What a great team!

This is where our garden is at with preparation for planting into (aside from the things already in).

I've been amazed at how easy the soil is to clear once the chickens have been on it for a week. I basically just need to skim the leftover weeds off and pop them onto the compost pile.

Lemon this and lemon that

I realised this afternoon I had a backlog of lemons piling up in my fruit bowl (including a few wrinkly looking ones) so decided to step up the domestic duties - a few more *firsts* with these ones.

First up I made some yummy Lemon Honey (aka lemon butter). Came out just like I remember it - usually bought at church or school fairs. Shame I'm no longer able to serve it on white wheatflour toast with melted butter and then the lemon honey. *sigh*. That recipe made one jar and only used 2 lemons.

Then, to use up another 6 lemons I made a lemon cordial concentrate - that one is still sitting on the bench for 24hrs before I strain it and bottle it.

Nathan thought the lemon honey was too sour - such a shame...imagine a food all to myself in this house!

And while I'm talking of being fulfilled...

I would never have thought blogging would do it for me either! Ha! What is it about blogging? I've never been one to write a journal, so it's not just about recording stories or information necessarily.

It's better or more personal than belonging to message boards in some ways. Maybe coz it's all about me (lol, which in itself is weird since I'm an introvert) and just knowing that I have people who come here to read up on what I have to say or ramble about - why I ask myself hehe!?

Anyway, here's to all my readers who are following along in this journey. This isn't the most profound or intelligent blog you will find, but it's *me* and it's good to know you all and get replies and encouragement from your comments.

They've been a winner...but I'm almost done!

With soup!

We've been eating soup a couple of times a week over winter. It's been great, and they've almost always gone down a treat with the kids. But I have almost come to the end of enjoying them. They are just fab for many reasons: quick and easy, get to use up random veges that arrive in the vege box, get to use up bulk of one type of vege, cheap, the kids eat them and it just feels so wholesome and healthy...

Tonight's was predominantly pumpkin but also had kale, onion, leek and white carrot and I added in some rice and quinoa.

We've enjoyed soups of all flavours and colours - generally all vegan: beetroot, lentil and creamy vegetable (with coconut cream), pumpkin, leek and potato, spinach and potato and the random mixed vege type.

You've done us well, but we've had enough lol.

I never thought I'd find gardening so...fulfilling

I *really* didn't think I'd ever feel this way! I started off on this journey just seeing is as a way to provide food for our family and a way of working towards a sustainable lifestyle. I have a friend who just loves getting out into her garden at every opportunity and I always slightly wondered just what it was that did it for her - I just saw it as a boring chore.

Well, now I know! For me, I have found it such an easy way to be one with nature and it's so meditative (as in, I am able to just think nothing and "be") yet other times I love the free thinking time it gives me which I don't often get (or seem to somehow avoid through being on the internet during my spare time which is anything but relaxing really (in the busy mind sense anyhow). It's also a way of me getting some much needed exercise (and boy am I feeling the pain of muscles that haven't been used for a while). I'm just wanting to be out there as much as I can -fortunately Nathan enjoys it too, Danielle not so much at the moment, so we pop down to the garden to work while she's sleeping.

Seeds, seeds and more seeds!

Well I decided today to plant out my onion and carrot seeds directly into the garden - I planted them in alternate rows taking up one garden bed (2mx2m) - they're great companion plants. In hindsight I should have marked my rows as I was planting, coz I kept forgetting where I'd been (especially getting distracted with Nathan talking to me and keeping an eye on (and needing to leave what I was doing to herd them occasionally) the chickens who were busy roaming around). They got very adventurous today and were making their way up towards the house (dog territory) and finding holes in the hedge I didn't know were there, and stomping and kicking all over my garden beds with the surviving corn and brassica seedlings! They have no fear now and let us in really close and don't freak at a hyper 4yr old running around - so took a bit of shooing. Just as we'd popped them back inside (they responded immediately to my "bok bok" noises and came running and walked inside) a nosey kitten from over the fence decided to investigate and try to get into their coop by climbing over it and all around it. The girls were great and trying to scare it off - eventually it got bored and wandered off.

Nathan also helped me plant some sunflower seeds in the front garden, and I added some cocktail tomato seeds to the herb garden. I also found a self-seeded pumpkin growing in my tomato-to-be garden bed along the front of the house, so have left that there to do it's thing since it's in a very convenient place. Oh, and for a bit of prettiness I sprinkled some wild flower seeds on our front grassed area that is a wasted area.

