Project Streamline – Coats & Jackets

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In Project Streamline this week I am looking at my coats and jackets.  Many people who live in more extreme climates would suggest that we do not need jackets or coats in Queensland.  However, we live in one of the cooler districts and these are mostly quite lightweight so they all get some use during the year.  The colours are either neutral or fit with my basic colour combinations.  We are only 3 weeks into our ‘official’ winter season and these have all been worn this year.

2012-06-25 01Navy water-resistant, lined jacket
This is a practical colour, easy to clean, has adjustable cuffs and a concealed hood
Good for outdoor activities and travelling.

2012-06-25 02Dark navy, lined, double-breasted, wool coat
20+ years old, usually worn once or twice each winter.  I wore this today to work and probably will for the next couple of days as it is quite cold when I leave home and again when I walk from the train station to the office.

2012-06-25 03Lightweight, khaki/navy water-resistant jacket
This was a corporate gift about 8 years ago.  It gets worn when I don’t need the weight/bulk of my navy jacket.

2012-06-25 04Black cord jacket
I wear this to work regularly as it teams with all of my work clothes.

2012-06-25 05Dusty pink suede jacket
Versatile item which is worn to the office with business attire or jeans on the weekend.

2012-06-25 06Pink vest (polar fleece lining)
Great for in between seasonal wear.  Colour fits with the rest of my clothes.

2012-06-25 07Red polar fleece jacket
I bought this a few months ago for our holiday in August/September.  I plan to keep it for the trip although I have worn it once – when we went to the football.

2012-06-25 08Red, hooded wind/waterproof jacket
This belonged to Belle but she no longer wanted/needed it so I decided to use it when we are travelling.  It is lightweight and takes up very little space.  The sizing on me is generous so I can wear it over a couple of other layers if required.

After I had taken all of the photos, I remembered that I have another spray jacket (navy zip-front one) but it is much lesser quality and does not stop the wind as well as the red one.

I am happy that all of my jackets and coats have earned their place in my wardrobe and they will stay, even though they are mostly worn only during about 4 months of the year.

Next week I will start on my tops/t-shirts/blouses.  I have put these off until last because I am not sure how to group them and there are more than any other category.  However, I will bite the bullet and do them so tune in next week to see how I justify them.

Organising the Woodshed – Part 2

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Another cold, grey weekend has meant that the fire has been going most of the time.  This is a timely reminder to prepare some more firewood.

2012-06-24 01This is a pile of large logs near the woodshed.  They are pieces which The Duke had cut from large limbs that had dropped from the eucaplypt tree at the bottom of the garden.  We moved several loads in the wheelbarrow to a spot which is closer to the house.

2012-06-24 02The Duke split them into pieces of a more manageable size.

2012-06-24 03I loaded them into the wheelbarrow and then stacked them under the house.

2012-06-24 04

This is the result of less than 2 hours work spread over both days of the weekend.  We now have a substantial pile of split wood which will dry out completely since it is out of the weather.  We have achieved this through collecting wood from our own property, allowing it to weather for a couple of years and finally, splitting and stacking it.

Like many other activities of self-reliance we have a real sense of achievement and satisfaction in knowing that we have done what is required to maintain a warm, comfortable home through the winter.

We plan to continue splitting and stockpiling firewood until all of the current piles of logs are prepared for use.

Finally, a big thank to everyone who has commented this week.  I have responded to them all (I think).  Come back tomorrow for the next instalment of Project Streamline.

Hanging the Handle

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I had a Vileda broom with a detachable handle.  The idea was that you could buy replacement heads for it, however, by the time I decided that I needed a new head for the broom, they were no longer available.  I bought a new broom but the fact remained that I had a worn out broom head and a perfectly good handle.

I had read some time ago that the best way to hang home-made pasta to dry was over a broom handle resting between two chairs.  So I decided that my obsolete broom handle would now be my pasta drying rack.  The next question was where would I store it when it is not being used?

