down to earth

I see things differently now. Gone are the days when I wanted to live to be 110 and I thought illness was a weakness – not in others but in myself. All my life I’ve been lucky enough to be healthy, optimistic and forward thinking and now, while still retaining those characteristics, I see times when age has caught up with me and bending over the wrong way or carrying something too heavy for me will make me suffer.

I see the strong and capable man I married, who has always prided himself on providing well for his family and done more than enough for us, hobbling around with painful joints and being frustrated at his own inability to work as he would like. Oh, he still climbs trees, much to his doctor’s annoyance, still thinks he can take on the world but age has a way of letting us remember past glories and not current reality. He pays the price if he works hard all day, so do I, and often I don’t even try to do it any more.

But on the flip side, I love being my age. From the time when I was about 15 until about 55, I felt young, strong and invincible. Now I feel mellow and wise, and strong, but in a different way. Is it okay to call yourself wise? I’m not sure. I feel I know things now that I knew before, but now I see them differently. If that's not the accumulated wisdom of the decades I’ve lived, it’s close to it. People look at us oldies differently and if they don't, we're invisible. I refuse to be invisible and make myself heard as much as possible. Often older people are seen as weak or not knowing much. That shallow view belies what being an elder is. What some see as weakness is really acceptance. I understand a lot more now about what makes us tick and when I see others make the same mistakes I made when I was younger, I just shrug and accept it as being human. I still know all I knew when I was younger, and more, but it's not as important to me now to let everyone know it.

In addition to seeing my own and Hanno’s decline, I am also witnessing the illness of my close friend Bernadette. She's a fiery old bird and as tough as they come, but she’s been laid low with cancer and all the treatments and psychological drama that go with it. Hanno and I are walking this road with Bernadette, wherever it takes us, and whether it’s a good day or a bad one, we usually find something to have a laugh about. And out of the ashes of all that Bernadette has been through these past few months, comes hope and and belief in the future. She bought herself a puppy! Just before she was diagnosed, Bernadette’s old dog Iona died. So after a lot of thought, and a promise from Hanno and I to look after her puppy if anything happens to her, she picked up her cute little Shih Tzu a few days ago. That, my friends, is the wisdom that age brings.

Is there anything more optimistic and hopeful than a puppy? Introducing Flora McDonald.

I've come full circle. I started off my dish cleaning duties as a young girl when my sister and I had to dry when mum washed up. I grew up doing that and now I recall it fondly as a time of family conversations, pushing my sister (she reads my blog and she'll probably add more to that) and sometimes, only sometimes, pretending to be sick to get out of wiping up. It's a nice memory to have. So now I'm back at the sink, this time as the washer, with no dryers and no electric dishwasher. That is sitting outside the back door waiting to be sold. It feels good to have made the decision to get rid of it - yet another thing we've simplified.

Position vacant: where the dishwasher once stood. This space is waiting patiently for Hanno to be well enough to make some shelves. I will make a little curtain to cover it and it will hold some of my recycled jars and bottles.

When my mother did the washing up, although I remember a bar of yellow laundry soap being there over the years, she used detergent probably from the mid-1950s. So from then until now, I've usually used detergent. In the past couple of years, I've had periods when I used my homemade soap, but there was always a bottle of detergent around. We still have a couple of bottles of detergent in the cupboard and I will use them, but when they're gone, that's it - we are a detergent-free zone.

You need to use more liquid soap than you would with a concentrated detergent. I'm using about two tablespoons of soap in my washing up sink. I'm also equipped with two washing racks, a draining board on which one of them sits (generally we only have enough for one drainer), a handmade dishcloth, a cotton washing up mop and some steel wool. I usually use one of those steel wire scrubbers that lasts me at least three months, with disinfecting every so often. But Hanno bought steel wool recently, so I'm using that. I don't like it, although it does a good job.

Liquid soap just added.

The warm water starts off with a lather when the soap is added but the bubbles don't last as long as detergent bubbles do. We've been scammed into thinking - both with washing dishes and clothes - that we need bubbles. It's not so, bubbles do nothing. I'm very happy with the dishes washed with this liquid soap. They are as clean as when washed with detergent, the time I spend washing up is the same but I'm much happier because I'm not using petro-chemicals. I always had a niggling doubt that there was a residue on the plates and cups, even though I rinse them well.

At the end of the washing - dirty water and few bubbles.

