down to earth

I've finished work for the week and now I'm free to roam around my space here doing the things that nourish my soul. Before I get on to the rest of my post I want to tell you about what I did on Tuesday.

It was my Training Day.

I booked myself into a day of training that was about the management of volunteers. I wasn't looking forward to it but as I'm the coordinator of 13 volunteers now, and I have had no previous experience working with volunteers, I thought it was a wise thing to do. I actually thought it would be a bit boring and that I probably wouldn't learn a lot. Wrong! I came away from that training day knowing a lot more than I did and with information vital to our organisation. And like all good training, it made me look at myself and how I worked, with a critical eye.

I don't want to pat myself on the back here but I believe I've made a big difference at my Centre. I've changed things for the better, made systems more accountable, expanded programs and increased the number of volunteers significantly. I am praised for my work all the time, constantly told how wonderful things are and stupid me, I fell for it. I believed my own publicity! I actually thought we'd just about reached our goal and that we could sit back and let it all take care of itself. I sound really full of it, don't I.

My training day was also attended by 20 other people from non-profit organisations similar to mine. We talked about the challenges we all face and the differing ways we used to address those challenges, as well as the previously unthought of responses offered by our trainer. It left me surprised, motivated and inspired. I discovered new ways of dealing with problems and I finally understood that sometimes, there is nothing I can do to fix something and that I just have to accept that and move on. That's a tough one for me because I always think I can do something to fix what is broken.

I have been working at my Centre for almost two years but now I feel like I did when I first realised the immense amount of good that comes from that place and how many people are helped. So now I am set for more changes, I will do more, scrap some things (and be okay with that) and fashion our responses to better suit the times and the people we seek to help.

It's all about the perspective, isn't it. When you look at a situation from a different angle, you see it in a different way. Just when you think you know something, it changes and you see more angles, greater divides, more ups and downs. But taking yourself outside your normal framework to look at something familiar, also gives you a greater understanding and shows you more solutions.

That's one of the reasons I think blogging is important to so many of us. It allows us to see what other people are doing and how they deal with the challenges of everyday life. We see things from a different perspective, we see our own situation played out somewhere else in a different way, and when the results of that difference are rewarding and cohesive, it inspires us to try other ways. Sometimes it shows us a different way to make bread, at other times we see new ways of living.

Today I'll be visiting my daughter-in-law to take her a birthday gift - a box of soap making supplies, my recipe and instructions for making soap, and a verbal promise to come and help when she tries it. I'll also be working on Shane's quilt, making a salmon mornay and Brussel sprouts (Hanno's favourite) for dinner, baking bread, organising the laundry and washing the floors. It's good to be here at home again.

Graphic from allposters.com

To follow up on Bel's excellent post yesterday on organising yourself, I thought I'd write today about clutter-free zones. How depressing is it to walk into your home and see old mail, books, keys, toys and magazines all over the place. When all that clutter is near the front or back door it's worse because it is usually added to as the days go by and soon you have a real mess.

It’s important to provide homes or places for all the things that come into your home on a regular basis. Just as you have a home for your preserves, soap and clothes, you also need to provide a suitable place for your mail, newspapers, magazines, mobile phones, backpacks, purses, business cards, keys, flyers, school newsletters and reminders. A lot of these things tend to be dumped near the front door, or in the kitchen, but there is a better way. Give each of these items, plus any others that you have in your life, a practical home. For instance, newspapers might be placed on the coffee table for a day and then in a box for recycling, install a key rack or place a tray for keys near the front door and make sure all keys are left there. Hats, umbrellas, backpacks and purses can be hung on racks near the door everyone uses.

If your phone is not in your bag or being recharged, make sure it is in its own place. The same goes for keys, if they're not on a key rack, make sure you always put them in the same spot when you come home. I put my keys in a small bowl near the front door. I also put my name tag from work there and I know, without fail, when I go back to work or go out, my keys and tag are in that bowl. It is very unsimple (I know that's not a word) to go searching for lost keys, a phone or a purse. Searching for anything lost in your home is a complete waste of time. Establish stations - like bowls, folders and racks - for the various things you travel with and get into the habit of using those places every time you come home.

Mail is another big problem. Set up a files or folders to hold newsletters, flyers, letters from school and all those things you can't deal with when you receive them but are important to read when you have time. Have another folder for bills to be paid and go through the folder every week to make sure you pay your bills on time. We've cut down on this type of bill paying because we have internet banking now but I know many who do have bills sent in the mail and post cheques for payment. When you set up your folders, give them a permanent place so that when you want to look through your folders, they're easily accessible.

