Springtime Harvests and home grown Garlic

The heady perfumes of jasmine and wisteria, grapefruit blossoms and bush fire (back burning), have become the welcome and well known intoxicating smells of springtime here in the Blue Mountains. Walking out on the balcony in the morning time, the rich aroma's hold us in a dreamy suspense, and remind us just how good life in the mountains is. The weather is warming, the Kookaburras are sitting plump & content, and it's time to watch the garden grow.

As you may already have heard we're are doing a 1 tonne challenge! That's right, we are aiming to harvest a tonne of food from our yard in a year..nothing like setting the bar slightly high - that would Joe's fault. However, in the last 80 days we have now harvested 80 kgs! That's a person, and we haven't yet hit peak harvest season, actually Springtime in the garden is the leanest season of the year...so for all the non believers out there (I secretly think we might hit closer to 450kgs) watch and be amazed ;)

Today we harvested the last of our citrus, the final oranges and lemons, though there's an abundance of new blossoms bursting with potential. We've been citrussy spoilt this last season, massive juicy grapefruits, sweet oranges and perfect zesty lemons. The secret to our success has been building the chook enclosure around the citrus trees and wait for it - sucking all of the stink beetles into beetle oblivion with the vacuum cleaner - the old vacuum cleaner, that whilst retired from domestic duties proudly sports its abilities with Joe at the realm any time the stink beetle population gets, well stinky. 

Home Made Orange Juice

Springtime specials

 Over the past weeks the kids have been picking the new season mulberries, cape gooseberries, strawberries and broadbeans. We've also been enjoying loads of Pak Choi, yum, yum, yum and it has without a doubt taken over kale to become our new favourite green. Tonight we enjoyed a noodle, chicken, sweet potato, garlic, pak choi and chilli laksa. Pak Choi can be grown all year round and if it's cooked ever so slightly its deliciously juicy and packs a satisfying crunch with every munch.

Home-grown Garlic

This year we were determined to supply ourselves with as much garlic as possible. Planting well over 200 bulbs, on St Patrick's day..to be sure, to be sure and now, in the last fortnight we have harvested and feasted on our very own fresh garlic. Whilst the bulbs aren't enormous, the flavour has been beyond compare to trashy, out of date Chinese and Argentinian store bought garlic, sprayed with all manner of nasty pesticides and fungicides...(along with strawberries, garlic is one of the most heavily sprayed post-harvest crops to promote longevity). There's no need to wait 9 months though to enjoy your garlic. We've been cutting the green tops off the plant all year and loving them in our cooking, offering the most flavoursome  edge to any dish.

If you have never tasted it home grown, do yourself a flavor, and plant some at the end of summer. mulch well and keep the soil moist. then next spring, pull up your very own garlic bulbs and try them roasted whole, or finely sliced and simmered with a little butter and olive oil and parsley, served on sour dough.

Whilst we've been enjoying some springtime treats, we've also been pretty busy in the patch preparing some of the summer heavy weights - pumpkins, zucchinis, potatoes, cucumbers and of course lots and lots of tomatoes.  So far we have 12 tomato plants (and expect to plant at least another 10 before the end of summer) in and thriving including some cherry varieties lemon drops, dark cherry, tommy toe and also some orange juan flambe which have all produced well here in the past. We've also potted up some heirloom tigerella tomato seedlings which we're hoping will be as prolific as they were last season.

 Our front driveway has been decommissioned to make way for our brand new pumpkin patch, so if you're planning on visiting you may never reach the front door alive...might be best to come in via the side gate ;).

Chapter 31: Community Orchard Takes Root

The Community Orchard Begins

If you've ever watched "The Castle", (" Dale dug a hole. Tell 'em Dale". "I dug a hole".) you too can appreciate the simple satisfaction that can be gained from digging a hole. But there is an even greater satisfaction in digging a hole with a neighbour, and then planting a fruit tree in it.

It was like looking through a glass of cold apple cider, a crisp, sparkling, sunny Autumn morning. The sun shone through the morning haze and lazy plumes of chimney smoke from neighbours chimney's. It was the perfect morning to start pegging the perimeters of our community orchard in the lane way beside our house.  

The previous weekend we did a letterbox drop with the kids, calling all neighbours to bring a shovel, a bag of manure or a fruit tree.

Whilst Joe and the kids measured distances and staked out the orchard, the first of our neighbours, Sharon, Grant and Jackie rolled up the avenue with compost, shovels, pitchforks, a citrus tree and a barrow full of enthusiasm. The digging began.

