Well it has been a while since my last post.

Dinner last night was very 'green'. All the veggies came from our little garden. The more home grown food we can consume, the better off the environment is. I wish we could eat complete meals from our garden more often. The only thing last night that wasn't from our garden was the meat.

What some people are not aware of is the veggies purchased from the supermarket may have travelled from the other side of the country, or even from overseas, to get there. The further the veggies travel, the more greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere. Where possible it is better to buy locally produced foods or even better, grow your own.

Yesterday our first LED lightbulb arrived.

They are stupidly expensive but sooooooooooo much better for the environment than compact flourescents (CFL). CFL's have mercury in them. When disposing of them, they should be returned to a recycling centre where reusable components can be recovered. CFLs will be an issue in landfill in years to come.

Even though the 10w LED we purchased was 15x the price of a CFL, it will last MUCH longer and produces a very pleasant light which is definately bright enough. Thankfully, the government is paying most of the purchase cost of this bulb. As funds permit, I will definately purchase more LED bulbs

I've been thinking a lot about water lately. How we use it, how we recycle it, how much we drink etc. I have started using our shower timer again, which is a 4 minute timer. It is a great tool to make sure water is not being wasted, and 4 minutes is plenty of time for me to have a shower in........Unless I'm washing my hair. I also found a video about bottled water, which I have posted below.

A good idea to limit water use in your household is to compete against yourself using your water bill. Try to use less than your last bill.......You will not only save water, but money too!

This week we have been watching our Aquaponics kit start to take off in terms of veggie growth.

With the warmer weather, the fish (Silver Perch) have been eating more. More activity from the fish means more ammonia, which in turn is converted to nitrites, and then nitrates which the plants use. When growing Aquaponically, several measurements need to be checked regularly. Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels are a good start. Other measurments that can be taken are disolved oxygen and water hardness.

As our system is over a year old, and is considered mature, our Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings are almost always 0, which is where they should be. As our fish grow, I expect to get some nitrate readings. NItrates up to 150ppm are acceptable in the system. If they start getting up to that level, I will need extra filtration, which could take the form of another grow bed.