down to earth

I'm starting this post at 4pm Sunday afternoon, about 12 hours before I usually do my Monday morning post. I wanted to start it while something is fresh in my mind; sometimes at 4am the world is a bit muddled for me.

If you watched Landline today you'll know they featured farmers suffering from Black Dog - Depression. Rural suicide in Australia is among the highest in the world. According to the latest statistics, one Australian male farmer commits suicide every four days. I live in one of the most beautiful parts of Australia and yet one person a month commits suicide in the town I work in.

Tomorrow I will work at my voluntary job at the Neighbourhood Centre, which was set up many years ago in response to youth suicide in our town. We talk to people who are down on their luck, provide free counselling with trained counsellors, help the homeless and disadvantaged with food packages. In the past few weeks, in addition to the younger people we see, older men have been coming in. They're embarrassed to ask for help, and scared, and often promise to pay back what they are given. Of course we never accept that and just want to see them back on their feet again.

I have never suffered from Depression but I understand that it has the ability to lay you flat. I don't understand that when life can be so good, how people would want to end it. But I guess that's the nature of depression, it makes you believe that all is hopeless and life is not worth living. The first thing I plan to do when I get to work is to set up some resources for our local people with information about help lines where they can receive free counselling over the phone. Apparently many farmers kill themselves because they have no one to talk to, they feel hopeless and they have the means readily at hand. I'll write an article for our local newspaper tomorrow letting them know that we are there, ready to talk over a cuppa and have information and help for them. I want them to know we care for them, there is help available and they are not alone.

This week is Mental Health Week in Australia. If you're living in the bush and know of people in your community who are struggling, why not invite them over for morning tea and a chat. You can do it in the suburbs and cities too. Depression is not confined to the country areas. Extend the hand of friendship to your neighbour or workmate. There is free over the phone counselling available at Men's Help Line - 1300 789978 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pass that information on to anyone in Australia who needs it.

Here are some other contact numbers you might help someone with:

Lifeline 13 11 14 (local call)
Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800 (free call)
SANE Mental Health Information Line 1800 18 SANE (1800 18 7263) (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)
Suicide Helpline Victoria - 1300 651 251
NSW Rural Mental Health Support Line 1800 201 123
Lifeline's Just Ask Mental Health Information Line 1300 13 11 14 (rural areas only, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm EST).
Mensline Australia - 1300 78 99 78.

Information about depression from Beyond Blue.

My neighbour gave me these beautiful lilies yesterday. She is a florist and they were left over from a wedding.

How are you going with your move towards a greener and simpler life? It's difficult sometimes, isn't it? I would imagine that almost all the people who read this blog are here to read about ways to live more simply in one way or another. I have been doing many of the things we do now for many years, but the entire package didn't come together for me until a few years ago. It was when I really focused on how I would change that it all fell into place.

For example, we've kept chooks in the backyard for over 20 years, I've baked bread on and off for that time too. When we lived in the bush, we stockpiled. We've eaten organic food for many years, we've grown vegetables when we had the time. But all these things seemed to be disjointed and random. They were never part of a formula that made up a philosophy of life. Now they are. Now all these parts are connected, they flow into each other and they're in our lives everyday, not haphazardly like they were before.

What changed to make that happen was the way I looked at what I was doing. It helped to have a name to hang on it, so I could focus on"simple living" and not chooks, stockpiling, organic vegetables, slowing down, and all the rest of the elements of this lifestyle. When I had the name for it, I knew I wasn't alone in my thinking and when I found others who lived how I wanted to live, that motivated me like nothing else. I knew I didn't have to move to the country to live the way I wanted, I knew I would have to learn how to do a lot of the things I wanted to do and I knew that if I was not going to earn a living as before, I would have to budget and save as much as I could. I'd already realised that shopping was an insatiable fire that would continue to feed me all I ever wanted, and all I didn't want as well. It had to stop and when it did, I suppose that was the first conscious step I took on the road to my simple life.

My plan was to stop shopping for crap, to change the way I shopped for groceries and to make as much as I could myself. In my home my aim was to rethink how I viewed housework and to make what I did in my home meaningful and rewarding. I did that by realising every single thing I did at home, I did for my family or myself. Knowing that, and really understanding it, made that change possible. It was like a light turned on inside my head; one of those cartoon moments when the light globe comes on and you can almost see new ideas forming and old ways melting away. If what I was doing at home was for us - for Hanno, Shane, Kerry and I, then what greater incentive could I have. The better I did my house work, the more comfortable we'd all be, and I would be caring for our greatest financial investment - our family home. Mind you, I do not agree that a mother and wife should do all the housework. When our sons were young they were given chores to do and they had to keep their rooms clean and tidy. When they were older, they were expected to mow the lawn, help with the tidying up and take out the rubbish. Hanno always did most of the outdoor work and all the repair work. So although my focus had changed and I know saw value in what I did in the home, I was not the sole worker there. I think housework should be shared. Now there are just the two of us I usually work in the house and Hanno works outside, but there are many times we cross over when I do one of "his" jobs and he does one of "mine". I see my work here as challenging, honourable and rewarding. I now see that it contributes significantly towards how we feel and that if everything has been done well here, that flows on to other things in our lives.

