Finished off with a lovely bowl of homemade strawberry yoghourt.
Not only did we give up electricity, but also gave up processed and pre cooked food and made everything from scratch, including grinding our own flour!
If you haven't already, please read our blog to see all the interesting stuff we did, and you'll find the link to donate to the cause.
$40 will feed a family of five for a month, we only need five of you to donate that much, and we meet our target!
The boys decided they wanted to keep going. I'm having a nap, or attempting to. Day two wrap up will follow shortly!
Lunch is served!
Chicken and potato soup with leftover chicken from yesterday, and made with the stock from cooking said chicken (which gave us three meals plus leftover soup for dinner).
Bread made with 25% hand ground wheat on the side.
With your choice of:
Yoghourt Cheese from homemade yoghourt hung overnight.
Butter made by hand.
This meal was so filling we are postponing desert until afternoon tea.
Dessert.
Homemade yoghourt, flavoured with homemade strawberry sauce made with handmade butter.
I finally get to sit down for the first time today. I have been lugging hot water from kitchen to laundry and sink, washing underwear, getting bread made from floor we ground ourselves risen and in the oven, working on chicken and veg soup, and strawberry sauce to go in yoghourt made with our hand made butter.
The house is filling with the aroma of baking bread. It is so worth it!
But it is such hard work without all those gadgets we take for granted and without processed food. This meal has been two days in the making! For the majority of the world, this is normal. We ARE extremely privileged by pure luck of having been born into the life we have. I've given up all this 'stuff' but I still have good food, a roof over my head, my family are safe and healthy, and well educated. If I run out of something, tomorrow I can zip to the shop and buy it with the virtual money on a plastic card. I have unions to negotiate for better pay at work, and a government that at least sometimes listens.
Food for thought.
Hamish helping hand wash our unmentionables. He says that getting his sleeves wet is all part of the deal!
The boys slept better than they ever have. An extraordinary twelve hours! Unfortunately, I didn't, sleep, much, but that's beside the point.
Up at 6:30 to deal with bread dough and yoghurt, err, yoghourt, darn predictive (my children Morgan and garnish will attest to that frustration!)
And pictured is yoghourt cheese and the left over whey. Normally I would google to find out what I can do with it, rather than waste it. I vaguely remember it being good for skin as an astringent and exfoliant, due to the lactic acid. I'll have to dig around the bookshelves, see what I can find.
Oh, and coffee, a latte really, figured I deserved one, made by boiling our free trade coffee grounds in milk, not as good as a real one, but certainly appreciated.
I'm loving the quiet. No TV. Boys in separate rooms, so not arguing. Oh, except for Hamish's fighting gun type noises over the Lego box, asked him what it was, it's none of my business! Be told, woman! But it is a nice noise, amazing the sound effects that come out of a seven year old boy.
I have, however, become hyper sensitive to the sounds of water coming to the boil. The skills one picks up eh?
Wow, what a day. We are EXHAUSTED, me most of all.
I read all our blog posts to the boys and they thought it was absolutely hilarious, even the bits not meant to be funny.
Before I head off to bed I have to hang the yoghurt for cheese, and set off the next batch ready for the morning.
Morgan:
I feel sad about the people eating flat bread every day, they could get sick, they don't get fruit and veges. And they never get lollies. Mmm!
I felt scared when I saw Hamish with the paper on fire, I thought it was going to be the end of us.
Hamish:
(Ed. All Hamish would contribute was a load of nonsense. Apparently he has a huge giant armpit and has been eaten by dinosaurs.. the duffer!)
Who needs TV and movies for entertainment with these two?!
We had a very tasty dinner, chicken noodle soup. Made completely from scratch with homemade stock, and as we didn't want to use packet noodles I made it with egg noodles. All very tasty and the boys scoffed it down, with Morgan even having seconds.
It was already getting dark at the dining table, so we are by candle light.
I then headed to the kitchen to start getting the bread dough made ready to rise overnight.. until garnish decided he wanted to make an authentic treasure map, you know, with the burned bits around the edges...
Yes, you guessed it!
Monday will involve a phone call to the Real Estate Agent about the small burnt patch on the carpet, the result of me stomping out the flaming paper (glad I was wearing slippers) and Hamish has (hopefully) well and truly learnt his lesson, no shouting required.
We're otherwise OK, slippers included!
I have had to stop with the wheat grinding. My wrist and hand are stiff and aching, and if I want to be able to hold a pen at Tafe on Monday, then I need to stop NOW! Its so jarring: whack whack whack, stomp stomp stomp.
We (mostly I) ground about a cup of flour as pictured above, its taken all day and it's very grainy, it will get mixed up in our bread mix tonight.
How are the boys going? Could be cabin fever, Morgan has settled down, but I just caught Hamish doing a strip show, accompanied by his own composition entitled "I have a bum!"
