Busy, Busy Days

Today was spent cleaning up around the new house, we don't officially move in until the 1st, however the old owners have been gracious enough to let us get moving on things. For now we have decided there is sufficient fencing for the dogs, so we won't be building an enclosed area. Saves us time and of course money. See the capsicum on the left? When we arrived home I thought I would check out what was fruiting around the yard, some we will get to eat, others we wont, but there will be years ahead for the new garden to fruit:) The chillies are so copious I am having trouble trying to find homes for them! More drying to come I think, before we pack the dehydrator away for the move! The orange is fruiting too, I dont' think we will get any ripe ones though this time, it takes them a while to orange up and be ready for picking. The same with the pineapple guava. There is fruit all over this bush, the biggest I have seen them in the two years we have been here. The lemon has some fruit too, although they will be some time until ripe. It appears the buyers of our home will have a great variety of garden produce to choose from lol. Great news for those who live in our town. An environmetal Group has been started, with bulk purchasing power on solar panels, each one after rebate will only cost around $1800.00. I've asked to be added to the list of interested parties, they then send around a solar engineer free of charge to do an assessment on your home and let you know what you will need. This really is exciting news, can't wait to meet them and see what they think we will need! If we can supply all our own power needs and our water supply from the tanks I will be in heaven!

Exciting days ahead! Take care of you and yours:)

Society & Dependency

Why is it that despite having one of the best (in terms of money paid to people) welfare systems in the world do we have people remaining so dependent? Because we demand nothing back for it. Sure, they are required to fortnightly return forms showing they have been looking for work, sure they have to do a few volunteer hours here and there if they don't work, but good grief, we keep feeding it to them without working with them to change things. Let's look at MY ideal system! Each individual would have to earn say 1 point for every dollar paid to them in welfare payments, (other than those on short term medical sickness benefits). To earn those points they would have to attend a number of learning centres such as: Cooking 101...how to make minced meat go 50 different ways Basic car mechanics Basic woodworking skills Basic Home maintenance Parenting Information Sewing Food Sense ( how to shop frugally) Working with the environment How to grow your own fruit and veggies Housekeeping for the homemaker How to attend an interview (dress code, body language etc) How to write a CV Reading & Writing Sports etc etc For each attendance they obtain a certain number of points. These points equate to a dollar value to a maximum amount payable. Not only are they maintaining their payments, they are learning new skills, gaining more self confidence, self esteem, and skills. Hopefully these skills learned are observed by their children in a practical sense around their homes. We take all we know for granted. So much of who we are as adults was absorbed sometimes quite unconsciously by watching our parents, Dad fixing the door or window, taking pride in the home, mum making meals from next to nothing, structures, routines, skills. For many, they didn't have that opportunity, they weren't given the opportunity to learn for a variety of very sad reasons. This way we interrupt the cycle, we teach, we support, we enable self esteem to creep in, confidence, build in these things and you have someone willing to get out there and give it a go! Now we could also get into the conversation about the average Joe Bloggs, who expects the Government to have all the answers, to have the Government be responsible for all manner of things, however perhaps one rant is enough! Suffice to say I believe it is time we took the responsibility for our needs and wants back, became once again the provider for our daily needs.....as it was many years ago...

Just my thoughts for the day! Take care of you and yours and for those that are in Aussie - enjoy your long week-end!

