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Archive for the ‘Around the House’ Category
Lessons In Laundry
Colorful quilt’s, faded blue jeans and bright whites hanging on an outdoor line is the quintessential picture of homestead life. But, don’t think fresh, natural smelling, line dried clothing is reserved only for those who live in the country – because it’s not. Every suburban house, whether it be home or homestead can garner the benefits and the pleasures of hanging laundry on a clothes line.
It may not seem that hard to stick a clothespin on a piece of clothing and put it on a line, but as many have found, the results can be scratchy, stiff and wrinkled clothing.
So – what are the tricks that will give you soft, fresh smelling clothes? They’re simple.
But, before you’re ready to hang clothes on a line you’ll need the right equipment for the job. That means a sturdy clothes line, clothes pins and a clothes pin bag or apron. There are several different styles of clothes lines to choose from, but I like the 5-line retractable dryer because it extends 34-feet, which gives you 170-feet of hanging space. I also like the umbrella style because it rotates and allows you to bring the clothes to you.
Clothes pins and bags are easily found at Wal-Mart and are very reasonably priced. But, you can tap into your inner farm girl and make your own by using a spare apron and sewing a 10-inch long pocket onto it, or for an adorable solution take a toddler size button-front shirt and stitch the bottom closed, then put it on a hanger, fill with clothes pins and hang on the line.
- To ready clothes for the line, put them in the dryer on an air or fluff setting for 5 – 10 minutes. This uses almost no electricity and will make your clothes just as soft as if you ran them through a full dryer cycle. If you don’t have a dryer hang, clothes on a windy day. The buffeting wind will create the same result as a fluff cycle.
- As you hang each piece of clothing give it a firm, sharp SNAP. This only takes seconds and will help shape the garment and shake out some of the wrinkles.
- When washing clothes, use a fabric softener or white vinegar to help soften them. This will help keep clothes dryer soft.
- If you live in areas of the country that have bright sunny days, fading may become a problem, but it’s great for brightening up whites. If fading is a concern, just turn colored clothes inside out before hanging them on the line. Fading can also be kept to a minimum if clothes are brought in as soon as they are dry. But, whites can be left out longer and will become brighter.
Now is it time to hang your clothes on the line? Not just yet. Read the rest of the story »
Shards of Golden Light
I love the glow of candle light. It casts a warm comfortable feeling over the entire room. From the first hint of fall’s chill until buds burst in the warm spring air there are candles burning in my little farmhouse.
They are on my mantel, set in a collection of thrift store candle holders on my hearth, on the window sill of my kitchen, in my bedroom and even along side my bath tub. It’s amazing how much that little flickering flame of light can calm and restore and bring peace at the end of a busy day.
But, what once was a necessity for lighting a room, reading a newspaper, or illuminating a path has become almost a luxury. Years ago I could buy candles for a few dollars, but now they cost more than I spend on a bag of chicken feed. Being the frugal farmer that I am however, I have found a few tricks to keep my love affair with candles without breaking the bank.
One is to use the department store gift cards I receive in the mail. You know the ones I’m talking about…where they give you $10 off of a purchase to entice you into the store, hoping you’ll spend more. I’m too savvy for their ploys, though. I am usually able to find 3” pillars, or jarred candles or 6 votives for just under the minimum $10 (which I am still able to use my card to purchase). More times than not I walk out of the store with a beautiful scented candle for no money at all. How’s that for farm girl frugality?
My second method to keeping the candle flames flickering is to save all the little bits and pieces of burned down candle wax. I keep them in a ziplock bag. When I have gathered enough pieces of the same color (or similar color) I melt them down to make new candles. I save all the old jars from any jarred candles because they are made of tempered glass and safe for pouring hot wax into.
For just a few dollars in a package of wick and a $2.00 pot I bought at the thrift store I can make a new candle in less than 30-minutes and enjoy the glow of my recycled wax for hours. How great is that!
To make your own candles out of bits and pieces all you need is a stainless steel pot (one you don’t mind getting covered with wax), a larger pot, an old jarred candle jar and a package of wick.
Now—fill the larger pot half way with water and set it on a medium flame. Cut the wick 1-inch taller than the jar, tie a knot at one end, wrap it around a pencil or chop stick a few times so it sets nicely on the bottom of the jar.
