LOL! Trust me, if anything comes out of that pressure cooker I can't break by hand, it won't be going in the processor! Hadn't thought about rib bones though...that might well be an option!
Just curious who else is living super frugal
- Thread starter HeatherLynn
- Start date
- Jul 16, 2011
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Hey Dennis, How's this for a laugh? Earlier today I give you a short tutorial on lambing jugs, tonight I had to put one up. One of my ewes was showing signs of going into labor, and a blizzard is due sometime tonight, so she's locked up, dry with a heat lamp. Better safe than sorry!
Talk about ironic timing!
Talk about ironic timing!
yay !!! good for you !!! 
DennisK
Songster
Hey Scott! Congratulations – I hope the little one will be well and strong!
I am thinking of making a special area just for such an occasion. I am thinking of digging out the area from the side of a hill with adobe walls and a roof level with the upper part of the hill. Last year, we found a trencher with a 5 foot boom for a very good price. We brought it home, reworked its hydraulics, fixed its boom, and replaced some pins. It cuts into the hillside with ease – building a partially subterranean shelter for the sheep should be fun.
Jennifer and I both think your idea of a 4 foot fence with topping barbed wire is a good one. An electrical wire running along the outside would be an added deterrent. We think this would be less expensive than what we were previously thinking. Thanks for the idea!
- Jul 16, 2011
- 289
- 30
- 118
If you're going 'lectrical, why not go all the way!
I'm talkin' full bore, no holds barred, 220 volt concertina wire. I used some of that once, still got scars to prove it. It not only deters, it barbeques!
And, for a limited time, you can add motion sensing, radar controlled flame throwers, mounted on turrets every 50 feet.
Imagine, you and Jennifer, sittin' on the porch as the sun sets. A warm glow over the hills. An occasional blast of orange flame to warn a ranging coyote. A roosting bird crackles and pops with a sizzling sound.
Nature at bay, life is good! (WHOOOSH!!!!)
The preceeding is only a JOKE and is NOT intended as actual an actual recomendation. Had this been an actual recomendation, you would have been advised that this was an actual, recommended recomendation. This is not, in fact, it is a JOKE. Oh, and no baby yet.
I'm talkin' full bore, no holds barred, 220 volt concertina wire. I used some of that once, still got scars to prove it. It not only deters, it barbeques!
And, for a limited time, you can add motion sensing, radar controlled flame throwers, mounted on turrets every 50 feet.
Imagine, you and Jennifer, sittin' on the porch as the sun sets. A warm glow over the hills. An occasional blast of orange flame to warn a ranging coyote. A roosting bird crackles and pops with a sizzling sound.
Nature at bay, life is good! (WHOOOSH!!!!)
The preceeding is only a JOKE and is NOT intended as actual an actual recomendation. Had this been an actual recomendation, you would have been advised that this was an actual, recommended recomendation. This is not, in fact, it is a JOKE. Oh, and no baby yet.
lol !! hmmm, well i am a licensed electrician. but i think we might upset some of the neighbors if we burn down the country side.
DennisK
Songster
Never mind the coyotes, mountain lions, or the bobcats - our ‘lectrical habits come from an ongoing battle with ground squirrels! When I first bought this property, I planted some peach trees. Those busy little critters totally stripped every fruit and leaf from them! Then when I brought in chickens, their population exploded which resulted in tripling my feed cost. This does present a serious problem, because the ground squirrel is a staple for the coyotes, bobcats and all of the raptors that frequent this area. We really don’t want to eradicate the wild population, but our interest and theirs are in conflict. We found that a fence with chicken wire at the base, and an electrical wire along the top, effectively keeps the ground squirrel population in check. The wire’s current isn’t enough to kill, but it does discourage. Whatever we do in this environment, it seems to have a profound effect on the population of these opportunistic little critters – mice, rats, rabbits, and ground squirrels – to name a few. We move in, bring water up from deep underground, and before you know it, the whole ground seems to move with furry little bodies!
We have gone back and forth on being frugal. It's a tough wagon to not fall off of but we've made great progress this last year and plan on working on it this year. We've never been big meat eaters and I quit it altogether nearly a year ago. With the prices expected to skyrocket this year due to the drought I find that to be quite helpful with the groceries.
