down to earth

I received an email from a reader a day or so ago and I thought the answer might be of interest to others as well. In part, the email asked:

"I have a few questions, my husband and I are in our 40's and have only one son left at home. We would like to change our home as it is a very small block although the house is a good size.We try and grow vegies and everything we can in-between the garden flowers and pots.We have an opportunity to buy a 5 acre property, but I am nervous I think it may be too big as we are getting older not younger and worry we won't manage our land when older? What motivated you to move to your plot and how large is it.? You and Hanno seem to manage very easily. I thought I'd ask you as your reasoning is always sound and very helpful in making our choice. I think a blog 1400 would suit me better as my hubby doesn't have too much free time with work."

We moved to our current home when Shane left school and Kerry was in his final year of school. We chose that time because we wanted to be closer to a university, potential employment, shopping and entertainment. This was a few years before we realised how toxic our lifestyle had become and then changed to a more gentle and slow life. Luckily for us, we bought our one acre piece of land a couple of years before the property boom and since then it has more than tripled in price. We were looking for a small simple brick house with a bit of land. What we got was that, plus a permanent creek wandering through remnant rainforest at the end of a one lane dead-end street. Bliss! Even though what we have is very simple, and the absolute opposite to what most people were buying then, when I walked on to this block of land, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The garden was in its original state, the house was dated and needed work, but I knew at the very second I saw the backyard, that this was where I wanted to live. I was 49 then, Hanno was 58.

This is our house as seen from the garden (click to enlarge). As you can see, we have a solar hot water system (right), skylights, whirlybirds (to extract hot air from the roof), as well as a TV satellite dish that was disconnected many years ago.

Five acres would have been too much for us then and would be a worry for us now. We used to have the boys to help mow the lawns (it took just over three hours) but now Hanno breaks the job up into a number of sections. It's slower but it's easier that way. An acre gives us room for our house, chooks, a double work shed for Hanno, a garden shed, bush-house, water tanks, vegetable garden, fruit trees and a large wild garden at the front that hides us from the road. I agree with you, a smaller block would give you the best of both worlds - you'd have enough land to do what you want to do, spread out and have out-houses but you'd still be able to manage the work of a 1400 block for many years to come. If you bought the larger block would you be able to subdivide it and sell off what you don't want?

In the house, look for work areas that will support productivity and family areas that encourage closeness.

Make sure the house has enough of the right kind of spaces. Look for a large pantry and stockpile cupboard close together, a work room for your sewing and mending, a well laid out kitchen that will allow you to preserve/can your excess garden produce and a place to sit and shell peas or read. If you have money left over after the purchase, buy some things that will help you be sustainable. Water tanks to harvest rainwater from your roof will help you every day you garden, skylights will help you bring light to rooms without electricity, solar hot water or panels for the entire house would be ideal.

Our back verandah is set up most of the time for the work we do there - there is a spare washing machine that is hooked up to the rain water tank, we dry clothes there when it rains, the animals are fed there, the wheelbarrow waits, the hose is ready to be used. But we have had the best parties there too. I had my 50 birthday party on this verandah, surround by family, friends, flowers and a hundred flickering candles.

It sounds like you're already gardeners and plan on continuing with that so look for a warmish climate with good rainfall. Check your local authorities for flood history and look up the weather statistics for the past few years. Overall, you want to live in an area that will support the work you wish to do in your home - like keeping chickens and growing food.

Even though you're still in your 40s, now is the time to look 30 years ahead. You want a house and land that will allow you to work it easily while your husband is still working outside the home, you want a house that will be easy for you to live in for many years to come (our house has no stairs) and you want to know you're safe and sound and live well with your neighbours - go and meet the neighbours whenever you look at a new house. You are paying for the location as much as for the building and land so know what you're buying into. Ask every neighbour, and the people you're buying from, what the neighbours are like. A bad neighbour is as concerning as a bad flood report - they will impact on your life in a negative way. Steer clear. You need to be fit and healthy to live as we do but as you age you also need access to medical facilities - make sure they aren't too far away. You'll also need to be fairly close to a supermarket, butcher, and other primary producers if possible.

