Reflections on 2007 and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! :-)

We've been kicking back, enjoying the quintessential Aussie summer holiday: gardening in the cool of morning, and then spending the afternoon drinking a cold, refreshing beverage or two, eating cashews, watching the cricket or the kids splash about in the inflatable pool and catching up on some reading. Simple Living at it's best really :-) So good in fact, that I have had no urge to even turn on the computer most days, let alone blog surf or email anyone (sorry guys!).

But being New Year's Eve, naturally I am reflecting on how far we've come this year in our journey towards a more sustainable future, and thinking about what I want to achieve in the coming twelve months. I've just looked at the goals I made for this year, and we've done quite well. Some things I've not done, more so because my emphasis on what is important to me (us) had changed a little and these things seem a little trivial now, but that's part of the journey.

Probably the most interesting observation I have made about our changes is how my mindset has changed! I started the year feeling a bit panicky about the state of the world and how fast we had to change our way of living, but I'm finishing it by feeling that although the state of the world hasn't improved at all, I/ we are no longer such a significant part of the mess, and in some small way, might be contributing to change for the better. That's a nice feeling :-)

Having said that, I don't at all feel complacent about what there is left to do. We can still do a lot more in terms of living more simply and reducing our use of limited resources. Now, however, I know that if we continue to baby-step our way down this path, we will achieve all that we want/ need to do.

Sorry, I'm waffling, LOL.

Anyway, after this last week or more of (very) limited computer time (and no blogging), I am torn about which way to go in 2008 in regards to this blog.

On the one hand, since I am not working outside the home at the moment, blogging is my way of doing something for myself that doesn't involve my kids; my hobby if you like. As such I have visions of moving to another blogging platform, like Wordpress perhaps, which might allow me to incorporate my other two blogs (My Garden Diary and Simple Cooking), and where I can record my "food forest" ambitions and progress more easily (in theory).

On the other hand, I started typing this during a brief break while the kids were eating morning tea, when I could have (should have) been making ginger beer. Now they are finished and instead of playing with them I am muttering the familiar "Just hang on, I'll be finished this in a minute!" to requests for more apple. Not good.

Sigh.

I can feel the need for another cold, refreshing beverage coming on so that I can contemplate this dilemma further ;-)

Anyway, I am currently reading the book In Praise of Slow, by Carl Honore, and I highly recommend it, especially if you are having trouble slowing down and living more simply. Happy New Year to everyone, may 2008 be a year full of simple pleasures for you all :-)

Wow, where did this week go?

Blinked and missed this week, LOL. I'm sure just about everyone is as busy as me though, it's that time of year isn't it?

Cleaning out the pantry gave me the motivation to have a go at a few other things around the place that needed a similar (belated) spring clean, and I've been spending some quality time in the garden, which has been wonderful! Plans are now afoot to turn the whole backyard into a "food forest" throughout the next twelve months, which will be a pretty exciting project :-) I figured I'm half way there already, I might as well just keep going and progressively rip out (most of) the remaining ornamental plants and replace them with food plants. I've even started by ripping out two of the Murraya bushes I was growing as privacy hedge along the back fence. They will be replaced by the apple trees I have in pots, although the drainage is pretty poor so I may keep them in pots as yet? Lots of ideas to put down on paper over the Christmas break, and lots of reading to do :-)

After much debate (almost 6 months!) about the appropriate type of timber we should use, we also finally had the timber delivered this week for an arbour for two grape vines I have growing. It will be like an awning attachment to our existing pergola, which will extend the area underneath a little and provide more much-needed summer shading for that area :-) Unfortunately in the end, for a variety of reasons but primarily because it was the only dressed hardwood we could find of the appropriate size, we ended up with Merbau timber, an imported SE Asian species :-( Without the ability (i.e. we have no equipment) to dress the timber ourselves, we were pretty stuck, as even any recycled hardwood we could find needed cutting down and dressing. Argh!

Anyway with all this cleaning and preparation for visitors etc, I may not blog again until after Christmas (and I imagine most people barely have time to read any blogs anyway, LOL), so to everyone, I hope you have a wonderful, joyous festive season :-D

One apple left.

Doing: ...Two loads of washing and hanging it up inside.

...Reading the rain guage: 7.5mm yesterday.

