Change

Dear Friends,

It has been awhile. Almost two years. To all those who took the time to reach out to me over this time I send you a warm thank you. Please forgive me for my lack of replying.

Typing into Blogger right now (I couldn't even remember my password!), I am feeling like a stranger in a strange land. But it does bring back memories. Blogging was a big part of my life for several years, and during that time, it was probably my biggest link to the outside world. In many ways I do miss that. I remember with fondness the online friendships formed and the kind words which were so encouraging. Several times I have written draft posts, but it just didn't seem the right time.

Thank you Stephanie, your email this week finally prompted me to get out there and have a go at posting some sort of explanation.

I guess in a way, blogging felt that it had run it's course. Life and change just seemed to take over, and for me, blogging had lost it's sparkle.

Later in the year that I posted my last post, my Father-in-law suffered a heart attack, and his life was never to be the same again. We felt we needed to be much closer than the four hour drive away. So in late 2014 we put the house on the market, sadly gave away our animals (but not our dog!)  to locals we knew, and prayed about it all. The house sold within 3 days of being on the market.

In our search for a new home, we discovered that the area we were moving to was a completely different market and far more expensive. As it turned out we could afford an old fibro house on a large town block. It was in poor condition, but had been built solidly, and still retained it's old features. A plus was that it had enough bedrooms for everyone, plus a room for sewing. At just a half hour from the in-laws and in a pretty little town, it was the answer we were looking for.

So we spent all of last year renovating (ourselves) and virtually clearing the third acre block. The renovating seems to be an on-going thing, but we do have all the bedrooms, dining and hallway done. Work is fairly slow when you are doing it yourself. Painting has become my second job to homemaker. I will admit though, that last year was one of the toughest of my life.

Nevertheless we have all settled in well to the community here. The kids have made friends, we have wonderful neighbours and we get to spend much more time with extended family.

But let us go back to the subject of blogging. I think my blogging time, in a sense, reflected the search for truth and a search for meaning in my life. I had much satisfaction in homemaking, enjoyed the challenges and was constantly inspired by the blogging community.

Yet somehow I was still restless deep within my soul. I could not find true peace amongst the balls of wool, the current dress I was sewing or in the latest batch of homemade washing powder. Don't get me wrong, these are good and satisfying things in their own right. But they did not bring me any lasting happiness.

Some of you knew that I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness and left in my early twenties. This experience had poisoned any relationship I had with God. So for 12 years I had been seeking meaning elsewhere. Not only in exploring a more simple, wholesome lifestyle, but at times I had casually looked into Buddhism, yoga and the teachings of Deepak Chopra. But I just didn't connect with it.

During 2014 something prompted me to pick up an old King James bible that I collected during my op shopping travels. I was soon reading it every day. I had never read such beautiful words as these. I soon began searching online for answers. In my quest to find out the truth I had to undo many years of false teaching.

I was so shocked that I had spent my life believing in a different Jesus. The Jesus of the King James bible was God. What a revelation that was. This was totally contrary to the teachings I had grown up with.

That was well over a year ago now, and accepting Jesus Christ as my saviour was a slow (and sometimes lonely!) process over this time. But I know now that I have found true meaning in my life. I have a found that our Lord Jesus will give us joy unsurpassed by any other source. I have seen him answer prayers and he has given me strength at very low times. At times I have opened my Bible to a particular verse that has been an answer to a prayer. That I had just been praying. None of this is possible without the work of the Holy Spirit.

Just recently my husband also came to Christ, and we are working now as a family with our lives centered around Jesus. It has been an uphill battle in some ways, but with God all things are possible.

We have started attending a friendly local Christian church. We know that this is only a small part of our worship, and have no intention of identifying ourselves with a certain denomination. It is all, and I cannot emphasize this enough, it is all about our personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

You may see why it has taken so long to post again on here. This post may not be a popular one. However I felt I owed it to my readers to finally give an explanation. I am sorry that it has taken so long. I know how some people may see this, and yet I would once have seen it in a negative light also. I used to cringe at stories such as these. And yet here I am. After much searching I have found the real Truth.

There has not been any time for sewing or knitting during all this moving, renovating and Bible reading. But I do hope to take these up these (rusty) skills again soon. I am very appreciative of all that I learnt from my readers and fellow bloggers during my time on here. I still believe that homemaking skills play a very important role in making a peaceable home for our family. Our homes need to be a place of refuge in this insecure world. I wish you all peace within your homes.

"Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light".

Matthew 11:29, 30

from the kitchen

Hello!

I'm not sure anyone if anyone is still checking on this little space. The longer one is away the harder it feels to break the ice. Why does time fly by so quickly these days?

But we won't harp on that.

I thought I'd show you a few snaps taken in the kitchen. My camera too, has been sorely neglected of late.

