After a busy day at work yesterday, I'm worn out. I over-slept this morning and as I have to do a few things before going to work soon, this will be a short post. There are times in my past when I worked much harder and longer than I did yesterday but now it does me in. I have another work day today and tomorrow Hanno goes in for his knee operation and I want to be in top form for that. I'm taking it easy and letting myself recover so I have the energy to cope with the rest of the week.

I'm sorry that I haven't had time to answer questions in the comments and emails or spend much time at the forum, but I'll get back there later in the week.

And just a quick word about advertising. I've added Amazon ads to my blog to help pay for the forum which cost a few hundred dollars to set up. I like the Amazon ads, I think they are good value for money and they feature products most of us use. Clicking on the ads will give you more information. I appreciate any help you might be able to give me.

I saved this blog address earlier this week and hoped I would have a chance to share it with you. It's the blog of Jessica Watson, a young lady who lives in my region. Jessica is 16 years old and is sailing solo, unassisted and non-stop around the world. I doubt I would have allowed my children to do what she is doing at that age, but I admire her so much. I've watched a couple of interviews and her videos and she seems a very mature and intelligent girl. We so rarely find real adventurers in our lives now but Jessica is one and I really hope she achieves her goals. I think following her journey would be a wonderful project for homeschoolers. She is in her second week now and has just passed Norfolk Island. Soon she will head south, over open ocean, towards South America. Scary! The route she is taking is written about here.

See you tomorrow. I hope you have a lovely day.

I love knitting. I'm not particularly good at it, but I get by. There is something about winding a long piece of wool or cotton around sticks that is very appealing. I relax when I knit and I feel connected to all my grandmas who would have sat by a fire knitting clothes for the family. Knitting is a gift I give myself. As well as the relaxation, it exercises my brain, makes me feel productive, even when I'm sitting down, and it produces beautiful items that I happily use in my home or give as gifts. Knitting is part of my day to day life and I believe it should be part of everyone's. If you're not knitting for the productive rewards it gives, then do it to relax.

I still get emails from readers who like the idea of knitting but don't have anyone to teach them. This post is to encourage new knitters, and those who have yet to take up their needles, to start on simple projects and not give up. Knitters are very much like gardeners. I am convinced that if you see a knitter or a gardener anywhere and ask about what they're doing, they'd be pleased to tell you.

Knitting looks complicated but as soon as you learn how to hold your needles and realise that almost all knitting is just casting on, knit, purl, casting off, it seems doable. Learning a few extras like slip stitch, knit two together, yarn forward etc., will give you some lovely pieces that you can't buy at the shops. The thing that really appeals to me is that you can choose your own wool or cotton, and there are some beautiful yarns on the market now. A preknit cardigan from China just doesn't cut it for me anymore.


I noticed a thread over at the forum yesterday about casting on and untidy loose edges. A few techniques were offered and here is mine, I don't know what it's called. I do the normal, for Australia, cast on, then on my first knit row, I knit into the back of the stitch, not the front. It gives me a beautiful firm and tidy edge. The photo above shows where to place the needle, otherwise it's just a normal knit stitch. I find the American way of casting on quite complicated and always use the UK/Irish method taught to me by my mother.

I have looked for what I think are good sites for you to learn from. Remember, it is up to you to put the time in, overcome frustration and keep going. Whether it be knitting, sewing, cooking, growing or anything else in this simple life, don't give up if you don't get it straight away. These are crafts - skills to learn, you have to rediscover how to hold your hands and techniques that, although once commonplace, now are not. That takes a little time. Give yourself that, be patient, and it will come to you.


That learning aspect of knitting is why I encourage new knitters to knit dishcloths. They are the ideal project to learn the stitches as well as cast on, cast off, and you can experiment with fancy patterns if you feel like it. It doesn't matter if you don't do a perfect job, it is the practise that counts, and you get something at the end that can be used in the home. So start off with dishcloths and then progress to other small projects. There are some in the links below.


