Stop the world, I want to get off......

Well the purchase of the new fridge went well, all done and delivered, and the old one is off to be repaired, reconditioned and hopefully resold, happy about that.......but walking through the store to buy the fridge I was shocked to see a 100" TV...really , who needs this.....I then find out the largest TV about to be released is 150 inches...over 3.8metres.....OMG.....what is happening....while this TV will obviously be out of the price range of most people, why do they insist on making one......how much radiation does it emit and how much power does it use to run.....when I think about my everyday attempts to do my bit for the planet and realise that it can all be undone by just one person buying and using this TV I could cry........how come something that is so obvious to me...that huge TV's are a ridiculous use of energy and resources......is still not something that others can identify, they are just happy to have a larger TV than their friends or neighbours....Wow, people need to really start thinking about what we are all doing and how much longer we can continue to act this way....TV is just one of the thousands of things that we all need to revisit...energy sapping, resource devouring, planet destroying purchases.........stop updating TV's, phones, computers, cars, appliances, clothes...try to repair, reuse, recycle, or just be happy not to have the latest gadget....advertisers and marketers want you to keep buying and spending....but think about the environmental impact of all purchases, the carbon miles, the cost to the environment to produce, energy required to run them......stop this crazy consumerism.....stop this crazy cycle and live simply....so that we can simply live....



Things that go "BEEP" in the night....

Why is it that there is always something around that house that decides to stop working.....for the past week our fridge has been beeping every 50 minutes.....until we called the repair people and the lovely girl on the phone advised us about holding in the button for 20 seconds and it will only beep every 12 hours....okay, until the guy can come to look at it in 3 days time !!....at least this stopped our requirement of getting up every hour overnight to stop the beep...which we did for the first night....then realised that turning it on and off at the wall stopped the beep for 5 hours.....oh dear !!

The culprit.....our fridge is on the blink.....

To cut a very long story short the repairman tells me that the fridge is on the way out....can be repaired for around $600 as the fridge gas has a leak in the thingmybob inside..very rare he tells me...and they will take the fridge away for 5 to 10 days....what the !!!...what am I supposed to do without a fridge, which is now full of food.......the fridge is 7 years old....big dilemma ....what is the more eco way of sorting this problem....how much longer will a fridge last...perhaps another 3 years??? if we are lucky.......is it worth repairing which would reduce the carbon footprint of buying a new one....it may not last much longer anyway.....should we buy a reconditioned fridge.....is it possible to get one second hand  the exact size as our fridge space???......feeling very conflicted but the decision has been made to buy a new one....Probably not the best choice for the planet......but don't think there is an alternative ??....It is not easy being GREEN.

Winter garden woes.....slowly, slowly....

Well winter in the garden is certainly different to summer in the garden......the crops are very very slow...there's a bit going on underground I hope.  The onion, beetroots, garlic and leeks seem to be going along nicely...if a tad slow.....I miss the glorious display of goodies that was in the garden last season...this waiting and waiting to see what happening is a not as much fun...also some little bugs are getting into the broccoli, cabbage and spinach...making a meal of most of it...have spread out scratchy straw and thrown around some diatomaceous earth...which is ground up fossils so fine they cut the ecoskeleton of insects etc...so they tell me anyway..things have improved slightly but I didn't have any bugs at all in the summer garden beds, so not sure where they have popped up from....hurry up Spring....

Beetroots look like they are going OK..

Onions ...hopefully something going on under there.......

On a brighter note, bulbs from last year have popped up !!

Garlic and leeks look okay...but ssooooo slow ...

When the Country is in chaos...make cheese !!

Wow what a political nightmare we Australians are facing.....don't really want to get into politics here....hopefully our wonderful country will survive the dills that we have put in charge and the other dills who want to take over....it just seems like chaos and I don't think anyone is really running the country....they are just fighting to see who can take over....hopefully our economy, environment and communities will survive their poor behaviour, and when the dust settles and whoever wins gets into power, things can hopefully settle down and they can all get back into the business of taking care of this beautiful place that we call home ..........my heart goes out to the people of Egypt whose Political woes are a million times worse...I hope the unrest settles down before any more lives are lost....peace to all.

Feta curds in the baskets....separated from the whey.....curds settle down into blocks of feta

Meanwhile amid the chaos....I thought it was time to try my hand at making feta (which I have learnt recently at a cheesemaking course)......with the help of my friend who also attended we set about making the cheese.....warmed the 8 litres of organic milk ...into our sterilised container...added the starter, renet and lipase mixes, gently stirred, waited for the curds...90 mins....then cubed them, rested the curds, seperated the feta curds from the whey....into the feta baskets ....flip them a couple of times and there you have feta...into the brine solution and into the fridge.....perfect, delicious and creamy feta....next we are learning Camembert......can't wait for that one......!

Homemade, Healthy and the girls are Happy .........

My first batch of homemade yoghurt.....huge success...didn't know that making yoghurt was this simple...Just boiled up the 7 little jars in the boiler......mixed the organic long life milk (must be long life as this has been heat treated to 91c)........with Acidophilus Biphidus culture.....added a few tablespoons of full cream milk powder...only added if you like thick yoghurt.....mix and pour into the sterilised jars...into the yoghurt maker for 6 hours and voila.....beautiful creamy pot set yoghurt...easy and economical.....

Boil jars to sterilise, mix milk and culture

Into the jars and then into the yoghurt maker for 6 hours.

 Have also been into the juicing.......so far only doing carrot, apple and a bit of kale.....tastes great but need to get a bit more adventurous with the ingredients....would like to do all green juices but they take a bit of getting used to .....will continue bit by bit and see how it goes....good news is the girls love the scraps that are left behind in the juicer......they peck away happily, so it's a win win.....everybody's happy


Prepare vegies and  fruit and into the juicer....goodness in a glass...

The chooks love the remains from the juicer......the girls eat it all ....no waste...fantastic

The joy I get from making things myself, trying to avoid waste, and making healthy and nutritious things to eat and drink is amazing.....it really is the simple things that make life great.....it inspires me to think there is so much more I can do.....Life is what you make it....and I am determined to do whatever I can to reduce my impact on the planet, cook from scratch, live well and laugh often....PS: happy birthday to my man.