What If.... Preppers/Savers on the Youtubes Sometimes Lack Creativity and Experience

 OK, rando rant a bit because I'm kind of a dick.

On the youtubes, the thrifty people I follow are doing this "What if" type thing. Fine.  

Things like "What if you only had a half a bag of rice, 3oz lentils, and moldy cheese, and you don't get paid for a week and the money is gone...how would you stretch the food and what would you make?"

Mornings with Granny is best at this because I suspect she's been poor for reals.

I was poor once upon a time and now I'm too lazy/cheap/frugal to run in to town when I am lacking an ingredient.

ANYWAY...recently, the ones I watch are "prepping" or stocking up for power outages.  Turns out rice is a bad idea without power.  Um...like the electric stove or any of the 2 dozen counter top plug in appliances are the only ways to cook???

JEEZ people!  One vlogger was talking, this morning, about a power out where they had no way to heat water or cook food. She has other videos where they grill food outside.  Does the propane tank and/or charcoal not work when the electricity is out???

Also, candles under an upturned can with holes cut in the can-sides makes a tiny stove.   So does a can of crisco with a wick (which can be a bit of dry wood, twisted fabric, wooden skewers, taper candle jammed in a hole, or almost any cooking oil/fat you have around).  PEOPLE!!! Electricity is not the only power.  

What about a solar cooker?  Or the dashboard of your car in mid day?  Heat water with those mid day and then put it in a thermos, or even just wrap up the container of hot water with whatever.  That reflective dealy in the windshield works well.  ALSO coolers keep things warm.  They are don't just keep things cool.   Then you can heat that warmish water for washing or whatever.

Also...rice, pasta, grains can be soaked for a while, brought to the boil, poured into a thermos or the pan wrapped up and they will cook much faster with very little heat, e.g. over a candle or crisco heater.

Grills hold pots as well as naked slabs of meat. You can even bake bread, cake, whatever on there.

ALL YOU NEED TO COOK IS A HEAT SOURCE.  

Other tips for power-outage cookery:

Think about the size and power of your heat source.  Boiling a cup of water over a candle will take a while.   Boiling a cup of water on the grill is wasting heat...boil up the big pan of water (tea kettle, anyone?) and store the excess because maybe it will still be warm later.   Overnight oats/soaked-rice for 4 is too much to bring to a boil over a candle.  Not too much on a grill or in a solar cooker.  

Frying is faster.  Small bits cook faster.  You can fry on a grill.  Put the frying pan (cast iron is the best option) on the grill.  Add fat and whatever.  Cook.  Don't wander off.

Grill outside.  Want to bring some of that heat inside?  Heat up clay plant pots and bring them inside in metal buckets, set them on things that won't burn like bricks or the hearth.  You want get super warm, but you'll be busy and a bit warmer and NOT die of carbon monoxide. 

Butane burners are great, I use them all the time.  But the butane runs out pretty fast if you start with cold water and want to boil it up.  Hence lots of preheating on the woodstove and storing the water hot in thermoses (thermosi?  thermopodi?)...insulated containers!

Things to do now:

Make a "hay box" for your favorite pasta/rice pan.  NOT the insta pot.  Don't be an idiot.  The pan that you can put on the grill, stove, woodstove, etc.  Best if it has small handles but just use what you have.  Find a box, card board, wood, or a metal milk crate, that fits the pan with several inches to spare on all sides.   Line your box with wool blankets or old sweaters if you have it, or hay (hence the name), straw, cardboard, or even metallic bubble wrap. Make sure there is an inch of cardboard or wood or no-flammable at cooking temps fabric between any plasticky crap or fabric and the pan. Make the lining fit tight around the pan.   When the time comes, heat the pan up, like on that grill, and when the food is boiling hard, put the pan in the box (which of course you insulted on the bottom and sides and top) and close it up.  If you can heat up a rock or plant pot ahead of time and put that in the box while you finish boiling up the food, that will preheat the box and make it work better.

Don't have a box?  Make a bean hole in the ground and preheat it like in the olden days.  I will let you google that.

You can boil things mid-day in the solar cooker and transfer to the hay box or bean hole or thermos.

