Black Gold

Today’s task was to harvest the homemade compost and to start the new compost heap with the resources available in the garden. The heap was emptied and started again with layers of leaves collected and started in a black plastic bag, rabbit poop and bedding ( available locally), earth from pots from last year, grass clippings and kitchen waste. It then was sprinkled with water and covered with a layer of the leftover wool material that had been pecked at for weeks as nesting material for the birds. The area is not wheelchair accessible but in the corner is a broken plant pot allowing me to deposit waste collected that will be added weekly. The compost available now is black, dry and liquid gold for the garden.

Compost bin part 1

Today’s gardening task with help is going to be crucial to continue to reduce the waste from the garden as well as home  and decreasing the waste produced and sent away. The compost heap. It’s small but bijou. My grow beds will get a top up on a regular basis and I intend to put waste to better use. Secret to good compost seems to be in the planning: brown and green waste. Seems I have a variety of that so walk with me.Bacteria are the future !

Project 333

Having previously had a collection of black trousers and over the years questioned where my clothes come from and how ethical they are I have turned to Project 333 to minimise and analyse my wardrobe needs and purchases. Looking through the entire wardrobe I realised not only a variety of sizes but a lot of clothes I no longer loved and that do not belong in a working wardrobe. Alongside Courtney Carvers blog I have investigated Helen Stewarts podcast about the Curious Handmade Wardrobe and thus have decided to combine the two. Fewer items, individual styles and never running out of thinks to wear,whats not to love?

a Handmade Wardrobe

The consideration of a minimal wardrobe and what exactly one would consist off has been on my mind for a few years.Clothes have gone from prize possessions, being handed down and left in Wills to items we do not think about. Having done an audit on the clothes in my wardrobe, and having gained weight on medication, I did find 8 pairs of black trousers and fit today matters.8 was just a bit tops.This winter I am aiming at having a new outfit and discard some clothes to charity or repurposing them.Some sewing skills to be rekindled too. What thoughts do you have about the clothes you wear?

The difference between needing and wanting

The strategy I use to spend less is as follows: At the beginning of the month my budget to spend gets transferred into my savings account. That money has been taken out of my current account and is no longer available to spend. Then I run a little list so that every time I am tempted to buy something I commit it to my list. In September the list looks something like this: 1. Magazine subscription 2. Mineral supplements 3. Green polo neck 4. Simplicity pattern 5. Seeds 6. Salad plants for winter 7. Book by Seth Godin Despite decluttering there never seems to be an end to wanting things which is very much influenced by the media,and having been brought up in the post-war generation. Somehow adverts are expert at coming through to us and wanting us to purchase stuff and although my wish has been to become less of a consumer it constantly backfired. At the end of the month I now sit down and analyse the list by asking the question : do I need it or is it nice to have? What remains in the list is the salad plants for winter because that is time dependant as well as time critical. The remaining items are nice to have but not critical. Having decided to consciously spend money on the plants I transfer the money needed from my savings to my current account and gladly make my conscious purchase. If you need a medical expense or your car tire bursts you will not be faced with not having enough money to replace it and gradually I began to realise that there is a lot of stuff I feel I need which in fact are items I want for one reason or another. It is hard to not give in but sometimes I wonder what persuaded me to complete a purchase : it may be cheaper now and I may get the sense of getting a bargain yet there is a certain satisfaction in being able to spend when I really need to. Food is excluded in as much that ingredients are a need but eating out may be a want. Let me know how you get on.

Planning to live in a small home

I can honestly say that I have over the years not always seen eye to eye with my parents but when they decided to think about their retirement living space I was astounded and pleasantly surprised by their unusual course of action.

At the time they lived in the country in a 4 bedroomed family property with a bit of land near woodland. They had built their dreamhome when I was about 12 and before that had lived in a town. My mother liked her garden and my father liked the idea of playing his music when he wanted without disturbing neighbours. I grew up near the riverbank, planted a small garden and safely went for nature walks in the wood.

At some point something triggered a change of direction. The house was 2.5 miles from the nearest shopping facility and my father's health deteriorated. My mother did not drive and they posed themselves the question how they would manage later on in their lives.

They visited many retirement homes and eventually decided to settle in a university town with plenty going on. They settled for a 2 room apartment ( bedroom and living space) and decided to make the most of the space available by purchasing new furniture. Then they transferred all the things that were precious to them ( very little) and settled in.

But what about the family home?

