Our Sister Chickens

PJ and I were in our local paper this week, talking about our solar panels. This is the photo they included, of me holding our chicken Bridezilla in one hand and a shovel in the other; photovoltaic panels above, a pile of mulch below.

Z calls my sister Kate's three daughters his sister cousins, and the hens they gave us from their brood, the sister chickens.

Hanging out in the garden with our chickens today, it suddenly dawned on me that by golly, our chickens really are our sisters. They are alive at the same time on Earth as us, they are living within the same environment as us, but much more significantly, didn't we all evolve from the same primordial soup?

Comparing Junes

We've had our solar panels since the end of last year. It's always exciting to receive a power bill to see how little electricity we are using compared to the same period last year. I'm not sure if you can read the words of my blurry photo, but the columns on the far left and far right are for the same quarter, one year apart.

We bought our panels through the solar neighbourhood scheme, where 50 local families all signed up to buy their panels so the supplier could buy them in bulk. This helped bring the cost right down, but what made it truly affordable was the Federal Government's Solar Rebate scheme, which has just been axed and replaced by the less than encouraging Solar Credits scheme.

Under this new scheme, we would only have received half the amount of money back as we did, which would have meant we were not able to afford our panels. So while the government is congratulating itself on the popularity of its solar rebate program, it is sabotaging the success of any future schemes by making it harder for everyday folk like us who just want to do their bit.

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From DirectDaily:

Schott Solar produces solar panels with 20 years warranty. In order to present the brand Schott Solar in a distinctive and meaningful way in wholesale markets, they created a 20 year warranty calendar, which sticks out of the wall more than 60 centimeters. A message which can hardly be ignored. The first calenders were sent out for free, in the meantime the sales force is confronted with more and more calendar requests.

Up, Up and Away

Our solar panels arrived today!

5769

Happy Jewish New Year!

As tradition dictates, we dipped pieces of apple into honey, symbolising a healthy and sweet year to come, (the year 5769 to be precise).

Good things are indeed on their way. This afternoon we received a call from the company installing our solar panels to let us know of their arrival date.

And tomorrow PJ and I are off to Newcastle for This is Not Art.

From T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding:

For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.