Posted on 07/24/2009 3:37:21 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Weekly Roundup - Living On Nothing Edition Category: Roundups | Comments(15)
Did you hear about the guy that lives on nothing? No seriously, he lives on zero dollars a day. Meet Daniel Suelo, who lives in a cave outside Moab, Utah. Suelo has no mortgage, no car payment, no debt of any kind. He also has no home, no car, no television, and absolutely no “creature comforts.” But he does have a lot of creatures, as in the mice and bugs that scurry about the cave floor he’s called home for the last three years.
To us, Suelo probably sounds a little extreme. Actually, he probably sounds very extreme. After all, I suspect most of you reading this are doing so under the protection of some sort of man-made shelter, and with some amount of money on your person, and probably a few needs for money, too. And who doesn’t need money unless they have completely unplugged from the grid? Still, it’s an amusing story about a guy who rejects all forms of consumerism as we know it.
The Frugal Roundup
How to Brew Your Own Beer and Maybe Save Some Money. A fantastic introduction to home brewing, something I’ve never done myself, but always been interested in trying. (@Generation X Finance)
Contentment: A Great Financial Principle. If I had to name one required emotion for living a frugal lifestyle it would be contentment. Once you are content with your belongings and your lot in life you can ignore forces attempting to separate you from your money. (@Personal Finance by the Book)
Use Energy Star Appliances to Save On Utility Costs. I enjoyed this post because it included actual numbers, and actual total savings, from someone who upgraded to new, energy star appliances. (@The Digerati Life)
Over-Saving for Retirement? Is it possible to “over-save” for retirement? Yes, I think so. At some point I like the idea of putting some money aside in taxable investments outside of retirement funds, to be accessed prior to traditional retirement age. (@The Simple Dollar)
40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home. A great list of both practical and philosophical lessons to teach your kids before they reach the age where they know everything. I think that now happens around 13 years-old. (@My Supercharged Life)
Index Fund Investing Overview. If you are looking for a place to invest with high diversification and relatively low fees (for broader index funds with low turnover), index funds are a great place to start. (@Money Smart Life)
5 Reasons To Line Dry Your Laundry. My wife and I may soon be installing a clothesline in our backyard. In many neighborhoods they are frowned upon - one of the reasons I don’t like living in a neighborhood. I digress. One of our neighbors recently put up a clothesline, and we might just follow his lead. (@Simple Mom)
A Few Others I Enjoyed
* 4 Quick Tips for Getting Out of a Rut * Young and Cash Rich * Embracing Simple Style * First Trading Experience With OptionsHouse * The Exponential Power of Delayed Consumption * How Much Emergency Fund is Enough? * 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind * Save Money On Car Insurance
This message contains the following:
1. Quiksilver Recalls Girls’ Hoodies with Waist Drawstrings Due to Entrapment Hazard
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09330.html
2. Violation of Federal Mattress Flammability Standard Prompts Recall of Sofa-bed Mattresses by IKEA
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09331.html
3. Liquidation Outlet, Inc. Recalls Action Figure Toys Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard; Sold Exclusively at Dollar Stores
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09332.html
4. Frigidaire and Kenmore Smoothtop Electric Ranges Recalled Due to Fire Hazard
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09333.html
5. Baby Jogger Recalls Strollers Due to Fall Hazard http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09334.html
Welcome to the thread, I am glad you came to read.
Do you have your mother’s recipe? For it sounds very good.
Reading the old recipes, always makes me sure that food really was better ‘back then’.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/wwi/jeter/jeter.html
1918
[snippet]
All of the fats and waste grease not good for food I make into soap. A full description of the making will be given elsewhere. This soap is used practically for all dishwashing and scrubbing. We are using about half the quantity of sugar that we used this time last year. Our desserts consist mostly of fresh, canned, and dried fruits. When eggs were not obtainable some time since, and the girls were hungry for some Sunday cake, I went to my old-time recipe book. I glanced at the fruit cake used so often in my early housekeeping days, and below I give the ingredients:
FRUIT CAKE OF 1890.
* 1¼ lbs. butter
* 1½ lbs. sugar
* 1½ lbs. flour
* 1½ doz. eggs
* 2 lbs. raisins
* 2 lbs. currants
* 1 lb. citron
* 2 tablespoonfuls cloves
* 2 tablespoonfuls nutmeg
* 2 tablespoonfuls mace
* 2 tablespoonfuls cinnamon
* 1 tablespoonful ginger
* 2 wineglasses brandy?
