Our no spending mission ends today. I know a few of you had to make small purchases but you got back on the horse and trotted to the finish line, congratulations. No spending helps us think about why we spend and it shows that we can stay at home and that our lives don't have to revolve around shopping. I'd love to hear a few of your stories. Did you find it difficult? Were the family on board too?

This is the last of our current series of kitchen table talks. I thoroughly enjoy it and hope you did too. I am often thanked for what I put into this blog, but the truth is that you give me inspiration, and good ideas with your comments, so I think it's a two way street; all good conversations are. Thank you all for taking the time to comment. It lets me know you're out there and that others are walking this path along with us.


So how do we round off a series that has talked about disposables, green cleaning, money, home production and a few other topics? I think the perfect way to end is to examine our feelings about our homes. Home is the central point for me. It is where I feel the most comfortable, and where I live each day according to my values. We are our true selves here, this is where we reveal who we really are and it's where I share common ground with Hanno and my family. And it is where we celebrated one of the most important events in our lives just a couple of weeks ago - the marriage of our son Shane to his beloved, Sarndra. So just in those few sentences I've revealed a few of the reasons my home is important to me.

I have lived in many houses over my many years and I know that it takes work to make a dwelling a real home. In the first couple of years we lived here, when I was still working outside the home, I saw my home as just a place to sleep. I thought excitement and fulfilment waited for me in other places. It was only when I started doing my own housework and shopping, that my view of home changed - an along with that I changed too. I finally realised that my home was a reflection of who I am and making it comfortable, secure and warm, made me that way too.

Our home is not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, it is what it is because of our gardens, the homemade goodies inside, the smell of home cooking, welcome mat at the door and the unwavering certainty that in this home we work to produce as much as we can for ourselves. That work gives us independence, makes us self reliant, and rewards us with a self made home that fits us like a glove.


Your home should reflect you and your family. It should be the one place where you can kick off your shoes, sing at the top of your lungs, sit quietly with your thoughts and a cup of coffee, raise your children in safety, make things you can and can't buy at the shops, welcome your family and friends with cool home made fruit cordial in summer and hot and hearty soup in winter. Your home is the place where it's okay to put up red curtains against a purple wall, or live surrounded by stark, white minimalism, if that's what you want. Your home should be a safe haven where you can close the door on everything that is outside and feel secure and comfortable. And if you make your home everything you want it to be, and if it nurtures you and your family, when your children, your partner and yourself set off into the world from a home that is loved, you're setting everyone up for their best chance of success.

I hope this series has helped you think about your home in a positive way, enabled you to make the changes you need or given you the confidence to not change what is loved. There are many important and significant things we will do in our lives, making a good home is one of them. It won't happen overnight but if you put the work in and if you march to the beat of your own drummer, you will be rewarded with the best possible place in which to live your simple life.

Take care, everyone and have a lovely weekend.

One of the things I really enjoy about my simple life is that I've taught myself to make many things I used to buy. I'm pleased that most of what I make is really good and that inspires me to keep up the home production of as many things as I can. So today's kitchen table discussion is about just that, the home production of goods - there is no category for these things, it's just making whatever we can at home.

There seems to be a certain mindset that goes with this. Sometimes we start off awkwardly , not sure if our skill level is sufficient, but with one or two projects under your belt, you realise it's just a matter of trial and error and the more you do it, the less error there is.

Some of the things I've taught myself, or improved upon the skills I had, are bread making, soap making, sewing - aprons, napkins, tote bags, skirts, knitting - scarves, mittens, bags; seed saving, composting, worm farming, aquaponics, preserving/canning, stockpiling, budgeting, slowing down, quilting, embroidery, mending, reading electricity and water meters, and probably a lot of other things I can't remember now.

Learning or improving skills like these will support your simple life but also save you money, greenhouse gases and help you live to your true potential. There is nothing like a difficult task to teach you things like patience, persistence, observation and awareness. Life long learning keeps you on your toes and sharpens your mind - a thing I'm acutely aware of as I move further into my 60s. It also slows you down and makes you focus on the task at hand. That is always a good thing.

Look around your home to see what you need that you might be able to make yourself. It could be anything from a dishcloth to a home made wedding - I am here to tell you anything is possible. Believe in yourself, go slowly, plan, read as much as you can or find a mentor and then set to work. Don't believe you can do it? I think you might surprise yourself.

Our changes

1. I am still working on my oil candle lamp.
2. And making liquid soap.

Things to think about

• Since the 1950s, we've been lured into buying convenience at the store. That is fine for many things but not for others. For instance, I saw an advert the other day for cheese pieces cut the right size for a cracker! Most of us don't need that sort of convenience. For most of us it's better to buy a block of cheese at a reasonable price and cut it, or shred it, ourselves. Why pay for someone else to do something we can do ourselves.
• Buying that convenience, makes us more and more dependent on others for our needs. Take back your independence and do for yourself and teach your children to do the same.
• Many things you do in your day to day life build character. Instead of working for the money to buy what you need, invest time in yourself and think about making some things at home. It will pay off in more ways than one.
• Test yourself.
  

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
Henry Ford

How are you going on your no spending task? I know Pippa has bought more milk for her boys, it's incredible how much milk teenage boys drink. If you've had to buy something, just get back to no spending for the rest of the week. If you're haven't gone to the shops at all, well done! We'll see the week out together with our money in our pockets and not handed over to someone else.

I've loved reading the comments for our biggest kitchen table series. I haven't had much of a chance to comment myself because I've been at my voluntary job the past couple of days, but I read every one and I learn and smile along with the rest of you. We have built a community of supportive and intelligent people here and I always look forward to seeing what little gems are left in the comments section.

