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
Problem, though — ALL wood is treated nowadays, it has been for years — so even wooden barrels would pose a risk, although you’d think that there’d be plastics to get plain UNTREATED lumber.<<<
Could one go to the sawmill and get green lumber, as sawn, then allow to age and make it into boxes, along the line of the old style cedar chests?
Making your own chests would be better than barrels, as they will stack on each other.
Sealing will take some research, but maybe wood ashes mixed with water will work, to make a putty to seal the cracks in them, for insects do not like hardwood ashes.
I find that I use more mustard now, as I do not like the mayo in plastic jars.
I think the thing that gets me the most about this subject is that it’s been well known for years that the CIA/NSA/etc. frequently owned & ran small vanity-type presses, in which they WROTE and PUBLISHED all manner of conspiracy theory books — as part of their disinformation operations.<<<
Never forget the Russians are the ones who took brainwashing to its highest degree.
Communism has been into brainwashing for far longer than we can guess, there are many books on it, that are over a hundred years old, reprinted on the Archive books site.
GREAT info Granny. Thanks. I have not seen any store by me that recycles light bulbs.
Glass weighs so very much more than plastic, that with skyrocketing HIGH TRANSPORTATION COSTS, everything started being packaged in plastic.<<<
Glass has not always been safe, a hundred plus years ago, it had cobalt in it and that is why some of the old glass changes colors, as my memory goes [could be wrong] if old glass turns pink, it had cobalt in it.
These new light bulbs will ruin your sight, or I cannot see with them.
I have needed 100 watt pure light bulbs for the last 40 years to see with, couldn’t understand the new style, until I read the fine print, they are really only about 60 watt, but the package says 100 watt.
There is very little recycling done in this area, mostly scrap metal or cans.
Thanks. Good FB pictures.
Caught up on thread reading/scrolling since #5401. Placemark BUMP! Thanks to granny and all posters.
lol!!
Imagine my shock that the kitchen was filled with bellowing black smoke, the Smoke Alarm was SILENT, even though engulfed in smoke.
The reason is because the smoke alarm is constructed to react to CHEMICALS in treated woods, and will NOT react to untreated burning wood.
Really got me angry --- the smoke alarms are barely controllably if within 100 yards of a lit cigarette, but a little old "bonfire" on the range top provoked NO response.
Agriculture, animal science classes gain a foothold in urban schools
ST. LOUIS - Kara Dalton is attempting to control chaos. It’s Monday at the teacher’s
pre-veterinary science class at Gateway Institute of Technology high school, and
that means baths for the dogs, cats, bunnies, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and one
elusive ferret named Riley.
On one side of the room, three students are grooming a terrier named Shadow. In
the walk-in shower room for larger animals, two students hose down a black Labrador
retriever. Other students are attempting to corral and bathe a large black cat.
Fluffy the bunny has his cage cleaned and his toenails trimmed.
UN job posting - Urban Agriculture Expert, Monrovia, Liberia
CARE is seeking an Urban Agriculture Expert for a proposed, USAID - funded, large-scale,
multi-year Food and Enterprise Development Program to be based in Monrovia, Liberia.
The Food and Enterprise Development (FED) Program will be implemented to achieve
the following objectives:
1.) increase agricultural productivity and profitability;
2.) stimulate private enterprise growth and investment; and 3.) build local technical
and managerial human resources to sustain and expand accomplishments achieved under
objectives one and two.
Brownfields and Urban Agriculture - Assessing The Challenges (Part 1)
This post is a continuation of a theme I first began exploring in two previous posts,
“The Chicken That Laid Leaden Eggs, and Other Horror Stories,” and “Brownfield Remediation
For Urban Homesteaders.” What I discussed in those earlier posts was the problem
of soil pollution in urban environments, and the impact of that pollution on efforts
to practice safe and sustainable urban farming and urban food gardening.
Little City Gardens - cherry tomato-sized urban farm in San Francisco
Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway are the guerrilla green thumbs behind Little
City Gardens, a cherry tomato-sized urban farm in the Mission. Simultaneously a
small salad mix business, a hub of food/community positivity, and what the farmers
themselves call “a working model of food production in [the city],” Little City
Gardens hooks up Bar Tartine and several local caterers with greens (delivered,
quite awesomely, on foot and by bike), offers tours, conducts workshops, and generally
keeps it as real as water, soil, sun, and fat, writhing earthworms.
New Roots Community Farm - 80 immigrant and refugee urban farmers in San Diego
Bob Ou, left, 43, a refugee from Cambodia, and Bilali Muya, a Somalian refugee who
doesn’t know his age, share a laugh at the New Roots Community Farm in the City
Heights neighborhood of San Diego. The two farmers have become leaders in the community,
demonstrating how to bridge cultural differences and develop friendships.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Complete stories here:
City Farmer News [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102946979907&s=1304&e=001aeZOyp-qOAZCui2cgxvv-4QsYZKPJeWTbEJ2evG3fnFCwlR95hRQktRZMkpNzEF8c5FNSc8MRaICMLI4YRlFayW8x18q5bmPND_e5b5RVLdF686E8swiRQ==]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Levenston
City Farmer - Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture
32 Years! 1978-2010
well, you know how women are...always plotting and planning ways to use up your free time.<<<
OK, so my husband did not say it quite so gently!!!
