down to earth

We have a snake living in the chook house. I think she is there for the mice and rats that hang around at night eating the leftover grain and seed. She's not bothering the chooks, she just sits up near the roof and moves away slowly if we get too close. She is a non-venomous python - either a carpet snake or a spotted python. You can see her in the photo above after she moved into the thick undergrowth behind the chook house, below you can see her yellow belly under the roof of the coop.

Luckily the girls aren't phased at all by her and although she's about 6 foot long, she's too small to swallow any of them and she's not after the eggs. Maybe in a couple of years she'd think about taking a chicken just before she hibernates. We'll have to wait and see.

Here are some of the girls in question, taking turns to peck at a cucumber that fell through the fence.

The garden is growing well and as most of you who have grown zucchinis will know, we have way too many of them. We only planted two bushes this year, plus two yellow squash, but we still can't eat or give away enough of them to keep up with production. The zucchini is pictured above and the squash below.

I wish I could say we have too many tomatoes. We eat tomatoes every day here and we grow a lot of them but no matter how many we plant we always run short.

We use tomatoes on sandwiches and pasta, Hanno likes a fried tomato with his eggs for breakfast and I always make tomato chutney every summer. When I have enough tomatoes, I'll also make tomato sauce for the stockpile cupboard. Nothing beats homemade tomato sauce.

We're growing several different types of tomatoes - the first photo is of Oxheart tomatoes, these above are beefsteaks, we also have Tommy Toe and Tropic and a row of newly planted Grosse Lisse (below).

Continuing along the salad trail, here are several varieties of lettuce.

And new beets just starting to bulk out their roots. By the time these are ready to pick in a couple of weeks time, the beets I pickled last week will be finished and these will take their place.

We have lots of cucumbers forming and new lemon cucumbers to plant out, along with some Moneymaker tomato seedlings.

It's a constant progression of sowing, planting, nurturing, harvesting, removing and replanting. Most of the time we get it right and have enough food in the backyard to feed us, but sometimes we have to buy a kilo of tomatoes to tide us over until our crop ripens.

We have some late leeks this year that I'll pick over the weekend and serve with one of our meals. It's too hot here in summer to grow any of the onion family but these leeks have just made it in time to be a useful and delicious addition to our table.

And how could I forget the corn. We don't grow a lot of corn because it takes too much water to grow it well, but what we do grow at the very beginning of the season is always appreciated for its fresh juicy sweetness, shining away on our plates like golden organic jewels.

We still have a ton of chard growing out there, and radishes, celery, pumpkins, green onions, beans and carrots. It will all eventually make its way to our table and will be appreciated for its ability to help us live a healthy and frugal life.

I don't consider myself a good knitter. I think my talent lies in picking projects that I'm capable of doing. :- ) That said, most knitting is plain or purl, or various combinations of it. My mother taught me to knit but I didn't see the value of it until I understood more about its meditative qualities and could slow down enough to appreciate and be changed by it.

If you're new to knitting, it's quite easy to become more proficient. You do that by knitting dishcloths - think of each one as a little sampler, but your sampler has the additional benefit of being usable as well. Sharon and other knitters have posted a lot of learn to knit sites so all you need to have is some time, a pair of needles and yarn. Once you've mastered cast on and cast off, plain and purl stitches, go back to your knitting site and have a look at the knitting abbreviations. All knitting patterns use these. On your next dishcloth, practise some of the next steps like K2tog (knit two together) or YO (yarn over), mixing them in with your plain and purl stitches and see how your pattern develops.

I am not proficient enough yet to worry about tension. I just knit until it fits. ;- )

This Ascot scarf is a simple pattern of plain, purl, K2tog and YO and it goes like this.

Cast on 34 stitches.

Knit 8 rows.
Knit 1, YO, K2tog and repeat until the end of the row.
Purl one row.

And repeat those three sets of instructions until the scarf is the size you want.

Finish with knit 8 rows and cast off.

