So you think you're sustainable?

A little while ago, I entered a competition I stumbled across on Facebook. It was a challenge set by Sustainable Living Tasmania, and a few other local organisations, to live as Sustainably as possible for a couple of weeks.  We had intended to make some big lifestyle changes this year, which well and truly fell by the wayside as life and winter happened. We got pretty slack...

So it was with some enthusiasm that we welcomed the news that we were finalists in the challenge. We won some awesome prizes to get us started and we're in the running for some pretty impressive window sash treatment for our old 1950's nest. Mostly we're just grateful for the motivation to get started doing something and the owlets are super pumped too!

When the energy assessors came to visit, and we understood what was in store for us, we figured the extra challenge here was that we were already living pretty sustainably. All our food was composted or fed to the chooks. We were pretty conscious about things. Surely there couldn't be much more we could do that would make a difference, could there? We knew we'd slackened off a bit, but we'd have to work extremely hard. So we set out to see.

We timed our showers and were surprised at just how many minutes (and litres!) we lost while daydreaming. On average 8 minutes, but up to 18, which translates to 180 litres in our shower. That's a whole lot of water going down the drain. We kept a rough food diary, which reflected how hurried our days had been and how convenience played a part in our consumption. We tallied all the waste we produced, both rubbish and recycling, and although people have told us the amount seems small to them for a family of five, to us it is far too much for one planet to consume, week after week. Don't you agree?

We'll be blogging and instagraming our findings and reflections over the next couple of weeks, as we find a way to make this work, not just for two weeks, but for life. We've got some pretty big goals and we'll be tackling things like reducing our energy consumption, producing zero waste, family cloth, composting, animal poo worm farms, using less water, and grey water. There's always room for improvement!

If you'd like to join the challenge, you can find it here. If you're in Tassie, you can take your challenge worksheet along to the Sustainable Living Festival and enter into the draw to win a solar hot water system - what we wouldn't give for one of those! Let us know how you go! 

~ Lauren. xx

Apple Jelly

In amongst all our rambling, wandering adventures of late, we've kept an eye out for roadside treasures. Tasmania is full of gorgeous little farm gate stalls, but for the adventurous, there are also plentiful finds, growing wild along the roadside. A drive through the Huon Valley turns up baskets full of apples, haws, edible weeds and the occasional late berry, if you're lucky to find a spray-free patch. All that food, ready for the eating if we keep our eyes open, slow down and stop the car from time to time. 

A lazy walk home from co-op one day left me with a bowl full of rosehips. The following day we took a huge drive down to the far south and pulled over from some apples from an ancient wild tree. The owlets offered to taste test the huge apples and, upon finding them rather tart, we decided to make some jelly. We're loving the delicate flavour of this batch and I think next year I'll aim for more rosehips to really boost that flavour. Jam and jelly aficionado, Little Owlet, tells me her favourite is the Quince and Orange Jelly we made last weekend, but she'll happily eat either with a spoon - and does! 

Apple and Rosehip Jelly

1kg apples, or thereabouts

2 cups of rosehips 

Sugar - we used organic raw sugar, but rapadura, juice or honey or a mix of sweeteners would be fine. 

Water

Chop the apples up roughly , core, stems and all. Pop them in a large pot with the rosehips and cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the fruit is soft. Place a colander over bowl and place some muslin or old stocking over the colander. Strain the fruit - leave it overnight if necessary. Try not to squeeze the fruit as the jelly will be clearer if it drains naturally. 

Measure the amount of juice and add half the amount of sugar along with it to a pot. For example, for 4 cups of juice, add 2 cups of sugar. Most recipes will suggest you need to have an equal amount of sugar, but we find it just too sweet - this will also depend on what sweetener you choose. There is enough pectin in the fruit to set the jelly anyway. Simmer the juice and sugar until it becomes jelly. Scoop off any foam that forms on the surface. Place some clean jars in a pot of water on the stove and boil for a little while. 

Place a saucer in the freezer. Test the consistency of the jelly every now and then by dropping some onto the saucer. When the liquid thickens and holds it's shape a little when you run a finger through it, it is ready. Have your jars ready and ladle or pour the jelly into the jars and pop the lids on to seal. 

We enjoy eating our jelly on toast, in cakes and tarts, with cheese, or (if you're like Little Owlet), with a spoon. It tastes and looks so jewel-like and decadent, but it only cost us about 50c per jar, just for the sugar! It pays to keep those eyes open and go slow...

What's your favourite way to use fruit at this time of year?

Off on any foraging adventures of late? 

Have a gorgeous weekend! 

~ Lauren. xx

Permaculture :: Growing + Learning

We've been talking permaculture in these parts for a while now. Our owlets are well versed, having been guinea pigs for our Seedlings e-course, and living with two passionate permie parents, they've totally picked up the lingo. It's hilarious, and pretty amazing to watch how they absorb it so intuitively when we begin talking. And it's an awesome moment when you realise they're getting it, growing with it. Everything's going to be ok with earth stewards like them in the ranks. 

Two years ago, this week exactly, I completed a Permaculture Design Certificate here in Hobart. For me, it was pretty life changing. Like a positive way of re-framing what we already do; connecting the dots so that we can create the kind of community and world we hope to live in. It was a huge, awesome period of growth for me. I discovered it was all about gardening and community and nature and mindfulness and so very much more. Intrigued by my learning experience, Owletpapa undertook his PDC last year, and right now, as I type, he's completing his Permaculture Teacher Training with Rosemary Morrow and a bunch of other incredible passionate permie peeps. It's a perfect fit for him and his ecological brain and somewhat outgoing nature. We're sitting up late into the night talking, debriefing and planning and wondering where this all might go… How we can implement permaculture thinking more fully into our lives. And casting our eyes over our permaculture design (or designs rather, as we've got one each!), and seeing how we're going with implementing that. 

