Lunar Blackout Challenge--After Action Report

On Tuesday, 21 December 2010, just moments after midnight on the night of the winter solstice and full moon, we voluntarily experienced a power blackout.

We disabled power to everything in the house with the exception of the power to our refrigerators and freezers. The following serves as our after action report and lessons learned from this experiment.

Although we set our battery powered alarm clock for 7:00AM, we decided to sleep in and didn’t wake up until nearly 10:00—oh the joys off retired life.

Because we did not have our heat pump running through the night, we awoke to a temperature in the house of 65 degrees. Our first order of business was the get the wood burning stove up and running for the day. The outside temperature was right around 40 degrees. The wood burning stove would serve much more useful than simply providing heat for the house. Without power, our stove and oven were not operational.

After getting the fire roaring, the temperature inside rapidly climbed to 68 degrees and our first test of cooking on the stove was our next order of business. I used my trusty old camping peculator to brew a pot of coffee to get me jump started for the morning. Lynne, cooked a simple breakfast of instant oats and mixed up some dehydrated milk for the oats. In a few short minutes, we had a hot, nutritious meal for breakfast.

I will note that we get our water from a deep-water well. Without power, our well was disabled and we had no running water to meet our needs for the day. Because this was an experiment, we “pre-positioned” 25 gallons of water. This water was stored in food grade 5-gallon buckets. We would use this water for all of our needs and keep track of our consumption.

We put a plastic dish basin in the kitchen sink and heated water on the stove so we could clean the dishes from breakfast. We kept this water and used it to manually flush the toilet when we had to get rid of solid waste.

The wood burning stove proved to be more than adequate to heat the entire house. We closed off the office, guest bedroom, guest bathroom, and master bathroom. At one time during the day, the inside temperature reached 80 degrees. This was mainly due to the outside temperature remaining about 40 degrees.

The weather for our experiment did not cooperate for outside activities. We had a steady rain for most of the day, so I deferred on doing outside manual chores. Our plan was to not use any gasoline equipment or power tools of any kind. We will save those tasks for our next test. Furthermore, the cloud cover limited the ambient light during the day which limited the amount of light coming through the windows. We found that our bedroom provided the most amount of ambient light due to the number of windows to allow the light to shine through.

We did our reading in the bedroom due to the amount of light. Because we were functioning without power, we did not have the distractions of the television or computer.

Shortly after noon, Lynne began to prepare her lentils and brown rice soup on the wood burning stove. We were even able to sauté onions and garlic in a skillet on the stove. The soup simmered for several hours before we were prepared to enjoy it. To add to this simple meal, Lynne, made some flatbread from scratch and we enjoyed this with our wonderful soup.

As sunset began to approach, we began the process of providing adequate light. We fired up the three oil lamps and lit a combination of emergency candles and tea lights. This lighting was supplemented with my led headlamp and Lynne’s led book light. To enhance the lighting from the candles, we placed several candles on a mirror which reflected additional light.

For entertainment, we did without the television set and computer and were able to have some good old fashioned conversation. Much of our discussion was based on our experiment and how early day settlers were able to function without electricity. We were delighted to learn that we were able to function just fine without the power meter rotating like a merry-go-round. We did a lot of smiling as we finally came to the realization that we were 100 percent on target with our desires to live the simple life. To further our entertainment needs, we both were able to catch up on some of our reading. After dinner, we even played a dice game by candle light and had a great time just relaxing and playing a leisurely game. We won’t even mention the other forms of entertainment, but the day turned out to be a really remarkable day.

By 9:00PM, we were both ready to settle in for the evening and I loaded the wood burning stove prior to retiring for the evening.

We awoke the following morning at about 7:00AM and we restored the power after being off for a total of 31 hours.
Total water consumption for all of our functioning needs for the day was 9 gallons.
So, what did we learn from this little experiment? We learned that we can indeed function just fine without the luxury of having electricity. We adapted our daily routine to incorporate simple pleasures in life and sit back and really enjoy each other’s company without distractions.
We learned that the simple meals prepared on the wood burning stove were more desirable than any restaurant served meal. We also looked at future menu options and will explore these even further on our next experiment.
We learned that we need to expand our after dark lighting options and are exploring some rechargeable battery powered lanterns to provide additional lighting.

We learned that a battery powered radio would provide us the ability to listen to weather reports during any power outage. We will begin our quest for a radio in the immediate future.
We learned that rain barrels will allow us additional “grey water” to use for flushing toilets without using clean drinking water. We learned that the FEMA estimates of one gallon of water per person may be adequate to sustain life, but does not factor in the ability to function adequately in an emergency. We will be stocking a minimum of 50 gallons of water in 5-gallon buckets for emergencies. This water will be treated for storage and rotated every 6 months.

We learned that with a well stocked pantry, we could survive for an extended period of time. We are taking inventory and will be adding to this stock on a regular basis. This fits right into our long-term storage and self-sufficiency plan.
We learned that our original plans for an emergency backup power generator will be modified significantly. We determined that we will not need a larger generator to provide for our emergency power needs. We will use an emergency generator to keep our refrigerators and freezers at operating temperature, operated our water well once a day, operate our water heater once every day or two and provide only basic power requirements. Let’s face it, in an emergency situation, the generator will consume fuel. If we run the generator continuously, we will run out of fuel real quickly. The key words here are “emergency generator”.
Bottom line to this test is that it was very successful. We both enjoyed our day with out power and have decided that our next test will be on Wednesday, 19 January, 2011 (the next full moon). In fact, it was such a peaceful day that Lynne even suggested doing this once a week.

For any of you that may be inspired by our simple little experiment, we invite you to join us on the 19th of January 2011 for your own experiment. We will guarantee you that with the right perspective, you will enjoy your experiment as much as we enjoyed ours. If you may be having any doubts about doing your own experiment, just ask yourself one simple question—“Am I prepared to function during an extended power outage with the resources I have available today?” Only you can answer that question, but why wait until it becomes a crisis situation.

As always, we would love your feedback and will entertain all questions.

Here is a simple checklist provided by the American Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/PowerOutage.pdf

The Lunar Blackout Challenge--21 December 2010

Electricity—oh yes such a marvelous creation of modern society. Today, nearly every aspect of our daily lives revolves around this simple yet so complex monster. Ever wonder what it would be like to live without electricity for just one day? Read on and perhaps we can sway you into considering our challenge.

