About a garden

Since I’m planning to write more about our vege garden this year I thought I would start by describing what our growing conditions are like.

We live on the west coast of the lower North Island, inland, tucked up under the Tararua’s. This means we have very good rainfall. It also means that the temperatures are mild, not too hot in summer but not so cold in winter. Usually we would have about 5 frosts a year (this year was an exception). Sunshine hours are not high, due to cloud build up around the hills. This can lead to ripening issues.

Above is the actual garden. It is made of raised beds. The soil is heavy, verging on clay. The drainage is not great, we live on the edge of what was once a huge swamp, flax milling was the first industry in our area. You can see the puddles on the paths in the right of the picture.

I have improved the soil, but it is a work in progress.

You can see Magnolia’s blooming in the background. Since I took this picture we have had 3 frosts, which turned the flowers to brown mush. This winter has been cold and quite dry, leading to clear sky’s and lots of frosts.

So what are we eating from the garden?

This week I picked spring onions, nothing else. I was hoping to eat a cabbage but our pet ‘lamb’, who is really a 40kg hogget, got loose, and she really likes cabbages. I found her sitting in the bed where the cabbages were (note the past tense), chewing her cud, which was probably made up of cabbage.

Trying to look on the positive side she did free up a bed for summer planting and graciously left it manured!

Spring

Does fine weather make you feel better?

When it returns I’ll let you know if I feel better.

That is unfair because August was warm and dry here, shame September hasn’t started off that way.

I know there have not been regular posts for a while but as some of you know and others may have guessed from the last post G1 was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the end of May.

This was very stressful. She requires ongoing care and medication to keep her alive. This is quite a burden for her and us.

But we are coping a lot better now. So maybe there will be some more time for blogging.

I hope this gardening year to keep a running record of our vege garden, which could be used as a resource for others. So keep watching because I have already begun planting.

Book reviews will return but not as regularly. I think I’ll review books as I read them. Diabetes may even make an appearance.

The above photo was taken in our garden this morning. We have a marvellous display of daffodils at the moment, reminding us that spring is really here.

Diabetes

Our daughter has type 1 diabetes. Here is a good book on diabetes that has deeper explanations than a lot of other literature we have read.  It is on Google Books here.

There are also a few podcasts and YouTube videos that I have found on the internet.

Bruce Ware on "Big Truths for Young Hearts"

“Ever thought of reading systematic theology to your kids at bedtime?

Well, Bruce Ware did. A professor of theology and the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Ware’s new book–Big Truths for Small Hearts–is a tremendous resource for Christian parents.

He joins Dr. Mohler on the program today for a special conversation.”

• Link: http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2009-05-19
• Buy at Koorong here: http://orders.koorong.com/search/details.jhtml?code=9781433506017
• Interview: http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/04/big-truths-for-young-hearts-interview.html
• Review: http://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/Big-Truths-for-Young-Hearts-Systematic-Theology-for-Little-Ones-Part-II

Blame it on the Victorians*

I know, its Friday. This is the second week in which there will be no Friday book review. Victorian Historians are to blame. I’ve been deep in research for an essay on history as written by Victorians and all that reading has left me NOT WANTING TO READ.

I’m shocked by my own reaction. I have LOVED to read ever since I learned. My passion was ignited at age 6 by Hungry Lambs** when I read the whole book in one sitting, ignoring the teachers direction to only read the first story. I think I’m in recovery now but I still have to write the essay, by Wednesday.

In absences of any useful content I thought I would put out some random stuff.

My girls caught one of these yesterday. It is a freshwater crayfish. They caught it in our stream using a net bought for them by a single girl at church. The net has been a wonderful toy, a great gift!

I’ve been noticing lately that there has been discussion in the media about how to reduce your food bill. One idea mentioned is menu planning. I’ve been doing this for years, like 10! I might share my wisdom and blog about it next week.

It’s only 2 weeks to the school holidays!!!!

My girls have just taken flattened cardboard boxes to the neighbours and are sliding down their hill on them. Even though they are about 400m way I can hear them squealing!