Sometimes when you're on the road to somewhere, like a simpler life, you wonder if you'll ever get there. I am proof that change is possible. If you were to ask my advice, I'd tell you to focus on yourself first and to understand that you may already be doing a lot of the things that make up this lifestyle. If it still feels disjointed to you, try to connect the dots. Work out for yourself how you saving on your grocery bills and cutting back on your use of water and electricity helps to pay off your debt. Work it out on paper if you have to. Convince yourself. Develop a plan and develop new values that will facilitate and support your simple life. When you focus on a simpler life, really understand it in your own head and start the first small steps on your plan, it will come together. And when it does that, you can help it slowly trickle down to the other members of your family.

This is Martha, one of our Rhode Island red chooks. She is abut 10 months old.

Chickens are a chaotic jumble of gentleness, cannibalism, stupidity and raw cunning so it was not surprising that the first pet I bought for my children were chooks. My kids grew up looking after chickens. They fed and watered them, carried them around, collected their eggs, played with them and helped buried them when they died. My sons are two of the most gentle people you’d ever meet. The chooks and I made them like that.

The first thing you need to consider if you want to keep chooks is where you’d keep them. You’ll need a coop or chook dome for them to sleep in, some nesting boxes, a roost – this is where they’ll perch while they sleep and some room for them to roam during the day. It’s much easier to have a cement floor in the coop because you need to be able to collect the manure to use on your garden and to hose out the coop each week. Smelly chickens will have your neighbours complaining and after a few days of rain you’ll be pulling your hair out if you decide against putting down a cement floor. The hen house will need to be surrounded by a tallish fence with a gate that can be closed every night and whenever you need the hens out of the way, like when you mow the lawn. Many areas of Australia are infested with foxes and wild dogs or dingoes. If you buy some chickens you must care for them well and make sure they’ll be safe, even if you’re not a home.

Chook house designs here, here, here, here and here.

You’ll need shredded paper or straw for the nests, a feeder and a water container – we use a bucket. You could scatter the hen’s food each day and have them forage for it. Unlike other animals, hens don’t over eat so it’s much easier (for you) to have a feeder that you can fill up that will feed them for a week or so. A large plastic chicken feeder will cost about $35 but are a good investment.

Where I live, each chicken will lay about 300 eggs per year, or one every 25 hours. They lay best during warmer weather but will stop laying when they lose their feathers or if they are stressed. Work out how many hens you’ll need to supply your family with eggs. We have seven hens now and for a family of two we have plenty of eggs for us and enough to sell, give away or barter. Each hen will lay about four to five eggs a week so if your family eat an egg each a day you’ll need one and a bit hens per family member. So, for example, if you have four people in your family, you’ll need five or six hens and from them you’ll get around between 25 to 30 eggs per week.

Before you buy your first chickens, ring your local council and find out what the regulations are for raising chickens in your backyard. For instance, my local council has banned roosters and the hen house must be a certain distance from neighbourhood fences, there are also restriction on the number of chooks we keep, but apart from that anything goes. Find out what your local council requirements are and be guided by them.

Another decision you need to make before you buy is to decide if you want to keep hens for eggs or if you also want to raise your chickens for meat. Some hens are bred to maximize their egg laying potential, others are bred to have big breasts and legs so that they are best for meat chickens. Or you can do what ordinary folk have done for hundreds of years and kill the male birds for meat and keep the girls for eggs.

This is Cocobelle, my favourite chook. She is about two years old.

There are many different types of chickens but you should buy the type you find visually pleasing and those that will suit your purpose for size, eggs or meat. For example, I keep Rhode Island Reds and Australorps but in the past we’ve also had Pekins and Light Sussex. Light Sussex are a dual purpose bird as they are good layers, good broody hens and mothers and have a good body size for meat. If you have small children, maybe you’d like to keep silkies. They are gentle and don’t mind being handled but they don’t produce a lot of eggs, so there is a downside to them. They also have black meat which might put some people off. If you’re in a city, and don’t have much space, you might consider bantams. Three would give you enough eggs for a couple or small family.

Information about different chicken types here.