Super helpers to the rescue

neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours...

Neil from next door soon arrived with hessian coffee bags (to use as weed mats) and tools, followed by Graham and Margaret with her garden trolley that would have shamed Edward Scissorhands. By 10 am, Barry, Gaye, Kate, Mim, Ben and their kids made light work of planting the 9 fruit trees and taming the burly bramble of Buddleia that had otherwise taken over our nature strip.

After the digging was done, we had planted two blueberry bushes, a orange, lime, lemonade, kaffir lime, and avocado tree. A few days later, we were pleasantly surprised to find that another of our neighbours had stealthily planted a small apple tree also! The community orchard had become just that, and the idea was taking root.

We estimate she will be 5 before eating from this tree

 We plan to have a second planting session in a few months, hoping to add a pomegranate, mandarin and lemon as well as some apple and stone fruit trees, as well as a little wrought iron seat with a plaque to commemorate the 'alderton lane community orchard', will be placed nearby the fruit trees where anyone can stop, pick an orange and ponder the world.

Our Avocado

If you've ever considered doing something similar, go for it; It is actually very easy. The council were quite supportive of the idea and in fact you are well within your rights to plant anything on your own nature strip without council approval. There are some basic restrictions which may vary between different municipalities for example we had to allow 1.5 metres for pedestrian access and as a distance from the road. We had to plant 9 metres away from the corner and 3 metres from the powerpole. We also contacted Dial Before you Dig, a service that contacts water, electrical and phone companies on your behalf requesting info on the location. They then emailed us with reports of anything lurking under the surface, fortunately we had the all clear.

On A Roll

Speaking of things lurking under the surface, its time to take a look in your loo... for toilet rolls, that is. We have been collecting ours now for some months, chopping them in half, and stock piling them. Why? because they make fantastic containers for seedlings!

Rolls of honour

Growing your vegetables as seedlings has its benefits. It makes it easier to space your crop properly, choose the healthiest plants, and give them a head start before the grubs, slugs or snails can get their grubby slimy hands on them. Seedling trays are ok, I guess, but they can be flimsy and difficult to remove the seedlings one by one. We have been using our toilet roles instead. they are free, biodegradable and therefore can be put straight into the ground without disturbing the seedlings. You would be amazed how many toilet rolls you can accumulate without even trying.

Simply cut the rolls in half, and pack with a good seedling mix soil. Pop in your seeds and water them. We place ours on trays and keep them in the green house for a kick start.



ready for planting



 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  With Autumn coming to a close, there is still plenty to plant in  the patch. Onions, Garlic, Silverbeet, cabbage, shallots, lettuce, broad beans, turnips, pak and bok choy, and carrots can all go in, and plenty more.
 
Rain clouds through the looking glass 
  For any parent, the rumble of storm clouds and the pitter patter of rain can raise anxiety levels dramatically. What to do with the kids? Fear not. take one digital camera, one magnifying glass and one or more children. Combine and enjoy a lot of laughs. I suspect the possibilities of this combination are far reaching, and deserve further investigation.

 

Next time, lemons glorious lemons.

Chapter 18: Mastering Pasta - ing

It was a beautiful, balmy Spring afternoon last tuesday, as the entire family gathered around our latest arrival...she was beautiful. She came complete with shiny chrome curves, 7 adjustable roller width options and a coloured manual in French, Italian, English, japanese and possibly even Lithuanian.Our pasta maker from Big W online had finally arrived... soon the children would be asleep, and we could begin mastering the art of pasta making!

With 117 days to go before our Funky Frontyard Farming Challenge we got a little mumbo Italiano in the kitchen and made pasta for the first time ever. It was heaps of fun. As one of the items to remain on our shopping list during the challenge week is flour, pasta is likely to be a menu option. That aside, we eat it regularly and love the idea of making it ourselves anyway.

The recipe is surprisingly simple. 500g of flour and 5 eggs from our chookies. mix until the dough is consistent, adding water if too dry, or flour if too sticky. Cut the dough and pass it through the pasta maker rollers to make flat sheets of pasta. Run the sheet through the press a few times again, making it thinner as you go. The sheets can then be cut to which ever style of pasta is preferred, either by hand, or using one of the cutters on the pasta maker. Our one cuts fettuccine and spaghetti. We decided to make a fettuccine. When the pasta is cut, let it rest for an hour or so. We found it best to drape the fettuccine over a wooden spoon to stop it compressing. After an hour, cook the pasta in boiled water, with a little oilve oil and a pinch of salt. Strain and serve.

