We Bought The Farm

Ring Out the Old

As we count down the final minutes of 2004, it's time to pause and reflect on the old year. It's been a good year - a year of personal growth, but not without its upheavals. I'd like to believe it has brought us closer to our goals, or maybe just given us a better definition of those goals to work toward. So, it hasn't brought a lot of results, but it has been "progress toward".

First off, it was the year of the birth of our son Daniel, who joined us in January in Rio de Janeiro, a beautiful, healthy, bright-eyed little boy who has brought smiles to all of us and turned Catriona into a very good big sister (most of the time). Catriona turned three, putting the "terrible twos" behind her, although in my estimation, they are followed by the "terrible threes".

I read 30 books this year, many on religious themes or broadly in line with my vision of our goals (I respect that my vision may differ from the rest of the family). My last read was Jimmy Doherty's On The Farm, which details his effort (with friends) to start a smallhold farm raising rare-breed pigs and other animals. It was a light, picture-heavy book, but an enjoyable enough look at the process. I think the book I struggled with the most this year was Thomas Merton's first set of journals, and the book I enjoyed the most was The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka.

We left Rio behind and returned to the UK this summer. I do have saudades for Brazil, and for the Portuguese which I had reasonable command of, and which I'm now struggling to use (apart from reading the news on a couple of websites). It's the sixth most spoken language in the world, but not much use outside of the lusophone countries, which aren't the easiest to access. Surprising to me now, I really miss Curitiba, where the pace of life was less hectic than Rio, but where on reflection we actually had things about as good as they get.

I had my three-month "sabbatical" from August through October. We traveled in England, Scotland, France, Portugal, Spain and the US. In some ways this was a self-indulgent step backward from our accomplishments over two years in Brazil, but it did give me lots of time to be with my young family, and as my brother says, you'll never wish you'd worked more.

And then it was back to my regular job come November. I've had a bit of a nesting-in period for people to get used to the fact that I actually work based in the UK office, and now I'm doing some enjoyable work which will have me travelling a bit in the New Year (and was responsible for a late-December hop over to the Netherlands).

For gazetteer scorekeeping, I visited 9 countries this year, two new (Portugal and Chile), and made two trips to the US (my first visits "home" since 2001). I even added a new US state (Utah), which I believe leaves me with six to visit (and might justify a trip to the Pacific Northwest some day). By visits to Dunnet Head in Scotland (58 degrees, 40 minutes north) and Puerto Montt in Chile (41 degrees, 28 minutes south), I went further north and south than I had ever been before.

A London Day

I can't think of a better way to ring out the old year than to have what we call a "London day". For us, a London day starts at Waterloo station and makes its way down the South Bank of the Thames. We bundled up the kids and put them in their pushchairs and walked as far as Rotherhithe yesterday - probably about 3 miles. There were lots of people about, enjoying the attractions and gearing up for London's fireworks display or a festive night on the town.

On spec, we decided to go up in the London Eye. I'd never been before, nor had the kids. We only had to wait about 30 minutes for tickets and then we got straight on. From there, we walked down past the Royal Festival Hall, had a pizza lunch at Gabriel's Wharf (where my wife and I had our first date), and then down past the Tate Modern, under London Bridge and Tower Bridge and around through the Docklands to a friend's flat, where we had a celebratory drink, then made our way home (early) by bus and train, put the kids to bed and toasted in the New Year with Jools Holland on the telly. As we went to bed, Lesley sang, "It's such a perfect day...I'm glad I spent it with you." I couldn't agree more.

More Popular Generosity

This morning's Guardian reports that aid is flooding in from the UK public. The website shows that £25m has already been pledged by the public, while the linked article points out the pressure this is placing on governments to respond in measure:

Britain tripled its aid to £50m following a massive and speedy response from members of the public whose donations to humanitarian charities threatened to dwarf the government's initial offer.

People Power

This morning's radio brought news from Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee - the organisation through whom we made our contribution - that they have now had over 400,000 calls and have received pledges of £15m. At £37.50 per average caller, that must be pretty close to £10/head as I'd noted yesterday. And it matches the amount pledged by the UK government to date.

