Lessons Learned from Low-Tech Wednesday

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

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!

Low-tech Wednesday

Yes, I know, my camera isn't really low tech, but I had to get it out to get a pic of this little guy, then I thought I'd do a kind of 'my day in pictures' to show you what our low-tech Wednesdays are like. Enjoy.

We cooked our pancakes for lunch in our electric frypan (would you believe we don't have a normal one?), but instead of getting out the electric beaters to mix them, I pulled out these old ones. I used to make cakes, meringue, everything with these when I was a kid, but haven't used them since getting an electric set. DH was so impressed with how easy they were to use, he said he will probably use them in future instead of the effort of getting the electric one out and setting it up.

This was my project for the day. You'll get to see the finished thing in a few days (once it is, in fact, finished.)

Preparing for an early dinner.

DD found her own entertainment with the charcoal scraped out of the barbeque.

Dinner is served. We ate out under the gum tree, watching the sun go down, and waving at the neighbours as they drove out. What a perfect end to a lovely day.

Low-tech Wednesday

A member on Aussies Living Simply mentioned that they were having a 'low-tech Wednesday', where they tried to get through the day with as little use of technology as they could, and I was inspired. I know I tend to get too involved on the computer, and DD watches a bit much TV some days, so I thought a day without could be nothing but good.

It wasn't easy, I have to admit, but in the end, it turned out to be a good day. DD had a few tantrums in the morning about wanting to watch a DVD or play a computer game (not that she would normally do them at that time, but when I said we weren't going to, it immediately became the first thing she wanted to do of course), but she settled down quite well.

It helped that Wednesday is story time at the library, so that took up a large chunk of the day. They had an Easter story, made some bunny ears, and were given an Easter egg, which she really enjoyed. Then we choose some books, and a big set of wooden dominoes, and headed home. We spent a lot of the day reading our new library books (at times when DD needed some restful activities and would normally have watched TV), cleaned the floor (DD loves scrubbing the floor!),

We took the chickens out onto the lawn to run around, and watched them excitedly flapping their wings (they are getting feathers on their wings already! Slow down chicks, you can be cute and fluffy for a bit longer!), and pecking at the grass. We played in the cubby, where DD is loving doing pretend cooking on her toy stove. We planted some seeds (peas and pansies), and watered them. And picked the few ripe tomatoes that were there.

For dinner, we had a barbeque with sausages, and tried cooking some vegies wrapped in alfoil in the fire. Most of them burnt to a crisp, but the couple of potatoes that survived were delicious. DD had an early night, and DH and I stayed up far too late talking, without watching TV or playing the computer! DH enjoyed putting some food on his hand, and sitting with it in the box with the chickens as they climbed all over it and pecked it out of his hands. He is allergic to most animals, thus hasn't been able to have pets, and is really enjoying the experience.

All in all, I think low-tech Wednesday was a great success, and we're thinking of making it a regular event!