Get the children in the habit of leaving their school bags or backpacks near the door they come in, or in their bedroom. It's never too early to start your children on the road to an organised life. Give them their own space for their things - a hook for their backpack, coats and hat, near the front door and encourage them everyday to use that space. It's difficult at first, but they'll get the idea of it, then it will become a habit that will fall into place everyday for them.

It's really frustrating when you need something you can't find. If you work out what you need to have a special space for - be that keys, phones, bags, or whatever - and provide a container, hooks or a rack to hold those things that might be lost, you'll eliminate the frustration and stress of searching, and you'll save time. It's just a little thing but if you're constantly losing what you need, it will be a big change in your life and another small step towards your simple life.

One of the readers here needs a little bit of friendly support and encouragement. Lacy and her husband Josh, at razor family farms, are hoping to adopt a baby. Here is part of a comment she left yesterday: "We've been attending adoption meetings. We're so excited, Rhonda! Originally, I had gone through all the classes by myself (while the husband was in Iraq). Now my husband can go too. We can't wait!" Please send Lacy and Mr Razor your prayers, best wishes, good thoughts or whatever is in your heart to help them through this period. I'm thinking of you both, Lacy.

We had a very quiet day yesterday. Hanno's blood pressure was elevated and he had bad headaches, so he was assigned to the couch with a newspaper and the TV while I did some cooking and knitting. It makes me a bit nervous when he's like this as he had a small stroke a couple of years ago. After that we bought a digital BP monitor so now, when it's necessary, we keep a check on hourly BP recordings and if he has to go to the doctor, we go armed with a record of his blood pressure readings. Yesterday he assured me he didn't need to go to the doctor so we just laid low and did the monitoring.

It was raining on and off most of the day so I really enjoyed fiddling around in the kitchen listening to the rain on the roof. I made a banana and walnut cake with brown bananas from the freezer and followed that with rosella cordial. There is some research being done at our local university that indicates rosellas might help reduce high blood pressure. I'm hoping it does and I'm making enough cordial and tea to last until the next rosella harvest.

I often sprout seeds in the kitchen. Yesterday was the final day of growing for some alfalfa sprouts that we had on salad sandwiches for lunch. Sprouting seeds is the easiest of all growing. You just wash the seeds of your choice and leave them soaking in water for an hour, then completely drain off all the water. I do this in a large glass mason jar with a clean piece of cotton secured around the jar rim with a rubber band. The seeds are washed twice a day and drained completely. About one week later, you have your sprouts - as fresh as they can be.

With Hanno on the couch, I had outside duties yesterday, so I had to keep an eye on the baby chickens as they've just graduated into the chicken coop with the older girls. We've had no problems at all with them, they seem happy in their new home and they're a joy to watch. I took the photo below a couple of days ago when Hanno made them a kinder gym. LOL! Chooks love to climb and they've all had a sit on the gym as well as a walk along to ladder from one end to the other. Chooks! how could you live without them.

Welcome to all the new readers who found their way here recently. I hope this is a good week for everyone. Today is the first of my three days at the Centre. So I had better start getting ready; I swear each week it takes a little bit longer to make myself presentable.

I wanted to continue on yesterday's theme of pinching pennies to talk about a few things we can all do to save money. One of the best ways to save at the grocery store is to work out the unit price of what you are buying. For example, if you want to buy coffee and one pack is 200 grams for $8.98 ($8.98 divided by 200 grams = 0.044 cents a gram) and another pack is 500 grams at $18.33 ($18.33 divided by 500 grams = 0.036 cents a gram), the second pack is cheaper. So even though the second price is more, it's actually cheaper coffee. Or pineapple slices might be $1.86 for one pound (16oz) ($1.86 divided by 16 oz = 11 cents an ounce). Another brand is $3.05 for 1½ pounds (24oz) ($3.05 divided by 24 = 12 cents an ounce), so here the larger one is more expensive so you'd buy the smaller one. Take your calculator with you to the shops when you're working out your unit prices.

