Getting Your Hands Dirty...

Watched a fantastic documentary on organics last night, it was a country calendar special showing different people who are using organic, sustainable ways of living and growing for themselves and as a business. It was quite surprising what people were using a small lifestyle block for and just how much they could grow on it. There were some ingenious ideas for making farm machinery too.

 While some of what they were doing, I am doing anyway...just on a smaller scale, it had some fabulous ideas and gave me a renewed inspiration for what I am doing. So much can be done in a small patch and the cost can be quite low if resources are made use of. The fruits, the vegetables, the herbs...so much potential for good living and life. I felt myself really linking to their philosophy of living simply and wholly, how having your hands in the soil can be so healing.  I also enjoyed watching the chooks running around free and happy, just the way my chooks will live one day.  Unfortunately my present house is way too small to home a few chooks but that just gives me time to plan what I need to do. The books I purchased have been an invaluable source of information and a great investment but being able to see people actually living it is just so motivating...Now I wonder if all my jars that friends teased me about will be enough for all the herbs, teas and preserves?

Despite the cold and windy weather the garden has emerged a little more in the last few days. In between cold showers of heavy rain yesterday I got six cape gooseberry and five lavender seedlings potted up, all the weeds out the back and side of the house pulled out (much easier after rain) and a few more pics taken. Because we have had some much rain, I have moved my pots with the “jacks” in them and put them in the garden. The saucers they were sitting in had filled with rain water so I thought if I put them amongst the garden plants, any nutrients from the poo that leached out would just fertilise the vegetable plants. My white sage seeds arrived today so I will sow those tomorrow because they can take up to a month to germinate and I am excited about the prospect of making fresh organic smudge sticks. I have seen these selling for up to ten dollars each online so I am keen to make my own once again. Four dollars worth of seed will make alot of ten dollar smudge sticks! Still haven’t found time to finish the pew but hopefully I will get a chance to take a few pics to share...