I plan to post about my efforts toward voluntary simplicity, frugality, and debt free living. Much of this is grounded in environmentalism, politics, and social justice.
Yea, this is all BS but you know. I'm home. It snowed a FOOT and got HEAVY and I am on a shoveling break. Watching youtubes and apparently GQ for a while did a 10 things celebrities couldn't live without. Mostly they think headphones and watches are essentials. Uh...whatever.
Leaving aside things I really can't live without like air, water, food, shelter, yada yada yada.
Here's 10 things I really like having:
Ipod (which is now and old iphone with the sim card taken out). Need my fatto app (free version, obviously). And it's a handy way to have audio books. I like falling asleep with someone reading me a story. I also keep my master list in it. The iphone is an improvement on the old ipod touch (may it rest in peace) because when I accidentally delete the master list, I can get it back. The Master List includes, groceries, hardware, errands in town that need doing when I'm there, things my stock is low on (flour, bouillion cubes, underwear) so I can get those if there is a big sale or something. And I use it as an alarm clock.
Phone. Flip phone. I don't want a smartphone. I like to separate my devices. The ipod/phone is for email if there is free wifi, lists and whatnot. It is rarely on the internet. The flip phone is for texts and calls. And lately getting lots of squares (no emojis on the flip phone).
Wool socks! Love my wool socks. I have heavy ones, light ones, thing ones, thick ones. Got some super cool fancy high tech ones for xmas. Have some alpaca wool socks from a few years back and some giant knitted NW Coast wool sock booties that are on my feet the minute the floor of the wee shed gets cold. I won't even know it's cold.
Mouse-proof food storage. Jars and tins. The little beggars can't bite through those AND cleanup is easy.
Shovels. I have a good collection of shovels. I think only 2 were bought retail and that was due to a time crunch. The snow shovel...aluminum with a wood (replaceable) handle. Plastic snow shovels are STUPID. This cost about 5$ more than a plastic one and I've had it since I moved out to the wee shed. This is its 6th winter. It is bent up and beaten and rusty and still moves snow. The other retail shove was a basic rounded-point shovel for moving dirt. Use it TONS and again, had it on the thrift/garage sale list but there came a time when I just really needed to get some dirt moved and had to spring for retail. Again, metal with a wood handle. It's alright. Oh wait! There is a 3rd retail priced shovel. A short handled square blade one. It's in the truck right now for snow. I wanted a shovel that fit in the back of the car and would move snow. Also needed one for straight walled holes. Flat/square blade for the straight walls and short handle so it fits in the car better. The car isn't being used so it's in the truck. I have a half dozen thrift/garage sale shovels. As long as the blade is good I get them. ONe is a round blade with a bat as a handle. Like a baseball bat. It's short but good for the raised beds with tops on them. A few small scoop shovels for moving poo and for days like today when the snow is too heavy for the snow shovel to be effective. The small scoop preserves the spine a bit. They all get used.
Long johns. Warm, handy, and in summer they can be jammies. Now that I'm doing zoom yoga at home, with the camera off, they are also yoga pants. I'm wearing some now! I have some that are SUPER stretched out and old and ratty. They are jammies but this may be their last winter as a garment. I can't keep them up with out a belt or new elastic..
Good hair care utensils. Wooden comb, boar bristle brush. I have 2 wooden combs right now and a really good boar bristle brush. (Thanks Katie!!). These are much better for my crappy hair and for the no-poo hair regime. Plastic or nylon bristles make way more static and plastic combs mostly shred my hair.
Buckets. Love me some buckets. I used them to haul small amounts of wood inside for the stove, keep one by the stove for waste water (like from doing dishes and rinsing coffee grounds out of my french presses), another for the composting toilet (well marked...once a bucket is a toilet, it can never be anything else, it is the end of the bucket line). Plastic buckets, mostly free from the recycling center are used to haul water/wood/whatever until they are too broken or have holes. Then I grow potatoes or something in them. And then, when they are too busted up for potato planting, I used them to haul trash to the dumpsters.
Coffee brewing equipment. I have at the moment...IN the wee shed 5 stainless steel french presses, 3 percolators, 2 moka pots (one is a tiny camping version that makes 1 small demi-tasse at a time), 2 versions of pour overs, and some non-functioning antique graniteware coffee pots. I do NOT Have a problem. I do. ALL were gifts or thrift. The stainless steel french presses run $35 and up new, I have paid 3$ tops. The 3 percolators were 1 or 2 bucks each at thrift. In the office I have a BIG stainless steel percolator (thanks Pam!) that currently serves to make a colleague jealous more than it makes coffee. I like making coffee. Even bad coffee. I also have a hand grinder from thrift that I've used 2 or 3 years so far. I have an antique one in storage but it takes up too much room.
DVDs. I like movies. I don't like streaming movies. I like the DVD extras, the wide screen option, the subtitle options, the commentaries, the little extra featurettes that I usually hate but then can talk about how much I hate them. Movies are good. I have a few series on DVD as well. Not many.
None of these are essentials and maybe I could have listed things like "good underpants" (which I am short on at the moment) or jeans and t-shirts and sweatshirts and boots because that's pretty much my daily uniform. But I didn't.
If GQ asked me, which they won't, to answer their stupid question. This is what I would say today.
Continuing on with my meal expense/cost thing I did like once or twice but thought I would do again...
This is all part of a budget cutting game to help pay for the house I'm having built bit by bit.
Here's my Christmas meals cost estimate
I ate A LOT because I like to cook when I have a day at home.
I'm very grateful to the free and cheap food available to me and for the people who are willing to use my mediocre help in exchange for food.
Breakfast 90cents:
Mocha (chocolate coconut milk 32cents (super sale treat bought a month ago and saved for the holidays), coffee...free because it was old coffee from the closet at work...dated 2015) 32 cents
Water: free
Blackberry pancakes with jam and fake butter (flour free from the food distribution people for helping butcher chickens, blackberries free for helping with picking, jam free as a gift, baking soda 1cent, 2 eggs 50cent (bought from a friend because my chickens are on the fritz for the winter), coconut oil 1cent (1lb for 1$ on super sale), cinnamon and nutmeg 2cents approx from the bulk bins, fake butter 5cents..bought on super sale as a treat) 58cents
Lunch 33cents:
Blackberry muffins...all 12! Oops (flour free, buckwheat honey 25cents (bought by the pound, only 2T here but it was a spendy treat I am stretching), coconut oil 4cents, baking soda 1cent, cinnamon and nutmeg 2cents, orange juice drained from a free can of mandarins so free, blackberries free, vinegar 1cent (bought in a BIG bottle and used to preserve the blackberries then used as blackberry vinegar which is delicious)) total 33cents
Supper 31cents:
Pumpkin and duck topped with fake butter, salt and pepper and a side of mandarins floating in blackberry flavored gelatin (one must have a gelatin based side dish on a holiday) (pumpkin free from the community garden and roasted inside my woodstove firebox, duck free for helping butcher and can ducks with a friend, fake butter 10 cents (I had quite a bit on the pumpkin which I mashed up after roasting it in the "oven"), salt and pepper 1cent (probably less), gelatin 20cents (purchased like 2 years ago so using it up, bought by the pound but still a bit spendy really), olive oil infused with garlic as an extra bit of flavor on the pumpkin and duck free (gift, thanks chris and pat!)
Seriously...roasted the pumpkin INSIDE the firebox of the woodstove. Coals pushed to the back and the pumpkin sitting on a broken fire brick.
It is NOT on fire and it does not have a light inside it in the picture below. It was dark and I lit the picture with my head lamp.
For the record: I was 1600 calories over budget for the day. I am not starving on my cheap food kick.
Total for the whole day: $1.54
Not bad really. If I'd purchased the duck, organic pumpkin, garlic infused olive oil, etc etc etc it would have been a very expensive day.
The coffee wasn't the best but with the really nice chocolate coconut milk (thanks Grocery Outlet!) I got for 99cents for a quart, it was totally doable. Quite good actually.
I made more of the crap coffee today. This time I used a percolator (thrift store score) on the woodstove and let it go about 20 minutes. Also threw on a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg. It was better because randomly strong and the cinnamon cut the bitter taste a tad. Or maybe it was the nutmeg. I mixed the cinnamon and nutmeg together in one container to save space on the shelf so I can't experiment with using one or the other at the moment. Anyway, it sucked less with some spice on it. Even the 2nd brewing with 1tsp of new grounds on the old grounds was drinkable. It is a light roast which is not my favorite to the extended brew time seems to help. I wonder if I can roast the grounds a bit more before brewing....hmmmm. I may try it. There are 50-100 little bags of the stuff at work and they don't go in the single cup brewer that is so popular now. Also pretty rank in my french press, but I will keep trying with that.
So, many people around me in real life and on the news that I haven't managed to entirely avoid (more on news-avoidance in a future blog...or not), apparently had to figure out how to BUY stuff and GET NEW stuff for Thanksgiving dinner. I see the same happening at Xmas.
First, I don't celebrate thanksgiving. It marks not only the harvest, but the slaughter of indigenous people by colonizers who often justified the slaughter by labeling the indigenous people "heathens" though the colonizers were seeking "religious freedom." It's too fraught so I just like to stay home and do whatever. Sadly, what I really like to do with a day home and 3 more days home ...is cook great stuff to eat and then eat it and keep eating it for 3 days. Hypocrite much? Perhaps.
