goings on

Last weekend I drove up to my parents place for a cup of tea and cake. This is something I try to do as often as I can now they are getting older. It was a good chance to take some photos around their little farm.

Let me introduce Geraldine...she is such a cutie but can be a bit mischievous at times.

My parents veggie garden. It is growing well under the shade my dad put up last year.

Leeks gone to seed.

 My dad coming up with ways to keep the birds from taking his fruit.

Gum tree bloom. 

The perfection of succulents.

Hollyhocks through the fence.

And here at home...

A huge apple cucumber I picked last week.

Meals prepped for hubby’s trips away.  Leftover roast chicken made into curry.

Trimmed the oregano again and picked two eggplants.

Oregano placed in the solar dryers.

Making a batch of Kombucha. This happens every five to seven days.

All bottled.

Fizz...

Endless chore of washing dishes. No dishwasher here.

My grandsons request for lemon slice.

He loves it.

Another vintage find.

 Ratatoulle using eggplants and zucchini from my garden.

Reviving my sourdough starter.

And a beautiful sky to finish.

Stay cool or warm, depending where you are.  We are going through a heatwave at the moment. Yesterday reached 46.8C (116F), and it is meant to be hot here for the next week.

What is going on in your neck of the woods?

Take care and I will see you soon,

xTania

getting organised with journal folders

The new year has been a good time to give my household folders a bit of a face-lift. They had become messy and a little disorganised.

So I set to and put them back in order once again.  I have been using this method of home management for quite a few years now and it seems to work for me. I have tried other ways and methods but always end up coming back to these folders.

I printed out fresh cover labels and attached them with wasi tape. Then I added new tabs to the inside as the older ones had started to look quite shabby.  I threw out papers that were no longer relevant, and transferred some to other folders to make more room for new items.

Today, I am showing four of my folders, but I have two others for recipes, plus one for birthdays and one for Christmas planning.

Cheryl, one of my readers wanted to know how I set out my gardening journal so here is a peek inside. 

I had an old Down to Earth garden journal here that I printed out back in 2013 and never used! So I decided now would be a good time to add this to my journal. I will put these pages into plastic sleeves so I can write on them and reuse over and over. I put pretty stickers over the 2013 date.

In the notes section... I am playing around with making my own pages.

In the companion section there is a list of  plants that can be grown together. I downloaded this from Sustainable Gardening Australia.

In the seasonal section, I downloaded a printout from gardenate.com. This tells me what to plant according to the season. 

In the others section, I keep hints, information and garden recipes.

Okay on to the next folder, this is my bill paying folder. 

Directly inside the cover is where I keep the bills *to be paid*, and they are held in place with a paperclip.

The opposite and the first pages are filled with a month by month calendar.  I was given a free calendar by one of the local businesses in town and so I dismantled it and placed in my journal.  This way I can record when bills are due and also write them in advance when I know a bill is about to come in eg electricity, water, rates etc.

  

Next I have my payment plan that I use to save for any bills (I have blocked the amounts out with dockets).  This was done by working out the total cost of all the bills for one year, adding them altogether and dividing them by 26 pay days.  On payday this amount is transferred to a bill paying account ensuring there is always money in the account when bills come in.

This is followed by the dividers sectioned to contain the paid bills.  Also there is a section for other things like tax papers, receipts for purchased goods, and medical papers.

For those interested, the household management journal has everything to do with running the household.  For example, there are sections for to do lists, contacts, addresses, phone numbers, menu planning, routines/chores. Also included is a frugal section and one for others, which is for paperwork that doesn't go anywhere in the other sections.

Inside you can see the to do list on the left.  These are laminated so I can just wipe off and re do any time I wish.  I use tea tree oil to wipe the permanent texta off.

On the next page is a stationary zip up holder in which I put my pens, sticky notes etc in.

And a quote page...

 

A page for reminders.  These are all in plastic sleeves so I can write on then remove. 

My routines. 

I have a section for routines and I wrote out my own cleaning chores because everyone's household routine is different.  I have dividers with days of the week added so I can just turn to whatever day and start ticking off the chores.  Note the little tick boxes. This is a great help and keeps me on track.

A laminated blank menu plan for writing on and wiping off.

Cheapskates section.

I have a master grocery list I downloaded from the internet somewhere.

Frugal tips...

I had a take away section from when our son was living at home. He was always asking for local takeaway's numbers, so I made a spot for those in my folder.  I am going to remove it soon though as I don't buy take away.  So basically you can add anything you like to your folder.

As for the blogger folder, it is a work in progress.  I may show you another time. It is where I jot down ideas for blog posts etc.

Lastly this is the type of folder I use. It has a clear cover that you can slip paper into and on the inside it has pockets on both sides.

Sorry for the quality of the photos in this post.  My mobile phone is definitely not as good as the camera! Note to self to use camera next time!

Do you keep a journal or folder/binder to record important stuff and keep you organised? 

See you soon,

xTania

simple fruit cake ~ reader request

Simple Fruit Cake

1 kg dried fruit
35 gms slivered almonds (I used almonds that I sliced thinly)
2 tbspns sweet sherry (I used brandy, but could leave this out or use fruit juice)
250 gms brown sugar
250 gms butter, chopped
125 mls milk
3 eggs, beaten lightly
450 gms plain flour
1/2 tspn bi-carbonate of soda
2 tspn mixed spice

Grease a deep 19cm square cake pan, cover base and sides with 3 layers of baking paper, bringing the paper 5cm above the edges of the pan.  

Combine fruit, nuts, sherry and sugar in a large bowl (I left to sit overnight but you don't have to).

Combine butter and milk in small pan.  Stir over heat, without boiling, until butter melts.  Add butter mixture, eggs and sifted dry ingredients to fruit mixture. Mix well.

Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 100C for about 5 hours.  Cover hot cake with foil.  Turn cake onto a board and cool upside down in the pan.

I iced this with lemon icing; mix 2 cups icing sugar, 1 heaped teaspoon butter, juice of one lemon and a little water until you have the right consistency.

There you have it, a big delicious fruit cake! 

You can find an even easier version of fruit cake in this post that I wrote back in 2010.

Enjoy!

xTania