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?

The Weekend Kitchen

This weekend Hubby was working and I had a chance to take on a few kitchen projects without being interrupted.

I used up some Filo that had been in the freezer for way too long, and turned it into a kale and feta pie.

Then I tackled a job I knew that would take me a bit longer, home made pasta.  I do not make pasta that often but I forget that it really does not take that long, and is so worth the effort.
The recipe I like to use is this one by Jamie Oliver since we always have heaps of eggs and this one uses a whole dozen.
This time I made a double batch as we had 5 dozen eggs on hand and it means I do not have to make pasta again for a while.

You do need a pasta machine for this but even a cheap one will do the job.

I start the mix in a bowl before turning it out on the bench and kneading the mix until it all comes together in a smooth ball.  To be honest this is the hardest part as you need to knead what is quite a firm dough.

Once you have your kneaded dough you cover it and let it rest for at least 1/2 and hour.  After resting the dough you are ready to pass it through the pasta machine to make a sheet of pasta whic you can then turn into the pasta of your choice.

This time I opted for a fettuccini.  The main thing you need to do is keep your pasta machine well floured, the sheets dusted with flour before cutting them and have a floured tea towel to place the cut pasta on.  Do you get the picture?  Flour liberally so you do not end up with pasta lumps.

I then kept some for dinner, placed a few twisted nests in the freezer and dried the rest in my dehydrator.  I am not sure I would dry it this way again as the pasta ended up more broken up than I would have liked.  But that is a minor issue compared to the fact that I now have heaps of home made pasta on hand.

I also made a banana cake to use up some of the 30 odd bananas that are lurking in the freezer. However so that we do not eat too much cake at once the frozen bananas I used have now been replace by the half a cake that I set aside for later. Oh well the thought was there.

So what did you get up to on the weekend?

Book Give Away Winner

Last week I posted a book give away and it is time to announce the winner.

The bloggers who put up their hands to receive the book were

1  The lovely Lynda

2 The wonderful Wendy

3 The Amazing AfricanAussie

To pick a winner I used the very sophisticated system of asking my husband to choose a number either 1, 2 or 3.

And The Winner Is

The lovely Lynda

A Long Weekend Away - Amamoor State Forest

Over the Australia Day long weekend we managed to get away for a few days camping.  Over the weekend there were a few showers but for the most part it was hot and fine.

We went to Amamoor State Forest which was somewhere new for us and about 2 hours from home. We were really happy with the campground as there was lots of space and it was well maintained, plus the creek was suitable for swimming which was just what was needed on the hot days. 

There are 2 campgrounds, one where we were that allows for dogs and the other dog free plus a day use area that was packed on Australia day with picnicking families.  The campground allows for over 200 people but there were only about 60 people there so there was plenty of space for all.
There are flushing toilets but no showers which we can live without as we have a camping shower and they were really clean and tidy.

Like many campgrounds we have stayed at we found a few of the fire rings and fire pits contained half burnt cans and aluminium foil which we cleaned up.  It is well signed that you need to take your rubbish home but for some reason there are people out there who struggle with this concept and think that burning your rubbish is the answer.  It makes me mad but I am not sure there is a lot I can do about it.

We swam 3 or 4 times a day with our little crocodile dog and it was so nice to cool off in the clear creek.

Our little crocodile

The State Forrest is also the home of the Gympie Music Muster and there are a few permanent structures around.  A couple of them had some sort of vine growing up them that was attracting butterflies by the thousands, in fact there were butterflies everywhere the whole weekend.  It was amazing.

Around the vines the butterflies were swarming and I wish I had a better camera to get a good shot of them but these will have to do.

All the black dots are butterflies and there are about 5 times as many
 as you can see but they are fluttering in front of the foliage.

The Blue Tiger butterflies loved the vine what ever it was.

We also had this little guy hang out on the tent for a few hours.  He really was quite beautiful especially the glassy wings like little pains of glass.

 We also managed to get in a bushwalk early one morning before it got too hot.

How did you spend your long weekend/weekend?

A Book Giveaway - Affluenza

A few years ago I posted this post where I had a bit of a rant on my soap box and I discussed the Book 'Affluenza'.  If you haven't read it and would like to then this is your chance.

Last weekend my friend Sandra and I attended the Life Line book fest in Brisbane and I picked a a copy that looks like it has never been opened let alone read.

So if you would like to go into the draw to win this copy all you have to do is leave a comment about the way that you hate advertising/marketing manipulating us to believe we need unnecessary products in our lives.

For me my most recent infuriation is a new Dettol ad for antibacterial hand wash in schools. Ahhh what happened to good old fashioned soap and water.

I will be drawing the winner at the end of the month so make sure you comment before then.