My dilemma

Here is the question;

How do you do a fun birthday party for a tot's 5th birthday without all the 'gimme more' hoopla surrounding modern parties?

I hate the trend of bigger better and make sure you have a pony ride.

I also just can't bring myself to do the "two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun" routine either. We are vegetarian and just don't want to buy into the plastic consumerism of the Golden Arches.

So help me out here people; How do I make my little girl's eyes light up magically whilst being true to my ideals of frugality and down to earthness?

Quiet for a reason

Last week I cut my finger along the rim of a tub of King Island double cream. I saw it in the marked down bin and thought "why not!"

This was on Thursday. Finger still hasn't healed properly and the cream wasn't any better than a cheaper variety. Lesson learned; Stick to nice safe easy to open homebrand!

Too much Stuff.

The Husband is going to China in a couple of weeks. He just asked me what he should buy over there for the kids.

"Toys?" Nope. I don't want more plastic junk in the house
"Clothes?" Nope, they have enough clothes to last them another three years (my gymboree addiction got way out of hand last year.
"Shoes for you?" Nope, China doesn't make womens shoes in Hippo size.
"Jewellry?" Nope it gets lost or broken when I garden. I'm not a trophy wife or a Christmas tree; I don't need to be decorated.

Our house is overflowing with too much stuff. I am in a major decluttering mood right now and the time has come to say goodbye to old dvd players, old laptops, and things falling out of cupboards.....ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH.

So then he asks

"What do you want then?!?"

Straw, manure, sleepers, poly pipe and star pickets. I'm easy to please hey!

Some brilliant news!

I chucked some organic soy beans (I soak these to make my own soy milk) which I had forgotten about into a bare patch in the garden on Wednesday. Lo and behold I can see a leaf poking up here and there! I will take some pics in a couple of days when it's easier to see the leaves. This is one more "let's see what happens" for my growing challenge!

I went to bed feeling so virtuous last night

I had made a huge pot of pumpkin and lentil soup with one of the pumpkins I bought bagged up three for $1.00

Pumpkin and lentil soup.

Dice one large onion, bung in a pot with a splash of olive oil and a couple of cloves of garlic (went to ferret in Wit's End garden for some garlic)
When it's nice and soft and browned, throw in one large butternut pumpkin peeled and diced.

Cover the lot with water and add some vegetarian stock cubes to taste.

Add a cup of red lentils.

Cook until cooked and looks like pumpkin soup.

I served this with a baguette warmed in the oven (Farm girl's recipe)

The family loved it and it cost me less than $2 to feed the six of us, with leftovers for my lunch today.

So what went wrong this morning and caused this major flump that I am in?

Tot 2 woke looking pale and exhausted, was coughing like mad and then threw up. This meant that my plan to catch up with two cronies was put on hold.

Tot 1 went to school and I asked her teacher to check out this weird glue like substance in the tot's hair....Can I swear here? Frigging Crawlers! Yes, Nits!

There goes the entire morning.

Off to the shops for crawler killer (chemical free etc), feeling mighty stressed by this point so a couple of bars of chocolate also go in as well. Turn my nose up at the Crudbury's and manage to find some nice organic stuff at an exhorbitant price (there goes this weeks budget!)

So, overbudget, behind on cleaning, it's 1pm and I have only just put on the bread and a pot of soup for tonight. I have eaten 250grams of chocolate and I didn't get to meet up with my friends.







Insert lots of very rude words into the blank space above!

The good news for the day is that I did an ecological footprint calculator which I found on another blogger's site and my footprint came in at 2. Can I go back to feeling a bit virtuous or do I come across (as I think) as a bit of a prat!

Guess what I made today?

An apron!

The Husband said he was fed up with me wiping floury hands all over my clothes so I took it into my head to make this this afternoon. It took me about an hour and a half all up. Can I just say that sewing is hard work for me.

Recycling

Been on a mad recycling bender today.

I decided that I needed a garden workbench and wasn't about to shell out $150 for a cutesy one. I need that money for more important things like seeds. So I ferretted around in my 'for the skip' pile and pulled out an old ironing board and a wooden door.

Add some bricks for stability and, voila....

My non gardening goal for February

Yes I know, we are already half way through Feb and I have just discovered what I want to achieve more than anything; I want to knit something. I am the World's worst knitter but I have set myself a goal of knitting a bag.

There is a website http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/bags_totes_purses.php here with the most amazing array of designs. I will post pictures of my 'progress' LOL!

If you hear screams from Wit's End, I've dropped a stitch!

