down to earth

There is a corner in our backyard that holds a corrugated iron water tank, an outdoor kitchen sink with running water attached, old buckets and lots of bits and pieces. It's a work area where water is stored, vegetable are washed before they go inside, seeds are sown and sit in the sun. It's not a pretty area but it feels good to work there and as Mrs Anna T rightly pointed out in the previous post's comments - beauty often comes from a purpose, or as Anna stated, "I think I finally realized the secret of your garden's loveliness: it's functional!". You hit the nail right on the head there, Anna.

Functionality holds its own beauty.

It concerns me sometimes when I read emails from readers who are desperate to move to a house in the country or when they are saving to buy things to build a simple life. They believe that when they move to their ideal home or when they have that new breadmaker or Kitchen Aide or when they have a certain "look", all things will fall into place and life will be simple and perfect. There is no need to move, no need for extras to be brought in, simplifying can be done right where you are now and it doesnt have to look any different to what it looks like now.

I've written in previous posts that a simple life may be lived anywhere. There is no "right" location, no tools of trade, no must-have colour and no props to let others know you've simplified. A simple life has no particular look and it's different for you than it is for me. One thing is common to all though - there will be areas where work takes place that might not look pretty, but are as much a part of what you need in your simple life as all the beauty you create. A truly simple life is more about the feel than the look of it but over the years, like me, I bet you'll grow to love the look of the functional.

Like many other things in a simple life, you handmake your life, you don't buy it in. You make do with what you have, and instead of adding to what you have, you usually declutter and get rid of things. Simplifying happens within you - it's a change of your own expectations and wants. Once that has taken place, you can start on what surrounds you in your home. You start cutting back to return to what is most basic, and most simple. You reduce the complexity in your life - and that might include debt, too much junk in the house, having too many commitments, trying to keep up with your friends or neighbours or eating out most nights. It could be anything, but it needs to feel right to you. Copying what others have done probably won't work. You need your own unique work of art.

When you simplify, you reclaim your life and live it according to your own needs and desires, not those of anyone else, like your neighbours and friends, or of fashion. You decide what is important to you, you decide what will make you happy, you decide your own boundaries. When that is done, you set about doing it.

Your home might look very similar to those in your street, but you lead a simple life if you're saving water and electricity, cooking from scratch, shopping mindfully, recycling, repairing, mending, sewing, cutting back on the times you use your car, growing some of your own food, and a hundred other things that only require the doing of them. Your life might still look like it always did, but there will be a change, you'll be in control and won't be dependent on anyone's opinion or the mass appeal of what is fashionable in any particular year.

There is power in independence. You live according to your own values, you gain strength by making your own life decisions and living deliberately, you learn to say no - so your time is your own. As you peel back the years it will reveal to you a life that has been tailor made for you and your family, a feeling that your life is the way it should be, there will be no yearning for that illusive "more".

We had a public holiday here yesterday so I took full advantage of the day to finish off a dishcloth for a friend and to do some sewing. I love to spend time in my little sewing room. I'm surrounded by fabrics of all colours, threads and yarn, and tins full of bits and pieces. The world always looks good when viewed from my sewing room. it puts a gentle slant on everything. Hanno was also very productive, although I have to tell you rarely a day goes by when he isn't. Yesterday he was busy in the shed making nesting boxes for the chooks. He's recycling some old cupboards for the job.

I tinkered around the house tidying up and putting things right for the week ahead and when order was restored and the bread was reading for baking, I went to my sewing room. I had two small tasks to complete before I got on to my main task - Shane's quilt, which is my ongoing project.

The little tasks were to make myself a pencil case for work and to fix an old leather wallet. The pencil case became a priority last week when I snapped a pencil in half dropping books into my basket at the end of the working day. I have been struggling with keeping pens, pencils, markers and highlighter together so I always have them at hand - I often need to take them to meetings. Now that I'm getting on in years, I find I have to write everything down or it might be forgotten. I used to have a brilliant memory and could remember pages of text, now I know I will forget if I don't make notes. And I make a lot of notes. LOL! I go through a large notebook in about three weeks. Anyhow, I knew a pencil case would make things easier for me but when I saw what was available in the local shop - plastic junk from China, I decided to make my own.

