One of the things I really enjoy about my simple life is that I've taught myself to make many things I used to buy. I'm pleased that most of what I make is really good and that inspires me to keep up the home production of as many things as I can. So today's kitchen table discussion is about just that, the home production of goods - there is no category for these things, it's just making whatever we can at home.

There seems to be a certain mindset that goes with this. Sometimes we start off awkwardly , not sure if our skill level is sufficient, but with one or two projects under your belt, you realise it's just a matter of trial and error and the more you do it, the less error there is.

Some of the things I've taught myself, or improved upon the skills I had, are bread making, soap making, sewing - aprons, napkins, tote bags, skirts, knitting - scarves, mittens, bags; seed saving, composting, worm farming, aquaponics, preserving/canning, stockpiling, budgeting, slowing down, quilting, embroidery, mending, reading electricity and water meters, and probably a lot of other things I can't remember now.

Learning or improving skills like these will support your simple life but also save you money, greenhouse gases and help you live to your true potential. There is nothing like a difficult task to teach you things like patience, persistence, observation and awareness. Life long learning keeps you on your toes and sharpens your mind - a thing I'm acutely aware of as I move further into my 60s. It also slows you down and makes you focus on the task at hand. That is always a good thing.

Look around your home to see what you need that you might be able to make yourself. It could be anything from a dishcloth to a home made wedding - I am here to tell you anything is possible. Believe in yourself, go slowly, plan, read as much as you can or find a mentor and then set to work. Don't believe you can do it? I think you might surprise yourself.

Our changes

1. I am still working on my oil candle lamp.
2. And making liquid soap.

Things to think about

• Since the 1950s, we've been lured into buying convenience at the store. That is fine for many things but not for others. For instance, I saw an advert the other day for cheese pieces cut the right size for a cracker! Most of us don't need that sort of convenience. For most of us it's better to buy a block of cheese at a reasonable price and cut it, or shred it, ourselves. Why pay for someone else to do something we can do ourselves.
• Buying that convenience, makes us more and more dependent on others for our needs. Take back your independence and do for yourself and teach your children to do the same.
• Many things you do in your day to day life build character. Instead of working for the money to buy what you need, invest time in yourself and think about making some things at home. It will pay off in more ways than one.
• Test yourself.
  

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
Henry Ford

How are you going on your no spending task? I know Pippa has bought more milk for her boys, it's incredible how much milk teenage boys drink. If you've had to buy something, just get back to no spending for the rest of the week. If you're haven't gone to the shops at all, well done! We'll see the week out together with our money in our pockets and not handed over to someone else.

I've loved reading the comments for our biggest kitchen table series. I haven't had much of a chance to comment myself because I've been at my voluntary job the past couple of days, but I read every one and I learn and smile along with the rest of you. We have built a community of supportive and intelligent people here and I always look forward to seeing what little gems are left in the comments section.

Today we'll focus on green cleaning - which is all that cleaning we do without the use of harsh chemicals that are in almost all the supermarket cleansers. We've been hoodwinked into believing that we need a different cleaner for each job and that what you use in the kitchen or to clean the bathroom floor can't be used for other cleaning jobs. That's hogwash. We're encouraged to buy a different product for all types of cleaning but most of us know that soap, vinegar or bicarb/baking soda will clean almost anything. If you go to this old post, you'll find recipes for making all sorts of cleaners using basic requirements like those just mentioned, and, as usual, if you have some ideas or recipes to share, we would love you to share them.

Additional reading from my archives:
Green cleaning - floors and furniture
Green cleaning - the bathroom
Green cleaning - the kitchen
Frugal cleaning
Cleaning with rags
Establishing household routines

Our changes

1. I'm currently knitting a few lighter dishcloths. I'll post about these soon.
2. I'm making liquid soap that I'll post about soon.

Things to think about

• Make sure you label your bottles. This is especially necessary if you have small children living in the home or visiting you. Keep your recipe sheet in your home management journal so that if a child does swallow some of your cleaners, you'll know immediately what's in there and can take the sheet to the ER if you have to go there.
• Never mix ammonia and bleach together - it's very dangerous.
• Ridding your home of harsh chemicals will not only save you a lot of money, it's much healthier for you and your family.
• Our grandmothers and their grandmothers used these types of cleaners. It's only in the past 50 years that we've used what is common now.
• Make up cleaning kits to keep in the bathroom, kitchen and laundry. Each kit can be stored in a little bucket or old ice cream container that you can fill with warm water if you need it. Keep each kit in the room you use it in so it's always ready for its purpose.
  

