Sunday, August 14, 2011

My Other Life

I thought today as a nurse a sick baby ( and can't do much of anything else except type one handed) that I might write a little about "my other life" - my life away from CouCou/sewing and Facebook.

My goal/dream is to live a simple life - where we make what we can, mend rather than replace, grow our own food and basically tread as lightly as possible on the earth.

We left the hustle, bustle of the Gold Coast with this idea very much in our minds - moved into a rented house on 17acres with very grand plans. Well we got off to a flying start planting out vege gardens, buying some pigs and chickens, making our own bread, jams etc. Today things are a little different - I still want all those things - even more than I did before - but I have learned a few things - okay a lot of things about myself and we will be starting again from scratch very soon I hope.

Firstly I learnt - I hate renting, now I know it works for lots of people but going from our own home to renting has proven difficult for me. It doesn't feel like mine and I can't fully relax here. Don't get me wrong I love this ramshackle little run down place - but I am never fully comfortable. I worry what the kids are going to break, draw on, or ruin next. I don't want to spend money on planting trees and veges knowing I could be asked to leave at any time.

Second lesson - we don't like pigs much, sure the piglets are cute, but they eat a lot, are smelly, and not very cooperative. We no longer have pigs, we sold some piglets but most of them and their parents were given away. Happily the mums and dads went to a not for profit organisation that teaches school kids about farm animals etc and they will breed from them again.


Lesson 3 - I like to jump in at the deep end when I should be taking baby steps. I try to do it ALL now and end up burning myself out.

So where are we now - we are looking to sell our Gold Coast property and buying somewhere to turn into OUR home again. We don't want much - I don't need all the bells and whistles - just needs to fit us all in and have a bit of land :). I have also learned that we can't afford the kind of land that i would like so my dream of a milking cow is out the window, but instead will focus on trying to find someone to supply me with raw milk.
I still make most of our food from scratch but have noticed more convenience foods creeping in to our diet, which is okay but would like to reduce that again. I am very proudly still shampoo free and will soon start making my own soap and laudry detergent.

I just can't wait to stop working and have more time in my day to little by little start back on the road to my dreams. The biggest lesson for me so far has been - one day at a time and that those changes that I make slowly and gradually are the ones that stick. No more jumping in the deep end - I will make changes one at a time and when that becomes habit, I will make another change.



xx

1 comment: