Tir Tairngire

We have moved

2011-11-14T23:11:00.001+10:00

Check out my new blog at http://www.tirtairngire.com/

Sorry

2010-03-08T14:43:00.000+10:00

Just realised that there have been 8 comments on here since I last visited! Sorry to everyone who has commented, but for some reason I didn't recieve notification of any comments?

Anyway, for anyone who is worried, I'm doing fine, just busy. Feel free to contact me at rinelle at tirtairngire dot com if you want to catch up.

Pumpkin Harvest - Part 1!

2009-03-02T19:52:00.002+10:00

I posted about a week ago about the pumpkin vines taking over the front garden. Well, just before the official start of Autumn yesterday, they weather seemed to be getting a bit cooler (turned out that was just to lull us into complacency before the end of season heatwave the last two days!), I started to think of getting the autumn planting into the ground. Of course, that was next to impossible with the pumpkin vine crawling over everything. The ideal is to let your pumpkins stay on the vines until they die off, then harvest. This means the skins get nice and hard, and the pumpkins will keep for longer. However, a few questions lead to the fact that pumpkin vines may not, in fact, die off here in Brisbane, where we get no harsh winter weather or frosts. And certainly mine are showing no signs of slowing down!

So DH put on his gumboots and gloves, and braved the pumpkin vine jungle to see what he could find. All up, 9 mature and ripe pumpkins, and at least another half a dozen that need a few more weeks. Luckily I've found a space around the side of the house for the first autumn planting, so these can have a little longer. I mean, really, can you ever have to many pumpkins?

It's the Little Things

2009-02-28T14:58:00.005+10:00

Some days, I feel like I'm not making much progress towards where I want to be. It's too hot to garden, too hard to cook. I'm sure we all have days like that. On these days, I find it important to remember that the steps towards simplicity and sustainability aren't always large. Sometimes, doing something small, can make a big difference.

This week, I knitted a small soap saver. DH likes something to scrub with in the shower, and when his last plastic scrubber wore out, I wasn't inclined to replace it with another plastic item. This simple knitted bag does the job, and hopefully means we can use the soap up to the last bit, meaning it will last longer, and we will waste less.

Speaking of soap, I also made a new batch of soap this week. Why is it that I always wait until we're using the last bar to make a new batch, even though this will take at least another week to cure? I wasn't sure how this lot would turn out, in fact I thought I had wrecked it at one point, but it looks like it will work after all. I used the same recipe as last time, only I added some honey as well. I'm not sure if it was the honey, or the fact that I oiled the moulds (the bottom of empty 3L milk bottles) with olive oil, but this soap is far more oily than the last lot. However, so long as it sets, and isn't caustic, we'll use it anyway! The extra oil will just help the soap be a little moisturising! It's all a learning experience.

Guest Blogger - Hidesy

2009-02-26T15:33:00.006+10:00

Hi! I'm Rinelle's sister Hidesy :) Since I was taking a photo of all the toys I recently bought second hand Rinelle suggested that I do a guest post and show them off :) I went to about 4-5 different second hand shops around Brisbane, and found all of these. I had a budget of $50 to spend on toys (in theory our weekly budget for "stuff for Miranda (DD)" so I thought I'd see what I could get. I wanted quality stuff or I could have bought a lot more probably - but I didn't want things that were broken or pointless - I wanted things that could be interesting and would help her. Of course now I realise that I left Pinky out of the picture - a bit unforgivable as it's her favourite ;) It's a little pink stuffed Giraffe. So here's what I got for $48.50 in the end. It took a bit to get them all clean, but I think it was worth it :)

Ebay Bargain!

2009-02-24T20:59:00.004+10:00

DH and I bought this old blue couch back when we were newly married, meaning it is 7 years old now! It's served us faithfully, and moved with us twice. Unfortunately, while it was a great size for two, now that there are three of us, it's getting very squishy.

So it was well and truly time for a new couch. DH and I fell in love with the couch with chaise style after using one at a holiday apartment we stayed in, but until we re-arranged our living room a few weeks ago, we just couldn't find out that would fit in the space we have. A few weeks ago, we decided to take the plunge and get rid of the TV.

No, we're not really TV less. We haven't had commercial TV for more than 12 months now, but we do still watch out selected DVD's. Which, of course, can be watched just as easily on our computer! Our 19 inch monitor was just a little too small though, so we now have a 27 inch. This saves lots of space, and power as well I would imagine, since we no longer run the old CRT screen TV or the DVD player.

Anyway, once that was done, the hunt was on for a new couch. We looked around all the furniture stores (online and in person), and found several (seems to be a popular style right now), but nearly all of them were synthetic, which is something I'm trying to avoid these days. Ikea had lovely lounges, and as a bonus, the covers are completely removable so that you can wash them. Seemed ideal. Except that on closer inspection, only the WHITE covers were actually machine washable, the others were all dry clean only. This was enough to put us off for a while, until I hit upon the concept of dying the covers!

We probably would have gone straight to Ikea to get one, except they had none in stock. (And, of course, Ikea is a 2 hour drive away!) Thus instead, I have been searching EBay daily (you can have new items matching your search criteria e-mailed to you daily), until last week I spotted the EXACT couch I wanted. Bidding was steep, but with dint of much refreshing and last minute bidding, I am now the proud owner of a genuine Ikea couch, at exactly half the retail price!

As you can see, it's in great condition, only 6 months old. The white cover has a few minor discolourations (much of which was probably due to DD jumping up and down on the cushions pretending they were islands), which will undoubtedly be covered when we dye them. Currently, it's covered in sheets, as the owners had dogs, which DH is mildly allergic to. Hopefully we'll get the covers washed and dyed next weekend.

I'm so glad that we managed to find exactly the couch we wanted, at such a great price, and much closer than Ikea! Buying second hand has many advantages, as well as being more eco friendly in that items are reused rather than being thrown out. (In case you're wondering, our old couch now lives up in the garage, for use when DH is up there working.)

Right now though, I'm off to research eco friendly dying!

Feburary - In the Garden

2009-02-23T19:11:00.012+10:00

February, like December and January, has mostly just been too hot for gardening! The rain we've had in the last few weeks has meant that it's cooled down enough to get out there a little in the morning and evening, and most of that time has been spent pulling out the weeds that have been growing like, well, weeds. Luckily some of the plants have been growing likewise, without any attention from me. In fact, I'm surprised that we're actually starting to get a decent amount of food out of the block to supplement our diets. The chickens are back to laying 2-3 eggs a day, which is just enough for us for now. Hopefully there will be even more as the weather cools down though. Still, it has meant that we haven't had to buy a single egg since they started laying! That's been five months now!

The front garden has been taken over by volunteer pumpkin vines that I somehow missed pulling out. They sprout themselves from seeds in the compost, and being a small area, I tried to pull them out, but these took hold after it was too hot to do much. They've covered pretty much the entire area, smothering even the watermelons. They haven't been too good since the first half dozen though, either too ripe, not ripe enough or not enough water. We're still getting a few though, and being fresh and organic, I'd still rather eat them than store bought ones. Again, we haven't bought a watermelon since we harvested our first one!

My guess is that there are at least 20 or more JAP (short for Just A Pumpkin) pumpkins, some bigger than my head!

There's even some hanging from the vines that have climbed up the front fence! Looks like we will have heaps of pumpkins this year too. And they are so sweet! We've had two so far, and looking forward to lots more. Apparently JAP pumpkins only keep for 4-5 months, as they have a thinner skin than other varieties, but I'm sure these will be long gone by then! I'm hoping to keep them on the vines until they die off, as apparently they will keep longer this way. The vines are showing no signs of dying off yet though, still producing little pumpkins, so we'll have to see how that goes. It will be time to get the autumn/winter planting in the ground soon!

I cooked up the last of the frozen strawberries from our garden a week or so ago. Made a mere 4 bottles of jam! I also found several bags of cut up mango from a tray I bought last year, and since they still seemed good, I cooked them up for some mango jam/butter. Mmm, delicious! So sweet I can't eat more than a bite, but very very nice.

Hopefully the jam will see us through until the first harvest of rosella's, which shouldn't' be long now. These bushes down the side of the house are doing far better than the scraggly ones I had up the back last year. Should get lots of jam out of them! Best of all, DD will actually eat it (she normally only eats strawberry), because it is pink! You can see our small bamboo plant in this picture too, it's on the left, being smothered by the rosella's! But growing none the less. I wish I could say the same about the potatoes, that were in between these straw bales. I have no idea if it was the weather or what, but they just didn't do well. Still, I did get one meal out of one plot, so hopefully I'll get some more once I get to the rest of them. I have some of our own tiny potatoes that have sprouted now, so they'll be going in the ground (in a different area) soon. Hopefully they'll do better than this lot.

My latest planting of cotton is getting flowers and bolls. It's down the side of the house, just to the left of the bamboo and rosella's. Unfortunately, the neighbour's horses took a liking to some weeds growing there, and lent over the fence and ate them, along with some of the cotton plants! Not sure if I will be able to salvage much or not. The plants up in the garden that I planted last year have cotton bursting out of them, but since it has gotten wet, it's not very usable. (And I can't really get to it because of the weeds, oops.)

My passionfruit vine is finally taking off, and we're getting about half a dozen lovely yellow passionfruit a week. They are so sweet, not sour at all, unlike most of the passionfruit you buy. I was really surprised to find that these were the yellow passionfruit, as I thought the plant taking over the trellis was the purple one. (I planted one of each.) Hoping we get some purple ones eventually too.

Sadly, I was too busy with other things to harvest most of the corn that I went to such an effort to save after a nasty storm, but I left the plants standing, and a couple of days ago picked off all the ears and shucked the seeds off them. There were only about 5, so I was really surprised to get this many seeds! Plenty to plant next year! (And if I have leftovers, I'm sure the chickens would love them!

Hopefully there will be lots more garden posts coming up soon now that the weather is starting to cool. Getting all this produce from very little effort has really made me want to get out into the garden and get it producing again!

I will also have to post pics of my orchard, just as soon as we mow it. It's kind of hard to see the tress for the grass right now. Oops. But hopefully soon we might have a ride-on mower, which will make the job a LOT easier!

New Routines

2009-02-22T19:07:00.001+10:00

Well, as a follow on from my Low-Tech Wednesday post yesterday, we've been slowly settling into a new routine. The house is slowly getting more organised, and thus quicker to clean (decluttering through one area at a time, currently working on the kitchen), so morning cleanup goes quite quickly. Then we intersperse the morning with schoolwork, more focused cleaning (like the decluttering), and, of course, playing. After lunch (usually either fresh cooked bread, or sandwiches/toast from yesterday's bread), DD will often settle in for an hour or two's TV or computer games, while I find a little time for catching up with my online communities or writing. Then depending on our mood, we play a little more, do some craft/sewing, or go out somewhere.

Yesterday, we made a simple fishing game. DD drew several fish on blank pieces of paper, and we cut them out and slid a paperclip onto the spot where their mouth would be.

Then with an old magnet off the fridge, we went 'fishing' for a while. DD loved it! She's always wanting to buy these sort of fishing games at the stores, but I think our home made one is much better! (Plus it gave her some drawing and cutting practice!) Once she tires of the plain fishing game, I'll write some numbers on each fish, and we can see who gets the highest score. (Great for maths practice, adding numbers.)

DD was watching a birthday party on one of her TV shows, so once it was over, she decided to wrap up some 'presents' for me. Lovely job I think. Especially the bow, perfect finishing touch.

And, of course, what rainy week is complete without an indoor cubby? DD did nearly all of this herself while I was in the other room hanging washing on the indoor line. She did call me out to help with a couple of pegs, but overall, I think it's a pretty spectacular construction.

And while I was in the kitchen cooking, DD decided to write out her own recipe. I helped her with spelling, and working out what the ingredients were, but all the writing is all hers. She did ask how to write a couple of letters, so I demonstrated on a separate piece of paper.

I'm starting to feel like we really are homeschooling, with all these activities going on. DD is learning things so quickly, and her attention is far more sustained than it was even a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to more homeschooling posts as we slowly find our way into a routine that works for us.

Lessons Learned from Low-Tech Wednesday

2009-02-21T15:40:00.002+10:00

Yes, I know it has been a couple of days, but things have been happening here. And it all started with Low-Tech Wednesday. Now as far as low-tech goes, it was a bit of a failure. It did make me realise though, all of the wonderful tech that I just don't want to live without. (I don't say can't live without, as I have done so quite successfully in my childhood!) I mean, hot and cold running water! Flushing toilets! (I just have to put those two first, because I am NEVER going back to not having them, LOL.) But we also continued to use our refrigerator, freezer, lights, car (to go the playgroup and ferry DH to and from the train station), washing machine, stove top, oven and the dishwasher. That is a LOT of technology, just in one day. It is amazing how reliant we become on it.

When we were in the shed, it was slightly easier to do without some of these things. For a start, we didn't have a dishwasher! On previous low-tech days, I've avoided putting on loads of washing, or using the oven, and we've done our dinner cooking outdoors on the barbeque, but given our household's tiredness (I'm pretty sure even DD is a little sleep deprived right now, or maybe she's just having one of those growth spurts), we went the easy route. The only things we turned off for the day, were the computers/TV.

But none the less, it made a HUGE impact on our day. I've never been one of those people who insisted that the TV was bad, and we should do without it. However, low-tech Wednesday made me realise that we've been coming to rely on the TV and computers just a little too much for our entertainment, and we were all suffering for it. DD has been much calmer, and much more likely to find games to entertain herself, with her TV time limited to about an hour a day.

I'll be back to post tomorrow about some of the fun things we've been doing!

Low-tech Wednesday Revived

2009-02-18T19:43:00.000+10:00

Yes, it's been a long time since we've had a low-tech Wednesday, but given the amount of stress and tiredness in our house right now, I think it's time to revive this habit. We've been watching far too much TV, and spending far too much time on the internet, so I think a regular day without would not only give us some time away from these distractions, but get us back into the habit of considering alternatives to our electronic entertainers.

And before you point out that I'm here posting this online, I'm actually writing it on Tuesday, but scheduling it to post on Wednesday! Clever huh? I'll be back on Thursday to let you know how the day went!

Simple, whole foods

2009-02-17T19:22:00.002+10:00

A lot of posts about simple living focus on food. How to grow it, how to prepare it. I mean, it's one of the most basic necessities, and one that I think has been most interfered with. Just about every product you look at on the supermarket shelves has been modified in some way, usually by the addition of many synthetic chemicals. Although probably many of these do no real harm, I don't think that the continued consumption of these can have any long term benifits.

I'm still working on the food around here. I have a house full of very picky eaters (me included!), and DH's gluten intolerance to take into consideration, so finding things that everyone will eat and enjoy is a challenge. We generally stick to very bland, plain meals, making it very easy to try to keep to whole, unprocessed foods.

This is how I started my day at 7:30am this morning. DD had a similar, but smaller plate. All of it fresh, from the markets, with the passionfruit being picked from our own vine yesterday afternoon. I went a bit overboard here, and wasn't sure if I could eat it all, but in the end I did. I find that getting this fruit in early in the day is the easiest way for me. I used to eat a lot of fruit, but since DD was born, I've found myself eating less and less, while encouraging her to eat more! Far better to practice what I preach, and eat it myself. However, I often find I'm too busy to stop and eat much during the day. Doing it first thing means that I don't forget.

Of course, while fruit is full off all those great vitamins and minearls, I find that even after a huge plate like that, I'm hungry again by about 9 or 10 (10 in this case!), so that's when I have some nice, hot, filling poridge, covered in wheat germ and brown sugar. (I do need to cut down on the sugar a little, I admit, I'm working on it.) That lasts me a lot of the rest of te day, and the chickens love eating the leftovers (because I always make too much, these days on purpose!)

So there you have it, a nice healthy breakfast, and delicious as well!

Financial Goals

2009-02-16T19:21:00.004+10:00

Lately DH and I have been giving quite a lot of thought to our financial situation. I've written previously that our goal is for DH to be able to work part time, and hopefully retire very early, but so far aside from dreaming, we've made very little effort to achieve this goal.

I've been reading many blogs lately about people who have begun to make moves towards changing their situation. People who are working to pay off their mortgages, and live life the way they want to instead of being ruled by their debts, and they are inspiring. I think we can do it too. No, it won't happen tomorrow. In fact, it will be years away. But we certainly can't start any sooner.

Our first goal is to finish paying off our credit card. We hope to have this done by the end of March. Until it's paid off, we're going to continue with our Nothing New policy as much as we are able to. I'm mending our sheets yet again because I don't want to have to buy a new set. (And I refuse to buy cheap ones, I have a particular set in mind, and am waiting until we have the SPARE cash to afford them.) We're attempting to intersperse our normally meat heavy meals with cheaper ones, like the scrambled eggs we had tonight, (Can't get any cheaper than that, eggs laid by our own chooks, on toast cooked here at home), fried rice, and pasta. The increasing amount of produce we're getting from our own garden, as well as making everything we can at home (from materials we already have where possible!), helps as well. Really, there is very little we will need to buy over the next few months. (Except the previously mentioned bookshelves and new lounge if they are available, though in reality they aren't needs, but wants.)

Once the credit card is paid off, our next step is to build up an emergency fund of $1000. As any budgeting gurus will tell you, if you lack an emergency fund, you will simply rack up your credit card again when the unexpected happens. We now have a second mortgage offset account (off our construction loan), where the emergency fund will be separate from our day to day money, while still offsetting the interest on our mortgage. We hope to have this done by the end of June.

After the initial emergency fund is secure, we will increase our payments on the home loan by $100 a fortnight. Not much, and should be easy to do without many changes to our current budget, but from the few calculations I've done, it should reduce the repayments on our home loan nearly in half, and save us scads of interest! While we're doing this, we will continue to add any extra money, bonus payments etc, into the emergency fund until it's at about $5000. Hopefully we should achieve this by the end of the year.

Then, all going well, any extra money we get will go straight into the home loan. If we can pay off this one loan (the smaller, and at a higher interest rate), it will halve our repayments, and would allow DH to work part time if he chooses, or allow us to pay off the second loan (on the land) in half the time.

In order to help us keep track of our goals and progress, I've set up a budget in Microsoft Money (which we already had!) We've used this with great success previously, only falling behind when DD was little, and we couldn't find the time to keep it updated. Hopefully it will work just as well for us this time!

Overflowing

2009-02-16T19:12:00.002+10:00

On Friday, we had over 18mm of rain in about 24 hours! Our tanks, which were already pretty full from the weeks of rain in early summer, were simply overflowing. This one, which fills from our house roof (about 115sqm), apparently doesn't have a big enough overflow outlet! It was simply gushing out the inlet, and I ended up going down and pulling the cap off the pipe so that it would flow out into the street drain rather than overflowing here near the house. At least the pipes will have had a good flushing out!

We ran entirely off our stainless steel tank last summer and most of winter (you can see it in the background), and managed to use no town water, though the levels did get mighty low once or twice. So far though, with the two tanks, we have had so much water we don't know what to do with it!

Still, conserving water is so ingrained in us now, that even when we have plenty, we use very little. Our washing machine and dishwasher use only minimal water (washing machine about 50l a load, dishwasher about 11), we have water saving shower heads, and are careful every time we turn a tap on. It all pays off though, and hopefully we will have plenty of water to see us through the winter (which typically has less rain here), without any worries.

