Living in the season {and cake too}

I have a bit of a pet hate - heating to summer temps in winter and cooling to winter temps in summer. There is a (large) collection of people who turn thermostats on heaters to 30c through the winter just so they can get about in a tshirt. The same people, undoubtedly, switch on the aircon if the temperature goes over 25c in summer. Grrrrr.... Makes my blood boil!

There's none of that in our house. We probably swing to the opposite extreme. Our centralised system is broken, so we only have room heating and no air con. 

Right now, it's the middle of winter here and it's pretty cold. It never gets cold enough to snow here, but we get a mean frost. We had one this morning that froze everything in sight. This morning, we turned on the heater, but its the first time we've used it in the morning all week. Most mornings, we climb (begrudgingly) out of our toasty warm (thanks to flannelette sheets and good blankets) beds, toss on dressing gowns and slippers and make a warm drink straight away.  Stu and the boys go off to their tropically heated work and school, and I stay here - dressed for the weather. During the day, I wear layers, a singlet and warm socks, a beanie, scarf and fingerless gloves. I wear them inside and out. When I venture out for my morning and evening jobs, I add a coat and boots. The boys follow this dress code on the weekend. 

Do I heat the house in the day?  Depends. If I am running around doing housework, baking with the oven going or in and out all day, then no, I don't. If I'm sitting in one spot sewing or working at the computer, or if I have guests, then I heat the space I'm in. We also heat the kitchen for our evening meal and the lounge room after tea. 

When watching tv or crafting or playing games at night, we use the heater on low. We also use blankets on the couch, and often reach for an extra layer or beanie. 

Hot water bottles are used for warming beds, or on chilly nights to curl up with on the couch. Hot drinks are used frequently, by all of us, to warm from the inside. 

We live like its winter. 

We eat like its winter too. We don't eat fresh tomatoes, zucchini, corn or stone fruits despite the fact that we love them. We'll love them even more when summer comes back. We eat seasonal veggies and fruit and preserved versions (tomato chutney gives that red, tomato-y kick to a sandwich!). 

Porridge is a breakfast favourite, and on days like today, I'm inclined to whip up a bowl of this nutritious, delicious cheap and super warming goodness for lunch too. 

We are eating a lot more soups and curries too. Warming and made from seasonal and preserved foods. They go beautifully with fresh bread (which incidentally warms the house while it cooks). 

My chooks are on their winter holidays, so eggs are off the menu. We still buy the odd dozen free range eggs (preferably local), but I only use them for baking, and choose egg-lite recipes. 

From the garden we're harvesting lettuce, beets, carrots, delicious celery, brocollini and herbs, with wombok, pak choi and kale not far away. These are the basis of most of our meals. We're also harvesting lemons, lots of juicy lemons. 

Tonight, I made a delicious, season friendly, eggless lemon-yoghurt syrup cake.  It was very very easy - kid friendly in fact.  We served it warm with a drizzle of cream and it made a fabulous dessert for us and my brother - very moist and with that fabulous tang that only lemons can give. Yum!

Eggless Lemon-Yoghurt syrup cake. 

(adapted from this recipe)

• 220g plain flour
• 200g sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Juice and zest of 2 medium (juicy) lemons
• 250 ml natural yoghurt (homemade preferably - my 'recipe' is in this post)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil of your choice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Juice of a third lemon (for syrup)
• 3 tablespoons of sugar (for the syrup)

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C and grease and flour a pan (I used a 20cm round tin)
2. In a medium-size bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the yoghurt and sugar well, till sugar dissolves completely. Then add the zest and juice of lemons, whisk till mixed well. This forms the wet ingredients.
4. Mix your two bowlful a together until we'll combined. 
5. Finally, fold in the oil till it is completely incorporated.
6. Bake at 180 (or 160 if your oven is too hot like mine). degrees for 50 minutes or do until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Meanwhile, make a syrup using the juice of another lemon and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Mix together in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. 
8. When the cake comes out of the oven, leave it in the pan and stab it numerous times with a skewer. Then slowly pour over the syrup, allowing it to soak into the cake. 
9. Let the cake sit for at least ten minutes to soak up the syrup and then serve. 