Set yourself up properly. It's not expensive. Buy or barter some good cotton or wool, I never knit with acrylic but there are many ladies who do. I think if you're putting the time in to knit, it should be the best yarn you can afford. For me, that means watching out for sales, or buying online occasionally. You'll need needles, I think aluminium are the easiest to knit with, just get one pair to start, maybe size 7 or 8. So when you have your needles and either wool or cotton, find a bag to put them in. You'll need to protect your work and if you intend taking it with you when you go out, a bag will keep it all together for you. I use an old flour sack made of calico. I gave a similar kit of cotton, needles and a flour sack to my friend Fifi at work. She is now madly knitting away on her first dishcloths, and loving it.

I hope I've encouraged you to try, or re-try knitting. If you get stuck, go to the knitting ladies over at the forum, post your question and someone will help you. Don't give up on it, or yourself, and have fun!

ONLINE RESOURCES
UK how to cast on

Chickens are creatures of habit, they are practical and they like climbing, so it should not have been a great surprise when I looked out the window from where I am sitting right now to find this looking back.

Quentin wanted to be close to someone and she wanted to rest while watching her friend, the half blind Quince. I think she'll make this one of her permanent perching places unless we move them on.


We bought Quentin and Quince about a month ago and since then Hanno has patiently nursed Quince through a nasty eye infection. She looks to be recovered now but she's blind in that eye and a little undernourished but I think she'll be fine in the long run. Generally new chickens would be well and truly integrated into the flock by now but Hanno separated Quince from the other girls when he noticed her bad eye, and Quentin, voluntarily, followed her. Even now she will fly over the fence, away from the other hens, to be with Quince. There is a loyalty there that is touching and quite fascinating.


During the time when Quince's eye was badly infected, her feathers became matted around her head and neck. Hanno washed her a couple of times and gently dried her in the sun. If she could talk, I'm sure she would have thanked him. With all this handling, these two little Sussex hens have become very tame and don't mind at all being picked up, which Hanno often does. He has such a soft heart when it comes to animals. I've seen him many times just sitting on the back verandah, smiling, and watching the two Qs.


But soon the time will come when they will have to join their coop sisters and free range in the backyard. They're fenced off from the flock now, living on the back verandah, and so Quentin can perch on a bench close to my computer and she can watch over Quince as she scratches for food. People say that chickens are dumb critters and I have certainly found that to be so with some, but like people, there are all types - some funny, some sullen, some smart and some not so. Quentin is a leader, so I'm glad we named her for our first female governor general.

I think Hanno will move them out to join the flock today. Their little wooden fruit box full of straw will go with them and they'll have to roost in the coop, instead of on the rungs of the old chair standing near our bedroom. It's been lovely having two baby chicks peeping at the back door but the time has come for them to move on. I think they'll stay together out there and I think Quentin will always help Quince find the water container and scatterings of grain.


If you take the time to know them, you will see character differences in all your chooks. Lucy, our Old English Game chook is bossy, highly strung and a rebel - she took it upon herself to build her nest in the next door neighbours yard instead of taking to the coop nests when the rest of her broody sisters did. Hanno found her there with five eggs. Cocobelle is our prima donna, Martha is a slow and gentle mother, Heather is the individual with her feathered pants and puffy face, and she is as game as Ned Kelly. I have never seen our chooks just as egg producers, although that is their primary function. They also entertain us, eat every bug they find and teach us that birds of a feather do not always flock together.

There are certain areas in every home where clusters of chemicals sit. The laundry is one such place and is a great place to start walking the green path. There are many recipes for laundry powder and liquid on the net. I have my own here, but it doesn't matter which you use, just start using one of them, it's a very good way to start simplifying. You can also throw out that softener. Get used to the feel of normal clothes on your skin; clean cloth with no additives is a healthier option that clothes with softener added. Read the labels on the products you're using and if what you read disturbs you, get rid of them, do some research, start making your own and be better off for it.

