A 1001 simple things - Projects for the New Year

    

    Happy New Year!  I don't make New Year Resolutions expect for the one I actually keep, which is not to make any Resolutions in the coming year.  Because of that, this post is a bit about our plan for the year ahead.  It's more of a general outline then anything else. 

    As we move into this new year both Sue and I are looking forward to it.   These past few months I've joined a lot of Facebook groups and other things to learn about homesteading, gardening and 1001 simple little things.   Some things I've found to be helpful, others not so much.  

    I bring this up for the simple reason that "becoming a homesteader" is going to mean different things to different people. We don't really fit into any one category ourselves.

    We are planning on having a garden suited to the two of us come the spring and already have the materials needed to start planting the seeds.  We are planning on canning our excess veggies; and our freezers are filled with roughly half full with a cow we bought with friends, and deer meat from a family member's successful hunt.   

    We may not be "self sufficient" but we have that spirit going forward.   WE may very well be self sufficient in several years.  Yet according to many "Homesteading" sites, because we are not completely self sufficient or "off the grid" that somehow we are just playing with this lifestyle.   

    I get it, I've put in a lot of work over the years on various projects that I love only to see them become successful, and then overrun by others that have not been in a particular field or lifestyle for years basically take over.

      One goal that we we have is to be open to thinking outside of the box.  One discovery we made was completely by accident, but it worked.  We need to be more open to that..   For example, we had to remove the dryer duct from out home to clean them out, the previous owner appears to have let 20 years of lint from in those lines.  Not only was that a fire hazard, but it was preventing the clothes from drying.    After cleaning the pipes, I was going to reconnect them, but we didn't for some reason.   She dried a load or two of laundry with a "sock" over the end of the vent to catch the lint. 

    It's been several months and we still have the sock over the vent, although it is cleaned and changed regularly.  The reason is rather simple, why send that hot air out into nature when it can be used to help heat the home?  We also have outdoor clotheslines that we are fully intending to use come the spring.

    No matter what we do, there will be a change in our lifestyles.   Sue and I like to travel and explore, so having animals can be a hindrance to our chosen lifestyle, if we need to be home to feed and watch over the animals at all times, that puts a kink in our travel plans.

    While that may change somewhere in the future, I am not sure if it ever will.

     Plus, there is some evidence pointing to the fact that feed and maintenance of even just three or four chickens would be more costly than simply buying the eggs off the Amish family up the road.  

Stock photo used here

    Both of us have been surprised by little things what we've learned so far and didn't realize.  For example, we use our dishwasher because it's more efficient and saves more water and energy than doing them by hand.  Since it's just Susan and myself, and we let our dishes air dry anyway, it makes sense for us to use the dishwasher than to hand wash..   Homesteading Wisdom, says it shouldn't be...but the numbers don't lie.

     We don't have a solar rig currently, but that is the the future...I just need to learn more about them and decided if it would be more conducive to us to learn to build one, or buy something small.  Some sort of solar power however just makes sense in the long run to me, till it doesn't.  The cost of putting solar in now is just to prohibitive.   As the tech gets better and costs fall, we can revisit it.

    Does that make us any less of a "Homesteader?"  According to some, it does.  Because we are not completely off the grid or supplying 100% of our needs by living off the land.   If anyone should be living off the land completely it's the Amish in our community, yet I see them at our local grocery store all the time.

    Neither of us had to ever use a wood stove before, and as such we didn't know all the things that wood ash could be used for.  While we may not be exactly ready to use wood ash in everything we do,it is something that we are saving.  We've already used it on part of our driveway to help keep the snow and ice under control with mixed results.  If Sue's daughter is serious about putting a beehive or three into our back yard, then that ash might have another use there as well.  It will find its way into our garden come spring in some way. 

    Another possible use for it was if we made our own soap.   While the case for making your own soap for example is a strong one, in the end your spending just about the same amount of money per bar of soap and getting a superior product...the time and expense needed to start - and the possible danger of homemade soap production - doesn't make it worthwhile to us. 

    However, and we are just starting to explore the options of making our own household cleaning products, seems not only safe but worth it in the long run economically.

    Recently I made my own cheese.   Mostly because I was curious to try it and thoroughly enjoyed my results.   I'm actually planning on trying a different recipe sometime later this month.  In fact, I enjoyed making my first batch so much that I'm considering it as a hobby.  The only problem there is that cheese making requires a bit of milk, and frankly I'm really the only cheese eater in the house.   Is the cost worth the effort?  Probably not.  Will I do it?   Probably so.  The fact that my mother in law gave us a small refrigerator that was sitting in her garage doing nothing - and will now be my "cheese cave" didn't hurt

    While I have made hummus in the past, I was actually disappointed in most recent batch.  It was fine, but I made it in the past with much better results.  That, to me, just makes sense to make my own hummus, as a can of chickpeas and roughly 10 minutes of my time is a lot cheaper than  buying it in a store.   

    Susan and I bought an Insta pot for Christmas, even though we really didn't need one, mostly for quick lunches that either of us could make while I'm working from home.  Although we seriously need to look into meal planning this year as a way to live a bit more frugally. 

    So we enter this new year full of hope, trying to cut back on some of our costs - while still improving the home (more on that as we go).  Expect some more posts on living on the cheap, cheese making, home improvement, gardening and canning.   A couple of recipes as I continue to learn to cook and God knows what else.

That's our goal for the new year at least.

Happy New Year!