Today we'll focus on green cleaning - which is all that cleaning we do without the use of harsh chemicals that are in almost all the supermarket cleansers. We've been hoodwinked into believing that we need a different cleaner for each job and that what you use in the kitchen or to clean the bathroom floor can't be used for other cleaning jobs. That's hogwash. We're encouraged to buy a different product for all types of cleaning but most of us know that soap, vinegar or bicarb/baking soda will clean almost anything. If you go to this old post, you'll find recipes for making all sorts of cleaners using basic requirements like those just mentioned, and, as usual, if you have some ideas or recipes to share, we would love you to share them.

Additional reading from my archives:
Green cleaning - floors and furniture
Green cleaning - the bathroom
Green cleaning - the kitchen
Frugal cleaning
Cleaning with rags
Establishing household routines

Our changes

1. I'm currently knitting a few lighter dishcloths. I'll post about these soon.
2. I'm making liquid soap that I'll post about soon.

Things to think about

• Make sure you label your bottles. This is especially necessary if you have small children living in the home or visiting you. Keep your recipe sheet in your home management journal so that if a child does swallow some of your cleaners, you'll know immediately what's in there and can take the sheet to the ER if you have to go there.
• Never mix ammonia and bleach together - it's very dangerous.
• Ridding your home of harsh chemicals will not only save you a lot of money, it's much healthier for you and your family.
• Our grandmothers and their grandmothers used these types of cleaners. It's only in the past 50 years that we've used what is common now.
• Make up cleaning kits to keep in the bathroom, kitchen and laundry. Each kit can be stored in a little bucket or old ice cream container that you can fill with warm water if you need it. Keep each kit in the room you use it in so it's always ready for its purpose.
  

Today we'll be thinking about how to use less electricity and water. This part of the audit is another one where if you can reduce your consumption, you'll save money and be kinder to your environment at the same time. Many things in this simple life have the dual capacity of being frugal and green. I see it as a reward - and it doesn't matter what side of the fence you usually sit on, if you're out to save money, your reward if knowing you're also being greener, and if your focus is on saving resources and raising your environmental awareness, then your reward is to save money too.

Please read this older post first, it explains how to do your electric and water audits.

Here in Australia, we're being told the price of electricity will increase a lot in the future. Even in the past year it's gone up and is set to rise again. But these price rises aren't only here, they're all over, including the USA and Europe. And sure as eggs, when the price of electricity rises, so do all of the products produced, stored and transported using it.

It's not good news, is it. But we can do something about it. Doing an audit is a simple exercise that will show you how much you can save by changing the way you use electricity and water in your home. Get the kids to help, it will be a useful exercise for them too because they use these utilities, just as you do. And remember, your savings will be small over a 24 hour period, however, all those small savings on all those days add up and make a big difference.

Read this page. It's an excellent website for learning about how to reduce your electricity usage. You'll find strategies for saving water here and my post on water harvesting is here.

I wish you luck in reducing your electricity and water usage. It's one of those things that both easy and difficult to do but if you have the will, it can be done.

Today we'll talk about getting rid of 'disposable' paper products, dishcloths, menstrual pads, baby nappies/diapers and plastic shopping bags. This is one area where you can make a big step forward in one quick swoop. Making a commitment to not buying a number of the products you may buy now, like paper towels and paper napkins, will help you on this path. When you start on this you'll realise it's easy and once you start, you might get rid of all your 'disposable' products. If you decide to replace menstrual products or nappies/diapers with homemade alternatives, I recommend my sponsors on the left side bar as a good place to buy from.


Apart from the obvious environmental problems these products cause, using your own homemade alternatives is cheaper and I think using knitted or crocheted dishcloths and cotton napkins makes the home more like a real home. You replace the mass production that is so common nowadays with something that you've thought about and want enough to put your time to making. If you do that with a lot of things that can be replaced around the home, piece by piece you'll build a beautiful home that is unlike any other. Looking around your home to replace disposables can be an exercise in homemaking as well.

The down side of disposables.
Free patterns for dishcloths.
Free patterns for shopping tote bags.


Doing my audit I realised we have been using the cloth napkins and homemade dish cloths and face cloths as if we've always used them. It's normal for us now, and always will be. We still buy toilet paper, paper tissues and plastic wrap and I doubt we'll stop using them, although we are careful with their usage. I'll revisit that statement whenever I do an audit such as this, but for now, they're staying.


I'm still using rags to clean with and I think you increase your potential for success if you have all these things ready to be used. Don't expect to make up rags when you spill something, you'll just go back to the paper towels. Go through your linen cupboard and find an old terry towel. Cut it up into squares with pinking shears and put them in a rag bag near your cleaning kit. Mine hang in a rag bag in the laundry. Everyone knows where to get them and that they are washed after use for most things, but if it's wiped up cat pee or something similar, it's thrown out.


Of course, you could also replace your paraffin candles with little oil lamps. Replacing paraffin, which is a petrochemical, with a sustainable oil like olive oil or rice bran oil, will make your home a little bit greener and safer. Olive oil burns clean with no smoke or smell. I made this small test lamp, it is running on olive oil, and as soon as I test drive some new home made wicks, I'll do a tutorial on it.

I am making no changes in this part of my audit at this time.

Some things to think about:

1. Are you ready to stop buying disposables?
   
2. If you are, use up what you have at home, and start preparing rags and making napkins and dishcloths and whatever else you want to try.
3. Remember, there is no guilt in the audit. If you can't let these things go now, promise yourself you'll think about it again later in the year. You might be ready then.
4. These activities make a powerful statement - for the environment, for your purse and for the life you intend to live.

