A Joyful Keeper

We had a good start to the school day with all of us watching “The Story of Stuff”. It dealt with a lot of the issues I have been trying to teach the children and myself. Last week I started a Frugal Friday post, but didn’t finish it in time. Looking at this 20 min video confirmed to me what I was trying to put into writing (and hopefully will finish writing and be ready to post this Friday).

As we get back into the school year, and settling into our homestead, there are lots of issues to deal with. First of all we have to get used to actually doing school at home, instead of on the road, on an airplane, in between moves, at other people’s houses, etc, etc, etc. Secondly, we have to deal with doing school at the kitchen table, in a small house, without enough space to have all our school stuff out. Both are a challenge. The first one will happen eventually… slowly. The second one needs a lot of work!

I have decided to pack away a lot of the school books that sit on the shelf “in case we need them” during the year. It hurts to do this, because I love to just get up in the middle of something we are studying and say - “Hey, let’s look up some more about that in this book!” I have a LOT of old National Geographics that I got from the op shop or from friends, for example. But I don’t have the space to put them out. I am going to pack them away…. but then a voice says to me… Why are you doing that?! Once they are packed away, will I really ever look at them again?! Probably not. I guess I am thinking that one day we might build a school room in the shed, and then I’ll have lots of space to put them all up on bookshelves… and in the meantime they can just sit in the huge shed we have. The main thing is that I need to get as much as possible out of the house so that it is easy to maintain, clean, do school, etc.

I am really not that bad at getting rid of stuff. I do it all the time. We never have garage sales or sell stuff. We give it away. The Lord has blessed us by receiving free things, and we bless others in the same way. It’s just that we have moved into a house that is half the size of our old one, and I need to make tough choices.

Back to the video “The Story of Stuff” . It generated a great discussion with the kids. They talked about toys and stuff they had that had been cheap and broke the first day they had it. They talked about things that they have had for a long time, and that they thought was worth the money they spent and worth keeping. One of these things was Lego. We still have the Lego I played with over 30 years ago. They agreed that a big thing was to stop spending, even though this is very hard to do. Daniel initially gave the example of the Playstation as a good buy…. then when I made him think about it a bit more, he sheepishly agreed that we were on Playstaition number two, and the controls had this wrong with them and that wrong with them…. I think he started to get the picture.

We talked about growing things ourselves to avoid packaging. We looked at how many things were “needed” to sell meat in the shop - the styrophome tray, the plastic/paper thingo to absorb blood & liquid, the glad wrap, the labels, the ink on the labels and the glue on the labels. Compare this to one plastic bag when we kill our own meat. I could hear the gears turning around in the kids’ brains!

It’s not easy for any of us to change our lifestyle - whether it is us as adults or the children who have to do what their parents are doing. We have moved to the country deliberately. The price paid is the highest for my dh, who has to commute every day, for almost a total of 5 hours. We want to teach the children why we are doing this - why we grow veggies, why we want to grow meat, why we want to reduce our waste… This little video was a real eye opener for all of us. For me, it confirmed that we are on the right track. For the children it explained a lot of things they had no idea about.

Steps to simple living, sustainable living, homesteading…. all of these things are part of a journey we are on. It will take time to learn, but I am glad we have made the first steps.

I asked for one thing for my birthday…. chooks! Part of that request was fixing the chook yard. A cow had got stuck in it, panicked and headed out the side of the yard, leaving a big gap in the wire! So on the weekend dh and the kids worked hard at fixing and painting it. I enjoyed watching and taking photos..

We didn’t quite manage to buy the chooks on my birthday, but dh had yesterday off as well, so we visited “George the Bird Man” and came home with 8 hens and a rooster! I was so excited! So were the kids. We were even more excited when they laid two eggs today!

I got to pick the ones I wanted. I asked for a few that were already laying, and some pullets. They are all different breeds, which is a bit of fun. I particularly wanted to have chooks that will go clucky and sit on eggs, none of these new breeds that have their broodiness bred out of them. I think I’ve done well…. I’m sure I will have too many girls wanting to sit on eggs in this little group of chooks!

So, let me introduce you to our latest additions! They don’t all have names yet, but we are working on them. First of all, the patriarch and protector, Little Red (He is a miniature Rhode Island Red):

Here is my all time favorite - a Silkie Bantam, with the oh so imaginative name of “Silky”:

Isn’t she just too cute?! Elizabeth and I just want to pick her up and cuddle her! I would like to get a Silkie rooster one day and breed from her. There were roosters there, but they were her brothers, so I need to go somewhere else to avoid interbreeding.