...Some light gardening (staking the eggplants and capsicums, planting out two Aunt Molly Ground Cherries) until I noticed another Very Large Spider on a leaf nearby (a species of Scarethecrapoutofme bigtime, commonly known as a Garden Orb-Weaver) and abandoning it in favour of a cup of tea from the relative safety of inside the house.

...Where I later killed a Redback spider in the walk-in-wardrobe.

...And wondered why I live in Australia.

Picking: Silverbeet, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, my first leeks of the season (yum!) and the first apple on the dwarf Anna apple. As you can see, after the rain in the last week, it has started to split on top like the one I picked off the Tropic Sweet apple tree, d'oh. I cut the split bit off and ate the rest: it needed a couple more weeks on the tree as it was very tart, more's the pity. I have one remaining apple on the tree (which is huge!), so fingers crossed that I can baby it along for another few weeks to see what the real flavour is like.


Making: Mulberry muffins. Starting another ginger beer plant; I don't know what I did wrong that made the last two stop fermenting, but I started this one last night and it smells a bit vinegary this morning already, so fingers crossed this one is OK, or there won't be any ginger beer for Christmas, LOL.

Dinner: Zucchini and leek gratin, baked kipfler potatoes and salad. Using homegrown zucchini, leeks, potatoes, green onions, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, homemade cheese and bread(crumbs), with a little bought milk, flour and spices. Not bad for a city chick, huh?

Reading: Clare Snow's post about Thai prawns. Apart from the production of cocoa and coffee in Africa, I hadn't given too much thought before now to human exploitation in the production of food, but it's pretty obvious isn't it, when you think about it. Like consumer goods, if it has been carted half way across the world and it still seems incredibly cheap, then someone else has paid the difference for you; usually those who can least afford it.

Utilities: Gas 34.7 MJ/day; water 357 L/day; electricity 12.9 kWh/day.

Contemplating: Forking out for arachnophobia-curing hypnosis sessions.

Another day in the kitchen...but not cooking.

Doing: ...Cleaning out my pantry, argh! I pulled out a container of cereal this morning, only to firstly, have a huge brown bush 'roach jump out at me (yuk, yuk, yuk!), and then upon opening it, discover weavils. Blerck. Rhonda recommends sticking things like flour in the freezer when you bring it home (actually from memory, she even stores these items in an old chest freezer) to kill off any weavils or moth eggs and the like, but I never have any room :-( I think I'll be making room in future though, as they had made their merry way right through the shelf when I looked closer. I put everything in containers when I get it home from shopping, but they had managed to eat through heavy cardboard containers like the baking powder tin! Fortunately they were only in a couple of items, but I ended up pulling the whole pantry apart and cleaning it all out. Not like it didn't need it anyway, and it's a good excuse to wipe down bottles and actually have a look a the Use By dates on everything and make note of stuff that needs using up. Anyway, it took All. Day. to do it. I'm tiiiiired! But happy. Nothing like a a tidy, organised pantry to make me smile :-)

...Kindly turning down the offer of an enormous bag of cucumbers from the neighbours, LOL.

Making: Well, the ricotta failure yesterday wasn't a complete loss! I strained the whey through a clean cotton cloth over a wire sieve, and left it to drain with a weight on top in the fridge overnight. Ta da! This morning there was something that actually remotely resembled ricotta in the cloth, and it even tasted like ricotta! Yay. I got about 200g I suppose. The mozzarella I made yesterday weighed about 450g (a pound, I think that is), and there was around 2 litres of whey left, which I froze to use in cooking instead of buttermilk. So not too bad for a gallon (3.6L) of organic milk I suppose, although I would have to work out the figures more accurately to see if it is more economical to do it that way. I have read since that using reconstituted powdered milk can also be used succesfully, which would certainly make it all very cheap to make. Regardless of the economics of the process though, I really enjoy the process of making something like cheese myself, and notching up another skill on my belt, so to speak :-)

Dinner: Garden salad. And takeaway fish and chips. *Ahem* Even the best of us crave something salty and fatty sometimes :-/ It's the first takeaway in a few months.

Reading: Strange recipe suggestions on the backs of the food packaging. Does anyone ever actually cook these things?

Contemplating: An ice-cold, refreshing beer. Aussie-brewed, of course.

Award time.