Cabin fever? No wait, that's normal! (Photos of strip show NOT included above)
Morgan.
What is the most difficult thing so far, and why?
Grinding the wheat because you have to have big muscles and I'm so skinny.
What is the best thing so far and why?
Playing board games and enjoying myself (Ed. Although he's spent most of the day complaining how boring it is!)
What is the most interesting thing so far and why?
Making butter and non fat milk (whey) because it made whipped cream first, then butter, and all you have to do is shake it.
What do you miss the most?
I miss computer games because I like computer games, but this was better.
Hamish.
What is the most difficult thing so far, and why?
Shaking the cream to get butter.
What is the best thing so far and why?
Eating the flat bread, because it was tasty and different.
What is the most interesting thing so far and why?
Making flour because it's so cool mushing and scrunching it and I like it.
What do you miss the most?
TV
Alex.
What is the most difficult thing so far, and why?
Pounding flour, oh my arms!
What is the best thing so far and why?
Time has zoomed by, being so busy doing preparation, and having to heat water on the stove etcetera.
What is the most interesting thing so far and why?
Realising how much we take for granted.
What do you miss the most?
Access to information, by far! It has been a real challenge so far, much more than I anticipated. Normally when any question comes up in my own head, I Google it, Wikipedia it,so my head is full of unanswered questions, and I don't like it! *stomps feet* There has been a fair amount of guesswork with cooking/recipes,and I just hate NOT KNOWING!
It is no surprise really, that education is considered the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, and those people have so little access to it. If they can access education, their time is limited due to working so hard, or caring for the rest of their family, particularly families ripped apart by death. AIDS, malaria, malnutrition mean that older children often look after younger siblings, or have to work because their grandparent is physically unable to.
I think the BEST thing so far is actually the fact I only have to do this till Sunday night. And I get to go to Tafe on Monday morning.
There's a saying about breaking bread, I can't reminder what it is exactly, but the bread must be made first.
I'm making Indian flat bread. This is with purchased flour and is quick and easy for a mid morning snack. Would have been easier except I've lost the rolling pin..
Thankyou to those who have donated so far today, I believe we're up to $300!
Here is Hamish helping pound wheat. It's hard work, and we can only do a small amount at a time, if we stick at it we might have a loaf for dinner, tomorrow!
My arms ache, not much, but enough to make pounding more challenging. I can only do a little bit at a time. Imagine doing this, day in, day out.
The boys are quietly doing stuff. Drawing reading etc. At least the arguing and composing has stopped.
So far we've made butter, ground a small amount of flour, started of the first batch of yoghurt, which will get strained for cheese. And the second batch will have strawberries added.
Tomorrow we will feast for sure!
And here it is! It needs just a little more shaking, then straining out, but this is REAL FRESH MADE BUTTER. It wasn't as difficult as we anticipated.
Also, happy anniversary to my Parents, Helen and Colin, 39 years!
Part One:
At 8:30 last night, we turned off the telly, lit candles, and switched off all the lights. It's somewhat unnerving going from a well lit house (at 7:30 I realised every light in the house was on!) to pure candlelight, especially trying to do stuff.
I drafted this with pen and paper at 9:00pm by 2 candlelight and let's just say, I might as well have been writing blind, or at least writing semi visually impaired.
The boys wanted to sit in bed and read:
No!
Still, the novelty hasn't worn off yet.
It is interesting how not being able to do something you take for granted suddenly makes you want to do it CONSTANTLY. I was rather tempted to check facebook again before climbing into bed.
No!
Hmm, I wonder what breaking news there is?
No!
I should check the blog..
NO!
Maybe I'll text or email someone..
Dang!
So I climbed into bed and wrote this post.
Part Two:
7:30am Saturday
Morgan climbed into my bed at 6:00am shining a torch in my eyes, yep thanks son!
He mentions something about a newspaper hat. Perplexing to say the least.
As it turns out, this was Morgan's thought process after bed:
"I want to read a book, no, can't do that because of the forty hour famine, um what else can I do, oh I know, I'll make a newspaper pirate hat, just what I need!"
He also woke up with his bedside lamp on, he said he remembers turning the torch off and going to sleep, but then when he woke up, his lamp was on.
We've already had one "I'm bored, I hate this, I can't do anything, stupid famine!" outburst, after I caught Morgan about to start up their laptop. NO WAY, BUDDY! Nevertheless, after a gentle reminder from me, they are both playing a board game.
Pictured above is the first thing I did upon rising. The heating of milk and water, which didn't take as long as I expected. It's very nice to have Milo!
This is our new mortar and pestle. It weighs A TONNE.. If anyone ever breaks into the house I'm going at them with a knife in one hand and this thing in the other!
I'm not sure how successful it will be, making our own flour, but we've got some cracked wheat and some whole wheat flour as a back up.