When using a thermos, preheating is best.

These all work like slow cookers.   Pasta will get mushy fast, whole rye berries hold up super well as do wheat berries, oat groats, and barley.   Quinoa is an excellent option as well.

If I am putting meat in, I prefer it to be fully cooked first, either fried up (sliced thin it fries faster/less fuel) or precanned by me or an industrial canning service.

If using a thermos for soup or flavored grains/pasta, you'll want to not use that for coffee or tea water later.  No matter what they say, the flavors linger. I have tested glass, plastic, and stainless steel lined thermoses and all retain that stank.  It's fine in the next cooked item, but not great in my coffee.  

To make the thermos cooking work: invest in a good bottle brush and good funnels.  I use a big canning funnel for the wide mouth thermoses and a skinny funnel for the insulated bottle type thermoses.  

The water you use to preheat a thermos is fine to use in the next batch of soup, to drink, to give to pets who usually enjoy the vague food stank, or to soak tomorrow's grains.  

These practices always save fuel/money/pollution/resources to why not be practicing now??

Rant complete...for now.

10 Day Local Food Challenge Preperations

 I think I can do the local food challenge next month.

There are 7 steps on the website  

I'm going to do the ones that are not stupid and I've added a few of my own to make it frugaler and simpler and less stupid.

From the website:

1: Decide to do it.  Pick the dates (so, that's 2 steps but whatever). Done and almost done.

2: Look around.  The radius is supposed to be 100 miles.  More or less.  Interestingly, despite living in the midst of some serious wheat country, one product I would like to have but am having trouble getting within 100 miles...is flour.  Like normal wheat flour.  I can get it in 50lb bags but that's nuts given how much I would like to use and my storage issues.  More anon.

Otherwise, the 100 miles is less frustrating because it's more logical.

In the "look around" step the website includes finding food sources as well as finding people to do it with you.  I don't need people to do this with me.  Cripes.  The US is very extravert biased.  The assumption of the group effort being the best option...ugh.  Anyway, I'm looking around for sources and pretty much have that sorted.  Those were discussed in the previous blog.   I found a baker who uses local-ish flour.  Shephard's Grain sources from the NW and if you search the provider code on a bag, you can tell if it is within 100 miles or not.  Well, the baker hasn't done that but he will sell me a pound or 2 and I am deciding whether that's good enough for me.  I will look into all the providers listed on the website and check the distances.  Why flour?  Calories vs $$ and time for food purchase and prep.  More anon again.

3. Consider the 10 exotics.  Those were discussed in the previous blog as well.  Still narrowing it down. 10 days is not forever so I can finalize on the day.  I've started figuring out meals from the locally available non-extremely pricey food sources.  I can make soup out of pretty much anything, if I have flour then noodles, bannock and etc are options.  

Let's finish the online steps, some of which are stupid.

4.  Do it!  Yah.  I know.  Why the "!"?  Not needed.  Of course, that's not prep so the website is low on prep.

5.  Join the facebook group.  Nope.  Not doing that.  Stupid.  More extroversion bias and this idea that an experience not shared publicly didn't count.  Of course I'm sharing it on the blog and warning people (people who want to go out to eat with me sometimes).  Facebook is not where it's at. They track crap on a level I do not like, yada yada yada.  Leaving it.

6.  Yeah.  They forgot to fill this in.  Not super impressed with their proofreading or clarity of thought/communication.  

7. Celebrate!!! (jesus...3 !s?) And tell everybody about it.  (jesus!!!).  Anyway, I'll probably post about it here and leave it there.  

Subsumed under this step, is the trying to make permanent changes to keep the 100-mile diet going in one's life.  They don't discuss why, but here's a few reasons why I would like to try to keep doing more with foods I can get within 100miles.  To help the local food economy by USING it and putting my $$ into it.  Support your local farmer with emphasis on local.  I want to enjoy more of the wild foods around here.  Some limits increase creativity.  If you know what foods are available, you can learn more ways to use them in more ways.   I like to cook and this is a way to be creative with cooking, similar to pantry challenges.