You can buy day old chicks, young chickens or pullets. My recommendation for first timer chicken keepers is to buy pullets. These are chickens that are about 16-20 weeks old and will be ready to lay eggs in the next couple of weeks. Buying pullets gives you a couple of weeks to get used to looking after them and then you will have the eggs to reward you. Try to buy from a local hatchery or a local breeder. This will give valued support to your local community, it will be easier for you to travel there and back with chickens in the car and there will be less stress on the birds. They will also be acclimatized to your local area.

CHOOK FEED
Make sure your hen house is ready before they arrive, complete with food and fresh water. Chickens need four vital things to keep them healthy and laying:

Grains – mixed wholegrain, not just sunflower seeds, corn or wheat. They will eat all those grains and seeds but it’s much better for them, and for you as you’ll be eating their eggs, that they have a healthy mix of grains.
Fresh green food like spinach, silverbeet, cabbage leaves, lettuce, grass and weeds that you’ve pulled from the garden. They will also eat tomatoes, apples, pears and anumber of other fruits.
Protein – chickens need a high protein diet to enable them to produce eggs. If your girls are free ranging, their diet will be supplemented with bugs, grasshoppers and caterpillars. This is good for the chickens and the garden. If your chickens are in a pen all day they will need high protein food in the form of laying pellets or laying mash. You can also give them meat, chicken or fish scraps from the kitchen or a little bread soaked in milk as a treat.
Water – this is vital to the life of your chickens. A chook can die within a short amount of time if it doesn’t have water. If you’re free ranging your chooks, have a couple of water containers that they can see. If they gather in the afternoon for a rest under a shade tree, put some water there and another under a tree near where they scratch around. There should always be a container should be in their coop. All the water containers must be clean with fresh water every day. Scrub out the containers every week to make sure you have no contaminants in the water.

Remember that everything you give your hens will go into producing eggs that you and your family will eat. If you give them fresh, clean water and healthy food you will be rewarded with beautiful golden eggs. You will have healthy birds that will give you few problems. If you don’t intend to look after them like you would your dog or cat, don’t buy chickens as they deserve to be treated like loved pets and, unlike cats and dogs, for their ability to produce fresh food for you and your family.

Your chickens will need a high protein diet if they are to regularly lay eggs for you. You could feed them exclusively on laying pellets or mash which you can buy from the local produce store. A more natural alternative is to give them a mixture of whole grains, amaranth, kitchen scraps and a few handfuls of laying pellets or mash. Chickens will also eat grass and will get a large amount of their nutrition from it if left to free range all day. Grass eating chickens will have a higher level of Omega-3 in their eggs than chickens who don’t eat grass. You should remember that chickens are omnivores, which means they need to eat bugs, and animal protein as well as grains and grass. Chickens are creatures of habit so start out the way you will continue to feed them, as once they are used to one thing it’s sometimes difficult to make them change their food preference.

Chickens also need shell grit which you can get from the local produce store. It will help prevent calcium deficiency. You can supplement the grit with finely crushed egg shells. To do this, wash the egg shells and allow them to dry completely. Then finely crush the shells with a rolling pin or pulse a couple of times in the food processor. The aim here is to provide a variety of grit sizes for the chickens. They will choose which size they need. A small bag of shell grit lasts a long time so don’t buy a huge amount.

We let our chickens out of their house every morning about 9am, after they're laid their eggs, and they forage around the backyard eating bugs and grass. We give them most of our food scraps. They love meat and fish, old bread, eggs, crushed up egg shells, most vegetables and fruit, rice, oats, wheat and most seeds and grains. To be honest, they are will eat almost anything.

CARING FOR YOUR LADIES

The number one consideration in keeping chickens in your backyard is to keep them safe from predators. Check out what predators live in your neighbourhood. If you’re in a suburban area it may be dogs, cats and hawks. If you’re in the country or on the edge of a township you may have foxes, wild dogs and cats, owls, hawks etc. Here at my home we have huge pythons, foxes, feral cats and dogs and dingoes, but we have never lost a chicken to a predator. The hen house we constructed is not fancy – it’s made of recycled materials with a cement floor, but it’s strong and lockable and my girls feel safe in there. We have two large dogs, Airedale Terriers and although one of them rounds up the chickens they have never chased or hurt them. Chickens are sensitive to stress. They have been known to drop dead during thunderstorms or die a couple of days after being chased by dogs. We have wild thunderstorms here during summer and I’ve never lost any hens during one but I have had hens stop laying for weeks after they’ve been scared by visiting dogs or children.

