By July 2012 I was writing about letting the hem down here.

Now it has been handed down to Izz and the hem taken back up.

A few weeks ago I took Miss O to Spotlight and chose the fabric for a new dressing gown.  It is red with black and white dogs on it.  She gave the princess, fairy and other girly fabric a glance but this is the one that caught her eye.  The fact that we have a Border Collie (black and white) may have influenced her choice.

Once again, I have put a large hem on the gown and it is still quite long so I expect this one will easily last a couple of years.

Something as simple as a hem that can be let down is not an option on a ready-made garment but by making clothes you can customise them to suit your needs and generally extend their usefulness.

It can be a day of celebration, perhaps with your mother, your children or both.

It is also a day of reflection.  Time to think of those who cannot be with their mother.  This may be due to death, distance or estrangement.  Special thoughts for those who have outlived a child, suffered miscarriages or stillbirths or made the difficult choice to place their child for adoption.  Finally, but by no means least  are those who have been unable to conceive – much love and hugs.

I was so blessed to spend the afternoon with my mother, daughter and two grand-daughters.  Times like this are to be cherished.

Thoughts for some of the special women in my life for whom this is a bittersweet day (in no particular order) – Pat, Tania, Suzanne, Cath, Patty and Susan.  Thinking of you all.

It really is a day for the sisterhood to reach out and care for all women – whatever their role – mothers, daughters, grandmothers, would-be mothers.

Several things have prompted me to consider where we are headed as a society and my conclusion was that greed was the source of many if not most of our ‘problems’.  It was then that I remembered the saying and I guess greed and love of money are essentially the same thing.

It seems that we all want something for nothing – best paying job, cheap food, appliances/gadgets, accommodation.  We want to earn the most and pay the least.  We do not seem to value the effort in producing quality – hand -raised meat, organic food, quality garments and so on.

I started writing this post about a month ago.  Since then we have seen a factory collapse in Bangladesh with significant loss of life.  I was searching for information about that incident and found this article which shows that this event is far from being an isolated incident.

The recriminations and blame game go on between government, building owners and the corporations who outsource the manufacture of their garments.  Do you feel even a tiny pang of guilt about buying products that are made under these conditions?  Some say that if we did not buy the items produced in places like China and Bangladesh that these people would not have jobs.  Perhaps it would be better for them to have an economy based on sustainable practices that will enhance their way of life rather than being exploited in sweatshop conditions for the sake of us being able to buy a t-shirt for $5.

How do you reconcile what you buy with where it is manufactured and what the ‘real cost’ of it is?

I did some Christmas shopping yesterday.  Belle and I had previously discussed the possibility of taking the girls to see ‘The Lion King’ when it comes to Sydney at the end of the year.

I received an email advising of the pre-sale release of tickets for ‘The Lion King’ so I have bought tickets to the show for Miss O and Izz for Christmas.  Belle and I will take them to Sydney to see the matinee session on New Year’s Day.

By being organised I was able to take advantage of the pre-sale offer and have managed to get excellent seats at reasonable prices.

This is a perfect solution as we will not see the children on Christmas Day this year, nor do they need any more ‘stuff’.  Experiences such as attending live theatre and musicals provide so much joy and the benefits are immeasurable.   Miss O is still talking about when she saw ‘Mary Poppins’ 18 months ago.  How many toys have that sort of longevity?

While I collect my thoughts to write a relevant blog post I thought you might like to see this blog post from another local resident.  I do not know the writer, although the article did appear in one of our local weekly publications (yes, we have 2) last week.  I do not necessarily agree with everything on her blog or even in the particular post that I have linked but she makes a number of very valid points.  It is the overwhelming sense of community which drew us here and makes us want to stay here long-term.

Now I had better go and reply to all the comments you have left over the past few days.  Thank you.

I work full-time and have a lengthy commute, so during the week it is usually all I can manage to prepare and eat dinner and make our packed lunches.  Sometimes I do the ironing but that is about the limit.

The Duke and I are the only ones at home and many things have been simplified and streamlined.

I woke at 5.30am so I quickly hopped up and put a load of washing on.  I am trying to be more diligent about using power before sunrise and after sunset.  This means we maximise the benefit of the solar panels by exporting to the grid at 50c/kWh and using it (at night) for 28c/kWh.

Once the washing was on I crawled back into bed and read my book for an hour.  Then it was time to be up and going.

Breakfast eaten, dishes done and washing hung out.  The Duke put a loaf of bread on to bake in the breadmaker.  The bed stripped and remade.  A second load of washing sorted and ready to wash this evening.  Handwashing done.

Floors swept, vanity and mirror cleaned.  While I am doing these jobs, The Duke is sorting out finances and adjusting the budget.

That is enough housework for the day so it is time to head outdoors on this gorgeous autumn day to work on some of our projects.  It is not quite 9am.

At least one of the chickens has been doing a fine imitation of Houdini recently so we need to make some repairs to the chicken run to make sure they are contained.  We use some tent pegs to anchor some of the wire to the ground so hopefully that problem is sorted.

In January The Duke and my brother-in-law replaced a large portion of our front boundary fence.  We also put new wire along the front of the house below the verandah.  This was not finished off and tensioned and it has been a source of much debate as to exactly how we would do it.  A few weeks ago, The Duke painted some timber which he attached to the metal posts at each end so that we could secure the wire.  Today we tensioned the wire and attached it to the posts.

Time for a break and lunch.

We also needed to find a solution to securing from the end of the wire to the wall of the workshop and had decided that we would construct a concrete block wall and then top it with a piece of timber lattice.

The Duke painted the lattice last weekend.  We had also poured the first part of the concrete footing for the block wall.