Other steps I'm taking:

A. Stocking up on local products a bit slowly so it's more frugal.  Local lentils were on a bit of a sale at the coop so I got a quart of those.  At the last Plummer Farmers Market I got 10lbs of potatoes, a few good storable onions, and a few other things that I think I can keep.  With the new freezer available at work, the peppers I got can be diced up and stored to make those lentils taste like something.

B. Thinking through entire days of meal planning.  So far I have outlined 7 days of meals.  Breakfast gets a bit samey but my breakfasts are a bit samey so that's not a problem.  This also allowed me to go through the ingredients that are the most productive "exotics."  Like bananas.  Is it the best use when my apples will probably be available?  We'll see.  It helped me pick spices/herbs and pointed out that I probably really do need an exotic oil in the mix.  Coconut oil is looking like a good option so I can make a bit of a chocolate bar out of coconut oil cocoa powder (an option for another exotic) so I don't go bonkers with the lack of chocolate.  If  I include sugar...bob's your uncle and I can have a chocolate treat like a little brownie (with that flour) or a chocolate pancake.  And one that doesn't taste like chicken or bacon which are my best options for local fat/cooking-oil. Pancakes fried in schmaltz do not sound delicious.   I was also able to look at the daily calories.  They are low.  Especially if I am doing physical labor or am a bit cold (being cold burns calories).  This made me realize that fat/oil and probably local honey will be good exotic and local options.  Eating enough meat and greens to get my daily vitamins is easy and easily locally sourced.  Eating enough meat and greens to get my calories would have some serious intestinal consequences and eating enough local beans and lentils to get those calories up could gas me out of my wee shed.  A bit of local honey in some of my apples for applesauce seems like a better option.  Or honey in my coffee if need be.

So already thinking through the meal plans also pointed out that the struggle with a calorie-toxic diet may have a link to this remote sourcing of our diets which also tends to lead to eating more high calorie sugary processed foods.

C. As noted above, not getting people on board with doing it, not my goal, do what you want.  Instead I am alerting people who might be eating with me.  If they are my friends, and who eats with enemies anyway, they know I do weird stuff but it's easier when I warn them.  This worked well for my month of not eating out.   Hope it works for 10 days here.

D. Double checking the dates.  I know I've probably got chicken butchering with a friend on Oct 3.  She will make us lunch and me cleaning up enough to cook for myself at her house and not participating in the food sharing is a pain and cuts into work time as well as makes me look like more of a dick than I really am.  So, that's not the day to be a hard liner about local food.  One of the local foods I plan to eat is the jarred chicken from said butchering event.  It's also a lot of my winter meat/protein source so best not to be a dick that day.

E.  Preparing to be flexible.  If something comes up, I'm ready to bag it for a meal or a day.  Some things are going on around the property and at work that result in unexpected trips to town or meals with others.  See above...be less of a dick.\

Of course I'll keep notes.  I might even put the meals into nutritiondata.com to see how the nutrients come out.  No doubt better than usual but we shall see.

101 Money Saving Ideas: Numbers 60-73

Remember, I'm taking this idea from Centsible Living with Money Mom on the youtubes.   Check out her channel.

Starting to have to get more creative and think more so this is getting a bit more fun.

60  Stay home!  And not just to shop on line.  When I stay home I eat what I have, don't spend on gas, don't spend on anything (usually, unless I have forgotten to pay a bill and get online to avoid a late fee).  Staying home days are also about the only times I don't acquire plastic.  I don't have home mail delivery so no stupid plastic envelope windows acquired at home.  Sometimes people drop stuff off and almost always in a plastic bag...it's like we've forgotten how to live without goddamn plastic bags.  Even me.  Anyway.  More anon.   Stay home.  I like home days.  I get stuff done.  Today is hopefully a home day.  I picked a quart of berries before breakfast because I noticed them while I was letting the chickens out and feeding them.  I grabbed the berry bucket and had at the service berries because they are read...see above "free fruit".  Had some in a pancake...made from what I have on hand.   I hope to stay home tomorrow too!  I took some time off work to run errands, like picking up more fuel for the wee butane stove so I don't have any "musts" in town that can't be done on the phone.

