Category Archives: Self-reliance

Garden Update

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Much of what goes in the the garden happens without a lot of input from us due to the fact that both The Duke and I work full-time.

Today I want to share some progress on a couple of different fronts.

On Monday we finally had the large poinciana tree near the driveway removed.  This has been planned for over 12 months but when another large limb dropped a few weeks ago we were galvanised into action.  The tree lopper came on Monday and by the time we arrived home there was no sign of it apart from a small pile of sawdust where the stump had been ground.

This is now the view from our front verandah.  We will be replanting beside the driveway but have yet to decide exactly what we will do.

This is the remainder of another tree stump which we also had removed to make way for a revamp of the vegetable garden area.

The harvest from the vegetable gardens has not been as great as last year but today I was finally able to pick the broccoli.

2.1kg of broccoli from 6 plants is not a bad return and that is only the main heads.  As usual, there will be more smaller secondary florets.  We will use some of this before we go away and the rest will be blanched and frozen.

The cauliflower has been a disappointment compared to last year but at least I got some.  There was also 1 other small head which I picked for dinner last week.

Like everything else, the snow peas have not been spectacularly prolific but here are enough for the stir-fry tonight and the salad for my lunch tomorrow.

Finally, this is 836g of ginger that we pulled up on the weekend.  It grew from 1 small piece that we planted last year.  There is still more in the ground but I saw no need to harvest any more!  We will be dividing it up and planting lots of separate pieces.  The plants look lovely and thrive with the other ornamental ginger, cordylines and heliconias that are growing in the shade of the the cedar tree.

Last but not least I wanted to let you know about my 2 new blogs.

Eating For Health is about my decision to try a grain-free, sugar-free diet.  Click on the link and find out more.

Somewhere, Anywhere  is my travel blog.  This will be an online journal of our travels, beginning with our upcoming overseas trip.  You will be able to follow our adventures as all of the updates will be posted on there.

Split & Stacked

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Today The Duke split some more firewood and I stacked it.  This is the perfect time of the year for this kind of job as the weather is pleasant during the day and we have had no rain for about a month so the wood is really dry.

Here it is all stacked along the side of the woodshed.  This is in addition to the stack that we have under the house.  We do not use a lot of wood so this will be a good start on our supply for next winter.  It is a great feeling to know that what we are doing know will keep us warm next year.

Do you do any seasonal preparation ahead of time?

Show Stopper

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The wind blows
The show begins
Sneezes, sniffles and coughs abound

I dodge and weave
Sip more lemon
Hope to escape

Mid-August is eternally predictable – the Royal Show begins for 10 days where the country comes to the city and  the seasonal cold/flu seems to catch up with everyone who has not succumbed so far.  To fuel this we usually experience one last serious flurry of a sub-tropical winter.  The westerly winds blow in with a vengeance and this year it has been right on cue.

Last night I pegged the sheets on the clothesline using 5 pegs on each sheet.  The clothesline is under the verandah and just outside our bedroom and I was awakened several times by the flapping of the sheets as well the creaking of the fixtures on the line.

This year seems to have been a particularly bad one for some serious viral infections as well as more than the average number of cases of influenza.  Doctors are snowed under by the workload as are hospital emergency departments.  Several of my colleagues and extended family have fallen victim to the illness with some having up to 2 weeks sick leave.

It is now only 10 days until we leave on our holiday.  I am doing everything I possibly can to avoid being ill on a long-haul flight at the beginning of our adventure.  This time of year is generally a show-stopper but I am determined not to let it be a holiday stopper.

Back to the Bin

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Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my post about the kitchen bin.  Today I remembered to chop up some of the bacon scraps and put them out for the chickens.  I have not checked to see if they ate them but if they do I will gradually give them the rest over a period of time and that will be another thing that will not go in the bin.

When I next emptied my kitchen bin I took a couple of photos of the contents which I would like to share with you.

2012-08-08 01 This is what 2 weeks worth of rubbish looks like.  There are 2 adults in the household.  I placed it next to a dinner plate so you can get an idea of the size.

2012-08-08 02Here it is on the scales.  It weighed 411g.

So, what was in the rubbish bag for the week?  An empty toothpaste tube, a foil sheet from medications, a plastic bag from the carrots, plastic packaging from a block of cheese, packaging from razor blades, plastic bag from frozen peas and elastic from several pairs of worn-out underpants.  There were other items that I have not identified as well.

Next time I do this I will be a bit more specific about exactly what it contains.

Obviously our rubbish varies from week to week as some thing are only discarded a couple of times a year.  It is a worthwhile exercise to check what you are discarding each week as a way of considering whether you can change habits to reduce the amount of waste.

A Unique Gift

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I have been making a gift for Izz for her birthday.  She has a doll’s bed which has been passed down to her but no bedding.

I bought 2 u-shaped pillowcases recently from the op shop.  Here is one that I have unpicked ready to use.  Note the roll of fabric which is the dismantled and pressed frill.

2012-08-06 01The Duke bought a piece of foam cut to size for the mattress and I have covered that using some of the pillowcase fabric.

