Having the time and the inclination to make many of the things we use here is one of the most satisfying things about living this way. I love making soap, cooking from scratch, making cordials and fermented drinks, I love to sew and knit, and those activities result in products that are usually superior in quality to those bought in today's shops. It also give me the peace of mind of knowing that only the ingredients I put in with my own hands are in there; there are no nasties lurking. I add safety and certainty in with my other ingredients so I know that what I'm making is healthy, and not a product that might look good but is laden with chemicals I can't pronounce.

And so for all those reasons, I love making my own soap and laundry powder. I'm currently luxuriating in a lovely olive oil-rice bran oil-coconut oil soap that is creamy and lathers well. It's my favourite soap and if I never tried another home made soap, recipe I'd be happy with this one. I'm washing my hair with it too and it does a wonderful job, as good as the best organic shampoo.


Soap combines lye (caustic soda) with fats - I use only vegetable fats but it is also made with animal or bird fat. The chemical process that takes place, saponification, pulls the ingredients together and over the course of the next three or four weeks, the caustic elements in the soap neutralise, leaving a mild and soothing soap. Skin is the body's largest organ so it makes sense that whatever we rub onto our skin, especially if that is done many times during the course of the day, is safe and nourishing. Home made soap nourishes skin because it contains the natural glycerin, unlike commercial soap. Glycerin is extracted from commercial soap and sold as a separate product - it's more expensive than the soap, but removing it leaves the soap depleted. To counteract this, manufacturers add ingredients to make up for its lost and in doing so, make soap that is not so good for your skin.

Homemade laundry powder is another product that can easily be made at home. It's the combination of three ingredients - soap flakes, washing soda and borax, although if you use your grey water on your garden, you should leave out the borax. If you check the ingredients list on your commercial laundry detergent, you'll find a list of chemicals commonly used in many commercial cleaners that you have no idea about. I have been using homemade laundry powder in my front loader washer for many years now and have never had a problem. It cleans our clothes well and they come out smelling clean, not of artificially produced perfumes. Be warned, if you make up the recipe for laundry liquid, it can separate. If that happens, it's fine to use, you'll just need to mix it up to incorporate the liquid with the gel before you use it.

If you've never stepped into the world of homemade soap and laundry powder before now, why not give it a try. The powder in particular is easy and quick to make, MUCH cheaper than your commercial powder and does a good job without harming you or your clothes. My post about it and the recipe for it, and many other green cleaners, is here.

To make your own soap you'll need to step up a notch. It's more difficult, because you're handling a caustic product that burns, but if you make it when you're alone with no children or pets to distract you, it's easily done. My recipe for cold pressed soap is here.

I want to encourage you to start making some of your own products. Not only will it save you money, it will allow you the peace of mind of knowing what you're putting on your skin and on your clothes. There is a feeling of satisfaction that comes with this that you don't get when buying another box of soap or laundry powder. If you want it to, it will help you move further away from commerce and closer to an independent home. I know many people who read here are already doing this, but many are not. So if you're using your own non-commercial soap or laundry powder, please share your experiences with us.

MORE READING
This is a very good soap page with recipes and troubleshooting.

PS: I'm really pleased to see so many people interested in the swap. The deadline for joining is Thursday, so there is still time to sign up.

Changing old habits and establishing new routines is one of the hardest things you'll do when you move from a consumerist mindset to a more frugal and homemade one. When I first changed from my old life, I knew I had to do a lot more for myself but for the life of me I couldn't find the motivation to get all those new chores done. After a period of trial and error, I stumbled onto a good routine that established a rhythm to my days and I have not looked back. I like doing my housekeeping now - it grounds me and remind me every day that all the work both Hanno and I do, helps create a home we love spending time in and a relationship that grows stronger each year. Those home tasks carried out each day remind me that a simple life is a journey, not a destination.