Food is an important part of everyone's life; we have to eat every day for as long as we live. And that is one of the reasons we need to focus carefully on our food. We grow it, buy it, cook it, preserve it, freeze it and store it. Buying it costs a lot of money; growing it takes a lot of energy; wasting it is not an option. If you organise your food growing, buying and storage efficiently you'll save money because you'll grow the right amount, buy at the right price, and store it to prevent wastage.

I walked around the garden, kitchen and storage areas with a pen and paper to write down my ideas as I thought of them. Seeing everything and being there made the process easier and sparked some ideas.

FOOD - OUTSIDE
We have a food garden in the back yard. We grow all manner of fruit and vegetables and we have chickens for eggs. I see our back yard food production as very important as it supplies us with organic produce, it is the freshest food available and it gives us a small measure of self reliance. It works well in partnership with our pantry and stockpile cupboards and if there were a disaster, we could easily live on what we have in our cupboards and backyard.


Vegetables
It is important to me to plant open pollinated seeds. Unlike the regular hybrid seeds available at the plant nursery, open pollinated seeds will reproduce from their own seeds, so seed saving is a priority. Theoretically, once you have your stock of open pollinated seeds, you won't have to buy vegetable seeds again, unless you want to try new varieties. Then I would prefer to seed swap instead of buy. We have a set group of vegetables that we plant every year. Occasionally we try new (to us) varieties but we stay within that group classified as open pollinated (heirloom) seeds.

We have one major planting a year - in March/April, then fill in spots when they become vacant. We plant more tomatoes, beets, beans, peas, corn than we need because they're easily preserved by freezing, preserving/canning or when made into chutneys, relish and pickles.

Herbs
Again, we have our set group of favourites that we have growing almost all year. Parsley, chives, oregano, marjoram, bay, thyme and sage. If any of them die, I replace with a plant from the market.


Fruit
Fruit usually takes a long time to establish but it's well worth the effort. In the past year we planted grapes that I hope will survive for many years, I also plant pineapple tops - again they take two years to fruit, but the taste alone make it worth the time and effort We have bananas, passionfruit, pawpaw (papaya), lemons, oranges, mandarins (clementines), blueberries, pecans and avocados. Every year we get more fruit from our trees and I am convinced that whatever fruit we can easily grow here will be of benefit to us many years into the future. I would like to add a native raspberry to our fruit orchid but apart from that I don't want to change anything.

Most of our fruit is eaten fresh from the tree but we do freeze lemon juice to make lemon cordial in summer and mandarins are made into marmalade and passionfruit into butter, similar to lemon butter. We also grow vanilla and ginger for cooking and to make ginger beer, and turmeric for tea and stir fries.

Our changes:

1. Grow more potatoes, garlic and onions.
2. Improve our fertilisation of citrus to speed up tree growth a little.
3. Add native raspberry.
   
4. Organise our stock of vegetable seeds and store in the fridge.
5. Read more about vanilla and focus on helping our plants flower.
6. Change the lid on the worm farm for easy access.
7. Tidy up the pots and improve storage areas in the green house.
   

Things to think about:

• Are we making enough compost?
• Are the fences effective?
• Can we increase the amount of compost we produce?
• Is the chook food vermin-proof?
• Check taps and tanks for leakage.
• Check hens' nests.
• Check chicken coop for insects and snakes.
• Make sure chicken coop is predator-proof.
• Are the chickens safe and comfortable in hot and cold weather?
• Are there enough water stations in the backyard for chooks and animals?
  

FOOD -INSIDE
Once the food is in the house, it's either eaten raw, cooked or stored for later use. For this part of the audit I had to clean out and reorganise my stockpile cupboard. I will also do my pantry cupboard but that will be done sometime over the weekend. It's important to check on your stored goods every couple of months to make sure all is in order and to remind you of what you have. Don't just put food in the cupboard, use it. Make sure that when you add to your stockpile you add to the back and use from the front. That way you'll keep rotating your stock. A stockpile is dynamic, it's constantly changing - it's not there for show, it's going to keep you alive and healthy. Use it to save money and to cook from every day, as a buffer against food shortages, in an emergency or if you want, or have to, stop spending for a week or so.


We have a chest freezer that I am going to run down a little. It had been full for the wedding and I've lost track of what is in there. I love that freezer. I use it to kill any bugs or larvae that might be in new grains and dry goods I buy. When these goods come from the store, they go in the freezer for a few days and are then stored in a cupboard. I need to list what's in the freezer.

Our changes:

1. Clean and reorganise stockpile cupboard.
2. Clean and reorganise the pantry.
3. Run freezer down and reorganise. Make a list of the contents of the freezer to keep track of what is in there.

Things to think about:

• Menu planning - this works for some families and not others.
• If you're growing food, how do you intend to use your excess?
• How do you safely store your food?
• Have you minimised food waste?
• Do I use leftovers wisely?
• Skills - learn to preserve/can, blanch and freeze, bake, sprout, ferment, fruit cordials.
• Make a space in your cupboard to store recycled bottles and jars.
• Do I have enough good cooked from scratch recipes to cover a two week meal rotation?
• Do I have a good selection of quick and easy fast meal recipes?
• Am I able to fill school and work lunch boxes with healthy snacks?
• Is the fridge cooling as it should?
• Do I use my oven efficiently? Baking two things at once. Make twice the amount and freeze half.
• Is my kitchen set up properly for the tasks I carry out frequently? eg, if you bake a lot, do you have all your baking equipment together. If you drink a lot of tea or coffee, do you have a tea and coffee station set up close to your stove or hot water kettle? Can the kids reach the water glasses easily?
• If you're composting, do you have a covered container for your kitchen scraps?
• Do you need to make food covers for bread, ginger beer, sourdough, yoghurt?
• Do you have enough dishcloths and tea towels/dish towels
• Do you have enough large glass or plastic storage containers? I got some 5kg plastic buckets from my local baker (free) that I store flour in. Look around for recyclables for your storage, they do just as well as store bought containers.