On the practical side of things, our permaculture design is probably one third of the way implemented. We're slow and lazy gardeners, but motivated by bursts of work between bush walks and work days. We have a chook orchard and a small food forest that are going gangbusters. The veggie spiral is bubbling away as we experiment with crop rotation, succession, guild planting and a whole lot of soil improvement. We've slowed the flow of water and nutrients from our garden, created topsoil where there was none, and learnt so much. But we have a heap more lawn to convert into productive space. There's that back corner that's just made for a studio of some sort if we can forego the Hill's Hoist. The front verandah could do with some sort of pergola to grow grapes up and we need to move the side gate. Bees will be arriving in Spring and I'm hoping ducks won't be too far off. The house is another matter entirely, with lots of improvements to be made and water harvesting to be improved. The front garden is yet to be touched, although it's an established mostly-indigenous garden now. Although not as fast as we'd like, it's getting there. 

One of my favourite permaculture principles is Use Small and Slow Solutions. Our current group of Seedlings are looking at it now and hopefully finding some comfort in it too in their busy family-filled days. It's the one that reminds you to just work on things one bite at a time. Things will get done eventually and by slowing down, playing, working, observing, you can appreciate the process so much more. Only realising further down the track what you've achieved. Much like parenting owlets. You just need to trust the process. 

Spots are filling up now for our third season of Spiral Garden Seedlings. In the interests of slowing things down, we're changing the format this Winter. We'll be working through just one principle each week so our families can really get stuck into it deeply, or just pick one thing to do on the weekends. Family time. So far, just one shy of 60 families have joined us for the course. We're super thrilled that some of them want to come back and do it all over again this time. In amongst our Seedlings families have been green thumbs, gardening novices, permaculture designers and teachers, homeschoolers, unschoolers, educators and we're estimating about 300 children - fabulous earth stewards. We're so grateful for the opportunity to share our work and our passion with each of them, seeing families connect and work together. Yep. It's going to be ok. 

~ Owletmama. xx

 

The Importance of Home Days

We're pretty busy people. Busy by choice and busy because we're chasing up all the things we're so passionate about. Mostly we're busy because we're hunting for fungi this time of year and wandering though the bush any chance we can get. I suppose that makes us not so much busy as at play. But we take our play seriously.

The stereotypical image of the isolated, unsocialised homeschooler is not a reality we've ever witnessed.  Where we live, there's so much on offer in the home educating community, and in the natural world around us, we actually have to put our collective foot down to grab some space amongst it all.

The balance of our adventuring days, and classes and outings and co-op days, is our home days. These are the days where we go very slow. Our in-breath. This is our daydreaming space. This is the space where we get stuff done and each explore what it is we each love to do. These are pyjama days, where the questions flow before breakfast ends. These are the days when the owlets delve into their preferred mediums for relaxation, learning and play.

Usually you'll find Big Owlet making art.

Little Owlet will, at some point, be working with her favourite wooden spoon.

And Tiny Owlet will be stacking blocks, or putting them all in a line up the hallway.

I'll be floating around all of them,  helping keep them in orbit, if they need me. I'll be reading with one or all of them. Or working alongside them on my own projects. Sometimes I'll be cooking vast quantities of food to keep them fed and our evenings easier. Lately I've been looking at the piles of surplus stuff in our lives. Things that have seemed to accumulate mysteriously. Home days are a beautiful opportunity to assess those. They're a wonderful opportunity to get out in the garden too, and observe, explore, work and play. There will be screens watched and played on, arguments resolved, friends chatted with, pets played with, chooks cuddled, berries foraged, spills wiped up, washing done… and by the end of the day, the house will probably be trashed before Owletpapa arrives home. A family effort will set it (almost) right before dinner and we'll catch our breath before setting about doing it all again. These are the days that slip by quietly, full of beauty and challenge; everything and nothing much at all.

Home days are a moment to pause and gather ourselves up for the next adventure. But they're also an opportunity to just be ourselves, in our own little nest, without the distractions of commuting and routine driven by external forces. They're an opportunity to grow and learn as individuals and also to work together, in a collective effort, to do what needs doing. And there is so much that needs learning and growing and doing! To us, home education and even permaculture are about anything but being at home all the time. But gosh we'd be lost without our home days!

Do you manage home days often?
Maybe you're travelling and call them something else?
Or maybe you don't spend much time home at all and you like it that way! 
Are home days important to you? 

~ Owletmama. xx

The pretty way...

When I was small, my Dad would often ask us kids in the back seat of the car, which way we wanted to go. "The pretty way!!" we'd shout out with enthusiasm. He always knew the windy, beautiful, wandering ways to get to most places in our city. And if he didn't know, he'd find his way… All the roads join up somewhere…




This has pretty much been how I've rolled ever since. Just slowing down, following the road ahead, keeping an open mind and seeing what life has to offer. When I've attempted to get from A-B in the most direct way, I've often felt like I took a wrong turn somewhere. I suppose it's a bit like taking the road less travelled. It's why I live in Tasmania. It's why our owlets are unschooled… Sometimes it's a little like hurtling along downhill without brakes. But usually it's slow and colourful and infinitely more interesting and satisfying.




It's the kind of thinking behind this app, which totally appeals to me. Shouldn't we all be trying to find the most beautiful way?

Hope you're having a beautiful week!

So much love. xo