1. First they invited friends to choose what they wanted and needed a little bit like a freecycle open house.
2. Secondly they invited acquaintances and other villagers to come and choose what they wanted and needed.
3. Then they got a company to clear out the rest of stuff and set about selling the house.

A few months ago, we bought a small cottage where we live in 600 sq feet and the children live above in a similar space. Effectively its a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom downstairs, and we are following some of the same principles with the difference that we are far from retirement.

It is certainly not tidy and a work in progress but we only brought with us what we thought we needed. And even then I have established I have far too many serving dishes and crockery.

Instead of having many rooms each room offers an area set up for different activities, whether it be reading, cooking, recycling etc.

The children did the same and left behind a lot of stuff they had outgrown, games, videos etc We each have our own space and common areas such as the kitchen, shower room and living room. Yes it can get crowded but it is also cosy sitting by the fire, enjoying a hot drink and reading or conversing together.

The running costs are lower and we have managed without much central heating so far by lighting the woodburner and the range in the kitchen.

What about the garden?
There is a small front garden full of wildlife and a paved garden at the back of the house which hopefully will in time have enough produce growing in pots.

Life is simple. the owl lives in the big tree, the birds awaken us at dawn and there is a sense of personal peace and contentment as I go about our new home. So far I have not missed many items left behind.

How to reduce paper clutter

The last few weeks I have been looking at the amount of resources used made of paper and how these could best be dealt with. Despite best efforts to stop junk mail and catalogues it became apparent that it still streams in the house.

MAIL

• Mail gets opened near the paper recycling box and generally there is very little actual communication that needs a response.
• Inbox- I have set up rules for incoming emails so the important ones get directed to their named inbox and junk box. It means being less overwhelmed by the amount of messages in the IN box. Turned off the 'ping' when an email comes in so I am not tempted to an immediate response.
• Unsubscribe from emails you are not interested in.
• Do not create accounts when purchasing items online and do not give out your email address when asked in shops or create an alias email for that purpose which redirects immediately to junk email.

GOING PAPERLESS ON BILLS

• Bank statements and utility bills can now be received digitally as opposed to a paper copy.
• Try to find out which companies offer paperless billing and choose that option. It will reduce the mail being opened and also saves the company money.
• Set up a reminder monthly to check the digital bills and keep a copy on your computer. Mine are divided into business and private bills and accessible anytime.

LETTERS,RECEIPTS,OFFICIAL PAPERWORK

• Letters from Government agencies, receipts and official letters are quite often kept in a folder and in any case should be accessible for 7 years.
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• To save them on a computer you will need a scanner. I save information in 3 places : computer, backup locally and a folder facility in the cloud.
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• I am a fan of Evernote as my back up because since having a stroke I have difficulty finding things and the notes saved on Evernote allow them to be searched by any word, as well as being available on mobile phones so in essence you carry the ability to carry vital information with you wherever you are.
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• Simple Life Together has a podcast episode six,dedicated to going paperless and Brooks Duncan  has a whole website dedicated to going paperless.
• Vanessa Hayes has a big range of videos to help organize anything in your home but in particular an action file.
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BOOKS AND MAGAZINES

• Books are available digitally as a direct download to an e reader or often as e-books which reduces the amount of book shelving space you need in your home.
• I like that idea a lot but often there are books I will refer to often and those I still like to have in a hard copy on the shelf.
• As far as magazines go, I am gradually changing any subscriptions to digital ones. Zinio have a great range of magazines and if you have an Ipad you carry with you a great amount of reading material.
• Cookery books and Craft Magazines are being revisited and the articles and recipes that are of interest are scanned in, using Evernote I can search for the recipe anytime. Many cookery books tell a story and are good companions for cooking seasonally.

How to deal with Stash

Having downsized to a 600ft square living space, my collection of yarn and fibres needs facing. I have been putting it off for years amassing 2 big boxes of sockyarn and yarns leftover from projects. Each time decluttering has happened I have bypassed these conveniently. Mea culpa.It is not until it took to filling an understairs cupboard and creating the sustainable wardrobe that I admitted that there are only so many sweaters a woman needs, so many socks we need and yes the time for facing the issue was here, procrastination over.

Why do I have so much yarn ?

• Partly because I miscalculated the amounts required for the projects
• did not follow the instructions properly
• impulse buy at yarn festivals
• just because I like that colourway
• Maybe a small fantasy of one day owning a yarn store.