I was short on sugar, brandy, and some of the fruits, so I changed the recipe to the following, which was pronounced a success and good substitute:
FRUIT CAKE OF FEBRUARY, 1918
* 2 cups Oleo or lard
* 1 cup brown sugar (can be omitted and put in syrup)
* 2 cups molasses
* 2 cups sweet or sour milk
* 3 eggs (or omit and put more milk)
* 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of soda
* 2 tablespoonfuls of ginger
* 1 tablespoonful of cinnamon
* 1 tablespoonful of vanilla
* 1 cup chopped raisins
* 1 cup jam
* 1 cup preserved orange peel
* 2 spoonfuls of baking powder
* 8½ cups sifted flour
Bake in a greased mold for two hours.
Page 307
In my early days of housekeeping I did not think a breakfast could be served without meat, but now we all eat and enjoy our meatless breakfasts. When we serve meat or gravy, we do not serve butter.
Cutting down the per capita amount of flour, fats, and sugar were the problems that all had to solve, and the director of supplies worked constantly on this.
When the general call was made for the cutting down of the amount of white flour, the buyer bought graham flour, an increased amount of oatmeal, grits, and hominy. Graham flour biscuit have been on the table once a day since September.
Cornbread without eggs is served once every day; and sliced Graham loaf makes the third meal.
On Sunday morning the hearts of the girls have always been gladdened by the sight of “Sally Lunn” muffins. When eggs were scarce and high we had to disappoint them, and when I crossed the campus I was greeted with, “Oh! Mrs. Jeter, when are we to have some more muffins?” At last a crate of eggs came, and I was afraid to use them as freely as formerly, and, calling my ally, the bread cook, we made the same quantity of bread, using exactly half of the eggs formerly used, and everybody was pleased and no one knew the difference. In the fall when the Food Administrator called upon the people to cut the amount of white flour from five pounds per week for one person to four pounds, the school was serving a fraction over two and a half pounds. We are using far less than that now. Fresh pork has been almost cut out.
Last year we served bacon about three times a week. This year it is a treat about once a week—two-thirds cut. Last year we had ham once every week. We now serve it about once in two weeks. An increased amount of cereal might seem to mean an increased use of sugar, but raisins and dried figs served with the cereal takes the place of sugar. Some skeptical person might ask if the girls are getting enough to eat. I defy any school to show a healthier, handsomer, or better fed crowd of girls.
The amount of beef used has been cut down perhaps to one-fourth of the former amount. This is no longer the foundation of the fare.
With all of these changes in our manner of living, I am pleased to say that I have not heard a complaint, from president’s office to kitchen help.
The housewife must learn to plan economical and properly balanced meals which, while properly nourishing her family, do not encourage overeating or waste. It is her duty to use all effective methods to protect food from spoilage by dirt, heat, mice, or insects. She must acquire the culinary ability to utilize all left-over food and turn it into palatable dishes for her family. If only one ounce of food a day goes to waste we will in one year lose 1,300,000 pounds of food.
[A snippet of life during the Civil War]
Our needs were great in many directions. Shoes it was next to impossible to get without paying enormous prices. Leather was almost as difficult to get, for the tanning of leather was very difficult. Everybody was making shoes, ripping out the soles of old shoes and using pieces of broadcloth from old coats or table covers, whatever would serve to make uppers. I saw some made by a neighbor so very nice that I concluded I would try it. I undertook to rip the stitches from a pair of soles without asking any one how it was done. I drove the awl first into my thumb, then the forefinger, and next into the palm of my hand. For a number of days I carried my arm in a sling.
This was my only effort at shoemaking, but I succeeded better in bonnet-making; for bonnets were made of everything under the sun, from straw and palmetto to cornshucks and wire-grass! I remember I had a cluster of Arum lilies, and I made a bonnet of the vegetable dishrag, lined with a pale pink crepe handkerchief and trimmed with pink ribbon and my Arum lilies. I am certain I never wore a bonnet that was half so becoming, or which gave me greater pleasure.
All the old-time finery of our mothers and grand- mothers was resurrected, and lovely old-fashioned jewelry, silks and laces were worn by the young girls during the four years. I dressed once in an entire wedding costume a hundred years old, and I recall my appearance as I looked then in the short waist and narrow skirt, the high-heeled shoes and old- fashioned comb, covering my head like an open crown of shell. The vision in the cheval glass was radiant in youth and strength. I never looked so well, I think, before or since.
