Elimination Communication

I didn't blog about this or write about it much in the book. The reason was simply that I didn't have any first-hand experience with it. But elimination communication (a fancy way of saying holding the baby over a container or toilet when you think or she signals that she's about to 'go') is my latest news in bringing baby up more sustainably.

I am proud and happy to announce to everyone who may not already know it, that EC is possible and easy and really fun - right from the birth of your baby!

Read about EC at Wikipedia or on Ingrid Bauer's site.

I guarantee it to be thought-provoking!

There's a limit to how much I can blog with one hand while delicately balancing a sleeping baby on the other, so I'll have to be expanding on this later!

Umi's birth

Our baby girl, Umi, was born Monday evening in the water at home. A lovely, undisturbed, instinctive birth.












I am all the more passionately persuaded of the wonder of home birth - I want Umi to have one herself!

Newborn Nappies

Something welcoming about a pile of fresh nappies, isn't there?

I find old (used) fabric the best for making nappies as since it comes pre-washed it is extra-absorbent. But recently Mum gave me this lovely stripy flannelette to make something for the new baby (no, Cutie still hasn't arrived yet). I had an old pattern piece sourced online, but it's no longer available free >..< However, according to my brother-in-law Greg, who since the birth of his first baby two weeks ago is my biggest nappy-making disciple, this pattern is excellent:
http://www.thenappynetwork.org.nz/images/shars_newborn_fitted.pdf



I used sewn-in soakers made of well-used microfleece from an old quick-drying towel. An overlocker was handy for finishing off, but Greg is sewing his inside-out then finishing the edge by hand.











Fitted nappies are a funny shape so when you've finished cutting out you'll probably have lots of left over fabric. Turn it into soft baby toys!
I stuffed this with wool fleece and put a little bell into it.
A friend says to use Kindersurprise egg containers, if you come across any. Fill them with rice or something that rattles, and use instead of a bell.
If you don't stuff them too full they can be used as building blocks too :)

Making scrap fabric into birthday cards

I asked rhetorically in an earlier post what to do with bits of embroidered fabric that I was loath to throw out. Well, I've thought of something!

Some folded cardboard and a pot of paste, oh and a few squares of coloured handmade paper, and I had myself some greeting cards in time for Mum's birthday and Father's Day.

Since I had the paste and stuff out anyway, I looked around to see what other bits of fabric, crochet squares and buttons I could stick on more cards.

It's funny that I kept these tiny scraps of fabric and misshapen crochet done while I was trying to master a new stitch, but it doesn't feel so silly now.

Book signing in Katoomba

Blue Mountains Books in Katoomba is hosting a book signing next Saturday at 3pm.

I'm going to show-and-tell how to implement some of the ideas in the book.

The address is 66 Katoomba St (about a third of the way down the main drag of Katoomba, on the left-hand side of the road going away from the station.

Win a copy of the book??

I apologise for not being clever enough to have thought of this myself...
Virginia is giving away a copy of Sustainable Baby, to someone who leaves a comment on something they do to help the environment, on her blog.

What a nice idea!

Fresh Wakame!!

Sea vegetables are extremely nutritious, offering many trace elements unavailable in land-based produce these days, including iodine and potassium. Iodine is important for thyroid function, and sea vegies are even a source of Vitamin B12, which vegans can sometimes lack.

Of the sea vegies, wakame is the tenderest and (if you're unused to eating seaweed) the easiest to eat. Fresh wakame, which I used to feast on every day in Japan, is even better. And - an interesting development - it looks as though Australian chefs are discovering it.

Wakame is currently classified as a noxious weed by the Department of Primary Industries. However the interesting thing from an environmental viewpoint is that wakame can thrive in polluted waters and actually improve the quality of those waters. Growing seaweed is currently under trial as one of several industries that could transform saline water into usable water, thus turning semi-arid rural areas of Australia into productive agricultural land.

If you've got wakame in your local shops, here are some ways to use it:

Wakame in Miso Soup
Real miso soup is so easy I wonder why people still use that packaged, over-salty stuff.
For good Japanese-style stock you need a piece of konbu, another sea vegetable. Or if you are a fish eater you can use several dried anchovies or dried tuna flakes, both available in Asian grocers.
Bring the konbu or fish to boil for ten minutes, then remove (I often leave them in and eat them)
Add vegetables of choice and simmer till al dente.
Dissolve miso to taste.
How easy could that be?
A wonderful and easy variation of miso soup is simply to lightly simmer a handful of dried wakame and a half-block of silken tofu, cubed. Then add the miso.

Wakame Salad
You can probably find a lot of recipes for this all over the web, but my simple, foolproof method is:
Rehydrate quarter of a cup of pelleted wakame, or a whole cup of dried wakame strips, by soaking ten minutes in cool water. Drain.
Add a chopped tomato or two.
Season with a teaspoon of tamari soy sauce mixed with a teaspoon of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of sesame oil. Voila!

Bonzer! Review!

Sustainable Baby had a fun review in the online magazine Bonzer! - "by, for and about wise elders".

Reviewer Valerie Yule has done some calculations I never thought to make:

The priorities for this modern mother are interesting as reflected by page lengths—33 pages on home cooking, 25 pages on nappies, 19 on health, 17 on enjoying playing with baby (hurrah!), 15 on buying and saving, and 14 on tips about clothing, with appendices about making things. No need to hassle about how these sustainable babies sleep or misbehave.
Debbie interestingly gives the first 25 pages to nappies, [diapers] including useful advice about how overseas babies respond to having no nappies, and the real comparative green-ness of cloth versus disposable.


I really liked this sensible, intelligent and funny review.

Compost "Worm"

I got an amazing addition to my garden toolbox last week - the Compost Worm, invented by Dion Kentwell in Newcastle. A retired engineer, Dion named the device 'Worm' to describe the way it 'screws' down inside the material (apparently this is common engineer-speak). You could also call it the Compost Corkscrew - it corkscrews down into the compost just like into an old-fashioned bottle of wine, then you pull it up again in order to aerate the contents, and corkscrew the other way to let all the material go again.

The problem with composting when you don't have any garden waste or chicken manure or anything going into it is that all the kitchen waste on its own just sits there, compacting into a really horrid substance. This is the case with me (renting a house with a professionally maintained garden) just as it is in an urban environment.

I knew I had to do something with my compost but was a bit stumped. A weekly pitchforking was recommended, but I didn't own one. Besides, where would I put everything I upended with the pitchfork? I could hardly wield one in my 30 weeks pregnant state, either.

Enter the Compost Worm and its amazing ability to turn a solid, slimy smelly mass into aerated, tossed and pleasant-smelling humus.

You can get quite warm operating it (great in the cold weather right now) but it isn't as physically demanding as pitchforking :)

Buying in bulk

Buying grains, legumes and other dry products in bulk is not only great for cutting down on the packaging thrown out in your garbage, it is great fun for toddlers. Pouring, decanting and filling containers is good for their coordination and can teach them a lot about volume and mass.








Go for packaging you can easily re-use. Yesterday I saw a picnicking Blackheathen carrying kids' jumpers and snacks in an old basmati rice sack that already had handles sewn into it. Real mountains style! And very sensible of the rice company. It was Pakistani, by the way. Now we just need some Australian producers to think of this.