Comments for Green-Change.com http://green-change.com An experiment in Australian household sustainability Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:56:13 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on Growing Mushrooms From Spent Mushroom Compost by Mieux http://green-change.com/2009/01/17/growing-mushrooms-from-mushroom-compost/#comment-16261 Mieux Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:56:13 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=485#comment-16261 <p>PS - love having it delivered rather than picking it up- saves my car from getting compost "juices" all over it</p> PS – love having it delivered rather than picking it up- saves my car from getting compost “juices” all over it

]]> Comment on Growing Mushrooms From Spent Mushroom Compost by Mieux http://green-change.com/2009/01/17/growing-mushrooms-from-mushroom-compost/#comment-16260 Mieux Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:54:22 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=485#comment-16260 <p>Julian I had 30 large bags of mushroom compost delivered to my door yesterday for $75. I'm in Coolum and the guy delivers to most of the Sunshine Coast. His name is Horst and he advertises in the local paper but here's his number: 54459307, 0417636510</p> <p>The mushroom compost I got from him is very good quality, better than stuff I've got from other suppliers over the years. I put 20 bags into the vegie gardens (past experience has been that mushrooms will even come up in the vegie gardens from the compost), a few bags into the compost bin and I have 3 bags that I'm keeping purely for the mushrooms that'll grow in them.</p> Julian I had 30 large bags of mushroom compost delivered to my door yesterday for $75. I’m in Coolum and the guy delivers to most of the Sunshine Coast. His name is Horst and he advertises in the local paper but here’s his number: 54459307, 0417636510

The mushroom compost I got from him is very good quality, better than stuff I’ve got from other suppliers over the years. I put 20 bags into the vegie gardens (past experience has been that mushrooms will even come up in the vegie gardens from the compost), a few bags into the compost bin and I have 3 bags that I’m keeping purely for the mushrooms that’ll grow in them.

]]> Comment on Hand-Pollinating Pumpkin and Squash by Barbara http://green-change.com/2009/06/04/hand-pollinating-pumpkin-and-squash/#comment-16230 Barbara Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:29:05 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=831#comment-16230 <p>Hi, I found your site when I did a Google search for pollinating pumpkins by hand. I live in Guam, which has the same climate as Cairns, and I am trying to get my pumpkin plants to bear fruit. Thanks so much for posting the great photos and great advice. Last night after I read the above, I went out to look at the flowers that were about to open and I found that I had 13 male and one female flowers. I used the masking tape as suggested and this morning I pollinated the female. I cut off all of the males and hopefully I will get some more females.</p> <p>Thanks again for the great advice.</p> Hi, I found your site when I did a Google search for pollinating pumpkins by hand. I live in Guam, which has the same climate as Cairns, and I am trying to get my pumpkin plants to bear fruit. Thanks so much for posting the great photos and great advice. Last night after I read the above, I went out to look at the flowers that were about to open and I found that I had 13 male and one female flowers. I used the masking tape as suggested and this morning I pollinated the female. I cut off all of the males and hopefully I will get some more females.

Thanks again for the great advice.

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Avian Aqua Miser http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16218 Avian Aqua Miser Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:31:10 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16218 <p>I went back and looked at it too, and that article was much weaker than I remembered! For some reason, I thought they'd at least talked to a hatchery or two, but that was my memory playing tricks on me...</p> I went back and looked at it too, and that article was much weaker than I remembered! For some reason, I thought they’d at least talked to a hatchery or two, but that was my memory playing tricks on me…

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16215 Darren Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:04:28 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16215 <p>@Avian Aqua Miser: I got curious and looked up that article on Slate. It seems that columnist is constantly trying to take the contrarian standpoint on issues and trends, presumably to attract backlash traffic. He really just quotes a bunch of recent newspaper articles on the chicken keeping trend, and criticises them for failing to include statistics. Rather ironically, he doesn't include any either! He also found a couple of articles from the 80s and 90s, claiming them as 'proof' that this trend is nothing new.</p> @Avian Aqua Miser: I got curious and looked up that article on Slate. It seems that columnist is constantly trying to take the contrarian standpoint on issues and trends, presumably to attract backlash traffic. He really just quotes a bunch of recent newspaper articles on the chicken keeping trend, and criticises them for failing to include statistics. Rather ironically, he doesn’t include any either! He also found a couple of articles from the 80s and 90s, claiming them as ‘proof’ that this trend is nothing new.