Be aware that predators come from the sky too, they are not just lurking around corners. If you have dogs, hawks won’t be so much of a problem. Chickens have a natural tendency to sit under trees and bushes so they will be protected from sight much of the time if they free range in your backyard. After a while you’ll get used to their clucking and just like a baby you’ll learn by their various noises if something is wrong. If they are scared, they’ll let you know.
Always make sure you lock them in their hen house at night. That’s the time animals like foxes, cats and nocturnal predators will be creeping about. If they are safe and secure in their house, even if you have a silent fox in your backyard, they’ll be out of harm’s way.

Try to spend time with your chickens, especially when you first get them, so they accept you as part of their flock. You’ll need to be able to pick up your chickens and check them out occasionally and they will let you do this if you spend time with them and they know you are a friendly human.

Give them treats sometimes. I’ve made it my rule that whenever we take eggs from the nest the girls get a handful of seeds. They love seeds and grain, so a handful for the eggs makes them happy and makes the yolks in the eggs a rich yellow colour.

EGGS
When you collect the eggs each day they should be clean and well formed. When your feathered ladies first start laying they may lay a few without yolks or a couple of double yolkers. The eggs will be small and light when they first start laying. When they settle into laying, the eggs will develop a good weight, the shells will be smooth and strong and the shell colour will be consistent.

Collected eggs should be stored in the refrigerator. If you provide a clean nest the eggs should also be clean when you collect them but sometimes they might be soiled or dirty. If you find an egg like this don’t wash it. Eggs have a protective membrane on the shell that protects the contents from becoming contaminated. Take the dirty egg inside and wipe it with dry kitchen paper. If you must wash it to remove the dirt, dry it with paper and use that egg next time you need an egg.

Chickens are one of the few creatures you can easily keep in your suburban backyard that produce food. So if you’ve been thinking about getting your first chooks, my advice is to jump into it. You won’t be disappointed.

These are the heirloom purple eggplants we grew earlier this year.

One of the main principles of organic gardening is to build healthy soil that enable plants to grow and bear fruit. If you build up your soil and keep increasing the amount of organic matter you add to it each year, it will reward you with a bountiful harvest year after year.

You don’t really need to know what type of soil you have because it will all benefit from having compost added to it. If you have sandy soil, the solution is to add compost and as much organic matter to increase the water holding capabilities and structure of the soil. If your soil is clay, the solution is to add compost to help break up the thick glug that doesn’t allow adequate aeration of plant roots. Actually, clay soil is full of nutrients, it’s just that it’s trapped in a structure that is so sticky that it can’t be accessed by plants. If you’re blessed with good loamy soil, you guessed it, it will be greatly improved by adding organic matter.

Organic matter is basically anything that was once alive. There is one exception to this rule though, don’t add meat or anything that will attract rodents or other wandering wildlife. The usual things that are added to soil to build it up are:

grass clippings
newspaper
shredded computer paper
cardboard
fruit and vegetable peelings
crushed egg shells
straw and hay

Other not so usual things, but still valuable additions are:

hair
the contents of your vacuum cleaner - check to make sure there's no plastic
tea bags, loose tea leaves, coffee grounds and coffee filters
saw dust and untreated wood shavings
wool and cotton clothing
seaweed
poultry manure and manure from non-meat eating animals. It’s a good idea to avoid using manure from meat eating animals as it contains dangerous pathogens.

Theoretically you could bury all the above onto your garden bed and it would eventually rot down. A far better way it to make compost – nature’s fertiliser. Forget commercial fertiliser, compost is natural fertiliser that you make yourself.

Composting takes place when plant matter, cuttings, paper, peels, lawn clippings and whatever else you use is broken down by worms, bugs, good bacteria and fungi. All these little creatures process your waste materials and mix it all together so that what was once a pile of lawn clippings, cabbage leaves and apple cores turns into dark brown, sweet smelling compost that will make your plants grow like the dickens. The smart side benefit of this, apart from all the goodness in your garden, is that you’ll be cutting down on what you put in your rubbish bin that would have once gone to the ever-growing pile of landfill.

The principle of composting is to add things that are mainly dry and carbon-based like paper, straw etc, to things that are wet and nitrogen based like vegetable peelings and lawn clippings etc. You mix all this together with some manure, give it moisture and air, by mixing it with a fork, and voila! Compost.

One day's harvest from earlier this year. Tomatoes, Asian eggplant, purple eggplant, lemons, eggs and cucumber.

You can make compost on the open ground or in a container. A compost bin uses the same materials as an open pile and has the advantage of being smaller and out of sight.

Spring is the best time to start a compost pile. You’ll have plenty of grass clippings and other material then. Start collecting newspaper and cardboard now. In the past, newspaper and computer print was toxic. Now, most print is okay to use except for coloured print and photos. So never use coloured segments from newspapers and don’t use magazines.