It's made of scraps I had in my stash - just two pieces of fabric sewn together with a sheet of wadding in between so pencil points didn't poke through.

And here it is, ready to go into service today, along with my notebook, address book and diary. I'm quite happy with it. It only took about 30 minutes to make but I know it will save me more time than that looking for my pens and highlighters.

My other project was to repair an old leather purse/wallet. I bought this wallet about 15 years ago and I put it in a drawer when the lining ripped away from the leather edge. It's a wonder I didn't throw it away, which I often did in those days, but the leather is really soft and it was a favourite, so it survived. As well it should have. I used a strong upholstery thread in my sewing machine and slowly restitched along the lining and then reinforced the edges. It's like new again! It gives me a great deal of pleasure to make and repair things for myself and others.

What I make is better than what I'd buy and it's unique, made exactly how I need it to be. I think my life is made better by recycling and making things last as long as they can. Oh, I still waste a few things but I'm getting better by being mindful of what I'm doing and always being aware of the impact my actions have on my surrounding world.

ADDITION: I'm really happy to tell you that I was selected as one of the winners of Little Jenny Wren's blog anniversary giveaway. Thanks Jenny!

On Tuesday I'll be doing the final session of my Centre's frugal living workshop. I told everyone I'd bring along a few more thrifty recipes for them to try, so I'm asking you all for your help. I'll be taking along the extra recipes I promised them, but I'd like to include more. I want everyone to rack their brains and give me just one recipe. It should be the recipe you think everyone should have, something you use over and over again because it's so great, something that saves you money on a regular basis. It can be any recipe - either for food or a cleaner.

I'll post them all tomorrow so everyone here can share them as well. Thanks everyone!

I'm going to answer some of your questions here because I didn't have a chance to come back here yesterday.

First up, Jennie has shared her silverbeet bread recipe. Thanks Jennie!

Recipe for Silver Beet Bread

2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
55g grated cheese (strong flavoured if possible)
375g flour
80 g silver beet
3 tsp oil
235 ml water

Chop silver beet very finely, add to other ingredients in breadmaker, select white bread cycle. This makes a dense loaf with a delicious nutty flavour.

Diana, this is the pattern I usually use, it's a basket weave pattern, and very simple:
I usually do a basket weave pattern because it's easy to keep track of. Cast on 50 stitches and do two rows of plain knitting. At the beginning of a row start doing 5 plain, then 5 purl and repeat to the end of the row, do five rows of that. Then, to get the basket effect, start your row with 5 purl, then 5 plain, and repeat till the end. Do five rows of that then go back to the row starting with 5 plain. If you do ten rows of alternating plain and purl, you'll have a square. End off with a two rows of plain and cast off.

This is the dishcloth I'm working on right now. This is the bamboo and cotton blend yarn and the needles are a beautiful pair of Tasmania Oak needles my sister gave me. They're 5mm, AUand UK size 6/US size 8.

I have written about dishcloths before, there is a post here and a general post on needlework here. If you've never knitted before, please give it a try. This pattern is a really simple one, but there are many others to try in the links contained in the old posts I've linked to above. Don't be put off by the abbreviations, needle sizes or ply types. It will all become clearer after you've knitted a few cloths. There is an explanation of knitting terms here. If you're just starting out on the road to simplicity, or if you're looking to add another skill, knitting is an easy and simple craft to learn. It's portable, so you can take it with you when you go out and it's very relaxing.

Anonymous 2 May 2008 19:46: It sounds like you're either leaving your bread too long to rise or you're adding too much water. Dough shouldn't spread out, it should just rise up. Try cutting back on the water a bit.