Albeit a little on the thick side, our first attempt was deemed a success. Belissimo! We would like to perfect the process and would love any suggestions or handy tips. We would also like to try mixing through some basil or beetroot to add colour and some fresh summer flavours. Just waiting for them to grow. Best of all, though, making pasta, with a glass of red on the side, made for a fun night in.

Looks pretty yum!

Our pasta prototype was served with olives and double smoked pancetta that we purchased at the local growers market in Blackheath on the weekend. Delicious. The Blackheath markets are a great option for a day out on a lazy Sunday. Everything from fruit, to herbs, smoked duck, wine, goats cheese and even pig ears were sold. I presume the pig ears were for canines, and not just something to chew on whilst meandering through the market stalls. That said, you do get some strange types further up the mountain... You know the types, organic with a capital O, and home knitted rainbow coloured beanie wearing quasi-Buddist. At least they're friendly and harmless.

One such character, a protector of all things native, became instantly concerned when Noah discovered a sleeping possum high up in a tree near bye the stalls. when Noah began shaking the branches to say hello, (no doubt amazed by the novelty of finding a possum in broad daylight), multi coloured beanie man dashed to the possums rescue, and enlightened Noah about the importance of possum welfare and preservation. No doubt, this was news to Noah, considering our stance on possums and their antics in our vegetable garden. Got to love the highlanders.

Since we last blogged our flowers seeds have sprouted and the buds on our grape vine, pear trees and nectarine tree have burst into Spring. We have also planted Turks Turban Pumpkins, Sugar Baby watermelons, long Cayenne Joe Chillies and some more Tigerella tomatoes in seedling trays and beetroots, Lebanese cucumbers and purple dragon carrots throughout the new garden beds. If you like your coffee and you like growing carrots you might be interested in this little tip. Word on the street is that used ground coffee is the secret to nice big carrots. You can dig in the coffee grounds to your garden bed before sowing your carrots or you can mix the seeds with the coffee before sowing to help separate the seeds, we are trialling this with our new plot of purple dragon carrots and will let you know how it goes.

Also if you are a coffee lover it is handy to have a new neighbour who roasts and grinds his very own fair-trade organic (with a small o) coffee beans in a great big, sexy red, brand spanking new, industrial sized coffee roaster grinder (which we are thinking of breeding with our pasta maker). But what are the chances of that? well funny you should ask... our new neighbour just so happens to do exactly that, and more so, has asked if its ok for him to give us free coffee in case the smell of freshly roast coffee may offend us. oh, alright then!

Whilst our new garden beds still under construction we are facing a race against the clock as we had anticipated completing them earlier. To give Joe time on the weekend to build bed 3 it was crucial that all kids be kept occupied  far far away from him in the backyard, in order to preserve his sanity... and ours.

N and G dressed up as a knight and pirate princess and had a marvelous time doing 'water painting', that is painting on their blackboard with water. How cheap are we?! Surprisingly it kept them thoroughly entertained well beyond the expected time frame. It is a wonderful way to water the garden and wash the children at the same time and by the time they had dried out Joe had finished garden bed no. 3.

This weekend we are going to do a 'poo run', buy another two hens and make some home-made ice-cream.

For those of you who are not familiar with a 'poo run' it is when Joe scours the Richmond district for the best, big bags of horse manure for $2 a bag...poo in these parts is hard to come by. Richmond is a good half hour drive from here and we have been desperate to locate a poo source closer. We stumbled on a little district called Sun Valley, peppered with paddocks and poo potential but alas none of the horse studs sell their poo. That said there is a small produce store in Sun Valley where we will buy our chickens.

Next blog we look at planting our pumps, eating icecreamy lumps, and pulling out stumps. stay tuned.

Countdown: 117 days to go

Chapter 3: kids now houses later

It has just dawned on us that trying to cover parenting and buying a house in one blog is slightly ambitious. As a result we apologise that our blog on 'Tips for buying a house will need to come later' as we have realised that writing on 'raising kids and being parents' is chapter worthy unto itself.

I should warn you before you read any further, that the following blog may bore you sensless if you are not expecting or have kids. If you are still childless, for god sakes, stop reading now, and go enjoy yourself while there's still time!

if you are a parent, blog reading is about as fun as it gets, so, fill up a glass of red wine and snuggle up for some breathtaking annecdotes on child rearing, yippee!

