Getting There

Skills I would like to learn.

I posted last week about the progress Chris and I feel we've made on the road to self-sufficiency. We are always learning, and yet there are so many skills we both still want to learn. We've only just begun our journey along this particular path, to be sure.

When Everett at Living a Simple Life posted the other day a list of things he wished he could do, and then tagged me as one of the bloggers he invited to do the same, I thought why not? It would be fun to make my own list of skills I'd like to learn or improve upon, either now or some time in the future.

To begin, I really need to improve my skills in gardening. My vegetable garden was mostly a failure this year, so I guess I could say I have no skill at all in this area yet. Next year though, I'm going to try something slightly easier and try growing herbs in our small backyard--for both medicinal and culinary use.

Which brings me to my next point--I want to learn a lot more about herbs and their uses. I've been fascinated by herbs since I was a girl and always wanted a pungently scented herb garden of my own, but for some reason I never got around to it. I would even like to learn how to create my own herbal salves, teas and tinctures.

Although I have done some simple canning this year, I know very little about food preservation and I would love to learn more and do more. Someday, I want to learn how to create a real root cellar.

I do have basic breakmaking skills, but I have yet to try my hand at sourdough and I've been meaning to for so long.

I want to learn how to raise chickens and goats, but these are things I can't try for now, being in the city.

I believe that a family being able to create their own entertainment is a valuable self-sufficiency skill. With this in mind, I really want to brush up my musical skills. I used to be proficient at the piano many years ago, but no more. And I have a violin in my upstairs closet that has been gathering dust for years too.

My sewing skills are still fairly weak, I need to learn so much more. Particularly, I am very interested in quilting and I hope to start my first project very soon (just gathering the scraps needed!).

I see so many bloggers posting pictures of knitted hats or mittens they apparently whipped up in no time...I don't know how they do it because I am all thumbs when it comes to knitting and the patterns look like ancient Greek to me. I'm sure if I stick at it though I'll figure it out eventually.

I used to draw constantly--in fact, my husband and I met in highschool art class. I'd love to get back into sketching and perhaps even improve on my previous skills. What would really thrill me, is to make my own gardening journals and draw in my own illustrations of the different herbs I've grown. Yes, I know, I'm geeky. :)

I have also been interested in soap making and candle making for some time. I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to those or not! There just aren't enough hours in a day...

One last thing--I'd love to be able to identify more wild plants, and especially to identify edible plants. In general, I'd like to learn some basic wilderness survival skills since I know virtually nothing along those lines at the moment, and hey, you never know...   I think this upcoming winter will be a good one for me to do a lot of reading, and work on what skills I may. Looking over the list, I have so much still to learn...it makes me happy to think about it, because I know that whatever happens in my life, I will never be bored.

Dear readers, please leave a comment telling me what skills you would like to learn, or better yet, post a list on your blog. :)

Where are *you* getting to?

Sometimes I think about this blog's name. "Getting There"--where are we getting to, exactly?

When I started this blog back in March, I thought I would write about our journey towards a home in the country, mostly. This was the "there" I had in mind. However, circumstances have made it that it might take longer for us to get there than we originally hoped. Realistically, it may take us years to accomplish this dream. I don't mind living on a small, unsteady income--see this post--but it does mean, unfortunately, that it will take us a pretty long time to save up that downpayment on our future home, especially while we are renting right now.

So-where does that leave us? Where are we going, today? Well, it turns out we can still get somewhere from here. It turns out that while waiting for that "someday" to arrive, there is a whole lot a body can do besides twiddling their thumbs.

It was around the time I started this blog that I became serious about learning new skills. I hoped the blog would give me a push to do things instead of just talk about them--and so it did.  Although we are pretty much still newbies in all variety of skills, I can say that we've accomplished a lot this year, right here in this little city house with a tiny yard. Chris has become an accomplished woodworker, and guitar player (for those country bon fires!) and now he is starting to learn about alternative energy so we can live off-grid when "someday" comes. I've learned much about gardening this year--mostly by my failures. I've done quite a bit of canning for the first time ever, and I've experimented a lot in the kitchen, and learned to make just about everything from scratch. I'm starting to get the hang of sewing, and pretty soon I'm going to try my hand at some simple quilting. And I knit my first useful objects-- misshapen dishcloths.