Moving House & Voluntary Simplicity

Last night I spent some hours thinking about how wonderful voluntary simplicity can be whilst I was packing a few more items around the house, accessing how our work is actually progressing. Of course the garden I’m always writing about, I have a ton of fruit and vegies outside at differing stages of growth (at least until we move, when it will start all over again) and let's not forget the chooks. We can access farm grown healthy meats when we want. Rain water tanks connected to the house supply is all that’s lacking in the new house we will move to soon, but that will be easily remedied. Solar heating in summer and from the combustion fire in winter will be the same in the new home. Inside the house as I pack, I have realised the progress is much better than I had expected in the material possessions department. Let’s go room by room: Hallway: I need to reduce the bookcase collection. There are very few books in there I would re-read. Most are the children’s books given by family as gifts. I am thinking of putting them into some sort of cedar chest in their rooms, where I can add other collected mementos that they can later take to their own homes. The bookcase could then in theory leave the house for good. It is a huge piece of beautiful pine, hand made. I am sure I could donate it to an aged home, the local hospital or somewhere and replace it with something smaller, something I had planned to do over a year ago and still haven't! Lounge: This room I have been very successful in, it basically contains the lounges, coffee table, TV cabinet & TV and a gorgeous old china cabinet that was my grandmothers, filled with antique family collectables and children’s gifts from christenings etc. That room’s fine and wont change when we move. Our bedroom: built in robes, all spring cleaned and sorted not more than a month ago, and no clothes in there that won’t be utilised. One dressing table, one bed and bedside tables, I am happy with that room too, and again nothing will change when we move. Children’s Rooms: Both rooms are simple, beds, robes, bedside table and study desk, they can stay as is also. Kitchen: Cupboards were harshly sorted out about 2 months ago, so they are ok. The fridge freezer is bigger than I really want, so I am donating to daughter when she moves at the end of the year and buying a smaller one. Kitchen table is the hub of our home, that will stay! The microwave has just gone out for good, and there is nothing on the benches we don't use daily, that is the toaster and kettle. Laundry: Small machine, cupboard & sink, two large plastic containers on wheels that I store my preserving jars and bottles in. That lot stay. Office: We just spring cleaned that too ready for the move. So many bits and peices...in they went to various bags with various friends names on I know can use the contents. Garden Shed: Now here is a different story. I have 2-3 of each tool, spades, rakes, dutch hoes etc, and they all get used. It is not unusual to see 3 of us digging in the garden together on the week-end! None of this will change and will be transferred to the new home (where I have a larger shed) as they are, no culling allowed there! I believe it was Richard Gregg who, in 1936, was describing a way of life marked by a new balance between inner and outer growth…he called it “Voluntary Simplicity”. The essence of voluntary simplicity for us is living in a way that’s outwardly simple and inwardly rich. Now there are as many views of voluntary simplicity as there are grains of sand I suspect, each has their own values assigned by the indiviual. For us, this way of life embraces frugality of consumption, a strong sense of environmental urgency, a desire to be within living and working environments which enhance us as individuals, and an intention to realize our higher human potential — both psychological and spiritual — in community with others. The driving forces behind voluntary simplicity range from acutely personal concerns to critical world challenges. For hubby and I this includes (but is not limited to): Limiting material possessions to what is needed and/or cherished. Have meaningful work, whether paid or volunteer Continued quality relationships with friends and family. Having pleasurable leisure activities. Doing more with less money. Ensuring sustainable consumption practices. Keeping our connection to nature Living in harmony in our community with values and integrity. As I always find when writing, things become much more focused as my pen travels across the paper; I see that our journey towards voluntary simplicity is heading in the right direction....slowly but surely. Take care of you and yours :)

AT LAST!

. Finally! We have our moving date, May the 1st. Now I can organise removalists, carpet cleaners, house cleaners and tradeys! It certainly has been a long time coming. Posting will be sporadic for the next 3 or so weeks as you can imagine, in the middle of all this moving we still work full time, although I will be taking days off here and there to get this underway. I can't wait!

Hope your weekend is a good one and the week ahead super. Take care of you and yours:)

