Climbing out of the Abyss

So we have been through the most weird and strange global crisis, aka the Covid-19 pandemic.  And those of us lucky enough to still be here and healthy are doing  okay...aren't we?  The truth is that it is after something like this that we start to struggle emotionally.  At the time we are in survival mode.

So...what should we do to recover?  Move house?  Get a dog?  hmmm.  I am thinking get some rest and reduce your cognitive load to allow the brain to recover.  Too much stress eventually leads to anxiety.  And if you are anxious for long enough, it leads to depression.  As does being overtired.

Which means: 

don't try to hard.  

Get to bed when you are tired.

moderate the alcohol and sugar.

Have enough fun.  A daily fun prescription is essential to recovery.

get outside.  Every day.

Move.  it's the only thing that disperses stress hormones.  It doesn't have to be strenuous.

Stay off the computer in leisure time as much as  possible, especially if you are working remotely.

And be patient, gentle and give it time...

  Sounds boring right?  Well it takes our mental health longer to recover than physical health and its really important to be gentle with ourselves and let that recovery happen.  

Ever dreamed of turning your hobby into a business? Read on...

Ever dreamed of turning your hobby into a business?  Read on...

Your money or your life, what is most important?  Well I say both - because money buys freedom.  The trick is to know how much money it takes for you to survive and then to spend no more time earning it than is necessary for day to day survival, savings for emergencies, a decent level of comfort and a few luxuries. And some longer term savings of course, but it's actually keeping the spending in check that will get you there, not how much you earn. 

I know the perceived self help book wisdom is to do the work you love in order to earn a living. However, reality check although I know this is contraversial.  That dream can disappear rapidly when it is pursued at the expense of work/life balance!  Because trying to turn what you love into a business usually means working very long hours to earn enough money.  This can seem okay at the start but after a year or so it becomes well, just more work.  

Your dream of being an artist becomes at least 50% marketing, selling and book keeping if you really need to make a living from it.  Then there is what sells.  Probably producing the same thing over and over - limited edition prints and variations on a popular theme, such as painting the coastline or mountains near where you live cos it sells, fine a few times but 50? 100?  500? coasters, greetings cards... So where is the studio time for producing one-off creative pieces?  There is the same challenge fitting that in as there would be in an actual job...and you are probably earning an awful lot less money.  

 

So go ahead if you don't mind that and if not, keep it as a hobby business for earning a bit extra and enjoy  it.  For your main source of income, get work with the best hourly rate you can, that  you like and that is relatively easy to earn a living from.  That may well be a job but going freelance or  having your own business is an excellent option as your main source of income,  just look carefully at the earning potential, competition and profit margins before  you decide what to do.  Have more than one business if you want to! 

If starting any business but especially a 'dream' hobby     business, think about scale and that sweet spot where your business will produce the best return whilst not taking over your life.  We are both self employed and have three businesses between us.  That sweet spot is in constant motion and a hot topic for discussion in our house!  It works and we are part time with a decent income.  

It has also been very handy in these Covid times not having all our eggs in one basket.  If  you re not too heavily invested in  your business being your 'dream' and markets dry up, you can change what  you do and still have an income.  So you were an artist?  You are already set up as a business and art is not selling in a recession? Start doing something else, such as dog walking, cleaning or helping others with book keeping...Or all of the above.

Charles Long puts it well in  his book 'How to Survive Without a Salary'.  He tells the story of a young man who is a baker and walks to the local town delivering cookies from his rucksac.  He loves it.  Loves the baking, loves the walking to town.  He has a simple lifestyle with few overheads so it works.

 Then someone suggests his product is so good he should expand. So  he gets a Unit to work from and a van to deliver cookies.  Before you know it, he is working twice as hard, spending a lot of time marketing cookies, doing admin, accounting and cash flow, ordering supplies and driving the van - and of course  paying someone to make the cookies and paying the bank for the loan that bought the van.  But does he earn twice as much?  No, because of the overheads.  More worrying, he is now back in the rat race, competing for the same market as other cookie companies and doing all the things he did not want to do.  No time for walking with a rucksac now!