We've learned all the while to be more frugal than before, and we've also learned so much about running a craft business.

It's amazing how life works, how a person can always be learning and growing, moving forward, just by putting forth a little bit of effort.

Everyone has a different idea of where they want to be on that magical "someday". An old farmhouse on a quiet country lane. An airy apartment in the big city with lots of light for doing artwork. A cottage on the beach. A dream job that allows for world travel. A book finally published...there are so many different places we can all end up. But you know, dreaming about it alone doesn't really get you anywhere. You have the take the first step towards accomplishing your dream. Whatever that dream is, I encourage you today, to take that first step. Learn new skills that you will need, do research, switch jobs, do something. Put it out there. Make an effort, and you never know what might happen. You might actually get there. :)

As for us, we will continue working quietly towards our goal and feeling the satisfaction that brings. We will continue to learn new skills and new ways to make our life beautiful and simple. I feel like in this stage of my life, everything is in a state of change. I am learning things every day, I am doing new things every day. And I love it! I hope it always stays this way and that I never become complacent. Because actually, there are many places I'd like to get, many dreams in my heart, and I only have one life to live. So I'd better get moving, hadn't I? :)

Where would you like to be in the future, and how are you getting there?

 

The benefits of living a frugal life.

That most of us are considered poor is no disgrace, but does us credit; for as the mind is weakened by luxurious living, so it is strengthened by a frugal life.
--Minicius Felix, 3rd century A.D.

Although I've mentioned my frugal tendencies in other posts, I've never dedicated an entire post to the idea of living on a small income.

For us, living frugally is very important, since we are trying our best to pay off our debts and also save up enough for a downpayment on our own home, all on a very limited income. And I know saving money very important for a great many of us these days, when prices and taxes keep rising, and job security is a thing of the past.

Because we live in a heavily industrialized area of Ontario that has been very hard hit by job losses in manufacturing over the past decade or so, Chris has gone long stretches of time without having a steady job. We have learned to cut back more and more to make ends meet, and have even managed to save a wee bit. And you know what? Although "living poor" seems like a hardship at first, after a while it starts to be almost...fun. It's a challenge--and I am always up for a good challenge.

A few days ago Chris was laid off from his current job. So, now there is a new challenge before us. Although part of me is naturally worried about how we are going to manage over the next little while, another part of me is glad that now I have a reason to really buckle down and get serious about counting every penny. Because every time we go through a rough patch like this, I discover another way to cut back, another way to be creative. For example, I am going to have to think of a way to create two Halloween costumes this year, without buying any materials. This way of living does strengthen the mind, I think.

Another benefit of living frugally on a small income is that we appreciate the things we do have so much more. This is a phenomenon I noticed fairly early on in our marriage. The lean times, oddly, often seemed to be the happiest times. And not only do we appreciate things more when we have less, but life is a little bit simpler when we don't have to worry about how to spend our money.

You can't live without money, of course, and I admit there are times I certainly wish we had a bit more of it. But it is totally possible to live a rich, full life, with very little money. A lot of people would be shocked if they knew how little money we were raising our family on. True, our clothes are not fashionable, our car is getting rusty, and our dishes are mismatched, but we're happy, and I feel satisfied that we are careful with our resources and never wasteful (which sometimes means purchasing the better quality item over the cheaper one).

I believe it's actually a good thing that these tough economic times are forcing people to take another look at what they really need, learn to be more careful with their spending, and be less wasteful. Frugal living creates fortitude and strengthens the imagination.  I hope that also, these difficult times are getting people back to their roots, helping them to remember what is really important: Family. Togetherness. Hard work. Love. None of these things costs a single penny. :)

A quiet Monday.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to try getting over my fear of my sewing machine and make a simple cape for Jasper's birthday next week. But before I jump right into that project, I thought it would be a good idea to warm up a bit by doing some altering that I've been meaning to do for ages. So far, this has not gone very well. Honestly, if there is a gene for sewing, I think I'm missing it, which is shocking when both my mother and grandmother are expert sewists.