The more you fiddle around with your compost pile by turning it over and keeping it moist, the quicker your compost will mature. Try to get into the habit of turning it once a fortnight. If you just heap it up and leave it there, it will eventually turn into compost, but it will take a very long time. So be proactive and help the pile along, it will reward you.

HOW TO MAKE COMPOST
Choose a site that is fairly close to your kitchen door and also close to your proposed garden. If it is next to the garden or in it, that’s ideal. The site should be well drained and level. If you can support three sides of the compost pile so much the better. You can use hay bales, bricks, wire or untreated wood to support the compost.

Lay a base of straw or shredded paper about 15cms (six inches) high over an area of around 1 metre (3 feet) square. You are aiming for maximum internal area with a minimum external area so try to keep the sides rising up as vertically as possible. Add a layer of manure and kitchen scraps or any of your saved green waste. Don’t add anything that clumps up. Try to fluff up everything that you add to allow maximum aeration of the pile. This helps with decomposition. Depending on what you have to add to the pile, you want to add layers of alternating green or wet waste like kitchen scraps and lawn clippings, to brown or dry waste like straw and newspaper etc. Every so often you need a layer of manure, dried poultry manure pellets or comfrey to activate the pile and keep it decomposing.

Keep your hose close by so you can moisten each layer. Ideally you’ll build a pile that’s a metre tall, but you probably won’t have enough material to complete your pile unless you’ve been out collecting like mad. When you run out of material, water the pile so that it’s moist by not soggy. Never let the pile dry out because that will slow down the rate of decomposition.

Now you have the beginnings of your compost. Stand back and marvel at this pile of pure gold. Over the following days, save everything you can to add to your pile. Decluttering? Add old, ratty pure wool jackets and pants or anything cotton to the pile. Cut them into little pieces first. Any old books? Rip up the non-coloured pages and add them to your mix. All your kitchen waste, old letters, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, whatever you can lay your hands on. The list is endless. Just remember when you’ve added a layer of dry, add a layer of wet and an activator such as comfrey or manure. In no time you’ll have your compost ready to go. Don’t forget to turn it to help it along.

You’ll notice that the compost pile will keep getting smaller as it decomposes. This is a good sign as it means all the bugs and bacteria are doing their best to turn your rubbish into compost. Keep adding your layers, keep collecting and keep turning. If you have a long period of rain, cover your compost with a tarp or piece of plastic.

I can’t tell you a definitive time that it will take to make compost as it depends so much on weather conditions, how much you turn it and what’s in the pile. However, a good pile that’s looked after in warmish weather should be ready to use in 6 – 8 weeks.

LOL, I didn't expect so many would want this recipe. I'll give it to you next week. Just joking. ; ) Here it is. Be warned, it's a calorie bomb, but it tastes good.

SHORTCRUST PASTRY
2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
¼ cup icing sugar
150 grams (5.2oz) cold butter
1 egg yolk - keep the white for the meringue top
cold water - between 2 to 4 tablespoons - the amount you use will depend on your flour and the amount of humidity in the air.

Place flour, icing sugar and butter in your food processor and mix until the butter has been incorporated into the flour. Add the egg yolk and mix in for 3 seconds. With the processor going, pour cold water into the shute. Start with 2 tablespoons straight in, and then drizzle in a little more if needed. You don't want to over process. As soon as the pastry comes away from the sides and forms a ball, it's ready. Take it out, put it in a bowl with a damp cloth over the top and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. This allows it to relax. If you used it straight away your pastry would be tough and it would shrink while cooking.

After 15 minutes, take the dough out of the fridge, and on a lightly floured bench, flatten it out so you can roll it with a lightly floured rolling pin. Try to roll it into a circle. Roll it, turn it a quarter circle, roll, turn a quarter circle, roll, turn until you have it the thickness needed for pastry. The pastry is deleicate at the point so be careful. Get your rolling pin and gently place it at the side of the dough. Now roll the pastry around the pin so it's wrapped around your rolling pin. Place the pastry gently over your greased tin and roll it out over the tin. shape the pastry into the tin, making sure it's neat and into all corners. Cut the top off so it fits the tin perfectly. Keep the pastry off cuts as you can make a few biscuits/cookies from it.

Put the uncooked pastry in the freezer for 10 minutes before you cook it. This is important.

With a fork, prick the bottom of the flan a lot. This allows the pie shell to cook without rising. If you have some dried beans you could also place a piece of bake paper over the base and add the beans - the weight of the beans would stop the pastry from rising. I just prink the bottom and check that it's not rising while it's cooking. If it rises a bit, prick it some more and flatten it with your fork.