Establishing a housekeeping routine can be a daunting task but is made easier by small actions repeated regularly. I didn't know it then, but when I made myself do my daily chores a little bit at a time, before too long, I got into a rhythm that carried me through what I had to do. When I took up the broom and pegs as my tools of trade, I started with a little list of jobs I would do within a certain amount of time. For instance, I would get up, shower, write, feed the animals and chooks, make breakfast, make the bed, clean the kitchen and make bread all before my unofficial time limit of 9 am. By 12 o'clock I had to have swept the floor, cleaned the kitchen benches and stove, and any laundry that needed doing that day. Keeping a list of tasks within a flexible time frame helped and I was surprised that, in the space of about a month, I had established a routine for myself that felt comfortable and easy to work with; and it got my housekeeping done. That surprised me because I hadn't liked doing housework before then, I thought it was boring. When I had that rhythm, I started thinking about what I was doing, how my work connected me to my female ancestors and how it made my life better. When I made that connection, I started liking most of what I did, I began looking for new things to learn and I settled into my home. At last, I felt truly comfortable in my own home.

Now that I look back on it, I know that getting into the rhythm of doing a certain number of chores each day, and repeating those actions, changed my habits and established positive new ones. So I'd like to share with you five things to do every day to help a establish a routine. As you can see, they're five very common things that most of us would need to do each day. I hope you you will add another five things that are required in your own life. This second set of five things will be those things specific to you and your circumstances - whether you have children or not, work outside the home or not, and possibly would change according to where you live. For example, if you live in an apartment, your chores would be different to those you would need to do in a house with a garden and chooks.

1. Make the bed/s. When the children are old enough, this should be one of the chores they learn so they contribute to the running of the home.
2. Sweep the floor.
3. Wash up or run the dishwasher.
4. Organise and tidy one area a day. This might be the laundry, kids' rooms, the family room or your finances and mail.
5. Know what you'll eat tomorrow.

And when you have your daily routine working for you, add one weekly activity: learn or teach one new skill every week. A new recipe, new pattern, new stitch, or work though something over the weeks - like building a compost heap, learning about vegetable gardening, experimenting with sourdough or other fermented foods, teaching your children simple, practical skills like how to sew on a button, tie their shoe laces, tell time or read the sky - during the day for changes in the weather and at night for interest.

Learning new skills is something we all need to do and you need to make time for it and put in the effort to do it. At almost 61 years of age, I still look for new discoveries, and I hope I never lose the interest in doing that. I believe that when we lose the will to learn, we stop flourishing.

I hope this way of establishing housekeeping routines works for you. It is said that new habits need about three weeks to set up and become part of you. I never timed my changes so I wonder if that is true. Hopefully in a few weeks time, some of you tell me that it is.

Thanks for that previous post, Sharon. The money being raised for the fire victims is growing steadily. Australians have always been generous and supportive in times of crisis so it's good to see that tradition remains strong. The Red Cross is accepting donations both here in Australia and from their locations around the world. You can read about their current efforts here.

It seems I'm always running late these days. The book proposal that was supposed to be in on January 31 still hasn't been sent and after two busy days at work I plan on writing for the rest of this week and have it in on February 15. It is late because I made some last minute changes and my agent, Abby, was gracious enough to not mind the missed deadline. Work was particularly busy this week because I'm starting some new programs and we're planning our move to the new building and all that brings with it. Monday and Tuesday were HOT here, there is no air-conditioning at work so when I came home, I crashed. I'm still feeling a bit tired now, even with a good night's sleep, so I hope I come good during the day.

So, what is on my agenda today? I'll bake bread, sweep the floors and do a general tidy up and then settle into my sewing room to write most of the day. Hanno did a lot of gardening while I was at work so everything is fine outside. I have seedlings ready to plant in the garden and all the tomatoes need to be potted up. I hope to do that tomorrow when I'll see to the worm farm as well. They've been a bit neglected recently but they usually do okay as long as they have food and water.


I wrote last week that Rose had sent me some cotton called Down to Earth. When I start my new project this morning - at morning tea I plan on starting a set of dishcloths for Sarndra and Shane - I'll use some of Rose's cotton and see how it knits up. I'm knitting a set of aqua and red cloths so I'll use some of my Lions cotton for the thin red stripes.