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16212 Darren Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:48:45 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16212 <p>@Avian Aqua Miser: Slate usually has a much higher standard than that - running such a story is pretty lame.</p> @Avian Aqua Miser: Slate usually has a much higher standard than that – running such a story is pretty lame.

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Avian Aqua Miser http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16201 Avian Aqua Miser Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:52:49 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16201 <p>Thanks for doing the extra legwork I was too lazy to do. :-) Slate clearly didn't really do their homework. If I remember the article correctly, the author's methods amounted to looking back at old newspaper articles and noticing that people had been talking about backyard chickens for a decade. Not hard data by a long stretch! :-)</p> Thanks for doing the extra legwork I was too lazy to do. :-) Slate clearly didn’t really do their homework. If I remember the article correctly, the author’s methods amounted to looking back at old newspaper articles and noticing that people had been talking about backyard chickens for a decade. Not hard data by a long stretch! :-)

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16200 Darren Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:43:34 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16200 <p>@Avian Aqua Miser: As an engineer, I totally understand where you're coming from :-). I was aware of backyardchickens.com, but didn't think of them having a potential impact. I don't know if they've skewed these search results. Their domain was registered back in 2000, but I'm not sure when they hit their rise to popularity. Still, looking at other similar search terms like "chicken coops", "urban chickens", "chicken keeping", "broody chicken", etc are showing fairly similar rising trends.</p> <p>I would have thought Slate would be able to find decent data sources. Hatcheries, chook food retailers, etc might not share their data for business reasons, but you could look at traffic on chicken forums, numbers of classified ads for chickens and related equipment, veterinarians' statistics, book store sales, etc. Even the rising demand for cities to remove anti-chicken ordinances must indicate a general interest.</p> @Avian Aqua Miser: As an engineer, I totally understand where you’re coming from :-) . I was aware of backyardchickens.com, but didn’t think of them having a potential impact. I don’t know if they’ve skewed these search results. Their domain was registered back in 2000, but I’m not sure when they hit their rise to popularity. Still, looking at other similar search terms like “chicken coops”, “urban chickens”, “chicken keeping”, “broody chicken”, etc are showing fairly similar rising trends.

I would have thought Slate would be able to find decent data sources. Hatcheries, chook food retailers, etc might not share their data for business reasons, but you could look at traffic on chicken forums, numbers of classified ads for chickens and related equipment, veterinarians’ statistics, book store sales, etc. Even the rising demand for cities to remove anti-chicken ordinances must indicate a general interest.

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16199 Darren Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:18:06 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16199 <p>@Sharon: Hi! I just followed the link over to your blog, and I can see that you've got some little chicks just hatched as well. It looks like you've got lots of great info there, I'll be coming back to trawl through it later in the week. Thanks for leaving a comment so I could discover it!</p> @Sharon: Hi! I just followed the link over to your blog, and I can see that you’ve got some little chicks just hatched as well. It looks like you’ve got lots of great info there, I’ll be coming back to trawl through it later in the week. Thanks for leaving a comment so I could discover it!

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Avian Aqua Miser http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16198 Avian Aqua Miser Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:13 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16198 <p>I love graphs. :-) I read a Slate article last year suggesting that the backyard chicken trend might be bogus since they couldn't find any solid data sources to back it up. Smart to go to search engine use to find that missing data!</p> <p>(Although, as a nitpicky scientist, I have to say that the term "backyard chickens" is a bit loaded since there's a very popular website by that name. Did the spike in searches come at the same time the website was introduced? Looking at some stats for related phrases would probably distinguish the trend from the increasing familiarity with the phrase.)</p> I love graphs. :-) I read a Slate article last year suggesting that the backyard chicken trend might be bogus since they couldn’t find any solid data sources to back it up. Smart to go to search engine use to find that missing data!

(Although, as a nitpicky scientist, I have to say that the term “backyard chickens” is a bit loaded since there’s a very popular website by that name. Did the spike in searches come at the same time the website was introduced? Looking at some stats for related phrases would probably distinguish the trend from the increasing familiarity with the phrase.)