A lot of people are scared of making pastry, don't be. It's a simple process if you remember to use cold butter and water and keep it as cool as possible during the making. Pastry doesn't work if it's too hot or you use warm ingredients. Placing it in the fridge and freezer also helps a lot.

Cook on 180C until it's light brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool slightly (or a lot if you have time).

FILLING
350 grams cream cheese

1 can condensed milk or make your own from the recipe here. I made my own.

½ cup fresh lemon juice

Mix this all in your processor until it's smooth. The lemon juice helps it to set. Taste it before adding it to the pie base. You might need to add more juice. You could also add one passionfruit at this stage if you wanted to. When the filling is to your liking, put it in the pie base and smooth it out.

TOPPING
Whisk two egg whites with two tablespoons of sugar and a slurp of white vinegar until they're stiff and form peaks. Add that to the top of your pie and run your fork through it to form peaks.

Cook in 180C oven until the top is golden.

Please note that the other egg yolk may be frozen in a small plastic bag. Eggs freeze quite well. You just need to seperate the yolks from the whites.

I love being able to eat the food we grow in our own backyard. It's hard work sometimes, and we do have occasional failures, but generally things go according to plan and the hard work pays off in fresh organic food. Above is the last of the most recent crop of kipflers potatoes. Last night I turned some of them into a potato salad that we had with a spinach pie. The pie was made with half English spinach and half silverbeet, Welsh onions, garlic, and eggs, all from our back yard and picked just before I cooked dinner. The cheese in the pie was a local cow's milk feta and some imported Parmesan. The potato salad was made with our backyard radishes and green onions with homemade mayonnaise. A thoroughly satisfying meal, on all levels.

I have a full day today with gardening, sewing, cleaning and writing. I'll knit while I'm resting. I've just made bread and it's on the first rise now, soon I'll make the bed and clean our bathroom.

A native frangipani growing on the edge of the rainforest along the back boundary of our land. Those grey sticks are part of a trellis on which we grow passionfruit.

I've changed to my summer routine this week as all of a sudden it's quite warm. Yesterday it was 34C (93F) and although the next few days will be slightly cooler, I'll work to my summer routine from now until autumn. After an hour or so on the computer this morning, I put the washing on, and went out to the garden. The smoky darkness was just being broken by light and there was a strong scent of native frangipani in the air. I could hear the whip birds in the rainforest and somewhere in the distance, my favourite sacred kingfisher was screeching. Wild ducks flew overhead with their gentle whistling to each other and in the distance I could see a flock of birds flying towards me. It turned out to be 16 black cockatoos squawking as they flew. They settled in the rainforest at the edge of our land and set to strip one of the trees. I'm pleased there is still some native food for them to eat. I've never seen such a big flock of black cockies. They usually fly around in twos or threes here. I wonder if it's a good sign to see so many.

Our land ends at the creek edge, which is about 20 metres past this point. We put a fence up here to keep the dogs and chooks in but the chooks often squeeze themselves through and forage down at the creek edge.

I watered the garden, then stood staring at the beds working out where to transplant the onions. The pigeon peas are ready to be harvested. When I do that a bit later in the day, I'll cut the bushes back and use the cuttings as mulch on the potatoes. I have some tomatoes to plant and I'll pick something later for tonight's dinner. Hmmmm, maybe we'll have the rest of the potato salad with some fresh coleslaw, beetroot, green salad and boiled eggs. I defrosted 1.25 litres of lemon juice yesterday to make cordial so I might use some of the juice to make a lemon meringue pie. We'll see how we go on that one as I might not have the time. Maybe my love of lemon pie might make me work faster so I have the time to make it. Motivation is a wondrous creature. ; )

Renee asked in the comments how much land we have. Renee, like you, we have one acre. Our house is right in the middle of the property, we have neighbours on both sides, a creek at the back and a one lane road at the front. There are just pine trees across the road hiding an old timber mill.

Our vegetable garden is fairly small but enough for our needs. Our garden beds are about 2 x 6 metres (6.5'x19.5') and the overall garden is 12.5 metres x 8 metres (41' x 26'). The chook yard is next to the garden and is about the same size. I took the following photo so you can see the garden where is stands near the house.

Our vegetable garden is behind this picket fence, although the first bit of fence is just our small back yard. We've fenced it off like this to keep the dogs out or in, depending on what's happening.

Where I'm standing taking the photo above is where we grow bananas, passionfruit, grapefruit, oranges, loquats and grapes. We have that big expanse of grass which I do not like but Hanno doesn't want to plant anything there because it makes it too difficult to mow. We only have a hand mower, not a ride on.