First I tried to take in a slip that was a bit big on me. I had to pull it out and redo it several times because the material was all puckering and looked weird even after I tried to press it...in retrospect I think I was using the wrong size of needle for such thin silky fabric. I just discovered that I have some size 9 needles that I inherited with the sewing machine, I should have used one of those I guess. But then, it was only last night that I was reading tutorials on Sew Mama Sew! and realized that needles even came in different sizes. (Laugh if you like, it is funny.)

Never mind that, a slip goes under clothing anyway, nobody sees it right? So I crossed that item off my list. At least it stays up when I wear it. Next I tried to hem some super long blue jeans. I figured, what could be easier than hemming a pair of pants? So I folded them up the right amount, pressed them, and ran a straight stitch around the bottom with white thread, which was the only non-funky colour I had. But I should have folded the extra material over an extra time, because it was flopping down when I wore them. So I yanked out the seams, cut the bottom of the jeans off, folded and pressed twice...but the original thread was used up, and I was using the only thread I had which was thicker, and it went all loopy on the bottom of the fabric, so I had to pull it out again.

 

Yesterday I got lots of sewing machine advice from both my mom and my grandma, so I am hoping that this afternoon I will actually be able to put in a hem that I won't have to rip out again. Third time's a charm, right? After that I'm moving onto a jean skirt I wanted to add a panel to...keeping my fingers crossed on that one as it's a project I'm totally and completely winging.

Owen was really cute yesterday, "helping" me sew. I asked him to unwind the bobbin for me after I came to the conclusion that the thread I had was too thick to do anything with...he did this for a few moments and then said meekly, "Mom, wouldn't it be a better idea to get the machine to unwind it for us?" Good thing I have him for a helper! I'm just clueless about everything having to do with machines in general.

Today the house is very quiet. Chris started a new job today at a local industrial shop. He's pleased with it, because he will only be working 3 or 4 days per week (just really long shifts), which will still give him plenty of time to do his woodworking and go with us on family outings as well. It seems strange to have him gone all day. For the past few years he's been attending college, and never really had a heavy schedule, so we've gotten used to him often being at home. Especially since school ended in April, when he's been home all the time, although he is usually in the garage making toys. :)

Perhaps I'm just spoiled, but I don't really like being apart too much. It's my hope that someday, when we finally reach our dream of having a homestead on our own land, we'll find ways to create sufficient income that don't involve either of us being gone from home for 10 or 12 hours at a time.

But for now, at least one of us has to work for wages, or we'll never realize our dreams of owning land. One thing is for sure, that I have plenty to keep me busy here at home while Chris is at work. And that's the way I like it. I love being home, and working around the house. My only problem with being a full-time homemaker is that I never have quite enough time to do everything I'd like to.

I made some jam-filled muffins this morning that I can individually wrap and put in the freezer for Chris's lunches at work. They were very easy, and I think they turned out quite well, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I know that this time of year most of us have lots of jam to spare! (Note: Maybe some day, I'll post a recipe on my blog that is not a baked good. Maybe.)

Raspberry Jam Filled Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup melted butter

1 tsp grated lemon zest (I added a squirt of juice too for good measure)

1/2 cup raspberry jam (homemade is best!)

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, butter and lemon zest. Pour into dry mixture, stirring just until moistened. Don't over mix!

Spoon half the batter into greased muffin tins. (This recipe will make 12 small muffins, or 9-10 medium sized ones.) Add a spoonful of jam to each cup. Spoon remaining batter over jam. Bake in 400 degree oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.

Many years ago I clipped a quote from a Reader's Digest magazine, by the American fiction writer Louis L'Amour. I taped it to our computer desk, and there is remains to this day. A few times I tried to remove it, but the tape wouldn't come off; perhaps that is just as well, because I think it holds an important lesson.

Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity and changes in the world about him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape his life into the sort of thing he wishes it to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.

Personally, I do have days when I feel sorry for myself, when nothing seems to be going right, when it seems like all the odds are stacked against us and we'll never be able to reach our goals. And it's true, a lot of what is holding us back from seeing our dreams materialize isn't our fault at all. We have indeed had some back luck over the years, especially where employment is concerned. But, this excuse only works up to a point. After that point, we do have power to shape our lives. Even if circumstances make things difficult, they are never impossible. Sometimes a little ingenuity is required. But anything is possible, if you want it badly enough. Everyone can say "That I am today; that I will be tomorrow."

Anyhow, I thought I would share that little quote, because I like the way it gives me a little kick in the pants when I need it most. :)

A bit about our toys.

In honour of Father's Day, I'm going to talk today about the work Chris does. :)

In the past we bought as many plastic toys as anyone else. But several years ago, we wanted to shift towards giving our children fewer, better quality toys, instead of having a lot of cheap toys lying around. Wood is perfect for this because it's natural, biodegradable, warm to the touch, sturdy, and usually wooden toys are simple and tend to allow more room for imagination.

We did purchase some cute wooden toys, but eventually Chris decided to start making some of his own. He was new to woodworking, but quickly fell in love with it, and through trial and error, taught himself how to become skilled at making wooden toys. I'm really quite proud of the way this man can teach himself new things without a bit of help if he is determined. 

 

He rented tables at a few craft shows, but there didn't seem to be too much interest in those venues, so a little over a year ago we opened our Etsy shop , calling it The Wood Garden. (I know, the name is a bit cheesy, but we wanted something simple and easy to remember.) Chris makes the toys (of course) and I run the shop and do all the computer stuff. We've been able to sell many more toys through Etsy than at craft shows, because people from all over the world shop at Etsy for handmade items. As of today we've sold 570 toys directly to customers through Etsy, and many wholesale clients found us there as well.

Sadly, we've found that it isn't really possible these days to make a living from selling crafted items, since it's so difficult to compete with all the inexpensive mass-produced stuff out there. Even wooden toys are massed produced today, and so people are understandably unwilling to pay higher prices for something similar but handmade. We hope that someday, when (knock on wood) we have a homestead, heat with wood, and grow a lot of our own food, we'll be able to make a living from Chris's woodworking alone. Right now though, when we have high expenses, renting a house in the city, and heating with electricity, it isn't enough, and Chris has to take other jobs on the side--he works very hard to support our family. :)

But, even if it isn't paying the bills on its own, we enjoy running this business. We like thinking that in a very small way we are making the world a better place by offering people a choice--simple wooden toys over plastic toys that will remain forever in a landfill. It's so rewarding to get positive feedback from a customer whose baby loves one of our toys. And on top of all that, it just feels right to have a family business that the children can help out with as they get older. 

Happy Father's Day to all the hard working daddies out there!

Bloom where you're planted.

We have such big plans for the future, such exciting dreams, that sometimes it gets frustrating, being where we are. Sometimes I, at least, feel unpleasantly stuck. We, as a family, really do want to get ourselves a little farm, or a piece of land we can turn into a farm, and live a peaceful, quiet life of honest hard work and togetherness in the country. We enjoy sometimes looking at real estate listings online, and dreaming of all the fun we could have with each country property. Chris dreams of having a huge workshop where he can endlessly "tinker;" me, I dream of having a big garden and fruit orchard, and some chickens; and the kids love the idea of having lots of room to roam, maybe even a nice big tree house in the back yard--maybe even a pony!

Yet, here we are, a family of five living in a condo townhouse in the city, with a tiny back yard. We even operate our home business out of this little place. We're cramped, to say the least. And sometimes it's hard to stay positive when realistically, it will be many years before we can afford to purchase our piece of land. We have debts to pay first, and a business to build. Sometimes...sometimes we feel a little bit sorry for ourselves that our dreams feel out of reach.

At these times, I try to remember the following saying:

Bloom where you're planted. 