Restoring Old Toys

2009-02-10T19:52:00.005+10:00

When DD was first born, we bought SO MANY toys for her, all new. I shudder to think of how much we spent on toys that probably only lasted a year or two at most. (To my credit, most were either sold or donated to charity then, not thrown out.) My sister has a far more sensible attitude, and gets a lot more for her $50 at the second hand stores or garage sales than we ever got at the toystore!

These days, we buy a few select, high quality toys new, and mostly either make them at home, or buy second hand. While there are many second hand toys that are like new, or even gain appeal through being loved, many just aren't as 'pretty' as those you can buy new. And I don't believe in kids getting 'second best'. Though DD will happily play with her second hand toys, I often like to spruce them up a bit for her.

Here is the toy ironing board we bought for a couple of dollars somewhere. A new cover, and a second hand wooden iron from the markets, and it's a toy worth of any child's playroom. (Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them so you can have a good look if you want.)

This pram, likewise, was a dollar or two at a second hand store. I believe they're $7 or so new at bargain stores, which is probably where this one was originally from. With a new cover, it looks far prettier than the original one would have looked the day it came home from the store. I took off the old cover and used it to make a pattern for this new one. DD and I gave the pram a good scrubbing. The new cover took less than an hour to sew up (mostly due to me trying to 'improve' over the original design, when will I learn), and used the buckle from the original cover, but otherwise all new material (less than half a metre of $5 a metre material).

I enjoy this so much more than just going out and buying new, which always leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

These toys will also be a great addition to DD's 'home corner' once I get to it.

We're Rich!

2009-02-09T18:58:00.001+10:00

No, we haven't won the lotto, or found some hidden pirate treasure. In fact, we have exactly the same amount of money that we had yesterday. It's just that I stopped, for a moment, thinking of all the things we can't afford, and realised what we can.

We have the money to pay for DD's unexpected dental costs without a struggle.

We have enough to buy food, petrol and other necessities without having to count pennies.

We have enough for luxury items, like a nice TV, nice furniture, and new items to replace those that break.

We have enough to buy nice material for clothes.

We have enough to spend the odd $100 at Spotlight on purely decorator items, without feeling (too) guilty.

We have more than enough to buy most things we want, comfortably, and most importantly, without going into debt. (Though we're still paying off the debt from the days before we realised this, nearly there now.) Sure, there are things we would like that we can't afford. But show me a person, no matter how well off they are, that doesn't? (OK, maybe Bill Gates doesn't have to consider the bank balance, but otherwise...) Yes, the cost of the 'wants but can't affords' goes up, but they are still there, no matter how much money you make.

The trick is to realise when you have 'enough', and be happy with it.

Homeschool Reading Corner

2009-02-08T19:08:00.004+10:00

I posted a few days ago (OK, I admit, more like a few weeks ago) about some reorganising going on here. Well, it's still going on, and most of it is too messy to post pictures yet, but some bits are finally emerging in working order. The main reorganisation is in the living room, but it's spilling over into DD's play/school room as well. Given that we're starting the new school year here, I figured an overhaul was in order. We did a big clean up/organise a few months ago, but in typical me fashion, I've decided to change it all around to break the room up into 'corners' (those who've been in a preschool room will probably recognise the tactic), each with a different purpose. This is the new 'Reading Corner', complete with books, and some comfy cushions to rest on while reading.

There will be more cushions, but it's time consuming to make them since I can't do anything in a simple fashion. I could have just sewn two squares of material together, and all four would be done, but no, I had to get fancy. I do think they look rather nice though, and DD loves them. She carries them around the house wherever she goes. Lucky I'm making more...

Op-Shop Bargains and another Nothing New Month

2009-02-06T20:12:00.006+10:00

I've been re-visiting a lot of the local op-shops (thrift stores for those in the US) lately, and found some real bargains. Like the cushion inserts above, at $3 each. Sure, I've seen cushion inserts in stores for $3 each, but not this size, these are about 20 inches square. Perfect for DD's reading corner. The white object folded up on the bottom is actually a thin, cotton quilt, in perfect condition, it was $7. The folded up flannel sheets were $1.50 each because they had slight marks/not in top condition, which is not going to matter once I cut them up for hankies!

Then in another op-shop (where I went to buy zippers for covers for the new cushions, which incidentally I found for 20 cents each), I found these shirts on the $1 rack. Perfect for cutting up to make some smaller shirts for DD.

I love finding bargains at the op-shops. It feels so good to not only get something cheaply, but to know that I'm recycling in the real meaning of the word. These objects, which would otherwise be thrown out, are being used again. And when I'm finished with them, they'll be passed back to be used again. We waste so much in our world, it feels good to stop even a little of that.

However, despite finding bargains and some great deals, I think I've been going a bit overboard on the buying. Things are piling up, and we need some more cleaning and organising going on here. I have more material than I have time to sew, and more things than I have places to put them. So DH and I have decided to have another Nothing New month this month. Yes, I know we're already into February, and to make it neat I should wait until March, but when the mood hits you, it's best to start while you're motivated.

The exceptions to the Nothing New will be a particular set of bookshelves, or a particular couch, if they come up second hand this month.

Sugar Cane

2009-02-05T20:11:00.005+10:00

I've been trying to get hold of some sugar canes for growing for a while, but most of the online places won't ship to Queensland (because of quarantine I would assume, since a lot of sugar cane is grown here), so I haven't had much luck. That's why I was quite excited when I saw some at the markets on Sunday. They had normal canes, I assume for people to try, and some canes with leaves still on them for growing. I bought 4, and at 50c each, I thought they were quite a bargain!

Unfortunately, with the dentist appointment this week, we haven't had a chance to plant it, and it only went into the ground this afternoon. I don't know much about planting it, but the advice from my mum coincided with what I could find online, so I cut it into lengths, and put it in the ground on it's side.

Apparently, the new growth comes from these little buds on the side. Hopefully it will grow, and if not, I only lost $2.

One recommendation though, if you're going to try this, make sure you wear gloves. I didn't initially, and ended up with lots of very fine, very small, very painful hairs stuck into my hand. Ouch.

A Long Day

2009-02-04T20:12:00.003+10:00

DD had her dental appointment early this morning, and it has been a very long day for us all. She was a little trouper though, and handled it all so well, even though she hasn't felt too good. I'm very proud of her.

I took my knitting with me, but didn't get anything done in the waiting room, I just couldn't concentrate. I've been knitting on and off during the afternoon while DH and DD have been reading or playing computer games. I'm pleased with how quickly this is knitting up, but not quite ready to reveal what it is yet. Will post pictures when it's finished if it turns out the way I want.

Junk Mail and Wardrobe Planning

2009-02-03T20:07:00.003+10:00

You may be wondering what I'm doing posting about these two topics together on a blog that is supposedly about simple living. I mean, isn't the aim to buy less and make your own rather than getting drawn into all the advertising and sales?

Well, of course it is. And the truth is, I can't see me buying children's clothes (or adults clothes for the most part) in stores again. But I do like to look through the catalogues to be inspired and come up with ideas for what I can make at home. Most of the pretty outfits you see in the catalogues are just variations on a basic pattern. They might add a few frills in different places, some embroidery, or use a particular material, but there is very little in the stores that can't easily be replicated by the home dressmaker.

So each week when the catalogues come in (and I really should get a "No Junk Mail" sign for the letterbox and just check them out online), I look through them, and if there is anything that I like the look of, I cut it out, and stick it into my inspiration scrapbook. I noticed this week that we've moved away from the summer clothes, and into the autumn/winter stuff. Probably a good reminder that I need to get onto planning DD's wardrobe. Making it yourself takes a little more time, but it is SO satisfying to dress DD each day, and know that I made nearly everything she's wearing! Hopefully, this winter, her entire wardrobe will be homemade!

Oh the Irony

2009-02-01T20:14:00.002+10:00

I was filling up the car with petrol the other day, something I very rarely do (I usually get DH to do it), and as I watched the haze around the nozzle as the tank filled, I thought how ironic it was. I go to great lengths not to bring excess plastic into the house, not to use plastic grocery bags, to buy 100% cotton as much as possible, yet here I am filling my car with petrol, simply to burn it all up.

Unavoidable at this stage, but it does make you think.

Sorry for the absences lately, we haven't been doing much to write about, the camera batteries have been dead, and all in all it's been a hectic time. Next week will probably be similar, as DD has a dentist appointment to have some fillings done under a GA, but after that hopefully posts will become more regular again.

Artificial Sweeteners

2009-01-28T21:37:00.005+10:00

As part of my aim to get DD out of the house and socialising more with kids her own age, we've been attending a local playgroup for the last couple of weeks. Today was one of the kids 4th birthday, and of course there was cake and lemonade. Pretty normal for a preschoolers birthday celebration. I was casually watching the preparations, absently reading the label on the lemonade bottle. "No artificial colours or preservatives", oh good I though. Next line, "No sugar". The warning lights went on, and I came over to ask, "Does this have artificial sweeteners in it?" The mum looked at me in confusion. "I don't know?"

I checked the label, and sure enough, it listed artificial sweeteners. DD had water. I bought her a can of real lemonade, with real sugar, on the way home.

I would like to say that it amazes me that people don't even question what is in their food, but I only have to look back five or so years to know that I was like that. Luckily, I've never eaten any of those 'diet' foods simply because I don't like the artificial taste, but otherwise, I was just as ignorant as that mum.

I first researched the dangers of artificial sweeteners when I was pregnant with DD. I have no recollection why at this stage, since as I said, I've never eaten them, but something sent me searching. And let me tell you, most of what I found wasn't pretty. Nearly every artificial sweetener on the market is associated with cancer in some form. Laboratory tests of all of them have shown the formation of cancer in rats at far above normal rates, but yet, recommendations to have them banned have been overruled, and they have been allowed to continue to be used, often in food marketed at children!

Perhaps the dangers of artificial sweeteners can be summed up by the first artificial sweetener, used by the Ancient Romans, Sugar of Lead. I don't think I even need to explain what the side effects of that one were.

Ironically, most of them have not, in fact, been shown to help people lose weight! It is hypothesised that the sweet taste, without the calories, actually causes the body to demand more sweet food, thus leading to more eating. The latest research from the University of Texas has confirmed that artificial sweeteners are not helping people to lose weight, in fact, they are still gaining.

I could go on for hours about this one, and if you do a quick search on artificial sweeteners, you'll find plenty more information, especially about the worst culprit, aspartame, which is believed to cause brain tumours.

Please, read up on this topic before eating artificial sweeteners in any form, especially if you have children or are pregnant.

Sleep Deficit

2009-01-24T21:26:00.002+10:00

Regular readers will have noticed the complete lack of posts for the last week or two. Truth is, both DH and I are more than a little behind on our sleep, and circumstances keep conspiring to make sure we don't catch up. The one hour each way commute to the city for DH's work means we have to leave the house at 6:30am to get him to the train station on time, and he isn't home until after 5pm. Give a couple of hours for playing, dinner etc, and it's nearly 8pm by the time DD is in bed, giving DH and I very little time to relax and unwind before we should be in bed ourselves. In order to catch up on some sleep, we really need to be in bed by 9pm, but somehow that seems impossible (as you will note from the 9:30 time on this post). We've tried not even turning the computers on, but then we sit and talk for an hour! All good stuff, but not helping with the sleep, thus making the extra time for blog posts right now just isn't happening. Hopefully we'll catch up a little soon (or give up trying!), and I'll have some more time for posting.

Still around...

2009-01-18T20:21:00.001+10:00

Yes, I've been quiet. DH has had a week off, and we've been busy doing some reorganising around here. It's not quite ready to display to the world yet, but expect some reorganising posts in a few days...

Keeping on Mending

2009-01-15T21:14:00.006+10:00

Some of my regular readers (and I do have regular readers, including 5 followers, Yay!) might remember this sheet from a previous repair post. I've been washing a lot of things on hot to be sure to keep the chicken's mites out of the house, and unfortunately the hot water (my machine does a 90 degree hot wash) has killed the elastic in the fitted sheet. Last time it was on the bed, it just kept coming off at the corners, very annoying.

I thought at first that the elastic had just snapped somewhere, but when I unpicked the seam at one corner, it was obvious it was just destroyed. So I cut the elastic, and pulled the whole lot out. (I could have left it in, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.)

The fastest way to unpick the seams is to use this handy little tool. It's called a quick unpick, and is invaluable to the sewing enthusiast. No matter how good you get at sewing, there will always be times when you just have to unpick something. Like when you sew the arm of a t-shirt onto the neck opening. (Not that I would do something like that...) And also handy in this case, where you want to undo the stitching to change the elastic. (Handy hint, you can do this for skirts and pants that have become to tight but otherwise still fit, so long as the elastic isn't sewn in.)

Once I'd unpicked that spot, I cut the elastic, and pulled the whole lot out, a very slow and tedious process.

Then I had to replace it with some good elastic. I didn't happen to have a piece long enough, so I pulled out 3 2m bits, and sewed them together with a zig zag stitch like this.

I forgot to take photos of putting the new elastic in unfortunately, but basically you attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic, and use that to thread it through the casing. I found that all the way around a queen sized sheet was a LONG way, so I ended up unpicking the opposite corner too, and threading through from the opposite end as well.

Because of the long length, it's quite hard to get the elastic through evenly, so I simply pulled it as tight as I could, fastened it with the safety pin, and put the sheet on. Each time I'm making the bed, I check it, and often tighten it a little. When it's time to change the sheets again, I'll sew the ends of the elastic together, and close up the opening.

Some people might thing that this is a pointless waste of time, and it's much easier to just go out and buy a new set of sheets. But the reality is that the sheets are still good (and my favourite set), and they have plenty of wear left in them yet. The top sheet and pillow cases are still find, and the fitted sheet is still in reasonable condition. So for about 20 minutes work, I just saved about $100 (I refuse to buy cheap sheets, hate them), and at least half an hour's time had I needed to go buy a new set! Not to mention the damage to the environment to grow the cotton, process it into material, make the sheets, and ship them back and forth. It just makes sense to repair things where you can.

From the Garden

2009-01-14T20:54:00.006+10:00

Tonight's Dinner

Despite the lack of care in the last few months, the garden is still quietly producing away. I ducked out to pick these to add to tonight's dinner. The pumpkin is self sowed up near the fruit trees, the corn has been looking after itself since it was planted (probably not going to get much out of it, but looks like we should get at least a little), and the zucchini plants are taking over the front garden (along with the watermelons and more self-sowed pumpkins).

I'm trying to develop a liking for zucchini, but so far it's not going well. They don't taste exactly bad, but I can't find anything to actually like about them yet, so I'm making do with hiding them under other vegies (mashed potato works well) or in other things, like the delicious pasta sauce below. Because no matter how bland they taste, there is one thing I can say about zucchini's, they sure are easy to grow in large numbers!

This is the pasta sauce I made yesterday completely from our home grown tomatoes. Actually, this is the leftover sauce that I put into the freezer after using the rest of it to cook up enough mince and sauce to do 3 meals, plus leftovers! Tomatoes, like zucchini's, are something we can easily grow plenty of. In fact, I really must go out and pick the next lot to add to the freezer tomorrow morning!

This afternoon I went out and picked a bunch of cow peas. I planted these on the side of the chook run back in the beginning of summer, and have looked at them drying the last few weeks, wondering if they were edible (I bought them mainly for the chooks), and after a bit of research today, it seems like they are. I picked all these in only a few minutes, and there are probably about this many again on the vines.

Shelling them left me with quite a bowl full of dried cow peas (which I'm pretty sure are actually a bean, not a pea!) Not sure exactly what I'll do with them yet, probably add them to a soup, stew or mince dish, but it's kind of cool to have all these when I hadn't really expected it. They are quite prolific (I only planted about 20 or so plants), way more so than other types of beans, and on top of that they are doing a great job shading my chook pen!

I miss it already!

2009-01-08T19:53:00.002+10:00

I took my overlocker in to be repaired this morning, and I'm already feeling the lack. The notes on the last repair were "needle guides out of alignment" apparently. Sounds relatively easy to fix, but apparently they are snowed under right now, so I could be waiting a while.

I'm finding myself quite lost without it. I've been sewing so much in the last 6 months that it's become quite a habit. I find that making something, creating something, is very soothing and relaxing, and really helps me get back into the right frame of mind when I'm having one of those days.

Of course, I still have my sewing machine, and from reading all the sewing blogs I read, very few people use their overlockers as extensively as I use mine. In fact, I don't think I've seen one mentioned on a tutorial/sewing blog at all! (For any US readers, I believe an overlocker is the same as a serger?) However, ever since my grandmother gave me her old industrial overlocker nearly 15 years ago, I've loved them. To be able to cut, sew and finish edges all in one go is just perfect, and really helps keep things neat and tidy.

Of course, you can technically sew without an overlocker. There is nothing an overlocker does that you cannot replicate in some way on a sewing machine. It's just the the overlocker does it so much more efficiently and more neatly than a sewing machine. The reverse however is not true. There are some things that can only be done on a sewing machine, like taking up hems, sewing on binding or lace, or quilting. So if I had to pick one or the other, I'd go for the sewing machine, but since I have both, I'm strangely loath to start a new project until my baby is home again.

Almost, but not quite. I've found that I can sew nappies quite easily on just the sewing machine (although the thought that I could do them more neatly if only my overlocker were here pops up now and then), and since my sister has asked me to make some for her new baby (she's going to try cloth, Yay!), and so I guess that will have to do for my sewing fix until the overlocker is back. The first trial nappy was totally the wrong shape for her baby though, so I'm going to have to keep experimenting till I find something that works.

They're back...

2009-01-07T20:08:00.002+10:00

The mites that is. Thought we had licked them, but apparently we gave up too early. We're again scratching every time we go near the chicken pen, and tomorrow we'll be waging war on the tiny itchies yet again. This is a photo from last time, when we bathed the chickens in tea tree oil. Don't they look miserable? We probably won't bother with that again this time, as it was a lot of effort for not much reward. Dusting with sulphur, both the chickens themselves, and their nesting boxes and sleeping areas, is far more effective. Even more effective when you dust, then hose down the whole pen, letting wet sulphur get into all the nooks and crannies. And apparently you need to keep it up for a few weeks after you think they're all gone, to get the next lot of eggs that hatch out.

Look out mites, you're days are numbered!

New Shirts

2009-01-05T20:16:00.005+10:00

I've been sewing away at the t-shirts I'm making for DD, and am down to the last two. In fact, when I finish this post, I'll probably go and try to get them finished, leaving way for the next sewing project. She's been wearing them as fast as I'm sewing them, meaning it's hard to get a photo, but I'll try to add some to this post before I post it.

Out of 3 metres of fabric, I've made about 7 t-shirts, the entire lot costing me less than $20. There is plenty of material left over, just no pieces big enough for the front of the shirts. I will probably make some skirts as well or perhaps some pants.

I deliberately bought 3 co-ordinating colours so that I could mix and match, and ended up with some interesting colour combinations at the end, some deliberate, some just the material I had left. Each shirt I made is different in some way, perhaps a different colour binding, or different coloured sleeves/back. Only problem I've found is that because most of them are patterns, it's harder to match them with DD's patterned skirts.

There was a time not so long ago when you could by clothes for cheaper than you could make them, but it seems that is passing. I wonder if it's the material getting cheaper, or the clothes getting more expensive? Or perhaps it's just that I'm sewing for a smaller person now! It can't only be that though, because I'm finding it cheaper to make clothes for myself too, so long as I stick to the simpler patterns, which is really what I prefer anyway.