Here are the “twins”, Freckles and Speckles. Elizabeth can tell the difference, don’t ask me!! They are pullets and should be laying soon. I think they must have some Wyandotte in them:

The rest are a bit of a mix, not sure what breed, probably crossbred by the looks of them:

So there you go…. I have chooks again! I am soooooo excited! I just love to watch them peck and scratch around, and listen to them cluck - it is very therapeutic! I’m also pleased to be able to feed them our scraps and gather eggs. What a fantastic birthday pressie!

I’m a bit behind with answering comments and checking blogs and leaving comments… I’ve been trying hard to not spend time on the computer, but I don’t like missing out on all of the above! LOL! I think I have answered all comments now, so if you left one recently, just check back …. if I haven’t responded to your comment, feel free to yell at me.. (nicely please!!!)!

Ever since I started blogging, I’ve been in two minds about it. I really enjoy it. I love visiting other people’s blogs and commenting. I love getting new ideas from people all around the world. I love that I am making friends online. The flip side is that blogging takes time. It takes time away from the family. It takes time away from being a keeper of the home and a teacher in our homeschool. If I am not careful, I can spend hours on the computer, and get totally behind with my life! I think you probably know what I mean.

I don’t think there are any easy answers and that this is something we need to learn to deal with as the world is changing. Setting time limits and schedules are one way to do this, and I will be setting some rules for myself in the next week, without “banning” the computer altogether!

I will be posting again later in the day because I have something REALLY EXCITING to share!!! Well, at least I think so…!!!! So, come back, come back….!!!! The reason I’m not posting about it now is because I need to take photos and SHOW you what it is! So,…. better get on with life, shut down the computer, get my camera.. and I’ll see you back here later on!

……I was born on a small island off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The island was big enough for a small plane to land and take off again. It had a shop, school and hospital. My dad worked there for the Australian government (PNG was at that time a territory of Australia.) He built the house we lived in, on stilts in typical local style. I was born two days before my brother’s third birthday….. and I was the youngest until my sister arrived nine years later!

My parents were very involved in the community and local church. I lived there until I was two years old. Dad also built a boat, and we would regularly go up the rivers to villages showing gospel films and holding meetings. I can’t remember much from these first years of my life, but there are photos and films that help bring it alive for me. Here is one of my favorite photos:

This lady was a close friend of my parents. I look like I’m pretty comfortable, don’t I?!

The rivers were narrow and windy, and my teddy bear fell into the crocodile infested waters once…. thankfully dad managed to fish him out and I still have him today!

It was thanks to my birth on this small island that I am Australian. 39 years ago… boy, time flies!

It’s well past time to let you see how my veggie garden is going. I ate some of my first “fruits” the other day - a teeny, tiny cucumber, sliced thinly with cheese and mayo on bread… yum!

So, let’s take a peak at what else is growing in my veggie patch……

As you walk in the gate, on your right you will see a big patch of overgrown rhubarb (send your recipes in now, please!):

A bit further up there is an even bigger patch of asparagus, gone to seed, which is how it gets fed for re-growing next year:

Back at the little gate, on your right, you would see a few of my cherry tomato plants. There are lots of flowers and a few tomatoes starting to grow:

Moving right along… there is some lettuce gone to seed, and some parsley, and then.. one zucchini plant. I only planted one because I always get waaaaay too many! This one is a Lebanese Zucchini, which produces a small, light green veggie:

Next to the zucchini, in the corner, I have a little medley: one eggplant, three capsicum plants (green peppers), oregano & Italian parsley which I grew from seed, and two cucumber vines:

Here’s a closer look at the cucumbers,.. yep, I already sampled one and it was yummy! It’s a bit hard to see, but there are two little cucumbers growing there:

In the rest of the garden I’ve put four pumpkin plants. Since we don’t have a lot of water, they get to go wild, which is what they are good at:

The above pumpkin is growing right into the asparagus. I’m not sure whether there are any pumpkins forming under there, but I’m sure I’ll find out once it all dies down. But there is at least one teeeeeny, tiny pumpkin growing where I can see it…. can you?!

Well, that’s a short tour! It is not much, but quite enough for me this year! I will get enough harvested for us to eat during the summer and some to freeze for the winter.

Part of homesteading is preserving the harvest that I have, or that others might give me. As I said in my last post, two bags of plums have started off my bottling for 2008!

Since my children aren’t keen on stewed plums or plum jam, I thought I would give cordial a go. I tried this recipe many years ago, and it was quite nice, so I thought I’d try it again. It is a recipe from one of the old copies of Above Rubies.

