Slow Living December 2012

Linking up with Christine again this month.

Foccacia

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 eating very few processes foods lately and it has been very noticeable when leaving the supermarket with very little in the trolley.  Most of our food that we are buying is coming from the markets or green grocer.  I have still been baking bread but not as  much as in the cooler months, it has just been too hot to turn the oven on.

Strawberries to freeze

Home made Feta

Bottled Tomatoes

Bread and Butter Pickles

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 made bread and butter pickles, bottled tomatoes, and home made feta too.  I even managed to get some strawberries in the freezer.  I seem to have got quite a bit of preserving done over the last month.  On top of this we had one of our cows killed and she is now in the freezer.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
Hubby has been busy building a new woodshed from recycled materials.  The posts were parts from an old power pylon and the roofing iron came from a few different people who were getting rid of it. 

Washing  Liquid

 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 been making up more of my Bi Carb Cream Cleanser and washing Liquid.

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

It has all been about summer vegetables with lots of peppers and tomatoes as well as cucumbers.

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

I made a lot of Christmas cards and presents in 2012 as part of my Home Made Christmas.  I am still practising my knitting and am knitting a few more dishcloths.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I am still reading books about permaculture and climate change and these were a couple that I really enjoyed.

Enhance - Community
The anti sand mining group for my local area that I am involved in had a major win which we celebrated over the Christmas period.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.
December was a busy month catching up with friends and family.

What have you been up to?

Slow Living 2012 - Month 10

Linking up with Christine again this month after missing last month due to a few weeks overseas.

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 eating home grown asparagus and eggs.  I think we have done our dash with silverbeet and the rest might go to the chickens as we are a bit sick of it in every second meal.

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 made some strawberry jam and mustard pickles to put away in our stock pile and I will be making .

more bread and butter pickles soon too as we have run out and we really enjoy them with cheese and crackers and on sandwiches too.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
The cleaning out of our wardrobes continues and we have sent more bags off to the local op shops.

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 not been making much this month but still have plenty left from last month.

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

It has all been about planting out the seeds that I propagated last month and the month before.  They are now ready to go into the ground.  We have also established some new flower gardens and I have been propagating flowering plants.

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

I have been getting a start on making Christmas cards.  I am still practising my knitting and am knitting a few more dishcloths.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I am still reading books about permaculture and climate change and will be blogging about them in another post.

Enhance - Community
I was the event director for a classic car show which went really well and you can check out the photos here.  The anti sand mining group for my local area that I am involved in appears to have had a major win but I will have to wait a bit longer before I can confirm anything.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.
October was a busy month and not overly social.  Just a few quick catch ups with friends and family.

What have you been up to?

Slow Living 2012 - Month 9

Linking up with Christine again this month after missing last month due to a few weeks overseas.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
We have been up to our eyeballs in eggs this month and have been making the most of them.  Using fresh vegetables from the garden to make yummy self crusting quiches.  The asparagus is sending spears our way daily and these have been used in salads and grilled for breakfast.  Last night I used up the last of the fennel in a fennel and pea risotto.

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 spent the day baking up a storm of bird seed bars and other goodies to stock the pantry and freezer for a busy few weeks ahead.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
I have been cleaning out our wardrobes send a few bags off to the local op shops.

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 made up another batch of liquid soap and made some bi-carb paste.

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

It has all been about planting out seeds this month.  And there have been some experiments too but more on that later.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.
I have not been crafting much this month but have a lot planned for the next few months.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have been reading books about permaculture and climate change and will be blogging about them in another post.

Enhance - Community
I am the event director for a classic car show which is happening on the 14th of October so that is taking up a bit of time.  I am also still involved in the anti sand mining group for my local area.  Then there is fund raising for the local chaplaincy with monthly sausage sizzles and I  am involved in the social planning for our community.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.
September was a busy month for social gatherings with visits from friends and family.  I also had a special visit from my 27 year brother who has just moved to north QLD from NZ and I hope to be seeing a bit more of him in the future

What have you been up to?

Slow Living July

Linking up with Christine again this month and for once I am not running behind.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
There has been more bread making this month with new sour dough recipes to try from my birthday book.  We have been eating eggs and lots of silverbeet the veggie garden.  And the fennel has just plumped up enough so we will be starting to eat that this week mmmmm roast fennel.
I have been given maderins in exchange for eggs and there have been a few cakes baked too.

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.

This month has been all about the meat chickens.  We did a test run butchering just one bird and have now killed another 6.  This means we have 5 to go.  We roasted the first bird abut have broken the next 6 down into drum sticks, breasts, thighs and the rest for soups and stocks.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
We have been participating in Plastic Free July and I will be blogging about that later this week.

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.
Well I made up more laundry liquid and liquid soap and I think participating in Plastic Free July counts here too.

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

As I mentioned above there has been a lot of silverbeet on the menu this month as well as bok choy and kohl rabi.  We have snow peas and fennel coming on and hopefully we will get something from the brassicas before it gets too warm.