I've taken to cutting up the junk mail catalogues as they come in, picking out the clothing pictures I once would have gone out to buy, and sticking them into a scrapbook for inspiration when sewing. Nearly every picture I see is a relatively simple alteration on a basic pattern, so are easily reproducible without much added expense. Now that we've solved the immediate lack of t-shirt issue, hopefully I'll have time for some pretty and frilly additions!

Edited to add: Not any time soon though, overlocked is broken again! I had the same problem a few weeks after I bought it, so I'm not happy that it's happened again. Back to the repair shop yet again!

New Routines

2009-01-04T20:17:00.002+10:00

Well, after feeling inspired by my own post last night, we got out this morning and tackled about half the mowing (with FIL's help), planted out those three trees that desperately needed it (another Valencia orange, navel orange, and pink lady apple to add to my collection), and cleaned out the chook run. Unfortunately the mites are back again, just when we thought we had them beat. Have to be more vigilant this time. I also bought a few kg's of apricots at the markets this morning for $3.50 a kilo, and they're drying in the dehydrator as we speak.

While all these things are good to get done, we're also busy working on making sure our lives are more organised to achieve things on a regular basis, not just in fits and starts like so often happens. I've been a fan of Flylady's methods since I first discovered her website several years ago, and have gone through stages of 'Flying' with her on and off. I don't have time right now for the e-mail lists, but I do think that her methods can, and have, worked well for our family. So yesterday I wrote up a new morning and evening routine. I've had routines for quite a while, but unfortunately they grew so much that I was too daunted to start them! And routines can't really help you if you don't do them! So DH and I wrote up some new ones together, limiting ourselves to three things in the morning, and three things in the evening. We could, of course, have put down many more things, but really wanted to stick to the essentials, and not overwhelm ourselves.

Morning Routine:

Unload Dishwasher
Make Beds
5 minute hotspot* rescue

*hotspots are those places where clutter builds up, in our case the computer table, the kitchen bench, around the TV etc.

Evening Routine:

Load Dishwasher
Take out Compost
5 minute room rescue on Lounge room

I'm pleased to report that even after only doing these routines for 2 days, we can see the difference. You might think that doing three such small things would be a drop in the ocean, but it's surprising how much of a difference it makes. No doubt in time we'll add to these routines, but for now we're just going to practice these until they're automatic.

New Year, New Enthusiasm.

2009-01-03T19:32:00.003+10:00

Regular readers may have noticed that this blog has been rather quiet through November/December. In part, this was due to the fact that these have been very busy months for our family. November was taken up with writing, December with frantic Christmas preparations. On top of that, the weather has been hot, hot and more hot, with lots of rain thrown into the mix. Very little chance for gardening, for even if we braved the heat to plant, what is going to grow in this weather? (Other than the watermelons, which are doing great!)

And now, here we are in 2009, wondering what we are going to do this year. Well, we are hoping for some lifestyle changes, mainly in the form of a new job for DH. Closer to home would be great, but is unlikely due to the lack of jobs in his field nearby. Mainly though, we are hoping for some more regular hours, less stress, and hopefully a bit more flexibility.

DH and I have been talking too, and are looking at ways to further reduce our expenses on the basis that saving $100 is worth more than making an extra $100. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, think on it. For starters, of the $100 extra you make, a large percentage is immediately gone in tax. Not to mention the GST you're not paying simply by not buying something.

With this in mind, it will be back to making, mending and growing this year. I'm itching for the weather to cool down enough to plant something, but think I'll realistically have to wait until mid February at least. In the meantime though, there are some fruit trees that still need to be planted out (from before November!), mowing to do, fruit trees to mulch etc etc, so plenty to keep me busy. On the sewing front, I'm finally getting around to finishing those t-shirts for DD, making more shopping bags (and I've just had the brainwave to recycle my old green bags, which are more than a little the worse for wear, into stiffening in various projects), some swimming togs for DD (from second hand swimming tops), and no doubt many other things. I need to get back into preserving, before all this wonderful summer fruit is done for the year, including cooking up all the tomatoes that are languishing in my freezer (cooked up one lot last night though, and they were delish!). I need to cook more from scratch, and start figuring out how to use all this garden produce. I also have lots and lots of wool that needs to be spun ready for the winter knitting frenzy.

On the financial front, hopefully we'll have more no-spend months, do some budgeting maybe, and hopefully, 2009 will be the year that we pay off the credit card for good. We've paid it off before, but it is only this time, through dint of paying it off bit by bit the slow hard way, that we have actually changed our spending habits enough to know we are not going to run it straight back up again. Then we can work on saving, and beginning paying extra on the home loan. Exciting stuff.

I also need to get working on organising the house, decluttering, making curtains for the windows, rugs for the floors, that sort of thing.

And last, but not least, I have to get a plan in place for DD's first official year of homeschooling. She is due to start prep this year, which is not compulsory in Queensland, so we will be running our own program (at this stage), including lots of getting out and joining groups, excursions, and other fun stuff.

So stay tuned for a hopefully action packed 2009!

Summer Harvest

2008-12-31T20:35:00.004+10:00

I must admit, the garden has been sadly neglected in this heat. Luckily we're getting reasonably regular rain, because I haven't even been watering it. Went out this afternoon in the cool of the evening, and picked these. I planted 20 Roma tomato seeds a few months ago, and they have just produced and produced. This was just today's pickings, and because I haven't been out recently, there were just as many rotting on the ground. Guess I won't have to plant seeds again next season! Surprisingly we haven't had much trouble with bugs or anything, perhaps because in my laziness I didn't even stake them, and the plants are just heaps on the ground, with the tomatoes protected under all the leaves? Whatever the reason, I have a freezer full of tomatoes. Think it's about time I had a pasta sauce preserving session.

I didn't pick this watermelon today, but it's sitting there all ripe and ready to pick. Just as soon as I finish the one in the fridge that I picked a few days ago. You can tell when a watermelon is ready to pick because the curl at the point where the stalk joins the vine dies off. From the nine seeds I planted this year, looks like we'll have enough watermelons that we won't need to buy anymore this summer. And they're staggered enough that they won't ripen all at once either, should be just about right. And my goodness, they are DELICIOUS. A store bought watermelon has nothing on one you grow yourself, let me tell you.

Apparently my grandfather, who was a farmer in the Mary Valley when my mum was a girl, said the trick to a good watermelon is lots of water while they're growing, then stop watering in the last week so that the sugar can develop. Which, funnily enough, is exactly what these ones had. We had rain on average 2-3 times a week for the initial growth period, then in the last few weeks, only once a week or so. Couldn't have arranged it better if I'd tried!

So, just to remind myself, next year I again have to plant about 20 Roma tomatoes, and about 9 watermelons!

Present Pictures

2008-12-28T19:21:00.005+10:00

And here are the promised princess tent pictures. It really was a nightmare to make. Cutting out the windows let the walls stretch out of shape, the wire around each piece buckled, and you don't want to know the gymnastics it took to get those pieces under the food of the sewing machine. I did hand sew some of it, but I would never have gotten it finished if I had tried to hand sew all of it.

DD loves it though, and has played with it every day since Christmas. She doesn't see any of the crooked stitches, the seams that show, the walls that aren't the right shape, or the roof that sags. And in the end, that is what I was aiming for, something that made DD happy, so I'm trying very hard to overlook all those imperfections myself.

I'm much much happier with how this doll turned out, although she does seem to have rather a lot of hair...

DD of course, seems less keen. She's far happier dressing up Big Bird or Simba. The fairy dress (made after Christmas to match DD's) has helped though, and today she has been asking to have her hair in pigtails like dolly, so I guess there is hope.

For anyone who is interested in trying their hand at making one, I bought my pattern for download from Dancing Rain Dolls. It was a really easy to follow and comprehensive pattern, and I definitely think I'll be purchasing some more of her patterns in the future.

Growing so quicky

2008-12-27T20:48:00.003+10:00

I did take pictures of DD's tent and doll today with the intention of posting them, but then DD spilt water on the mouse on DH's computer, so I can't use it to download the photos. So instead you'll have to make do with this closeup of our local wild duck family. They're growing so fast!

Tomorrow I'll post the pics, I promise.

Our Christmas

2008-12-26T19:40:00.006+10:00

Since DH was working Christmas day, DD and I spent the day at my sisters. We had an absolutely lovely day, decorating her apartment and playing with her baby.

And now, since all the present giving is done, I can finally post some pics of my latest round of crafting. I don't have good pictures yet of DD's presents, though you can see the princess/fairy dress I made her in the above picture. I'll try to get some pictures of the fairy tent and Waldorf doll in the next few days.

This bag and cushion went to DH's mum and dad. DD drew the pictures with special fabric crayons, then I used them to make these. I think they went down rather well.

These went to my sister and her husband (I'm sure you can guess which is whose.) They picked out the materials, and I sewed them up. I think the colour combinations worked really well, even though the camo and orange isn't quite what I would have chosen!

The handmade gifts has been a great experience this year, and I've really enjoyed making them, and thinking of ideas for each person, though next year I think I should start the sewing a little earlier! I felt a little unsure on Christmas morning, when DD only had 6 presents to unwrap, and when we were wrapping them, I felt this urge to go straight out and buy more, but overall I think the smaller number was better. Yes, she was still looking for presents at the end of them, but then, aren't kids always looking for more presents? On the plus side, she actually looked at each of the presents as she was unwrapping them, stopping to put on the dress, and play in the tent before grabbing the next present, something that I DON'T think happens when there are large numbers of presents. I certainly don't think she was disappointed, and we could see from the expression on her face that she was thrilled with her princess tent. She also didn't become overwhelmed and overexcited as she seems to when there are large numbers of presents to open.

Hopefully we'll be strong enough to stick to a similar low key present opening next year.

One Christmas Job down...

2008-12-22T20:27:00.008+10:00

Well, I finally sewed the last patch onto the Advent Calendar tonight. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Made using fabrics I had lying around, and only a few purchases of bits and pieces for the numbers from spotlight (a few iron on numbers and the like). You might recognise the backing as the material I was using in an attempt at crocheting a rag rug (that I gave up on). The pockets are made from some scrap Christmas material that I had from my mum, and the rectangles on the front from the felt that I bought a while ago (still have some left even).

I've tried to do each number slightly differently, to keep it interesting. I was partly inspired by this calendar here, although I of course, had to go the hard road of making it from scratch!

And here are some of my favourite pockets. I just love these sunflower buttons. They are just so cheerful and happy.

I love these cute little letter accents too, that I found in the scrapbooking section at Spotlight. I still have lots more, so no doubt more will make their appearance in other projects in the coming months.

And finally, this one was sheer inspiration if I do say so myself. DD wanted to use the little red plane button, and I knew I couldn't fit 23 of them on this square, when suddenly it occurred to me, sky writing!

And, as if Advent calendars and all the other things I have to get done weren't enough, I'm trying to turn this Thomas the Tank Engine tent into a princess castle! DD saw one at Spotlight (can you tell where I've been spending a fair bit of time lately), and wanted it. I managed to convince her that she might get it for Christmas, then by the time we got back there to get it, they were sold out! So are all the other Spotlight stores.

Do you think I can do it? Well, I'm sure I can, but in the remaining 3 nights before Christmas? (OK, cheating, I have actually started, but only last night...)

Christmas Preparations

2008-12-21T17:27:00.006+10:00

And I was under the mistaken impression that December would be quieter than November, and I would have more time to post. How mistaken was I?

In previous years, we've bought all our presents. We've made sure we get toys and items with long term playability, and preferably good quality and educational, but still all that shopping and deciding is a major undertaking especially at this time of year. This year, I've been looking around at all the toys in the shops, and been very disappointed in what was on offer. Most things are plastic, and have very little long term playability. Maybe it's DD's age, and the fact that things are becoming very commercialised (why does everything have either Dora the Explorer or Disney Princesses on it?), but I have found very little that I wanted to buy for her. We have purchased a couple of presents online, but the plan this year was/is to make the majority of DD's presents, as well as everyone else's.

Of course, being presents, and given the fact that many of the recipients read this blog, I can't even post any interesting pictures of all the crafting that is happening! The pic above is the beginning of DD's Waldorf doll, that is nearly finished now. I will write more about it and post some pictures after Christmas hopefully.

As if making all those presents weren't enough, I had this crazy idea half way through the month to make an advent calendar! We've been doing it slowly, doing a pocket a day (usually in a rush after DD is in bed!), and though it's nearly finished now, I'll save the final picture until the past pocket is on.

We've had a lot of fun with it though. Instead of going the commercial route for surprises for each pocket, I've been trying to stick with things that we've made ourselves, or things that are some sort of activity we can do with DD. In this picture, you can see the paper strips that were our first surprise, used to make paper chains. We've also had bubble mixture, Christmas cookie cutters, and a treasure hunt. It has been lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to making it a yearly tradition. Hopefully it won't be so stressful next year when the calendar is already made! (And hopefully I'll come up with some ideas throughout the year so that I'm prepared.)

Local Wildlife

2008-12-15T19:55:00.007+10:00

One of the greatest things about rural living is the amazing wildlife we get to see on a regular basis. We have a family of magpies that live in our area, as well as many little mickeys, some plovers, and pigeon dove birds. These we all see nearly ever day, but with spring in the air, there have been some new and exciting visitors to our backyard.

We first saw this family of wood ducks, with their 9-11 ducklings (hard to count them, they keep moving so fast) on the side of the road one morning. They visit our backyard every couple of days, and we regularly see them in neighbouring yards as well. Aren't they adorable?

These brightly coloured rainbow lorikeets visited a few days ago, along with these little green parrots. I'm not sure exactly what they are, but they were beautifully colourful.

Then this morning we heard a very strange noise, almost like a child screaming. After looking around, we found these two koalas up a tree on the other side of the road, fighting! They screamed at each other, growled, then the lower one left the tree.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Watching and Waiting...

2008-12-14T19:32:00.005+10:00

Remember the raised garden bed where I planted 9 watermelon seeds? Well, there is no sign of the raised bed itself now, and it's starting to send out feelers into the bed next to it!

There are two big watermelons, about 20+ cm long now, and dozens of smaller ones. They're growing so fast with all this rain we're having (thunderstorms 3 times a week or so I'd say), that they almost seem to double overnight. I'm hoping these big ones will be ready in time for Christmas, but they might not make it.

I think next year though, I'll plant the watermelons up the back, they are really a little too big for the area at the front. We're constantly stepping over watermelon vines. But then again, who cares if it means they get to eat yummy, juicy watermelons?

We do have another problem though. Our Biolytix wastewater treatment system is in the corner, right near these vines, and we had our first service a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately there is storm water getting into the tank, and the solution is to dig it up, and concrete it in. I'm hoping there will be some way for them to get to it that doesn't involve running a large piece of machinery over my watermelons (and the rest of the garden). Either that, or they don't get around to it until after we've eaten them all!

Adventure Playground

2008-12-13T20:15:00.002+10:00

DD has just learnt how to tie a knot. DH showed her once, and she practiced lots. When she got frustrated that they weren't holding, we suggested she tie two knots, and it's taken off. Most afternoons this is what my living room looks like. This was a balloon shop. We've also had flying foxes for the toys and traps to catch dinosaurs. Isn't an imagination a wonderful thing?

Rasberries

2008-12-09T18:52:00.009+10:00

With all the heat and rain, the rasberries have been busy growing. Remember back in September when I planted them and they looked like this? On the right is the rasberries, on the left are the beans I planted. Brown beauty. Not the greatest eating raw bean I don't think, but maybe they'll taste better cooked?

Although most of it is green leaves, there are the occasional immature berry laden branches like these. Don't quote me on it, but I believe rasberries fruit on last year's growth?

And, hidden down the back, some of these.

Not too many, just a taste.

You may have noticed that posts on here have been rather few and far between lately. Truth is, I'm a bit worn out from all the time I spent on the computer writing during November, and now am trying to spend a lot more time off the computer to get that balance back. I resolve to be a better blogger though, and try to update here semi-regularly. I have a lot of photo posts like this of stuff around the garden and house planned for the rest of the month, then hopefully back to a few more detailed posts next year, when things settle down a bit again.

Nothing New November - Conclusions

2008-12-02T22:31:00.000+10:00

Well, November was certainly a hectic month. I probably could have chosen a better time for my Nothing New challenge, seeing as I was completing NaNoWriMo at the same time, but then again, perhaps the lack of trips to the shops helped in that regard too!

So, I guess what everyone is wondering is, how did we go? Did we manage to get through the whole month without buying (or swapping or accepting) anything new? The answer, of course, is no, but I still feel that we've done pretty well. So onto the exceptions first, then I'll summarise what I feel we learnt from this challenge.

Well, I don't really count this one as an exception, since we had booked it before November, had the money put aside for it, and it was a non-negotiable essential given how badly our gutters overflow every time it rains, but we had someone come out and install gutter guard in November. It's brilliant. No more climbing up on the roof to clean out the gutters every week, or having water going everywhere because they're overflowing. And the roof looks heaps better because all the leaves/sticks are washing right off rather than gathering in the guttering and looking untidy.

And this one, I make no excuses for what so ever. I was at the markets getting our weekly fruit, and saw a stall with lots of old kitchenware, and thought "they wouldn't have....?" and they did, so I couldn't leave it there, even though it was $12! It's a very old bread knife like the ones we had when I was growing up. They just don't make ones like these, or anything like them anymore, and I know, because I have looked. See the metal out the side? That's the cutting guide, which allows you to cut an even and thin slice of bread. I was nearly ready to give up on home made bread simply because I couldn't cut it thin enough to wrap around a sausage, but not anymore. Now I can cut it perfect, every time. Well worth $12. When I mentioned it to my sister, she wanted to know if they had another one!

And finally, one of DH's workmates was wanting to get rid of this guitar, so DH bought it off him for $10. A bargain we couldn't pass up. DD loves it, and I think it's pretty cool too. I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar.

I'm afraid that I also fell down on my decuttering challenge of getting rid of 100 things in the month. I mean, in terms of actual individual items, which was my original challenge, I probably managed over 100. I've decluttered about half a dozen boxes of toys from DD's playroom, several bags of unwanted clothes, and much more from the rest of the house, but there is still so much to go yet. But I'm still pretty happy with how it went in the scheme of things. I think that trying to do two challenges in one month (three if you count NaNo as well!) was just a little too much!

So that's it. In the month of November we bought only three things other than food or medications. Not bad I don't think. We saved over $500 that we have paid off the credit card, $500 that probably would have otherwise been spent on things that we obviously didn't really need. We didn't feel deprived, didn't even really feel annoyed that we couldn't spend the money. In fact, in some ways it was liberating. No looking carefully through the catalogues that arrive in the mail each week, we just threw them out. No stopping to window shop somewhere, and no deliberating over whether we really wanted something or not. We just avoiding all that hassle.

Sadly, I don't think a month is really long enough to do this sort of challenge properly. There were many things that though we didn't go out and buy, we simply put aside to be bought at the end of the challenge. Like needles for my overlocker. The ones I have aren't ball points (required for sewing stretch, or the material gets damaged), so I couldn't finish sewing the t-shirts I am making for DD. I could, of course, have sewn them on my sewing machine (which has ball point needles, just not the right size for the overlocker), but I was too lazy. So in terms of changing our consumer habits, it wasn't a huge success (although I suspect we will be evaluating things a little more carefully in future), but in terms of saving money, it was definitely good. And for that alone, we'll probably try it again, though not this month!

