I just want to repost the swap reminder Sharon wrote last week. So for those of you in the swap, here is it:
Rose and I (Sharon) would like to remind all the ladies who are in the dishtowel and hot pad swap that the deadline is Saturday, April 25. I know that Saturdays are busy family days and that some of you may not get to the Post Office until early in the next week. That usually happens and so do not worry about it. Just let your swap buddy know that you are posting a bit late. I have heard already from some of you who have posted and some of you who will be a few days late and I would like to thank you for letting us know; when you touch base with either Rose or myself it really helps us to keep up-to-date with the swappers! I hope everyone has enjoyed this swap and would love to hear from you with ideas for our next swap.

Sharon, who lives in USA, and Rose, who lives in Australia, help me with the swaps. We couldn't do it without them. I'm sure you all join with me to thank them for the work they do. Swaps take a lot of organising and hard work and the fact that they run so well is a fine testament to these wonderful ladies. So please add your thanks as well as suggestions for the next swap.

There really is no reason for me to know what day it is, or the time of day for that matter, nevertheless, I do usually know the day. I didn't yesterday though and when I signed off thanking you for visiting this week, I thought it was Friday. Today I know it's Friday but I have no idea what I will write about because after I finished yesterday, I thought it would be another couple of days before I posted again. So bear with me, I do know what I'm doing, even if it doesn't look that way. LOL!

Shane and Sarndra are here! They arrived back from their holiday in New Zealand on Wednesday, had one night with Sarndra's mum in Brisbane and they are now sleeping soundly here, tucked up in bed. They were going to look for jobs in Brisbane but a little house Shane used to live in, set in trees on a lake just metres from the sea, is vacant. A friend of theirs is moving out and the lease will be current till September. The rent is quite low so they'll live there until after they get married. It's only about 20 minutes drive from here so it will be easier to help them organise all the ins and outs of the wedding. And I'm pleased they'll be closer to home for the time being.


Soon, I'll make breakfast for us all. No doubt we'll sit around talking for a while and then I have quite a bit of work to do. I cut out a new apron last weekend so I'll iron that and sew it up, I have tomatoes to make into relish and sauce. I made yoghurt yesterday and will make that into quark today. It will only take a short time because all I have to do is sit it in cheesecloth in a strainer for the whey to drip out. After a few days draining in the fridge, I'll add honey to half the batch, herbs to the other half, and we'll have another batch of delicious simple cheese.

I have laundry to do today and the bathroom needs cleaning but the majority of my time will be spent writing. I am trying to get the proposal back by next Monday. To all those lovely people who sent emails, I will reply later today and over the weekend.

I don't know what Earth Day is. Do we celebrate it in Australia? That is one of the downsides of not watching much TV or reading magazines or newspapers, these new things start and I have no idea. I visited some other blogs yesterday and noticed many of them writing about it so I gather it's a day when the focus is on the environment and how we live responsibly on our patch of land. I look forward to future times when such days will not be necessary because we live like that all the time. It was really wonderful to see all the photos of new seedlings started, little chickens and ducks and general feeling of optimism and renewal on those blogs. It is a great thing this internet. To see what you're doing in your own homes, to be a part of your planning and hopes for the new season connects us all in a way that was impossible in the past. It is a wonderful time to be alive.

Let me show you what the volunteers at my work gave me for my birthday. Twenty knitted squares! Isn't that fabulous. I was so pleased and surprised. Bernadette was behind it all, she had them all knitting when I wasn't there. They even made a card and all signed it with a personal message. They are such a great group of people, I'm proud to know them all.


So that has given my blanket project a big boost, it would have taken me weeks to knit 20 squares. Now I'm thinking about joining them, which I'll do by crocheting. I'm not finished with my knitting yet but I want to join them as I go. I will start on that next week, this week is fully booked.