One of the most passionate environmental bloggers I know, Daharja from Cluttercut, has nominated me for a A Roar for Powerful Words award! Quite an honour I have to say, thanks Daharja :-)

The Shameless Lions Writing Circle created this award and they state that A Roar For Powerful Words is "the chance to scream from the mountains the good news about the powerful posts that are produced every day in the blogosphere, despite what some mainstream columnists and journalists claim." Recipients of the award get to publish the startingly fluorescent mauve lion image on their page and note three elements they believe are necessary for good, powerful writing.

To keep the award circulating through the blogosphere encouraging and rewarding good writers, recipients are expected to nominate five other people in turn. The new recipients then do the same, passing it on to five other people, and so on.

So first, I have to note three elements for good, powerful writing. Hmmmm, I would have to say:

1. Honesty. Anything that is genuinely written from the heart gets me every time.

2. It's succinct. 'Nuf said.

3. The message is clear and simply stated.

Now I'm supposed to nominate another five bloggers to receive this award! Most of the bloggers I find incredibly inspirational and powerful have already been nominated, but what the hell, I'll just double up the love ;-)

1. Crunchy at Crunchy Chicken
2. Rhonda at Down To Earth
3. Sharon at Casaubon's Book
4. Linda at Living the Good Life
5. Colin at No Impact Man

Big day in the kitchen.

Doing: Picking zucchini, cucumbers and silverbeet. Finding my first teeny tiny eggplant growing (excuse the blurry pic!).

Discovering the last of my bean seedlings has been bitten clean off by pest unknown. *Sigh*

Making: ...Zucchini pickles. This is my first batch, I've never made them before, and I have three different recipes to try. This is recipe #2, and it smelt pretty good! After I try all three I'll post my favourite recipe :-)

...Bread and butter cucumbers. Again my first effort at pickling cukes! I'm not a big pickle fan, but they smelt good enough to eat ;-)

...Red Onion jam. Mmmmmm. So I don't have to keep caramalising the onions every time I want them for a pizza.

...30-minute mozzarella. This time I used all organic non-homogenised milk, but I had the same problem as last time, in that it didn't set very hard? I kneaded it heaps more this time, and it was very stretchy at the end, but wouldn't stay in nice little balls. Perhaps this is a feature of the quick mozzarella rather than the traditional recipe? Still tastes really good though, so not a loss in that department.

...Failing once again to make ricotta :-( I have no idea what I did, or didn't do this time. I used fresh whey, straight after making the mozzarella and followed the directions to the letter, but the curds didn't come together properly again. I am wondering if perhaps the organic milk I used is too highly pasteurised which is affecting the quality of the cheese?? Next time I will use conventional milk I think and see if that makes a difference?

Dinner: Homemade pizza.

Reading: Home Cheesemaking, Neil and Carole Willman.

Contemplating: Making wholemilk ricotta rather than using whey.

Anyone for a cucumber?

Doing: Feeling guilty! DH ushered the huge Huntsman spider from yesterday's post out the door last night when he got home; he caught me glancing furtively at the door later in the evening and confessed he had killed it because it freaked him out and he didn't want it coming back into the house! Even though it made my skin crawl, I feel sorry for it, and I had nightmares about it anyway, LOL! *Shudder*

Washing, washing, and more washing to take advantage of the sun today. Feeding the worms. Scrubbing the showers with the Enjo glove. Dealing with the enormous pile of kids' winter clothes that need to be put away in storage boxes under our bed (I think I can safely say we won't have another cold snap now ;-)

Picking: Lots of cucumbers and a couple of monster zucchinis (*sigh*), strawberries and coriander seeds.

Making: Yoghurt. Frozen mulberry yoghurt icypoles (popsicles), using Mum's stewed mulberries. Strawberry icecream. Lemon cordial.

Dinner: Baked silverbeet and ricotta pastry triangles with garden salad.

Reading: Recipes for bread and butter cucumbers, and pickled zucchini.

Contemplating: A big day in the kitchen tomorrow, pickling!

Bad things come in threes...

1. First thing this morning I received our water bill for the last three months, and it was HIGHER than the previous bill, even though we've been watching our water use! What the? Last billing period we averaged 420L per day, this time I recorded that we averaged about 330L a day in November, but according to the bill we averaged 590L per day for the three months of the bill period! Which means we must have used substantially more than that in both September and October? I'm at a complete loss to explain those figures, I've no idea what was going on?

2. I went to have a routine blood test. The pathologist poked around twice in my left arm before deciding to have a go in my right. Ow, ow, ow!