Itchy, Itchy, Itchy

2008-12-01T22:31:00.000+10:00

I had planned to write this nice long post about our No-Spending-in-November month, but after a day cleaning out chicken pens and bathing chickens, I just don't feel up to it. Yes, our chickens have mites. In fact, we seem to have a whole infestation of them. The chook pen was teaming with them, and they were jumping onto us and coming into the house with us. Took us a little while to figure out why we were so itchy, then DH walked in to collect the eggs from the chooks, and there were little bugs crawling all over his feet.

We've done many searches on-line, and of course, the most prevalent treatment is to bring out the insecticides. I'm not terribly keen on this, so we're going to try the organic route first. Therefore, we've spent the day pulling all the bedding out of the chook's shed, hosed the entire thing down with a high pressure hose, and then sprayed it all with a diluted solution of tea tree oil. Each poor chook was dunked in a tea tree oil bath, which they were not happy about. Though surprisingly not as bad as I thought they would be, visions of trying to bath cats floating in the back of my mind. Chooks are MUCH easier.

Unfortunately, though we have eliminated probably thousands of mites, there are still plenty left. Tomorrow we're going to lime the entire area, and the chooks, and probably keep them locked in for a few days. They must have caught them from the local birds, since they don't have contact with any other chooks or anything.

All our clothes are being washed in a hot wash, and we're all having several showers a day while trying to get them under control, because every time we go near the chooks/chook pen, they're all over us again. Lucky our tanks are full, and our hot water is free from the sun.

Hopefully, with persistence, we can beat this, and not have to resort to the nasty chemicals!

I Did It!

2008-11-30T22:31:00.001+10:00

I'll be back soon!

2008-11-26T19:03:00.004+10:00

I promise. Everything is hectic around here. I'm struggling to keep up with NaNo and the whole family has been sick for nearly two weeks now! DD started out with a high temp and has progressed to a horrible sounding cough and now I'm losing my voice. So we're having lots of days of doing very little, certainly nothing exciting to blog about. As if that wasn't enough, the computer is struggling and we're having overheating problems. Nothing serious, but enough to be annoying. I'll be back soon, hopefully with lots of posts about our plans for Christmas, updates about what we've been up to, and the outcomes of our November challenge.

Safe and Dry

2008-11-17T19:08:00.004+10:00

As any of you in Brisbane are probably aware, the northern suburbs of were hit with quite a nasty story last night. It was lovely and fine (if hot) all day, then late afternoon the clouds came up. We saw it early, and after checking the radar on the Bureau of Meteorology webpage, knew there was a large storm heading out way. We had time to batten down the hatches, put the chickens away, and make sure anything that might blow away was secured. DH had started clearing one of the gutters (gutter guard is supposed to be going on this week!), when it hit.

I was inside with DD, watching DH still out in the rain, when I saw one of the trees up the back (on the neighbours property) fall, and yelled for him to come in. He couldn't hear me, but thankfully came inside soon after. We retreated to the bedrooms with torches and mobile phones, because we have some large trees on the living areas side of the house that I was a little concerned about. They're large trees, and old and strong, obviously they've stood their for quite a while, but better safe than sorry. We were lucky that no trees came down on our property, only a few small branches, but many roads were blocked and roofs damaged by falling trees elsewhere.

In fact, I'm happy to report, the worse damage here was to my corn plants, which were blown over in the wind. Thankfully none of the stems were damaged, and they weren't even really uprooted, just blown over. We've straightened them, and staked them up with some tomato stakes and baling twine woven through them. Hopefully they weren't damaged too much, and will continue to grow and produce some corn for us! This is the tallest I've ever had corn grow (usually I think it doesn't get fed well enough, corn is a heavy feeder), and it doesn't even have any sign of cobs yet. I tell you, we're eagerly awaiting this corn, and will be quite upset if it's been damaged beyond repair.

Despite the leaking gutters, our tanks are nearly full. The poly tank is totally full, and we've transferred some water to the smaller garden tank, and the stainless steel tank is three quarters full. It's very very nice to know there is plenty of water there to see us through the coming season.

$29.60

2008-11-16T21:37:00.011+10:00

$29.60, that is how much this lot of fruit cost us at the Caboolture markets cost us this morning. We spend about this amount each week, and get roughly the same amount of fruit. There were a few luxuries in there today, the mangoes were $1 each, and the apricots were about $5 a kg I think. The grapes were the most expensive at $7 a kg, but DD loves them, and since she's been sick, whatever she will eat is a good thing.

Today's Harvest

It would be nice to be able to supply all most of our fruit and vegetables from our own garden, but we are still quite a way away from that, and in the meantime, the markets are an excellent alternative to the supermarkets, and I'm sure it's much cheaper.

My First Award!

2008-11-14T15:51:00.004+10:00

Molly over at Cross Roads was kind enough to award me with the Premio Dardos award.

"This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literacy and personal values every-day".

I, in turn, would like to pass this award on to:

Sustainable Surburbia
10 Notes
My Longest Year
The Learning Doesn't Stop

It's a little short of the 15 people mentioned in Molly's post, but most of the other blogs I read have already recieved this award. I hope that's OK.

I just can't help myself!

2008-11-10T19:23:00.005+10:00

I'm really enjoying sewing lately. I haven't sewn much for years, not since sewing all DD's blankets/quilts/linen/nappies when I was pregnant. I guess there hasn't been much time since then. But now that DD is a little older, projects like this are possible.

I really needed a new bag, and then in my blog surfing, I came across these bags, and loved them. Only, of course, there was no tutorial. So modifying this tutorial heavily, I finally achieved something approaching what I was after. I'm pretty happy with it anyway, and plan to have another go soon. You'll probably recognise the fabric, I made DD a skirt out of it here. Out of the metre I had, I made the skirt and this bag, and there is still plenty left over!

I also made DD a t-shirt using my new binding foot. It arrived several weeks ago, but I suspected it would be tricky, so was waiting for an opportunity where I wouldn't be too stressed out if it didn't work. Luckily, though it took a little figuring out initially, it works really well, and saves heaps of time when making t-shirts. Now to just make another 11 or so for a round dozen! I would post a picture, except a couple of hours after it was made, it ended up with paint on it. My fault, as I suggested she paint, and she was just getting into it, when she wiped her hands on her t-shirt, then looked at me and said, "I'm not wearing my painting apron." Luckily it was pink paint on a pink shirt, so not that noticeable. It's in the laundry soaking, and I'm hoping for a full recovery.

And before I duck off to try to write at least some words for the day (haven't started at all yet), here's today's harvest. The cherry tomatoes are just going crazy up there. I think as many are rotting on the vine as we're harvesting, but that's OK, they'll be next year's bushes. This lot is in the freezer now, ready for next time we made spaghetti sauce. They're great for sauce, as after they've been frozen, the just pop right out of their skins. By the time we're ready to make more pasta sauce, we should have more than enough tomatoes.

The chickens are a little slack on the egg department lately. We're only getting 3-4 eggs a day, but from chatting to other's around, this is pretty normal, as they can be quite affected by the heat. Hopefully we'll have more eggs soon.

Gluten Free Cooking

2008-11-09T19:01:00.006+10:00

I know I know, I said I wouldn't be around much, but what can I say, I just can't stay away! Still haven't caught up in NaNo, but DH is reading DD a bedtime story, so I have a spare few minutes.

We found out that DH was gluten intolerant about 6 or 7 years ago, after seeing the doctor because he was tired all the time. Finding out he couldn't eat gluten, which is in wheat, barley, rye and oats (although oats is disputed, mainly the problems there are caused by cross contamination) was quite a shock, as at the time most of our food was based on convenience foods. Once we got hold of a booklet from the Coeliac society showing what contained gluten and what didn't, and started reading the labels, we found out that wheat was in just about everything! At the time, there were very few gluten free foods available, and most of what was was pretty horrible. So we had to learn to make our own. We had quite a few adventures with trying to make our own gluten free spaghetti (thankfully there is now a decent commercial brand!), and eventually pretty much gave up on gluten free bread. I scored a couple of gluten free cookbooks from a very nice lady on a forum, who had been sent them by mistake from Amazons, which helped immensely, although since they were American, many of the ingredients were hard to find here in Australia.

It was a very stressful time, meaning we had to change our whole way of eating, and several times (when DD was first born being a notable one) we gave up all together for a time, but overall I think the advantages we've had have far outweighed the disadvantages. It was, in some ways, one of the starting points for our simple living journey. We learned about reading labels carefully, we learnt how to cook many things from scratch, and I'm sure we began eating healthier. Our household is about 80% gluten free these days. Almost all of my baking is gluten free, the only exceptions are bread that DD and I eat, and porridge (with wheat germ) that I have for breakfast each morning. DD also eats dry weet-bix for breakfast most days.

Thankfully there are far more products for gluten free diets these days. We buy a very nice gluten free pasta, and rice crumbs taste almost identical to breadcrumbs, if 3 times the price! We still make most of our foods from scratch, including biscuits and cakes, and in most cases these are pretty similar to their gluten containing counterparts. In fact, I find that I prefer the gluten free varieties. I taste regular cupcakes, and they just taste wrong to me! Our taste buds have actually changed to suit our new diet. The old adage of you like what you eat rather than eating what you like rings pretty true.

We are on a campaign to have some snack foods on hand for DH to take for work so that he can avoid the temptation of chocolate and soft-drink. We've finally found a gluten free bread DH likes, although I think that's mainly because it's been so long since he's tasted wheat bread he can't remember what it tastes like, but it's best eaten toasted, which DH can't do at work since all the toasters have had wheat bread in them. So recently I tried this cheese and bacon roll variation, which is a big hit. We made a dozen today for DH to take to work next week, only somehow there are only 6 left! Even I enjoy them.

Gluten free bread is actually easier to make than normal bread, as it only needs to rise once, and there is no kneeding. Following the hints on the packet, I set the bread to rise over a sink full of hot water, which works beautifully.

We use the Laucke bread mix, which is mixed by hand really easily. So to make these I just followed the directions on the packet to mix up the dough (which is more like a runny cake mix, and can easily be mixed with a normal electric mixer). I then spooned half of the mix into a greased muffin tin, put some bacon (still frozen) and cheese in, spooned the other half on top, then added more bacon and cheese. Yummy! I'm going to try some cinnamon fruit rolls next, as soon as I buy some cinnamon.

Growing Taller

2008-11-08T20:55:00.008+10:00

The peas along the front fence are dying off in the heat. I did get a few tastes of peas from them, but not much. I don't usually bother saving seeds from peas, I'd much rather be eating them, but these few got beyond good eating age while I was away visiting my mum, so I left them on until they dried out, and have put them away for next year's crop. I really like the sugarsnap climbing peas, they taste oh so yum, and the vines seem to produce far more prolifically than the bush types.

I've been working steadily on mulching the trees in the orchard. This is the second bale of lucerne that has gone up there, and I will probably need one more to get them all done. Before I mulched each tree, I gave it a drink of diluted juice from my sister's new bokashi bucket. It's been raining here, so DH asked why I was bothering to water them, but I explained that I was fertilising them, and apparently it's best to fertilise after the plants have had a good water, so that they don't overdose on the fertiliser by trying to take up the water. So perfect timing.

I was a little disappointed initially when my fruit trees just didn't seem to be growing. Of course, it was winter, but I guess I still expected something. I was actually feeling pretty downhearted by the time spring hit, but not anymore. They've just taken off. This mulberry tree was tiny when it was planted back in July, and just look at it now! It's taller and skinnier than my black mulberry, which is how I actually remember white mulberry trees being. I just hope I can reach the fruit when it fruits next year!

This apricot was planted not long after the mulberry, and at the time was a bare rooted, bare stemmed branch about up to my waist! I'm thrilled that it's growing so well, although I have heard that it's too cold around here for apricots to set fruit. I'm still hopeful though.

We've spent today clearing up around the garage, taking an entire load of rubbish to the tip. Another one to cross off my 100 things to declutter. Up to 21 now. We also found lots of things we will donate, but since we haven't done that yet, I cant add them to the total!

I'll probably be a bit quiet over the next few days. I'm a day behind on NaNo, and since nighttime is the only time I can write while DH is at work, my evenings will be spent doing that rather than typing blog posts. I'm sure I'll catch up, I've missed days before, but I just need to spend a little more time on it until I do.

Things are Growing

2008-11-05T21:04:00.012+10:00

Well, the front garden transformation is moving along slowly. We've gone from this, to the photo above (which I will point out is taken from the other end of the garden), in less than two months. I posted my plan here, in case you want to have a look, although I have made a few modifications, which I shall comment on throughout this post.

Firstly though, here are the tiny corn seedlings I planted a month ago, haven't they grown? I really really need to plant the next lot, don't I? The bush off to the left is a golden nugget pumpkin, can't wait to get some of those coming along. My mum has one that's already fruiting (do vegetables fruit?), and it certainly has an overload of pumpkins, although they're not quite as flavourful as the old Jap's that I usually plant. They are, however, decidedly smaller!

Beside that garden I've prepared two more no dig beds so far. There is room for one more that I still need to build. Basically, for these, I've put down a layer of lucerne mulch (about half a bale), covered it in some freshly cut green grass, covered that in a variety of manures/bought compost (I just can't produce my own fast enough!), then another layer of lucerne (other half of the bale) over the top. I'm giving these a few weeks (or until I get around to planting them) for the initial breakdown to start, then I'll be planting them out, probably with some more corn!

I've also managed to fit in (and find bales for) two raised strawbale beds rather than just one. The second one is filled with everything I could find, from lucerne, manure, compost, grass clippings etc etc. It's full right to the top now, but I expect it will settle quite a bit over the next few weeks. Not sure exactly what I'm going to plant here yet, but I'm sure it will be something good!

The watermelons planted in the first strawbale bed are certainly doing great! They're growing pretty fast, and starting to try to escape from the bed. Looking forward to getting some watermelons from these, yum!

While I'm waiting for the new beds to settle, I've been planting out some seeds into old punnets I had lying around. The ones on the right are rosella's, ready to go into one of the beds along the fence (which all need serious work!), the top middle are cotton plants, for down the side fence, and the one on the left is a pigeon pea. I haven't had much success so far with the pigeon peas, although I have to admit that some of the seeds I was using were older. Will have to give it another go as soon as I get organised, because they will hopefully form the bulk of our hedging at the front and sides. I really should try to get these planted out soon.

The carrot seeds I planted in the planter box next to the raspberries were a dismal failure. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them to come up, so instead I planted out that whole side with beans. I haven't had much success with beans here, despite them usually being one of the easiest plants to grow. I suspect that the soil is lacking in something, so I'm trying it to see if they do better here, where it is all compost and bought soil. So far they seem to be.

The potatoes in the strawbale potato cages are still growing like wildfire. You can see from the link how much they have grown in just a week! However, I discovered 3 of the dreaded 28 spot ladybeetle, the enemy of all attempted potato growers, and war had to be declared before this crop was curtailed as the last lots were.

Hopefully that should do the trick! Note, nothing new was bought to do this. The netting is from the mosquito nets that hung over our bed in the shed (that we no longer need now that we have screens on the windows), held up with some garden stakes I had lying around from my last lot of tomatoes.

As I write, there is a nice steady drizzle outside. It's been going on all day. Great for the garden, waters far better than I can ever manage with the hose. Hopefully it will soak right into the ground, and get those no dig beds really breaking down. If it lets up for a bit tomorrow, I might go out and poke some seeds in somewhere, best seed sprouting weather around.

For now, though, I still have 500 words to write before I go to bed.

Blog List

2008-11-05T16:43:00.003+10:00

Since I've been talking to a few people about this recently, I've just added links to all my favourite blogs that I read on a regular basis. It's on the right, down the bottom of all. In many cases, I don't agree with everything said on the pages, but I do enjoy reading them, and it's fascinating to hear a different perspective on something. Hope you all enjoy them too.

Procrastination

2008-11-04T19:47:00.002+10:00

What do you do when you should be writing your 1667 words for the day? Why make a skirt of course! I seriously just don't know how to do one thing at a time, do I? Still, I had some good story related ideas while sewing.

The skirt is made from a tutorial here, although if you're going to give it a go, I'd add a few inches to your waist measurement before running it through the pattern calculator. I was reasonably generous, and though it fits, it could stand to be a little looser around the hips. The pockets were my addition. I just can't stand wearing anything without a pocket. I just need somewhere handy to put my keys and hanky when I go out, I never can seem to find them in my purse, so I add pockets to everything I make.

The purple material is from two separate sheets I bought while visiting my mum, but I think they contrast pretty well. They don't even look like sheets in this pattern I don't think? I have plenty of material left (although the flowery sheet is quite worn in the middle), so will probably try something else in these colours as well. It's trimmed with some cotton lace that I acquired from my mum's stash while I was visiting. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and will definitely try this pattern again.

The photo was taken when we came back from dropping the latest lot of decluttering off at Lifeline. Nearly a whole car full, bringing the decluttering total to 18. My mum thinks I'm being too hard on myself, counting each bag of clothes or toys as 1, instead of each item, but if I did that, I'd already be at 100, and I've barely even scratched the surface! Lots more to go yet.

Now, seeing as I've already made my word count today, I have a nice evening of relaxing with DH planned.

Seed Raiders

2008-11-03T19:56:00.005+10:00

DH called out to me today to come and look at these thieves, eating the seeds out of my sunflowers! There were two of them, and they were so beautiful I didn't have the heart to get upset at them. Unfortunately the pictures aren't the greatest, as I didn't have time to get the settings right on my camera, and was taking pics from indoors in DD's room, but aren't they magnificent? I think though, that I might have to cover the sunflowers with something, or we aren't going to get any seeds for ourselves!

And while I'm posting, here are the pictures from yesterday's harvest. Half a bucket of potatoes from the second potato patch (I planted 16), a bowl of cherry tomatoes from the bushes that self seeded and have received absolutely no care up in the old garden, and one almost perfect nectarine.

Decluttering and writing are still happening here, although we also mowed the lawn (all 3/4 of an acre of it, minus house/shed/gardens etc) with DH's dad's help. I have found heaps more things to get rid of, and the car is full right now of the playgym DD outgrew a year ago, the baby swing, and a box of toys. Can't count them though, until they are completely off the property! I'm almost on track for NaNo, just under 400 words to go today to make the quota. So I guess I'd better go get writing!

Nothing New November

2008-11-01T22:36:00.005+10:00

Well, I guess I've started November off with a bang. I got stuck into the decluttering this morning with gusto, and have so far taken 12 items to the donation bins (they don't count until they're OUT of the house!). A couple of bags of toys, several bags of outgrown or not worn clothing, and various kitchen items.

I had a few dilemma's this morning wondering exactly how to count things. I went through my cutlery draw, and got rid of the remains of the old cutlery set, but should I count each individual knife, fork and spoon, or count them all as one? Clothes were the same. There were so many that it seemed cheating to count them all individually, yet too much to count them all as one. I've settled on counting sets (such as cutlery) as one, and for larger things, like clothes and toys, to count each bag as one. Either way, I've removed nearly a (hatchback) boot full of things, and still plenty more to go!

NaNo is going slightly less well. At 1,465 words, I'm slightly under the daily quota of 1,667 words, but still off to a good start. I'm hoping to catch up the shortfall next week, when DH has 4 days off mid-week.

Gearing up for November

2008-10-31T20:52:00.014+10:00

Things could be fairly quite around here for the next month, as most of my writing energy goes towards making my 50,000 word goal as part of NaNoWriMo.

