Shane and Sarndra came along too and we sat down to a meal fit for kings and queens. Sunny made (I won't attempt to spell the Korean names because I know I won't get them right) BBQ beef and noodles, tofu parcels with vegetables, kimchee, rice paper rolls with prawns and vegetables, glass noodles and vegetables and a plate of fried zucchini rings coated with egg, little thin and folded omelettes, and little pieces of fish, coated and fried with a sesame leaf. Afterwards we had Sunny's rice cake and some peanut, pistachio, coconut rice balls with red bean that Sarndra and Shane brought along. All delicious! 

I love those traditions that celebrate special family milestones and I wish we had a few more of our own here in Australia.

As most of you know, Sarndra and Shane are expecting their first baby any day now. This is such a wonderful time for our family. Not only do we have the cute and giggling Jamie in all his sweetness, and Sunny and Kerry who are the most excellent and calm parents, we also have another surprise packet waiting in the wings.  Another little boy that we will love and cherish and watch grow, and who will turn his parents into a caring and proud mother and father.

I have to tell you that when I retired, I didn't give grandmothering much thought. Our sons showed no signs of settling down, and then kaboom! two babies close together. I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love my sons, but now their own families are cocooned inside that love as well. I'm delighted Sunny and Kerry are such loving and gentle parents. Every time I see them together, caring for their son, it's like a gift to me. And now, I can hardly wait for a new baby to arrive. His parents are SO prepared for him, and he too will be born into a family who really love him and want the best for him. There is no greater gift a child can have than loving parents who want him to have a good life; nothing else comes close to that.

Happy 100th day, Jamie! We wish you continued love, happiness and many more cheeky smiles.

TWO MORE PHOTOS JUST EMAILED!  Thanks Sarndra.

Hanno and I have just returned from a trip to the Gold Coast. We were invited down there to celebrate Jamie's 100th day - a wonderful Korean tradition that celebrates our baby surviving his first 100 days.  In the old days many babies didn't survive so it's a useful reminder of how fragile and dependent our babies are.

Anyhow, I have a few things to do this afternoon and not really in the right frame of mind to write a post so I'll see you tomorrow, when I'll tell you about our celebration.

These are two wonderful Australian blogs I'm reading all the time now. They're similar, but different, and very motivating. If you have some spare time this weekend, pay them a visit, you won't be disappointed.

First there is Christine at Slow Living Essentials. Check out her excellent sour dough. And Karen at Gooseberry Jam is writing about peanuts but if you look at her Plain Cake recipe at the bottom of her page, well, I'm no CWA baking judge but I think that cake has the perfect crumb.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

I'm sure everyone knows how to make up a lasagne in layers. I usually have two layers of meat sauce, two pasta layers, two cheese sauce layers and one spinach layer. But make yours up however it suits you.  

For a gluten-free version of this, don't use the pasta - use a layer of cooked mushrooms or eggplant instead and instead of making a cheese sauce, sprinkle grated cheese on instead.

For a while it looked like our economy was improving and that soon prices would level out and start falling again, but when I researched online for information about electricity yesterday, there was doom and gloom all over the place regarding food, utility and fuel prices. Australia did a bit better than most countries during the recent economic crisis, but now, due to the floods and storms, food prices are higher than they've ever been and fuel prices are going up due to the high Australian dollar and trouble in the Middle East. What's happening here is being mirrored in countries all over the world. Many people are struggling, no one is safe in these troubled times.

If you've ever doubted your role as homemaker/housewife be assured that now is the time you will help your family more than ever before. Take the lead and make sure that every penny coming into your home now is used to its true value. Develop a plan to take your family through this crisis. When food and fuel prices rise and utilities bills increase faster than they should, it's your job as a home maker to be frugal and smart. Look around, research online and ask your friends about good wholesome recipes for main meals and snacks. Whatever your grocery budget was before, see if you can reduce it a bit. Stop buying convenience foods and start cooking everything from scratch - it will save you more than you know. Buy fruit and vegetables in season and if you can't afford fresh vegetables, check out the prices of frozen. They're often a bargain when the fresh prices go up. Buy as much as you can in bulk, not only is it usually cheaper, it cuts out a lot of packaging.