- Dec 8, 2012
- 411
- 32
- 101
when people on here talk about frugal, they are still spending money on what i would call luxuries: instant foods, canned foods, cereals adn stuff...
when i think frugal, i think about NOT paying or buying things when repairing would work just as well, or making your own, or doing without....
although i think its a cultural thing also... here, twenty years ago, everything was held together with spit and wire as my parents used to complain when they came to visit me... i mean, when i gave birth to my first daughter, in 1988! we still didnt have pampers type diapers here. her age group was the first age group to get pampers, and also the first age group to get similac or other milk replacer for thsoe mothers that werent or couldnt breast feed. up til then, they got cows milk.
we make our own baby foods even now, and even before it became trendy. my mother was horrified that we didnt have gerbers type foods; we cooked and then blenderized or fork mashed everything. it was par for the course that children slept in bunk beds , pull out beds, trundle beds, and only recently did people start haveing rooms per child (here average is 3-4 kids)...
here houses/apartments still have boilers that are both solar and elctric and hot water runs out fast so many families wash dishes (by hand) in cold water... as do i. while washing machines are found in most houses, they are half the size of the american styles, (up to five kilo), and a majority of poeple still hang out laundry to dry even in the city.
the habit of buying all white socks so that there are always pairs is an other habit that is slowly dying out among the teens, but in many houses, still the practice. here, school uniforms save us from having to find wardrobes that compete with eachotehr (although outside of school is an other story)...
up until recently, most families had someone that baked cakes/cookies (a grandmother, aunt, or mother and sometimes a father, or in our case, my ex father in law, hugnarian by birth, a baker of complex cakes)
as one of my friends says: she and her mother can make do cooking a five course meal on a 'pltilia' , a wick karosene type portable stove. when complement someone by saying htey can cook using a 'ptilia', it is the highest compliment because it means that they can make do with whatever, and still manage to come out with a five course meal w/o fancy turbo and other technology.
and , apropo ptilia , i found this pic from a wikipedia, jsut for chickens: http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/פתילייה
the third pic down has a chick warmer, using a petilia to heat a basin to heat new hatched chicks... and we cant deal with fancy incubators...
so i dont understand why using coupons to buy stuff u dont really need is frugal. here, we use one type of knife for cutting everything from veggies to our meat at the dinner table (another thing that irks my mom, no real steak knives etc. jsut this one tiny serrated plastic handled thing for everyhitng).most households use a durable glass mug that is like one of the symbols of 20=30 or more years ago, a non breakable glass cup that is the basis of all recipes that are handed down in households.. the cups/mugs arent beautiful but they are totally functional. here also, most families ahve one or two sets of silverware (dairy and meat for those that keep kosher), which consists only of a fork, knife, teaspoon, and tablespoon. no elaborate sets escept for maybe High Holy day meals. again, we tend to eat everyhtng on the same plate (salad, meat, rice/potatoes/vegetables/oriental salads/bread), everything but the dessert. no need for thousands of different types of plates and bowls. cereal is still not a main meal but something that is eaten as a snack, so cereal bowls are only now becoming a neccesity. we used to give them as birthday presents, as speciality items that u wouldnt buy for yourself.
nobody buys tupperware types things, but reuses all the cottage cheese and humous plastic containers. not because they are in to recycling but because it is cheaper then buying containers.
planting in old olive barrels, olive oil containers, broken toilets, sinks, plastic food containers ... always done here. when i first arrived i thought it was hideous... now its trendy and u actually have to pay for this stuff!!. ,
we recycled all our kids' spiral notebooks (the ones the teachers always require us to buy but the kids never us. until recently, the ntoebooks were small, carton covered things, but in the past 15 years all the glossy covered name brand types became popular). i recently donated a crate of school supplies that we had aquired, how many rulers and magic markers do u need in a house?
old quilts become dog beds, towels get made in to floor mats and rags, you still see people here driving around in cranky old mini pickups , cutting forage for their goats and sheep rather then buy it. its not a rare sight. it will be with time, but not as of yet. these are the things i think of when i think frugal.
when i think frugal, i think about NOT paying or buying things when repairing would work just as well, or making your own, or doing without....
