Any given Sunday

Here's the thing about Sundays, they have to start with waffles/ pancakes covered in lashings of whipped cream  and drenched in real Canadian maple syrup.  And to wash the whole lot down there has to be coffee... strong, black coffee.  Sunday is the day for over indulging and you've got to start it with a swing. 

This afternoon we had our regular cafe catch up with family (I told you the over indulging doesn't stop) and Ayana put on quiet the show.  We had THAT child in the cafe today!  She sat on the table screaming like a banshee whilst banging a plastic glass on whatever she could find.  Every hipster in the place shuddered and pushed their dark glasses further over their mascara stained eyes.  This was a place for recovering from hangovers, not creating extra headaches!  Why doesn't this child's mother DO something?!  I thought about it, I really did, but then I couldn't really wipe the crooked smirk off my face.  She was having fun, and it was just a little bit funny to watch them squirm.  I know, shame on me.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet.  A little walk, a little sleep, a few chores and an easy dinner.
Good night. x
P.S I'm playing around with photoshop at the moment so please excuse the different styles in photos.

After the storm

We're house sitting again!  That of course includes cow, chicken, dog, cat and garden sitting too.  The last time we did this little Ayana was barely 3 months old and boy was it exhausting.  I feel like we have a much better handle on everything this time around and having all the extra responsibility somehow adds a bit more structure to our days.  Ask me again though when Thalia (my little sister) goes home, she's been amazing!
The night after Elena  (my mum... you'll get the hang these names) left, an almighty storm rolled in.  I lay awake in bed beside Ayana while pine cones pelted down from the tree's like heavy machine gun fire.  The house groaned and creaked under the strain but somehow managed to stay in tact.  Don't ask me why but in a storm I always like to pretend I'm on a big, old sailing ship stuck out at sea.  Still dreaming of a pirate life I guess ;).

Summer diners: Bbq'd pizza (for Saba!)

 Hmmm so the first attempt wasn't a huge success but they got better!

Did you know that you can bbq a pizza?!  Nor did I, but that's what we did last night and it was delicious!

In fact I think bbq'd is the only way I want to eat my pizza from now on.  It seems that the key is not to load too much on, tomato sauce, some good cheese and handful of fresh basil leaves is all you really need.  And then of course it wouldn't be a proper Italian style dinner if we didn't have fresh mozzarella, with tomatos and basil from the garden would it now!  The only thing missing was the wine (sigh, won't be long now).

* Psst Saba... I know your first attempt didn't go so well so I just thought I'd rub it in a bit ;).

And then right at the end Elena (my mum) thought it might be interesting to throw a banana on the bbq.  Sure it doesn't look terribly appetising, but mmmm it was delicious!  Just lacked the ice cream.

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A little step closer...

I spent an afternoon hanging out at the local library today looking through books on gardening and a generally more sustainable lifestyle.  Despite the way I have been raised, we realised that if we want to do this ourselves we're seriously going to need to do some research.  It also requires a lot more work obviously and a whole lot of planning ahead!  To be honest I'm super excited for the challenge though.

We have a chicken coop... now we just need chickens!  Well to be fair this is my mothers coop but our chickens are going to be bunking up with hers.  It has an inside and outside covered area as well as an entire paddock for scratching and finding juicy bugs in.  I really couldn't imagine a happier place for a feathered friend.  Chickens are proving to be quite difficult to come across though.  We initially wanted to save some ex-battery hens but after some research have decided that they're probably not ideal.  Sadly many have had their claws removed which means they can't/ don't know how to scratch around.  They are also almost always over a year old, which means they are past their prime laying age.  As much as we would love to save them anyway, the main purpose for getting chickens is for the eggs and we can't really justify the cost of keeping them just like that.  Sooo we have to find a chicken farm that will sell us chicks.  Most of them are way out of town so it looks like we have a small road trip ahead of us!

And we've been given a pretty decent patch to start our vege garden on!  Boy is it going to require a lot of work though.  The grass that's growing here is called Kikuyu and it's a right pain in the butt!  I think it originally comes from Africa but the settlers introduced it here because it makes such a beautiful lawn.  The down side is that it went crazy in New Zealand. It makes these long runners and ends up tangling and strangling everything in its path.  If our little garden has any hope at all we're going to have to dig up every last inch of this green monster and make sure it doesn't come back.  Then the soil needs lime, compost etc before we can finally get the Autumn crop in.  Of course I'm fairly heavily pregnant now too and not capable of much manual labour, so it's poor Nic who is going to have to do the grunt of the work.

