Ditching the paper towels...

When I get bored or frustrated with life in general my coping mechanism of choice is to change something in my environment.  I used to change my hair color but that can get out of hand...it took one time of returning to blonde from red to cure me.  Then I started to reorganize my home...changing where things were to make things more efficient.  Rearranging furniture etc.  A couple of months ago I was bored and looking for something to change.  We had been going over our budget looking for ways to save and I was flabbergasted about how much we were spending on paper towels! Yay!  Project.

To add some fun to this we were picking up our 8 week old puppy the same week.  So, we needed a good plan for dealing with the messes that puppies can and do make...daily.  We cloth diapered our three children so this shouldn't have skeeved me at all but there is a world of difference between puppy messes and baby messes.  Just sayin'.

We committed to trying for a month and this is what we came up with. 

Puppy messes and other ick: my husband's socks were suddenly no good for him to wear (she really liked to chew HIS socks) so those became what we used for those messes that just couldn't be recovered from.  I had a huge stack and when the puppy would do something particularly awful on the floor...I didn't feel obligated to wash these.  In the (outdoor) trash they went.  Thankfully she mastered the art of relieving herself outdoors before I ran out of socks.  I think it is probably a good idea to have something on hand, in reserve, that is okay to throw away.  Stomach flu season and three kids comes to mind.

Dishtowels, counter wiping and little messes: Since the knitted ones are more dense they do seem like they would harbor more bacteria.  In times past where I have used those they will get an odor after a while so I think I will stay with the simple wipes pictured below.

Drying towels, counter drying and wiping up non-skeevy messes:  All hail the all mighty sack cloth from walmart.  I got these in packages of 4 for about about as many dollars.  I have 2 packages one I already had on hand.  I also have regular dishtowels but as they wear out I will replace with the sack cloth.

Table napkins:  My daughter and I sewed these out of birdseye weave (diaper fabric) that I purchased from JoAnns.  These get annihilated on a daily basis as my children have yet to master the concept of all food goes IN the mouth as opposed to all AROUND the mouth.  I keep waiting for this skill to settle in.  Now that we are beyond our one month trial period I plan on investing in some "getting dressed up for guests" table napkins OR I will convince my husband that I desperately need a serger so I can make some. 

Whoopses and cleaning: MOOOOOOOOoooooom.....I spillled my milllllllk!!!!!!  I have these rags from when we lived in Japan.  They are what the Japanese school children take to the school with them as they are all assigned cleaning chores IN the school house.  <pause for effect>  Why don't we do that here?  Hmmmmm.  Anywhoo....these are versatile and when they wear out I guess I will have to fly back to Japan to get more.  Or...I will replace these with the microfiber ones that they sell at Wal-mart.

I have a ventilated basket that I keep in a centrally located space that the rags go into after they have been used.  I am pretty liberal about tossing them in the basket.  If I see a kid use the towel..it goes in the basket.  If I don't recall taking the towel out (I forget everything ... sooo) ... it goes in the basket.  If the puppy got a hold of it and is chewing on it...in the basket it goes.  

The towels don't hang out long before they go in the basket.  I run a load about 2X a week on my washer machine's super heated sanitizing cycle with my home made clothes detergent and bleach.  Yes, bleach.  After watching this...I am okay with a little bleach.

More on ick...I, like most moms, live in fear of the dreaded stomach bug.  I still keep paper towels and instant sanitizing wipes on hand in the event that bad boy raids the house.  This will save me from burning my house (and all of it's contents) to the ground.  I use natural cleaners in the house but when there is a bad sickness I do pull out the bleach.

I was asked if I have noticed an increase in my electric bill and the answer is no.  It is only twice a week that I run the load (most often 1X a week) and at the same time we started the no-paper project we also acquired a very efficient dishwasher that we only run every other day (had been every day) so our electric bill has actually gone down.

So, for minimal investment I was able to save my budget roughly $480 a year.  I guess I could have just tried cheaper paper towels but then I wouldn't have regained all of the storage in my closet where we stored the paper towels.  This way is probably better for the environment too.

Raising chickens on one acre...

Since I talk so frequently about my chickens I get questions and odd stares (I assume those are the judge-y types) but most are like, "hey...do you sell your stuff?  I want in!"

Our yard is mostly cleared and the house sits closer to the street than to the back property line and the yard is completely surrounded by a wooded area.  I can only see one neighbor's house from the backyard and she is an older lady that throws scraps in her backyard as she likes to watch my chickens roam through her yard.  My ladies are happy to oblige.

We have both meat birds and egg birds.  Meat birds are bigger meatier birds that get big really really quick.  Our lesson learned is that meat birds reach sexual maturity and begin crowing before they reach maximum dress weight.  Lesson learned...only hens next time.

