down to earth

I never tire of the simple sounds of my home and garden. I suppose noise is that sound most people don't want to hear, but I welcome most of that too. But not television. In fact, television noise was what triggered this post. Hanno was watching something on ABC 2 that was repeated from last night. He then went outside, leaving the TV on. grrrrrrrrrr! Don't you hate that! I went in and turned it off, then immediately heard the sound of a Sacred Kingfisher as it was flying past. Noise can sometimes mask sounds.

At this very moment, I can hear the sound of my washing machine spinning through its last cycle; I can hear geese honking on the pond; there is a chook clucking after laying an egg. Hanno is outside tidying up the edges of the lawn, I hear the clink of the steel spade against the edge of the path. Airedale Alice is inside and when she walks up to me, I hear her claws on the wooden floors; they sound like tap shoes.

Pee Wees are calling, a train goes by in the distance, the phone rings. It's Kerry, he's not well and he always has to tell his mum when he's sick. He has a virus. I listen to him as he tells me about his new girlfriend - a Korean girl called Kai Lin (I hope that spelling is close). We end our conversation with me telling him to look after himself and to drink plenty of water, and him telling me not to worry.

But I do.

A car drives in, it's Jens, my step son, coming to borrow the trailer for a trip to the rubbish dump. I hear him and Hanno talking about the football. Apparently there is the grand final of something on today. Yawn.

Silence, I hear the soft buzzing of my computer. Rosie barks, and the kingfisher flies past again with the mad screech that sounds like the music from Psycho. I can't work out why a tiny bird with such a lovely name and blue feathers, would sound like that. Another of nature's wonders.

I can tell the time with the sounds around here. In the morning I hear the children going to school and know it's 8.30ish, they mark my time again when they return home at three. The postman comes on his bike at 10.30, our next door neighbours return from work at 5. It's a gentle way to tell the time and as I never wear a watch now (I gave them all away when I stopped working) and rarely look at a clock, these simple sounds keep me on track through out my day.

King parrots are calling - I see three of them, they're about to eat some pigeon peas and peaches in our garden. That's ok, I'm happy to share as I know a lot of their habitat has been taken. Their sounds bring Hanno back into the yard again and he yells out, "Rhonda! king parrots in the back yard!" I pretend I don't know they're there and take my camera out to take a photo.

There are two king parrots in this photo. See if you can find them.

Click as I plug in the cable connecting the camera to the computer, click, click click. Photos are in the computer. Resize, tap tap. And I finish typing this. These tappings are the sounds that connect me to you - these are sounds I like.

He's started the lawn mower. Ack. I smell biscuits cooking. Time to hear the kettle boil and to experience the sound of crunching into a walnut biscuit.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for sharing your day with me.

Shopping! {shudder} I did my grocery shopping yesterday from the comfort of my own backyard. Let me explain - I wrote a shopping list, Hanno went shopping alone and I worked in the garden. Good eh? And now we're set for at least another month before we need to stock up again. I do pick up local milk and cream when I go to work each week, sometimes I also have to buy local fruit and vegetables, but the bulk of the groceries is taken care of for another month, at least. Phew.

I should add too that Hanno loves shopping to my list. He chooses exactly what is on the list when he's at Aldi and scans the bins for perfect fruit and vegetables. At the other supermarket, IGA (we refuse to shop at Woolworths and Coles), where we go to for items not at Aldi, he unit shops, which is the most frugal way to shop. Unit shopping is going beyond comparing the cost of different brands of the same product, it also takes into account the size or weight, as well as the price. When you unit shop, you break down the cost to the unit - be that gram, millilitre, ounce or pound, and buy the cheapest unit price. When he returns, yes there are a couple of things I didn't ask for, but very few, and the rest is exactly to the list.

Yesterday we stocked up on honey @ $2.99 per 500grams x 4 jars, red salmon 210 grams @ $3.49 x 4, tuna in spring water 425 grams @ $1.89 x 4 tins, sandwich tuna 185 grams @ 99 cents x 4 tins, tomatoes 1 kilo @ $1.99 x 2. granny smith apples 1 kilo @ $2.89, oranges 1 kilo @ 99 cents x 2, bananas $1.32, tasty cheese @ 1 kilo $5.49, cottage cheese 500 grams @ $2.49, butter 250 grams x 12 @ 99 cents $11.88, pasta @ 49 cents x 4, strawberries 500 grams @ 99 cents x 2, plus a number of other things. At Simply Good, our bulk food store we spent $31 on 12.5 kg of baker's flour, Iranian dates, Californian walnuts, 1 kg mixed dried fruit, 200 grams glace cherries and some yeast. We spent $16 on pet meat - we make our own dog food here using this $16 we will be able to make enough food for our two dogs for a month. Hanno also bought some meat for his last kale meal of the season - he loves smoked pork sausage and kassler with our fresh kale. That meal will last him 5 or 6 days, I eat salads and eggs when he enjoys his German feast. All up we spent $195 on food that has topped up our stockpile and will keep us eating well for at least the next month.

