I am sure most of you know that adding organic material, usually in the form of compost, to your soil will give you better crops. It's not just one addition, this is a continuing process that will become part of your gardening repertoire. When you first start a new garden, you add compost; when you're between crops and about to put in follow-up plants, you add compost; you can even plant into compost to give your crops a real boost - just scoop out a handful of soil, replace it with a handful of compost and plant your seed or seedling right into the compost.

There is no doubt about it, when you're gardening organically, you need a lot of compost. Of course you can buy compost, but just like everything else you buy, you really don't know what's in it, so here at our home, we always make our own, and we always have at least one form of compost on the go. At the moment we have several composts bubbling away in the backyard - we have our regular compost heaps, a compost bin, the worm farm and our chicken compost. I haven't written about chicken compost yet, so here goes.


Chickens are really happy when they can scratch around. It gives them something to do, it's part of their natural behaviour and when they find something to eat via their scratchings, they are rewarded for their work. We use this natural behaviour to work for us. Just at the side of the chicken coop, we have a small fenced area of about 6' x 5'. Generally the chook don't go into this area, they are usually outside the coop or free ranging in the backyard. We use this little yard to keep baby or new chickens separate from the flock until they're ready to be introduced, when it's not being used like that, we, or should I say, the chooks, make compost in there.


The floor of the chicken coop is cement but this area has a bare earth floor. When Hanno mows the lawn he dumps all the lawn clippings into this little space and as soon as the chooks see that happening, they rush in to scratch through it. Really that's basically it - but we do add other things to make a good compost. You can add anything that you'd put into your main compost bin - vegetable peelings, old fruit, garden waste and leaves, kitchen scraps, the contents of the vacuum cleaner, crushed egg shells, the contents of old flower pots, tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds, shredded paper, etc. It's a great way of using up your lawn clippings during summer when you can't put any more of them in your regular compost.


The chooks will mix in everything that we put in there. They eat some of the grass, which contains omega oils, they eat seeds, bugs and little bits of food, but the great value of them being there is that they turn the mix over a few times every day. As they work, they add their own droppings to the mix and that helps speed up decomposition. Depending on the time of year, we get great compost for the garden within four to six weeks.


If you want to try this, make sure you use an area with an earth floor that is contained by fences so the compost isn't spread out over a large area. The same rules apply for this as for general compost - no meat or dairy food, because they'll attract rats. If there has been no rain, sprinkle the hose over the mix so it's moist - not wet. If it's raining, cover it with a tarp so it doesn't become too wet. The rest is up to the chooks. They'll love it, it will give them something to do and they'll keep being rewarded with little treats they find. You'll be reward with fast compost. When all the grass and scraps disappear and turn into compost, just collect it with your wheelbarrow and use it on the garden.

I meant to answer this ages ago but forget. When it's really hot here, we make sure the chickens always have a shaded area they can sit in. When it's very hot for a long period of time, we fill upturned rubbish bin lids with cold water and leave them in the shade near where the chooks sit - they will use these to stand in when it's really hot. If you have your chickens confined in a hen house during hot weather, hose the roof of the house to cool things down for them. Sometimes there is nothing you can do and you will lose chickens to the harsh weather, but these little simple things can make a difference and are worth trying.

If you have other strategies for helping your girls cope with the hot weather, please share them with us. :- )

I didn't finish everything on my list yesterday but I made great headway. I'm always pleased when I have a full agenda at the start of the day because I know I'll get a lot done and not wander around between jobs thinking about what to do next. A full list gives me direction as well as the tasks on it.


I made four patchwork arm rests for the lounge and will finish the final two today. I made two aprons for the fund-raising kiosk in bright colours that I hope will attract a lot of people over to us. I really liked working on these projects because they used fabric from my stash that has been sitting there for some time. I will make the lemon butter and Anzac biscuits later this morning.


One thing that wasn't on the list yesterday but was done nonetheless, was making biscuits for Alice. She's been biting and scratching her skin lately so Hanno took her to the vet a couple of days ago. She had a skin allergy, probably due to the commercial biscuits we had been feeding her. We wanted to get some biscuits with Omega oils in them, but even though the ones we bought were supposed to be a healthy option, they contained colourings that made Alice come out in the worst rash. The vet gave her an injection of cortisone and told us to stop giving her those biscuits. I used to make dog biscuits in the past so I set about making another batch, much to Alice's approval.

The recipe is similar to the previous biscuits. It can be made in the bread machine or by hand - it should be kneaded for about 5 minutes.

Mix the above ingredients together and add more water to give a good dough consistency. Knead by hand or add to the bread maker. When the dough is soft and smooth, roll it out with a rolling pin and cut to the desired shapes.

