Vulnerable lungfish rescue Gympie, Queensland

Image source: The Courier Mail

It's not every day you get to save the life of a threatened species and a living fossil!

A remarkable photograph of a Gympie resident rescuing a rare lungfish from a hotel car park in Gympie after it was washed there by the flood waters that have flowed through Gympie, Queensland for the fifth time in one year.

This ancient air breathing fish can survive for several days out of the water if the surface of its skin is kept moist.  Fossil records show that the Queensland Lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) has remained unchanged for more than 100 million years (since the time of the dinosaurs) - and is the longest surviving vertebrate species on the planet.

The lungfish became well known in the fight to stop the Traveston Crossing Dam near Gympie and may have influenced the then Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett's decision to veto the dam because it posed 'an unacceptable risk to threatened species such as the Queensland lungfish'. The lungfish still faces significant risks from the Paradise Dam on the Burnett River.  The dam has a fish transfer device (a "fish lift"!) to theoretically allow lungfish to migrate upstream of the dam wall as well as a downstream fish transfer device to allow them to migrate downstream for breeding and feeding.  There has been much debate and a court case over whether the devices are effective. It is also believed that lungfish have been destroyed when they are swept over the 62 concrete-step spillway at Paradise Dam

What is the status of the lungfish?
The Australian Lungfish is listed as a vulnerable species under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act).  Source.

Why is the lungfish threatened?
According to Environment Australia: Evidence suggests that in recent years only small numbers of young lungfish are growing-up into adult fish. In addition, changes to the quality and extent of breeding habitat appear to be reducing the likelihood of successful spawning. Two of the key problems affecting the lungfish are the flooding of suitable spawning sites and physical barriers that block the movement of adult lungfish to the remaining breeding sites.

As explained in this article from the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland:
In the words of Professor Jean Joss, Australia’s primary lungfish expert, '…the Australian lungfish provides the only opportunity to study the development and physiology of the aquatic predecessor of all land vertebrates – including ourselves. Its significance cannot be overstated. Australia is the custodian of the source of this invaluable library of information for the rest of the world.'
 
The Australian lungfish, previously more widespread throughout the continent, is now restricted to the Mary and Burnett River systems, the latter of which used to offer the most suitable spawning sites. Despite having survived this long, and boasting a life span of 80 to 100 years, the Australian lungfish takes 15 to 20 years to reach maturity and is very picky when it comes to the conditions under which it will spawn.  Since the construction of the Paradise Dam, these favoured sites have been flooded on several occasions and have also undergone permanent change. As a result, the faithful lungfish return every year but do not spawn and reabsorb their gametes because the conditions are no longer acceptable to them.

Hats off to this Gympie resident for saving one lungfish by carrying it back to deeper water!

 

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Leaf love: beautiful heart shaped leaves

We love this great green earth. Love is everywhere ... see it in nature around you ... in the tallest of trees, in the tiniest of leaves. We wish everyone a happy day of love and appreciation for every living thing.

The photographer said "The tiny red heart-shaped leaf was one of the last clinging to a branch of this shrub, so I turned it upside down and held it up against a larger, yellowing leaf to show off it's color."  rosecottagegarden.blogspot.com.au

 Flickr gallery Twilight-Faa

 Snowflowers25.blogspot.com

Please share a link for a love heart shaped leaf you come across and we'll add it here.

Feel the need for more love??  Check out this blog post with 25 awesome hearts found in nature 

   

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Lunch box ideas

Zucchini & Sweetcorn fritters.  Lunch box ideas photo source: www.taste.com.au

Lunch box ideas to make it easy & nutritious

Biome's eco and health-minded community recently shared a bunch of brilliant ideas to help make packing a waste free, nutritious kids lunch box easy peasy!   They entered our survey competition to win a $200 voucher from Eeni Meeni Miini Moh.

We were overwhelmed by the organised and inspired minds out there!  The primary idea is to make it just as easy and fast to use home-made foods in reusable containers, rather than feeling you only have the time to grab pre-packaged, individual serve foods.  There's no doubt that this bulk buying approach will save money; plus, home made avoids the additives and preservatives in processed foods.  Further, more schools are requiring parents to not send any disposable plastic wrap or pre-packaged food in lunch boxes.

To ease the strain on morning brains, many survey respondents recommend writing a menu plan for the week, rotating set menus or following the same formula every day.   