Thank you for the wonderful comments you leave. They help me know that we are all connected and trying to live a life that matters. When you write about how a post effects you, that you're motivated by what I write, or a little story about what you're doing, it keeps me going. I am really heartened by this group of world-wide friends who choose to visit here. In a world where much is maligned, where money is king and we fail to talk to our neighbours, we have built a neighbourhood here that supports and nourishes. As an older woman I feel it is my duty, as well as a pleasure, to pass on what I know. I hope as you grow older, you find that same inclination and help others who are yet to know what you do. If we don't do that we are as guilty as all the others for letting old skills and neighbourliness die. You have a part in this just as much as I do, so let's all reignite the passion for helping our friends and neighbours. It used to be a common thing, and it should be like that now.

See you all next week. Take care.

I am sure you all know that what I write about in my daily post is a small fraction of what Hanno and I get up to each day. If we continue to make a commitment to this way of living, we will be busy every day for the rest of our lives, and that's fine, as long as we enjoy it and pepper our days with rest and variety. I like the idea of us looking after ourselves and not surrendering ourselves to age and time, allowing others to cook and clean for us. While we are in good health, we are fine to do for ourselves.

However, I sometimes feel a bit fragile when I am particularly busy and have more things to do that I feel comfortable with. Sometimes, when I have a deadline to meet, house work to do, voluntary work, gardening, cooking, cleaning and my family to tend to, I feel a slight panic - how will I ever get it done! At those times I've taught myself to step back, think about my work and be mindful of the kind of life I am living. When I do that, when I take a step back and don't race headlong into it, I get a clearer picture of how I can carry out my work efficiently and plan for the day ahead. Above all else though, I have to tell myself that it has to be broken up into chunks and it doesn't all have to be done. That saves me every time.


I have written before about how housework never ends and I always keep that in mind, especially when I'm very busy. The best way for me to work is to divide my work into time periods - this, for me, is usually morning and afternoon, but it could be any time that you're prepared to work. So in a typical day, if I had the following chores, this is how I would organise myself:
Bake bread, clean kitchen, make bed, tend garden, check worm farm, feed worms and chooks, pick and blanch vegetables, make tomato sauce and process it in water bath, laundry, sweep floor, wash up, make dinner, write, answer emails, mend and knit.

Plan of action
First I would decide which I would do in the morning and which in the afternoon. So, morning chores are:
Morning
Make bed
Feed chooks
Load the washing machine
Make bread and set to rise
Make tomato sauce and process - leave jars to cool
Bake bread
Clean kitchen
Wash up
Hang out washing
Collect eggs
Sweep floor
Write until lunch - this last one is restricted by the amount of time I have

LUNCH

Afternoon
Feed worms
Tend garden and pick vegetables
Blanche vegetables, set to cool, then freeze
Two hours writing
Knit for 30 minutes or so
Bring laundry in and fold
Make dinner, while it's cooking, answer emails
Eat dinner, clean up kitchen and wash up

If I felt like it, I could mend after dinner, but usually by then I'm pooped, so it can wait till tomorrow. If I was falling behind, or feeling tired, I could leave the tomato sauce or blanching until tomorrow as well. I could spend more time writing and not knit. As you can see, I do a fair bit of juggling and I think that gives me a bit of leeway. The important thing is to do the work in chunks. Don't toil for hours on the one thing. Do a bit, do something else, then come back to your long job. It does make it easier.

• I can move chores around
• I can put things off till tomorrow
• I don't have to finish everything.
• It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be the best I can do on that day.
  
• I'm not living in a showroom, this is my home.

And you know what, sometimes I don't do any work at all. I give myself the day off. That day off is a powerful thing. If I've had a really busy time at work and here at home, I give myself time to recover. I want to look after myself and I want to enjoy my work. I'm in this for the long haul, I don't want my housework to become a burden. I'm sure many of you think it's an absolute luxury to have a day off but I am at the stage of life when it is possible. If you can't give an entire day, make sure you take some time for yourself - it's important.


I know there are many of you who struggle getting everything done. I know there are some who don't do much at all, feel guilt for it, but can't seem to find the motivation to do what they feel they should. I hope that by sharing how I work, and my insecurities about it, that it may help you with your work. Try to work with an open heart. You are your own boss in your home, be kind to yourself and take the pressure off to be perfect. If you work towards how you want your home to be, you will get there.