This is a good time to start networking with your friends and neighbours. Despite what you may think, everyone is dealing with high prices and even if there has been no talk of cutting back, when you start that conversation, I'm sure most of your friends will tell you they're struggling too. Can you start buying a bulk meat order together? If you can find a good local butcher and buy a side of beef together, you'll pay (in Australia) about $7 a kilo instead of anything up to $20 a kilo at supermarket prices. The butcher will ask you how you want the meat divided up and you can still get topside mince (ground beef), T-bone, rump, round, chuck, roasts, silverside (corned beef) and sausages all included in that price. Don't forget to take the bones too, for stocks and soups.

If you have a family and haven't started a stockpile yet, now is a good time to start. Look around for things that will store well for a while in a cupboard and when they're on special, grab a few of them. It will take you a few months to build your stockpile but it will see you through these bad times well and it will save you money and time. Old posts on stockpiling here.


If you're new to frugality, it's an exciting time. Don't see it as a burden to be endured; it's an opportunity to develop character and to protect your family. My hope for you is that you'll see this as a permanent change and even when prices fall and times get better, you'll remain a tightwad and continue to live a simple life. If I were coming to this for the first time, I'd stop ALL unnecessary spending and spend only on:

• Food, groceries 
• Utilities - electricity, water, rates
• Fuel and transport
• Debt repayment - mortgage, credit cards, car payments etc
• House, car and clothing maintenance
• Insurance 
• Medical and dental checkups

Phone, internet, cable TV - all these could be stopped if you needed extra money for any of the above.

(Sorry, there seems to be a problem with Blogger's paragraph spacing today.)


There is no doubt about it, household electricity prices have risen a lot and are set to rise even more. Click on this link for a report about it in The Australian. When the cost of electricity rises, so does almost everything we buy - because most of the things we buy are made using electricity. We can't do much about the increased cost of products in the shops, except not buy them, but we can do something about electricity costs at home. Saving electricity at home is all about small steps - you have many opportunities to save small amounts - and it all adds up. The good news is that the more you put into this, the more active you are, the more you'll save. We all have to use electicity but the amount of wasted electricity through stand-by power, leaving lights and chargers on, well, that, my friends, is all up to you.


We have just installed solar panels so we expect our electricity bill to go down but until we use nothing from the grid and are self sufficient in electricity by using only what our panels make, I'll keep on looking for ways to save. I believe the best way to manage electricity usage in the home is to do your own electricity audit. If you can start knowing what your meter reads, then modify your electricity usage and start switching off, you'll be able to accurately judge how much you're saving. If you've never done an electricity audit in your own home, do one now. It's a real eye opener. Here is an old post of mine about how to do it. If you're in Australia, and have had a Climate Smart Audit, you could also check your usage by watching your electricity meter inside the house. It's a good idea to record your meter reading, then use everything as normal for the first day to get an accurate idea of your usage. The following day, start on your program of saving electricity by using whatever you can from the following list. Check your meter again every day - always at the same time - and see how what you do effects your meter readings. 


Find your latest electricity bill and read it again, understand what you're using and how much you're being charged for it. Phone your local supplier and ask them when your off peak electricity rate cuts in and what's the best way to use it. That information may even be on their website. There is some general info here about off peak rates:

• In the UK
• In Australia   and here
• In the USA  and here  
  and here

• Turn off appliances at the wall. Reorganise your appliances to make this as easy as possible. Plug your TV, DVD, stereo etc into the one power board and turn the power board off when you go to bed at night. See if you can do a similar thing in the kitchen. 
• Turn off all chargers with a black box on them at the wall, every time you finish charging. Those things really suck up the power, even when they're not charging but still "on". 
• When buying new appliances, always buy the best energy rating you can afford. 
• Sweep the floor instead of vacuuming. 
• Wash up by hand instead of using the dishwasher. 
• Use a programmable thermostat for your furnace. Set the thermostat five degrees lower/higher (depending on the season) at night. 
• Turn the monitor off when you leave the computer. 
• Replace old light bulbs with compact fluoros. 
• Keep light usage to a minimum. 
• Only do full loads of washing. 
• Don't let rice cooker sit on warm after rice is cooked. 
• Go to bed earlier – this saves on a lot of things like lights, computer, TV, stereo, extra cups of tea. 
• Use your mobile phone alarm rather than an electric alarm clock. 
• Ring your local electricity supply company and get all the information you can on your usage, tariffs and how you can save for your particular situation. 
• If you have a 3 in 1 light fitting in the bathroom that contains a light, exhaust fan and heater, take the heat globe out. 
• Watch less TV. 
• Use a solar camping lamp in the evenings when you don't need strong light. 
• Try to do without your small appliances like coffee maker, sandwich maker etc. 
• Never leave small appliances, TV or DVD on stand by. 
• Do less ironing. Shake clothes when hanging them on the line, hang shirts and dresses on a hanger to dry, give up the idea that you have to be absolutely creaseless. 
• Use a wall clock instead of relying on your oven or microwave clock. Turn these ovens off when not in use. 
• “Snuggle up" instead of turning on the heater, get a rug and snuggle with your loved ones on the lounge. 
• Dress warmer in winter instead of turning on the heat. 
• In winter, keep lap quilts and rugs on the sofa to encourage the family to use them instead of the heater. 
• Turn on hot water heater for 1 hour a day. 
• Change to solar hot water. 
• Install skylights in dark rooms. 
• Close the door when you’re heating or cooling a room. 
• In very cold climates, install double glazed windows and insulated blinds. 
• If it’s cold outside, hang window quilts. Read about them here: http://www.manytracks.com/Homesteading/winquilt.htm 
• If you’re using a dishwasher, shut the dishwasher off and open the door after it's finished washing and let the items air dry. 

Following tips are from here:

Refrigerator/Freezer

• Keep your refrigerator at 37°- 40° F (2° - 4° C) and your freezer at 5°F (-15° C).
• Keep your refrigerator filled to capacity, but don't overcrowd to the point where doors cannot be closed or air cannot circulate.
• Vacuum the condenser coils (underneath or behind the unit) every three months or so.
• Check the condition of door gaskets by placing a paper sheet against the frame and closing the door. If the sheet can be pulled out with a very gentle tug, the door should be adjusted or the gasket replaced.
• Do not put uncovered liquids in the refrigerator. The liquids give off vapors that add to the compressor workload.
• Allow hot food to cool off before putting it in the refrigerator.
• Plan ahead and remove all ingredients for each meal at one time.

Range/Oven
A typical home uses 200-700 kiloWatt-hours per year with its range/oven. 

• Only use pots and pans with flat bottoms on the stove.
• Include more stews, stir-frys, and other single-dish meals in your menus.
• Develop the habit of "lids-on" cooking to permit lower temperature settings.
• Keep reflector pans beneath stovetop heating elements bright and clean.
• Carefully measure water used for cooking to avoid having to heat more than is needed.
• Begin cooking on highest heat until liquid begins to boil. Then lower the heat control settings and allow food to simmer until fully cooked.
• Cook as much of the meal in the oven at one time as possible. Variations of 25°F still produce good results and save energy.
• Rearrange oven shelves before turning your oven on - and don't peek at food in the oven! Every time you open the oven door, 25°-50°F (-3° - 10° C) is lost.
• There is no need to preheat the oven for broiling or roasting.
• When preheating an oven for baking, time the preheat period carefully. Five to eight minutes should be sufficient.
• Use your microwave oven whenever possible, as it draws less than half the power of its conventional oven counterpart and cooks for a much shorter amount of time.
• Pressure cookers and electric frying pans use less electricity than the stove.
• Use the self-cleaning cycle only for major cleaning jobs. Start the cycle right after cooking while the oven is still hot, or wait until late in the evening when electricity usage is low.

