Right from when I was young, decluttering has always been refreshing and fun for me. I used to prune out unwanted items and lay them out on my bed and then invite my siblings in to take what they wanted. We called it a garage sale!

But things change when you add a husband and children to the mix. Suddenly it's not just my belongings, but that of 8 of us that are building up in our home!

Last Saturday Margy enlightened us with some sobering statistics about the stuff we hang on to and some fresh ideas to cut back and be free of the clutter.
One that really hit me was that we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time! So true. Even for my children. My elder two girls will wear the same couple of outfits each ALL the time! And I wonder why we bother keeping so many clothes for them that they don't wear. But I'm just as bad. There were (I say WERE because upon returning from this workshop I reevaluated the wardrobe and turfed out a LOT of clothes!) far too many clothing items that I hardly ever wear. Especially skirts, because skirts and farming aren't especially compatible!

Margy had collected some great ideas to inspire us to simplify our lives. One was to look at each item and rather than asking "do I really need this?" asking "does this bring me joy?"

Another idea was to treat the op-shop like your storage space...ie if you don't use something often, why not just op-shop it and if you happen to need it again, go and inexpensively replace it by buying another at an op shop.

The most extreme idea was to have a 'packing party' where you invite several friends over and box up everything you own...then as you need things, pull them out again to use and all the stuff that is left boxed and obviously not needed can be discarded. I can't imagine going to the effort of boxing up everything unless moving house! But it's probably a great drastic measure to help severe hoarders!

Some of us love to prune like this, but have family members who are hoarders. Some advice in this instance, was to make boundaries and let your family member know that you need at least one room or space in your home that is clutter free. Some breathing space.

Another simple idea, is that when a new item is brought into the home, turf an item out in exchange.

Thanks to all who came and shared their ideas and stories, it was a fun and helpful morning!

Letting ewe know what's happening...

After something like 5 years of the Good Shepherd Lutheran church loaning us their lovely kitchen hall for SLT classes, we're moving! Thanks so much to the Good Shepherd Lutheran for your generosity in loaning us your facilities :-) It's been a great venue and many people have been really blessed and inspired by being able to meet there for these classes.

And now we've secured another great venue. This time it will be Range Christian Fellowship in Wilsonton (13-15 Blake St). So keep posted for changes to the May and June classes. The May Decluttering forum location is to be confirmed, but in June (permaculture workshop) we will be starting to meet at Range Christian Fellowship.

Hope to see you there!

It seems I'm not alone in the war on seasonal sinus issues. So many people flare up with the change of seasons and it can get to the point where your nose becomes red raw from excessive wiping with tissues.

One way our family (and many others I'm sure) have found to ease this problem, is to use flannelette hankies. They're so soft! And cheap to make too. And there's even a no-sew option, for those who cringe at the sight of sewing machines :-)

Another benefit is that you choose the hankie size. I must admit that because my flannelette featured stripes, I used them to 'measure' the hankies and couldn't tell you exactly how big they are!

Anyway, if you frequent op shops like we do, you may have noticed flannelette sheets are often available there for a couple of dollars. Mine was a single sized, Australian made sheet in good nick...for $3. A single size sheet makes a lot of hankies. I didn't count, but the end result was a nice tall pile of them.

Now if you want to opt out of the sewing option, you'll need pinking shears (dressmaking scissors that cut a zig-zag rather than a straight line). Then all you do is measure (if you're that way inclined) and cut your hankies to your desired size. The zig-zag will prevent any fraying without the need for a hem.

My Nanna blessed me with an overlocker, so that's what I used. I just followed the stripes to keep my hems even, and then folded the flannelette into a triangle (so it would unfold into an even square...as pictured above).

If you want to sew with a regular machine there are several options. You could get all fancy (more time consuming) and fold over the hem and then sew a straight line, or you could just sew a zig-zag stitch around the edges to prevent fraying

So there you have it...soft and economical...eco friendly hankies that are very simple to make.
This idea can also be used for making cloth toilet paper. Yes, I"m serious! Maybe use a different colour or print to the hankies though so they don't get confused! That might be a separate post for another time. :-)

Next up for Simple Living Toowoomba is an open forum on decluttering. Lightning the hen here (pictured), needs help with her hording of pot plants!
This forum isn't just for people who need help with decluttering, but also for those who have some skill in decluttering and can shine some light on the subject for the rest of us!
Decluttering children isn't too bad...I just 'clean' their room when they're sleeping over somewhere else and chuck out the rubbish. But how do you declutter husbands who manage to fill three sheds and the bedroom with their possessions and still not feel satisfied with their storage space??! Not so easy to sneak their stuff into the bin.

