Becoming Domestic

I have put off writing this post for ages as I’ve not been able to put it concisely enough that I’m moving off BD and onto a new joint blog written with my blessed soulmate Bealers. We’ve called it Becoming Self Sufficient but it’s more than that, it is our path away from the hideousness of western society’s ridiculous addiction and dependence on all things nonrenewable and the terrible unpredictable side effects of the rapid change of global climates.

We’re moving house (yet again) but to a very exciting place which is a newly established eco-village in Cornwall. We will be joining forces with people who share our outlook and have a desire to be less reliant on the just-in-time food delivery systems we have become so used to in supermarkets with oil that is cheaper than bottled water enabling  foodstuffs to reach us from far and wide.

We hope to live lightly enough on the land so that when our children and grandchildren implore us with questions like ‘What did you do to try and prevent this hideous barely habitable mess of our Earth’s environment?’we will not have to look away shame faced remembering airplane flights, leisure, pleasure, indulgence and lack of foresight. Luckily for us the shared farm we are moving to is a beautiful place, by the sea, the children run free all day long in the woods with no cars to worry about and the grown ups talk over shared dinners about exciting projects (an eco hostel, a huge children’s playground, a forest garden, shared workshops and farm shop planning).

We will have our own home and privacy when we need it, with a kitchen and personal facilities but the idea of a community working and enjoying life together is really appealing to us now.

Since October last year when we first visited our soon-to-be new home out of sheer curiosity about what communal living might look like my eyes have been opened wide to the monumental task of ceasing the runaway oil burning lifestyles our countries have had for the past 100 years and frankly I haven’t been able to think of much else. I feel a bit like I haven’t got a single moment to lose.

We’ve read as many books as we can lay our hands on which explore the argument for our having rapidly depleted so much oil in such a short space of time (this amazing substance could have powered and heated many many generations but instead we’ve squandered it on crap plastic toys which get broken within an instant, wealthy lifestyle only a few oil-rich nations have been able to emulate AND – this is the best bit – we’ve built a food production industry which is 100% reliant on the oil being plentiful and cheap forever. Most farms are so big they can only be tended by huge machines, the soil has been wrecked so that to make it possible to grow crops farms are needing to add industrial strength fertilizers derived from guess what – OIL  products.

According to many many knowledgeable sources we have already used up our US & UK reserves of oil and both nations now import huge quantities oil from Middle Eastern states who aren’t actually that fond of our wicked ways.

We do not know what will happen to stop all this madness but at some point stop it must. It may be that prices set by OPEC make road haulage unprofitable, petrol/gas unavailable, flying all over the world several times a year something only the super rich can do. It may be that more wars will break out as governments try to secure enough fossil fuel energy for their never-ending growth economies.

As a couple we have decided that it is almost certain that things cannot continue the way they currently are (it is said that if we in the West continue to use resources at the rate we are now we will need at least another three planet Earth’s to supply us). We have a wish to tool-up with skills, knowledge (and hand tools) and raise our kids in a way that prepares them for a very uncertain future.

We hope very much that they will, by the time they are adult, know how to grow food, manage woodland as a source of fuel and building supplies, look after our precious water resources, harness the plentiful free wind and solar energy we have all around us, work with others who have skills they do not, be able to sew, cook, mend.

For the short term I shall continue to look after the children and the household as my main role but with a bit of luck I shall be able to team up with some of the other mum’s at the farm and find time to garden, organize, learn how to look after livestock and in the longer term I’d like to establish myself as a Permaculture teacher (maximizing small scale food production with minimal energy) as it is said that this is one of the viable solutions to the problems we have created.

My Bealers has decided to transition himself towards a new career and has just this week been accepted to study for a two year MSc in Renewable Technologies. He is also enjoying reskilling as a carpenter and green woodworker by attending evening classes and workshops.

I’d like to thank any of you out there wholeheartedly for reading my blog up to this point – I’ve really enjoyed the comments you’ve provided and the writing itself has been a very interesting path for me. Please follow our progress on our new blog becomingselfsufficient.org.uk

Cathie Ackroyd – June 2009

What Can You Do?

