In other words - 2012 update

Apart from the kitchen, garden, chickens, cattle and farm that I already wrote about, there were a few other interesting things that didn't fit into any category.

Chicken update
Garden update
Kitchen update
Cattle update
Farm update

I reviewed a book about plastic, and even though I’m a chemical engineer, I learnt a fair bit about plastic from this book, so I recommend that you read this or something similar. It really made me realise that these are new chemicals and they don’t belong in our bodies or our ecosystems. I can’t say that I live completely plastic-free, but it did make me try so much harder to look for plastic-free options.

Plastic - book review

Over winter I had another go at knitting and, thanks to youtube, I got a little better, mastered purling and ribbing and made a few cowls and things. Knitting just feels wrong in summer, so I have a half-finished sock ready to start again in winter 2013! Something that I really want to try is making a rag rug, I got a bag of rags from the op-shop, so I will try to give that a go in 2013.

Learning to knit and "mancrafts"

We’ve been looking after little Chime the kelpie for nearly 2 years now, and looks like she might be staying a bit longer, which is great because Cheryl the kelpie seems to like having a companion. I made them both new dog coats and mats, which they don’t get to use much, but nice when its cold or they get wet. I also wrote a bit about kelpies as some of my international readers probably don’t know much about this unique Aussie working dog breed.

Sewing dog coats

The Australian kelpie

Its been nearly a year since I used any shampoo or soap to wash my hair and I think its working out great. My hair doesn’t look greasy or unhealthy. I haven’t had to buy any hair products and deal with trying to figure out what all the ingredients are. I know it won’t work for everyone, but I encourage you to give it a try… I haven't washed my hair since January

Over winter we had the woodfire cranking again. It is a very convenient way to heat the house when we have so much wood on our property and we can also use it to cook. We don’t use our electric stove much at all, as the woodfire is always lit in winter and we use the BBQ in summer as its quick to heat up (and doesn’t heat up the house as well). If anyone is considering wood-fired heating, I would encourage you to look at something you can use for cooking as well.

Winter woodfires - how to light a fire

Winter woodfires - preparing firewood

Winter Woodfires- cooking in a woodstove

Winter Woodfires- installing a woodfire

What do you think? What "other" things did you get up to this year?

Cooking and eating beans

When I was growing up, my family never ate many dried beans, they just weren't something that was used much in NZ cuisine. If I did eat beans, it was always from a can (and most likely baked beans). And until recently I was still using beans from a can, but it can be difficult to get organic beans, and to find cans not lined with BPA. Then I had an opportunity to buy some organic dry goods in bulk, so I bought 5kg of kidney beans, 5kg of adzuki beans and 5kg of chickpea (garbanzo beans). I know, that is a lot of beans. And then I didn't really know what to do with them! Not just what dishes to put them in, but how to prepare them, I just didn't know what method to use. So I decided it was time to learn how to use all these beans that I bought, here's what I found out. I started with an excellent ebook called The Everything Beans Book , from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship, which has lots of bean recipes, but more importantly, an explanation of h...

Guest post: Is there a place for power tools in the garden?

One of my regular readers and commenters offered to write a guest post about a horticulture course, its quite a funny read, with some serious insights into our technology obsession. If you'd like to submit a guest post, email me at eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com. While I am always happy to share links back to your blog or website, this contributor preferred to remain anonymous. I hope you enjoy their story.... -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- Just a few days ago our daily horticulture classes were interrupted by an invitation to review some new gardening gadgets. The idea was to open half a dozen of electric hand trimmers , test them and fill in some review about their goods and bads. As nothing is more dear to a student – even a “hort “ one - to escape routine and mess around till lunchtime, we opened the boxes and got down to business. What did we...

Making tallow soap

Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post! New soap website and shop opening soon.... For some reason I've always thought that making soap seemed too hard. For a start the number of ingredients required was confusing and all the safety warnings about using the alkali put me off. The worst part for me was that most of the ingredients had to be purchased, and some even imported (palm oil and coconut oil), which never seemed very self-sufficient. I can definitely see the benefits of using homemade soap instead of mass produced soap (that often contains synthetic fragrance, colour, preservatives, and has had the glycerine removed), but it seemed to me that if I was going to buy all the ingredients I may as well just buy the soap and save myself all the hassle. For the past several years I have bought homemade soap from various market stalls and websites, and that...

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