*I mean those that lived during the reign of Queen Victoria, not those who live in the state of Australia.

** Hungry Lambs was a reader given at school. It was the first book with more than one story in it.

Part two: In which our heroine makes a hot sugary liquid and does not burn herself

I’m really good at kitchen accidents and have experienced burns caused by hot sugary liquid. They hurt, a lot.

This is relevant because the next stage of making crab apple jelly was to add sugar to the liquid. I measured what had dripped out of the bag overnight. It was about 4 cups so I added 4 cups of sugar to the liquid and put it in a pot to boil. This is pretty standard jam making procedure, half fruit and half sugar. I dissolved the sugar before bring the liquid to the boil , also something I do when making jam.

The rest is pretty unglamorous. I boiled it until a skin formed on a spoon full, placed in saucer, and left to cool. This took about 15 minutes.

Then I had to do the part which has burning potential. I had to get the hot liquid into hot jars and put hot lids on them. At this stage the jelly was actually quite liquid, it took a bit of faith to believe it would set. I go it all in, no burns and only a little spill.

The result.

I got four jars, plus a little. If we judged food by how it looks this would get 9/10. But we know taste is far more important or we would eat those plastic grapes they have in supermarket deli’s.

It tastes sweet and appley, but slightly tart. I had some on toast this morning and it was a little bland. Maybe it would be better on scones with cream, but then everything tastes better with cream!

I’m not sure if I would try this again, I’ll see how many jars are left this time next year.

As a funny after note I ‘forgot’ to tell my children that the word ‘jelly’ in crab apple jelly did not mean the same thing as jelly out of a packet. They came home from school expecting a dessert. They were a little disappointed.

Golden Apples

WARNING: These crab apples were harmed in the making of this post.

The previous owner of our property planted a crab apple tree. As far as I can tell crab apples are useful for 3 things:

1) Bird food, birds love them.

2) Apples for dolls tea parties, their size means they look like a perfect small apple for a doll.

3) Crab apple jelly, like jam with out the fruit pulp.

Our crab apple tree has a prolific crop every year. In past years all of this crop has been used for either one or two. This is because to make jelly you need a piece of muslin to strain the juice from the pulp. Despite the fact that I do spend time in fabric shops I never got around to buying a piece of muslin. Until last year. But when I went down to check on the status of the crab apple crop they were all gone. I can only guess that birds were the culprits.

But this year I was prepared. I had my muslin and I was going to beat the birds.

I consulted cook books on the best method to make jelly, but in the end I combined the ideas.

First of all I took the pot down to the tree and filled it up. I then washed and halved the apples. I put in enough water to just cover them. The picture is of them in the pot.  I then cooked them until they were totally pulped, which took about an hour.

Then the fun bit began. I had to strain what was in the pot to separate the liquid from the pulp. One thing that all the books I read said was to let this process happen slowly and NOT to squeeze the bag with the pulp.

Now I’m sure you can buy flash gadgets to do this but this is what I rigged up in the kitchen sink.

I left it over night to drip.

In the next post read how I turn the liquid into something you can spread on toast.

They Came on Viking Ships – Jackie French

I know it’s Saturday, but Friday came and went. Just pretend it’s Friday while you’re reading this.

I tried medieval history as an undergrad and I just didn’t get it. Medievalists are a special sort of person, they love all things medieval and don’t really care about modern history.I’m the opposite.

But I do like Vikings. A lot.

Blame it on my ancestry. My fair skin and well above average height betray northern European origins. In keeping with my interest in Vikings I really liked this book by Jackie French. French is Australian, and a prolific author. G1 has read several of her books and enjoyed them.

The main characters are a girl, Hekja, and her dog, Snarf. They are captured by Vikings, one of whom is the daughter of Eric the Red. The story follows Hekja life as a Viking slave, which includes some great adventures.

This book has a Christian component to it as the Greenlanders that Hekja is captured by have recently converted to Christianity. The Christianity is syncretistic, the Vikings have merged some of their pre-Christian beliefs with Christianity. This is particularly evident when some one is given a Christian burial service, but is buried with grave goods. This could be used to talk about the spread of early Christianity. In fact the whole book is a really good introduction to Viking life.