Back to the point.
IF you see thanksgiving as a harvest festival, celebrating the bounty of the earth etc etc. Then what about eating what you have? The meal at the early thanksgivings (or the things we now label as such) was based on what the celebrants had and supposedly sharing that with the neighbors while they shared back (again, not what happened but what is supposedly celebrated).
All the buying and seeking and having specific foods. If you look at the spirit of a harvest feast, which is pretty much pan-cultural at harvest times, then eating what is in the larder/fridge/rootcellar/pantry/cupboard/center-thingy-in-the-car would be the thing to do. Appreciating (which is related to the "thanksgiving" part of the name of the day) what you have would seem to be the justification of the US version of the holiday and appreciating what is harvested and shared would seem to be the point of most harvest feasts.
In that vein, perhaps at Xmas we could appreciate what we have. Shop in the pantry/cupboard/larder/freezer/glove-box before rushing out to buy whatever specific meat/veg/fruit/sweet things you ALWAYS have. Just because something is the way you've always done it doesn't mean it's the only or the best way. Change it up. There is no crime in hamburgers for thanksgiving or lentils for xmas. Or perhaps...PERHAPS...not having crap pumpkin pie and even crapper pumpkin pie spice things. The rest of you should change, but I stand by the necessity of avoiding both of those. Barf. Also any beverage that begins or ends with "nog."
On Thursday Nov 26, 2020 I made soup with what I had. I had great things. Deer meat, chicken meat and duck meat in jars. Squash from the community garden. Jams from friends and the farmers market (which I forgot to eat). I didn't go buy anything just for that day. I won't buy anything for solstice or xmas day either. I WILL save a few treats (though not the chocolate I just ate) if I remember. If not, I will, as I do most days now, look at what I have and go from there.
Sometimes the "whatchagot" meals are fantastic. E.g. brown rice duck casserole. That was great! Not always. Deer meat with cheap canned veg was not fantastic but was plenty good enough. Squash roasted inside the firebox of the woodstove is exquisite and I'm not sure I care to cook it any other way. But the last remaining pumpkin from the community garden might be bigger than the door to my woodstove. If so, I will cook it some other way. These pumpkins appear to be crossed with spaghetti squash and cook up nicely. The left overs make interesting additions to soup. Is it a noodle? A vegetable?
A friend (Hi Sally) asked if I wanted brussel sprouts. Yes please! She gave me a little bag with those, some radishes and some rainbow carrots already sliced. I fried them up in coconut oil (paid for that, given the price for the jar, about 5cents for this meal) on my woodstove (already using it for heat so no fuel cost for cooking). I added a jar of duck meat which I got free for helping a friend butcher ducks. I did buy the jar so that's about 1$ but is reused and reused so maybe 10cents of that goes to this meal because the lid has to be new each time. There was a lemon in the bag as well and I squeezed a bit of that over my bowl of stew and added a bit of pepper (less than a penny's worth)
For dessert I had a peach cobbler of sorts. I had a can of peaches from a free food give away. They were in pear juice so not overly sugary. In fact no added sugar. I used some of the juice in the can to make a quick biscuit dough and poured that over the peached in a greased pan (more coconut oil...included in the 5cents above) with baking powder I bought years ago and just found (maybe 1cent worth based on current prices) and flour I got in exchange for helping butcher chickens at the community garden. I also put in cinnamon and nutmeg which I found on a clearance shelf for 99 cents each in the BIG canisters. Less than 1cent of spices but we'll round up to a penny by adding in the pepper from the stew.
Total for the meal:
10cent jar lid and jar depreciation
5 cents coconut oil
1 penny in spices
_____________________
16cents. Not bad.
Lunch was similarly cheap.
Pasta gotten free
Sauce gotten free
Beans gotten free
Diced pears in pear juice gotten free
Smoked salmon from a work colleague
Total: Free (and delicious really)
Breakfast was relatively spendy: cinnamon and nutmeg, we'll call it a penny
banana...free
2 eggs (at 3$/dozen that is 25 cents per egg so 50 cents for organic free range eggs and it supports the community garden) (my hens are not in a heated/lit coop and are laying about 2 eggs a week right now)
coffee 10$/2lbs on deep sale for good beans. I get about 2 months of coffee from that. so 10/60 is...17cents of coffee per day in my little french press. (I use the grounds at least twice...the 3rd press is gross, the 2nd is not great)
water...out of the tap at work so free.
total for breakfast:
50cents eggs
1 cent spices
17 cents coffee
__________________
total: 68cents.
For the day:
68 + free + 16 = 84cents. Not bad!
My goal is 50$ for groceries this month. Not every day will be free and it's not a grocery budget I expect to be sustainable. Right now I have plenty of stock on hand so I'm working my way through that. I don't need to store it forever. Better to eat what I have.
Last month I spent 47$ on groceries and about 10 of that was on candy bars. I have a habit of buying one each shopping trip. So really, 37$ in actual groceries. I should be able to hit 50$ this week and keep eating like royalty. I mean really, duck soup with brussel sprouts and rainbow carrots for dinner? That's pretty fancy food.
I have more than enough protein on hand, probably a month's worth of fruit and veg if I sprout the seeds I bought for that purpose. I do like sprouts in the winter. Something green and fresh and not sad bag-o-salad. I'm not against bag-o-salad, I'm just too cheap to buy it anywhere other than the 'reduced for quick sale' bin where it is sad indeed.
Sadly last month, I did spend 68$ in restaurants/takeout type food. One friend likes to go to lunch. Who doesn't? But it's a good place to cut the budget and my sodium intake. The latter may be more important.
Anyway, I need to finish up the pasta sauce so pretty sure lunch tomorrow will be more of that. I finished the beans but have more cans I could open and kidney beans on on spaghetti with sauce are surprisingly good! Of course, pasta sauce is also the start of a passable tomato veggie soup. Not a good one, but a passable one.
For the weekend I need to decide which free meat to eat:
Ariana Brown...yay! Thanks to Angela (Hi Angela!) who sent me a link to a version of this poem. I think it is the bomb and super true.
Who spends over 10$ on pants? or 15$ for a coat?
Thrift stores rock.
I do buy my undies new like Ms Brown and most of my shoes, but I have gotten shoes and boots at thrift sometimes. And I once got undies...new in the package...at a thrift store. Used undies...not yet. Not yet.
Looking around the wee shed I see that I paid (or was it Mom?) for the ladder new, and I use it all day every day. The wee shed was bought new. Most of the food was purchased new but all at a discount or the cheapest and much of it was grown or shared or whatever. Not unexamined retail price purchases. The solar components were bought new. The laptop I'm typing on was new 10 years ago or more. Cheap, on clearance, but new. The non-undies clothes were used or gifts and the occasional deeply discounted new purchase. One pair of boots was new and only on sale, not clearance.
Thrift...probably 80% of my wardrobe is from thrift stores. I was just going through the button down shirts this morning. I'm down to the ones I like and wear with one exception. If I don't wear it more, I will regret the 3$ purchase price and pass it on or turn it into a rag. Most of my t-shirts are gifts or give-aways from events. I bought the "live long and potlatch" t-shirt in Vancouver BC as a souvenir ages ago. And one from Ghost Ranch in NM. One at Silver City ID to commemorate a trip. The other 20 t-shirts I didn't pay retail within the last decade. One t-shirt, a jammies shirt now, is from the mid1990s when I was a professor and bought it to support a student group.
Jeans. Not a single pair purchased retail. I have one last pair of Carhartt's I bought new, on deep discount. That was when I lived in Spokane so about 12 years ago. They are too big right now, so may be turned in to something other than pants soon.
Dish towels and dish cloths all gifts and all lovely. 2 new dish cloths (thanks Anne!) are on the wall as decor until the ones in rotation turn into scraps of yarn. Like next week.
Other new stuff...some pencils from Portland OR, gotten as a gift souvenir (thanks Pam!) and I still have half of them. Others used. Nice pens from Portland, OR (Thanks Chris!).
Things I paid retail for myself though...um...mostly I just pay retail for things I am giving away, and the aforementioned underpants. Though the undies, those are from TJ Maxx or Ross or another discount store on deep deep discount. 5$ a pair TOPS usually 2$ a pair. Bras ...same deal.
Coats I'm mostly getting from work lately. The department buys us one or two a year and I wear them until they are a bit ragged and until a new one shows up. Then it MIGHT get demoted to a chore coat at home. I do have one leather coat (suede when I bought it) that I bought new over 20 years ago. A few years ago I used boot grease to make it more water proof and now it is the perfect leather car coat again. Dammit! Bit big and I mostly wear it for chores. Several coats from thrift including the rubber rain coat (also great for butchering) was 2 or 3$ at thrift.
Nuts to pay retail all the time unless that is something you really really enjoy. Have at it.
I will stick with the advice from Ariana and her mom...every thing goes on clearance. 10$ is plenty to pay for a pair of pants. And mesh that with the Tightwad Gazette advice to have a back stock of clothes from yard sales and thrift and rotate them into play and restock as needed. It's like a pantry stock of clothes.
Speaking of which. I need to inventory my pantry and eat more of it. SO well stocked. Brought home in shopping baskets and bags that were gifts or thrifts.