Following a routine or formula for the lunch box contents each day also helps with making children responsible for packing their lunches from an early age (another popular theme).  A simple break down such as this works well:
1. Sandwich or pasta
2. Fruit or vegetable sticks
3. Yoghurt or sweet home bake from the freezer
4. Savoury dry snack or home bake.
5. Something extra if they want: egg, cheese, dip

The most popular lunch box idea is to home bake and freeze or prepare ahead ready for easy picking in the morning.  Kids love a variety of snack size goodies and you can pack a lot of nutrition into small things that make lunch more interesting and fun.  See the ideas below on what you can bake ahead and freeze. And, of course, get the kids to help with the baking so they have ownership of what they're eating.

We were also motivated by the number of organised people who recommend packing most of the lunch boxes the night before to save stress when the morning rush is on.


Lunch box ideas - Mini foods to bake ahead and freeze

Mini eggless banana choc chip muffins (link below)

You can easily Google recipes for most of these ideas: pikelets and scones, wholesome vegie muffins, eggless banana choc chip muffins, banana and cranberry muffins, home made museli bars, healthy slices, vegetable fritters or patties, vegemite/pizza scrolls, quiche/omelette slices, banana bread, zucchini slice, apricot logs, date loaf, sausage rolls, arancini rice balls, meat balls, pizza on wholemeal base. Often you can bake them to enjoy on the weekend, but make extras to freeze.



More ways to be organised in advance

• On the weekend, pre-pack dried fruit, organic corn chips, dry biscuits into little reusable containers ready for five days of snacks. 
• Cook up bulk amount of pop corn at the beginning of the week (popcorn maker recommended for ease and low fat content). 
• Make a dip early in the week and then simply cut up vegetable sticks on the day.
• Cut up vegetable sticks and cheese (use mini biscuit cutters for fun shapes) for a couple of days supply - or, while making dinner the night before, cut or grate extra for lunches the next day.
• Make extra quantity of noodles/pasta/sausages at dinner and use for lunches. Can be sent to school hot in an insulated food thermos.
• Make a salmon or tofu spread at the beginning of the week to put on sandwiches each day.
• Fill a week's worth of refillable Squeeze pouches with yoghurt or milk and fruit smoothies

Some favourite lunch boxes

Goodbyn - is much loved because it has only one lid to keep track of!  The Goodbyn Bynto is a one meal or small meal size.

Sandwich wrap - saves wasting plastic wrap, the wraps are a good style as once kids open the wrap it acts like a plate





More healthy lunch box ideas

• Steamed chicken makes yummy fresh wraps with salad and sweet chilli sauce for older kids.
• Bulk tubs of Greek yoghurt and spoon into reusable containers with honey, tinned, fresh or frozen fruit.
• Vegies: Cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, celery sticks, capsicum
• Smoothie or protein shake
• Frozen grapes and berries
• Boiled eggs
• Home made chocolate milk slushies (freeze ahead and by lunch time it's a slushie)
• Frozen yoghurt in small containers.

Lunch box ideas from others
Here's two of our favourite posts by others with lunch box ideas
Natural New Age Mum ~ Healthy Lunchbox ideas and none of them are sandwiches
The Organised Housewife ~ Freezable Lunchbox Baking recipes

And see more ideas in our earlier lunch box ideas post.

Menu planning
In the words of one our respondents: A few minutes over the weekend plotting out lunches for the coming week means you buy/make what you need so you have it there on hand and it saves SOOOO much angst. You just read what you've arranged for that day, pop it all together and away you go. Highly recommended :)

Here are some of the lunch box ideas that impressed us most (we received so many that we'll post more in the coming weeks)

Make up five days worth of sandwich/wrap items and cook and cut up a healthy slice/tray of muffins that are freezable with the kids on Sundays. Use 4 my earth wraps to store items 'ready to go' in the freezer and grab them out the night before (or in the morning on a really hot day), add a piece of fruit/vege or two, a bottle of water and off to school!!

Don't try to be too fancy or have too many options. My kids happily take and eat basically the same things every day. Sandwich fillings change depending upon whether we have roast or if chicken fillets are on special. I cook chicken fillets then slice them up and freeze in portions. A homemade banana, cranberry & choc chip muffin (from the freezer and zapped for 20 seconds then into small container and insulated lunch bag). Some fruit, chopped for easy consumption and either some carrot sticks, grapes, cucumber sticks or yoghurt - rice crackers or chicken crimpys occasionally.

Use containers with lids attached so you are not looking for lids. Line up containers and cut each persons fruit and then cut each persons lunch,fill each water bottle and place in lined up bags. Don't spend time in the morning looking for containers. Label all items.

I make 5 sandwiches at the beginning of the week & freeze in a Keepleaf wrap. Take it out of the freezer the night before & the next morning pop fresh veg such as avocado, lettuce or tomato on it!