A wedding supper was the delight yet despair of our women. I think nothing so delightful as to create new things, to rise superior to difficulties and accomplish great results from small material. I have seen fruit cake made from dried applies and cherries in lieu of citrons and raisins and shortened with pork, that was delicious. I think the needs of the time must have invented the pork cake, recipes for which we often see in the latest cook books.
We had tea of everything—blackberry, raspberry and sage leaves, sassafras and spicewood; but the wild crossvine, whose pretty stem the children often smoked, furnished from its leaves the very best, resembling in a great measure the real Japan tea; but I could never drink it without having a fear that I was getting hold of the poison oak vine, which it so closely resembles.
Our coffees were made of peanuts, okra, rye, wheat, corn and meal and molasses dried and parched; but the very best was of sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into small dice, dried, parched and ground. With a spoonful of real coffee this was extremely good.
We made starch of green corn and Irish potatoes; and everything that could be utilized for food or domestic purposes was made use of.
Though it was not until the close of the second year of the war that our needs became actually so terrible, long before the end of the year there was a mortality unaccounted for in the annals of strife. Thousands of children died during their second summer of actual starvation, owing to the coarseness of fare which alone was possessed by the masses, and utterly unfit for an invalid or teething child to eat. I had among my friends more than one mother who would recount with the most agonizing grief the long days of illness and the death of their darlings, for whom they were powerless to procure either medicine or suitable food. One of these women was mentally affected by the death of her little girl.
Writing obituaries was my bete noir. I think I wrote hundreds, and was glad when we got down to wall paper as press paper, at which time many a weekly suspended, owing to the impossibility of getting any kind of paper for printing.
It is wonderful, as I recall the circumstances, that our needs were not greater. It was rare that silver or gold was used. We bought our supplies and paid our railroad fares with the depreciated Confederate money. I still have on hand several thousand dollars of it, though after the war was over I sent away to various friends hundreds of bills inscribed with the pathetic lines written by Major S. A. Jonas, the first stanza of which reads as follows:
“Representing nothing on God’s earth now, And naught in the waters below it; As a pledge of a nation that passed away Keep it, dear friend, and show it. Show it to those who will lend an ear To a tale this trifle will tell Of liberty born of a patriot’s dream, Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.”
It is owing to the fact that so many people copied this poem on the back of Confederate bills and sent them to friends that its authorship has been so disputed. I sent one to Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, and she, knowing that I courted the muses, decided that it was original, and to my consternation I saw it published over my own name in a Minnesota paper.
The conscripts were being brought in from all points and mustered into service. Alas! alas! how different from the gay marching troops that had sprung so gloriously into the ranks two years before. Worn half-fed, half-clad, half-desperate, they were marched to the field to meet the foe that had the world to recruit from. We were hemmed in by land and sea, our men dying on fields, in fortress, in prison, fighting desperately—and for what? No living man at that time, it seems to me, but was certain of ultimate defeat and we, the women—my pen fails to portray our misery. I would gladly draw the veil over that day and never lift it while time lasts. Without medicines in the long, hot summers, without food suitable for the sick—our smokehouses, our salt beds and everything in the shape of lead, torn up to be used for war purposes—the sickening rye coffee, the coarse bread, the want, the war, the burned houses, the desolate families—I would wonder in blind pain where is there a God, and does He rule in the affairs of men? I was young then, and “youth bows down in misery amaze at the dark cloud overmantling its fresh days.”
continues.............
George Washington Carver
An excellent article and his many peanut recipes are amazing, take time to read this one.
Sweet Potatoes also.
It won’t copy for me and I am too dizzy to find all the hidden codes.
granny
How many here have their ham radio license?
If, at some point, we can no longer contact each other via internet, we ought to have an alternate mathod.
(idea thanks to Eagle’s sharing of the Obama bill to control the internet)
[A few months ago, I would have ignored this group, as I considered them to be “another ACLU group”.
Then an alert took me to the site and I found many news items that were not showing up in the regular news.
LOL, so I signed up for their newsletter and when I take the time to read it, it is always going to contain bits and pieces that I missed.
granny]
* CHICAGO DEVELOPMENT CRITICS FIGHT FOR ANONIMITY. The Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked an Illinois Circuit Court judge to
quash subpoenas aimed at outing opponents of a controversial city
project. In December, local residents filed a lawsuit in state court
against the city of Chicago and local developers, challenging the
legality of a development project in the city’s Uptown neighborhood.
