What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

I rawfed for little over a year, so this is from experience as well as research.

Why did you go to a raw diet? Did it help? Why did you stop?

DH is looking at "making" our dog's meals here at home, versus buying dog food. A friend of ours makes their dog's food. Their dog is about 20 pound overweight, but I don't know if that's the reason, or if she just doesn't get enough exercise.

 

[gtaus]

The professor of my abnormal psychology class said most people who have kicked both soda and cocaine say soda is more difficult.

As an RN, I had a job dealing with people with drug addictions. Soda might not be good for your health, but I don't remember anyone destroying their life by drinking pop. Some people are just more prone to addiction than others. I was lucky, I guess, because I just told Dear Wife one day that I was quitting soda pop - cold turkey - and never had an issue with it. Well, I had some soda-related headaches for a few days but no overwhelming need to drink more pop.

I have heard some patients say it was easier to quit Heroin than quitting smoking. I don't know. I have not done either. But it sounds like your cocaine-soda pop addiction comparison.

 

[gtaus]

Why are you cooking the chicken? ...I rawfed for little over a year, so this is from experience as well as research.

Eating raw chicken is something I have never considered! Does not sound safe from everything I have ever heard or learned in school. But I am willing to read any info you have on the subject.

The accepted Nursing instruction usually is something like this...

"Most raw poultry contains Campylobacter. It also may contain Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and other bacteria. Raw meat may contain Salmonella, E. coli, Yersinia, and other bacteria." [MedicalNewsToday.com]

So, chicken should be thoroughly cooked to destroy germs that might be on raw chicken.

 

[LizzzyJo]

Eating raw chicken is something I have never considered! Does not sound safe from everything I have ever heard or learned in school. But I am willing to read any info you have on the subject.

The accepted Nursing instruction usually is something like this...

"Most raw poultry contains Campylobacter. It also may contain Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and other bacteria. Raw meat may contain Salmonella, E. coli, Yersinia, and other bacteria." [MedicalNewsToday.com]

So, chicken should be thoroughly cooked to destroy germs that might be on raw chicken.

My dog eats a lot of raw meat from hunting rabbits on our property. I asked our vet and he said that their bodies have better defenses against food borne illnesses - he may have mentioned their colon being shorter as an added benefit, but I need fact checking on that!

 

[gtaus]

My dog eats a lot of raw meat from hunting rabbits on our property. I asked our vet and he said that their bodies have better defenses against food borne illnesses - he may have mentioned their colon being shorter as an added benefit, but I need fact checking on that!

The human digestive track takes from 24 to 72 hours to pass through. A dog has a 6 to 8 hour tract. Many animals have better defenses against food borne illnesses than humans. We have the advantage of being able to cook our food to kill the germs.

 

[saysfaa]

Why did you go to a raw diet? Did it help? Why did you stop?

DH is looking at "making" our dog's meals here at home, versus buying dog food. A friend of ours makes their dog's food. Their dog is about 20 pound overweight, but I don't know if that's the reason, or if she just doesn't get enough exercise.

Eating raw chicken is something I have never considered! Does not sound safe from everything I have ever heard or learned in school. But I am willing to read any info you have on the subject.

The accepted Nursing instruction usually is something like this...

"Most raw poultry contains Campylobacter. It also may contain Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and other bacteria. Raw meat may contain Salmonella, E. coli, Yersinia, and other bacteria." [MedicalNewsToday.com]

So, chicken should be thoroughly cooked to destroy germs that might be on raw chicken.

She got sick easily at any differences of food including even one dog treat, different dog food, and so on. Sick meaning throwing up, then throwing up bile, drooling excessively through it all. Drooling is a sign of nausea. It would usually take a day or two or two or three to get past it. We did pretty good at keeping other foods away but had bouts a once or a couple times a year or so. It seemed the more careful we were, the less it took to set it off.

I can't remember all the details now but she had a particularly bad series of bouts close together without getting a different food and ended up at the vet's for a couple of days - xrays, a couple kinds of meds, l don't remember what all. Anyway, he said it was pancreas and to put her on Science Diet.

I didn't like what was in Science Diet and it was really expensive, even compared to the upper-ish end food we'd been feeding. So I did a ton of research. It made sense to feed what "dogs" (wolves, dingos, cape dogs, etc) ate in the wild. I found a Prey model rawfeeding yahoo group that was very active. When so many had done it, many for a very long time, I tried it. She didn't have a single episode after that.

I did stop doing it more than a year later. It was working well and the prep was very easy but shopping so as to keep the costs down wasn't so easy after one of my best sources (close, easy to get to) stopped carrying the more inexpensive options. And I got a job so had less time to shop for her. I tried a dog food (Blue Buffalo salmon). She didn't get sick on it so I left her on it. She went back to not getting sick as long as she didn't eat anything else, including any other flavor of Blue Buffalo.

