I've just discovered Green Journey and what a find! It's full of interesting and helpful information and inspiring stories written by people who are living true to their simple values.  It's well worth a visit.

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with a link to your blog.

Every so often I receive an email asking if a reader can send me something as a gesture of thanks for this blog. Nicky wrote just after my post on chooks to see if we'd like some fertile eggs to put under one of our broodies. We jumped at the chance. We said "yes please!" to six - three buff Orpingtons and three barred Plymouth Rocks. They arrived yesterday. So, this is a little teaser about what my Monday post will be. It's what is on my mind today and what I've been thinking about all week. Thank you Nicky! It is a beautiful gift.

I've been writing you for a few years now and although you feel like a very close friend, you also keep me on my toes. You make me accountable to myself, you provide a space for me to express my thoughts and the record you provide of the life I'm living with Hanno has been very helpful.

Having been born in the 1940s, I'm pretty much old school but writing you has given me continuing opportunities to seek out the new, remember the old, and blend it all into our daily lives. You push me on to better things. I doubt I'd have looked into so many cleaners if it weren't for you. And bread, instead of just making it, you made me think about it and keep tweaking until I got it right. I make a really good orange cake now because of you. My old version was okay, but you pushed me to make it better; now my orange cake is a moist and delicious piece of homemade loveliness. So thank you, you should come round for tea one afternoon and try a slice. 

Blog, you really have been life changing for me. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have a book about to be published, I wouldn't be writing for the Women's Weekly and I wouldn't have a New York agent. Even writing that for you now makes me stop and think if it's really true. If I were following my life's pattern, I would be slowing down now, doing less and becoming invisible. You made me do the opposite. I'm busier than ever, becoming involved in a lot of interesting projects, and people I don't know say hello to me now. I'm not sure I like the recognition but I enjoy the new  opportunities to express myself creatively and to share information through you.

You've brought a lot of great people my way too and I want to thank you for that. I doubt I'd have met such an intertesting bunch otherwise. When I think about your readers and all the people who comment on you, the wonderful women who help run your forum and the 6000 members there, the writers and readers at the Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op, the staff at Penguin and the Women's Weekly, and all the people who come to the neighbourhood centre for workshops they hear about through you, well, it makes me grateful you whispered in my ear to start you all those years ago.

It makes me humble too.

Thank you for not requiring too much of me - just a few words tapped away on our mutual friend, the computer, most days keeps you happy and functioning. I appreciate that because even though I've grown to love you, the short time I spend with you allows me to do so many other things you've made possible. We make a great team. Keep up the good work.

Sincerely yours,

Rhonda x

PS: Thanks to everyone who left a comment yesterday. I'm fine now; I was not sick, just tired. There is a lot going on here, I had some extra writing work I had to do in a hurry, and I spent the past two days at the neighbourhood centre. Both days were busy and hot. It takes me a while to get used to the hot weather again every year, so on that first very hot day on Tuesday, it really knocked me over. A couple of good long sleeps has put me right and now I'm ready for anything. Thank you for your concern and kind words.

Here in Australia, summer is the time for floods, bush fires, severe storms and cyclones. I'm sure everyone remembers the devastating floods we had last year in Queensland and Victoria. Recently we received a free booklet from our state government (Queensland) about preparing for disasters. It's called "Get Ready" and it's given us a lot to think about. It contains four steps of preparation that can be carried out well before, and leading into, an emergency situation:

When we were younger, we probably wouldn't have taken much notice of these types of booklets but now that we can't move as fast as we used to, we read them, store the information away in our brains, and keep the booklet handy. But for younger folk, I guess the recent floods and cyclones and seeing the overseas hurricanes and tsunamis has taught us to never be complacent. There is a role for disaster preparation in every home.

We are lucky here. If there was an emergency that affected food distribution, electricity or water, we'd be able to stay safe in our home for a few weeks. There is enough food and water here to keep us going and although we'd have to build a fire outside to cook, that's easily done and it wouldn't phase us. We would make a quick trip to the shop to pick up fresh batteries for the radio but everything else is taken care of. We keep our mobile phone charged and have a battery charger for the phone in the car so if we needed to, we'd run the car for a while to charge the phone. We have spare fuel here.

However, if there was a bush fire, flood or cyclone close to us  we would leave and drive to a predetermined safer location. In that case we'd need a grab bag - a bag containing those things we wouldn't want to leave behind to potentially be destroyed, as well as all the things we'd have to take to survive some time away. Generally a grab bag would be packed at the beginning of each storm/bushfire season, or left partially packed and added to when needed, and would contain:

Grab bag

• Enough food and water for 48 hours. Make sure the food doesn't have to be cooked or refrigerated - sandwiches, cans of beans, fruit, popcorn, chocolate, biscuits, processed cheese, muesli bars etc.
• If you have babies, the elderly or people with special needs with you, you'll need whatever special food and drinks they require.
• Nappies, wipes,  baby bottles, sippy cups for the babies. A bucket with lid for waste items.
• Eye glasses, walking sticks, asthma puffers and any special needs for your family.
• Clothing and shoes for everyone.
• Books, games and toys for the children. Books and cards for the adults.
• Depending on the weather, either sun hats or blankets.
• Sleeping gear.