Want a Solar Cooker? Here's how to make your own

. What are the benefits of solar cooking and why would you consider it? For me, the below applies: Current cooking methods are unhealthy, unsustainable and unavailable to future generations. Solar cooking is the simplest, safest, most convenient way to cook food without consuming fuels or heating up the kitchen. Future generations will have fewer options. The slower, gentler cooking provided by many solar cookers preserves more nutrients. The ability to pasteurize water with free solar energy can help prevent many diseases. The energy for solar cooking is infinitely renewable and entirely non-polluting. Food needs little attention while cooking, leaving the cook free to attend to other matters. Scorching is very rare, so clean-up is simplified. Most of the preparation for a meal can be done early in the day, so there is less last-minute fuss. While food cooks in the sun, the kitchen stays cool. The gentle cooking preserves flavor and aroma, so the food tastes better. Foods can be preserved for out of season use at no cost in power, either by solar dehydration or, in the case of some acidic foods, by canning. In some climates, the fact that a panel cooker has potential to be used at night as a chiller could be very useful in preserving some types of short-term fresh foods or leftovers. At moderate solar cooking temperatures food doesn't need to be stirred and won't burn — food can simply be placed in a solar cooker and left to cook, unattended, for several hours while other activities are pursued. In the right circumstances it is possible to put a solar cooker out in the morning and return home in the late afternoon to a hot meal ready to eat. Pots used for solar cooking are easy to clean. PLANS FOR ALL SORTS OF SOLAR COOKERS

Take care of you and yours:)

GM Genocide: Thousands of Indian Farmers committing suicide

When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared. Take the sad case of Shankara. Shankara's crop had failed - twice. Of course, famine and pestilence are part of India's ancient story.But the death of this respected farmer has been blamed on something far more modern and sinister: genetically modified crops. Shankara, like millions of other Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if he switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead.Beguiled by the promise of future riches, he borrowed money in order to buy the GM seeds. But when the harvests failed, he was left with spiralling debts - and no income.So Shankara became one of an estimated 125,000 farmers to take their own life as a result of the ruthless drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops. The crisis, branded the 'GM Genocide' by campaigners, was highlighted recently when Prince Charles claimed that the issue of GM had become a 'global moral question' - and the time had come to end its unstoppable march. Ranged against the Prince are powerful GM lobbyists and prominent politicians, who claim that genetically modified crops have transformed Indian agriculture, providing greater yields than ever before.The rest of the world, they insist, should embrace 'the future' and follow suit. So who is telling the truth? To find out, I travelled to the 'suicide belt' in Maharashtra state.What I found was deeply disturbing - and has profound implications for countries, including Britain, debating whether to allow the planting of seeds manipulated by scientists to circumvent the laws of nature. For official figures from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture do indeed confirm that in a huge humanitarian crisis, more than 1,000 farmers kill themselves here each month.Simple, rural people, they are dying slow, agonising deaths. Most swallow insecticide - a pricey substance they were promised they would not need when they were coerced into growing expensive GM crops. Village after village, families told how they had fallen into debt after being persuaded to buy GM seeds instead of traditional cotton seeds.The price difference is staggering: £10 for 100 grams of GM seed, compared with less than £10 for 1,000 times more traditional seeds. But GM salesmen and government officials had promised farmers that these were 'magic seeds' - with better crops that would be free from parasites and insects. Indeed, in a bid to promote the uptake of GM seeds, traditional varieties were banned from many government seed banks. The authorities had a vested interest in promoting this new biotechnology. Desperate to escape the grinding poverty of the post-independence years, the Indian government had agreed to allow new bio-tech giants, such as the U.S. market-leader Monsanto, to sell their new seed creations. In return for allowing western companies access to the second most populated country in the world, with more than one billion people, India was granted International Monetary Fund loans in the Eighties and Nineties, helping to launch an economic revolution. But while cities such as Mumbai and Delhi have boomed, the farmers' lives have slid back into the dark ages. Though areas of India planted with GM seeds have doubled in two years - up to 17 million acres - many famers have found there is a terrible price to be paid.Far from being 'magic seeds', GM pest-proof 'breeds' of cotton have been devastated by bollworms, a voracious parasite. Nor were the farmers told that these seeds require double the amount of water. This has proved a matter of life and death. With rains failing for the past two years, many GM crops have simply withered and died, leaving the farmers with crippling debts and no means of paying them off. Having taken loans from traditional money lenders at extortionate rates, hundreds of thousands of small farmers have faced losing their land as the expensive seeds fail, while those who could struggle on faced a fresh crisis. When crops failed in the past, farmers could still save seeds and replant them the following year.But with GM seeds they cannot do this. That's because GM seeds contain so- called 'terminator technology', meaning that they have been genetically modified so that the resulting crops do not produce viable seeds of their own. As a result, farmers have to buy new seeds each year at the same punitive prices. For some, that means the difference between life and death. During the course of my inquiries in Maharastra, I encountered three 'independent' surveyors scouring villages for information about suicides. They insisted that GM seeds were only 50 per cent more expensive - and then later admitted the difference was 1,000 per cent.(A Monsanto spokesman later insisted their seed is 'only double' the price of 'official' non-GM seed - but admitted that the difference can be vast if cheaper traditional seeds are sold by 'unscrupulous' merchants, who often also sell 'fake' GM seeds which are prone to disease.) India's farmers are also starting to fight back. As well as taking GM seed distributors hostage and staging mass protests, one state government is taking legal action against Monsanto for the exorbitant costs of GM seeds. This came too late for Shankara Mandauker, who was 80,000 rupees (about £1,000) in debt when he took his own life. 'I told him that we can survive,' his widow said, her children still by her side as darkness fell. 'I told him we could find a way out. He just said it was better to die.' But the debt does not die with her husband: unless she can find a way of paying it off, she will not be able to afford the children's schooling. They will lose their land, joining the hordes seen begging in their thousands by the roadside throughout this vast, chaotic country. Cruelly, it's the young who are suffering most from the 'GM Genocide' - the very generation supposed to be lifted out of a life of hardship and misery by these 'magic seeds'. Here in the suicide belt of India, the cost of the genetically modified future is murderously high. Read the FULL ARTICLE here at Mail Online