Why is knitting important and valuable to me?

• I knit for relaxation, learning a new technique and gifting.

Any specific project in mind?

• About 20 which  would take me about 2 years to complete
• Some of which I do no longer want to make
• Enough for at least 10 socks

First step: What do I want to keep and why?

• Do I have a project in mind?
• Do I still need that finished object?

That leaves me with the 3 projects planned for and 6 sock yarns for a years supply.( GULP)
Plus an embargo on buying new fibers.

Second step - How do I recycle the rest?

I could put it on freecycle but I am finding it too valuable for that. (Still holding on)
Can I give it to a school where children are encouraged to learn to knit? ( sounds a better option)

Finally I have decided to :

• gift my stash to be used for charity knitting
• to seriously consider charity knitting as a way to create items that are needed for others
• to not buy yarns until I know what project is needed in my wardrobe

Do I feel a sense of loss or bereft?

Small tinge of sadness but a great relief that I will not knit items that are unwanted and made  of leftover stash.

And the bonus is I will be knitting for relaxation with a purpose. Gifting woollens is after all one of the things I cherish so why not give that gift to someone else without the burden.


For charity knitting see UK Handknitting Association

How to establish your rhythm of life

What rhythm of life is appropriate to you and how to find out what is it?

STAGES OF LIFE

There are a number of stages in our life and to accept and know which one we live in now can help us tweak the energy we have. Children have a need for routine, adolescents need sleep to function properly, young adults, active in the workplace, young parents, the 30 age group, 40, 50, 60, 70 etc.Each stage of life brings challenges with it, You might be following that linear path as it unfolds or like me navigate between them.

Questions relating to each stage :

SLEEP( night)

How many hours of sleep do you need for optimum energy?
Do you sleep the required number of hours and if not what is stopping you?
If you were to sleep the required number of hours what would be the impact on your energy?
If you cannot sleep the required number can you build in a nap in the day?

Our daily rhythms vary and although I know I am at my optimum energy when having had a good 8 hours uninterrupted nighttime sleep  my teenage sons require about 12 hours and are a lot more present if I accept their rhythm. That means that their breakfast time is my lunch time and our main meal in the evening is their lunch time and that at 9 pm they are likely to need a snack. Even if it means we have different daily rhythms they meet at certain points.

ACTIVITIES( Day)

How  many hours does it take you to do your work?
when is the best time for you to use available optimum energy?
Does your commute add time to that?
Do you take time to be present when you eat a nourishing meal?
Are there seasonal changes to this pattern?( Winter and autumn)

WEEK
How do I use the time at weekends? (Could be catching up on sleep)
Is there balance in my work and play?

SEASONS

There can be very little variation on how we currently use our energy during the seasons and every week seems like another but it was not always so.
Spring was a time of planting new seeds, new life, growth after a period of fasting and as the workload increased so did the length of the day. With the convenience of electric light we can modify that but do we use the time to its optimum?
Summer was a time for tending the growing plants, eat fruits in season, socialising and usually a time to work and play at maximum capacity. Summer is the time of plenty, warm, long days.
Autumn is a time of harvest and preparing for colder weather by processing the harvest and ensuring we will have our needs met in the colder days. Autumn offers us ambiguous days that remind us of summer but also of the winter ahead.
Winter offers us the shortest amount of daylight hours and an opportunity to see if the fruits of our labours do indeed carry us through to the next season. Harvests are limited but it can be a time to slow down a little, stay warm, coset ourselves a bit and plan and gain strength for the year ahead.

YEARS

Each year and each period in our life has its own demands and thinking of what is important and what is authentic to us we can live with each 'now' in harmony or discord.

Somehow this century we have challenged these rhythms of life by working day and night, every day of the week, eating everything whenever we wanted, anytime in the name of progress. We rarely notice a change of season or pace getting out in all weathers, to accomplish our life's work paced over the seasons of the year instead of over 365 days.

A step towards change to ponder:

Start by finding out how many hours of sleep are most beneficial for you and make it a habit to get the sleep you need.( it fluctuates with age, health issues, effect of nutrition etc)
Can you give yourself a day of rest each week and plan activities that will nourish you?

Its an ongoing movement towards doing our life's work and staying present in the 'now' noticing the time of day, day of the week, seasons and how we function at our optimum level. It is a challenge but enables us to make our lives meaningful.