So you know how the weather people always ALWAYS panic with the first winter storm and over predict the snow and the ensuing chaos?
Well, this year they tried something new. UNDER predicting. We were TOLD (and I obsessively check weather and road type predictions) that the bad snow would start at my house at 1pm. At Dr. Cowboy/BreadSourceTown at 5pm FIVE pm. I had an appointment (turns out my knee has arthritis and I need to do more squats...Dr. Cowboy ALWAYS tells you to do more exercise. I was thinking less) at 1:30pm. I was picking up bread for 3 people It's always like those stupid story problems in jr high math class...how do you get 40$ of artisanal bread to 3 people around a webinar and a Dr. appt?
Well, do the webinar until 11am, time departure from the office, where you did the webinar, to leave 20 min before the Dr. appt which is time for a) a tourist to slow you down on the scenic windy road and b) pick up the bread and park at the office without turning off the car because the battery isn't charging right and it's not worth fixing wiring on a car that old.
So, I take off at 12:32pm. ALL IS WELL>
I get to Dr.CowboyBreadTown about the time planned. But it's snowing. Just a little scenic pretty snow. Seems fine. Get bread, park at Dr. Cowboy and I'm 10min early because no tourist. I wait in the car sorting through my "Master List" (more on that in a different blog).
I go in. Have the appt. Get told I'm old and that's just the deal and do more exercises.
30min or 40min and I'm on the road at 2:13. Now it's like REALLY snowing. It started 4 hours early.
BUT Sol the Subaru has that thermometer thingy in the dash and it says 34degs. So the road SHOULD BE FINE just like when I drove over. I have the bread orders sorted for easy delivery.
I get 2 or 3 miles back out of town, it's 17 back to the office. I have noticed that the road is F*$^ING SLIPPERY. I have my winter tires on. I tested the brakes when the rig in front of me fishtailed. I HAVE brakes. But they had very little effect on speed. 1 mile more and traffic is STOPPED. Flashers on. I do get stopped (that's due to being headed slightly up hill and doing 10mph). I text people waiting for bread that it's going to be more of a wait. A cop tries to drive up and turns around. He eventually walks up. Later we see him sliding, on foot, sideways toward the inside of a banked curve. The curve where the cable-guy van had, before my eyes, slid sideways until it was completely in the ditch. Bummer for him but at least we still had 1 lane open.
Eventually cars come from the otherway. Until now I'd thought this was like just a vehicle blocking the lane. NOPE. The entire road was glazed with ice and that was glazed with water and slush. Everyone coming my way was doing 5mph or so and had BIG EYES. Eventually enough cops got on scene to start trying to move traffic. People who tried to turn around slid into the ditch nose first instead of sideways. I figured I might as well keep pointing forward as I had more of a chance of continuing than if I tried to turn around on the banked/sloped road where I was stopped.
We were stopped about a half hour. I had plenty of gas but super needed to pee. Oh well. Work on the kegels and hope for the best.
When we did go, it was 5mph. I drove in 1st or 2nd gear (thanks sport shift automatic!) because braking downhill was not going to be a thing. It took 75 minutes of actual rolling time to do the 17 miles to my office.
I counted over 20 people in the ditch and watched many of them go into the ditch.
I heard from folks on the highway headed to my house, that much the same situation was on the highway toward home. I have a camping mattress and blanket at the office and had done laundry which was still in the car, along with snow shoes and water. So I stayed at the office. Just grabbed my gym bag so I could wear gym pants as jammie pants. Settled in with some youtubes and my bread and the office pantry and called it a night. Pulled chicken (from a chicken I butchered) with local hot peppers I'd put in the office freezer, and a fresh baguette. It was a good supper.
Now I'm having my morning coffee, and waiting an hour for the sun to hit the road. There is a road camera a mile from my house that shows the pavement. It used to have a thermometer reading too but that is conveniently broken. Damn. Oh well. Last night I checked it and could see vehicles leaving wiggly tracks in slush and figured "no." Today I see all pavement. I bet there is enough brine on that to dissolve my undercarriage before I hit the driveway.
As for the bread. Both people had final trips to make and had also listened to and trusted the weather people...so they came by the office to pick it up and that was that. Both also texted later that driving was CRAP in all directions. The highway back to Dr.Cowboy/BreadTown was blocked by multiple jack knifed log trucks all night. Part of the interstate north was as well. Downed powerlines took out another road. Here at the office, I had heat, food, entertainment, power, and a working toilet. I've spent worse nights. Much worse. The camping mattress though is utter crap! I had tried to return it to Cabela's but they told me covid prevented them from taking returns at that time. It was warmer than the concrete floor, but otherwise not better.
I guess, yes, really. Same day the windshield on the subaru cracked all the way across. I knew it had a little ding, but couldn't find it. It was way at the bottom. The crack is below eyeline so I should be able to drive with it until the rig croaks.
The truck though, have to replace that. The deputy showed up in a timely fashion and gave me a case number but said that honestly, unless someone comes in and says "hey, I broke out a window on a truck with plate number..." they won't get the person.
I don't carry comprehensive on a 21 year old vehicle but I do keep a bit of $$ to the side for BS. I guess it's time to dip into the BS fund. 200$ or so to get it replaced. Cheaper if I took time to find a window at a salvage yard but I don't have the time to go do that so just paying up. I don't want to be without the second rig in the winter and it's an hour to the closest salvage yard, 15$ worth of gas to get there and back. Time to just fix it. Hence the BS fund. I am waiting on the motor for the driver's window until I find it cheap because I can do that myself and it's not needed until spring when I get too hot.
So, a few days have passed since I finished up the local food challenge. I did go out to breakfast with a friend or two to mark the end. That was nice, and of course started a sugar spiral.
Locally there is no "sugar". There is honey and I went through most of a pint of honey during the 10 days. That was spendy. But also apparently healthier. It was in the berry puddings. I did not then go sugar binge so apparently sugar-sugar makes me binge-y and honey not so much. I might try the berry pudding with some of the stevia I have around. I think I could grow my own stevia and some day I might have bees that produce enough honey to harvest so local sweetener is totally doable. So is living with much much less sweetener. The minute I eat sugary crap, fruit tastes less sweet.
I also found out that eating locally is not that hard for me if I focus. Now that I'm not focused it's easy to just stop at the store and grab something. I think the focus is better.
It made me appreciate the local food a bit more. I do appreciate it in general. This took it up a half a notch. If I lived in an apartment in a city, I probably would not know farmers or have good access to so many gardeners. Certainly wouldn't have chickens and eggs. Or my giant garden just steps out of the door and a couple of apple trees.
This also pointed out that without sugar and convenience foods, cooking from scratch with actual ingredients and not too much flour...it's hard to overeat. It can be done, but there were days I was putting extra honey in the berries to keep the calories up because I was tired of eating. This is not something that happens when I am not doing a local challenge or other challenge that makes me cook at home.
I think I will try to focus more and more on local. Reading the book Plenty is eye opening. I knew about "local washing" (making things seem local but still shipping them hither and yon...like the fake eco stuff that is 'green washed'). E.g. the honey at walmart or costco that says "from the northwest"! BUT it is actually gathered from many beekeepers who travel their bees and then the raw honey is SHIPPED to Colorado for processing and SHIPPED back!!! Cripes. I got the honey for the local challenge from a local bee keeper, though through a local grocery store, who spins the frames himself and didn't travel his bees this year.
The book also pointed out that if you are buying local beef or local eggs but the producer is buying feed from god knows where, often other continents, then you're not getting the full localness. Often there are thousands of miles, fossil fueled carbon dumping miles, in the feed. Buying local pastured beef, yes. Local feedlot beef, probably not much carbon/fuel savings but some contribution to the local food economy. It might be a transitional move if the farmer is moving toward finding local feed.
I'm lucky to have a local non-gmo feed supplier for my chicken feed, and the free range means I feed less. Since the hens are molting right now they need more protein and the cheapest supplement seemed to be cat kibble. OOPS! Hardly local. It's a small portion of the intake, but looking at the added miles...hmmm. Better to trap some local mice. Also, I checked on the protein levels in my feed supplier's chick grower feed and it's high enough. About 6cents more per lb of feed (so 6cents more per chicken per week...including roosters since I'm not trying to segregate them from the food bowl). Not bad. Not much more than the cat kibble and one 40lb bag should do it. Might donate the cat food to the lady down the way and put the kibble to a better use or keep feeding it to the hens since it's getting cold and they will need more food in general to stay warm. I only have a a couple of week's supply. But seriously...DOH! Missed a trick there.
My garden fertilizer is pretty local. I get manure the same place I help butcher chickens. With my new turd unloader on the pick up, and the friend's use of a bobcat to load the truck, I only hand move the poop ONE TIME! It's a bit more fossil fuel for the bobcat. The turd unloader is manual but so much easier than a pitchfork. Compared to bagged fertilizer (plastic bagged of course) shipped from godknows where and probably from feedlot cattle, my fertilizer has traveled very few miles and cost very little carbon. The sheep are pooping out local hay and feed from about 100 miles away. I'm also using my chicken poop which is mixed with their bedding straw, which while not organic, is local AND recycled. I've already used it elsewhere.
My diatomaceous earth is not local. It's a small input in the garden to control some bugs and into the coop in the winter when the hens can't dust bath outside. Keeps the mites down. I will watch my quantities.