Food is a huge subject but if you get this right it will save you money and enable you to serve good wholesome food to your family and visitors. Please share your ideas in the comments. This is the purpose of these kitchen table discussions - we share, help, encourage and support each other in our life choices.

Monday's topic will be disposable products.

Hello everyone, thank you for joining me in this most important monitoring task. I hope that through these simple audits, we'll all be able to look at what we're doing at home and make changes if they are needed. As usual, check the comments here because many of our readers will give you excellent ideas for changes and modifications.

No Spending Week
Tomorrow we'll start a no spending week. If you're in the USA and will be going out to enjoy your Independence Day celebrations, please start your no spending the following day. Everyone please make sure you have enough food on hand to last a week. Hanno bought two litres of local milk for us yesterday, so we will be fine with what we have in the house and in the backyard until the week is up. If you've never spent a week, or any time, when you decided not to spend anything, it might be quite confronting, and if you're tempted to spend, think about your purpose and the life you want to live. Rewards are waiting as long as you can stick with this. If you continue to spend, you're just staying on the same old merry-go-round you've always been on. Try to jump off with the rest of us.

Today's topics are 1. Living Deliberately and 2. Money.

1. Living Deliberately
Living Deliberately can be confusing at first. All it means is that you think about your life, plan the direction you want to go in, then follow your plans. If you want your life to be focused on family and the home you make plans to make that happen. If you want to retire early, work from home or homeschool your children, you plan those things so they happen as part of a planned and careful process, not one that is haphazard and chaotic. Making prudent plans increases your chance of success.

Over the past few decades we have been conned into thinking that we need all manner of products and services to be happy and successful. The problem with buying those products and services is that we have to work more to pay for them. Working more means spending more time away from our families, and almost all the research I've read about what makes the average person happy, tells me that we are made happy by our family and friends. If our family makes us happy, why do we think that spending more time away from them to earn more money to buy products that we don't need will make us happier? It doesn't make sense.

I encourage you to think about your own life. Talk about your hopes for the future with your partner and together, make a plan to create the kind of life you want. Live a life you care about. Don't go along with everyone else - either as a spender, or living a simple life if that is not what you really want. Think, talk, dream, discover, and make a life that reflects you and your values. Remember that your life and aspirations will change as you grow older, plan now for two or three years into the future. And write your plan down on paper so you can monitor how you're progressing. If you don't know what to write down, or if you're new to this, be guided by the list we will follow during our audit but in every stage, think about your own circumstances and hopes and make your list, and then your life, reflect your unique beliefs and needs.

Just Do It
Old post on Living Deliberately

2. Money
Although money is not the most important aspect of a simple life it is the glue that holds it all together. You need to organise you money well - have on hand not too far above what you need to live, nor too far under. If you earn much more than you need, pay off all your debts fast or make some provision to donate or invest your money so it isn't there tempting you to spend it. If you don't earn enough to cover your expenses, cutting back on non essentials, cooking from scratch, gardening and mending may help you make ends meet. I don't want to trivialise anyone's circumstances, but these posts need to be short, so I have to generalise.

Above all else, pay off your debts as soon as you can. You will be rewarded with freedom.

We use the envelope system here and it works very well. We wrote up a budget, and labelled ziplock bags (or envelopes or jars or read Heather's post at the Co-op here) to put in the month's money for that category. We know at a glance how much cash we have for each item and how much is left over. Any money left over at the end of the month is paid into our savings account because we have no debt. If you have debt, it can go towards an extra credit card or mortgage payment. So my envelopes are working as they should, I have no need to change them. I am happy with how we're organising our money.

The envelope system is a very good way of keeping an eye on your money. It's simple, yet effective. But I want to add a way to track and record our money from month to month. I found this free download that I'm quite happy with - Budgetpulse software. So far, it looks very good and it provides money tracking and budgeting tools without linking to your bank account like Mint does. So that is one change for us - using software to track our money and keep records.

We have a pretty good idea of how to handle our money and we are in a phase of life when we don't have a need to add much to what we already own. If you're at a different stage this part of the audit many be difficult for you. Comment on your problems and we, the readers and I, may have some ideas for you. If you use an effective way of handling your money, please share it with us.

These posts on the various aspects of our audit have to be quite short. But I want you to take the ideas here and use the ones you like in your own life. Remember, nothing is set in stone, modify ideas to suit yourself, twist things around, fashion everything to suit YOUR life. There is not only one way of doing this. If there are lots of comments on particular subjects, we can go over them again in other posts after the audit. The main thing now is to start. So let's get moving.

Tomorrow's subject is food.

This is one of our Biggest Kitchen Table discussions.

We have been scrutinising our lives again. While sitting on the verandah yesterday, Hanno and I talked about slipping slowly away from our ideals. Auditing is necessary for us. We don't want to turn around one day and find ourselves back on the spending merry-go-round, so regular audits keep us on track. We must continue our mindfulness, make sure we remain on track and stay focused on our values. It is so easy to become complacent and lazy.


There are times in our lives when we make momentous decisions that are life changing, but we also have times when we need to take stock and make sure we have stayed true to our changes and remain on the right path. This is such a time for us. We are reaffirming that our life choice is working for us and going through our home to decide if there are things we can do without, or tasks we can do differently. We want to be sure we are doing all we can to live simply. It's a healthy activity that will enable us to be fully aware of our past choices while making sure what we have here is working for us.