Aim to maximise your hourly rate, doing well-paid work full or part time.  Assess all your work-related expenses to work this out, even if you are in a job rather than having a business.  For example, the car needed to get to work, child care, a cleaner, lunches you buy instead of make when rushed, work clothes, extra treats and holidays to make up for working full time etc.  Often, working full time is not such good value as you thought, especially for the second job in a household.  This is because it often means getting child care, a cleaner, dog walker and not having time to get the best price for groceries and other items.

The less you spend, the less you need to earn.  When we are happy and working part time, we tend to spend less.   And you can squirrel away the cash from that extra wee hobby business whilst working at the day job.  You will enjoy watching it grow and it makes it a very satisfying hobby business.  

 News flash in the UK you can earn £1,000 profit from a hobby business, ebay Airbnb or other sources without having to declare it or pay tax on it.  That's profit, not turnover.  So a hobby business can earn you 20% more if you are a basic rate tax payer.  If you live elsewhere, check if your country does the same.

Dandelion coffee

This is the loveliest, yummiest thing, not a bit like the instant stuff you can get at the health food shop.  All you need is a slightly messy garden with some dandelions in it.  Eat the leaves in salad and make coffee with the roots.  No need to buy special seed from the gardening catalogue, any old dandelions will do.

Leave a few to go to seed and you will have more next year. Dig up the largest plants, or save the roots of any that need to go because they are in the way.

Give them a good scrub then lay out to dry for a couple weeks.  Once they feel hard, pop on a baking tray and bake in a low oven for about ten minutes or until they have gone darker and smell roasted.  This is the secret, its the roasting that makes them taste so good.  Do keep an eye on them because its easy to burn them and they cook fast.

Dandelion roots drying

Let them cool then wizz in the blender.  Wait a while to let the dust settle before opening the lid of the blender.  Then spoon into a jar.

Dandelion coffee ready to use

To use, one scant dessert spoon or to your taste in a wee coffee filter, or cafetiere and add hot water and leave to brew for 3-5 minutes. 

Brewing the coffee

We like to add some of our homemade almond or cashew milk.

Paper napkins

How many paper napkins does it take to eat a piece of cake? Or a cafe/restaurant meal?  As a bit of a cafe addict I have been counting and typically it is around five if you eat in a restaurant.  Here's the thing: its been going up steadily.  So now there is often a glass of water on a saucer, with a napkin under the glass.  One wrapped around the knife and fork.  One put down with the main course. Another under the garlic bread, one under the coffee cup on the saucer, one under the cake and another loose one to go with the cake as well.  

Sometimes all of the above, totalling seven. So if we go out together that's FOURTEEN napkins.  And we really do only need one each.  So I take the surplus home if it cannot be put back.  Often if you hand them back,staff throw them away.  And they go in the tissue box to be used as tissue substitutes.  So we seldom need to buy tissues and I am working hard to tell cafe staff in advance not to bring more napkins.  Its hard to remember. And its hard for them to remember, they bring them anyway then throw them in the bin when I remind them.  The rubbish surges at you and it so hard to refuse, feeling like a lone voice in the throwaway wilderness.  So what I want to know is: who else out there tries to refuse and reuse napkins in coffee shops?  We have just ordered a rigid tissue box to keep them in, we don't use many tissues anyway cloth handkerchiefs prevail chez nous.  

what can you buy for £1/$1?

On the radio yesterday:
A conversation about how someone had won £1 for their baking entry in a local show. Great hilarity about  how to spend such a princely sum.  But it got me thinking and asking the question what can you buy for £1 and how far could I make that money go?   It inspired me to re-focus and look more closely at the food budget.

Another, very good question is what costs nothing at all?  We inevitably begin to think of things that cost nothing or can be bartered, swapped, made, exchanged etc whilst considering how far £1/$1 (or one of whatever is your unit of currency is) can go.  In other words, thinking this way gets us into a resourceful state of mind.  That resourceful state may also lead us away from the shops and back to our own cupboards/closets/garage, to rake through what is already there that could be used, adapted or made into something else.  Shopping in your own cupboards is free and can provide free entertainment too. So the real question is not 'what can I buy?' but 'what do I need?'

  £1 is not of course the same value as $1 or a Euro etc but  it works to think in units of 1, so work with whatever your own unit of currency is.  So off I went to the shops to see.  Was that a mistake?  Possibly, there are many other places to buy or find things that are less obvious, such as batering, swapping, the person down the road who sells eggs or veg from the garden gate, jumble sales, auction sites, buy and sell Facebook groups, local summer fetes, Christmas fairs, car boot sales and so on.  And my £1 would have bought more in many of them.