This soap may also be used as a handwash - you can dilute it 20 percent soap to 80 percent water and store it in a dispenser. I've washed pure wool with it and was very happy with the result. I've washed my hair with it and it was shiny and soft and, just like with homemade hard soap, didn't need hair conditioner. You can use it as a shaving soap - it's mild and contains glycerin so it leaves the skin smooth. Rubbing a few drops of this soap into a stain and putting it in with the normal wash usually removes the stain. It makes an excellent natural horticultural soap that will help control aphids, mealybugs, whitefly, scale and red spider mites. It doesn't kill them as a poison would, it suffocates them.

I foresee a time when I will be washing up with my daughters-in-law drying for me, all of us talking about our lives while the menfolk are outside picking vegetables to be taken home. Maybe over the years, smaller drying hands will be added to this productive group. :- ) It's a fond and comfortable vision I have made just out of this one adjustment to our lives, but standing at the sink with my hands in warm water makes for those tender scenes in my head. It seems like such a good idea to me.

ADDITIONAL READING:
I have no problem using borax but I know there are some who doubt whether it is a good idea. When I was growing up it was quite common to use borax eye wash, and it is still a recommended homoeopathic treatment. Here is some extra information about it.
Borax information
Green Living
How borax works

Well ladies and gentlemen, I've made my own liquid soap, tested it for a few weeks, and now I'm happy to recommend it to you. I've tried several versions of homemade grated soap, I added glycerin to it, boiled it, and tried every which way but it was always horrible to use. Slimy, ugh. What I was after was a liquid soap that could be easily poured from a bottle, that I could use for washing up, as a shampoo, stain remover, handwash, for washing pure wool by hand, and as a horticultural soap. I have all those things, and more - Hanno used it to wash Quince, one of our chickens.

I used this recipe and tutorial and found it to be a very good reference. The only thing I changed was the sunflower oil - I used rice bran oil because I have a lot of it. This soap is made in a crockpot and you'll need a stick blender. My finished product turned out darker than I expected but I think I added too much borax and over processed it at the end. I won't repeat the tutorial here, I'll just add some of my photos and comment on what I did. Be guided by David's tutorial for the recipe and the method.

Making liquid soap is more difficult and takes more time than cold pressed soap. It uses a different form of lye - Potassium Hydroxide. You'll have to find a soapmaker near you who sells this because, at least in Australia, it cannot be sent through the post. You cannot buy this stuff at the supermarket or hardware.

Potassium Hydroxide flakes.

When you have assembled all your ingredients, make sure you remember all your safety precautions for making soap - they apply here as well.

When you add water to the potassium hydroxide, it makes a noise. Like groaning! Don't be alarmed, it's normal.

When you have everything mixed together and you've stirred for what seems like hours, you cook the mixture in the crockpot. It turns the mix into a big batch of goo.

The entire process takes a long time so it's good to know that when the paste has been diluted (stage 6 of the tutorial), you can leave it and continue on the following day.

The photo above shows the solution being tested for clarity at stage 5 of the online process. Notice how clear it is. The finished product isn't as clear as this.

This is my soap being sequestered - stage 9 of the process.

Making liquid soap is not something you should try if you haven't made some other kind of soap. I found it complicated and time consuming and when I finished I thought I wouldn't make it again. But since then I've used it and I really love it. It's a multi-purpose product, it does as good a job as detergent when I'm washing up - but it doesn't contain anything harmful, like petro-chemicals. The saponification process turns it into a healthy soap that can be used for a wide range of household tasks as well as personal hygiene. This soap, although it takes a long time to make, is definitely part of my homemaker's armoury now. I'm doing to include it in some gifts as well. Tomorrow I'll write about washing up and using the soap for other projects in the home and garden.

Sharon has started a crochet-along over at the forum. If you've wanted to learn how to crochet, or would like to crochet a jug cover, similar to those I use for my ginger beer and sourdough, click here for Sharon's instructions. She is an experienced crocheter so if you have any problems, simply post to the thread and Sharon, or one of the other ladies, will help you.

There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained working on ordinary tasks in the home. Gone are the days when homemakers were at the bottom of the pile. Now we have taken control of our homes, we see one of our jobs as managing the home budget and saving as much money as we can, we have stepped up to recycling and repairing, we are living frugally and green and we are enriched by that. Our lives are happily home made. All over the world handmade is making a comeback, showing us that what we produce with our own hands generally satisfies us more than what we buy at the store. We are making unique homes to our own taste full of soft cottons and linens, cutting down on the world's waste and showing our children that both the beautiful and the practical can be make at home.

