I'm making napkins today. Those I made about five years ago are on their last legs and I don't want to buy napkins again and again and again.  Today and tomorrow I'll also be making laundry liquid, stainless steel sink cleaner, biscuits and chilli jam. These tasks, and many more like them, are a regular part of my housework. I aim for environmental and financial sustainability and I support and encourage biodiversity on the land I live on. I am mindful of the horrendous changes to the weather in recent years and this year we've seen many record breaking weather events around the world. It's the result of global warming and we've been warned about it for years but done nothing to slow it down or stop it.

Every dollar we spend makes the problem worse because that money is buying modern lifestyles built using fossil fuels. I'm not going to write about what certain countries, including my own, do to make the matter worse but I will urge you to educate yourself about global warming and work out a way to make a difference in your own home. We all contributed to this problem in tiny increments, we can undo some of it by working sustainably in our homes. 

I try to save money whenever I can because it makes sense to me, it allows me to live the life I live and I want my children and grandchildren to live in a world similar to the one I grew up in.  I want that for you and your children too. We can't keep putting it off, now is the time to draw a line in the sand and make sure we stay on the right side of that line, even when it's difficult.

Prices increased during the pandemic and the cost of living is still rising.  I thought it might be a good idea to share some of the things I do here to help reduce the cost of running a home. I'd love you to share some of the uncommon things you're doing too; don't worry about the common things, most of us are already doing them. 

Our water and electricity prices went up July 1 and we're about to receive the first bills since that price rise. For the last few months I've changed how I use my appliances. We had a solar hot water system installed when we moved here in 1997 and our first solar panels were installed in 2007. In September last year I had the old solar panels replaced and a new system of 18 panels installed.  I run my major appliances - washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, one at a time, in the morning as soon as the sun hits the roof. That's the most efficient way to run my system. If you have solar, do a bit of research so you know the best way to run your system to save dollars. The aim is to use the solar power as you generate it and just have the leftovers going to the grid but if you work outside the home, that would be impossible for you. A solar battery would be better in your situation because it would collect and store all the solar power you generate during the day so it's available for you to use at night. 

I use the dishwasher every three days but I also take a break from it for weeks an a time and go back to it again when I’m busy. After a bit of tweaking, I changed the cycle I use in the dishwasher. I used to do a sensor wash cycle (2 hours!) now it's a 45 minute gentle wash and it still does an excellent job. I've not had to rewash anything.  I'm microwaving more too. I always heat up in the microwave and I'm cooking vegetables in a bowl with a silicone lid in the microwave instead of boiling on the stove.  I have an induction stove so when I do use the stove, it uses less electricity than the last stove I had. 

I use clothes stands on the back verandah instead of using the dryer - I get very dizzy hanging out laundry on my clothes line but anything at eye level is fine and the clothes stand is working well. My March electricity bill was $76 - less than a one person house but I'm waiting to see this bill due now because the last bill told me nothing - a certain black dog was seen in the front yard so the meter wasn't read. 🙄 I think the bill will be in the $200 range but even so, I hope that by using the solar power wisely and the $300 worth of credits I currently have, I'll get by and pay nothing.

I can't work out the water usage. I use less water than one person in my home and yet my bills are always in the $200-$250 range. My sister's water bill is less than $100, and she lives in NSW and she's in a two person house. If you live in SE Queensland, I'd love you to share the cost of your average water bill with me.

Most of the time I buy my groceries at Woolworths and have them delivered. They charge $119 a year for delivery so if I shop weekly, it costs just over $2 for delivery. That saves petrol for the 12km round trip and I'm not wandering around buying things I don't need.

I eat less meat, I still cook from scratch, still make laundry liquid and homemade cleaners and if you do that too, your grocery bill will drop a fair bit and you'll be bringing far less plastic into your home.  I'm thinking of baking bread again because the cost of good bread is sky high and I don't want to eat bread with preservatives and other additives. My recipes for laundry liquid and homemade cleaners are here. Remember to turn off the light every time you leave the room, don't leave the TV, radio or fan on. Don't leave appliances on standby. It all adds up and over the course of a three month bill may tip you over the edge.