Simon finally managed to get the camellia tree dug out and now the mandarin tree is in place.

I just want to keep on plonking plants whereever there is a sunny spot! I can see it's going to be a lovely rambling garden eventually, so long as I remember where I've put everything!

The corn have survived!

Ha! I was down checking out the garden this afternoon with the kids and while we had the chickens out for a wander I spotted my little corn seedlings growing taller and starting to open. Some of them had frostbite on their tops, but I'm not sure if this will impact the final vegetable? I will leave them in to see how they develop. My beans are also growing really quickly and about 10cm tall already.

Action packed, but pretty relaxed...

We had a great weekend away - it was refreshing, fun filled and also relaxing.

On the drive up we stopped off at the wind farm - only Simon was brave enough to step out into the cold wind (this wasn't the biggest one, but the closest we could get to).

Upon arriving in Napier and a quick check in to our motel, we made out way into town and needed find a cafe to eat lunch. The first one I chanced upon was FAB for gluten free food and had heaps of options.

Then off to for a wander along the Marine Parade - Nathan was keen too check out the old canon. We were amazed at how many canon's there were positioned around this city - a hard concept to explain to Nathan how they are displayed proudly with sadness and rememberance, and not necessarily a "good" or exciting thing.

Then off to the Aquarium.

A wander back along the boardwalk to the town, into the sunken gardens and past the many sculptures, memorials and water fountains.

This morning we went and visited the area I grew up in and went past a reserve where back when I was between 4-8yrs old, all the neighbourhood kids would just hang out and go a wandering for the day - without a parent or adult in sight. Back then it was just farmland, nowadays it has lovely walks etc. The tradition of sliding down hills on cardboard boxes is still alive - and there were many strewn around to just pick up and have a go.

Then, finally off to lunch at my aunt's house before heading for home. Not my nicest shot with my tired eyes - depsite my kids (and consequently Simon and I) having a really good sleep last night - they shared a room together and got up at 6am and happily playing with all the motel's kitchen items for an hour before we decided to get up.

White carrots...

Some of these arrived in the vege box yesterday. I didn't click what they were until today (I just looked at them, figured they were a root vege (but not parsnips) and popped them in the fridge) and was mildly disappointed that we had no carrots arrive. So this morning as I was planning dinner (which was going to consist of roasted veges) I thought I'd take my chance with them and upon peeling and sniffing it realised it was a carrot. Tasted exactly the same and has the same texture. The kids even chomped into them without hesitation.

I have some different coloured carrot seeds I am looking forward to sowing shortly - there are purple, red, white and orange ones in there. They have many different nutritional properties due to the pigmentation - however, white ones lack any, so not sure of nutritional content of them.

(And this is when someone tells me that these aren't actually white carrots, but something else and just happen to look and taste like them!).

La la la la la....

That's me switching off my head for a few days and not thinking about serious things.

We're going away for the weekend - the first family getaway we've been on in over a year. It was a bit of a spontaneous decision and I've noticed myself over the years becoming more so.

Gonna have frivolous fun - shame it's not for longer, but Simon has only got a week left at his current job and we hadn't thought about taking a longer break prior to him applying for jobs and particularly one where we lose your typical weekend. Going to see: art deco architecture; marine life; beaches; botanical gardens; a wind turbine on the way; aunts, cousins and their children - so much to pack in, so little time.

Seedlings version 2

OK, so after my ill-fated attempt at planting out the last lot of seedlings that were struck by a late season frost I am now waiting patiently for the next lot to grow bigger. Yesterday I transplated them out of the seed mix into their own pots and have them on my porch which gets all day sun and then have been covering them over at night. No rush to get this lot out lol.

On a positive note though, my beans that I planted at the same time are thriving and growing taller and I actually didn't have all the seedlings killed off, and there are a few celery's and brocolli's that were ok.

Citrus!

Yum! I have been meaning to get some citrus trees in, so a few days back I bought a lemon and mandarin tree. The lemon has already been planted in my front yard (after watching carefully for the best placement for sun/shade/and not shading my herbs or square foot garden lol). Nathan proudly welcomed it by doing a wee at the base of it - just what lemon trees like hehe. I'm still in the process of trying to dig out some camellia trees that have regrown after Simon's half hearted attempt a few years back to get rid of them (two more ornamental plants that bite the dust in favour of edible), so I have been gradually digging away to get them out, but not much luck - think I need some of hubby's strength to pry it loose.