I wish I could tell you what it tastes like cold, but it was all scoffled up warm for dessert... I guess I'll have to make another while the family isn't home. 

Lunching with ladies

Six ladies, three babies.

A table set with the good china and linen. 

A little vase of violets and scented candles burning. 

Delicious homemade rolls, wraps, savoury pastries, cheese, slices, cakes. 

Pots of tea and chai. 

Rain on the roof, steamy windows from chatting women. 

Recipes and parenting tips exchanged. 

New friendships formed, old ones strengthened. 

It was ladies lunch at my place. A beautiful way to spend the afternoon with some of my beautiful friends. 

Getting to know Jorgie

Over the weekend, we took a trip to visit our goat. Jorgie is still living on the farm with the other goats as we are going away for a couple of weeks soon and don't want to leave her in someone else's care so soon after getting her. We're also still waiting to confirm that she is pregnant before we take her away from her boyfriend.



Here comes Jorgie!

 It was lovely to spend some time with her though. The boys love her!  Stu aptly described her personality as cat-like. She comes straight to us when you go to the paddock, has a pat and a cuddle with everyone, and then, when she's had enough, she wanders off, tail in air. If you call her back, she raises an ear to tell you she heard you, but keeps walking. If you follow her, she's OK with that, but she won't let you just catch her, much to the children's frustration. 



"I've had enough now"

She has a beautiful cashmere through her goat at the moment and feels like a soft minke blanket, only better.  

Kisses through the fence

Oscar is the buck that she's in with at the moment. He's super friendly, and had a lovely time rubbing his bucky smell onto all of us. 

Oscar the buck

We visited some of the other goats too. Itty Bitty and Shadow are more like dogs than cats - you can't get rid of them!  This pleased the boys, but I'm quite pleased that we're getting a more independent goat. In the paddock with Itty and Shadow are a range of other ladies. Young ones and a few retired girls. Mini goats can live to around 20 years, but the breeders we're buying from, stop breeding their girls at about 10-13.  There are also a small group of adorable alpacas. Very cute!

Goats and alpacas galore!

The kids on the farm amused us with their antics. An 11 month old kid sprinted sideways across a paddock towards us and  then leaped around madly which was very funny. Our boys were quite disturbed by the feeding methods of a pair of six week old buckling kids who were butting their mum very hard - I explained to them that having boy twins is the hardest thing in the world for a mum ;)

Goodbye for now Jorgie.

All in all a fun and informative visit. Can't wait to have our own goats here!

Feeling relieved

It's a tough thing to have a sick kid. The not knowing how sick they really are, and when they're going to turn the corner. 

Lachie has been quite sick this week with an ear infection and subsequent ruptured ear drum. I'd decided to not take him to the doctors for the ear infection, and tackle it without antibiotics. We continued on that path after his ear drum ruptured. A ruptured ear drum can't be fixed with antibiotics anyway. 

But his ear infection continued for several days. We treated him with lots of sleep, ibuprofen, heat packs on his ear for pain, and gentle tea tree oil and lavender oil massages around the ear area (nothing in the ear). 

On Tuesday night  (four nights after the ear drum ruptured) he seemed worse and I started to worry that I'd done the wrong thing. I decided that if he woke up Wednesday still really sick, I'd take him to the doctor. A little mummy guilt crept in as I watched him sleep. 

Jamie cried that night. He wanted his brother and his best friend back. I wanted my joking, happy little boy back too. 

That night, he slept through for the first time since the Wednesday before. 

Wednesday morning, he woke brighter, ate a little breaky and went to lay on the couch. I had a meeting next door, so went and left him resting. I got some odd looks from other parents about the lack of antibiotics. 

He ate small but frequent amounts that day, and didn't ask for pain relief until 2.30pm, when he had a heat pack and settled for a sleep. 

When he woke, his brother was home from school and they played. Jamie was happy. 

He went to bed early again that night, but again, no pain relief. And yesterday, he went back to school. 

