Category Archives: Self-reliance

Progress in The Patch

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Our vegetable garden area  has been a work in progress for several years and continues to be so.  However, I feel as though we have taken a giant leap forward today.

We had a load of soil delivered yesterday.

2015-03-28 01This was the view of the area yesterday.

2015-03-28 02The three beds in the foreground have been established for some time and the top one currently has lettuce and bok choy and the bottom one has beans and bok choy while the middle one is empty after having cleared out the remnants of tomato and cucumber plants.  This bed needs topping up with additional soil.  In the background towards the chicken coop is a clump of sweet potato growing in a small cut-down rainwater tank.  Of course, it has overflowed and is growing across the ground towards the fence.

The lower two beds in the background have a small amount of leaf litter and mulch but are yet to be used.  At the top of the second row is the sixth raised bed partially built.  We still need to finish cutting the iron to size and attach the sides.

We started early today and moved the soil to fill the completed beds.  This is all that was left this afternoon when we had finished.

2015-03-28 03Then it was time to add the sides to the final bed.  Remember the sweet potato I pointed out in the earlier photo?  We dug it all up and harvested a bucketful of decent sized sweet potatoes.  There were lots of small ones but we have sacrificed them for the long-term plan.  I planted several pieces of vine that had significant root growth as well as numerous potatoes that were shooting.  These all went into the bottom bed.  The remainder of the soil from where the sweet potatoes were growing went into the base of the last bed.  We then salvaged several wheelbarrow loads of leaf mulch from behind the rainwater tank and finally added the garden soil.

2015-03-28 04Here are the 6 raised beds filled with soil and I have planted some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale seedlings that we bought last weekend.  There is still plenty of space so I am planning to plant some seeds as well.

The other thing I did today was to trim and tidy up the basil which has gone completely rampant.  I even found some new plants so I potted some and planted others in the garden bed.  I have tied the clumps of basil up to the fence to stop them spreading all over the ground.  The basil are in the foreground of the photo below.

2015-03-28 05Tomorrow, I am hoping to dig another garden bed along the fenceline as it heads towards the front of our property.  The plan is to plant flowers in that bed.  I have bought sweet pea seeds and intend to grow them using the fence as a trellis. but more about that another day.

Flashback Friday

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Here is a post from 3 years ago when I first tried my hand at making Tabasco sauce.  It was a great success and the quantity lasted for a couple of years.

Unfortunately, the chilli bush did not survive the changes to the vegie garden area so we bought another one in the middle of last year.

Today I am making more sauce and using just half of the quantity stated in the original recipe.  This has to be one of the simplest preserving recipes around.  I am looking forward to having a bottle on hand so that I can add a couple of drops to various dishes that I make.

2015-03-27 01

Tracking 2015 – February

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At the end of January I wrote a post about tracking our spending for the year.

It is now the end of February and we have continued our diligence in order to create an accurate picture of our variable spending.

BudgetingThere was no more holiday spending and our grand total for February was $1,620.92 which is almost exactly $1,000 less than the total for January (excluding bookings for our holiday).  Many, but not all categories were substantially less.  This was not because of any concerted effort, but rather, is an indication of how our costs fluctuate on a month by month basis.

Food made up a much smaller proportion with a spend of $233 in February compared to $633 in January.

Most importantly, if the food and transport costs for the first 2 months of 2015 were averaged out over a 12 month period they work out to slightly less than the figure I put in our budget estimation late last year for the financial planner.  This makes me feel as though I have a pretty good idea of where our money goes and how much it costs us to live.  The proof will come later in the year if the figures continue to stack up.

Upside Down Hook

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As I have mentioned before, it can be the smallest things that can make a real difference to organising your home.Here is an example.

I keep the clothes hamper in the laundry cupboard and the small step-ladder fits beside the hamper.  The only problem was that every time I pulled the hamper out to sort the washing, I would have to hold the ladder and then re-position it to stop it falling over.  One day I thought of a solution so the next time we were at the hardware store I selected a large hook which is designed for hanging things in a garage or workshop.

I calculated where it needed to be positioned and The Duke attached it to the dividing wall in the cupboard.

2015-02-24 01You can see that the hook is upside-down compared to how it is designed to be used.  My idea was for it to retain the step-ladder so that it would not tip over when the clothes hamper was removed.

2015-02-24 02It works perfectly and does not impede getting either the ladder or hamper in or out of the cupboard.

This does not look like much but it has saved me an endless amount of frustration.  The key is to think laterally and look for solutions that may be a bit ‘out of the box’.

Do you have any unique organising tips to share?

Basil Day

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Six months ago, while we were overseas, our housesitters bought a small pot of basil as it was actually cheaper than buying a bunch of basil.  When we arrived home I planted it in the ground.  It is now doing its best to take over the garden!!

I took this photo yesterday morning.  The rain had finally stopped and the sun was shining.  You can see the ‘lake’ in the background.

2015-02-23 01I knew it was collapsing everywhere so I had intended to cut it right back and use as much of the leaves as possible.  When I got closer I discovered that the bees were loving the flowers so I could not destroy their fun so I have left the flowers and just picked lots of leaves.  Mind you, it is hardly noticeable where I picked them from.

I could afford to be picky so I chose only the best leaves and rinsed them thoroughly.

2015-02-23 02Then spun them in the salad spinner.  As an aside, I only bought this quite recently as I had never really seen the need for one.  After seeing my sister use hers, I realised that a salad spinner could be quite handy and I was delighted to find one at Aldi soon after.  It cost the princely sum of $6.99.

2015-02-23 03Next step was to chop the basil in the food processor.

2015-02-23 04I had about 2/3 can of chopped tomatoes in the fridge so that was added to the mix.

2015-02-23 05Then I used a small spoon to fill ice-cube trays with the basil and tomato mixture.