You'll need to find some form of fixing the scarf on the neck. I chose two press studs that are hidden under two of these crocheted flowers. I set the press studs at an angle to allow the scarf to fit in around the neck but open up a little towards the shoulders. If you click on the photo above, you'll see the press studs on the right hand side. You could also use buttons or a pin/brooch.

This grey scarf measures 6 inches by 18 inches and took about 1½ balls of pure wool. I used size 6 needles. The scarf is a variation of this scarf which would be a great project if you have some silky yarn.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to yesterday's comments on Nourishing Traditions. I always enjoy reading your thoughts but I want to take this opportunity to explain something about myself that a few of you don't understand.

I firmly believe that everyone has the right to a different view to my own, and to express that view in a thoughtful and respectful way. Difference helps makes us what we are as a group of people - it makes us more interesting, it gives me reason to think about the comments left and, over time, it helps shape me and possibly others who read here. Difference allows us to see other possibilities.

When I recommended this book to you yesterday it was not so you could do what I'm doing. I don't want anyone to be an imitation of me. I made that recommendation so you could read that book and get from it whatever your stage of life, knowledge and past experience will allow you to get from it. I am 60 years old and I have enough life experience to know that many of the things that were good for me when I was 30 do not work well for me now. Needs modify throughout life, nothing is stagnant, change is necessary.

So the recommendation was not to drink raw milk or to eat meat or anything else. The recommendation was simply to read the book - and to see if it made enough sense to you to make some changes. I found the information on cholesterol and heart disease to be very interesting. I often wondered why deaths from heart disease continued to increase when the consumption of low fat foods increased. But everyone will get something different from this book and that is a good thing.

I want to remind you that my blog is not a prescription for anyone to follow. It is simply an account of how I live. If what I write gives you ideas or motivation, that's wonderful, but always remember that your life is about YOU, not me. I hope you will always be open to change, but only ever make changes after you've thought about them carefully and in the context of your own life.

Kim NZ made a good point on the cost of meat. Kim, I expect that our costs will be minimal but I will monitor it. We won't eat meat every day. Our diet will continue along the same lines - eating from the garden and backyard for the most part - we will replace a fish meal with a meat meal maybe once a week. So far I have bought 2 kg of shin beef, with the bone in, that cost $9.90 a kilo. A kilo (with bone) will make us four meals so it's affordable at the moment.

To all those people who are waiting for a reply to an email, I'm slowly getting through them and hope to contact you soon. As always, I enjoy your input here and I love that we are such a diverse group of people. I hope to be back later with the pattern for the ascot scarf.

We are changing the way we eat. This is a big decision for us because we're going to eat meat again. I suppose it's less of a change for Hanno because he occasionally eats meat during winter, but I haven't eaten any meat for close to ten years. I started off being meat, chicken and fish-free because I was trying to help Hanno reduce his cholesterol level - he was having problems getting to a decent level, even though he'd given up eating a lot of the cheeses and other foods he loved. I thought that by him giving up meat it would take a burden from his diet that his body couldn't cope with. A couple of years into it, I went back to eating fish because I could never get a decent meal when I went travelling in my job. So we settled into this meat-less diet and I have to say that I always thought we were doing the right thing. Until now.

Then I read Nourishing Traditions, the revolutionary book by Sally Fallon. It changed the way I view food and has convinced me to eat meat again. Two days ago I ate meat for the first time in many years. I must admit I felt a bit sick at first and wondered if it was right for me but I soon settled down and felt fine. We had a beef casserole, made with shin beef, including the marrow bone. This meal was chosen to provide us with natural gelatin, minerals and enzymes.

I first came across Nourishing Traditions on the Lentils and Rice blog and was intrigued that the book had convinced Robyn to change what she ate and how she fed her family. Over the next month or two, I read more about the book and the influence it was having so when, quite by chance, I saw it for sale in my local organic co-op, I grabbed it. Hanno and I have both been reading it since and we're convinced by what the author writes. It's an easy book to read. It has a subject index as well as a recipe index and although I started reading from the beginning, now I'm looking up subjects that interest me, and spot reading.