Our first motivation is an act of defiance directed towards our profit driven utility companies that insist on charging a “fuel charge” to remain profitable and pay their shareholders. Take a quick look at your electric bill and see how much you are paying in this “fuel charge”. Electric companies are regulated on how much they can charge their customers. They charge this “fuel charge” in a smoke and mirrors fashion to work around these regulatory requirements. Our fuel charge for just last month was $7.03. This equates out to an additional 6.41% additional charge to our monthly power bill. I checked my mother’s power bill recently and she is paying nearly 40 percent “fuel charge” in the Tampa area. Our primary motive in conducting our Lunar Black Out Challenge is to recoup a portion of this charge by doing with electricity for one day. We have already reduced our power usage significantly by implementing step we outlined in a previous feature. Bottom line is to save every penny we can from going to feed the corporate greed of our power giants.

Our next motivation for our challenge is emergency preparedness. We figure that under a controlled experiment, we would be able to practice our ability to function in the event of an extended power failure. This will be a dress rehearsal. Think it can’t happen to you? Take a few moments to read about extensive power failures in recent history here-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_outages . We are confident that this will be a real eye opening experience for you. Reality for us would be a repeat of the Blizzard of 93” and we haven’t even looked at how vulnerable our power grid is to terrorist attacks. Are you prepared for an extended power failure? Hopefully the ideas we present will stimulate a little thought and you will take this challenge yourself and you will share this link and information with others to encourage them to act as well.

Now let’s get down to the challenge itself. Tuesday, the 21st of December 2010 is the official beginning of winter (Winter Solstice), but is also the next full moon. Another neat significance about 21 December is the total lunar eclipse, but it will appear beginning just after midnight on the night before our experiment. We choose the day of the full moon to conduct our experiment. Our pledge is to go 24 hours without the use of electricity or any gasoline powered equipment. Although we are in the final planning stages of purchasing an emergency backup generator, any future test will be conducted without the use of the generator once it is in place. So let’s get down to how we plan on executing this challenge. The only exception to the use of power will be the power required to maintain our refrigerators and freezers—this will be to protect the investment we have in these perishable items.
Water Supply—our water supply is from a deep water well. This requires electricity to pump the water above ground. We will turn off power to the well to avoid using this luxury. We will “pre-position” our water in 5-gallon, food-grade buckets for this experiment. FEMA guidelines state to plan for one gallon of water per person, per day. We will start our test will 25 gallons of water. We also need to factor in the water needs for our 28 chickens. Our water will be for consumption, sanitation and cooking. For toilet use, we will use an old slogan from a 1970’s California drought—“If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down”. We will factor this into our water consumption. We will not have the luxury of a shower—only cleaning with available water. If you are on public or city water, will you have water available to you during a widespread power failure? Chances are slim to none.

Heat—we are fortunate enough to have a wood burning stove as our daily and primary heat source during the winter. We also have a pretty good stockpile of firewood so heat will not be a factor. Our wood burning stove will also be used to boil water for morning tea and coffee as well as a cooking surface for soup on this test. To reduce the heat output requirement, we will close off the guest bathroom, guest bedroom, office and master bathroom when not in use. An additional blanket will be available if needed.

Meals—all meals will be from available dry storage food we presently have in our pantry as well as items we canned from this past year’s garden harvest. We will not open the refrigerators or freezers at all during this test. Meals requiring heating will be done primarily on the wood burning stove. We also have a charcoal BBQ grill and a stock of homemade charcoal, a Dutch oven, three (20lb) propane tanks, a camp stove and two propane-fired burners. We will not use any electric kitchen appliances at all. Yep, we will even use an old manual can opener. In future experiments, we will be testing recipes for making breads without an oven.

Household and Outdoor Chores—we will not use any gasoline or electric powered equipment during this test. This includes chainsaws, power tools, leaf blower, lawn mower, rotor-tiller, vacuum cleaner, etc… All tasks required on this day will be done the old fashioned way—manually. We are looking at adding additional hand tools to our present collection.

Entertainment—we will do without TV and the internet during this experiment. Chances are if there is a widespread power outage cable and internet services would not be available anyway. These breakers will be turned off to further cut back on the “vampire power” running the internal clocks. We plan to catch up on our reading and play some good old fashioned board games to pass the time. Future tests will be done with a battery powered radio, but that is presently a shortfall for this test.

Communication—the cell phone will be turned off for the day. Wide spread power outages would impact cellular communications and in emergency situations the cellular would become overwhelmed in a heartbeat. We will be using an old fashioned push-button land line for communication. Even during most power outages, the low voltage telephone lines typically remain operational. So, if you want to communicate with us one the days of the full moon, we will do it the old fashioned way.

Lighting—we actually choose the day of the full moon to see how much ambient light we can get from the 100 percent disk illumination of the full moon. Our primary light sources are emergency candles and one hurricane lamp. Secondary light sources are several garden solar lights, LED headlamps, flashlights, push button LED lights. We will experiment with various lighting options during this test.

Transportation—we have elected to forego the use of our vehicles during this test. Many emergency situations could require you to remain in your home so we will leave the vehicles parked and stay in place. By doing so, we will also have at least one day per month where greedy corporate “big oil” executives will not be getting a penny from us. Call this our own little boycott on the current cost of fuel. We are in a rural area so a bicycle or walking would not be advisable, but folks who live in an urban area could get by using old fashioned transport.
OK folks, there you have it. Seems simple enough right? Just like an indoor camping experience with lessons on preparedness. Now we realize that many of you will not be able to do this challenge on Tuesday, 21 December due to work obligations. Lord knows, we would not want anyone missing work for the sake of this challenge. Here is what we propose, pick a day closest to this day that you will not be working and commit to the challenge on this date.

We will be providing an update (lessons learned) after we conduct our own experiment. We would love to get feedback from you if you plan to participate in the challenge and how it went for you. Your feedback could help us tweak our future plans as well. Remember to pass this along to others. This is one way for us all to prepare ourselves for an emergency and save a few dollars in the process. Who knows, if we can get enough folks to do this once a month, we could really make a difference and save a few precious resources of good ole Mother Earth in the process.


Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a CrisisCrisis Preparedness Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival


Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family

Living the simple, frugal lifestyle—a matter of lifestyle modification Part 1

Over the last year, many old friends have asked us how we are capable of living on the limited budget that we have chosen. It is no secret that, in monetary terms, we are living just over the poverty level and loving every minute of this new way of living. Our lives are richer today than they have ever been.

This feature is specifically designed to give you a little insight on how you can begin the transformation to this simple frugal lifestyle. When it all boils down to it, this way of living requires a significant lifestyle modification. Believe it or not, we are still in this transition after living it for over a year and a half.