One of the best ways to be greener with your laundry is to line dry your clothes. I am amazed to read that in the USA, the land of the free, that line drying clothes is banned in many areas. Some claim it's unsightly, it lowers the standards of the neighbourhood, or that clothes hanging on a line indicates "poor" people are living there! I'm not sure what kind of fantasy land people who make these statements are living in but how can clean clothing hanging in the sunshine be unsightly. Clothes hanging out to dry indicates clean clothes, clean sheets and towels all smelling of sunshine. And if "poor" people live there, so what? If you came to Australia you'd think we are all "poor" because there is washing hanging outside all over the country here. It's normal, and always has been.

And while we're about it, what about the regulations that ban home owners from keeping chickens! That's another stupid rule that needs overturning. I think it's about time these ridiculous regulations are seen for what they really are - a way for local authorities to interfere in our lives. Let them regulate parking rules and where shopping malls are built but they can stay out of my backyard, thank you very much. What happens there is my business and no one else's.

If you are affected by these unfair restrictions, start making a noise about it. These are not radical things, our grandparents and theirs kept chickens and hung laundry outside to dry. Why have those simply rights been taken away? It's just another way to control us. Write to your local politicians and your newspapers and demand the right to line dry and keep chickens. These are your decisions to make, they should not be made for you.

And now I'll step down from my soap box. :- ) I hope you have a beautiful day.

There have been quite a few questions over the past two dairy days so I'll use this post to answer them. I hope you try making these dairy products. They are very tasty, they're cheaper than the store bought products and you'll help keep old skills alive, particularly if you pass on what you know.

Sueellen wrote: Will have a go at the yoghurt but am curious to know if you have posted a recipie for sour cream. My thoughts are that you would need only to sour some fresh cream with lemon juice or vinegar but I might be completely wrong.

Sueallen, sour cream is easy to make at home but I don't think I've posted about it before. If you make this on a day when you've used the oven, you can use the residual heat in the oven to make the sour cream. Get yourself a 750ml mason jar, or glass container with a lid, add ½ cup of room temperature cultured buttermilk and two cups of room temperature cream and stir thoroughly. Wrap the jar in a towel and place it in the warm oven, leave it for 24 hours. Then you have your sour cream.

Attila, you can reserve some of this yoghurt to make your next batch. Every so often, you'll need to buy a new batch of yoghurt as a fresh starter.

Allison wrote: Reading this now I did not cover my jars with a lid so maybe that was my issue. I did cover it with a coffee filter to keep things out of the jar.

Allison: you must put the lid on to hold in the heat. Yoghurt needs a constant low warm temperature for the bacteria to multiply. Try it again with the lid on. Don't overheat the milk once the yoghurt is in it as that will kill the culture, but it does need constant warmth.

Reyna wrote: I would like to freeze some yoghurt to use in place of icecream for smoothies. Is there a special way of doing that, or do you just freeze, stir, freeze, stir etc like you do icecream??

Reyna, that way would certainly work well, or you could use an icecream maker, but I would do it another way. As the frozen yoghurt will be going into smoothies, I'd just freeze shallow covered trays of yoghurt. You will get a few ice crystals but it will be blended in with other ingredients, so that won't matter. It will be much less work this way.

Kristin, adding a lot of starter yoghurt - a full cup, and the extra powdered milk, is the key to making thick yoghurt.

white lilly wrote: I was wondering what the difference would be if the store bought yoghurt has gelatine added. Because the yoghurt I made with using store bought yoghurt was a bit what you call slimmy. Could this be caused by gelatine or something else.

white lilly: gelatine in the starter yoghurt will inhibit the whey separating from the curds and if you're going to make cheese from the yoghurt, that is a problem. If you use starter yoghurt containing gelatine it will take the yoghurt longer to firm up, and if you use the yoghurt before it's finished maybe that felt "slimey". You'd be much better off using a starter yoghurt that is "natural" with its beneficial bacteria added, but with as few extra additives as possible.

