A blue wheelbarrow (lessons in household economics)

so much depends
upon 

a red wheel
barrow 

glazed with rain
water 

beside the white
chickens 

William Carlos Williams Spring and All 1923

With spring coming and a home-birth approaching – Meg now has regular visits by Sally our midwife –

we've been working through a list of jobs. This morning Zeph and I loaded our blue wheelbarrow with over forty kilos of Jerusalem artichokes to sell and a bag of goodies for the community op shop and headed into town.

We took many stops for breath and encountered neighbourhood friends along the way.

We took it in turns to push our heavy load, Zero conducting affairs from the top of the pile, passing the pine forest where we hunt mushrooms from May to July.

We arrived at Tonna's and we sold our artichokes for five dollars a kilo, 

which we took as credit and filled the barrow with produce our garden hasn't started producing yet, and toilet paper – we really need to get around to building a composting toilet and using old phonebook pages for paper.

We wheeled on up the hill with our goodies to the community op shop and left a bag among a sea of other donations. It really is an awesome op shop that raises money for various community groups.

Then we pushed on home, clocking up about four kilometres of joyous car-free, physical, educative and alternative economic exchange. 

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Ecological carrying capacity (or, it's all about storage and limits)

Working on some energy descent era technics today building a crate to go on a bike trailer that fellow bike nut Andy (Mechanarchy) did up for us.

When we gave the trailer to Andy it was a write-off. It is now a fully functional trailer that apparently dates back to the 1920s. Thanks Andy!

The crate will have a base and some internal boarding, however I want to keep it as light as possible. We will collect animal manures, firewood and compost material in it, and eventually...

a little one of us, for this is our family wagon as well. Meg is now thirty-three weeks up the duff and we're looking forward to a home-birth.

Earlier today we strapped our shoe basket onto the trailer and headed to the town hall where Meg conducted a free sauerkraut workshop with around twenty participants. Our cellar (another post-pollution technic) is loaded with breast-feeding stout, garlic, potatoes, artichokes, jams, chutney and wild ferments.

Carbon pollution is as much to do with our food supply system as it is our modes of transport, that's why both need attending to in equal weight.

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