Just curious who else is living super frugal

[perchie.girl]

I have been researching how to make lye for soap making-- and found this as a promising resource-- anyone make their own lye and have a sucessful method??

I will need to wait until our wood stove is fired up; no point in wasting good wood just to make lye. THat would NOT be frugal.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Lye

In my opinion, making lye is one of the things that come under the heading of just because you can do something it doesn't mean you should. Lye is cheap.

I would have to agree with that one.

Though knowing how to make it is a very good thing. Once I discovered how I made the connection as to why fire place ashes are good for chickens to dust in...

If you make it just be careful its just as dangerous as the canned stuff you get to clear drains.

There is a series of books I used to have back in HighSchool Called Fox fire. Back in 1970 it consisted of five or six books that covered everthing from wheel wrighing to making soap.... Now I believe the book set is up to twelve. Highly recommend having a set.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Foxfire-Book-List/lm/R2QLIXHWUXZ6QT

And the reason to have them in paper is in case infrastructure breaks down and there is no cell no electricity no batteries.
deb

 

[jlynnp]

In my opinion, making lye is one of the things that come under the heading of just because you can do something it doesn't mean you should. Lye is cheap.

I agree Cassie, I can buy it bulk very inexpensively - not worth the work to make it.

 

[PlaidBattleAxe]

Did you skin them first??? Of course you did... what am I thinking??? How bad did they smell???

DH thankfully skinned them!!

They were a bit pongy like cow poop (I guess though, they're rather like little furry rodent moo cows). After a day of cooking, it honestly smelled like beef stew. Though, the dog eats it much more heartily than she ever did my beef stew-------what's that tell me?? Lol

 

[lazy gardener]

Did you try some? should have, just to say you did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Anyone raise meat rabbits?

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

Certainly researching HOW it could be made using ashes was enlightening, and just knowing I COULD do it in a pinch was well worth the research.

I certainly have a greater appreciation of wood ashes.

Did you try some? should have, just to say you did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I had the opportunity to have that stew, the dog would have gotten the leftovers!!

 

[Arielle]

Anyone raise meat rabbits?

I have a one year old boy!!! Apparently I'm not ready to butcher rabbits. lol Though I wouldnt mind doingthe raising if I could find someone to do the butchering. Or at least the first steps of that process.

 

[LindaB220]

I have been researching how to make lye for soap making-- and found this as a promising resource-- anyone make their own lye and have a sucessful method??

I will need to wait until our wood stove is fired up; no point in wasting good wood just to make lye. THat would NOT be frugal.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Lye

I just cannot imagine how much work the pioneer women did back in the day. Washing day must have been a nightmare. I liked the site. I always wondered what and how to make lye. No, I'll not be trying this.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I recently heard a story from a young man ( compared to me) who went looking for his mother. SHe was a member of a South AMerican tribe,a nd he felt deserved when she left him with his father and returned to her people. To his surprise, he did find her and when he experienced her traditional life style, totally understood why his mother returned. Her life was far more simple and delightful compared to pioneer women.

I feel like a hamster on a tread mill . . .

 

[PlaidBattleAxe]

Did you try some? should have, just to say you did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....I completely did. But only a small taste. It smelled JUST like beef stew!! I had to.. and darnit, it was really good..

As long as you don't think of them as anything other than really itty bitty furry moo cows.

Certainly researching HOW it could be made using ashes was enlightening, and just knowing I COULD do it in a pinch was well worth the research.

I certainly have a greater appreciation of wood ashes.

If I had the opportunity to have that stew, the dog would have gotten the leftovers!!

You have NO idea how pis*ed my daughter was that I made it for the dog. She is such a wilderness baby and will literally try ANYTHING. And she apparently has found a taste for the whistlepigs. I bagged it up into two days worth of portions and froze it in ziplock baggies. 2 weeks of meals, give or take, out of 3 of the little guys. Not too bad. But honest to Pete----you can't cook the sons of guns for less than 36 hours, for them to tenderize--even with the help of ACV and the slow cooker!

I recently heard a story from a young man ( compared to me) who went looking for his mother. SHe was a member of a South AMerican tribe,a nd he felt deserved when she left him with his father and returned to her people. To his surprise, he did find her and when he experienced her traditional life style, totally understood why his mother returned. Her life was far more simple and delightful compared to pioneer women.

I feel like a hamster on a tread mill . . .

I have that hamster feeling a lot. I've got it right now. I'm being shipped off to a work conference in Baltimore tomorrow morning for a few days

All I can think of is how much I hate being in the city, a big city, far away from my family and my little mini farmstead...and that how much canning I'm missing out on!!!! The peaches are going to be done, and who knows what else by the time I get back. I want to be self sufficient on a homestead with my family and have our life be our jobs. Not my dang job be my life. Ah well... Rant over...sorry. I'm a homebody and I really hate travelling without my kids and DH, and I'd rather be somewhere checking out cool small towns than a giant metropolis where I don't fit in the least. C'est la vie, right? I'm taking my backyard homestead book and using it to help me plot out my 2015 fruit orchard/berry purchases and garden rotation on my down time....