If you take a look at the DEC website, you can see what a good idea it is, concentrating the fundraising effort in one place, then distributing the funds among a dozen well-known agencies active in the region. The DEC spokesman said that their overhead costs would be less than 1% of total funds raised. That, of course, doesn't account for secondary overheads for each individual aid organisation, but it does offload their own individual fund-raising efforts, and it's evident that they've managed to raise a large amount of money through united appeals and centralised administration including a certain amount of automation.

You can also contact DEC by telephone at (0870) 606 0900.

Safe and Sound

We spent Boxing Day in a state of high anxiety. My brother and his family were spending the holiday in Thailand, and we had no contact information apart from thinking that they were going to be in Phuket.

We heard the news of the earthquake and first reports of the tsunamis on the 8 o'clock news on Radio 3, and from then we were glued to the television, looking for more information, and desperately trying to make contact with my brother. About eight hours later, he phoned us, safe, at a resort in another part of Thailand. They had been completely unaware of the situation in Phuket, and had spent a nice day on the beach. Thank God.

But now, as we watch the full scale of this disaster unfold in front of us - as we try to come to grips with the numbers of lives lost - we feel a kindred spirit with those who are still waiting for news. More than with other disasters, this one feels personal. We've phoned in our support, needing little reminder of the glut of seasonal high living we've just enjoyed and imagining the hundreds of thousands who at the same time have lost everything.

I can only urge everyone to do the same. The first reports of the aid offerings of Britain (£500k) and the USA ($15m) were trifling compared to spending on warfare, and the scale of the devastation is many times as great. It ought to be obvious that a good way to restore credibility to a damaged international reputation would be to be seen as taking a strong leading or supporting role - whatever requested - in supporting the nations affected by this calamity.

Someone noted that if every Briton donated £10, the people of the UK, never mind the government (who have now pledged £15m), would have put forward over $1bn. It's generosity on that scale that might start to make an impact. You don't have to look far to find a good place to make your own contribution.

Home Bake

My wife and I decided not to buy each other Christmas presents this year, but I couldn't help myself. I'd heard her talking about a bread machine with friends this summer and the idea stuck. I used to be pretty resistant to the idea as being gimmicky, creating a dependency on pre-packaged ingredients and taking up more scarce counter space, but with a little research I overcame my objections.

In searching for a machine, I came across the Panasonic SD-253. I was impressed by the user reviews on Amazon, and I thought the price was reasonable. Since we've bought it, we've had two loaves - the "large" loaf (pictured) raises so high it's hard to slice, so we're probably heading back to the smaller recipes (I'm afraid extra-large would cause the top of the machine to lift!). The products we've sampled so far are excellent, and as estate agent cliche as it sounds, there really is something magic about waking to a house full of the smell of baking bread.

I plan to take a look at the economics of home machine baking. You have to spread the cost of the machine over a large number of loaves to make it pay, and I'll only be able to guess at the electricity cost. Overall, I reckon it's about the same cost as buying store bread (bulk buying of raw ingredients would help here), but you have the advantage of the freshness, the lack of any additives, further independence from supermarkets, and, well, that smell.

Christmas at Home

After two years in the tropics, we were really looking forward to having a family Christmas at home this year. As nice as it is to string lights on the palm trees and walk on the beach after dinner, there's something about Christmas that seems to call out for cold weather, a roaring fire and all the trappings and traditions of our families, especially now with two children of our own.

We had a really lovely time of it, as well. Catriona picked out the Christmas tree - an enormous thing that I could barely carry and which takes up a quarter of our living room. The house was full and festive, and old St Nick brought some cracking pressies for the little ones.

We ordered our Christmas turkey from Eastbrook Farm. Organic, free range, bronze and all that. We ordered a bird between 5.5 and 6.4kg and, while we shouldn't complain (since we didn't pay extra), what arrived weighed it at 8.5kg (serves 18-22!) - a big surprise, especially with just three adults for Christmas dinner. We're still looking for creative ways to eat up the 2+ kilos we've frozen and stuffed away.

Homecoming

We've finally got our espresso machine back in service. Ahhhh, bliss.

We have a Gaggia Classic (as above), which was a wedding gift to ourselves. When we went overseas, we decided not to take it with us as it is heavy and would have busted our air freight allowance. So, we left it with my brother. He then moved away and left it with his neighbour. I drove up to Oxfordshire and reclaimed it from the neighbour at the end of October, but when we got it home it didn't work.

