Monthly 9 - June

Well here we are again and we are looking back and focusing on the 9 areas of simple living that Christine started back in 2012.  Linda our wonderful host has been really busy so pop over and check out what she has been up to and join in and share what has been going on in your world over the past month.

Here is what we have been up to over the month of May.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
June was a busy month and I made a big pot of vegie soup flavoured with a ham hock.  I have packed it into portions and frozen some so we have easy meals on hand.
I made a couple of date loaves for sweet treats and I made hubby a chocolate self-saucing pudding last week as it is his favourite.

In May I made my first batch of Camembert Cheese and we ate it during June. It was very ripe and the center ran out when cut.  It quite tasty but it needed more salt.  I am looking forward to having another go as it was no more difficult than any of the other cheeses I have made.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.
As mentioned I made a big batch of soup and I have also been cooking in bulk a couple of times a week so that we have ready meals like chilli beef and beans and dahl set aside in the freezer.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

Not much happening on this front this month.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Not much to report in this area although I have been reading a great book on making your own herbal remedies.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

Just like last month there are spring onions, mini capsicum, as well as lettuce and silverbeet too. There are a couple of eggplants on the bush that is now more than 2 years old and a few coming on on the other plant. The egg production has picked up a little which is great as we love eggs.
We have heaps of herbs going and I have both thyme and sage going well and ready to use as a cold remedy should one hit. 

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

I have been working on a crochet blanket and it is coming along nicely.  It is currently the size of a small lap blanket and I am aiming for a double bed blanket.  It has become a bit wavy around the edges and I have tried blocking and stretching the middle a bit already and ironing with steam  Now I am trying to tighten it up by doing 3 x 3 trebles per stitch followed by 1 x 2 trebles so that the edge is tighter.  I have no idea if it will work but only time will tell or perhaps a blogger out there who is a crochet master.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

I have been reading lots over the past month both fiction and non fiction and a few of the books have been really great so will be getting a post of their own.

Enhance - Community

Not much to report here

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

One of our camping trips allowed us to catch up with friends who have not seen since new year so it was great to catch up.  We have also had some friends who used to live nearby come back for a visit and we have made the most of their company.

What have you been up to?

Monthly Nine - May

Well here we are again and we are looking back and focusing on the 9 areas of simple living that Christine started back in 2012.  Linda our wonderful host has been really busy so pop over and check out what she has been up to and join in and share what has been going on in your world over the past month.

Here is what we have been up to over the month of May.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
May saw a lot of action in the kitchen.  I made another batch of pasta with our eggs and this time I got hubby to help with the cutting stage.  He is not really a fan of doing the cooking but he is always happy to help with the filling the bottles and putting the lids on stage of preserving, folding the wontons and separating the pasta strands so they do not clump together.  On the night we made the pasta we enjoyed sauceless pasta which is so tasty and easy to make (I will post the recipe soon).

There have also been lots of beef dishes over the month as we work through all of the beef we have.

And since it is pumpkin season I am trying to find new ways to make use of them.

In May I made my first batch of Camembert Cheese.  It all seems to have gone well except for the fact that the mold rind seems to have separated from the cheese inside.

You can see the rind peeling away from the edge.

The cheeses are now all wrapped up and ripening in the fridge.  We are looking forward to taste testing them soon.  If anyone has thoughts about why the rind might peel away please let me know.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.
I have done one more batch of dehydrated capsicums, made two jars of pickled jalepenos and since it is lemon season I have made a jar of preserved lemons.

I have packed away lots of left overs to be reheated for quick and easy meals.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

I replaced the freezer seal at the end of the month and the bags to the Op Shops have slowed but I am sure we will find more things to send along.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Not much to report in this area.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

There are spring onions, mini capsicum, as well as lettuce and silverbeet too. There are a couple of eggplants on the bush that is now more than 2 years old and a few coming on on the other plant. The egg production has slowed which is normal at this time of year but I am looking forward to when it picks up again.
We have heaps of herbs going and I have both thyme and sage going well and ready to use as a cold remedy should one hit. 

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

There was no creating in April which is a bit sad but that is what happens when you are busy.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

I have been reading lots off fiction over the past month and I also put in an order from my local library to borrow books from the state library.  The books all arrived at the end of the month so now I have lots to read in the month of June.

Enhance - Community

We have recently had some friends return to our area after living away and it is wonderful to be able to see them again on a regular basis.
I have found myself pulling away from some community activities lately as I know that we will be moving away in the future.  I have decided that I need to dedicate my time to building relationships in my future community and so have been getting in contact with community groups and our future neighbours in New Zealand instead.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

Hubby and I recently took our bikes and Jessie to Brisbane and cycled from New Farm Park along the Riverwalk and over the Goodwill bridge to South Bank where we had lunch and a rest.