I told you all a couple of weeks ago that my son Kerry had travelled to New York with the intention of working in Canada for a year or so, before going to Cuba and Brazil. Well, he arrived in Toronto (he has lived there before and has friends there) but he couldn't get motivated to look for a job. He was missing his girlfriend, Sunny, too much. Eventually he decided he couldn't go on without her and after a few phone calls to her and me, he decided to come home. He's on his way back now but is zig-zagging through the USA before getting on the flight home. He's been to Montreal, which he loved, then back to NYC, to Phoenix, he's in San Francisco right now and tomorrow he goes to Las Vegas where he'll meet with Sharon's daughter (Sharon who helps me here and at the co-op) and her boyfriend. They have kindly offered good old fashioned hospitality to him so he'll stay with them while he's there. Then it's on to New Orleans, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and back to NYC for the flight home via LA. He'll be back home on August 20. It will be good to see him again, I've missed him.

I'll draw the winning names for the Envirsax bags later this morning. Good luck if you entered.

Just a few quick answers here: Rebekka, that bucket would be idea for ginger beer. My knitted blanket is coming along slowly, I think I have about half my squares now. How is yours going?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. If you have to work this weekend, I hope you have ample time to relax. Welcome to all the new readers who came here this week and a warm hug to all the long time readers. I thank you for your warm and generous comments during what has been a tough week for me. They mean more than you know. Reading snippets about your lives helps me build up an idea of you in my head. See you again next week. :- )

Thank you all so much for your supportive and loving comments yesterday. They made a huge difference to my day. I phoned my friend late yesterday and we talked for a while (me squeaking and her talking) and even though she must wait until the 21st for her operation, everything else is working out well and she has organised as much as she can. I still can't go to see her but I'll be there as soon as I can. Today is day three of no voice for me but it's slowly returning - I've gone from silence to a squeak to a harsh whisper. Progress!!

And yes, I have made a list. :- ) Today will be a quiet one at home with the gate closed. I am doing some cooking for our Centre's fund-raising kiosk next week - Anzac biscuits and scones to be frozen until the big day, and a few jars of lemon butter. We have the church ladies and the ladies from the Hospital Auxiliary making cakes for us so we should have a nice stock of items for sale. My volunteers at the Centre have been baking and sewing too and our freezers are full.


I'll also be starting on my second Burke's Backyard magazine article. The editor sent me a pdf file of my first article after the pages were set yesterday. It looks good! I even have a photo byline, which I didn't expect. That first article will be in next month's edition which celebrates Spring.


There is also some work to be done on a set of patchwork arm rests I'm making for our new lounge. We didn't buy the entire suite but we're using an older sofa that was in our bedroom and has now been moved out to the lounge room. I'll take some photos of the room in the next day or so. We gave our old leather suite to Shane and Sarndra who are setting themselves up in their first apartment.


If I have the time, I'd like to do some work in my greenhouse. It needs an end of winter tidy up along with some serious reorganising. And of course, there are floors to be swept, a bed to make, bread to bake, and meals to cook. I am ever thankful for productive days such as this one. I get the comfortable feeling of being detached from mainstream life while working consciously towards a life of abundance and contentment. I believe nothing is free, everything is paid for by some form of action, and today I'll be working with that in mind. Today will be a good one for me, I hope yours is too. If you have the time, tell me what your plans are for today.

As you all realise, what I write about each day here on my blog is just a small fraction of what actually happens here. I know this post is not going to be optimistic, instructive or supportive but I want to write about real life and this is as real as it gets.

One of my best friends has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was told about a week ago but yesterday, she had a consultation with the surgeon who will operate on her; yesterday made it painfully "real" to me. I can't stop thinking about it now. When her children were told they rushed up here to be with her. Both her son and daughter went with her to the consultation yesterday. She is surrounded by people who love her, she is optimistic that the treatment will work and she will go into the surgery hopeful of a bright future. I just wish I could see her. She lives only a short distance from us but I've still got the flu, I haven't been able to talk for two days now, and I can't go near her until I'm fully recovered.


Significant and life changing moments like these always make me stop in my tracks and think about my own life. Am I being the best I can be? Am I doing what I should be doing? How can I change to make my life more meaningful? What am I not doing that I should be doing? I think I fall short when I answer those questions truthfully. I know I could be doing a lot more than I do. While I don't intend to change how I live, I do intend to make some personal changes and I intend to say yes to more of the many opportunities that come my way instead of saying no all the time.