Prey model is 10% bone (as it comes- in the meat), 10% organs, 80% meat (everything that is not bone or organs). Heart is meat, not organ. Over time - not each meal. Most dogs do well with the organs added twice or three times a week. Some can do once a week, some need it most days. You tell how much they can eat at a time by how firm the poop is. Oh, and I took at least some of the visible fat off. They need fat but more like how much fat wild game animals have than what is more commonly available in suburbia.

Sorry, I don't have the sources. They are probably still one one of the older computers but they aren't really accessible. It has been a long time, I don't know if the links would still work anyway.

And, yes, I cook the chicken I eat.
Dogs have different gut microbes among other things (different pH, maybe? it has been a long time) that make it much safer for them to eat raw meat.

Anyway, she didn't have any issues. I can't think of anyone -even the newbies - on the yahoo forum that did, either.

 

[saysfaa]

As an RN, I had a job dealing with people with drug addictions. Soda might not be good for your health, but I don't remember anyone destroying their life by drinking pop. Some people are just more prone to addiction than others. I was lucky, I guess, because I just told Dear Wife one day that I was quitting soda pop - cold turkey - and never had an issue with it. Well, I had some soda-related headaches for a few days but no overwhelming need to drink more pop.

I have heard some patients say it was easier to quit Heroin than quitting smoking. I don't know. I have not done either. But it sounds like your cocaine-soda pop addiction comparison.

It might have been heroin. I tend to keep them in the same memory slot.

 

[gtaus]

And, yes, I cook the chicken I eat.
Dogs have different gut microbes among other things (different pH, maybe? it has been a long time) that make it much safer for them to eat raw meat.

OK. We are in agreement on this issue. People should cook chicken before they eat it. Raw chicken is probably fine for a dog. Maybe I misunderstood your previous post, but I wanted to be sure that, as far as I knew, people should always cook chicken before eating.

 

[gtaus]

Here is a frugal tip for those of you who are in the market for a powered snow shovel. Last fall I bought a Ryobi 40v snow shovel kit, with battery and charger and I got a good deal on it at the time. I wanted a second 40v battery for my Ryboi 40v chainsaw, so the complete kit made sense for me. However, if you don't want to buy the complete kit, or if you already have a different universal powerhead, you can buy the snow shovel attachment separately and save some money.

I have the Ryobi line of tools, but these ideas should work for any brand with universal attachments, Milwaukee, DeWalt, etc...

These power snow shovels are good for light snow blowing. They advertise up to 6 inches, which is pretty right on the mark. If you need to shovel a higher snowbank, then you can just take a bit off the top, like maybe 4 inches at a time, and work it down to the ground. That works well, too.

We got about 2 inches of snow last night, so I was out again today using my little powered snow shovel to clear parts of the driveway and the path out to the chicken coop in the backyard.

Instead of using the 40v powerhead that came with the kit, I decided to try my 18v powerhead that came with my 18v grass trimmer. I am happy to say that, for what I did today, there was practically no difference in performance of the snow shovel attachment. It still threw the snow plenty far enough off the path.

So, I can say that if you have a 18v or 20v powerhead, you can probably use one of these snow shovel attachments successfully. Of course, an 18v battery does not have the same runtime as a larger 40v battery, but I was surprised at how much I got done with my 18v battery before I had to swap it out with a fresh battery.

Well, there might be a difference in power with a 40v powerhead if I was blowing off a full 6 inches of snow, but for only 2 inches of fluffy new snow, the 18v powerhead did fine.

You can also use an electric or gas powerheads with those attachments. I have an electric powerhead, but I don't like having to drag a cord behind me. Also, the end of my driveway is like 100 feet from my nearest outside outlet, so it would take a very long cord. But the electric powerhead worked just fine, too.

If you are thinking about getting a powered snow shovel, I would highly recommend you get one that uses the universal attachment design. It will save you lots of money if you can just swap out the attachments on your powerhead compared to buying a single unit that cannot be used for anything else.

 

[igorsMistress]

If you top mulch the soil in the buckets, or any raised beds, it will help reduce water evaporation. I have seen some systems that cover the topsoil with a heavy, dark, plastic and just cut a hole in the plastic for the plant. I have used top mulch, but have never tried the heavy black plastic method.

I just watched a YouTube video last night and that guy was using buckets to grow food. His buckets, sitting outside without shade, lasted him 6 years before he replaced them. I suppose the amount of sun damage depends on where you live. I also wonder if the color of the bucket makes a big difference in terms of useful life if it sits out in the sun?

I saw one person suggesting that the plastic buckets and bins be covered with burlap from potato sacks or from a roll of burlap. In his opinion, the burlap helped protect the plastic from the sun, and more importantly to him, covered up the advertising on the Home Depot, Harbor Freight, Lowes, etc... buckets. I will say that I, too, thought the burlap covered planters looked better than an assortment of multi-colored buckets with advertising on them. Is it worth the effort? I guess that depends on home much protection you get from the sun and how much you like the looks of burlap over adversting on the buckets.

I think burlap is a great idea actually. I’ve used both food grade and non food grade buckets here depending on the purpose. The food grade break down after 2 to 3 years if they get regular sun.