2012-08-06 02The next step was to make a patchwork quilt.  I worked out the size and number of pieces I would need.  The plain pink is more of the pillowcase, plain mauve from a piece in my stash of fabric, Dora pattern is a few leftover scraps from the doona cover and curtains that I made for Miss O last year and the pink patterned fabric is from a blouse I picked up at the op shop.  The frill is the one I unpicked from the pillowcase.  The hemmed edge remained intact so I simply regathered it and reapplied to the quilt edge.

2012-08-06 03I bought a large piece of cotton/bamboo batting for a bed quilt I am working on for Izz’s bed so I used a small piece for this quilt.  (I think this is a rather spoiled doll!)  The backing is more leftovers from some op shop fabric.  I quilted it by simply machine stitching along the seam lines which is nothing fancy but seems effective.

2012-08-06 04The finishing touch was to make a matching pillow.  A couple more fabric scraps and some salvaged filling from an old cushion and I had a complete set of bedding for the doll.  Here is the mattress with the pillow.

2012-08-06 05The total cost of things I bought specifically for this project was $6.60.  This is a gift which I know will be loved regardless of the cost.  I am looking forward to seeing Izz’s face when she opens the gift.

Now I need to work on the the bed quilt I am making as well since her birthday is in 2 weeks and I want to be able to give her the present before we go on holidays.

Maintaining The Castle

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There are always regular maintenance jobs to do around the house and some get done more regularly than others.

One of the things we had neglected was the solar panels on the roof.

2012-08-05 01Today was a glorious late winter day here so The Duke decided to get stuck into some outside jobs.

The solar panels were installed about 20 months ago and they had not been cleaned.  The information on the website indicated that they should be cleaned with water and a soft cloth.  The Duke bought a squeegee mop since we have 2 rows of 10 panels it can be a bit difficult to reach some of them.

2012-08-05 02If the colour of the water in the bucket is any indication they should operate more efficiently now.  The plan is to make this job a 6 monthly routine.

Next was the solar HWS.  It is awful to admit but this had not been cleaned since it was installed, nearly 6 years ago.  The bottom edge was caked with accumulated mud but now it is sparkling again.

2012-08-05 03Since these things are on the roof it can be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ but we will definitely add these to the routine maintenance schedule.

A New Corner

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This afternoon The Duke and I did a bit more sorting out in the workshop.  This area is almost the size of a double garage.  It has a workbench and storage cupboards built-in as well as various other storage that we have acquired.

Keeping it neat and tidy is difficult as there always seems to be a project in progress.  However, we do need to keep some state of order as it is located between the double garage and the downstairs entry to the house.

We had some shelving that had come from my parents’ home and we decided to rearrange things and put the shelving up.

2012-08-04 01Here it is in the corner next to the door into the downstairs entrance foyer.  There is also plenty of space to store our garden shoes/workboots/gumboots.

I am not even sure what I will put on the shelves yet but I am really pleased that they are installed.

It is another small step towards getting and keeping things organised.

The Kitchen Bin

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Tonight’s post is in response to a question posed by Jean in the comments of my post a couple of days ago about Zero Waste.  She asked about alternatives to using plastic to line a kitchen bin.

I have read about using newspaper to make an origami-style bin liner and one day I might do that.  In the meantime, I find that despite my best efforts, I always seem to have plenty of plastic bags for the purpose.

I line my small kitchen bin with whatever plastic bag comes to hand.  I do not knowingly bring any extra plastic bags into the house but some is simply unavoidable at this stage.  Any bag that looks as though it would be useful for this purpose is saved. I keep them in a ziplock bag in the laundry cupboard.

For example, I buy frozen peas so I carefully slit the top of the bag and then use that in the bin.  Often, it does not tuck neatly over the edge but I am prepared to accept that.  I use a rubber band to tie it off before throwing in the bin.  If I get any plastic bags in packaging of items such as small appliances these are kept for the bin as well.  They usually have a few air holes to avoid accidental suffocation but that is not a problem as my waste is usually just confined a small number of non-recyclable items which need to be contained rather than necessarily sealed in plastic.

I do not put any meat scraps in my kitchen bin. I generally buy meat that has no waste eg: skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets, premium mince etc.  The exception is bacon as I trim the fat off it. I put the meat scraps in a bag in the freezer and occasionally add them to a kitchen rubbish bag immediately prior to putting the garbage out for collection.

Anything which can be composted is collected in the compost bucket  – this includes all fruit and vegetable scraps as well as eggshells and butter wrappers.

Finally, here are the bins in a pull-out drawer in my kitchen.  Each bucket lifts out for easy disposal and cleaning.  On the left is the small one I line with my rubbish bag and on the right is the recycling.

I will do another post soon and examine exactly what rubbish we have for a week.

Let me know how you manage your various waste streams.  Have you made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of rubbish you send to landfill?

Freezer Finds

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My freezer is one of the most useful appliances I have.  I am able to buy larger quantities of some items and avoid going to the shops as frequently as I would otherwise and of course it is wonderful to be able to store excess produce.

I have 2 freezers – one is the bottom 1/3 of my refrigerator in the kitchen.  It has a narrow shelf at the top and 2 large pull-out baskets.  The second freezer is the size of a bar fridge and lives in the study.

