down to earth

There are many ways of living simply, this is one of them.

Making the move from being a two income family to one income can create stress because of the uncertainty but when you settle into it, those feelings peel away, you start organising yourself in your new job and life on one income becomes your new normal. The key to this - in the early days and in the longer term - is organisation and team work.

The partner who goes out to work needs to understand the budget so creating one is a job for both of you. Ideally, this should be done before your change. Sit down together, discuss your goals, know what your income will be and start tracking your expenses. Write up the budget, or do one online, it needs to be something you can both see, not just an idea in your head. You should both know what amounts can be spent on food, fuel, transport, entertainment, clothing, etc. so you can work as a team. Then one partner goes out to work to bring in the money and the other partner works at home saving as much of that income as possible. There are many ways of doing that but in those early days it will probably involve food shopping, cooking from scratch and home production of common things such as yoghurt, bread, sauces, jams and cleaning products.

One of the early things I did that was very helpful was to make up a normal week's shopping list, then go through that list and make a second list of the things I could make at home. My second list contained bread, yoghurt, cheese, crackers, biscuits, cakes, jams, sauces, dressings, spice mixes, drinks, cleaners, laundry liquid etc. All these years later I reckon I've saved a lot of money doing those things and we're healthier because of it. We consume few preservatives here and we live with fewer chemicals than we used to.

When I first started living this way I did a lot of research about how to do many things. If you're like me you'll have a lot of printouts, various notes, spreadsheets, flyers, even pages from magazines. You'll need to organise these too. Enter the household manual. It contains everything that you need to keep the home - recipes, information about your rubbish collection, seed catalogues, vaccination dates, your pet's flea and tick treatments, handy ideas about sewing, planting, cleaning etc. If you haven't started one of these, I encourage to towards it and to edit it every few months to keep it current and relevant.

Here is a short list of some of the things you might want to do in your first year:

Budget and save an emergency fund.
Change your home to better suit you and the way you work there.
Monitor your water, electricity and gas usage.
Get better deals on your regular bills such as insurances, internet, phone.
Set up a pantry and stockpile.
Declutter and sell the excess - money made goes towards the emergency fund or savings.
Learn to bake and preserve.
Grow some food.
Start composting.
Make an effort to reduce the amount of waste you generate.

There are so many things to do when you live a more simple life, you'll never get through all of them in one life time. But the most important thing to remember from this post and the previous one is to live your life, not mine, not your best friend's or your parents', live your life. We're all so different, we're different ages, we have different types of families, different aspirations, values, incomes, needs and desires. So go slowly, work hard, identify what you want and how to get it. By taking the small steps methods over many years, you'll build yourself a mighty fine life and I hope that on your dying day, you'll be proud of what you managed to achieve.

The paid worker no doubt will work hard for their money and when they come home, dinner will probably be cooked, there will be clean sheets on the beds and clothes ready to wear. The partner who works at home will do the majority of that work. However, that doesn't mean the home worker does eveything in the home. When the paid worker is at home, they should help with whatever needs doing. Going out to work doesn't make you the king or queen, it just means your doing different types of work and if you're really working as a team, you'll do your fair share when it's needed, without being asked.

If you have children, teach them as much as you can while they're growing up. One of the biggest gifts you can give your children is to love them and your partner, and show them how happy your family and the way you've chosen to live makes you. As you get older you'll go through a lot of life stages so don't be afraid to change as you need to. Just keep in mind your simple values and work out ways to remain productive for as long as you can. This is an enriching and significant way to live and it will change you like nothing else can. Good luck. ♥︎

I'm queen of my home and here with my king, we grow, make, recycle, mend, bake, ferment, preserve, cook and do as much for ourselves as we can. Doing that helps us live a frugal life where we make the most of our assets and live according to our values and not those of multi-national corporations, advertising agencies or politicians who tell us to keep spending for the sake of the economy. I gave up full time paid work about ten years before the accepted retirement period and I have never regretted it for one moment. But this lifestyle is not only for retirees, it's here for anyone who is willing to do the work. Age is irrelevant. The best way forward is to pay off your mortgage while you're both still working. That will secure your home as your major asset and you won't have mortgage payments hanging over your head every month. Hanno and I paid off our 25 year mortgage in eight years by paying fortnightly instead of monthly, and extra payments when we had any spare cash. It's not easy but it's doable and all the hard work will pay off as you cruise into life without a mortgage.