We now have two children and a third on the way. Noah was 4 in December, Georgia is 1 and 1/2 and our third baby is due in August. Whilst we don't pretend to know all the answers about parenting there are certainly a few things that we have learnt from others and our own experience. Experience that we would love to share with you, especially the first time parents.

Hospital ceiling, fluroscent lights, midwives smiling, baby screaming...where to next? The first four weeks of your parenting life will most likely be a total blur and hence forth begins the wonderful joy of parenting. Joe and I really wished that we had some of the good ideas below when we started out. We have narrowed down our thoughts to the following:

1: Routine (and therefore parent sanity).
2: Behaviour > you and your kids.
3: 'Wine Time' > how to exist beyond just revolving around your children.


1: Routine

'Looking down into my arms at my newly first born son wrapped tightly in a swaddling cloth of pink, white and blue, craftfully prepared earlier by a seasoned midwife and feeling all tear jerky at the thought of being a parent (whilst my wife almost bled to death in a cleaning storeroom because the shift change over between the operating theatre and the recovery room at RPA forgot about her) I had absolutley no idea that I would spend the next 4 years of my life (and most likely more) incredibly sleep deprived.

All first time paernts resort to desperation. This may take the form of crawling in slow motion on on your hands and knees out of your baby's room so as not to wake them (a process which once took 10 mins due to not wanting to lean on the creaky floor boards) or putting your child in the car at 4 am to drive them around the streets so as your partner gets some sleep before the alarm goes off. This is totally normal, and so much fun!

By the time they reach three or by the time you have three you won't give a hoot about them carrying on at bed-time whilst you cook dinner or watch a dvd.
Something that we have found really useful was the '5 Baby Cry Sounds'. The idea is that all babies make the following 5 cries and each cry indicates varying needs by your child. At first we were sceptical (as all good parents are) but this actually worked for the first 6 months and helped us alot.

The crys are:
1: 'Eh, eh, eh' = I need to Burp
2: 'Neh, nnneeeh, nnnneeh' = I am Hungry > feed me now
3: 'owwww, owww' = I am tired, wrap me up and put me to sleep now
4: 'Eairh, eairh' = you didn't burp me right and now I have major wind problems.
5:' Heh, heh' = I am uncomfortable, I am too hot, too cold or I need my nappy changed.

If this is too hard to follow, which some ppl find is the case, remember the following golden rules:

1: feed a baby at set times and properly> get advice on breast feeding as it is essential.
2: burp the baby> this is most commonly the key to a good night's rest, hang in there and keep patting.
3: see if it needs a change
4: make sure it is warm enough, babies are often underdressed.
5: have some distractions if all else fails such as bathing the baby or a walk in the pram.
6: if all else fails walk away, remember you can lay the baby down safely and walk outside for 5 mins to re-group your sanity.
7: Your baby may be ill, don't have any worries about going to a doctor to get advice, even if it means seeing two or three.
8: We found that a dummy was really, really , really useful. It helped them settle and sleep and by the age of 2 they were happy to give it up with out any teeth deformities worthy of an Oprah Winfrey talk back show.

The answer to our sleep deprivation was a little book called 'Save Our Sleep' (Tizzie Hall), we were dizzy for Tizzie. In short, despite spasmodically lapsing into comas of sleep we managed to read the book, these are the routines we have adapted from Tizzie's suggestions.

Routine for 6 week – up to 10 month
□ 6:00 am wake, feed/btle
□ 9:30 feed/btle, burp and bed
□ 11:00 wake, activity
□ 12:30 feed/btle, burp, bed
□ 2:00 wake, activity
□ keep up until 6pm feed/btle, burp and bed
□ 9:00pm > wake > quiet feed/ btle, burp and bed
□ 12:30pm> wake > quiet feed/ btle, burp and bed
□ 3:00 am> wake > quiet feed/ btle, burp and bed (baby usually drops this wake somewhere along the line)
□ 7 am wake


Routine for walking kid (1- ½) – 4 year old


□ wake 6:30am breakfast > activities
□ 11:30 lunch
□ 12:00 milk, bed
□ 1:30 /2:00 wake, activity, afternoon tea
□ 5:00 dinner
□ 6:00 milk, bed