Anna wrote: My latest batch of yoghurt didn't work right, so I had to throw it away - smelt and tasted like squashed ants - blechh. I'm interested to see that people add milk powder to their mix, I'll have to try that. I don't think I'm keeping the mix warm enough either, will have to try the esky technique!

Anna: when you make the yoghurt keep it at a consistent warm temperature. You also need to use sterilised jars as the introduction of any other bacteria will inhibit the growth of the beneficial bacteria.

mecathie: yes, you can use any type of milk.

meagan wrote: A week went by and I still had the whey in the fridge but I was afraid it had gone off so I threw it out. How long does whey last before you should use it?

Meagan: If kept in the fridge in a pre-sterilsed bottle or jar, whey should last about 3-4 weeks. If it starts going off you'll notice mould forming on the top.

Lors, a Greek starter yoghurt always makes a delicious thick yoghurt. I'm pleased you tried it.

Barbara: people from many countries have their own version of fresh yoghurt or buttermilk cheese. Germans calls theirs quark, but there are many versions and names.

Shan wrote: In the end of your post it says something like 'It won't last longer than that in the freezer". I'm assuming that you meant 'will'? I'm not sure though b/c I haven't put any dairy products in the freezer except ice cream ;) So I wanted to check to see? Also what is UHT?

Shan, I meant "won't last longer than that". Ricotta needs to be eaten fresh. It will last a couple of days in the fridge and maybe a week or 10 days in the freezer. After that it will be tasteless and, if over frozen, like rubber. You can easily freeze milk and cream and then defrost them in the fridge when you're ready to use them. UHT stands for ultra high temperature. This milk is sterilised by being super heated. That is why it can sit on a shelf for many months without going off.

Yesterday we had a 500gram/16oz tub of yoghurt that cost $3.50 and turned it into two litres/quarts of yoghurt that cost about $4. One litre/quart of that was eaten as yoghurt - with one cup reserved to make the next batch, the other litre/quart was made into quark cheese. Quark is a simple fresh cheese that doesn't require any special equipment and will be ready for eating as soon a you finish making it.

When you have your yoghurt made and you want to make quark, you need a large jug, a strainer and a piece of clean cotton cloth. Wash the cloth with pure soap, rinse well and wring it out so it's not dripping wet. Place the strainer in the jug and the cloth over the strainer. Then add the yoghurt.

Cover the yoghurt with the cloth, so the mix is entirely covered.

Put a plate on top and and weigh the plate down with something fairly heavy. I have used a pot of jam. The process of making quark involves removing the water (whey) from the yoghurt. You do that by sitting the yoghurt in the strainer, in the fridge, weighed down so the whey can drain from the yoghurt into the jug.

To get a suitable dry quark, you'll need to allow it to drain for at least 24 hours, possibly 48 hours. When you think it's able to be moulded into a cheese shape, remove the quark from the strainer, pack it into a mould and then turn it out onto a plate.

The quark below is an old photo of quark I made a few months ago. The savory quark was made by adding salt and pepper to taste to the finished quark and adding some chopped chives. You could also add chilli or chilli sauce over the top of the quark.

This sweet quark below was sweetened with a little honey and then I added a small amount of homemade strawberry jam to the top of the quark.

Whey is a by-product of quark. It is the fluid part of the yoghurt that is full of live lactobacillus acidophilus and is very good for you. You can use whey in a number of ways, don't throw it away. (<- Nice sentence there.) Whey makes a nice drink, you can drink it as is or when it is cold. It could also be added to smoothies. It is an excellent replacement for milk in any baking you might be doing. Whey will give you a great result in cakes, scones or biscuits. It can be added to sauerkraut, relish or pickles to add live culture to those foods.
You can also use it to make ricotta. You need an awful lot of whey to make ricotta. It takes the whey from 5 gallons of milk to make 1 kilo/2 pounds of ricotta, so I use the small amount of whey I usually have in another way. BTW, if you want to make ricotta and you have such a quantity of whey, go here to find out how to do it.

