Back to school

What a year it's been... It sometimes feels like there have been 10 years stuffed just in 2008. Marta died at the beginning of the year, not long after Salomon. This was all very emotional, as well as having to go to too many funerals! Then we had some trouble selling our house, but managed to do so and drove across Australia to get here. Then months of renovation, trying to set up our veggie patch at the same time, keeping the fulltime job going. Getting a load of cows, including my lovely Emma and milking her by hand. Trying to keep warm over winter in an unheated house! Then as per always the numerous visits (I call it the first-year syndrome, afterwards people tend to forget where or who you were again) which was actually rather stressfull as we weren't quite ready yet, nor was the guest room on most occasions! My sister falling pregnant, and having her baby born so early... On top of that the turmoil going on in the world and pondering the reasons for coming here and what our future is going to be. And now a dog too!

Gosh it's no wonder I'm a bit under the weather and tired at the moment. Friday I'm off on a big break - I think I need it! Saturday I'm catching a 6am flight to Cairns (although it's going to take me hours and hours and 2 flights to get there). I'll be catching up with Lieneke, and we'll be going around for 4 days visiting the rain forest and going on the Great Barrier Reef. Should be good! Lieneke is an old schoolfriend of mine. We saw each other for the last time some 18/19 years ago. We got back in contact a few years back, and she decided to come and visit. Ironically she found a really good course in Perth, just as we had decided to move to Tas! So there she is at the moment, doing her course. Then after Queensland she'll be with us for a few weeks, and then back home to Holland.

This will be good for Satchmo's socialisation process, especially as we have more friends coming in January who are all staying, and on top of that I've decided that I'll go to puppy school with him. So come January, Satchmo and I are going to school, or back to school in my case. It should be.... interesting? I'm on a newsgroup for Maremma owners and the stories that go around about their behaviour is funny and hair raising at the same time. He's definitely not going to be one of the yes-nodding type dogs, that's for sure. Still, I should learn myself how to deal with dogs and talk with dogs, which I think is essential, as I've never had a dog before and this little baby is going to be 45 kg when he's an adult. We weighed him yesterday, and he's already over 10kg at 10 weeks, so I think it won't be long before he gets at his weight - in which case we need to be able to control him.

We've collected our first batch of garlic. This was the first crop we put in our veggie patch at the back of the house. We still have four more sections to empty, but this lot seemed to be ready. We think we have enough garlic for the year, which is really satisfying. Even though we planted it ourselves, it still is somewhat surprising to see it come up as it has, especially as it is a slow crop and for a long time not much seemed to happen. We've also emptied one of the onion patches, and replanted it with courgettes and pumpkins. The courgettes are struggling a bit, it's been a bit too cold at night I think. The pumpkin is looking good though, with lots of flowers, it'll be so nice to harvest and eat them!

It feels like things are coming together. Being able to have garlic for a year from our own land is more satisfying then finally completing the project I've been working on for the conventional money earning part of my life. Seeing the big tray of garlic dry in the dining room gives me hope that we are learning to know what we should be doing, and that we are on the right track. The onions are great too, but we will need to plant a lot more to be able to eat them for a year - the poor things were also moved around a few times so I think that we have lost some in the process as well. The lettuces are yummy and I nearly can't eat enough - there are so many of them! Lieneke said not to eat them all, but there is no chance of that! Our spring onions are sweet and juicy, again we will need to plant a lot more although we're also trying to cut them at the base to see if they regrow (something I read on the Internet - always worth a try). The cabbages and silverbeet are lovely, and it's actually interesting to try and find dishes that allow you to eat what's in season. So I've found some lovely recipes with silverbeet and pulses in my Pulses recipe book, and now I'm having to think quickly about what to cook with mushrooms too as they are popping up all over the paddock. I've been taking some photos of the veggies around the house, so check them out from roughly this one onwards. I'm really quite proud of what we've achieved.