Also in May, is a possible sausage making class at Birdsong Market Garden in Cranley...yet to organise this! We ran one in March '16, but this would be on a weekday for those who can't do weekends or missed the last one.
If you want more details on this, make sure you're on the Simple Living Toowoomba email subscription. That is where the info will be published.

One area that's getting more popular to DIY and go alternative routes in, is healthcare. For years we've rarely visited doctors (though I will point out that I am not against Doctors and have had wonderful help from a wise local doctor when I was dealing with an autoimmune disease), and we try to heal what we can naturally and from home.

So maybe it was only a matter of time before we started looking into natural oral care.
Over the years I've taken most my children to the dentist to have cavities filled and even tooth extractions. It was always baffling, because I don't feed my children what most would consider junk! They eat so much fruit, whole grains, very little processed/packaged food. They always have to brush twice a day...and yet cavities kept coming.

Last year my 6 year old had toothache, and we booked her in to the dentist and found she actually had a mouth ridden with cavities and needed two teeth extracted also! And she ended up with a crown inserted too! How could this happen on the diet these children have?

I'd read blog reviews about 'Cure Tooth Decay' by Ramiel Nagel. All the natural homesteading blogs that I follow raved about this book, and it appeared time for me to read it and see if there was something I could do to turn around my children's oral health. Wow! It's a game changer!

Ramiel is using a lot of research from dentist Weston A. Price in his book, to give us a glimpse of what oral hygiene is like around the world in traditional cultures eating traditional foods that have been prepared properly...and contrasting that with people eating modern diets. The difference is astounding. Did you ever wonder how the ancients cleaned their teeth? Well actually, it looks like they didn't need to. From Australian Aborigines on their traditional diet to natives of the Swiss Alps (also on their traditional unprocessed diet), Weston A. Price kept coming across native cultures of people who had perfect teeth. Low sugar, properly prepared grains and good levels of fat soluble vitamins A and D were some of the factors contributing to their superior oral health.

There's far too much information for me to run over here, read the book for yourself if you're interested. But as an example, some of the tooth remineralising foods are: bone broth, fermented cod liver oil, raw grass-fed dairy products, soft boiled or raw pastured eggs (especially duck eggs), fish (not farmed), lightly cooked grass-fed beef or lamb, wild caught fish eggs, lard from grass fed animals, fermented foods, cooked vegetables with butter or cream (the fat helps you absorb more of the nutrients in the veg), seaweeds.

And the nasty foods for your teeth include: packaged and processed food, infant formula (interestingly enough, I could never produce enough breast milk, so my babies were all formula supplemented which very likely contributed to their cavities later on), whole grains, breakfast cereals, oatmeal, granola (these grains are not prepared properly and contain antinutrients), refined sweeteners, vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

Welcome to Simple Living Toowoomba! And sorry if you've been checking out this website and found no recent or helpful content lately! It's been so busy on the farm. I'm going to take this opportunity to explain Simply Living Toowoomba to people who may not be familiar with us.

Simple Living is about passing on and learning DIY skills that foster a more down to earth and sustainable lifestyle. And it's so much fun knowing how different products are made, even if you won't or aren't able to always make them yourself.

We meet from 10am-midday, one saturday each month at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, near the McDonalds on James St.

Classes are usually $5 which includes a cuppa and usually something simple and allergy friendly to eat.

Margy and Michele run/organise the group. And I'm Racheal, and contribute here and there to classes and the website. If you're interested in knowing what classes are coming up, the best thing you can do is join the mailing list via this website. Classes are usually updated on the website, but the best way to keep updated is definitely the mailing list. Being on the mailing list also means you'll find out about other offers or classes that are not published here. For example, there were bulk mangoes on offer last summer I think, and the offer was put out there to everyone on the mailing list. I also run classes from home once a month on a weekday (good if you can't do Saturdays) and only people on the mailing list are invited, since the classes are in my home.

