Have a Go, Ya Mug!
And there are several ways you can have a go!
I don’t have any formal training in the manual arts, building or electrics but that notwithstanding, I have been prepared to have a go at making and doing things around our house. One of the first things I did was to develop over time a 12 volt DC electricity system through our house, most of which is still operational today. I did some research and then had a go and running wiring, installing lights and 12volt power points, I set up a battery storage system and the associated electronics like fuses and regulators (all back before the internet!). I made mistakes, like killing a bank of batteries by not checking them regularly enough, but I had a go and learned from my mistakes. On one of our open days I had an electrical engineer, after looking at the 12 volt set up, enquire if I was an electrical engineer as well, on me telling him I was not he expressed surprise that a layman could have put such a system together. Very gratifying!
Another aspect of having a go is being prepared to trial new things such as crops, recipes or ways of doing things. We had been looking at reducing our waste, and a contributor to our waste was plastic milk bottles. Keeping a cow or goat was somewhat impractical so we spent some time experimenting with skim milk powder and using it to make our milk. We started out buying 1 kg bags but after we got used to it we committed to getting a bulk 25kg bag of skim milk powder. This not only eliminated waster from this source but saved us money and improved our resilience as well. An unlooked for positive was that we found we actually liked the taste of the new powdered milk better than the stuff we had been buying so it was a winner all round. Once we had a supply of the powdered milk we then started having a go at making dairy products like cheese and yoghurt based on it, and have been very pleased with the results.
‘Having a go’ can also mean having a go at thinking of things in new ways and being open to change. As an option to reduce waste and to reduce the amount of crap in our diet, I started making tortillas, based on a mix of freshly ground organic whole wheat and organic baker’s flour. I made them when we would have burritos for tea, but during No Buy July last year I wondered if we could use them more widely and started making them a couple of times a week, as a quickly made and tasty substitute for raised bread. We have been very pleased with the results.
Of course, having a go doesn’t always work out, we had a go at regularly planting Chinese cabbage (wong bok) by including it in our rotation. I did try harvesting it and integrating it into our cooking but we both came to the conclusion that we really didn’t like it, so why were we growing it? In this case things didn’t work out but that was a learning in itself and we had given it a go! We also ad a go at making our own vinegar of various sorts (white wine, apple cider, red wine and cleaning vinegar) but after considerable work I realised that we don’t actually use very much vinegar so it was a waste of time and effort. Silly, but sometimes these things happen!
We have found over the years that being prepared to have a go (ya mug!) has overall been a positive experience, taught us lots of things and contributed to both our efforts to live more sustainable and live more resiliently. So that project, process, new crop or new recipe you have been putting off trying? Have a go, ya mug!