Take care of you and yours:)

HOW TO MAKE - A Solar Window Heater

Winter heating....it can be an expensive exercise for some, depending on how you heat. Our solar hot water system is also connected to our combustion fire in the family room, in summer the sun heats it, in winter the fire heats both the house and the water. For those in between seasons, where it may be chilly on the odd days, why not think about a solar window heater in each window? They really do work! Cheap and simple to build, you can cut down on your heating costs even more! Solar window heater LINK. Now, obviously in Aussie we dont have the copper coins as large as pennies anymore. Use black plastic, it is just as effective. Another item on the "honey please do" list LOL.

Take care of you and yours:)

HOW TO - Grow Rice Crops

There is nothing better than growing your own foods. Now whilst many of us don't have sufficient land to grow enough grains to last us all year round, we can grow some to compliment that which we buy.

In this house, we absolutely love rice, and serve in it a multitude of dishes. Here is one way you can grow it, it's fun, educational for the kids and of course, totally organic.

Rice in a Bucket (or you could use a childrens swimming pool)

Take care of you and yours:)

HOW TO - Make Rocket Stoves

The Rocket stove is a variety of wood-burning cooking stove. It is easy to construct, with low-cost materials. These are low-mass stoves designed to burn small pieces of wood very efficiently. Cooking is done on top of a short insulated chimney. The stoves are typically constructed out of trash: tin cans, old stovepipes, etc. A skirt around the pot will help hold heat in, increasing the efficiency. Rocket stoves use branches, twigs, small wood scraps, or just about any small combustible material. The pieces of wood or other material burn at their tips, increasing combustion efficiency, creating a very hot fire, and eliminating smoke. The low-mass stove body and insulated chimney assure that the heat goes into the cooking pot, not into the stove. Rocket stoves used in conjunction with hayboxes can save enormous amounts of fuel, cooking complete meals while using very few resources. It operates roughly twice as efficiently, and substantially more cleanly, than the open fire cooking methods still used in many areas of the world. Furthermore, the design of the stove requires small diameter lengths of wood, which can generally be satisfied with small branches. As such, sufficient fuel for cooking tasks can be gathered in less time, without the benefit of tools, and ideally without the destruction of forested areas. Building a Rocket Stove Perhaps instead of tin you wish to make a brick one? Now you have a couple of alternatives to cooking, I will cover the solar aspect in a seperate post:)