In response, the “Wilson Yard Defendants,” six lawfirms associated
with Chicago developer Peter Holsten, issued subpoenas directing
Google and a local neighborhood association to unmask anonymous online
critics who had discussed either the project or Alderman Helen
Shiller, the primary governmental sponsor of the project.
For the full press release:
https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/08/21
: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
EFF Updates
* The New York Times on Government Website Privacy
Tuesday’s New York Times includes its editorial board’s take on
revising the federal government’s web tracking policy. The
recommendations align closely with those we made in coordination with
the Center for Democracy and Technology earlier this month.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/new-york-times-government-website-privacy
* Op-Ed on Lawless Surveillance by Cindy Cohn
EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn’s opinion piece, currently posted on the
blog of the American Constitution Society, points out that the Obama
Administration has embraced two of the most radical positions taken by
the Bush Administration — that the Executive Branch need not
follow the law and that the courts should not be allowed to review the
core constitutional questions that the Executive Branch wants hidden.
For the opinion piece:
http://www.acslaw.org/node/13922
For the Deep Link:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/op-ed-lawless-surveillance
Thanks for the welcome.
I’ll ask her for the recipe.
Fascinating.
>>>How many here have their ham radio license?<<<
LOL - Let’s see, 40+ years ago I was WN5WHT (a novice-hence the N)
but my wants for equipment exceeded my means... 6 kids (through that time)will do that...
Can still handle Int. Morse Code though. _._ _ . ._ _. ._._._ (YEP.)
Used to tinker with packet radio with a Vic 20.
Seriously though... I think answer is going to come through peer-to-peer wireless Ethernet, using packet technology. But, it is going to need someone younger than I to put it together. 20-30 years ago, I would have jumped on it, but now too much to do and not enough time or stamina.
Anyone have any more suggestions? I know we have some Amateur Radio Operators on here - would be interested in their thoughts.
I have decided to do some canning of vegetables and fruits, but I have a old fashioned canner, not a pressure cooker, is there a thread where there are information about canning? Thanks.
NETI POT:
Does anyone know what a homemade dose of salt and/or baking soda would be to add to a neti pot for a sinus rinse?
I had bought something at Walgreens but the little packets are all used up, and I was hoping to avoid buying more.
Also, it’s occurring to me that I don’t like the side effects from the Zyrtec I have been taking for four months or so ... does anyone have advice on getting off the stuff? I have never forgotten reading “I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can” and am leery of stopping any meds too suddenly. Thx.
When searching for neti pot sinus rinse recipes, I ran across this handy item, wow, for warning us when we are WASTING TIME. Ping to Quix and to All.
I just love how I answer my own question, Net search:
How to Make the Neti Pot Sinus Rinse
Mix one cup warm water with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon non-iodized salt (found in the grocery store) and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. The water should be lukewarm. This is enough for cleansing one nostril. You can mix the ingredients by shaking your bottle until the salt and baking soda are dissolved. You’ll need to mix up a second batch for the other nostril.
Using Your Squeezy Neti Pot
Stand over a sink and tilt your head to one side. Then insert the spout of your bottle in one nostril and squeeze in the warm solution. Remember don’t plug your other nostril. Continue until the bottle is empty. Blow your nose. Mix up a second batch of salt, baking soda and warm water, and clean the other nostril.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58753.asp
[There’s more info there at the link too about actually making a homemade neti pot.]
Thanks.
>>>I have decided to do some canning of vegetables and fruits, but I have a old fashioned canner, not a pressure cooker, is there a thread where there are information about canning? Thanks.<<<
Well, we try right here... almost 22,000 posts and quite a few on canning.
Without a pressure canner, you will be limited to high acid canning. Pickles, kraut, tomatoes, fruits like apples or peaches, jams, jellies, etc.
Please, resist the temptation to follow old recipes that say you can water bath most anything. Botulin spores are more prevalent than ever, they thrive in the absence of air, require 240 degree temperatures to kill them(pressure canner), but don’t grow in acid environment.
For some really good guidelines, try this:
http://foodsafety.psu.edu/canningguide.html
1994 guide is the latest version and foods prepared by it can be considered safe.
But, most of all, ENJOY not only the preparation, but the reassuring feeling of having stored food and the great taste of additive free home canned foods. At the rate things are going, we may NEED them for SURVIVAL!
Oh, forgot to welcome you to the thread, and please feel free to jump in and ask and contribute anytime.
Re: Nutritional info for herbal infusions?