Instant gratification- I want it all

The New Year brought such an impetus of things I wanted to do to simplify my life even further so I thought I would write out those resolutions and got a bit overwhelmed with all the changes I intended to make.

January was used to look at those and I chose the sustainable wardrobe as my major project and then there was the garden, locally sourced produce in season, work goals, health, relationship, financial, energy efficient goals etc. Knowing full well the energy to achieve all of those would exhaust me and make life less simple to begin with. Some of these goals warranted investigating.

• Why did I choose this goal
• Is it aligned with what I believe is important
• Am I willing to commit time to it and if so how much
• What are the consequences of this decision.
• Is it in line with my major life goals or a distraction?

Lets say your goal is to go and ski. Skiing happens at a certain moment when snow is available, so is time limited. This means travel and staying somewhere other than home. Requires a passport , special gear, toiletries and is going to make a dent in your budget. Now if its is in alignment with your authentic self( a need)  you will go and find a way and have the satisfaction you have achieved something important with meaning. If however you go because you need a break from the rat race or the impulse came from a glossy brochure or advert, you may feel very discontented at the outcome.

Despite wanting to live a simpler life a downshifting path to simplicity the inflow of information we get every day to flex those consumer muscles is so great that our brains get more hits for consumerism than to simplify life.

In my goal setting I found that although I thought I had mastered the skill of differentiating between what is an important task and what is a want in my buying habits, this had not followed through in my personal life. And the most important habit to break is that of instant gratification so deeply engrained sometimes we are not aware of it.

To reduce the impact of consumer messages we have a system to deal with the post, reducing the amount of junk mail, recycling the paper as the post comes in and ending up with  the important mail that requires a response.Those pieces of paper then get devided into home or business and get dealt with when I give the home or business folder allocated time and attention. It can wait.

If only it were as simple as the post. We are regularly receiving

•  post
• email messages
• twitter messages
• facebook messages 
•  pinterest
• adverts

and most of them incite us to buy something and influence our choices.

Every time you buy something in the high street or online, it triggers a marketing campaign sending you emails whenever your profile shows up as a potential customer. You get asked for your postcode and what number you live in and there you are added to a mailing list. Every time you buy something the messages enticing you to buy increase. Companies are fighting for your buying power especially in a challenged consumer environment as where most people are tightening their belts after the spending spree for Christmas or for fear of losing their job. I know its a controversial issue because at the heart of it, we are asked to consume to create and keep jobs.

To counteract that we simply physically stop shopping but then turn online for our shopping needs. The consequences of shopping online brings you boxes and materials to recycle as well as the item you ordered plus a daily amount of emails which thankfully are easier to unsubscribe from and delete virtually. Many a purchase asks you to set up an account which when you do means another password to remember and more email messages for account holders.( including special offers just for you)

A few years ago my son was waxing lyrical about the benefits of a certain washing powder, how it would fulfill my need etc. We are open to receiving these buying impulses and clever though they are they diminish our personal power to make decisions about what we need and want. Add to that the trigger of instant gratification, and we impulse buy because we want it, and we want it now.

This was brought home to me while testing a new organizational app called The Habit Factor which as it happens  accompanies a book , available tomorrow in hardback or instantly to a kindle and enabled me to list all my goals and then told me I could only concentrate on 3 of those goals. Three? The question I pondered this weekend was whose decision I follow when I want to achieve a goal, my own need or did the thought for that need originate as a marketing ploy?

Therein lies the differential and unhappiness between the goals our authentic self chooses and the ones we often pursue implanted by a clever marketing campaign.

Another app that brought me some insight was Astrid which enabled me to transfer those goals into steps I needed to take to achieve the goal and then allocated time in my schedule to do the tasks necessary.  Three goals are sufficient to fill a whole diary and both these tools have been instrumental in helping me choose my three most important goal allocated to the three most important roles. By the time I consider my health, family and work I have my three major areas of goal-setting.

I am not proud of the fact that I still want it and want it now as an impulse, knowing that consciously means I can set myself the task to wait, 24 hours, one week etc. A wishlist is a great tool as it gives me the instant gratification of acknowledging I want it now, but tomorrow I can delete the item knowing I really don't need it,

What drives your life?

Diversifying clothing materials Part 1

I don't know about you but when comparing the quality of an item I bought 5 years ago and a similar item from the same firm this year, I have noticed that clothes are getting thinner. From the manufacturers point of view this

• reduces the amount of resources
• increases profit per item
• the cloth wears out quicker
• the customer will purchase a new one quicker

The washing powders currently used and conditioners and our habit of washing, showering etc wear clothes out , creating holes, tears and generally wearing them out as quickly as possible.