If you've still got a way to go on your morttage, this post is for you too but it isn't for the faint hearted. It involves much more than wishing you could pay off the mortgage, it's about planning to do it then following through on that plan. Not everyone will want to do this, some won't have the will power or even the opportunity to do it but the payoff is magnificent if you succeed. If you've been thinking about this for a while and decide to go for it, you'll need to plan out your debt reduction, then work towards that magical day when you breathe out and say: We did it!

Then the fun starts.

It's a really good idea to organise yourself well and have a clear plan. In those early weeks the aim for both of you is to set a budget and continue to deliver the same standard of food and house work as you did in the past. You'll have to continue feeding the family and keeping your home clean so the areas you'll probably concentrate on first are finances, food shopping, food storage, and making your own cleaning products. In the following weeks, the person who is working at home can review all expenses, start a major home audit, then begin the life-long commitment to learning the skills needed to carry out the work you want to do. These new skills might include baking, cooking form scratch, food storage, fermenting, cheese making, and making the cleaning products you want to use. There is no doubt that if you master these more traditional skills - either one, two or many of them, you'll save money and increase your independence while moving further away from mainstream life. Hopefully, as you move through these stages, your sense of well being improves and a warm feeling of calm contentment will settle on you as you carry out your daily work.

When you first leave work and become a full time homemaker, you'll probably focus on setting your home up to support the family in a different way. You'll go from shopping weekly for most of your food and cleaning needs, to fewer trips to the supermarket. You'll probably stop buying convenience items and buy more ingredients to make what you need at home. These simple steps reduce the cost of living a lot but they also increase your self-reliance and resilience. This period of reskilling, or learning new skills from scratch is important and it never ends. You'll probably teach yourself how to do all the things your immediate future holds but as time goes on, there will always be more to learn as you go through different stages of your life.

And before this turns into War and Peace, let me finish by saying that gender is irrelevant in the choice of who will do their work at home and who will go out to work. There are so many things to consider - who works best with the children, who enjoys paid work, who gets paid more, who already has the homemaking and garden skills. The important thing is that you work with your partner as a team, make joint decisions, don't blame each other for past mistakes, share work when you're there together, and look to your future with shared optimism. This is the best way of living I've ever known but if I told you it's easy, I'd be lying. But if you want your life to be about more than working to pay bills, if you want to discover your true mettle, if you want to live on your own terms, if you want to spend time with your children and be the one who teaches them most of what they learn in those early years, then this is the life for you.

In the next post, I'll continue on this theme and discuss life after that initial change.

I had some time in the garden yesterday. It was so nice out there; not too hot, the soil was moist from overnight rain and the plants were standing to attention as they often do after rain. I wanted to cut back the lavender, tie up the tomatoes and remove some of the leaves effected by tomato blight. I was delighted to see our first ripe Rapunzel tomatoes. Rapunzel is new to us. It's a hybrid in our garden which is full of open pollinated plants but I wanted to try them and see if they were as good as the label implied.

This is only half the size the trusses can grow.

I'm pretty happy with them so far. The one I tasted yesterday was slightly sour but the seeds were still slightly green so I think I need to give them longer on the vine. The fruit are egg-shaped and slightly larger than a Tommy Toe. True to its namesake, the trusses can hang down about a metre and hold up to 40 little tomatoes.

When you prune tomatoes, cut off all the damaged branches, like this bent one above.

This tomato has been tidied up and pruned, it just needs weeding now and then a thick layer of straw around the base to protect the leaves from the water splashes that cause blight.

Blight-affected tomato leaves.