Today we'll be thinking about how to use less electricity and water. This part of the audit is another one where if you can reduce your consumption, you'll save money and be kinder to your environment at the same time. Many things in this simple life have the dual capacity of being frugal and green. I see it as a reward - and it doesn't matter what side of the fence you usually sit on, if you're out to save money, your reward if knowing you're also being greener, and if your focus is on saving resources and raising your environmental awareness, then your reward is to save money too.

Please read this older post first, it explains how to do your electric and water audits.

Here in Australia, we're being told the price of electricity will increase a lot in the future. Even in the past year it's gone up and is set to rise again. But these price rises aren't only here, they're all over, including the USA and Europe. And sure as eggs, when the price of electricity rises, so do all of the products produced, stored and transported using it.

It's not good news, is it. But we can do something about it. Doing an audit is a simple exercise that will show you how much you can save by changing the way you use electricity and water in your home. Get the kids to help, it will be a useful exercise for them too because they use these utilities, just as you do. And remember, your savings will be small over a 24 hour period, however, all those small savings on all those days add up and make a big difference.

Read this page. It's an excellent website for learning about how to reduce your electricity usage. You'll find strategies for saving water here and my post on water harvesting is here.

I wish you luck in reducing your electricity and water usage. It's one of those things that both easy and difficult to do but if you have the will, it can be done.

Today we'll talk about getting rid of 'disposable' paper products, dishcloths, menstrual pads, baby nappies/diapers and plastic shopping bags. This is one area where you can make a big step forward in one quick swoop. Making a commitment to not buying a number of the products you may buy now, like paper towels and paper napkins, will help you on this path. When you start on this you'll realise it's easy and once you start, you might get rid of all your 'disposable' products. If you decide to replace menstrual products or nappies/diapers with homemade alternatives, I recommend my sponsors on the left side bar as a good place to buy from.


Apart from the obvious environmental problems these products cause, using your own homemade alternatives is cheaper and I think using knitted or crocheted dishcloths and cotton napkins makes the home more like a real home. You replace the mass production that is so common nowadays with something that you've thought about and want enough to put your time to making. If you do that with a lot of things that can be replaced around the home, piece by piece you'll build a beautiful home that is unlike any other. Looking around your home to replace disposables can be an exercise in homemaking as well.

The down side of disposables.
Free patterns for dishcloths.
Free patterns for shopping tote bags.


Doing my audit I realised we have been using the cloth napkins and homemade dish cloths and face cloths as if we've always used them. It's normal for us now, and always will be. We still buy toilet paper, paper tissues and plastic wrap and I doubt we'll stop using them, although we are careful with their usage. I'll revisit that statement whenever I do an audit such as this, but for now, they're staying.


I'm still using rags to clean with and I think you increase your potential for success if you have all these things ready to be used. Don't expect to make up rags when you spill something, you'll just go back to the paper towels. Go through your linen cupboard and find an old terry towel. Cut it up into squares with pinking shears and put them in a rag bag near your cleaning kit. Mine hang in a rag bag in the laundry. Everyone knows where to get them and that they are washed after use for most things, but if it's wiped up cat pee or something similar, it's thrown out.


Of course, you could also replace your paraffin candles with little oil lamps. Replacing paraffin, which is a petrochemical, with a sustainable oil like olive oil or rice bran oil, will make your home a little bit greener and safer. Olive oil burns clean with no smoke or smell. I made this small test lamp, it is running on olive oil, and as soon as I test drive some new home made wicks, I'll do a tutorial on it.

I am making no changes in this part of my audit at this time.

Some things to think about:

1. Are you ready to stop buying disposables?
   
2. If you are, use up what you have at home, and start preparing rags and making napkins and dishcloths and whatever else you want to try.
3. Remember, there is no guilt in the audit. If you can't let these things go now, promise yourself you'll think about it again later in the year. You might be ready then.
4. These activities make a powerful statement - for the environment, for your purse and for the life you intend to live.

Food is an important part of everyone's life; we have to eat every day for as long as we live. And that is one of the reasons we need to focus carefully on our food. We grow it, buy it, cook it, preserve it, freeze it and store it. Buying it costs a lot of money; growing it takes a lot of energy; wasting it is not an option. If you organise your food growing, buying and storage efficiently you'll save money because you'll grow the right amount, buy at the right price, and store it to prevent wastage.

I walked around the garden, kitchen and storage areas with a pen and paper to write down my ideas as I thought of them. Seeing everything and being there made the process easier and sparked some ideas.

FOOD - OUTSIDE
We have a food garden in the back yard. We grow all manner of fruit and vegetables and we have chickens for eggs. I see our back yard food production as very important as it supplies us with organic produce, it is the freshest food available and it gives us a small measure of self reliance. It works well in partnership with our pantry and stockpile cupboards and if there were a disaster, we could easily live on what we have in our cupboards and backyard.