]]> Comment on Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity by Sharon http://green-change.com/2010/03/18/backyard-chickens-soar-in-popularity/#comment-16194 Sharon Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:35:10 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1473#comment-16194 <p>Very interesting, I too have wondered if more people are interested, or is it just that I tend to mostly associate with people interested in this stuff too. </p> <p>Hello by the way, I sometimes pop in to visit this blog, although I have never left a comment till now... yeah sorry, I am a bit of a stalker!</p> Very interesting, I too have wondered if more people are interested, or is it just that I tend to mostly associate with people interested in this stuff too.

Hello by the way, I sometimes pop in to visit this blog, although I have never left a comment till now… yeah sorry, I am a bit of a stalker!

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16150 Darren Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:29:21 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16150 <p>@Libby: Our current chooks aren't very tame either. I can catch them when I need to, but they don't come up and sit in your lap for a pat. We're planning to spend a lot more time playing with these chicks and getting them used to being handled.</p> @Libby: Our current chooks aren’t very tame either. I can catch them when I need to, but they don’t come up and sit in your lap for a pat. We’re planning to spend a lot more time playing with these chicks and getting them used to being handled.

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Libby http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16149 Libby Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:28:38 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16149 <p>How gorgeous are those chooks? And how wonderful to raise them from birth. Our current girls are still scared to death of me (after a year) as we made the mistake of getting them older, rather than younger like our first lot. </p> <p>Libby</p> How gorgeous are those chooks? And how wonderful to raise them from birth. Our current girls are still scared to death of me (after a year) as we made the mistake of getting them older, rather than younger like our first lot.

Libby

]]> Comment on About by Darren http://green-change.com/about/#comment-16115 Darren Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:17:47 +0000 http://green-change.com/?page_id=2#comment-16115 <p>Thanks Ally & Rich! I'm liking this new template so far, although there are still a few things to tweak. The new property is great so far, but we haven't had much time recently to do all that we want to. That's life, though, eh?</p> Thanks Ally & Rich! I’m liking this new template so far, although there are still a few things to tweak. The new property is great so far, but we haven’t had much time recently to do all that we want to. That’s life, though, eh?

]]> Comment on Broody Chicken! by Darren http://green-change.com/2009/01/07/broody-chicken/#comment-16114 Darren Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:12:35 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=427#comment-16114 <p>@Tiana: Sounds serious! I'm trying to picture an aggressive silky while keeping a straight face :-). We have a pair of black silkies - they look like a pair of novelty slippers when they sit together! I can only recommend that you try isolating them in a wire cage off the ground, so they can't get comfortable and keep sitting. Apparently it only takes a few days of that treatment and they'll be back to normal. Don't forget to keep up the food and water during this time.</p> @Tiana: Sounds serious! I’m trying to picture an aggressive silky while keeping a straight face :-) . We have a pair of black silkies – they look like a pair of novelty slippers when they sit together! I can only recommend that you try isolating them in a wire cage off the ground, so they can’t get comfortable and keep sitting. Apparently it only takes a few days of that treatment and they’ll be back to normal. Don’t forget to keep up the food and water during this time.

]]> Comment on About by Happyearth http://green-change.com/about/#comment-16112 Happyearth Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:31:51 +0000 http://green-change.com/?page_id=2#comment-16112 <p>Hi Darren,</p> <p>Congrats on your blog revamp - looks really great! Very professional. Fantastic to see you're getting back into blogging again too. Hope you're settling into your new place well. Very exciting for you to have more land to play with on your sustainable living adventure!</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Ally and rich www.happyearth.com.au</p> Hi Darren,

Congrats on your blog revamp – looks really great! Very professional. Fantastic to see you’re getting back into blogging again too. Hope you’re settling into your new place well. Very exciting for you to have more land to play with on your sustainable living adventure!