Baby Gracie playing with a shoe the same size as her.

So what's happening in your home? I'd love to know how you're saving money in these hard time. If you have time, drop a short comment about your unusual tasks because it might help readers who are making their first changes and those who are moving on to another level. 

Looking towards the outside world.

I love where I live. My home is situated at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac of ten houses.  I have neighbours on both sides and across the road an old saw mill which is completely screened by a couple of hundred trees. Back in the day when this area was opened up, cedar and silky oak trees were logged and brought down the mountain on timber wagons pulled by teams of oxen. They came to the saw mill close to my house where the logs were dragged across the land and launched from a natural outcrop in the creek in my backyard. They floated downstream to the coast and put on clipper ships which sailed to England and India.  

We bought our home in 1993 but didn't move here till 1997. Our soil tests at that time showed this was "virgin land" which had never been lived on or cultivated. The creek is our back border and it still flows but there are no other signs of the history of the land, the men, the oxen or the timber wagons.

We decided very early on that we wanted to get the full value of our land by improving the soil and growing food. We bought heirloom chickens, installed water tanks, erected fences and started gardening. We produced fruit, vegetables, nuts, eggs and loofahs from 1998 until 2021 when Hanno became ill. I literally walked out of the garden in October 2021 to tend to Hanno, leaving the tools as they were, and didn't go back until early this year.

The garden when I walked out in October 2021. When I went back earlier this year, it was completely dead.

Hanno did the digging, weeded garden beds, made compost, looked after the chickens, planted seedlings and left the gardens fallow from late November to March ever year. It was too hot to garden, there were too many bugs and as it was our wet season, nature took care of the watering. We were excited to plan our new season in January and February every year and started working back in the garden in early March. Doing this allowed us to rest over summer, eat the freshest organic produce, produce much of what we needed and share a lot of it with our family, friends and neighbours.

My part of the gardening took place every afternoon from 2.00 - 4.00 pm when shade covered the garden. I pruned, weeded, moved plants, staked, watered and harvested to my heart's content. I preserved a lot of that produce by making jams, sauces, tonics, cordials, relishes and pickles. We cut down on the cost of our food shopping and made ourselves happy by being productive and working outside in the fresh air.

Here is part of the potted garden I created out the front.

I decided recently that the potted garden I made in the front garden wasn't enough. I wanted what I once had - the opportunity to sit in a joyous space, breathe fresh air, watch the wildlife and think about the ghosts - both men and horses, who moved massive tree trunks across this land. I wanted to see my house from a different perspective; I wanted to see the outside as well as the inside. So at the beginning of this week, after I'd had the garden dug over and compost added, I started planting flowers in two garden beds. In a small separate garden that used to be an old sand pit, I'm growing the herbs I eat, chillies and two tomato bushes. I grow comfrey next to the compost and use it to make organic fertiliser. It doesn't look like much at the moment but like every garden it will grow into something entirely different with a little help from me and Mother Nature.

Roses have been moved back to where they used to be and are growing well. Roses are as tough as old boots and they only die if you don't water them. There's a standard dark red Munstead Wood, a standard pale pink-white rose called Seduction, a climber called Pinkie, two pink Cecile Brunner mini climbers, the pink Montville Rose, a pale yellow hybrid tea rose called Elina, pink climber Dorothy Perkins and I have The Fairy rose which I'll plant in a pot and have on the side of the garden. I also have English lavender, salvias, gaura, penstemon, foxgloves, yarrow, several daisies, chrysanthemums, Queen Anne's lace, snapdragons, buddleja - butter fly bush, society garlic and a small lemon tree in a pot. There are a couple of other plants there that I'll remember as soon as I post this but I hope you get the general idea.  I'll continue planting until I can no longer see the garden bed.  Shane came down to help me with the final planting which was all in the middle of the beds. I get very dizzy when I step on uneven ground so I was very grateful when he said he would come and help.

