Getting my mojo back

Its been a while since I have posted something 'homesteady', but life has been crazy crazy for far too long. I studied my Masters part time for 3.5 years (hence all the crazy other posts), I went back to work part time, my babies all started big school, and  most recently I have started a new part time job working more hours. Sometimes you just have to let things slide until you can get your head above water again. For your own sanity you have to focus on what is going to get you through - sleep, eat and surviving. But now I am starting to feel the need to rediscover the 'old' me, and get back into my interests, find that homesteading mojo I have been putting to the side for far too long, plus look into some new ideas that were always on the '....when I finish this bloody study I'm going to.....' list.

So to get back into the swing of things, I have ditched the traditional housework-on-my-day-off routine and made these instead

 - Laundry detergent (makes about 10L)
 - Almond meal (sounds fancy if I said I 'made it' but I really just ground up almonds)
 - Toothpaste - I use this recipe
 - and cake...just cause it smells good and I wanted cake (I added poppy seeds to this recipe)

So to keep this post short and to the point as I soon have to go pick up kids, my new 'thing' is trying to decrease our waste, and in particular our plastics. I got interested when I somehow stumbled across Zero Waste Home and through a bit more research an Australian version at Gippsland Unwrapped. Although we are SO FAR from a zero waste household, I am trying to do things gradually (all at once doesn't work in our house). My first goal is to decrease the amount of non-recyclables. I know that it does take quite a bit of energy resources to recycle, but we have to start somewhere. I'll get to recyclables in the process, hopefully. So here is a pick of a few things we have been doing to decrease our plastics and waste

Here, I have fruit and veggie bags and also some homemade beeswax wraps which I use in the kids' lunchboxes. I roughly followed this recipe and used our own beeswax.

We already compost, make a lot of food from scratch and give food scraps to our new puppy (he's a bitsa rescue pup, he's destructive but cute), but I think we can do more. I have also been planning meals which answers the dreaded question 'whats for dinner mum?'..every..single..day, and I don't have to 'think' during the week. I have a planned list on the fridge and the kids now know just to refer to the list. ON the plus, I try to get those things that we need for our meals on our fortnightly shop.

I also hope to attend a UHC event next weekend - garden porn (aka seed catalogues). Between work, study, and football on weekends I have not been able to attend events as I would like.

But I feel like I'm coming back. Slowly.

Getting back to some basics - breadmaking and laundry detergent

After helping out with some teaching at an Intro to Permaculture course on Saturday, it was hard not to get inspired and re-energised by being around like minded people. It was fantastic listening to everybody's ideas and personal takes on information and I came away with a renewed vigour to get 'my hands dirty' in some basic, from the roots, homesteading.

 

And what better homesteading past time is there than making bread.

 

Last weekend I attended a sourdough bread making workshop, and although I have dabbled in bread making, I have never made sourdough. The whole growing the starter-thingy scared me off a little, but for this past week, I have been keenly growing my starter and today, turned out my first loaf to proof overnight. Fingers crossed it actually turns out OK! The kids are very keen to taste test for me.

As it was cold outside, cloudy and threatening with rain I decided to make some raisin bread as well.

 

Here I am using the heat from the fire to get the loaves to rise. Where we live, the air is very dry and not ideal for making bread. The shower caps over the tins increase the humidity and helps the loaf to rise, as well as creating a 'steam oven' with a shallow tray with water in the bottom of the oven. After attending the course last weekend, I realised I had been over-proofing the bread, and hence why it had been sinking when I put it in the oven. Not today! Rose nicely in the oven.

I have also commenced making my own laundry detergent. With four little kids and one big kid in the house, I seem to be doing endless loads of washing. So given my choice to try and reduce our chemical intake further and also help out the hip pocket, I thought I would try it out. If it didn't work, well, not too much would be lost. This is the third batch I have made (each batch makes about 8-9 litres), and I am happy with it enough to continue using it and not go back to commercial laundry detergents. The ingredients are fairly simple - water, soap flakes, grated sard wonder soap, washing soda, lavender oil and a smidgen of blueo. I got the recipe from one of the girls from the Urban Homesteaders, Sally, and I think it works a treat. After I make it up and combine with a stick blender, I store it in reused juice plastic bottles.

 

The only thing I would have liked to have accomplished today was to get out into the garden and get some seeds planted. Tomorrow, I am going to leave the mess of the house behind and head outdoors. Definitely tomorrow.

