Are you self-sufficient?

Oh dear, oh dear!  Earlier in the week a delivery van came here.  The driver pulled up in the drive and hopped out.  The first thing he sais was, "Are you self-sufficient?!" 

It wasn't until he left that I realised!  He couldn't see into our yard from where he pulled up.  He couldn't see our veggie garden, compost heaps, orchard or the dairy.  So what made him ask this question?

That gave me a good giggle!  What gave him the clue that we try to do things for ourselves?  Was it the chooks, ducks and geese wandering everywhere?  Was it the children running feral on a school day and coming to investigate the stranger that had arrived?  Maybe it was my attire!  A baggy pair of tracky dacks, boots, beanie, scarf and a filthy jacket!!  Haha!  Perhaps I need to work on the impression we make when people turn up unexpectedly.

The question certainly started me thinking though......  We certainly are not self-sufficient by any stretch of the imagination, nor do I think we are  aiming to be.  To be self-sufficient, we would need to be able to provide our own clothes, grow enough food for ourselves and our animals, extract oil from olives or similar, to be able to make all our fencing and animal shelters from natural materials etc. etc. 

 Maybe not a hope in hell we could do all these things but would we want too?  Every waking minute would be filled with providing the basics for our needs.  This got me thinking about our motivation for living the life style we have chosen.  It's as simple as this.  We are trying to live a comfortable life while being respectful of the environment.  We don't want to add to the climate crisis that is occurring.  (And it truly is a crisis!  We're not doomed yet, but damn close, so you might want to give it some thought if you haven't already.)

 I make our own soap but find I don't do it regularly enough to keep us supplied.  Ditto with bread.  We are producing goats milk.  We make cheese.  I knit and sew.  We garden.  Hubby builds many things that we need and often uses natural materials when it works.  It's all wonderful stuff but there aren't enough hours in a day to do everything all the time. 

A temporary chook shelter in the garden they're digging over.

I still buy crackers, coffee, bread fairly often, all my staples like sugar, rice,  pasta and a heap of other things.  We try to buy household items and clothing second hand.  Most of my shoes are from the op-shop but I buy my workboots new and usually buy the children new shoes.  I would happily buy them from the op shop but, more often than not, I don't notice they are falling apart until it's too late.  When I notice the children wandering around with flapping soles, there's no time to scour the op shops so I race to the shoe shop feeling like a neglectful mother and buy the best option I can find.  All in all, our impact is fairly low compared to the average family and we keep working our way toward a greener life.

There's another very important element here too.  People.  If we truly spent every minute trying to provide for ourselves, we would be too busy to connect with others around us.   It would be an insular and lonely life.

So when I ponder the question of self-sufficiency I realise, it's not looking after ourselves in isolation that I'm after.  I want to connect with those around us and work together to create a better world.  I want to swap my goats milk for their pickles that I didn't get around to making for myself.  I want to use my friend's lard and repay her with the soap that I create with it.  I want to spend time with friends learning (or teaching) new skills.  I want to come together with other families so that our children can play.  I want to share meals where everyone brings a dish that they have cooked with fresh ingredients from the garden. 

It has been an unexpected benefit for me to discover that in trying to address climate change, in trying to create a good future for my children and others, that our lives have become more fulfilling.  We feel grounded, connected with nature, our food and our community.  We feel a sense of achievement that comes from being creative and learning new skills.  It's not doing it on our own that I'm after.  It's being a part of something bigger.  I want my community to be with me in this way of living.  A non-commercial life of thoughtfulness and creativity and appreciation for the simple things in life that really matter.

So now I need a new term.  It's not self-sufficiency.  Help me coin a new phrase.  Mine don't have a ring to them.  Is it 'community-sufficiency'?  Is it 'friendship-farming'?  Is it 'the-way-life-should-be sufficiency'?

Slow Living Link Up for February

I'm linking with Christine at Slow Living Essentials today.  It's been a while since I did a report on the state of life for the previous month.  So here is a quick picture of our February.

Don't forget to pop over to Christine's to see what others have been up to.  It's great to get a little inspiration!

Nourish - I've been making quite a bit of quark lately.  Ten year old Belle has decided she likes it on everything.  I kind of agree!  It's yummy with relishes, pairs perfectly with home grown tomatoes and is nice on a platter with olives etc.