I've made this goal for the last two years, but at that time I wasn't trying to garden or make all these things at the same time. But I will give it a go again regardless.

DH and I have also set ourselves a challenge for this month, we're not going to buy anything other than food and medications for the month. Any money saved will go towards our credit card debt (which was run up with building expenses).

This is more than just a money saving challenge though. Over the last 18 or so months, since we first packed up our unit ready to move, we've lived out of boxes, many of which are still not unpacked, meaning much of the stuff we have either DD has grown out of, or we just plain don't need. We are all feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of STUFF in our house (not to mention still in the garage!), and until it is under control, we don't want to bring anything more into the house. So this isn't just about money and spending, it's about not bringing anything new into the house full stop. Not from any source.

And as if that wasn't enough for one month, we're going to try to get rid of existing clutter. I'm hoping we can get at least 100 items OUT OF THE HOUSE (or shed). That's a little over 3 items a day. Think we can do it? I reckon we can.

So expect a lot of posts about how we've resisted bringing new things into the house (and hopefully found some creative and innovative solutions to anything that we are lacking), and updates on how many items we've gotten rid of. And, of course, some updates on my word count.

Sewing Day

2008-10-30T19:54:00.007+10:00

After spending a few hours last night surfing blogs and following link after link to cool tutorials, I decided to try some of them out today. These are door stops, made from this tutorial. Very simple and easy, and very practical. Since DH put some grease on the toilet door, it mysteriously closes itself whenever you aren't looking. Not a problem, except when you're trying to help a 4yo in there, and one of your bumps yourself on a door in the wrong place. So the blue one is in the toilet, and the white stripy one is in the laundry, who's door often blows closed with an annoyingly loud bang (usually when I'm out hanging up the washing, and trying to her DD yelling something inside.)

Since DD was so taken with the rice filled pyramid door stops, and was determined to carry them around, negating their usefulness in preventing doors blowing closed, I made her these bean-bags to throw instead, based on this tutorial (which I had read, but not planned on making, so going on memory). She was successfully diverted, and the door-stops have remained (mostly) in place.

And this was my final project, finished only because I hate to leave things undone. It's a floor mat, and a woeful attempt at the quilt in this tutorial. Unfortunately, I don't have a roller cutter, making it kind of hard to get the squares, well, square. I also made the strips between the pieces a little too thick (those white ones), and it was only saved from awfulness by the pretty blue border. Luckily, aside from the border, it was all made with leftover scraps and recycled materials, so I don't feel too badly about it. It's a learning experience, and I'm sure when it's on the floor and we're wiping our feet on it, we won't notice all the many imperfections. (Well, anyone but me probably won't anyway.

Potato Cages

2008-10-29T19:45:00.007+10:00

I haven't done much of a garden update lately simply because I haven't gotten around to taking any photos. But I have been working to my plan, and things are slowly starting to come together. The potato cages, shown on the left hand side of the house, are in.

I've managed to fit 4 sugar cane bale cages in and the two I originally planted with 9 potatoes each are powering along. I've just covered them with the second lot of mulch, they're growing so quickly. I planted 9 more potatoes in the next cage and will plant the final one in another few weeks time. We're still going on the last of the potatoes harvested from my first patch. Once this lot is gone, there is another patch to harvest. I'm not sure if those will be enough to carry us through to this lot maturing, but we'll have to wait and see.

And not really garden related (though it is a flower!) DD and I made this for her baby cousin, after her fascination with DD's dinosaur.

Lemon Butter

2008-10-27T19:47:00.003+10:00

I had my second go at making lemon butter today, and luckily it turned out much better than my first go. Not that I didn't eat and enjoy all of that first attempt, but this time, when I tasted a little of the spills, I was transported instantly back to eating my grandmother's lemon butter as a child. This is how lemon butter is supposed to taste!

I made up double the recipe this time, since I have plenty of eggs to use up. The chooks are laying 4-5 eggs a day now, and even though we are selling extras to friends and family (for $2 a dozen, to cover chook food), we still have more than we can eat. Double the recipe calls for a dozen eggs, so without your own chickens, this could be quite a costly recipe (although still probably cheaper than buying it at the store). And I think that the eggs from our free range chooks is what really made this special. Look at the colour of it! Most lemon butter you see these days is a kind of washed out yellow, not bright and vibrant like this. That is the actual colour of the lemon butter, no added colours, and no photoshopping the picture (well, not to alter the colour anyway).

By my calculations, this recipe probably ends up at about $1 a jar. All up, the eggs were free, the butter - 225g, about $1, the sugar - just under a 1kg, $1 (I buy it in bulk), and the lemons were $2 a kg, I used 5, not exactly sure what they weighed, but lets say 1kg, so $2. $5 for the 5 jars. I have no idea what lemon butter sells for in the shops, but I'm guessing that it's at least $2 a bottle, saving me 50%.

It's now sitting in the fridge with the remainder of my last strawberry jam. Hopefully, it should last me six months or so before I need to make more.

Ditching the Plastic

2008-10-26T19:48:00.005+10:00

Plastic bags that is. We've actually been plastic bag free (mostly) for a while now, but I've only just gotten around to taking some pictures of these. While we used green bags for our groceries for quite a while, it took a little longer to ditch the plastic fruit bags. When we started going to the markets regularly, it seemed somehow even more silly to be still putting our fruit in plastic bags, so I made up these vegie bags from some old curtain material. They're just simple drawstring bags, really easy to make, although it did take me until yesterday to get around to putting the drawstring in. They worked just fine without it though.

The trick to making these is to use as lightweight materials (material and drawstrings) as possible, so that they aren't adding weight to your fruit and veg prices. Also, make sure you use something see-through so that the cashiers can work out what you're buying. Finally, I used french seams to make sure that they weren't going to break at an inopportune moment. Several months of use, and they're still going strong. When we get home from the markets, I empty the fruit into the cupboard/fridge, and chuck them in the wash so that they're ready for next week.

Here they are full of fruit, they're about the size of an A4 page, which seems to be a pretty good size, although we usually buy two bags full of bananas! Since my green bags are nearing the end of their days, and actually aren't that green being made from what is basically plastic, I'm working on making some replacement cloth bags for general grocery shopping. This is my prototype, made form an old sheet (which is poly-cotton, so not great for clothes). It works great, but still needs a bit more fiddling with the shape and placement of the handles. I much prefer it over the green bags, although I think it could benefit from being a bit stiffer in places.

Rooster Free

2008-10-25T20:33:00.003+10:00

Well, Jumpy the rooster finally went to a new home today. We took him over to the father of the breeder we bought the eggs off. He said he has 4 or 5 roosters that people have given him (and we think one of them is Roley), and he does his best to find new homes for them. Often, if people are buying some chooks, he will give them a rooster for free. He seemed to genuinely love chooks, and we are sure he will take good care of Jumpy, and find him a new home if he can.

Here though, it is a big relief that he is gone. He has been getting increasingly more aggressive, especially towards DD. Every time the chooks hear the front door open, they come running, hoping we have food. Jumpy though, will try to run at DD whenever he sees her, making taking her outside (except into the front yard, which is fenced separately) is difficult. Initially I could manage by taking a large stick to keep Jumpy away with, but lately he has taken to attacking the stick when I was trying to push him back, so even that was difficult.

Now that he has been re-homed, we can get back to enjoying our backyard and our chooks without worrying about being chased whenever we walk outside. Perhaps one day we'll try getting another rooster, but for now, were happy with just our chickens. Although I do have ideas about some ducks as soon as I can work out a way to have a pond for them...

Personalised Softie

2008-10-24T21:34:00.017+10:00

Softies, as they seem to be called, are all the rage, seems like I see pictures of them everywhere. I've never been a big fan myself, being more of a realism person, but DD saw a stuffed striped giraffe at an organic store I visited with my sister yesterday, and really wanted it. Thankfully she was placated with promises of making one. So make one we did, only ours, of course, is a dinosaur. Not just any dinosaur either, but a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

DD was thrilled to join in with drawing up a 'pattern' for us to use. I told her she had to draw it big, or she wouldn't get a big dinosaur, and she obliged.

DD chose out her material, and I cut out some rough pieces for the body, arms, legs, tail and head. And an extra plain piece for the face. Since DD drew single lines for the arms, legs and tail, I had to make them a bit wider, and occasionally change the length a bit. Overall, their placement is the most important bit to keep the childlike composition of the finished softie I think. I also had to be careful to make them thick enough to sew, turn and stuff. The tail ended up being too narrow, and I had to cut out a second one.

Then I had DD draw the face on the pink material in pen (pencil would have been better, but I couldn't find one), and I embroidered it in 3 strands of embroidery cotton, then slip stitched it to the head piece, turning the edges under as I went.. I made the eyes slightly bigger, but otherwise followed the lines she had drawn. Which was quite a challenge, let me tell you. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and spend way too much time trying to get faces to look just right. Of course, I think this one worked out just perfect, without any adjusting from me.

Then I put all the extremities right sides together, and overlocked around the edges. I had to round off the bit where the neck joins the head a little to get around it with the overlocker, but I wanted the pieces to be strong, and not start coming apart in a few weeks.

Then we turned them right side out (with the help of the end of the scissors), and stuffed them. DD enjoyed helping with the stuffing, although she did make them a little on the soft side, so I had to add a little bit to the ones she did. I left the ends a bit floppy because they're going to be sewn to the body.

I positioned the arms,legs, tail and head on the body again, using the picture to get the locations right.

Then turned them all to the inside and pinned.

Then decided to overlock them in place before trying to sew the body pieces together.

I also overlocked the other piece, then joined them on the sewing machine, leaving a nice big gap to turn it right side out.

Then we stuffed the body, slip-stitched the opening closed, and DD gave him his first cuddle. She's been carrying him around all day (by the neck!) and has now taken him to bed with her. I think it really means something to her that this is HER representation of a dinosaur, not someone else's, and that she helped design and make him.

Now, of course, she wants to make all the other types of dinosaurs...

Consumerism

2008-10-22T20:08:00.004+10:00

I don't think I've mentioned it on here before, but we don't have TV. I mean, we have a TV, but we don't have the commercial stations, or the pay ones. We watch DVD's, but that's it. We also don't buy newspapers, most magazines, or other news/advertising media. I personally feel that the media over dramatizes things, and that watching/reading the news/current affairs really isn't good for us. And before you point out that it's important to know what's going on in the world, I do. I hear about the important events online via forums or newsgroups, or someone usually tells us if they think it's something relevant/of interest to us. We certainly don't live in ignorance, but we do severely restrict the media's influence in our house.

So it was quite an eye opener staying with my parents for a week, where my dad watches every single news channel, and many evening TV shows. In my media-deficient world, I thought that people were getting the message about peak oil, global warming, and the need to start caring for our world, but you see very little of it on TV. A few ads about greenhouse gasses, a few companies trying to sell their product as 'green' (when in reality it is anything but), but mostly, ad after ad trying to convince you that you need some new product, that your life won't be complete without it, or your family won't be safe/healthy/happy if they don't have this or that.

Then the news itself was filled with the news of the stock market falling and falling (interspersed occasionally with mentions of the latest murders/houses burning down and other maudlin stories, and you wonder why I don't watch it?) That, at least, was interesting to watch, even though much of it is beyond me. Governments and corporations are running around every which way trying to fix it. They want us to buy more, spent more, keep this artificial construct afloat. They way I see it, the stock market crash isn't the problem, it's simply a symptom of the bigger problem.

Near as I can tell, the stock market problems are due to the fact that people have just stopped spending. Thus profits from companies are down, meaning people don't feel it's safe to invest in them. So while people are busy worrying about the stock market and how to fix it, they're not seeing the real problem. People, the real people in the street, are struggling. The rising cost of petrol and thus food (which has to be transported using petrol), increased costs in rental and housing prices, and the over-reliance on credit to get through the tight spots, means everyday living for the majority of people is getting harder and harder. The stock market crash isn't going to affect these people, unless the company they work for goes under and they're out of a job. Yet for some reason, the stock market is the only thing the news, and the government, is worried about. Everyone believes that if only we can shore up the stock market, everything will be OK.

I don't believe it will be. Until we address the underlying issues of consumerism, and the need to have bigger, better, more, we cannot change this. And unfortunately, the stock market needs this drive to survive, it lives on people buying more and more, even if they can't afford it. And the media and advertising companies will manipulate people's minds until they can't really see the difference between a need and a want.

Since we began the process that has seen us move out here to our block of land and begin on this road to simple living and self-sufficiency, so many of our thoughts and ideas towards this have changed. We no longer feel the need to buy the latest and greatest, and though the withdrawal from the media and advertising has helped, it still would not have been possible without an underlying shift in our priorities. When we need something now, we first decide if we can make it or grow it. Purchases, when we do make them, are carefully thought out, and the options are gone over until we are certain we need the item, and that there is no other way to get it. I try to find second hand options if at all possible. Not only are these cheaper, but they are kinder on the environment. And if we do find that we need an item, and have to buy it new, we try to find locally made. We're far from perfect, but we are working towards a place where we feel happier with our lives, and more connected with the real world.

And what of the world situation? What is going to happen, and what do I think needs to be done about it? I have no idea. I'm not into solving the worlds problems. I can only work out what is right for myself and my family. We will survive this, whatever happens, because we have put ourselves in a position where we can. Despite the rising grocery costs, our grocery budget is going down (and I usually spend even a part of that on fruit trees!). Despite being further from town and petrol prices increasing, our fuel budget is going down. And hopefully, in the next 12 months, as the garden grows, we will become further along the path to supplying a large chunk of our own food.

Spring Quilting

2008-10-21T19:49:00.016+10:00

It wasn't until I was editing the photos for this post, and trying to decide on a title, that I realised how well the colours of this quilt fit to Spring. The beautiful, bright rainbow really brightens up the room, and when you look at it, you can't help but feel light and happy. Perfect for a little girls room.

There's very little frugal about this quilt, it's made from (almost) all new material, and didn't come cheap, although the main body of quilting is made from material I have had in my cupboard since before DD was born. I didn't even buy it myself, my mum saw it in her local quilting shop, and couldn't leave it there. 24 fat quarters, hand dyed, all in carefully arranged shades through the rainbow. (Although we only used 23, several of the pinks were so similar I took one out, as the quilt was going to be very long anyway). I have put off cutting up this material, trawled through many quilting books and magazines for the perfect design, but eventually it was time to just give it a go, and we decided on a really simple design, that would show off the beautiful shading without any fancy patterns detracting from the simple beauty.

First step was to cut the material, not into squares, but into strips. We were going to carefully measure each one, but in the end, we just cut along the fold lines, giving us 4 strips very close in size to what I wanted.

I worried for a while about how to keep the colours in order, as some of the shades are very similar, and in the end we decided to lay them down in order. We pinned each colour (4 strips of each) at the top to prevent them blowing away. (This is on my mum's veranda, you can see the grass in the top left hand corner, so it was a little windy.)

This type of quilt is much easier (and quicker) to sew with two people. My mum sewed each strip together as I handed them to her in order. If I had been on my own, I would have had to constantly get up and down to get each piece, and I'm sure some of them would have ended up out of order.

I was a little concerned about how to keep track of the order anyway, as so many shades are so similar, but came up with this simple strategy to keep it in order. Each time I took a strip off the pile, I turned the pin the other way. That way I could quickly and easily work out which strip to grab next. It worked too, not a strip out of order.

Once we had joined all 23 strips, we then sewed the first strip to the last one, making a continuous loop like this. I hope the photo shows what I mean, as this is the step that made doing the staggered pattern so simple and easy. We made 4 of these loops.

Each loop was then folded into quarters, and cut into strips the same size as the origional strips (so that the patches would be square). As you can see here, there was a small bit at the end left over that wasn't big enough to make another strip, but those will get used later.

Then I unpicked one seam on each strip, moving one square through the colours each time, and sewed these together (as we went). This was a little tricky, as some of the colours were hard to tell apart, but in those cases I looked back to a strong colour change, and worked from there. Again, I did the unpicking/arranging, and my mum sewed. I deliberately arranged it so that the pink colours were around the middle of the quilt, as my DD loves pink. We picked out a pink border at the local quilting shop, and found some bamboo wadding for the middle. If you haven't heard about bamboo, it's a wonderful new alternative to cotton, which is grown with far less pestasides, making it far more gentle on the environment. And it has a wonderful, silky soft feel. Seems almost a shame to hide it away in the middle of a quilt!

Of course, the quilt isn't entirely new material. The backing is a white sheet I bought at the local op shop for $4! And the bias strip around the edge is the end bits left from cutting out patched strips. It was almost exactly the right size to go around the quilt, only 4 squares left over. Quite an economical use of material really.

Doesn't it look beautiful on DD's bed? She loves it, and has been sleeping in her bed again since we bought it home. She had had a run of bad dreams, and moved back in with us full time, and I was hoping this would make a difference, which it has. Not that we mind having her in with us, in fact DH and I both sleep better with her nearby, but I also want her to enjoy her own room, which she is now doing. We bring her in with us when we go to bed, so that she isn't waking up alone in the dark.

For anyone who is thinking of trying their hand at quilting, but is afraid to give it a go, don't be. My mum and I aren't perfect quilters. We don't measure things terribly carefully, and if we make a mistake, we don't let it stop us. For example, we cut off the edge of one of the last strips by acciden, so that it was about 5mm shorter than all the other strips, but carried on anyway, and in the end, you can't even tell which one was the shorter square. I also accidently bought about 2 inches less batting than we needed (I forgot to calculate for the wider border), so that it doesn't go right to the edge, and had a similar problem with the backing, but we just fix those up, and keep sewing. In the end, these little mistakes are unnoticable among the larger quilt, a quilt that never would have been finished if we'd let ourselves be deterred by simple mistakes.

Happy Sewing!

We're Home

2008-10-20T20:09:00.011+10:00

We took the early train home this morning, leaving at 5:45, meaning we were back in Caboolture by 8:45. I think personally I prefer to drive, but there's no doubt the trip on the Tilt Train is far more pleasant for DD. We read books, colour in, eat the snacks we bring with us, and usually buy one treat (packet of plain chips or juice) from the galley, simply because it's another activity to pass the time.

The holiday was a week of new experiences for DD, beginning with buying her own small fishing rod, and going fishing! She's been playing at fishing for ages, every time she finds, or makes, a fish, she has to make a fishing line and go fishing too, so it was wonderful for her to get the chance to actually try it for real. (And look at our matching skirts! I very carefully resisted wearing similar t-shirts.)

Grandpa is an expert at fishing luckily, since I'm certainly not, and DH isn't keen on fishing at all! He baited the hook for us, and was very determined to catch DD a fish. It's very good to see her taking to him, as she has been scared off by is gruffness up until now. I think it was the My Little Ponies he gave her that did it. That was a great idea Grandma!

And yes, in case you're wondering, our persistence paid off, and we did finally catch this little bream. DD was absolutely thrilled. Unfortunately it was a tad on the small side, so he went back into the ocean, which DD was totally happy with. She wasn't too sure about actually eating a fish.

I actually enjoyed this exercise too, and now have at least some idea of how to set up a fishing line (I'm sure there's a technical term for all that tying lines and putting on hooks and sinkers, but I'm clueless as to what it is), so have another little skill added to my self-sufficiency checklist. Not that I'm sure there's anywhere to catch an edible fish nearby, but you never know.