So during our own review, I thought it would be a good idea to gather as many of you as I can and together we can check our homes to see if improvements or changes are needed. We'll be checking a number of things like disposable products and food, to see if they can be replaced with home made products. We'll be checking our household cleaners, aprons, stockpile cupboards and a few other things I'll tell you about later in the week. We'll also include a no spending week, that will start on Friday 3 July and continue till Thursday night, July 9. That will give you a chance to buy milk or whatever else you need if you're at the end of your grocery cycle. Then, it will be absolutely no spending for the week.

Who will join us in our simple home audit? This will be a no guilt audit. We all have past mistakes we'd rather forget about. The aim of this audit is to keep us on track, or, for some of us, to start living more simply. We will just take stock, make adjustments, move towards a fresh beginning and get on with it.

Each day for a week, I will set a simple task to be completed. They won't take long so those of you working outside the home can join in or save the tasks for your days off. We will start tomorrow. Today I want you to add your name if you want to be included in this task. If you wish to, please capture the badge at the top of this post so you can show what you're doing on your own blog. Who will join us?

ADDITION: Shane and Sarndra have returned from their little honeymoon now and Sarndra just has left a comment for all of us here.

The concept of the world's biggest kitchen table was hatched in January when we discussed chickens; now we go on to preserving/canning in a water bath. The idea is that I write my post here, and if you have a blog, you write a post about preserving/canning the way you do it. When you write your post, leave a comment, with a link to your post and we'll all move around, reading all the kitchen table posts. If you want to use the biggest kitchen table badge (above) please do so. When you visit someone's blog who is part of the kitchen table discussion, please be kind enough to leave a comment. If you're a learner, and want to ask a question, do so in the comments section, and anyone with experience can answer. Hopefully, each question will have a few answers. I don't have time to transfer the links like I did last time. Please leave your link in comments, and we'll all find you from there.

The weather is to blame. Cold, snowy winters in the northern hemisphere and mild winters in Australia, have given us differing ways of processing our food. My understanding is that in North America, meat, fish, vegetables and fruit are all processed in pressure canners and stored for those long cold months when nothing can be grown on the farm or in the backyard and it's too cold and snowy for hunting. Of course, people back in long gone days relied on having those stores to tide them over, now many of us are able to go to the store to buy pineapples from Thailand, salmon from Alaska and peaches from Greece. Modern commerce has bypassed the seasons and the need for having the skills to 'put up' enough food to keep a family going for many months is fading fast.


In Australia, where the climate is not so harsh in winter, preserving food to see families through the winter hasn't been seen as such a priority. There is a long, fine tradition of homesteaders 'putting up' food, because they were so far away from the shops, and they would do that when the season was high and crops were plentiful. But in the cities, apart from bottling a favourite tomato sauce, jam or chutney, or backyard peaches, plums and cherries, which were all done in a water bath, preserving took a back seat.

So let's acknowledge that southern and northern hemispheres do things differently, and work from there. Also, this post is about preserving/canning in a water bath, not pressure canning. I don't have a pressure canner so I cannot advise you about them. However, these kitchen table posts work because we all write about what we do, so if you're preserving/canning with a water bath or pressure canner, and want to write about that on your blog, please leave your link so we can read it, and learn.

I also want to warn you that preserving food in jars has been done for a long time so many different methods have been developed. But there are dangers. People have died from Botulism poisoning, but it is very rare. Don't use an old preserving/canning book as a guide. Most of the guidelines have been updated in the past 20 years. Please be guided by your thermometer, the information available and your common sense.

Water bath processing is suitable for high acid foods like tomatoes, rhubarb and sauerkraut and some foods to which acid, in the form of vinegar or lemon juice, has been added.


FRUGAL SETUP
I have written about preserving in the past, and will give you those links for easy reference later in the post, times and methods are in those posts. I want to use this post to tell you about setting up a water bath from scratch and, hopefully, from what you already have in your home. You can do that by using the largest stockpot you have. You will need a pot that you can boil on the stove, that will allow you to have at least an inch of water over the top of your tallest jar. You'll also need a tea/dish towel folded up to prevent the jars touching the hot bottom of the pan. You could also use newspaper or a round cake cooler.


RECYCLED JARS
The other requirement for this poor man's preserving setup is a collection of jars. Jars that have been used for food, can be used for this task. Check the lid, it's best to have those little poptop lids, that have a thin ring of rubber on the inside. That will help you seal the jar. I have a large collection of jars of all shapes and sizes. I use them for preserving and for storing a wide rage of odds and ends. Jars are valuable - don't throw them away. Some people advise against using old jars but I have been using them for many years and have never had a problem. You must make your own decision on what equipment you use and make sure you check your jars and lids and throw away any that are damaged, dented, rusted or chipped. When recycling jars, don't use anything larger than a litre/quart as there is no guarantee that the heat necessary to kill bacteria will penetrate into the middle of a firmly packed large jar.

CHECKING THE JARS
When you've finished processing your jars according to the times suggested, take them from the pot and place them on a towel on the bench. Now you'll have to check that the jars have sealed correctly, because if they haven't, you won't be able to store them in the cupboard, they'll have to be eaten straight away, or stored in the fridge. To check the jars, look at the poptop on the lid. Sometimes they invert while they're in the pot, sometimes they invert when sitting on the bench. Push them with your finger to check. When they're cool, if any have a poptop that hasn't inverted, it hasn't sealed properly; put it in the fridge.

You will need a thermometer. I use a milk thermometer that I bought for $15 at a kitchen store. I clip it to the side of the pan and monitor the temperature while the jars are in there.


PROCESSING
The basic idea behind preserving/canning is that you add your fruit or vegetables to a jar, or make up your favourite jam, sauce or relish as normal, then add it to hot clean jars, seal and place in the stockpot, not touching. Bring the water to the boil, then time the load, keeping it at the necessary consistent temperature. A time guide is in the instructions for water bath processing below. And that's it - you remove the jars when the time is up, let them cool on the bench, check that they have sealed correctly, then store in your cupboard. This sort of food is not suitable as kitchen decoration, light will make the food lose colour and the shelf life is much shorter if it's exposed to light. Use recipes suitable for preserving, there are many books around with a wealth of good preserving recipes.