Someone outright asked me if I felt guilty for not giving him antibiotics. I held my ground and told them how proud I was of him for being brave and that we believe we've done the right thing - his own body fought off the infection, and it can do it again if it needs to. 

He still has a discharge from his ear and we keep it covered, but he was feeling much better yesterday. School wore him out and he had a very early night. 

This morning, when he came to the kitchen, he was bright and bubbly, describing in full detail the scene he'd just read in his novel. It felt so good to see him back to himself again. 

His strong little body fought off the baddies. His immune system is now more equipped than it used to be. And I feel pleased that we took the alternative route, but also relieved to have my smiling, happy little boy back again. 

The greener, homemade laundry

Don't you think the laundry just the best room?  Don't you just love filling the machine, taking wet clothes to a line, pegging, sorting, folding and ironing?  No?  Huh, me either!  But short of buying new clothes each week, wearing dirty ones or having someone in regularly to do the chore for you (of which the second option is the most appealing to me), we have no choice. We have to wash our clothes and linens. But how we go about it is a choice, and over the last twelve months, my choices have become increasingly more green and homemade. I can't see any more options for greening up our laundry (short of hand washing everything), so I thought I'd share what I do and the recipes I use.

Washing day makes me so happy!  errr.... no, not really{image}

Firstly, all washing uses power and water, so reducing how much washing I do makes sense. We use mostly cloth things here (rags, napkins, hankies, wee wipes, girly hygiene things etc) so there is always plenty of those things, but we try to make sure we put our clothes in the wash only when they need it. A wind cheater can be worn several times, so can pyjamas, but socks, undies and workout clothes go in after one wear. I run the washing machine 3-4 times a week and only ever with a full load. 

Because I do my washing through the week, I tend to do it as soon as the washing basket is full (conveniently, one load). I don't sort colours from whites (gasp!) or anything else for that matter. I only sort if there is a new pair of jeans/red socks that will ruin the rest of the wash. I just throw everything in together and because I only wash in cold water, we have no problems. This means clothes don't have to wait for colour buddies to get washed and my laundry isn't full to overflowing with dirty washing. 

Some things occasionally need a good soak to get out stains and grub. Stu's shirts and the boys school uniforms get a soak about every two months. I soak in hot water with some laundry powder and lemon juice. The lemon juice gives a bleaching effect (without bleach) and the action of soaking in hot water gets the gear clean again. Sometimes, they need a little hand rub and scrub to help, but only when I'm feeling particularly housewifely. 

For regular, everyday stains (shirt collars, food grubs etc), I use my homemade stain remover. I found the recipe here, and love how it works (better than the shop bought one I had). Simply mix the following together (in a well ventilated room as it smells!), pour into a jar and then some into a spray bottle (recycled if you can) and spray onto the stained clothes as you put them in the washing machine.

Pre-wash stain remover

2/3 cup regular dish detergent

2/3 cup Ammonia

6 tablespoons baking soda

2 cups warm water

Stain remover

Our washing machine is a front loader, so uses less water and power than a top loader and is gentler on the clothes. I know this because I can throw my bras in it without a blink and they last ages, but pop one in a top loader without a lingerie bag and the wires come out after one wash!  

We only ever wash with cold water and mostly use our daily 30minute wash (note that 30minutes greatly depends on water pressure, we used to live in a house with terrible pressure and this cycle took well over an hour!). Into the machine I put a dessert spoon full of my homemade laundry powder (recipe from here), which I mix together about once every four months.

 

Laundry powder

4 cups of grated soap (2 bars laundry soap)

2 cups washing soda

1 cup borax

Making laundry powder

 

If I'm washing clothes that I like to have a soft feel, like towels, I add a dash of white vinegar to the rinse section. This is especially important in summer when the heat makes them crunchy and also helps with absorbency (good for towels or cloth nappies). 

If I'm washing something smelly or that needs disinfecting, I add a capful or two of eucalyptus oil to the rinse section. 