I'm sure that people would get different messages from this book but this is what I have understood so far. There is no blanket advice that any doctor or government can give because we are all different, our bodies need differing elements and it's difficult to cover all people in one food pyramid or accepted body of knowledge. We are mammals - so we are programmed to drink milk. This starts off being human milk but expands into other types of milk and milk products - mammals commonly drink the milk of other mammals. Tampering with food to remove certain elements from it - like fat or salt - devalues it. Fat is needed to allow the take up of many of the beneficial elements in food. Raw food, in its many forms, is the best food. When I say raw I mean unprocessed - so raw milk, honey, cheese etc. Eat only pasture fed meat, not grain fed, or lot fed.

But most of all, as the title of the book states, it's about going back to the diet our great grandmas cooked. They used to eat soups and stocks made with bones; they ate the entire carcass of whatever animal they had available and didn't waste anything. They drank raw full cream milk, and made cheese from that same milk, they pre-soaked a lot of their grains and cereals - making the nutrients easily digestible when eaten. They pickled and preserved using whey.

This book made a lot of sense to me. I rarely read anything that changes how I view what I'm doing, but this book did it. I always think a lot about what I'm doing and generally, when I decide to change, it's for a reason that I've thought about and makes good sense to me. I know that many people won't get the same understanding from this book as I did. But if you get the chance to read it, do so. It might convince you to make a change.

Please note: You will most likely get this book at your local library. If you wish to buy a copy, I've added the Amazon link for the USA and UK to my side bar.

I'm very happy to tell you I'm feeling better today. I went back to the doctor yesterday and my medication was changed. It's made a difference. :- ) I can now sit here at the computer for more than 30 seconds and write what I want to write. It's been so frustrating not being able to do that.

I finished off the Ascot scarf I started the other day and have now started on a pair of these fingerless mittens that Heather wrote about on the Simple Green Frugal Co-op. The last two days have also seen these wonderful posts from Eilleen about Learning How to Sew and Oh Darn! Mending Socks or Gloves, written by Sadge.

The only other constructive work I've done in the past week is to pickle some beetroot (beets). We had a small crop of about 20 beetroot that I picked last week and left in the fridge. I finally got to them a few days ago and turned them into the most delicious bright red salad ingredient.

When you pick your beetroot, don't cut the tops off - twist the tops off and tidy the top with a knife but don't cut into the flesh of the vegetable as it will bleed into the water while it's being cooked. Wash the vegies thoroughly but don't peel them or cut into the flesh at all. Place in a pot of salted water and boil until cooked.

Then it's just a matter of making up a pickling liquid that suits your taste. I make mine like this:
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
some new fresh bay leaves
salt and pepper

I would normally have added some mustard seeds too but didn't have any.

When the beets are cooked, let them cool for a short while and when you can handle them, slip the skins off with your fingers.

Then just chop the beets into the shapes you want - either quarters or slices, place in a jar and pour over your pickling liquid. Store in the fridge. They will last for at least three months without any form of canning or preserving.

Before I go today I'd like to say a sincere thank you to a wonderful group of women who have been helping behind the scenes here. You all know that Sharon organises the swaps. She often makes more than she originally intended to because sometimes swappers drop out, and rather than allow our ladies to be disappointed, Sharon steps in. There were a number of swappers who didn't receive their promised swap this time and I'm so pleased to say that Ann R, Christine K and Stephanie all stepped in and helped. They made extras and sent them. I believe that generosity and kindness are a big part of simple lives and it tells me a lot about these women that they stepped up and helped out. Thank you ladies. I appreciate it and I'm sure the women to whom you sent your extras did too. It makes me feel stronger to see the strength of others and I want to thank Sharon, Ann, Christine and Stephanie for being a great example to us all.

Knitting has been my saving grace these past couple of days and nights. At first I couldn't concentrate on my knitting, or read a book, but with the pain easing slightly, I've taken up the needles again. I'm also reading a very interesting book, but more about that in another post. I started another Ascot scarf, for which I'm using a soft Australian 100% merino wool. The needles I'm using on this project are a pair of vintage pale aqua needles made of a very pliable soft plastic, with amber tops. They are warm in the hand and easily slide under thick wool.