Nothing fancy in the kitchen these days. I tend to make the same things over and over. If something works and you don't need a recipe, just intuition of substituting what you have on hand, then that is something worth coming back to. Which is about as fast food as it gets around here. I rarely try new recipes these days, but for awhile there I made a point of trying a new one every week. Goodness knows I have far too many recipe books. May as well use them.

Now this is an old shot from months ago. The mushrooms are long gone around here, but I couldn't not show you, it was the best season I have seen since I was a kid. These are from my in-law's property down the road. Found tucked away in the bush behind the paddocks. I will be back next year to try my luck.

Which is best cooked simply with butter and parsley.

Experimenting with spelt flour and potato gnocchi. (Though next time I may stick to ordinary flour as these were a little too soft). I always get extra "help" making gnocchi these days. The discovery of a long ago purchased potato ricer made the whole process much easier.

 A suckling pig, bought from a local free range farm for a big family feast. Stuffed and rubbed with fennel seeds, garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt courtesy of Nonna. All day on the spit roast and several days worth of meat. Food really does bring family together.

Apple cake.


***


It feels good to be back. I missed my little outlet into the world of like minded souls.

ordinary days

I hadn't meant to be away for long. School holidays came and went. Although I was home, and it was both enjoyable and busy, unfortunately any well meaning intentions to blog flew out the window. Then I lost the internet for a week. Strangely enough I think it was what I really needed. I started and finished a novel. The house looked tidier than it had in years. I did some sewing. I started a new knitting project. I felt so productive. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt from that week.

 I think the hardest part about coming back to a blog when you've been away is breaking the ice again.

So I'll let the pictures do the talking today, just so that I can ease myself back into it.

The fire is on and a white fog envelopes everything outside. Ugg boots and an op shopped polyester fleece dressing gown are keeping me nice and cosy as I type. Dirty floors and extra washing are inevitable after the weekend. Which reminds me that the flannel sheets need to go on the bed today. It looks like today will be an ordinary day of cleaning up after the weekend. Ordinary, but good, I hope.

 I found this little assortment outside. The girls must have picked them and left them there.

Valley view.

School holiday soup lunch.

Painting with cut potatoes.

Pretty compost.

Holiday reading from my own childhood books.

From the garden.

Baking.

 
As above.




May your day be an ordinarily good one too. See you soon.

from the mending basket

 I hadn't really felt much like sewing over Summer. A few halfhearted attempts ended in a couple of disasters, so I thought it better not to try to push it while my heart wasn't in it. I knew that eventually I would feel like sewing again, that the interest and enjoyment I once felt would return. It always does eventually, doesn't it? As Summer turned into Autumn and life calmed down somewhat, I did feel that pull to get back to the sewing machine.

The biggest hurdle was that darn mending basket sitting at the entrance of my bedroom as a glaring daily reminder. So one rainy day I tackled it. It took about 3 days on and off, and then it was done. Not so hard afterall, but the seemingly unsurmountable sewing hurdle has been accomplished.

After the usual sock and tiny hole t-shirt mending (what is with t-shirts these days?), there were a few patches  (you might recognize the fabric from here) to sew on some jeans for Violet, an adult dress and skirt to convert into skirts for Violet, and a dress for myself to take in. I couldn't resist the $5 dress sale at the local op shop and I had a feeling this dress would be easy to take in. I don't know about you, but I just can't pass up a good floral. With no zipper, and only the bodice being lined, it was thankfully quite easy to take in. But I'm still wondering if I can get away with a dress that short.

My quilt had long been waiting for some kind of closure. Poor thing had been sitting in the mending basket for some time. Me being the lazy sewer that I am, popped a few lace ties on, rather than time consuming buttonholes. As I hadn't had it on the bed for so long, it feels like a new quilt again.

I also came a across a whole bundle of half finished dish drainer towels (last batch seen here). I'd started them about 6 months ago and I had wondered if they would ever get finished. I had roughly put together some vintage tea towels backed with old towels. Isn't it funny the drama you can have with the simplest of things? I guess that's what happens when you don't measure properly and try to skip the pins. The first one I finished I had to unpick an entire row and broke two needles. Not fun. But after that things went pretty smoothly and I finished them before school pick-up.

My mental sewing space now appears to be cleared and I feel ready to move ahead with some bigger and better (hopefully) projects.


Does this happen to you? Do you too suffer from mending basket/unfinished project guilt?


What projects are you working on?

Or have you been taking a break too?

the milking routine

A few of you have been asking how the cows were doing, so I thought a cow devoted blog post was in order. Last week was a busy one and it got away on me without being able to spend time on any post. But with a (thankfully) dreary wet day outside it is the perfect excuse for a little blogging update.