Out the front we have mainly ornamental plants including this wisteria and 15 foot high white rose, but we also have two avocado tree out there that will bear their first fruit this year. Fingers crossed. ; )

This post is by guest writer, Bel. Bel's blog is here.

NB: a nappy is also known as a diaper

I have six children. If I hadn’t used cloth nappies, our family could have put thousands of little bundles of paper, plastic, wee and poo into landfill. And we’d have paid around $20000 for the privilege. Yuck! Just thinking about that makes me guilty for the disposables we did use.

We used some disposable nappies – regular ones and then eco-brands once they became readily available – especially for overnight (when I couldn’t find a cloth nappy and cover to suit heavy wetting), travel, and when it just rained and rained and rained, which interfered with my washing. But mostly we used re-usable cloth ones – terry flats and cheap, basic flannelette fitted nappies with my firstborn, full systems of fancy fitted all-in-one modern cloth nappies (MCNs) for my next two (with the firstborn’s hand-me-downs as backup), and a mixture of what I had and what I could get for the following three children. I still have two children wearing night-time pull-up nappy pants most nights. One is five and one is three. I’ve made some of these pants, and bought another two pairs for around $20 each. That’s a bargain compared to the disposable option for preschoolers @ $1+ per pair.

The nappy pants I made for my toddlers for bedtime.

Choosing cloth nappies for your baby or toddler (it’s never too late to switch) can be an overwhelming task with the variety available now. There’s bamboo, hemp, soy, organic cotton and various other fabrics. Styles include all-in-ones, pockets, pre-folds, basic fitteds and more. If you’re unsure and have time to research, perhaps you could visit one of the nappy forums online to read what other parents are saying, and ask questions.

ozclothnappies.org
modernclothnappies.org
nappycino.com
nappiesaustralia.com.au
thenappynetwork.org.nz
diaperdecisions.com
(from Kindred #23, p18)

Try a nappy or two before committing to a full set. Consider fabric type, colour, style, washing and drying requirements, price, quality of the nappy, environmental impact of the product, ease-of-use, health (is the fabric used something you want next to your baby’s skin around the clock?), and sizing (will it fit your baby for long, or do you need a set in several sizes?).

Modern cloth nappies are a joy to use. They’re easy to put on, soft and cuddly and come in all the colours of the rainbow. Washing them is no big deal. It’s just like washing towels, sheets or clothes. The washing has to be done and it works in with your daily routine so that you have nappies clean and dry and ready for baby to use. The only thing I found is that when I had my first sets of fitted real nappies, they couldn’t go in the dryer and they were very thick with multiple layers of flannelette. In our North Queensland wet seasons I found it difficult to get them dry because it rained for weeks on end. I later purchased nappies which could go in the dryer, and learned to revert back to the good old terry squares with a nice, snuggly cover for those very wet weeks.

Covers aren’t required for most all-in-one nappies. Covers themselves come in a wide variety of styles and fabric types and colours. These are part of your nappy system. There are also liners and boosters for within the nappy – to make changing easier, for baby’s comfort and also to increase the absorbency of the nappy for outings and night use especially. Another nappying requirement is wipes. There are regular wipes from the supermarket, eco-varieties of the same, or cloth wipes. Cloth wipes are often flannel squares with an overlocked or hemmed edge. Or bought face washers! They’re useful again and again and no problem to wash with the nappies. Lastly, you might need a wet bag to carry used nappies home from outings. This is simply a water-proof bag, usually drawstring, which is handy when you’re a no-plastic-bags household!

If you or someone you know can sew nappies, covers, liners, boosters, wipes and wetbags – you will save yourself a fortune! There are free printable patterns online for all of these items, or by looking at those available for purchase, you can make them up yourself. See Ottobre Designs Magazine Printables and scroll through the projects to see one example of a fitted nappy pattern and a pattern for a ‘wool diaper cover’. When searching online for patterns, include the U.S. term ‘diaper’ in your search. Patterns for these items are also available for purchase.

To purchase nappies and accessories, you can go to your local department store, baby boutique, some health shops or look online. There are online stores for large businesses and a variety of options to buy from cottage industries as well. Using the forum links above, you should be able to find an online supplier to suit your nappy preference and budget.

If you’re not ready to use cloth or prefer to use both real and disposable nappies, please consider the type of nappies you purchase. There are more earth-friendly disposable options in the supermarket, and even greener nappies such as Safeties, Moltex and Bamboo Nature brands.

And if you’d like to avoid nappies altogether – look up Natural Infant Hygiene or Elimination Communication. This is something we didn’t really know about when our babies were little, but did naturally with our children from the summer that fell around their first birthdays. All of our children were using the potty and/or toilet before their second birthdays, depending on when they began and showed interest.