I find that knitting is very similar to simple living. It's a mindful process that slows you down. It allows you to make productive that time you use to rest, and even though rest on it's own is a wonderful thing, there are many times I want to rest but still have something material come from that time. As I sit here, slowly making one stitch after another - like one small step - I know that each of those stitches is added to the overall fabric of what I'm making, just like each small step builds into a simple life.

I knitted the Ascot scarf above to wear this past winter. It's made of Lion brand organic cotton and is really soft and cuddly next to my neck. I made it wide so it's doubled over when worn to provide extra warmth. I secure it with my mum's vintage black and silver brooch/pin.

This is the rest of my recent knitting. I have a stack of cotton washcloths there that I'm adding to all the time and the red item is the beginning of a red cotton bag.

If you haven't tried knitting yet, I urge you to give it a go. You will be able to create some lovely unique things for yourself and your family and also to give as gifts for your friends. It's a truly useful skill to have and will fit into your simple life in a variety of ways. When I knit a gift I always keep the label of the yarn I use and attach that to the gift. That way the person who receives the gift knows exactly what it is made with and how to care for it.

Take care everyone.

I can't tell you how good it feels to me to be home again doing "normal" things. I thought that going away for a couple of nights would be sort of semi-exciting, how wrong I was. When I was out, I was in the middle of a large and extremely busy city; when I was "home" I was in a hotel, cut off from nature with air-conditioning, thick walls and a little glass door that lead out to a very un-natural pebble courtyard. I couldn't hear anything when I was in the room, it was just me and the TV. I took a book to read but I went to sleep when I tried to read it. In the end I watched the "live" cricket beaming in from India. What a strange world we live in.

When I got home we had to deal with the problem of Seth's incessant crowing at 3 o'clock in the morning. The neighbours do not like it, neither does Hanno. Eep! I knew we'd have a problem giving him away, so many roosters are given away and end up in the soup pot, and I didn't want that for him. So I put a free advert on the farm stock online site for a pair of Sussex chooks and low and behold, we had people ringing up and emailing hoping to be given them. In the end, he and one of his silver Sussex ladies - Polly , went to a farm about ten minutes away. He would have been miserable without her and I hope they live a happy life there. The woman who took them wants to breed light Sussex. She came over with her husband who is a bee keeper. A lovely couple and I'm sure they'll look after Seth and Polly.

Seth - caught in the act.

I was hoping to have time yesterday to cook up these beetroot pulled from the garden a couple of days ago, but they're still uncooked. Hanno and I spent yesterday afternoon at the Centre where I hosted a Sunday lunch for the volunteers, committee and a couple of people from the local relocalisation group, who we auspice. It was a lovely lunch, we all brought food to share, and we sat - about 25 of us - under the shade of some very old conifer trees at the Centre. When we came home again, the people arrived to pick up Seth and Polly, so not much else was done. I had a long sleep last night, almost 11 hours, but I'm still a bit weary this morning. I'm going to work but I think I'll be a bit slow today.

I miss being at home, doing those things that usually make up my day. It might seem boring to some but I was bored in the middle of the city and wishing I was home again baking bread and eating real food. There was a time in my life when nothing could have kept me out of the city and all the excitement of it. Now it just exhausts me, now I have found a better place and I am fulfilled by pottering around my home. I think I'll settle back in fully by writing about knitting tomorrow. Thinking about that today will settle my mind and distance me from where I've been.

On the left is a flowering cactus that is growing on our front verandah and in the bush house. I'm not sure of the name of it, I grew it from cuttings I got from my DIL, but it flowers like this every Spring and hangs down from its container in long strands of pink. It's a real beauty.

I hope you're all well and happy and working steadily on your small steps to a simpler life. Oh, and I have to tell you, I really missed this blog and all of you while I was away.