We all need to work, and it is good for us to work. It gives us a sense of achievement, we make our homes the way we want them to be, we look after our assets and when we go to bed at night, we feel proud that we worked so well that day. We made a significant investment in our family and our future.


All through the day I think about my work, how and why I do it in that particular way and why I value the experience of it. Building my home into the comfortable place I want it to be makes it all worthwhile, even if I don't enjoy every job I carry out. The work is made better when I think of the reasons why I do it. And imagine the alternative - imagine if you had no work to do, nothing to plan, nothing to invest your time in. I think many of us would love that for a day or two, then I know for sure I'd go a bit wonky if I had nothing to do.

We are workers, we are built to work. We may not get it all done in one go, it may need to finished off tomorrow, or the day after, but we are doing it. So to all you homemakers out there, to all the mothers who are trying to get the dinner on and tend to a crying baby, to all the career women who work away all day then go home to a family waiting hungrily for a good meal, to the dads who come home from work and help get dinner on or bath the children, to all those older women and men who have lost their spouse and struggle getting work done when strength is fading, to the newly weds who are learning how to keep house and to live with each other, to those of you who are not well and yet you get through the chores you set for yourself, to all the students who are learning for the first time to take care of themselves and their home, to all those workers who read this, I say, well done! It's not always easy but the work you are doing is valuable and important. If you didn't do that work, your family would be poorer for it.

Thank you for visiting me this week and taking the time to connect through comments. Welcome to all the new readers; still they come. Amazing! I hope you are all able to enjoy some time off after a week of work. Take care of yourself.

I've been thinking about bags lately. Cotton storage bags to be precise. I was given a bread bag for my birthday. It's a cotton bag that has been lined with thin rubber to keep the bread fresh. I have written about covering food and food bags before here but the bags I'm thinking about now can hold food, soap, toys, buttons, knitting or any number of fine things.


I use cotton bags here for storing various things, but the bags I use are recycled calico flour bags. I intend to make some purpose-made bags. I would like to have a drawstring bag to take my knitting to work. At the moment I just put it in my basket and usually have to search for the loose needle. I think I'll make a little cheese bag too so I can store my cheddar cheese in the fridge, sitting on a plate, covered by the bag.

I'd love to have an embroidered cotton bag as a gift wrap. I want to give a couple of luffas and soap as gifts this year. They're always difficult to wrap, but a little cotton bag containing a luffa and homemade soap would be ideal. If I embroidered a shower of rain over some flowers on the bag, that would be perfect.

Another lovely gift would be a long tube bag containing knitting needles and a couple of balls of pure wool or cotton, all contained in a linen bag with a stitched ball of wool and needles on the front. Imagine giving a new sewer an embroidered bag full of buttons. Bliss!


I use a little drawstring bag to carry my pencils, pens, eraser, pencil sharpener and calculator to work with me. I love using it and people often remark on how sweet it is. I'm going to make a new bag for my digital camera. It will be a little padded drawstring bag that will protect my camera, especially when I take it out with me.

I think these bags would be a very good way of carrying toys and books in the car. When my boys were little, they had a Lego sack that they would open out to a circle playmat on the floor and when you pulled the drawstrings, the Legos would be scooped up and put away again. I just did a google search for them but it seems Lego no longer make them, this is something similar and would be really easy to make. Picking up Legos is a real pain. This will help you reduce the number of Legos to be picked up, the kids will only have to pick up those that spill outside the circle.

Here are some links with more ideas. Please check out the first two especially for some fine inspiration. They show that a simple drawstring bag can be beautiful and delicate as well as practical.

When you think about it, cotton bags have been around since Adam was a boy and they still provide a very sound, practical and often beautiful way of storage and carrying things. It proves once again that the simple ways are often the best.

Despite my gentle reminder about slowing down, I've been very busy of late and today will be no exception. I have a few other things I should be doing, but I have made a commitment to you and to this blog, and it's incredibly enriching for me to write for you, so here I am again, albeit with a shorter post.

