A new toy has arrived!

Winter is nearly here and I'm really looking forward to our second Arctic winter. I thought I would hate it last year but I just loved it! All the mist, the snow, the crisp sunny days, the cold hard rain, it was all unlike anything I'd ever experienced so I loved it, and this year I can't wait to do it all over again. 

Recently we purchased a new toy for the kitchen. We hosted a thermomix demo for a friend who was training to become a saleswoman, and ended up buying one. It arrived last week and since then I've done a lot of cooking and been totally amazed at just how versatile they are. 

So far we've made a few curries, lemon meringue pie, playdoh (which I dyed with beetroot and tumeric) walnut bread, dips, porridge, custard, soup, curry pastes, sorbet, and other miscellaneous things as well. 

Today I made the lemon meringue pie and I was blown away at how easy it was, and how fast it was done, not to mention how perfectly it all turned out. I normally avoid making anything with pastry but having made this pastry today I can see I'll be making a lot more pies and pastries! 

Here's the playdoh

The Veggie Gardener Stirs!

Here's what's happening in the garden at the moment. We've got heaps of seedlings started, some have just been planted out and some will go out in the next few days. We've also got strawberries, zucchini, and tomatoes fruiting and lots of herbs, salad greens, snow peas, beans, cucumber, beetroot, leek, potatoes, and a surprise pumpkin that's sprung up in the wood pile! (probably started from what we feed the chooks)

It's all been a lot to learn and manage but I really enjoy it and every crop which fails is just a lesson basically, although this year we're doing quite well (since my first seed planting which all failed!). This year the tomatoes aren't going as well as they did last year because we totally forgot to rotate them, but there's still 18 or more on the go and lots of flowers. The zucchinis aren't dong as well either and despite having been rotated I'm wondering if it's got to do with being near the tomatoes.

Yesterday we ripped out a huge pile of mint because it was taking over the whole hot house. We initially planted it in there while we were painting the house and needed to transplant the herb garden. We also ripped up the broad beans which were more or less finished for the season (will plant more of them next year). We left the roots of the broad beans in the soil and just cut the tops off because their roots make fabulous fertiliser. There was a heap of chard that we ripped out too but because it self seeds we have quite a few left in that bed.

The fruit trees are all looking healthy, even the apple tree that Vinnie destroyed has been going strongly and it's covered is lush green leaves.  We bought two blueberry plants yesterday and we'll work out where to plant them some time in the week when we have a gardening day. I'm also looking into cross pollination to see if any of the fruit trees we have need friends in order to make fruit. I've ordered a passion fruit tree that's frost resistant and I'm debating where to put it so it won't steal the sun from the veggie garden.

Here's some pics!

Broccoli, leeks, spring onions (probably too small to see) and teeny beetroot. 

 Potatoes, teeny beetroot, snow peas.

 Newly planted herb garden with parsley, thyme, rosemary and yarrow. Transplanted mint in hanging basket looking very sorry for itself.

Fruit trees in chook proof enclosure. Fig, pineapple guava, and red currant. 

Chard, zucchini, and tomatoes at the back. 

Cabbage, lettuce, oregano, sage, chives. 

Gardener's assistant

Updated from the slackest blogger alive!

I can't believe it's been over 4 months since I last blogged anything. it's not as if nothing is happening, it's just that I've been completely slack!

Recent news is:

We went on a holiday to A's family shack. I was feeling really down because it was James' 4th birthday so we packed up and away for five days. It was just what I needed to gather my thoughts and find my groove again.

the kids at the beach around the corner from the shack.

Crab that was at the beach. There were THOUSANDS of them, you could actually hear them scrabbling across the sand.

A wave breaking on the rocks at the lookout near The Blowhole

View from the lookout about 100m above the Tessellated Pathway

Angus enjoying the evening constitutional on crabby beach

Waves crashing into the blowhole. We happened to go on a day when the weather was wild 

so it put on a spectacular show for us.

echidna on the path near the blowhole look out. It was quite unphased by the tourists!

Devil's Kitchen

So it was a fabulous holiday. We went swimming on every day but the day the mercury hit 13 and we were all nearly blown away in a gale, but that was the day we went to the blowhole and the weather was perfect for that! The kids went canoeing, fishing (Spike caught a flathead and was very chuffed), swimming under the jetty (where we saw a stingray) in the warmest water I've ever swum in, bush walking, we played board games and card games and I read three books. Perfecto!

New, old birth photos.

I just went through all the photos on the computer and realised that there's a few birthy ones I'd like to add! Consider it a second, pictorial birth story. Full birth story (with other pics) is but a click away!

About an hour or so in, just settling into the pool.

Getting heavy now.

Midwife telling the kids all about it, baby is actually past crowning in this pic! Not that you can tell from this angle

OMG it really IS a baby! Like OMG! Who knew!?

I waited four births for this photo. The photo where my face has every emotion under sun written there for everyone to read. Every woman should have a photo (or five) like this.

Me, high on hormones, him high on new life

Daddy's first cuddle

Big sister's first cuddle, she hates this photo, but I reckon at 4:30 in the morning, after you just saw your baby brother being born it's a pretty good one!

First cuddle with big brother

And I'll leave you with a photo of the person whom all the fuss was about! This baby is a homebirth after two caesareans, yes two, and a previous stillbirth. When people ask me why I wanted a homebirth I answer 
"because I've done it in hospital and it stank"  




  If I can have a homebirth, you can too!

Time for an update!

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but I'm finally getting around to it. Since last time we've done heaps to the house and garden. The inside of the house has gone GREEN! The lounge room, hallway, our bedroom and Stylish's room are done and now A is working on Spikee's room. Stylish did her room pretty much by herself.