Another point about this book is it is a challenging read, but there is nothing in it I wouldn’t want a 10 year old to read. This makes it a great for those children whose reading age is higher than their chronological age.

I think this book would need a reading age of 12+ and could be enjoyed by older children (or adults).  Although the main character is a girl there is plenty of fighting, something Vikings were famous for. Because of this I think boys would enjoy this as well. Both G1 and I really liked this book. We got our copy form the young adults section of the public library.

Judy Moody by Megan MacDonald

Look it’s Friday, and I’ve done a book review!

Do you have an 7-8 year old girl? Then go to the library and get her a Judy Moody book.

I really like Judy and so did my girls. Children like Judy’s zaniness, parents will appreciate that Judy is a pretty normal kid, with a normal home life.

The plot lines revolve around the kind of things that middle primary school children can understand. Making new friends, and what happens to the old ones. When your teacher goes on a long break and you get a substitute. This happened to G2 last year, and the scenario that Megan McDonald writes reflected her experience.

From a Christian perspective these books are neutral. There are no Christian characters but neither is Christianity portrayed in a negative way. Book 4, ‘Judy Moody Predicts the Future’, sparked some good conversations about who knew the future (God!) and why people like to know what is in the future.

These books are readily available. The age range is 7+, G1 is 10 and she still likes Judy. They have a few pictures, making them an ideal transition book for those children moving into chapter books. I think Judy Moody will appeal to girls. McDonald has also written books from the perspective of Judy’s younger brother, Stink. Try those if you have a boy.

Meet Kermit

Yesterday, while weeding the vege garden something larger than an insect sort of jumped out of the undergrowth. What I saw, sitting on a lump of dirt about half a metre in front of me, was a frog!

It was small and brownish. We looked a each other for a few minutes then I slowly moved, and then ran inside to get the camera. When I came back the frog had gone.

I did some research on the net and using this site I worked out that I had seen a tree frog.I borrowed one of their photos, my frog was more uniform in colour though.

Tree frogs usually hang out in the foliage around steams and ponds. We do have a stream on our property but it’s a good 5 metres from the vege garden. I think seeing a frog is a hint that I need to do some work on the drainage.

I’m still here

I know I haven’t written anything for a while, along while actually.

With school and uni starting back I’ve been having scheduling issues. But never fear I’m working on it. Part four of ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye’ is coming (so is Christmas!).

What I need is a gadget that translates the thoughts in my head in to typing. If I had one of those I could write posts like Jonny’s. If anyone out there invents one, let me know.

In the absence of a thoughtful post here’s a seasonal picture. 

Traditionally 1 March is the beginning of Autumn. Pumpkins are the vegetable of Autumn and this year we planted 3 different types. The first to be ready is ‘Peek a Boo’. This is our second pumpkin to turn orange. We were going to eat 1/2 of the first on Saturday, except the power went out. For 5 hours. The power cut started at 5pm and the pumpkin had only just started roasting. No one wanted to eat half cooked pumpkin.

So I don’t know what it tastes like, yet. But they look really pretty, like a pumpkin from a story book.

I Kissed Dating Good Bye – part three

In this post I will touch briefly on courtship and then move to why IKDG is controversial.

In IKDG Harris doesn’t really go into the process of courtship. This is because Harris has written a whole other book on the subject called ‘Boy Meets Girl’. I haven’t read ‘Boy Meets Girl’ (yet!) but this is what I think Harris means by courtship from IKDG. The courtship process is when when a man decides to approach a women with the view to forming a romantic attachment that will lead to marriage. Harris believes that the initial approach should come through her parents and the courtship process should involve both the man and women’s families. Remembering that Harris advocates no romantic involvement until a couple are ready for marriage, then a move to the courtship process is as good as saying ‘marry me!’ and thus ends single life.