We could live on our stockpile for a few months if we had to. Stockpiling groceries is the best way to provide your food needs. You'll shop the specials and store those items in your stockpile cupboard, so over time you'll create your own little supermarket that you can shop at any time of the day or night without leaving your home. And when you've been shopping this way for a while, all your groceries will be at the best prices, and less than the normal retail price. You will also save time because instead of shopping weekly, or every couple of days, you go once a month, with quick trip in to the local shop to pick up your milk. If you have a productive vegetable garden and chickens, you'll be eating fresh organic food, complemented with what's in your stockpile cupboard and pantry. It's the best of both worlds - organic food served with freshly baked bread, rice, pasta, fish etc from your pantry, stockpile and freezer. Stockpiling is worth the effort, and if you have a husband who likes to shop carefully, you can do it all while planting celery and beetroot. ; )

These are photos of some of my herbs, taken this morning. This is yarrow, borage, parsley, oregano, with daisies, to attract bees, in the background.

No home garden is complete without herbs. You can use them in your cooking and salads, for medicinal purposes and for crafts; you can make fertiliser and attract bees into the garden with herbs. Some herbs attract insects, some repel them. They're a very interesting group of plants.

A botanist's definition of a herb is a plant that doesn't have a permanent woody stem, like a tree or a shrub. To a gardener, a herb is a useful plant that can be used in cooking or for medicinal purposes. Gardener's use bay trees as herbs, and rosemary, which is a shrub. Even bananas are classed as herbs. It's confused to say the least, but no matter what your definition of herbs, they're great in the garden.

Borage

I grow herbs for cooking, to attract bees, to make fertiliser and to make tea. At the moment I'm growing the following: parsley, borage, lemon balm, mint, garlic, aloe vera, oregano, marjoram, nasturtiums, comfrey, curry plant, Italian thyme, yarrow, lavender and bay.

When growing herbs, they should be grown slowly so their flavours can develop fully. So don't keep pushing them along with fertiliser. Plant them in full sun, in good draining soil and apply a weak liquid fertiliser three weeks after planting, and again at 12 weeks. Flowering plants like lavender should be cut back after they flower, which, at the right time of year, will stimulate another flush of flowers.

COMFREY FERTILISER
Cut the green leaves from your comfrey clump and fill a bucket half full of leaves. Place a brick, or something heavy, on the leaves to keep them under the water. Fill the bucket to the top with water. Place a lid on the bucket - this stinks to high heaven when it's ready to use - and leave in a shaded place for three weeks. When you take the lid off, be prepared for a bad smell, but this brew is FULL of nitrogen.

To use, pour one litre (1 quart) of the mix into a nine litre (2½ gallon) bucket and fill with water. Pour this onto your plants that need a nitrogen boost, like lettuce, spinach and the leafy vegetables. Pour any left overs onto your compost, it speeds up decomposition of decaying plant material.

Comfrey

Comfrey is grown from root cuttings and it loves slightly moist conditions. When you plant comfrey, make sure you choose a space where it can grow forever. Comfrey doesn't run, like bamboo, but it forms a nice big clump and the tiniest piece of root will regenerate. So if you try to remove it and leave any piece of plant behind, it will regrow.

GARLIC SPRAY
Chop up 100 grams (3½ oz) of garlic cloves and mix with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil. Leave to infuse for 48 hours. Dissolve 2½ tablespoons of pure soap (homemade is good for this) in 500mls (16 fl oz)) hot water and mix everything together. Strain the mix to remove the garlic and store in a glass or plastic container. To use, dilute the garlic mix with ten times the amount of water and spray on insects. This is a contact spray so it has to be sprayed onto the insects, but it doesn't harm you or the plant.

LEMON BALM TEA
Pick fresh leaves - you'll need about 30 leaves - wash them. Place the leaves in 2 cups of boiling water in a tea pot and allow to infuse for 5 minutes. Strain the leaves before drinking. A small teaspoon of honey is a delicious addition.