Cheers,

Ally and rich http://www.happyearth.com.au

]]> Comment on Broody Chicken! by tiana :) http://green-change.com/2009/01/07/broody-chicken/#comment-16105 tiana :) Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:16:08 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=427#comment-16105 <p>sorry my mistake broody** not droody and my little silkie chicken has changed colour as well</p> sorry my mistake broody** not droody and my little silkie chicken has changed colour as well

]]> Comment on Broody Chicken! by tiana :) http://green-change.com/2009/01/07/broody-chicken/#comment-16104 tiana :) Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:15:00 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=427#comment-16104 <p>Yeah all of a sudden 2 of my silkie chickens have gone droody and have been attacking me and laying lots of eggs. She has just totally change like even walking out in the backyeard she runs for me and starts acting me and even my dog and other chickens and she clucks alot as well please help i dont know what to do to get her back to normal!</p> Yeah all of a sudden 2 of my silkie chickens have gone droody and have been attacking me and laying lots of eggs. She has just totally change like even walking out in the backyeard she runs for me and starts acting me and even my dog and other chickens and she clucks alot as well please help i dont know what to do to get her back to normal!

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Avian Aqua Miser http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16094 Avian Aqua Miser Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:27:47 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16094 <p>I'll look forward to seeing some photos! (In fact, I'm always looking for good photos to post on our chicken waterer site. If you don't mind me sharing the photos there too, I'd be very grateful!)</p> I’ll look forward to seeing some photos! (In fact, I’m always looking for good photos to post on our chicken waterer site. If you don’t mind me sharing the photos there too, I’d be very grateful!)

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16090 Darren Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:28:07 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16090 <p>@Avian Aqua Miser: Thanks! I've been following your chicken exploits with interest. The chicken waterers arrived here in perfect order - I just haven't had time to put them together yet. I'll blog about it when I do.</p> @Avian Aqua Miser: Thanks! I’ve been following your chicken exploits with interest. The chicken waterers arrived here in perfect order – I just haven’t had time to put them together yet. I’ll blog about it when I do.

]]> Comment on Growing Mushrooms From Spent Mushroom Compost by Darren http://green-change.com/2009/01/17/growing-mushrooms-from-mushroom-compost/#comment-16089 Darren Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:26:49 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=485#comment-16089 <p>@Julian: Sorry, I don't live in that area so don't personally know of local suppliers. Try looking up "mushroom farms" in the local Yellow Pages - they have 6 listed around Caloundra. I'm sure if you ring around you'll find someone.</p> @Julian: Sorry, I don’t live in that area so don’t personally know of local suppliers. Try looking up “mushroom farms” in the local Yellow Pages – they have 6 listed around Caloundra. I’m sure if you ring around you’ll find someone.

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Avian Aqua Miser http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16074 Avian Aqua Miser Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:10:46 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16074 <p>Congratulations! As you know, we're still working on crossing that bridge. Glad to see we're not the only one who failed miserably using the "easy route" of a broody hen.</p> Congratulations! As you know, we’re still working on crossing that bridge. Glad to see we’re not the only one who failed miserably using the “easy route” of a broody hen.

]]> Comment on Growing Mushrooms From Spent Mushroom Compost by Julian http://green-change.com/2009/01/17/growing-mushrooms-from-mushroom-compost/#comment-16071 Julian Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:15:18 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=485#comment-16071 <p>I live in Queensland. Is there anywhere on the sunshine coast where mushroom compost can be purchased..arounf Caloundra/ Noosa/ Maroochydore..also in Toowoomba. Hoping to hear from you soon,,</p> I live in Queensland. Is there anywhere on the sunshine coast where mushroom compost can be purchased..arounf Caloundra/ Noosa/ Maroochydore..also in Toowoomba. Hoping to hear from you soon,,

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16070 Darren Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:14:52 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16070 <p>@Darcy: You'll have to bring the girls out when you get a chance!</p> @Darcy: You’ll have to bring the girls out when you get a chance!

]]> Comment on Hatching Chicks by Darren http://green-change.com/2010/03/15/hatching-chicks/#comment-16069 Darren Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:11:03 +0000 http://green-change.com/?p=1454#comment-16069 <p>@Greenfumb: That's what I'm hoping for, too! It'll be interesting to see how they turn out, but there's no real loss either way. They were surplus eggs that happened to be fertilised, so they were a good trial for the new incubator. In that respect they're a success already (plus they have the cute factor!).</p> @Greenfumb: That’s what I’m hoping for, too! It’ll be interesting to see how they turn out, but there’s no real loss either way. They were surplus eggs that happened to be fertilised, so they were a good trial for the new incubator. In that respect they’re a success already (plus they have the cute factor!).

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