• Grow some food
• Get a bike
• Keep some chickens
• Cook food from scratch instead of take-outs, ready meals
• Support local producers by buying their products in season instead of getting stuff from far-flung places
• Begin to wean your family of cheap, plentiful fossil fuel energy (drive less, have air-con/heating on less, use a washing line not drier, don’t fly, reuse, reduce & recycle wherever you can)
• Teach your children to wear clothes until they grow out of them or wear them out
• Join your nearest transition group (or start your own)
• Campaign for government reaction against climate change

Further Reading

• The Long Emergency – James Kunstler
• Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-carbon Society – Richard Heinberg
• The Transition Handbook – Rob Hopkins

Films

• A Farm for the Future – Rebecca Hosking
• How Cuba survived Peak Oil
• The End of Suburbia
• The Age of Stupid

June 22nd, 2009 | Category: Downshifting | Leave a comment

An independent television production company are currently developing a television series and are searching for families or individuals who have decided to downshift or make a career change and set up on their own. Are you about to embark on a new life and a new venture?

We’re looking for anyone who has decided to escape the rat race, change their lives and set up their own dream business. You may have taken redundancy and are using your financial package to start up on your own, or simply decided to follow your dreams, get a better life and start that business you’ve always wanted to. It may be setting up a small holding or a B+B, a restaurant, a shop or a farm and cafe – whatever the business, whatever the industry, we’re interested to hear.

Whether your setting up in the UK or abroad – we’re looking to contact anyone who is just about to start their life change and are in the very early stages are setting up.

For further information please email: becky.morris@ninelivesmedia.co.uk
Please include some detail about your planned move/business.

May 11th, 2009 | Tags: Downshifting | Category: Downshifting | Leave a comment

My tremendous man likes his food but has us both worried about the minimal number of vegetables or fruit he eats voluntarily.

Most of the meals we have cooked and eaten for the last few years have catered to his tastes (pizzas, roast dinners, rich casseroles and hearty cooked breakfasts) instead of mine which would lean towards including many salads, soups, fish dishes and many meat-free meals.

Because of this reliance of meaty dishes (partly) we have both gained unwanted weight and would like to eat less heavy meals and introduce more vegetarian items to our main evening meals. On thumbing through the vegetarian cookbooks it transpired that there was very little which sounded nice to B. I suggested to him that maybe we/he need to stop thinking in terms of what would TASTE like a good treat to eat but what would be a good treat for our insides to eat.

As well of the health risks associated with eating a long-term diet rich in meat and saturated fats (heart disease and bowel disease mainly I think) we also would like aim to be able to buy a higher quality of meat, locally reared less often than the mass-produced supermarket supplied cuts more frequently. Local, organic meat is without a doubt an expensive commodity but by only eating meat once a week for our main meal we hope to be able to buy a fine bird or joint for our Sunday roast dinner.

Last week I managed to compile and cook a full week’s worth of vegetarian dinners all of which were well received by B and I’m happy to share them with you here:

• Roasted vegetables (red onion, red peppers, courgettes, aubergine, mushrooms) ith grilled haloumi cheese, houmous and raw spinach leaves
• (grated) Courgette and red onion cheese quiche with wholemeal shortcrust pastry and homemade coleslaw
• Vegatable lasagne (with majority of veg being chopped into pretty small pieces but the mushrooms left chunky as an almost-meat substitute)
• Jacket potato with tuna mayonnaise (added finely chopped spring onion, red pepper, celery and sweetcorn kernals)
• Vegetarian grills (Quorn I think) bought from a shop made to be like pretend breaded chicken escalopes served with potato wedges
• Bean stew – the same as our sausage casserole only without the sausages

And when I’m home alone the following options are invariably cooked and eaten as both are my favourites but sadly abhored by Mr B:

• Chick pea dahl (surprisingly delicious tinned option from Morrisons) augmented with spinach, served with boiled rice, natural yoghurt and mango chutney
• Any one of a number of scrumptious risottos (pea, mushroom, courgette, plain old onion) all made with homemade frozen chicken stock (I recognise that this disqualifies it from being classified as vegetarian), white wine and lashings of parmeasan cheese.

January 16th, 2009 | Category: Menu Planning | Comments (4)

I found a large sad and bendy looking piece of broccoli at the back of the fridge drawer this morning and an even sadder neglected piece of stilton cheese from Christmas (when, oh when will we learn that we never do sit around eating mounds of cheese, crackers and pickled onions during the festive season and stop buying them each year?). I was just about to sling them in the bin when I remembered that my favourite flavour of ready made chilled soup from the supermarket was always Broccoli & Stilton.