Still at Home, I believe a good salt is any simple salt that has not been processed. Check your label before buying. You'd think they couldn't add anything to salt, but they do. They add "pouring agents" or aluminium. I think I crave the minerals good sea salt contains. In addition to sodium chloride there are also traces of manganese, iron, sulpher, potassium, zinc, copper and other minerals. Also, good salt doesn't taste as salty as processed salt. It sounds weird I know, but unprocessed sea salt has a more subtle taste than its processed cousin. And please don't be lured into buying expensive salt. Although it is a delicious treat on occasion, your common old sea salt, sometimes called cooking salt, will do the trick. You will have to replace your salt shaker with a little salt bowl because sea salt won't pour through a tiny hole.

Anonymous 2 May 2008 22:55, we've never had hornworms here so I have no advice. With powdery mildew I will cut off all the old and affected leaves and increase my spaying of seaweed tea. Here is a very useful link for dealing organically with some fungal problems.

Stacy, the only silly question is the unasked one. I use dried yeast and store it in the fridge. I generally buy a 500 gram (1 lb) bag and because I bake bread almost every day, I easily get through that before it dies. I wish you both all the best in your marriage. You know that you can simplify anywhere, just go slow, one step at a time, and you'll make good progress. I reckon the real secret is to enjoy it and develop yourself and your life as you live.

Lyn, I don't watch Oprah, I have quite a few American friends, both online and off. That is where my opinion was formed. It really wasn't a criticism, more of a personal observation and I think the most important part of that observation was in the statement "that has changed". I believe America has to be part of the solution, it has been a major part of the problem in the past. This is from the Boston Globe:

"Americans consume like no other nation -- using three times the amount of water per capita than the world average and nearly 25 percent of the world's energy, despite having 5 percent of the global population; and producing five times more daily waste than the average in poor countries."

This isn't about apportioning blame though, we are all to blame, it's about solutions and seeing with my own eyes the changes that many Americans are making now. We all need those changes to keep happening in your country, we need you to put pressure on your governments to provide leadership. I want my blog to be an encouragement to others, I try to write with integrity and from my heart. So please don't feel you or your country are being criticised, I see us more as recognising our problems and working together on solutions. :- )

I have more than enough recipes now. NO MORE RECIPES ... THANKS EVERYONE!

There is a revolution happening out there. It’s starting right in front of you, at the kitchen sink. Most of my regular readers would know I rarely write about political topics, I leave that for the “experts”, but I’ve been thinking about the revolution for a while now and it just has to come out.

A few years ago, when I started to live more simply, my friends and family thought I was a bit of a nutter to want to give up spending, cook from scratch and save resources. They didn’t understand it at all. I’d already closed down my business and was stumbling along with no clear direction when I started reading everything I could on sustainability, in particular, David Holmgren’s articles on energy descent. I’d read his books on Permaculture back in the early 80s but his energy descent articles lead me to read more about climate change, and then Peak Oil. It turned my world upside down. Instead of now thinking the need was to reskill, relearn and rethink because I was no longer working for a living, I had a different focus. I wanted to plan my own energy descent and make sure I knew as much as I could to help my family through the many changes coming our way.

When I talked to friends and colleagues about it, they didn’t believe me. Well, to make a long story shorter, over the years I realised that the best way to deal with these looming problems was to make sure I had my house in order. I reskilled myself to the best of my ability, I made plans for our future here, and everyday I researched more and more in books and on the internet. Blogs were yet to become a part of our daily reading so I headed for a large American frugal forum. I learnt a lot there but most of the other forum users were only interested in saving money. A frugal life, so they had money to spend on other things. I found the Americans to be quite a bit behind the rest of us; environmental damage and climate change were rarely discussed. While quite a few countries were working towards greening themselves, America seemed to sit in a cosy backwater, waiting for technology to save them and refusing to believe they needed to do anything themselves. That has changed.

Now a revolution has started and you can read about it every day in thousands of blogs all over the world. Now the cost of oil has skyrocketed, taking many other costs along with it and most people know that the weather is changing. They might not know a lot about it, they might question some of the research, but at least the terminology has seeped into general conversation. When the words become part of our language, there is no stopping it. Some of these changes are now being talked about in our mainstream media – there are stories on rising food and oil prices almost everyday now. But they are only now discovering what we in blogland have known for a long time – we need to change how we live. Now there is no way of ignoring the elephant in the room.