The trip to the shops resulted in a purchase of two bags of pears (60p) and some lemons.  Total price 90p, so still 10p left to spend.  

Last time it was brocccoli, which with the potatoes growing in the garden made a pot of soup for 60p.  enough for three and the same again for the freezer.  People used to adapt their daily diet to what was available.  What if I did that based on what is best value?

40p for 2 heads of broccoli.   Potatoes from the garden & some stock saved from a chicken.

That thinking just led to the discovery that roasted peppers freeze well and are great with a cooked breakfast.  that lemons sliced up and put in the freezer (5p/4c for 6 lemons) are great in drinks or as a garnish and work just the same when making hummus. So breakfast is potatoes from the garden, hummus instead of eggs, bargain peppers from the freezer and some left over baked beans.  Absolutely, unexpectedly delicious. 

A really cheap, yummy meal with a bit of thought and using what was available

Business, working from home and well, clutter

I notice a tendency to overwork and over commit.  Always to have several irons in the fire and more ideas in the background that I must try one day.  Seems good, huh? Always a plan B for earning a living if things don't work out.  Always the stuff poised ready, should that idea ever come to fruition...

A recent read was Year of No Clutter by Eve Schaub.  She made one insightful comment that has truly stuck.  It is the many possibilities and massive potential in our lives that prevents us from achieving what we want. AND cause a lot of clutter. Apparently people with serious hoarding issues often cite that as their reason for keeping stuff.  So I have been letting go of possibilities.  And their attendant stuff for the last couple of weeks.  It really has freed things up and the possibilities already seem more manageable. 

Having sold several large craft items that were a part of the business, less clutter, more in the bank is the new mantra.  The things that have been re-homed have liberated the cupboards and shelves in my wee studio-office and things have stopped falling off the shelf when I am hunting for stuff needed for a workshop. 

The best thing of all is that it has led to clearer thinking.  Some actual work has been let go too, the parts that were too much work for too little money, or too far from home.

And what has filled the vacuum is a long-held ambition, I have been asked to write online courses for the Low Impact Living Initiative.  One on spinning, one on weaving and one on natural dyeing. The first two will be filmed mid May. And LILI also want to publish my third book, Diary of a Downshifter, which will be the next project after the courses. 

I am picturing the size of the pile of stuff that left our house over the last few months and cannot imagine how it all fitted.  Now I am off to clear out some more, inspired by another great book, A Year of Less by Cait Flanders. Check out her blog too at Caitflanders.com

How to make dandelion coffee

Its February and I just started using the dandelion coffee which is part of last year's bounty.  Two of the most useful and versatile plants in the garden are dandelions and nettles.  More about nettles in March when they start to grow and are one of the very first greens available.  But then so are dandelions.

dandelion roots drying

 You don't need to go planting fancy dandelions from seed companies, any old dandelions will do and there are most likely some in the garden already.  Let them grow where they will, in amongst other plants and vegetables is fine and if they take up a bit too much space, pick some leaves.  The young leaves are great in salads and you can force dandelions by placing a flower pot over the leaves, weighed down with a stone.  Then the leaves will be pale and even more tender.

Cook briefly (steaming works well) as a hot vegetable, or add them raw to a mixed salad.  Or juice them in combination with other greens and some carrots and celery.   Add apples to the juice if you like it sweeter.   You can use the ordinary green leaves in salad too all year, if you don't mind a slightly bitter taste. They add a dimension to salads as do other bitter leaves like land cress, rocket or mizuna greens.   They are really mineral rich and a nutrition boost, especially needed in spring.

We leave the flowers for pollinating insects and they are popular with many species of hover fly as well as nocturnal pollinators and bees.   They can be picked off just before the seeds disperse but allow a few to set seed for next year's crop.  Green Finches love the seed heads anyway. 

Then, when they get old and in the way of the next crop, we dig some up, leaving any that can stay to sprout again.    The roots are laid out to dry for a few days until hard, then roasted in a low oven.  Grind them up and you have dandelion coffee.  Half a dessert  spoon full is enough to brew a cup of coffee, done just like you would with coffee grounds and it is surprisingly tasty.

dandelion coffee - very tasty and not bitter at all