If you look at the make up of the resources used for your clothing you will find that 100% cotton garments have a reduced amount of cotton now and jumpers for sale are in fact no longer made of 100% wool in general but contain either cotton or acrylic. That explains why when the temperature dips and we reach for a sweater we can still be cold.

Looking at the resources for clothes and material we can source their origins either from :

• plants
• animals
• handmade materials

We have grown from a perspective of choosing our clothes for durability, warmth and quality to other criteria such as fashion, ease of washing, colour etc. To effect a change the first change we can make is one of attitude and being more choosy in the way we look at garments.

Most people had the skills to either make, mend or amend their clothes thus fewer clothes were necessary in their working wardrobe and every inch of painstakingly produced fabric was used, repaired and reused. What however are the real costs associated with these items.

As an example I will take socks. You can buy 5 pairs of socks for lets say £10. You will lose a few in the wash so they no longer match and as soon as a hole appears you throw them out. In comparison making woollen socks by knitting them yourself ;

• requires you to have a skill
• costs about £15 per pair
• takes many many hours knitting time
• requires special washing so as not to shrink them
• can be darned and repaired
• wool keeps your feet warm and absorbs liquid
• wool is a breathable material
• wool is a renewable material

The result is that you will only go through a certain  number of handknitted socks per year compared to cotton/acrylic ones, will have fewer going through the wash, resulting in a greater appreciation of material and skill.

For years we have avoided clothes with a 'dry cleaning only' label. Not only because of the costs associated with this item of clothing and the savings that could be made but the idea of having them washed in silicone and the impact of residual chemicals that would interact with our skins and own body chemistry was unknown. You buy a suit that you have drycleaned every month at a cost of £20 each time and the suit ends up costing an additional £240 per year to maintain.

The sustainable wardrobe therefore contains no items that require dry cleaning only.


Questions to ponder:

• How many did you find.?
• What attracted you to this item of clothing?

From, want to stuff and clutter.

De-cluttering is an ongoing activity in this household. Every time we have dowshifted to smaller accommodation there has been a sort of purging going on to deal with clutter. There are a few challenges with that in that 'getting rid' of stuff is not really just a case to put it in the bin for landfill but the questions asked are :

Can I donate it to someone who needs it or wants it? ( Clothes, books etc) Ask first.
Has it any value to sell it on?
Can I freecycle it or take to one of the local swap parties?
Can I repurpose it?
Can it be composted?
Can any parts of it be repurposed?
Is it mine to declutter?
Why did I buy this?
What am I going to do with it?

The questions can be endless and the right time to be asking them is when we acquire the item unfortunately, not when we no longer see a use for it. Believe me when I say at some stage it was a thing to behold.

Our tastes change, our circumstances change so it makes sense to change our clutter and stuff too. The reason we buy something new, want it is what keeps money flowing out and stuff flowing in.But how does its journey proceed from wanted/needed item to stuff to clutter.

Take for example my efforts with breadmaking. First I used to buy all bread at the supermarket with its wrapping, unhealthy ingredients etc. Then I decided to get a bread-maker and with a family of five found that one was not enough really I needed two.  I then became concerned about the sugar,salt ,wheat content of the bread machine bread and the resources used. Indeed the bread had no wrapper and had not travelled halfway through the country from depot to depot but it did use electricity and for the convenience of that wondeful feel good smell it mainly took up a lot of space. Not ot mention the bags of flour varieties.

I then progressed to making bread the slow way, taking all day over it just using a bowl, hands and a kneading board. But even making bread at home that way created a certain amount of clutter :
kneading board
dough scraper
bread tins
knives to cut the bread with
books on bread making making double quantity and freezing one loaf
and so on.

If decluttering was a once off activity then we would all have simpler homes but as we grow our knowledge and interests, things become stuff and then clutter.