Best wishes to you in your quest for the perfect nappy system. Enjoy these short years of your children’s lives and I hope you can manage to lessen the impact on the planet and budget using some of the options outlined above.

Apart from a mortgage, rent, child care or car repayments, food is usually the biggest ongoing expense we all have to contend with. We eat food every day so it has the potential to make a huge impact on our budgets. If you can save money on food and groceries, and prevent wastage, it could save you a lot of money over a long period.

Saving money on food is not the only reason that it is an important part of a simple life – home grown and home cooked food is also healthier. Organic vegetables and fruit grown in a backyard and eaten fresh is possibly the best food you can eat. If you paid for food that fresh, it would cost you a lot more than a few seeds, water and some outdoor work. When you harvest that backyard food or buy fresh local fruit and vegetables, and cook it with items in your stockpile, you are cooking frugal, healthy food that will add to your well being and, hopefully, keep you healthy.

Home produced food or buying local food also cuts down significantly on “food miles”, which is the term for the distance your food travels from its source to you. Food that is transported long distances is responsible for the emission of tonnes of greenhouse gases in that delivery process, so cutting food miles will decrease the amount of greenhouse gasses associated with your food.

Stockpiling food adds another dimension to your productive backyard. It will expand your ability to make meals with what you have on hand and will save you time and money by staying out of the supermarket. Of course, you can stockpile without a garden in the backyard. If you find a good supplier of local fruit and vegetables, or have access to a good market, then stockpiling and your fresh produce is a marriage made in heaven. Stockpiling will reduce the amount of money you have to spend on food and save you time. Instead of spending a couple of hours each week at the supermarket, when you stockpile is fully operational, you’ll only have to do a once a month shop, you might even stretch this out to once every two months.

Stockpiling and growing some of your own food also gives you the ability to feed yourself and your family in case of an emergency. If there is a cyclone, damaging storm, a system breakdown or something more sinister, you will have enough food and water to see you through. Fruit and vegetable gardening, keeping chickens for eggs or meat, making do with what is in the pantry and cooking from scratch were all a common household skills in days gone by. Some people now see that style of living as abnormal but the way we waste food, eat processed food and live on credit is the real aberration. It is good to see those old common skills being part of our lives again because it really is a sensible and sustainable way of living.

It is a great thing to become at least partially independent of the supermarket and provide as much food as you can from your own backyard, or from local roadside stalls or farmers’ markets. You can create your own little market at home, which is stocked with your favourite products bought at a reduced price or made yourself. Just imagine, your own little grocery store, open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. And not only that, your grocery store has the lowest prices every day.

If you have the time and space in your own home garden, have a go at growing fruit and vegetables. You will be eating home grown organic produce in no time and keeping a few hens in the backyard will give you the freshest and most tasty eggs available.

When you’re confident with your vegetable gardening, try to grow a bit more than you can eat fresh. You can either preserve the excess with bottling or freezing, or barter it with neighbours. Preserving fruit and vegetables by buying a box of whatever is cheap and in season is another excellent option. Ask at the market for their best price and you might get a full box of good tomatoes for a bargain. You can often get good peaches at the markets – a box for ten dollars, enough to eat fresh and for making a year’s supply of peach jam. Preserving is a great way of providing many special, preservative-free foods at a reasonable price.

Making chilli jam for the stockpile cupboard.

Experiment with different recipes and make sauces and jams that you’ll eat during the year. Homemade tomato and BBQ sauce and relish are delicious and you can make them to exactly suit your taste – less salt, more lemon, a little bit more sugar, whatever. They’ll also healthier and cheaper. If you have a glut of cucumbers, preserve some – pickled cucumbers store well in the fridge for about a month, without processing in a water bath. Teach yourself how to make lemon butter and cordial with your backyard lemons and turn your own oranges into the best marmalade you’ll ever eat. Learn to make ginger beer and replace those soft drinks full of preservatives and colourings. You can make simple cheese and yoghurt at home with no special equipment. You’re only limited by your imagination and the time you have to put into it. It all goesto providing healthy options for your family’s diet and can help you provide interesting, tasty food within a sparse budget. And remember, the more you produce and make yourself, the more independent you become.

CHILLI JAM
6 ripe tomatoes
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 cup ripe chillies - a mixture of mild and hot chilli according to your taste

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place in a thick bottomed pan. Add the vinegar and chilli and bring to the boil. When the mixture is boiling add the sugar. When the sugar has dissolved, turn down the heat and let the mixture simmer until it has reduced to about half. Pour into sterilised jars and seal.

It will keep well in the fridge for two months. If you want to store this for a few months, place in a water bath and process.