Not being one for following other people’s recipes I did the following to transform these two rather grizzly finds into the most delicious warming, sustaining bowl of creamy soup I have tasted for a long time…

1. Chopped the broc into florets and the stalks into pieces, discarded the extremely manky looking bits
2. Tried to cover the florets with milk (whole milk as that is what we use in this house) but finished the bottle before they were submerged so topped up with cold water and a teaspoon of veg bouillion stock
3. Brought to the boil and simmered for approx 10 minutes (didn’t time it – poked the broc and it was tender yet still green) then turned off the hob
4. Carved the hideous crusts of mould off the hunk of stilton and chopped the rest (even the really dried up bits) into small chunks. Threw them in with the broccolli and stirred around.
5. Blended with my hand blender
6. Enjoyed a small bowl which I found to be extraordinairily tasty and satisfying

January 15th, 2009 | Category: Frugal living, Recipes | Comments (1)

My 11 month old baby girl is totally wonderful in so many ways but recently we are all marvelling at how she is able to communicate her thoughts and needs by using some of the signs we have shown her.

If she spots a cat outside the window or in a book she strokes her left hand with her right (and gets very excited too). We say ‘Have you seen a cat?’ and most often she has spotted it way before we would have done. Similarly with horses (her big sister’s toys, a picture in a book or perhaps one of the many that pass the house each day) she makes the horse sign (a clip clop noise and a vague reigns holding sign). She asks for milk when she is thirsty (or tired but that’s a whole seperate post topic) and nods furiously when we say ‘Would you like some milk?’.She also requests to go and look out the front window at the birds (many including pheasants, birds of prey and huge flocks of more common garden birds) by waving and then making the gesture which means ‘bird’ (finger and thumb make a beak open and closing sign). When asked ‘Shall we look for birds in the garden?’ after seeing these actions we again get much leg wiggling and excitable noises. She is a blessed little thing who clearly enjoys chatting.

Now that she has understood that most things have a label and a sign she is able to make despite not having the power of vocal speech she is able to make little sentences (’Hello eating horse/bird/cat’) and is able to pick up new signs almost daily.

We used sign language with our twins 5 years ago when they were the same age. It was so awesome to have actual conversations with babies who couldn’t yet walk let alone talk and I find it sad that not more parents don’t encourage this very primative form of communication with their little babes.

We have had no training, have not attended any classes (although I am aware that such classes exist), we have simply got two picture board books from the library and have repeated the signs (just five to begin with ‘yes’, ‘milk’, ‘food’, ‘all finished’ and ‘more’) as nauseum until one day she started doing them back to us.

Here are the books. It is so much fun having a baby who instead of crying can politely tug your leg and make the sign for ‘milk’ and tells her Daddy about the interesting animals she has seen during her day when he comes home from work…

‘My First Signs‘ by Annie Kubler

and

‘My First Animal Signs‘ by Anthony Lewis

January 11th, 2009 | Category: Baby and Pregnancy | Comments (6)

Hello all & sorry to those of you who have noticed that recent postings from this site had been rather thin on the ground. We moved house about four weeks ago, moved the offices of the family firm two weeks ago and quite frankly the move plus three young children (two starting a new school), cold weather, Christmas admin AND a couple of bowts of nasty sickness bugs and colds too have left precious little time for any extra-curricular activities (other than my new hobby of knitting which I do while all three kids are in the bath tub and I’m watching they don’t drown from the loo seat).

I’m back now – having found a home for most of the contents of the packing boxes and am inspired by an very cool blogger called Sharon J who has written daily for as long as I can recall at her blog ‘Finding Simplicity’. Sadly for us Sharon has decided today to cease blogging and to concentrate on her goals, health, friends and family in private and I just wanted to honour her commitment to tending her blog by pubically thanking her for each and every post she has written and by also promising to write more frequently myself now we are settled in our new remote, rural abode.

January 11th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ok I’m not strictly qualified to write this post just yet as the house move has not yet been successfully completed but have a few choice gems to share from others who have recently relocated their family home and am so pleased I listened to their advice.

1. You can never have too many strong boxes and suitcases. Send messages out via Freecyle and local chums that you need every box, basket, crate, case they can spare. We were lucky enough to have a friend move a few weeks before us so I have been unashamedly inviting myself over to her house to help unpack and as each box was emptied it was flattened and squeezed into my car.

2. Take digital photos while you are packing boxes which look different to the rest (most of mine are exactly the same). So you can scroll through the pictures after the move and recall which set of things are in which box.