Ask yourself a few simple questions. Are you dissatisfied with your current job? Do you feel like you are slaving away at your job and can never seem to get ahead? Do you find yourself purchasing things you desire rather than need? Do you find yourself deeper in debt than you were 5 years ago? Are you genuinely happy in life or do you surround yourself with material possessions in an attempt to find happiness? Do you find yourself trying to create or maintain a social status or image you can’t really afford? Are you driving around in a new car? Do you purchase things to keep up with the Jones? Are you sick and tired of this way of living that only gives you temporary gratification? Great, read along and we will share with you some of our experiences to assist you in making your own transition to this way of living a little more pleasing.

We can not possibly look at all of your own personal spending habits, this is where you will need to take a real hard look for yourself. The key here is the willingness to make the necessary changes in your current lifestyle in order for your own plan to work. Depending on your current financial condition, your plan could possibly take a significant amount of time to finalize.

The most important factor in your success will be your commitment and the commitment of everyone in your household.

First, you will need to learn how to create and maintain a realistic budget. There are many free, yes I said free budget guides available on the internet. You will notice that we will be discussing as many free options during our journey through this transition. After documenting all of your household income, you will need to document EVERY expense you have. If you have found one of the free budget guides, you will notice that it is pretty comprehensive, but how do you come up with realistic figure to put towards each category. After all, can you tell yourself right now how much you spent on groceries last month? I didn’t think so. Start at the beginning of next month. Keep a log of every single expense you make for the month and save your receipts. This goes for every gallon of milk you buy, every gallon of gas, every cup of coffee etc… And we do mean every expense. If you pay your insurance every 6 months, you need to factor this into a monthly expense. This will be the foundation to your success.

After keeping track of your expenses for the month, you will have your budget of expenses.

Now comes the challenging part. Take a hard look at all of your outstanding credit. Be sure to list these and your current interest rates. Add up all of the interest you are paying each month. This is money you are throwing away every month. Yes, throwing away. After looking at some of the money saving tips we will present, you will take every penny you save and apply it to pay down these debts. When paying these debts down, you will apply every saved penny to the highest interest debt you have. Only focus on paying off one debt at a time. The sooner you pay off your first debt, the sooner you can apply the money you were paying towards that debt to the next. And this process begins until you pay off all of your debt.

Your goal will be to become debt free. This will be a significant challenge for some of you, but we are confident that you will succeed if you remain committed. We will address budget and debt reduction in greater detail in a future feature, but you get the idea. One note of caution, stay away from those debt consolidation services you may find on the internet. Many of these will only take advantage of your debt situation and keep you trapped and not pay down your debt as quick as you can do yourself. Also, contact your creditors and negotiate a lower interest. Yes, it can be done.

The only way you can effective eliminate your debt is to STOP using your credit cards. Put them in an envelope and secure them at home, don’t keep them in your wallet or purse. It is too easy to use them when you have them available. A wise old timer once said “when you find yourself in a hole, QUIT DIGGING”.

Now let’s look at a few tips on how you are going to save money to apply towards paying down your debt and putting a few dollars a month into a savings account.

Housing is typically your largest single monthly expense. It is recommended that your housing expense should never exceed 25 percent of your monthly income. If you are a homeowner, you will not have much latitude to lower this expense except to consider refinancing while rates are low. If you are presently renting, consider downsizing when your lease expires.

The next largest budget item is typically car payments. Avoid any temptation to go out and buy a new car. If you have a brand new vehicle, consider selling it or trading it in for a reliable older vehicle that gets good gas mileage. If you have a high car payment, this is one way to significantly reduce your expenses. You will also save money on your insurance. Be smart about your vehicles. A vehicle is not a status symbol. It is a functional need that serves as your means to get to where you need to go. If you are going to live a simple, frugal life, you must stop thinking of things as status symbols and think in the terms of functionality.

Next thing to take a hard look at is your monthly budget is food expenses. Many Americans spend nearly 45 percent of their monthly food expenses out of the home. This is rather alarming, but you need to evaluate your own eating habits. How often do you eat out at a restaurant? How often do you stop at a fast food establishment? How often do you buy your lunch at work? These are all areas to cut back on or nearly eliminate all together. Pick one night a month to eat a nice restaurant dinner. Limit yourself. Instead of stopping for fast food, plan ahead and pack a picnic type meal when you know you will be away from the house. Eat at home before you hit the road to avoid the temptation and pack some snacks for the road. Don’t forget to keep a cooler for cold beverages or a thermos for hot beverages in the vehicle when you hit the road. Buying drinks on the road can be rather expensive. Look at all of your options for packing your lunch to work. Sandwiches and leftovers are perfect to take to work with you. Oh, and stop buying bottled water. Buy a water filter and reusable water bottles and take them everywhere you go.

Buying groceries is a totally separate topic. There are so many tips and tricks to saving money; we are dedicating the next segment just on this topic.

OK, here you have the first tidbits of information on how you can begin your transition into the frugal lifestyle. These tips and recommendations will take many more segments to adequately cover them in detail.

Look for all of our future features to assist you in this transition. We encourage you to look for related topics on the internet. There is some really great information out there.


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Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier and Healthier for Less

It all starts with good seed

Fast forward to the middle of winter--The cold wind is howling and you just want to stay inside and relax. You warm up with some hot spiced cider and you thumb through the vegetable seed catalogs you ordered back in October.


As we continue to say, grocery prices will continue to rise and there is nothing better than home-grown produce.

This feature is primarily targeted towards the beginner gardener, but we hope any gardener can benefit from some of the information we will present.

As a beginner gardener, you will need to figure out exactly what you want to grow as soon as spring arrives next year. Sure, you can go down to your local super store or DIY center and pick up all kinds of seed, but do you really know what you are getting at this bargain price? Heck there are so many varieties out there and the package doesn’t adequately provide information on the seed you pick up from there colorful displays. Many of the seeds you can pick up in these stores are hybrid seed and some have been significantly mutated. We try to stay away from these seeds.

We prefer heritage or heirloom seeds. These are seed which have been passed down from generation to generation. These are typically high quality seeds. As you progress in your gardening adventures, you will learn to save seeds of your own once you have built your collection of heritage or heirloom seeds. You will be surprised how fast you can collect quality seed, save them for the following year and have plenty left to trade for other seeds.

Seed catalogs will provide some great information on the type of seed you desire to grow. Once you receive your seed catalogs, you will probably be a little overwhelmed and want to order much more than you need to start with. Talk to some experienced gardeners. Figure out what they grow and why they like a particular type of seed or plant. Just a note of caution here, if you ask 10 gardeners about a specific topic, you will most likely get 11 different answers.