HEALING WITH ALOE VERA
When I cut or burn myself, I squeeze the gel from a piece of aloe vera and rub it on. It always works well. Some people with sensitive skins may develop a rash using aloe vera, so test a small patch of skin before using it.

PARSLEY AND MINT CLEANSER
Pick a large bunch of paisley and about 2 tablespoons of mint leaves. Add to 500mls (16 fl oz)boiling water and allow to infuse for one hour, then strain through a fine filter. When cool, use this as a facial cleanser. It will store for three days.

Parsley and oregano.

LAVENDAR OR ROSE WATER

Place 120 grams (4oz) fresh lavender flowers or rose petals in a china or ceramic (not aluminium) bowl and pour over 500 mls (16 fl oz) boiling water. Place a clean cotton cloth on top and allow to steep overnight. Strain off the flowers and store in a glass bottle. This is nice as a facial splash but I usually use it instead of plain water when spraying my ironing.

Lavender

You can use herbs in so many ways and I could write about them all day and still not tell you all their wonderful uses. So next time you're at a friends house and see a herb you like, ask for a cutting and instructions on growing it. It might also help if you borrow a book on herbs from the library, they make fascinating reading. This is the most valuable website about herbs that I've found. It's the wonderful Isabel Shipard's site, full of information and enthusiasm for herbs and how we can use them.

Most of us see the sense of not spraying pesticides and herbicides in the garden, nor using chemical cleaners in our homes. There are many recipes for good garden bug sprays and cleaners so no one needs to resort to buying products that will help keep the bugs away and the house clean. That sensible thinking should also extend to how you manage the various bugs and pests in your home too. Flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, ants, rats, mice, spiders and a whole range of other pests can be controlled with natural remedies too. And as usual, what is safe and environmentally sound is also frugal.

Good housekeeping plays a big part in keeping your home bug-free, so make sure your benches are clean, food isn't left lying around, your compost bucket has a lid on it, all your food is in containers, vacuum once a week and sweep daily. You should also block the places where bugs can enter. Blocking small holes to prevent creepy crawlies from entering your home is the first line of defense.

We do this in the garden too. Instead of spraying for fruit fly, we put exclusion bags on our fruit so the peaches can ripen naturally inside the bag where the fruit fly can't get at them. You'll see what I mean in the photo below. It also keeps the parrots away from the fruit.

Fly screens are a good way of keeping bugs and other pests out of your home. Fly screens on windows and doors are quite common in Australia and, I expect, in most other countries where flies and insects are a problem. If you have fly screens, make sure you look after them so they do the job they're intended for. Every couple of months, wipe the screens to remove dust and grime and check the rubber seals are firmly in place. If there is a tear in a screen, replace it.

So let's imagine you've blocked up all the holes, your fly screens are in place, but you're just about to serve up dinner and you see a fly. The best way to get rid of flies is with a fly swat. I grew up in the age before aerosol fly sprays and really hate them. You can easily kill flies with a swat and all you need then is to pick it up, either with the swat itself or a piece of scrap paper, put it in the bin or give it to the chooks. I keep my swat on top of the fridge and I make sure it's washed in hot soapy water every month or so to keep it clean. You can also use your fly swat to kill other insects like cockroaches, beetles and spiders.

Cockroaches can be a real pest in warm climates too. I have no idea how these creatures enter houses but I know once in, they're hard to get rid of. There is some very useful information here about natural cockroach baits. Boron or boric acid is available in Australia here or at most pharmacies and diatomaceous earth is available in Australia here or at garden centres. You can also make a cockroach bait by mixing borax and a little honey. Put it in an upturned lid in a dark near where you've seen cockroaches. Make sure borax and boron are well away from children and pets. They have a low toxicity but you always need to be cautious.

I have a selection of bug screens that I use on food too. I have milk jug covers that are used on any jugs I take outside, I also use it when I have a glass of water beside my bed at night. I use a little cotton cover for my sourdough (see below), which needs to be open to the air but protected from bugs. You can make a lovely outdoor food cover simply by cutting some netting or cotton to size and sewing a cotton border on it. So think about where you have problems with insects and make some covers to protect your food. Here is a pattern for a crocheted milk jug cover. Or you can make a very simple cover with some netting or fine cotton held down by buttons or shells. See what I use in this photo.