I tried to troubleshoot the machine, including speaking with the helpful Gaggia UK people, but in the end I was unable to solve the problems. Fortunately, they have a special deal on servicing. You pay them a fixed fee, they collect the machine, service it (including any spare parts it needs) and then return it. Ours came home yesterday with a new steam valve and a new boiler - possibly the two most expensive parts. And some new bits on the brewhead.

Yesterday, by chance, knowing it would be home soon, I had purchased some nice Lavazza coffee for it at the new Italian deli across the road from my office (civilisation reaches our neck of the woods). And so, this morning we were able to greet the day with "only-if-you-can-be-arsed" lattes.

Cor, I'm still shaking.

This may not seem the measure of frugality, I admit. On the other hand, it does pretty well eliminate purchased coffees, which can add up. My latte-on-the-train had just reached £1.80, or £9 a week if I had one each morning.

(Incidentally, we originally bought the machine directly from Italy (Best-Of-Italy.com), and even with delivery charges they still have a lower price than I've seen elsewhere in the UK).

Thinking Inside the Box

This morning's BBC Radio Four Farming Today (very short-term link) called attention to an increase in instances of unacceptably high levels of pesticides in imported foods. The programme particularly featured grapes and apples.

The government's pesticide watchdog threatens to get tough over chemical levels in imported grapes, after chemicals three time the safe limit for children were found. In the UK the level of use of pesticides has been falling over the past few years. Derek Hargreaves, a horticultural advisor explains how this has been done. Meanwhile Friends of the Earth tell us excessive pesticides are being found in imported food because we're eating it out of season.

They called attention to the useful-looking UK government website Pesticides Safety Directive, which has as its remit ensuring that pesticides are safe for "users, consumers and the environment."

This brought to my mind another very useful consumer-orientated site, the Environmental Working Group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which I've also seen referred to as the "dirty dozen". They are now listing both the worst and best actors in produce. It has an American focus, but since it seems that we're increasingly sourcing our food globally, it's definitely relevant for UK shoppers as well.

Here's their dirty dozen:

Highest in Pesticides

These 12 popular fresh fruits and vegetables are consistently the most contaminated with pesticides — buy these organic.

          • Apples
          • Bell Peppers
          • Celery
          • Cherries
          • Grapes (imported)
          • Nectarines
          • Peaches
          • Pears
          • Potatoes
          • Red Raspberries
          • Spinach
          • Strawberries

They've prepared this listing in a handy-to-laminate card size so you can take it with you when you go shopping.

With our recent move to the organic box scheme, we're less impacted by these bad actors, although we are starting to wonder what to do with all these Brussels sprouts!

A Month in the Country

The country of Work, that is. I've been back to work for a month now. Can't say I'm thrilled, but I'm coping. It's difficult climbing down from something as novel as two years in Brazil back into our lives here in London. And it's not just the novelty. It's the money. My take-home pay has been roughly halved.

I'm not sure that's such a good thing - even with "downshifting" we have high fixed costs (especially our mortgage, which has gone up with UK interest rates). We're basically going to be just treading water month on month for a while. Running the rat race. Running to stand still. I noticed during my "sabbatical" that our "burn rate" was about twice as high as I expected it to be.

But what else could we do? For tax reasons, we need to endure this set-up for a while. There's an expression - don't let the tax tail wag the investment dog. In this case, that would be very bad advice. I would encourage every US homeowner to be familiar with the US tax rules for selling your home (pdf). The US rules are generous but you have to follow them or you could lose out big time.

My wife could go back to work. She worked before we left (before the kids were born). But the UK treats families poorly in this regard. You get relatively little help for child care - it's not deductible, which is insane. And it's paid for with expensive post-tax money, which makes it hard to break even, which is why it should be deductible. She would need to be a big earner to justify this. She could do it, but at what cost? It's been wonderful to have her as a stay-home mum for the kids, and I'm inclined to believe it would be better to keep it this way. Of course, she will have other reasons for wanting to work.

I guess that's enough insight into our family dynamic.

At bottom, then, the month in the country rolls over into a new month, again and again. Lather, rinse, repeat. What did you get for it? Time is money. Not enough. Never enough - it's a horrible compromise. Time is time. Sigh. Off to work, then...

The Right Tool for the Job

Here's a conundrum. What counts more toward downshifting? Buying a tool to do the job and doing it yourself, or paying someone to do the job with the same money and not being encumbered by the tool.