Vegetables
It is important to me to plant open pollinated seeds. Unlike the regular hybrid seeds available at the plant nursery, open pollinated seeds will reproduce from their own seeds, so seed saving is a priority. Theoretically, once you have your stock of open pollinated seeds, you won't have to buy vegetable seeds again, unless you want to try new varieties. Then I would prefer to seed swap instead of buy. We have a set group of vegetables that we plant every year. Occasionally we try new (to us) varieties but we stay within that group classified as open pollinated (heirloom) seeds.

We have one major planting a year - in March/April, then fill in spots when they become vacant. We plant more tomatoes, beets, beans, peas, corn than we need because they're easily preserved by freezing, preserving/canning or when made into chutneys, relish and pickles.

Herbs
Again, we have our set group of favourites that we have growing almost all year. Parsley, chives, oregano, marjoram, bay, thyme and sage. If any of them die, I replace with a plant from the market.


Fruit
Fruit usually takes a long time to establish but it's well worth the effort. In the past year we planted grapes that I hope will survive for many years, I also plant pineapple tops - again they take two years to fruit, but the taste alone make it worth the time and effort We have bananas, passionfruit, pawpaw (papaya), lemons, oranges, mandarins (clementines), blueberries, pecans and avocados. Every year we get more fruit from our trees and I am convinced that whatever fruit we can easily grow here will be of benefit to us many years into the future. I would like to add a native raspberry to our fruit orchid but apart from that I don't want to change anything.

Most of our fruit is eaten fresh from the tree but we do freeze lemon juice to make lemon cordial in summer and mandarins are made into marmalade and passionfruit into butter, similar to lemon butter. We also grow vanilla and ginger for cooking and to make ginger beer, and turmeric for tea and stir fries.

Our changes:

1. Grow more potatoes, garlic and onions.
2. Improve our fertilisation of citrus to speed up tree growth a little.
3. Add native raspberry.
   
4. Organise our stock of vegetable seeds and store in the fridge.
5. Read more about vanilla and focus on helping our plants flower.
6. Change the lid on the worm farm for easy access.
7. Tidy up the pots and improve storage areas in the green house.
   

Things to think about:

• Are we making enough compost?
• Are the fences effective?
• Can we increase the amount of compost we produce?
• Is the chook food vermin-proof?
• Check taps and tanks for leakage.
• Check hens' nests.
• Check chicken coop for insects and snakes.
• Make sure chicken coop is predator-proof.
• Are the chickens safe and comfortable in hot and cold weather?
• Are there enough water stations in the backyard for chooks and animals?
  

FOOD -INSIDE
Once the food is in the house, it's either eaten raw, cooked or stored for later use. For this part of the audit I had to clean out and reorganise my stockpile cupboard. I will also do my pantry cupboard but that will be done sometime over the weekend. It's important to check on your stored goods every couple of months to make sure all is in order and to remind you of what you have. Don't just put food in the cupboard, use it. Make sure that when you add to your stockpile you add to the back and use from the front. That way you'll keep rotating your stock. A stockpile is dynamic, it's constantly changing - it's not there for show, it's going to keep you alive and healthy. Use it to save money and to cook from every day, as a buffer against food shortages, in an emergency or if you want, or have to, stop spending for a week or so.


We have a chest freezer that I am going to run down a little. It had been full for the wedding and I've lost track of what is in there. I love that freezer. I use it to kill any bugs or larvae that might be in new grains and dry goods I buy. When these goods come from the store, they go in the freezer for a few days and are then stored in a cupboard. I need to list what's in the freezer.

Our changes:

1. Clean and reorganise stockpile cupboard.
2. Clean and reorganise the pantry.
3. Run freezer down and reorganise. Make a list of the contents of the freezer to keep track of what is in there.

Things to think about:

• Menu planning - this works for some families and not others.
• If you're growing food, how do you intend to use your excess?
• How do you safely store your food?
• Have you minimised food waste?
• Do I use leftovers wisely?
• Skills - learn to preserve/can, blanch and freeze, bake, sprout, ferment, fruit cordials.
• Make a space in your cupboard to store recycled bottles and jars.
• Do I have enough good cooked from scratch recipes to cover a two week meal rotation?
• Do I have a good selection of quick and easy fast meal recipes?
• Am I able to fill school and work lunch boxes with healthy snacks?
• Is the fridge cooling as it should?
• Do I use my oven efficiently? Baking two things at once. Make twice the amount and freeze half.
• Is my kitchen set up properly for the tasks I carry out frequently? eg, if you bake a lot, do you have all your baking equipment together. If you drink a lot of tea or coffee, do you have a tea and coffee station set up close to your stove or hot water kettle? Can the kids reach the water glasses easily?
• If you're composting, do you have a covered container for your kitchen scraps?
• Do you need to make food covers for bread, ginger beer, sourdough, yoghurt?
• Do you have enough dishcloths and tea towels/dish towels
• Do you have enough large glass or plastic storage containers? I got some 5kg plastic buckets from my local baker (free) that I store flour in. Look around for recyclables for your storage, they do just as well as store bought containers.

