Thank you Ning for setting up the blog for us. And for introducing me as “jazzy”. I'm not sure if it's true, but I like it a lot.

I love the eco-life (throughout these blogs the term “eco-“ will be indiscriminately applied to all aspects of life), but I must admit that the whole EMF competition isn’t as high on my priorities list as it was last year. I’m mid-PhD at the moment, so unfortunately that has to take precedence. Fortunately, I study the climate, particularly how circulation at low latitudes affects the climate of Antarctica. One of my interests is, of course, how that is going to change with the influence of artificial forcing. Another is investigating methods to reconstruct a sound climate record for the distant past using statistical means. This is one of the methods used to show (time and time again) that the world is warming faster now than it has done at any time in the last two thousand years. So, while my research may not be “world saving”, I think I might deserve some eco-points for that. Maybe.

We worked really hard during the last competition to get systems into place so that living in an eco-manner would be easy. I guess that’s the other reason that I haven’t given as much thought to the competition as last year. Eco-living is now second nature for us. As Ning mentioned, cooking, eating and hanging out sharing warmth is something we just do. Short showers are a habit, as are closing curtains at dusk and turning off lights and other electrical things when they’re not being used. Right now I’m a bit confused about heating though. I took a solemn oath back in autumn that I wouldn’t use a heater for my room all winter, and so far I’ve been very good. But the nights are getting colder and my room is on the south side of the house. It never, ever warms up in the winter, even on sunny days. In the day I don’t mind, but it is making it very difficult to get out of bed in the morning, so I might have to cave in to the delicious warmth. I’m thinking just a quick 15 minute blast with the fan heater to make the temperature bearable. We have one little gadget that goes into the socket and measures electricity usage, so I might do some experiments with fan and oil heaters to see which one gives the most eco results.

One of the things I discovered a love for in the last competition was foraging for food. Last year I did a heap and preserved it as jams and chutneys that kept us going all winter. This year I decided to focus on the more social aspect: brewing. So right now I have, in carboys in my wardrobe: white wine, peach wine, plum wine, quince wine, feijoa wine, and a hard lemonade that was so promising but refuses to ferment – I think it is too acidic for the yeast. I also had a perry, but it was actually surprisingly tasty so didn’t last long. All the fruit was found in random places around the city. My favourite achievement so far though, is the production of 50 litres of foraged apple cider as a group activity. Making cider is hard work. Crushing and pressing apples is difficult, so this year I involved as many friends as I could, and it became fun. There are photos:

Making cider is simple, but labour intensive. I would say that the method "dates back centuries", but I worry that it would sound pretentious.

The first thing you need is lots and lots of apples.


These are crushed in a bucket using a big stick, as demonstrated by William.


The pulp is then wrapped in cheesecloth and the juice is squeezed into a barrel. This process causes muscle ache in the forearms within 20 minutes.

After all the apple have been juiced, you sterilize, and add yeast and leave it for 2-3 weeks before bottling.

It’s maturing in bottles at the moment, but I’ve tried some and it’s actually very good. Seriously, I don’t just mean good for home brew. I’ve had cider in pubs that wasn’t as nice as the stuff that I made in my back garden. That makes me a pretty proud eco-man.

Jack.

A new beginning

So begins the journey of the tauawhi (pronounced tau-a-whi) quintet. And our flat this year has enchanting Emma, jazzy Jack, nimble Ning, talanted Tim and wonderful Will comprising the famous 5 ensemble.

Right now, it's 0 degrees outdoors, 9 degrees in my room, and probably 16 degrees in the kitchen (where I'm typing this post).

We choose to hang out in the kitchen, especially after cooking, so all the residual warmth in the kitchen gets put to good use---heating our bodies. There is, of course, the social aspect of being together in the same room at the same time, such as juggling (warms up the body so no additional heaters required), or having interesting discussions on various things (like our hot water cylinder pre-heater or rain water collection system). Or we could do more baking. Also, there’s talk about NOT filling up our red (rubbish) bin for the duration of the competition.

Of course, by choosing to stay in one room, there's less (no) heaters used, and less lights used, blablabla. I'm sure you've heard this all before, but I'll just repeat it, by drip feeding you so no one gets information overload.

Did I mention that our flat has started communal cooking this year? It saves on time, because you don’t need to slave away for ages to come up with a tasty, nutritious, and filling meal for one. When you cook for many people, there usually will be leftovers, so your lunch is probably sorted for the next day. Also, there will be less heating involved, both with cooking and washing up afterwards.

Anyway, many more blogs to go. Remember, heating is cheaper if you do it together.


Ning