3. OVER LABEL each box. My poor chum who has kindly donated her supply of 50+ boxes had the removal firm complete her packing while she was away with the children. She had the annoying problem of having a tower of about ten boxes marked only with ‘KITCHEN’ with no idea where the wooden spoons, casseroles might be hiding. Having learnt from her I am now taking care to itemise with a big fat marker pen (’Blue heavy casserole’, ‘chopping boards’, ‘contents of left hand drawer’)

4. Overestimate how much time it will take you to pack. We started the moment we agreed to rent the new house just 4 weeks ago and although it feels like we have done so much we wil still have to work really hard to get the remaining kitchen items, bedding, bathroom bits and pieces into boxes in time for the removal firm’s arrival early on Thursday morning

5. Have at least a couple of brown tape machines for extra fast assembly and sealing of boxes. Also have plenty of fat marker pens as the house gets really messy and chaotic really quickly and it is very irritating to need to label a box whilst you remember what is in it but then have to run around the house peering over boxes trying to locate one of the marker pens.

6. Create a moving folder which lives in a handy place – keep removal firm phone numbers, letting agent correspondence and this terrific checklist from www.helpiammoving.com

7.Have kids pack a box for themselves so they have easy access to some of their favourite toys while the big unpack is being done.

8. Assume you will not be able to find anything you NEED for a few days and pack all essentials into overnight bags for each member of the family. My lists go something like this:
5 year olds = Favourite snuggly toy, underwear, pyjamas, slippers, dressing gowns, sheet for bed, school uniform for new school, other clothes lunchbags, water bottles, hot water bottles, small book, colouring things, story book.
Baby = Travel cot and sheet, sleeping bag, baby clothes, nappies & wipes, rattles, book, baby food, beaker, baby monitor
Me = Washbag, clothes, underwear, makeup, tin opener, purse, camera, sheet for bed, address book, mobile phone & charger, notepad and pen.

9. Do not pack the kettle, mugs, milk, tea, coffee and squash also buy a tin of biscuits as removals is thirsty hard work.

10. Work on the principle of ‘little and often gets the job done’. Do 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there and gradually everything gets packed in an organised fashion, the old house gets cleaned, all the people who need to know the new address details get notified, monies are paid on time and everything goes well.

Here’s hoping…

November 24th, 2008 | Category: Home Management, Top Tips | Comments (5)

Free gifts in a pretty Christmas basket

I’ve been given two great thrifty money saving Christmas ideas from the wonderful newsletter produced by Sue at www.nomoreclutter.co.uk

1. My favourite idea is to use a pretty basket and pile it high with newish things you have around the house and can easily can say goodbye to (eg. paperbacks, unopened makeup, booze, newish DVDs, computer games, toys, pretty jewelry, scarves etc) perhaps tying a bit of pretty ribbon around each thing. When a Christmas guest arrives you are able to invite them to chose a gift for themselves from the selections. Apparently the official name for this is re-gifting. I love it.

2. Like many people who find it hard to let go of stuffI have a ‘present box’ which always seems to be full as I buy little bits and pieces throughout the year from charity shops or special offers and also add to it the things we are given but are unlikely to use. This year I shall attempt to empty the box by giving the things as presents or by adding to the open re-gifting basket. Some of the things in my present box have moved house with me once already and have just been packed again for our next house move this week. I’ll be darned if I’m moving any of those same treasures a third time when we move house again!

3. Another thrifty idea for gifts came to me in our beloved local library this afternoon when the children and I were looking through the Usbourne Treasury of Christmas. It has recipes for heart shaped peppermint creams (which are even easier to make than my ever popular playdough recipe). I’m not sure who will get the most joy – the kids while making them or their grandma when receiving them and eating them… I shall be making the smallest token nods towards christmas present making afew jars of pink grapefruit curd (like lemon curd only more original and prettier in colour) for our extended family members.

Peppermint Creams Recipe

Ingredients:
White from one large egg or two small eggs
8 oz icing sugar (one cup of confectioners’ sugar or frosting if you live in the US)
Small amount of peppermint essence
Food coloring (optional)

Beat the egg white in a bowl with a fork and sieve (sift) in 6oz of icing sugar (frosting). Add pink, green or blue food colouring (a very steady, adult hand is required for this, and the tiniest sprinkle of food coloring will do the job). Mix well with a wooden spoon and then sieve in more icing sugar, a little at a time, until you have made a stiff paste. Shake a little icing sugar on the work surface and empty the paste onto this.