As we could afford additions, we put them in. Here Hanno is adding a lattice on which we now grow passionfruit. The main reason we added the lattice was to shade our bedroom wall and windows from the afternoon sun.

Look for efficiency, comfort, warmth and productivity in a house, rather than luxury. A coat of paint does wonders for most places. See if you can save a few dollars by buying a smaller home on a large block, and spend the rest of your budget modifying the house to suit you both. Hanno and I did that. We knew many things weren't to our liking when we bought here, but when we moved in we took the time to change what we didn't like. As money became available during the first few years of us being here, we kept adding those elements we wanted - like the skylights, tanks, gardens and fences. Fences are important and if you're gardening and keeping chooks, a house cow or goats, you'll need good fences. And not only to keep critters in, but to keep them out as well. Make sure, when you do your changes, you use recycled materials if you can, they cut the cost considerably, and help to make your home more sustainable and earth-friendly.

Never underestimate the importance of fences. Here you can see the garden looking towards the back of the property and the chook house, below you can see the opposite view of the chook house view of the garden. Fencing will allow you to garden in peace and keep the chooks safe at the same time.

I highly recommend The New Complete Book of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour to you. He writes about and illustrates the ins and outs of a one acre small holding as well as a five acre one. You'll be surprised and pleased at his thoughts on the one acre plot - there is an abundance of crops, animals and fields of food for people and animals. It's really worth a read. I hope I've answered your question in a way that will help you look at things in a different way and will help you plan for your future. Please keep in touch and let me know what you decide on and how it goes when you eventually move.

If you've been lucky enough to grow potatoes in your backyard you'd know the sign you look for to indicate when you should harvest. It's when the green potato tops die down and you're left with bare earth. Of course, you can harvest before then, but when the top dies, you know that no more growth will follow. If you were to go out to a commercial non-organic potato farm, you'd probably see them spray herbicide (poison) onto the crop about a week before harvest. They give their plants a certain amount of time, then harvest. They need to kill off the green tops so they don't make the mechanical harvesting of potatoes too difficult. The green tops clog up the machine at worst; at best, it's just more rubbish to deal with during the harvest.

One of our many potato crops in years gone by. The potatoes are at the back in the middle of the photo.

Potatoes are an important crop for us. If we want to eat organic potatoes that have not been sprayed with poison a week before harvest, we have to grow them ourselves. That's fine with me. Home grown potatoes, like backyard tomatoes, have much more flavour than those bought at the market. You can also "bandicoot" new small potatoes from the side of the bushes while they're still growing. There is nothing quite like new potatoes, fresh from the garden that afternoon, simply boiled and served up with a little butter and a sprinkling of herbs. That, my friends, is one of the perks of vegetable gardening and it doesn't matter how much you can afford to pay for your potatoes at the market, you can never buy that degree of freshness.

Hanno bought Sebago seed potatoes a couple of weeks ago, as they were the only type he could find, but we both wanted Dutch Cream. We got some Nicolas from the shop, they're similar to Dutch Creams, and I spent a short time cutting them for chitting a couple of days ago. Chitting is the process of allowing your potatoes to develop shoots before you plant them in the ground. If the potatoes are a medium size, or small, you don't have to cut them. However, if you have larger potatoes, for the sake of economy, you can cut them in half, making sure you have shoots, or eyes on each half. Place all the potatoes, or potato pieces in egg cartons to keep them from rolling around and so the cut sides can dry out completely. Leave them in a shaded light area out of the sun. When the shoots are a few inches long, plant them out in the garden.