In Australia, the State Emergency Service will respond to all large emergencies. Each state has it's own branches and you can find their websites by Googling SES in your state. The SES have a lot of valuable information on their sites so it's worthwhile having a look. This is the Queensland SES site.

I think we often think that disasters only happen to other people but the floods last year proved that anything can happen. Do you have an emergency plan in your home? Do you have any information that I've forgotten, if so, please add your comment.

When our garden is in full production, we have too much food to eat all of it fresh. Often we give some to family and friends but when there is too much beetroot or enough silverbeet or beans to sink a ship, the excess is picked and processed in the kitchen. Recently we had a patch of beetroot that needed to be harvested so it was all pulled out and I made pickled beetroot. This is such a common thing in Australia and there are always tins of it in every supermarket so many people have forgotten that home made pickled beetroot far outweighs the poor tinned cousin for taste and value.

I tried the Women's Weekly Preserves cookbook recipe for these beetroot and they're really delicious. It's one of the easiest pickled vegetables you can make. Wash the beets thoroughly, then cut the leaves off without cutting into the beetroot, boil until tender (about 45 minutes), drain and allow to cool. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water to mix with the vinegar (recipe below). When they're cool enough to handle, it's very easy to just skip the skins off with your fingers. Cut them up however you prefer, then place in sterilised jars and fill the jars with hot spiced vinegar. The three large jars I made will be stored in the fridge and eaten over summer but could also be stored in the cupboard for six months as long as you're confident with your sterilising and sealing. The high vinegar and sugar content act as a preservative, preventing the growth of bacteria in the sterile jar.

RECIPE FOR 1 KG (2.2 LB)
1 litre/quart cider vinegar (I used malt vinegar)
220g (7.7 oz) sugar
½ cup of cooking water
1 small cinnamon stick (I didn't use that)
8 black peppercorns
4 small dried chillies
1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil, and pour it hot over the beetroot in the jars.

Here are the beets I did last week, some sliced, some quartered, packed in sterile jars and ready for the hot spicy vinegar.

Four bags of blanched fresh beans, out of the garden and in the freezer within the hour. These will be very handy when the beans have finished for the season.

Other vegetables, like beans, silverbeet, spinach, peas and carrots, only need blanching to be stored in the freezer for eating later when the garden isn't producing as much. Always blanch; it slows the action of enzymes on the vegetables which can cause loss of flavour, colour and vitamins.

How to blanch vegetables.

There is no doubt about it, when you have a backyard patch, you need to learn about preserving food too, otherwise you'll end up wasting some of it. But if you do that, if you learn these few basic skills, you'll have a good supply of fresh and frozen food to keep you going. I know my north American friends would generally can beans, carrots and many other vegetables. Here we do it differently, here we have a longer growing period and we generally use fresh most of the year, supplemented by the frozen stores.

Don't forget that you can also use these skills on cheaply bought vegetables that you might find at the market or supermarket. If you have too much of any vegetable, think about the best way to store it for later. If you pickle or freeze it before it loses its freshness and you'll get the full value of your money. I think that once you get a taste for home pickling and you see how easy blanching and freezing are, there will be no going back.

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with a link to your blog.

We're down to seven chickens now. We have barred Plymouth Rock Lulubelle, buff Orphington Martha, Australorps Cocobelle and Gracie, Old English Game bird Lucy and her two little girls, Mary and Kylie, who give the most beautiful white shelled, golden yolked eggs. Lucy and her brood came to live with us when Shane and Sarndra moved from their rural homestead into the Gold Coast. Lucy had reared a batch of mismatched eggs and although she was smaller than most of her hatchlings, she bossed them around and generally had all the chooks doing exactly what she wanted. Lucy is the first on the feeder every morning. The other chooks know that, we know it too. We have one of those feeders that is closed most of the time and when the chook wants food, she stands and a little step, which drops down and opens the feeding hatch. We put a brick under the step at night to stop rats feeding in the dark. Lucy stands on the step while I remove the brick, she is lowered to the floor of the chook pen - it looks like she's on a stage - and she starts eating before I walk away. All the other chooks stand back and wait, although sometimes Lulubelle might poke her head in to the trough. When she does, Lucy will peck her.