61  Use the phone.  You can still call ahead to the hardwares, groceries, and other businesses to find out if they have what you are looking for what the prices are.  This saves me stops when I am in town.  Sometimes I do want to do a run through on hardware/lumber place to check clearance or the free scraps bins for lumber or chain bits (one store had free chain bits, handy for many things), but it's better for me not to stop at all because they might have something else I want to buy but don't need.  Right now I'm checking jar prices for the mustard business and jar stock.  Everyone seems to be using more jars, or buying more jars.  I don't know if we're all using them.  More of us went back to calling with the corona "stay home" and curbside service available.  It also keeps the number of people down in the stores and this helps with the 'rona distancing and etc that we're trying to do (well, some of us are trying to do).  I've called this year for fence post prices and stock and it saved me a few stops at places that either didn't have the posts I wanted, or were too expensive.  Then of course I found posts at the recycling center but I go through posts and they won't be cheaper next year so I did not return what I had bought.   I have about 10 fence posts for when I'm ready to beef up the garden fence or build the chicken jail.  Good to have on hand rather than need to run to town.,

62  Keep your eyes on the side of the road!  I almost stopped for a bag of cookies yesterday that someone had lost along the road.  It looked like it was closed.  I was on my way somewhere and in a hurry and decided the odds the cookies were NOT breached upon impact was low, and I did not need a bag of cookies when I'm trying to cut down on sugar.  I DO stop for pallets, giant hubcaps off dump trucks (hello new fire ring!...and since a trip to the free metal bin at the recycling center it's also a new BBQ grill because there was a grill grate that fit).  I also have picked up lumber, firewood, and hope to pick up wood chips once my pickup truck unloader gets here.  Free chicken bedding, compost and garden bed base!

63  Buy tools that will help you save money.  Think it through.  Maybe borrow them first or test them.  Read reviews, perhaps watch a few youtubes including those from folks who hated or didn't find the tool useful so you get more than just "this is awesome" vids because those are often paid for or in exchange for a free item.  Recently, and it's not here yet so we'll see if it is worth it, I bought a truck bed unloader.  I'll put a picture up if I like it.  Tools I've already invested in that have saved me money are...dewalt 20v cordless reciprocating saw, drill/driver, and weed whacker.  The saw came in a set that included a circular saw.  I haven't used that one yet.  If it goes a year without use, I might sell it or trade it.  I use the others all the time.  They save me time and make me more likely to DIY things with my scrap lumber and pallets than to go in town and buy something to fill the want/need.  The drill/drive is used pretty much every week to fix something or jerry rig something.  Decent hand tools are useful too!  I haven't had to buy these but others might.  Basic hammer, saw, drill, screw drivers.  Have them.  Also, a good multi-tool with pliers, screw drivers and a blade.  Keep it with you.  You'll end up fixing things or doing things rather than putting them off.

63 Reuse those damn plastic bags.  I haven't bought trash bags...other than contractor bags for house construction trash that needed hauled to a place that requires bags...for myself for YEARS. Reuse those stupid plastic grocery/store bags that you constantly get from stores and from people.  I almost always remember to bring my own bag or ask for paper when I'm in a store, or even just juggle the purchases until I get to the car, but now and then a clerk will have extra-bagged something (like those nails were going to leak into the candy bars?) when I wasn't looking or I'm tired or someone gives me food or something else in a plastic damn bag.  Or my SISTER...you know who you are...uses these as stuffing when she ships a package to me.   So I reuse them.  Hence never purchasing household garbage bags.  I rarely run out and when I do, there's always produce bags for trash...or...get this...paper bags.  OR get THIS...putting trash in a trash can WITHOUT A BAG!!!!!  Epic.  Ground breaking.  NORMAL.  Rinse the can out if it's stinky but since I compost and have chickens there is rarely anything in the trash that will stink.  The compost transport container will reek but not the trash.  I tried braiding the grocery sacks for rugs etc, but they are so flimsy they shred and make micro plastic trash which I find more offensive than macro plastic trash.

