And while I'm still thinking frugal...

It was haircutting time again!

So far I have been able to give their hair a tidy up myself. I wonder how long they will let me do that for!?

Dear Husband on duty...

I would say this weekend was our first real heavy lot of rain we've had for months and months (and the leak in the roof reminded me of that...).

Hehe, go out for a few hours and this is what I arrived back to!

What a blast! They then went down to the beach for a romp around and puddle jumping...

Oh how times have changed!

I went out today for a few hours by myself - it's been a few weeks since I got out of the house without children with last weekend having been sick which is my usual chance to get out.

Once upon a time (not so long ago really), I would have spent this time browsing in clothes and shoe shops just for fun. Doesn't really seem that way to me anymore. I still like to look nice, but no longer have a desire to "shop". I do still like bookshops though!

I had been online this morning sussing out what new library books I was wanting and went off to stock up once Simon returned from work. So my new additions are:

How to Store Garden Produce: The key to self sufficiency
The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency
Creative Sustainable Gardening in New Zealand

I then went over to the garden shop and stocked up on *heaps* of seed packets! Nineteen to be exact. I noticed on the back of the packets that there is a dividing line on a map of NZ which indicates when the seeds can be planted - where I live is smack bang in the middle of the warm and cool zone - the guy in the shop said that we are classed as warm (which I suspected), so am pleased to hear that. Will mean longer growing periods for us!

A frugal dinner...or is it??

Back before we started to remove meat from our diet, before we started buying organic produce, and before embarking on a gluten free diet - this *was* my answer to a tasty frugal dinner!

I made it for dinner tonight, we haven't eaten it for a while (bar a few weeks back when I had my parents over for dinner) and I remembered how this used to be a staple number once a week. I actually stopped making it because Danielle isn't so keen on curry flavoured food - and she's still not, but the mash goes down well...

Curried Sausages!

But now...
The sausages cost twice the price gluten free
The produce is no longer cheap spuds, carrots and onions from the supermarket

And of course, having meat in the meal fullstop increases it's overall cost compared to some other protein/iron options out there (although if you bought the *really* cheap sausages as we did it would have been pretty close).

So, it's all relative really!

I find it interesting when reading message boards and the question "how much is your grocery budget?" is asked to get a frugal comparison. While it may be vaguely useful, it's not helpful when you have some who are vegetarian, others who only buy organic produce and others have specialty diets which require expensive alternatives. So while we shop frugally, sticking to the above changes, we still spend a lot more than other families of four who truely do/can stick to buying the cheapest. But I still consider us frugal buyers.

Also, because we buy a box of organic vegetables every week, I don't think of individual veges and their individual price per kilo - I just work it out as a daily $$ value we consume because we get the same volume every week and it costs the same regardless.

So anyone want a recipe for frugal *meat* meal?

6 sausages sliced (precooked are easily to handle)
1 onion chopped
1 carrot grated

Gravy
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon butter

Place meat and vegetables into a casserole dish. Mix up gravy and pour over and stir through. Cook in oven at 180 degrees for 45mins.

I like to serve this with a large serving of mashed vegetables. Tonights was a real medley of whatever was available (potato, kumura, cauli, kale, silverbeet, pumpkin, pumpkin), but just plain old potato is pretty good! I like to serve it in a pasta bowl with sausages at the bottom and the mash on top - it saves the mash from instantly turning to liquid.

On a cold and frosty morning...

Brrrr, it was a real frost this morning with minus 2 temp upon waking apparently. And boy did it feel like it. I could just feel the cold creeping in through our winter-weight woollen duvet with mohair rug on top. Fortunately with the cooler weather the kids have been sleeping in later and obviously are all snuggly warm with all their own various layers and hotties in their beds. (And no, we don't get snow here, so probably the coldest it will get).

We were off for a Farm Walk with our Playcentre (hopefully considered an unidentifying photo other people's kids). So wrapped up all warm with hats and jackets we set off. No wind and no rain - couldn't ask for more really!

Into the cafe afterwards for a nice hot coffee before heading over to check out the beehive at the honey shop and try not to get creeped out with the little things inside doing their thing!

Why have I only just discoverd microfibre??

So....people have been raving about this stuff for cleaning with for ages (I already use it as an absorbant pad in Danielle's nappies to boost it). I thought it was all a bit of hype and just another way to nab the consumer in...afterall, my vinegar and baking soda with a sponge did just fine thanks!