Place the wax bits in the smaller pot and set it inside the larger pot. Let the wax melt, stirring occasionally at first, then constantly as the wax gets hotter. When all the wax has melted, gently pour it into the prepared jar. Let it set overnight. When you’re ready to burn the new candle, cut the wick to ¼-inch and light it.
Voila! That’s all it takes to keep the candle glow burning.
Steamming Bowls and Library Books
My mornings have taken on a new rhythm now that I am working full-time again. The slow leisurely pace of morning is gone. Most of my chores are done before the rest of world thinks of getting up. I feel at home with the new routine, keeping up with fall preps and the farm humming. Change is afoot and not just in the weather. I have plans, folks, plans to finish the greenhouse, plans to plant a winter garden full of greens and roots, plans to start an herb garden of kitchen and medicinals. There will be room for new chicks in the barn and perhaps a pig in the freezer.
Fall is not quite in full swing, but nights are dipping into the 40’s. I wake in the cool foggy morning to a steaming hot bowl of oatmeal, choke full of fruit and nuts. I cook it over my stove rather than in the microwave, it only takes a few minutes. People think I’m crazy that I don’t use those little brown packages that cook up in 30-seconds or so. But, I like cooking over a stove, any stove—gas, electric, wood. I do have a microwave I just never use it for cooking. And—who needs it anyway. Oatmeal is simply adding oats and milk and fruit and nuts and sugar and cinnamon to a pot, and there you have it, an amazing hearty breakfast full of carbs and energy, enough to keep you going through swinging a hammer or stacking a load of firewood.
Tonight I’m off to town to the library’s annual book sale. I’m sure the place will be packed, it always is. The sale has become a kind of ritual for me, a thing I do every season…adding to my growing library. I will comb the stacks, make my selections, sit on the floor and decide what to buy. And, when I am finished I’ll head over to the small café across the street for a wonderful bowl of homemade clam chowder. It’s not like most people would spend a Friday evening, but it is mine.
Recycling Gray Water for Home Gardens
In every homestead’s attempt to become more self-sustaining water is a crucial and sometimes elusive commodity. But, using simple rainwater collection systems and reusing gray water from the washing machine on flowers, shrubs and trees, can go a long way to help offset what comes from municipalities.
Southern California is technically a desert. Our annual rainfall hovers around 10 to 15-inches per year. Sometimes we get more, but more times than not it’s less. Sometimes plants in a vegetable garden or flowerbed need more water than is provided through normal rainfall. Or, maybe your area is not known for frequent or steady rainfall throughout the growing season. In those situations most gardeners just turn on an outside faucet to water the garden, drawing on community water supplies, or from a private well.
But, what if you had another way to not only water the garden, berry patch or orchard, but save money as well? With below normal rainfall and droughts in some parts of the country people are looking for other ways to provide gardens with the moisture they need without using what may become a precious supply of fresh water.
One method is to use the wastewater, usually referred to as gray water, produced in the home. But, what is gray water?
Gray water is all the non-toilet wastewater produced in the average household including the water from bathtubs, showers, sinks, washing machines, and dishwashers. Although gray water does not need extensive chemical or biological treatment before it can be used in the garden as irrigation water, it still must be used carefully because it usually contains grease, hair, detergent, cosmetics, dead skin, food particles and small amounts of fecal matter.
How much gray water can be used in the home garden?
First, collect only as much waste water as you will need to meet the water requirements of your garden. The rest should go into your sewer or septic system.
A good rule-of-thumb for deciding how much gray water to use on your garden is that a square foot of well-drained, loamy soil can handle about a half gallon of gray water per week. In other words, if your garden area is 500 square feet, then you can put up to 250 gallons of gray water on your garden each week.
If you can be choosy about the gray water you recycle on your garden, then use shower and bathtub water first, followed in decreasing order of desirability by water from the bathroom sink, utility sink, washing machine, kitchen sink and dishwasher. Water from the kitchen sink and dishwasher is the least desirable because of the larger proportion of grease, food particles and other materials it will contain. If there is no way you can avoid using water from the kitchen sink and dishwasher, try to limit the amount of grease and solid food particles that go down the drain (non-meat food scraps should be composted rather then put down the garbage disposal). NEVER recycle water from a washing machine that has been used to wash baby diapers because it may contain fecal matter.
What about soaps and detergents? Will they harm the soil and plants?
