Skip to main content

Simple living in 2014

As we all know, simple living is not simple!  Here's all the posts I've shared about the things going on in our life and what we try to do to increase our self-reliance and preparedness.



The house
Stairs for our removal house

Renovation update - our new/old Queenslander


Plastic free July and a plastic concious life
Plastic Free - Personal care, toiletries and other...

Plastic Free - Recycling and reducing rubbish

Plastic Free - Food shopping and food storage

Plastic Free - cleaning products

Plastic free - wrap up



Sewing, knitting, crocheting and creating
Knitting - how to handle a hank of yarn
Knitting is a survival skill
Easy knitted arm warmers (double pointed needles)
Hand sewing - replacing a button
Hand sewing - hems of skirts and trousers
I'm hooked! Learning to crochet...
Making a dressmaker's dummy
Lavender wheat heat packs



Soap making and other body stuff
A natural deodorant solution
How to rebatch a soap disaster
Healing herbal salve
Essential oils for man and beast
Sustainable soap - 100% tallow! 

Comments

  1. have just thoroughly enjoyed your posts on your new/used house, love old houses, especially when they haven't been bodged with home renovators who know absolutely nothing about it ( have had walls removed where they shouldn't have been removed) one day hope to be in a nice little cottage (in original condition) in the middle of a large acreage too!
    am looking forward to seeing more progress on your new adventures here & love the name. will you be changing the blog name when you move as well?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night.  Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things.  Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away.  Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now.  My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together.  Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market.  Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle).  We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...