Add 3 – 4 drops of peppermint essence and gently knead until you have a smooth paste. Have a taste of a small piece and if the flavour is not strong enough, add a few more drops of peppermint essence.

Sprinkle icing sugar over a rolling pin to prevent sticking, and roll the paste to a quarter of an inch (0.5cm) thick. Cut out individual peppermint creams with a star, circle or heart shaped cutter, or, if pressed for time, cut out small squares with a knife.

Cover a plate with non-stick parchment or greaseproof paper and place the peppermint creams on the paper. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave overnight in a cool place (but not the fridge). Store in an airtight tin or jar.

November 19th, 2008 | Category: Saving Money | Comments (2)

Having considered a huge range of possible cures for our itchy feet Bealers and I finally found a house we may move to in a few weeks while off work this during this half term holiday (all five of us laid low with stomach bugs and filthy colds).

Possible options have been wide ranging and have included taking the family travelling for six months to a year, living and working in an intentional community (very appealing in many respects), helping my dad complete his renovation of his home in France, buying a reasonably priced plot of agricultural land to start a smallholding on in west Wales or just to move to a new rental house which meets more of our needs than this present one does.

Our minds were kept well and truly open until we heard of a house for rent in a very pretty, very rural location not too far from where we are now but too far for the twins to continue at the school they have attended since we left London two and a half years ago. We had seen the house advertised about six months ago but had ruled out viewing it as it was beyond our rental budget and also seemed too far from ‘everything’.

Since first advertising the house the owners have emigrated and have now dropped the rent so we drove out to see it as on paper it seemed to have a good number of rooms, a large garden and orchard, countryside views, is near to a very small rural school (just 40 pupils on role) but yet near enough to Bealers offices to be a possibility.

We knew fairly soon during the viewing that although it wouldn’t be a financial downshift (more a financial sideshift as the rent will be slightly more but the house is doubleglazed and has a woodburner and its own woodland area so hopefully heating oil costs will be lower), it could be another move towards a much more simple lifestyle away from the relentless pressure to shop and consume.

The house and school are both surrounded by fields, rivers and woods. We saw more than ten pheasants on our drive from the main road to the house, a buzzard flying overhead and horses, cows and sheep in the distance. As a long term aim we both still hold a desire to become more self-sufficient in a more remote location but by renting this house first we are able to see whether we do actually like living so far from a town environment.

One thing which initially concerned me is how much I might miss the facilities of the small town I use everyday after dropping the children off to school – the butchers, the bakers, the Co-op, the charity shops, the bank, the chemist. In the potential new village there is just a (lovely) little shop, post office, one pub, the village hall, the church and school. After a few days of pondering I remembered how I once realised that it is easy to live in the countryside and enjoys all of its benefits but one has the ability to visit the nearby town whenever one wants to but harder to do it the other way round (to live in a town but to truly appreciate the benefits of rural life whenever one fancies it). I’m more than happy to try it out for a year or so. Especially because the house itself has a few extra rooms so we can have a dedicated guest room and baby bedroom.

If the headteacher of the possible new school says that she has two places for the kids then we are likely to move house in the first week of December. I found a fantastic website today with loads of checklists and advice for people moving house called www.helpiammoving.com I particularly liked the ‘How to move with children’ section and will borrow a few of the books they recommend on the subject to read to E & M. We’ll start the long job of packing, getting rid of stuff we don’t need as soon as I’ve spoke to the headteacher to confirm the school has places tomorrow but luckily the decluttering task will be lessened by the fact that we moved not so long ago and I have been slowly getting rid of surplus books, clothes, toys, ornaments whenever possible.

I’m also going to follow our friend L’s expertise and make sure that on the day of the move itself the kids are looked after by someone they know while we scurry around and get the children’s new bedrooms looking wonderful and inviting at the very least.

Initially I thought that the best time to change schools would be after the Christmas break as they wouldn’t want to miss all the lovely activities in the run up to the holidays at their current school. Then I realised that actually it might be best to start at the new school when it is all carol singing, pantomime trips, Christmas fayres and parties. When the new term starts in January it won’t be a horrid bleak unfamiliar environment it will be saying hello to friends they started to make in the fun time prior to the Christmas break.

November 2nd, 2008 | Category: Family Life | Comments (4)