• Wash only full loads of dishes - but do not overload dishwasher.
• Scrape food off dishes before placing them in the dishwasher.
• Soak burned-on or dried-on foods before adding to the dishwasher.
• Turn off the dishwasher when the drying cycle starts and let the contents dry naturally with the door partially open.

• Follow detergent instructions carefully. Adding too much detergent actually hampers effective washing action and may require more energy in the form of extra rinses. It's better to use less rather than too much laundry detergent.
• Set the washing machine temperature to cold or warm and the rinse temperature to cold as often as possible.
• Wash only full loads of clothing- but do not overload machine.

• Hang your clothes outside and only use the dryer when it's absolutely necessary.
• A typical home uses 360-1400 kiloWatt-hours per year with the clothes dryer. To become more energy efficient with your laundry, follow these tips:
• Clean the lint filter thoroughly after each use.
• Dry towels and heavy cottons in a separate load from lighter-weight fabrics.
• Avoid over-drying. This not only wastes energy, but harms the fabric as well.

• Reduce your water heating bill by 10 percent by lowering the water heater temperature from 140°F to 120F° (60° - 40° C). (Keep the temperature at 140°F (60°C) if you use a dishwasher without a temperature booster.)
• Once a year, drain a bucket of water of the bottom of the water heater tank. This gets rid of sediment, which can waste energy by "blocking" the water in the tank from the heating element.
• Locate water heaters as close to the points of hot water usage as possible. The longer the supply pipe, the more heat is lost.
• Turn off the water heater when you go away on holidays.
• Insulate your hot water supply pipes to reduce heat loss. Hardware stores sell pipe insulation kits.
• Consider buying a water heater insulation kit, which reduces the amount of heat lost through the walls of the tank.
• Repair any leaky taps/faucets promptly.
• Use sink stoppers instead of letting water run while shaving and washing dishes.
• Take showers instead of baths.
• Set the washing machine temperature to cold or warm and the rinse temperature to cold as often as possible.
• Wash only full loads of clothing and dishes - but do not overload machines.
• Scrape food off dishes before placing them in the dishwasher.

• Clean your light fixtures regularly.
• Turn off lights when leaving a room.
• Provide task lighting over desks, tool benches, etc., so that activities can be carried on without illuminating entire rooms.
• If possible, put lamps in corners of rooms, where they can reflect light from two wall surfaces instead of one.
• Use compact fluorescent bulbs in fixtures that are on for more than two hours a day. Compact fluorescent bulbs will given an incandescent bulb's warm, soft light, while using up to 75 percent less electricity. They also last about 10 times longer. Typically, a 23-watt compact fluorescent bulb can replace a 90- or 100-watt incandescent bulb.
• Use dimmable bulbs when possible.
• Install photoelectric controls or timers to make sure that outdoor lighting is turned off during the day.

Heating

• In the heating season, water vapors from bathing and cooking are beneficial because they help humidify the home. Use kitchen and bath exhaust fans sparingly in the winter to keep as much heat as possible inside your house.
• In the winter, the air is normally dry inside your house, which is a disadvantage because people typically require a higher temperature to be comfortable than they would in a humid environment. Therefore, efficient humidifiers are a good investment for energy conservation.
• Locate the heating thermostat on an inside wall and away from windows and doors. Cold drafts will cause the thermostat to keep the system running even when the rest of the house is warm enough.
• Lubricate pump and blower bearings regularly in accordance with manufacturers' recommendations to limit the amount of energy lost to friction and to extend equipment life as well.
• Close heating vents and radiator valves in unused rooms. Make sure that drapes, plants, or furniture do not block registers for supply or return air.rmostat as low as comfort permits. Each degree over 68°F (20° C) can add 3 percent to the amount of energy need.