I think that the deliberate nature of the courtship idea fits with the whole philosophy of IKDG. But the ideas presented by Harris are not without criticism. First I should note that Harris’s ideas were not radically new when he published his book in 1997. The seeds of them had been popular, particularly in homeschooling circles. Harris was homeschooled and his parents were early pioneers on the movement in the States. What Harris did was synthesise some of the ideas floating around in to a more coherent package. I’ve read that he ‘popularised’ the courtship movement.

So what do people say is wrong with IKDG.

There are some sites you can look at. One is ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye: Wisdom or Foolishness?’. I don’t know anything about the author of this site as there is no ‘about me’ page but he has commented on my site (Hi Steve). It’s main criticism is that by not dating young people don’t get a chance to interact. When they reach their mid-twenties, and are ready for marriage they behave like 16 year olds. This site also points out that the no-dating philosophy is OK for younger people but what about those in single in their late 20s and 30s? Another criticism is that by not dating and having a long ‘get to know you’ period then couples can get married without really knowing each other.

There are also some articles here. One criticism I read in several places is that the courtship movement was developed as a way for homeschooling parents to control all aspects of their children’s lives, even who they marry.

Just because there are some criticisms of the IKDG philosophy does not mean that the ideas are unbiblical. So stay tuned, in part 4 I’ll express my opinion.

I Kissed Dating Goodbye – part two

The book is back.

First I want to deal with something that came up in the comments. In NZ we don’t really have a culture of dating, especially among those in their teens and early twenties. Young people tend to meet each other in group situations and would become a steady couple with out going out somewhere on a romantic ‘date’. I think this arose when our relationship patterns began changing post World War Two. Harris talks about this in a US context on pp.29-30. In the States they had many more place to go and eat out. In New Zealand there were very few places to eat out, let alone those that young people could afford or felt comfortable in. So a pattern arose of meeting people through clubs and dances and not really ‘dating’, as in a couple going somewhere for a ‘get to know you’.

This practice links in to today’s post about IKDG. In my last post I said I would cover the pattern for romantic relationships that Harris proposes. The NZ way of ‘doing’ relationships bears some resemblance to what Harris advocates.

His main message is don’t think about being romantically involved until you are ready to get married. Relationships that can’t end in marriage, eg because the couple are too young, are a waste of time. Age is only part of the equation. Financial stability is another, as is Christian maturity.

Because very few men can support a family at 16 this idea cuts out relationships until people are in their 20’s. Culturally we follow this pattern somewhat. Most people form a serious, usually life long, relationship  in their early to mid twenties. The difference would be with Harris’s approach that this would be their first and only serious relationship.

This raises a question. What are you supposed to do before you are ready for marriage? Harris suggests that unmarried people become involved in serving in their church. Not only does this mean that the single person uses their time wisely by serving the body of Christ but it also gives them opportuities to socialise in group situations. By working along side other Christians young people can observe the character of others, and learn to be friends with member of the opposite sex. The idea is to treat each other like brothers and sisters, which Christians, are in Christ.

NZ cultural practices support this idea somewhat. Groups are the way young people met. What is different about Harris’s idea is that he advocates not forming romantic attachments until the young person is ready to marry.

In the next post I will cover what Harris calls ‘courtship’ and touch on why IKDG is so controversial.

Jack-boots and beans

Has anyone noticed how trendy vegetable gardening is?

For once I’m up with the trend, I’ve been vege gardening for about 15 years. I think the popularity of growing your own vege has been driven by a number of factors. The growing price of veges in the supermarket makes grow your own worth the effort. Wider green issues, which are also trendy, are also a factor. People feel good about the small ‘carbon footprint’, the recycling, if you make compost, and you can grow organically.

Another, more theoretical factor is that some people have a desire to return to the land. We often have a romantic idea of what our pre-industrial revolution ancestors lives were like. By growing our own food, as they did, we imagine we can return to the (supposed) idyllic world that existed before factories, cars and supermalls.

The idea that we can create some sort of pre-industrial earthly paradise is a strong ideological thread running through both the political far right and the far left. In NZ the Green Party are the far left and their desire for this can be seen in some of their policies.