Another thing you can do is to make do with what you already have. If you find you're short of one ingredient when you're cooking something, do without it or make do with something you already have. The housewives of the depression years and those during the world wars developed a fine tradition of making do. Many of them continued on long after they needed to because it saved them money and resources, and it was the sensible thing to do. Learn to mend clothes, so you don't have to throw good clothes away just because they have a rip in them. Sew on buttons, mend zips, stitch hems. Unravel an old jumper and knit something else with it. Good yarn will always look nice, even on it's second life.

Try to give up meat, or eat less of it. Meat costs a lot to buy and it also takes a huge amount of water, space and resources to produce meat for the table. There are many delicious recipes to be cooked that have no meat. If you cut out meat, keep chickens and grow vegetables and fruit in your backyard, you'll be well on your way to reducing your food bill considerably.

Use less of everything. Smaller servings, less dressing on salad, less toothpaste on your toothbrush, less sauce on spaghetti, less butter on bread, fewer peaches in the cobbler etc. Reduce your amounts a little bit, no one will notice but it will add up.

Generics - buy them. When I was a spender, I wouldn't even look at generic brands. Now I buy them all the time and have been amazed that they're the same as the advertised brands. They're cheaper because you're not paying for advertising. There is one word of caution here though. I always check that my generic is made in Australia. Make sure what you buy is from your own country. This is important for the economy of your country and it cuts down on your food miles. If you keep buying cheap food from another country, there will come a time when that is all there will be to buy. And we all know what happens when there is no competition - the prices go up.

These are a few of the things I do to save money. They are all small steps that add up to a big difference. If you have something a bit unusual that works for you, something we might not have heard of, please share it with us so we all might benefit.

It’s getting a bit scary with prices rises lately. It’s not just the price of fuel, which increases almost every week, it’s also grocery, meat, fish, fruit and vegetable prices. It seems everything is affected by the price of fuel; when that goes up, everything else follows. I thought by now more people would have realised that simple living could address many of the problems associated with these soaring prices, but it seems the blinkers are still on and credit card debt continues to rise. There are a lot of people being evicted from their homes because they can’t pay the mortgage, or from flats because they can’t afford the sharply increased rent. It’s pretty grim.

If you are still trapped in the have-now-pay-later mentality, think about your situation for a while. Petrol prices will continue to increase, so will food, clothing, appliances and everything made or delivered using fuel. If you are struggling now, it’s not going to get better if you don’t change.

It’s time to take stock of what we can do to help us through these tough times and to move to a gentler way of living. I’m pleased to report many of the things you’ll do in your simple life are environmentally friendly and cost less. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Less get on with it then. Let’s compare what you will pay for cleaning products if you are shopping at our largest grocery chain this week – Woolworths. I went online and checked these prices this morning. Let’s say we’re buying the general products used for cleaning in the home: laundry detergent, spray and wipe, floor cleaner, bathroom scrubber cream, dishwasher (machine) detergent, in sink dishwashing detergent, oxygen bleach, liquid bleach and toilet cleaner. Buying all that would cost you $51.91, most of it is environmentally unsound and you’ll have a lot of packaging and waste products to deal with, adding to the environmental expense. You do NOT need a different product for each cleaning job. That is a lie told to us so often by advertisers that we came to believe it. You can clean everything in your home using these five products: borax - $3.44, washing soda $3.22, laundry soap - $1.49, 2 litres white vinegar - $1.21, 5kgs bicarb soda - $6.95. They will cost you $16.31 (today’s prices) and they’ll last you a lot longer than a week or two. Cut up worn out towels for cleaning cloths.

Just on those cleaning products alone, you’ll save yourself $35.60, you’ll save your local streams from the harsh chemicals, you’ll save your rubbish tip from all that plastic waste, you’ll save time shopping less and you’ll add to your life skills by being about to make your own cleansers.

As well as changing what is bought, you could also start stockpiling so that you buy most of your needs on sale, then shop from your cupboard each week. I have written about stockpiling here and here.

There are many other things to be done in ordinary homes as well as saving on grocery prices. Get rid of pay TV, mobile (cell) phones and use public transport instead of driving everywhere. Mend your clothes, learn to sew and make a few simple things, knit. Grow vegetables and fruit, keep chickens, learn to cook from scratch – all these things will save you money. I know everyone can’t do everything suggested here, but everyone can do some of them.