Food is a huge subject but if you get this right it will save you money and enable you to serve good wholesome food to your family and visitors. Please share your ideas in the comments. This is the purpose of these kitchen table discussions - we share, help, encourage and support each other in our life choices.

Monday's topic will be disposable products.

Hello everyone, thank you for joining me in this most important monitoring task. I hope that through these simple audits, we'll all be able to look at what we're doing at home and make changes if they are needed. As usual, check the comments here because many of our readers will give you excellent ideas for changes and modifications.

No Spending Week
Tomorrow we'll start a no spending week. If you're in the USA and will be going out to enjoy your Independence Day celebrations, please start your no spending the following day. Everyone please make sure you have enough food on hand to last a week. Hanno bought two litres of local milk for us yesterday, so we will be fine with what we have in the house and in the backyard until the week is up. If you've never spent a week, or any time, when you decided not to spend anything, it might be quite confronting, and if you're tempted to spend, think about your purpose and the life you want to live. Rewards are waiting as long as you can stick with this. If you continue to spend, you're just staying on the same old merry-go-round you've always been on. Try to jump off with the rest of us.

Today's topics are 1. Living Deliberately and 2. Money.

1. Living Deliberately
Living Deliberately can be confusing at first. All it means is that you think about your life, plan the direction you want to go in, then follow your plans. If you want your life to be focused on family and the home you make plans to make that happen. If you want to retire early, work from home or homeschool your children, you plan those things so they happen as part of a planned and careful process, not one that is haphazard and chaotic. Making prudent plans increases your chance of success.

Over the past few decades we have been conned into thinking that we need all manner of products and services to be happy and successful. The problem with buying those products and services is that we have to work more to pay for them. Working more means spending more time away from our families, and almost all the research I've read about what makes the average person happy, tells me that we are made happy by our family and friends. If our family makes us happy, why do we think that spending more time away from them to earn more money to buy products that we don't need will make us happier? It doesn't make sense.

I encourage you to think about your own life. Talk about your hopes for the future with your partner and together, make a plan to create the kind of life you want. Live a life you care about. Don't go along with everyone else - either as a spender, or living a simple life if that is not what you really want. Think, talk, dream, discover, and make a life that reflects you and your values. Remember that your life and aspirations will change as you grow older, plan now for two or three years into the future. And write your plan down on paper so you can monitor how you're progressing. If you don't know what to write down, or if you're new to this, be guided by the list we will follow during our audit but in every stage, think about your own circumstances and hopes and make your list, and then your life, reflect your unique beliefs and needs.

Just Do It
Old post on Living Deliberately

2. Money
Although money is not the most important aspect of a simple life it is the glue that holds it all together. You need to organise you money well - have on hand not too far above what you need to live, nor too far under. If you earn much more than you need, pay off all your debts fast or make some provision to donate or invest your money so it isn't there tempting you to spend it. If you don't earn enough to cover your expenses, cutting back on non essentials, cooking from scratch, gardening and mending may help you make ends meet. I don't want to trivialise anyone's circumstances, but these posts need to be short, so I have to generalise.

Above all else, pay off your debts as soon as you can. You will be rewarded with freedom.

We use the envelope system here and it works very well. We wrote up a budget, and labelled ziplock bags (or envelopes or jars or read Heather's post at the Co-op here) to put in the month's money for that category. We know at a glance how much cash we have for each item and how much is left over. Any money left over at the end of the month is paid into our savings account because we have no debt. If you have debt, it can go towards an extra credit card or mortgage payment. So my envelopes are working as they should, I have no need to change them. I am happy with how we're organising our money.

The envelope system is a very good way of keeping an eye on your money. It's simple, yet effective. But I want to add a way to track and record our money from month to month. I found this free download that I'm quite happy with - Budgetpulse software. So far, it looks very good and it provides money tracking and budgeting tools without linking to your bank account like Mint does. So that is one change for us - using software to track our money and keep records.

We have a pretty good idea of how to handle our money and we are in a phase of life when we don't have a need to add much to what we already own. If you're at a different stage this part of the audit many be difficult for you. Comment on your problems and we, the readers and I, may have some ideas for you. If you use an effective way of handling your money, please share it with us.

