Weed Tea Success

Well I blogged when I initially started my brew and I had planned to post the progress of it all but didn't cause ya know I was busy growing a baby ect and didn't have time for blogging but here is the follow up finally and I must say I'm very happy with the results, more so than I expected actually.

 



So I had started the brew and pretty much forgot about it for the last 3 months until I received a phone call from Uncle Bob reminding me, and told me I needed to get it on those new little babies in the recently dug up veg patch.

 

I hadn't even checked it at all so had no idea what it would be like or if it was even any good but I opened the lid and to my surprise what had been a bunch of green nettle was now dark black liquid with a bit of a stagnant water type smell but nothing too offensive like I was expecting.

So you need to dilute it like you would other liquid fertilizers and each batch you make can vary in strength so just be careful when using your brew for the first time.

I'm not really the type to measure properly I use my sight more when it comes to this sort of thing but at a guess Id say I added 500mls too a standard 9lt watering can of water and filled her up.

 

Now at first I though I was crazy but I swore the next day when I came out after 24hrs there had been noticeable growth, I hadn't applied it to all the plants just encase it was going to kill everything or something horrible but all looked well, great in fact so I applied it to the rest of the crops and took more note of the size of my babies so next day I could reassess to see if indeed there had been growth in such a quick time and low and behold I was right

.

The plants had really sprung up and everything is looking so green, lush and healthy. Especially after todays rains. Honestly I don't think I've ever had such obvious and almost instant results from any store bought, natural liquid plant feed so I'm really quite chuffed I got such brilliant results from something totally organic I can make myself for free from weeds, nettles, borage, comfrey, manure ect.
This batch was just purely nettles and its beaut stuff so why don't you get your own batch going, its so simple there really is no reason to have to buy liquid plant food.

Unschooling - what led us here and what it means for us

...well we prefer to call it Natural Learning but Unschooling in the title will grab more attention huh.

 

We didn't always plan to homeschool let alone unschool, GASP!

 I didn't even give it a second though I mean of course my kids would go to school that's the proper thing to do right, the "normal" thing ? It wasn't until I had made a few homeschooling friends through the natural parenting community it even entered my head as a real education option and heck I even thought it sounded quite alright but was it something I thought I could or would do?

 

Nah and you know why? Well amongst the usual ones like "I don't think I'm smart enough" and "not sure I could have the patience or time" the main factor I didn't think it could be our reality was that its not readily accepted socially. I knew family especially and possibly some friends wouldn't approve let alone understand why and it was scary. I mean I have always been one to push the boundaries of what our families think is the norm or acceptable but this I mean this is up there on the controversial scale with being a non vaxer in my families world(imagine if they knew that too ha!).

Isn't that horrible that I felt so scared to consider it as an option for fear of the backlash, then we decided to move to wonderful Tassie, buy a bit of land and make a lovely, natural, peaceful life for ourselves doing what we desire away from criticism then I had a lightbulb moment and thought hey maybe we can commit to the unschooling business now.

 

That was it the decision was made...for me anyway I mean as peaceful/natural parents  I just saw it as a continuation of what we had been doing so why did that have to suddenly end at school age, Pappa B on the other hand took some convincing especially since it was something I had never even mentioned before and his reaction to the news wasn't pretty to be honest and I was upset and hurt. I get that a new idea someone has never been presented with before can be challenging to our own beliefs and experiences but how can someone make that call if they know nothing about the matter.

 

After the first announcement I let it rest with him for about a week then mentioned it again and this time he still didn't think it was a good idea but was open to sharing his fears about it and researching the information with me and slowly but surely over the next few weeks he came around and trusted that I was choosing what was best for our kids future.

Now he has gone from just supporting the decision to being a out and proud Natural Learning father and my goodness a man telling others confidently and proudly the in's and out's of why we homeschool and what it means for our family is mighty hot!!

So here we are now a Natural Learning Homeschooling family but what does that really mean? Well for us that means letting the kids take the lead and PB and I just follow and offer guidance, support and help if needed.

 

We prefer to learn through practical everyday experiences rather than "doing school" so its really quite simple to include kids in all the regular everyday activities and cover maths, science, language, history you name it!! For some this is a really odd concept to grasp that you don't need to spend hours sitting in a seat writing this and that down to learn.

 

Adopting this type of learning philosophy is so rewarding we find.  The kids amaze me on a weekly basis, when left to their own devices to learn in their own time and  pace when things click they really click for them because it hasn't been a forced learning experience.

 

 

We don't follow any curriculum we build up our own individual learning plans which are always flexible and easily changed.

We do like the Waldorf method and draw on that a bit. We have a daily rhythm, we all really have a deep connection with nature, celebrate and honor the seasons and the big emphasis on creativity and the arts.

 

 

 

Our weekly/daily rhythm which is a new thing we have brought into the house helps us slow things down and keeps peace which is just as important for me as it is the kids but being unschoolers of course its quite a flexible thing and there is more to our day than just what is on the calendar but having this helps us keep our  focus.

 

 

The most important part of the daily rhythm is our mornings and evenings I find, the meditation in the morning is such a lovely start to the day before we head outside. We light our meditation candle and if we feel like it some incense too. The kids lay on their backs in the lounge as I read them a guided meditation from our gorgeous kids meditation book and our story time at the end of the day is a nice relaxing way to wind down. So we start and finish our days peacefully.