Time is all we are given. How we use that time is our choice but maybe it is also a test of the kind of person we are. I hope to use my time more efficiently in the future. I don't want to waste time - that is unforgivable. I want to be the best version of Rhonda that I can be, I want to continue on my quest for a simple life and I am determined to be more organised than I have been in the past. Oh, I will still luxuriate on the front veranda with cups of tea, that is not a waste of time, it's an investment, and I will continue to take things slowly but I'm going to have a list each day and I'm going to follow it. No doubt there there will be a few other changes in the wind as I move through the coming months with my friend.

Life has a way of shaking us up and making us focus on the important things. This will, no doubt, be much tougher on my friend than it is on us, but we intend to be there to help her though it in any way we can. She has been a fine friend to Hanno and I so now we can return some of the goodness she sent our way. Send your prayers and best wishes out to her please, she is a good woman.

While I don't want to make DTE a question and answer blog, I do want to address a question Donetta posed last week. In part, she wrote:

But on a daily basis, Hanno likes working outside and does most of the gardening. However, I set up the gardens with one of our sons when we first came to live here 12 years ago, and carried on gardening over the years until Hanno took over when he retired about three years ago. Now, he does the day to day tending of the gardens, while I sow seeds, tend seedlings and look after the worm farm. I harvest and still plant a few things, but Hanno likes everything tidy and in straight lines and I'm not a straight line gardener, so I usually leave it to him.


I do most of the inside work - the baking, cooking, cleaning etc but now that I'm writing my book and a monthly column for a magazine, writing is a large part of my daily work now, so Hanno helps with the laundry and some cleaning. Now that we're here by ourselves now, that is minimal. When we clean something it tends to stay clean - unlike when our boys lived at home; we do laundry about once a week.

We each work on our little projects - Hanno's are usually outside and mine inside. Hanno worked on making a new lid for the worm farm today while I recovered from a bout of the flu, the first I've had in years. When I work inside I'll do a project like the oil lamps, make soap, sew, knit or mend; at the moment I'm knitting a jumper for Hanno. When Hanno is outside his projects are things like mowing the lawn, making compost, tending the chooks, house and car maintenance.


I have to tell you, none of it seems like hard labour, although in the past I would have seen it as such. Now there is a gentle flow to most days. We rise when we feel like it, we work at whatever task or project we choose for that day along with the normal daily chores. At 10 am each day, tea is taken on the front veranda and we take the time to relax and talk about what we're doing and what we have planned. If we don't want to work, we don't. But we both know that if we want to live this way for a long time, there is work to be done, so we get to and do it. Not every day is a diamond but generally the work we do is enjoyable, gratifying and enriching - not only in what it gives our home but also in what it gives us.

How do you divide up the work to be done at your home?

It's cold outside, just right for a warming winter casserole. Ever since I read the wonderful Nourishing Traditions book, we've gone back to eating a bit of meat. That meat is always local, grass fed and free range - never grain fed or feed lot cattle. If that was the only meat we could buy, we wouldn't eat meat. We choose to eat meat on the bone and let the long slow cooking melt the ligaments, giving us a good helping of nourishing natural gelatine, enzymes and minerals. Gelatine is good for our joints and when you start to age, you need all the help you can get. We also eat the marrow from the bones, it's highly nutritious and delicious.

This recipe uses local grass fed, free-range shin beef and will serve us at least two, maybe three meals - depending on how big the bone is.

INGREDIENTS

• About 1kg or 2 pounds of shin beef
• ½ cup plain/all purpose flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• olive oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 3 sticks celery, chopped
• water

Mix the flour, salt, pepper and paprika together and coat the meat with it. Place some oil in a fry pan and brown the meat. Take your time doing this as it will be the part of the cooking that makes the most difference to the final meal. Slowly browning the meat allows the sugars to caramelise, which will give you good flavour and a nice brown colour in the meal. Remember, we're not adding any soups, sauces or other additives to provide flavour and appeal - browning the meat naturally and long slow cooking will do that.


When you're happy with the meat, transfer it to an oven-proof casserole dish. I use a cast iron pot with a lid.


Add the vegetables to the fry pan and slightly brown them as well. When you've developed a bit of colour, transfer them to the pot on top of the meat.

Pour over enough water to just cover the meat. Stir the meat and vegetables to mix well. Put the lid on, put it in the oven for 15 minutes on 200C/390F and turn the heat down to 150C/300F.

What you're hoping for is meat that will fall from the bone when it's cooked. Test the meat with a fork when two hours is up, you might need to leave it in for another 15 minutes - depending on the tenderness of the beef when you started.

This meal could also be cooked in a slow cooker to be ready when you come home from work.

Serve with herb dumplings or boiled potato, along with red cabbage, green beans or chard/silverbeet.