Posted by: “Susan Marynowski”
Date: Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:38 pm ((PDT))
Barb asked:
> Where can I find the nutrient data for herbal infusions such as nettles
SNIP
Sherri added:
> It will vary greatly by the location the plants grew in and how the
> infusion was made. The stats would not mean anything.
It is true that plants vary from site to site and time to time, so you
can’t slap a nutritional label on them. But there are some available
nutritional profiles for plants that can give you some good ideas. There
are a number of mainstream studies on this topic (go to google scholar
and search “mineral herbal infusion”) but most of the articles are not
available full text online.
There’s the added confusion of your manner of preparation. Most of the
mainstream researchers are testing 10-min or 15-min infusions or
thereabouts. Susun Weed and other herbalists have long maintained that
the better way to extract minerals from herbs is in long infusions
prepared thus:
1 oz herb by weight placed in quart mason jar
32 oz boiling water poured over herb
jar lid closed and steeped 4 hours or overnight
strain and enjoy cool or reheated or sweetened
Susun had nettles overnight infusion tested and it is much higher in
calcium than milk. Check her website for much more info on mineral-rich
infusions. Like see:
http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Mineral_Rich_Herbs.htm
Here’s another website that has a good list of minerals in herbs:
http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/minerals.html
And from leading American herbalist Paul Bergner’s Medical Herbalism
journal:
http://medherb.com/Materia_Medica/The_Mineral_Content_of_Herbal_Decoctions_.htm
Here’s the table from the above article:
Table 2: The Mineral Content of Selected Herbs (per ounce)
Calcium Chromium Iron Mag Pot(K) Selenium
(Mg) (mcg) (mg) (mg) (mg) (mcg)
Alfalfa 299 30 0.87 76 400 0
Burdock 244 10 4.9 179 560 50
Catnip 205 90 4.6 69 783 410
Chickweed 403 40 8.4 176 280 140
Comfrey lf 600 60 0.4 23 566 40
Horsetail 630 10 4.1 145 520 40
Kelp 1013 20 0.5 289 703 60
Licorice 292 60 2.9 321 380 0
Marshmallw 272 50 3.8 172 403 110
Nettle Lf 966 130 1.4 286 583 70
Oatstraw 476 130 0.4 400 90 40
Peppermint 540 0 2.0 220 753 40
Red Clover 436 110 0.0 116 666 30
Red Rasp 403 40 3.3 106 446 80
Skullcap 151 20 0.8 37 726 30
(ref: Pedersen 1994)
Lots of folks (like MDs) would say you couldn’t get enough minerals from
your herbs. But let’s say you want 400mg of Magnesium a day (that’s
RDA...you need twice that if you are deficient)...you could get that
much from the overnight infusion of 1oz oatstraw. In general, nettle and
oatstraw infusions rule. Seaweed (kelp) also a great source.
The Pedersen book he references is “Nutritional Herbology.” It graphs
the mineral content of all major herbs and I use it as a guideline to
include herbs rich in a certain mineral when needed.
You should also know that vinegar is an excellent menstruum for
extracting minerals from herbs. Just fill a jar halfway with fresh
herbal material (or 1/4 full of dried herb) and cover with apple cider
vinegar. Let it infuse for a few weeks (shaking once in a while),
strain, and enjoy daily on salad and greens. It brings minerals to the
meal and also helps extract minerals from the veggies you are eating.
You are eating dark leafy greens, eh?
Hope this isn’t more information than you wanted! :-)
To your health, Susan the FL herbalist
Positively identify all plants and know that they are edible before you eat them.
To visit group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ForageAhead/
. Bukharan Pilaf
Posted by: “*~Tamara~*”
Bukharan Pilaf
2 c. raw rice
2 1/4 c. water
2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. olive oil
3 Medium onions, finely chopped
3 lb. chicken, cubed
1 lb. carrots, julienned
2 Medium dried chilies, crushed
Cover rice with 1 cup hot water, add 1 teaspoon of salt, mix and let stand for 2 hours. Heat oil in pan, add onions and fry until golden about 10 minutes. Add chicken and brown about 5 minutes. Remove onions and chicken to a bowl. Put 1 cup carrots on bottom of pan, layer in chicken and onions, top with remaining carrots. Drain the rice and add to pan along with chilies. Add 1 1/4 cups of water and 1 teaspoons salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook for 30 minutes more. Remove from heat. Let pilaf rest for 10 minutes stir and serve
This great group is owned by *~Tamara~*
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/world-recipe-fiesta/
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