work in progress. Inside, there is enough room for an adult to stand up and a few kids to cook up a storm. Six months later, the canopy encloses the dome giving Kai and Sen a shady place to eat home grown carrots. Sen and Kai watch the world go by from the tree house. All aboard the treehouse! Sen uses a bicycle whee