And we've been eating plenty of zucchini!  I've been searching for new recipes and trying them out.   Where no recipe was to be found, I just threw them in to any meal.

I've also been making my own chapatis.  I don't make them often.  It seems such an effort!  But then when I made them again this month I remembered they're really very easy.  They only take minutes.  A friend put me on to making burrito wraps with sour dough this month too.  Just roll out the bread dough and dry fry.  So easy!

Prepare - I have grated zucchini and frozen it for use later in the year.  I dehydrated some plums a couple of days ago.  A friend had a glut (a whaaattt!  I'm yet to have one of them) and kindly thought of us.  More about this under another category further on in this post.  These categories are very inter-related and sometimes had to separate up.  For example, I bet you can already guess what's coming in my 'Grow' category.  ;-)

Reduce -  MESS!!!  Sadly I'm STILL working on decluttering.  Due to teaching the kids at home and keeping up with normal daily tasks, I can don't have time to just throw myself into a big clean.  So slowly, slowly I'm chipping away.  I've begun on one of the kid's rooms and I'm nearly there!  It's taken me most of the month to go through craft boxes, clothes, under the bed etc!  I don't care if it takes months.  I'm just going to keep going until I get rid of the things we don't need or use.  Our local op shop must be happy.....  I'm singlehandedly restocking their shelves!!!

Green - Not much new.  Just the usual green cleaning with bi-carb and vinegar.  I am working on liquid soap though.   I nearly have the right consistency and will post about it when I perfect it.

I found an online store with great recycled stationery for our school work and home.  The order I placed seemed a bit pricey but I don't care.  We all know there is a TRUE cost hidden within the cheaper products.  We either pay later with the environment or we are taking advantage of people not as fortunate as us in the case of cheaply made products (or both).

Grow- ZUCCHINI!!!!  You already guessed, didn't you? 

My garden has been terrible.  I struggle every year with the summer garden.  It's too dry and too hot. Every year I think I will do better than the last and every year I discover that I haven't learnt a single thing.  Oh well, I'll try again next year...    I did well with zucchini and I grew some great strawberries, a few apples and that was it!  An occasional tomato and eggplant completes the picture.

Can you spot the apple thieves about to raid the tree?!

Create - No, sorry!  I can't think of a thing.

Discover - I have learnt heaps and heaps about goats.  I was thrown in at the deep end.  I was unexpectedly offered my goat back.  She came with another doe and two kids.  She was in milk so I have been madly studying goats, milking, natural health for goats etc.  It's been a crazy and busy adventure.  As a consequence of the goats, I've also learnt a bit about fencing!

Enhance -  I'm afraid to say I haven't enhanced anything.  Not for the whole month of February.  I've been concentrating on sorting out the children's homeschooling for the year, decluttering when I could and goats.  Plenty of people have enhanced my life though.  I've been given unused exercise books for our schooling, hand-me-down clothes and more.  I have lovely people in my life!

I also have a friend that I secretly view as my mentor.  She has been living a sustainable and thoughtful life for many years.  She could be forgiven for being a touch smug but no, she encourages, boosts and helps everyone that she can, to learn more.  I truly believe if we are to get ourselves out of the environmental mess we are in, we need to take on this type of community attitude.  We need to share our knowledge and expertise and make it easier for the next person who is trying to reduce their impact on the environment.

I was invited to her place to process some of her excess plums.  I thought I was going to be helping dehydrate and bottle for her larder and learn along the way.  I hadn't realised that she was giving me the excess!  I went home with a full dehydrator (which was given to me by yet another generous friend) and some jars of plums. 

Told you I have lots of lovely people in my life.  I must try to be the enhancer, not the enhancee in March!

Enjoy - I'll give you this category in photos.

Encouraging kisses from a stranger's puppy!

Slow Living Diary - Month Ten, October

Well here we are in November already!  I can feel a nervous knot in my stomach as I start thinking about Christmas.  Last year, I swore that I would be organised for Christmas by this time of year, so that I could sit back and enjoy the season.  Of course, part of the plan was that I would home make every gift.  Do you know, I haven't even started!  Life just kept getting in the way. 

So that's where I'm at right now.  Let me tell about October.  I'm joining in with Christine at Slow Living Essentials for a monthly recount.  Have a look - it's lots of fun reading what others have been up to.

