What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

I know loads of people who use "humanure" on their veg beds. I'm not at the moment but I've done it myself. It's not hard to get a compost heap up to a decent temperature.

Well, I posted that it's against the law here. So, I have never considered composting humanure. But I get so much chicken run compost, that I don't use it all. From a compost point of view, I have more than I need.

 

[Molpet]

but most of the regulations are a response to someone who did something wrong somewhere

They passed a law here to not blow grass on the rd when people mow. This never used to be a problem. People mowed in the first few passes and then mowed out so it blew over the already mowed.
Bikes and Motorcycle would hit the wet grass and wipe out. Cars crashed because they slid when braking.

 

[gtaus]

They passed a law here to not blow grass on the rd when people mow. This never used to be a problem. People mowed in the first few passes and then mowed out so it blew over the already mowed.
Bikes and Motorcycle would hit the wet grass and wipe out. Cars crashed because they slid when braking.

Perfect example of someone messing up on something simple and then a law has to be written to enforce what many of us would consider common sense. I have always made the first few passes around the edges of the property cutting the grass to the inside. Then after a few passes, reverse the mowing to send the grass clipping away from middle. But the grass would stay on the lawn at that point and not out on the road or sidewalk. I don't know if I was ever taught that, but it's just the way I always did it. Good to know that bad things could happen if you blew all that grass out on to the road.

FWIW, I have a battery operated leaf blower that I use after mowing and edging to blow any debris back on to the lawn. I did it just to make things look better. But I guess there is also a valid safety reason for it that I had never considered. So, thank you for that post.

 

[saysfaa]

Those who used cloth diapers, did you use wool covers too?

I finished prepping the diapers and made the first attempts at using them. It took many configuration experiments to get something semi-workable. Semi- workable is not the same as working.

The problem is the components are not designed for babies this small. The only cover I could find that said it sometimes works for premies did fit the biggest baby when snapped into the smallest settings. But I think they used the same pattern as the bigger sizes and made everything about it proportionally smaller. There isn't enough clearance to fit a diaper into it. I used the "paper towel alternative" - which is the same material as the birdseye flat diapers in two layers and a smaller size. That barely fit when folded to the maximum length and width (of the cover) and then was almost too thick to not push the leg openings away from the legs (I thought, since it leaked, I'm not sure). So, I don't think I can fit more cotton into it even though I have a few options - a "wipe" or a "washcloth" made of the same material as the diapers or cutting up a diaper to make doublers.

That configuration did not work. The diaper and the clothes were both saturated at the next change. So the diaper wasn't bulky enough and, possibly also, the openings weren't tight enough.

I think the wool covers will work because the adjustment is in the stretch of the openings rather than incremental snap settings.

The owner of the company selling the ones I like best says she used these most of the time with her babies and they are the only covers that never leaked. I wish I had considered wool before placing my last order; I didn't even read the description. I already bought the $15 snap cover because she said it might work. I'm hesitant to spend another $35 for another component I'm not familiar with. I used plastic pants ("rubber pants") and like them better than the fancy snap covers but they aren't available small enough. We have one package of the smallest we could find with a LOT of looking. The diameter of the leg holes are 2-3 times the diameter of their legs.

I suppose, we can just wait until the babies are big enough to fit the standard options. I think I will go home before then, though. I was hoping to help dd with figuring out how to use and clean the cloth option.

 

[saysfaa]

... So the diaper wasn't bulky enough and, possibly also, the openings weren't tight enough.
...

The alternative is to change the diaper more often but they already get changed at least twice every three hours. I don't think more often is workable both because the adults have other things to do and because the babies need their sleep.