I believe many of us changed because we read and write blogs. Our changes were not directed by mainstream media or our governments, they came from the grass roots – us. We talked to each other about our fears, we showed each other what we were doing in our own lives, we taught, we listened, we encouraged, we rejected past ways. We read each others blogs and discovered that not only is a change to a greener way of living necessary, we are made happy and fulfilled in the living of this kind of life.

Every time we blog about reducing our fuel consumption, every time we decide to install solar panels, when we start growing some of our own food, when we step out of the mainstream and mend our clothes, when we decide to downshift or get rid of our debt, every time we blog about our greener lives – it makes the corporate world gulp and take notice. People power is an incredible force.

At my home we are doing what a lot of you are doing. We’re growing food in our backyard, we’ve installed solar hot water, we harvest our rain water, we stockpile, cook from scratch, have eliminated as many chemicals from our lives as we can, we sew and mend, we have stopped recreational shopping, we stopped spending. We make do, we live well on less than we ever thought possible. We live simply. We have rejected the mish mash that has become modern life.

Growing some of your own food makes a difference.

Whatever you can do, do it. Whatever changes you’re thinking about, make them happen. There is a revolution happening and we are leading it, my friends. It might be a quiet and gentle start but what we are doing is significant and vital. I’m sure the mainstream media will claim the revolution as its own soon, and will shout loudly about living greener and more frugal lives, and I know our governments will then be more pro-active. In the meantime, we need to keep encouraging each other through our blogs, we need to show and tell everyday about how our lives are being lived in all our small towns, in our suburbs and in our cities. We need to lead our governments to this brave new world.

In the past we have often been lead by mainstream media, but they have missed the boat on this one. Blogs took the lead well before it ever occurred to the traditional media that there was a new revolution happening. Blogs are leading the push towards a better way of life, they give us the inspiration, the knowledge and the power to change for the better.

Welcome to the revolution.

I love that first day after work is finished for the week when I get back into the garden again. That space is where I grow too. I have a garden bench out there and I sit and think, talk to the animals, watch the chooks and generally just luxuriate in the natural wonder of it all. Oh, and sometimes I help with the gardening. ; - )

It's looking good out there now that the plants are starting to put on good growth. The silverbeet in this photo will be picked today for dinner tonight. I love the coloured stems of silverbeet (chard). Here we have rhubarb chard, which is the very dark red one, ruby chard, a lighter brighter red, the plain white stems and hidden in there are yellow stems as well.

Just at the side of the chard we're growing button squash and when I picked some for dinner last night, I noticed powdery mildew starting to grow on them. I'll have to do something about that today.

A bit further over there are cucumbers just beginning their climb to the top of a trellis, guarded at their front by a thick row of French radishes; at the side sweet capsicums (peppers) are ripening in the sun.

For dinner last night we had steamed potatoes and pumpkin dressed with parsley and butter, button squash and red onions - lightly sauteed, and brussel sprouts. That was followed by a simple rice pudding (recipe given a few days ago) with warm peaches that I preserved last summer.

I made bread rolls for lunch that we had still warm from the oven. I had fresh tomato and avocado on mine, with a cup of black tea. Delicious. The rolls were very good - crispy on the crust with light and fluffy bread inside. They were sprinkled with a little polenta. When you grow some of your own food and know how to cook, one thing is certain - you can always rustle up a decent feed.

At the end of the day, when I went out to pick our dinner from the garden, I took a couple of these bread rolls out for the chooks to eat. They enjoyed them too. No doubt Hanno will polish off the last of them for breakfast this morning.

The rest of the day was taken up with a bit of cleaning and a lot of knitting. I'm knitting some dishcloths with a new bamboo and cotton yarn. It's very strong and comes in some beautiful colours, but it's a bit fiddly to knit. I hope to do some knitting today as well but I have to start a magazine article so my day will be fashioned around getting that done.