A gorgeous cronie has just posted her recipe for Big batch bikkies

Big Batch Bikkies

750g butter
1.5 kg brown sugar
6 eggs
1.5-2 kg self-raising flour
3 tsp vanilla essence

Melt butter and let cool. Mix in the remaining ingredients, starting with 1.5kg of flour, and adding more if the dough is too wet. Unless you have a very large food processer, this is best done by hand. Make balls - 10-20 cent coin size - and place on baking tray, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees C on the top rack of your oven. You don't even need to preheat the oven to the full temp before putting the tray in.
The biscuits will be quite soft while hot, but harden quickly as they cool.
I suggest you keep a close eye on them at first, as they can burn very easily. The original recipe called for 15 mins at 225 degrees C, and I had to throw my first batch out, so you may need to adjust the time for your oven. You can freeze the uncooked dough in rolls wrapped in waxed paper and overwrapped with plastic film or in a long container. Then when the need for fresh biscuits hits you, just take out a roll, cut it into disks half to 1cm thick, and bake as normal. Almost quick enough to get them into the oven as unexpected guests walk to the door!

From The Wild Backyard.

A cool day means Baking!

Chocolate cake (going to try a vegan egg free cake today).

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

6 tablespoons cocoa

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoon vinegar

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cup cold water

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients. In a jug mix the wet ingredients. Mix them both and bake.

Tortillas (from Hillbilly housewife) We always have these as they go with anything. Breakfast, snacks, lunches, curries :)

All of these things will be frozen for when it's too hot to bake. Tortillas get frozen rolled out and uncooked.

And yes, more baking

Monkey cake (Another Farmgirl recipe!)
My kids have begged me to make another one. Praise indeed!

And even more baking!

Baguettes (thanks Farmgirl!)

Farmgirl's comment that this a very soft/wet dough is true. It does however make the best bread that I have ever made! It is so light and fluffy inside and has a gorgeously crunchy crust. I have just put on a second batch! Try it! Seriously. It is also more economical than other recipes I have used as it uses less flour.

http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/2007/06/susan-summer-breads-parisian-daily.html

Seeds, seeds, seeds!

Yesterday I went nuts and bought a whole heap of seed! I bought;

Carrot, cosmic purple
eggplant, turkish orange
aragula
comfrey
reosentraube tomatoes
amaranth
lettuce mixed
rough d'hiver lettuce
All organic and all fast growers! Happy dance time!

I want to try and get another crop in as I lost all of my carrots last week to the really hot weather. The comfrey is to grow my own mulch and compost additive and the aragula (rocket) is because I adore it!

I feel so despondant some days when I am looking online at what other people are achieving; The Husband is a thinker not a 'do-er' so he finds my obsession with shade protection and mulch mildly amusing.

I look at all his economic papers and see a good source of toilet paper if we ever needed it ;)

One step at a time, Crone, one step at a time.

I've killed another plant through neglect.

I planted a gorgeous healthy bayleaf tree a couple of weeks ago. Of course I totally forgot about it in the nice secluded spot I chose. Let's just say that I now have a huge stash of sun dried bay leaves in my spice cupboard. :(

The Apology

I arrived in Australia in 1980.

Do me or mine owe the Indigenous Australians anything?

Yes.

I owe them respect as a culture for trying to get their shit together despite horrific historic circumstances.

I owe them respect for living in their homeland.
I owe them respect as human beings.

The Government owed them an apology. What has happened to Aboriginals as a people is a soul wound which will not heal overnight so it won't all be back to normal tomorrow.

It takes three generations for abuse for work itself out of the family 'psyche'. So two centuries of abuse is going to take a long time to heal.

I don't care if a person is a full blood or 1/16th (and I am talking about the apology here, not any welfare benefits) White Australia had to stand up and be taken to account for past injustices. If I have offended I don't care.

I will no longer accept the "I wasn't there". I wasn't responsible for the trail of tears yet I weep for the Native Americans. I wasn't a part of the African Slave trade yet I weep at the horror of that.

Indigenous cultures worldwide are owed an apology from the British, The Spanish, The Portuguese and the Dutch.

I am White, my priviledge in life has been my skin colour. My place in the world has been bought by slavery, drugs and the theft of native lands.

Cooking, cooking, cooking.

It seems that most of my life revolves around cooking for my large family.

They wake hungry, come home from school and work staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarving and they raid the fridge and cupboards all day long; did you know if you don't eat every hour your stomach thinks that your throat has been cut?

Well for me, finding yummy and healthy recipes is always a challenge but I think I have found a fantastic one here on farmgirl.blogspot (I will put the link to her incredible inspiring site up in a tic). It is also going to be a great way of using up the black bananas I just found at the bottom of my freezer.