I feel like a real farmer when we grow potatoes. They're substantial and they need to be stored properly; they feel like real crops. Potatoes make great filling meals with only a few additions - like my kartoffelpuffer recipe here, or as a fine addition to meat when you make your favourite potato salad. So if you can find a space, take the plunge and grow some potatoes. Even if you don't have much space, you can grow potatoes successfully in wire cages. Just poke four star pegs into the grown, wrap chicken wire around them, place some compost in the bottom of the cage with potatoes on top and cover with soil and straw. As the potatoes grow, keep adding compost mixed with soil and straw and each time the green tops grow again, add more. You'll get good potatoes growing them like this but nothing is as good as potatoes grown in the garden bed. By the way, don't grow potatoes in old car tyres. Tyres contain many chemicals, including cadmium, and it's best to keep them well away from your garden.

There is no doubt about it, potatoes are an excellent crop for the backyarder. If you haven;' tried them yet, take the dive this year. I'm sure you'll be pleased you did.

Growing organic potatoes fact sheet.

If you're a new gardener living on the Sunshine Coast or northside Brisbane, Sonya will be presenting some workshops for beginners on April 18, go here to find details. I know Sonya and I'm sure your money will be well spent.

The beginnings of our new season garden.

From the outside, our simple house belies the fact that such rich lives are being lived here. You can see and feel it in the backyard with the abundance of life evident there, but at the front, well, our small home looks like many others dotted endlessly throughout the urban and rural areas of Australia. But Hanno and I have found the secret of living well and we are developing the art of it every day. It took that break away from blogging for me to step back and look at what we've got here. Our lives are not just skin deep, there is real depth here.

Tomatoes, capsicums and green onions.

Taking a break from this blog, even though it is a familiar friend to me now, helped me step back and take in how our lives here have evolved and shaped us. During my break I made sure I slowed down. It's one aspect of this simple life that I always need to readjust. Swiftness and efficiency often take over from slow and mindful, especially on work days and when I'm away from home. I need to slow myself back down again, put the brakes on and remind myself that work done slowly and mindfully easily gets through the chores and there is no stress at the end of the day.

Here is my main gardener, Mr Hetzel.

So while I've been away, Hanno has been working on the garden and I have to tell you that the soil this year is the best it's ever been. From almost empty beds just a few short weeks ago, we now have cucumbers nearly ready to eat, capsicums (peppers), lettuces, tomatoes, bok choy, beetroot, radishes, sugarloaf cabbages and green beans. In the bushhouse, we planted seeds for leeks, tomatoes, more sugarloaf cabbages, silverbeet and those wildly mad zinnias that bring bright colour to the garden. The zinnias are ready for planting now, the vegetables need another week or two.

Bok choy growing fast in front of grass clippings waiting to be made into compost.

Inside our home I've been knitting Hanno a jumper (sweater) and am just finishing the back. I hope to have him in it by June. I've also been reading new books and re-reading older ones, especially the wonderful Simple Living by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska. I read it several years ago but I'm enjoying it more now because I understand, from experience, what it is they hoped to do and how they fashioned their lives to suit themselves. I also have The New Compete Book of Self Sufficiency by the late John Seymour, sent to me as a blog giveaway by Steel Kitten, that I'm enjoying a lot. She actually sent two copies because the first one took months to arrive and she immediately ordered another copy when I told her it hadn't arrived. Naturally, when one turned up, so did the other. Thank you, Sarah. And thanks to everyone who sent a comment about my return. It gives me a wonderful feeling knowing that I'm welcomed back and have been missed.

Yes, it came back again. It was hiding behind the nesting boxes.

The chooks are healthy and happy, even though they had another visit from that snake. Alice is doing well, despite her old age and ill health. Things are starting to settle down at my voluntary job and I imagine that in a month or so the slow rhythm of my days will return there as well. I've rearranged and stopped a few things I was doing so that now I feel quietly confident that I can keep up my home duties, work in my community and at a couple of little jobs and get everything done that needs doing. It's a good feeling knowing those tasks I've set myself will be carried out as planned. I do not need every day to be a good one, but I do need to know that I have done my best everyday.

Cucumber tendrils have grown higher than they ought. In the background is a lemon tree with about one hundred lemons growing fat and juicy.

