It’s been a while since we last had a personal check-in, and it feels like life has been a little too much about More! While our minds have mostly been on our big adventure coming up next year, we’ve also continued our learn and play with sustainability and simplicity at home. Here’s a quick summary into what we’ve been up to recently on that front.
Growing Food (and Sharing with Wildlife)
Growing at least some of our own food has always been a desire, and lately we’ve been giving it even more of a go. We’ve tried tomatoes over winter to avoid the fruit flies. They’re also expensive at the moment, because its not the ideal time to grow them, but we still wanted them on our menu and without pesticides. At least, that was the idea. In reality, our tomatoes seem to be on everyone else’s menu too.
Bandicoots, crows, brush turkeys, even the beautiful king parrots that we thought ate only our pigeon peas. Everyone seems to love tomatoes as much as we do. Recently, Dani picked a tomato just as it was starting to ripen, probably sensing that waiting any longer would mean losing it to our hungry neighbours. And she was right! It turns out that growing food sustainably sometimes means sharing (a little reluctantly) with local wildlife. Sadly the pigeon peas which were thriving and abundant, were far more thoroughly perused by the king parrots than we imagined, leaving us about ten percent of the harvest. Not sure how to get around this without more and more nets.
Cultured Hummus and Brush Turkeys
Back in the kitchen, Emelie’s been experimenting with making her own hummus from mung beans. We’re conscious of the parallels between biodiversity in the garden and our gut, so she’s been fermenting with live cultures, activating the mung-beans by soaking to reduce anti-nutrients, and then seasoning with plenty of garlic and salt. Delicious, nutritious, alive and about as sustainable as you can get. What’s not to love?
Well, it turns out the local brush turkey loved it too! Emelie left her latest batch out in the warmth of the sun to ferment, our feathered friend Limpy attempted to break into the container. Thankfully, we were outside at the time and saw it’s break-in attempt. Next time we might need a turkey proof box!
Repairing and Reusing
One of our family’s core values is repairing rather than discarding. Over the past few months, we’ve:
- Repaired numerous pairs of shoes, mostly given back to the op shop.
- Repaired school trousers which had tears made by our overly protective drake.
- Fixed up bicycles, which remain our primary mode of transport, getting more use than our car.
- Replaced the soldered-in batteries in a hair trimmer with a wall adapter, giving it some real buzz
- Replaced the glass in the bathroom window, a casualty of having an older house that sometimes moves a little
- Replaced the battery in my 8 year old phone, hopefully giving me at least another couple of years
I’ve also unexpectedly become the designated “knife-sharpening guy” at our local repair café. It wasn’t my first choice for how to help. but in the absence of the regular knife guy I’m glad to fill the high demand role. I do enjoy the sense of community and shared values. Everyone is genuinely keen to make things last longer.
Thinning Out Clutter and Valuing What We Have
We are planning to rent our home while we are away so we will need to pack away all our possessions. This has given us a little extra motivation to do some more decluttering of our own and helping sort through clothes and books with Dani. It’s been an enlightening process. Not just about getting rid of things, but about really appreciating and valuing the items we choose to keep. We’ve realized how much emotional and physical space our possessions occupy, and how freeing it can feel when we let go of things we no longer truly love or use. A few times I’ve thought about adding extra storage somewhere, somehow, but ultimately realised the folly, considering how long it’s been since any of us have seen the back of the existing storage spaces we have.
Emelie recently experienced the bittersweet moment of realizing she’d donated her two best long dresses just before needing one for a friend’s party. But thankfully, there were still lovely alternatives in the wardrobe. We’re not really proponents of the typical minimalist approach of white walls, echoey hallways and one item per shelf. For us isn’t about having the absolute least, but rather about keeping only what truly adds value or joy to our lives.
Remembering What it’s All About
Amidst all these activities, we’ve also continued reading, listening and reflecting. Emelie has been especially inspired by the book Frugal Hedonism which I also reviewed a while ago. For her, the permission to enjoy the tactile, simple pleasures of life has liberated her to live closer to the way that feels right to her. It reminds us that sustainable living isn’t about deprivation, but about embracing a deeper, more joyful way of engaging with the world.
While I have been looking deep into what and why and how we, humanity are, I have forgetten a little how unusual our day-to-day lives are too, when compared to typical Australian of our generation. A friend recently reminded me that I didn’t necessarily need to be going deep to provide inspiration, so this post is me attempting to focus again on how simplicity and sustainability are just a normal part of our daily life, whether through food, community, or the things we choose to keep or fix. Not to say its perfect or easy or right for everyone. There’s still plenty of stress, mess and self doubt. Shoes pile up waiting for repairs, life is still busy and possessions sometimes vanish before their usefulness ends, but living our values is deeply rewarding.
How about you? Have you had any wins or funny stories in your journey toward simpler living lately? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!
In the next part of this update, we share what we’ve been doing with community.
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