Our goal is raise our own chicken meat and then have enough eggs to sell to pay for the rest of the operation.  This started as a project business for the kids in budgeting and responsibility.  They all have an active part in some function of the process and eventually will reap part of the earnings to add to their allowance. 

This is a panoramic from our back door - the green dome in the right middle is my greenhouse.  More on that later.

When we get new chicks (meat or egg laying) they start off in the garage or the shed in a chick playpen.

Nifty Playpen

At this age it is important to keep them free from drafts and predators.  They are supposed to be kept at 90 degrees for the first week.  I don't do that.  Actually...I am not careful at all.  I didn't wash my children's binkies when they fell to the floor either...unless it landed in something worse than their mouths.  Which is pretty hard to find.  I watch the chicks to see if they are all clumped up trying to get warm...if so I turn the light on.  If they are gathering under the light I lower it until a few are escaping the heat of the light.  Which is at about 82 degrees for about a week then we only had the light on at night.  

Baby chicks are about as helpless as a toddler.  They can feed themselves, walk around, play and hurt themselves pretty easily.  Tidbit: baby chicks can also drown in their drinking water. 

Looking back up at the picture of our back yard..after they leave the playpen they go to the romper room which is the green 'tractor' that can be moved around for them to have fresh grass for scratching and to keep disease out of the picture by them not walking around in their own poo.  A 'tractor' is any portable chicken enclosure that can be moved to provide fresh grass to chickens.  The 'romper room' also has a heat light built in to the lower back part so they can have heat at night.

Romper Room

Inside "Romper Room"

After the romper room...meat birds go to the flat which is the second from the right.  It is a flat box that is 12*12 with food and water.  Half of it is covered on top and about a quarter has blocked sides to provide them a place to sleep where predators can't look in.  I followed the Joel Salatin model.  Interesting tidbit...meat birds aren't supposed to roost as they are too big and it leaves bruises.  The flat gets moved around the yard and they scratch, eat the weeds and poo.  Which fertilizes the ground that I plant grass seed on right behind them as I move the 'tractor'.  Pretty simple operation.  Meat birds eat a lot as they go to 10-14lbs (undressed) in 80 days.  I raise Red Rangers as they are "more" of a heritage breed than the Cornish Cross and they take longer but it is a much more humane process.  In my opinion.

"The Flat"

After the romper room for egg layers they go to the condo which is second from the left.  They have a roost and two levels for sleeping and hanging out during the day.  It is covered as well.  The ladies in the picture below are about 6 weeks old and will move in a few weeks to either 'Momma's Coop' or 'Pax Pullum'.

"The Condo"

Right now the condo is full of egg layers.  They will be moving to Momma's coop (to the right of the shed) and "Pax Pullum" all the way on the right.  Momma's coop is the one I built for our Hen who hatched out eggs from the Amish man in the Spring.  You can hardly see it from the house.  Good design, eh? 

"Momma's Coop"

The Big House. "Pax Pullum" which took us almost 8 months to finish in between gutting the kitchen and living room of our house.  The run is about 135sqft which they spend the morning hours in before they are let out in to the yard to free range.  If you lay an egg... and I like you...you have the privilege of living here.

Last but not least.  The "Penalty Box" or the "Broody Buster" as the "Chicken Chick" calls it.  It has one occupant in it right now.  I let her out every day (she has food and water in there) and she goes right.back.to.the.egg.box.  So far she is on day two...I am hoping she will give up soon.  The cool air is supposed to return her body temperature to a normal level and then she will stop being broody.  Supposedly.  I think she is just looking for a baby daddy.  Clearly, she doesn't read my blog.  If she did she would know all of the roosters are in the freezer.

This was our first hen house and since then we have used it for an injured hen that we nursed back to health and trying to unbroody hens. 

That is it.  We pray one day that we will be blessed with the stability of living in the same place long enough to purchase 20+ acres for a real farm! 

the beginning....

What is homesteading?  It is the intentional movement towards living self sufficiently.  Instead of buying stuff...making it yourself and attempting to raise your own food as much as possible.  Also, revisiting the skills that have long been lost due to technological advancements.  Such as, soap making, canning, blacksmithing, gardening and attempting to use natural sources of energy.  I say all this as I sit with my laptop on battery power while accessing my wifi.  ;-)

With that said, I have a one acre plot in an area that is surrounded by trees in a county that is friendly to farmers.  We have farmers who live on land that they inherited and Amish families that are primarily agriculturally based within a few miles.  On my little acre I have a garden, green house, chickens for eggs and I raise my own chickens for meat.

Raising chickens on an acre...curious how check it out

Future posts planned....
Broilers...the Cornish X vs heritage breed (Red Ranger)
Ditching the paper towels and paper napkins...in the same month that we got a puppy.  Wise?
Raising chicks for eggs
Soap making...
What's in your greenhouse?