Bessie has been with us around 6 months now. She has been good to us beginners, and although there was plenty of learning for both us and her in the beginning, being a first calf heifer and all, I think we really did get into a good routine. Of course there was much trial and error, but I think we really have got the hang of things. At least in the milking department.

A proper routine has evolved and every morning I drive out to the property. Bessie waits at the fence, often sitting chewing her cud. By this I would know that all was well. On her heat days however, she would be nervously pacing around inside the stables and I would have to coax her out with some good hay. The stables would get cleared of manure, hay brought down from the small shed and her mixture of pollard, barley, sunflower seeds, chaff, beet flakes and minerals made up for her morning and evening bucket. The water is checked and I may have Jerry cans of water with me if there has been no rain.

The morning bucket gets emptied into the feed bucket in the milking bails. I would then get all the milking equipment ready, stool out and get Violet out of the way behind the gate.
I then let Bessie in, who had been making her "foghorn" noise for the past ten minutes or so.

Cows are such a creature of habit which really makes the whole milking process fairly easy in the end. It may take awhile to get there, but in the end you have a cow that willingly walks in, happily eats her grain, lets you bolt the headpiece into place, put a chain behind her to keep her from swinging from side to side, and then a rope tied to keep her leg back. Of course you may not need the leg rope, and I likely don't really need it anymore,  but I view it more as an insurance policy against losing a bucket of milk. Of course one day Bessie swung her other leg and caught the bucket and I lost a hard earned three litres. But you live and learn and you get to anticipate any major shifts in that department.

I then brush Bessie's udder and surrounding area to get rid of any muck. Her udder is then washed with a soap and vinegar mix, dried and then each teat squirted into the ground to get rid of any bacteria. Coconut oil is then coated onto each teat and we are ready to go.

At first milking was terribly difficult. It takes time to learn the best way to milk the teats, and let me tell you that not all teats are created equal. Each teat in my experience ranges from easy to difficult. Bessie's front teats are fairly long (still not long enough to get a complete hand around, but almost) and the milk now comes out quickly and easily. The back teats, however, are small and the milk comes out at a much slower rate. They are hard work those small teats, and you must use your thumb and two fingers, like a stripping action, and they don't produce as much milk. Over time though I have become pretty fast at milking, and I wouldn't really consider a machine at this point. It takes me about ten to fifteen minutes to milk now. It saves all that machine cleaning too.

In the beginning we were lucky to get about two and a half litres each morning, but as the months went by, and Bessie slowly gained weight, we were up to 4 to 5 litres each morning. After such a dry summer of virtually no grass, and all feed having to brought in (mostly oaten hay), we did get some small green growth after the rain. The cream line was remarkable. In some bottles the cream was a third of the bottle. As you can imagine, this was very exciting! Well, I was excited anyway.

Then when we've got all the milk we are going to get, I carry the bucket into the feed room, Violet lifts up the lid and we pour the milk into a filter sitting inside the milk can. Fortunately the feed room is nice and cool and we leave it here until we leave. Once we get home I again filter the milk into Mason jars and it is popped into the freezer for a few hours to cool down rapidly.

After milking is done, the hay is carried out, Bessie unbolted and when she is ready she heads out to her hay. I often give her a brush down at this time and tell her what a good girl she is. Bessie is not one to really enjoy a pat, but she will tolerate it. She is mostly all business, but she is a good girl. The calf is then let out and he often tries to scavenge some of the milking grain.

I then clean out the calf room, top up water and with a quick check over we are good to go. In the evening Daniel will pass through on this way home from work. He will feed the evening bucket and feed the calf in his "room" where he willingly goes each night.

We've found calf sharing to be very good for us. We can have the weekends off from milking, and skip a day here or there if the day is going to be terribly busy. It feels more humane to let them be together and they are company for each other. Of course it is not all smooth sailing and our calf has acquired a bit of an attitude in the past month or so. He has grown into a good sized calf, and when the time comes he should make a wonderful rose veal. But for now we try to make his life as pleasant as possible.

But as I type this we are missing our wonderful raw milk (Incidentally some of us have caught colds for the first time since we were on the raw milk).  Bessie is currently visiting a pure white Hereford bull, and has joined his herd for the past two weeks, with the calf by her side. We drive past them most days and all seems to be fine. Our calf is enjoying many calves to play with. Hopefully another week will seal the deal.

So you might be asking if all this fuss is worth it? For many people it may not be. You really have to like cows. You need to be prepared for unforeseen costs. Feed and supplements are not cheap, but neither are vets, and fortunately we haven't had to have one out yet. Though her hooves have been booked in.

Owning a cow is a huge time commitment and it does makes it difficult to go away. We are still trying to work our way around this. I think many people are scared of such commitments these days, though in times gone by many people had a house cow. Most people around here grew up drinking house cow milk, but now they are few and far between. It can work, but it's not for everyone.