Farmgirl's Mexican Monkey Cake (don't you just love what FG called it!)
Makes One 8-Inch Square Cake

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick/4 ounces) butter, softened (or 1/2 cup trans-fat free margarine, such as Earth Balance)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg1-
1/4 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (they cannot be too ripe)
2 Tablespoons yogurt or sour cream
1 Tablespoon milk
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using a glass pan such as Pyrex). Grease an 8"x8"x2" baking pan.

In a small bowl, combine chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts (if desired), and cinnamon; set aside.In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and egg with an electric mixer until fluffy (I use a hand held mixer).

Add bananas, yogurt, and milk, and mix well. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt just until blended.Spread slightly more than half of the batter in the pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon streusel. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the streusel and then top with the rest of the streusel. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ok, well I discovered that the teen has eaten all the choc chips. That explains her 'unexplainable' eczema! So I adapted a bit. I made the cake batter as directed but put a 'crumble' on top made with butter, rolled oats, honey and cinnamon. It tasted incredible! I give this simple cake 10/10!

Homemade laundry liquid

I got this off of one of the frugal living sites and it works brilliantly for me so I thought that I would share it here.

1/2 a bar of grated soap
1/2 cup soda crystals (you find them in the laundry aisle of the supermarket)
1/2 cup borax
2.5 litres of water.

Grate the soap and put in a pan with the water. Heat until the soap has dissolved and add the borax and the soda. Stir until all dissolved. Remove from the heat and add 10 cups of water.

When it is cool add a few drops of your favourite essential oil. I use Eucalyptus oil.

I use half a cup of this in my wash and fill my fabric softener section in the machine with white vinegar.

You can also double the amounts of soda and borax if you have really dirty washes to deal with.

Eat your heart out Stayfree!

I have been a dedicated diva cup user for over a year now and have also been using some cloth pads made by The wonderful Ms A. I have managed to convince my eldest girl to try a cloth pad so here is my very first attempt at making one.

It has two layers of bamboo terry and two layers of regular terry sewn into red flannelette. I figured that red flannelette would be less confronting for a teen.

Stuff:

My quick look around the house for the origins of my 'stuff' have been a bit enlightening. All of our electronics come from China, most of our furniture comes from China or Malaysia (good old cheap Malaysian rubberwood). I have a few things which I inherited from my mother which came from Singapore and Portugal.

I don't think that I could find anything "Made in Australia" Even our clothing is produced overseas.

The one thing in our favour is that we really do use all of our stuff until it literally falls apart. We do not upgrade for the sake of fashion or trends. Some of our bookshelves are from when The Husband and I got married 18 years ago (white veneer plywood jobs!).

In the garden:

Well the Cronies dig for victory is a happening thing! I am so excited by this project. I have committed to sourcing and pricing sleepers for the edge of by raised beds.

I also turned my compost heap today and was pleased to see that the maggots aren't maggots but the grubs of the black soldier fly. A friend told me that they are beneficial to the compost process.

Hmmm, I also discovered another four redbacks living in my lemon scented geranium. As the geranium was hugely overgrown I gave it a nice haircut and stomped like mad on the squatters.

Cooking

I will be picking some zucchini for zucchini balls tonight and making some flatbread to have with them. It is also time to do a big bean soak tonight as I have used up my stash of beans this week. Time to make some more hummous as well; I can live off of hummous and flat bread!

Thought for the day

Where do the products in your home come from?

Clothing
Furniture
Kitchenware
Television and other Electronics?

The majority of us can eat locally but can we live the lifestyle we choose to live in a completely locally purchased manner?

I think a walk through my house is going to make me realise that I am not as green as I want to be. This is going to be quite confronting for me.

Dig for Victory Challenge!

Hey guys, come and join in!

How cool is this idea!

http://www.foodshedplanet.com/2008/01/introducing-foodshed-planet-victory.html

Come on, I have signed up and now need just five of you to commit to this and join in!

The FoodShed Planet Victory Garden DriveGoal (for without a goal there is no
compass on the journey): TWO MILLION NEW GARDENS PLANTED IN 2008. Backyard
gardens, community gardens, school gardens, windowsill gardens--they all count.
Anywhere on our FoodShed Planet.

Let's get this happening all over Australia too!

Woohoo!

I have a team coming together already!

The FishKeeper's wife
Rye
Goingferal(ish)
Lillybel
Apprentice Goddess

A team, A team!

I will try to set up a section where we can chat about how we will grow, where and what! Mwah!

So how are things progressing?