I read somewhere this past week, maybe it was at the forum, that some feel guilty when they work on their craft projects at home. The idea being that if they enjoy it and look forward to it - be it quilting, sewing, knitting, soap making or whatever, it is entertainment and joy rather than work. I have never felt that way and I have never considered my knitting, sewing and soapmaking as anything but part of my housework. I don't see these things as separate crafts. To me, they are part of my everyday work.

I grew up in a time when dresses, shirts, children's clothes, soft furnishings and knitwear were homemade. If you needed a new quilt or skirt, there was no huge store where you could buy something cheap from China - you made what you needed. Store bought clothes were bought for special occasions. Most homes had piles of fabric and balls of wool waiting to be made into what was needed in everyday life. There was no other option and homemakers did that work as part of their daily tasks.

So for me, I don't hope there will be time available for me to sit down and sew or knit. I plan those tasks in with my normal everyday chores. I usually do my hand work in the afternoon and the more strenuous work in the morning. Knitting for the family and for gifts is part of my housework, sewing a new tablecloth, napkins, aprons or curtains are as much a part of my work as washing up and sweeping the floor. It all goes into the good of my home and even if I love doing it and look forward to it, it's still a household task.

I hope that you get some enjoyment out of most of the things you do in your home. Of course there are some things you won't like doing as much, but if you enjoy sewing and knitting and making whatever it is you need for your home, that is your pay-off for the tasks you don't like so much. Joy is lurking in your home, it is one of your daily tasks to find it.

If you haven't thought about your work in this way, take some time soon to look at what you do and think about the nature of your work. Plan your craft type work in with your normal housework. Never ever feel guilty for doing what you love and as long as you plan your handwork in with your more strenuous housework, you'll have time and energy for all of it.

Two girls fighting over one baby, an enemy is identified and killed on sight, a mutant lurking in the shadows! Am I on the set of a Hollywood movie? No, it's more exciting than that - it's my backyard where life and death meet on a daily basis and all the strangeness is real. Come with me, I'll show you ...

Click on each photo to enlarge.

I've been spending some time in the garden in the early morning lately. Since Hanno had his knee operation, I've taken on his garden tasks. I like to do that early, before the sun gets too hot. So at about 5am I collect the eggs, let the girls out to free range for the day, start watering the plants and checking to see that all is as it should be. Wild geese honk as they fly over on their migratory path and realise that the pond they always relied on has been filled in by the person who lives over the back. Yet another natural place taken away by "development". It's quite, it seems like nothing much happens, but that belies the truth. It's a jungle out there!

We've been growing two types of sunflowers this season - Mexicans and giant Russians. The first of the Mexicans has flowered and I'm looking forward to the time when I can pick a bunch of them and have them inside on the kitchen table. The Giant Russians are for the chooks and wild King parrots. As soon as they see the massive yellow heads they'll send out the call and every King in the vicinity will come and feast on them.

Look carefully, a stranger approaches. These caterpillars eat into the centre of sunflowers and stop them flowering. I picked it off the leaf and squashed it under my Croc. Life and death in the vegetable garden, it's tough.

These look like ruby silverbeet but they are beetroot, from the same family. You can eat the leaves and the roots. We've been eating a lot of raw beets lately, grated with salads. I've also given some to my friend Bernadette who is using them as an organic juice.

The Marketmore cucumbers are growing well and have been fruiting for about a month. They'll soon be replaced by a follow up crop of these Lebanese cucumbers (below) that have been grown at the end of the Giant Russian sunflower rows.

There is an empty patch here that I'm sure Hanno has plans for and on the edge, a new crop of celery just starting to come up. I've been picking some of the baby celery leaves for our salads - they're crisp and tender but haven't yet developed the strong celery flavour that I love.

And what's this? A mutant! A white cucumber flower when they should all be yellow. Very interesting. I had a good look and it's the only white flower. All the others are as they should be. But it's growing a cucumber, so I'll just have to watch it and see if it's different in any other way. This is how new types are found - natural mutation. They are called sports. It may be something, it may not be. We'll wait and see.

Around the corner from the mutant, corn is growing sweet and strong. We've had a few feeds from these, have a few more to go and we have follow ups growing in the next bed. Further along this row are Chinese greens that we grow for the chooks. It's not that we don't like them, it's just that they grow faster than any other green and therefore we can keep up the supply of them for our hungry chickens.

Nestled in between the giant Russians and the Washington Navel orange, looking towards the parsley and eggplants. I harvested the first two eggplants and added them to my basket.