LOL
Welcome back, Happy New Year.
happy New year!!
I am all set for “24” and am on the live thread...hope I don’t fall asleep...ha.
Really got me angry -— the smoke alarms are barely controllably if within 100 yards of a lit cigarette, but a little old “bonfire” on the range top provoked NO response. <<<
Interesting.
When you think about it, down right upsetting.
Cigarettes, Bacon and even cooking steam will set them off, that would give one an idea of how full of chemicals they all are.
Even the water has additives.
Scary.
LOL, those scientists, who invented the smoke alarm, may not know there is such a thing as untreated wood.
Caught up on thread reading/scrolling since #5401<<<
Now I will have to work double time to get ahead of you.
Thanks for coming to read, hope you found it worth while.
[Smile]
Thanks. Good FB pictures.<<<
I don’t go to Face book as a rule, but somehow clicked on it, in the prior post about the Navy and had to see what they have.
The work the Navy does is amazing and wonderful.
http://beanerywriters.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/river-song-part-1/#more-876
[snipped]
When friends stop by Joan Patterson’s weathered farmhouse in late summer or early autumn, more than likely she’ll be in her garden, puttering with her perennials or picking vegetables or resting in her favorite spot: a shadowy bower at the end of a winding path.
For Joan, this dome-shaped shelter, formed from bowed saplings and cloaked in spiraling bean plants and morning glories, is the center of her miniature Eden.
[It sounds beautiful, even if it did happen in a fiction plot..granny]
Homemade Vegan Hoisin Sauce
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1 Tbsp molasses, or honey
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp hot sauce, or Thai red chili paste, or Tabasco
1/8 tsp black pepper
Mix well and store in glass bottle or jar in the refrigerator.
Makes 1/2 cup (8 one-tablespoon servings).
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 47 Calories; 3g Fat (58.5%
calories from fat); 2g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber;
0mg Cholesterol; 550mg Sodium.
Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other
Carbohydrates.
To visit group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FoodPreservationDryingCanningAndMore/
http://future-forward.blogspot.com/2010/01/local-sustainable-agriculture.html
Future Forward
Building A Sustainable High Tech Civilization
Local Sustainable Agriculture
| Saturday, January 16, 2010
Most of the food that citizens of Western nations eat is trucked or flown in from all over the world. For many people, the piece of fruit that they will eat today is much more a world-traveler than they are. In my local grocery stores (I’m in NC, USA) there are fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as frozen and canned goods, from places as far away as Chile, Peru, Argentina and the Philippines.
But what if you suddenly couldn’t import your community’s food from all over the globe? Could your community survive on only the food produced locally? The fact is there are many reasons why you may not be able to import large quantities of food in the future - everything from peak oil and sky-rocketing energy prices to worldwide crop failures and food shortages caused by disease, drought or war.
Future disruptions in the food distribution system may be mild or severe, short- or long-term. Real food security depends on a community’s and region’s ability to provide for itself.
Communities should encourage people to produce a portion of their own food. This can be done by reviving the Victory Gardens idea of the first two world wars (see my Modern Victory Movement). Communities should also promote local sustainable agriculture.
Ways to Encourage Local Food Production
1. Promote the idea of Victory Gardens (both private and community-based) and food co-ops.
2. Provide training courses in gardening and permaculture through local community colleges and agricultural extension offices.
3. Remove unnecessary restrictions on people growing their own food (maintaining needed restrictions to promote health & safety and prevent animal cruelty).
4. Remove unnecessary restrictions on local farmers selling their crops to local markets (often put in place due to lobbying by big agri-business).
5. Require that government food services (such as school lunch programs) spend an increasing portion of their budgets on locally produced food whenever possible.
6. Encourage the formation of farmers markets.
7. Local relief agencies should provide vouchers or special debit cards for use at local farmers markets as part of their assistance programs.
8. Promote the health, economic and environmental benefits of low-meat diets (educational programs only - what people eat should be their choice).
9. Public tree-planting programs should include fruit and nut trees.
10. Support programs to capture organic waste (food scraps, animal & human manure, leaves & other yard waste, agricultural waste) for composting to improve soils.
[Article has many hidden links to other sites and links to parts one and two of this article...granny]
http://future-forward.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-make-forest-garden-part-three.html
| Thursday, January 14, 2010
This is the third part of a three part essay on how to get started in forest gardening (read part one and part two). For those unfamiliar with the concept, I would suggest reading my Introduction to Forest Gardening.