What has been going on in our little world

So much has been happening, so much is being planned, so much has been about daydreaming and plans for the future, so much swirling around in my head. Rather than blog each individually I am going to do a summary of what has been going on in our world.

What has been started...

Our fireplace!! Woo hoo!! Although the near freezing daytime temperatures here at the moment would lean perfectly toward a red in front of a blazing fire...I shall have to wait a little longer...but maybe only about a week!

Here is the base!

Hubby has started home brewing and has done two batches so far - a pale ale and a Kilkenny-style beer. The bottling of the first batch started off horribly (faulty tap, beer all over the floor and walls, and free ranging chickens INSIDE the house with crazy screaming kids while we are trying to clean it all up!). We are bottling the second batch tonight - chicken and child free - fingers crossed. 

As  Miss 5yo is off to school next year and the twins will be starting preschool, I have decided to head back to study with the aim of maybe becoming a teacher. Ultimately I would like to work with teaching kids how to grow and cook their own food, and maybe even work with the Stephanie Alexander program in the future. Definitely a work in progress with even a permaculture design course or horticulture course thrown in as well. Hmmm...'cause the prospect of free time with the kids at school just seemed downright quiet and boring!

My first attempt at making 'weed tea' fertiliser. Its very smelly so I am not sure I am doing it right. Need to put some fresh weeds in again and do more research on what it is supposed to look like. Have ambitions to spray this across our block to hopefully aid in soil conditioning. I can only try. 

What I have been collecting...

Free Poo! I finally got around to placing a 'Wanted: Free Poo' sign up at the local Murrumbateman noticeboard in the hope that some nice farmer would allow us to come and collect some free sheep/cow poo for our compost and veggie gardens. Someone rang! So last weekend we went around and collected some free alpaca poo and have placed it in the compost to break down.

What is being planned...

Sheep! Although my Dad has warned me away from them as they can be too much work, we are definitely in the process of turning our front area into Paddock 1, and in time when the fruit trees grow a little more, creating Paddock 2 up the back. My plan is to rotate the sheep through the two paddocks as lawn mowers but also to fertilise and condition the soil. They are not going to be named. Which means, yes, our plan is to kill them for meat. A lot of our friends are betting that we can't do it. I think we can. At this stage I would like to try and prepare the soil better (maybe through some liquid weed/compost tea fertiliser), plus plant some shade trees, and obviously build some fences. I have also been mulling over ideas for a movable sheep shelter (similar to a chook tractor concept) to move to whichever paddock the sheep are in. Nothing concrete yet.

I want some with black faces!

A cellar (or root cellar or larder). We have been considering building a 'pool house' (certainly NOT a second dwelling and hence double the rates, Mr Local Council Inspectors), which potentially a cellar underneath to store beer, wine and produce in more climate controlled conditions. We recently received a quote back from a builder - ridiculously expensive - so the planning and alternatives are shelved still being explored.

Collecting fallen leaves to attempt to make some leaf mould. I have been watching the trees at the recreation grounds and their leaves are starting to turn so it won't be long before the kiddies and I are out with the rakes.

What I have been attending...

I attended the monthly Urban Homesteader's Club last weekend, which was a Soup Swap. I love going to these meetings and speaking with like minded, passionate people. I always come away with so many ideas and suggestions and knowledge swirling around in my head. My latest ploy is to send hubby fishing for some carp to plant under my fruit trees.

What I have been reading...

'Folks, this Ain't Normal' by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. Been having a lot of 'Yes!' moments and thinking more about applying some principles to our little piece of dirt. About to read 'The Guernsey and Literary Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Anne Shaffer for Book Club.

Hubby has been reading about the health benefits and medicinal applications of honey. I hope the kids and I don't cut or graze ourselves too bad in the near future as I think we are definitely going to be lathered in honey!

What I am cooking...

I have sort of got back on my little 'chemicals are bad' bandwagon and I have been trying to cook more things from scratch. A little while ago I blogged about the frozen pastry I used to buy for my quiche and a nice reader called Jess suggested that I try Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry recipe. Well I have and it is really bloody easy!! I switched the white flour for wholemeal flour (kids can't tell the difference hee hee!). I have made it a few times now and I won't be going back to store bought pastry.

I have also been making the Taco Seasoning Recipe from Picklebum's 'Cooking from Scratch' series. Apart from a little heavy handedness with the chilli powder the first time, again really easy, and the kids have adjusted just fine. I have also started to use our own homemade tomato sauce with a few modifications for the taco sauce. Again no complaint from the kiddies.