We will be addressing specific vegetable garden planning in a later feature, but let’s keep our focus on how to get the ball rolling by ordering some seed catalogs. There are a variety of seed companies throughout the United States. We have taken the time to provide you a list of a few of these companies. Take a few moments to check out these websites and order a free catalog. We will remind you that once you are finished with these hard copies of catalogs to recycle them. Ideally, you may be able shred some of them for your composting operations. Besides the list provided below, use your favorite search engine to find many more. You may need to cut and paste these links into your browser.

http://www.seedsavers.org/CatalogRequest.aspx

http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/main_vegies.html

http://www.sustainableseedco.com

http://amishlandseeds.com/

http://www.ufseeds.com/

http://www.greenpeople.org/VegetableSeed.html

http://www.halcyon.com/tmend/links.htm

http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/MP/catalogrequest

http://www.gurneys.com



This list ought to get you started in the right direction. Once you order your catalogs, you will begin receiving them in the middle of winter. You will go to the mail box and pick up your catalog and immediately get a warm glow knowing that spring is just around the corner. You will also know that when winter is really bringing you down, you can pick up those seed catalogs and snap you out of that winter funk.

If you know of or find another quality link, please feel free to share it with everyone else.

As always, we appreciate your feedback on these free features. If you are reading this, you are fortunate enough to get this free information before someone talks into charging for it.

Look for future features on vegetable garden planning. We will also have specific features on how to get your seed started and when to start them once you do receive them.



Vegetable Gardening For Dummies


Survival Seeds Non-Hybrid 37 Varieties of Survival Vegetable Seeds Heirloom Seeds Non GMO Free Shipping!! Only $57.00

The Bucket List

Before you go thinking that this article is about a list of things to do before you die, let me set the record straight. This list is about all of those creative uses for those plastic 5-gallon buckets we see all over the place.

Each year, millions of plastic buckets end up in landfills. Again, I go back to the concept that America is the most wasteful country in the world. This list serves as a thought stimulator so you can go out and save some of these buckets from landfills and reuse them for practical, everyday tasks.

Before we look at some of these practical uses, let’s take a look at where you can get these buckets for FREE. If you go to your local home improvement center, you can buy them for nearly 5-dollars apiece. Why would anyone spend good money on something you could get for free? Some things I will never understand. You will also find some of the sources listed below will charge a dollar or two for buckets. I expect most of them will soon begin charging for their buckets as well.

When I refer to 5-gallon buckets, I use this term as a generality. You can find buckets in a variety of sizes to include 5-gallon, 3 gallon and two gallon. You can also find metal buckets which are suitable for a variety of other tasks and projects.

These days, many products come packaged in plastic buckets. Commercial painters typically buy their paint in these 5-gallon buckets. Seek out some of these painters and see if they will save some of them for you. These buckets can be used for many uses, but are not suitable for those tasks associated with any type of food products.

Restaurants are another great source of free buckets. Restaurants receive many products in bulk in these plastic buckets. Talk to local restaurant owners to see if they will save some of them for you. They typically throw them away and would most likely save them for you. These are food grade buckets and good for just about all practical uses.

Bakeries are the ole gold mine when it comes to buckets. They receive many products to include icing in the buckets. Again talk to local bakeries to have them save some of them for you. These are food grade buckets as well.

Metal buckets are becoming more difficult to find, but you can still find them by checking with businesses that use petroleum or chemicals in smaller quantities. These have a few practical purposes.

When I first started hunting for plastic buckets, I had a very difficult time in actually getting them. I went to local supermarket bakeries and asked on a regular basis. I was regularly told that they didn’t have any. On one occasion, I even saw a stack of buckets sitting behind the counter and was told they didn’t have any. I then realized that they were saving them for someone else. I had an abundance of blackberries on the property and asked the ladies if they liked wild blackberries. They said they loved them and I told them that if they saved some buckets for me, I would bring them some fresh berries. Well this worked out great and I got plenty of buckets. I have even traded fresh eggs for buckets.

OK, so know let’s take a look at some practical uses of these buckets.

BULK FOOD STORAGE—We use 5-gallon buckets for many of our long term food storage needs.  We purchase 20"X30" mylar pouches, use oxygeb absorbers and seal them in the buckets. The buckets allow for stacking for better storage and add protection from rodents.
STORE ROOT CROPS—Potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc… can be stored in buckets, but be sure to cut plenty of 2 inch vent holes in the buckets to let them breath. Line the bucket with an old pillow case, fill with potatoes and put on the lid for storage.

KITCHEN COMPOST BIN—Drill several small holes in the lids of a 2-gallon bucket. Use this bucket under your kitchen sink for compostable kitchen waste. We typically shed some paper or cardboard and place this in the bottom. We then add coffee grounds and filters, crushed eggshells, vegetable scraps, peelings and clean torn up paper to the bucket. Every few days, we take it to the compost bin, rinse it out and start all over again. DO NOT add any animal fats, skins or proteins to your compost.

USED KITCHEN OIL BIN—Use a 2-gallon bucket to save and dispose of your used cooking oil. Ensure the oil has cooled before you pour it into the bucket. Used oil can be used for emergency oil lamps during power failures. Watch for our feature on making emergency oils lamps. You can also mix your used cooking oil with citronella oil for outdoor oil lanterns to extend your burn time. If you find yourself with excessive amounts of used cooking oils, talk to a local restaurant owner about adding it to their oil/grease disposal.

MOP BUCKET—Many mop ringers will attach right to a 5-gallon bucket.

RECYCLING BINS—Buckets are great for small quantities of recycling materials. Use a separate bin for crushed plastic, aluminum, metal, paper, cardboard, glass, etc… Don’t forget to compost whatever materials you can use.

LAUNDRY PRE-SOAK—Use a plastic bucket filled with warm soapy water to presoak greasy or dirty clothing.

HARVEST BUCKET—We use the smaller 2-gallon buckets as harvest buckets. Periodically and with certain items we will use 3 or 5-gallon buckets. These are great to bring your fresh produce in from the garden. Use can also tie a rope to your bucket and use them to harvest fruit from your fruit trees. If you use a ladder to harvest your fruit, the rope allows you to safely lower the bucket to the ground before climbing down the ladder.

HONEY STORAGE—If you are a beekeeper, use these free food grade buckets to store your honey prior to bottling it.

BEE FEEDER—Use a 2-gallon bucket as a top feeder for your beehives. Poke about a dozen holes in the center of the lid using a push pin. Fill the bucket with your syrup and replace the lid. Remove the outer cover of your hive and invert the bucket centered on the opening in your inner cover. Replace the outer cover and place a brick on top of it.

CHRISTMAS YARD LIGHTS—Drill a hole in the bottom for the power cord. Remove any labels. Fill the bucket with one or two strings of mini Christmas lights. Shape the lights to fill the bucket. Put the lids back on and plug in the lights. Place these along walkways, driveways, or in flower beds. Use a single color for each bucket. Red and green are naturally the most popular.