Two things have helped enourmously as a habit:

to stay away from shops
committing items to a wishlist
wait 24 hrs before buying anything
to question what to do with the item when it is no longer needed
to look at its origin and resources used
to find an alternative source ( can I borrow it, is is available on ebay, library, does my neighbour have one?)
to build in a habit of revisiting each room on a regular basis and declutter items


The mystery about clutter is that once clutter was a longed for, searched for, loved item and sentimental reasons can stop us from separating from the belonging. One answer is to commit it to the digital invisible cloud. Take a picture of it and have a special folder on your computer. Particularly useful for that achievement certificate in grade 5 or family photographs. But mainly ask the question" Why do I feel the need to hang on to this item? Those answers might surprise you and then you might be able at a click of a mouse to make it disappear like magic.

Really advanced decluttering needs a discipline of bringing one item in and one item out but that could sound too scary right now.

Evaluating your wardrobe

Came across a valuable tool on Colletterie's blog offering a free spreadsheet to enable you to make an inventory of your wardrobe and what it is you need and may need to replace  I visit Colletterie blog regularly as the patterns she offers for items of clothing are classic vintage but it also has some useful tutorials should you wish to make your own clothes.

Canine cuisine

Having analysed the contents of the bins again recently it became apparent that we have definitely reduced the amounts of waste we produce as humans but our animals create an enormous amount of empty cans that need recycling each week.

Our labrador likes virtually any food so when Rhonda Jean shared her dogfood recipe on her blog Down to Earth, and I simultaneously was presented with a nice amount of beef mince that was near its best sell by date, I could not resist cooking the recipe.

There was a great joke when the children asked what was for dinner and stared into the stockpot at a mass of food that looked very similar to the tinned dogfood. I did have a helper in the kitchen who measured the cups of ingredients and stirred the pot.

The result has been sampled and approved of by the dog and we shall gradually introduce the food over the next few days. Even if we feed her one portion every other meal we will halve the amount of tins we currently recycle and take some interest in the ingredients we feed her.

The value of pets is personal but she guards the home very well, she used to be the first cleanup attempt when the children sat in highchairs and threw their food about and she keeps the cats from fighting. She also encourages exercise in all of us and we always get a friendly and interested greeting when we come in the home. When I was bed bound she was a constant companion and on many occasions acted as my hot water bottle. She also has been known to listen to all the children's complaints with very attentive ears without once talking back.

We cook for ourselves so why not provide home cooking for our dogs.

Organising a pantry

Creating Space & Removing Clutter:
How To Organize A Kitchen Pantry

Organised cupboards and pantries can become a reality this year and before starting a pantry full of fancy goods this year, it makes sense to have a tidy up. The above video has some excellent points to make. Little labels would indeed make it easier for others in the household to look at the contents and maybe venture cooking something without creating chaos.

Stackable containers are worth considering and Lakeland offer a variety of sizes and shapes to achieve a neat and tidy cupboard.

Living comfortably with less heat

Our home behind the shop is north facing and every room has outside walls. It was bitter when we moved in 2 years ago and the central heating did very little to warm the place up. Our gas consumption was 3 x 47kg propane gas bottles every 10 days between September and March, so for 7 months of the year we used to get a delivery every other week. The heating was only on morning and evening and really just took the chill off the air. It was very cold but we also felt the cold as we had come from a centrally heated house.

Some improvements were made to the property when we installed loft insulation which required an investment cost of £ 900. We also had the boiler serviced last year and the engineer showed us how we could lower the control on the boiler as well as the controls on each radiator to reduce consumption.

The shop and the ground floor do have radiators but are on a second circuit which we choose not to use.Most of the year the shop door remains open. We did close the door when the temperature plummeted to minus 5 Celsius.Usually the heat given out by refrigeration units is sufficient to keep the place bearable.

The wood burner installed downstairs keeps the temperature cosy at around 21 degrees Celsius and the office is the warmest room. The heat rises to the lounge providing us with 2 rooms that are heated throughout the day. The central heating is only on to take the chill off the place early morning and late afternoon. There are plenty of afghans, duvets and blankets to cuddle under with a book and hand knitted woollen socks, sweaters and hot water bottles go a long way to warming us up when we need it.

This year, not only did the heating only go on in October but we manage 3 x 47kg propane bottles for 30 days instead of 10. Although the cost per bottle is higher this year I anticipate our costs to be less. In effect we have reduced our heating costs by 60% and have also increased our ability to withstand colder temperatures.

When we visit people with full central heating we usually boil very slowly and cannot bear the heat and upon investigation,their heating is on mostly during the day and night to maintain a steady temperature.

This is our way and may not be your way but from experience I know that by increasing personal and building insulation, reducing the overall temperatures required gradually can lead to an adaptation by our bodies and minds and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. And when power cuts happen, we still have the wood burner to keep us warm.