3. I'm arachnophobic. Small St. Andrew's Cross spiders like I photographed yesterday (from a distance), I can deal with. But this was waiting for me next to the garage door when I got home:

It's a Hunstman. It's body is about 4 inches long. DH is at work and won't be home until 7.30pm. It has fangs and I can see it's eyes!!! Waaaaaaaaaa!

Oh and our dishwasher blew up last night with three enormous BANGS and a pervading smell of burnt electical componenents. Guess who won't be repairing it any time soon? It will be interesting to see if it has any impact on our electrical useage actually, since it has had a minimal effect on our water use according to my figures.

It's raining again...

Doing: ...Getting really bored with walking head-first into one of these (quite literally) right outside my back door every morning. I like what spiders do in my garden, but I hate how they feel stuck in my hair.

...Getting a bit bored with this view of the sky every day. Now that I've said that it probably won't rain again until March.

...Uploading a stack of photos to My Garden Diary.

Making: Wholemeal bread.

Dinner: Pan-fried chicken with a tomato, basil and garlic sauce and parmesan toast (using the fresh bread).

Reading: It's raining again and the kids are bored, so it's one picture book after another. I'm hoarse ;-)

Utilities: Gas 35.15 MJ/day; water 360.3 L/day; electricity 13.1 kWh/day.

Contemplating: A "get-super-serious-about-water" challenge week for my family to see how low we can go.

The Story of Stuff

I found this link on both Daharja and Muppet's blogs, it's a 20 minute video and it is well worth taking a look at! Recommended viewing.

Coffee-flavoured homemade ice cream *rocks*

Thought for the Day:

"Spare a thought for the 13 million, day-old chicks are killed every year in Australia, simply because they were born male.
The problem is that male chicks have little or no commercial value. Broiler or "breast and thigh" chickens are a different breed of bird than those bred specially to convert protein from feed into eggs."

From Paula Goodyer, via CleanFood organic, Volume 5.

If I wasn't convinced that having your own heritage-breed chickens in your own backyard is a great idea beforehand, I sure am now.

Doing: Writing the annual Christmas card letters. I don't mind receiving the long, photocopied variety that includes photos, from friends, but there are few people I don't catch up with at least a few times a year via email these days, so I hand-write mine.

Discovering the two beans that germinated, are now down to just one...



Making: Lavash crackers.

Espresso coffee ice cream. Pronounced by DH as "the best ice cream ever!". Just wait until I add some chopped pecans to it next time ;-) Thanks Polly!

Dinner: Zucchini slice and salad.

Reading: My bloglines account - I seem to have over 200 unread posts! People, slow down please, I can't keep up! LOL.

Utilities: Gas 35.0 MJ/day; water 360 L/day; electricity 13.1 kWh/day.

Contemplating: How many cakes my grandmother's tablespoon has mixed. Check out the worn upper edge on it...

Why China can produce cheap goods.

I was sent this email today, it was being forwarded as a joke, a bit of light entertainment. Unfortunately, I, personally, don't find anything about it amusing.

Why China can produce cheaper goods than us.

Construction site hard hats:

Welders Scaffolding:

Dust Masks:


Welding masks:

If you've ever picked up an item at a shop and wondered how on earth it could be produced so cheaply - that's why.

What's on today...

Doing: ...Mourning the loss of one of my avocado trees :-( Avocadoes are susceptible to root rot but I thought that since they are in bonsai bags, the drainage would be adequate even after all this rain. The Sheppard variety looks great, but my Secondo dropped all of it's leaves a couple of days ago, and today the branches are blackening so I doubt it will reshoot. D'oh! Unfortunately, to get a decent crop of avocadoes I need two type of different trees apparently, so I'll probably have to get another one, perhaps a Wurtze (a small growing variety) this time, although I have heard conflicting reports about the fruit quality?

... Feeding the worms and draining off worm wee; using the diluted worm wee on the potted plants.

... Noticing that there are potatoes shooting from the patch of dead ones I dug up a couple of weeks ago. Obviously I missed some when I dug them up. The new growth looks good, although I thought it was too late in the year to be putting in 'taters around here? Will leave them and see how they go!

... Admiring the canna flowers.

...Particularly this speckled one

...and this hot pink one.


..."Buying" gifts for DH's rellies on Oxfam Unwrapped. Also, as part of our Christmas this year, my side of the family has agreed to donate $50 to a charity of our choice. After hearing the story of the poor little 10 year old rape victim in northern Australia in the media this morning, we have decided to donate our $50 to the Indigenous Wellness Circle Grandmothers' Group, via Oxfam Unwrapped. It is a forum whereby indigenous elders can "provide counselling to younger indigenous peoples".

Making: Assisting with various kiddy craft creations using household recycling waste: toilet rolls, newspaper, boxes etc.

Dinner: Pasta with napoli sauce and garlic bread.

Reading: Various organic gardening books for advice re: hot, humid weather.

Utilities: We received our electricity bill today; it's the lowest we've ever had (by almost $80), and that's including a premium for GreenPower! We've dropped from an average use of 25.7 kWh per day this time last year, to 14.1 kWh this past quarter. Happy days!

Contemplating: Whether I can hide enough strawberries from Miss 4 to make another batch of jam.

I hope this humidity isn't going to be a permanent part of climate change...

Doing: Whinging about the humidity. DH had to mow the lawn with the petrol mower - with all this rain and hot days lately, the grass virtually grows while you are looking at it (bit the like the zucchinis, really). Spraying the zucchini and cucumbers with sulphur spray to (hopefully) stave off fungal disease, but having another shower of rain come through later in the day and wash it off. Sigh.

Making: Wholemeal bread.

Dinner: Free-range ham and salad with fresh bread.

Challenge/s: Dealing with washing that won't completely dry because of the humidity (and smells bad after a day or so of hanging on the line).

Solution/s: Does anyone living in the tropics have any suggestions?! I've been hanging it around the house after I take it off the outside line, but that doesn't work so well for big items like sheets, or heavy denim jeans (which I have been sticking in the clothes drier to finish off... *ahem*) .

Reading: Off-topic (alternative) parenting books: yuck weather + all kids at home = frazzled mum.

Contemplating: Polly's suggestion of coffee-flavoured ice cream :-)

On yer bike...

Doing: Ordering an electrically-assisted road bike! It's the eLation system, as seen here on New Inventors last year, only DH is getting Version 2 which has just been released. That's one step closer to getting rid of the second car; it should arrive at the end of the month :-)

Fertilising the vegies with dilute worm wee and seasol. Discovering that two bean seeds actually managed to germinate and not get completely eaten by bugs... yet.

Trying to determine if the baby beets are ready to pick yet.

Picking: Zucchini, cucumbers and strawberries.


Making: Organic mango ice cream, adapted from Shell's recipe:

2 cups cream
1 cup milk
1 tin sweetened condensed milk, or equivalent homemade
1 fresh organic mango, peeled and roughly cut into chunks

Add all to a blender and whizz until combined. Chill until cold, and churn in ice cream maker. It's yum.

Dinner: Homemade pizza. Kids decorate their own; adults tonight is caramalised red onions, sliced homegrown Black Russian tomatoes and marinated fetta.

Reading: The latest issue of Gardening Australia magazine.

Contemplating: Moving to Tasmania where it isn't so bl**dy humid.

Gardening woes!

Doing: Sweating! It's 11am as I type, and although it's only 28 degrees C (82' F), according to DH's weather gauge it's 72% relative humidity, blerck! Just the act of vacuuming the floors has left me drenched in sweat and in need of a cool drink and a shower! Alas I will just have to stink, as I can't see the humidity getting any lower for the rest of the day.

The weather is challenging me in otherways too, namely in the vegie garden. I was speaking to a grandmother at speech day yesterday and she mentioned that she had grown vegies in her backyard for many, many years but gave up recently; not because of her age or fitness, but because she felt that the weather and pests were getting increasingly worse and worse over the past few years. I can certainly empathise with her today! After having very little rain for months, in the past three weeks we have had storm after storm come through, with hot weather in between. It's been almost monsoonal, I feel like we've been transported to the tropics, LOL. As a result, the insect population has positively exploded, and what plants and fruits the bugs aren't getting have split their skins or have developed humidity-related fungal diseases.

Of the 18 cos lettuce seedlings I planted last week, all have been cut off at soil level (presumably by cutworms) Every tomato has a split skin, the zucchini and cucumbers have mouldy leaves, most of the beans seeds have rotted instead of germinating, the silverbeet leaves that haven't been skeletonised by bugs look wilted and ill, and this is what remains of my very first apple, that I have been molly-coddling for weeks:

It split open after all the rain and the bugs attacked straight away :-( I did manage to salvage enough of it to get a taste, which, despite being a couple of weeks away from harvest time, was delish. So sweet.

Ah well, what can you do but battle on? I'm only a beginner vegie gardener so I am hoping that by the time peak oil and global warming *really* start to bite, I will have worked out at least some of the peculiarities of my local climate and pests, and some strategies for dealing with them. My advice to you if you want to start growing vegies too, is start little, but start now!

Making: It's school holidays, so it's bubble mix and playdough.

Dinner: Zucchini fritters, homemade tomato sauce and salad.

Reading: Clean Food Organic Volume 5, which arrived in the mail today.

Utilities: Gas 35.6 MJ/day (goal 19.2); water 355 L/day (goal 120); electricity 13.3 kWh/day (goal 5.7), garbage 5.05kg/this week (goal 2.3); recycling 5.4 kg/this week (goal 0.75).

Contemplating: The impact of Peak Oil on medications. Miss 6 has an eye infection, so it was off to the chemist this morning for eye drops and sterile saline solution (both in plastic bottles). It makes me wonder how much the price of pharmaceuticals will go up in the future, and how their availability will be affected?

I have hope for the future today.

Today was the last day of the first year of "big" school for Miss 6, and it ended with the annual speech day. It was a rather formal affair, and probably precisely because of that, what struck me most was the repeated mention (by various speakers) of issues such as climate change, sustainability and affluenza.

It began with the principal's address, who talked about the concepts of sustainability and stewardship, and how interconectedness is the key to sustainability; both between us and the environment and each other, i.e. the emerging importance of rebuilding our sense of community instead of sitting in our "home theatres" watching our plasma TV's. Lots of nodding heads in the audience, I was heartened to see.

The Bishop then went on to discuss in his address, a passage from social researcher Hugh Mackay's book Advance Australia... Where?, in which Mackay talks about how Australian's are increasingly disatisfied with our wasteful, affluent lifestyles and are returning to simpler, more meaningful ways of being in the world, which, as the Bishop then pointed out, sets the way for a change in dogma from "subduing" the earth and it's creatures, to a more nuturing, stewardship role, all the more important for the increasingly rapid impacts of climate change.

The guest speaker was Hugh Evans, Young Australian of the Year in 2004, a very impressive young man too I have to say! His talk about the work he has facilitated and been involved in with the poor and ill in Africa and India, also linked in with the concept that we, as affluent Westerners, have no right to impose the effects of our selfish wants on these people.

And finally, the parting gift to the school from the Year 12 students were solar panels, to be connected to the electricity grid, to help reduce the carbon footprint of the school.

Whilst the sense of urgency about climate change and the need to act now, won't leave me any time soon, I have to say that I left what could have been a pompous, self-congratulatory affair this morning, feeling that there actually is a growing groundswell of people just like me in my own community, instead of scattered around the country connected via computer. It's a nice feeling.

Positive feedback...

Doing: Emailing CHOICE magazine to compliment them on their terrific work. I've mentioned a couple of time before that I've always found their testing of appliances and general articles to be a great source of consumer information, and now that they have started including articles and information regarding "green" issues as well, I find it even better value for money. I have just received the latest issue today, and the very first article (under the new "Sustainable Living" heading), is titled "The more we shop, the more we pollute", and gives a link to the Australian Conservation Foundation's consumption atlas at the end. Great stuff! I think oftentimes, people only contact companies or organisations when they aren't happy with a product or service, so I am going to email them shortly with positive feedback and tell them how impressed I am with these sorts of articles.

In the Garden: Spraying the mignonette lettuce with molasses spray, to hopefully deter the caterpillars currently feasting on them.

Picking: Zucchini and cherry tomatoes.

Dinner: Sausage and bean casserole with rice and steamed vegetables.

Greening up our Christmas: No disposable paper serviettes this year, we're using cloth napkins. They look much more special as well as being more environmentally friendly :-)

Reading: CHOICE magazine, Jan/Feb 2008 issue.

Oh dear, tagged again!

I've been tagged again for the Seven Random Facts About Me Meme, by Kez from Kez's Blog and Sharon from Is there any paper around here? I always draw a blank on these things, but here goes I suppose ;-)

1. Until recently I owned every book written by Stephen King, although now I only have an unabridged version of The Stand. Horror as a genre didn't hold as much appeal anymore once I realised that watching the news can be even scarier.