HOSE CADDY—Cut a piece of scrap 1X6 piece of wood and screw the wood though the bottom of the bucket and mount it directly on the fence or fence post about 3 feet above the ground. Wrap your hose around the bucket. Use the inside of the bucket to store your sprinklers and nozzles.

CHARCOAL STORAGE—Use 5-gallon buckets as water proof storage bins for your charcoal. In our case, we make our own charcoal for grilling in bulk and use the buckets to store our charcoal. See my feature on how to make your own lump charcoal.

PET FOOD STORAGE—Plastic buckets are ideal for storing dry pet foods. If you typically buy dry food in large quantities, multiple plastic buckets will keep the food dry and critter proof. We use buckets to store cracked corn, oats and feed for our chickens as well.

EGG BASKET—We use 2-gallon buckets to collect eggs from our chickens each day.

DRIP BUCKET—We drilled two 1/16th inch holes in the bottom of 5-gallon buckets to use as drip irrigation buckets. These are great for raised beds, small patch veggies, fruit trees, berry bushes and flower beds. We have found it takes in excess of 30 minutes to deliver 5 gallons of water to our target area.

STEPPING STONE MOLD—Cut 2 inches from the bottom of a bucket. Ensure this cut is as level as possible. Fill the bottom with a single layer of pea gravel. Mix a small batch of ready mix concrete and fill to the top. Pat the mixture down with a 2x4 to remove any bubbles and level. Cover the mold with a damp cloth and allow to set for at least 24 hours. Flip the mold over and brush away excess concrete from the stones. You will need to experiment with timing due to temperature and humidity conditions. Once you perfect your timing, you can cut multiple molds to make many stepping stones at a time.

PIPE CADDY—Cut the bottom out of two 2-gallon buckets and remove the handles. Screw the buckets so the openings are parallel with the ground and spaced between 4-6 feet apart. Slide metal and PVC pipes into your new pipe caddy for easy storage.

BUCKET GARDEN—Buckets are perfect to grow vegetables for those of you without adequate garden space. This includes folks with small backyards or only a balcony. Drill several small holes in the bottom to allow for adequate drainage. Fill the bottom with 2 or 3 inches of gravel or small stones. Fill the bucket with good potting soil up to about 2 inches from the top. Add your seed or plants, water and watch them grow.

GARDEN TOOL CADDY—Cut the bottom out of a 2-gallon bucket and remove the handle. Screw the bucket to a fence post about four feet above ground level with the openings facing up and down. Insert your rakes, shovels, hoes, etc… to keep them in one place. You can also use this caddy in your shed, garage or workshop.

WEEDING BUCKETS—we use two buckets to weed the garden and flower beds. One bucket is used to sit on and the other as a weed receptacle.

COMPOST TEA DISPENSER— Drill a hole in the bottom side of the bucket and attach a female hose connector in this hole. Drill a hole in the top side wall on the opposite end of the bucket and attach a male hose connector. Seal around the connectors with silicone. Add compost to a mesh bag and place inside the bucket. Place lid on the top. Connect hoses and fill bucket with water. Let compost steep for about 15 minutes and turn water back on and water your plants and vegetables with your compost tea.

HOMEMADE STAIN—We collect black walnuts that are over ripe. After the husk has turned black, we put them in a five gallon bucket and fill it with water. We let this sit for about a week. We remove the walnuts and have a homemade stain for a variety of simple wood projects. Note: wear rubber gloves to avoid staining your hands.

CHICKEN FEEDING SYSTEM— Cut or drill four one inch holes around the base of a 5-gallon bucket. After cutting or drilling these holes, cut the top of the hole to form a triangle shaped hole. Place an 18 inch plastic planter base on a cinder block. Place the bucket on top of the planter base and fill with chicken feed. Snap on the lid and you have an automatic chicken feeder. When the feed is low in the planter base, they will peck at the hole and release more food.

ANIMAL WATER STATION— We use ours primarily for our chickens, but also use them to provide our bees water. You could use these for dogs or cats as well. Drill four ½ inch holes as close to the top rim of the bucket as possible. Place an 18 inch planter base on a LEVEL cinder block. Fill the bucket with water and snap on the lid. Invert the bucket and place on the planter base. The water level in the planter base will level out with the drain holes and create a vacuum in the bucket. As the water is drawn from the planter base, water will flow to the fill line again. You will periodically need to wash the bucket and planter base to prevent bacteria and disease.

CHICKEN NESTING BOXES— Cut a 1x6 piece of scrap board to fit in the bottom of the bucket. Screw the board through the bucket to the wall of your coop at a height of about 18 inches above the ground. The bucket will be mounted sideways on the wall. Screw a piece of scrap 1x4 board to the front of the bucket. Fill the bucket will some straw and wait for the chicks to start laying.

OUTDOOR BUTT CAN—Fill a 2-gallon bucket with sand and use as an outdoor butt can or ashtray. Empty as needed.

GARDEN MOOD LIGHTS—Remove label and handle from a 2-gallon bucket. Procure a garden solar light. Remove the stake from the solar light. Trace the diameter of the light below the top of the light onto the lid of the bucket. Cut the lines you traced on the lid with a utility knife. Wear gloves when cutting the lid. Place the solar light in the cut opening and seal with chalking or silicone. Place the lid back on the bucket. Place the bucket in a sunny spot in the garden and enjoy. For additional effect, you can fill the bucket half way with water colored by food coloring. Be sure the water level is well below the bottom of the solar light when the lid is put back on. These lanterns are also great for camping. You can also make a jack-o-lantern using the same concept. Simply paint the bucket orange and cut out your jack-o-lantern.

CAR WASH—I use two buckets for washing cars. One bucket is used as my actual washing bucket and the other is used upside down as a step stool to reach the top of the car.

TRASH BIN—Keep one in your shed, shop or garage for small trash and debris collection.

SHOP RAG BINS—Use one bucket for clean shop rags and one for dirty rags.

EXTENSION CORD STORAGE—Cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket large enough for the male end of the cord to fit through and pull enough cord through to loop back inside the top of the bucket. The male end is the end that plugs into the wall. Coil your cord inside the bucket leaving the center hollow. Pull the cord from the bucket when you need it and coil it back up when you are done with the job. The hollow center can be used to put a drill or other small tools as you carry them to where you are doing the work.

TOOL BUCKET— Use a 5-gallon bucket to carry hand tools to where you needs to use them. You can purchase or make caddies that fit around a bucket to expand this capability.