although i think its a cultural thing also... here, twenty years ago, everything was held together with spit and wire as my parents used to complain when they came to visit me... i mean, when i gave birth to my first daughter, in 1988! we still didnt have pampers type diapers here. her age group was the first age group to get pampers, and also the first age group to get similac or other milk replacer for thsoe mothers that werent or couldnt breast feed. up til then, they got cows milk.
we make our own baby foods even now, and even before it became trendy. my mother was horrified that we didnt have gerbers type foods; we cooked and then blenderized or fork mashed everything. it was par for the course that children slept in bunk beds , pull out beds, trundle beds, and only recently did people start haveing rooms per child (here average is 3-4 kids)...
here houses/apartments still have boilers that are both solar and elctric and hot water runs out fast so many families wash dishes (by hand) in cold water... as do i. while washing machines are found in most houses, they are half the size of the american styles, (up to five kilo), and a majority of poeple still hang out laundry to dry even in the city.
the habit of buying all white socks so that there are always pairs is an other habit that is slowly dying out among the teens, but in many houses, still the practice. here, school uniforms save us from having to find wardrobes that compete with eachotehr (although outside of school is an other story)...
up until recently, most families had someone that baked cakes/cookies (a grandmother, aunt, or mother and sometimes a father, or in our case, my ex father in law, hugnarian by birth, a baker of complex cakes)
as one of my friends says: she and her mother can make do cooking a five course meal on a 'pltilia' , a wick karosene type portable stove. when complement someone by saying htey can cook using a 'ptilia', it is the highest compliment because it means that they can make do with whatever, and still manage to come out with a five course meal w/o fancy turbo and other technology.
and , apropo ptilia , i found this pic from a wikipedia, jsut for chickens: http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/פתילייה
the third pic down has a chick warmer, using a petilia to heat a basin to heat new hatched chicks... and we cant deal with fancy incubators...
so i dont understand why using coupons to buy stuff u dont really need is frugal. here, we use one type of knife for cutting everything from veggies to our meat at the dinner table (another thing that irks my mom, no real steak knives etc. jsut this one tiny serrated plastic handled thing for everyhitng).most households use a durable glass mug that is like one of the symbols of 20=30 or more years ago, a non breakable glass cup that is the basis of all recipes that are handed down in households.. the cups/mugs arent beautiful but they are totally functional. here also, most families ahve one or two sets of silverware (dairy and meat for those that keep kosher), which consists only of a fork, knife, teaspoon, and tablespoon. no elaborate sets escept for maybe High Holy day meals. again, we tend to eat everyhtng on the same plate (salad, meat, rice/potatoes/vegetables/oriental salads/bread), everything but the dessert. no need for thousands of different types of plates and bowls. cereal is still not a main meal but something that is eaten as a snack, so cereal bowls are only now becoming a neccesity. we used to give them as birthday presents, as speciality items that u wouldnt buy for yourself.
nobody buys tupperware types things, but reuses all the cottage cheese and humous plastic containers. not because they are in to recycling but because it is cheaper then buying containers.
planting in old olive barrels, olive oil containers, broken toilets, sinks, plastic food containers ... always done here. when i first arrived i thought it was hideous... now its trendy and u actually have to pay for this stuff!!. ,
we recycled all our kids' spiral notebooks (the ones the teachers always require us to buy but the kids never us. until recently, the ntoebooks were small, carton covered things, but in the past 15 years all the glossy covered name brand types became popular). i recently donated a crate of school supplies that we had aquired, how many rulers and magic markers do u need in a house?
old quilts become dog beds, towels get made in to floor mats and rags, you still see people here driving around in cranky old mini pickups , cutting forage for their goats and sheep rather then buy it. its not a rare sight. it will be with time, but not as of yet. these are the things i think of when i think frugal.
DennisK
Songster
I enjoyed your post, nok13. Your mention of washing machines hit a nerve, as the one we have keeps breaking down, and with all its fancy electronic controls I can’t understand the thing well enough to fix it. I keep paying big bucks just to keep it going. All I want is reasonably clean clothes, but my only alternative is to join the natives by the river at my favorite rock; so I choose to keep shelling out dollars to keep it going. Things like that make me want to get closer to basics, but there comes a point when we are dealing with deprivation instead of frugality. Frugality, as I define it, is value, and deprivation is “doing without” – two completely different things.
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