Short and simple, but that phrase says a lot. Even though we aren't exactly where we'd like to be, we can still "bloom," even in our little house in the city. In fact, when I think about it, it's probably a good thing that we are here, because as I learn new skills, like growing potatoes or canning jam, my mistakes are likely to be on a smaller scale. Really, we are just starting out on this journey of self-sufficiency, and still have a great deal to learn. Perhaps learning the things we need to know gradually, while we are here, will enable us to have a greater chance of success when we do find ourselves out in the country, because we won't need to have so sharp a learning curve.

There are still plenty of ways "city folk" can be more self-sufficient. Some skills we have learned or are currently learning: sewing, knitting, carpentry, growing vegetables, baking bread...my husband has also taught himself how to play the guitar, for that blissful day someday when we will find ourselves collected around the firepit out back, listening to the crickets chirp and singing together...

Some skills we are soon going to learn: canning jam and pickles, harvesting and storing potatoes, making sourdough bread, making more of our food and condiments from scratch...

It really is possible to be an urban homesteader...perhaps not us, not really, with our tiny yard...our condo definitely wouldn't let us keep chickens, as they won't even let us hang laundry outside! But we can still do a lot, still learn a lot, still bloom where we are planted. We can be happy and enjoy life wherever we are.

Before I end this post, I'd like to direct my readers to Little Homestead in the City, the blog of a family who has taken urban homesteading to the next level--they grow enough food on their 1/10 acre lot to feed themselves, and have enough left over to sell to local restaurants! Their amazing achievements are very inspiring to those of us who feel like farmers but find ourselves surrounded by the concrete jungle.

And lastly, I would like to ask my readers a question. I know some of you do live in the country, but for those of you in the city--do you consider yourself an urban homesteader? If so, please share some of the things you're doing in the city to be more self-reliant. I'd love to know! :)

One stitch at a time, taken patiently.

I can't remember exactly where I first saw this lovely quote--I think it may have been in Amanda Soule's first book, The Creative Family. It's by Oliver Wendell Holmes, a 19th century American poet and author:

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern--it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that...one stitch at a time, taken patiently. 

How much wisdom is contained in those few words! Life is like that...one stitch at a time, taken patiently.  Indeed. We all have so many things we want to do, so many places we want to go--both literally and figuratively--that sometimes it becomes discouraging when reaching these goals feels so far away. But, if we just quietly, patiently, keep working towards our goals, one stitch at a time, one step at a time...we'll reach them.

I myself am guilty of often being impatient. I find it difficult to do "slow" work like sewing or embroidery because it feels like it's going to take forever. I've given up on more than one project for this very reason. And where larger goals are concerned, like our dream of owning our own homestead--well, sometimes it seems like it's going to take us so long to achieve it that we might as well give up right now. But this is the wrong attitude to have. Almost anything is possible if we work hard and don't give up over the long haul.

One stitch at a time, taken patiently...The image above is of a tablecloth my grandmother gave me, that was embroidered (I believe) by my great-grandmother--one stitch at at time. How long does it take to embroider a whole tablecloth? I remember my grandmother creating beautiful smocked dresses for my sisters and I when we were very small. She even made a fancy smocked dress for my Cabbage Patch doll! And my mother as well used to sew many of our clothes when we were young. Then we get to me--and I struggle with having enough patience to sew anything fancier than a hankie. I wonder if I am the only one with this problem? Perhaps many of us today are feeling rushed by the hectic pace of life, and find it difficult to really slow down.

I think I am going to place that quote somewhere where I can see it. I think it contains a good lesson for me. I need to slow down. Breathe. And get to work. One stitch at a time. The rose I'm working towards will show itself in good time. :)

(Tomorrow I'll be talking about Digital Detox Week--it proved to be a very interesting experiment!)

Living Deliberately.

I remember a creative writing course I took in highschool, in which our teacher would give us photocopied passages of famous writing to show us what good writing could be. One of the passages she gave us was the below quote from Thoreau's Walden. It struck me deeply at the time, went straight to my soul in a way that few other things had.  For many years I kept that sheet of paper from that class, and when I found it again last year I  taped it up in my bedroom. There it remained until quite recently when Jasper ripped it down, and up. Ah, well. Here it is:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience...