RICOTTA
1 litre/quart milk - can be fresh cow's, powdered, UHT or goat's milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice or cider vinegar
whey

If you want to use the ricotta for a dessert, you may like to add one cup of cream for a creamier ricotta.


Place all ingredients in a heavy bottom saucepan and heat up to simmering point. Don't boil it and don't allow it to burn. Stir to prevent scalding the milk. Soon after you add the acid (lemon/vinegar) you will notice the curds separate from the whey.


Prepare a strainer with an open weave cotton cloth in it, in the same way you did when making quark. Place the strainer over a large jug with the cloth in the strainer. Take a slotted spoon and add the curds to the strainer and allow the whey to drain into the jug. This will take a few hours for a dry ricotta and maybe one hour for a smooth creamy ricotta suitable for dessert. When it's drained enough, wind the top of the cloth around so you can give it one last squeeze, then the ricotta is ready for use. I used mine in lasagna. It freezes well so you could wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it or store in the fridge for a day or two. It won't keep longer than that in the freezer.

The leftover whey doesn't contain much protein now, but you could still use it in baking. I give it to the chooks as an extra treat - we soak old bread in the whey and the chooks love it.

I hope you try these cheeses. They will be a healthy addition to your kitchen and another way you can be a self reliant cook. Don't forget that you can use any milk from fresh raw milk to UHT milk. Often that decision is made for you because you have to use the cheapest option. The raw milk will be live and the UHT will be sterile but you will still get good cheese no matter what you use.

There are many little cost cutting measures you can take in a frugal home. Most of them, when you see them as an isolated unit, look too insignificant to bother about, but add them all up and you'll make good savings. Saving grocery money is an important goal for most homemakers; it means paying off more debt and all the good things that come from that. So being able to make two cups of yoghurt into two litres/quarts might seem small, but it will save you money and learning how to do it adds to your skill base, and that, my friends, is important.

Live food can multiply, it's one of its numerous benefits. I know many of you use yoghurt to make new yoghurt but there are many new readers here and quite a few young homemakers so I would like to revisit how to make yoghurt at home. I encourage you to add your method of making yoghurt in your comment. My way will not suit everyone and you may encourage someone to learn this skill.


You can do this two ways - either buy a powdered yoghurt starter or just a tub of natural yoghurt. The yoghurt must be natural with no gelatin added. I bought the best yoghurt in my area - Maleny Natural, a cows milk yoghurt that has won gold medals at both the Sydney Royal and the Ekka shows. It cost $3.50 for a 500 gram/16 oz tub. Check the use by date and get the freshest yoghurt you can find. This is important you need live beneficial bacteria for this to work. You could also use sheep or goat yoghurt as a starter as long as it contains a live culture and it's unflavoured with no gelatin. Remember, starting with fresh ingredients of the best quality you can afford and find will give you the best yoghurt.

The cheapest way to make this up is to use powdered milk but you can also use milk from the supermarket, raw cow's milk or soy, goat or sheep milk. You could also use UHT milk and if you do, you don't have to almost boil the milk at the start - this milk is sterile. To make up the powdered milk you'll need just under one litre/quart water and the recommended amount of milk powder to make up whole milk, and about ¼ cup extra of powdered milk.

You'll need a 1 litre/quart mason jar or some other sealable container, a saucepan and a towel.

Make up the powdered milk in the saucepan, or if you're using fresh milk, add it to the saucepan over heat. Heat the milk until you see tiny bubbles start to form at the edges, then remove from the heat. This process will kill off any harmful bacteria that would spoil the yoghurt. Pour the milk into a pre-sterilised mason jar. You can sterilise the jar by pouring boiling water into it or putting it into a warm oven for 20 minutes. Be careful to keep everything clean as you don't want to contaminate the milk, utensils or jar once you've started .