These posts on the various aspects of our audit have to be quite short. But I want you to take the ideas here and use the ones you like in your own life. Remember, nothing is set in stone, modify ideas to suit yourself, twist things around, fashion everything to suit YOUR life. There is not only one way of doing this. If there are lots of comments on particular subjects, we can go over them again in other posts after the audit. The main thing now is to start. So let's get moving.

Tomorrow's subject is food.

This is one of our Biggest Kitchen Table discussions.

We have been scrutinising our lives again. While sitting on the verandah yesterday, Hanno and I talked about slipping slowly away from our ideals. Auditing is necessary for us. We don't want to turn around one day and find ourselves back on the spending merry-go-round, so regular audits keep us on track. We must continue our mindfulness, make sure we remain on track and stay focused on our values. It is so easy to become complacent and lazy.


There are times in our lives when we make momentous decisions that are life changing, but we also have times when we need to take stock and make sure we have stayed true to our changes and remain on the right path. This is such a time for us. We are reaffirming that our life choice is working for us and going through our home to decide if there are things we can do without, or tasks we can do differently. We want to be sure we are doing all we can to live simply. It's a healthy activity that will enable us to be fully aware of our past choices while making sure what we have here is working for us.

So during our own review, I thought it would be a good idea to gather as many of you as I can and together we can check our homes to see if improvements or changes are needed. We'll be checking a number of things like disposable products and food, to see if they can be replaced with home made products. We'll be checking our household cleaners, aprons, stockpile cupboards and a few other things I'll tell you about later in the week. We'll also include a no spending week, that will start on Friday 3 July and continue till Thursday night, July 9. That will give you a chance to buy milk or whatever else you need if you're at the end of your grocery cycle. Then, it will be absolutely no spending for the week.

Who will join us in our simple home audit? This will be a no guilt audit. We all have past mistakes we'd rather forget about. The aim of this audit is to keep us on track, or, for some of us, to start living more simply. We will just take stock, make adjustments, move towards a fresh beginning and get on with it.

Each day for a week, I will set a simple task to be completed. They won't take long so those of you working outside the home can join in or save the tasks for your days off. We will start tomorrow. Today I want you to add your name if you want to be included in this task. If you wish to, please capture the badge at the top of this post so you can show what you're doing on your own blog. Who will join us?

ADDITION: Shane and Sarndra have returned from their little honeymoon now and Sarndra just has left a comment for all of us here.

I can't believe it's all over. Our big event, which was minuscule by most standards, has been put to bed in our memories now to be thought about every so often when we're sitting on the verandah or when we see another bride. I guess there are times in our lives that stand out as being important occasions and this certainly was one of those for me. It was a time of welcome - for Hanno and I to welcome Sarndra to our family and to become part of a larger combined family. And it was a time of hospitality, when we opened our home to family, friends and strangers to celebrate an important occasion in all our lives. But for me, it was also a time when I thought a lot about who I am. I am defined by my family now. I am a wife because of Hanno and a mother because of my children, but I am also a sister, friend, neighbour, co-ordinator, gardener, craftswoman, cook, cleaner, writer and a woman and all of those things make me who I am and guide my days.

And today I am guided towards my own home again, this piece of land where Hanno and I work to provide as much as we can for ourselves. Today I'll be focused on getting things back to how they were before. Cleaning up for a wedding gives you good reason to do some deep cleaning but it also makes you hide things you don't have time for and want out of the way. My little writing room was that place for me. Everything that didn't fit was put in there and now needs to be put back to where it usually sits. I bet you all have a place like that where you can quickly get things out of the way and close the door. It won't take me long to put things right and then I'll have my writing space back. I am still waiting for my book proposal to come back and when it does I want to be ready.

The pantry and stockpile cupboard need reorganising too. Opening our home for the wedding also meant opening my kitchen to other cooks who didn't know where food is kept and now my stockpile cupboard looks like a bomb has gone off in there. It needs to be emptied, cleaned and put back. The pantry cupboard is a little better, but not much. I'll clean out both those cupboards in the next few days. We have some fundraising coming up at work too so I'll have to do some baking and pot up some cuttings to sell at the stalls we'll have over the coming months.


Luckily, Hanno did all the washing (5 loads!) while I have been at work these past two days and all the glasses, plates and cutlery, as well as the marquee, that were in the backyard have been taken away by the hire company. Our chooks where allowed out to free range yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks and when I came home last night they were happily scratching through the hay that was laid down over the wet grass.


So I guess today will help me get back into the normal rhythm of my days. There will be tea taken on the front verandah and dinner cooked tonight and all those activities in between will bring me back home and focus my mind again on our simple life.

Sarndra, Shane, Hanno and I want to thank you sincerely for all your good wishes and kind words. It showed Sarndra and Shane for the first time how wonderful the blog world can be and I think they were surprised at how uplifting it is to receive kind and friendly messages from all over the world.