I have some good news about our lovely chooks. Lulubelle, who is the barred Plymouth Rock chook on the sidebar has recovered and Margaret Olley, our buff Sussex, is not yet better, but is on the road back to good health. Hanno is doing a really good job looking after them. He lifts Margaret onto the nest to sleep instead of having her on the roost with the others. Margaret has an ear infection which is slowly getting better. BTW, in chook talk, barred is a colour - it's a black and white stripe, and buff is a dark blonde colour.

New readers often send emails asking about how to start a simple life. This question is almost impossible to answer because we are all so different - different ages, countries, family situations, expectations, assets, desires etc., so I think the best way to help is to tell you how I started and go on from there.

Simple living surprised me. I didn't know there was such a thing but when I looked back I realised how far from "normal" I'd drifted. When I closed down my business to 'retire', I wanted to return to my home in the most complete and pure way. I went looking for ways to lessen the impact that me not working would have on my family. I wanted to save money by being a more economical shopper and I wanted to go back to cooking from scratch. Years before this transformation we had put in a water tank, a solar hot water system, had an organic vegetable garden and chickens, but now I wanted more. However, I didn't want just the material things that helped us live this way, I wanted to reinvent myself as well.

I hoped to leave behind the commercial world and immerse myself in being a housewife again. I knew my happiness was lurking here in my home somewhere, I just had to find it. I had an inkling that providing as much as we could with my own hands would make me happy and I thought that collecting eggs and picking fresh produce every day would calm me and help readjust my life. But I didn't realise then that I'd become a proud homemaker, and that I would define my success by the size and colour of tomatoes, the taste of a well made loaf, how happy simple things would make me or how well I slept at night. I didn't know I'd be proud of what I do here, and I didn't know, until I did it, how important the everyday work of a homemaker is.

So I guess the short answer to part of the question is to say that living a more simple life is all those things you want to include in your day to day activities, but it is also readjusting the way you think. Simplicity is a mindset as well as the everyday actions of the common home.


The first major thing I did was to shop in a different way and to build a stockpile. This was important for me because I believed if I could save money on my groceries, because I was buying them every week, that would be a considerable, ongoing saving. It took me about four or five months to build my stockpile, then I wanted to do some preserving (canning) to add my home grown produce to the stockpile cupboard. I had done some preserving in the past but had to relearn it. Then I thought it might be a good idea to get rid of the preservatives in our food, so one of the first things I did then was to learn to make a good loaf of bread. This lead me to buying flour and other dry goods in bulk, and I had to learn more about food storage.


Getting rid of the preservatives in our food made me think about getting rid of them in our home too, so I stopped buying household cleaners and started making soap, laundry powder and the other cleaners I needed. When we started making soap, we added luffas to the garden. Homemade olive oil soap and an organic luffa is a gift you can give to woman, man or child alike and they will appreciate it. Christmases and birthdays came and went and I had to think a lot about gift giving. I started knitting and sewing again, this helped me with our own clothes too, as well as those soft furnishings I wanted in our home. I found that when I did anything new, it always opened up other areas I needed to work on and think about.


I started to slow down, to concentrate on what I was doing and I tried to do everything to the best of my ability. Slowing down was enough to let me see a number of things that I didn't notice when I skipped over my housework and tried to do it as fast as possible. I realised I liked doing a lot of the tasks when they were carried out in a mindful manner, and slowly, over time, I reorganised myself and my home to reflect this new way of being. That change showed me that being at home had the potential to nourish my soul and if I could make my home a place of comfort for everyone who lived here, and for those who visited, that would be a significant and valuable gift. It's not easy, in fact there is more work to be done, but the next day always brings it's own challenges and joys and, by taking one small step at a time, I got to where I am now. This journey is never over. Simple living is not a destination or a reward that you move toward, the journey itself is the prize.

But I must remind you that living simply isn't just a series of tasks and actions that are completed over the course of the day. I believe you need to slow down, be mindful, develop generosity, be kind, give more, expect less and live your life as an example to those around that happiness and fulfilment can be found almost anywhere, in a city skyscraper, a suburban house, a farm or anywhere in between. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you need to be living in a serene rural location to live this way. It can be done anywhere.