But I do think owning a cow is the ultimate food connection. Milk is no longer just milk. There is a real connection to this large gentle creature. With luck she will also give you a calf each year. The manure will keep your garden healthy. The milk, though, is plentiful and delicious. You will never be able to really enjoy store bought milk again. To me it now tastes tainted, and I am having a hard time of drinking store bought. Not to mention slight sinus which I haven't suffered from in a long time. But this may just be coincidence.

We will be moving Bessie and her calf to the village in the coming weeks. A large 10 acre river flat paddock is available, and there is also a back up smaller paddock should this fall through. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Some of you may be asking about our calf Shirley. I will try and take some photos this week with an update. She really is growing up.



Until then, I hope your week is a good one, and that those that needed the rain are getting some.

Julia's scarf

In the absence of anything crafty to post, I thought I would show you Julia's latest sewing project. She seems to have overtaken me in the crafting stakes lately, and perhaps I should be taking a leaf out of her book. She has taken naturally to sewing by machine, unlike her mother. Despite my own mother sewing often as a child, I was always too scared to learn. I remember avoiding the machine in the one term I did of sewing in high school. I still wonder how I passed that class.

I was pretty proud of Julia's latest effort, a scarf, of which the pattern came from Sewing School
2, a book that we bought her for christmas. She chose an assortment of floral sheeting she had in her very own little stash, and backed it with some Anna Maria Horner flannel that was in my stash. It always interests me to see which fabrics people mix together, and especially when that person is your 9 year old daughter.

I guided her throughout but she happily did all the cutting, pinning, ironing and sewing herself. Including hand sewing the loop hole by hand at the very end.

Perhaps my inspiration to get right back into something crafty may be sitting right in front of me. It does make me think that perhaps a small, uncomplicated project may be just what I need to get myself back into my sewing space.

a dry summer

Why hello there! You would be forgiven in thinking that I had forgotten entirely about this little neglected space. As life just became too busy around me, I found that the blog became far less important in daily life, and I kept pushing it far back into the list of priorities. Before I knew it an entire two months had gone past. Of course the longer you leave something the harder it is to come back to it. Where to start? What to blog about? You certainly become rusty in the blogging department and the words do not flow easily.

It is not easy to blog when you don't feel like yourself as much as you used to. When you start to question if this really is the best way to live. When you lose your motivation.

I guess a combination of things contributed to the way I was feeling this summer. It was a terribly hot summer, and we went for a long time without rain. I can only begin to imagine how hard this would be if your livelihood depended up on it. As it was here, my vegie garden, that I had such high hopes for this year, that I had spent many hours on, so much money invested in, potatoes, seeds and seedlings, withered up and died. I gave up the twice day watering when I realised that I was no match for this harsh windy Summer and that I could no longer justify using so much precious tank water. It is the first summer here that I had no tomato crop. Then despite the hard work of pumping water twice weekly and watering all the trees, we still lost several. The grass died and you could feel the crunch under your feet while walking around after dark. Because that was the only time it was pleasant outside. Drought can suck the life right out of you.

When it doesn't rain the cows still need water, and pumping and fetching water becomes a huge headache. Having them 10 minutes away was not helping either, particularly when we had to buy their entire feed for the summer. I love my cows, I love the fresh milk, but I will not pretend that the whole experience has been an easy one. It has been a huge learning curve. Yet I still want to do it. I think an update post is due very soon.

Going back to the dry, I can now say that we were very fortunate this time around. It rained. Hard. Then it rained again. And again and again. We went from a dirt lawn to bright green grass. Everywhere. You can't underestimate just how much better you can feel when it finally rains. My thoughts are with those going through much tougher times, who haven't yet had rain, and can't afford to bring in feed.

Then there was the whole blogging thing. Sorry to say I had been keeping well away from the blogging community, becoming more drawn to the quieter, non-sponsored and less popular blogs. A click on an old favourite didn't always feel the same anymore. Amidst the new professional headers, wonderful  photography and the sometimes bombarding sponsorship, it seemed easier at times to slowly fade away and put that blogging chapter behind me. I lack the time to experiment, funds and expertise necessary to try to perfect my photography or to stylise this space professionally. So I've just decided to do the best I can do. Homemade header it is. Blurry pictures it may be.

So I'm feeling better now. Ready to put this harsh summer behind and look forward to a cooler, greener Autumn. My favourite season. I thank all those who wrote to me out of concern, and I did feel missed. Just don't expect anything too fancy. My life is not fancy, and I always wanted to maintain an honest truth within this blog. The ups and downs are all part of life, and it would be a lie to gloss over that. So as long as you don't expect anything too flash, but just a little journal of this not so perfect life here, I hope to see you again real soon.