We've planted a lot of seeds in the side vegetable garden and in the hothouse. Lots of herbs, strawberries, leafy greens for salad and cooking, and other fruity veg too. I'm watching the seeds daily, desperate to see them coming up, they seem to be taking their time and it's really worrying me because I don't want to have to replant them all if an entire crop fails. I can't for the life of me imagine why they would ALL fail though!? Perhaps I'm just not being patient enough.

Our bare rooted apples, plum, nectarine and cherry are all going green, one of the apples has about four flowers on it, but the raspberries are also worrying me because they're not doing anything. Spring has sprung so I really would think they'd have atleast the a sign of green shoots by now. 

Angus has had his first birthday. We had a quiet family gathering and ate pizza and cup cakes. 

Formula for Disaster

Firstly -->

Happy World Breast Feeding Week!

Now,

In Australia where I live there are guidelines about how formula can be advertised, but we still catch artificial baby milk producers out. There are supposed to be no advertisements for baby formula, however toddler formula is frequently advertised across all mediums, and sometimes they sneakily slip in a picture of newborn ABM (Artificial Baby Milk). 

Formula was first created in the 1920's, probably for the right reasons, however there was money to be made, and where there's money there's usually unscrupulous people not too far behind. At first formula must have been a wonderful convenience for women who genuinely couldn't breast feed. However those women were surrounded by women who could breast feed so they had a trouble shooting team in the house next door, if not in their own home. Formula wouldn't have been something they viewed as a choice, it would have been a last resort.  

ABM companies weren't stupid. They latched on (pardon the pun) to this niche market and when the money started coming in, they decided that expanding their business would be rather nice. So they began marketing formula more aggressively.

I know a lot of women who breast feed, and many of them have struggled in the early days. The breast feeding advocates made a big error in their marketing by telling women that it is natural. Yes, it's very natural, but so is an earth quake, so are killer bees. Need I say more? 

Formula companies wanted to get rich quickly. Their get rich quick scheme was to to sell even more formula than was necessary and their strategy was to undermine mothers who really weren't having any trouble at all. The messages they sold as FACT, were pure FICTION, but they permeated every single facet of our society. 

• Tell them their milk isn't good enough
• Tell them their milk is insufficient 
• Tell them that bottle feeding is a sign of affluence
• Tell them bottle feeding is modest
• Tell them bottle feeding is convenient 

And hey presto! Billions of dollars for ABM companies! 

92% of women initiate breast feeding when they give birth in an Australian hospital. By three months a miniscule 56% are still feeding, and by six months only 14% of women in Australia are still breast feeding.  By these statistics, we can assume one of two things. Either it is remarkable that we survived as a species given that we are so unable to feed our young, or that women have drastically lost confidence in their body's ability to grow, birth, and nourish a baby. 

In Australia this has huge ramifications for our health care system. However in countries where there is no access to clean water, high illiteracy rates,  and extreme poverty, formula has been an absolute disaster.  In countries where women know they can breast feed, formula companies have had to use a different marketing approach. They tell women formula is superior to breast milk, that it will make their baby stronger, smarter, and reduce the chances of diarrhea. 

In countries where babies die of diarrhea daily, this is a pretty nifty marketing ploy ... but it's an outright lie and it results in babies dying more frequently. Women don't have access to clean water, so there are diseases in the formula by the time it's given to their baby, and other women can't read the directions so they don't know how to mix it up correctly. Poor woman can't afford to buy enough formula (remember that billions of people survive on less than $1 a day) so they water the formula down to make it last.  

Babies are dying. Formula companies don't care and no one holds them accountable. The World Health Organisation has a set of guidelines relating to the marketing of ABM, but ABM companies don't abide by guidelines. Why should they? Nothing negative happens to THEM when they don't! It's time the watch dog grew some teeth.

Some bright spark got the idea to start a National Formula Feeding awareness week, because it is currently National Breast Feeding Awareness Week. Well I couldn't agree more! Let's raise awareness of the dangers of formula feeding! Let's raise awareness of the politics that drive formula producing companies.  Let's raise awareness of the environmental impact of bottle feeding. Let's start milk banks to provide REAL baby milk to those women who genuinely can't breast feed. Let's stop allowing the promotion of bottle as a choice. Let's give our babies the best start in life that they can possibly get!

Let's raise awareness of how LESS THAN 1% OF WOMEN REALLY CAN'T BREAST FEED! 

The Wonders of Mother's Milk

Today Angus got a nasty scratch from the neighbour's dog's claw. Given the fact that they only time the dog is ever not walking around in its' own shit is when we walk it, I was rather concerned about it causing an infection, especially because the scratch begins quite literally a millimetre from his eye.

We didn't want to use tea tree oil on it because it's so close to his eye and would hang around for ages with the potential to be rubbed in his eye. We knew salt would sting. Garlic would also sting. I posted on facebook asking what other hippy mamas would suggest and they all suggested the same thing. The most obvious thing to a fellow hippy mama, but I'd over looked it completely!

MAMA'S MILK! 

So I painstakingly expressed by hand. I probably only got about 5mls all up, but that's enough to wipe his scratch with, and I can give it another go later. This got me to thinking of all the magical uses for mama's milk, so I thought I'd make a list!

Mama's milk is full of amazing antibacterial properties

• cleaning a wound
• treating a burn
• conjunctivitis
• cradle cap
• one mama used it for an ear infection
• to stop soap from stinging your child's eyes 
• eczema 
• acne
• mozzie or other insect bites
• cold sores
• chapped or dry lips
• facial cleanser - what could be gentler? 
• nappy rash
• can aid the digestive system of cancer patients
• cooking food!
• boosting the immunity of the whole family from the baby up
• warts 
• external or internal ulcers

And there are probably plenty more uses! Add your own in the comments or tell us your story about healing with booby juice.