How to convert a washing machine into a water powered generator - enough...

I haven't had many interesting things to share lately but, you might be interested in some of the ideas my brother has posted on u tube. He has a knack for making really use full stuff from things you would find at your local recycle centre. He's an accidental environmentalist, some of his creations fit really well with a save the planet philosophy. Check it out!

Recent Holidays

My kids had a lovely midwinter school break.
Skatey boy probably had the holiday of a lifetime skiing in Wanaka with two school friends and then had some time on a farm in Christchurch. My friends generously gifted him the holiday, and he worked for a couple of days as a builder's apprentice to contribute to the costs. I'm very proud of him, the feedback I got from the family he stayed with was very complimentary.
While he was away it snowed in Motueka for the first time (my Uncle said ) since 1977! And I missed it too, as I was away with friends. The small kids made a big pile of snow on the trampoline and lit candles with Granny during the power cut, very exciting!Then we all got to enjoy the snow as a family at Rainbow ski field last weekend. The little kids took to skiing like ducks to water and Skatey showed me his newly acquired skills.
I went to ski school, but I was a bad student!

Allies

My plant allies this spring are the perennial herbs.

The strong potent roots revealing and releasing their energy,

Full of promise after the cold and darkness inward,

stored potential,

restored,

anchored strongly,

bursting forth into sunshine and warmth.

This spring movement feels very significant to me in this season.

Sea views

We've built ourselves a place by the sea before

This time we've settled for the beautiful local sandspit.

Seems to be a lovely quiet neighbourhood.
We settled on a "doer upper". Skatey supervised the other kids into a workforce to make his dwelling windproof.

PJ planned future improvements, and collected a bag full of rubbish off the beach.

A beautiful relaxing warm winter day.

The Sand spit is a special place for the amazing migratory Bar- Tailed Godwits and

the Motueka Arts council have organised an event this year to celebrate the godwits return.

We recommend this as a beautiful local spot to visit. Please leave only footprints though.

Think, Today.

Do you? Like me, need a reminder every so often. Please look and do something thought full today.
Thanks Johanna for the reminder.

Food supply

Time for a little seed saving.
Recently I have ventured back into the garden after a summer of mostly neglect. I'm hearing that alot of people have had that kind of season. It's been our season to nurture ourselves as a family, with trips to the beach, bike rides and making efforts to spend time with extended family . Natural disasters around the world however are making me mindful that we should never take things for granted, especially our food supply.

So with that thought in mind I'm back to the soil with renewed enthusiasm. I have some seedlings started and am busy clearing swathes of weeds which are going to seed in order to make way for the winter food crops. We'll have leeks, broccoli, celery, spinach, lettuce and cabbage fresh from the garden this winter if the season is favorable. I'm sure it's not too late to get all these seedlings into the garden. As well I'm planting peas, they survive quite well overwinter if they are a couple of inches high and it gives them a good little head start in spring. There are broad beans too, not my favorite vegetable, but they have planted themselves dropping out of their dried pods where I left the plants standing since the spring. There are millions of parsnips self seeded too, if only I could grow carrots as well as I grow parsnip. Coriander,radishes, nettle and chickweed are popping up everywhere so I guess it's not so bad to neglect the garden for a season. If I keep my eyes open and clear up carefully we'll have a good selection of nourishing food for the cold months.

My Skatey boy is initiating his own learning in the area of survival by finding role models to take him pig hunting and hopefully duck shooting soon. He experienced his first real pig hunt and kill last week so if push comes to shove we'll be right for meat too.

Just quietly though , I hope he goes for deer as well because I'm not very partial to wild pork.

Using Rotten eggs

So it goes along with hatching eggs that a few may not hatch for one reason or another. The kids now view these as quite a treat, we collect them ever so carefully so as not to crack them and get covered in the stench of rotten egg, and go for an evening stroll down to a small stream nearby.

We had a "real" farm kid staying with us this week and he certainly showed us what separates the farm kids from the townies.

You can just see the farm kid in the stream, while a former farmers daughter sits on the bank wishing she still jumped in streams, climbed trees and chased other kids with weta's and hu hu grubs.