While we were reeling in lines, baiting hooks, and casting out over and over, we noticed what we at first thought was a log floating past. Then we realised it was moving, and my first thought was "Crocodile!" (Not totally out of the blue, they'd been talking about finding croc's further south than usual on the news the previous night.) Luckily it turned out to just be this lizard/goanna going for a swim. He wandered up the beach, as if he was exactly where he wanted to be. Very strange.

The pelicans thought it strange too, and one even wandered after him to ascertain if he was edible, but decided his size was a bit of an issue, and wandered off again. They were far more interested in the chance of getting thrown some leftover bait.

On the last day of the holiday, we all woke up really early for a visit to Tin Can Bay to hand feed the dolphins. Despite the long drive (over an hour) each way, it was well worth the effort. DD loved it, and was only disappointed that she couldn't line up to do it over and over again, as she does with the elephants at the zoo each year. We've promised to go back soon and take Daddy too.

There is, of course, one more activity we did on holidays, another infamous holiday quilt, but you'll have to come back tomorrow for pics of that.

Sheet Wardrobe

2008-10-12T18:53:00.012+10:00

I've been sewing up a storm the last few weeks, making some summer dresses for myself (in among making all those clothes for DD). So far I have these 6 dresses (can you tell what colours I like?). Some of the material has been bought new, but most of it is recycled, and about the only place you can get this much material in one piece is in old sheets! So what I'm wondering now, is can you guess which ones are the sheets, and which ones are the new material? Most of these I plan to wear around the house anyway, so it doesn't really matter that they look like sheets, but I am curious how many of them are obvious.

The patterns are from my Stitch House book, which I officially LOVE. All of these can be made with 2m or less of material! Pretty good for an adult dress. They're also really cool and comfortable, which is a very important characteristic.

I popped my soap out of the moulds this morning too. Well, popped is probably the wrong word, wrestled is more like it. But it's out, and it looks WAY better than the last lot. The picture doesn't show it, but it actually looks kind of green, not quite sure why, but the colour is even, and the consistency is right (the last lot was crumbly and patchy), so I think this lot is going to be great. I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

I'm off for a few days to a week tomorrow, visiting my mum, so probably won't be posting. But expect lots of crafty pics and op shop finds when I get back!

Rainy Days

2008-10-11T19:24:00.009+10:00

It's been raining on and off the last two days, so we've spent a lot of time indoors. DD made this flower out of paddlepop sticks, all her own idea, although I suspect it was sparked by our flower collages a few weeks ago. I'm really impressed at her craft work lately, she's coming up with a lot of ideas on her own, and has the manipulative skills to turn them into actual objects. She also made some letters out of the paddlepop sticks, although she messed them up before I could take a photo.

We were really glad to see this rain, as it's the first we've had since the last lot I wrote about, over a month ago! Very unusual for spring.

I know, I write about the rain quite a lot. But when you're living simply, it really does have a big effect on your life. And not in the annoying 'I'm going to get wet walking from the car to the shops' kind of way either. We rely on the rain to fill our water tanks so that we have fresh water to drink, shower and wash with, and to water the garden. Nothing makes the garden grow so much as a good soaking from the rain. Somehow, it's totally different to being watered with the hose or a watering can.

The rain inspired me to spread the rest of the sugar cane mulch around the front garden. It's well and truly soaked now, as is the ground underneath it, so hopefully even if we have another dry spell, it will stay wet, meaning I will have to water less, and what watering I do do will be more efficient. I hope it hangs around long enough for me to get some more mulching done, although I have so much else to do in the next few days, not sure how that will go.

It also inspired us to jump in and do a job that has been needing to be done for a while, digging a channel down the side of the house to drain some of the water that usually collects there. A good half hour in the rain, and we had improved things substantially. And of course, both DH and I needed a good shower! DD had a ball playing in the rain while we worked though.

While we were out there, DH cleared the gutters again, as they were overflowing yet again, even though it was only a few weeks ago that we cleared them last. We were debating over whether the cost of professional gutter guard was warranted, but after seeing that, it's definitely necessary, so we'll organise that on Monday.

Today I also managed to knock over another few jobs that have been on my mental to-do list, making soap, and making yogurt.

This is my second attempt at making soap using the tutorial on Down to Earth. The first lot was definitely usable, although not exactly pretty. I think my biggest problem was that I was stirring by hand, and after more than 20 minutes, had still barely reached trace. That was solved though by my wonderful sister (who will have some soap delivered to her in a few weeks) giving me her old stainless steel stick blender. One of the seals was gone, making it unsafe for blending food, but still fine for soapmaking. I reached trace so fast I was staring at it thinking it couldn't have happened that quickly, and wondering if I'd done something wrong!

This time I used a slightly different recipe also, listed here, which cut out the rice bran oil, and used copha instead of coconut oil (which is very hard to find). All up, it would have cost about $15. I would expect there are at least 15 bars of soap here (I'll find out tomorrow when it's set enough to cut!), so that's a pretty good price for this quality of soap. It's also totally unscented, with no other additives, very very hard to find in the shops! Now just to wait impatiently for it to cure (up to six weeks, if we can wait that long!), then we get to try it out.

I'll post more about the yogurt experiment tomorrow, it's still... what do you call it when yogurt is making itself? It's not really cooking, is it?

Garden Post!

2008-10-08T20:39:00.011+10:00

Finally, as promised, here is a garden update post. After a very slow morning in which we managed to lose a lot of time doing nothing much at all, we got out to try to get things sorted. This was the front garden at about 11am this morning. And tonight, it looks much the same, minus a few sugar cane bales that were moved around the side for potato cages. Most of our work was in the side garden today, but before I get onto that, I'll post a few more pics of what is going on here in the front garden.

Here's some corn coming up in the first no-dig bed in the front garden. Not as good a strike rate as I had hoped for unfortunately. I planted 2 or 3 times this many seeds. Hoping a few more will come up yet, otherwise I'm going to have to replant into the spaces.

These little Johnny Jump Up's provide a nice bit of colour, if you ignore the weeds...

I'm building up quite a collection of potted plants around the planter box. It's easier to keep them all in once space to water them. There is loganberry and a youngberry (I think) in the big pots, my male and female kiwifruit in the red and blue hanging baskets, some red kidney beans in a punnet waiting to be planted out, and some pigeon peas yet to come up in the other punnets.

And finally, this is the raised bed I built. The sides are 10 bales of sugarcane mulch, 3 on each side, and 2 on each end. I then filled it with alternate layers of lucerne, Searles plant food, compost, sugarcane mulch from the chookpen, and manure. It's already started sinking a bit as it all breaks down. Hopefully this will be a really nice place to grow some of those nutrient hungry plants.

So far I've planted some watermelon seeds in it, and they're just starting to pop up.

And along the front fence, the sunflowers are getting ready to flower. They're about as tall as DD now, and I think I'm going to have to stake a couple, (or tie them to the fence), as the wind is pushing them over.

I was planning on writing about the side garden, and posting a few pics of that, but it's late, and I really need to get some sleep. But it does give me something to write about tomorrow!

More Potatoes

2008-10-07T20:31:00.005+10:00

Not exactly the promised photos of the garden, I know, but we had another hectic day. DD had her 4 year immunisations today, and though she coped with it like a trouper, DH and I were pretty stressed about it. Afternoon was spent playing with an occasionally grumpy child, so not much was done. However, this bucket of potatoes is at least garden related, right?

These are the last of the potatoes from our first potato plot. We planted 25 potatoes originally, and this is probably about half of the total harvest. I'm pretty happy with that. Hoping we can get by without buying potatoes now until the next patch is ready to harvest. Then there will probably be a bit of a break before the next (as yet unplanted) lot. They're currently chitting in the laundry. I really do plan to get into the garden tomorrow, so hopefully there will be some photos soon.

Not a Garden Post

2008-10-06T22:14:00.008+10:00

I had a plan to write an update post on the garden today, but we had a bit of an emergency with an ant bite, and before I knew it, it was too dark to take pictures. And we all know there isn't much point writing a garden update post without pictures, right? So instead, I looked around for something inside to take pics of. So here you have today's impulse purchases. 6 half metres of cotton fabric from Spotlight, all ready for 6 new skirts for DD. I just have to wash the fabric first (to preshrink, being 100% cotton), and I'll be ready to sew. The fabric was marked down to $5 a metre (from $7 a metre), so that makes it about $2.50 a skirt. Pretty affordable huh?

Then all I need is matching shirts. I've been debating what to do about these, since ribbing is a bit of a pain (and very hard to find 100% cotton ribbing, especially in the right colours), when a bit of a Google led me to discover a binding foot for sewing machines! Just like having a little bias binding maker attached to your sewing machine foot, so instead of ironing your binding, you sew it instead! Nifty. I've ordered one (or maybe two...), and hopefully they'll arrive soon, although maybe a week or two, since they're coming from the US. Then I should be all set to make some nifty t-shirts to go with these skirts.

DD has been a busy little bunny too, drawing these beautiful dinosaurs. I wrote the names on them for her. A big improvement over her first dinosaur drawings back in February. I especially love the big smiley faces. Obviously these are friendly dinosaurs.

And inspired by our visit to the Amberly Air Show on Saturday, she's also been making paper planes. She made this one all by herself, DH giving her instructions, after watching him make one. Her manipulative skills are just improving in leaps and bounds lately.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some garden photos taken, and give an update on what is happening outside. Unless I get sidetracked...

Sewing Spree

2008-10-05T20:25:00.006+10:00

After discovering this free pattern a week or two ago, I've been itching to try it. Unfortunately gardening, and all the other sewing I've been doing hasn't given me a chance until today. DH was away for the day, so DD and I got stuck into some sewing. (Or rather, I sewed, she played around me, although she did help choose the colours.) This pattern is very simple, and makes up really quickly. I made these four skirts in only a few (interrupted) hours. They look really cute on, and I'm sure will get lots of wear. I'd definitely recommend this pattern for any new sewers wanting something easy, yet professional looking.

While I was on a roll, I had a go at this tutorial for pillowcase dresses. As usual, I was making it from memory, so didn't follow the tutorial exactly, and I decided to do the thread through ties rather than the elastic and ties she used in the tutorial, but the basic idea is the same. These two dresses are actually made out of pillowcases! And they look surprisingly cute (and non-pillowcase like) on.

So in one day, using only material I already had, I made DD four new skirts, and two new dresses! And given my material stash, I have plenty more sewing days like this ahead! I wondered for a while if I would have the time and materials to be able to make all our clothes this year (well, mine and DD's, I draw the line at men's clothes, too difficult), but I'm off to a pretty good start. I can't see it being a problem to make our entire wardrobes. Well, I am making an exception to my t-shirts. 100% cotton interlock is very hard to find, and when you do find it, it's not cheap, so I'm buying my shirts second hand at the op shops.

In amongst all this sewing, I have been working on my spring garden, but it's not quite ready for photographs yet. I popped up to the old garden up the paddock this afternoon though, and harvested these. (Well, the eggs are from the chicken pen, and I actually took them out of the fridge, as they were collected this morning, but I've really been looking forward to adding the eggs to my harvest photos, so here they are.) We had the potatoes and peas for dinner, along with a pumpkin we harvested a week or two ago. We're getting closer and closer to a truly home grown meal!

Chooky News

2008-10-02T19:14:00.003+10:00

We added some more shadecloth shade on the side of the chook run yesterday afternoon. I know the shadecloth doesn't look too tidy, but it's really just a temporary measure until the plants get growing I hope. Down this side I planted some more nasturtians (since they grow really well, and the chooks love them), the last few seeds of last year's packet of corn, some wormwood (herb that's good for preventing worms in chooks) and some carrot and lettuce seeds. I planted these quite close to the fence, so that hopefully the chooks will be able to peck at them through the wire.

In the corner, where that cheeky magpie is, I planted what I think is a liquid amber tree. My mum has one, and I love the autumn colours. For those overseas, nearly all the trees here in Australia are evergreen, so we have very few visible changes in autumn. Hopefully this will bring a bit of a seasonal feeling to our place next year. It will also have the advantage of providing the chooks with shade during summer, but letting the sun in in winter. Once it grows anyway.

The pen has been quite a bit cooler with all the work we've done on it, which is gratifying. Still hot, but then everywhere is right now. Hopefully not so hot that they'll cook though. The few times we've been out in the hotter part of the day they have seemed fine when we get back.

Our one chook who has been laying lays an egg most days (missed once since that first egg I think), and it seems we have another one, maybe two, laying as well. The last two days we've had an extra egg. It's surprising how different the eggs look. With supermarket eggs, you get a whole box looking just the same. But seems that isn't the case with backyard chooks, even if they are all the same breed. Our first layer lays small, pinkish/brown eggs, very round. The egg we had the other day was more orange, and with a more elongated shape.

I find it very funny that I can't tell the chooks apart, but I can tell their eggs apart!

A Plan

2008-10-01T22:48:00.002+10:00

Well, I spent so long drawing up this plan in Photoshop, that I'm now too tired to really write a detailed post. So for today, you'll have to just enjoy my drawing mastery, and hopefully I'll have more energy to write tomorrow.

Summer Shade

2008-09-30T19:12:00.007+10:00

We've been working on some extra shade for the chickens over summer. Unknowingly we seem to have put their pen in the hottest place on our property. We went out to visit friends yesterday, and arrived home to find the chickens hot and bothered, with their beaks hanging open, looking most miserable, so something had to be done.

Firstly, we used five sugar cane bales to make a shade shelter within their outside pen. These will hopefully block out the worst of the north and western sun in this section. I also put this 75 litre bin in there filled with water. I'm not sure how effective it will be, but I am hoping that it will keep the area cooler for longer.

Then down the side of the pen we've put a large trellis of reo bar steel. I've planted some loofah seeds, some cowpea seeds (with inoculant), some nasturtium seeds, and some linseed. Hopefully once they grow, they will shade the side of the shed and keep the temperature down in there too. Until they get growing, we've put up some shadecloth, with a gap between it and the shed, in the hopes of cooling things down.

We'll see tomorrow how it goes. I'm happy with all we've done, although there are a few more things we've planned to do as well. So far though, everything we've done has been with materials we've already had, so there hasn't been a big outlay.

More mulch than we know what to do with

2008-09-29T21:14:00.004+10:00

Our 50 bales of sugar cane mulch arrived a couple of days ago. All I can say is Wow. Here it is stacked up against the side of the house, where it was unloaded. DD had a ball, climbing up and down the bales, and then jumping from one to the other once we moved some to the front garden. I've started spreading them around the front area, where I hope to cover the entire area in mulch. Let me tell you, I'm going to have heaps for that, and for several other projects I have in mind. It is such a lovely feeling to have so much mulch that I can just use lots of it, and for so many different things. I'm sure these bales will feature in many of my posts over the coming months.

We also harvested the first installment of our potato patch this afternoon. (I posted about making this here and here.) We were going to harvest the whole lot, as the plants had begun to yellow a little, but found that many of the potatoes are still quite small. They are plentiful though, this is the harvest from about 4 plants that we pulled up. It will probably do us about 3 or 4 meals. We'll probably keep harvesting from this patch now instead of buying them, but do it as needed rather than pulling the lot up at once, so that some of them will have a little longer to grow. I do want to get them out soon though, as I have plans to plant corn and pumpkins where they are growing now.

It is very satisfying to harvest your own food. Tonight we had potatoes and pumpkins that we grew ourselves. A short step closer to having a fully home grown meal!

A Change for the Better

2008-09-28T20:24:00.004+10:00

We finally switched the main lights in the new house over to energy saving compact fluro's yesterday. After taking two months to get around to it, it only took a few minutes to actually do it (the biggest problem was remembering to check what type of light fitting we had before going out!) We've switched over the three lights in the living area, the two in DD's playroom, and the bathroom light, since these are the ones we use most often. The bedrooms, toilet and walk in wardrobe came with compact fluro's, so they are fine. We still need to switch over the hallway, laundry, and outside lights, but these are only used infrequently and for short periods of time, so they can wait a little while.

The compact fluros are much cheaper to run, especially over a long period of time. These that we bought are 15 watt, but with the light of a 75 watt, making them brighter than the existing 60 watt lights, for 1/4 of the energy. I'm sure we'll notice the savings on our next bill. Although you would think that changing lightbulbs over wouldn't make that much difference, we did actually notice the savings when we changed the ones in our unit over several years ago now. DH also prefers the white light over the yellow, and I have to agree with him, especially in the sewing room. For those that prefer the yellow light though, you can get yellow compact fluro's now. We have them in the other rooms in the house, and you can definately see the colour difference.

Recycled Planter Box

2008-09-25T20:04:00.017+10:00

You may remember from July's Unfinished Projects Challenge, that I mentioned a mysterious planter box. Well, here it is, FINALLY all finished. When I went back to find the initial photos of putting it together, they were back in my MAY folder. This is one project that's been too long in the finishing. But now, finally, my little raspberry plant has a safe home, where it can't take over my yard or grow out of control. Hopefully now it will provide us with lots and lots of fresh raspberries.

It's made out of two old pallets that were left behind (or rather, snaffled with the overseer's permission) from our house building. These were the ones that the bricks were on for the house.

And, just in case anyone has a hankering to make one of these, here are some photos and basic instructions.

First, cut both pallets in half. We used the chainsaw for this. You want to end up with a piece (well, two actually, but you'll only use one of them) like this for the base.

And two pieces like this. They will make the sides.

Pull the back board off each side. These will be cut up to make the ends.

Attach first side with these hammer on connector thingies. (I'm really good with technical names.)

Then attach the other side. Then let it sit and weather for 4 months or so. Or, if you're the sort who likes to finish jobs in one go, you can skip this step...

Then cut the boards you pulled off into two pieces (one slightly shorter than the other if you have an angle like ours), and screw or nail them onto each end.

I then moved the planter to it's final place in the front garden, up against the fence, near the compost heap. Of course, it's not finished yet, since it's hardly going to hold soil like this.

I lined the planter box with weedmat on the bottom (left over from making DD's sandpit), and shadecloth on the sides (recycled from DH's parents pergola).

It's attached on the inside using the staple gun. Doesn't look too tidy, but it's about to be covered in soil anyway, so you won't be able to see it. Using pretty much all recycled materials or stuff we had lying around, all up it cost nothing more than the price of a few screws and staples. Can't go wrong there.

Then add your soil and plant your plants! It took quite a bit of soil to fill this up. Half the compost from my compost heap (on the bottom since it's still quite fresh), and about 4 bags of compost/potting mix from the garden store. The raspberry only takes up half of the planter for now, so I'm thinking I'll plant carrots in the other half until it grows a little.

Planting Perennials

2008-09-24T16:47:00.006+10:00

The challenge this month on Aussie's Living Simply is to plant a perennial. Perennials are considered to be the mainstay of permaculture, as they provide food and other products with minimal tending. They don't need to be replanted every year, and usually once they're established, only minimal fertilising and watering, and the occasional pruning.

It came at a good time for us, as I have several fruit trees, vines and plants awaiting planting. Yesterday, before our trip the the beach, we planted a lychee, plum, macadamia and 2 mandarins, as well as transplanted one more mandarin from a position where it was not happy. I still have 3 grapes, 2 kiwi fruit, an olive tree, and 2 blueberries to plant. The picture above is of our orchard area, and future food forest! We're getting close to having all the fruit trees I can think of to plant right now, although I'm sure we'll squeeze in a few more when I just can't resist. It is getting pretty crowded though.