Thunderstorms and the cost of work

How much exactly does your work cost you and how much do you need to earn to live?
If some people in the world subsist on less than a dollar a day, why do we need more? It is of course not that simple and everyone will have a different answer. Balance arrives when we reconsider Maslow's hierarchy of needs and where we are in the process of reaching our own individual potential ( self actualisation).

Thank you Ceridwen for your comment yesterday.

Personally - I have had enjoyable work on the one hand and I have had paid work on the other hand - but the two have never coincided and I have given up hope by now that they ever will.
......

Employers are steadily imposing: health hazards at work (on people who never previously expected it)/antisocial hours working/micro-managing peoples time/cutting salaries in real terms or maybe even physically cutting them - and so a high proportion of extra people have been put in the position that the World of Work has now become unbearable. The "cost" many of us are having to pay to earn that steadily decreasing amount of money is becoming higher and higher - and too high for many of us to "pay" any longer.

So - since you have found "your place" then - enjoy.

The question I ponder over is where exactly are we on Maslow's triangle as a result of the financial crisis? What are the consequences to businesses and people?


The credit crunch effect has been like being hit by an enormous thunderstorm. Its effects are not just felt in business, on balance sheets but have an aftershock effect on each person on the edge of the epicentre and it questions our perception of normality.

So just as your sight can be distorted and vision impaired by sheets of rain, hail and thunder, and the feelings associated with that, there are also opportunities to rise from the ashes.

There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. ( danish proverb)

So far many companies still in the running have done all they could to minimise the effects on staff by cutting bonuses, outings, luxuries yet at the same time ensuring that all the rules and regulations they have to abide by by law are satisfied as a lawsuit would push them over the edge. This increases tension.(So if you are still in the storm, it is gathering dark clouds and more rain is forecast.)
Add to that that assets have reduced on everyones balance sheets, and you can see that the pressure is on for survival of the fittest with opportunities for others. Business costs are still rising and profit margins are still being squeezed and people are feeling that intensely.

Companies are reacting by monitoring and trying to push people and resources as far as they can. If profit is your number one, then you have to squeeze and it hurts somewhere. Other companies have so far managed to restrict cuts to their direct costs as well as assets and not their staff but the next step is to tighten up on costs in the staff department. Problem with that is that people do not feel valued, end up demotivated, stressed, get ill, and feel a mix of emotions that tip into the negative. (Thunder and lightning comes to mind as well as crashing rain. Whatever the weather you are likely to get soaked.)
People on short term contracts do not get their contracts renewed or staff are put on shorter days and if you have targets they are likely to be unforgiving.The result is that people are asked to work harder for less reward and tensions rise.

So what can you do if you are feeling undervalued, working as hard as you can but are facing a tough time. You probably wonder how you will manage if your job is cut from 5 to 3 days,or worse case scenario if you lose your job.In that case it is hard not to take if personal and to panic. From personal experience I would say that panicking is a normal response. (Umbrellas are now useless and you are truly soaked.)

If you are still standing in the rain I urge you to stay on because this is where you are going to need to focus in the madness because you either will find shelter or get soaked to the skin.

There is a balance between time and money and although voluntary simplicity allows us to gradually adapt to more time, less money the above scenario is probably going to floor some people because as where a downshifting path is a gradual process of adaptation the credit crunch is drastic and brutal and more painful.

First of all, it is extremely uncomfortable but if you can,check where you are, what your priorities are and start finding a solution that works for you. My experience with ME/CFS is simply that frustration is energy draining and the planning of slow, persistent actions creates a very slow path to progress.

Being an optimist,it is my personal opinion that there is no such thing as personal failure, just feedback even in a critical situation.

The overall difficulty is compounded because when consumers start reducing their spending, it increases the effects on businesses as lack of consuming reduces orders etc etc etc see above.

Is there a way forward you ask? How long before the situation turns around and sunshine appears?

The point to remember is that there are certain elements in this picture that you can build on and others that are beyond your sphere of influence. Believe me when I say it is hard to see sunshine during a thunderstorm.

“Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.”

-- I Ching No. 3

As ships wrestle in stormy weather the sight of a lighthouse makes you long for home. You could be battling crippling waves to reach that light, but surprisingly the light is incredibly bright. Find your lighthouse and point north.

What sets humans apart from animals is the ability to work together to find a solution and really all hands on deck are needed now.