The other chicken input that is non-local is the oyster shells. Chickens that lay a lot, and my hens are bred to lay even if they are off casts and freebies, need more calcium than their usual diet gives them. I tried drying and grinding the egg shell and giving those back, but of course it's a losing game, not a 100% efficient closed loop. Once I started giving ground oyster shells on the side, the eggs hardened right up. Soft shelled eggs break and turn your hens into egg peckers, no production there. It's also a sign that their calcium is too low and their bones go next, bending and breaking. I do think one hen looks like a banty size egg, is eating too much calcium. Her eggs are pimpled with gritty protuberances. But the banties are old so she probably can't manager her calcium anyway.
I'm looking for a local source of calcium or perhaps a source of recycled oyster shells...like friends who eat such things or a restaurant with a seafood night. I'm also wondering about roasting bones from my own meat consumption or road kill, what could be more local?, and grinding those for a calcium supplement. Archaeologically we find lots of burnt bone in old fire pits and we call it "calcined bone". Might work. Might stink. I'd just put them in the wood stove in a little cast iron pan I have hanging on the wall. I should be able to get enough road kill and bone scraps to make it work if it is a calcium they can digest.
Back to my diet...kind of off the rails local-wise for the last few days. Too much sugar and crap. For a longer term more local focus I think I will start smaller and keep adding things in a bit at a time. Need to adjust habits like sugar intake.
The experiment has made me more alert to local food sources. Last night on the way home from work I saw two of the cutest little kids ever by the side of the road, sitting at a card table with a sign saying "Fresh Plums". So I doubled back and got some. The kids were young, maybe 6 or 7 years old tops. One had a walkie-talkie and seemed to report into someone that a customer had arrived. They did indeed have fresh local plums. Big sugary sweet ones. 5$ for a gallon zip-type bag full, or a solo cup full for a dollar. I took the gallon. The kids were quite pleased. Apparently they are making a killing. Good for them. They weren't there today so maybe sold out. Anyway, I might not have done that in the past but I don't have plums producing yet and what the heck. I'm spitting the pits in a cup and will plant them. I did make the mistake of absentmindedly eating plums this morning. 20 of them. With 3 cups of coffee...thanks immodium! OOPS. I told people at the office to just go to a different department if they needed the bathroom today. I still have MOST Of the bag! I think I will cook up a bit of plum sauce maybe tomorrow night and put it in the freezer at work. It might be nice on some of the canned chicken and duck I've got in my work pantry cupboard.
I also made the effort last night to pick more of the apples off my own trees. Upper Deer Poop tree had about 3 apples left on it and zero on the ground. The deer must have eaten everything including those that fell. Lower deer poop still had lots. I got about 8 gallons in 20 minutes. I didn't get them all but I got plenty. The rest will be for the other creatures. Wish I could can some of these. Once I have a kitchen I will get back to canning. Some years I don't bother as much with the apples but the timing of my local challenge made me more aware right now. And we're getting a couple of nights in the teens later this week. That could make the apples unstorable. Better to get them now. I already had 3 or 4 gallons from a previous harvest on Upper Deer Poop so I'm set for fruit for quite a while.
So, the hardest part was telling a colleague that I didn't want to eat his home smoked salmon today. It's killing me and it was rude. I have some he gave me last week in the freezer at work. It's a mini-fridge. It's full.
Yesterday friends dropped off some garden overage that they couldn't eat. Tomatoes, and onion, a little head of cabbage, and a squash. I used the tomatoes with peppers from a different friend to make a veggie stew. Augmented it with some sliced up kale, chard, chives, sage and tarragon from the garden. Perked it up with salt and pepper (the exotics) and fried the peppers in coconut oil (another exotic on the list).
With one full meal left to go, I have not used the sugar. Had I enjoyed some of the kombucha I'm making, I would have but alas it has not gotten tart enough for me to bother. I like it when it's almost vinegar.
Last night I also made a blackberry pudding. 3cups fresh blackberries from some friends, 1/2cup local whole wheat pastry flour, 3T honey, a tsp of cinnamon and a 1/4tsp of baking soda (last 2 are on the exotics list). It was fine. The baking soda cuts some of the acid from the honey and berries. I'd eaten too many tomatoes and didn't want to over-acid my stomach. Anyway, heat and mash the berries in a sauce pan. Mix the rest of the stuff up. Mix the flour stuff into the hot berry mash and cook until it looks like a thick porridge. It was delicious. Another 1/2 cup of flour and it would have gotten cakey, but I didn't want that much food and need to get through the berries before they mold! MORE tonight. It's not a chore, it's a challenge. I can tell I've boosted the fiber in the diet by eating locally.
I found a book at the library:
In the introduction to the time the authors spent on a local diet, one says something like "I see a lot of potatoes in my future." She was right. I've eaten potatoes every day. They are available locally. I've also eaten a lot of apples. They are extremely local. From my land. Also, delicious.
That popped out immediately: I'm very willing to eat what is there if there is some phony rule in place. Why not everyday?
I don't do like some friends who decide what to eat randomly, go to the store, get stuff, make one meal. That is a peachy way to go. Not my current way. In general I try to look at what I have anyway. The local challenge is a small boost to the effort to start, and now finish, with what I already have.
A side effect is cutting the non-food budget. No stop at the store meant I actually ran to town the other day and didn't spend any money. I do "no spend" days, about 10 a month is the usual goal. Often I end up spending when I run in to town because I go ahead and hit the grocery store for sales as long as I'm there. It was a bit of a challenge to break the habit.
Part of it is, I have a TON of food. Since starting this and without putting out the word, I've gotten a lot of free food:
The aforementioned smoked salmon
3gallons of blackberries
about 15lbs of squash
an onion
5lbs or so of tomatoes
a small cabbage (which will get eaten tonight!)
jam...to be eaten later as not local enough
I'm sure there is more. I've been offered more but can't store anything else! Crazy!
I like having my jars of chicken from the day of butchery. I get 2 or 3 meals worth of meat out of a half pint. I could eat more in a sitting but I'm getting plenty of protein so might as well stretch it out and eat the fresh veg that will go off sooner.
The book, Plenty, is aptly named. I have plenty. It is the tail end of harvest season so that is much of the picture but not all of it. More anon.
Today I was home and THOUGHT I would have more time to cook. I did not.
1) it was raining much of the day and my outdoor stove doesn't do rain. This meant no onion frying. No stinky food making in the house.
2) the woodstove wasn't needed. This means no slow cooked stew or sizable baking or roasted potatoes (roasted inside the firebox).
3) I was super busy.
Hence, apple pancakes for breakfast with coffee and water.
Lunch was late because the neighbor was helping me get the truck window back UP. Why don't window motors break when the window is up?
I got back to the wee shed about 45 minutes before the next thing had to start so I fried up zucchini slices, zucchini from the friends' garden, and scrambled a couple of eggs, then made a vinegar-baking soda raised cake thing with a bit of honey and cinnamon for flavor. I used vinegar I was soaking local blackberries in. I didn't taste any black berry but the bannock was sort of pink. Next time I will put the honey in warm water, there is also water in the recipe, so it is mixed throughout more easily. It was 45 degrees inside the shed at that point and the honey was a bit hard.
That did take about 20 min to cook so used up a bit of butane. Bummer.
Supper...more scrambled eggs and stewed apples with a cinnamon bannock on top as a dumpling. I could have boiled a potato but I forgot.
I've used all the exotics I picked except sugar. To review...the exotics:
1 coffee
2 tea
3 sugar
4 baking soda
5 cocoa
6 coconut oil
7 salt
8 pepper
9 vinegar
10 mustard seeds
If I drink my kombucha, that will cover the sugar.
So far so good! I had to explain my way out of a breakfast invitation today. She's a good friend so took it well and after a nice porch visit, she and her Mrs sent me on my way with some gorgeous squash from their garden that I can have now and a jar of jam for after the challenge. Cool!
I made spaetzle today to stretch the last of a soup (local squash, local onion, my garlic, my herbs, salt and pepper exotics, potato from a neighbor). Spaetzle is going in my regular rotation! I got a spaetzle maker from thrift a year ago and have finally figured out how thick the batter can be. You put egg, water and flour in the tumbler shaped shaker, put on the lids, and little metal balls mix it up as you shake. Take off an outer lid to reveal the squeezy holes in the inner lid. Squeeze into boiling water or broth and voila! Spaetzle. Clean up is mostly shaking soapy water in there and a good rinse. The local whole wheat pastry flour I had worked well. We'll see if the freebie all purpose flour I got as a gift a while back also works. But it's not local flour so will have to wait.
The soup also had the remnants of a jar of chicken. Added some flavor.
I am finding I need the grain and honey inputs to keep the calories up. A largely veggie and lean meat diet was meaning I had to eat more than I could hold to get a days worth of calories. I don't need to lose weight at the moment so I'm boosting a bit with more carbs. Honey doesn't seem to make me hungry, but flour does. Interesting.
Anyway, I also did a bannock type bread with some of my vinegar preserved berries and honey. It was pretty good! The berries and honey were in the bread, not on the bread. Tomorrow possibly apple pancakes. Pancakes made with water instead of fake milk (or real milk) are a bit tough textured but not terrible. Growing some hazel nuts or other things to make a fake milk out of would be nice.