The winter Hill's hoist - bare like a deciduous tree :)

After washing, I hang my clothes on a line. We gave away our clothes drier last year and as we don't have a roaring wood fire to dry in front of, drying on an outside line is pretty much our only option. In summer, we use the hills hoist in the sunny backyard. In winter, I use the line strung along the north facing verandah and a clothes horse/rack beneath it. In summer, clothes are dry in a few hours, in winter it might take two days, but they still all get dry. The only times I miss the drier is when we have a need/want it dry NOW moment, but we deal with it, wear something else and remember that we're green for a reason! Very occasionally, something isn't getting dry outside, so I air it in the lounge room and it is dry eventually. 

Cloth hankies on the verandah line

All of the clothes are hung with pegs, even those on the clothes horse. By hanging with pegs, I avoid folding clothes over the line and doubling up the fabric, so things dry quicker. Our pegs used to be kept on the line when not in use, but the UV and general weathering wears them out faster, so now, I keep my collection of old plastic, wooden and recycled plastic pegs in an old bucket. The bucket has holes drilled in the bottom so it can't fill with water and has a hook to be hung on in the laundry when not in use. 

Our dry washing is sorted and put away by its owner (I rarely put away anyone else's, but I do all of my own and all of the linens and again, when feeling housewifely, the rest). Ironing is done on an as needs basis. I can't bring myself to iron any stretch clothes and choose mostly easy wear stuff for me and the kids. I iron going out clothes when I'm going out. The only thing we iron regularly are Stu's business clothes which he often irons while watching football. 

And that's it!  A few simple ingredients, some patience and not tooooo much work and our washing is done in a green and homemade fashion without any nasty chemicals in our septic or on our clothes, and no money or excess power wasted in the process. 

I know lots of the people who read here are also green laundry folk, have you got any other hints or tips?  And if you don't do your washing like this, maybe I've inspired you to give it a try - let me know!  You know I love your comments. 

Weeds for tea

{or My ducks ate the veggies}

Since my two gorgeous ducks moved in, I haven't had any of my vegetables eaten by snails or slugs. The ducks relish any tiny gastropods they find!  I was beginning to feel like a successful permaculturalist, having taken very literally that statement I read months ago - "your problem isn't too many snails, it's not enough ducks".  And then my lettuce disappeared into the ducks' bellies.

So I re-thought things. If ducks like lettuce, I'll grow lettuce in pots in the courtyard!  Problem solved. Then they ate my pea plants. Hmmmm....

I protected the area the peas were in. They ate the sugar snap peas..... Not happy!  Then they ate the silverbeet and the leaves of the brocoletti that were overhanging the somewhat raised beds. Gah!  They eat more than the snails ever did!  

But I love them, and I love the no snails and no snail pellets garden, so we have to make it work. 

I watched them waddling around the garden. I watched them not being able to get into their pond (a children's paddle pool that is about 20cm high) without using the step I put there for them. I noticed that they can't really get up onto anything more than the height of their chests without a big flapping effort and that generally they didn't bother. They prefer to move around like one of those weird robot vacuum cleaners, bumping off of walls and obstacles that they meet. 

So, later this week, I'll be building low barriers around my vegetables. I plan to leave some things unprotected (I can share!) and will intentially grow greens for them, but others will need to be barricaded from busy Muscovy beaks!

Hopefully that will solve the problem. In the meantime, my vegetable stocks are somewhat depleted. And being stubborn about these things, I still want to cook from our garden, so I'm exploring the weedy option (at this point I'm seriously wondering at how it came to be that the people who live here eat weeds while the animals eat beautifully cultivated veg, but I'm trying not to dwell on it).  

Last night, I cooked schnitzels for tea, and strangely (but surprisingly deliciously)  coupled them with a curried rice dish and wild greens.

The rice was cooked in a light stock with the addition of garam masala, turmeric, ginger, a little salt and some dried mung beans. I brought it to the boil, the let it sit in the covered saucepan to absorb, before stirring in some chopped parsley. The result was a bit like mash or porridge, ugly, but very tasty. 

I sautéed some sliced carrots (the ducks nibbled the tops, but left the roots) in olive oil, added a chopped clove of garlic and a big bowlful of mixed greens and cooked until it was all wilted. The greens I had foraged from the garden (weeds and plants I have planted but that now grow like weeds) and included dandelions, mallow, borage, nasturtium leaves and beetroot tops. 