64  Shop at product specific stores.  Skip the big box stores.  This save by avoiding distractions like going for tampons and seeing tires on sale.  Or trying acres of free samples and coming home with bags (plastic bags) of pot stickers you didn't plan on buying.  Also saves the "club" fee that some of the big box stores have.  If you need groceries, go to the grocery store.  Preferably a locally owned or smaller chain type.  Or the discount grocery if you have one around.  When I need hardware I go to the hardware store.  I don't leave with eggs.  Of course I check thrift and free first, but when those let me down, real hardware or real groceries.  Or real clothing stores (like discount off brand clothing stores when I need undies and socks, the rest is thrift and hand me downs for the most part).   I haven't been in a walmart since the giant flood in iowa.  Well, maybe I was IN one with a friend who shops there, but I haven't purchased from them for YEARS.   Probably over a decade.  If you skip that one event when the other stores were flooded, it's been multiple decades.  I haven't been in a costco in over a decade.  I do NOT need a pallet of toilet paper.  Or 3lbs of cheesy poofs.  Gross.  By shopping at local/specific product stores I support the community, most pay better than the big box conglomerates (not all, but I do ask), and I know my prices.  Crap isn't always cheaper at the big boxes.  I limit my distractions by not seeing hardware at the grocery store etc.  I also end up with staff who know me and don't mind when I ask annoying bougie questions like "how much will it cost to special order 5lbs of brown mustard seed?" (actual question).  They also know I like the free/cheap/discount hardware and lumber so when I buy 2 2x4s and drive out of the lumber yard with a pickup full of scrap and bent fence posts that were in the free bin, they don't have to take the extra time to double check the load. They know me, they know I didn't hide 3 more bits of good lumber under the crappy scrap (or do they...  they do). 

65  Wait before you buy.  This is in addition to the thinking noted in #26.   I wanted that pick up unloader for a while.  A friend (Hi Cindy) mentioned that it existed.  I thought about it.  Looked it up.  Thought some more.  That was the "thinking" portion.  THEN, with enough thinking, I'd picked a brand and store to get it from (a product specific store that shall remain nameless because a lot of their stuff is so cheap its crap and not the good kind for the garden).  THEN, it wasn't in stock yet so I kept hand-unloading the truck and thought through buying the more expensive brand.  But I kept checking the website and the brick-n-mortar store location when I was close to it and suddenly this last week the item could be ordered again.  So I jumped on that and it's hopefully on the way.  I didn't spend the Bday money while waiting. I didn't crack and buy the more expensive one.  This also works for electronics.  This computer I'm typing on is old and breaks sometimes.  My car and truck are older with high miles.  But I'm waiting before replacing.   Electronics get cheaper with time and more used items show up.  Cars sometime get cheaper, sometimes not.  With waiting I can save up, think things through, and perhaps decide I didn't need it in the first place.  Perhaps I borrowed the tool and it was a one time use or I didn't like it.  Or I rented an option and didn't like it.  Or, rented and loved it and solidified the choice to purchase.  Whatever.  The waiting almost always saves money.  Now and then you spend more, but in the big picture, it saves.

66  Freeware/Shareware is your friend!  At home, on this old grindy laptop, I use "libreoffice" because it works.  It's free to download and is close enough to the big expensive brand
word processing etc software that things translate back and forth well enough.  Not perfect, but good enough. I donate a little back if a freeware/shareware looks like it is particularly well done.  I check with the IT savvy sibling on that.  It also helps delineate the work/home line.  The work from home time during 'rona sucked, but that's OK.  I don't want to make it easy to work at home. I had to pay for therapy for workaholism so let's not support the cross over.  Make work pay for that if they really need me to work at home again.  I used paper and pencils (think of it!  paper and pencils) and got as much done as my coworkers with full spendy home working set ups.  I did crack and get the wifi but next time work will have to pay for that too.  I don't buy egames, emovies, etc.  If it's free, MAYBE but not always.  I have the free version of the anti-virus as well.  Right now it's irritating because I have to tell it to buzz off about 3 times a day, even when I'm not online it tries to tell me I'm being tracked.  But, it's free.   The freeware wordprocessing works for me partly because I'm a fast typist (compared to other modern folks, not 1950s secretaries) and decent editor so when I lose formatting in translating between programs, it doesn't take me long to fix it.  The "per hour" savings is still good.