Well, it's fabulous! I bought myself a single cloth today and a floor mop with a washable mat made of microfibre. It was just as easy as I've heard, minimal elbow grease required and no cleaning product to remove grime and dirt (although I do still like my vinegar for disinfectant purposes where required). I ended up wiping down all the interior windows and removed that mid-winter mould that was starting to build up. It soaked up all the condensation that was STILL there at 2pm (I'm very slack at wiping it away, but thought was probably healthier for our home environment to be doing that - it's only just started to appear in the mornings with it being a bit cooler lately).

I then moved on and cleaned the window sills, skirting boards, grimy marks on the walls, laundry tub, washing machine...and then remembered that I was meant to have been vacuuming but got waylaid for an hour. And Pfffttt to the mess the kids were creating in Nathan's room the whole time!

So, now I think I just need a few more so they can be dotted around in convenient areas.

Planting plan

I thought I would put down my initial plan for what will be planted and when during spring and summer. Haven't got it all figured out yet, but first things first. I am able to stick with LW's Guild 1 planting guide (with just a few exclusions in the first garden bed as it will be too cold for planting still).

Guild 1 On Plan V2, this will start at the top large garden bed - chooks would have been on there for 2-3 wks prior to planting to prepare the soil. Planting of seedlings will happen early September (so a month later than the book's suggestion).

Pigeon Pea (a legume, something I have no idea about, so more research on that!)
Brocolli
Potato
Peas
Basil
Cabbage
Celery
Lettuce
Parsley
Silver beet
Beans
Beetroot
Carrots
Leeks
Spring onions

I will need to fill the gaps where tomatoes/capsicums/eggplants won't be able to be put in yet.

Guild 1 will then be planted into the next garden bed to the right once the chooks have been there for 2-3 wks - so around mid-September. I still will still not likely be able to plant tomatoes/capsicums/eggplants.

Guild 1 will then move on to the long garden bed at the very bottom of the plan and this time include tomatoes/capsicums/eggplants (tomatoes will also be planted in my front yard which is more of a sun trap) - these will be planted early October.

Kumara's can be planted in November.

Guild 2 then kicks in around early December when the top garden bed is ready for harvesting. So the vegetables coming out will gradually be replaced with the following (including crop rotation) over the next four or so weeks - as fast as they come out, new seedlings go in to avoid bare ground.

Pigeon pea
Chook fodder weeds
Mustard
Daikon radishes
Cress
Bok choy
Chickweed etc
Capsicum
Beetroot
Lettuce
Basil
Eggplant
Tomato
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Silver beet
Parsley
Beans
Spring onions

Guild 2 then moves onto the garden bed on the right around mid-December.

Sweetcorn will be planted in the long bed above the lowest one in November as well as the small bed next to the apple tree.

Moving on around the garden, hopefully the left side of my garden will have enough sun (in full shade at the moment) and we will be able to plant a modified Guild 2 which I have called Guild 2a. This will happen in January. Around the same time, the lowest long bed will be ready for harvesting and replacing with Guild 2a as well.

Beans
Cabbage
Cress & mustard
Lettuce
Spring onions
Radish
Silver beet
Beetroot
Brocolli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Leeks

Guild 4 - is the winter garden. I may actually put this up in my front yard in my existing square-foot garden as it gets good sunlight and is still sheltered and not likely to be affected by frosts.

Brocolli
Cabbage
Celery
Parsley
Lettuce
Silverbeet
Beetroot

Guild 5 - Zucchini, squash and cucumbers will be planted out of the garden beds in compost heaps to have as much space as they like to roam - October/November.

Guild 6 - Onions and carrots will be planted Sep/Oct and again in April/May out of of the garden bedsin compost heaps. Once harvested, it reverts back to compost.

This will take me through to Feb/March when I will need to come up with the replacement guilds for the top beds as well as where the corn will come out.

I would also like to put a Herb Spiral in on the front yard as it will be like a kitchen garden with easy access to the house.

Wish me luck!

Putting in my order...

Last night I was doing some permaculture reading and how to go about growing seedlings. I am needing to begin preparing myself (if only in the mind if not in the physical sense - still got to get my head completely around it) for growing these soon for planting out in Spring. I liked the book's suggestion for recycling 1 litre milk containers (plastic or cardboard) with the tops and bottoms chopped off and once the seeds have germinated in the seed tray, they can be transferred into the milk containers to finish growing. Once they have reached a good size for the garden, container and all can go into the hole and slid up a little provide wind/chill protection before removing after a few days once the plants are over the shock of going into a new environment.