Since the handle will be used in the kitchen it seemed sensible to store it in the same room.  I fixed a hook to the wall of the pantry and hung the handle on it.  Now it is easily accessible when I am making pasta.

Close-up of handle

Here you can see it hanging just inside the pantry door.

Handle in pantry

It is only a small project but makes all the difference when things have a specific location and are easy to find when required.

Book Review – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

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I have just finished reading the book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver.  I had seen it mentioned at times on the Simple Savings forum but there was no real detail of what it is about so I had forgotten about it until recently when I finally remembered to download it to my Kindle.

This book was first published in 2007 and documents the attempts of one family to eat mostly local food for a full year.  It is a substantial book and full to the brim with detail and information so is definitely not a light read.  I think I will need to read it a few times to extract the maximum benefit from it.

I found some of the detail quite confronting at times, especially the descriptions of CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) and the harvesting of the chickens and turkeys which they raised for meat.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as it forces us to examine our feelings about how our food is produced.  Out of sight should not mean out of mind.

Although it is written from a North American perspective there are many universal truths for everyone, no matter where you live.  By the time I had finished the book I was inspired with renewed enthusiasm to seek out as much local produce as possible.

During the course of the year, they travelled to Italy and also on a road trip north from Virginia, through Vermont and into Canada.  The local food that they ate and people encountered makes fascinating reading.

I also intend to apply the same principles to the food we eat during our upcoming trip to the USA.  Since we will be in the north-east states during late summer we will have an excellent choice of fresh food.  One of the things we had planned to look for is Farmers’ Markets in the cities and farm gate sales in the more rural areas.  My goal is to eat as much locally-sourced, organic and unpackaged food as possible while we are away but more about that another time.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle contains numerous recipes based on seasonal produce which are also available on their website.

The book contains an engaging mix of passion, theory, humour and science related to a topic which is the essence of every one of us – our food.

I would strongly recommend that you read ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ and take the time to really think about what you are eating and how it came to be on your plate.

Shopping In The Garden

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This afternoon I went down to the garden and picked a bucketful of oranges, some mandarins, limes, perennial onions, grapefruit, chili and avocadoes as well as collecting 16 eggs.

Here is some of the haul.

2012-06-21 01Mandarins

2012-06-21 02Eggs

2012-06-21 03Ornages , limes, grapefruit, onions and chili in this bucket.

2012-06-21 04I set the oranges out ready to juice them.

2012-06-21 05These yielded 3.5 litres of juice and enough pulp to make 2 dozen orange and poppyseed muffins.

The juice is frozen in single serve (250ml) portions.

2012-06-21 06Here is the orange juice packaged and ready to freeze.  Once it is frozen I will remove it from the containers and place in double plastic bags for ease of storage.

I took a pack of grated zucchini (from the garden last summer) from the freezer and made a zucchini quiche for dinner.  While this was in the oven I made the muffins and a Lemon Delicious for dessert as well as roasting some sliced pumpkin ready to use on home-made pizzas tomorrow night.

The 2 grapefruit are prepared for The Duke for his breakfasts and the mandarins will be used in packed lunches.

The avocadoes are in the fruit bowl as they will take about a week to ripen.

I chopped the chili and onions and added to some cold rice.  Lime juice, oil and pepper made a dressing to toss through the rice and we had this and some carrot sticks and sliced mushroom with the quiche for dinner.

I used 9 eggs in my cooking and am left with 34 in the refrigerator.  Must be time to give some more away.

We are lucky to have a productive garden so it is important to make sure that we use what is available and store any excess so that it does not get wasted.

Project Streamline – Cardigans

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As promised, here is my review of the next category in my wardrobe – cardigans.  There was a time, not too long ago, when I did not own any cardigans.  However, I have discovered the versatility of this particular item, especially light-weight ones in our mild climate.

2012-06-18 01I bought these 3 identical cardigans at Uniqlo in Japan when we there on holidays in 2009.They are a fine cotton knit which is perfect for trans-seasonal wear and in the airconditioned office during summer.

