Chickens, Shower Paddles and Moonshine.

My husband and I enjoy a fine beverage or two and recently discovered that our favourite tipple *ahem - Bundy* rated poorly in the Ethical Shopping Guide. This was one of those situations where a little bit of information proved to be just the tip of the iceberg, and the more research we did, the more questions we ended up with.
A friend's husband stills his own spirits, and they kindly allowed us to 'sample' a (1.5litre) bottle of 30% alcohol (no names here, given the questionable ethics/legalities of this arrangement. I believe the long arm of the law may refer to this as 'bootlegging', and apparently this is frowned upon.) It looks like vodka, and the idea is that you add an essence of your choice to flavour it. It had such a clean, crisp taste, and was lovely with a bit of coconut essence mixed through it (like Malibu). We sampled that small amount over the weekend, and, having not quite decided whether to pursue stilling our own alcohol, came away from their place today with an 8 litre bucket full. I can now say I am quite convinced that buying a still will prove worthwhile. Dear Santa.......

Last night we were faced with the unpleasant task of killing one of our chickens. It had been looking unwell for a couple of days, and yesterday began hobbling unsteadily, and its rear end was caked in poo. We stunned it and killed it quickly, buried it and sprayed the yard and coop with vinegar. Today, one of the other chooks has been a bit wobbly and subdued, and didn't lay today, so I think this will be a task revisited sooner than we had hoped. This brings us from three layers down to one, and I am praying that whatever it is doesn't infect the Silky Bantams and ducks. I am now on the hunt for some more layers, as it has been so handy having our own supply of fresh eggs.

Yesterday we received our shower paddle in the mail, and Nath installed it easily last night. The idea is that once you have reached the right temperature, while you are 'soaping up', you hit the paddle and it cuts the water off to the faucet, and when you hit it again, it flows again at the same temperature as you had set it. This will save money and water, especially when the girls are showering, as it can require a gymnast with eight arms to get them both washed and shampooed. Not that they don't take water conservation seriously... Eden particularly can be obsessive about making sure EVERY drop of water makes it into the bucket....

Responsible Renting.....

One of the things that has been rolling around my head over the last couple of days is.... if I don't have my own house to make changes to in order to live more responsibly, then how can I make the most out of this lifestyle? How can I reduce my impact on the environment when I am restricted by my surroundings?

This was a really big factor in my disappointment about losing the house. I had so many plans and dreams, and it seems so difficult to implement some of them when we are living in a rental. We can't install solar panels, for example, or ceiling fans, and a water tank seemed out of reach too.

We are limited in the type of chicken run we can build, which limits the amount of chickens we can keep, which in turn limits the amount of eggs we can use to barter with. We already trade one dozen eggs every two weeks in exchange for another household's food scraps to upkeep them, as half our food scraps go to the chickens and ducks, and half go to the Bokashi composting system.

Yesterday, I had a hypnotherapy session. I came out of it with much more clarity and peace than I have felt in such a long time, and with an awareness that I was only limited by my own imagination. A significant proportion of Australian families rent, and sustainable living should not only be for the 'rich' or for homeowners. There has to be changes that every Australian family can make, regardless of their living situation.

So I got to thinking. I can still have a water tank... I can have an unplumbed one that services the garden, the chickens and provides drinking water.
I can still have fruit trees. I can buy dwarf versions and plant them in large pots.
I can still build a chicken coop... the materials for it can be shifted when we move house. (At the moment, our chickens and ducks are free range during the day and are closed into a smallish moveable coop at night to protect them from foxes... the coop is too small to keep them in all day.)
I can still live frugally, reduce my usage of energy and water, reduce my landfill garbage (this week, our half size wheelie bin was only one quarter full!!). I can still make sure I am living each day more responsibly than the last.

Some of our range of water collection containers and our Bokashi bucket

Our rudimentary vegie patch; carrots, lettuce, onions, peas, garlics, spinach, capsicum and cucumbers currently growing.

Our homemade chicken coop

Our duck family.... hours of entertainment and fantastic pest control

 Homemade tortillas... best I have ever tasted!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbs vegetable oil

1 cup lukewarm milk

Sift flour into bowl. Combine milk with salt and oil, whisking briefly to combine.

Slowly mix the milk mixture into the flour to form a sticky dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly for a couple of minutes. Leave to rest for 10 minutes covered by a damp teatowel.

Divide the dough into 8 equal sized balls. Cover and rest for another 20 minutes.

Roll the balls out very thinly on floured surface. Fry one at a time in a very hot pan sprayed lightly with oil. Turn after 20 seconds and cook other side. Keep warm and covered until finished; serve immediately.

May also be wrapped and frozen after cooking for up to a month. Thaw and reheat in foil in oven. (Nath and also fridge the dough once it has been rested both times to cook the next day... this works just as well.)

These are really yummy cooked on the BBQ :)

Big Changes, Little Steps

Some big changes have happened in our household over the last few weeks. Big changes that become the little steps our family is taking to reduce the impact we are having on the Earth. While they are undoubtedly the smallest of steps a family could take, they are exciting to us, because they are evidence of a shift in our thinking, and a commitment to the journey.

So, here they are:

• Making the switch to cloth nappies. Our oldest child, Miya, is toilet training and only wears nappies at night. Our youngest child, Eden, is two next month and only has about a year of full time nappy-wearing to go. We wondered if it was worth us switching to cloth at this late stage, but our hesitation was only financial, and Modern Cloth Nappies seem to only 'devalue' a few dollars when they are secondhand, so we have decided to go for it. We are buying mostly secondhand, and a few new ones from a local supplier (WAHM), and Eden loves picking which pretty nappy she will be wearing.
• Reducing our additive intake: This has involved learning to make a lot of the things we buy, at home. We now buy local, and where possible, organic fruit and veg, and have learned to make our own yoghurt, bread, tortillas, bacon, dried fruit, snacks, pasta sauces, pasta, self raising flour... next on the list are cheeses, beer and rum!!
• Collecting water from the sink, shower and laundry basin to use on the garden: we clearly have a long way to go in reducing our water usage. We fill a large watering can twice a day with 'wasted' water, which goes to show how much we use! I have invested in an 'Every Drop Shower Saver' which will significantly reduce our water wastage in the shower, but we need to work on the rest of the house!
• Reducing our landfill garbage: by buying bulk items, choosing products carefully based on the amount and type of packaging they use, purchasing sandwich wraps so we don't need to buy gladwrap, using cloth wipes on the girls' bums, making things at home, learning to sew (this is a work in progress!)

There are other little things we have done along the way also, but I guess these are the main ones. Every step we take, it does feel like our 'destination' is further away, but I keep telling myself that if I live each day more responsibly than the last, I'm heading in the right direction.