I dont buy plastic wrap so if its not there, it cant be used.

My kids get "bits & bobs" in their boxes everyday = they want variety! The compartments in the Goodbyn make it easy - all fruits cut up in one (stone fruit, pears, berries, etc), all veg in another (peapods, cuc, capsicum, cuc, carrots, celery), salami/bbq chick/salmon/protein in another, naan bread/crackers/grain/muffin in another and a sweet. Goal in our house is a lot of variety everyday and it is all healthy - and gobbled up!

I place all the containers in a zipped up fabric carry bag with a frozen drink bottle wrapped in a tea towel to keep everything nice and cool (old fashioned & a bit daggy but works a treat!)

[Note: this person has five children and has a precision scheme going on :-) !] On shopping day I freeze cheese or vegemite sandwiches into loaf shape containers (I use one container for cheese and one for vegemite).  The slices that don't fit in make sandwiches for that days' lunch which I make at the same time :) This also helps to keep the lunchboxes cool and the sandwiches nice and fresh) They are easy to add salad, chutney, cold meat to when packing or to just grab and go on busy days. With 5 kids I find that making a few loaves of sandwiches doesn't take that much more time than making them 1 each.  If i'm organised I make the lunches after dinner using leftovers if possible or just grab a frozen sandwich on a shelf in the fridge dedicated to lunches/leftovers.  I also try to cut up any vegies such as carrot or cucumber sticks as I'm cooking dinner eg if I'm making a salad I'll cut up the cucumbers for lunch at the same time and pop straight into the lunchboxes.:)

You can find another great list of lunch box ideas in our earlier post and Biome's large choice of lunch boxes and sandwich wraps here.  Lunch boxes also available at Todae Lifestyle Store.

Lunch box ideas photo courtesy of Squeeze ems reusable pouches

A final word on replacement parts

Part of Biome's eco philosophy is to think about prolonging the life of a product and often a bit of a lunch box or water bottle or drinking mechanism will break or wear out long before the main body of the metal or BPA free plastic bottle or lunch box.  That is why Biome encourages all our suppliers to offer replacement parts.
We offer Thermos plastic straw and Thermos silicone mouth pieces for the Thermos insulated Funtainers.  You can find the Thermos Spare Parts here.
Kids Konserve replacement lids


 

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Clove oil and mould

Many people with seemingly unsolveable allergies are excited by the growing consensus that mould causes some allergy and asthma problems - and clove oil is the magic ingredient to help end the sneezing and wheezing.

The Victorian Department of Health states:

• Mould associated with damp buildings can trigger nasal congestion, sneezing, cough, wheeze, respiratory infections and worsen asthma and allergic conditions.
• People with weakened immune systems; allergies; severe asthma; chronic, obstructive, or allergic lung diseases are more susceptible to these symptoms and other serious health effects.  Source.

However, to get rid of mould is not as overwhelming as you may think.  Remember, mould can only grow where there is sufficient moisture and it is spread by mould spores.

An excellent ABC article explains: Mould is a fungi, along with mushrooms and yeast, and is everywhere around us; in the air we breathe and in the dust around our homes.  When mould reproduces it creates spores that are carried in the air. As an allergen, inhaling mould spores affects the body in the same way as inhaling dust mites or grass pollen.  ABC Source

Action plan to get rid of mould

1. Remove sources of damp and moisture, ventilate wet areas, mop up water asap.
2. Clean off any visible mould - unfortunately, nothing beats elbow grease to actually scrub it away. You also need to clean it off several times with fresh water, being careful not to re-contaminate the area with the mould spores.
3. Spray with clove oil and water mixture (see recipe below). Clove oil actually kills the mould, rather than a bleach that just masks the mould.
4. Place a clove oil room sanitiser - either a DIY one such as soaking a piece of chalk in clove oil, or a ready made mould aroma gel in the mould-prone area.  The clove oil will continue to kill mould spores circulating in the room.

The great news is that you do not need harsh chemicals such as bleach to get rid of mould.  For those suffering from allergies and asthma, this is a double relief because bleach and ammonia ecascerbate those conditions. 

How to clean mould with clove oil

• First clean the surface with a mixture of 4 litres of hot water, 1 tablespoon bicarb of soda and half a cup of vinegar.
• Mix a quarter teaspoon of clove oil (no more) per litre of water, put it in a spray bottle, lightly mist on. Leave for 20 minutes and wipe off.  Spray again and leave.  It will take 24-48 hours for the mould spores to dry and drop off.

For more mould recipes see our earlier blog post Get rid of mould with clove oil.

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