Oh, and for the few people who asked, I use a Sony Cybershot camera - 6 mega pixels. It's a few years old now but I use it every day and it's still working like a Trojan. It has a little rechargeable battery that I charge up once a week and it never fails me. I am no great photographer but my camera helps me create some good photos. I generally take a few photos of the same subject and then choose which one to use when they're on the computer. I use Photoshop to crop and resize the photos but never alter them in any other way.

I will try to answer some of the many emails today, and to those two lovely ladies who are still waiting for their gift from my last give away, I'll have it in the mail this week. Thank you for your patience. Take care, everyone. I'll see you again tomorrow.

I've told you well before this that I'm no great sewer. Oh, I get by, but it's not what I would call a natural talent of mine. And let me tell you I'm not being coy writing that, just truthful. There are some things I am good at, sewing is not one of them, I wish I was better at it. So it should go to show you that patch working, once you know the rules and short cuts, is quite easy. If you haven't tried it yet, and would like to make things like quilts, bags and cushion covers, find a mentor or a good book and dive right in. It is a wonderful way to recycle old fabrics and make fabulous gifts. It's so satisfying when you see the finished article that was once a jumble of assorted fabrics. The most difficult part is working out your combination of fabrics and piecing your pattern together.


I started it in late March, and got stuck after I had cut all the fabric and decided on a pattern. When I put it together, I didn't like my colour combination. So I waited until Tricia came up and she helped me look at it in different ways. She also told me I didn't have to cut all my squares, I could have done it in strips. I will do that next time.


Working with an experienced quilter made the whole process much easier. It was still time consuming and repetitive, but when we got to the end, with all the hand stitching, I really loved sitting with the quilt over my knees, stitching the edges. My DIL Cathy teaches patchwork and sewing so we took advantage of her offer to come over and use her huge table for pinning the layers together. She then kindly offered to do the quilting on her quilting machine - you can see this best on the grey border - it's the squiggly lines, called stippling.


The backing is a pure cotton sheet that I bought when I first left home in the 1960s. It's white with a tiny flower pattern and is still in good condition. On the advice of Tricia and Cathy, I made a linen hand stitched label that I attached to the back of the quilt. It states: Trip Around the World Wedding Quilt, their names, date, and where it was made by Rhonda, Tricia and Cathy. Sarndra was overwhelmed when we gave it to them and she cried. It was a very special moment.

And for those of you who wanted to see a close up photo of the cake, here it is.

Shane and Sarndra with Hanno and Tricia in the background.

It was a beautiful day full of beautiful people. Shane and Sarndra made me so proud as they progressed through their day. Shane worked hard right up until 2pm when we all realised we had to have showers and get dressed. Guests started arriving shortly afterwards and Sarndra arrived at 3pm.


The ceremony was conducted in the front garden under the rose arch and luckily, even though it was the midst of winter, a hand full of perfect tiny pink roses swayed gently in the breeze. Flower girl, Isabella, and ring boy, Noah, led the bride, with her parents, Sue and Chris, into the garden to the waiting groom.


We circled the couple while they were exchanging vows and when the ceremony was over, Shane and Sarndra went up the mountain to have more photos taken (a wedding gift from Jens and Cathy) while we invited our guests into the backyard for wine and snacks. It was still light then so many of them wandered through the vegetable garden and looked at the chooks. It definitely was an unusual setting for a wedding but many of the guests commented how lovely our home and garden is.

The snacks were sausage and vegetable rolls with sesame seeds, hummus, baba ganoush, a selection of French and local cheeses, pickled onions and cucumbers with crackers. The main meal was roasted Black Angus beef fillet and roast lamb cooked on a spit roast in the backyard with roasted vegetables, potato bake, peas, corn and gravy. There was spinach and ricotta pie for the vegetarians. Dessert was the wedding cake, made by Shane - a white chocolate and almond cake (no flour) with white ganash and marzipan, served with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream. Many people complemented us on the food and I have to say it was delicious. Best man, Nathan, was a great help. He worked the previous night with Shane prepping vegetables and on the day cooking the meat. There were a half a dozen fine dining chefs there, so we had no problem serving up the menu.

After the main meal we had some lovely speeches, followed by the dessert and dancing. And then babies were being bedded down in the house, Alice wandered around being fed with the leftovers and our home was full to over-flowing with laughing and good cheer. I will never forget that night.

Tricia did a wonderful job with the flowers, it was her gift to Shane and Sarndra. Sarndra's bouquet was made up of white roses, white orchids and white hyacinths, the bridesmaid had one similar. White flower circlets surrounded candles on the tables and a beautiful arrangement in my antique long vase sat on the bride and groom's table. There were fairy lights on the back verandah and rice paper lanterns in the marquee and all that soft light added to the magical feeling of the evening. It was quite a day. The next morning, for the first time in years, I slept until seven. I'm still tired now, but I have to go back to work today and even though I'm tired, I've missed being there and I'm looking forward to it.