Involve your children in your changes. Today’s children are much more aware than they’re given credit for. Ask one child to monitor your electricity meter and to devise a scheme where you can save electricity – turning off lights not being used, turning off appliances at the wall, buying compact fluro globes etc. Ask another child to monitor your water meter and to come us with a water saving policy for the family – using grey water on the garden, four minute showers, less toilet flushing and do a trial on how to save water on washing up. Is you dishwasher or washing by hand best in your home? There are many ways to get the children involved. Reward them with a family outing when you start seeing the results of their changes, and praise them for their thoughtfulness and their help.

I could go on and on about this but this post is getting too long already, so I'll stop. But I do want to state clearly, you are not helpless in these difficult times. There are things you can do to save money, get rid of debt and regain your independence from large retailers. The choice is yours. If you do decide to change and work towards a simpler life, once one domino falls, they will continue to fall and a new life will open up for you. The first step is yours for the taking.

I will continue on this theme tomorrow.

There is a secret gauge by which cooks measure other cooks - that gauge is how well dough is made. If you can make good bread, pasta, noodles, muffins, scones, tortillas or biscuits, you usually make other things well too. The secret to making a good dough is to use a good recipe and to feel the dough with your fingers. Most doughs require fingers in the mix but if you've only made dough in a bread machine in the past, I encourage you to feel the dough as you go. After a while you'll get to know the exact texture and whether the dough needs more water or more flour. If you go by eye alone, you won't get know "the feel" and you won't get a consistently good result. Please feel the dough. Become involved with the food you eat, feel it, know where it comes from, and make it exactly how you like it.

PASTA TUTORIAL

Wash your hands thoroughly.

PASTA RECIPE for 4 - 6 people

500 grams (1lb) plain (all purpose) flour

4 medium eggs - taken from the fridge two hours before use

salt

Make sure your working surface is clean and dry.
Tip the flour and salt onto your bench. This is where you'll mix your pasta. You could also use a bowl for mixing, and if you're a little bit uncoordinated, that would be better for you. Eggs might escape.
Make a well in the middle of the flour, making sure the walls of the well are high enough to contain the eggs. Break the eggs into the well.

Using your index finger, break the egg yolks, then swirl your finger around the eggs, slowly incorporating the flour into the eggs. Keep mixing the eggs and the flour together, making sure none of the eggs escape out of the well.
Mix until you have a firm ball of dough. The dough should be not too sticky and not too dry. If the dough is too dry, add half an egg shell of water to the mix. If it's too sticky, add more flour.

Place the dough on a clean plate and cover it with a slightly moist clean tea towel and leave for 30 minutes.
While you're waiting for the dough to settle, make your filling or sauce.
I made ravioli yesterday - with a spinach and ricotta filling.

RAVIOLI FILLING RECIPE

1 kg spinach or silverbeet (chard)

1 onion, finely chopped

garlic

olive oil

3 eggs

250g ricotta cheese

fresh oregano and thyme

salt and pepper

breadcrumbs or polenta on standby, just in case

Gently fry the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
Chop the spinach and cook it in with the onion for a few minutes.
Put all ingredients, except the breadcrumbs/polenta, into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Cool the filling.

Feel the filling. If it's too wet and sticky, add a small amount of breadcrumbs or polenta. I added about ¼ cup of polenta so I had a firm mix. When I put it on top of the pasta, it stood up without flopping or running.

Set up your pasta machine. Now go back to your pasta and sprinkle the dough ball with a little flour. Cut the ball in two, flatten it out and run it through the pasta machine on its widest setting about ten times. If the kids are around, they can help you by turning the handle while you feed the dough into the machine.
I used only half the dough I made, and froze the rest for use later.
Putting it through the machine ten times will work the dough and make it smooth. You can see in the photo below that the dough is kind of lumpy. This is the second run through the machine.
If you don't have a pasta machine, knead the dough for a few minutes to get that smoothness, then cut the dough in two and start rolling it out with your rolling pin. You need to keep rolling until you have a very thin dough.

You'll end up with a very long thin piece of dough. Cut it in two in equal portions.

Take dessertspoon portions of the filling and place them along the pasta dough, giving yourself enough space in between to cut the dough with an edge between each ravioli.

Put the other piece of pasta dough over the top of the filling.

Now get some sort of cutter - a cookie cutter, or scone cutter and cut out the ravioli.