NOURISH: I've been making pasta, we've had broad beans, kale and sourdough bread.  Plenty of silverbeet was eaten.  Mum gave me lots of spinach which was enjoyed with pasta or with scrambled eggs.  Yummm!

 I didn't bake cakes and biscuits as much as I would have liked this month.  The kids survived with lots of fruit.

PREPARE: Froze some broad beans.  Pickled some beetroot for the first time.  I hope it works, because I have had trouble learning to preserve food.  I made some apple leather and also some apple cheese.  It was beautiful, but the bulk of it, which I put into a container between layers of baking paper, went mouldy.

REDUCE: I've been madly trying to reduce STUFF around the house.  Going through the children's clothes and the books on our bookshelves (our books have outgrown the bookshelves and are currently taking over our house!) and taking them to the op-shop.  I have to force myself to only look at the women at the counter, for fear of spotting some thing that I simply have to have!  No point madly clearing out the house if I'm going to bring more STUFF home!  Op-shops are so tempting!

And to illustrate my point..... I did visit one op-shop this month!  I bought some boots, and a skirt that I love, and..............

GREEN:  I have made calendula soap this month.  It is so pretty to look at!  I ran out of the shampoo bar that I bought at the farmer's market so I've been washing my hair with the soap I made last time.  It works pretty well.
 

GROW:  I can't believe how well the orchard is doing this year.  We have little fruits setting and growing larger week by week.  We are harvesting peas, silverbeet and chard and have more broad beans ready.  We've put in some tomatoes, more kale and I am stubbornly trying more carrots despite repeated failure.  The potatoes look amazing!  I'm going to try bandicooting some this week.  I reckon they might be nearly ready.

Do these guys come under the category of grow?  They started life in an incubator but it broke down so we chucked them under the clucky bantam.  Aren't they lucky to be alive?!  Unless they're roosters because we all know what their fate will be then!

CREATE: I made a couple of thank you cards and I also made calico party bags as take-home gifts for Buddy Boy's party.  They held a biscuit man wearing a pirate eye patch in black icing.  Buddy Boy had a pirate theme.

DISCOVER: I was given three amazing books for my birthday from my wonderful friends!  Don't they know me well.  These books complement each other perfectly and contain most of what I need to know to achieve our simple life.

 

ENHANCE: Oh dear!  Knitting club was my main one here, but I'm off to a poor start.  I had a very messy month for various reasons and missed 3 weeks.  I hate to be seen as unreliable and really hate letting the kids down.  They embraced knitting club with more enthusiasm than I expected but it has morphed into a sewing and craft club.  There were too many children to be able to teach knitting to, so they've been making stuffed teddies and cushions, and making wrist bands from wool.  I love seeing how excited they get about our lunch time club and hope this month will be more settled.
 

ENJOY: .  I enjoyed a family weekend away in celebration of my mother's 70th birthday, Buddy Boy's joy in turning seven and having his first party with friends from school, and my own birthday.  Mum and Dad gave us tickets to South Pacific and looked after our kids.  We had an overnight stay in Melbourne, dinner out and the show which was fantastic!  I also loved receiving the dish cloths that my daughter, Lou Lou, gave me.  She has only just started knitting this year and found the instruction in the copy of Down to Earth that I gave her for her birthday.

 



Buddy Boy's cake



The wonderful dishcloth Lou Lou made for me



I hope you've had a great month!  Why don't you pop over to Christine's and have a look at what other people achieved in October?

Second Generation Permies

A 'permie' is a permaculturalist.  Permaculture is fantastic!  It is a well thought out and methodical method of living in a truly sustainable manner.  It is flexible and workable.  It is not prescriptive, but informative so that you can develop systems that suit you.  If you don't know much about it, do yourself a huge life changing favour and investigate permaculture.  I found the easiest way to do this was by attending a Permaculture Design Course.   I learn much better this way than by reading.  If this is not for you then at least look at, and learn, the twelve principles.  If you follow these principles you can't go far wrong!  Still too hard?  Then follow the three ethics - Care of the earth, care of people and fair share.

I wanted to live sustainably because it was what I knew to be right.  I want to care for our earth and feed my children healthy food.  I didn't think about the side benefit of my children being raised in an environment slightly different to many children.  I am seeing resilient behaviours in my kids of which I am very proud.