On the night before the wedding there was a program on TV about backyard weddings. :-) They said the average cost of an Australian wedding now is $40,000! Ours cost a small fraction of that and it was just so beautiful. Many guests said it was a wonderful wedding and a couple said it was the most beautiful garden wedding they'd been to. It was nice to have those comments to affirm what we were thinking.

And the special project I was working on before the wedding was a wedding quilt that Hanno and I presented to Shane and Sarndra as their wedding gift. I'll write about that another day. I hope you enjoy the photos.

I bring a message of hope. There are signs of change on the horizon. I noticed these signs about six months ago, as I'm sure many of you did, but thought they held little promise. However, it looks like things are different this time, this seems to be more deeply embedded in mainstream culture, and now I believe change is on the way. And the change is the belief of ordinary men and women that they can modify their materialist lifestyle to that of a more prudent and accountable one.


I remember back a couple of years ago when I heard a report about climate change and peak oil on the 6pm news. Well, that nearly flattened me. I was so surprised that the report was on, I called Hanno to see it. He probably thought I was a bit mad but there it was, what we'd been talking about for so long but in all that time I'd never heard one word of it on the mainstream media. Ha!, I thought, fancy that, never dreaming those reports would become commonplace in just a few short months.


And now on Oprah, I find that back in January an article called: Back to Basics, Living with Voluntary Simplicity. was featured in the O magazine. Far out! That is about as close to middle America as you can get. And in February she did a TV program on What can you live without?, in March, she did another on Simplify your Life. I mean no disrespect but America was the last major player to arrive at this change; European countries and some of the Commonwealth countries - Canada, NZ, Australia had been working towards cutting back, simplifying, gardening etc, well before the US, en masse, saw the need. However, I have always believed that without America, any change it would be short lived. The amount of wealth in America, coupled with the potential to spend it, as well as the amount of energy consumed there, made it imperative that the US saw the need for change as well. And it took the economic crisis to bring that change to the people.


Those of us who have lived this way for a few years would know that five years ago, the only literary references to living a simple life were in books and blogs. Now there are magazines and TV programs and all sorts of references in popular culture. I know mainstream media don't lead, they are followers, so it's very heartening to know they now providing what their audiences are asking for - more information about living more simply.


I'd be interested to know what you've seen in the popular media about cutting back, living within your means and being at home. I'm sure there's a lot more out there that I'm aware of. I don't buy magazines any more so things do pass me by. So tell me please, who is writing about what? I think we all have our favourite simple living blogs, so I'm not interested in blogs at the moment, what have you seen on TV, in newspapers and magazines? Please give us some links if you can so we can build up a point of reference that we can all read through as time allows.

Do you think, like I do, that the times they are a'chanin'? I have no doubt that when the economy improves, many of the new frugalistas will go back to spending but I think there are millions of people now who have seen that the grass can be greener on the other side of the fence and when they have more money to spend, they may not be tempted back. I think a genuine change has happened, do you?

Life can be hard sometimes. We're working towards our big event this weekend. Hanno's done a lot of gardening and preparation outside, I've worked inside and that will continue until Saturday when we get the most wonderful pay-off for that hard work by seeing our son marry right here in our own home. You rarely get the good things without the work. It's like the simple tasks of soapmaking and composting - you put the ingredients in, add the energy and out comes something much better than what you started with. The hard work pays off, in soap making, composting and life.

I'm a working class woman. I might not slip easily into that category in terms of my education and previous earning capacity but in my mind I am, and will always be, working class. It is my heritage and my inclination, and I wear the badge with pride because I believe I have become the person I am because of the work I do. I have to tell you though, I don't enjoy all the work I do, but I enjoy most of it because I can see the rewards it brings, and it makes me who I am. I would be a lesser person without the work.

Maybe that was one of the reasons I was drawn to this simpler kind of life; maybe it was the work that attracted me, because there certainly is a lot more to do living this way. But I see that as a gift. Having productive work to fill the hours is not the hardship some make it to be. It is simply what it is - the work of life. I would rather spend my energy sweeping my floor, hanging the laundry on the line and gardening than walking around a shopping mall looking for things to buy, and then battling traffic to bring my bounty home. I would rather work to help provide a warm and loving venue for our family wedding than pay someone to do that for me. Our work this week is part of the wedding and we won't have the wedding we want without it.