Since we are going on holidays in 3 weeks I have been trying to use up some of the food that is in the freezers with a view to being able to empty and turn off the stand-alone freezer.  The first thing to do was to make an inventory of everything that is in them so here is the list.

Ground coffee
Pineapple (fresh, very ripe so will be juicing it)
Refried beans (homemade) 500g x 4 packs
Ice-cream – 3/4 of a 2 litre tub
Grated cheese – 4 large containers (I buy 2 kg block of cheese from a local factory and grate it)
Spreadable butter blend (homemade) 500g x 2
Grated zucchini – 400g packs x 2
Beef curry – 6 serves
Lasagne – 2 serves (lunch sized)
Chili con carne – 2 serves
Beef & vegie casserole – 6 serves
Tomato/pasta sauce (homemade) – 750ml x 2
Lasagna sheets (homemade) x 12
Fettucine (homemade) – 2 serves
Gravy beef – 500g x 2 packs
Chicken breast fillets x 4
Sausages x 2
Bacon (shortcut) x 7 slices
Sausage rolls (mini) x 5 – thawing for lunches today with salad
Sweet pastry (homemade) x 1 quantity
Savoury pastry (homemade) x 1 quantity
Baked sweet pastry (was tart shell which broke)
Sliced white bread (homemade) – 7 slices
Gluten free bread (1/2 loaf)
Breadcrumbs (soft and toasted)
French stick (sliced and in a bag)
Fruit muffins (crumbled in a small container)
Mashed pumpkin (to make pumpkin soup)
Lemon zest
Lemon juice (2 litres)
Lemon juice (ice cubes – about 4 dozen)
Lime juice (ice cubes – about 4 dozen)
Sliced limes – 2 containers
Orange juice – single serves x 3
Banana x 1
Passionfruit ice cubes x 15
Turkish bread rolls x 4

Bag of meat scraps

The freezers are a constant dynamic as shown by the following changes in the past 36 hours since I made that list.

Lasagne – 2 serves (lunch sized) – now 1 serve
Fettucine (homemade) – 2 serves – used
Chicken breast fillets x 4 – now x 3
Sausage rolls (mini) x 5 – thawing for lunches today with salad – used
Lime juice (ice cubes – about 4 dozen) – now 3 dozen
Orange juice – single serves x 3 – now 8 serves – 2 used and 7 more added after juicing the remaining oranges from the tree

I have also added another 2.5 litres of lemon juice.

From my inventory I have made a menu plan and will be using more of the contents over the coming weeks.

I am confident that I will be able to empty the small freezer before we go away.  I will post an update of the list in a week or so.

How do you manage the contents of your freezer?  Do you keep a precise list or just a general idea with the occasional complete inventory?  What do you mostly store – excess produce, bulk meat, prepared meals or baked goods?  I would love to hear your story.

Zero Waste – Is It Really?

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One of the things that I am really passionate about is waste – specifically packaging.  For many years I have worked hard to reduce what I bring into the house and while I am nowhere near the nirvana that is ‘Zero Waste’, I generally do a pretty good job.

Today we went shopping for various things.  One thing I bought was some sliced salami.  Whenever I buy deli meat from the supermarket or meat from the butcher I always take my own plastic container and ask them to put the meat directly into the container and to stick the price label onto the lid.  Most of the staff are really good and simply weigh the container before adding the produce.

2012-07-29 02However, sometimes it can be challenging and you have to constantly watch what is happening or otherwise you can be easily blind-sided.  We have had instances where my request was followed and then they wrapped the whole container in miles of cling wrap or put the meat in a plastic bag before putting it in the container – AARGH!!  Today the young girl clearly had no idea how to establish the tare weight of the container so she spread a plastic bag on the scales, placed the salami on it and then tipped it into the container I had provided.  I chose not to say anything as it only causes distress to all concerned.

Also, there was not enough sliced salami in the display so she got more from the coldroom  and sliced it.  The piece she retrieved was wrapped in clingfilm and this was removed, discarded and a new piece re-applied when she had finished slicing it.  The display trays are covered with cling film also.

So, by taking my own container and refusing plastic bags and outer wrapping, can I regard this as zero waste?

Buying dry goods from bulk bins creates the same dilemma because although you buy them loose from the bulk bin they have been decanted from some sort of packaging.  At least it is usually a large quantity such as 25kg of flour or sugar so there there is less packaging per kilo.

I still buy my cheese from both the supermarket or the local factory where I can get 2kg blocks but they are still wrapped in plastic.

2012-07-29 04When I buy fruit and vegetables I always make the choice to buy loose produce that I can put in my own tulle bags that I made even if it is more expensive than the pre-packaged option.  A good alternative is a Farmers’ Market, though you do have to check as some stalls do package things into plastic bags.  It is a matter of being committed and voting with your feet as to where and how you shop.

Yandina Markets photo

The only true zero waste shopping is what I can collect from my own garden – eggs, avocadoes, citrus fruit, spring onions and parsley was the haul for today.

2012-07-29 05Do you try to avoid packaging when you are shopping?  Does this influence where you shop and what you buy?