So, I got on the phone this afternoon and spoke to my step-dad about saving me their containers (our milk is in those soft plastic roll up bags, so not as easy to work with).

A perfectly ordinary, yet perfect day!

So why is it some days seem such a struggle and others are just a breeze??

Today was one of the breezy days. It wasn't even action packed or full of things that usually keep them well entertained, but it just had such a nice even flow. I like what I read at a friends blog "we aim for a simple life, not a boring life". That rings so true for our family as well. Days do not need to constantly be full of action, or scheduled, or a constant stream of visitors. It's certainly nice to have a little of that and often it is in the form of visitors which we love. So while today perhaps had a bit more "media" than usual, it was nicely broken up.

It started off with a bit of TV for the kids as usual while I caught up on emails and ate breakfast. We all got dressed, then I cleaned and tidied the kitchen and put a load of washing on.

I asked Nathan if he wanted to write a letter to another wee boy who wanted to receive a letter and he'd get one in return - so we worked on his letter, popped it in an envelope for posting tomorrow.

By then the kids were ready for something more to do so we decided - since it's heading towards Thursday and "new vege box day" - to juice up some excess vegetables for a bit of an energy boost.

I realised the day was not going to get beyond 8 degrees, so we lit the fire, grabbed some books and spent some time reading. We all tidied up before Nathan wanted to watch a video while Danielle went off and played with her bubba while I prepared dinner with the odd visit from each of them now and again, then they played a bit together roughing around on the couch cushions which were piled up on the floor.

Since the fire was on, I cooked lunch on the cooktop. The kids decided to eat theirs as a picnic on the floor.

While Danielle was napping, Nathan and I set up a train track and added bridges made out of blocks. We then went and mixed up some bread for dinner and set it in front of the fire to rise. Nathan then wanted to have a little computer time which saw me deciding to start planning out what plants were going to go where in the garden when. So off to make a pot of fruit tea, settled on the floor in front of the fire and out came the permaculture book with LW's suggestions (Australian, and not entirely appropriate for my climate) and my trusty Yates book to get the best planting times for my environment. I think I have a pretty workable plan - hopefully! The lounge then got a good tidying up by us all, before more stories came out for reading in front of the fire.

Finally our nice hot leafy green (was going to be spinach, but there was also silverbeet and leek in there for using up) and potato soup and homemade bread was ready for consuming! We lit some candles for a bit of mid-winter feel-good.

Simon made it home early tonight by 5.30pm which is certainly a nice end to the day for me and means the kids get a good play session with him while he baths them.

Of course, we have perfect days which can be full on action packed, or any other combination. Yet, other days those same activities can also mean the end of the world...lol.

Back into life outside of our house tomorrow...

A common sight

This is what the end of my lounge looks like most evenings - winter and summer. In summer though they are just waiting for folding, in winter they are often waiting for drying - so with the fire behind them they get nice and dry overnight. The only issue being that they then put extra moisture into the house that needs drying off. Last night was not cold enough for a fire though, so they are still sitting in my lounge today, yet it is too windy outside and the racks will get blown over. I only wash nappies every 3 days (rack includes traditional flats, a few modern pocket nappies, and a heap of home-made boosters from old towels), but run a load of clothes and miscellaneous items most days.

I have rarely used the washing line since living in this house. It was positioned (recently taken down with the renovations to the backyard going on) in an awkward place inside the dogs run, so not easily accessable, nor to have the kids with me. I also much prefer the ease and adaptability of being able to pop the racks outside on sunny days and bring them in if it rains. I am able to move them to the front porch to catch the afternoon sun once the morning sun has moved off the back deck.

We don't own a dryer, so I have had to be keep on top of the washing or else we run out and have no dry clothes!

A quote I like..

Fear can paralyse, confuse, cause panic or become continuous energy-draining anxiety. Or it can stimulate, clarify, act as an agent for positive change, & become a constant source of energy & motivation.

I discovered this last night while googling permaculture gardening. With all the changes happening in the world and particularly climate change and peak oil - things can become a bit overwhelming and fear can set in. However, I have found by coming up with positive ways to plan and prepare it can become empowering. That is what inspired my blog - the positive things we can all do to help us be prepared and make the world a less scary place for ourselves and our children.