Take care of you and yours:)

HOW TO - Make a Water Filter

An estimated 80% of all sickness in this world can be attributed to unsafe water and sanitation according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That can be seen in the annual 1.5 billion episodes of diarrhea in children under the age of 5, with about four million of those being fatal. The Australian National University (ANU) scientist Tony Flynn has developed a process to create water filters from commonly available materials. The materials need to also be fired, which can be done without a kiln or other western technology, by using common manure. How to Make a Water Filter here Alternatively, if it is just rain water you will be filtering, you could try this system: How to Make a Rain Water Filtering System

Take Care of you and yours:)

Marvellous Monday!

Have to love a public holiday! Our Easter break was wonderful, we spent the Saturday at my parents for lunch, son decided he wanted to stay on given he has 2 weeks of the holidays, he loves to help "poppa" do things around the house.....and of course the fact he gets spoilt rotten by them doesn't hurt either. It is nice to se that as a 16 year old boy he still enjoys spending time with his grandparents, for that I am thankful.

I thought I would post today to show you all the latest editions...there are about 6 from the first hatching, and boy is the old girl protective! I spent more time trying to keep her away from my legs than I did focusing...as you can see LOL

Here's some of the girls, they love sitting on the pea straw during the day, across the top of the pen is netting, stops them flying the coop..which several are prone to doing if they get the chance!

I think we are going to have to give our roosters away for a while, we have more chickens than we need, now numbering about 25 I believe!

The orange tree is fruiting beautifully.

Sadly we wont get to sample it's first crop, nice house warming present for the new owners when they arrive.

Remember me wondering if we would get to harvest any of the loofahs? Well we have them all over the place!

I have picked about 13 to date, the remainder are green enough to leave for the new oners, too big to eat now, so I hope they will harvest and utilise....one can live in hope lol

We have another 2 hens sitting, that will give us another dozen or so chooks.......anyone for some chickens? Going free LOL

Hope you have had a super weekend, enjoy your week ahead and see you when I've moved.

Take care of you and yours:)

Change is as Good as a Holiday!

Or so they say! I thought since I am changing house I would change this too, nothing like a clean sweep LOL! This will be easier on the eyes hopefully, there were a few who were struggling with viewing the old format, so hope this helps:) Hope you are all enjoying your Easter break! Take care of you and yours:) Molly

SHORT HIATUS

. Hi All. Sorry it has been so long between posts, but this getting organised with moving, some funding applications for work and family time takes its' toll on the regular posting. I will be back around the end of the month, with pics of the house we have purchased and the blank canvas we will have to work with lol. Until then I will continue to read and comment on your blogs when I get the chance :) Take care of you and yours....see you soon:)

The Apple Cucumbers are growing so profusely they have invaded the rosebush in the front garden. This is one that was headed for the front fence. They are different in colour to the ones I remember as a child, I think they call these Lemon Apple Cucumbers in the States? The Basil just loves being near the pond. It gets a light spray of water from the fountain during the evening, enough to keep a fine mist on it I suspect. I have left this one to flower, I want to collect the seed for the new house, where I will plant around the pond we intend to build there. I love the sound of water. Now I am looking for a solar water pump to run the fountain, save money and of course the environmental considerations. Presently we only run the fountain for a few hours in the evening when we are outside to enjoy it. The Amaranth..... look how tall this is, about 5 feet high and still growing. I am hoping we may be able to collect the seed from this before we leave too. This variety has a lovely, very delicate, just discernable nutty flavour....delicious popped and added to salads, particularly potato salad! The Loofahs have gone haywire, I have now harvested 7 very large ones, so will have enough to keep me going through to next years plant! We are still living surrounded by boxes, the 18th is the proposed settlement date.....I am hoping it will come sooner! Tomorrow is Friday and I am certainly looking forward to a weekend of quiet and contemplation, some pottering in the garden and maybe even some scrapbooking. Hope you week is going well Take Care of you andd yours:)