We have deliberately chosen not to buy Isa Browns and the general run of the mill chooks on sale at produce stores. They're bred for the cage industry, they've had their broodiness bred out of them and generally they will lay eggs almost every day, deplete their systems and then drop dead when they're about seven or eight years old. I know there are a lot of people who don't think there is anything wrong with that. I am not one of them. I want my chooks to live healthy lives and to go broody as nature intended.  When chooks have that natural period of broodiness they stop laying eggs when they feel they have enough under them, and their body has a break from egg laying and replenishes calcium supplies. We have a few old girls now who lay only a few times a year and we're fine with that. We're not going to kill them just because they don't lay eggs. They still catch insects and produce valuable nitrogen droppings. And, like us, they have a right to life simple because they're alive.

We'll have to get a few new girls soon. My preference is for either Barnevelders or Wyandotts but whatever we end up with they will be one of the old breeds. Just about any chook would suit our climate and probably an egg laying breed as opposed to a meat breed would be good. But who knows, I have found that chickens have a way of finding their own way to you. I would never have thought that I would have had an Old English Game bird - originally bred for fighting, but we have Lucy and she is such a character, you can't help but love her.


Walking into the backyard and seeing the chickens free ranging over the grass is one of the absolute pleasures of living as we do. They're as much a part of the backyard as the garden is. They help us keep the garden going and the garden produces food to keep them going. The chooks entertain us and produce the best eggs and all we give back is food and a safe haven. I think that's a wonderful exchange.

This meal would have cost about $5.50 to make from start to finish. It is enough for four people, or for us, two meals. That's $1.37 per serve for a nutritious, tasty meal cooked from scratch with no preservatives. It think that's real value for money. If you made up a small pot of rice pudding and served that warm with some canned peaches or apricots, you'd easily feed a family of four a healthy meal for $10.

The trick with these cheap meals is to buy those meat or chicken specials when you see them. You don't have to eat what you buy immediately because it's great having these cheap protein portions in the freezer ready for an afternoon when you have time to make up a delicious casserole.

I knew this day was coming but I didn't know it would be so soon. Last Friday, I held my book in my hands for the first time. Jo, my Penguin editor, sent it from Melbourne on Thursday, one of two advanced copies, it arrived on Friday. I asked Hanno to check the mail when he went out. He returned home with the shopping, unpacked everything, talked to me a couple of times and I presumed there was no parcel. Not a problem, I thought, it will be here Monday. About half an hour after he came home, he walked into my work room where I was writing my Women's Weekly column, with an express parcel and two little bottles of Grolsch beer. 

When I saw the parcel, I got scared. What if I didn't like what was inside that package! I opened the envelope, saw the familiar cover, opened the book and fell in love with it. It is so beautiful. I'm really proud and happy to call it my own. I flicked through the pages while Hanno poured our beers, then we drank a toast to the book, to the work put into it and to all the people who helped with it. Hanno was my main helper, without him, there would be no book. Thank you Hanno. I can't show you a photo of the book because Penguin is working on the promotion and publicity and I don't want to jump the gun.

For those of you who are new to my blog. I started writing this book many years ago and tried to get it published. No one was interested, so I turned the beginning of that old book into this blog. I thought that what I had written might help others as well as provide a valuable record about what we were doing here. Well, a couple of years after I started blogging, I received an email from Penguin asking if I'd like to talk about the possibility of publishing a book based on my blog. That email was from Jo Rosenberg, who ended up being the editor of my book and who I now consider a friend. Sometimes it's strange how things work themselves out, sometimes you have to wait for the right people to come along.

The book is called Down to Earth - a guide to simple living and although I see my name on the cover, I still don't quite believe it's my book. I guess time will remedy that. Down to Earth will be on sale in Australia in March. I'm not sure about sales in other countries but when I know, I'll let you know. I am hoping to sell some signed copies from my blog.

So, there you have it. Years of work, a different way of living and monumental change, all condensed into a few small paragraphs. I guess I learned something about simplifying along the way.  :- )

There will be some workshops at the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre you may be interested in if you're living close by. Sonya, from Permaculture Pathways, will be presenting a Worm Farming Workshop this Tuesday from 10am. On November 16 and 26, Sonya will be presenting Keeping Chooks in the Backyard.  All these workshop are five dollars each. 

There are also three free workshops focused on frugal living – The Frugal Home, The Frugal Parent and the Frugal Senior.  All these workshops examine how to live well on a budget. Common to all of them is information about monitoring electricity, gas and phone usage, budgeting, homemade green cleaners and laundry liquid. The Frugal Parent also takes in modern cloth nappies, second hand clothing and homemade baby food; the Frugal Senior focuses on topics relevant to our older citizens. 

The next Frugal Parent workshop is on Wednesday November 16 and The Frugal Home will be on Wednesday November 23, both at 10am, both are free.

Bookings are essential. Please phone 54999345 to make a booking.