Contrary to what some may think the far right in NZ is not ACT but the National Front. The National Front are pretty shadowy, partly because what they believe is deeply unfashionable and often abhorrent. Occasionally they pop up in the news, partly because they have that controversy factor. Today there is an article on Stuff about the National Front wanting to start their own community in North Canterbury. It’s pretty standard far right/fascist ideas. What caught my eye was that the community would have a ‘large vegetable garden’.

I, and many NZers have something in common with the National Front! I guess it’s a lesson that there are attractive parts to all political philosophies, and that we should always look a bit deeper. After all political parties want to put their best face forward so we will vote for them.

When I read about the large vege garden I thought of this:

It’s Villandry, a large potager style vege garden in France complete with a Château. I wonder if this is the kind of thing the National Front had in mind?

The battle of the Blue Penguin

My girls got this really cool game for Christmas. It’s called the Amazing Moa Hunt and it’s a game that tests your NZ geography.

If you are looking for a present for a family or your family I would thoroughly recommend it. But the main purpose of this post is not to encourage consumerism. We have a battle over one of the playing counters.

It is a game for 4 people and the four counters are NZ native birds, one of which is the Blue Penguin. The first time we played G1 wanted to be Blue Penguin, and the next time and the next time. In fact, two weeks later, she would only play the game if she could have the Blue Penguin counter.

Now this may seem like a really trivial issue, so what if she is fixated on one counter?

One of my favourite parenting books is Shepherding a Childs Heart. Tedd Tripp emphasises the importance of looking at what causes your child’s behaviour, in other words how they are acting is speaking about what is in their heart.

So what is an unhealthy obsession with a Blue Penguin saying about G1?

This is what we saw underlying it – the desire to control, and a fear of something new. These heart attitudes are understandable and related, by controlling the situation she doesn’t have to try something new. But these attitudes have the potential to become un-Godly.

So what did we do?

First, G1 is not allowed to be Blue Penguin and she must play the game and try different counters. But also we talked to her and named the behaviours. I told her that it is hard to try new things but she needs to learn to trust God because she will have to try lots of new things as she moves towards adulthood. I also told her that being in control can be good but she needs to let others be in control as well, her parents and God. I understand that the board game is something a 10 year old has power over but she also needs to understand that if she lets her parents be in charge first then maybe she will be allowed to have control over something bigger, like the washing machine. And ultimately, as her parents, we want to see her surrender her life to God’s control not her own.

‘Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.’ (Proverbs 22:15 NASB).

The battle over a counter in a board game is foolish. It is our job as parents to apply discipline that draws our children away from the foolishness’ of their hearts and towards God’s wisdom.

Chicken Curry

Let’s take a break from books to talk about food.

Before Christmas I needed a meal that I could throw in the slow cooker in the morning and serve on rice when I got home. A curry fitted the bill nicely but I only had one good slow cooker curry recipe. It was for lamb and spinach curry and I didn’t want to cook that.

So I went to this site. The year of crockpoting has finished but the recipes remain. Because this is an American site many of the recipes use ingredients we can’t get here but I used a recipe for Indian Chicken Curry. I had to make a few mods but it was very good.

Here’s how I adapted it to NZ.

- I used 1/2 a can of coconut milk.
- Garbanzo beans are what we call Chickpeas.
- I used 3 Chicken breast, they weighted about 350grms.
- All the spices were the same.
- I used the pre-grated ginger in a jar, 2 Tbsp of it.
- 1/2 tsp chilli from a jar instead of Tabasco).
- Onion, garlic and pepper the same.
- I didn’t use an eggplant because they are expensive at the moment, maybe I’ll try it when eggplants are more plentiful.
- I used a golden kumara instead of sweet potato.

I mixed the spices, onion, and garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker with the coconut milk. I then added the chicken and stirred it through. I placed the pepper and kumara on top, so they would steam. I cooked it for about 8 hours on low. You could go up to 10 hours but the kumara will break up. You could probably cook it on high for 4-6 but I think curries are best cooked on low as they have more time to develop flavour.

I Kissed Dating Goodbye – part one

This book was first published over 10 years ago. Because it has been around a while some of the ideas had filtered in to the Christian community. So before I began reading this book I was not unfamiliar with Joshua Harris’s ideas.