2015-02-23 06Finally, I double-bagged the trays in re-used bread bags and sealed them tightly before putting them in the freezer.  The basil blocks will be useful for when there is no basil growing.

 

Prepared

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Just a quick post this evening as I have doing some preparations since arriving home from work.  Yet again, there is a tropical cyclone (hurricane) heading south-west towards the central Queensland coast.  It is not particularly severe as cyclones go and is expected to cross the coast well north of where we are, however, we are already experiencing steady rain and gusty wind.

Storm surgeStorm surges are just one of the risks that we are being warned about.

I have cleared things off the verandah, boiled lots of water, charged the phones, know that the car has a full tank of fuel and know where the wind-up torches and radio are.  I have 9 ice-cream containers of boiled water which will be frozen in the camp fridge once it has cooled.  We have plenty of food and a gas cooktop which can be used for cooking.

We are not at risk of being flooded.  The most likely problem is the loss of power.  We could also suffer damage from falling branches or other debris, although this is not as likely.

Are you in central or southern Queensland?  Are you prepared?  Do you have any tips or advice?

Stay safe and if there are a lack of posts in the coming days it may mean that I am offline.

Bucket List?

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Time to take a break from organising, decluttering and the regular day-to-day activities at work and home.

I keep hearing people speak of bucket lists so I decided to investigate a little further.  I found this definition thanks to Google:

early 21st century: from the phrase kick the bucket ‘die’ (see kick1), popularized by the 2007 film The Bucket List.

There are many bucket list ideas floating around on the internet if you care to look but I think this defeats the purpose somewhat as you are really just following the mob.  I prefer to carve out my own unique path.

Bucket listThe majority of online bucket lists tend to follow a general focus on travel, extreme sports/activities and philanthropy.  Travel is a passion and while we have lots of ideas of places we would love to see both in Australia and overseas, I do not have a specific list of places to go.  Extreme sports or activities would probably go on my list of things that I will definitely not do before my time on earth is ended.  I would love to volunteer and provide support for those less fortunate , especially when I am no longer working full-time.  However, I am not sure that this really fits with a list of things that I want to experience.

I have never considered ever actually writing a list of things I want to do. I think that a list creates the risk that you can become so focused on ticking things off the list that the enjoyment is lost.

That is not to say that I do not have goals and aspirations.  I just haven’t written them down and numbered them as 1 to 100.

Do you have a bucket list?  What are your thoughts?

Mastering Technology

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Or as it is otherwise known – reading the instructions.

I bought a digital SLR camera before we travelled overseas last year.  I have downloaded the instruction manual which is about 350 pages, however, I have barely read it and have just used the camera on the automatic settings.

InstructionsLast night I decided that I really should figure out how to use the self-timer on the camera.  I read the instructions several times, set up the camera on the tripod and hey, presto!  I managed to take a reasonable photograph of my self wearing my new skirt.

The thing that I find most difficult about instructions of any kind is trying to assimilate information that I am not necessarily about to use.  Just reading something about a particular process or technique and trying to store it for future refence tends to be fairly useless in my experience.

Having used the self-timer function several times in my quest to get a reasonable photograph, I am fairly confident that I will be able to recall this process when I next want to use it.

Tracking 2015

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Today is Saturday.  Where did the week go?  I am very busy at work so although I have been thinking about my blog that is as far as it went.

Not only is it Saturday, it is Saturday 31st January.  The final day of the first month of 2015.  1/12th of the year gone.  Have you already forgotten what you resolved to do better/differently/more consistently in 2015 already?

BudgetingOne of my goals was to actually track how much we spend.  We have never worked to a real budget – actually allocating a certain $ value to each item/category but we keep careful track of the regular bills – rates/insurances/phone/internet but is the variable spending that is more difficult to calculate.  I do not have a specific amount of money for groceries each week as I tend to bulk shop for dry goods and meat and buy perishable items on a weekly basis.  I need to average my grocery spending over at least 6 months to get a fair and accurate idea of how much we spend.

As I said it is the last day of the month and we have been shopping so there will be no more spending today.  The grand total of our variable spending in January was $5,134.53 – yes, over $5K!  Almost exactly half of that was airfares and accommodation for our Singapore holiday later in the year. So, $2,618.73 looks somewhat better.  This figure includes food, clothes, gifts, hobbies, eating out, entertainment, alcohol, car fuel and maintenance, haircuts, public transport, pets, medical/dental and incidentals.

Apart from the holiday spending which is really a one-off, the categories with the highest spend were food $623 closely followed by public transport $620.  This is really interesting because what finally prompted me to track our spending very carefully was that I wanted to know how much we would need to live a comfortable lifestyle on our terms in our retirement.  Giving up paid work is a few years away yet but it is important to budget for life without regular employment.  We will still need to eat when we are retired but public transport will cease to be an issue as all of that expenditure is related to our lengthy commute to the office.

Do you know how much you spend?  Working or retired?  I would love to hear your comments.

Circumstances Change

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One thing to consider when you are trying to declutter is whether your circumstances have changed.  That item which was previously perfect for your needs may no longer fit the bill.

This was brought home to me last week in a blinding flash as I tossed and turned on a particularly damp and humid night.  I had worn this nightshirt to bed and it was sticking to me and I was most uncomfortable.

2015-01-24 01I made this about 15 years ago when we were living in South Australia.  The climate there is much drier and it was perfect.  However, the weather here is often very humid and even when it is not spectacularly hot this satin nightshirt is not comfortable.  So, even though it is still in very good condition, I added to the bag of goodies to go to the op shop and dropped it off today.

I am in the process of making myself another pair of summer pyjamas from fabric that is in my stash so tune in tomorrow to see them and some of the other sewing I have done this week.