I remember when I first stopped working for a living, one of the things I hoped the days ahead would hold was richness. I was not seeking richness in a monetary sense but more a life that was multi-layered, that built on its foundations and add layer upon layer the kind of work that would result in an unusual life by today's standards as well as a rich and rewarding one. Tick.

Some of the seeds we planted. The zinnias will be planted out today.

There is nothing better than waking to a new day that you know will be full of productive and interesting work around the home. Pottering with this and that, putting things right, cooking, gardening, baking, sewing, sitting and thinking - all the things that went into old fashioned lives and not so much into those that are modern. Those things, to me, make a perfect day. And the truth is these days are so easy to home make. All they require is a commitment to one's self - a promise to stay true to our values and to live as we wish, not part of an homogeneous crowd, but as individuals who think about how we live. I do not need many of those perfect days to keep me going, just the promise of one tomorrow or next week is enough. And enough is all I'm after.

Today's kitchen is in New Zealand and it features real people living real lives. This is Charlotte's kitchen.

She writes:
"My name is Charlotte (aka ms lottie of theslightlymadquiltlady.blogspot.com), and I live on a lifestyle block in Northland, New Zealand. I decided to send in my photos, but leave my kitchen in its ‘in use’ state. To send in pictures of it tidy would be a bit of a fib – it never stays that way for more than five minutes!

The photograph of my sink includes my little girl. My sink is often used for these sorts of “Mama Tasks”. This time it was washing off the nappy cream she had found and smeared all over herself.

We are living in a converted shed out on our block of land whilst we build a house (it’s taking a while!). We needed a kitchen so we found this one second- hand on Trademe (similar to Ebay), we plonked it in and it works for us. The kitchen table and chairs are hand-me-downs and my husband is cooking in my best-ever opportunity shop find, a large cast iron skillet. Even the breadmaker that is chugging away on the bench beside him used to be my brother’s!

I made the decision at the end of last year to stop my work as a midwife and stay home. I now intend to spend much more time in my kitchen, so I’ve recently been looking at it with new eyes, trying to organise it a little more and make it efficient and user friendly.

My husband has just made me a new shelf out of recycled Rimu timber to go above the bench where the jug is. It will house our tea and coffee supplies and the teacups – all within easy reach.

Thank you for letting me share this little snippet of my life."

Please don't forget to comment. A comment is like payment for the time taken to post, and in this case in sending in the photos. Many of us were enthusiastic about this series, so make sure all the photos get a good number of comments. I don't want any of the people sending in photos to regret joining in. Thank you friends.

Everyone knows where Sydney is. This is a Sydney kitchen and it's part of Cath's home.

Cath writes:

"If you were to come to my house for a cuppa this is what you’d see of the kitchen from the lounge/dining area. We’re in a rental so I’ve done my best to make each room welcoming and comfortable without major changes, although we did receive permission to take the solid-core door off it’s hinges as it opened back onto the only set of drawers. Bad design there!

The small café table was in the garden when we arrived, but after a clean up and the addition of a couple of folding chairs it’s the perfect place for breakfast or a cuppa with a friend while chatting and cooking.

On my windowsill I have my Monet mosaic, a fresh gardenia, a little French jug I found at the op-shop, a candle, a thrifted hand-engraved wooden box, and some very happy herbs. Through the window you can see natives and tall firs backed by peak hour trucks and cars, as we’re on a major road.

This is the area of the kitchen our family of five love the most – it’s where the cooking action happens! Around to the right are the wall oven and fridge. The painting on the wall is by a differently-abled artist from a local studio. My teapot collection and some gifted wooden frames add more interest to an otherwise dull room. The cooking utensils are in a jug that’s a big sister to the one on the windowsill, and the measuring cups and spoons are in the thrifted red and white cake box.

The storage space is fantastic and I’ve been able to organise the contents of each cupboard according to how close they are to the stove, oven, or sink. This is my favourite kitchen out of all the houses we’ve rented. It’s light, bright, and large enough to have a café inside. :) "