SHELF SUPPORTS FOR SHED OR WORKSHOP— Use 5-gallon buckets as supports for shelving in your shed, garage or workshop. You can use plywood, but I prefer to use two 1x6 boards measuring 6 feet long. I screw the boards right to the bucket tops. You can stack these about four high. I don’t recommend going any higher unless you fill the buckets with sand for stability.

TRUCK BIN—Keep a bucket in the bed of your pickup truck at all times. Tie or strap the bucket down. Use this bucket for tie straps, rope and other odds and ends. Be sure to snap the lid on to keep rain water out. You will find yourself using this bucket for lots of smaller gadgets.

BOAT BUCKET--Keep a bucket with a lid in your boat. You will find many uses for your bucket to include using it for dry stowage for those valuables you do not want to risk getting wet. They make great bait buckets as well as nifty lunch boxes and garbage buckets. Buckets are also great for bailing water if necessary.

CANOE BUCKET—Use 5-gallon buckets to protect food, clothing and valuable from water on canoe trips. Be sure to secure the lids on the buckets and tie the buckets to the canoe.

FISHING BUCKET—Buckets are great for keeping your catch for brief periods of time. Fill the bucket with water to keep your fish alive a little longer.

CAMP BUCKETS—Buckets have many uses for camping. Pack food items in buckets and store non perishable items in these buckets during the camping trip. They will keep your food dry and inaccessible to smaller critters. Buckets are perfect stools to use around the campfire. You can use buckets to forage for kindling for your campfire. Clean buckets are also great for hauling water and doing dishes. Use a bucket to wash your clothes while camping.

HILLBILLY BEVERAGE COOLER—Place one 12 pack of your favorite beverage in the bottom of the bucket. Fill with ice and add enough water to cover the ice. (Perfect for sitting around that summertime bonfire in the country). Snap on the lid and you have your own front row seat.

MUSIC INTRUMENTS—Use as a makeshift drum. Drill holes in top end and tie strings for a ghetto banjo. Make a bucket bass. More to follow on these makeshift instruments.

TOY STORAGE—Get your child to assist or actually paint their toy storage buckets. These buckets can serve as storage for everyday toys, beach toys and a variety of other kid related items. Look around and use your imagination.

SPORTS EQUIPMENT CADDY—Cut the bottom out of a 2-gallon bucket and screw it right to the wall of a garage or utility room to store sports equipment like baseball bats. Use a 5-gallon bucket to store baseballs or tennis balls.

HALLOWEEN CANDY BUCKET—Paint a 2-gallon bucket orange. Use black paint to make your jack-o-lantern pattern on the bucket. Simple bucket for trick or treat candy collection.

EASTER EGGS COLLECTION BUCKET—Have kids decorate 2-gallon buckets for Easter and have them collect their Easter eggs in them.

TREE HOUSE DUMBWAITER—Tie a rope to a bucket on the ground and hoist food, supplies and tools up to your kids tree house. Using a pulley helps pull the bucket up.

EMERGENCY WINTER CAR KIT—Use a bucket to store your winter emergency car kit supplies. Here is a suggested list to store in you winter car kit: windshield scraper and small broom, flashlight, battery powered radio, extra batteries, water, snack food, matches, candles, metal coffee can, extra hats, socks and mittens, first aid kit with pocket knife, blanket, tow chain or rope, road salt and sand, booster cables, emergency flares, fluorescent distress flag.

EMERGENCY WATER STORAGE—Use ONLY food grade buckets for emergency water storage. Extended loss of public water is probable during severe disaster situations. Experts state that each adult requires one gallon of fresh water per day and need ½ of this amount just for drinking. Some experts recommend storing at least 3 days of emergency water while others recommend up to 21 days. If you plan on storing emergency water supplies please follow the FEMA guidelines here: http://www.fema.gov/plan/prepare/water.shtm


EMERGENCY TOILET—great for boating, camping or during extended power outages. Line the inside with two plastic bags. As nature calls, remove the lid and do your business then snap the lid back on. When the reaches about ¼ full, tie the bag and dispose of properly. Replace the bag for continued use. Store this bucket in the outdoors for continued use. You can actually buy lids specifically designed to using a 5-gallon bucket as a toilet.

OUTDOOR COOKER—Cut the bottom out of a metal 5-gallon bucket. Cut four equally spaced 1 inch holes around the bottom side wall. Find a round grill grate or cut on from the perforated metal diamond mesh material. Place the bucket on enough paver bricks to extend two inches around the bucket. Load the bucket with hardwood or lump charcoal. Once a good bed of embers are glowing, add the cooking grate. This can be used for grilling, but we use it to preheat water for out outdoor canning operation.


WARNING: Children can fall into a bucket and drown. Keep children away from buckets even with a small amount of liquid. Always empty buckets when not in use or securely place lid on the bucket.


DANGER: Never use plastic buckets for excessively hot items or burning. Never dump hot ashes in any plastic bucket. The only suitable bucket for ashes is a metal bucket with lids.

CAUTION: Please use extreme caution when drilling or cutting buckets for your projects. Wear gloves and eye protection to avoid personal injury.

NOTE: Do not leave empty buckets stored upright outdoors during spring and summer months. If they fill with water, they become prime breeding ground for mosquitoes.

We will be posting pictures in the future—stay tuned. We are also working on future articles about re-purposing everyday items to save them from landfills and save you a few dollars.

If you have any additional uses for these buckets, please post them for everyone can see them. Feedback is always greatly appreciated.

This information is copyrighted material. Please feel free to share it, but if you desire to use this for any commercial purposes, get permission first. This includes reposting this on any commercially related websites—bottom line is if you are making money off of your website, get permission to use it and give appropriate credit. Please send e-mail inquiries to frugal_farmer@yahoo.com







JOHN PEARSON



Copyright© 2010

Frugal thughts on witer energy savings

Let’s face it folks, our electric companies continue to operate on a for profit basis and must continue to reward their shareholders in the form of dividends. The cost of electricity and heating oil continues to rise. Our only relief from this expense is to be wise in our demand for electricity and heating fuels. Why would anyone willingly give away hard earned money to utility companies and share holders by wasting valuable water and energy?

This feature focuses on preparing yourself for winter and some general tips on energy conservation. If you have any additional ideas, please share your thoughts with everyone else. Some of these tips may seem like no-brainer solutions, but few people actually implement them.

- Perform a function check on your heating system NOW. DO not wait until you NEED to use it during the first cold snap of the winter. If you require any repairs or maintenance, you will have more luck in getting it repaired now than if you wait until when everyone else needs their heaters fixed. Typically, heaters will burn dust and give off that burnt odor. You can open your windows during fall type weather to allow these odors to dissipate. If you wait until it is too cold outside, you will be trapped with these burnt odors.