 You may have already seen the list on the website with class ideas. We've run classes on cheese making, pasta making, sourdough, sausage making, homemade cleaning products, homemade health and beauty products, felting, rag rug making, simple homemade Christmas gift ideas, beekeeping, Tunisian crochet, keeping chickens, organic gardening, jam making, soap making, making cider and mead... and more.

Classes are run by anyone who has some knowledge to pass on about a certain skill/craft. So if you're in possession of a DIY skill that could be a blessing to others to learn, let us know! We're always looking for new class ideas and people to teach them!

To add to the fun and sharing, before almost every class, we have a Homemade/Homegrown swap table. Pictured above are little bags Margy taught us to make a while back. I taught my girls to make them and they love it! And I love being able to quickly make up packaging for soap and other gifts.

Something like this might be found on the swap table. Other swap table ideas are:
homegrown produce
Backyard chook eggs
handmade soap
homegrown/propagated plants
home baked goods
Craft items
Starter cultures (sourdough starter, kefir, kombucha etc)
And much more...
But the idea is that anyone who wants to participate brings up to 5 items to swap. All the items are laid out on the table and when everyone is ready we start the trade. If I brought along 1 item, then I can take 1 item someone else brought from the table. If I brought 5 items, then I can take 5 items etc.

Swap items are usually under $5 each in value. Just mentioning this so you know that items like homemade quilts would be overkill and you probably wouldn't find anything of a similar value to swap it with!

Sometimes people also bring give away items, like surplus citrus. Or DIY related magazines, craft items etc that they no longer need and might be useful to someone else.

So feel free to come along and check out a class! Or if you have a skill you could teach others, let us know

My children love cooking. The eldest is a bit like me and likes to stray from the recipes when she gets used to them and wing it. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it most certainly doesn't! In particular, her last batch of cupcakes were SO dry! Some ingredient must have been omitted. But anyway, these cupcakes had been made with quality ingredients like organic coconut sugar and home grown eggs...I didn't want to just feed them to the chooks!

After over a month of these muffins sitting in the freezer awaiting their sentence, I decided to look around for ideas for using failed cakes...and what do you know? Failed (or leftover cake...but that doesn't exist in our home!) cake can be turned into sweet pie crust! All you do is put the cake through a food processor with enough butter (was about 6 Tbsp in our case) to make a dough like consistency. I'll tell you now though, that I think there should have been an egg in the recipe too. The end result didn't bond like it should have.

Then you just press your dough into your pie dish and blind bake at 200 C for 10 minutes.
When that's done, fill as desired (we tried apples, for a chocolate apple pie. I think custard would work nicely too) and bake accordingly for the filling you have used.

If you have any bright ideas for using failed or leftover cake, let us know!

March already! And this months workshop found us sitting around a crafting table learning to felt a flower with Marilyn, who is president of the Toowoomba Weavers Spinners and Dyers group.

It was lovely to learn under someone so passionate about fibers and crafting!

The process involves dyed wool, bubble wrap, lux flakes, a water bottle/spray bottle and obedience to Marilyn (she's a character and much of the morning was spent joking about some of the pupils misbehavior!)

By the way, the Toowoomba Spinners, Weavers and Dyers meet every Thursday and often Saturdays too and are always happy to take new members. The advantage as a member is you'll have access to a wealth of experience and knowledge from the masters of the crafts who can teach you in the way you should go :-)

Making a flower starts with a sheet of bubble wrap on which you make a circle of wool wisps. NOT to thick, as we were frequently admonished! Don't you just want to touch those clouds of wool on the bubble wrap?

Then the circle is lightly sprinkled with lux soap flakes and wet down. A smaller sheet of bubble wrap with the center removed is placed on the wet wool and then the wool is rubbed between the layers.

Next up we cover the hole in the bubble wrap with some wisps of wool and then continue to make a circle over the existing circle (and bubble wrap). This is soaped, wet and rubbed down and then repeated again, for the third layer of the flower.

When we had the wool felted, it was carefully removed from the bubble wrap 'templates' and wrung out...then it was subject to rinsing, wringing and general rough treatment to form it into the beautiful flower it was destined to be.

I probably haven't done the process justice with this explanation, but you'll just have to go and check out the local group for some expert advice if you want to know more :-)

It looked like a great therapeutic type of craft for those wanting to relax and be creative.