We waited and watched for eels coming upstream attracted by the smell of the eggs, while he just waded on in bare toes only covered by orange "crocks" and broke the couple of eggs that hadn't exploded when they hit the water. Though instead of high -tailing it out of the water quickly, he stayed in to look for koura or fresh water crayfish. It was nice to see that our stream is so healthy with wildlife, he found 5 in a matter of minutes. He also informed me their Maori name was "koura" as in "Kaikoura" on the South Island East coast, renowned for it's lovely sea crayfish and whale watching. We spied about 3 eels (in Maori tuna )make their way upstream to our eggs, but they weren't as big as the ones we saw last summer. We also discussed the New Zealand place names we know which include the words Kai (food) Koura (crayfish) and tuna (eel) and came up with quite a few from the areas we had lived and visited. These give a good clue to the history of an area. We deciphered another Maori place name we know. The road where we live translates to: dog oven!! So we speculated that probably this area may have been known in olden times for eating dog. For the boys especially our evening excursion in cooperated some great lessons that they just wouldn't get if traditionally stuck in a classroom to learn local history and ecology. Parents, never underestimate the value of family life and what kids can learn by"living"

We all came home glad to have taken the time to do it.

"Stuck to the computer boy" formally know as the "teen" sadly didn't join us.

Though at least I could also refer to him as "passed NCEA, stuck to the computer boy". Exam results came through yesterday.

Or to be specific, I should describe as: "often grouchy with mother, doesn't want to work, obsessed with a nice girl, talks to her online, thankfully passed NCEA, stuck to the computer, teen, lovely,boy"

Time out

I've realised that techniques I learned for observing children at Playcentre, come automatically

now and help me with interpreting what my own children need. "Notice, Recognise, Respond" is the little phrase that runs though my head.

The other day I noticed one of my children seemed upset. Recently I have learned myself that a change of scene, especially a walk to get the blood pumping can really help put things in perspective. I had no trouble convincing the other three adventurers to come. A lovely walk to a lookout through the beech trees cliff side and over to the next beach for a play, where the first thing we saw was a perfect tree for climbing. Of course once skatey jumped out of it the others wanted to as well. This is probably why I end up at the hospital with kids with broken bones. Thankfully not this time. Off to the store for an ice block and a cheered up car load of kids on the way home.

Golden sand

Freezing cold nights needing hot water bottles and extra woollen blankets are heralding gorgeous late autumn days, perfect for playing at our region's beautiful beaches. (Who wants to stay home and do housework anyway?)
So on the weekend we packed a picnic and some beach toys and headed off to Kaiteriteri, which during the summer months turns into a township of tourists. The locals make themselves scarce

preferring the quieter spots, with the exception of the teenagers who enjoy the beach scene. I love it in it's winter glory, pretty shells, golden sand, subtle colours and not too many footprints.

Skatey boy, always in search of adventure rode his unicycle to the top of the lookout, did a few "watch me" stunts and raced back to join the littlies making castles and channels.

I enjoyed the tranquility. I loved watching this young black shag dip and dive then warm up under the skull rock. I stretched out and soaked up the rays too after I did a few rows of knitting of course.

Never a dull moment

Oh you'd think a quiet life in the country with a garden, a few kids, pets and no bad habits would be a pretty quiet one, but something always pops up to keep me on my toes. Friday night the teen and his lovely but becoming delinquent friend conned me into taking them to a party. I was the reluctant parent wishing I'd raised a goody goody Mama's boy who just wanted to stay home and study. No such luck, he wants to party, with girls and alcohol and other kids who's habits I don't fully trust. Anyway while I was still working on the "in the car lecture" in my head, the house carried on around me. Skatey had a friend over, they were jumping their unicycles. No worries. L was home from work and surveying the concrete floor of the shed. No worries. Teenage boys doing their hair. No worries.? PJ and Red balancing on the timber, no worries right? Well no. PJ allegedly pushed Red who landed on a bar with his arm under him and PJ landed on top just for fun! RIGHT! Now I'm frazzled. Crying, Yelling, nagging and indecision ensued. L"s fatherly instinct said "he's alright, take teen to the party". My motherly instinct knew that the cry when the arm moved meant it was likely broken even if he could move his fingers. L, disinterested in doing the party run went outside to talk to the neighbour!!!! I did the party run and the lecture, oh and did I forget to mention that I rang the party hosts parents to make sure the supervision was going to be up to scratch. Apparently this is the highest form of uncoolness I could have possibly displayed. Go me, uncool rulz! So to cut another long yarn short, I got home issued bedtime orders and drove 50kms to A and E where red and I cuddled for 3 hours waiting for our turn. 1 fractured arm x ray ed and in plaster later, I got home just after 1am. A catch up on sleep weekend followed. The teen appeared to make it though the party without any damage except for his reputation which I damaged but ringing the folks. he he he.