How To Make a Forest Garden, part three
Check out these organizations and websites for more information on forest gardening, including ideas for what trees, shrubs and other plants may be suitable for your forest garden.
Agroforestry Research Trust - The world’s leading temperate forest garden research institution. Excellent publications, including Agroforestry News.
American Bamboo Society - Amateur and professional bamboo enthusiasts.
American Chestnut Foundation - The American Chestnut Foundation is working to restore the American chestnut tree to its native range within the woodlands of the eastern United States.
Arbor Day Foundation - In the USA, the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Wizard is a very useful database of trees, including fruit and nut trees. You can look up trees by zip code, hardiness zones, types, height, spread, soil type, sun exposure and growth rate.
Association for Temperate Agroforestry - Promoting agroforestry including forest farming.
North American Native Plant Society - Native plant enthusiasts from the U.S. and Canada. Can connect you with one of the many regional native plant associations.
North American Mycological Association - Amateur and professional mushroom enthusiasts. Can connect you with one of the many regional mycological associations. For both wild collectors and growers of mushrooms.
North American Fruit Explorers - In the USA and Canada, NAFX is devoted to the discovery, cultivation and appreciation of superior varieties of fruits and nuts.
Northern Nut Growers Assoc. - Promotes the cultivation of nut trees in North America.
Land Institute - Researching “natural systems agriculture”, perennial polycultures modeled on prairie vegetation. Breeding new perennial grain and legume crops.
PawPaw Foundation - Kentucky State University has the only full-time pawpaw research program in the world.
Plants for a Future UK Database - Plants for a Future is a fantastic resource for forest gardening, and has separate and extensive databases of plants for both the USA and UK.
Plants for a Future USA Database - Plants for a Future is a fantastic resource for forest gardening, and has separate and extensive databases of plants for both the USA and UK.
Seed Saver’s Exchange - Great source of heirloom seeds and plants of vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, and flowers.
Society for Ecological Restoration - Organization dedicated to repairing damaged ecosystems. Many of their techniques may be of interest to forest gardeners.
United Plant Savers - Encourages preservation and restoration of native medicinal plants to prevent overharvesting of wild stocks.
What about traditional garden veggies?
Does having a forest garden mean giving up traditional garden veggies? No. Most early season veggies should also do well in the moisture and shade of a forest garden. In addition to the traditional garden veggies mentioned in part two (such as spinach, kale, garlic, onions, lettuce), consider experimenting with fava beans, peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, radishes, Swiss chard, shallots, rutabaga, mustard greens, celery, carrots, Brussels sprouts and beets in your forest garden.
Potatoes can also be grown in partial shade provided they get a half-day of full sunlight. I’ve seen some varieties of bush beans listed as shade tolerant, though I have no personal experience growing them in shade.
Many warm season, full sunlight loving veggies won’t grow in a forest garden. Among these are tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, okra, melons, eggplant, peanuts, sweet potatoes, beans (except for fava and possibly some varieties of bush beans) and some herbs. However, these can be planted along the outer edges of your forest garden, utilizing the resources, such as compost and mulch, provided by the forest garden.
You can use other gardening techniques along with forest gardening. For example, consider setting aside an area for lasagna-style garden beds for many of your sun-loving crops. You may also do some container gardening for many full-sun crops.
Posted on Future Forward.
Title: PINEAPPLE-CARROT BREAD
Categories: Bh&g, Fruits, Breadmaker
Yield: 1 servings
3/4 c Buttermilk 2/3
8 oz Can crush pinpple drain 1/2c
1/2 c Shredded carrot 1/3
1 tb Applesauce 1 1/2t
2 c Whole wheat flour 1 1/3
1 c Bread flour 2/3
1 tb Brown sugar 2 t
3/4 ts Salt 1/2
1 ts Yeast 1
Put all the ingredients into pan in the order listed
DAK’S COCONUT-PINEAPPLE WHEAT BREAD (BREAD MACHINE)
Recipe By :
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads Breadmaker
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
———— —————— ————————————————
1 pk Yeast
3 c Whole wheat flour
1/2 ts Salt
1 tb Brown sugar
1 t Vanilla
1 tb Oil
1/2 c Crushed pineapple, packed in
It’s own juice, drained
3 tb Pineapple juice (liquid
Drained from can)
3/4 c Plus 3 tb water
1/2 c Shredded coconut (optional,
Add at the start of second
Mix)
Put all the ingredients into pan in the order listed, select “whole wheat”
and push “start.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Title: CARROT PINEAPPLE BREAD
Categories: Breadmaker
Yield: 1 servings
1/3 c Can crush pineapple juice
3/4 c Crushed pineapple
1/2 c Raw, grated carrots
1 1/2 tb Applesauce
3/4 ts Vanilla extract
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 tb Brown sugar
3/4 c Oats
3/4 c Whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c Bread Flour
1 1/2 ts Yeast
Put in breadmaker as per usual you machine. I baked it on quick, but
regular should work fine.
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