68 Support local crafts people.  This isn't always cheaper in the moment.  It is a long range community frugal/money saving deal.  It ensures there are local crafts people. E.g. I'm selling at the farmers market in a town by me.  Partly my stuff and partly someone else's stuff.  So, I buy from the other vendors. I've mentioned this before.  Yesterday and last week, I bought a couple of things I didn't specifically NEED but they support a young person who is learning some crafts.  He made tops so is learning wood working/turning.   I bought one. It's pretty and may become a gift (or a plumb bob) but it doesn't spin. It was 3$ so not a big loss.  It supports him as he starts college.  Yesterday I bought a small knife from him.  I don't specifically NEED a knife that size. It was 5$ and he was doing his last trip to the market this year before he starts college.  I want to support his craft.  The knife is made from carbon steel and takes and edge nicely, is a good small size for a gutting knife, and is cute.  I also know it's from recycled materials that he locally sourced. I want to support him and his practices so I got the wee knife.  I've already used it.  I also buy cookies from his little brother.  The kid sells them cheap and is learning to cook and run a business.   It's a buck and it's delicious.  Same with the local bread guy.  I don't technically NEED bread, I could make it or eat something else.  But he's a crafts man with the sourdough so I buy a bit each week to support him and the business.  For my house build, I'm going with a more craftsman type builder who trains up younger staff.  It's not the cheapest but it's more flexible in the style he will do and I meet crafts people who will be around for decades when I need a repair.  They will also mostly stay in the community and we'll have actual builders around.

69  Share your skills.  This saves you and others money.  When I've shared my skills by teaching, people give back and become part of the frugal network around here.  I've taught small batch fermenting, jam making and canning, and vermicomposting.  I'm in touch with students from all these and the local extension agent knows they can call on me for these skills and teaching.  I've also passed on ferments to those who wanted to try them.  I generally get the jar back with something in it or a favor.  I don't do it specifically for that, it's just how humans usually work.  The network is another long range savings even if I spend a few bucks up front.  Right now I'm activating the network to find jars for my mustards.  People have offered jars and creative options when those aren't available.  I also enjoy running in to the kids at schools where I've helped set up vermicomposting.  Someday those kids will grow up to compost or garden. Not all of them, but maybe a few.  That helps the community and in general saves cash for them.

70  Know your limits.  How does that save money?  Well, I KNOW I can't fix the broken dash display on the pick up.  If I try, I will break it more.  Then I will have to get it fixed by paying someone.  I ran into a guy with the same issue and even doing his own work and getting the bits at a scrap yard, he was out 250$.  I'm working around the issue entirely.   I also didn't try to pour my own slab or build my own post and beam structure.  Chicken coop construction...yes.  Human house construction...no.  I DID learn something about plumbing, largely that it is one of my limits, but still saved a bit on that by DIYing with lots of help.  I don't change my oil.  I COULD but I COULD also cross thread the screw every damn time which is a trip to town, spilled oil to clean up, and reliance on 2 running vehicles (so I have one to run to town in while I get the thingy to retap the hole and a bigger plug screw thingy and crap to clean up the oil spill).   Change a headlamp...yes.  Oil...usually NO.   

Other ways to do that.  If you can't cook much, don't think "I'm making pad thai."  Instead think "I have rice, I'm making rice."  Baby steps.  For every day cooking, fixing, making, know your limits.  When you acquire a new skill, incorporate it but maybe don't make a plan based on skills you hope to acquire anymore than you make a budget based on a lottery you intend to win.  I don't buy broken down "project" cars because I can't fix them.  I don't adopt abused dogs for the same reason.  I can't fix that.   Same with my men.  Anyway.  Know your limits.