2. I always pick up the newspaper or magazine that is second from the top in the pile at the newsagents.

3. I am a "dog person" and a "cat person"; I have two dogs and a cat and think they are all equally cool (but in different ways of course).

4. My favourite food is fried rice.

5. My favourite number is five - I have five pierced earings - and I hate even numbers, in particular, evil number 4 (my unlucky number).

6. I hate eggs. The smell of them cooking makes me dry heave and I sometimes gag when cracking them for use in baking.

7. I aspire to becoming a Buddhist one day.

If you haven't already done this meme, consider yourself tagged ;-)

Today's post

In the Garden: Picking cherry tomatoes, silverbeet and zucchini; planting cos lettuce seedlings:

and collecting worm wee for later use as an organic fertiliser:

Making: Wholemeal bread, yoghurt.

Dinner: Wholemeal penne pasta with a silverbeet, garlic and tomato sauce, and garlic bread.

Greening up our Christmas: My mum, my sister and I have decided to split up the Christmas Day dinner between us, so I am in charge of the entrees/ nibblies, two salads, homemade ice cream and fruit. I have yet to decide on my final menu, but one of the entrees/ nibblies will probably be mini-pizzas: homemade pizza dough cut into small circles, topped with homegrown cherry tomatoes, homemade mozzarella and basil from the garden, and grilled for five minutes. I will be doing a practice run of these this weekend, stay tuned for a report!

Reading: Organic Gardener magazine, Jan/Feb 2008 issue.

What's on Today?

As I've mentioned before, I really enjoyed the Back to Basics posts I did for November's NaBloPoMo challenge, and now that my weekend visitors have departed, I thought I would muck around with a new format, but a similar theme to November's posts :-) Let me know if there is anything you would like me to add (or subtract)!

In the Garden: Picking cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and zucchini; inspecting for vegie plants for pests; feeding the worms; emptying the kitchen scraps bucket into the compost bin.

In the Kitchen: Sorting through the party leftovers ;-) Menu planning for the week. Making honey-toasted muesli.

In the Laundry: Washing, washing, washing. Hanging clothes out in the sun. Soaking the dishcloths and tea towels in homebrand Napisan to whiten them up.

Projects we're working on: 1. DH is researching electric bikes to ride to and from work when the weather is favourable. They are essentially a normal hybrid road bike with a motor that can be utilised as required (i.e. going up the hills), which should make the 17 kilometre (10.5 mile) one-way trip much quicker.

2. I was going to try making some large cloth nappies, until I discovered some cheap, homemade waterproof AIO's (all-in-ones) on eBay (around $10 each), so I have ordered 4 to see how they go (and I probably won't need any more than that). They should make a nice positive impact on our weekly garbage weigh-in.

Projects I'm contemplating: Making some good quality nativity costumes for the kids for use in future years. It won't be long before I have three kids in school and will therefore require a variety of nativity costumes each year for the choir or nativity play, so if I get the plans and requirements together now, I have a year in which to get at least one made ;-)

Greening up our Christmas: My side of our families decided yesterday to forgoe presents for the adults. Instead we will donate $50 per family to the charity of our choice. DH and I will probably "buy" something from Oxfam Unwrapped, and Mum mentioned the Salvation Army as their preferred choice. I suspect we will end up doing something similar with DH's side fo the family, but we haven't yet confirmed it; that's next on the To Do List.

Utilities: Gas 36.5 MJ/day; water 359 L/day; electricity 14.1 kWh/day. As I mentioned above, we had two visitors over the weekend, and a party with 11 extras on Sunday, so I shouldn't be surprised that our electricity and water use averages rose markedly over the past few days. Nevermind, back to being careful now, and see if we can get those averages back down again!

Homemade deodorant

Many people use bicarb soda or a 1:1 bicarb/ cornstarch mix very successfully as a deodorant, however bicarb gives me a rash. I realised yesterday I hadn't posted the recipe I use yet, so here is the recipe I use for myself and DH:

Homemade Roll-on Deodorant

1/4 cup distilled witch hazel
1/4 cup aloe vera gel
1/4 cup mineral water or filtered water
1 tsp vegetable glycerine
few drops tea tree oil (tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic)

* Mix well and pour into a clean, used roll-on deodorant container (the 'ball' can be levered out gently with the tip of a rounded knife for cleaning and refilling).