Thank you all for dropping by and for the comments you leave. I read every single one of them. I am sometimes sent links to various sites and videos by my regular readers and I always look at them when I have time. However, I am also being sent a lot of email requests to do paid reviews, put links on my blog and generally promote a lot of commercial topics. I will never do any of that, so to all those people who drop by to promote their own product or website, save your time and try elsewhere.

LATE ADDITION - BREAD ROLLS RECIPE:

I'm making these again today to make sure of my amounts. I'm pretty sure this is what I used yesterday. I rarely use written recipes so this is just from my head. If there needs to be a change, I'll let you know later this morning.

Recipe for bread rolls in the bread machine

3½ cups bread flour - can be white, wholemeal, rye, grain - whatever. If you use a heavier flour you'll need to increase the amount of water used.
1 teaspoon salt. Please use good salt, not table salt. Even cooking salt is better than table salt.
1 tablespoon butter

Put all the above in your bread machine bucket.

In a teacup add and mix up:

¾ cup lukewarm water
½ tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons yeast

plus another cup of warm water - I can't tell you the exact amount of water you'll use. That will depend on your flour and the weather. Start with the 1¾ cups and you might have to add more.

Mix the ingredients in the cup and allow to stand for 5 minutes. You want your yeast to prove - it will look like this:

If the yeast doesn't froth up, it's dead and you'll have to buy new yeast. Always store your yeast in the fridge, it will keep longer. When the yeast is frothy and bubbling, add it to the dry mix, making sure all the sugar is either dissolved or added to the flour mix. Turn your machine on to the "dough" setting and let it mix the dough.

When it's finished, remove the dough and roll it into a long cigar shape - about 12 inches long. Cut into about 8 pieces for large rolls or 12 pieces for small rolls. Take each piece of dough and work it with your hands into a nice round ball. Place all the balls on a baking tray, add seeds, polenta or a criss-cross and allow to rise for about 30 minutes - depending on the temperature in your house. If you can put them in the sun they'll only take about 10 minutes to rise.

Turn on your oven so it's hot when you put the rolls in. Bread has two types of rising - one is from the yeast you use, the other is called "oven lift" - you get this when you put properly proved bread dough into a HOT oven. The heat immediately starts to lift the bread. That, my friends is what you want. Adding dough to a warm oven won't give you the same result.

Good luck with your rolls, everyone.

OOPS - ruralinspirations has just reminded me I didn't tell you about the temp for baking these rolls. As I said, put the rolls into a HOT oven (that is one that has been sitting on at least 200C for about 10 minutes). Then cook on 200C (395F) until they're golden brown and you can smell baked bread.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE...

I tested the above recipe and everything is fine. Just monitor the water yourselves as it's always a bit different. Pictured below are today's bread rolls, just out of the oven.

Happy baking everyone!

It was cold here yesterday. Well, let me qualify that - it was cold for here. The highest temp was 19C (66F), and while I worked away at the Centre, I kept looking at the fireplace and imaging how warm and cosy it would be if it was blazing away with red hot logs. I have no idea how to make a fire in one of those stoves, or even if the fireplace there is safe, so I didn't advance beyond my warm and toasty fantasy. It's still fairly cold now at 17 C. I have my slippers on, a skirt, two jumpers and a vest. Now that I'm 'an older woman', I don't cope very well with extremes of temperature. And yes, I know 17C (62F) is not an extreme, but that probably proves my point.

I love change. I'm not at my best when things stay the same so when the temperature starts to cool down, and I see and feel the changes that brings, it soothes my black heart. There is a lot to be said for seasonal change.

One of the things I most enjoy about the different seasons and the changes they bring is the opportunity to extend hospitality according to the temperature. Nothings warms the spirit more than being offered a hot cup of tea or coffee with scones that send up puffs of steam when you open them. How good is it to come home to hot homemade soup sitting on the stove and just baked bread that lifts the neighbourhood just with the smell of it.

The same is true in the hot and humid months of summer. A glass of homemade lemon cordial, with rivers of condensation flowing down the glass and ice cubes happily clinking, makes any hot day a fine one. Greeting visitors with the hospitality of a cold drink is one of life's simple pleasures that I doubt I'll ever tire of.