Although I have yet to make a proper loaf of bread (I have all the ingredients and the loaf pan but just haven't done it), I have been making bread rolls for burgers and accompliments to soups. Miss 7yo actually prefers my rolls (yay! Big internal fist pump!).

After reading 'Sweet Poison' by David Gillespie, I have endeavoured to cut out white flour and as much sugar from our diets as possible. I have been cooking with wholemeal flour and honey and the kids are still happy. Actually they can't even tell the difference. Now I know that honey is a liquid form of sugar, but it is lower in fructose than normal sugar and hopefully we will have an abundance of it that I can use for free!

What I am daydreaming about....

Free ranging pigs on our block. And ducks on a pond that I don't have. Growing an experimental patch of wheat. Where I can fit a big potato patch to grow enough to last us through winter next year. Our first lot of honey from our bees. When it will be warm enough to go for a swim again.  

How cute do they look!

Reducing chemicals in our lives

When I think back to how our life was before we moved out here, I must have seriously had my blinkers on to most things in life. Or that's how it sort of feels now anyway.

I wasn't growing my own food and therefore had no appreciation of how much time and effort went into growing veggies and herbs. Or how it is so easy to just spray with chemicals to fix issues such as weeds or pests but how that then disrupts the whole ecosystem, not to mention that we then actually have to eat those veggies!?!?! But you don't think of that when you are grabbing something at the supermarket.

Or how I would just plant plants because they were cheap at the nursery without thinking about actually having a purpose for planting the plant - such as producing food, using the falling leaves as mulch or in the compost, or using the flowers such as lavender in a million and one different uses around the home.

Or how as I was breathing in the clean crisp autumn air and wondering why on earth we were then chasing a blowfly around inside the house with a can of fly spray to kill it. And as is so often the case, not getting him on the first go, and continually, helplessly, trying to spray him as he darts past in an effort to get out of the house.

So, outside I thought things were in order, well at least on the way, but inside needed some drastic help.

My first stop was to read 'Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health' by Rick Smith & Bill Lourie.

Wow.

OK quite a bit of scientific stuff that I must admit I glossed over, but after finishing that book, I was convinced things were going to change in a big way in our house.

No more plastics. No more Teflon coated pans. No more plastic utensils. All our moisturisers, shampoos, deodorants, sunscreens, hand washes, laundry detergents and the like were going to be replaced with non-toxic alternatives all starting now. Today.

In my frenzy of throwing myself head first into the plastic cupboard with a big garbage bag at the ready, and making a mental note to count the number of kids before disposing of said garbage bag, I can vaguely hear my husband over the avalanche of plastics say 'Whoa hippie girl! What on earth do you think you are doing?'

Hmmm, the cynic. Forgot about him. As I proceeded to explain, with urgency of course, how we are killing our children and our selves with all this toxicity and especially since we are living out here in the clean air, that all things 'bad' must be banished from this house immediately, he calmly stated he was happy to support my current rant under two provisos:

1. It has to be cost effective, ie we switch to alternatives once current supplies are due to be replaced, and the healthier alternatives are not to cost an absolute bomb; and

2. It is to have no to little impact on the way we go about our everyday life.

I had to admit those points were fair.

So I decided to get 'strategic' with the items I chose first to introduce healthier alternatives, and carefully chose areas that would be easiest to implement and have the greatest chance of success, some runs on the board if you like, before I slowly progress my way to tackle the more ingrained items in everyday use. I am glad to report that 18 months down the track we have achieved those initial goals of mine, however it hasn't always been easy to find items. I am still struggling in finding a dishwashing liquid that I am entirely happy with and have only just found a washing powder that I am happy with. My cynic has also come to the party too, and I have him using an organic shave cream which he admits he really likes!! Although there are still a few areas he needs improvement - he can't get past his need for fly spray. I prefer to use the good ol' fly swat and only on the weekend did we have a stand off with each having their weapons of choice in hand ready to tackle an annoying blowfly. He gave me 60 secs to get it before he came in. I had the kids on my side yelling and pointing at which way the fly was going, and after me running around like a mad chooky trying to get this thing, I came in with seconds to spare. And probably burnt a good 100 calories in the process! But the point is that I won, and no chemicals were sprayed.

I decided to turn our lives around after reading this book, and as it was my turn to host our Book Club get together, I decided to choose this book and was very keen to see what everyone thought - good, bad or otherwise. The discussion went off smashingly well and everyone added what they were using/trying and to what success. But I guess the upside was some of the girls were willing to change the way they did things, or at least have a second thought when they did. And what could be a better result than that :)

MM xoxo