Soaps and detergents are biodegradable, but they can cause problems when gray water is used over a long period. The main problem with most laundry detergents is that they contain sodium salts which, if present in large amounts, can damage the soil structure, can create an alkaline condition, and can also damage plants.
Avoid detergents that advertise “softening power,” because they will have a large amount of sodium-based compounds. The phosphates in detergents can be good for plant growth, but unfortunately, the detergents highest in phosphates usually contain the greatest amount of sodium. If you re-use washing machine water, cut down or eliminate the amount of bleach you use and do not use detergents or additives that contain boron, which is especially toxic to plants.
When doing your household cleaning, use ammonia, or products that contain ammonia, instead of chlorine as the cleaning agent.
What precautions should I take to protect the soil from damage when I use gray water over a long period of time?
A big danger in using gray water is the build-up of sodium in the soil. You can find out if the sodium levels are high by testing the pH of your soil. A pH of 7.5 or above indicates that your soil has become loaded with sodium. You can correct or avoid this problem by spreading gypsum on the soil at a rate of two pounds per 100 square feet about once a month. Rainfall, or alternating gray water applications with fresh water, will help leach sodium and excess salts out of the soil.
The best solution though is to use detergents that are sodium free or low in sodium.
Is there any danger of spreading disease by using gray water in the garden?
Recycled water from the bath, shower, or washing machine can contain organisms causing diseases in humans. However, when gray water is poured onto soil that has an abundance of organic matter, the potentially harmful bacteria and viruses die quickly. If any should survive, it is unlikely that they would be taken up by the roots of garden plants and transferred to the edible portion of food plants. Nevertheless, for safety, you could use gray water primarily to irrigate lawns and ornamental plants, and sparingly on fruits and vegetables.
How should I apply gray water to the soil?
Whether you carry your gray water to the garden by hand in buckets or modify your household plumbing for direct delivery of water to the area where it is needed, a number of guidelines should be followed in applying the water. They include:
If possible, use gray water for your ornamental plants and shrubs and use what fresh water is available for your vegetable garden. If you need to use gray water for irrigating food plants, restrict its application to the soil around plants such as corn, tomatoes, broccoli, or other vegetables of which only the above ground part is eaten. Do not apply gray water to leafy vegetables or root crops.
Apply gray water directly to the soil surface. Do not use an overhead sprinkler, or allow the recycled water to splash off the soil and contact the above-ground portion of the plants. If you have a drip irrigation system, do not use gray water in it since any solid matter it might contain could clog the emitters in the pipe.
Pour gray water on flat garden areas; avoid steep slopes where runoff could be a problem.
Apply wastewater over a broad area; avoid concentrating it on one particular site.
When possible, rotate applications of gray water with fresh water. The fresh water will help leach out any soil contaminants that might be building up.
Apply thick compost mulches to areas where you use gray water. They will speed the natural decomposition of waste residues.
Use gray water on well-established plants only. Seedlings can not withstand the impurities of the waste water.
Do not use gray water, which is alkaline, on acid-loving plants such as rhododendrons and azaleas. Be sure to rotate your use of gray water with fresh water on lawns and fruit trees.
How can I get gray water from the house to the garden?
Gray water can be transported to the garden several ways, the most basic being to bucket the water from the sinks and bathtub into pails and hand carry it to the garden. More sophisticated systems involve siphoning or pumping water from the bathtub or other deep basins (sumps) to the yard through a garden hose, or removing the trap from the bathroom sink drain pipe and putting a five-gallon, or larger, bucket beneath the sink.
When using gray water from the washing machine first drain it into a large bucket (at least 35 gallon) or trashcan fitted with a hose bib so you can attach a hose to carry water to planted areas. Do not attach a hose directly to the washing machine drain. The potential backflow can cause damage to your washer.
For more information on waste water recycling and supplies check out this website http://www.oasisdesign.net/index.htm.
Daily Water Wisdom
The past few weeks have been the hottest on record for many parts of the country and my area is no exception. The pinch of a high water bill can send an already tight household budget over the proverbial waterfall.
Here in California water is a precious commodity, one that we fight over, protect and conserve on a daily basis. Many strides have been made in water efficient appliances, but there is still more we can do regardless of where in the country you live. Homeowners can go native with landscape plants or use micro sprinklers that direct water to the roots of a plant rather than water the surrounding area, or install low-flow toilets and showerheads. In the garden we can “put the drops on the crops” with the use of drip irrigation and micro sprinklers.