But now we're in Autumn and with each day it gets a little bit colder. Warm quilts and flannel sheets are on the beds and the frequent salads of summer have given way to steamy bowls of soup, warm rice pudding and cooked spicy fruit - warm and delicious straight from the stove.

I haven't told you all yet what Hanno gave me for my birthday. It was a smallish quilt to be used when I'm sitting in the lounge room. One side is pure cotton tiny pink rosebuds on a very pale creamy yellow background, other side is pale creamy yellow fleece. I've used it a few times in the past week and unlike a completely cotton quilt, the fleece feels warm as soon as I cover myself with it. I feel like an old granny with it wrapped around my legs and when I draw it up around my chest, I swear I could melt for the way it warms me.

Simple pleasures come in all shapes and sizes, they usually cost little more than the effort it takes to make them happen and yet they are what memories are made of. I have wonderful memories of my sister and I sitting in front of a warm winter's fire in our flannel pyjamas while our mum tested our spelling. I remember fondly feeling very grown up and with it sitting at a table of adults when I was about 18 and being offered a glass of icy water along with the rest of the group. That water tasted like the finest wine to me.

There is a lot to be said about seasonal hospitality and our own ability to make our daily lives more comfortable with simple things. I know that I will live happily with my rosebud quilt for the rest of my life. If I'm lucky enough I'll lay my grandbabies on it one day and as they grow they'll learn, by example, about the value of these simple gestures.

You can bring anything to life by assigning meaning to it. What are the meaningful parts of your seasons? What makes you enjoy one season over all others? What are the things you're doing now that you know will be the memories of a lifetime?

Photo taken last year in our herb patch.

It is strangely comforting to be in a group of people all excited by the possibilities presented by frugality. I started one of my budgeting courses yesterday, six people made a booking to attend, 13 showed up. There was a bit of last minute photocopying, cups of tea and coffee were made and then we settled into it.

I usually make a few notes to work from when I do one of these workshops but I'd been busy with other matters and meetings, so the notes went unwritten. No matter, I've done the course a few times now, I write about my frugal life frequently, I thought I could wing it. It was the best thing I could have done. Just speaking to what I know and not from a pre-prepared list, made it all flow naturally and it encouraged questions and discussion.

With the price of food and fuel rising so fast, the discussions where mainly on how to shop wisely. We talked about stockpiling, shopping at Aldi and local markets. I gave out a collection of my cleaning recipes, instructions for making bread in a machine and a few cheap recipes for a family to make from stockpiled items. I didn't think they'd be interested in making soap, so at the last moment I removed the soap recipe, but they asked for it. It will be in the next bundle of recipes I give when they all return next week.

My group was mostly women, there were two men. I loved that they were really enthusiastic about learning these new ways. Most of them were already doing a lot of wise things and having new strategies presented to them gave a sense of excitement to the room. We didn't talk about simple living but I did talk about how living within your means can bring joy and satisfaction and that it is possible to live a full and rich frugal life.

Sometimes in the past people have come along to my groups when they've been struggling with their finances for years and feel defeated by the entire process. This group was optimistic about the possibilities of frugality. They understood that almost everyone deals with having to financially restrict themselves in some way and that choosing new ways of dealing with those restrictions could open up their lives. They also understood that spending less makes a very strong green statement, when people realise that they often see cutting back in a new light.

I set some homework to be done before they return next week for the final session. They're tracking their money. Many of us here know what a surprise that often it and I'm sure it will trigger a healthy discussion which will lead us onto how to make up a budget. THE BUDGET - that often misunderstood piece of paper that many see as a way of ending fun and closing down lives. I see it as a map to future happiness, a way of showing where the money is and what needs to be put aside for regular bills and food needs, while keeping some for those bright spots that make life a joy - be that books, a little holiday, a trip to the movies or a special meal with friends or family. For one thing is certain, if we spend until nothing is left in our purse, if we don't take the time to examine our financial needs and to organise them to suit the life we live, we will be poorer for it - and not just poorer in a financial way.