In the first part of I Kissed Dating Goodbye (IKDG) Harris draws on his own relationship journey to point out what he sees as wrong with our culture’s dating patterns. His conclusion is two fold. Firstly, he sees the idea of ‘dating’ as being selfish. People enter into a series of short term relationships because it is fun for them, not because they are ready to commit to one person for life . Secondly, he thinks that dating, particularly before you are ready to be married, leads to sexual temptation.

I agree with both these problems. I think that selfishness taints many relationships not just those between single people. The biblical model should be to serve one another. Sadly in our self centred culture the emphasis tends to be on what I can get out of this friendship/relationship, or even church, not how can I serve this person. I think that all Christians could learn from Harris’s reminder to put others first.

On the sexual purity issue Song of Songs 2:7 springs to mind. We know that our culture has a strong emphasis on sex and often upholds it as the most important part of a relationship. This is more of a problem with teens who feel the pressure to conform to societies norms more strongly. I think the message of my youth, which was ‘pair’ off but don’t have sex, is inadequate. The model present by IKDG of not ‘dating’ until you think you are ready to get married removes some of the sexual temptations, or at least the ability to act upon them.

The overall impression this book gave me is of purposefulness. Harris is saying that we should approach romantic relationships with the idea that we might marry the person we are interested in. He also points out that a lot of time is wasted when single people spend time pursuing relationships that break up. Just remember all that time you spent worrying if so and so liked you!

Next, I’ll outline what Harris proposes as the alternative to dating and my opinion of it.

I’ve kissed dating good bye

I bet there is no surprise there, I’ve been married to the Hubster for almost 15 years.

While on Holiday I read Joshua Harris’s book ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye’. You may wonder why a women in her 30’s who has been married for a long time wanted to read a book about dating.

I have daughters. And, such is the way of the world, they are getting older. As much as I may want them to remain pre teens forever this will not happen and besides I don’t want to be making schools lunches forever.

I decided it was time to see what Harris’ ideas about romantic relationships were.

I really enjoyed the book. I think it has a lot to say about relations between members of the opposite sex that even old people like me can befit from.

Because I got so much out of this book I think I will do several posts on it.

Beans for miles

Homely Wife has been on holiday. This year we actually went away, to the South Island. Being homely sort people we don’t do this very often.

Holidays are supposed to leave you feeling rested. I’m not sure that this works for our family, all I seemed to get was bad dose of sunburn and grumpy children. But we have put all the pre-Christmas madness behind us.

While away I hadn’t organised for anyone to water the vege garden. I did regret this as it was hot a sunny where we were (hence the sunburn). When we got home we found evidence that this had not been the case at the homely wife mansion.

We had a lot yellow beans. Not quite as many as in this photo, but I picked 1.28kgs.

For those who want to grow a good crop of dwarf beans I planted Roquefort, from Kings Seeds.

And what do you do with 1.28kgs of beans. You put on your i-pod and chop, then blanch and freeze. This job is um.. not fun but I remind myself that I will reap the rewards in winter.

The Week That Was

I got through the week.

After Tuesday I was really stuffed. Both physically and with bad food. The BBQ at swimming club fell through due and the organisers were left with about 30 kids and parents wanting tea so they gave us fish and chips which were no the best I’d ever had, plus they had no plates.

On Wednesday, the morning tea with the mayor went well. It’s the first time I’ve ever met a mayor.

The hospital appointment was very stressful. G1 did not like being sedated. She kept trying to walk and falling over. She wouldn’t lie down. As soon as we got home and she relaxed it worked really well, she slept for about an hour.

On Thursday I cleaned my house and made the truffles that I had planned to do on Tuesday. This turned out to be a good idea because I only ate 3 before we went to the schools concert/prize giving.

The concert/prize giving had the usual speeches and prizes. The main part of the evening was a play of the book ‘Badjelly the Witch’. Those familiar with the story might remember that when Rose and Tim go in to Binkle Bonk’s tree house there are glow worms lighting the stairs. In our version the glow worms were poi dancers

Here’s a photo. It was really effective.