Homesteading / Simple living / Downshifting... anyone?

[Mattemma]

I was going to ask about the soap too,so thanks for the information. Do you use chamomile flowers in your soap?
My dh could use something for his skin.His hands get terrible cracks in them.


I may have posted to this thread already but:

We compost. I dig up more of the yard for plants every year.I replaced *pretty* plants with edible landscaping. The previous owners had rainwater going into underground pipes.I cut the gutters and redirected the water to rain barrels(aka garbage cans).I took in the kids school red wigglers. I got 3 hens and then took in the kids 5(was 6) school chickens.We use and/or sell the eggs. We got a rabbit strictly for its poop to build our soil.

 

[Want Less]

Quote:

Yay! Thank you for the links! Sounds like a great post-holidays project to learn!

 

[Want Less]

Quote:

We have a few poop-machines as well (2 horses and a donkey, not to mention the chickens) that keep our soil & gardens top notch!

 

[BarredBuff]

You guys really do need to visit Sufficient Self. Its a really great site.

 

[BamaChicken]

Your welcome.
I do use the chamomille flowers in the soap. I first pour some olive oil in a crock pot and then add a about four cups of chamomille and let it slow cook for several hrs till it is good and brown and crunchy. After it cools a bit and has made the house smell yummy i drain the oil through a tea strainer and use it in my chamomille soap batch. I crush about 1 cup of flowers and add them at trace. It is very soothing to skin but if your DH has cracked dry skin i highly reccomend Shea butter. I have been making up body butter using shea butter and a little fragrance oil and color for the ladies like me and granddaughters. It is fabulous. I am now using it as a moisturizer for my face under makeup. It does not clog pores. the soap washes it off good to.

I want to make some compost and make some raised beds for gardening this year. If I only get one bed made this year..

 

[Want Less]

Quote:
I agree it is, and its been mentioned several times on BYC. Im not trying to deter that at all

Its just also fun to have a little spot over here for us to chat as well.

 

[Want Less]

Quote:
We started with three 4x8 raised beds about 5 years ago, doubled it a couple years later, and this spring we are expanding it again. Each year we learn a little more of what works, what doesnt, what we like, and what we'd rather not bother with again. I love "grocery shopping" in our backyard!

 

[BarredBuff]

Yes it is nice to have a thread for us to talk on BYC.

 

[BamaChicken]

Want less, we have a botnanical Garden near here and I just love going and seeing their raised beds for veggies and they incorporate flowers to make it very picturesques. I think if we start with at least one and build from there it will be fun.
Thought you might want to know I didn't grow my Chamomille. I ordered the dry flowers for 5.99 for lb. A pound of Dry flowers is a lot of flowers. They smell heavenly.

 

[BarkerChickens]

We've been trying to homestead in a rural suburban home in Southern California (1/2 acre...semi-rural, semi-suburb...~20 minutes from a small city, ~40 minutes to a big city and ~1.5 hours from LA and Orange County). We've been slowing getting more and more into the not-so-simple "simple" living, but it has increased since DH got laid off a year ago. What has really helped us is that we have always tried to live off one income only. Thankfully, I had finished my Master's degree shortly after he got laid off, so now I am working full-time. We have lived frugally and are thankful for it! Many people have commented in the past that we are too "cheap", but now they are struggling more since work is limited and payments are high.

We have the chickens for eggs (excess roos from hatch are butchered, but hens will here for life as they are all pets with benefits), rabbits for manure, a large garden (No pesticides. etc), fruit trees and we compost. We needed to replace our very old carpet, so we decided to install bamboo flooring throughout the house (much more sustainable). I sew, though not as much as I would like. We do all our own work whether it be installing new toilets, faucets, replacing busted pipes, etc or building a full patio cover. The only thing we have had someone come out and do was fix the leaking roof since we didn't know where the leak was (though broken tiles we do ourselves) and we had a friend come in and help us identify an electrical problem in the house when half our house lost power. I can what I can and freeze the rest. I make my own jams, chicken stock, spaghetti sauces, tomato sauces and can the pureed tomatillos for chile verde in the future. We have exchanged laying hens for beef with DHs cousin who owns a dairy. DH also built a greenhouse a couple months ago using recycled window, etc. for this winters crop (we were previously using hoop houses).

I would like to learn to crochet and quilt. We would like to eventually move across the valley to a rural area in the foothills. It will be the same drive to work, but much more rural and we can get several acres for fairly inexpensive. When we do that, we would like to get some turkeys (offspring for butcher), goats (for weeds, dairy and meat) and pigs.