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

I am still going with my knitting and have made a few birthday cards this month for friends and family.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have been reading like a mad women this month and have gotten through 7 novels, 5 non fiction books and a stack of alternative living magazines.  I am not sure where I found the time but I did.

Enhance - Community
The classic car show, that I am the event director for later this year, is taking up a bit of time and will continue to for a while yet.  I am also still involved in the anti sand mining group for my local area.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are  all cause for enjoyment.
July saw us catching up with family and friends and really was a busy month with a number of birthdays.

Slow Living - June

Linking up with Christine again this month although I am again running behind.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
There has been bread making this month as well as pesto and big batches of muffins divided into small portions and frozen.  We have been eating the small number of eggs we are getting and have been eating silverbeet, bok choy, coriander, cabbage and kohl rabi  from the veggie garden.
I have been using up the limes, lemons and oranges that we picked a while back too.

Lime Spice Syrup Cake (recipe later this week)

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 made some batches of pesto and there are the extra muffins mentioned above.  I have also made a big batch of BBQ sauce (recipe yet to be posted).

BBQ Sauce

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
We have been having a big clean up around the house and yard and have been sending lots of stuff off to the tip.  We also made the decision to sell out tractor.  It was old and needed a lot of work.  In the 3 years we had been here we had only used it twice so it made sense to get rid of it and put the money in the bank.

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 also made up another batch of liquid soap and made some bi-carb paste.

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

It has all been about harvesting winter veg this month. And I have got some tomatoes in to see if I can get them through winter for a late winter/early spring crop.  We have just harvested our second bunch of bananas and these were much riper that the first ones.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.
I have been knitting more dishcloths and so far have made 5.  I might have to move on to something a bit more challenging soon, a scarf might be in order before winter ends.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have been reading books about bee keeping and raising pigs even though it is unlikely we can do either of those things in the near future, one day maybe.

Enhance - Community
I am the event director for a classic car show later this year so that is taking up a bit of time.  I am also still involved in the anti sand mining group for my local area.  Then there is fund raising for the local chaplaincy with monthly sausage sizzles and I  am involved in the social planning for our community.  The note on my message board in my office makes it very clear.  NO MORE MEETINGS OR COMMITTEES.  Yes my time is stretched thin on top of work and home and Hubby has laid down the law.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.
June was a busy month and it was not until the last day of the month that we had time to catch up with friends.

Slow Living - May

Linking up with Christine again this month although I am running a little behind but hey that happens sometimes.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
There has been a lot of bread making again this month as well as biscuits and slow cooked meals.

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 the failed batch of Lime Pickle there has not been any stockpiling going on but I did acquire a lot more preserving jars so that I can do more in the future.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
This month I have had to mend some of our flannelet sheets as they had worn through in a couple of spots. I think this will at least get us one more winter from them.


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.
Nothing new here just sticking at what we are already doing.

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

I have been picking figs and raspberries this month and we have lots of lovely silverbeet and coriander.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.
I have been knitting away and have now made three dishcloths.  Next project will be a scarf.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have just read "The healthy house cow" by Marja Fitzgerald.  Not that we are looking at getting a house cow any time soon, but it was on special and one day I would like to have one.

Enhance - Community
I am the event director for the Kilcoy Classics on Wheels (a classic car and motorbike show) for the second year so there is a lot going on working towards the event in October.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.
This month it was about learning new skills for me.  Cheese making and knitting.  It was also about working on my relationship with hubby and doing more together.

Slow Living 2012 - March

Linking up with Christine for month 3 in this reflective challange looking back at all that has been achieved in the past month.
Now  how the heck did we get to April 3 already and I am only just posting this.  Apparently I have been busy enough to not have this ready to go on April 1 so lets see what I got up to in March.

Nourish - Well this is an easy one as there has been a lot of action (of the cooking variety) in the kitchen this month.  I have been working on my sourdough skills, baking banana cakes to try and use up the growing collection of bananas in the freezer.  There have been muffins and chocolate beetroot cake, veggie dips for snacking and plenty of other things in between.

Prepare - I have had my Fowler's preserving Unit out again and made a whole lot of stewed apples.  I also made up some more chicken stock which is now frozen in 500ml blocks in the freezer.  And although they have not been prepared yet I picked a few kilos of our strawberry guavas in anticipation of making some guava jelly and have these waiting in the freezer.

Reduce - Mmmmmm difficult, surely there is something...well I did move (get hubby to move) the old concrete laundry tub that was out in the paddock (it may have been used as a water trough for animals at one time) up to the house so I can grow my mint in it instead of sending it to the dump.

Green - We have continued to use our own home made laundry liquid and the other day Hubby admitted to me that he was pretty sceptical about it's effectiveness before he started using it, especially when it came to his work clothes which come home soaked in sweat then covered with layers of dirt, grease, petrol, sawdust and tree sap (he is an arborist).  Now he is a complete convert.   We are also getting rid of all chemical cleaners in the house and using baking soda and vinegar.

Grow - There has been quite a lot going on in the garden with seeds planted and cuttings propagated.   I could also call this category "Dying" as there has been a bit of that going on too with all the wet weather we have had.  But that is all part of gardening now isn't it.