We had a mini Earth hour. I hired "an inconvenient truth" in anticipation of lots of moaning from the biggest member of the family and we lit our candles and watched it. Hopefully I sowed a seed. Skatey and Red enjoyed the candles. PJ spent the rest of the weekend with the neighbour which was probably just as well because my temper may have been a little short for a pushy little miss.

PS, a friend mentioned trouble when posting comments to my blog. Is anyone else having trouble? Got time to email and let me know?

8.30-9.30 Saturday 28

Last night Skatey boy asked me "what are we doing for Earth hour?" embarrassingly I hadn't given it much thought. I did think about it today though and it's a great opportunity to do family stuff. Stories and games by candlelight is our plan. I wish I had a wood coal range to cook dinner on as well, but instead I'm going to let the kids come up with some other earth friendly family activities to do throughout the weekend. What inspiring activities do you have planned?

Foraging

When L and I met we lived in a house bus for several years so didn't have a garden of our own. I grew herbs in planter boxes of course but we over came the lack of a garden by doing alot of foraging for food and firewood. There are still several spots I visit where I know good fruit and nut trees are growing wild. I usually say to L at this time of year "better go and check if my peach tree is ripe" and he knows exactly where I mean. I also have several walnuts to call on, along with mushroom circles, rose hip bushes, elderberries, wilding plums, apples and pears as well. A couple of years ago I found, with a little help of a friend where some hazel nuts are. The jewel in the crown though is the pine nut tree I think. My brother and I visited there last week filling our pockets with the little treasures.The kids will have to do some cracking for me so I can make a fresh batch of pesto with local ingredients. Both my brother and I have saved some seed to try and germinate as well. Our property is not big enough for one of these massive trees but I've had plenty of people offer to let me plant them on their land. I looked to see if the seeds need any kind of stratification but haven't found anything to suggest they do. Has anyone got any tips? I seem to have trouble raising trees from seed in pots but get plenty of walnuts, peaches and apricots coming up if I just throw the stones in the garden and ignore them til the following spring. I'd love it if people would come and dig them out of my garden and give them new homes, I have even thought I should go on a fruit tree planting mission in public places so others may benefit from the fruit.
If you like the idea of foraging, Johanna over at star-cooked has some good posts about it. The native flax seeds are one I'm keen to try.

Tiger worms-look away if you're squeemish

In response to spinningayarn.


I have a fairly functional worm farm but am still learning too. I'd leave it till they come to the food before you add more food. See mine in the photo below they've eaten most of their food and are all working on what food is left there. Don't let them dry out and keep something over the top of it all cos they don't seem to like the light, it helps keep them moist too. I use a hessian sack or wet paper/cardboard. I get quite alot of little fruit flys in mine, I think it's because I over feed it a bit but have also read that it might need a very small sprinkling of lime, but haven't got round to it. They prefer mushy food but I give them all sorts. I never give them onion or citrus though as they don't like it. Mine seem to be enjoying a recent layer of shredded paper.

Hope that was some help.

Garden notes Sept.

I've had two questions about a picture of a fennel flower I took last year. I've replied here as I get sent a "no reply" email address when people comment. Do any other gardeners know about allergic skin reactions to umbeliferae plants?

Washing machine is still not well. Living on borrowed time.