Or what's working? What's not? :)

Working:

My budgetting! The Husband was seriously impressed that our expenses have dropped to an all time low. The bills are coming in but they are no longer "Williams" (Big Bills)

Seed scattering and letting plants go to seed. I have carrots, chinese cabbages and coriander sprouting from parent plants planted last year. Cabbages, Coriander and parsley seed has been collected and labelled for the next round of planting.

Rubbish: We are down to two plastic shopping bags of rubbish per week in our wheelie bin.

Sewing: I have started sewing again. Only school stuff etc at this point but I am determined to finish Tot 1's dress and start on stuff for the other tots.

The garden in general: Yes! Since I moved the plant boxes over to one of the other beds they all seem much happier. The Cat now has a shady area to sleep under (he likes the damp hessian over the boxes) The sugar cane is thriving since being moved and so are the scented geraniums.

The pond: Yay! Four froggies still alive, two with arms and legs already! Fergus has stayed and I noticed that the pond is clear of all wrigglers so Fergus must be earning his keep.

The gardening challenge: Planted ginger and it's thriving. The peanuts are going mad. Taken cuttings from the scented geraniums and they have struck nicely (yeah I know, if you can't grow a geranium something's really wrong with you!)

What's not working:

The sour dough bread recipe I used. Yuk yuk yuk! Even The Husband who hates to throw out any food was happy to see this experiment go into the compost bin.

One of my compost piles: It is full of maggots! Now we are vegetarian, no animal product has gone into the heap at all. I have turned it and made sure that it is nice and moist. What the hell has gone wrong?

The Cat: I have heard scurrying. I know that it must be because of my compost piles. We also have a lot of pigeon type birds coming in and eating my seed scattering efforts.

The rain clouds and promised thunderstorms: I told The Husband last night that these rain clouds are male; full of promise but not living up to expectations. The Husband was not impressed.

The recycling bin: Try as I might it is still full every fortnight. I buy in bulk, I don't buy things with lots of packaging, I reuse glass jars for storage and potential storage. We get the Sunday papers but they are being stored for when I copy 'going feral(ish)'s' raised bed system.

The Solar oven: Still can't get it hot enough. The Husband has told me to buy one. This is enough to make neeeeeed to succeed.

Sour Dough Bread

I made the starter and fermented it according to directions, mixed the dough last night and set the dough aside to prove.

I have to tell you that it smells foul; truly disgusting. It is 33 degrees in our house right now and I have to bake this loaf. I hope to god that it is edible because it smells horrid.

Eat for free challenge

I am interested in trying to set this up if anyone wants to join in.

I would love a group of us to commit to eating one meal a week sourced only from our gardens. It can be a meal for one if we have only started growing, or an entire three course meal if we are old timers at this gardening gig.

WDYT?

And how do you set it up as a group and get a nifty picture happening? LOL!

It would also tie in a bit with the growing challenge as we would be forced to grow some quick growers!

My solar oven

I haven't been able to get anything to a boil in this as yet. I think I will have to borrow the paint it black idea from one friend and the maleable tin idea from another.

Eating for free tonight

Monday is the day I go to the Gumnuts Permaculture group. A group of us dig, plant, harvest and reap the bounty of our hard work. Yes, gardening today was hard work.

We were digging out the last of the potatoes so it was forks apiece and get to it people. A milk crate full from the bed we thought was empty and the temp was in the low 30's. We also harvested the last of the cherry tomatoes, corn and started on the eggplants. I went harvesting in a Portuguese girl's idea of bliss....The Kale bed! Picked about a kilo of the greens and as I am the only one who eats the stuff, the others are quite happy for me to take as much as I want!

So potatoes and kale, where does that lead too;

Caldo Verde! The Portuguese king of soups!

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 whole dried red chillies
4 large potatoes, diced or sliced
6 cups cold water with vegetarian stock powder to taste
1 large bunch kale, chopped finely
fresh ground black pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Toss in the onion, garlic and dried red chillies and stir for 3 minutes. Add the potatoes and stir for another 3 minutes.Pour in the water and turn up the heat to bring to a boil.

Once boiling, reduce the heat again to medium and let the soup boil gently for 20 minutes.Remove the soup from the heat and take out the red chillies temporarily. If a creamier soup is desired, use a hand blender to roughly purée the vegetables, leaving just a few of the potato chunks unblended for taste and texture.

Alternately, use a potato masher to mash some of the potatoes into a coarse blend.Put the soup back on the stove and add the chillies back into the pot. Stir in the kale and resume boiling gently for about 10 minutes or until the kale is soft and wilted. Just before serving, stir in the salt and season with ground black pepper.

In my own garden

Things are looking tired and fed up of weeks of heat and no rain. The weather reports keep saying "chance of thunderstorms" but nothing eventuates. The good news is that all the boxes which I moved last week are thriving under the shade cloth. I really need start making the poly shade frames soon to protect the other areas.