The plants are a large part of the garden but it's the physical space I love the most; it feels different in there. I have a place to sit in the shade and I can see the entire backyard as well as an air corridor that starts around 500 meters away in the bush and flows into our backyard.  Male Willy Wagtails use it to show off, swooping and gliding in front of the female birds, and it's the corridor insects use when they start hatching in the bush and move into suburbia annoying us gardeners.

The love of gardening seems to grow stronger in me every year. It helps me think about life and how I fit in, it brings back memories and helps me think about what's next. But it's also about the beautiful flowers and delicious produce that can be grown. And I'm happy to say that it's there for all of us if we have land or pots to grow in and the desire to work hard.

I really thought I'd written my last post here but I didn't know how bad it is out there. I went to Instagram to remain connected to you all but now it's self-destructing to get more advertising dollars so I don't want to write there anymore.  I used it one last time to let you know I’d written this post but from now on you’ll either have to check here to see if there’s a new post or sign up to Blogtrottr which I explain below.

Thanks for coming back to the blog with me and welcome to the newbies. Here we have no rules except for the requirement to treat everyone with respect and kindness. That's how I live my life so it's no surprise that I want that here too.  And it does need to be vocalised because there are new readers arriving here all the time and I want everyone to know what my expectations are.  I've been writing on this blog since 2007 and during the first few years I wrote everyday.  I had SO MUCH to say I couldn't keep it in. When I discovered this simple way of life, I wanted to share it with everyone and back then, no one was talking about living simply, at least not in the way I live it.

The focus here is on my home and up until now, my family as well. Of course I still have my sons and their families but my much-loved husband, Hanno, died in May 2022. Since then I've grieved, thought about my life and my future and came out the other end of that process knowing I want to continue to live according to my values and doing what gives me pleasure. I've always been a bit of a hermit and that hasn't changed so although my family visits me and I go out to see friends, my blog will remain one of the ways I connect with people. So my writing here will continue much as it was before. I'll write about my day-to-day life which always includes housework, gardening and sitting in the backyard thinking about life (and death). Other topics will pop up occasionally too - it will all be a reflection on what I'm spending time on and what interests me and hopefully you too.

I spent the last hour trying to find new ways for you to subscribe to my blog. Early last year, Feedburner retired and with it went an easy way to let you know I’d published a new post.  I found Push Notifications but don't know how to set it up and Blogtrottr which looks okay at the moment but might not work as I think it will.  I'll continue to monitor it closely and hope it sends you emails about new postings when you subscribe to it.  It looks pretty simple so give it a go and if I find any problems with it, I'll let you know.  I'll add the link to the right-hand column too. Of course, you might just want to drop by and check the blog yourself without receiving any notifications. That's fine too. If there isn't a new blog, read through my archives, there are hundred of posts listed in the right-hand column.  

I’d like to make a list of fellow, non-commercial, bloggers who are currently writing posts.  If you have an up-to-date blog which isn't about selling anything, send me a link and I'll check it out and will probably add it to the list.

Thanks for reading through all this. I wanted to get all the blog-related information out before I settle in and write about what I'm doing here.  I'll be back on the weekend with a post about the garden I've recreated in my backyard.  Thanks for being here. ☺️

ADDED FRIDAY AFTERNOON: 

A number of people mentioned they're using https://feedly.com and that reminded me that I had a Feedly account too.  It's a great site that allows you to make a list of the places you want to follow - news sites, blogs etc. I think it's better than Blogtrottr.

Gracie update: she wouldn't allow me to brush her face so I ended up cutting all the prickles out of her eyebrows, nose and beard with some little scissors. She was in the worst mood while I was doing it but when I finished, she raced around the backyard like a gazelle. Dogs eh.