So far, on our property, we have:

Citrus:
Mandarins:
1. Honey Murcot
2. Imperial
3. Hickson
Oranges:
4. Washington Navel
5. Valencia
Lemons:
6. Eureka
7. Meyer

Stonefruit:
8. Peach - Tropical Beauty
9. Plum - Yellow Flesh
10. Apricot - Morepark
11. Nectarine
12. Peachcot

Others:
Apples:
13. Tropical
14. Golden Dorset
Mulberries:
15. Black
16. White
Others:
17. Fig - Black Turkey
18. Persimmon - Non-astringent
19. Black Sapote (chocolate pudding fruit)
20. Macadamia
21. Macadamia - H2
22. Mango - Bowen

Hmm, only 22? Seems like there should be more than that.

We also have about 4 passionfruit vines, several lilypilly's, and of course the blueberries, grapes etc that I mentioned above. Eventually, I plan on adding some understory plants in the orchard area, as well as lots of edible groundcovers for the chooks. For now though, we're working on a windbreak of natives at the back (as the neighbour is clearing her land for subdivision), and one or two more fruit trees that I'm sure will jump into my car at the markets...

Toes in the Sand

2008-09-23T17:55:00.010+10:00

This is how I spent a large portion of the afternoon.

When I wasn't doing this. As you can see, I'm still wearing my skirt. Better make another one I think, before I wear this one out!

We went out to Bribie Island again for the afternoon, and had a lovely relaxing time in the sand and water. The water is just starting to warm up, and being school holidays, there were a few families around, but not too crowded.

There were a bit of a crowd of these jellyfish though. So sad to see them washing up on the beach. I wonder why they do that?

And here are a couple of pics of DD playing on the beach, just for good measure.

We didn't spend the whole day in idleness though. Before we left this morning, we added planted 6 new trees in the orchard. I'll post some pics, maybe tomorrow, and an updated list of the trees we have now.

And finally, here is today's harvest for today. We're finding that we're losing a lot of strawberries as they're rotting from lying on the damp ground under the plants. When we get runners this year, I'm going to move them all down to the front, hopefully with a better setup. There also should be 2 eggs in the picture, but I forgot to include them. One in the nest, and one found in a corner of the shed veranda. No idea how long it was there, but it can't have been more than a day or two. It tasted fine. Well, better than fine actually. There is nothing quite like the taste of your own, fresh, chickens eggs.

Improving the Soil

2008-09-22T19:52:00.004+10:00

We have our work cut out for us, to change our barren front lawn into a productive vegie garden. And this is the first step. Here are the 20 bales of lucerne hay that were delivered this morning. We will have 50 bales of sugar cane mulch arriving some time in the next week or so. I'm also buying up on compost, manure and soil food at our local Bunnings.

Yes, I am spending a lot of money on establishing this garden, and no doubt I could do it for less. I mean, we have 3/4 of an acre of grass, and plenty of kitchen scraps, couldn't I use those? The answer is that yes, I could, and yes, I do, but the amount of compost and mulch I can produce this way barely makes a dent in the amount of land I'm trying to make productive. And while there is nothing particularly wrong with the soil, there's nothing particularly good about it either. We're basically trying to grow European vegetables in Australian soil, and the difference between them is quite significant. The vegetables will grow in the soil we have, but they won't produce as well as they should be. The answer to this, of course, is to increase the amount of vegetable matter in the soil, which in turn increases the nutrients, and the soil's water retention.

So we have a busy time ahead of us, preparing all this area for our summer planting. I hope to take lots of pictures, and document our progress as I go along.

Our First Egg!

2008-09-21T19:47:00.008+10:00

DD and I were very excited today to discover our first egg! I'd almost given up looking, and was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with our chooks, but lo and behold, there it was. We almost missed it, I just happened to look through the window of the shed, and there it was. I would have liked to take a picture of it still in the nest, but DD was so excited she had to pick it up and bring it down to the house straight away. I figured this was the next best photo. I was really afraid she was going to drop it in her excitement, but she didn't. It's now sitting in our fridge, and DD wants to make pancakes with it tomorrow morning. I'm so looking forward to having more fresh eggs than we can eat, and hopefully some to share with our family and friends as well. One more step towards self-sufficiency.

I made DD the requested 'skirt like mummy's, so here it is. I actually did this up in about 15 minutes last night once DD was in bed, only to find this morning that it didn't fit her! Far too small. That will teach me to sew when my model is in bed. I cut it up the seam, and added in another panel, and it fits fine now.

I made this little dress today too, finally cutting up one of the fabrics I bought for clothes for DD. It's a really pretty dress, although it was a bit more fiddly than the others. It's also a little short. Wearable, but it won't last until next year. If I make another one like this, (and I probably will), I'll adjust the pattern to be a bit longer in both the skirt and the top. It was listed as a 6yo pattern though, so I didn't expect it to be this short! Guess the Japanese are shorter than my already very tall girl.

A Crafting Day

2008-09-20T20:19:00.014+10:00

After picking up my new overlocker after a warranty repair yesterday, today was lined up for some serious sewing. I had prewashed all the pretty material I bought from spotlight a few weeks ago (to preshrink it, it's cotton), and was all ready to go. Of course, I then didn't want to cut up said pretty material straight away, in case the pattern I tried didn't work. So a quick search through my recycled fabric stash revealed this pretty purple floral material. It was an old granny nightie. Much more useful now don't you think? And I was glad I didn't cut up the expensive stuff for this, since it was MEANT to be a dress, but was far too short! The addition of the shorts makes it a very cute little outfit regardless though.

Next I had a go at making a dress following this tutorial (from memory, since my computer wasn't turned on). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (again from an old granny nighty that I posted about here). I've always wanted to know how to do that elastic gathery thing, so was really excited to find out how it was done (and it's very easy, check out the tutorial). Unfortunately DD has already broken one of the gathers from her habit of putting her knees up inside her dresses/shirts and stretching them. Oh well, no doubt I can fix it if I get around to it.

And finally, I took the scissors to the new material to make this skirt for me. This was actually my least favourite of the material, but I really like how it has turned out. After taking the photo, I added two pockets, as I hate wearing things without pockets. Nowhere to put my keys, and they always get lost in the bottom of my handbag. The pattern for this dress came from my "Stitch House" book, a great book, translated from Japanese, with measure and cut patterns for a great variety of clothes. For those who've seen them, it's very similar to Enid Gilchrist's books, only more modern (it's from the 80's I believe). I think I'm going to be making a lot of clothes from this book (and the other two from the series that I have) because most of the clothes can be made with 2m of fabric or less, unlike the paper patterns I have (and I have lots) that seem to need 3-4 metres for everything. Far more frugal, and usually easier and faster to make too.

So it seems like I've made a good start on our summer wardrobe. I am itching to make more, and have my next pattern already planned out. Well, I might have to make DD a skirt like mine first, as she's already requested one. Luckily I have enough material left over from my 2m to make her one!

And yes, for anyone who is curious, I did do all these in one day. Most of them only took 1/2 an hour to an hour to do, so I even managed to cook some johnny cakes, and do some craft with DD too.

We made these flower collages from cutout scrap paper and other bits and pieces. I helped cut bits out for DD, but she stuck all of it on herself. She's really enjoying these sorts of crafts lately. We made a pirate hat at the library yesterday, which she even cut out herself. While I'm at it, here are some other crafts DD has done in the last few days (not today!)

DD cut out and stuck these dinosaurs all by herself last night from some scrapbooking paper we bought her for her birthday. The one on the left is a velociraptor, and the one on the right is an apatosaurus.

These little paper envelopes she also made herself. The paper is some coloured squares, again bought for her birthday. She did it all herself, just asking me to get some masking tape off the roll for her. All the folding and sticking she did herself.

Her manipulative skills are really taking off right now, so I think we're going to be doing a lot more of these sorts of activities around here.

Four Sources of Water

2008-09-19T21:12:00.006+10:00

Permaculture theory (as stated by Rosemary Morrow in her book, "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture, yes you're going to hear a lot about this book over the next little while) states that you should always have at least 2 sources of water, just in case one is lost or contaminated. This can be any combination of tanks, bores, dams, or town water. If your only water source is tank water for example, you should have two smaller tanks rather than one large one etc. Well, our new 5000L water tank arrived yesterday afternoon, bringing us up to 4 water sources - 3 tanks and town water backup. I've mentioned before that though we have a mains water connection, we intend to only use it in an emergency. Since we moved, mains water has only ever been used to top up the new house connected tank when it was first installed (via the automatic top up that was installed, and was turned off as soon as handover was completed). We now have over 50,000L in water storage, and after the recent rains, both main tanks are at half and three quarters full. Another good rain, and they'll be full.

That's where this new tank comes in. We'll pump into it regularly (it's not connected to a downpipe) when the tanks are nearing capacity, giving us some extra storage space. It will be used entirely for watering the front garden, and will save a lot of carting buckets back and forth. I'm hoping to set up some drip watering systems to make watering even easier (and more water efficient).

As you can also see in the photo, the front garden is starting to take shape. Besides the tank, you can see the black compost bin in the bottom right corner, that is about 1/4 full now, with a pile of grass next to it for covering food scraps with. it's hard to see, but the climbing peas are about 18 inches tall now, and starting to flower. I'm hoping we'll get a harvest in before it gets too hot for them. Weeds abound in the rest of the front yard, but in the next few weeks they will all be mown down then smothered with lots of mulch. Then I'll be able to get started, albeit a little late, on my spring planting.

On a good gardening note though, the strawberry harvests just keep getting bigger and bigger! I need to pick them more often, as you can probably see, some of them are getting rotten spots where they're lying on the damp ground too long. I had to chuck about a dozen really rotten ones to the chooks, but most of these were salvageable, and have now been frozen for the next batch of strawberry jam. Organic and homegrown this time!

Bye Bye Teflon.

2008-09-14T20:18:00.002+10:00

DH and I have always had an electric frypan, and up until now, they've all been teflon. It's pretty hard these days to buy a frypan that isn't teflon. Now aside from the fact that there have been numerous health risks linked to teflon (which scrapes off the pans quite easily), every single teflon pan we've had has lasted a maximum of 18 months. The teflon just scrapes off the pan so quickly, even if you're being super careful, that they have a very short lifespan indeed. Meaning that we have to regularly replace a frying pan that is working perfectly well.

This happens so regularly that we have several electric frying pan boxes holding all our Christmas ornaments. We'd buy a new one each year, when they came on special.

Well not anymore. Yesterday I went out and bought a stainless steel electric frying pan. No more icky teflon scraping off, no more replacing our frying pan each year, or feeling bad because the teflon was scraping off and we hadn't replaced it. Our new frying pan has a 25 year guarantee on the cooking surface. You won't find that on a teflon one any time soon!

We cooked pancakes in it for lunch today, and it worked beautifully. Looking forward to many more safely cooked meals, and a long and harmonious relationship with our new frying pan.

Beginning Reading

2008-09-13T19:03:00.002+10:00

Yesterday, we visited our local library. Every Wednesday and Friday, the Caboolture Library has story time, about half an hour of stories and songs, usually followed by a simple craft activity. As DD has been a little uncertain about being involved in group play and activities, this one is our gentle introduction and some social interaction. Some weeks she doesn't want to go, and a few times when there has been an unusually large group, such as during school holidays, she's wanted to go home, but overall she really enjoys the experience, and always demands that we go to the playground nearby to play afterwards.

It's really great morning out, we get to listen to fun stories, play with the other kids, get some new books/DVD's/computer games, and best of all, it's free! I've been really impressed with the Caboolture library's resources for kids. There are giant floor puzzles for the kids to play with in the library (not a visit goes by that we don't do at least one of them!), a great selection of fiction and non-fiction books for kids, and even an educational section.

Yesterday, among other things, we picked up a beginning reading book. It's quite simple, 3-4 word sentences on each page, and a very cute little story about two frogs jumping. I picked it up on a whim, thinking that DD might just like it. We do have the first level of a couple of different beginning reading series, and DD has practiced many times with them. This book was a little different though, in that it had more of a story than many of the readers we have.

When we got home, we sat down to read it, and DD read it through with minimal help! She was so excited she read it again, then again to show DH when he got home from work. It was a very exciting moment for us all. Of course, we still have a long way to go, but we've taken the first step, and all in all, it was pretty easy.

One of the best things about homeschooling I think, is that we get to share these moments with our kids, rather than just hearing about them later (if they even get repeated). Seeing DD's excitement as she realised that she could read was a wonderful gift, and I look forward to many more like it on our homeschooling journey.

Mending a Tear

2008-09-12T21:07:00.009+10:00

A few nights ago, I ripped a hole in the bottom sheet on our bed. You see, there was a minuscule particle of grit that had somehow gotten under the sheet (at least, I think it was under it), and I have a bit of a hatred of dust/grit in my bed, so I had to rip it out. Unfortunately, I had a bit of sheet between my fingers as well, and this was the result. So instead of letting the hole get bigger and bigger until I threw the sheet out, I pulled it straight off the bed (well, next morning, I didn't get up to do it in the middle of the night, rest assured), and mended it. The rest of the sheet is still in good condition, and being nice, expensive, 100% cotton sheets, I didn't want to have to buy new ones straight away.

It was easy to mend. If you're not craftily inclined, you can buy iron on patches that will do a fair job of this sort of mending, but I prefer to go for the cheaper option. I cut a square of cotton out of an old sheet that was too far gone to mend, and pinned it behind the tear. Then I sewed around the edges to hold it in place, then in close to the tear, then finally, zig-zagged over the actual tear itself. Luckily I still had green thread on my machine from making the Teddy Bear, so it even matched.

I actually feel really satisfied doing things like this. I mean, for taking the time to do a 10 minute job, I actually saved $100! This is actually much better even than if I'd made $100, as I don't have to pay tax on it! Not to mention not needing to take the time, energy and fuel to go buy a new set of sheets!

It's more than just the saving though, I feel productive, and I feel a connection to the things and people in my house when I do jobs like this. Now I have a couple of DH's cargo pants sitting on my machine, waiting for a similar treatment.

Front Garden

2008-09-11T21:06:00.005+10:00

I promised some front garden photos yesterday, but got too busy to actually take any today. I really haven't done much yet though, so you're not missing much! We've put 180cm wire along the front, and I plan on getting lots of vines growing there to cover us from the street while we get a more permenant hedge (hopefully of pidgeon pea, and maybe some carob) growing. So far I have climbing peas growing (though it's late in the season, and they seem to be getting a mould attack), a baby passionfruit, and a sprouted choko. I've planted other vine seeds, like loofah's and gourds, but they haven't come up yet. And that's about it. So far all that exists in the front garden is a narrow bed about a foot wide along the front. So without further ado, here are some pictures I took a few weeks ago.

The new garden bed from the same direction as yesterday's picture. Believe it or not there is about 3 bales of hay in that garden!

And a closeup of the climbing peas.

More Strawberries!

2008-09-10T20:14:00.006+10:00

I thought it would be another couple of days before we got more strawberries, but up in the garden this afternoon I picked this bunch. If I can get this many strawberries each day, we'll have enough for another lot of jam before we finish eating this one! Of course, I ate a couple, and DD ate one, and the rest are going with DH tomorrow for his lunch, so none to add to the freezer stash today.

Some of you might remember that back in May, when I harvested my first lot of potatoes, that there was a strange bug on the stems, that I'm pretty sure was responsible for the early death of the plants. Talking to a few other gardeners yielded the idea that they might be the larval stage of the 28 spot ladybird. I wasn't sure at the time, as I hadn't recalled seeing any, but looking at my current crop today, I pulled these little critters off the plants. There were so many of them I was amazed. My first crop is looking a little the worse for wear, so I might not have gotten to them in time, but I'm hoping that if I keep an eye on the second crop regularly, I might just prevent the same thing happening. I offered these to the chooks, but they turned up their noses!

Finally, I've been promising info on my new garden plans for a while, but haven't had a chance to post about it. I took these pictures back in June, would you believe, and haven't posted them yet. This is the front lawn, between our house and the street. I plan to turn this, and the area around the corner (right to the fence, then left in this picture) into my new vegie garden.

As you can see, it's quite easy to fence off, in fact, we've already fenced it. A small fence between the tank and the fence, and another between the tank and the side of the house makes this side inaccessible by chooks. And a longer fence from the side of the house down to the front fence secures the other side. I've already begun work on the garden here, but I'll save that post for tomorrow, after I take some more pictures to show you.

The garden up the back that we already have will remain there, and I'll use it for larger crops that don't need to be visited/harvested as frequently. Some plans include a giant corn patch, watermelons, and of course, the strawberries will remain there, though I'll bring this years runners down to the front for a second strawberry patch there.

2008-09-09T21:18:00.003+10:00

I love days like this, where I actually have some sort of tangible harvest from my garden. This is the last of the Roma Tomatoes, the mickey's (aka Noisy Minors) got the rest. But I'm sure they enjoyed them more than I would have. There are a few more side shoots from the broccoli at the back that we had for dinner. Never have I actually enjoyed green leafy vegetables before, but these are yum. I had the mulberries for desert, more ripe this time, and starting to get sweet. The strawberries are about 2-3 days growth. If I get this many every few days, about a punnet full I think, then I'll have a giant pot of my own organic strawberry jam in a few weeks time! I cut them up and they're in the freezer now, along with the tomatoes.

Gardening wise I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. I want to get into spring planting, but there is a lot to organise first, which I shall post about more in the next few days/weeks as it gets moving. I have plans to move my vegie garden to the front of the house, where it gets plenty of sun, and is protected from the westerly winds, which can be quite nasty at times. It also works in well with the permaculture zones, being essentially Zone 1, close to the house and easily accessible. I actually bought Rosemary Morrow's "Earth User's Guide to Permaculture" yesterday, and have been voraciously devouring it. This of course is probably part of the reason for my overwhelmed feeling.

I've tried to read about permaculture before. The idea intrigues me, but Bill Mollison's books were just too theoretical for me, and I couldn't get through them. This book is far more practical, and I'm already finding myself referring to it as I try to plan something. I think I will have to work through the exercises she lists in each chapter, and try to get an overall permaculture plan for our block. Hopefully there will be some posts about that in the future too. (Ever notice how I talk a lot about possible posts that often don't ever eventuate?) There is just so much to it, and so much of it is so useful, but it takes a lot to take it all in.

In other news, my kiwi fruit plants arrived today. 2 plants, male and female, both very tiny. I've been reading up on them, and apparently they grow VERY extensively, and are very strong plants, so I'm going to need somewhere to put them. I'm really wishing right now that I had a pergola out the front, as it would be a perfect place for them. As they're deciduous, they'd give us some nice cool shade in summer, but let in the warm sun in winter. Some planning to do there too...

And as an update to yesterday's post, Roley the rooster has been returned to the breeders we bought the eggs off, and they are going to attempt to find him a new home. Hopefully Jumpy will settle down now that he's the king rooster, and not take after Roley.

Time's Up

2008-09-08T20:29:00.004+10:00

This is Roley the Rooster. Beautiful isn't he?

Well let me tell you, he's not so beautiful when he's pecking your hand through the wire of his pen. Or sidling up to you, wings down, indicating that he's deciding whether to attack or not.

Out of our 7 surviving chooks, we have 2 roosters (You can see Jumpy in the background of this picture), and both aren't exactly being friendly. Jumpy (why is it that our roosters have names, but not our chooks???) has only run at me once or twice though, whereas Roley does it every time I open his pen, or walk outside.

So this means that, beautiful though he is, Roley is going to have to go. Jumpy will get a short reprieve, just to see how he goes once Roley is gone, but if he follows in his predecessor's footsteps, he'll be gone too. Sadly, we're not quite game enough to put him on the dinner table, so I'd say he'll go back to the breeders who we bought the eggs off.