The Riverwalk was damaged during the 2011 floods and has only recently been rebuilt.  It is such an amazing access route for pedestrians and it runs for many kilometers through the city.  We had amazing weather on the day we were there and Jessie who loves to run was really well behaved but was getting pretty tired towards the end of the ride back.  I think we covered about 

20 kms in total but since it is all flat it was not too much effort.

Picnic lunch at South Bank

This is me taking photos while I was riding.  The contents of my basket consisted of
Camera bag, dog bowl, cotton shopping bag plastic doggy bags and underneath is my wallet and phone.

What have you been up to?

Monthly 9 - April 2015

Well here we are again and we are looking back and focusing on the 9 areas of simple living that Christine started back in 2012.  Here is what we have been up to over the month of April.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
While I did not post that often about food during April there was a lot of action in the kitchen.  I made the first soup of the season, a lovely roasted pumpkin soup from one of our home grown pumpkins that was just under ripe so the roasting helped bring out the flavour.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

There has been a bit of stockpiling going on and the dehydrator has been getting a good work out.  I managed to pick up some capsicums on special so they got dried and stored for winter when I know capsicums will be more than double in price compared to now.  We also dried a heap of apples for hubby to take for snacks at work.

In addition to the dried foods I have also baked Chocolate Crunchies and packed small batches away in the freezer so they are on hand for when needed, and packed away lots of left overs to be reheated for quick and easy meals.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

We are still sending a bag a week to the op shop.  I now find myself looking around the house for items that can be added to that weeks bag.  Just when you think you have cleaned everything out you find a few more things that are no longer needed.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Not much to report in this area for April but I did make some sage and thyme tea a few times a day for a few days which dealt with a sore throat I had.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing hedges of basil and the latest round of cucumbers are producing well and I made some lactofermented dill pickles in April. There are spring onions, mini capsicum, as well as lettuce and silverbeet too.  And I am still getting the odd eggplant off the bush that is now more than 2 years old. The egg production has slowed which is normal at this time of year and a number of the girls have just finished their moult.  Normally we would add a couple of point of lays at this time each year to keep up the eggs production but since we are hoping to sell soon it is not practical to do that this year. 

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

There was no creating in April which is a bit sad but that is what happens when you are busy.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

April was a great month for reading and I read a stack of fiction books a range of magazines and I did quite a bit of reading and internet trawling for information that relates to our move to NZ.

Enhance - Community

The past month has seen us trading cucumbers, eggs and herbs for chillies, pumpkin and feeding the chickens.  We have built some great friendships in this community strangely mostly with people in our parents age group.  But these friends have been great mentors and support networks for us and despite the age difference we have formed strong bonds.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

We had a reason to celebrate in April with the return of my youngest brother and his partner, returning from Korea where they are currently living, for a holiday.  We could only catch up with them for lunch on one day but it was a long lunch and since we skype most weeks we just enjoyed the face to face catch up more than anything.

I also went to see the musical 'Wicked'.  I went by myself but was blessed to have my best friend come to lunch first then drop me off and pick me up after the show which save me all the expensive parking at the theatre.

What have you been up to?

Monthly 9 - March 2015

Ok so this is really really late but we were away for a few weeks and have been busy since being back.

Anyway here is what we have been up to.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
When I look back at the month I noticed that there are a lot of food posts so it is easy to feel confident in this category.  There were lots of tasty meals and I even made another batch of Haloumi.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

Other than preparing for our camping trip there was not a lot of stockpiling going on during the month of March.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

Every week or two another bag leaves our house destined for the op shop.  I now find myself looking around the house for items that can be added to that weeks bag.  Just when you think you have cleaned everything out you find a few more things that are no longer needed.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Not much to report in this area for March.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing hedges of basil and the latest round of cucumbers are producing well and I hope to make some lactofermented dill pickles in April. There are spring onions, capsicum, as well as lettuce and silverbeet.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

There was no creating in March which is a bit sad but that is what happens when you are busy.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

March was a great month for reading and I got through a number of books and magazines including 'Inferno' by Dan Brown, the latest 'Grass Roots' magazine and a few 'North and South' magazines that I borrowed from a friend.

Enhance - Community

Nothing happening on this front.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

We had an amazing trip away camping.  Were were staying on the 'Granite Belt' in Southern Queensland and along with all of the bush walking we did we visited wineries and artisan food producers.  It was a lovely break and I will tell you more about it in tomorrows post.

What have you been up to?

Monthly Nine - February 2015

Here we are already two months into the year and already reflecting on our progress, challenges and celebrations of our slow living lives.

Linking up with Linda who is now our gracious host having taken over from Christine in hosting the Slow Living Nine.  I love joining in each month and reflecting on what I have achieved, it is also great to hear what everyone is up to and share in their achievements.


Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
When I look back at the month I noticed that there are a lot of food posts so it is easy to fell confident in the category.  

Home made refried beans

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

With our two freezers full of beef there is not really any room to add to the stockpile anything but I still seem to find room for a few things.  This month I have added a whole lot of mango cheeks and now I have to come up with ways to use them.  I have also added a few frozen meals from when I have made extras and this will help us have easy meals on hand for when we are selling and do not want to create extra work for ourselves.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

We have continued to send things off to the op shop for someone else to enjoy. I have also done some repairs to items from our linen cupboard that have been waiting to be mended for ages.  There was a flannelette sheet that had gotten threadbare and a hole had formed.  A bit of iron on mender (my go to fix for items that need a quick basic fix) and we will get a few more uses out of it.  The whole thing is getting threadbare so we will probably only get this winter out of it but that is ok.

And then there was a cotton blanket that was fraying as the binding had split.

I just used some cotton that I had to make up a binding, it does the job and will mean we get a few more years out of the blanket.

I also made some chicken saddles out of an old pair of jeans.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
 This month I used some of our beef fat to make soap.  I have just started using the first block and it seems really good.  It still needs to dry out a bit more which has been difficult with all the wet humid weather we have been having.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing lots of herbs,  the latest round of cucumbers are coming on, there are spring onions, capsicum, eggplant beans and I have just started planting out for the cooler weather.  I have got some peas in as well as lettuce and silverbeet.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

I created some art for our walls this month.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

Last month I read The Name Of The Wind by Partick Rothfus which was lent to me by a friend and it is a beautifully written book.  This month I have been reading the sequel.

Enhance - Community

Nothing happening on this front.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

I managed to catch up with an old work colleague for dinner and we had a really great time and have vowed to make more time to do it again soon.

What have you been up to?

Slow Living January 2015

Wow here we are already one month into the year and already reflecting on our progress, challenges and celebrations of our slow living lives.

Linking up with Linda who is now our gracious host having taken over from Christine in hosting the Slow Living Nine.  I love joining in each month and reflecting on what I have achieved, it is also great to hear what everyone is up to and share in their achievements.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
We are still drowning in and eggs so they have made it into many meals lately, I have traded some for some lovely home made soaps and I used 2 dozen in so home made pasta.
I also made another big batch of Orange and Almond Biscotti because it keeps so well and Hubby really likes it.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

With our two freezers full of beef there is not really any room to add to the stockpile anything but I still seem to find room for a few things.  One of the few things that have been added to the pantry stockpile is some Wine Jelly.  You serve it like you would quince paste as part of a cheese platter or can use it to glaze meats.  I will post the recipe over the next week because it makes a great gift for anyone who loves their wine and cheese.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

The clothing reduction continues and I am still sending them off to the op shop for someone else to enjoy.  This week I also had a look through my book case and managed to get rid of about 15 books but there are a lot more that probably need to go in our quest to down size before moving.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
I have testing some herbal/natural insect repellents and the first one I have tried is 'Bug Another'. I purchased this from my local health food store and it is certified organic, made in Australia and contains a wide range of essential oils to keep those pesky biting insects away.  It sprays onto the skin in a nice mist which you can then rub a bit to distribute and does not leave your skin sticky or feeling like you are wearing anything at all.  The smell is lovely and I have used it on my face with no reaction what so ever. Like many natural products it does not stay on the skin after swimming so you need to reapply and you need to reapply about every 2 hours based on my testing when we took it camping.  

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing lots of herbs,  the cucumbers are coming on, there are spring onions, tomatoes, capsicum, water melon and eggplant.  The water melon I grow are the golden midget variety.  These are a much easier size to manage in a household of 2.  The other thing that is goo about them is that they turn yellow when they are ripe and the leaves around them turn yellow too.  If you would like some seeds please let me know as I have heaps, so just send me an email.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

January was a bit quite on this front and I feel like I need to get this part of my life back in balance.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

After attending the Lifeline BookFest where I picked up a few great books I have already read a couple of them.  One was 'Warm House Cool' House by Nick Hollo and the Other was Bill Molisons 'Introduction to Permaculture'.  For any one starting out in Permaculture this book is a great place to start and even though I have know quite a bit about premaculture and we try to use the principles in the way we live this book still offered up tips and examples that are not included in the mach more complex book 'The Permaculture Designers Manual'

I also found time to read The Name Of The Wind by Partick Rothfus which was lent to me by a friend and it is a beautifully written book and I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

Enhance - Community

This year I have really cut back on the time I dedicate to community activities and while we are in the final stages of wrapping up last years classic car show I am not taking on any new work.  It has been a hard decision but the right one.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

January was spent recovering from Christmas and Hubby and I just took some time out for ourselves so it has been a bit quite on this front.

What have you been up to?