Many of the Simple Living Toowoomba crowd are gardeners and love to produce at least a little of their own food. But then there's also those who don't have the time/space/energy/interest to grow their own, but would still love to be buying and eating homegrown produce, grown without the use of toxic chemicals.

And here's where Birdsong Market Garden may be of interest to you. We're a new (uncertified) Organic market garden, with a strong emphasis on soil nutrition. Soil nutrition is actually largely the reason why we won't bother with organic certification, as they even limit the amount of manure that can be mixed in with the soil!

So Birdsong came about because my husband and I had read about the major issue our culture faces with depleted soils and the resulting mineral deficiencies that cause most of the diseases people are battling. One book in particular stated that you're left with no real options except to use supplements to meet your nutrition needs since food no longer makes the grade. And buying organic doesn't necessarily make any positive difference in the nutrition department. Yes, you'd be doing yourself a favour by avoiding the toxins, but organic food can still be very nutritionally depleted, unless it's from a diligent farmer who looks after their soil.

We decided to do something about this (especially as my electrical engineer of a husband wanted to switch to a more purposeful career!) and start our own market garden, right on the northern edge of Toowoomba.
Soil tests were completed, the soil was balanced with the minerals it had lacked, rich compost was added and we were on our way to real food!

Our trial season (summer '15/16) was a success. I was in the midst of battling an autoimmune disease at the time, which often left me fatigued and I was amazed at how much energy eating daily from our garden gave me. I actually ditched the supplements I'd been taking as I was feeling so healthy.

Fast forward to now...March '17.
This is our first season where we are actually ready to sell produce. This week we've been bringing in loads of rockmelon, watermelon, rainbow chard, corn, butternut pumpkin...plus there are some herbs like rosemary and basil available. More produce will be ready within the next few weeks also, for example, about 8 varieties of heirloom tomatoes!

Our website is https://birdsongmarketgarden.com.au/

At the moment, we are hoping to sell direct to customers via our farm gate stall. We can also do online orders which we can box up and have ready for you to pickup. Prices, farm gate stall times and much more info is available on the website linked above. We're in Cranley, between Wilsonton and Gowrie Junction (full address also o the website), just a 10 minute drive from Toowoomba.

If you're looking for nutritious, balanced produce, then come see us!

Racheal

The above link is to the incredibly diligent blogger, Michele's, post on last Saturday's jam making workshop.
What a turnout! 24 people I think! And Glenys did a fabulous job showing us how to turn surplus seasonal produce into tasty jam. I think my 9 year old son would love to have a jam-creating Grandma like that!
Maybe one workshop I'll actually remember that my phone is with me and get up and take some photos so I can show you more of what went on at the workshop. But for now, we have Michele :-)

Since a number of people asked for the recipes for the morning tea goodies we partook of at the workshop, I'll post them here. It's all gluten free.

Cinnamon Nuts
1 egg white
1 tsp cold water
4 cups nuts (almonds are great)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 120 C.
Whip up your egg white and cold water until it's frothy, but not too stiff.
Coat your nuts in the egg white.
Then sprinkle over the cinnamon, sugar and salt.
Mix it all thoroughly and bake in that slow oven for about an hour. You can turn the nuts during this time, but I never bother. You know your oven better than I do!

If any nuts make it to a storage container, make sure it's airtight and the nuts are cool enough to pack away. I couldn't tell you how long they last, because our tribe eat them long before we have to think about that!

Cinnamon Choc Biscuits
1 1/4 c GF flour (we use Orgran brand and NEVER Woolworths GF flour, as it seems to be far too high in corn and doesn't behave the same)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 c cocoa
1/2 c butter
1 cup coconut sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (or a whole block if you're like us!) of 70% cocoa chocolate, chopped (hint: the price on this is often best if you buy it from the baking section of the supermarket, not the confectionery aisle).

Preheat oven to 180 C.
In an average sized bowl, mix your dry ingredients.
Then cream your butter and sugar in another bowl.
Add the egg and vanilla to the creamed butter and sugar and mix.
Add your dry ingredients and mix, then finally throw in those chopped chocolate pieces.
Roll into balls, place on your baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes.

On a different note completely, I want to show you the funniest eggplant I ever did see. We called him Pinocchio of course...