Air-Conditioning
A typical home uses 250-1000 kiloWatt-hours per year for air conditioning in one room. To become more energy efficient with air conditioning throughout your home, follow these tips:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp
Info on mercury in CF lights:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/what_about_merc.php

REMINDER:When recycling your compact fluoro globes, to take them to the recycle station, just like you would your old batteries, mercury thermometer and old style fluoro tubes.

How to make a door snake
Global electricity price comparison

I have been enjoying Spitalfields Life for some time now. It's about life, now and in the past, in London's East End. It's an interesting and enlightening read. There is a list on the right side of the page with an index of subjects. I think "Culinery Life" is my favourite.

I wish the West ladies at Homestead Blessings would post more often, but it is what it is and what is there is wonderful. It is good reading and there are beautiful people and beautiful photos.

This is the good life in Tasmania - Killiecrankie Farm. There is lots of craft, outings and ideas floating around here. Definately worth a visit or two.

Thank you for your visits this week and for opening the doors to your lives. I will be wandering around visiting as many as I can. I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

I was going to write about lasagne today but this is more important so that can wait. I commented yesterday, at 10.30am, that I was at my voluntary job and would be back at lunchtime to reply to the ex-"lurkers", but then we got really busy, I worked through lunch and thought I'd reply at home. When I came home, Kerry, Sunny and beautiful Jamie were waiting for me, so that was that. Luckily Hanno had taken a frozen chicken from the freezer and instead of having the last of the lasagne, I made curried chicken and rice. They're still here and I'm pretty sure I only heard Jamie cry once overnight and now, they're all still warmly tucked up in bed on this cold 5〫morning.

Let me tell you, I feel the love. I never expected so many of you to comment after so long not doing it. I expected three or four, maybe five or six, so it was lovely for me to "meet" so many of you after so long. I explained in the comments at one point that between three and four thousand people come here most days to read and I've always thought it odd to get the usual 20 or 30 comments. Not that I'm complaining about that, I'm grateful for all the comments I get. I realise so many of us lead busy lives and it takes time. One of the reasons I write my blog is that it motivates me when I see others doing what we're doing - it keeps me writing, it's my way of saying everyday that "yes, we're still here doing this, are you still there too?" When you leave a comment for me, you open the door to your life, you let me know you're there. Knowing there are fellow travellers on this simple living path makes it easier for me,  and I think it might make it easier for all of us to know we're not alone. Actually, the catalyst for writing about lurking was seeing a comment on Sarndra's blog from a reader who said she came from my blog, yet I didn't know her and had never seen her name before. It doesn't take much to tip me over the edge, that did it, I said something.

Had anyone told me 30 years ago about the crazy idea of blogging, I would never have believed it. How could it be that we would sit alone in rooms, tapping away at a keyboard on a tiny slip of a machine, and that would connect us to people all over the world, that real relationships would be created, that we would genuinely care for people we have never met and that lives would be changed and inspiration found just by looking at a screen, believing, taking notice and making a decision to change. How can we know people we don't know? It's amazing to me. The blog world is a wonderful and powerful place.

I love knowing there are young women in their 20s who have started their adult lives, often with a husband or partner, on a simple, sustainable path that will help build strong families and serve them well their entire lives. Hearing about your families and how you live reminds me every day that Hanno and I are not alone in this, we are part of a group. To know women and men are learning to cook my recipes just amazes me; maybe there's a cook book waiting to spring out. Knowing that what I write is inspiring others towards a simpler way, leads me to this place every morning to continue it - like neighbours at the kitchen table, having a cup of tea every morning and discussing this and that and how we can do better and be better. So to all of you who took the time yesterday, thank you. It made my day. 

I wanted also to tell you that my blog being archived in perpetuity by the National Library of Australia. Here is the link: http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-127061

This is part of the information they sent: 

I feel really honoured to be part of Pandora and to be part of your day. Thanks to all of you for including me.