90% Emissions Reduction Project

I've been over at Anoushka's blog trying to figure out with her on where to progress with this - the project stared at Simple Living, and you will find out what it's all about including the rules. So, after gaining the conversions for the NZ equivalents based on the US figures, this is my own audit of where we are currently standing. It has taken me about 6mths of slowly implementing more earth friendly ideas to what I was already doing. I still have a way to go to meet some targets though. However, with car emissions being the #1 reduction that all of us can do that currently has the biggest impact - I am pleased that we are looking very good in that area. There was no family holiday in the past year though, so that has had a positive effect on that number - as far as week to week use, I have not been overly conscious of reducing aside from my carfree Tuesday (which sometimes is allocated to another day of the week) - we just happen to live in a small town that I rarely leave.

1- Petrol - Tricky, I haven't included Simon's work travel since his job is as a rep, but we do occasionally use his car in the weekends so will include that. 94% reduction.

2- Power - last year we used 6973 kW, so well over the 10% allocation which puts us at 63% reduction. We don't use heaters, don't use hot water in washing machine/dishwasher - I do suspect our old upright freezer is the culprit and am thinking of ways of reducing this. We have recently replaced our 50 yr old hot water cylinder so that could also have been adding unnecessarily to the issue. I have just started switching my hot water cylinder off every day for 16hrs of the day. Heating for 8hrs provides adequate hot water - so will be interesting to see the results of doing that.

3- Heating - wood allocation only - have included in petrol section as per their calculations - n/a

4- Rubbish - 98% reduction - I weighed ours in at 2.5kg rubbish per week (one plastic rubbish sack every fortnight), also all non-biodegradable, so non-methane producing.

5- Water - room for improvement! 82% reduction . At the moment I don't recycle any water. We do run our washing machine and dishwasher every day (188 litres + 18 litres) - when dd is no longer in nappies it will drop by 2 loads a week. Kids only bath a couple of times a week with a shallow bath, dh and I shower every day but it's a low flow (just did a test) and for 5mins max (if that). But it's things like rinsing dishes, hand washing, cooking water etc that I could be more resourceful with I suspect.

6- Consumer Goods - I went through my visa accounts for the past 6mths and just doubled it (since I've been more concious of all of this since the beginning of the year). We're still only at 68% reduction though. I have included things required for house maintenance, paint, home car maintenance, bed for Danielle etc - mind you figures also include 3 of our own birthdays in that time and I also had a big book buying binge... This one is tough even though I thought we were doing really well.

7- Food - No idea, but definitely not the best it could be. I am hoping by growing our own veges (and plan on providing almost 100% of our needs) that will eliminate our current vege box delivery. We have gone 50% vegetarian (still too much dairy in our diets to be anywhere near vegan) in the past 6mths, not a lot of locally produced items where I live, so there will always be significant food miles involved. I do limit packaging and processed where possible - I think I need to pick a single parameter to stick to reducing rather than a % on total food as I have no idea. I'm happy just focusing on growing produce at the moment and cutting back on one or two more meat meals. Also, gluten free items are often made in Aussie - hopefully all shipped rather than air freighted though!

Not a lot of action on the home front..

I have been so looking forward to this weekend to get into completing my chook coop - but sadly that has not been done yet. I ended up on bed rest due to asthma and a chest infection, so no hard work for me. I did sneak out this afternoon and couldn't resist cutting away some more of a nasty hedge from climbing up our apple tree, plum tree and a few other native plants. The thing is strangling all the trees along that fence line, so I slowly beavered away doing that instead. Simon managed to clear the section of all greenwaste and we now have an almost clean slate again. Anyway, I put my bed (couch) rest into good use by knocking out some numbers on a project that's featuring on many like-minded blogs and websites around the world...see next post.

Chicken coop next weekend!

Tentative plan - V2!

Well after re-reading a portion of the book, I have been back to the drawing board. LW suggests that 6 domes (each dome approx. 4m in diametre) will provide adequate food for a family of 4 all year around. So I wanted to maximise the use of our property a little better. I have now grouped the garden beds in groups of four where possible (except for the two long rows where there is a terraced area) which is very similar to the large size dome she discusses. I have ended up with almost 5 domes worth of coverage and a pretty good flow between the beds. The front yard of our house actually has a large area that can be used as well (I probably won't put the chooks up there - or maybe I could??).

The front will be used for sunflowers, tomatoes, all the herbs (herbs will also be companion planted in the lower section as well if needed) and grapes.

I am just a bit unsure how often to move the chooks since the plan would be to move them every 2 wks using 12 chooks for each dome size. I will only have 3 - hopefully they will still do the job and I will just need to move them more frequently to prepare the garden beds for planting into. I have decided to curve the edges of the beds when it comes time to planting into - both from an aesthetic angle as well as ease of picking.