The garden has had my full attention recently, so much so that I think I'm forgetting how to have conversations with people. We ventured out to the Steiner Spring Fair today, what a magic day for it! Does anyone else forget how to have conversation after only talking to kids and plants all week?

I've been much more strict about following the moon calender gardening this year and the seedlings sown at the last two first quarter moons are thriving. It's last quarter at the moment so I have to resist the temptation to do anything except cultivate and prune. I have little tomatoes, sunflowers, capsicums (more than half of them got eaten by slugs tho), cleome, dwarf and cannelloni beans, zucchini and pumpkins all waiting nice and warm in the glasshouse for the weather to warm up outside. In addition I put frost cloth over them at night too. They're getting feed worm juice from the worm farm but I have had to resort to a bit of slug bait as beer traps and pot ash weren't working. It's not ideal but it's still vastly better than bought veges. I can handle eating capsicum for example that I know have been all organic except for one slug pellet when they were babies. What I really need is a couple of hedgehogs but even they have their pitfalls they eat chickens given half a chance. Carrots still elude me, last lot were eaten by either slugs or dug up by cats as they sprouted. No worries peas are flowering and asparagus is doing it's thing. YuM.

This is my constant reference in spring, helps me plan where to put everything in the garden. Highly recommended.

It's a work in progress, hopefully in a few years the garden will be so well balanced I won't need anything inorganic thus achieving my sustainable goal.

My morning routine in spring includes feeding the chooks, watering and walking round the garden watching blossoms and leaves grow. Sometimes I spend so long outside that I forget the kids need their breakfast and lunches made. For the first time in 15 years I have some consistent child free days as the "red head" is now enrolled two and a half days at Montessori. Blissss!

Morning

I really must learn to use my camera properly so I might be able to capture how beautiful the light is. These photos don't do our midwinter sunrise justice but I wanted to post some. We got up early and drove to Ruby bay for sunrise, it occured to me that most of the sunrises I've witnessed have been here on this beach. We camped here alot when I was a child so it's a very special spot for me. I've sat here desperate in tears, round a fire with friends and sometimes just to contemplate life. My older children have seen sunrise here before but it was very exciting for the littlies. We looked for the seven sisters. I'm certain I found them but all the stars looked bright to me. We talked about why I'd dragged them out of bed so early and we made an offering. For awhile we snuggled in our blankets and drank hot milo then listened to the birds waking up while looking for toggles at the high tide mark. As a youngster I walked alone alot following the river through the bush, saying hello to fantails, moreporks, lizards and water rats. I use to stop and talk to a giant totara and ran screaming at my Dad when he started chainsawing down a Kahikatia for firewood. Thismorning reminded me I miss it.


Found this to refer to for fishing and planting.

Pumpkin stuff

School holidays weren't the creative, relaxing time I had been looking forward to. I got a couple of sleep ins but four kids from 2-14 and a few wet days thrown in had me at the end of my tether in the first week. I really tried but to be honest the "red head" drove me nuts! I kind of snapped out of it though as I listened to reports about the world food crisis. My silly middle class problems are nothing.

I did a bit of Therapy:
Overdue harvesting, planning to put mustard and cleome in along the fence as catch crops in spring, the neighbours trees suck all the nutrients there anyway.
I love all things pumpkiny.Sorting and tidying always makes me feel better.

Pumpkin and poppy seed bread. Seeds harvested from the garden.

I've resolved to do a better job with my seed saving after the rain nearly ruined my cannelleni and berlotti seeds. Besides you never know when you'll seriously have to feed your family from the garden. Practice makes perfect.

Pay it forward

Okay, so I’ve pledged to Jasmine that I would play along.
First 3 people to post a comment and pledge to pay it forward will receive a handmade pressie from me sometime in the next 12 months.
BUT
You have to put the same post on your blog and send a pressie to the first 3 people to do the same on your blog. ETC etc etc.
SO…if you’re want a pressie from me, leave a comment.