Our first batch of garlic drying in the dining room

Of course it has been very useful that I've been able to work from home, and PJ has been able to take time off work to focus on the house and garden. Most of the work around the house has been his. I've helped out where possible, but I must say that the hard yakka has been done by him, and he's done a fantastic job. He looks better for it too, and is a lot less stressed than he was when living the corporate life. Unfortunately this may all be changing in the near future. With my job on the line, PJ's been looking around and at least has been fortunate enough to find some jobs that he can apply for - which can't be said for myself at this point in time. The recession is starting to bite in that there are a lot less jobs available, and of course a lot more people are going for the jobs that are there. We've also decided that I'll hang on for as long as possible, who knows, I might get a redundancy payout although I've already found some loopholes they could possibly use to go around it. Still, it doesn't really matter as I feel we're going into the long emergency with our eyes open. I can say that despite all the surprising things that have happened in the world this year, we're focussed on continuing what we're doing, which is to become self sufficient and go off the grid. I'm glad to say we're also well capable of looking after ourselves and all that we hold dear. Starting martial arts 16 years ago wasn't that bad an idea after all when thinking of what is coming up.

Sometimes I worry a bit, about how I'll feel if and when I get made redundant. We're so programmed to be our job, rather than anything else. Our whole being, success and self esteem is based on what we do, what we've achieved in our work lives. When that is taken away and you can't find something else in a hurry for whatever reason, what have you got to be proud of? It's very difficult to turn the corner in my brain and accept that this is all irrelevant and anyway, I have plenty to be proud of apart from my work achievements. Still, it's hard to move away from thinking, but what about all the study and hard work... I'm already reading stories of people elsewhere who have fallen into the unemployment trap, and are unable to get out. Most of these people don't realise what's coming and therefore are up to their eyeballs in mortgages and debt. How are they going to eat and live? That's when I realise that we really are very lucky. PJ and I have gone into this with our eyes wide open and with the understanding that something like redundancy was likely to come up and that one of us would always be able to pick up some work for as long as money is necessary. What this foresight gives us is a chance to plan and prepare, which is what we've been doing. There are so many things I want to be working on that I currently don't have the time for. The garden, the foot pedalled Singer and pottery wheel, working with the animals.... I would love to train two of our steers. It's not going to happen this year - they are too old now and you need at least 1-2 hours a day, which is hard to find with everything I'm already doing, so even poor Muddy will go off to market, much though he is a lovely steer. Dmitry Orlov says in 'Reinventing Collapse' that the best thing to have available to you is time. And that's what I tell myself, that's what I have to get my head around. In the end, the only thing that keeps humans alive is shelter, water and food. Not the big corporations or doing a 9 to 5 job. We've been sold the lie that none of the basic skills and knowledge of food production and even crafts are useful, that we can make do with earning money and buying, buying and buying. I think now we'll find out the hard way that was never true.

I feel that at the end of 2008, the world is holding its breath and so am I. I'm holding my breath waiting for the next shoe to drop. What will 2009 bring? I have no idea, although I presume it won't be that pretty. To some extend I'm happy about the oil prices falling - it means we have a littlebit more time for preparation. But the path towards a completely different and harder future for all of us is ongoing and on track. I don't think there is anything much we can do on a big scale, I think all we can do is do the best for ourselves, and hopefully enough people will come on board and start doing the same, regardless of what our governments collectively dribble on about. Reading today that Australia has now decided it will not cut its greenhouse gasses emissions by 15% unless the rest of the world joins in just goes to show how ridiculous and preposterous our so-called leaders are (Kevin Rudd announces target for cut in emissions by 2020).

Some more links:

• Apeakalypse Now
  Someone else feeling the strain! At least I'm glad to say PJ and I are completely on the same page about this.
  
• Twenty Nine Reasons People Need to Pull their Heads Out of the Sand
  Some astonishing facts in here.

Still, whenever I start thinking too much, there is always the view to cheer me up. Satchmo is a handful, one of us has to get up at 6am in the mornings to let him have his morning pee. But some mornings are just spectacular, so I'll leave you with a picture of where I was this morning at 6am. Isn't it beautiful?

In our paddock, looking towards the dam