A Day in the Life...

Nadine emailed me recently asking if I would consider posting a rundown of a typical day for me, which I thought was interesting because very recently many participants of the Riot 4 Austerity group did the same thing, and I found their days fascinating, probably all the more because they were all such "average" people like me with kids and/or jobs. It just goes to show what we can achieve when we change our mindset and start putting some thought into the choices we make each day.

Anyway, I'll do my best, although what I've outlined below is really more of a conglomeration of days since I don't really have a "typical" one. Apologies in advance if I offend anyone by getting a bit too personal with some of the information!!

6.30am: Get up and go to the bathroom. Pop the cloth wipe in a lidded bucket for later washing. Following the "If it's yellow..." philosophy, flush if required, and refill the toilet cistern with the shower bucket. Put on a load of washing, using homemade detergent, washing in cold water. My machine is set to pause and beep at the end of the wash cycle, whereupon I drain the wash water into the tub for reuse in the next load. Check what's for dinner (I menu plan for the week on Monday), and put any frozen ingredients in the fridge to thaw during the day.

Breakfast: Fair Trade organic coffee, toast (usually homemade wholemeal bread), dairy-free Nuttelex spread and vegemite, local organic honey or jam (homemade if available). Make kid/s school/preschool lunches - sandwiches, fresh fruit and/or carrot sticks, dried fruit like sultanas, cheese and (usually homemade) crackers and water.

Shower, using the bucket to catch the initial cold water, a 4-minute timer and the Shower Saver to turn the water off while soaping up and washing hair etc. Wash hair with SLS-free organic shampoo/ conditioner (bicarb soda gives me a rash). Tone face afterwards with witch hazel extract, moisturise with homemade moisturiser, and use homemade deodorant. Brush teeth with homemade toothpaste.

School run: Walk to school, on preschool day we drive (a few minutes away by car).

Morning: Put dinner on to cook in the crockpot/ slowcooker if required. Hang the washing out on the outside clothes line, or under cover in the garage if it is raining. Clean house as required, using an Enjo glove or bicarb soda and vinegar for stubborn stains and the toilet. Sweep floors, vacuuming twice a week. Put bread on to bake in breadmaker (using local-ish, organic flour). Check the garden for pests, water if required, apply fertiliser (worm wee and/or fish emulsion) once a fortnight. Plant seedlings or seeds occaisonally. Empty the kitchen scraps into the compost bin, and check on the worm farm; feed and/or water worms as required. Make homemade items around the house such as shaving gel or detergents as required. Morning tea for the kids is generally homemade yoghurt and fresh organic fruit.

Lunch: Sandwiches; usually salad (at the moment, homegrown tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber with bought cheese and mayo). Record meter readings (gas, water and electricity).

Afternoon: Check what snacks we have on hand; bake muffins or a slice, or make crackers as required, trying to optimise having the oven on by cooking at least two batches at the same time, and freezing one for later. Pick the vegetables for tonight's dinner, wash and start preparing dinner.

School run: Walk to school and back, unless it's raining, or it's preschool day. Afternoon tea is homemade crackers and cheese, or fresh/ dried fruit, or a raw vegetable platter and hommus dip.

Dinner: Usually vegetarian, with organic chicken or kangaroo meat around once a week, and cooked from scratch. I try to incorporate what is in the garden, if there is anything, or what is in season from the organic grocer. I try to use as many organic ingredients as possible and ingredients that are the least processed as is possible, for example beans and pulses are usually dried, we use wholemeal pasta and brown rice, and wholemeal flour or 50:50 wholemeal and unbleached white flour. Feed the dogs homemade dog food; the (fussy) cat has tinned food.

Evening: Wash up dishes, draining the initial cold water into a bucket for watering pot plants and using homemade detergent (we will be using pure soap when this last lot is used up), or run the dishwasher when it is full (also using homemade detergent). Grocery shopping at the local supermarket (7 minutes away by car) once every week to 10 days. Put on any beans to soak overnight for dinner the next day, if required; they will be cooked in a pressure cooker. Make yoghurt in the Easiyo to set overnight. Order organic fruit, vegetables and bulky goods from the online organic grocer once a week. Then generally reading and/ or sometimes watching TV by CFL bulb in the one room.

Before bed: ensure all appliances are turned off at the wall.

Pretty boring really!