Routine for a 4 year old

□ wake 6:00am breakfast > activities
□ 11:30 lunch
□ 12:00 quiet time > this is a time when Noah looks after himself, he reads books, plays board games by himself , or does drawing on our bed with the door closed. During this time I can rest, make dinner or just have lunch. Usually after 1 hour I join him for half an hour of time spent together.
□ 1:30 afternoon tea, activity
□ 5:00 dinner
□ 5:30 – 6:00 reading, story -time, this is a great way of spending time with your kids but also calming down before bed-time, Noah and Georgi both love it.
□ 6:15 bed
□ 9:30 toilet, we wake Noah up and take him to the toilet (he is out of nappies now but not sleeping all the way through without needing the toilet).














noah enjoying his bbq lunch on a drizzly day , aged 2 1/2



2: Behaviour
All children misbehave, and every parent deals with this in their own way. Some things that we have found useful are the following. Be unified as parents on the rules, be consistent, stay calm, and follow through with punishments - no empty threats. MOst importantly, give praise where its due to encourage the behavior that you want.


a) Positive Reinforcement:
As teachers, Joe and I both became aware of this catch phrase called 'positive reinforcement' prior to having kids. Positive reinforcement is basically commending your child for something they have done well or are trying to do well. Learning to implement positive reinforcement will solve a great deal of your child's behavioral problems, as a child that is +vely reinforced regularly is less likely to behave poorly. The best positive reinforcement is constructive time that you spend with your child. Second to this is saying things like "wow ___ you are doing such a great job making your bed, well done, I am very proud of you".


b) Example: Practice what you preach. You are the primary educator, the way you deal and speak to one another and your kids will set the foundations for their social development.

c) 'Emotional tank': adding to your child’s emotional tank is essential. Every drop counts, whether it is spending quality time playing or reading a book or something as little as a hug or play with their hair. Ultimately a parent needs to spend quality time with their children. Plan it in advance, have activities prepared e.g. going to the park in the morning.
(Some activities that we use are the park, pool, library, inviting ppl over, play group, painting, art and craft for example cardboard box rocket ships, making paper chains, sticking and gluing coloured paper scraps, threading penne pasta, jumping on an old foam mattress (rainy day), bed sheet cubby houses, cheap blocks and sticks from $2 shop or helping with household duties. Everybody has an emotional tank, they are like a car's petrol tank, to function each day we use up what is in them, therefore they need regular re-filling if the car/child is going to work properly the next day.

d) When a kid is poorly behaved it is important to have a consistent approach, this is what we do.

1 – tell the child to stop the behaviour and explain why its not right. warn that a consequence will follow if it continues.

2 – if the behaviour continues follow through with consequence, what ever you do don’t chicken out because every time you do it will become harder and harder. Don’t forget you are in charge. If the behaviour does not continue after the first warning tell the child they are good for listening to you and doing what they were told.


4 -explain to the child why the consequence has come about > stay firm but calm and don’t loose your temper “the reason you aren’t getting your lollypop is because you threw yourself on the floor of the shop and were screaming and mummy asked you to stop and you didn’t”. Do not be the parent who gives the child the lollypop just to shut them up, easy short term solutions will lead to long-term and much more difficult problems. Don’t be embarrassed or afraid of your child screaming and crying in public, better that you suffer the embarrassment of this when they don't get their way the first time then the child kicking and screaming its way through the next 20 years because it knows that this is how it will get its way.

5 - Pick your battles and remain positive. Don't be down on a child all of the time, any criticism you make needs to be a learning experience and the child needs to not feel constantly attacked (remember the 'emotional tank'). It is a good idea to give kids an opportunity to prove that they can behave well, for example to be a help and follow instructions. Say to a child “Daddy will play soccer with you this afternoon once you have cleaned your room, the quicker you do it the longer we will have to play”, then go in during room cleaning and say “wow you are doing such a great job” (+ve reinforcement).

6. Last of all, take the time to spend time talking with your kids and spend quality time with them - this siolves a lot of behavioral problems.
theres heeps of other stuff too i guess, but we just wanted to share some of this with you incase it helps somehow. Anyway, next week we will give our top ten tips to buying a house and return to the garden topic, with ideas on how to start your very own funky frontyard vege garden.

chapter 1: first time parents and suburban survival

Chapter 1:
Jo and I live in Springwood, in the Blue Mountains, N.S.W. We have two kids, three chooks, a vege garden and a two bedroom home which we think is beautiful, sometimes we have to pinch ourselves just to realise that this really is our life. This is our story of how we got here, as just 12 months ago we never thought that owning a home and making ends meet on a single teachers income was possible and even totally comfortable. If you are just starting out in the search for a home, or have a young family, or you just want to learn how to grow your own veges and keep chooks (all without turning into hippies) then you might enjoy reading this blog.