I'm ending up with more local food than I'm going to be able to eat during this. Good to know.
Since I bought food ahead and have brought my lunch to work consistently, even though the groceries were more expensive, I'm saving $$. I don't run to the store for something which means I also don't impulse buy. Candy is not locally grown so no candy. The free garden produce really helps as do the things I've grown myself.
I am spending a ton of time cooking compared to not trying to eat locally grown. Convenience foods and even the local baked bread, are not made of local ingredients. So they are out right now.
Anyway, enough for today. 4 days left! Tomorrow might be a lentil and wheatberry pilaf for the lunch and dinner options, with some summery squash fried up on the side. Keeping up with dishes is a bit of a pain because the weather is crap right now and I can't use my little rocket stove to heat a bunch of water and wash dishes outside. Oh well. Just need to adjust to the winter routine of eating out of the same plate and washing it immediately after the meal in the pan I cooked in.
I had a work field trip and this motivated me to cook the night before.
Frankly, it was delicious.
I made mashed squash with onion, garlic and tarragon. The garlic and tarragon were from my garden. I chopped it up, boiled it together and called it a day. Half was dinner last night and half went in to lunch. Also boiled eggs from my chickens, homemade mustard (mustard seeds and vinegar are 2 of my exotics). And, a sort of blackberry pudding cake thing. I mashed berries, picked by me, into about a cup of juice and berry guts. Added local flour, local honey, and a bit of baking soda (another exotic). Baked it in a makeshift dutch oven on my butane stove. It was DELICIOUS. It may be a new standard recipe in full rotation.
For dinner tonight I picked the last of my green tomatoes and fried them in coconut oil (another exotic), local flour and egg wash (my hen's egg) and a bit of salt and pepper (2 more exotics). Delicious. I had a bit of egg and flour left after dipping all the tomato slices so I mixed it together and fried it up. What the heck.
Breakfast today was a pancake made with one of my eggs (well, from a hen), local flour, coconut oil (exotic) and topped with a bit of honey. I thinned the batter with water. If I did dairy I could have used that, but I don't so I didn't. It was fine. Texture wasn't great but the taste was good.
Oh, also for dinner today, had my apples diced and stewed up a bit with local honey and a few elderberries I picked while on the field trip today. Quite good.
I'm not very hungry and this is forcing me to cut crap out of my diet as well.
Eggs from my chickens. Potatoes and hot peppers from Farmer Dave. Coffee (exotic #1), home made mustard (exotics 2 (mustard seed) and 3 (vinegar))
Current exotics list (remember...only 10 allowed):
1 Coffee
2 Mustard seed
3 Vinegar
Keeping it to 10 is the goal so I've planned some out and will keep a record in case I make a mistake and have to start dumping exotics on the list that I haven't had yet.
Yeah. I saw this IN REAL LIFE on my way back from the post office to my office. I was walking so it was perfectly OK to pull out my ancient flip phone and get the picture. I was not driving. And I couldn't send it to y'all immediately because...flip phone.
ACTUAL PHOTO IN REAL LIFE...yes, right in front of the police building:
Here is the annotated version for more detail and some interpretation:
OK, I can't SWEAR that he was/is married to the old lady with a curly perm driving the car along the shoulder of the road behind him, but if it was his daughter, then he's even older than I thought because she was 70 if she was a day.
No matter whom she is, why?
Is it purely for safety?
Does he need someone to get him from the lawn mower to the walker-wagon?
Other questions: How far have they come?
How far will they go?
Why not just ride in the goddamn car?
Why does she put up with it?
This is possibly the BEST opening scene of a movie I have spotted in Plummer and I am COUNTING the day I looked out the window of my single wide trailer while on the phone with Pam (hi pam) to see a fat cowgirl driving a roman chariot behind a draft horse on the street. This one has a relationship in it that is already very complicated. The cowgirl was on her own.
Joseph's Grainery. It's from near Colfax, Washington which is very much in my zone.
I'm waiting to hear back from a place that makes camelina oil. If I could get oil/grease off the exotics list, it would leave me an optional one to fill in when I find out what I forgot.
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.
Here's the deal from Vicki Robin (of "Your Money or Your Life" fame)
Go 10 days, in a row, eating only food sourced within 100 miles or so from your home. You are allowed 10 exotics, which are foods not found in that target area.
Things that make it easier and not toooo spendy:
I have eggs/chickens which hopefully won't die during the 10 days I pick. I have a fishing license and access to fish-laden waters. I have easy access to local honey I have access to a local farmers market.
I have lots of berries preserved in vinegar. Berries I picked myself, vinegar isn't local (see exotics section). I live alone so no one needs to be bothered by my shenanigans. Challenges might be: Picking the 10 things. Like, I think the master bread maker uses random flour, not necessarily LOCAL flour even though we are in wheat country. I do have access to wheat products produced within 100 miles, and to wild rice (though it's grown in questionable waters) produced locally so I'm not short on access to grains. Skills/traits that might help me: I can cook with what I can get I will eat what I have to eat especially if one of my "exotics" is mustard or hot pepper. So, the 10 exotics. 1) I'm thinking a fruit, like bananas to make banana eggs. 2) Also an oil. I don't fry bacon so I don't have grease handy all the time. I would LIKE to fry bacon but living in a small space smelly foods are a commitment to smelling like that, all the clothes/hair/blankets/etc; for a long time. 3) Mustard seeds 4) Vinegar. These two are so I can keep making my home-brewed mustard. It's super good and even makes slightly crap soup bearable. Also, it's already on the berries. 5)
pepper. I can live without salt, but pepper...get real. 6) Nutmeg (for the banana eggs or any baking) 7) Coffee 8) Cocoa powder 9) Almonds or whatever nut/seed is cheap...possibly sunflower seeds (so I can make fake milk if I want to and to have a "grab-n-go protein other than boiled eggs) 10) Cinnamon! For the banana eggs and any baking/pancake stuff IF I'd planned months ago I could have canned apples and other fruits/berries. Canned/dried tomatoes and veggies or planted the garden earlier.
Pardon the lame reference to "We're bringing sexy back"...couldn't resist.
The water is fixed.
I'm pretty thrilled.
Friends who know what they are doing taught me what to do. I need one more pipe wrench and a sump pump and I'd be able to do this myself.
The old frost free hydrant probably still would have worked, but I was done messing around. There is a new hydrant on the nipple (heh heh) at the polypipe that feeds water downhill from the cistern.
Thankfully the pump is fine AND thankfully I had one pipe run UP to the cistern and another DOWN the hill to the spigot. The well driller dude said I could save a few hundred on the pipe if I used just one pipe for the whole bit. I said NO. I wanted to be able to cut into the water pipe down from the cistern and move things around, add bits, etc. I think that's easier if the in and out pipes are separate. This time it worked fine.
I do wish I had a shut off in the pipe. Had to drain the cistern. Hence the sump pump because the hydrant is the only outlet right now so it drained into the hole I dug to the bottom of said hydrant.
Pretty amazed with how much I don't know about pumps and hydrants. I know more now and could, with a 2nd pair of hands, replace the hydrant myself next time. Good lord I hope there is NOT a next time.
As I was digging the hole, it kept filling with water. I bailed and let it soak into the concrete like clay that is my soil. When it's wet, it's heavy but I can slice it. When it's dry you have to use a breaker bar to chop it up and then shovel it out. I traded off between the two methods.
When I got to the bottom of the hydrant, there was sticky grey clay. The friend who knows water systems said that IS my red/yellow clay once it is wet and reacting with things like the gravel that bedded the hydrant. Anyway, I'm 4 feet down in a hole, using my trusty Marshalltown 6" pointy trowel to clear out some gravel and that strange clay from the base of the hydrant. I start hearing AIR rushing out the top of the hydrant (see previous post) and water starts shooting out the top and spigot bit. On to my head and the rest of me. Refreshing and surprising. My hair had dirt/clay in it which became mud. But, what are you going to do?
Must have just been water in the pipe because it stopped.
Once the friends got here Saturday, I finished digging because apparently I needed a bigger hole.
Having the sump to keep the water (which continued to flow in...must have bene in the ground from the years of draining from the frost free hydrant or something) down to a reasonable level really helped.
The nipple was a good surprise (unlike nip-slips which are generally NOT a good surprise for me). It meant the new hydrant could just screw right on.
Before we did that, we removed the old hydrant and ran the pump enough to make sure there was no clog and the water flowed well. It did and it did.
Then more pumping to clear room for me in the hole. At one point, I was within an inch of wet undies...and COVERED in clay from tip to tail to boot.
We start screwing on the new hydrant. And keep trying and trying and trying and trying. It just will not thread.
The water-guy friend tests the screwy end of the hydrant with a plastic thingy. It won't thread either. DAMMIT!!!
I call the hardware store where I got the 6' hydrant. They don't have another but they have a 7' hydrant, same brand. FINE. Sold.
I change my pants and shoes (too much clay/mud on me to get in their truck for the hardware run). So, half muddy, we march into the store. The store guy tries to tell us it's fine. He's using a threaded nipple (heh heh) to test it and it goes on about 1/2 a turn. We test the 7' version and it goes on a good quarter INCH, several turns, before it jams up. I say I want that. The 6' should not bind that fast. It does taper so it gets tight, but that's nuts.