Plum Cordial

Day 1

Dissolve 70g tartaric acid in 4 cups of cold water. Pour over 2.2kg of plums and leave for 24 hours. Strain. Add 3 cups of sugar to each 2 cups of juice. Stir to dissolve and bottle. Keeps for years.

Day 2

Dissolve 56g tartaric acid in 4 cups of cold water. Pour over the same fruit and leave for 24 hours. Strain and add 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each 2 cups of juice. Stir to dissolve and bottle. Keeps 6 months.

Day 3

Dissolve 28g tartaric acid in 4 cups BOILING water. Pour over the same fruit and leave for 24 hours. Strain and add 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each 2 cups of juice. Dissolve and bottle. Keeps 3 months.

To make up: Pour approx 1 inch of cordial in glass and top up with water.

(Above Rubies September 1991 No. 37)

Now the first time I made this, I had no idea what it meant to “bottle”! I just put it in plastic bottles and had my dh freaking out that it would ferment and I would make my 2 year old tipsy! This time I heated the juice and sugar up till it was almost boiling, poured the syrup in hot, sterilized bottles, and put on the lids tightly. You know the bottles have sealed well when you are drinking a cup of tea and you hear… “pop”…. “pop”….!

I took a few photos…. here is some of the fruit I started with sitting in the sink being washed and the yukky bits being cut out:

This is what they looked like after they were subjected to three days of tartaric acid and water, poor things:

And finally, the finished product:

Beautiful bottles all in a row… The bottles on the left are from Day One, the ones on the right placemat are from Day Two. I haven’t taken a photo of the Day Three ones yet. I doubled the recipe, since I had so many plums, and I got lots of bottles of cordial. I must count them. I also have to label them before they get mixed up!

There is something so rewarding to see all those bottles……. it is worth the squished plums under my shoes, the sticky spots on the stove, cupboard, bench top and floor…. the burnt fingers (and tongue from too much taste testing), the yelling at children “No, you CAN’T help me right now - get out of the kitchen before you get red sticky stuff all over you too!” - oh, and not to mention the purple candle falling INTO the pan of plum juice and splashing red spots all over the kitchen wall……… Yes, it is worth it! And it is yummy. I know, because I tried it!

We started school again this week, and I must say I’ve been struggling most with getting back into it, not the children. I have tried to stay away from the computer (as you can tell!), and tried not to get distracted by other things, but…. it has been hard. Being a homemaker and a homeschool mum is really two full time jobs, as many of you know! Even though it can be hard, it is also ever so rewarding. I wouldn’t swap my life for the world, even though sometimes it all seems just too much for me…..

My plan for this week was just to concentrate on getting basic routines in place - getting up on time, having two sessions of school (one playing educational games & one doing table work), having meals ready and keeping up with the housework. We’ve done pretty well with most of these. Getting up on time is a challenge for me since I haven’t been sleeping well lately. Hopefully that will improve!

I’ve also managed to get a few more boxes unpacked and …. drum roll please…. started preserving!!! I got two bags full of plums from Robyn and I am busy turning them into cordial. I will take photos and share the recipe when I am done. It is just the start of the preserving season for me. I am hoping to make lots of tomato sauce, relishes, jams and who knows what else! I just love to see bottles of preserves in rows in my cupboard.

So that is a quick update of what I’ve been up to this week….. I’ve had a few down days, but things are looking up again. I know that when I have my down days I need to just take it easy and not expect as much from myself as I usually do. I am learning… slowly…!

I really enjoy going to my mother-in-law’s house. It hasn’t always been so. There have been many relationship problems in my dh’s family over the years. However, things are much better now-a-days with some of us, so I am thankful that we can go there and enjoy our time with them.

My dmil is born organized. So whenever I go there, I try to watch her and pick up things from her. Her house is always neat and tidy and she seems to be always on top of things. Always? Yes. She really is one of those people who has everything running like a well oiled machine!

I’d like to share some things that I have observed, while I’ve visited her over the years. One thing that really stands out when I go, is that there is no clutter. I don’t mean that her house is bare… there are photos in frames on the walls, and on shelves. There are ornaments on top of the tv and cupboards. But there is no clutter on the table, or on the kitchen counters. Paperwork gets dealt with right away. If it needs attention for another day, it goes into a little rack specially for paper. Now in my house, that rack would get fuller and fuller…. because I don’t file it or throw it away after I deal with it. My dmil deals with the bills, and then puts them away in the filing cabinet. She goes through the filing cabinet regularly (so that she only has one filing cabinet instead of three like we do!), and only keeps what needs to be kept for tax purposes.