Let the milk cool but don't let it go cold. When the milk has reached the point where you can put your hands around the jar without it burning you, it's time to add your yoghurt. Add about a cup full of yoghurt and the extra ¼ cup of powdered milk - this will give you a thicker yoghurt. Then seal the jar and wrap it in a towel. Put it into a warm (not hot) oven, that is turned off, and leave it there, without opening the door for about 12 hours. When you open it again, you'll have yoghurt.


You can flavour the yoghurt with jam, honey and vanilla, maple syrup or stewed fruit. If you want to add fresh fruit, add it just before you eat it. I put my yoghurt into smaller jars for sweetening - one here is raw honey and vanilla, the other is homemade rosella jam. Store it in the fridge, it will keep for about three weeks. Tomorrow we'll go on to a couple of things you can make with the unflavoured yoghurt.

You can buy yoghurt starter in Australia here and here or in the US/Canada here and here, if you're in another country, Google "yoghurt/yogurt starter UK" or whatever your country is.

We had a peaceful weekend, didn't do much but potter around the house, I worked on the forum quite a bit, tweaking and reading the manual, while Hanno did some gardening and tidying up outside. There are always tasks waiting to be done in a simplified home and here it's no different.

Hanno pulled out the last of the winter kale and planted up dwarf bean seedlings in their place. They're nicely protected with straw mulch and will soon be joined by corn seedlings that are not quite ready to plant yet. A storm during the week gave us a bit of water in the tanks so some of that stored water was used on the garden, but we still need good rain to soak deep into the soil and fill the tanks. This is often the driest time of the year for us, late Autumn, but when the monsoon arrives and the rains start in November, everyone breathes a sigh of relief that we have water again. Of course, with climate change, we can't rely now on those once dependable patterns. So, for now, we're hoping that rain will fall and the storms won't cause too much damage this year.


Spring time always makes the chooks broody and at the moment we have five hens eager to become mothers. There are four on the nests and Lucy, our Old English Game hen, has taken it upon herself to separate from the flock and make her own nest. She has been missing for a few days but Hanno found her yesterday, with a nest of five eggs. She's in trouble though, she's been eating the next door neighbour's lettuces so she'd better watch herself.


Back inside the house, I made bread - yeasted rolls one day and sour dough the other. I keep persisting with sour dough because I want to make bread without yeast but every time I make it, it disappoints. I have tried several recipes so I guess I just don't have the knack or taste for it, so for now, I'm sticking with my yeast bread. I made heavy grain rolls on the weekend but I flitter between grain flour to rye to unbleached organic white. We like the variety and they usually turn out very well.


While I was in the kitchen I also made yoghurt, ricotta, quark (more on them later in the week) and muesli. This is a new muesli recipe that I just made up of things I like to eat. I just mixed together some oats, moist coconut, dried apricots and cranberries, lecithin granules and LSA mix, which is a mixture of crushed linseeds, sunflower seeds and flaked almonds. It's delicious. I think next time I make it, I'll leave the oats out of the mix so I can soak them overnight and add them just before breakfast. If you soak your muesli, how do you do it?


Over the weekend I also worked on two aprons, did some stitching, knitting and started making a tea cosy for a Christmas gift. I still haven't made room for, or used, the overlocker/serger given to me recently. I'll have to get to it soon because I will need it for a couple of projects I'm working on now. And what would the weekend be without phone calls to my family. I spoke with my sister Tricia and Shane, Sarndra and Kerry on the phone and Jens came over to help Hanno move tree branches and garden waste to the dump.


I would like to do a crochet-along over at the forum and need an experienced crocheter to help me. The project is a milk jug cover that I have the pattern for, so if you have the time and would like to help, please let me know.


Another week starts today and I am looking forward to it. There are so many things to do each day, it's a pleasure to get up early and get stuck into it. I have a work meeting tonight and work Tuesday and Wednesday. As we get closer to our move, it gets busier there, it will soon be time to organise the move and pack up again. I am really enjoying the forum and getting to know the members, and working on my gifts for Christmas. Each day is full of satisfying work that fills my soul and makes me sleep well at night. I hope you had a restful weekend and that the week ahead will be a good one for all of us.