Yup so there you have it, lets see how this all works out!
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Green Fingers

 

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Well here's a job I have meaning to do for the longest time!  I started this succulent garden about 10 years ago when I first lived in this little house (yes I've lived here several times... it's a long story really) and it basically got left to its own devices.  It looked great to begin with and that awful concrete wall in the background was covered in the most beautiful wisteria.  Unfortunately it started growing into the septic tank and causing all sorts of problem (ie toilet business suddenly coming back up out of the toilet!), so it had to be cut down.  Anyway... so the succulents, or rather the weeds around them, got totally out of control and it has bugged me for quite some time now.  I'm hoping that all the poor little guys who got overgrown will have a chance to spring back to life now.  I also gave a new home to my struggling basil plants.  Clearly they need some extra TLC during these hot summer months!

It feels great to sit outside and admire my tidy new garden, but let me tell you, for somebody who is 8 and a half months pregnant I think I was pushing it a bit.  My back was so sore that night I could hardly walk properly!  Sometimes I forget that I can't do all the things that I used to be able to.  This garden of ours just keeps getting more wild though so there are plenty of gardening jobs to continue with.  At some point I plan on building a small kiddie garden filled with things like carrots, sweet peas and strawberries.  I remember when I was young that there's was nothing greater than crouching in your very own garden patch eating vege's straight from the plant!
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A gradual lifestyle change

 We've been thinking and talking a bit lately about our five year plan. About our hopes, dreams and the things we want to achieve.  We're really starting a new chapter at the moment with Nic finishing uni and us about to become parents.  It's scary, terrifying even sometimes and yes a fair bit of sleep has been lost!  At the same time it's also the most exciting, exhilarating times of our lives!  It really is a time for new beginnings, a chance to adjust our lifestyles and make our own family traditions.

One thing we are both certain of is that we want to  live a more sustainable lifestyle.  We've already been on this path for a little while. We compost, recycle, buy our fruit and vege at the local markets, use eco cleaning products, have invested in reusable nappies and buy mainly vintage and secondhand.  But we feel like, given our current living circumstances, that we could do more.  You see we basically live on a 20 acre farm.  I say basically because it actually belongs to my mum, we just happen to be lucky enough to live in the little cottage on her farm. The other day she mentioned that if we wanted to invest in a couple more chickens (to add to the two she already has) then she would happily share the eggs with us.  She also has some impressive vege gardens that used to feed our family of 7, but now that it's mainly just her at home it's too much food (not to mention work).  So in return for helping out in the gardens we could practically get all the the fresh, organic vegetables that we need.  Why hadn't we ever thought of this before?!  I hate going to the supermarket every week and seeing the money drain from our account because of over priced food.  We also want to invest in a bread maker.  Nic can't tolerate gluten, and gluten free bread costs an arm and a leg so we could save a ton by making our own.  I quite fancy the idea of waking up to freshly baked bread every morning!

We have several reasons for wanting to do this.  First and for most  it's to lessen our impact on the planet and get out of that buy, buy, buy consumer kind of mindset (I know I sounds like a preaching hippie right now).  It has disgusted me for a long time now but man is it difficult to leap off that train!  We also want to know where our food has come from and how it has been made/ grown.  And of course a huge reason is the financial one.  After Nic being a student for 4 years (woohoo photography degree is complete!) and me focusing mainly on being a good mama for the next year we could sure do with getting our finances in order.   There is so much work that needs to be done on the house,we need a new car, we could REALLY use a holiday and just generally bumping up our savings account.  We would much rather get our hands dirty in the garden for a couple of days a week and be able to spend the money we save on going on family adventures and occasionally eating out than wasting it at the supermarket.

The funny thing is that my mum has been living with this kind of mentality for the last 30 years.  But naturally as a kid you have to rebel against what your parents do, don't you!  So the first thing I wanted to do when I left home was move into the city and eat supermarket bread.  And now here I am yearning for the lifestyle I had growing up and wanting practically the same for my own child.  I'm super excited learn from her now though.  I suggested we challenge ourselves to living like this for one year, and after that if it's not working then fine, if it is then fantastic!
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2012 on the farm

Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to be living where we do.  We have been out on the farm again for two years now and although the transition was a bit difficult to begin with we are super glad to be here now.  It took us a while to get used to the fact that we couldn't just walk down the road to grab a coffee, or that we would be a lot more isolated from our friends out here.  Sometimes you realise that the only conversation you've had that day is with the cows and you haven't actually laid eyes on another person. We had to trade our favourite shoes for gumboots, town clothes for old jeans and umbrellas for sensible raincoats.  Yet at the same time we are living in total paradise.  We have no need for curtains in the bedroom and can gaze up at the stars while lying in bed at night.  We have 20 acres to explore and go for walks on.  Out here you get woken by the dawn chorus, not the impatient morning traffic or the rubbish truck.  And now that we have a little one on the way we really couldn't imagine a more magical place to grow up as a kid (I should know, I grew up out here myself!).
Anyway looking back at the photos from the year really made me realise how incredibly lucky we are.  It's so easy to take things for granted.  Sure our ramshackle little house needs some serious tlc, the gardens need fixing up and we pay almost as much in petrol money as we did in rent... but somehow it's all so worth it in the end!