These small squares of cotton that we knit for our wash or dish cloths can be made into other things as well. I showed the pot holder I'd half finished a week or so ago. Well, here it is now, finished, with some very quick hand quilting to attach the back to the front. All I did with it was to knit a square of Lions organic thick cotton, cut a square of cotton fabric to size and then quilt the front to the back. I'm already using it and it's worked really well. I have those saucepans with metal handles so pot holders are always used in my kitchen.


But there are other projects as well. When you've knitted up your own set of cloths, you could knit a few cleaning mitts. Just knit two rectangles (or one long one) the size of your hand and sew them together, leaving a hole for your thumb - in the same way we make a thumb hole in fingerless mittens. These make very good dusters or mitts for cleaning or washing dishes. If you have a swiffer, you could knit longer rectangles to replace the synthetic ones you need to buy replacements for. Two squares, some lining and a strap would make a sweet little shoulder purse for a little girl, or a big one. Or two squares and lining would also make a very serviceable padded digital camera pouch.

As you can see you can turn your squares into quite a few small items that will serve you well. Knitting the squares improves your knitting and you can experiment with different patterns, they're like modern day samplers. Women in the past used their samplers as decorations but we can put our samplers to use replacing products we used to buy. It's like permaculture knitting - we're getting multiple uses from the one thing.

Are you using your cotton squares for things other than dish and wash cloths? If you are I'd love to know what you're doing.

ADDITION: If you're looking for some good reading today, I recommend A Farmstead Pilgrimage to you. I have a handful of blogs I read when I have the time and Kris's has become a firm favourite. Even that first page, without any scrolling back, is a delight. Grab a cuppa and enjoy a visit there. Oh, her feedburner is broken and she can't find a way to fix it. If you can help can you contact her and offer your help. I'm sure she's apreciate if very much.

I have two simple recipes for you today. It's food we've eaten in the past few days, easy to make and very tasty. They're both old-fashioned recipes and as my heritage is Irish, they come from the old country. If you're teaching yourself to bake from scratch, this cake is a good one to try. It's mixed by hand and apart from cutting up the dates, is merely a matter of adding and mixing.

DATE AND WALNUT LOAF - you can use any nuts you have on hand
The cake makes two small loaves or one large one.

1 ½ cups chopped dates
1 ½ cups walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon bicarb (this is the rising agent for this cake)
3 tablespoons soft butter (vegans use the same amount of olive oil)
1 ¼ cups boiling water - add more if needed
2 ½ cups plain (all purpose) flour
1 beaten egg (vegans use ½ mashed banana)

Method
Boil some water.
Add the dates, nuts, sugar, bicarb and butter to a mixing bowl and mix together. Add the boiling water and mix again.
Add the egg, half the flour and mix, add the remaining flour and mix it in. If the mix is dry, add a little more water, enough to make a loose, but not runny, batter.
You do not have to beat this cake mixture. It's not a light cake and doesn't require the incorporation of air.
Add to a loaf tin (or two) and bake in a slowish oven (170C / 340 F) until cooked - about 40 minutes.

To check if the cake is cooked, poke a toothpick into the middle of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's cooked, if it comes out sticky and with moist cake mix on it, (see photo below) cook for another ten minutes.

If, when you do that, you're worried the top of the cake will burn, cover the top with a piece of alfoil.

When I cook this cake I always make a large one and cut it in two. We are enjoying the cake this week and I have another one in the freezer for later in the month.

It's a very good cake for packing into lunch boxes, but if it's to go in a school lunch box, you might have to leave out the nuts. I believe nuts are banned in some schools now.

My other recipe is colcannon.

Ingredients are mashed potato, cabbage and green onions or chives.

Method
Cook your potatoes as you normally do. About ten minutes before the potatoes finish cooking, cook a portion of finely sliced cabbage. You will need about one third cabbage to two thirds potato. I use a steamer on top of the potatoes to cook the cabbage. This saves money as I'm using the same heat that's cooking the potatoes to cook the cabbage as well. I use this method when I cook all our vegetables. The hard vegetables, like potatoes or pumpkin, go in the saucepan and the soft vegetables, beans, carrots, peas, zucchini, are cooked in the steamer on top.