Further simplification...

Crap plastic toys...

Made in china...

Imported food...

The list goes on...

I randomly and sporadically yet frequently (is that even possible?) think about these *issues*. I might ponder for a few fleeting seconds or mull it over for a few minutes before finding it all too difficult to focus on for a length of time and move on until next time. Reading Sharon's blog tonight gave me more focus, even though I'd already spent time mulling over these very issues about 3 times today already!

I'm thinking it's time to come up with a plan! That little thing called guilt is creeping in as I learn more, and I see this guilt as the positive kind that then kicks me into action.

I have been gradually dropping food items off the grocery list that are coming from afar. We have completely done away with bananas, the kids haven't even asked about them - we were buying 6 bunches a fortnight! Quite large $$ savings to the bill too. I am still stuck with quite a few items from Australia (particularly gluten free), but I'm ok with that and have a few other items I need to work on.

This week I have bought less organic milk (very spendy as well) in a bid to cut our dairy consumption down, so will see how that goes.

As for the crap plastic toys - I see no point in ditching what is already in the house if the kids are playing with them still, but out goes the junk that is broken and no more is to enter! And to think that today, Nathan played with a length of wool and Danielle's tricycle for about an hour - tying it up, making knots, attaching things...

Made in China...this is SO hard! I was discussing with Simon about a few things we would like to get for the kids - ie a soccer/basketball. I wonder if there are any NZ manufacturers who make these? I am going to need to be patient in my search, instead of whipping down to the big red shed to grab the nearest ball I see. I recently bought some little positionable wooden dolls for Danielle and some wooden cuisenaire rods from the Playcentre shop without thinking, and yep! both made in China. So frustrating and so many habits of a lifetime that need challenging.

Unfortunately $$ do talk for us in this household when making purchases. But I am now going to be looking at the cuttings we are making in dairy products, meat and bananas as being an increase to our income and therefore gives us the ability to be more mindful in other areas as well - so it may well balance out!

The sound of silence...

(I am such a cliche user...)

This morning the kids and myself jumped in the car for an appointment a 1/2hr away. We hadn't left our town for ages (months!) so Nathan was just buzzing about all the things he saw - I had my ear yabbered off for 15mins solid (the trains, the forest, the oil tanker in front of us and it's ladder going up the back, the hill we went up, who lived in the direction we were driving, the South Island we could see over yonder, the ferry (and not fairy lol), our local island out in the sea - seriously, nothing new that we don't see everyday anyway!) and then it reduced to just intermittent discussion. But boy, was I worn out with the questions and *my* constant talking in response. I love that his little brain is so active, inquisitive, curious and intelligent and I'm constantly in awe at the speed that he's wanting to take it all in. Danielle my quieter child can sit quietly an entire trip (although, nothing to brag about since she has now been diagnosed with two glue ears hence the appointment).

So, after lunch and while Danielle was napping, we went down to the garden for a look at the seedlings. I picked up the fork and started to dig around below the trellised area and thought it might be a good spot for my beans that were still on my windowsill and absolutely bursting out of their seed mix.

The silence was just beautiful as I dug and dug - the only sounds I could hear were birds chirping and the chickens foraging and scratching - the day was *the* most beautiful winters day (if you could even call it that, it truely was spring-like) with no wind and gorgeous sun on my back, a chill in the air but not cold. There was even a moment in time when there were no neighbourhood dogs barking (ours included) and no aeroplanes flying overhead since we are on the flightpath for the local airport. The surrounding silence seemed to have a flow on effect for Nathan too. He wasn't talking, he was just busy climbing his tree, crushing clods of soil, picking buds off a branch that was sitting on the compost pile and just hanging out in companionable silence.

Bliss!

(And just coz I am trying to torture myself, the overnight low tonight is meant to be 7 degrees, however, I just popped out in Simon's car to get takeaways and his thermometer read 5 degrees).

First transplantings!

After my hard work yesterday transferring my seedlings out of their propagators into seedling containers I then decided today to just put them into the garden! It has seemed very "spring-like" in the past week or so and we haven't had a frost in a long time, so I decided to chance it (and have just checked the weather forecast to see an overnight low of 5 degrees, so we should be ok!).