We get back to the ranch with the new hydrant, which is too long for the pick up bed and hangs over the tailgate corner a bit, and with new pipe dope to seal it up. Back in the hole we get it threaded on and aimed fine with me on the base and the friend on the pipe. Then I start the pump to fill the cistern enough to test it....no dice. WIERD. The friend reads the instructions and we should not have cranked on the pipe, instead I should have had both wrenches on the bottom on fittings. Damn.
Off it comes, more wrenching. I have both wrenches in a hole filling with water (nearly to the undies). More pumping. We get the hydrant back off and all is well, AND the pipe seriously BURPS and gets pressure. So, now we have a hold full of water and we're screwing the hydrant back on with me running both wrenches, sometimes with my feet halfway up the walls and my butt on a little ledge I didn't dig out and the water rising. We get it and open it up...I make them wait until I am out of the hole.
It works. We have water with pressure! It's been a month since I've had that. YAY.
The water dude has us cut up a plastic bottle to make a void around the outlet at the bottom of the frost free hydrant. I tape that one and we test it. Still working. Can see the water and hear it shooting into the void. The hope is that keeps the clay from filling in the little hole again...as least I know how to fix it in a few years when it does happen. We bed it in gravel (I kept that aside in buckets as I dug). They take off. I put a cut up shopping bag, the woven plasticy type, around the top of the plastic bottle cludge to try to filter any clay flowing down from the top trying to infiltrate the void.
Throw in the rest of the gravel and start with the clay. I would say dirt or soil but who am I kidding? It's clay. I get it 1/3 to 1/2 full. The hydrant is pretty stable and I'm beat so I give it up. I will put more in today.
The clay I dug out is on tarps so once enough is off a tarp I can roll the rest off by pulling the tarp across the hole. I will tamp it down as I go to try to keep it from sinking too much. We'll see.
But at least water is coming out at a reasonable rate.
It didn't last long though.
Seems like some sort of wonky clay clog.
I have help coming. I've been without adequate water for a few weeks now. It's kind of sucked but not more than some other things.
Tomorrow...in theory...we finish the dig out (which involves a sump pump now....cripes) and we go from there.
I hope I have a drop cord long enough to run that little pump.
Anyway, I have a new hydrant to install and took my time digging it out because I was being careful of the pipes and whatnot AND because my shoulder and back will only take so much punishment in a day.
It looks like Suzanne went to cross the road...literally crossed the highway...and ended up as an ex-chicken. She seems to have suffered a direct hit by a semi. I could see her. I'd gotten her off the highway before and WARNED her that this would NOT go well if she kept it up. I was talking with a neighbor up on my porch and I could see cars swerving a bit. Dang. Then I could see a chicken. Double Dang. I hoped she would not cause an accident. She didn't. The neighbor and I saw a semi coming, after the chicken had been across the road and back to our side, and I said, "Ugh, just hit her" or something like that. Shortly afterwards...no more swerving. No more glimpses of a chicken in the distance on the highway. Oops. Then I noticed cars driving crooked a bit further down. The neighbor, who has a bunged up leg so I walk her back down the hill when she leaves, was ready to go. I walked her down and sure enough. Chicken parts all over the highway for about 20 yards. When traffic cleared I threw the main bit off into the ditch so people would quit swerving. There was not enough coherent material to make a positive ID. The hen did not actually suffer. This was over before the nerve pulses made it from the point of impact to her tiny brain. No head was located. My sister did recommend making an ID with dental records. Ha! The remaining light red hen is clearly Bonnie, clipped wings. That means this must have been Suzanne. The Novogen breed lays well and is calm and easy to handle, but is NOT bright. 1 lost to raccoon. 1 from last year smothered herself under a tarp. Another from this year just wandered off. And now this. They don't seem to be doing well as free range hens. Then again, I do have the misfits and off cuts. The runners and the garden accosters. So my sample is not representative.
The bantys seem hardy. I did lose one to a broken leg, but in fairness she was so old she probably had osteoporosis. The other two are still about! And still putting out eggs. As are the other 5 remaining hens.
Here's the current chicken list, then on to egg costs:
Fabio Clyde Bonnie...the last light red novogen. Pru Pearl Porky Flossy Flo Gertrude ("Gert")...the newest youngest novogen who is bright red. They fade as they age so you can kind of tell who is likely to still be laying.
As for the egg cost:
I get 0-7 per day. 7 was a banner day. Usually 3-5. Let's call it an average of 4 per day, 28 per week. This might change with the lower hen count at the moment. That's 2 1/3 dozen a week. I spend 12.50$ for 40lbs of feed and 3$ for some oyster shells. They feed seems to be lasting about 3 weeks (for 8 hens and 2 roosters) at summer rates. Might have to feed more in the winter.
That's 1$/week for oyster shells and $4.17ish for feed per week. $5.17 input (all components of the coop are free or were bought ages ago for other reasons and the amortized investment is around 0) per week.
5.17/2.33333333 is about $2.22 per dozen eggs. Not bad. Local free range eggs are going for 3$/dozen or more. Organic at the store $6/dozen. Local free range at the store about 5$/dozen. Farm eggs from the farm, that I would have to drive to get, $4-5/dozen. Since these are my own and got straight from chicken to pan, or stored in the shed unwashed and unfridged, the convenience and lack of driving add to the value for me. I am able to give away about a dozen a week so that's nice.
Seems worth it.
The feed is local, non-GMO, and the hens kicked up their laying-power when I started this vs trying to mix my own. So I get to support a local farmer.
They drop it at my work so there is no added fuel cost or anything.
I wonder if they want their bags back?
My current feed-barn is a single metal trash can I picked up years ago at a yard sale for about 3$ and have used for a variety of things. I could use a 2nd and 3rd storage option for winter so I don't have to haul 40lb bags up the hill too often. We'll see if that happens.
The chickens eat around the property all day so they may need more feed in winter and I will likely cull the flock down to the best layers with the most cold-hardy traits before then. Maybe keep the big cock (heh heh) because his bulk adds to the heat in the coop. We'll see. He's a bit of a dick with a big comb which may be bad during winter. The small cock (heh heh) with the flat comb may be more likely to survive winter.
In August my financial/thrifty experiment was to go the entire month without a trip to the grocery store.
It was EASY. The farmers markets are going strong and I'm at one per week minimum. Small local ones. My garden has greens and zucchini and potatoes. Zucchini are "fruit" and the berries were pickable, as were some plums. Friends were handing around tomatoes, summer squash, and potatoes.
I had a few jars of duck still on hand (who eats so much pekin duck that they get sick of it? Me.).
My chickens are laying 0-7 eggs a day, usually 3 or 5. Plenty to eat and share.
I'm making and selling mustard at a farmers market so I'm at one each week for 2 purposes which encourages me to go ahead and focus on the food that is there.
I've also managed to go through a few things in my pantry supply. The "pantry" being various metal boxes, tins, and jars on shelves with some back stock in the dead fridge down in the crap camper/bee-shed.
It was actually EASY to not go to a grocery store. I ate my cracked wheat up which is good because I was getting bored with it. Makes a fine breakfast base.
I had, and still have, some black beans and sunflower seeds for veg based, long storage freeze-ok protein. Ate some of those but the solar cooker is hard to use on work days. The beans are tough to make in a thermos, I think they are old. Lentils would have been a better option. They cook faster and are easier to cook in a variety of ways.
The month of not going to a store also encouraged me to eat from the garden! I know. Stupid to have it and not eat much from it. Some things were small or I was sick of greens. Well, too bad. Eat them anyway. It's a habit I hadn't had before and now I can look at the garden the same way I look at pantry stock PLUS it's fresh. Got a few tomatoes, several zucchini, plenty of potatoes. Harvested camelina seed (works like flax seed) which will last into winter for me and the chickens if needed and may have enough to plant too! Some garlic and walking onions with the various herbs helped with the flavor options along with the spices in the pantry stock.
Since I'm making and selling mustard, I eat plenty of that as well.
There is good bread at the market so I buy that for a change and to support the market. Egg sandwiches, duck sandwiches, tomato sandwiches.
I got bacon at a different market one Saturday and used the grease for a week to keep the eggs tasting a bit different than the usual random veg oil.
I learned to make the sticky rice that I'd gotten as a 'rona stock up. I'm keeping 2 weeks of healthy and easy on the stomach food around. The only rice I could find was 5lbs of sticky rice like you get in sushi. Most people here were clearing their usual shelves and they don't shop the "ethnic" aisle. So I went there and sure enough, big bags of reasonably priced rice. It cooks up sticky but delicious. I do rinse it and the chickens like the starchy water.
TP...I took one of the roll ends from work that usually end up getting tossed and got a 4 pack at a drug store when I was down to the last scrap. Yes, other things wipe, but sometimes you just want the old reliable familiar turlet paper. So, now I have plenty.
I went ahead and went to a Second Harvest distribution in the community as well. Got corn, onion, bananas, bananas so far gone they were for the chickens (really were bags of mush), and a few other veggies. There were also "farm to family" boxes which are a 'rona thing. But those had ham, milk, cheese and a few other things that a) need a fridge and b) I didn't need and c) I don't usually eat. I don't do the dairy. The ham would be too salty and the size is beyond what I can eat without fridging or freezing it. I left that for someone else. I went late in the day after those in true need had mostly already been, and asked for the stuff that others would tend to leave behind.