Does growing a chicken count?

Create - Well there has been my usual paper craft and I had a giveaway in March and gave away some cards to African Aussie.

Enhance - March saw the realisation of a community event I had been planning.  The event was very successful and just the other day I received a letter from our Mayor (who I invited to open the event, which he did) and the council CEO congratulating me and my team on a very successful day.  It was really nice to be recognised as a lot of hard work went into making it happen.

Discover - I have been reading a lot of great books in the last month including books on organic gardening, self reliance and upskilling for the future.  There have also been some great blogs that I have stumbled across and interesting we sites visited.  A couple I want to post about later so that I give them there due so I won't list them all here.

Enjoy - I have had some very special moments with friends and family this month and have also been blessed to welcome my new niece Lucy into the family.  This month also saw a change in season and where I live this provides us with fantastic weather moving forward and is my favourite time of the year Autumn.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to as well.

Slow Living 2012 - Month 2

Linking up with Christine today for a look back at Slow Living in February.

This is a great way of reminding yourself of exactly what you have achieved during the month and even though some things are just small steps they all build up to make a much bigger picture.  If you want to join in head over to Christine's blog to find out what Slow Living Month by Month is all about.

Nourish - February saw me working on my Sourdough skills.  I have tried a lot of different recipes and am trying to find one that suits my baking style and our bread eating habits.  I also tried out new recipes (chocolate beetroot cake, and velvet cupcakes) and we had an entirely homecooked month other than a birthday lunch out.

Prepare - More bottles of diced tomato's were prepared in my Fowler's Vacola Unit as well as pears and some home made cordial.

Reduce - There were a few books that I really wanted to buy but at $40 each it was not a wise spend.  In the end I asked my local Library to buy them and I was first on the list to borrow them.  Now I know they will be on hand if I want to ready them again in the future.

Green - Well this one just snuck in for the month of Feb as I only made it last night.  I have had a go at making liquid soap for pump bottles.  So far it looks good, very soapy but good.  Until I give it a decent run I will not say it was a success but it is at least a start.  I have also been training Hubby on cleaning with Bicarb and Vinegar.

Grow - February was a pretty dud month for growing things.  We had such a wet month that a lot was pulled out, but at the end of the month I got a few seedlings in for Pumpkin, Rosella's and herbs.  I also planted out beetroot seeds because I accidentally watered the paper packet they were in and then they were just going to rot if they didn't go in the ground.

Create - I am always crafting away on something, this month it was mainly scrap booking.

Discover - A friend and I found out that our council was funding an event management workshop at a local artists studio.  For the grand total of $5 we were provided transport to and from the workshop, the workshop itself and a BBQ lunch.  The artist studio was a great find as they hold other classes there as well which I might attend in the future.

Enhance - I have spent over 100 hours in February working on different community projects and boy am I pooped.  Plus it is not over yet.  We are celebrating Harmony Day in my town on March 10 and as the event manager my to do list is as long as my arm.  I also have 2 other projects on the go..  It is very rewarding but the process of applying for funding grants and managing a couple of different groups of people on top of full time work is very tiring.

Enjoy - Oh I very much enjoyed the birthday lunch with my best friend.  There are many small things that have also brought me joy like catching up with friends and family, and spending time with Hubby and the pets.

Well enough said about last month.  March is already here and there are jobs to be done.

Slow Living 2012 Month 1

I am linking up with Christine for this post so head over to her blog to check it out.

Generally I don't set any resolutions until February giving myself time to get over the Christmas buzz and put some thought into what it is that I want to achieve.
This year the 1 solid resolution I have made is that I will do the the $21 Challenge one week each month until the end of the year.  In addition to this I would like to:
Garden more
Cook more
Preserve more
Save more
Craft more
And generally lead a more fulfilling life.

So how did January go?

Nourish:  I made sourdough bread most weekends and because we live in the country take out is not really and option so pretty much everything we ate was made at home and from scratch.

Prepare (stockpile & preserve):  This month I broke out the preserver and bottled Plums and Nectarines, Tomato's and Bread and Butter Pickles.  I also made some home made Lemon Cordial.

Reduce:  Rather than buying new preserving bottles I hunted second hand stores and picked up a bargain.

Create:  This month I made a gift for my best friend but more about that in another post.

Green:  Just like Christine I have been making my own laundry liquid and so far I am happy with the results.

Grow:  Cucumbers galore other than that not a lot was harvested but more seeds were planted including Rosella's, Capsicums, more Cucumbers as well as Pumpkins and the Berry Patch was planted out.

Discover:  At the Lifeline Book fest I picked up a number of second hand books to loose myself in.

Enhance Community:  I am currently working on a number of community groups including SCRAM a anti gravel and sand mine fight in my community and I am part of a group organising Harmony Day celebrations for our community.

Enjoy Life:  In January I took the step of requesting to cut back my work hours by 4 hours a week making me a part time employee.  When these new hours start I plan to use this time to get more out of life.

So that's what happened in month 1 and I am looking forward to seeing how I progress during the year.