Today we laid the first few blocks.  It is quite a challenge working in a confined space so we will be very glad when it is done.  We are certainly not giving up our day jobs but I am very happy with what we have achieved so far.  Once the wall is built to level at the left-hand end in the photo, we will place the lattice on top of the wall and secure it at both ends.

Even though almost everything we have constructed recently has come from second-hand or salvaged materials I am mindful that I do to not want it looking like Steptoe & Son.

I have been working on the design and plans for our vegetable garden fencing and a new chicken run adjacent to the garden.  This afternoon we marked out the position of the corner posts and discussed the location of the hen house.  We also checked how many posts we already have and it looks as though we will only have to buy a few more.  These are mostly the longer ones which we need for the higher fencing around the chicken run.

Once the sun had set I put on the load of washing I sorted this morning.  Then it was time for a shower, prepare dinner and watch Gardening Australia (my inspiration).  I checked the solar inverter – the panels generated 19kWh today.  That is pretty good when it is only a little over 6 weeks until the shortest day of the year.

Dinner was eaten, washing hung out and the final load put in the machine.

The last load of washing is finished and once I finish this post I will hang it out.  I use the clothesline under the verandah so it is safe and easy to access at night.

It has been a full and productive day.  I am happily exhausted and will enjoy a good night’s sleep.

I hope you had a good day and I am looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow.

I must say that a do feel like a bit of a fraud as there does not seem be anything slow about our lives.

Here are the Slow Living categories:

{Nourish}  We have continued to be very diligent with making our packed lunches every day.  It is now 9 months since I changed my diet to one which is gluten and mostly grain free.  I am feeling much better and as an added bonus have lost 8kg.  My main focus has been ensuring that we do not waste any food.  This makes for some interesting but nourishing meals.  This was made from some leftover bits in the fridge last week.  You can read more about it here

{Green}  We are starting to reap the benefits of SAM – our Solar Air Modules.  It is essentially solar airconditioning and we are using it to very effectively keep the bathroom and bedroom warm and dry.  I can reduce the humidity from 90% to 65% in the matter of a few hours.  You can read more about it here

{Grow}  It is well into autumn but I have still been picking cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

{Create}  We have made 2 more raised garden beds.

{Discover}  I have made a start on putting all of the family history research into a computer program and getting rid of a pile of paper in the process.  I am discovering new facts and remembering some previous discoveries as I do it.

{Enhance}  I have gifted 2 pairs of boots via Freecycle.

{Enjoy}  I have celebrated my birthday, met a friend for lunch and spent a morning with another friend – morning tea and then window shopping.

Now I am off to check out some of the other slow living blogs.

Til next month………..

If the above definition is applied then my cherry tomato plants are definitely weeds.  They are not particularly pretty, grow in places where I do not want them and generally get in the way.  I am forever pulling the seedlings out of the ‘formal’ vegetable beds and The Duke must mow over thousands of them in the lawn.

However, we usually have a few that we leave to their own devices in areas where they are not causing harm.  There is one plant which has been growing and bearing fruit for several months on the far side of the driveway in ‘no man’s land’.  It has spread over a heap of mulch and has intertwined with thistles.  I had not picked any fruit for about 6 weeks so I braved the thistles yesterday and was surprised to find all of these fruit just waiting for me.

There was about 3.5kg of fresh, full-flavoured cherry tomatoes.  I have cleaned, rinsed and frozen 3kg of them in readiness to make more tomato sauce.  I hope to do that next weekend.  The remainder are spread on a tray to ripen fully and then they will grace the last of our summer salads.

Plants that are self-sown which survive and thrive will be good as they have passed the ‘survival of the fittest ‘ test.  Perhaps that is why we have such success with the cherry tomatoes.  Other self-sown plants which provide use with food include pumpkins and cucumbers.

Do you harvest from any fruit or vegetable plants which just appear in your garden?

Once I disturbed the ground, I was surrounded by the chickens who were eager to feast on the grubs and other insects which were lurking under the wood.  They had a wonderful time turning over the soil and looking for tasty morsels.

This weekend we have built 2 more raised garden beds.  One of them is lined with heavy cardboard that I had been saving.  Then we piled in a thick layer of dry leaf litter followed by some lawn clippings.  We will add more soil, compost and probably some mushroom compost which we will buy locally.  These 3 garden beds have been constructed entirely from leftover and salvaged materials.

I started to think about how we manage to use and recycle much of what is generated on our property.

The wood is from tree limbs that have fallen or been lopped on our block.  These will be used to heat our home.  The resulting ash is added to the garden beds, either directly or via the compost.  Any charcoal is saved in a jar of kerosene to use as firelighters.  We grow fruit and vegetables.  The chickens provide us with eggs.  The scraps and peels are fed to the chickens.  The chicken manure is added to the garden beds.  Leaf litter and lawn clippings are added to the compost.

It is all part of a never-ending cycle.

Today, however, I was at home so was not constrained by what I could pack.  At lunchtime I looked in the fridge and pantry and found an assortment of leftover ingredients just begging to be used.

There was a small amount of mashed sweet potato from last night as well as some refried beans, 1/2 can of crushed tomatoes, an opened packet of corn chips.  As part of my planned gourmet delight I also have some yoghurt, cheese, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

In the interest of minimising the washing up I decided to use the glass dish that the sweet potato was in.  I spread it evenly over the dish, spooned a layer of tomatoes over it, then added the refried beans and the seeds.

I topped it with corn chips and grated cheese and browned in under the griller.

This made enough for 2 serves so I will be having the same again tomorrow.

Served with a dollop of natural yoghurt this was a quick and easy meal which used up a couple of things that could easily have been wasted.