Most of the preserving I do is not to keep us going through the leaner seasons, our garden does that, it's to make a delicious sauce from a glut of tomatoes, to make the most of a cheap or free box of peaches, or to make jams and relishes. All those things I make are family favourites now and all much tastier and cheaper than anything bought at the supermarket. If I make a small amount of jam, chutney, beetroot, bread and butter cucumbers, I pour them into hot jars, and when they're cool, they're stored in the fridge instead of being processed and stored in the cupboard. Larger portions of all those things would be processed in a water bath and stored in the cupboard. At the moment, I have three jars of rosella jam, six jars of strawberry jam, and some relish. At other times I might have double that amount, plus a few jars of peaches. All our beans, corn, carrots and peas are frozen, we dry other things like chillies and herbs, but most of our food is fresh.

So as you can see, a lot depends on your climate, whether you have a garden or not, or access to cheap seasonal fruit and vegetables. I think preserving/canning is a great skill to develop. Used in conjunction with other methods of long term storage, it will give you good food out of season, or allow you to make your favourite jam or tomato sauce and have it ready in the cupboard.

LINKS TO MY PRESERVING POSTS
Instructions for water bath preserving + some recipes
More water bath preserving
Preserving your harvest
Rosella Jam
Making ginger beer
Fruit cordials
Roasted Capsicum and Tomato Relish
Bread and Butter Cucumbers
Beetroot
Strawberry jam

If you're already well into preserving/canning, please share your knowledge with us. If you're a novice, I hope you decide to learn about processing food this way. Do some reading, if you know someone who is already doing it, ask if they will teach you. There is nothing like hands on learning. Start small, by putting up a few jars using recycled jars and a big stockpot, and if you like the process, and intend to carry on in larger quantities, look around for a cheap processing unit. Make sure you're aware of the dangers before you start, and we guided by that knowledge and your readings. It's a big topic, but well worth the effort. I hope you enjoy this discussion around the world's biggest kitchen table, now it's over to you.

Thank you for coming by, leaving your comment and sharing yourself with me. I so enjoy reading about what you are doing. I live in my world, but I also live in THE world, and I am thankful that we can connect here and learn from each other. Take care.

We'll start our kitchen table talks today with the topic, chickens in the backyard. I want to encourage you all to get involved in this, learn a useful skill, or contribute to the discussion, just like you would if we were all sitting around a kitchen table with our cups of tea and coffee. This talk is aimed at those folk who have never kept chickens before, want to, but haven't got much of a clue about their care and needs. I hope all of you who have experience with chickens join the table and help pass on the necessary information to the novices. Those of you with no chooks, please add your egg recipes.

I'm still not entirely sure how these talks will go. For the time being, if you want to ask a question, simply write it in the comments and I'll answer what I can or pass it on to our other experienced chook people. If you want to write your own post and show us your chickens, do that and give me the link to your post in my comments. You will have the weekend to add to this. I'll add all the links to my post soon after they turn up and we can all tour around reading what everyone has to say. On Monday morning, I'll do a followup.


The vast majority of chickens are hatched in Spring and Summer. Day old chicks are often available for sale but when I'm getting new chooks, I usually go for point of lay pullets that are between 18 - 22 weeks old. They will start laying a couple of weeks after you buy them. When you buy point of lay pullets, they will have been sexed and you'll get only hens. When you buy day old chicks, they won't have been sexed and you'll get approximately 50/50 girls and boys.

If you intend buying chickens, you need to have their housing ready before you bring them home. You MUST provide safe housing. There are a lot of predators around - dogs, foxes, feral cats and other wildlife that will wander in under the shadow of darkness. When you bring them home, lock the gate on their coop and leave them to settle in. Don't let them out to free range for at least a week - during that time they will learn that is their home. When chooks know their home, they usually come home to roost when the day light starts to fade and usually you don't have to go looking for them.

CHICKEN REGULATIONS
Most local authorities will have a bylaw about the keeping of chickens. Where I live we can have up to 20 chooks and the chicken coop must not touch a neighbours fence. Please phone your local county, shire or council to ask about their regulations before you buy your chickens, or Google "chicken regulations ......." and add your town to the Google search, instead of the dots.
Brisbane area regulations
US regulations.

HOUSING
Chickens need a place where they feel safe and can lay their eggs. One nest per five chooks. We have four nests here with 11 chickens but we usually have at least one chicken broody and taking up a nest all the time. If the nests are high off the ground, you'll need to provide a little ladder or steps for the chooks to reach the nests.


Your ladies will sleep on a roost. That is a horizontal bar, like a small tree branch. The higher up the chickens is when they go to sleep, the higher up in the packing order they usually are. Generally your topchook will be up on the top roost at night.

Photos of chicken tractors.
Hen houses.
How to build a hen house.
Info on housing chickens.


TEMPERAMENT AND LAYING CAPACITY
Some chooks are flighty, some are very placid, but overall, chooks don't cope with stressful situations very well. Here is a handy guide to chicken breeds - I hope you get pure breed chooks. This chart will also tell you whether the chickens are suited to hot or cold temperatures. We have a mix of Sussex - one buff, one silver, one salmon Faverolles, two Rhode Island Reds, one New Hampshire, two Australorps, one Australorp cross, one buff (the colour) Orpington, and one barred Plymouth Rock.

If you live in a city, you may only be able to find crossbreed chooks like Isa browns. These are a hardy type of chook bred for the caged industry. They'll lay well, at the expense of going broody, which a lot of people like. They generally don't live as long as pure bred chooks.