2012-06-18 02This gold-coloured lacy knit cardigan is perfect for wearing over sleeveless summer tops.

2012-06-18 03Here is a 3/4 sleeve red cardigan which is also useful for trans-seasonal wear.  It goes well with my predominately red/black wardrobe.

2012-06-18 04My only true winter cardigan is this turquoise woollen one.  I bought it in Tasmania several years ago.  It is beautifully soft, warm merino wool which is grown and processed in Oatlands, Tasmania.

I have one other cardigan which is an older black one.  It lives on the back of my chair at work for whenever the airconditioning becomes unreasonably cold.  If it wasn’t for this role it would be in the op shop.

The beige Uniqlo cardigan is the least appealing in terms of colour and does not get worn as much as the others.  The final analysis is that the beige one may go.  All of the others are worn regularly and fit with the main colours of my wardrobe.

Comments & Countdown

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A big thank you to all of you who take the time to comment on my random thoughts which masquerade as blog posts.

I have been very tardy about responding but have gone back over the past 4 weeks since I last responded and replied to all of your comments.

Although I will make a concerted effort to reply each day I will check and catch up on the comments each Sunday from now on.

It is now 9 weeks until we head off on our big adventure to the USA.  All of the accommodation and transport are booked so now we are concentrating on researching what we plan to do and see in each place we visit.

One of the things I had read about in New York was the new(ish) High Line Park which is built along an old elevated railway line above Manhattan.  There is an access point to it quite close to where we will be staying.  You can read all about it in this post I stumbled upon.

Any tidbits or suggestions will be gratefully received.  Our itinerary includes Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.  We will be self-catering for much of the trip and I am keen to maintain the same criteria as I do at home.  That means local, seasonal, organic and minimally packaged food so if you have any thoughts in this regard I would really appreciate them.

Sharing the Bounty

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We try to grow enough food so that we can share some with our extended family.  Some of our efforts are more successful than others.

Here are some mandarins and avocados that I took to Belle.

2012-06-16 01We usually have plenty of eggs, although this depends a bit on the season.  At the moment we have an abundance so I can give them away to various family members.  There are always many more lemons and limes than we can use so I have taken to putting them in the wheelbarrow outside the gate with a sign on a piece of cardboard indicating that they are free.

One of my planned projects is to make a more permanent arrangement using a sandwich board style of sign with the option of changing what is ‘advertised’.  I hope to be able to show it to you once I get around to making it.  Don’t hold your breath waiting, though!

It is great to be able to share.

Outdoor Organising – Woodshed

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The cold, wet weather of the past couple of weeks forced me to do some outdoor organising.  Our only form of heating is the wood-burning heater and this is fueled entirely by wood collected from our own land.

https://organisedcastle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/0032.jpg

We have an area next to the chicken coop which we use as a woodshed, however, this was mostly small branches suitable for kindling.

There are several piles of large pieces of wood that are out in the weather to season before being split into pieces that are suitable for the fireplace.  They have been there for at least a couple of years so are well and truly ready for use.

One of the problems with our wood storage system – if you can call it a system – is that it is stored directly on the ground and over a period of time this will degrade into soil.

After much thought over the years I was finally galvanised into action.

Most of the medium-sized pieces had been used last week to keep us warm and to dry the clothes so there was space cleared on the right-hand side of the shed.  I raked up the remnants of kindling and then used a couple of offcuts of corrugated iron to make a ‘floor’ and stacked some pieces from the outdoor pile against the side wall of the woodshed.  Now that the wood is undercover they will be able to dry out and be split ready for use.

We have a spare half-size wheelie rubbish bin which I filled  with small pieces of kindling.  That is now in the workshop and there are also 4 black tubs in the shed stacked with small to medium wood.

This definitely a work in progress but I am determined that the pile of large, wet  and well-seasoned logs in the backyard will be a a stack of dry,split firewood that is ready to use and easily accessible from the house.

The first step of the process has been taken towards this goal.  That is often the most difficult.

Do you have an overwhelming jobs that you do not  know where or how to start?