Sustainable Skerries is looking for anyone who might be interested in keeping some chickens, but didn’t know where to start. We hope to share knowledge, support each other, share equipment and to band together for discounts on materials and feed.

Troubled about keeping your chickens fed while on holidays?, we hope to support each other within the group by exchanging holiday cover for each other.

If you have ever wanted to keep a few chickens and just don’t know how, contact Sustainable Skerries on 087 2266 922 or email us on sustskerries@yahoo.ie.

Photo Credit: The Poultry Project

Skerries tourism, Skerries beaches, Skerries fisheries threatened by the outfall pipe into the sea near Skerries and Skerries air quality will also to be destroyed (Skerries is downwind of the proposed sites which lie south west of Skerries).
ACT NOW THIS WILL AFFECT YOU. Attend the meeting for further information.”

I just came across this fantastic Blog site dedicated mostly to an Economic and Financial analysis of the scenarios around Peak Oil and energy depletion. Before you start yawning and pressing buttons, have a look at it.

It’s very practical and gives a lot of sound advice on how to make your family financially ready for a Post Peak oil world. Its filled with gems of predication and wisdom. With some very “real” black and white historical photos of the American Dust Bowl and 19th century industrial America.

The main author, Nicola Foss, who writes under the pseudonym “Stoneleigh” lives on a forty acre farm in Ottowa, Canada. She really does practice what she preach’s. She and her family are pretty much self sufficient in energy, water and food. She has given seminars to many British and Irish institutes, including Feasta, our own Irish resilience “Think Tank”.

I was particularly interested in her article on “How to Build a Lifeboat”. She discusses the best ways to secure your Personal, Family wealth in the face of massive deflation and a possible breakdown of the banking system. I have included a small extract below.

“Stoneleigh

This is the list we have run periodically for dealing with a deflationary scenario. In short):

1. Hold no debt (for most people this means renting)
2. Hold cash and cash equivalents (short term treasuries) under your own control
3. Don’t trust the banking system, deposit insurance or no deposit insurance
4. Sell equities, real estate, most bonds, commodities, collectibles (or short if you can afford to gamble)
5. Gain some control over the necessities of your own existence if you can afford it
6. Be prepared to work with others as that will give you far greater scope for resilience and security
7. If you have done all that and still have spare resources, consider precious metals as an insurance policy
8. Be worth more to your employer than he is paying you
9. Look after your health!”

The main text of the article can be found Here. I would encourage you to read the full article, some of it you may be able to implement in your own lives. Some you may not. The greatest value in lists and action items like these are to provoke thought about how you might prepare your own family and community for financial troubles ahead. Just in case the IMF, ECB and EU, don’t get us out of this financial crises. Here’s hoping.

Allotments, Community harvest Group, Water group, Transition Year project and much much more to come.

Support your local Transition Town Group, join Sustainable Skerries and help your community get ready for a Sustainable and Resilient future. Email sustskerries@yahoo.ie for further info! or ring Frank on 087 2266 922.

  The lads were up at the allotments from early morning getting the fire going and the pig ready for the plate.

The weather was chilly enough for August, but the fire kept everyone warm.

The crowd began to assemble in the afternoon, with everyone bringing along some of their own produce from their own gardens and allotments. Dee and Zee brought some of their very nice mulled elderflower wine.

The conversation was lively and the food fantastic.

The craic went on into the night as many allotmenteers found the boy scout and the girl guide within them. A great way to end the evening, discussing the serious issues around organic composting and weed control. The allotment community area was shown to be a great asset for the allotments. Skerries allotment association will be working with Fingal Co Co in the coming months to develop the community area further.

Many thanks to Deirdre J. for the great photos.

Bring your own cutlery and plates with a small contribution to the food, (payable to Glen). Also bring some of your own produce for BBQ consumption.

Frank

Eanna gave an extremely interesting talk on Climate Change, Peak Oil, Food and Water supply globally and with specific reference to Skerries. Eanna also related some of her experiences in Africa where the effects of climate change are very immediate and life threatening to tribal peoples who rely on seasonal rains to irrigate crops and trees to supply wood for cooking fuel.

It gave us all a sense that the peoples of the world are all linked by climate change.

We were accepting contributions for Vita a charity sponsored by Eanna, which works for Sustainable development in the Horn of Africa. Eanna has been in contact and has asked us to pass on her appreciation for the very generous donations on the evening.

Éanna with the Chairperson of Skerries Community Association, Jane Landy.

Eanna will chat with us on Sustainability issues relevant to Skerries, like: Water, Food supply and Resilience and how these apply to life in Skerries.

Date -         Wednesday 8 June, at 7.30pm

Venue –      Little Theatre, Skerries

 (Note : “Vita” is a charity building sustainable livelihoods in the Horn of Africa).

“Sustainability, in short, must be the domestic and strategic imperative for the twenty-first century. Its chief characteristic is resilience — a concept long familiar to engineers, mathematicians, ecologists, designers, and military planners — which means the capacity of the system to “absorb disturbance; to undergo change and still retain essentially the same function, structure, and feedbacks” (Walker and Salt, 2006, p. 32; Lovins and Lovins, 1983, chapter 13; Lovins, 2002). Resilient systems are characterized by redundancy so that failure of any one component does not cause the entire system to crash. They consist of diverse components that are easily repairable, widely distributed, cheap, locally supplied, durable, and loosely coupled. In Joshua Ramo’s words: “studies of food webs or trade networks, electrical systems and stock markets, find that as they become more densely linked they also become less resilient; networks, after all, propagate and even amplify disturbances” (Ramo, p. 198). In practical terms, resilience is a design strategy that aims to reduce vulnerabilities, often by shortening supply lines, improving redundancy in critical areas, bolstering local capacity, and solving for a deeper pattern of dependence and disability. The less resilient the country, the more military power is needed to protect its far-flung interests and client states — hence the greater the likelihood of wars fought for oil, water, food, and materials. But resilient societies need not send their young to fight and die in far-away battlefields, nor do they need to heat themselves into oblivion.”

One unfortunate example of how important resilience is in maintaining our highly linked global economy is the effect the Japanese earthquake and tsunami has had on the supply chain and distribution networks across the world. Even now months after the tsunami, the tightly linked, Just In Time supply chains have shortages in vital industrial components that go to make everything from specialist batteries to electronic aircraft components. A loosely connected local food supply system, not reliant on external electrical power or oil based fertilisers and pesticides has a much better chance of withstanding a national energy shock such as an oil or gas shortage. So keep growing in your back or front garden or in your allotment. Try as many organic methods as possible. Support local business’ where it makes sense. And if it doesn’t make sense, tell your local business why, is it price, service or quality? Reuse your grey water for watering plants, collect rainwater and improve your water resilience. Get out the bike and cycle down to the shops, it saves you money, is healthier and you get to say hello to your friends and neighbours as your flying along at a sedate 10 mph.

See you up at the allotments.

Frank