When Jo and I got married 6 years ago, we were cool. We were into cafes, theatre, playing pool at the pub with our friends and hosting the occasional dinner parties...we had reached our socio-cultural apex, at the tender age of 26, when suddenly our first child Noah arrived. After 4 days of labour and an emergency caesar, Noah arrived and our world stopped and so did our sleep. Three days later, whilst Jo was still in recovery I ducked out of the hospital for a coffee and a cigarette, I was so tired I fell asleep on my cigarette and burnt a hole in my forehead, everyone sitting around me got up and left suddenly. It dawned on me there and then that things were going to change, but I had no idea how much so.

Apart from the sleep deprivation we had absolutely no idea how the birth of a child and the loss of an income could change our 'change' bowl! Our Blog is for normal ppl, with no agenda who like meat, drink fashionably cheap wine and want to read about how we evolved from double income, play station obsessed, take-away-eating, laisez-faire, latte swilling late risers couple into a family of four who have their own chooks (Henrietta, Billy Holiday and Charlie), a vege garden, their own home, and a brewery on one teacher's income. P.S We are pretty normal.

Having spent 10 months in my Dad's garage, with our 1 and 1/2 year old, where, if you showered for more than a minute and a half the sewerage would back up and come out the shower drain hole and flood the entire bathroom. but it was o.k. because the glugging sound would give you at least a 30 sec warning before your feet were covered in poo...we were sad about the idea of leaving...no really.

We had managed to save enough for a rental bond and so in 2007 we moved to the Central Coast, Umina Beach which was an hour and 20 mins drive to Sydney along the freeway to Joe's work. When we first moved in, we couldn't understand why the beach was so beautiful but the rent was so cheap. We made this move (away from our beloved inner-western Sydney suburb of Summerhill) with our nearly 2 year old son because we couldn't afford to live in Sydney anymore. I had stopped working as a highschool teacher when Noah was born so as I could stay at home to care for him and on Joe's income and our living habits we found it impossible to meet the rent for our apartment.

To describe Umina Beach, one could simply stop at 'Beach, Beer and Bogans' (especially frightening on Australia Day)...but that is not entirely fair, whilst the bogans were uneducated they were nice...enough. This said, Umina was where Joe and I learned two invaluable skills: Budgeting and veggie gardening.

We lived in a fibro beach-house with our Italian Femme Fatale 68 year old landlord, Maria, who also lived in  a condo in our backyard. Maria was a grumpy, old Italian woman who shamelessly walked around our yard in a black bathing suit saying "you mow lawn...dis child boy orrr gel?" whilest hanging her size 26 knickers on the clothes line that we were paying rent for. Maria became our impetus to escape the rental market once and for all.

The idea of budgeting was initially as foreign to us as a 'transnuchal ultra sound' is to a first-time mother. It was in Umina Beach, where we were so far away from any of our usual indulgences - good cafes, cinemas, friends, babysitters, take-away etc - that we realised our 'usual indulgences' were quickly becoming unusual.
"Babe, where has all the money gone? The car is out of fuel and I cant afford to get to work" "Ive got 3 dollars worth of coins in my bag, you'll have to use neutral on the downhills!" It was time to start budgeting.

We began to work out all of our monthly expenses. Groceries, fuel, bills, rent and so forth, then subrtacted it from our monthly income. We aimed to save a grand a month. We limited our daily spending to $25 dollars per day, and kept a record of every penny we spent each day. It started working!

Joe became addicted to the idea of saving money and started researching other possible money saving schemes, when one day my husband had a 'brilliant' idea. We sould become self sustainable! Not to save the world or trees or whales, or cut carbon emissions, we would become self-sustainable and save money! (in order to escape the evil size 26, black bathing suit, knicker wearing, Italian landlord that was Maria) and to finally one day own our own home and never have to rent again (up until this point we had collectively rented 9 places).






Chapter 2 - Joe goes crazy and starts a vege garden to cut grocery costs, consequently this blossoms into a beautiful friendship with our 86 year old neighbour David and his wife Nancy who had the most competitive nature, so that vegetable growing took on a whole new level.