Any mama, and especially mamas of many, knows that laundry is a big deal. It’s never done, and it can pile up on you … fast! There’s an added complication when you desire to hang dry all or most of your laundry. And there are many reasons why someone would want to line dry laundry. Self-sufficiency, utility bill savings, gentler on fabrics etc. It’s no biggie when the sun is shining and you can use an outdoor clothesline, but for the months of rain and snow, what’s a mama to do? I’ve tried these and this and one of these thingamabobs They’ve all worked…for a time. And then they sagged or fell apart. The fact of the matter is, it’s hard to find well made drying racks these days. It’s even harder to find LARGE drying racks….something large enough for a family of 7, and sturdy enough to handle daily use. And then, I discovered the Homestead Drying Rack company. I read a few reviews from other bloggers…and I trusted them because I’d read their blogs for a good long while. At the time, Erin and her husband from Keeper of the Homestead owned the business and her husband built the drying racks. These days, Kristy and her husband own the Homestead Store and Kristy’s hubby builds them. I was totally flabbergasted when Kristy contacted me and asked if I’d like to try out a drying rack of my choosing for review. I’d wanted one of these racks for such a long time, and God answered my prayers!! He is so good. I tried the Homesteader Rack. I usually run 2-3 loads of laundry a day, […]
Archives for June 2015
Frugal Fridays #31
Successes/Blessings: I harvested beets. This is the last of my Spring harvest of beets. I’ll replant for a Fall harvest. I made balsamic glazed roasted beets, and I haven’t decided what I want to do with the greens yet. I’ll be bringing some of them to my husband’s uncle who has been teaching me beekeeping. He mentioned last week that he loves the greens as much as the root. It’s the least I can do to thank him for his time and wisdom! The kids picked some strawberries out of our small strawberry box. They nibbled them while they played outside and we also had some with lunch a couple of days. I got a great deal on some disposable diapers at CVS. They’re in cloth most of the time, but we use sposies at night and if we’re going out. I hung almost all of the laundry on my homesteader drying rack (watch in the next few days for further information and a coupon code!). I made 7 pints of mulberry jam with mulberries gleaned from my husband’s uncle. I got several quarts of fresh strawberries from my sister (a friend gave them to her, and she couldn’t use them all before they went bad). I’ll make jam and freeze some. We haven’t had a need to turn on the air conditioning yet this year. I’m loving the low utility bills! I sold 7 home school books on the Used Curriculum Blog Hop. The money from these sales will go toward purchasing curriculum for next year. I used a coupon code to save $20 on the purchase of beehives (!!!). You read that […]
Frugal Fridays #30
Successes and Blessings: I came in at around $60 under my monthly grocery budget of $400 (per month) for our family of 7. I made 2 loaves of bread. We harvested beets and garlic scapes from the garden to eat this week. I made pesto with the scapes, and roasted the beets in foil packs on the grill. I picked up some produce from the veggie stand near our church for some great prices. I picked up another 40lbs of soft white wheat from the farm feed store. I got a great price on dog food there, too. I started more kale, cow peas, mesclun and beets for the garden. My husband has had the opportunity to take a good deal of overtime at work over the next 3 weeks. We’re hoping to be able to do a mini-remodel on the kitchen with the added income. This is one of the things we’re doing to prepare our house to sell in 2 years (God willing) so that we can move somewhere with more land. I picked up the rest of our pig order, which included the lard and smoked meats (ham, bacon, hocks). I dehydrated about 10 lbs of onions in my dehydrator (this dehydrator is very similar to the one I have ). Goals: Transplant starts. Find a U-Pick strawberry place and make jam. My husband’s uncle let me pick mulberries from his tree when I went for my beekeeping lesson today. So I’ll be making mulberry jam instead! Render lard. Pick up some craft mesh to make screens for dehydrating diced/chopped foods. Pick up bread from the outlet. I’ll be busy […]
Curriculum Sale Blog Hop
One of my favorite homeschool bloggers, Jessica, at Shower of Roses hosts a curriculum sale blog hop. This year I’m somewhat organized enough to participate. Who’da thunk. 😉 Leave a comment if you are interested in purchasing any of the items listed. I will send you a private e-mail with your total, including shipping, along with my Paypal address. To keep it all very simple, a flat shipping rate will be applied to cover the cost of packaging, postage etc. For 1-3 items, shipping will be $5. For 4+ items, shipping will be $7. I will update the post as quickly as possible to show pending sales and sold items. Thank you! 1. A Year with God, Volume 1. Catholic Heritage Curricula. $3 Sold 2. The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book. $6 Sold 3. Story of the Wold, Volume 1. Activity Book. $10 Sold 5. Story of the World, Volume 1. Tests and Answer Key. $5 Sold 1. Homeschooling the Challenging Child by Christine M. Field- Good condition. $5 Sold 2. Leading the Little Ones to Mary by Sister Mary Lelia- Good Condition. $2 Sold 1. Christian Heritage Art Program, Level 1 and Teacher’s Guide for Levels 1-8. Great condition, only used twice. $9 Sold 1. Tin Cups and Tinder. Good Condition. Small juice stain on last few pages. $7 2. World Literature, Seton. Fair condition. $2 Sold 1. Old Mother West Wind by Thornton W. Burgess. Good Condition. $5 2. Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales. Good Condition. $5 Sold 1. Sex and the Sanctity of Human Life. $2 2. Raising Good Kids by Dr. Ray Guarendi. $3 Sold 3. Teaching your Children Values by Linda and Richard Eyre. $4 […]
Frugal Fridays #29
Successes/Blessings I had my first beekeeping lesson from my husband’s uncle! So very exciting. And I’m so thankful to have his wisdom and willingness to teach me. I’m 100% hooked! This venture will probably push back the meat rabbit thing because I can really only handle getting used to 1 venture at a time. For the time being, I’ll probably keep a hive or 2 on his land since we don’t really have a good spot on our 1/2 acre to keep them. Do you have experience keeping bees on a smaller lot? I’d love to hear about your experience! I hung most of our laundry outside except when it was raining. I have a new development in the hanging laundry department-very exciting! Watch for future posts. I made 4 loaves of bread. I used my homemade soap for household cleaning. I have been conserving water in a few different ways, specifically in the kitchen. Our water prices are extremely low since we live 5 minutes away from Lake Ontario, but I want to get in the practice of being more prudent in our water usage. I will harvest garlic scapes today and make pesto. I planted more mesclun, beets, and kale. I’ll plant more carrots today or tomorrow as well. The beets that are currently in the garden are ready to be harvested, which will happen in the next few days. I’ll probably boil the beet root and saute the greens or use them in a salad. I love that all parts of beets are edible! I purchased some Egyptian Walking onions that I will plant today or tomorrow. If all goes well, I’ll […]
Homesteading Thoughts: Meat Rabbits?