When you grow tomatoes you have to watch them because they need some help to grow to their potential. Make sure you tie them to a strong support and if you're new to gardening, watch this youtube video for pruning and staking techniques. It looks like he's growing Rapunzels too but this is the way I grow my tomatoes and I know it works. Other youtube videos on this subject aren't particularly helpful. The main points to watch out for are to cut off the lower leaves so you have a clean steam from the soil up to at least 12 - 14 inches. If branches spread out and get out of control, cut them off if you have a tall vining tomato but not for the shorter bushy types. Pruning your tomatoes will help you get through the season without blight - a fungal disease that lives in the soil. As soon as you see a mottled brown and yellow leaf, or part of a leaf, cut it off and solarise it in a plastic bag. Pruning will give the plant better air circulation too and without it blight will thrive once it's established. When you've finished removing those lower leaves and branches, spread out some straw mulch around the base of the tomato to stop dirty water spraying up on the leaves when you water your plants. Usually the tomatoes are fine to eat, even if the plant is fairly badly affected.

If you don't cut off the leaves, blight will slowly rise up to the top of the plant, killing the leaves as it goes. That will weaken the plant and it will eventually die.

Blueberry flowers and forming fruit.

The elder tree is the best it has ever been.

A tray of lettuce seedlings. I'll keep this growing in the bush house all summer.

Mint is also in the bush house. It gets morning sun and sits in shade for the rest of the time. It dies back in winter and shoots again in Spring.

Raspberries starting to climb the trellis. We'll have raspberry pavlova on Christmas day.

I managed to get a few lettuces in too. I just grabbed some from my packed tray of lettuce in the bushhouse. I intend to leave them in there so we have lettuce even when the hot weather makes the lettuce in the ground bolt to seed.

It feels good working out there. The backyard is surrounded by rainforest and a fence so it's cut off from the neighbourhood and whatever is happening out there. The pecan tree is putting on new leaves, a warm breeze blows through, birds are visiting for a drink at the bird bath and life here is pretty good. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.

I didn't finish my gardening yesterday so I'll write about it tomorrow. Instead, this is a sad and sorry tale about my recent experience with Hanno's Black Forest birthday cake. Someone asked me to post the recipe and while I'm not going to give you a recipe for a disaster, here is the sad tale of the cake. :- )

I wanted this cake to be the best Black Forest cake I'd ever made and yes, it was memorable but not in the way I wanted it to be. My downfall began when I decided to use a different recipe. I'd always made a chocolate butter cake in the past but the new recipe, from a German site, advised making three layers of chocolate sponge. I only had two round cake tins the same size and one slightly bigger so I baked three cakes in those tins and when they were cold, I used the smaller cake tin to cut the larger one to size. I made three light, text book sponges. They were perfect but I was about to descend deep into a dark pit.

I made a chocolate ganache, whipped the cream, thickened the juice the cherries were packed in and started assembling the cake. I used one of the uncut cakes as the base, added a layer of ganache, topped that with cherries in thickened juice and added the cream. Then I used the cut layer. I repeated the process of adding the layers, and I descended deeper into the darkness. When the final cake layer had been added with its ganache, cherries and cream, slowly but surely, the middle layer collapsed and slid sideways, then ganache, cream and cherries started to waterfall off the sides of the cake plate. Hanno and Kerry stood and watched as it happened. I put the cake onto a larger plate and then into the fridge. As I cleaned up the spillage I wondered if I'd hit rock bottom yet. Clearly, the sponge was too light for the filling and with the walls of the middle layer removed, the forces of gravity took over and there was a landslide in the Black Forest.

Leaving the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours allowed it to firm up and stabilise. Hanno couldn't wait any longer so I cut two slices and with a cup of tea to brace me, we had our cake. It was delicious - a delicious disaster. As we worked our way through the cake over the following days, I discovered that by adding raspberries it looked okay, even good! So when we shared the cake with others, they got a helping of raspberries along with their cherries.

I have said many times before that mistakes are gifts that allow us to learn lessons we don't forget. So what did I learn from this?

Don't use a new, untested recipe for anything important.
One more spoonful of ganache will NOT make it better.
Never cut the edges off a cake that will be filled. The walls are there for a reason, Rhonda!
No matter what it looks like, raspberries will save even the worst disaster. :- )

A small group of very interesting women came along to my first blogging workshop on Saturday. I held it here at home and as the weather was warm and sunny, we all sat on the back verandah overlooking the garden. I had a wonderful time, I enjoyed sharing what I know about blogging and I think everyone went home happy. I wish all the ladies well with their blogs and when they're up and running, I'll give you the links so you can visit them.