I had an email from a young woman last week who wrote that she wants to live simply but she doesn't like the work and is there an easier way to do it? I'm not sure how to answer that question because for me, no, there isn't an easier way to do it, but my way won't suit everyone. I've said this over and over again, there are many ways to live life - simply or not, and you should all live how it suits you. There are role models that you can learn from but in the end it is your life and you should live it as you see fit.

But I encourage you all to try this coat on for size - this simple life coat may not fit all comers but if it does sit well on your shoulders it is a fine way to live. Of course, not everything I do will fit into your life, and some of the things you do wouldn't fit into mine. But that's good - that is part of the whole idea of it, that we are all different and we live accordingly. Don't be hoodwinked into believing that fashionable clothes or household goods are the answer. You will be forever buying the newest must have and paying for the privilege of it. Don't look at your neighbours with envy because they've just installed a pool or drive that new car - they probably have debt as big as their egos. And don't feel bad because you're working hard - it might be the making of you, just as it has been for me.


And for those of you who can't work as hard as you would like, do what you can and be pleased with that. We all know there are times, for all of us, when you just can't do the work ahead of you and if you are at that point now, accept it and do what you can, when you can. But if you are capable and healthy, embrace the work you do, either at home or at your paid job, and know that what you do not only produces it's own reward, it makes you stronger and will, over time, change you for the better.

How do you feel about the work you do? Is it part of you or do you see it as a necessary evil?

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It's a mystery to me why all gardeners don't make their own compost. It is an important part of gardening, will help enrich your soil, and it cuts down on the amount of rubbish that sits decomposing in the council rubbish dump. Why send your kitchen and garden waste to the dump to decompose when it would help you grow vegetables and flowers while contributing to the health of your soil? Of course, the way you compost will be determined by your climate, how much waste you have to compost and how much time you have to do it. If you aren't composting now in some form, and have the means to do it, I hope you'll think about it now and give it a go. I have written about compost a few times before here and here, so this post will be the odds and ends associated with composting and, hopefully, a motivation for you to start composting if you haven't done so already.

There is a hierarchy of household waste that I've written about here. When you think about this hierarchy, also think about the wildlife you have in your backyard. If you have rats, mice, possums, foxes, coyotes, bears or wild cats, you'll have to be careful not to put food in your compost heap that will attract those animals. Generally it's a rule that you don't put meat or dairy products in the compost heap as this will certainly attract animals even if you've never had any in the past. Attracting animals with your compost is a problem in the country and in semi rural areas, but even if you live in the middle of the city or in the suburbs, you'll attract cats and rats if you continue to put meat out.


Remember there is more than one way to recycle waste. You could also build a worm farm, or use your chickens or dogs to recycle some of your kitchen scraps. Chooks love to eat meat and chicken, and they love eggs, old bits of toast and cake and all forms of dairy. If you give these tasty morsels to your chooks, it will increase their level of protein food and, hopefully, their egg production.


If you have chickens, dogs or worms, you'll need to decide where your kitchen waste will go. The hierarchy again! If you have meat scraps or any other food that would attract the wildlife in your backyard, give those scraps to the chooks or dogs straight away, it will supplement the food you generally feed them. If you're going to compost, start by putting a small container, with a lid, in the kitchen in which to put your compostable kitchen waste. This will hold all your fruit and vegetable peelings, crushed or pulverised egg shells, tea leaves or tea bags and coffee grinds. Empty the little container every day into the compost heap or bin.


You will need a lot more dry material for your compost than wet material. Read about the importance of this in the links above. Dry material can be old newspapers, cardboard, old telephone books, junk mail, worn out cotton dishcloths or clothes, hair, feathers, wool or any other worn out item that is not man-made. Plastic and polyester will not decompose. You'll need about two thirds dry to one third wet material, so if you can gather a lot of these dry materials, you'll have the beginnings of a good compost heap. You'll need to keep your compost moist, not wet and you'll speed up decomposition if you add comfrey or comfrey tea to your heap. Make the compost according to the information provided and your own climate and conditions, add your kitchen scraps, and turn the material over to incorporate air and you're on your way to good compost.

Composting is an ideal activity for those of us who live simply. It reduces household waste and it helps us use what we have to its fullest extent - from new, right through until it decomposes and returns to the earth. It helps us see waste in a more productive way, instead of giving it to someone else to take care of. It encourages us to feel responsible for what we bring into our homes - we look for natural products that will be compostable in a few years time instead of buying plastic or polyester. But most of all, I love composting because it allows me to take full responsibility for what I buy. If it comes here, I want it to stay here and not be part of the growing problem of landfill. I hope I've encouraged you to think about composting in some form. There are few hard and fast rules for composting, each climatic zone tends to come up with it own innovative solutions. If you're composting already, I'd love to know what you're doing. I am always open to new ideas and keen to learn.