But with a dry summer such as we’re in amplifies just how fragile our water systems really are. Much of the water that flows from rivers to streams to creeks comes from winter snow pack in mountains that may be hundreds of miles away. When this water source is cut availability to many populations is reduced creating a supply and demand situation, sometimes meaning reductions in use.
Reservoirs and water banking help even out the highs and lows of supply, but many areas still rely on natural rainfall to provide the necessary water to crops and livestock. This uncertainly makes it important to become as water wise as possible—wet year or dry year.
To become more water efficient inside and outside try implementing these helpful water tips:
- Take shorter showers or use only a few inches of water in the tub
- Turn off the faucet while brushing teeth
- Use a broom or a blower to clean sidewalks and driveways
- Adjust sprinklers to water only planted areas and not walkways or the driveway
- Wash only full loads of laundry
- Use grey water on non-edible plants and trees
- Run the dishwasher only when full
- Fix leaky faucets and toilets
- Adjust automatic waterers to prevent overflow
- Use water from cooking on potted plants
- Mulch flowerbeds and gardens to help retain moisture
- Research the water requirements for plants to prevent over watering
- Empty water from troughs and fonts on plants when cleaning and changing
As we see the effects lack of water has on our crops and our food system it is in our best interest to look at saving more water and storing more water on a larger scale for the long term, it is important to become more water wise day by day.
National Clothesline Week! Seriously!
Some day a bright young thing working in a basement lab using cheap hardware store parts might come up with a better way of obtaining free energy, but until that time comes clotheslines are the next best thing!
IN THE MEANTIME…LET’S CELEBRATE — The first week in June is International Clothesline Week and was created to encourage people to hang their clothes on a line to dry instead of using electricity or gas sucking clothes dryers.
For nearly 10 years, thousands of people and communities worldwide have participated in International Clothesline Week, and many communities have revised their regulations to allow clotheslines. Now that’s what I call changing the world for the better!
Do you remember your mom hanging clothes out to dry? Do you remember seeing all the bright colors flapping in the breeze? Can you smell the fresh spring day while taking them down? Even in winter clothes were hung out to dry, sometimes coming in so frozen they could stand on their own.
Now most people use dryers exclusively and world-wide that adds up to a lot of dryers!
Opt for Breeze Power, Sun Power, HUMAN Power!
Did you know…Over 80% of households use a clothes dryer, drawing huge amounts of precious energy! If every household spent even one day hanging their clothes out to dry it would save a huge amount of energy and equal a huge savings in dollars. More importantly less dryer use translates into fewer pollutants and fewer health consequences associated with coal driven electricity.
Sacked Out in the Sun
Nala Kitty found a warm spot on the bedroom floor; sun beaming in from a cloudless sky.
Make Your Own Honey Cow
Beekeeping is an art form that dates back thousands of years. It was a DIY project undertaken by both farm families and commercial enterprises. It is said that one hive will produce enough honey to supply a family for one year with enough left over to sell. That’s why small honey production has been a staple on small farms or homesteads for centuries.
Anyone can produce honey at home. Many different kinds of hives can be used. But, for the suburban homesteader city ordinances and zoning codes could be your biggest hurdle so check those out first. If you are lucky enough to be able to house a hive check out this inexpensive and simple design called the Honey Cow by Instructables.com
The Honey Cow is designed to mimic nature as much as possible. Unlike commercial hives that have frames, a foundation or excluders the Honey Cow only has top bars, allowing the bees to do naturally what they would do in a fallen log: build beautiful, natural combs.
It’s easy to make and manage, which makes it perfect for the beginner beekeeper. Plus it’s less intrusive to the bees.
To make your own Honey Cow check out the step-by-step instructions at instructables.com
Building a Fire to Improve Heat Efficiency
Sounds funny doesn’t it, learning how to build a fire. Can’t everyone build a fire? Probably. But, what most people don’t do is build a fire that can improve their heat efficiency.
Traditionally, a fire is built on a metal grate by stacking three or more logs with their sides facing the fireplace opening. Kindling or the gas line is ignited underneath the logs and near the back wall. What makes this an inefficient way to build a fire is the fact that the wood blocks the blaze and prevents the warmth from reaching the room you want to heat.
You can improve your heat efficiency by 100% without spending any extra money. All you have to do is stack the wood differently. It’s that simple. Read the rest of the story »