Another day I was helping butcher chickens at the food distribution center (learned a new trick or two that I will share later) and was told they had 10lb bags of white flour that they were having trouble passing out to people. I said if they had spares, I would use it. So, I have 10lbs of flour in the camper back stock now. I will get it in jars or something so I can bring it to the shed slowly.
Being mindful of my stock made me kind of ration out the delicious things. I do still have the garlic olive oil sent from a friendly non-local aunt as a future treat. I'm wondering if I could use my banty eggs, which are small, to make manageable amounts of garlic mayonnaise...winter time experiments to do. Full size eggs make too much mayonnaise for me to eat in a day and I'm not keeping that stuff at room temp.
Anyway, the upshot is that during august and with a reasonable stock of stuff, a garden, and non-grocery store options, I was able to do it pretty easily.
I saved a bucket ton on my grocery budget. BUT (there's always a big but), did spend more going out to eat. Partly this had to do with hanging out with people and partly it had to do with treating a birthday person. I need to be more clear about when people come to the market with me, then we bring food or eat at the market. Though one time, I traded mustard for a meal at a restaurant and that went well. Might try it one more time when I really need a change.
I had plenty of coffee but by the end of the month was down to the coffee I buy because it is cheap and because the can it comes in makes a really nice berry picking tin, nail/screw container, tool-belt accessory, chicken feed scoop, etc...and less because it is good. It is CRAP. The other coffee I had was from a different friendly non-local aunt and was stunningly delicious in my travel french press, my stove top percolator, as a cold brew and probably as just a pinch between the cheek and gum. I managed NOT to go out for coffee through August but the first of September found me at a drive through pouring out the crap coffee and paying 2$ for something drinkable. Damn...need to spend a bit more on the beans/grounds and maybe just drink 1 fewer cups per day.
I have so much tea stock thanks to 2020 and 2019 gifts that I'm SET and I made a point to enjoy it. I will continue to make a point to enjoy it daily which will help cut back on the coffee.
The month also taught me to be more creative with what I have. Eggs boiled up (which is hard because they are so fresh...I had to save some for a week at room temp and they STILL had the shells clinging on to the white after boiling) and put in the left over juice from a jar of pickled beets I got at a farmers market make a nice flavory topping to a salad from the garden I hauled in to work.
As I do most years now, I picked berries (so far service, huckleberries, oregon grape, chokecherries, and blueberries) and fill a jar and cover with apple cider vinegar. I've taken some of the huckleberry vinegar to make dressings for the salads when I remember to pick greens and pack them into work. One day I ALSO remembered to throw in some of my sunflower seed stock and the salad was a pretty decent lunch! I can put boiled eggs in the fridge at work whether in beet juice or a carton, and add those to the lunch tiffin if I have a field trip. Saves $$, contact with random folks in different towns, and is healthier. So, trying to remember to do that more.
At the end of the month, I took stock of the back stock and made a new list of foods to re-stock or that would be better choices. The list is now split into stuff that would be useful sooner, and that which is good to buy if on super sale for long term stockage. All while keeping and eye on my revised lower food budget.
Long term stock up items are things like dried fruit, nuts, lentils, and canned fish. Maybe canned tomatoes too because it makes for easy soup in the winter. Possibly also canned beans in case I get sick and want easy meals...can of tomatoes, some dried onions and things, and a can of black beans makes a really decent soup.
All in all this was a really good exercise. I've done pantry challenges in the past. That's also a good exercise. This one stretched my imagination a bit more and cut the grocery budget as much. I'll do it again.
I'm also looking at doing a 10 day local challenge in Sept. More anon if I do it.
I considered stretching this out but who am I kidding. This isn't monetized and I only add "content" as the kids say, when I feel like it. Why stretch it out? Who cares? NOT ME. And that's the only relevant bit.
These are still in whatever order I think of them. Not giant key tip that will change your life as 101. Can't. Be. Bothered.
84 Give people a shot. As long as you are giving Peace a Chance...
perhaps give people a chance. Now that I'm the local farmers market mustard mogul (more anon), I'm meeting lots of people who are very very different from me and lots that I do not want to spend much time with. But...
remember Pee-Wee Herman's dictum: There's always a big but:
Meaning that there is always the temptation to say "but" and talk yourself out of doing something.
I would normally not talk to these people BUT (this time it's a good big but) I talk to them to try to get them to drop 4$ on mustard (or lots more $$ on mustard). We already have something in common. We're at a farmers market. I have a table between me and them which helps with my personal space bubble.
I've met people who want to learn from me, who want to trade stuff, and who have skills I want to learn from them. It's been interesting.
Yesterday I got to talk to a woman just now learning about off-grid laundry. I have tried it all and though she is a very different person, I gave her a shot and she's a good PR person for my product, which she doesn't like, and is good at sharing her information about where to get things and what she wants to learn or teach.
Another dude and I will need to minimize our contact and we still managed to do a swap.
Moral: Give people a shot. You don't have to be BFFs forever and you don't have to 100% avoid them. The struggle for me is finding ways to NOT discuss politics. Once I get that down I'll be better at this tip.
85 Trial and Error Works. Especially if you keep track of the errors and the successes. I'm toying with the idea of buying 1/2 as many of compressed sawdust logs I like to use. Subbing out free wood (heh heh) others are offering and making more of an effort with the paper brick maker. This can save me 140$ plus gas money and a trip to a hardware store. OR I could get cold and have to hand haul logs/wood up the hill. It's a debate. If it's a mild winter, easier. Rough winter, tougher. I think I'll try it. I have more tools now and more skills and more people living a similar lifestyle who can share and help if it doesn't work. So, might as well run the trial. I've kept a record of how many sawdust logs I burn per winter. I know my current stock. And I have a month to change my mind. So, we will try...I think.
I'm also trying different ways to grind mustard, different things to ferment. Etc etc etc. Keeping notes means that I don't have to run the same trial over and over.
86 Try New Things. I thought I'd already done this one because it's super obvious. But I don't see it in the list.
Try a "new" brand or type of food. Especially if it's cheaper or otherwise fits better in your lifestyle. I tried dehydrated coconut milk powder. It's not "cheaper" per serving. It IS shelf stable. So it doesn't go off and I can make only what I am going to use at one time. This has eliminated waste.
Right now I'm trying a month without going to a grocery store. So far, for food and eating enough, it's been easy. The farmers markets are open. I have a garden and laying hens and canned duck meat. The only challenge is I'm out of mustard seed and the online order hasn't arrived and might not arrive in time to restock for the next farmers market. My local sources are grocery stores. Damn! Not really a big deal. Skipping grocery stores has really cut the food budget and I'm going to cut back on the trips in general. Fewer trips is less gas, less impulse purchasing. Saves $$. It's also been easier to eat what I have on hand when that's the option. Today I wanted chocolate. I had some in the pantry stock. It had bloomed in the hot weather and was gritty, but I ate it anyway and it was good. No trip to the store. I could have melted it and made it better but I couldn't be bothered.
I'm still eating out now and then at restaurants and still saving $$ on the overall food budget. I think I could do just 1 grocery store trip in Sept because the garden and farmers markets will still be going strong. Then, maybe 1 or 2 trips per month.
Other new things...selling stuff. Worked out so far.
Try new foods, different clothing brands, different stores, different friends, etc etc etc. If you hate it, then don't do it again.
87 Learn to Say No. How is this not like the first thing? Jeez.
OK. Say "no" and save time, money, effort and agony.
Sometimes you can say it indirectly or nicely. Often just be blunt and stop talking right after the word "no."
Today, I got a lovely invite to coffee with friends. I was already loading the truck with wood (heh heh) and headed home to unload. Joining would be fun. This week I've had zero alone time. THis month I'm not buying coffee out and didn't have any on me and no other beverages. Today I have a bucket ton of chores to get done. So, once I got home with the wood, I texted back that it didn't work today but thanks. An indirect and polite "no." No one was offended.
Often I have people ask me to do things I would loathe and would cost money. My favorite example is an invitation to a "lady's night" at a lawn-garden-lumber type store. I'm offended by the idea that "ladies" need a special night at the lumberyard. I go there when I need to go there. I don't need a special time. This cost money to get in. There was wine...for a price (I don't like wine). There were foot massages...for a price...WTF? At the lumber store?
Anyway, I said, "Why would I pay a stranger to touch my feet at the hardware store?" To which came the reply, "You aren't paying a stranger to touch your feet." "So the foot massage is free or is a friend doing it?" "no" "So you want me to pay a stranger to touch my feet." I should have just said "No" and walked away. The price for the night was going to be over 50$. To do sh*t I hate with people who confuse me. NO.
I'm better at "no" now. We should teach kids that.
88 Say Yes sometimes. This works great if you might learn something or get to try something. Like selling for a friend at a farmers market. I said I'd give it a shot. That's my way of saying 'yes.' Turns out it's fine and I can sell stuff. I'm not great at it, but I can do it. I don't like the crowds and will like my alone time Friday nights when the market is done for the year. For now, I said yes and I'm trying it.
I said yes when a friend asked if I wanted chickens. And to learning to butcher. And to going to pick huckleberries.
Since I struggle with being around people too much, I try to make sure I have an out for any "yes" that puts me with too many people for long periods.