Living in the suburbs has its benefits. We can ride our bikes or walk to the library and the cute little coffee shop across the street. My husband, who is a volunteer firefighter, can get to the fire hall within seconds of a call coming through on his pager (having been on the needing end of one of those calls recently makes me appreciate a quick response time during those scary moments when minutes and seconds make all the difference). I don’t completely hate the ‘burbs, and I imagine I’ll miss those advantages when we move out to the country (2 years from this month!). There are some drawbacks, though. The lack of privacy being one. How I pine for privacy. Freedom, also. Here in New York, we pay astronomical property taxes for our half acre. Yet, we have very little freedom to do what I like on the property that *WE* pay for, that *WE* pay taxes on. I know I’m likely preaching to the choir. One of our goals as a family to become as self-sufficient as possible. And with 7 mouths to feed, a huge part of self-sufficiency is putting food in those bellies. Unfortunately here, we have to have 3 acres in order to have anything “other than traditional household pets” as per the town ordinances. ::sigh:: No chickens. No goats (even though some of them would be smaller than my 95 lbs lab). And then the light-bulb moment. Rabbits. Rabbits are household pets (for some people). But….I’ve never tasted rabbit. And….I’ve never butchered an animal. And….truth be told, as much as I love this idea of self-sufficiency, I’m feeling […]
Frugal Fridays #28
Successes/Blessings: I made hot process soap (oh yes I did!! Pictured above) for the first time. I made it using the lard from the 1/2 pig we ordered this Spring. All laundry was hung outside to dry this week. We had leftovers 2 times. We had a chilly day this past week (low 50’s), so I cooked up one of the hams that I bought around Easter time on sale. We had 3 dinners and 1 lunch from that one ham. I put the bone in the freezer to make stock with. I ground flour in my grain mill (I have this hand mill and this electric mill) to make bread. I purchased 40lbs of soft white wheat from a local farm/feed store for $8.25. (Note: Before you buy grains from a feed store to eat, double check with the farmer that the grain is suitable for human consumption. This is important as some animal feed grains are either sprayed heavily with chemicals and/or are not cleaned properly). My mom brought lunch over one day when she came to visit and help me in the garden. Cloth diapers. Huge savings. Our utility bill has gone way down the last 2 months because the weather has been so mild. ` We used our family membership to go to our favorite 19th Century living museum (since we had the membership, it cost us nothing). Our family is large enough that we easily pay for our membership within 2 visits, and we go much more than that! It’s educational, fun, inexpensive, and seeing how things were done back then totally makes us pine for a country homesteading life even […]
The Children’s Chores and Free Printable
I wanted to share what’s working for us these days regarding chores (we call them jobs). We’ve had a number of systems and charts over the years. Some worked well, others not so much. Some systems worked for a time, but then life shifted and so did our needs. I encourage you to try a variety of things. If one system doesn’t seem to be a good fit for you and/or your children, don’t give up. Just try something else until you find something that works. Since we homeschool, everyone is home all day and our house gets quite messy. I really feel that we should all work as a team to clean up the day’s mess, not just mom and dad doing it all. I don’t ask for perfection. I don’t think perfection is really even possible in a home with children … let alone 5 of them! And I don’t want perfection anyway. I’d much rather our home feel comfortable and lived-in, than sterile and unwelcoming. On that same note, things can quickly go from lived-in to utter chaos around here. So we take a few minutes a few times a day to put things back in relative order. There are some days when we’re running errands, or visiting with family, when morning or evening jobs don’t get done. There’s probably 1-2 days like that per week. We have a large extended family that lives locally, so it’s not uncommon to have a few birthday parties and family dinners each month. No day or week is the same. Having the kids participate in cleaning up what is mostly their own mess isn’t […]