71  Meal plan.  Meal plan around what you have.  Then make the list for shopping if you MUST.  Then be flexible.  Don't write "oranges" write "fruit."   Last time I ran by a grocery store, cantaloupe was on sale for 18cents/lb while oranges were $1.39/lb.  I have cantaloupes.  Now I have service berries for free so even better.  I have duck and eggs for protein so I do not plan a steak dinner.   I plan and egg or duck dinner.   If you can meal plan entirely by what you have, even better.  This weekend, that's what I'm doing.  Partly because I'm home and partly because it's fun. 

72  Creative opportunities are everywhere.   I don't really get paying to go paint ceramics while drinking wine (oops...first wrote "whine" which is what I'm doing).  I don't like wine.  (I do like whining though.)  I don't need any painted ceramic anything.  I like to do crafts and crafting, but the costs should be minimal or zeroed out.   I also look at creative options elsewhere.  I'd rather try cooking something new or learning more wild plants by walking around with my plant identification books, or picking berries or making boxes for my mustard samples, than paying to paint a mug that will end up at a thrift store in a few weeks (I see them there...along with HUNDREDS of items from "the pampered chef" parties).  Meal planning is an excellent creative outlet.  If you have 3 eggs, 2 cups of raw rice and a salsa packet from that drive-thru frugal mistake, I'm sure you can make something.  Be creative.  If you need a tool, think more about the task that made you think you "need" the tool and figure out if there is a different option based on what you have.  E.g. I needed to move well over a ton of wet straw off the slab for my future home.  I didn't have help or power equipment.  I hauled straw by hand on a pitch fork for a while.  Walking it all the way to the erosion problem I was putting it on (rather than buying erosion fabric or getting straw sprayed on it...creative solution is to use what I have).   That was heavy and time consuming and killing my shoulders.  I have a utility sled and used that for a bit.  It's small and had the strength to haul more once the load was off my shoulders.  Then I remembered tarp technology.  I shoved the straw off the slab onto a scrap of torn tarp about 15' square.  Pulled it with my arms and that was better.  Then I had the real epiphany.  Tie 2 corners of the tarp together to make a loop like the rope on the sled.   I load the tarp up with it pretty well spread out but those corners tied.  Then I step into the loop, pull the knot up to my hip bones, keeping the hauling load on my legs and butt rather than my back.  Grab some of the wadded tarp bit.  Then I walk over the to erosion area, dragging the heavy load with my powerful hind quarters.   Once I have it a bit past where I want it, I walk back over the loaded tarp and continue on in that direction.  The tarp rolls over itself, dumping the load of heavy wet straw while I walk horizontally, not lifting anything.   The chickens head over to check for bugs and scratch it up, throwing it around in a fairly even layer.  Someday I might rake it around but for now the chickens are doing that work and are happy with the job.  It took a while but it was creative, got something done that needed doing, and ended up entertaining my chickens and getting some extra bug protein in their diets.

There is a section in the Tightwad Gazette (a great book for the frugal to have or to get from the library) about being creative.  It is pretty much like what I wrote but with pictures and sketches and briefer.

73  Keep a frugal reference library on hand.  Yes, real books.  They work when the electricity is out. The wifi is out.  The internet is down.  The car is broken.  Your leg is broken.  When whatever keeps you from getting to the library or the internet or calling people for help.  Books are with you.  I have a reference library for gardening, wild plant and mushroom identification, basic home repair, cooking, frugality, beekeeping, a dictionary, home construction, solar power, and DIY projects.  Part of the library is in rotation based on what I find in the free book bin.  Many cookbooks come and go from there.  Basic cookbooks like "More with Less" and a classic Better Homes and Gardens, are permanent.  I find local and church cookbooks amusing so those come and go.  If there is an interesting recipe I tear it out or copy it down and move on.  For home repair those rotate too.  When I find the one I like best, I will keep it.  I get them from the library and the free book bin.  I keep a dictionary because I like language(s) and because I like learning new words.  For 25cents I found a 1906 vest pocket dictionary at a thrift store.  It includes how to give a toast, how to write a thank you letter, how to write a complaint/compliment letter to a business and some other handy outdated tips that I still use.  I'm trying to get a home built hence those books.  They might move on if I find ones I like better.  Same with gardening books. Those were mostly from the free bin and when I find ones I like better, they move on.