Belle, at the age of nine, embraces the principle of 'Produce No Waste'.  She loves buying second hand clothes at op-shops.  In fact recently when I bought her new clothing for an upcoming camp, she told me she needed one more jumper, "But it doesn't need to be new."  Her appreciation of second hand items is wonderful to see.  My children rarely ask me to buy things because they are used to our way of living.

Belle wastes nothing and often thinks outside the square.  The other day I was hanging clothes on the line and I saw a modification she had made to a favourite pair of pyjama pants.  Obviously the elastic had gone in them but she didn't bring them to me for repair.  Without even mentioning her problem, she solved it herself.  She tightened them with a hair tie!!!  I love it.

We have a television but don't use it unless there is something special on TV.  Recently I told Belle there would be another child coming to our school who didn't watch telly and that would make it feel more 'normal' for her, she answered with a smile, "We are normal, it's the others that aren't!"  I love her attitude.

Many people would call me a helicopter parent (always hovering) and to a degree they would be right.  I always know where my children are and what they are doing.  But I don't want to stop them becoming capable.  I don't do everything for them, I just make sure they are supervised while learning things that could lead to harm.  Belle received a pocket knife at the age of eight and is proud that she can light a fire without even using newspaper.  She gathers the right sort of tinder and gets the fire going.

This knife is a Opinel.  It is sharp but has a child safe rounded end.  Much safer if they trip while using it!

Belle and Pumpkin  can cook a cake unsupervised.  I hand them the recipe and they do the rest.  All I need to do is be there if they choose to use the mix master (they often beat by hand) and I put the cake into the oven.

Pumpkin is my garden girl.  She is five years old and is fascinated by how things work.  She asks more questions than I have answers for.  She begins school next year and I hope the teacher is prepared!  A few months ago she came to me with a seed from the apple she was eating and asked to plant it.  We did and she is delighted with the result.

At lunch with a friend of mine she was discussing, in her own unique way, things that make you feel sad .  "If somebody stole all your money you would be sad.  But if you had some fruit seeds it would be okay because you would still have fruit!"  Yay!  She thinks in terms of seeds, not supermarkets.

She also begged me to allow her to knead our bread.  I let her, and discovered that she is more than capable!  She listened well and can now knead the sour dough to completion.

Pumpkin loves to shop at the farmer's markets with me.  At the last market we fell in love with this homespun beanie.  I explained to her that, because it was not chemically treated, if she was not wearing it, she needed to keep it in a plastic bag or the moths would eat it.  Whenever she takes it off she searches for a bag but twice now I have found her in bed wearing her beanie.  The little sweetie couldn't find a bag so she kept it on her head to protect it!  LOL

Buddy Boy prefers to emulate his father.  He collects wood and, at the moment, is right into raking.  He wants to rake in the morning before school and as soon as he gets home again.  He rakes the leaves, puts them in his barrow and tells me they are for my garden.  At six he knows the importance of mulching.

These little jars are his favourite thing to play with at the moment.  He counts with them, stacks them and pretends they are characters and chatters away while playing with them.  I love it when kids can use their imaginations and play with things other than bought toys!

I love the understanding which my children have learned as a matter of course, about the connection with nature and life.  They expect to be capable and self reliant, they learn by observation and want to do 'real tasks', adult tasks connected with day to day living.

I am impressed by my little second generation permies because while we think of it as the way we are trying to live life, to them it just IS life!

Do you have or know kids that impress you?  What skills or attitudes do you think we should teach our kids?

Slow Living Diary - Month Five

I missed a month of joining in with Christine at Slow Living Essentials for our monthly diary records.  Only one month.  Yet the year has changed so drastically.  We are now in the thick of winter with icy mornings, lots of fog, but glorious sunny days.

The month of May was a tough one for me.  I felt very time poor and it got me down.  I'm a bit stubborn sometimes and refuse to take shortcuts even when life gets tough.  So needless to say I'm a bit burnt out and hope I am at home more in June, because when I'm home a lot I enjoy the challenges and achievements instead of becoming bogged down by them.

