Homesteading / Simple living / Downshifting... anyone?

[WingingIt]

Thanks for the links!

 

[The Chicken People]

BarkerChickens do you have any pictures of the green house? We are building one from recycled windows and such!

 

[Titania]

Quote:
love it! Can I get on your holiday list?

Seriously, what wonderful gifts. I feel so tired being inundated by all of the plastic toys/gadgets hype this time of year.
One idea I found for children's gifts (my children's cousins, etc) is to melt old crayon pieces together in a cupcake tin or silicone muffin tray, etc. I love it because 1)I'm using old crayon scraps that aren't easy for my children to color with, 2) they can actually help me make the gifts for their cousins and 3) it's darn next to free because I have a heart-shaped silicone tray I bought for $2 one year on clearance. I think that swirly-colored heart crayons will be a cute gift.
Anyway, I know that this is off-topic but I feel that the kind of mentality in this thread is especially useful around holiday times when you'd like to give thoughtful goods or gestures to people you love and appreciate

 

[Titania]

BTW, Want Less, your house is amazing! I'm blown away you can be so diligent in keeping a less materialistic & self-sufficient lifestyle in the midst of renovating and old home.

 

[BamaChicken]

Here is a picture of some soap I made yesterday evening. I had watched a tutorial on swirling and was ready to make this fab looking soap but my brain went out the window or somewhere and when I had it to trace I dipped out what I needed for coloring then poured my soap batter in to mold and suddenly remembered i hadnt put fragrance in. I couldn't get it back out of mold at this point so I put the Fragrance in the colored part that I was going to pour in and slowly swirl around and make pretty. Well it started to sieze in this small amt of batter so I frantically poured into the soap and was stirring like crasy to before it got to hard. The pink globs smell wonderful. I absolutely love doing this. I will do it right next time and in the mean time this soap is perfectly fine for me to use.

 

[TeamChaos]

I think that soap is beautiful- wish I could smell 'em myself!

I am glad to see this thread here, I know there are lots of interesting message boards out there but I am pretty reluctant to log anymore time on the 'net than is 'necessary' (I mean, I HAVE to check BYC- the health of my flock depends on it!

).

I'm in southern WI. My husband and I own a house in a small town and I work my grandparents' farm which is about 7 miles out. We have a seven year old and three dogs. This is my first year with chickens and I'm eagerly planning the next stage for "Almosta farm" (bees? dairy goats? fiber sheep?). My sister, my aunt and I have been gardening on a "large scale" for a year now

My theory on investing time and energy into the gardens is that I could get a job to earn money to buy food or I can cut out the middleman and grow it myself! As a stay at home mom, it has become clear to me how much of life can be missed while earning a living when it's not on your terms. It's important to me to create a home where we prioritize people over things. We're working hard to break ourselves free of the consumerist mind set, not having any available cash sure helps with that

Besides playing in the dirt and hanging with the animals, other interests that would pertain to this thread are: crafting- right now my daughter and I make miniatures for her calico critter world, beyond that I do mostly needlefelting, quilting and papercrafts- and baking. I'd like to learn how to make cheese before the new year!

 

[Liamm_1]

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During my Solar PV/Thermal Design/Installation courses, one instructor told us about a guy in Iowa I believe, who installed a $20k (complete) windmill grid tied system. The amount of energy he produced was so substantial, the energy company wrote him a check at the end of the year for $11k. The instructor said he immediately planned to install 2 more.
Windmills are great in windy areas, and even better when coupled with solar. Here in CA however, our energy company PG&E does not pay for power like some other companies in other states. There was some legislation happening to change that, but they would still only be required to pay 'wholesale' rate, which is less than 1/2 what they bill us for. Not sure if that legislation has gone through yet or not.
So check with your energy provider and laws in your state first of course

 

[BarkerChickens]

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I don't, but I will have DH take some pictures tomorrow!!

 

[vickie2133]

Quote:
I don't, but I will have DH take some pictures tomorrow!!

I am also interested in seeing pictures.

 

[vickie2133]

I do have a clothes line and try to use it as much as possible. I have a wood stove in case the electric is out, and can cook very well on it by the way. I have chickens for eggs, and sell the extras and hatch chicks also to sell. I do shop for some of our clothes at Goodwill. I can quilt and sew. Oh yea we also have rabbits, mini-horses , and goats to do the mowing and weed eating and the compost additions. I grow a small garden in a raised bed, and have 4 apple trees that I put up what I can from these. My kids are teenagers so they think I'm a little strange for wanted to be more country as they call it.