When I was a young girl, we had a roast lunch every Sunday - and I do mean every Sunday - and what was left over was eaten as another meal on Monday night. For instance if we had a leg of lamb, we always had Shepherd's Pie for tea on Monday. My parents would have been astounded at the lunch we had yesterday. We had Shepherd's Pie. I roasted a leg of lamb and instead of having the big roast Sunday lunch, I cut up the leg of lamb, minced it and made a pie. My mother would have shaken her head at that. A leg of lamb was a good meal and you didn't go mucking around with it unless it was leftovers. But Hanno's been having problems with his teeth for the past six months and he still can't wear the partial denture he's supposed to wear. I've been cooking a lot of soups and soft food because he has a real problem eating salads and the food we'd normally be eating now.

I made the pie in a slightly unorthodox way. I cut up the meat then ground it with the mincer attachment on my mixer; I put the vegetables through the mincer as well. Doing it that way saves on peeling, dicing and cooking the vegetables separately and they're ground up fine enough to cook well in the time they're in the oven and also fine enough for Hanno to eat.

After making a good gravy from scratch, and mashing potatoes and turnips together, I topped the pie and it spent about 30 minutes in the oven. I served steamed pak choi fresh from the garden, dressed with a little honey soy. Just as the pie came out of the oven, in walked Sunny, Kerry and Jamie so I was delighted to have plenty to share with them. We all enjoyed it very much. The addition of the turnips to the mashed potato was to use up some of the leftover winter vegetables from the garden. It was delicious.

I forgot to take a photo of the cooked pie until after we'd had lunch.

Today I plan on spending some time in the garden to tend the tomatoes, tie up some rapidly growing raspberries, move the Welsh onions, mulch and fertilise. I have a few things to do in the bush house as well. Time is moving on and soon it will be too humid and hot to garden. If I can get these few things done today, I'll be happy knowing we've done most of what needs to be done and we'll only need to water and harvest in the coming months. I'll take a few photos when I'm out there and be back tomorrow with another post. :- )

What are your plans for this week?

This week we have photos from Keriann in New Zealand and Corinne in England. Again they show the diversity of the readers here and the interesting and often beautiful places we all call home. Thanks for taking part Keriann and Corinne.

I'm taking no more photos in this series. I'd like to finish the segment before Christmas.

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Our first photos today are from Kerinann who writes:

I was hard pressed to choose my favourite room in our home, would it be the kitchen, the garden or the sewing room? In the end I chose our bedroom as it makes me smile just about every time I enter it. My husband is a very tolerant man, not objecting when I filled this sunny room with flowers, from the rose printed wallpaper to the "all my favourite fabrics" quilt. In the afternoons the sun pours in making it hard to resist a small reading and cup of tea break. We have doors out onto the garden and on a mild winter day I leave them open to air the room as I potter around doing my housekeeping jobs. We have a sweet puppy called Charlie and he also likes this room, sitting and looking out over him kingdom, dreaming that one day he will get the better of those pesky cats. The first photo is the tidied room and the second photo is before the morning tidy and from a different angle.

I live in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand, a big fruit growing area which also includes many vineyards. Currently its winter on the cusp of spring. We still have cold nights, sometimes down to 1 degrees celsius but during the day it hovers around 15. I write a blog which you can visit if you like: www.sweetmarynz.blogspot.com

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Now Corinee writes:

My name is Corinne and I live in the South East of England. To be honest, I have 2 favourite places at home - my sewing/ spare room and my veg patch. But this is the first year for my veg patch and my sewing room has been taken over by our new kitten, so veg patch it is!

It took a while to persuade my husband to start the veg patch.... I do have a bit of previous with forgetting to water plants.... But once he saw our 2 small kids eagerly eating the peas straight from the plant and tasted the veggies himself, I think I have him convinced! And just getting to escape for even a few minutes each day into the veg patch to tend the plants has kept me sane this summer!