Make up your mashed potato as you normally do, then add the cooked cabbage and green onions. Don't forget to season it with salt and pepper to your taste. This is delicious with any meat, chicken or fish meal and uses three vegetables in one dish.

We had a wonderful weekend here full of family, both old and new. On Friday night, Tricia and I went to cousin Susie's home on her brother Stephen's 55th birthday. Stephen died a few months back and as he didn't have a formal funeral, we chose that day to remember him. My uncle Hal, Stephen's dad, was there, as well as Susie's husband Nick and children, Angie and Billy. It was a good night, Susie, as usual, presented us with the most delicious meal (she is ,without a doubt, the best home cook in our family) and we talked and listened to some good music. Some of that music was Angie and Billy's brother Tom who you can listen to here. Have a listen, he is very good and this is a beautiful song. Tom is in Ireland at the moment.

I thought about family a lot over the weekend, triggered by that gathering, where we all sat outside on the deck on a perfect late summer's night with the bush surrounding us and the stars shining. Tricia and I are both early birds in the morning so we were tired and went home early. Honestly, it felt like it was about 3am when we got home, but it was only 9.45pm. LOL! Still we both went straight to bed, Hanno was already asleep, and I drifted off thinking of Stephen and how he would have been smiling down on us, happy to see us all there, and possibly surprised to see his father. They had been estranged for years. I will remember that night for a long time. RIP Stephen.

Of course, the next night was Shane and Sarndra's engagement party and wouldn't you know it, I didn't get a photo of them together. But here they are nontheless, Shane cooking, as usual, and Sarndra looking her gorgeous self, talking to some of the 50 guests.

Hello everyone! I've had a few emails asking if Hanno and I are okay and if we are close to the bushfires. At least 25 people have been killed by fires in Victoria, which is at the bottom of Australia. I'm happy to report we are a couple of thousand kilometres away from the fires. There are other fires in New South Wales, where Tricia lives, but they're not near her home at the moment. The temperatures down south are still very hot - well over 40C (104F) in many areas, and no doubt the temperatures are aiding the fires.

We live in Queensland, and while we certainly have the odd bushfire, summer is our wet season, so there isn't such a threat here. In fact, we have floods here in our state,with record rainfall in many little towns and areas along the coast. In a long strip along the coast, the rain has poured down without a break for almost a month. Again, Hanno and I are not close to the flooded areas.

I hope everyone who reads here is safe. I really feel for all those suffering in the heat, not just the people, but also the pets, stock and wildlife. I can't imagine how devastating it must be to lose your home to a fire or a flood. As well as the loss of human life, there have been heavy stock losses, both in the fires and the floods, and I'm guessing a lot of wild animals and reptiles have died too. It's so sad.

So far, this year has witnessed a cruel climate. I've seen on the news there have been record snowfalls and low temperatures in the UK and the US. I send my best wishes to everyone who is suffering either fire, flood or the extremes of high or low temperatures. Thank you for thinking of us, we are fine, I hope you are too. Stay safe everyone.

My sister Tricia travelled up from Sydney yesterday to visit for a few days. We have some family events to attend, the first one being a remembrance for our cousin Stephen, which will be held tonight at his sister Susie's home.

Tricia caught the train from the airport and I picked her up from the train station. I feel a bit removed from it when I'm in a busy place like that, people going everywhere and no familiar faces, or smiles. But there she was, suddenly, that face I've known all my life, we hugged and the talking started. Welcome back.

She had brought a few surprises with her. After going through hers and mum's photos, she collected some of our cousin Stephen to bring to show Susie. Among those photos from a far off distant time, was this one of us. I'm the blonde with the straight hair. I remember those home knitted angora tops we wore. Mine was pink and Tricia's was blue and I called them our fuzzy-wuzzy tops. The inscription on the photo's envelope, in my mother's hand, states Christmas 1950. Then, I would have been two and Tricia, four. We look older than that, my guess is we are four and six.

Another surprise she found was my first prayer book. It's called Pray Always - prayers and instructions for children. The copyright is New York, 1951. Wow.