Some of them looked robust enough (the corn), but the other wee seedlings were quite fragile still, so not too sure how they'll cope (brocolli, cabbage, celery, lettuce, spinach and silverbeet). I also plonked a zucchini into a not-planned compost heap near my square foot garden at the front of my house which looked nicely protected and has plenty of room to spread. A friend was talking of growing corn and pumpkins together the American way, so off I googled and found this. Fortunately, the plot which was reserved for corn still has a gap at the top after planting all my seedlings to make a mound out of and it will allow the pumpkins to creep and wind their way through the cornstalks.

Some of the corn seedlings had their plastic recycled milk containers around them (with tops and bottoms chopped off) which I have kept around them as protection for a few days. Will be interesting to see how these compare to those that I didn't have enough containers to put them in.

Flying by the seat of my pants...

It's the mode I feel I travel in at the moment with the whole gardening thing!

I've come to realise I'm a just-in-time learner. And I don't see that as a bad thing - well not for the majority of the time anyway.

I do know some who do consider it a reckless and risky approach for themselves and they would never do it.

The great thing about being a JITL is that I rarely suffer from procrastination due to the fact I don't get too stuck on a problem that I need to learn all there is before I launch into said project if there is no time to do that (and often choose not to read up heaps prior anyway in some cases - as in gardening). I feel motivated to learn what I want to know and then often trail off in a completely different direction to which I was heading, and if I'm still interested (or remember!) in the original reason for seeking information I return back to it. I keep on delving as much as I feel I need to or want to and stop when I've absorbed all I need at that time.

Now, with my garden - this completely applies. Before embarking on this project I had VERY limited knowledge about anything gardening. I created a tiny square foot garden last December and followed the instructions (on the day I wanted to make it!) and just did it. I didn't bother to learn anymore at that time.

So fast forward to March this year when I decided a large-scale garden was going to be our next project. I knew I wanted chickens and I knew I wanted to start planting in Spring - I had read one book The Permaculture Home Garden to get me inspired and gain a little all-round knowledge. So I had a bit of a wait till Spring, but it also gave me a deadline, and there was minimal preparation I could do in that time (considering my chickens were going to "do the weeding" for me). So basically I did nothing over winter until time started closing in and I needed to build the chicken coop, prepare my garden plan and studied up on how to get successional planting working for me. Then time approached (as per my plan) when I needed to buy my seeds and plant them out into seed trays. And now I've reached the point of transplanting the seedlings into the garden beds.

So, here I am! I know nothing beyond this point!

Some of the pitfalls of JITL:

- Sometimes I need to know the answer *right now* and I don't yet have the knowledge and need to put things on hold to learn about it or ask around for an answer

- Couple JITL with impulsiveness and I occasionally end up with making decisions with no knowledge and hence my flying by the seat of my pants...

- Stuff ups - 'nuff said

Will you be a survivalist or a preservationist?

More scary, depressing DVD watching going on here tonight. I received a DVD with 3 doco's on it from Robert (the guy mentioned in the previous post). We watched one written and presented by the late Dr David Lloyd called Interesting Times and he referred to the book Powerdown by Richard Heinberg who defines the difference between survivalists (those who just wish to survive the collapse, grab their guns, run for the hills and kill and gather what they can to get by) or preservationists (who form communities that wish to preserve as much of human culture as is possible in the event of collapse. These communities hope to provide useful knowledge and skills, as well as maintain and continue to form cooperatives with other such groups).

I struggle with the fear to not become a survivalist...this is where living in a like-minded community and educating as many people as we can, can only be a good thing. Preservationist all the way!

Interesting discussion nights!

I've been to my 3rd Friday night Ecovillage meeting. The last two evenings we've watched short documentaries on permaculture gardening presented by Bill Mollison (the man who coined the term permaculture) and one on making compost - using bins, open heaps and worm farms.

They have started to make tracks on the community garden with clearing weeds, mulching and building fences. The garden area is 20m x 20m. I haven't yet viewed the property as it is a bit much to be tripping back and forwards up there several times a week so will limit myself to just the information evening for now.

Next week we have a presentation by Robert of Oilcrash.com who is a part of our group. Robert is running for mayor with his main agenda being to get the word out there on peak oil.

Who would have thought...

...that I would lie awake at night worrying about my little girls down in the bottom of the garden? It was a rough and stormy night last night and I woke around 3am fretting that their roof had blown off their house and left them exposed to rain and wind.

So, a few hours later I finally fell back asleep and when I woke in the morning I asked Simon to go down and fix up their house (he had been slack and not finished the job and didn't prioritise it!).

They were fine though and the roof was still attached!