- Be smart about using your thermostat. Set and keep your thermostat at 68 degrees or below. Experts state that you can save 5 percent of your heating bill for each degree you lower your thermostat below 70 degrees. Most frugal people will lower their thermostat while they are sleeping to reduce their heating requirements. Experiment with this and see what your threshold is for comfort. Many people find that 55 degrees works out during sleeping hours.


- Check and replace your heater filter. This applies year round, pay particular attention during winter months. When your filter is “dirty” it restricts air flow entering your heating system. This means that less air is circulated through your heater and it becomes less efficient. General guidelines recommend replacing your filter at least once a month during peak use. If you find excessive dust in your home, we would recommend replacing it more often than once a month. Replacement filters can become a little costly. Consider purchasing those washable filters. This is frugal and reduces sending the disposable ones to the land fill.


- Your water heater is one of the least efficient appliances in your home. Be smart about your water heater. Turn your heating temperature down to 120 degrees or on the normal seating. Insulate to pipes going out of your water heater. Insulate any accessible pipes to reduce heat loss. You can pick up pipe insulation rather cheap at your local hardware or home improvement store. Install flow restrictors (aerators) on your faucets and shower heads. When it comes time to replace your water heater, consider the new efficient on-demand water heaters or “Energy Star” rated appliances. Some Energy Star appliances may cost a little more than a cheaper model, but will save money in the long run.

- Dishwashers have become modern conveniences in most households in America. If you use a dishwasher, run it only when you have a full load to save electricity and hot water. Set you drying mode to air dry only. If you use only a few dishes, consider washing these by hand, the old fashioned way. Fill one basin with hot soapy water to wash the dishes and rinse with water sparingly. Use a drying rack and towel dry the dishes.

- You can save money when doing your laundry this winter and throughout the year. Most household heating systems dry out the air. If you seal up your outside vent and allow your dryer to vent to the inside, you can provide moisture and heat back into the home. Place an old nylon panty hose over the exhaust vent and check it regularly. Wash close only in cold water. Modern detergents clean most clothes very well in cold water. This will save use of hot water. Consider using a drying rack to dry your clothes. In the winter, you will need to find a suitable place indoors to dry these clothes. We typically hang clothes on our shower curtain rod.

- A fireplace can be a romantic touch to a cold winter night, but most fireplaces are extremely inefficient. Ensure your damper or flue is closed when not in use. If you desire to use a fireplace during the winter and have a suitable source of inexpensive or free firewood, consider getting a fireplace insert. You may even get a federal tax break for a fireplace insert. Another option is to use a wood burning or pellet stove as a primary heat source. Last winter, we used our wood burning stove as our primary heat and saved a bundle.

- If you have ceiling fans, remember to switch them to reverse the air flow and pull the warm air from the ceiling to floor level.

- Take advantage of solar heat gain. If you have any windows on the southern side of your home, open any curtains, drapes or shades to allow the sun to assist in heating these areas.

- Check for air leaks and seal them up. You will find these leaks around door frames, windows, around plumbing connections, around electrical connections, floors and ceilings. Use caulk or insulating expandable spray foam to seal these cracks. Be sure to check/replace the rubber seals on the bottom of your exterior doors.

- Check insulation and consider adding additional insulation. Most builders only add enough insulation to get by. You may want to evaluated your insulation needs and purchase what you need to keep the heat in your home this winter.

- Bundle up and get cozy. Get used to your house being a little cooler from turning down your thermostat. You can stay warm by putting on a sweater, robe, sweatpants, and sitting with a throw blanket when reading or watching TV. Get in the habit of wearing socks around the house as well.

- There are numerous ways to conserve energy while cooking this winter. We are fortunate to use our wood burning stove as a heat source and a method to cook soups, stews and chili during the winter. We can slow cook a pot of belly warming stew on the wood burning stove and save energy. We boil water to add humidity back to the house and provide hot water for tea, ciders, washing dishes and bathing.

- Only heat those areas being used/occupied. Close heating vents and doors in those rooms you do not use. You will save energy by not having to heat these spaces.

- Holiday decorations and lighting. Be wise when it comes to decorating for the holidays. Use timers to control interior lighting for your decorations and tree. For outdoor lighting, consider reducing the amount of lights for your display. Always use timers and set them to go off at bedtime. Most people use the local late news as a time to turn off their holiday lights. Consider replacing older lighter with more efficient LED lights.

- If you haven’t replaced all of your incandescent lights in your home to compact fluorescent or LED lights yet, continue to do so. This will save considerable amount of energy.

- Continue to be aware of vampire power loss. Unplug all appliances when not in use. All appliances with clocks consume unnecessary power—this includes DVD players and microwave ovens.

- We will publish additional information on energy conservation and savings in the future, but please feel free to add your own ideas by providing comments.

- Now take a look around your home and see how you can save on your energy bill and be part of the frugal revolution.

Getting our Hands Dirty

Thank God, I’m a Country Boy. Oh, yes, a few more days of great springtime weather on Our Little Farm.




Today, we got a lot accomplished in the garden. Lynne was busy in the morning with the cultivator and chewed up the grasses and weeds growing between the rows. We prepared more terrain for planting and got busy getting dirt under our fingernails.



We planted the second batch of our Ambrosia sweet corn. We planted six more rows in this batch which will ripen up one month after our first batch. We will plant the third and final planting in about three weeks.



We planted a row of crookneck(yellow) squash, a row of spaghetti squash, a row or zucchini, two rows of okra, a row of mustard greens, a row of turnip greens, a row of eggplant, a row of beets and two rows of carrots. We also transplanted 9 more Celebrity tomato plants.



As you can see we have been busy in the garden. Stay tuned for more updates from Our Little Farm.

Living on Mother's Time

Since retiring to the farm and living the simple life, I have not found it necessary to wear a wrist watch. It’s really amazing how much stress is related to being tied to a rigid timetable. My timetable today is virtually stress free.

The only timetable I have today is Mother Nature’s timetable. Springtime is a marvelous time in the country, but also the busiest time of the year. Keeping up with Mother Nature’s timetable can be a challenge during early spring. Learning to adapt to this schedule is fun and exciting. Then you have to factor in rain days. Learning to fertilize right before a rain day, allows the rain to work the fertilizer into the soil. Timing on planting can also be beneficial if done right before a good rain. Seed needs plenty of moisture to germinate properly. If I time my plantings based on projected rain, I tend to use much less water to get the seed germinated.



Mother Nature also dictates my schedule for the day. Watering and planting is done early in the day to get maximum benefit of the cooler air. As the crops begin to ripen, we will harvest the produce in the cooler early morning hours to retain the moisture in the garden goodies.