In this case, I bought the tool...a circular saw. I need to make some mods to our bookshelves that requires cutting up a bunch of MDF. I figure it would have taken a contractor a half a day to do the work, plus materials. It will probably take me a little longer, but in the end, I'll have the saw in the cupboard, ready for the next job. I paid £62 for the saw, which is easily what I would have paid for labour.

What else could I have done?

I could have lived with untidy shelves, the status quo ante.

Or, I could have made the cuts with a hand saw I already have in the toolbox. It would have taken ages (some of the cuts are the length of the bookshelves), but it would have been cheaper. It probably also would have been sloppier, but it doesn't matter - the mods shouldn't be visible when the work is finished. I did decide to do another project with a coping saw rather than buy a jigsaw, since I couldn't envision another use for the jig and it's a small job.

I think tools might be a special case in the clutter wars, since they enable more work to be done; more self-reliance. In fact, having the tool, now, I can start to think about other projects, especially shelving, that I might want to install.

I also thought...maybe some day I could get involved with a tool-sharing program. I think this is a great idea - a collective that makes better use of tools that normally sit idle.

Cat talk

My daughter sometimes just amazes me. On the radio, a presenter was talking about Paris.

Me: Catriona, what's in Paris?
C: The Eiffel Tower
Me: How do you get to Paris?
C: You take the bus to the little train to the big train

Unreal. She just turned three. In the middle of nearly constant travel, we took her to Paris in September by Eurostar - the bus from our house to the local train, to Waterloo on the "little train", and then through the tunnel on the big train. She remembers. She has amazing contextual memory. I was talking to her about our visit to Spain and she remembers that Ferdinand lives there, under a cork tree, smelling the flowers. If you point to a globe or a map, she doesn't get it, but she definitely knows about different places. She knows that I'm from Pittsburgh, and that Pittsburgh is in America, and on and on.

Incidentally, she had visited 10 countries by her third birthday. But that's nothing, our son has visited 8 countries - Brazil, Chile, England, Scotland, France, Portugal, Spain and the USA - before his first birthday. Cat's other two are Peru and Argentina.

She's amazed me a few other times as well this week. I'm embarrased to say they've been references to the Simpsons holiday special we have on DVD. The first time we sang Jingle Bells for her, she put in the "Ow!" when Bart gets smacked for singing "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Robin Laid an Egg". And she was doing her Santa Claus imitation in the mechanical "Ho Ho Ho" from Flanders's rooftop decorations. These are remembered from last Christmas when she was just two.

We're going to need to sort our her holidays for her, and now that it's December, that's okay. I've still got the Charlie Brown Christmas special, and I also picked up all the old US holiday specials on DVD as well. More living vicariously.

Don't worry...we'll be sure to go into the real meaning of Christmas as well.

Box Clever

We've signed ourselves up for an organic box scheme. I have no hesitation about paying extra for organics, although I do feel a bit of remorse that this is not necessarily local (they have some tropical fruits in the boxes), and that it's not exactly CSA either.

Since we've been back, I've been a regular at our local Saturday Farmers' Market. I expect to continue shopping there, although I'm sure we'll cut back as we try to cope with the variability of what comes in our Thursday box. This week, it's apples, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, kiwi, leeks, oranges, potatoes and tomatoes.

I look at the box scheme with some ambivalence. The delivery is a plus (the time savings alone!), and the price seems reasonable. I find our Farmers' Market to be overpriced. Not that I begrudge farmers a fair price for their produce - certainly not! - but I find the complaint that supermarkets are gouging consumers to be a little rich coming from farmers who charge the same or more for their produce in the market, where they've cut out the middlemen.

I'm going to play this by...mouth?...and see if we want to stick with the scheme or maybe move to something more community-focused.

Eating Local

We made it out for dinner again last night - this time with the kids. A welcome treat since we used to get out so often in Brazil, but haven't managed much here. We tried a new Italian place, La Nonna, on the Broadway in Wimbledon. The food was excellent (I had the beef with mushrooms, my wife had monkfish and our daughter had what she always has - pasta!). Prices were reasonable, service was friendly, wines were good (if a little expensive), and they were very kid-friendly. I think it paid to go early, as the place started to fill in later and it seemed a bit more hectic.