So, here is the new plan - this afternoon I went down and measured out exactly where the fruit trees are (and was kind of pleased to see that my guestimates were only out by about 1/2 a metre, so minimal tweaking required).

Suggestions welcome!

Outdoor adventures...

So...my kids have been conditioned to not having their own backyard to roam in until now. We've noticed that it's taken a couple of weekends for both of them to realise that this wonderful outdoors is *theirs* to do as they wish in. Instead of the first weekend saying "dad, come and watch me climb the tree", "dad, come and watch me as I ride my bike down the drive", "mum, come and throw the ball to me". It was relentless. Then I realised that they didn't really know how to relax in that sort of environment, nor play, explore, have adventures, use the space...

However, it's been interesting to note that the past few weeks, both kids have found their own little niche within our backyard and what it has to offer - last weekend we provided suggestions, this weekend they had their own and the fun and adventure just happened.

Danielle is still keen as on playing in the wheelbarrow (throw and blanket over the top and she's loving her little playhouse with nothing inside except herself) = 1 hour of fun!

Nathan was trying out all sorts of skills today. There is a hole in the backyard where the dog used to dig which had a bunch of bamboo positioned across it waiting to be used - he decided it made quite a cool bridge, so took a bit of experimenting to get across without falling into the hole and between the slats = 20 mins of fun (and no, the bike didn't seem to cross over despite trying); Simon discovered a huge worm in a hole he was digging, so the kids checked out the worm = 10 mins of fun; Nathan found an old ball in the bushes = 5 mins of fun till it fell to bit coz the plastic was brittle; Nathan standing up on the deck seeing how far he could throw his gumboots off = 10 mins of fun until they landed in the dogs run (again!) and I refused to retrieve them one more time; Nathan helping me attach the cable ties onto the chook coop = 5 mins of fun; Nathan climbing a tree - 2 mins of fun; going for a wee at the top of the retaining wall and seeing how far he can make his wee go = 20 secs of fun.

Now, to see how long it will take them to venture off down to the garden by themselves without us being there right beside them!

Bamboo & chook coops!

We had a large clump of bamboo growing in a portion of our section and last weekend I chopped it all down to use in making part of the fence (and will save the rest for later use). It has worked out quite well and made a really nice looking frame to attach my brushwood screens onto. Then I decided that it might be a good for building my chook coop and would therefore be able to get a larger size coop (instead of needing to move it twice to get the coverage I wanted for each garden bed) with it being lightweight enough to move around easily. So, I made the framework today (2m x 2m x 1m high) and lashed it all together using twine and cable ties. I have been off doing some googling and found it confirmed bamboo to be a useful material in construction (probably should have googled *before* building it), so here's hoping it stands up to the test of time (and that the chooks don't decide to gnaw away at it!). Simon is still to attach little crossbars at each corner to stabilise it more and then it can have the chicken wire and tarpaulin attached. Now to find me some chooks!

The Simpler Way

Another link. I have had this link in my favourites for a few weeks, and decided to check it out tonight and read a couple of the documents. This one on an Alternative and Sustainable Society,it helps paint the picture for the way life could be in the future and How Cheaply we could Live, very similar to the previous article but with a focus on reducing resources and dollars. Both are inspirational, not a perfect plan, and obviously will take a lot of time and effort to get things into this state, but a worthwhile read.

A tentative plan...

Well I drafted myself up a plan of the garden-to-be this afternoon. We have decided to not do Linda Woodrow's chook dome and go with a recycled materials rectangle coop. After pricing up an estimate of materials and from reading and hearing about how long they last we weren't so keen on going down that road just yet. So, our coop will probably be 1.2m wide and 2m long - that way it will be moveable, a good size for the 3 bantams and we'll just need to move it adjacent to itself to get a good sized square to plant into (of similar size to LW's dome). Here's my first draft of how I thought we might position the plant beds. Each bed will be 2.4mx2m and we end up with the same coverage as the book suggests. I'm sure there is room for improvement with this plan, so am off to re-read the book and see what I'm missing.

An easy way to save a bit more power...

Yeah, I'm sure we're all on wagon for saving as much electricity as possible. But there is one thing that while I had previously read of it, I hadn't really paid it much attention. After reading over at Melanie's blog yesterday, I thought I would take up her kettle challenge. We are shockers for filling the kettle right up, boiling then continuing to do that every time despite only needing to draw off about 500ml out of the 2L kettle. So, from now, we are only going to be boiling what we require - and it's *so* much faster!

A family portrait

Back into that jungle out there...