My dmil has a “What Not” (like Ma Ingalls!) where she keeps odds and ends. This is in the corner of her dining room and is the only place that could be described as “cluttered”. Here she keeps pens, pencils, needles, scissors, sticky tape, a few tools, and such things. They get put back right after they are used. If anyone leaves something on the dining table, she will pick it up and ask whose it is and then sit it on a little table by the tv in a subtle hint to put it away….! If it doesn’t get put away soon by the person it belongs to, she will look at it again, hint again,… and so on, until the person puts it away! I would imagine that if it were a family member, she would just tell them to put it away and not hint.

I love to watch my dmil in the kitchen. She only has a small one, and not a lot of bench (counter) space. She is very careful with what she leaves out on the bench. Not much is privileged enough to live there! My rule is that if it is used daily, it is allowed to stay out. Not so in my dmil’s house. The toaster is used every morning, the crumbs tipped out in the sink, the top given a wipe, and put back where it belongs in the cupboard. The only permanent things that are left out are the kettle, the cup rack, the big jar of utensils (wooden spoons, etc), and a little flip top bin where she used to put the scraps for the chooks (chickens). Why she still has that there, I am not sure. I think it is because she puts the food scraps in there in a little bag, then in the bigger bin so that it doesn’t smell as much.

Dishes get washed, dried and put away immediately. She has a dishwasher, but only uses it when there are many people there. Even then, she will wash cups in between meals, so that they are always hanging on the cup rack by the kettle. As she talks to us in the dining area, she will regularly pick up her dish cloth and wipe the kitchen sink and bench. Flylady would be proud of her sink! It is always shiny!

Meals are simple, but delicious and healthy. She cleans and tidies and puts away while she cooks. She says she has to do this, because her kitchen is so small. Everything has a neat place in the cupboards - they are not overflowing because she gets rid of anything she doesn’t need. Having said this, she still has times when she can’t find things. She laughingly told us the story about the carrot cake she made in her new ring tin. She thought she had one in her cupboard, but couldn’t see it. She then searched around the shops to find one. Finally she bought one and was horrified that it was so expensive ($25), but she really did want it, so she bought it. Of course, not long after that she looked in an out of the way cupboard in her kitchen and found the one she already had! So that even happens to born organized people… phew! We all laughed with her and encouraged her that she still saved money by buying the tin and baking the cakes instead of buying the cake from the shop. She agreed, because she had seen carrot cake at the supermarket for $5.

Washing is hung on the line as soon as the washing machine is done. When it is dry, she takes it in, folds it, and puts it away immediately. Ironing is left on the back of the chair in the formal dining room and gets done that night before she goes to bed.

There is a theme here…. things get done right away…. there is very little procrastination in my dmil’s life. She is able to easily get rid of excess stuff, and live simply with what she has. She sweeps her floor a few times a day, so there is no need for a huge, mad, cleaning spree! Sometimes her lifestyle might border on the obsessive compulsive, like the two mops she has - one for inside the house, and one just for cleaning the bird droppings on the front veranda. But her house is clean, neat and tidy.

I have such a long way to go to be like her! I look around me and know that I have too much stuff. I know that I don’t deal with things right away. But I also know that I will get there… slowly. I always feel so motivated when I come home from her house to make changes in my own home. This week I will do a few things that I have been putting off, tidy up a few areas that have been a mess for too long. It’s always good to be at my dmil’s home and learn from her, and it is always good to be back in our own home….

No Monday Meanderings yesterday or Menu plans because the children and I are off to visit the inlaws this week. The kids are so excited to see their grandparents, and I am looking forward to having no cleaning, cooking or any of that stuff to do!!! Robyn is coming with us as well, so that will be lots of fun.

I was going to bring some sewing with me, but didn’t quite get organized. I will however take my household book with me and work on that, and Purposeful Planning! I didn’t even get a chance to start it last week. I printed it out and that is as far as I got. It will be better to take it with me to my inlaws farm - there will be lots of peace and quiet there….

Have a wonderful week everyone! I will be back sometime on Friday, hopefully in time to write a Frugal Friday post and update you on my grocery challenge.

Does anyone else have the same problem I have? I’ve found that since I started blogging, I have potential posts swirling around my head. They are there during the day while I am going about my work, describing what I am doing and taking imaginary photographs….They are there at night, stopping me from going to sleep, but unfortunately by morning I have forgotten most of what I wanted to write (and they were such literary masterpieces too! lol!).

Someone should invent some sort of wireless mind link thingo…. that beams the posts that swirl around in my head straight onto the computer….. so that I can get back to real life and a good night’s sleep…..