We've made quite good progress since I first posted on this a whole year ago.   I perservered with getting the kids to eat salad veggies - at first just a few small bite-size pieces. I found to avoid stress and negotiation=argument, I'd only put a very small amount on their plate, and tell them to eat all of it. I really ...

It's lovely to have you share my excitement!   Of course, I expect anyone with real experience of farming and gardening is having a quiet laugh at the idea of nature doing the work for you! Perhaps a more realistic concept is working with, rather than against it. Not having a huge mono-culture expanse and fertilizing with chemicals, but ...

 Oh you guys are so sweet, thanks for all the congrats.   Yes I'm pretty thrilled! I know how lucky I am. Well it's been a lot of hard work to get this far too - often I've been working late into the night, but I know that many people work that hard just to scrape by.   It might be a bit of a challenge at ...

Well I can't believe it's finally happened. I was beginning to think  I'd spend the rest of my life in army houses! We have bought a small cottage (not the cute English mock tudor kind, but its weather-proof and warm) - on several acres of land!  Horses have been living there so the paddocks are well grazed down and at this ...

 Edie I thought your assesment of the situation was a sensitive and accurate one.  I know someone like that, who was always poor, and would go and buy stuff all the time - lots of cheap rubbish - and for a long time I did the same too. Now that person has money, and will tell me with glee about the 5 shirts that they bought for a ...

 wow, you guys are full of fantastic ideas. I've been doing a few of these things already, thinking about others, and others I hadn't thought of at all.  

 Oh that's so true (about the sequins etc on girl's clothes) - my daughter has loads of things with iron-on transfers or screenprints or sequins. A dress covered in glitter that ALL washed off....  When I was ironing five hundred pinch-pleats into a skirt I own (I'd assumed it was permanent-press...!) I determined that half ...

jeweled, I guess we'll have to be that decisive. But I realized yesterday after seeing a house that I really liked but that had no yard that there were some criteria that just aren't negotiable, and that I had to wait until it was the RIGHT house - if I 'settle' for something that is just ho-hum, I can guarantee that the beautiful ...

 Great link, Gigi, thanks!  I've read a bit about small-space and urban gardening. I've often thought that a country life is economical really if you homeschool or use the bus, and don't do much extracurricular stuff - add a few trips in to music lessons etc and you're soon burning up the miles. With this property it ...

Wow, thanks everyone for your insights! Loads of useful thoughts there so I won't try to reply to everyone individually. I've read through all the posts carefully.  luckily here in Oz, snow isn't a problem, and in this area, the roads are sealed and the driveway short. The house is close to the road, which seems pretty quiet. ...