HERB DUMPLINGS

• 2 cups of self raising flour OR 2 cups of plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder added.
• salt and pepper
• Rub into the flour about two tablespoons of softish butter. Rub the butter in with your finger tips, just like you would when making scones (or biscuits in the US), until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Chopped parsley or chives
• Add enough water to make a firm dough.

Forms small balls and drop them into the casserole. They will take about 15 minutes to cook so if you're going to add them, do so 20 minutes before the end of your casserole cooking time.

Welcome to all the new readers that have arrived over the past couple of weeks. It never fails to amaze me that new people keep coming. I hope you have a lovely weekend with your family and friends. I have a giveaway next week, so I'll see you then. :- )

I want to thank everyone who commented yesterday on the washing powder post. Sharing our our experiences gives us all more knowledge and ways to tackle problems. So thank you for being involved in this community as well as for your information and knowledge.

This post is an answer to another question posed last week. This one is from JoAnna who wrote: I know you've mentioned this before, but I sure would like ideas/help/encouragement for getting others on board. It's like society has certain expectations and it really makes it hard to explain to others (especially my children) that it doesn't have to be "normal" to be in debt up to your eyeballs and anxious all the time.

I think it's pretty unusual for both partners to want to change to a simpler life at the same time. Generally one person feels the need to change and then sets off on a mission to convince others in the family. I know you have teenage girls JoAnna, they will be very difficult to get on board.

This is my post on Convincing your Partner, it's about how I wanted to change but Hanno didn't, and how we got around that.

You have to start with yourself. With any change you need to lead by example. There is not much hope in convincing someone else to change how they live if they don't see evidence of it working well. I'm guessing you've been convinced towards change by reading blogs and books, see if you can get your husband and daughters to do the same. There are blogs written by men, Gavin's is a good example, and young girls, Mia writes an excellent blog full of her hopes and beautiful photos. Please add links to other simple life blogs written by men and teenagers if you know of any, and share your own story if you've been in this situation.


But the focus of your effort should be on yourself and how you work in your own home. One of the things that convinced Hanno that we should change was seeing how much money I saved by cooking from scratch, growing vegetables, stockpiling and shopping in a different way. You could probably start making your own cleaners, that would cost less and save on the number of harmful chemicals you have in your home. Who can resist hot homebaked bread? Whip up some bread for them, top it with your own jam or a tomato from the garden and enjoy it with some cool homemade lemon cordial. And when you sit down to this lunch of kings, talk about the reasoning behind it.

It won't happen overnight but in small bits - slowly, your actions will show them what the change you have in mind looks like. If you can show that by changing a few things YOU are less stressed, more relaxed, happier AND save money and produce delicious food in the process, that will at least start them thinking that maybe change is not such a bad idea after all.


Remember, teenagers are in a time of their life when one of their main motivations is to conform to what their friends are doing - it's how they prove to themselves that they're "normal" and acceptable. You will have to be strong and not give in to their requests for more pocket money and clothes. Tell them they will have to work for what they want, just like everyone else does.

But if you can change yourself, if you become more relaxed and provide a warm and secure home, if you show how the changes you've made have made you happier and more content, if you save money and start paying off debt, if you stop buying harmful chemicals and explain to your family the benefits of that, if you grow or cook delicious food and save money while doing it, if you stop shopping, if you provide a loving home that is welcoming, if you do more with less, if you focus more on a beautiful life than a life full of "I want", if you are satisfied with what you have and show it everyday in your attitude towards your family and friends, then you will be well on your way to convincing even the hardest heart that changing in small ways will produce a meaningful and satisfying life full of many rewards.

Good luck. : - )

Just a quick post today because I'm going to work and I have a few things to do before I go. It will be a big day there as I'm presenting another Frugal Home workshop.

Anonymous asked this question last week: I made some liquid laundry soap from Fel-Naptha soap, borax and washing soda... and my whites are so dingy I can't stand it! When I used the same ingredients but just grated the soap and left it dry, I didn't notice my whites getting dingy.

When I was at work yesterday one of the volunteers said the same thing and that she gave up using it because her clothes and linens slowly went grey. I'm not absolutely sure why this happens but I guess the water in different areas must play some part.

I always use the powder now. It's easier to make up and store. I have a front loader and I've never had a problem with the powder dissolving.

If your clothes are greying or if you have stained clothes, when you make up your mix, add one part oxy bleach like Napisan, Oxiclean. Clorox Oxi Magic or any of the generics. I use the Aldi generic, it's very good and much cheaper than a brand name oxy.

So to make up this mix in powdered form use:
2 parts grated soap or flakes
1 part borax
1 part washing soda
1 part oxy bleach

Mix it together and use two tablespoons (about ¼ cup) in each washing machine load.

I hope that helps. If you've been using another variation of this, or something completely different, please share your secret.