My downshifting week is not perfect but the effort is being made.
* I cooked a meal from scratch with ingredients from my garden and am trying to keep it up all week. So we'll be vegetarian or I might make bacon bone soup from pigs my Dad raised, I think that counts as downshifting cos they're not from the supermarket.
* I gave away some re usable bags, used mine twice but forgot them once. Still want to make and give some more.
* Harvesting and storing things from the garden, more on that later in the week.
* The TV went off but we didn't play scrabble we read instead.

To really be a genuine down shifter I feel like I shouldn't be using the car. Until I manage that I have to admit I'm not being a true down shifter. We only live 8km from town so I should at least bike once in a while.

Here is Skatey Boy's recipe for downshifting week:
Fruit smoothies
Makes enough for 5 glasses

Into your blender put 3 cups of berries and a cup of fruit juice. We used raspberries and blueberries we froze earlier in the season and the last of the fresh strawberries. Peel 2-4 fejioas and add them too. Bananas could be substituted but fejoias taste beautiful. Ice cream can be added but we think it's better without.
Whizz it all up and pour. Easy and delicious.
Check out Homemade Rainbows for more downshifting activities

Downshifting

Response to comments from my last post. The Giraffe pattern is from Kate at "Two Little Banshees" Check out her blog or Esty shop. Adorable softies and bags!
The Softies book I featured is a collection of blogger's patterns. I first saw it in the Motueka Public library and immediately ordered a copy for myself and a friend. It doesn't give an author. Rather says Viking an imprint of Penguin books, It's just titled "Softies". I love blogs but am totally addicted to books. Before I had children I spent at least 2 hours a week in book shops. Now I'm lucky if I get 2 hours a month. Every now and then I treat myself to a special book. Hope you all still do the same.Look at what I got in the mail from Helen this week. Buttons, fabric, artwork and collage cards which made my day! I really admire Helen's craft work and poetry. I've already sent one card off as a thank you to a friend and am on the look out for old books and magazines to do some card collages with the kids this holidays.
As of today I'm on two weeks holiday, THANK GOODNESS! I hope to use the time to be a good friend and to participate in International downshifting week. 19th -25th April. I've started by donating some bags of pre- loved clothes to the Sallies today. I'm going to cook a meal for my Mum for her birthday on Sunday instead of buying a present.I'll make pumpkin soup from ingredients I have in my garden except for nutmeg and cloves which I can't grow, on Monday night we'll turn the TV off and play Scrabble instead. I'm going to sew some fabric shopping bags to give away to encourage friends to stop using plastic ones and when I shop I'll remember to take mine from the car into the supermarket. I hope every one who reads can make some conscious effort this week as well. If nothing else plant some winter veges, try spinach, brassicas, lettuce or peas.

My best garage sale find in ages. A lovely big crock in perfect condition. My Aunty use to do salted beans in hers, I'm just displaying mine in the entrance so I can enjoy it as I come in and out. $5. For once I bet the dealers to something great.
I've been doing a little bit of everything in the last few weeks.

Got loaned this great book written by Paul Moon who spent a good deal of time talking to an old Maori Tohunga (Shaman/medicine/spiritual man). It offers a spiritual or traditional approach to gardening in N.Z. Things which really stuck in my mind were saying a prayer before working in your garden to rid yourself of any negative energy which you might pass onto your seedlings and veges. Also the traditional way of community gardening which I think people are beginning to move back towards. As people garden together they share their knowledge, pass on their traditions and strengthen their community. In Hohepa Kereopa's old community they all planted the crops together, then at harvest time the person who travelled the farthest got first pick of the crop while the plot owner got last, but when it was their turn to travel the farthest they got first pick. The book has information about traditional planting methods, including for Kumara, native medicinal plants and flax weaving traditions. I was inspired by it because I have real hope that we can create communities that care about each other and the land.From another book I've been making a few Softies. I'm enjoying doing a bit of hand embroidery but was very frustrated at myself and Mum for not knowing how to do a simple French knot despite having a diagram and instructions right in front of me. I'm one who has to be shown. He still looks good even if he hasn't got french knot nostrils.
Other sewing attempts have been disastrous so I've been sowing seeds and making compost instead.