I don't have a blog, but I do post photos on Instagram under the name Salapes.

This year’s Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair, November 5 - 8 at Adelaide Event and Exhibition Centre, will feature the latest trends including adult colouring-in, textile and wearable art, embroidery, knitting, paper craft, vintage fashion and a stunning array of quilts! I have two tickets for the Fair to give away. If you live in Adelaide and can go during November 5 - 8, make a comment below and I'll put all the names in a hat to choose. If you're one of the readers who can't comment, leave a post on the forum and I'll include your name in the draw. FINISHED

A few people asked for the fruit bread recipe shown in Monday's post. It's from my Sunbeam bread maker manual, with a few minor changes. I mix the dough in the bread maker, then bake in the oven.

INGREDIENTS

375 mls water - depending on the weather and the flour, you may use more or less water.
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons room temperature butter
pinch salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk powder
1 teaspoon bread improver - I put this in because it's a dense loaf and bread improver lightens it
4 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons yeast

1 cup dried fruit
½ cup chopped dried apricots - add the fruit 15 minutes before the end of the kneading process

Add ingredients in the order given in the above list. Turn your machine on to "dough", it will take about 90 minutes to mix and rise the first time. Look at the dough as it starts mixing and if it needs more water, add it tablespoon by tablespoon.

About 15 minutes before the end of the cycle, add the dried fruit to the dough. When the cycle finishes, take the dough out, knead it a couple of times, then shape it and sit it in a warm place until it almost doubles in size. When the dough has risen, brush the top with beaten egg, slash the top a few times with a very sharp knife and put it in a pre heated oven at 200C. Ten minutes into the bake, turn the oven down to 180C. This is a sweet loaf and it can burn easily. Check 20 minutes into the bake and if it looks too brown on the top, cover it with foil until it's finished baking. Depending on your oven, it will take 30 - 40 minutes to bake.

I serve it warm, with butter. The loaf will keep for two or three days in a plastic bag in the fridge.

I hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday Meg wrote a lovely and much appreciated comment:

This post kind of sums it all up for me, this idea of simple living. Making what you can, finding better ways of doing things, giving back to community and recognising the beauty in the simplicity. Reading your book earlier this year set in motion a whole string of changes for me. I was raised to frugality and resourcefulness so was nodding in agreement with most of it, but your writing reminds me to take pride in what I do and to enjoy it. And I made my first batch of soap, which I have been wanting to do for years but have been too daunted by the caustic soda aspect. It was so easy and so much fun, thanks to your instructions. So really, this is my thankyou letter to you. Thank You!

When comments such as these arrive, I am delighted my work has helped someone and that they take the time to reach out and tell me that. I like to be appreciated, it gives me reasons to carry on. Meg's comment encouraged me to write today about how simple life is a multi-faceted diamond. It's making what you can, finding better ways of doing things, giving back to community and recognising the beauty in the simplicity. When lived well, this life isn't just about the physical work we do, although that is an important part of it, it's also about feeling valued and enjoying your productivity.

I think we should all be proud of the continuing stream of work we do in our homes. I'm not talking about the boastful pride you sometimes see. This is more a calm contentment that for you, for today, this work made a difference and it was enough. There is loneliness attached to our work sometimes, because often our days are spent alone or with small children, or out in the workforce, and there isn't anyone to say we're doing okay. Many of us also deal with families who don't express their appreciation. And some of us get so busy with the daily chores, or the combination of chores and paid work, we don't stop to think about our role in the family home. But there is a reason we are working as we do and while some of our motives are connected to thrift, health, sustainability, productivity, ethics and values, there is also generosity, acceptance, kindness, appreciation and pride in work well done. These things give our lives meaning.

Life isn't about working till you drop, we all have to find purpose in what we do. When we find that, it's the eureka moment - much like Meg's, when you feel the need to change and then continue that change every day in many ordinary and extraordinary ways. If you can see passed the work and always be mindful of the reason for it, you'll find it easier to continue. And I hope you feel proud of your achievements and enjoy what you do because how you see your work can make or break you.