We live in our own insulated world

Princess Leah and I went to Park Road for breakfast. Princess and I talked about what we would do with the Tree House being so hot every morning. I didn't really care as I loved the jungle heat but she thought we should get some air conditioning- even just for guests that weren't accustomed to the jungle heat. The bloody thing was so high up and so open it had natural air conditioning and was designed especially for this climate.

I didn't want to argue with her but the last thing I could be pharked doing was worrying about that sort of thing. It was ridiculous that she was entertaining the idea of air conditioning when we would burn through more biodiesel and ethanol in the generator and we'd have to offset with some form of carbon sequestration. It was just another complexity to add to the Tree House.

Lamb and Dukie were at home making apple strudel, cheesecakes and citrus tarts for one of the local school fund raisers. Lamb had only just returned from being away for a few days. Dukie was teaching her some trick with baked cheesecakes that she had learnt whilst she was working as a pastry chef in the kitchens of the English royal family a few years before we rescued her. Apparently after six months working there the Queen had asked who was responsible for the lemon tart and of course it was Aussie Duke. Anyway she still makes one batch a year to send to Queen Elizabeth for her birthday.

When we got home from breakfast,Princess Leah and Dukie went out in the uterus to take Daisy and Betty Joe home to the Redneck Trading Post (RTP). I knew we'd catch up with those girls later and wished them luck as they were blindfolded for their journey home.

Honoruru was getting a lift to the ten ways and she'd be heading back into the big smoke to look after some finance stuff for us.

Lamb was busy downstairs drawing up some "specs" for the new still.

I headed inside for another cup of tea and put Wilco "Sky Blue Sky" on at full volume whilst I did a spot of cleaning. "White Light" came on and I sat down and enjoyed it. I'd have to be back at work tomorrow and I just wanted to relax on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe I'd go for a ride as well.

I cleaned for a few hours and started reading Clarissa Dixon Wright's autobiography. Princess and I had picked it up at "Coaldrakes" on Park Rd that morning.

Lamb and I had a coffee and lunch together. We had some of Dukie's lemon tart and it was absolutely stunning as usual.

I told Lamb about Princess Leah's idea of getting air conditioning in the Tree House. She didn't think it would work as the house had too much natural ventilation where we had missing doors and floor boards and other bits. We had built it in a hurry trying to escape the city and the law and we always said we'd finish it but of course we hadn't.

Later that afternoon I was having a Gin and Tonic and Lamb was in the hot tub with a Chambord when we heard a "beep beep beep" like a truck reversing. I couldn't believe it but I looked down and here was Princess Leah in the uterus. Dukie was driving a truck that had "Higgins Insulation" written on the side of it.

I raced downstairs and asked what was going on.

Dukie said that Princess Leah was discussing with all of the girls the need for air conditioning at the Tree House on the way to RTP that morning. Dukie said that it was the wrong way to go as we had to find efficiencies in energy management-not burn more energy and then try and offset it. Betty Joe and Daisy said they knew some people at a company in Brisbane that were fine and treated people real well and so they talked it through.

The girls took back Betty Joe and Daisy via Higgins Insulation and they introduced Princess Leah and Dukie. Dukie started on with this spiel about how insulation was such a good thing as now we were signatories to the Kyoto Protocol we had to find efficiencies and greenhouse gas abatement measures as opposed to offsetting emissions after using air conditioning. In a country like Australia offsetting our emissions with C sequestration meant a heavy reliance on water to grow trees. We just didn't have enough water to feed and cloth ourselves and export and still grow all the trees. Before we knew it they had offered us a load of insulation on a trial basis as long as Dukie would spread that wisdom throughout the jungle.

And they let Dukie and Princess take the truck to get it all back to the Tree House as long as they returned it the next day.

I was proud of Dukie and the way she was thinking about this global problem but acting on a local scale. If everyone thought like Dukie it would be a much better world.

So Lamb and I downed our drinks and started helping to unload all of this insulation. It took us hours.

Princess Leah came upstairs and started cooking us Lamb Souvlaki for dinner. We do love lamb.

We listened to Billy Bragg on the stereo and then had a hot tub and fell into our hammocks. All that moving stuff had us beaten. Another big day for the Tree House and it would get bigger tomorrow as we had to lift all this stuff to the roof. The girls would take the truck back first thing as well.

Goodnight my environmental warriors.

Love always,

Lukie

XXXX