BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Jilly's small town homestead journal

Hi Jilly, I have always been frugal, learned from my mother who was tossed out on a farm from the city by marriage, right at the end of WWII. I was born in the year of the oldest baby boomers. Mother made use of the material from flour sacks to make my doll clothes and baby blankets. We walked down to the river, bar of ivory soap in hand to wash up in summer. We had a composting toilet under our indoor toilet seat - no sewers out there. Whe used a wood stove to cook on. Had a block of ice delivered every other day for the ice box, precurser to refrigerator.

I love all your ideas!

I haven't had an on-demand system before. I wanted one really bad back when my oldest child was younger. A lot of the frugal, less energy stuff I had been doing didn't fit too well with a small child. Funny you mentioned diapers, because that is part of what drove me wanting to change some of it up. I had more dishes to do, diapers, wanted to wash the baby, etc.
I hadn't thought about hot soaking dishes in a crock pot. That is cool!
Since I still have kids, when we someday get the homestead if an on-demand system is warranted, I would get one.

My great grandma used to wash her hair in her rain barrel Her hair went down to her ankles, and she was considered a known beauty in the area. She lived in Utah, a desert region. A thought for the warm desert dwellers here.
I am not washing my hair in snow

Hi Dean! Good to hear from you and thank you for your thoughts. I am not a canner - I am terrible in the kitchen and at following exact directions. I'd be afraid I'd totally botch things up with botulism. But i do enjoy other forms of preserving. I am drying and dehydrating most things right now, and after summer I'm going to try pickling, salting and sugaring. Maybe even smoking and jerking.

It's fun to find old recipes from the real homesteading days and help keep the old skills alive. And who knows? We might need these skills some day again.

I have so many book ideas. My plan is to publish a series of them, along with individual workbooks to go with each book. The biggest problem is getting started on the first one. I'm in no hurry right now - so at this point all my information is free to all, while I work out the experiments. I feel like a scientist. Homesteadology.

I like my outdoor kitchen too. I have a lot of light and room outside. I also love not adding any heat to my studio. I guess in the winter I'll switch it all back in, although i'd like to cook in the firepit outside, too.

I do eat meat and animal products. My plan is to barter for these things, esp eggs and goats' milk. I like to be free enough to go camping, traveling and backpacking, and livestock would tie me to being home every day. I don't have a backup person to help with this. I don't worry about the cats so much - i can leave out food and water, and they just use the cat door to go in and out.

If it wasn't just me here, I'd want to have chickens with either ducks or geese, a nanny goat and maybe some rabbits for meat and angora hair. I'd have huge trouble killing bunnies though, and skinning, them, unless society fell and I was forced to. At least the birds and goats make eggs and milk.

Lisa, i have two different microfiber categories. I have the basic ones i get from the Dollar Tree for a buck. Usually they are packaged in threes. A dollar for three is great! I pick up a few from time to time.

Then I have my three extra special microfiber deluxe cloths I bought online from Flylady. That was a splurge, but i like supporting her work. I have three and keep them for specific tasks. They are very nice purple ones that feel awesome on my hands. I actually use one just for facial cleansing.

I don't really live somewhere that theft is a problem. It would be weird to think about others wandering onto someone else's porch and 'shopping' for used appliances!

Also, my own appliances are used and not particularly spiffy or new. I can't imagine someone would even want my beat up mini-microwave, old toaster or electric kettle, but for what I paid for these things used, it would not be a worrisome loss.

It would be easy enough to make a privacy screen with those bamboo screens/mats that roll out, or by getting hanging and vining plants to train around everything. I could put all kinds of container plants around the kitchen area and make everything look like an outdoor sitting area.

Today:

Cleaned floors in studio with a vinegar/lemon juice mixture.
Sprayed compost tea on garden plants.
Added urine to compost.
Used rainwater to water fruit trees.
Used greywater in garden.
Handwashed toilet cloths.
Took out plastic recycling.
Cleaned jars to reuse for preserved foods.
Added yard waste to compost.
Added DE to cat food.

Tonite -
Chop apples to dehydrate.
Check on Kvass.

Today:
-used grey water in garden
-urine to compost
-food scraps to compost
-used new Kill A Watt meter to test real time watt usage on everything
-bottled mint kvass and tasted marjoram kvass
-chopped apples/pears and placed in dehydrator, in outdoor kitchen
-used herbal mixture of lavender and citrus as a bug spray
-read again about making hard cider (i might start some this weekend)
-changed out a CFL bulb to a five watt LED bulb for my bedside lamp
-used baking soda and vinegar to clean out sink drain
-recycled steel and aluminum
-cleaned out used bottles/jars with water and bleach to prep them for storing kvass and dehydrated produce
-put dehydrated produce in clean jars for storage
-picked up used 1980s woodburning stove cookbook for use next winter

Susan, what was it like to live with an ice box? What was the best way to work it, if you can recall?

Today:
-took out finished dehydrated apples (ate some too, yum!)
-read Scratch Beginnings (a story about a guy who chose to live homeless with $25 bucks in his pocket in a new town for a year)
-used my corings and bad apple pear parts to start a batch of homemade apple/pear cider vinegar
-used diluted urine in soil around tomato plants (they LOVE it)
-researched historical switchel and shrub vinegar beverages
-added daily kitchen wastes to compost