Nourish - There were a lot of warm meals sent to school in thermoses last month.  Home made baked beans and soup.  And for myself, I became addicted to some local goats cheese which I ate far too much of!  I bought some wonderful spicy plum sauce at our local farmer's market so I was spreading the sauce and cheese on my sour dough and hoeing in.  Yum!  I also tried my hand at barley water which the kids loved.

Prepare -  I've been gathering this month.  I have bought some fleece and some knitting needles for future projects.  I've also bought some needles for Belle and her friend in preparation for knitting in a group with my friend and her daughter.  We found some great easy kids patterns and I can't wait to organise the day!

Reduce - There has been plenty of op shopping happening around here.  I also gave away a ball of wool and a set of four double pointed needles.  One set is enough!  And I'm glad to say, the recipient was delighted!

Green - I bought home made soap from the Black Market (swap market) and tried soap nuts for the first time.  The clothes come out clean enough and unscented (which I like).  And of course all the things we always do.  Oh, and I received an electrity bill.  We are now $450.73 in credit!  Not only is this fantastic on the financial side of things, but that's a lot of green energy going back into the grid for others to use.  Now, I'm going to show off a bit here........  We don't have a whizz bang system, it's only a 2 Kilowatt system.  We are very careful to not use too much power.  Our average daily usage was 6.9 kWh per day.  Not bad hey!

The girls enjoying some fresh hay - soon to be compost for the garden!

Grow - Peas, carrots and broccoli went in.  I don't hold out much hope for the carrots because I always have trouble getting them to germinate.  The rabbits have already enjoyed the broccoli!  A lovely lady gave me some asparagus to add to my meagre lot.  I only had three plants and couldn't produce enough for the family.  Now we have extended the bed and wait impatiently for a couple of years!

Create - Well I knitted my first beanie and I've been madly knitting headbands for Belle and some of her friends at school.  Now I'm working on a dress for Belle.  I'm scared I've bitten off more than I can chew!  It's going to take a bit longer than my previous projects.

Discover - I have discovered that if I don't get my Slow Living Diary post out quick smart, the month flies by and I don't get around to it!  So this is the quickest and smartest that I could manage.  I also discovered, by mistake, that beetroot and silverbeet will cross if they go to seed at the same time.

Enhance - May saw lots of school events such as helping at cross county, reading with the kids, fund raising events and excursions.  There was also a gathering of many spinning and patchwork groups from central and north central Victoria hosted by our spinning group.  There was some great news from a friend to whom I gave some sour dough starter.  She has been successfully making her own sour dough since and is loving it!

Enjoy - May brought me two Mother's Day celebrations because the kids couldn't all be here on the same day.  I loved being spoilt by my kids young and old.  My eldest bought me some very 'green' presents and the youngest kids showered me in homemade gifts.  There were so many that even into the afternoon they would remember yet another gift or card they had squirreled away and then present it with pride!

Have a happy June everyone!!!  I look forward to hearing what you've been up to!

A Merry Christmas

The presents are all made.  The little end of year 'appreciation' Christmas gifts have been handed out.

We've made the bon bons (corny jokes and all)

The table was set and ready to go

The family arrived

My eldest child!

My beautiful granddaughter!

My parents

My two lovely nieces were also here.  I could have kicked myself when I realised I didn't get a photo of the two of them!

The presents were handed out - our yearly tradition is that Poppy is the gift hander outer.  And yes, I do believe someone may have glued the glass to his hand!

Presents were opened with glee!  A lot of op shopped presents were given out between the adults this year.  It was great to see!  Second hand books, picnic sets, etc.

Who was having the most fun?!

The house and yard were trashed!  Evidence of a wonderful day had by all!!!

The weather changed........  The kids were happy playing with their presents so I had time to lie on the verandah and read a magazine!

Miss Eight left out a Christmas card for Santa.  It read -

"Dear Santa, My big sister is 18 and if you still give her Christmas presents could you leave them with me please?

But if they have Christmas at the same time as us, could you take them to Finland because she is there.

Love........."

The reference to her age is because she knows Santa doesn't come to the adults in the home and she's not sure whether Santa will continue to visit her big sister now that she is officially old enough to be an adult!  There was nothing else written - no mention of herself or what she would like to receive.  That was done in an earlier letter.  What a lovely girl my Miss Eight is!

I hope everyone enjoyed their day as much as we did.  I look forward to seeing photos and hearing about the big day!