That passage still pulls at my heart, but instead of the teenage enthusiasm that made me think Yes! I want to live a meangingful life like that someday...I have a full-fledge passionate desire to get more out of life, to be more, now. At the risk of divulging my age, I will say that I passed through my twenties distractedly, getting wrapped up so much in day-to-day life, in work, and in the birth of my children, that I forgot my teenage ideals. I forgot my dreams of living in harmony with the land, of growing my own food--dreams which, in fact, I had had since I was a very young child. When I had free time, I played video games instead of dug in the garden...I was not living deliberately, I was going with the flow with no goals in particular. And the things I spent my time on were frivolous, for the most part. I was not "fronting only the essential facts of life."

But around the time I turned thirty my perspective changed again. Chris and I both feel that we drifted along aimlessly throughout our twenties, and now we regret it, and we want to start living life more deliberately. We want to set goals, and work towards them. Life is going by too fast--"I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear." Indeed. Life is too short to waste just drifting along. Now we want to live, to really live.

Living deliberately can mean entirely different things to different people. It all depends what a person's values and goals are. When we decided to start living deliberately, the vague idea we had had throughout our twenties of living a simple life in the country crystallized into a clear picture of what we wanted. And we started working towards it. However slow our progress might be, it feels so good to at last be going somewhere.

"To live deep and suck out all the marrow of life--" isn't that a glorious phrase? It describes exactly the type of life I want to live. I want to suck out the marrow of life, and if  life turns out to be sublime I want to know it by experience. I love books, but I don't want to read of other people's experiences in books all my days. I want to have my own. Like Thoreau, I want to learn what life has to teach. You can't get that from books. But you can certainly get inspiration from books. So, I am going to go live life...and I hope you enjoyed reading Thoreau's inspiring words today. 

(Thoreau was preaching the simple life way back in the 1850's. Walden was pubilshed in 1854. For anyone who wishes to read more of the book, it's available free online here.)

Time to buy some seeds.

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.-  --Robert Louis Stevenson

One of the main reasons I wanted to start this blog, was to keep me on track when it comes to working towards our goals. It's oh so easy to say "later I'll do that, tomorrow, some other time..." but if I have this blog, which is being read by even just one other person, I'll look a little silly, won't I, if I don't actually back up any of my words with actions?

So today I took the first steps towards this year's vegetable garden. Well, our first garden, really. My wonderful grandma is going to let us use the corner of her yard to grow some vegetables, since we live in a townhouse with a very small, shady backyard. We did grow some tomatoes, beans and cucumbers in her yard two years ago--but I don't count that because the plants were purchased (by my parents, which was very kind of them!). This year we are going to try planting everything from seeds--in the sunny window of our laundry room--and see how we do with that. We are also going to try saving seeds from the vegetables we grow for next year. Just with those two things there is a lot to learn. Time to do some reading! (I know, I know, I should have read up long ago, and had the seedlings started already...better late than never, right?)

I figured it's a bit late to start ordering seeds from a catalogue, so I took my five year old to the nearby Rona store and he helped me pick out some seeds. We got two kinds of tomatoes, beans, zucchinis, cantaloupes, chives, green onions, and parsley. We'll be able to grow the herbs in pots on our small patio. The rest will be going into the ground at Grandma's.

It was really quite cute how very excited Owen was picking out the seeds. As we were driving into the parking lot, he exclaimed with glee, "Vegetable seeds, HERE WE COME!" And in the store, he was squealing with delight over all the pictures on the packets. He is SO excited to plant the seeds we bought. That's my boy! :)

I'm planning on planting the seeds in egg shells, a technique which I've seen on many different blogs this spring. So we just have to wait a few more days to save up our egg shells--which shouldn't take too long, since we eat an awful lot of eggs around here. 

Thanks for reading my second post! Tomorrow I'll be back with my very favourite bread recipe.