89 Wear the clothes that work for you.
I am usually dressed like crap. According to other people. I don't care. Today, carhartt pants with duck blood stains, a bit short. Untied ankle boots, no socks. Messy braid. Sweat stained cap. Dollar store glasses (OMG!!! I should totally start doing an outfit of the day series!). Cotton tank top. Ratty bra. 2nd string underpants. Why? Because it's chores day. The tank top is a workday worthy one but I'm out of non-workday worthy tops so what the hell. It's hot out. These are the clothes that work for me. Since I don't care, I have no idea if anyone was judging me or staring. Not caring is awesome.
To work, I always wear long cotton pants, usually jeans. I never know when I will be in the field. There is no point in wearing delicate clothes. Usually I wear, or have at hand, a decent button down shirt. This can look reasonable professional.
Almost always wear boots. Never wear open toe shoes or any sandals. These don't work for me or my job. I do not live a flip flop lifestyle.
90 Don't Care What Others Think of You.
Once I stopped giving even half a crap about what others' thought about me, life got much easier.
I'm wearing clothes today that look like I fished them out of the trash. They are sturdy and they work. So I am wearing them.
I don't care whether people think my living off grid is cool or stupid or if it doesn't cross their mind either way. I don't care. I'm doing what I want.
Not caring helps with selling stuff. I don't care if people don't like mustard. Great. Move on to the next farmers market booth and make way for those willing to spend too much money on mustard. I don't care. I also don't care if you want me to make adjustments like the woman who actually complained that the mustard didn't stick to her sausage. First, I managed NOT to make a filthy joke about it. Second, I said, "Push harder." (which was again hard not to make a filthy joke about). She offered several suggestions for "improving" my product so it would stick to her sausage. I didn't care so I just nodded and moved on. Though clearly, not entirely because I'm still mocking her.
Way back in grad school I stopped caring about people's comments on my hair styles. I stopped getting it trimmed. A professor told me I'd never get a job if I didn't cut my hair into a style and wear some make up. I stared at her until she stopped talking and walked away. Still got a job.
The best interview I did for professoring was when my baggage got lost on the way. I had what I wore on the plane and the undies I'd wisely stuffed in my carry on. I was comfortable and had a reason for not caring about my clothes. Sadly, my baggage caught up with me and I had to dress up the 2nd day. Oh well.
I also don't care what you think of my lunch as I crack open a jar of meat and dig a wad of wrapped bread out of my bag, or slice up an entire zucchini and eat it raw. Doesn't matter to me. In grade school I cared. Easier not to.
Turns out, the less one cares about how others perceive them, the more positive that perception seems to be. One woman keeps calling me a "rock star" because I don't care.
One frustrating bit right now with the not caring, is when people TELL me to care. The planning dept people in my county keep telling me that the house I made them permit, "won't sell" and that I will be "stuck with it" or that "buyers will want more bathrooms." To which I say, "I don't care." They want me to care. This makes me angry so I must care about people still trying to put their values and ideas on me.
91 Know yourself.
There has been chatter of late about what my sexual orientation may or may not be. This could offend me, but it makes me laugh. See above "Don't Care." Also, I know I look different than most women, dress differently, and live differently than the norm. Part of not caring and dressing how I want, eating how I want, living frugally, is knowing myself. I know what I like, what my goals are, what I want vs what I need, what my priorities are. I also know how I look or sound to other people.
It's not a surprise to me when questions come up. It's not a surprise to me that I confuse people. Knowing myself helps with the not caring and with making my own choices, doing what I want.
Once in a while someone surprises me with an insight about me that I haven't been aware of, but I take it on board and think about it for a bit, and then move on.
92 Take a step back every day.
Take moment to see what you are doing, or thinking or saying. Or just to look at the stars. The current culture is all about distraction. Take a step back. Not some big deal 3 hour meditation. That will end up being another distraction if it's not what you want to do. Just a step back. Maybe look at the person in the car stuck in traffic next to you. Look up at a cloud. Turn off the tv/computer/whatever. Or if you are obsessively cleaning the toilet, take a step back and remember that someone is just going to take a dump in there anyway. It doesn't have to be clean enough to eat off of. It can be if you want it to be, but it doesn't have to be.
Any step. My chickens are good at making me take a step back. So were the bees. Going to check the bees and seeing that they decided to bugger off...that's a step back. OK. I tried. You moved on. Right. No point in getting my knickers in a twist. Can't chase down 30,000 bees and make them move back in to the hive.
Last night it was an amazing night sky. Got home late and tired and over stimulated. Stepped out of the car and noticed it was very dark and I could see so many stars and planets. Even a satellite moving across the Milky Way. 15 seconds of a step back,
93 Dare to Change Your Mind.
Right now I'm living off grid, let's not debate what that means for the moment, working full time in the "real world" on grid, and etc. If I started hating any element of my life, I will change my mind. It's fine. So what? This goes with the trial and error and trying new things and much more. Right now I'm fine with not having indoor plumbing and hanging out with the cool kids/oddballs. I can change my mind.
Right now I'm frugal and thrifty and tracking my money. I might change my mind on that. I might now.
It's fine. I used to never buy used shoes. Then I changed my mind.
I used to use shampoo. Then I changed my mind.
I usually change my mind in ways that save $$. Sometimes now.
I also like to change my mind about little things. Like the 25cent suede blazer I bought at thrift. I thought I would wear it. I haven't. It's time to change my mind on that one (see tip 94)
94 Raw Materials.
Sometimes the value in an item, is in its raw materials. I got a 25cent suede blazer. Turns out I don't wear it. I've had it for months. Now I'm looking at it as raw material...tanned leather. I could use a knife sheath and I want to learn to use the awl I have. That leather hanging unworn among the too many coats is probably the place to start. It's 25 cents. Enough leather to make a lot of mistakes.
I also need some hinges...leather makes a decent hinge. Hmmm....25cents well spent! If I change my mind (see tip 93) about the blazer being a blazer and decide it is raw material.
95 Be Clear.
I was not clear yesterday. A friend was with me at the farmers market. I wanted to make sliders with the pretzel buns from the fabulous baker who sells bread there. Pulled pork is for sale across the street. I asked the friend about it a few dozen times and offered the cash to go get the goddamn pork. She didn't. After the market closed she ran over. And the BBQ place was closed too. YEAH! I KNOW. Then I realized I hadn't been clear. I wanted sliders DURING the market to eat when it was slow. She assumes that we are doing the market and eat AFTER the market. I don't know why I was hinting around. Could have just said, "I want sliders now"and it would have worked.
I have been looking for canning jars lately and let people know what size and what price. NOW I have enough and need to be clear that I am not buying any more for a few months. If I'm not, I'll have people asking me to pay them for jars I don't need.
Being clear saves $$ and aggravation. We ended up with a decent dinner last night, but also it cost more. Oops! Should have been clear.
96 Ask.
Not just for stuff, but about stuff. And stuff.
I have a friend finishing a business degree. So I asked about easy money tracking for the mustard selling. She had good tips. I am not doing everything...like not marketing to restaurants because I don't want to.
People asked me about off grid laundry. I know about that. It was good of them to ask.
I wanted to have chickens so I asked if people knew where I could get some. Now I have all the chickens I can handle.
A friend wants to start fermenting stuff. I like to ferment. So he asked me how. I told him. Just ask.
97 Answer.
When you have an answer, share it. But don't get too attached to the idea that people will do what you said or hear what you actually said. People screw up. It's what sets us apart from the animals. Or not. We do what we want. All of us. So, share the info if asked and then let it go.
If you don't know, then that's the answer (see tip 98)
98 Admit Knowledge Gaps.
I can butcher a chicken, but I'm not great. People asked me how. So my answer was, "talk to that lady" while pointing to the lady who teaches butchering.
One of the WORST workshops I went to was a permaculture workshop where the instructor would NOT admit his knowledge gaps. It sucked. He kept saying that he had a Ph.D. so he know more than us. Well I have one too. AND I poop in a bucket so I know more about humanure. The Ph.D. had nothing to do with anything. The idiot instructor also told a farmer with 40 years making a living at farming that the Ph.D. meant the instructor knew more about farming than the farmer. The class participants turned to the farmer with our questions.
When questions turned to gardening and farming, I pointed to the farmer.
The instructor got pissed. Also fun to watch.
99 Own Your Expertise. It's strange, but I do know my composting including toilet composting. I own it.
At one point, the instructor asked what the class wanted to do with 20 minutes when he didn't have anything ready to present. I snorked (laughed and put beverage up my nose) when a woman said, "I want to hear more from Jill and Dave about composting toilets." Dave was another class member using a bucket toilet full time. The class, as a group, turned their backs on the instructor and grilled Dave and I about turlets. It was awesome.
When they started asking me about the nitrogen vs carbon percents etc, I admitted my knowledge gap (see tip 98) and said, "if it starts to smell like an outhouse, take it out to the compost pile and add more sawdust or peat." "how much" "enough to cover it. If it still stinks, add more." Number 1 tip...don't pee in the bucket." I didn't start spouting percents and chemical formulas or principles. I know how to make it work and rough ratios.
100 Don't Play the Lottery.
It's stupid and you are not going to win.
101 Pay Attention.
Just that. Pay attention to your money. To your purchasing. Your goals. Your life. The world around you. Other people. Opportunities. How you spend your time. How you and your life are changing.