The first of the sweet potatoes are sprouting. Like any good Permaculture plant, they'll perform at least two roles. We'll eat them and the mass of vines they produce will help shade the chook house during the hottest summer months.

And while I stood there looking at the sweet potatoes and giving them a good soaking with the hose, a real hullabaloo broke out beside me. I had collected the eggs earlier and one of the broodies came back to find her eggs gone. She tried to take over the nest of her sister, who has been sitting on one egg for about two weeks. They both stood up, fought on the little ladder, both changed nests, then changed back again and all the time making enough noise to have me locked up. I hosed them to calm them down and they ran off. But the one who had been sitting on the one egg, soon rushed back and is still now sitting on that egg. We'll throw it away when we finally get it out from under her.

My harvest basket, minus the tomatoes I picked and the eggs collected earlier. It made a fine meal for us that night.

A prawn salad - with local prawns from Caloundra, and everything on the plate, except the potatoes, white onion and the prawns, grown out the back, in that jungle out there.

After two hectic days of work at the Centre, I'm working at home today. Gone are the days when I would have looked forward to relaxing, shopping and going out to visit friends. Now, settling back into the routine of washing up, sweeping, making beds and baking brings me back to myself and reminds me that my home is the place where I am put right again.

I work in the welfare sector and it's a very tough job sometimes. I don't counsel anyone, I manage the Centre I work at, and I guess I act as a surrogate mother and dish out kindness with cups of tea and encouragement along with advice about getting a job or looking after the family.

I had never worked in welfare before - had never even been in a neighbourhood centre until I wandered in there to ask if they needed any help, but working here in my home prepared me for working there. I teach my The Frugal Home workshop and stretch the slim budget there until I hear those pennies scream, but my preparation for that job is more than those obvious practical things. Since I have have taken control of my home and made it the place I want it to be, I feel empowered to take on many more things.

If someone were to see me working here at home they might believe that I am "just a housewife". How many times have we all used that phrase to describe ourselves? Well I am "just a housewife" who has taken back control of my own life. No longer am I a slave to fashion and advertising, I am not just filling in time by doing my daily tasks. What I do here now is a part of me, it makes me who I am and enables me to do the things I do.

Never undersell yourself or your role of homemaker. Running a home is similar to running a business. You need to work to a budget, manage people, make hard decisions, work to a schedule, delegate tasks, work long hours and make sure those you work with are productive and content. In fact, while all those elements describe the running of both a home and a business, at home you have extras - your work never stops and you raise children. Raising the next generation is not only an important part of family life, it's important for the nation too.

Family photos. The first one is of my sons Shane and Kerry when they were about nine and ten, with their friend Gavin in the middle.

Taking control of the home, while sounding harsh, is, I think, the key to success. You need to take charge, delegate, have routines, get family members working for the good of the family and while that is happening, model the bahaviour you want to see in your children. A tough call, I know, but it pays off if you get it right. I know that we homemakers are looked down upon by many people but don't you ever believe they are right. What we do is the most important job; what we do makes the nation strong.

If you have to describe what you do, proudly name yourself "homemaker", or if you work outside the home as well - "homemaker/teacher", "homemaker/retail assistant" or whatever it is you do. Don't fall in with the rest of them and try to make us invisible. Let everyone know what we do, that we are an important part of our society and that we are proud of the work we do. I am an ordinary woman, there is nothing special about me, but because I have the attitude I have, people listen to me. I got the confidence to be the me I am now from my home - by taking control here and making it productive and alive.

You can do the same thing.

For those of you around Geelong, today I'll be interviewed on your local radio station at around 9.30am. Tomorrow I'll be on a few stations in northern Tasmania at 7.40am. Those are Queensland times, not local time, so you'll have to add an hour.

The headlines will read: Homemaker speaks, the nation listens. ; - )

Cleaning mould from walls and fabrics

With all this rain around we've developed a mould problem in our home. Usually we have the front and back doors open and that good ventilation stops most moulds from establishing. However, with the house locked up for the past week, the high humidity and the rain, mould is now growing on the wooden walls near our front door and on the lower parts of cupboards in the kitchen. Most of us will find mould growing in our homes at some point. Either in the bathroom or, in humid climates, on the walls, like we have now. You'll need a safe and effective remedy at some point, so I hope one of these methods works well for you. Mould is not only ugly to look at, it can cause health problems so if you see mould growing, do something about it straight away. The longer you leave the problem, the harder it will be to get rid of it effectively. If you have asthma or any allergies, you should do this type of cleaning with a face mask on so you don't breathe in any spores. Many peopl...