Berry Nice

2008-09-07T20:46:00.008+10:00

Yes, I know, lame title. That is what happens when you over plan a blog post. This is my 'berry harvest' from yesterday (with a few peas thrown in). Mulberries and strawberries. This is the mulberry tree's second year (first year it was still in a pot though, poor thing, while we waited to get out here to plant), and we're getting a nice taste of mulberries this year. Many of these were picked up from the ground after the recent rain and accompanying wind. Tasted nice, but could be a little sweeter, probably because some of them could be a little riper.

The strawberries are doing well too, but they taste Soooo yummy, that I am beginning to wonder if we're going to get many to make jam. I'm afraid I'm the worst culprit for strawberry eating, I keep eating them as I pick. They are so totally unlike the strawberries you buy in the shops, or even at the markets. These are the old variety, from my Grandmother's plants (Grandpa used to have a farm, and I have feint memories of going there and picking strawberries from their huge strawberry patch). These haven't been bred and modified to travel well, or be huge, or extra red, they are just the way they are, and you can taste the difference. Not even a hint of bitterness, just as sweet as can be. I'm not even going to bother trying to buy any newer commercial ones (the last ones I tried died anyway, oops), just keep making more and more and more of these.

Anyway, as I was saying, I was just beginning to wonder yesterday if we were going to get enough to make jam, and we were down to our last jar of jam... when I found a bargain at the markets this morning. A whole box full of strawberries, for the bargain price of $5!!!! So I bought them home, diced them up, and here they are in my pressure cooker! None of the saucepans were big enough to hold them! There is still at least a punnet load of the nicer ones left for eating and, more likely, juicing (have to post about my new juicer soon...)

I don't think I've posted about making jam before? We make all our own jam these days, and it's really easy. Basically, just dice up your fruit (and there are lots of options other than strawberries, pineapple, apricot, rosella, raspberry, etc etc). Put it in a saucepan with equal parts of sugar (I often put slightly less sugar, and it hasn't affected the eventual outcome). If it's a low pectin fruit (which strawberries are), add some lemon juice (about one lemon to 2 cups of strawberries), and boil it up. After a while (time seems to be dependent on the temperature of your stove) it will 'gel'. You should be able to see the change in the pot once you get used to it. The jam seems to go darker, it doesn't boil as quickly, and it 'feels' thicker. Then pour it straight into sterilised jars (I just rinse mine in hot water from the tap), and put the lids on quickly before it cools. If you have 'pop-top' jars, the tops will pop down as it cools, and seal the jars. I keep mine in the fridge, but I think it is OK to keep sealed jars in the cupboards, though I'm not sure how long.

This lot of strawberries made 11 jars of jam! So for $5 for the strawberries, and maybe $2 worth of sugar (I buy in bulk, 15kg at a time, works out at a little less than $1 a kg if I recall correctly), about $1 worth of lemons, that's about 70c a jar. Hopefully that will keep my family in jam for a while, although I won't hold my breath, we go through a lot of jam. So long as it's strawberry anyway. The pineapple and apricot have been sitting in the fridge for months. While I was at it, I poured a little into a bottle before it hit the gel stage, to see how it works for strawberry sauce.

I wonder if they'll have more boxes next week?

Gift for a Baby

2008-09-05T19:45:00.004+10:00

A few months ago I told my sister that I wanted to make something for the baby. There wasn't much point in my buying the usual baby clothes and toys, as I'm sure if my sister wanted any of those, she'd just go out and buy them. I figured something handmade would have more significance than anything I could buy, and luckily I think my sister agrees wtih me.

But I wanted it to be something she would use, rather than something I thought would be good. She asked for a teddy bear, a green one. I had planned to have it finished before the baby was born, but since she decided to come 9 days early, I didn't manage that one. (Yes, I like to cut things fine, I always work best under pressure.)

So here she is. Made with mint green fleece, from a pattern I bought at Spotlight. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. The original pattern was for a jointed bear with glass eyes, not really suitable for a baby, so I made a few modifications. Right now it's bigger than the baby is, but she'll grow. I can only hope that she still has this one when she grows up, as I still have the teddy I was given as a child.

Rainy Day Fun

2008-09-04T15:41:00.017+10:00

After watching the skies for any sign of moisture for the last few weeks (and seeing lots of grey, overcast days, but no rain), we woke up this morning to showers, which have settled into a nice steady rain throughout the day, which is doing a good job of filling our tanks, as you can see. Just in time too, because our automatic water switch pump switched us to mains water just yesterday. Of course, I went straight out and changed the level of the sensor so that we were still running on tank water. There were still 3 rungs of water left, which on our tank is around 2500L. That would have lasted us a few more weeks probably, although thankfully now we won't have to test that theory.

While it was filling our tanks, it was also backing up around the lower part of the house at the back. This is the view from the back door. Even the stepping stones were under water! Seems like we might have to do something about this area sooner rather than later.

It wasn't just our area that was flooded though, this was the roadside drain out our front gate. And it wasn't even raining that heavily! I think the problem is that when they dug under the road to connect our mains water, they didn't go deeply enough through this area, and it creates a bit of a blockage in the drain. It goes down just as quickly as it comes up though, and has never so far actually gone across our driveway.

DD didn't seem to mind though and was asking me all day "Can I go out and play in the rain?" I finally let her right before bath time, and she had a ball.

Luckily we had plenty to keep us occupied other than splashing in puddles all day. Last night we made the pilgrimage down to Ikea. I say pilgrimage because it is about 90 minutes each way, although we did break it up with a visit to my sister to ohh and ahh over her baby again. What was I talking about again? Oh yes, Ikea. Long trip. But well worth it. The very cobbled together picture above is DD's playroom. Lots of space, but very little storage space, so usually everything ends up all over the floor in very short order. We planned to do something about it. So after spending about $300 at Ikea, we piled our purchases into the car (I love having a hatchback!), and came home.

DD and I spent the morning putting together her new shelves and table. And of course, a fair bit of cleaning and sorting, with a little bit of shoving into boxes to sort tomorrow thrown in. Looks much better doesn't it? In fact, it almost looks like a room in someone else's house!

This is the area near the window, with a little table (that was actually a coffee table, but is exactly the size I wanted for her) for drawing and eventually schoolwork. The curtains are recycled from an old doona cover that I bought at a garage sale.

And, inspired by Playschool, DD drew these giant dinosaurs on the leftover Ikea packaging. The one on the left is an apatosaurus, and the one on the right is a tyrannosaurus. But he's a friendly tyrannosaurus, that's why he has a smile. It's hard to see unless you click on the picture to get the larger pic, but he actually has little hands complete with claws.

And as if that wasn't enough to do for one day, I got inspired to try dyeing some wool with food colouring. I had about 10 balls of cream wool that I posted about here. Cream is not my favourite colour, not to mention not being practical with a 4yo in the house, and it was really cheap, so I figured I'd give it a go. After searching around the web, I found some instructions here, and got to it. It was pretty simple really. Soak the wool in half vinegar half water for half an hour, dip it in diluted food colouring, then steam for 45 minutes.

Inspired by DD's beautiful rainbow puzzles, I did some in rainbow colours, and am really impressed with how the colours turned out. I think I'm going to use these to crochet a throw for DD's playroom.

Then I got a little creative, and tried some variegated colours. Very citrusy colours, I'm really enjoying these colours lately. Not sure what I'll use these for yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

So that was my day. (And I'm really tired, which is why this last bit of the post is so dull and why I'm waffling so much.) Much better than a rainy day was in the shed, where we all felt wet and closed in. It's amazing how much more room there is in the house, and how much lighter everything feels, even when it's all wet outside.

The Next Level?

2008-09-02T19:56:00.004+10:00

As you may or may not have noticed, posts have been few and far between lately. This is both because I haven't been inspired/had time to write, and because I feel that little of what I've been doing has been noteworthy. We've been spending a lot of time organising, or doing little projects and bits and pieces here and there. Though these add up, most of them haven't really been worthy of a blog post. Still, there have been things I haven't written about that I could have, often because I don't have a picture (why do I think every blog post needs a picture?), or are too lazy to go take one. I was half wondering if maybe this blog was coming to a close, something I wasn't too happy about, because I have gained a lot from blogging. I find that writing down what we're doing here keeps me motivated, and helps me to realise what we are achieving, the bits that would otherwise pass unnoticed. It also helps me to think about the greater picture, and where we are going with all of it.

Then last night I had a bit of a revelation. Up until now, just about everything we've been doing, all our energy, had been focused on getting the house built. It's occupied all our thoughts, and most of our spare time, and now it's done.

So I guess to some extent we've had a well deserved rest (if you can call all the moving and organising we've done over the last month 'resting'), and an adjustment period, settling into the new house. And now, we're left wondering what we do now...

Sure, there are plenty of things still waiting on the list, like organising DD's playroom, planning for starting official homeschooling next year, working on the gardens, making curtains etc etc. The list is endless. And that will continue on, and hopefully always will.

But there is another side of this simple living that is starting to gain a bit of a focus in my mind lately. It's no secret to those that know him that DH isn't happy where he works. It's a high stress environment, with little recognition of the effort he puts in, and constant concerns about his job role changing to one he's not happy with. On top of that, with our move to the outskirts of the city, a couple of extra hours a day are lost in travel time. I'm starting to feel that this is the next issue we need to address.

The obvious solution is to find a new job, one where DH is happier, less stressed, and if at all possible, is working closer to home with less travel time. We're working on this now, with DH writing up his resume, and getting ready to apply for a few positions that are coming up.

But this is only a temporary solution. It will improve things, but it isn't what we eventually want as a family. I guess it's my sister's fault. She's shown us a different way of life to the 9-5 slog that most people are a slave to. She's managed to build up a successful portfolio of photos, and earn enough that her husband was able to quit work, and both of them are staying home to care for their new baby. Is there any better way to organise things?

Of course, this has taken her several years, and a LOT of hard work to achieve, and I don't know if I can ever get to that stage (she managed to do this before having children, which was a big benefit), but it does give us something to aim for. Perhaps one day, when we've paid off the mortgage (will that day every come? Seems so far off in these early days), if I can make even a little money from my photographs, and we get our gardens and orchard well enough established to provide a large amount of our food, DH will be able to work part time, and spend a lot more time here at home with DD and I, growing things, caring for the animals, and enjoying life. I think 2 days a week would be good, don't you?

So, along with all our usual things that we're doing and working on, this is probably the larger goal that we're aiming for. Yes, it's a dream at this stage, and perhaps something we will never achieve, but without dreams, where would we be?

First Spring Harvest

2008-09-01T21:38:00.002+10:00

No time for long posts tonight, so I'll just leave this picture of today's harvest for your enjoyment. Not bad huh? There were also about 8-10 mulberries that didn't make it to the picture...

I have lots more garden photos that hopefully I'll have time to post tomorrow. Hope everyone is enjoying the first day of spring.

Spring is in the Air!

2008-08-31T19:51:00.003+10:00

There has been a definite change in the weather in the last week or so. We're pulling jumpers off by 10am, and changing into shorts at 10pm! Nights are cooler, but nothing like what they were a mere few weeks ago. I swear that the sunshine even LOOKS different, and it just FEELS like spring.

A few days ago, the wood ducks that live on the neighbours dam bought their 3 tiny ducklings for a wander across our paddock, and the flowers are covered in bees.

In the spirit of this seasonal change, we've had a very relaxing weekend. After a somewhat rocky start, we spent Saturday at the beach on Bribie Island. The water was still cold, but that didn't stop DD getting as soaking wet as she could without actually immersing herself. We collected shells and rocks worn smooth by the waves, and even managed to get the kite in the air. We were all pleasantly relaxed and exhausted after that, so we came home, had a barbeque dinner, and had an early night.

This morning spring grabbed me at the markets, and I bought up big on fruit trees to add to the orchard. I bought a peachcot (cross between an apricot and a peach, never tasted one before), a yellow Dorset apple (different to the apple I have now), and a Eureka Lemon. I also bought another passionfruit vine to plant in the front garden. This brings my fruit tree total to 20 (I think, I'll have to count them again to be sure!) I've also ordered a pair of kiwi fruit vines, which should arrive in the next few weeks. I'll have to figure out where I'm going to put them though!

We also bought another 30m of hose, and ran it up the back, as watering the garden and fruit trees has become a nightmare. I'm afraid to say that for the most part my garden takes it's chances with water. I water when planting, and sporadically here and there, but mostly my plants have to make do with the rainfall. Unfortunately it's hasn't really 'rained' above a 2 minute sprinkle for a month or more now, so the poor garden is feeling it. Everything is miraculously still growing, but I'm sure it'd be doing better for a little water.

So this afternoon, with DH's help, I watered every tree in the orchard! DH sat on a stool and filled buckets for me (the hose only just reaches the orchard, it won't reach most of the actual trees, and with water restrictions it's supposed to be bucket watering only anyway) while I delivered them to all the trees. It was quite a job, but hopefully we'll see some results in the trees. In reality, we should do it again in a week if it doesn't rain.

I've had a half dozen mulberries off the mulberry tree though, and the peaches are growing and look so cute! We also have a half a dozen baby nectarines, and the citrus trees have all been flowering for the last few weeks. The passionfruit has buds on it (only the black one, not the yellow one yet), and the loofah vine, far from dying, is putting out new shoots and flowers.

Growing things is so exciting! I go up often just to see what our trees are doing, and each new fruit or flower, no matter how small, gives me a real thrill. I can't wait until the orchard is really productive, and we're picking enough fruit to really make a contribution to our meals.

Flying Along

2008-08-29T22:29:00.006+10:00

DD came up to me today with this picture she had drawn, and told me they were balloons. She solemnly explained that 'those ones are a long long way away, and these are closer', and that the balloons were really all the same size. I was totally blown away by her grasp of perspective, as although we've probably mentioned it to her before, I didn't really expect her to take in what I think is quite a complex concept.

Sometimes I think we defeat ourselves with our own expectations. We expect a child to be able to do certain things at a certain age, and that is all we see. If we don't listen carefully, we will miss these little moments that show us that a child's mind is amazing, and not something you should ever underestimate.

I have no idea when children normally develop this concept, DD could be right on track with it for all I know, but none the less I am amazed at how her brain develops. It's a privilege to have the experience of watching it as it happens.

And it's so obvious right now, she's jumping ahead in leaps and bounds. Along with her drawing ability (which is sketchy and intermittent!), she's really into constructing things out of blocks, boxes, paper, anything she can get her hands on. We cleaned up these 'pop-onz' the other day in one of our decluttering races (will have to post about those some day, they're fun!), and she's had a wonderful time making all sorts of structures out of them, and putting them together in ways that wouldn't even occur to me. She immediately decided one of the blocks was a window box, and has added flowers to decorate it.

It has also been amazing the last week watching her interacting with her new baby cousin. She's already besotted with her, and when she had a cuddle today, the expression on her face was akin to the expression on my sisters when she first held her too, simple wonder and love. It was beautiful to watch. And she is so gentle and patient with her too, quite different to our usual bouncy, excitable child. I am really looking forward to watching their relationship develop over the next few years.

As for formal homeschooling, we're waiting for next year, when hopefully we'll all be settled into our new home properly, to start. I have lots of plans, but right now we're so busy still, with decluttering, organising, and of course, cuddling the new baby, to really be thinking about schooling. And of course, we're learning so much every day that who has time to stop and do worksheets. Well, aside from mazes, which DD enjoyed the other day, and a few dot-to-dots...

Welcome to a new Baby

2008-08-28T20:07:00.002+10:00

Sorry for the recent lack of posting, but I've been otherwise occupied. On Sunday morning, my sister gave birth to a baby girl. My mother, DD and I stayed near the hospital in a motel, and attended the birth. DD slept the night away in an empty birthing room while I got to privilege of seeing my first real birth. Yes, I've given birth myself, but you don't quite get to see that, you're so caught up in doing it.

My sister was amazing. She was planning on using the gas, but it made her feel sick, so she went totally natural, and did a wonderful job 'singing' her baby out.

While I hope to find more time to get back to posting now, it might be a few more days before we have pictures, as I lent my camera to my sister when hers broke in the heat of the moment. I did get some beautiful pictures for her though, that I'm sure she'll treasure for years to come.

Homeschooling Resources - Puzzles

2008-08-16T20:15:00.013+10:00

Since the early days of planning to homeschool, I've put a lot of effort into collecting resources that will enhance DD's experience and learning. We started with puzzles very early on, somewhere between 6 and 12 months (my memory is a little fuzzy at this point), and DD was soon whizzing around doing the simple wooden peg puzzles with ease. These have now been packed away for my niece who is due to arrive within the next month.

Finding more complex puzzles was a bit of a challenge though. They jumped from simple single piece puzzles to ones that were far too complex for a toddler. But persistence paid off, and here and there we found some real gems. My mum found this bear dressing puzzle, with lots of different costumes for the bear family.

These shape puzzles I found for a couple of dollars each at a bargain store. They are surprisingly complicated, and offer a lot of opportunities for developing an understanding of fractions.

These shaped multi piece puzzles we bought at Judius, an educational store that supplies many schools and educational resources (along with some great musical supplies, which I'll detail in another post when I find the box they're all packed in). She loves these dinosaurs. The bird and dolphin aren't quite as popular, but still get done on occasion.

However, my all time favourite are these ones that I bought at Dragonfly Toys last week. To start with, they are simply beautiful to look at. I could stare at them all day, couldn't you?

But more than that, these puzzles offer real opportunities for developing creativity. Unlike other puzzles, there is no right way to put these together. Yes, they come in an original configuration, but the possibilities of these puzzles are limited only by your imagination. They each come with pictures showing some possible combinations, and DD quickly tried out some of these, following the pictures surprisingly easily.

She then quickly moved on to coming up with her own patterns. There is so much to learn in what appears to be a simple rainbow puzzle. The colours of the spectrum, size differences, visual discrimination, manipulation skills, and probably half a dozen other things that I'm not even aware of.

Even I was inspired to try my hand at some different patterns. I think that's the sign of a really great toy, that it's simple enough to inspire children, and even the adults want to have a turn playing with it. We played with these puzzles for nearly an hour when they arrived in the post. The other two puzzles are a little more complicated, and while DD has enjoyed pulling them apart and putting the pieces back in random colours, she probably still has a little way to go before she's ready to start experimenting with colours and patterns. No doubt we'll have a lot of fun with them over the next year though.

With so many puzzles, it's a challenge to keep them organised. Our order to Judius included this puzzle rack, which works really well for the flat A4 sized puzzles, which we still have plenty of. In this stack are some letter and number puzzles, a map of Australia, and some other multi-piece puzzles.

That still left a lot of puzzles with lots of pieces, but no boards. Originally we stored these in plastic cliplock bags, but aside from my dislike of plastic, these would quickly get crumpled and dirty. I wanted some sort of reusable storage for these puzzles. My first thought was drawstring bags, but the fact that you couldn't see what was inside was a definite drawback to that idea. So I decided to make them out of netting. DD loves these, and loves putting the puzzle pieces into them (very helpful when it comes to the tidying up part of the day), and it's very easy to see what is inside of each one. Unfortunately, the netting doesn't appear to be very strong, and a few of the bags have ripped already. I plan to line them with a second piece of (hopefully) stronger material from our mosquito nets, which should remedy this. I'll probably make a few extra bags too, since I think there are a few more puzzles that could benefit from ending up in bags.