I served the rice in a pile beside the schnitzel, and put the sautéed veg on top of the rice. I then finished it all off with some fresh coriander and a few flowers. from the borage and nasturtiums. 

The results?  Stu said it looked like I'd served him a garden and then dug in and devoured the lot (like a duck in a lettuce patch). The kids ate theirs without a second glance and I thoroughly enjoyed mine!  So we will happily serve weeds in this house again, but I'll also be barricading those garden beds and planting veggies in duck (chook and goat) free areas of the garden too -just in case!

All in a weekend

It's one of those Monday mornings when we feel like going back to the office/school/daily chores is the restful part of the week.

It began Thursday night with a boy complaining of earache. I instantly began treating it in the same way that I treated my last ear infection, and he felt some relief. We continued with the treatment through Friday while he stayed with me and slept through a lot of the day. 

Stu was our other patient. He woke to find that his nearly two week old wasp sting had become a hand sized area that was red, raised and hot. I was concerned it was infected, and not knowing how to treat it, sent him to the doctors (antibiotics for him). 

Debutante Sarah and Birthday boy Cody

 

Friday was my little brothers 17th birthday and my little sisters deb ball. Our house is in the middle of my families', so we met here for deb preparations (I was employed as makeup artist!) and birthday celebrations before we left Stu, my other brother and the three kids here and went to the ball. Sarah looked beautiful and had a great time. It was nice to watch my teenage siblings interacting with their peers and I enjoyed catching up with one of my high school teachers who then became a colleague and who is now retired. 

My gorgeous sister-in-law, mum, little sister and me!

 

I was also lucky enough to have my two best dancing buddies at the deb (for another debutante and friend), so we spent time together and the girls drove me home. 

With my crazy dancing buddies

 

I arrived home to find the sick one still up. He needed more treatment and pain relief. I settled him to sleep and went to bed. Next morning, the need for his pain relief became obvious - his ear drum had ruptured. I had moments of questioning whether my home treatment was the best action, but decided that even if I'd taken him to the doctor, the result would have been the same. I adjusted to treatment to a warm, moist washer with a little tea tree oil, held over the ear. The warmth relieved the pain and the steam gently softened the discharge without putting anything in the ear. 

We abandoned screen free Saturday and curled the two kids on the couch for a pyjama day and Harry Potter movie marathon so that the sick one could rest. 

Meanwhile, we donned our working gear and headed outside. The weather was against us (I know I begged for rain, but really?), but we soldiered on and (without any fighting!!!) built a shed. It's our third flat pack shed and we were impressed both with how well built it was and also how much better at putting them together we are now!  We completed the build except for a few finishing touches and secured the shed in the very last light of the first official day of winter. 



The dairy with plants just dumped in front - need to plant edible perennials there, any suggestions?

 

Sunday dawned, the sick one a little better, the shed still standing (woohoo!). Stu and the Jamie completed the shed build while I did some important chores like baking bread, washing and nursing. 

The shed was complete by morning tea time and we set to work up-cycling some materials for the beginnings of a milking stand and planning the layout that would turn our shed into our home dairy. 

Then we turned to fencing. 

The shed and fence! Ta-da!

 

The side of the shed/dairy forms one side of the goat pen, and our fence continues around from there. Stu had the brilliant idea of building the fence around the hills hoist washing line.  This gives the goat pen more area than I had originally envisaged and also gives a nice look to the garden (or it will when I've turned it into 'garden'). But it is harder to build a hexagonal fence than a straight one, and we ended up taking ages messing around with angles and things to get it right. But it's done!  I just need to finish attaching wire and then we have one more section and the gate to do. 

So it was a very tired family who gathered for a quick thrown together meal last night. 

I'm still on nursing duty today, but I'll take it a bit easier and deal with some of the smaller jobs. It does make you feel good though to get so much done over a couple of days and really begin to see a project come together. 

Did you tackle a big project this weekend?