Organic fly spray (from Grass Roots Magazine)
1 tablespoon eucalyptus oil
1 teaspoon bergamot oil
5 tablespoons vodka
2 tablespoons white vinegar
5 cups water

Dissolve eucalyptus and bergamot oils in the vodka.
Add the vinegar and water and mix well.
Store in a spray bottle and shake before use.

General purpose bug spray

1 teaspoon of eucalyptus oil

1 teaspoon of liquid soap or ½ teaspoon of grated soap dissolved in water.

500ml of water

Mix the ingredients together in a small sprayer. Always shake thoroughly before each use. You have to spray this directly onto the bug.

Organic mosquito spray recipe here.

How are you all going with your electricity and water meter readings? I hope you have mastered the meters and are now doing weekly readings. It really will help you cut your usage back if you know what you're using a lot of electricity and water on. We've completely moved over to compact fluro globes in the entire house now, even the down lights and it's made a different in our bill. We bought four globes every month, or more if they were on special, so it didn't hit our small grocery budget too much while we were buying them. If you do this, replace the globes you use the most first.

One of the readers here, Wildside, has reduced her electricity bill a lot and I asked her to share her secrets. Here they are:

candlelight, kind of romantic, it hides the dust bunnies when you have company and forgives wrinkles -- everything/everyone looks better by candlelight!
strategically placed nightlights to light the way at night.
don't turn on an overhead light or lamp unless you have to -- and if you do, make it a nightlight or energy efficient bulb.
make good use of natural daylight.
think/talk in the dark -- it can be fun!
cook on a grill over coal fire outside year-round and think of it as fun -- and how much better food cooked this way tastes!
energy efficient fridge.
a smaller freezer.
consider manual appliances/power over electric -- or make use without some other way!
stretch your garden as far as possible and appreciate raw, simple food.
wash dishes by hand.
only run full loads of laundry and try to limit that to one per day maximum! (My rule: you can do far less than that, but not more!)
only run the dryer for 20 minutes then hang everything to finish drying (we live in a damp, rainy climate where stuff gets mildewy and there is a laundry law about hanging clothes outside in view anyway) ... 20 minutes is enough to give things a head start on drying and take the wrinkles out.
turn stove burner, oven off just before things are set to come out and let food finish on residual heat.
a better thing for us to do (or at least ½ of us [meaning me!]) would be to only use our computer and TV during hours of darkness as a rule... I think I'll decide to pick this habit up again -- we do use both the computer and TV a lot!

Thanks Wildside.

I moved into my new sewing room yesterday. I haven't got everything exactly as I want it yet, I'm using pieces of furniture I'd rather not use, but I'm in there. The room used to be Hanno's office, it's where he did all his after hours work for the shop, and even now he has a cupboard in there, and drawers, as well as space on the desk. In Australia we have to keep business and tax records for seven years, so all that is being stored in "the sewing room". I'm pretending it's not there. : )

The room overlooks the front garden and there is a radio, so I expect to be quite comfy as I work on my mending and sewing. I'd like to eventually replace the melamine furniture with old wooden pieces and I have a friend, who is like a hawk collecting old bits and pieces, on the lookout for me. I'd like two old tables, a cupboard and a chest of drawers. But in the meantime I'm happy to work with what I've got and I'm thankful that I have this room as a workspace.

In the past few years I've discovered the "stash". I know those who patchwork and sew will smile at my innocence. Who knew there would be such beauty in all those pieces of fabric.

Early on in my search for a simpler life I realised that sewing, mending, knitting and homemade gifts would play a big part in what I did. I'd never been interested in crafts before, although my mother did try to teach me and my sister is a talented quilter. I toddled off on my own path, convinced they were old fashioned and would eventually catch up with me one day. LOL Oh the shame. I think my mother would love to see me know. I'm living like she used to, and what a fine roll model she is for me, even though she's been dead 14 years. I still remember how it used to be in our pre-plastic days and the skills my mother taught me all those years ago are finally being used. I am a slow learner sometimes.

I am trying to improve my sewing and knitting, I think they are skills that develop with repetition. Often when my sister visits, I get her to teach me how to do something I haven't been able to manage on my own and slowly I'm becoming more confident and happier with my finished work. Suzanne, who runs the sewing circle where I work, is going to teach me how to darn. I have a couple of jumpers that have small holes in them and they will have many more years of service when I fix those holes. Darning was the way women used to mend socks, jumpers and precious hand made clothes. Most women knew how to darn and mend but along with a lot of other useful activities, it's no longer common. In the past, women made do with what they had and it was seen as wasteful to throw something away simply because it had a hole in it. We need to get back into that mending mindset because the true cost of "cheap" clothes is damaging our environment.

