Slow Living farm update - December 2014

Dec 03, 2014by Farmer Liz

November is over and I'm joining in the Slow Living Monthly Nine, started by Christine at Slow Living Essentials and currently hosted by Linda at Greenhaven. Here's what we got up to November in our "slow life"!

Nourish

We had another fun morning at the Nanango markets and come home with lots of local food - a box of apples from Stanthorpe, a braid of chemical-free garlic from down the road, bananas from Wamuran, blueberries from Mullumbimby, chevon (goat meat) from Gympie, corn and potatoes from the Lockyer Valley, olives from Murgon, mangoes from Northern Territory (oops, that's not local, but they were a nice treat), and lots lots more

Prepare

I've been sewing on buttons, mending holes and adjusting hems. I think these are all very useful skills and its good to practice them, I've been sharing a few tips along the way. I'm looking forward to taking on some larger sewing projects once I have my mending out of the way.

Reduce

I stopped at the op shop (charity store) to get Pete some t-shirts and picked up a few things for myself. I still can't believe the expensive, unused or nearly new clothes that people give away. I am comfortable shopping there because I know my money goes to charity and there are plenty of clothes to go around, so I'm not taking from those who can't afford new clothes. I actually prefer shopping there and find new clothes shopping overwhelming, with too much choice of colour, styles and sizes, at the op shop if it looks ok and fits, I'll take it!

Green

We saw a goanna and a koala at our property all on one hot Sunday morning, so we are feeling pretty good about all the trees and the critters that are hiding in them (although we would prefer that the goannas stayed in the trees, we had to wait for it to move on before we could get out of the car!).

Grow

I shared my garden progress here earlier in the week....

Create

We have been making slow progress on our solar bore pump, mainly due to the weather, which by they way, has been hot and dry. We spent two hours digging a hole in mid-30degC heat, and only got down 700 mm. The next weekend was cooler (only 30 degC!) and we managed to concrete a slab around the bore and another around the pole for the solar panel frame. Its exciting to see it getting close to being completely installed.

Enhance

I haven't had much time for community this month, apart from blogging, and I am really enjoying some of the discussions on my Eight Acres - the blog facebook page, so if you haven't joined it, come over and have a look.

Discover

You might notice a theme here, for the past three months Pete and I have been researching beekeeping. We have bought books, got books from the library, downloaded books, listened to podcasts, bought a load of old beekeeping gear, observed native bees and we are thoroughly enjoying the process of discovering bees! We even visited honey producers while on holiday in New Zealand!

Enjoy

We had 10 days in NZ and it was lovely and cool and so GREEN (more photos here). But it was nice to be home too, you can't leave these two cuties behind for long (we are so lucky that Pete's dad was able to stay and look after the dogs and all the animals, it makes the holiday even more relaxing to know they are hanging out with their Pa).

Blogs you might like

To live deliberately
13 acres
Just having a yarn
Also Chris from Living at Gully Grove has started a lovely new blog to document their move into town: Small Virtues

How was your November? What are your plans for December?