NUMBER OF CHOOKS
The smallest number should be two. Solo chickens are sad birds. However, there will be times when you have to isolate your chooks and keep them on their own, generally chickens prefer to be with other chickens. However, having written that, we used to have a chook called Jewels - a golden Hamburg, who hated being with the other chooks and always sat with the dogs. Your chooks will know the other chooks by sight and when you want to introduce new chooks, the older ones will give them a hard time.

Get the number of chickens you have room for. We have 11 here and we get about 8 eggs a day. A little flock of three or five girls will give enough eggs for a family of four or six.


INTRODUCING NEW CHOOKS TO AN OLDER FLOCK
When you bring new chooks home, and you already have chickens, isolate the new birds, but put them where they can see and be seen by the other chooks. Keep them isolated for a few days. This will help them assimilate and when you let them out together, there will be less pecking.

PECKING ORDER
Pecking each other to establish pecking order is natural behaviour for chickens. Don't intervene unless you can see an open wound or blood. Then you'll have to remove that chicken until she has healed. Chickens can be vicious if they see blood.

LIFESPAN
From my experience, about ten years, give or take. Cross breed chooks, generally eight years. They will continue to lay eggs up until they die but when they're very old, you will only get about one egg per two months.

We have found over the years, that if you get a flock of say eight or ten girls, in five years you'll have maybe six or seven.

FOOD AND WATER
Chooks must have clean water ALL THE TIME. Get into the habit of giving them clean water every second day, or daily if they drink a lot. If you have bought day old chicks, they're need chicken starter crumbles, if you have point of lays they'll need laying pellets or laying mash (mash is a combination of grains). Or you can make your own mix. If you intend to supplement their diet with greens from the garden, or kitchen scraps, start this early as they get picky later and will stay with what they know. Chickens are omnivores, they eat meat, grains and vegetables. They love cheese, yoghurt, whey, sour milk and milk. They need a high protein diet to produce eggs constantly, if you have chickens that aren't laying give them a boost with some day old bread soaked in milk or porridge made with milk. They love this and will see it as a treat.


If you have grain like wheat or barley, sprouting it for the chickens gives them a good nutritional boost. Simply soak the grains for a couple of hours in a large flat container, or upturned bin lid, pour off the excess water and keep the container in the shade, covered with a cloth. Wet and rinse the grains every day and drain off the excess water. When the grains sprout, feed them to the chooks.

This is good natural supplement to help keep the hens' calcium level up. Either buy shell grit (at your local feed store where you buy chook food) or keep the shells of your own eggs and wash them out so they don't smell. When you have quite a few, put them in the oven, on a medium setting, for 10 minutes to dry out. When they're cool, put them in a blender and blitz them, or crush them inside a tea towel with your rolling pin. Store in a jar. The crushed shell powder can be added to the chook food as a calcium supplement.



Your chickens will be healthier and will give you better eggs if you let them free range. When chooks eat grass, they will have Omega 3 oils in their eggs, this is a great bonus for you and anyone eating the eggs.

Another little thing to keep your chooks healthy is to add some "real" raspberry cordial, with at least 25% real juice, or squashed frozen raspberries or jam to their water every so often. Read about it here. This is also a good treatment for diarrhoea (in chooks and kids).

Raspberry Cordial recipe
2 cups crushed fresh or frozen raspberries
Juice of one lemon
1½ cups sugar syrup
8 cups of water
Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Cool, then decant to clean bottles. Store in the fridge for up to two months or freeze.

To a bucket of water, add about two tablespoons.

EGGS
You will know your ladies are maturing by their comb and wattles - the red bits on their faces. The comb and wattles will get larger and redder as they get close to laying. Depending on the weather, each hen will lay about five eggs a week, in the first year. It will decrease every year after that. They will stop laying when it is very hot or very cold and when they're moulting (replacing their feathers). When your girls first start laying, they might lay an egg with no shell or an egg with two yolks. The eggs usually start off small and get bigger as the hen matures. When the hen's hormones have settled down, you will get one ordinary egg with shell in tact.


Collect the eggs once a day. Your girls will usually lay in the morning. Don't wash the eggs, as that will remove a protective layer on the shell. If the egg is dirty, rub it with a cloth and remove as much dirt as you can. If you still need to wash it do so, but use that egg next. Don't let it sit in the fridge.

Eggs should be stored in the fridge, in an egg holder, so they don't roll around. There will be regulations on selling eggs in most places. We sell our eggs to friends and neighbours for less than they would pay in the shop. We put that money into the feed we buy.

CLEANING THE COOP
If you have a dedicated hen house, it will need to be cleaned out at least every week, depending on the number of chickens you have. Laying straw on the floor will help with the smell in wet weather, this straw can be placed on the compost heap after a couple of weeks. Don't expect your coop to be sparkling clean every day, it is outside and in a natural setting where wind will blow dust in and spiders will spin webs. It does need to be fairly clean and not smelly but it's not your kitchen.

Hanno has attached our roosts to the roof so when he cleans the coop, he simply attaches the roosts to the roof with a clip and can easily clean the floor.

If your chickens have lice - and it will happen from time to time - get some food quality diamateous earth and this will get rid of them. You can also rub it on the chooks, make sure you rub under their wings and around their comb and wattles. Read about chicken anatomy here.

BROODY HENS
Pure breed chooks will go broody. They want to hatch eggs and become mothers, but unless you have a rooster that will not happen. Hens don't need a rooster to lay eggs but they need a rooster to fertilise them. When our chickens go broody, we let them, unless they sit there for too long - over a month - and start losing weight. Generally they'll sit for a couple of weeks, hoping you don't see them, and they'll be in the darkest nest. Just put your hand in and collect the eggs every day as you normally would. If you don't want the chook to sit on the nest, you'll have to lock her our of the nesting area, but even then, she might find another dark place in long grass or in the hay bales and keep sitting. They do no harm sitting, we feel it's best to just let them sit.