One of the handicrafts I've discovered is stitchery, or as my grandma would call it, fancywork. I love drawing patterns and stitching them to see what they look like. They make wonderful gifts as they can be tailored to suit the person who will receive it and although they look complicated, they're quite simple and straight forward to make. Pictured above are two works in progress that will be given as Christmas gifts this year.

I have big plans for my little sewing room. I hope it will be a place of homely creativity, where clothes are given a second life, where my sewing talents develop, where fabric and stitch combine to produce beautiful gifts and where all aspects my simple life will continue to emerge and sustain us.

One of the things I struggled with when I first decided I wanted to change the way we lived, was my husband's reaction to the change. He didn't understand why I wanted to change and then he decided such a change would be impossible.

What I proposed was to transition from a reasonably affluent middle class family with all the trappings of that, give up work completely, spend only on needs, reskill ourselves so we could supply ourselves with most of the services and products we relied on, to become more self reliant, independent and better able to look after ourselves.

While Hanno liked the idea of giving up paid work, he thought it was idealistic and unreasonable to think that two aging hipster doofuses could drop out and live without suffering financial consequences. So, his response when I posed the question was a firm NO!

Pffffffffft! Of course I did what any good wife would do. I went ahead with it anyway. LOL Initially what I did didn't include him at all. I had already closed down my writing business so my plan now was to show Hanno, that it could be done. I respected his decision but I didn't agree with it. I didn't know how much we would need to live on but I intended to find out.

The first thing I did was to completely change the way I shopped. I'd already given up frivolous shopping and now the only money I had on a regular basis was the grocery money. It was my only tool, so I used it. You all know how I shop - I stockpile, I make and grow as much as I can and always cook from scratch - so I went from spending $300 a week on groceries to spending much less by using those new (to me) methods. I started an emergency fund and put the leftover grocery money in it. I didn't tell Hanno what I was doing and he didn't notice a change in the quality of our food or that I'd stopped buying any chemical cleaners.

Over the months I built up our vegetable garden, bought more chooks, taught myself to bake good bread, bought a preserver on eBay and taught myself how to preserve food in a water bath. And I read everything I could get my hands on. Books were the last things I gave up buying because I needed a few good books to learn from, and those books lead me to others. I researched online too, joined an American frugal forum and learnt as much as I could there. All the time I never mentioned what I was doing or why.

By the time I again brought up the subject of Hanno giving up work, our two sons had left home (they both returned again a few times) and there was just the two of us to look after. Over the years, Hanno has been the best husband and father anyone could hope for. He's been a really hard worker and has never been out of work in all the time I've known him. So I guess the pressure of providing for a family was off and he was willing to look at the possibility of him leaving work. But the thing that showed him it might be possible was seeing the amount of money I had saved from our normal grocery money.

He could see that we didn't need a large amount of money to live on. We were growing a lot of our own vegetables and eggs, fruit trees had been planted and things were progressing nicely in the vegetable garden. He could now see the potential of providing many of our own needs from our back yard. And, of course, we didn't need a lot of money to feed and clothe ourselves anymore, and, most importantly, we had no debt. I'd done up a budget and it showed that we could live on $400 a week, and that included our rates, groceries, insurances, car and dog registrations, everything. When he saw it, he was almost convinced we could do it.

Not long after that we closed our shop in Montville and started the free fall into our new life. Hanno applied for an old age pension which helped cover some of our ongoing expenses. We'd never been in the welfare system before and it was a bit of an eyeopener for both of us. But we coped. He wasn't completely convinced we could do it until we'd lived the life for six months. Then he realised that, yes, it is possible!

I think that when it comes to change one partner usually tends to see the possibilities before the other. It is frustrating for both parties because one is convinced it can be done and the other is convinced it can't be. I took the soft approach, and it worked. I thought the best way to show it could be done, was to do it. Everyone who is shopping for groceries each week can do what I did. You can show your partner that cutting costs is not only possible, it's sustainable. And when you save all that money with out him knowing, and you suddenly produce it, it opens up all sorts of possibilities.

So if you have a partner who is hesitant about your life change, try to change yourself and what you do before you try to change him/her. Showing by example is a very powerful way of teaching and it just might work for you.