Lightly sprinkle some flower onto a clean plate and place the ravioli on top. They will stick to the plate if there is no flour on it. Don't pile them on top of each other. At this stage they're fragile and have to be handled with care. You might need two plates. If you intend making up all the dough, sprinkle flour onto your bench and place them on the bench until they're cooked or frozen.
To cook the ravioli, boil water in a large saucepan and place the ravioli in. Continue a gentle boil. They will come to the surface after a couple of minutes, then cook for another five minutes.
Pour into a strainer to drain off all the water.
Serve with a little butter and a good sprinkle of fresh, finely grated parmesan.

If you make up all the pasta into raviolis, it will keep in the fridge for one day if you don't cook them all straight away. The ravioli may also be frozen: place the raviolis onto a lightly floured board or cookie sheet and place it in the freezer. When they're all frozen, take them off the board/sheet and store in a sealed plastic bag or container.

The pasta recipe above is enough for the amounts given for the ravioli filling. Just to clarify, you cut the dough ball in two - I used half and have the other half in the freezer to be used later this week. When you work the dough, you halve it again, but this time the two halves are used - one as the base of the ravioli and one for the top. I hope that makes sense.

You could also use this pasta recipe to make fettucini.

If you want to be more frugal with this recipe, use two eggs and enough water to form a firm dough. You could also make this pasta with no eggs, using only tap water or mineral water.

Pasta is a good wholesome meal that can be modified many ways. If you're learning to cook, pasta would be a great early addition to your cooking skills. If you've only ever eaten dry pasta, try this recipe, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Work is finished at the neighbourhood centre for the week and today will be my first day here doing my normal routine in what seems like ages. Hanno has done all the washing, hanging out and folding, without being asked :- ), so all I have to do with the laundry now is to put it away and iron. Ugh, all that ironing. I'm going to tackle it in 30 minute blocks. I know I won't get it all done but I'm going to pretend that is my goal.

There are a couple of bathrooms that need cleaning, I'll change the linen on our bed and I have some plants to go in. We have almost finished the vegetable garden now, there are just peas and beans to plant up, along with a few sugarloaf cabbages. I also have some small daisies to go in. I always plant flowers in the vegetable garden as they attract the bees, so we get good pollination, and they look beautiful. Beauty is always the best excuse for doing something.

Two buckets of rosellas were picked yesterday and I'll make tea and cordial with them today. There are still quite a few bushes to pick so they'll be made into jam that should be enough for us throughout the year.

I have more bad news about the chooks. Little Lotte was taken by a snake last Saturday night. The night after the party, Lotte went to bed, tucked up in a closed hen house with the rest of the girls, and the next morning there was no sign of her. She was Hanno's favourite, so he was upset and angry that she was taken. The only sign that something had happened was a small amount of blood, but no other signs - no feathers left behind and we heard no noise. Hanno spent the next day covering all the coop openings with small gauge wire so no snakes can enter. We think it climbed a tree right next to the coop and came in just under the roof. It's probably a young python, there are a lot of them around here; the same one that killed the other silver Hamburg, Stella Gladys, two weeks ago. Stella Gladys was bigger than Lotte and couldn't be swallowed whole, so she was left, dead, with a stretched neck and wet down to her waist. It's pretty gruesome. We've delayed putting the other babies into the coop at night and they're still sleeping in a large box covered with a blanket to keep them warm at night.

My sister Kathleen, who commented yesterday for the first time, gave me a pasta maker for my birthday. I'll be using it today to make some lasagna sheets that I'll make into ravioli. I'll stuff them with spinach and ricotta for our dinner tonight. Thanks Kathleen! There will be photos of that tomorrow and, if I get myself organised today, a tutorial on making pasta.

And another birthday gift is this felt and wool cushion cover, made by Tricia. Isn't it beautiful! As is the tradition of us sisters, we don't always go by patterns but rather what is in our heads. You get the best things using imagination as your guide.

Cleaning mould from walls and fabrics

With all this rain around we've developed a mould problem in our home. Usually we have the front and back doors open and that good ventilation stops most moulds from establishing. However, with the house locked up for the past week, the high humidity and the rain, mould is now growing on the wooden walls near our front door and on the lower parts of cupboards in the kitchen. Most of us will find mould growing in our homes at some point. Either in the bathroom or, in humid climates, on the walls, like we have now. You'll need a safe and effective remedy at some point, so I hope one of these methods works well for you. Mould is not only ugly to look at, it can cause health problems so if you see mould growing, do something about it straight away. The longer you leave the problem, the harder it will be to get rid of it effectively. If you have asthma or any allergies, you should do this type of cleaning with a face mask on so you don't breathe in any spores. Many peopl...

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