We spent the weekend doing outside work. Last weekend we made a Taranaki gate to close off our 'new' backyard from our driveway so Danielle didn't disappear off up onto the road. So it's meant much more freedom for us to get on and work outside. Layered up we were as a cold Southerly came through and we got down to business.

We wanted to concentrate on moving the dog's electric fence over and out towards the boundary line to make more room on the upper grassed level area for the kids to hang out and then needed to build a fence/screen across to protect the kids from touching the electric fence (rest of the property isn't fenced hence the electric fence).

While Simon was working on the dog's fence, making a gate out of recycled materials left over from dismantling an archway and digging holes for posts, I decided to use some of our bamboo to make the screens. Nathan was my keen helper while I snipped and chopped the entire lot down (and have the calluses to show for it). Danielle wasn't too sure of her purpose, and was wandering around grizzling in the cold so we popped her in the wheelbarrow and she happily played in there for an hour and snuggled right down into it I thought she was going to fall asleep.

So, by end of weekend we have masses of green waste to take away (way too much for us to do much with unfortunately), we've still got the screens to complete (I even got to try out some lashing skills with bailing twine to attach the bamboo sticks together) and then the kids are free to roam their new backyard when we move onto the other outdoor projects in the coming months.

Then up into the house for a nice hot soup and toast for dinner!

A wealth of information

I have chanced upon this site many times while googling away for self-sufficiency type information. You can search within their site for anything from making your own composting toilet to making an earth oven to making apple cider vinegar and so much more.

Practical....and enjoyable too!

I'm learning to crochet. My first project was a skinny scarf using a few simple stitches which I made during the week. But, I don't really need scarfs and I wasn't really too sure what else to make.

I was at one of the local op shops yesterday having a browse while out running errands and found a few bags of lovely wool which I nabbed up super cheap. The only thing I could think of that wasn't too big, yet practical was to try my hand at making socks. So I found a free online pattern and I'm in the process of completing the ribbing of the first one. I'm really not sure exactly what I'm doing, but it's looking pretty good so far.

Watch this space!

A hot cuppa!

Gotta get me one of these!

We finally got around to lighting our fire tonight around 5pm. I'm sure if it had been a rainy day we would have lit it sooner if we'd been in the house. But as it was, the day was quite fine despite the bitter Southerly that was in the air, so there was a birthday party to go to in the morning and then outdoor work to catch up on until dinner time.

This evening I decided to find out how long it would take a pot of water to boil on the cooktop of our fire. I put about a litre of cold water in the pot with lid on and it took around 15mins to bring it to a hard boil, so not too bad I don't think. So we've made several hot drinks on that tonight and plan on doing so from now on, on evenings that it's going (including cooking anything else I can if the day is cold enough for the fire to be lit earlier in the day). I just need to find a vessel that pours and one that might conduct heat better than my good stainless steel pots.

Creating community

We have lived in this part of town for 4.5yrs and have not become actively involved in anything community minded, nor even gotten to know our neighbours much beyond a "hello" across the fence. It has been playing on my mind that this is an important aspect that we really need to to begin focusing and building on.

So, to my surprise (and delight), there was a flyer in my letterbox yesterday (the deliverer obviously bypassed the "no junkmail" sign - and yay for them lol). Anyhow, there was a community newsletter in there. There is a small residents group that run a committee that organise upgrades to local equipment, tennis courts, skate ramps for the kids, planting tree days at a local reserve, organise annual arts trails etc. I have seen this newsletter previously but not paid it much attention, so it was very timely considering I had just re-read the 100 Things list yesterday and felt like we were not in a position to complete any of the community minded points on the list and was unsure on where to start.

So! Today I filled out the membership form and sent away my small fee to become a part of this group.

It's a start.

Officially winter....and resisting the urge...

...to light the fire!


(a borrowed photo, we don't have an open fire - ours is an efficient eco-woodbox style).

I really want to get in the habit of layering up before taking the easy option of starting a fire. It's not all *that* cold just yet, but it's kind of in between, and when you get a day like today which has turned a bit blustery and drizzly there is something about a hot fire roaring in the corner of the room that warms the heart and spirit. I've just put a jumper on over my long sleeve t-shirt (so, it isn't that cold if it's taken me till almost 3pm to put one on). In the evening, Simon and I often look like grandma and grandpa with a blanket each to keep us warm while watching TV or at the computer. We have had maybe 1/2 dozen fires during autumn, so we'll see how long we last without without freezing our butts unnecessarily.