Tuesday, June 7, 2011

2020 here I come!!! or How I dream Big

I think we all should dream big. Small dreams are good and essential for keeping you motivated, but I think we should all have a big dream to hope for. If you ever get to that goal, achieve that big dream....well I don't think that is quite as important. The important part is the dreaming.

My big dream is to go on a world trip with my close friend in 2020. Why 2020? Well it's going to take that long to save up! But also our babies will be older and (we hope) sufficient enough in life skills that we can leave them behind and have a bit of fun.


A few weeks ago, we decided the achievement of this dream really is important, so important that we opened a high interest savings account, set up direct debits and got started. We have both been been going through/continuing to go through intense personal upheavals in our lives, and we both need this big dream to strive for.

So far we are really having fun with it. So much fun, that we have started a blog Two Mummy Ducks to catalogue our saving adventures, but also our adventures practicing being eccentric traveling ladies! If nothing else, I'm sure our grandchildren will get a kick out of reading it in decades to come!

Our first 'outing' as eccentric travelling ladies is to "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)", of which I've heard great things about. I'm really looking forward to it (it's next week). :)

I'll leave you with a video collage I made a few years ago. I play this when I'm feeling sad and need a boost. Seeing my babies makes me happy, and the song I put to it makes me hopeful :)
(It's Dream Big by Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband)

Friday, June 3, 2011

5 Reasons YOU need to Get Some Chooks.



My Girls.

1. Chooks Reduce the amount of Garbage you put in Landfill
I could have been gardening god Josh Byrne (and my what a god...I have a celeb-crush on Josh) or perhaps gardening goddess Sabrina Hahn that said something along the lines of "if local councils were serious about landfill they would make it easier for homeowners to keep chooks". Or something along those lines.

And my goodness, whoever said it, was right. Chooks are natural scavengers. They love the cold mushed up weetbix left over from breakfast and your kids don't like crust?, no problems, chooks love them. I have 4 chooks. I think this is a good number for us. We produce enough scraps to feed the chooks, with layers pellets to supplement should the girls get a bit peckish.

I could go on and on about this point alone. Did you know that food waste in land fill is the number 2 producer of methane and that 38% of our garbage is food waste. Shamefull hey. Because food waste needs oxygen to decompose and in in landfill it gets buried, methane is produced. Methane is not so good for the environment. Yet, a simple and practical solution would be backyard chickens.

2. Eggs!
Fresh, produced in a happy environment, yummy scrummy eggs. And even when you factor in buying a chook and the layer pellets, they still work out cheaper than store bought eggs. This blog post from Leanne Daharja @ Hazeltree Farm shows you just how cost effective chickens are :)

3. They add character and warmth.
Even if your not an animal person, hearing the chickens bok and cluck is joyful. Mine see me at the back door and come running to the gate to see if I have any scraps. I love them :)

4. They contribute tothe gardens too.
They don't just produce eggs. They can be very much part of the garden cycle as well. I heap hay, weeds and grass clippings into my chook run in a deep litter style way. The chooks scratch and poop and general turn everything about. When it starts to look like it needs a clean out, I rake it all out and place in the garden and some in compost bins. Chicken poop can be quite strong, so when I clean this out (it tends to build up where they sleep), I pop it into the compost to break down some more. This all adds nutrients to the gardens, the garden produces nutritious food for the humans, the scraps go back to the chooks and it is one big happy cycle.

Just a couple of notes. Some plants and weeds are poisonous, obviously don't include these, or your chickens will be at the end of the cycle of life prematurely.
Also weeds may not die straight away. That is why they are weeds. Transfering them to the garden bed may give them a new lease on life. If in doubt leave in the coop longer, so the chooks can turn and scratch some more.

5.Chooks are an educational experience.
I'm not a fan of the "get a pet to teach responsibility". It's a bit nonsense if you ask me. However chooks can provide an array of teaching opportunities for your kids. You have basic animal care, where eggs come from, food cycles, waste cycles, life cycles, bi-cycles....nah just joking.
Eggs can lead to cooking lessons, scraps can lead to lessons in healthy eating (don't want the chooks to eat bad food).

Don't have kids that need educating? Well share your eggs with your neighbors. Educate them!


So what are you waiting for...go get some chooks.


8 Random Things About Me

I'm linking up to Stacey's 'linky uppy thingy boppy' and sharing 8 random things about me.

1. Tea. Love it. Some days I go on a bender and all I seem to be drinking is tea. But you can always count on me having a cuppa first thing in the morning and just before I go to bed.

2. I was 28 when I was baptized, along with my 4 children. 5 Baptisms all at once, I'm sure we made a great contribution to the church stats for that year ;) hehe

3. I've lived out of home since I was 16.

4. I have one incomplete degree, one incomplete TAFE certificate. I've just applied for another TAFE certificate.......(actually I'm waiting on news on my acceptance, should know by 24th June).

5. With the exception of working in the South of WA for 8 months when I was 18, I have lived in my town by the sea for 31 years now. My feet are beginning to itch though.....

6. When people tailgate and try and pressure me to speed over the speed limit, I slow down to about 5 under the posted speed limit. I consider this my community service, stopping tailgaters from getting speeding fines or getting into accidents. I'm probably not doing anything for their heart health...

7. I'm hearing impaired. Most people wouldn't know unless told. I can lip read well enough to get by. But I get really self-conscious about what I can't hear and I don't cope well in large social situations, I get all shy. I'm too poor to replace my hearing aids (they cost a lot).

8. I have quite a funny sense of humor, a bit on the sarcasm side, but funny none the less. The angrier I get the more silly my humor can be.

You can read more or play along too by going to Stacey's blog post and linking up. :)