 

 

(yes I totally got that gorgeous boys face in there on purpose)

 

I love the flexibility our natural learning/homeschooling/unschooling life gives us and now I cannot imagine it any other way and cant wait to see what adventures it and journeys it takes us on.

 

I need to give thanks to my fabulous supportive homeschooling/unschooling friends who have been there for me in those early days where I still doubted myself your support gave me the confidence to know I can do this.

 

 

UNSCHOOLING ROCKS!!

 

 

 

 

Operation Simple and Frugal living begins

I've had it with the FIFO lifestyle and Pappa B agrees.

He took the job as the best option out of a bunch of less that awesome options and initially it was ok, I mean hey it was better than going bankrupt but now we have got ourselves out of hot water it most definitely isn't worth it and we feel stuck.

 

He can't come home straight away but at least we can set out a plan to get him home asap.

12 months is a realistic goal we think, just need to pay our last bit of debt off and he could be free to get a regular job.

 

I'm not going to lie the last 6 months I've enjoyed buying this and that at my leisure after being in the red for so long but I don't feel good about it, its true money is a yucky thing and it distracted us from part of why we moved in the first place.

 

 

 

Slow, simple and happy living, that's what we need.

 

So its time to tighten up pay off that last debt and get PB home where he should be and I'm really excited.

 

So what's the plan? Well I had already decided that I'd had enough of consumerism and that I will buy as much as I possibly can second hand, tip shops and oppys will be my David Jones.

Recycling, upcycling and making old into new. Swapping this for that with other frugal friends and making do or doing without.

 

 

I've only just started and already I feel lighter, fresher.

Id love to hear tips from other frugal friends if you care to share.

Weed Tea Fertilizer Part 1

On the weekend my Uncle came to visit and while he may not be as able bodied as he once was he is still full of a lot of gardening and homesteading wisdom. He introduced us to something we had never much thought about or knew much about which is home made liquid fertilizer.

So the next day we went outside and raided the weed and nettle filled garden bed we hadn't touched since we moved in so there was plenty to choose from! Lots of chickweed, thistles and an abundance of stinging nettles too. We decided to do 2 batches one a mix of everything and two one of just nettle and after its sat for a week I'm going to open them up and give them a stir and I think I might add some sheep poo to the mixed batch. Mmm Its going to smell good huh!

Ok so here's what you will need:

-bucket or drum preferably with a good fitting lid to stop the stench escaping and help with fermentation
-weeds
-water
Seriously that's all you really need, I used a few extras though:

-gloves and secateurs if dealing with nettles
-weight to hold weeds down under the water/liquid

So all you do is fill your bucket up with your weeds of choice and then once full fill with water, set aside, place you weight if using one on top of the weeds to hold under the water/liquid and place you tight sealing lid on top because it will get smelly plus it will help with the fermentation.
That's it! It's really that simple! I was so excited to know its so easy to make a totally natural liquid fertilizer just out of the weeds in my garden!

 So its coming up to a week since I put the brew together so I'm going to open them up on the weekend and give them a stir and add some sheep poo to the mixed weed batch then chuck the lids back on and again in a week give another stir and after then it should be about ready, from what I have read it takes about 3-4 weeks for the weeds to break down.

Once ready you strain off the liquid from the solids and there you have your liquid concentrate and you throw the solids into the compost but just be aware that any seeds present may still remain viable even after the fermentation.

I'm also not sure on the ratio of the weed tea brew concentrate to water but once complete but I will update on all of this in Part 2 (possibly 3) of this blog post which will be coming up in the next week or so.

We've made it! I'm home.

We have actually done it. 

We made our big move interstate to start a fresh, our new life, a new beginning for all. 

It was literally less than 2 years ago we where at rock bottom financially and emotionally after a long hard slog of bad luck, bad decisions and unfortunate events, at the time it was hell and looking back I don't know how we survived it but it was this hideous time in our lives that pushed us to turn our dreams into reality. 

A new job opportunity came up for Pappa B so we though life is too short, stop making excuses, stop fearing change and make our move and that is how quickly we turned our life around. 

So here we are, our new house in a new town, in a totally different state and we have never been happier. 

We have been here for a few weeks now and already made some small changes we just couldn't help ourselves. We installed 2 new water tanks, added some new fruit trees to the already existing ones, started the veggie beds, planted out the herb garden, got 2 chooks to start us off mostly so we have something to do with our food scraps but several more ordered for a few months time. 

I've got big plans with chooks!! 

We have also been out and about enjoying meeting new people and hopefully the start of new friendships. 

I went to a sourdough workshop which I thoroughly enjoyed the first week we were here and just this last week the kids and I went to both the natural learners groups in the area the Huon Natural learners and the Hobart natural learners co-op. The kids especially enjoyed the pirate activities and craft at the Hobart Natural learners co-op which was inspired by international talk like a pirate day. 

So anyway I'll leave you with some photos from the leaving Vic to our arrival in Tas, I hope to blog  weekly. Sometimes it may be more, sometimes it may be less.