For the love of books

As the nights draw in and TV just really is not an option, I can be found in a rather tatty chair next to the wood burner, cosy hand knitted socks on my feet, a small glass of damson gin and a good book.
How do you go about getting books to read without spending a lot of money?
I recently joined readitswapit, an ingenuous way to revolve your books and exchange them for other reading material. Its really simple, you list your books, you make them active and people send you an email when they want to swap with you, you look at their list of books and if anything grabs you, you just swap. You send the book in the post and you receive your reading material in the post. When you have read the book you can make it active in your swapping library and so it goes on.
The result is that I now have 9 new books to read which is promising.
A definite alternative to the library and no addition of stuff on the shelves. And if your interests have changed you can go and explore a whole new world.

The art of giving

The house is beginning to look a little larger and warmer. I am avidly watching freecycle noticeboards and surprisingly I usually can come up with some way of granting someone's wish for a weird and wonderful object that has been lurking in some dark corner of the house, unwanted and unused. Now my children are reaching teen years it seems absurd to hold onto a travelcot and small bikes and when I offered a selection of lego my boys were heartbroken. When the question of ' and when did you last play with lego' received no answer they did realise that indeed it was OK to give some away to a child who really had no lego and would have liked to build something.

Life does not stand still and our desire for change of stuff is inherent. My youngest son has a room that literally could be packed in about 10 mins. His prize possessions are limited and he is very limited in his needs and wants. We looked at the sale of cricket bats as he is a huge fan and astounded me when he said : Not bad but if you just manage to change the grip on my bat, it will look brandnew'. At least one convert to an unstuffed life.

A shoebox scheme is being organised and putting together a box of useful presents is a good way of sharing resources. I have knitted a series of hats that will keep teenagers warm and cosy in foreign countries.

It surprises me the amount of items sold on Ebay and sent to a good home. The money raised has been used to microfinance entrepreneurs in other countries via Kiva. Giving the use of money to someone who needs it to enhance their living standards seems a lot more appealing now than a pair of black trousers.

Now if I could only find a home for the snake bed that was left behind by the previous owners although I am sure it will be on someones wishlist.

Personal power : Our fantastic life sustaining energy system.

Personal power : Our fantastic life sustaining energy system.

What the world eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio is a coffee table book with a difference. It identifies 30 average families in 24 countries and creates a photo of the family with a week’s worth of food. The results are worth considering : the family in Bhutan eats meals made up of fruits, vegetables and rice which look barely enough to feed a family of 7 adults and 7 children. The family of 4 people in the USA has a diet almost completely made from processed and packaged foods. And many countries in between. They all have some energy.

If we could compare health statistics in both countries we might find that there really is a correlation between our health and what we eat. The reason we eat is to create a constant energy cycle that enables us to function in the environment we inhabit and make a contribution to the overall well being of the planet.

Everyone does the best with the resources they have , but do we really?
In heating our homes for instance, we use energy to heat the space around us first ( from the outside), instead of looking at ways to create energy from the inside.

Our bodies have a need to process energy just as much as any energetic entity in the world sphere but the way we get our energy and the way we use it has changed over the last century.The most muscle power used in a working day may be to get up and move a computer mouse.

Over the last few years, I have been looking at how my body processes energy and whether it is possible to manage that at all and have come to some startling conclusions. The food we used to eat provided a quick fix of energy followed by a real low and left my body to adjusts its energy supply by slowing down and demanding a fuel that would create boosts of energy from outside. This however slowed down the processing of slow releasing foods, slowed down my metabolism. To start a fire you would find paper, firelighters to boost the flames and then you hopefully would find logs that burn slowly releasing a constant temperature into the room. Different types of trees give out different heat exchanges. The same principle applies to the food we eat and how our bodies process that. Firelighters on their own will give you a spark but nothing else and to get your fire going with big logs is going to take a very long time. When we do not eat sufficient quality calories, our bodies start storing energy in fat cells ( in case the situation continues) and our metabolism slows down to stop us burning so many calories. As you get fatter and your circulation reduces, your body gets colder and you will find a need to seek out heat from the outside.

When our bodies function at peak, we do not feel the cold so much and we want to generally keep moving so that we create our own heat using the resources we have personally. It all changes when we age or when we become ill because energy is required to fight infections and protect our own planet.

Looking after you own physical, mental and spiritual body will go a long way to look after the planet in the same way.