One word of caution, you do need to be organised to live simply. Get yourself an old journal or binder and write down your new recipes, your meters readings, rainfall totals, your wish list for your garden, seed catalogues, your stockpile list - both what you have on hand and what you need to buy, any patterns you may find. Add to it the simple cleaners I've written about here, and you will have made your first step towards simplicity.


And finally, there is no one size fits all prescription for simple living. Each person does their own version of it. So be guided by me and all the other blogs you read but make the way you do it reflect you. This is about authenticity, not conformity. Do it your way and do one small thing today and another new thing tomorrow. Don't let anyone tell you you're not doing the right things. And if you find new pleasures in how you carry out your work, it is okay to feel pride in that. Open up yourself to new experiences and push your envelope. Be the person you always wanted to be, show your children, by example, how wonderful life is. These things, as well as making your home a place of warmth and security, are part of your simple life.

I really enjoyed reading a comment from Elizabeth yesterday. She said, in part, “I have been reading your blog for some time but until last week I just read and wished but did not action in anyway. That is, until this last weekend when I thought 'just do it!' So, I have started knitting a cardigan, knitted three squares for a throw for this winter, and made a chicken soup using up a chicken carcass for the very first time!" It is obvious to me that Elizabeth has been thinking about how she wants to change her life for some time, and now she's just dived right in. Living deliberately, there is nothing like it.

When Thoreau wrote his book, Walden, he had left his job and set up in a small cabin to live alone in the woods. He wrote: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience ..." I think that is one of the most profound pieces of writing I've ever read and since I discovered Walden, many years ago, I have tried to live to the spirit of what Thoreau wrote in that one passage.

So what exactly is living deliberately? I guess there may be several different interpretations but to me it means taking control of my life, thinking about what it is I want my life to be, knowing what I want to do every day, or what I have to do to achieve my goals, and then living that life. Very few people have their life planned out for them and handed over on a silver platter. But what many people do is to just react to life. They have no real plans, they live each day doing what is expected of them, then, when something out of the ordinary happens, they react to it. There is no real plan, no map to follow, just reactions to what life throws.

Deliberate living is deciding what you want your life to become, working out the steps you need to take to make that happen, then, as Elizabeth said, just do it. You will still get life throwing the unexpected at you, but when it happens, you work to solve the problem, then you get back on track.

Those three little words, just do it, are the best advice for anyone hovering on the edge of a simple life. You might be hovering because you don’t know what to do first, because you feel you can’t do it all so why bother with a little bit, or you’re waiting for just the right time – until you move, you get that pay rise, you retire, the kids move out – whatever the right time will be for you, let me tell you there will be no right time. The only right time is now.

The other thing Elizabeth said was that she feels renewed now when she wakes up. I feel that way too. Every day you continue along the path you’ve chosen, you feel you have purpose and you feel renewed.

I think the economic crisis will bring a lot more people to this way of living but living simply is much more than a financial strategy, it's more than your location, it's more than how you manage your home or plant your vegetables. It's about you, how you think about your life and how you express your values day by day. Anyone can learn to make yoghurt, budget, knit dishcloths and grow tomatoes, the real trick is for your actions to reflect how you think and how you want to live. What good is it to list the hundred things you've accomplished if you're not made happy by what you do, if you aren't renewed by it, and if you don't do it with grace, humility and generosity.

When you deliberately choose this way of life, you will be doing things that bypass the conveniences of your old life, there will be many things you'll do differently, but if you do it well, if you really throw yourself into your life, if you live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, not only will you be living deliberately, you will be changed by it. Just do it.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet and press the dough into a slice tin. Firm it down before baking on 180C (350F) for about 2o minutes. Don't leave it in too long or the outer sides will be very hard. When cooked, cut into slices. You could substitute the walnuts for a cup of sultanas (golden raisins) or choc chips or any nuts you have on hand.

I love rain. I love knowing it's watering the vegetables, being harvested from the roof and stored in our water tanks. Storing water is the same as storing an abundance of vegetables or fruit. You collect it when there is too much and store it to use when there is none. I have written about harvesting rain water before here, here and here, but I want to revisit the topic to encourage all the new gardeners out there towards some sort of water harvesting system. It can be as simple or sophisticated as you like, but if you're growing a garden, you should think about storing water. Water is precious and if there is no rain, your efforts at harvesting water will allow you to keep your plants going for a while longer before you have to rely on town water.


Harvested water fits well within a preparedness strategy as well. If you have stockpile cupboards inside that will see you and your family through a crisis, then water barrels containing harvested water will fit right in with that way of thinking. Just like your stockpile, you can be using your rainwater throughout the year, but if there is a need for it, that water will be there to use more sparingly throughout the crisis.

We installed our first water tank as soon as we moved into this house about 11 years ago. That one was a steel tank that holds 5000 litres. A couple of years ago, when the rebates came in, we got ourselves a 10000 litre poly tank and those two tanks have not been empty at the same time since we installed the second one. We only use the water in our tanks for the garden, the animals and outside cleaning.

It will cost some money to buy the materials but over time you'll recoup that cost because you won't use as much tap water. It's also an environmentally sound practice. Instead of wasting that water that would go down the storm water drainage system, or into a creek or river, you'll capture that amount and use it when there is no rain.

Water tanks come in all shapes and sizes. There are poly tanks and steel tanks, all with food grade lining, that can fit into just about any space. They're usually round but some are oval, and some are like a wine cask bladder that will sit, out of sight, under decks. You'd be well advised to buy the largest tank you can afford, depending on the rainfall in your area.

I can't give general guidelines about water tanks or barrels because climate differences really do effect how and where you install your system. For instance, where we live, in summer there are torrential downpours which means we must have our overflow going to an area where it runs directly into our creek. We don't have to empty our barrels in winter to avoid the water freezing and cracking the barrels. Climate plays a big part in the size of the tanks but also in how you hook up your system. If you buy a larger tank, the store you buy it from will have instructions for that particular type of tank ans you should be guided by that. But overall, you must make sure your tank or barrel cannot be accessed by children or animals.


To find water tanks in your area, simply google "water tank xxxx" xxxx=your area.
There is a lot of information on these websites.
Bluescope water tanks USA
Water tanks California
Water tanks North Carolina
UK Tank Shop
UK Water butts
Information about tank foundations
Rainwater harvesting
How to install a rain barrel
Rain barrel system - with photos
What size tank? Where do I position the tank?
Installation guide
How rain barrels work


If you choose a large water tank it must sit on a stable well compacted base free of rocks, sharp objects or stones. Hanno put our last tank on a compacted base of crusher dust, with retaining walls, and it's withstood torrential rain unharmed for the past couple of years.

Traditionally in Australia, the old timers sited their tanks high on tank stands which assisted in the gravity feed of water. We have our large tanks on solid ground and use a pump on each tank to deliver water to the gardens. However, our newest tank, a small 500 litre barrel, sits on a stand, just off the front verandah, that is high enough for us to place watering cans or buckets under the tap.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to harvest rain water. If you can find suitable second hand containers they will do very nicely as your tanks/barrels and all you'll have to do then is connect it to the downpipe with some plumbing pipes - you might already have these on hand. Don't think that it's not worth doing unless you can have a brand new state of the art system. Water harvesting is a big part of any self-reliance strategy and as such, made from scratch with second hand materials will do just fine.

If you have any problems with your tank or barrels, or are unsure about installation or purchase, ask your question in the comments and I am sure Hanno will be happy to answer your queries.

Patricia: This is Hanno's advice. To get water into the large tank you have to make sure the inlet on the tank is lower than the gutter on your house. You can easily check this by taking a garden hose full of water to the tank's inlet and get someone to hold it at that level. Take the other end over to the building and mark the height where it overflows. When the water pipe from the roof to the tank is low enough, it will empty into the tank. Regardless of how deep you bury the pipe, it will be full all the time and the water will flow whenever it rains. Make sure all the underground pipes are glued properly so no water leaks into the ground. This is explained in the installation guide link above.


ADDITIONAL READING
Australians paying more for water but using less