The house now has a nice big corrugated roof and all the plastic sides are reattached properly to stop any drafts. I went down this evening to feed them (Simon had forgotten - seeing the theme here??) after I got home around dusk and found them all snuggled up tightly in a row on the edge of the nesting box with their bums inside which would have provided them with a lovely insulation effect.

Gotta get me some more propagators

Well my egg containers were worth the try, but they've gone all soggy and disintegrating. Fortunately most of the seeds have sprouted, so I transferred one batch this afternoon (corn) into little pots, but masses more still need doing. Will get Simon to collect my stash from my parents house on his way home tonight from visiting a friend over that way so I can work on doing those tomorrow.

I will also get a few more propogators so I can rest assured that they will all do their thing as they should (I suspect I turned some of the corn sprouts upside down by mistake since there is no distinctive top at this time (both ends are sprouting, but no leaves yet - well not discernable to my inexperienced eye) - so hopefully they survive!

Well I've proven the crop rotation theory...

When I was outside earlier on I had another look at my brocolli's which are coming along nicely. However, it is becoming really apparent that two of them are trailing far behind the others. It was then I realised that when I planted them back in April I didn't take into account that I was putting them into a spot where I had brocolli's over summer! So the heads on those two are maybe a centimetre in diameter and the others are up to about 3cm in diameter and much healthier looking. Oh well, good to test these theories instead of believing everything you read eh (even if EVERY book says so...)??!!

My version of the herb spiral!

So I decided to not do the built up version and just plant for aesthetic purposes. I dug in some more compost the other day, laid out the pumice as a border. I've only managed to find 4 herbs to go in there at the moment, so will just buy them as I see them and add to the spiral.

I also planted some garlic in my raised bed too (which you can see on the front right hand side) - I was thinking it may have been too late in the season, but the taggy thing on it said it's ok to plant till the end of August.

Go for it girls!

I've been a bit uneasy about the chickens being cooped up all the time, so today after a bit of encouragement from Rose we decided to let the chooks out for a roam around while we were down there with them (don't trust the neighbours dog to not come through our shrubby/bushy area that isn't able to be easily fenced off).

It took them all of about 20secs to realise that that open door was for them to walk out of. The black one is always the bravest and she ventured out first with the other two right behind her. They kept to the area around the grapefruit tree and just took their time pecking away. We were careful not to spook them and lose them over the fence despite it being about 5 foot high - I've seen them easily jumping/flying 1 metre off the ground (what's with my mixing metrics with imperial measurements lol!) so wasn't sure that they couldn't go further if they wanted to.

After about 10mins, Nathan and I herded them back in without drama (they weren't going to be enticed in by any food I was going to offer them lol).

So, we'll let them out a few times a week from now on or whenever we're working down there (which is zilch at the moment).

New month, new plantings...

Well, I'm currently trialling my egg cartons as seed trays. Yesterday after consulting my homemade planting diary, I planted seeds into 3, dozen egg size cartons (wow, hope I got my grammar right on that sentence lol) which have lids to keep the moisture in as well as my propagator (two seeds per section). This is my first "big" month of growing with the hopes of them being ready for September planting. My diary differs from my original planting plan I worked out after poring over a several more books - I pulled together a few more ideas and worked out our vegetable needs for the next year and with the idea of spacing our planting out over the recommended planting period for each plant type. All up, I planted about 120 seeds, and that allows for a portion to "not take". I have a few more to do tomorrow since I realised I had the wrong season for a few of the packets I had chosen, so had to buy a few more today.

My seedlings in toilet tubes from last month are coming along well and I'm hoping the cardboard doesn't decompose before they get in the ground!

I have also laid out about 25 seed potatoes - nice and classy on my bedroom windowsill (well after all, I've got to keep the propagators and seedlings company which are sitting on my bedroom dresser and in my wardrobe...hehe.

This morning I turned the soil in my two vacated vege beds that the chickens have already worked on. Very cool! I was able to skim the remaining weed roots off the surface of the soil and as I turned it I saw heaps and heaps of lovely fat worms doing their business underneath! Very encouraging since I was started to fret that the soil quality might not be so good (although I had been reassured that the bountiful weeds growing down there is a good sign). It was so easy to dig (good that we'd had a bit of rain).

The heads on the brocolli's in my top garden are finally starting to grow! It's been a long slow 3mths, but they're speeding along now. And not a caterpillar in sight which is what destroyed my last lot over summer.