You will notice that I've not written about cold weather chickens, I have never kept chickens in a cold climate so I hope that our friends and neighbours in colder areas will write about that on their own blogs and give me their link so we can visit to read what has been written.

Please also write a post on your own blog is you want to add anything or if you do things differently - that's okay. This is just my version of keeping chooks. Again, post the link here so we can all read what you have to say.

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things. If you want to add anything, either comment, or write a post and let me know your link. I'll add all the links to my main post. As readers come through, they can tour around, reading our posts and adding comments as they go. Please use the biggest kitchen table banner if you want to, just click on it and "save as". Adding it to your own post will be a visual sign that you are part of the kitchen table discussion.

If you want to be a part of this, but don't have chickens or know how to keep them, please add your favourite egg recipe and send me your link. I'll include that in with the general mix of this.

Readers, as you read, please add your comments to give feedback and to let the writer know you've visited. Comments encourage posters to write more.

THERE IS MUCH MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE VIA THE LINKS BELOW. JOINING OUR KITCHEN TABLE ARE...

Darren at Green Change writes about his plans for a chicken ark and where to buy chicken tractors (in NSW). Thanks Darren, you have a great site.
Thanks for the egg recipe, Emma @ The Berry Patch
Homehandymum at Adventures in Sideways Living has post and photos here of a chicken dome
Linda at Remote Treechanger hasa photo of her empty chook house and written her Sausage and Egg Pie recipe here.
Chookie from Chookie's Backyard has written a backyard chook primer here.
Donetta shows us her chickens, chook tractor and some recipes at A Life Uncommon.
Yategirl @ Kitchen Garden in the Suburbs joins the table with her photos of her chook house and chooks. She also writes about chook noise, which is an important piece of info for new chook owners.
Hana has shared a cake recipe on her blog Marmota B. Thanks for joining in, Hana.
You can see 25 lovely bugg Orpingtons over at Andi's To Be Quiet blog.
Amanda shows us how chickens and small children mix together quite nicely. Amanda's blog is You Reap What You Sow. How true!
Cyn shares her experiences with her flock at Yes Lord. Thanks for joining Cyn.
Leanne from At the Good Life shared her story of chooks and her rooster, Rory. It highlights the benefits of keeping a good rooster.
Stacey at One step at a Time writes that she's not offering much at the table, but I think she is helping build a stronger community AND she found someone who sells 'traditional and rare breed' Chickens in Wiltshire and has included plenty of egg recipes here
Linda has some fabulous photos of her Plymouth Rocks on her blog, Locust Trail Homestead, including a very handsome rooster. Welcome to the table, Linda!
Tricia at Little Eco Footprints has posted about her mixed flock of very pretty chooks. She shows how well a small number of chooks fit well into a small backyard.
If you want to read about breeding chickens and hatching eggs, go to A Joyful Keeper to read Joy's very interesting post. Thanks for joining us, Joy!
Cryptstitch has written about her very unusual white crested black Polish chooks here. Seeing the different varieties of chickens always amazes me.
Shelle from Brand New Ending promised to write about her little flock of bantam Rhode Island Reds, and she's done just that right here. It's well worth a visit.
Rose has joined us to tell us about her rescue chooks, and later, her tiny chicks. Wander over to Coastal Rose and read about her experiences. Thanks for joining the table, Rose.
Marita at Moderately Me shows us a photo of the most Australian of scenes - a chook house next to a fruit tree. Ours is near lemon, Marita's might be a lemon or an orange. Thanks for taking part, Marita!
Nell, I apologise. I did read your comment but forgot to answer it. We don't test our eggs, I don't think there is a regulation to do so here. We've kept chooks for 25 years and have never been sick after eating their eggs.
Lucie from Touchatou has written a wonderul post, in English and French, about her chooks and the wonderful winter house her husband built. Thanks for pulling up a chair at the table, Lucie.
There is a long and interesting post from Morgan at Growing in the Fens about their progression from a few chooks to 43. She's had chooks for eggs and the pot and there's a lot of information there. Thanks for joining in Morgan.
Alecat at Serenades and Solace has written about going from a chook dome to a rectangle chook run. There are photos of chooks there as wll as one of a great chook feeder. Thanks for the post, Alecat.
Linda has a delicious and simple egg recipe at her blog, Rebel Pigs. Thanks for joining the kitchen table. Linda.
Leanne At the Good Life, has written about what she is doing to stop a chook from eating the eggs in the nest. Very interesting. I hope it works, Leanne. Thanks for joining in.
The last post is a wonderful one from Michelle at You Just Gotta Keep Knittin'. Michelle writes about the "joys and realities" of keeping chooks. She has some wonderful photos and a great chook house. Thanks for joining the table, Michelle.
And one I missed, sorry Toria. At Unfinished Business, Toria has written a post about her chooks and ducks. There is information about building chook houses, with links, a book recommendation, photos and a recipe. A very interesting post. Thanks Toria.
Check out Rina's very interesting post at Into Still Waters about modifying rooster behaviour . It's well worth a visit.
The Thinker @ Thinkers Rock has written about how she keeps chooks using the knowledge her grandma gave her.

Can anyone help Melanie find pure heritage chickens in eastern Canada?

A View from the Green Barn is not officially part of the kitchen table but if you have a wander over there you'll find a lot of info about chooks, and they have just bought a new fangled automatic egg turner. Crikey!


Totally off subject but, here is some good info about dairy produce.