Water

The Husband and I are really working hard at this one. We bucket all our shower and bath water into the washing machine to wash our clothes before it goes out to water my fruit trees. I now keep a bucket in the kitchen to collect all the misc water (washing hands, rinsing a glass, washing fruit etc) and this is used to again water plants. Our water bill for the whole of last year was $65 for a family of six. I am hoping to reduce this amount this year.

There have been a couple of disasters though; The Bogan Neighbours draining our pool (aka our 80 000 lt water storage facility) on NYE and a burst bathroom pipe a couple of weeks ago. It's enough to make a water frugal girl cry.

Dreams

No, no Freudian stuff happening here, just one hippy wannabe putting ink to paper so that the universe knows what she wants.

• A goat
• Chickens (You should see the list of "You must haves" in our Council!)
• More fruit trees; Peaches, plums, apricots, almonds and a walnut tree. What do you think my chances are in this 'blast everything' climate?
• Turn the salt water pool into a swimming pond. I haven't even begun to think of what the council will think of this one!

Well there you go Universe, work with me ok!

Fergus

Isn't he gorgeous! He stayed the night and was happily sitting in the shade this morning.

Now for the benefit of a Crony....

Back to school sandwich list (taken from Linda McCartney's world of vegetarian cooking)

• Cheese and homemade coleslaw on pumpkin seed bread
• Grated carrot, mayonnaise and lettuce on a white roll
• Cheese and thinly sliced apple with apricot chutney on a bagel.
• Cottage cheese and cucumber on a wholemeal roll
• Baby spinach leaves, feta, olives and marinated artichokes in pita bread
• Cream cheese and tomatoes and capers in wholegrain bread
• Thinly sliced tomatoes, avocado, cheese and pesto
• Feta, tomato and cucumber on whole wheat bread
• asparagus and cheese on walnut bread
• Hummus and sprouts in a roll
• vegetarian ham with apple chutney, sprouts and shredded lettuce in a pita bread
• vegetarian bacon, lettuce and sliced tomatoes with mayonnaise
• Vegetarian ham and chicken, mayo and lettuce in white bread sandwich.

The Crone is feeling her age

I feel at least eighty today and I must look four hundred and two.

I have weeded beds, planted more strawberries and bush cucumbers (trying again with seedlings as the last lot fried alongside the melons and pumpkins). Swept the paved area and meditated on what would grow well there in pots.

One of the Crone's cronies posted an "are you ready for school on Monday?" thread, forcing me to remove my head from the sand and start sewing pillows, pillow bag with drawstring and a workbag (must be 50cm x 50cm!).

Now sewing is a challenge for me. I can do it when I have too but I find that I am a 'creative' sort. You know, the sort who likes to make things up as they go along and hates following instructions. Anyway at least they will stay together for the first day of school!


The tadpoles are still alive and all of them now have legs. They also have a new friend!

I dragged The Husband to the garden centre to look for shade cloth, poly pipe and star pickets (as per The Scarecrow's instructions). Couldn't find any of those things so I allowed myself to be distracted by the bush cucumbers.

Now remember my spider phobia? I picked up a nice healthy well water punnet of said cucumbers and saw movement. As I was about to scream blue bloody murder and throw the punnet away, Miss G yelled

"A frog! a frog!"

A teeny tiny little green and yellow spotty frog was clinging to the leaves. We did the right thing and asked if we could take Fergus home, so we now have four tadpoles and one adult frog living in our garden.

I am also attempting the sourdough starter goop tonight;

1 cup flour
2 cups water

Mix well and leave to get nice and bubbly (or in my case, put it in the back of the fridge for a couple of weeks and forget about it!)

Ohhhh and before I go, I was watering my herb bed this evening and discovered the ginger which I planted three weeks ago (found it shooting in the back of the cupboard!) is thriving and has put up five shoots! Can't wait to see what happens next.

The monsters hiding in my garden

Today has been a day of action; with gloves and brave attitude I have been de-Redback'ing our garden.

I hate spiders. I really REALLY hate spiders. Red backs especially.

Now the boxes I use to grow my seedlings in are stacked and piled on top of bricks, perfect Redback territory. The Husband has told me on several occassions that spider hunting is my domain as he will not willingly cause the death of any sentient being. Not being Buddhist myself I neither share his attitude towards spiders or understand it. Spiders are horrid, ukky, poisonous things and I am sure they make clicking snapping noises (I've seen The Chamber of secrets).

So gloves on. Big stompy shoes on. Let's get those boxes shifted.

Did I mention that I hate spiders?