Other light duty chores are done as the temperature heats up. The heat of the mid day sun allows me to go indoors and take a break. Well, I say break but there is always something to do during the heat of the day.


  I like sitting near the beehives on a clear hot day and watch the bees coming and going from the hives.  Seeing them moving in and out of the hives lets me  know they are busy gathering nectar and doing well.
As the sun hangs low in the late afternoon sky, it’s time to hit the garden again to check water, pull some weeds, and take care of other garden tasks.



I love not being chained to a calendar or schedule. I enjoy living a daily schedule controlled by Mother Nature. Would I ever change this to go back to a rigid schedule of going back in to the work force? I don’t think so. Life is good on our little farm.

Things are popping up everywhere

The photo above shows our potato crop as of today, 2 May 2010.  We planted these potatoes from seed potatoes on the 20th of March.  We mounded them for the final time and will wait until harvest time.  We also planted one extra row of Kennebec potatoes today.  These will be harvested after these plants flower.  These will be new potatoes, fresh from the garden.

Besides planting another row of potatoes, we had another busy day in the garden.  Of course, we did some weed control, but we also did some more planting.

One of the lessons we learned from last year was the need to stagger our plantings so that everything did not come in at once.  We planted two more rows of cucumbers for pickling.  If you have never had Lynne's Dill Pickles, you just don't know what you are missing.  These are so tart they about water your eyes and pucker your lips. And yes, I had one o her pickles from last year with lunch today.

Next we moved on to the Heritage Old Fashioned brown beans--3 more rows.  Planted 2 more rows of spinach.  We plan on adding more garden fresh salads to our daily menus.

Transplanted 9 Celebrity tomato plants.  It will be a couple of more weeks before we can transplant the Early Girls and Romas.

For those of you following this blog and are wanting to begin in vegetable gardening, we highly recommend you pick up some gardening books.  Our favorite veggie book is " The Vegetable Gardener's Bible".  We refer to this book on a daily basis.  I have provided the link for this book below.

Again, please feel free to ask questions or leave comments.

A Day with the Bees

 A day with the bees is always a great day. On Saturday, 1 May 2010, the Blount County Beekeeper’s Association conducted their annual Field Day. For those of you who have no clue what a beekeeper’s field day is, I’ll go ahead and break it down for you.


The annual field day is the third step in training for new beekeepers. The first step was a two day “short course” designed to give an overview and orientation to beekeeping. The second step is a wooden ware class to get hands on training on how to build the hive boxes (bodies and supers) as well as assembling frames and installing the wax foundation.

The third step is where we get hands on experience in working with the hives and the bees. We had several veteran beekeepers who dedicated their time to teach us all about the bees and hives. A bunch of us new beekeepers got the opportunity to open a variety of different hives and see these marvelous creatures in action.

After listening to some great guest speakers and reading all about bees, it was great to get into the hives and apply these lessons to learning firsthand how they work their magic.

We opened a nucleus (nuc) hive. A nuc is a brand new hive beginning with a new queen and typically only has five frames of wax foundation. A normal hive body will have either 9 or 10 frames.

We opened established hived and hives that already had the honey supers placed on them. We even opened a hive that was created from a collected swarm.

We learned queen identification and how to tell if the queen is actively lying. This is done by examining the frames and looking very close for new eggs and larvae. We learned how to identify capped brood which is the final stage in the 21-day development of a new worker bee. We learned how to spot the difference between a worker bee cell and a drone cell.

We witnessed bees entering the hives loaded with pollen and how they pack the honey into the cells for storage. We saw how the bees draw out the honeycomb buy creating wax for egg development and honey storage. We also saw examples of new queen cells being developed by a colony of bees.



This type of hands on training was extremely beneficial for all of us new beekeepers. My learning beginner training continues for the next two years with by bee mentor, Dale. I am learning so much about bees and their importance in our food supply.



Anyone who may be interested in getting started in beekeeping can certainly ask me all the questions you desire. My first advised is to find a local beekeeping association and attend your first meeting. Get to know some of the local beekeepers in your area. If you do not have a local association or know of any beekeepers, look around in some of your local markets. Many beekeepers will sell their local honey. You may even see signs that say “local honey for sale”. Contact them and let them you are interested in beekeeping.



I will also recommend our beekeeper’s association to anyone in our area of East Tennessee. Here a link to the Association’s website. http://blountbees.wordpress.com/

Stay tuned for additional updates about our beekeeping experiences.

Making Garden Stakes from Discarded Pallets

No cost/low cost—that is the way we operate when doing projects around Our Little Farm.

This is our first post on recycling, reclaiming, repurposing, and upcycling. I have become a master at scrounging items people discard and putting them to good use. Why pay good money for something when you can get the materials for free and build it yourself? Remember, we are on the path to self-sufficiency and we find the most economical means of doing things.

This particular article focuses on garden stakes. As you can tell, we have a pretty good sized garden and we needed a large amount of garden stakes for bean teepees, pea trellises, tomato cages, and cucumber trellis supports. After checking the price of stakes in local garden centers, we determined it would cost a small fortune to purchase enough stakes to cover our needs.

That’s where my scrounging skills and creativity kicked into high gear. I began checking with local businesses for long wooden shipping pallets. I hit one of the motorcycle/ATV dealers and hit paydirt. I loaded the trailer with a dozen wooden pallets and three metal pallets. The metal pallets will be used for future projects. I also saw a stack of shipping pallets outside a local furniture stores and scored another dozen long wooden pallets.

Now comes the creativity and hard work. I had to break the pallets down using a hammer, prybar, and long vise-grip pliers. After separating the cross members, I had to remove all of the nails and staples. Once all of the metal is removed, I ripped the boards down on my table saw. I was able to get 18 (7-foot) stakes out of one single pallet and could have gotten more by cutting them a little thinner. I was also able to get nearly 40 shorter stakes for other purposes.

I should note that most of the wood from these pallets is Oak. Sure it takes a little bit of work to get to the stakes, but they are 100 percent FREE and I was able to keep them from ending up in a landfill.

If you tally up all of the stakes I was able to reclaim from a single pallet, we saved about $50.00 from buying them at a garden center.

Stay tuned for future updates on my uses of wooden pallets and other reclaimed items.  In the mean time, you can find your own projects using recycled materials.  You can find additional information on the internet, your local library or by clicking on any of my ads below.

Please feel free to share this blog with family or friends.  If you would like to link this blog to your blog or webpage, please let us know so we can link yours to this blog.

Ich bin ein Imker--I am a beekeeper

Afer months of research and prepartion, We finally have our own bees. We are starting out with two hives and will expand tremendously in the future.

We received the bees on Friday, 23 APRIL 2010. After my initial inspection this morning, the bees are adapting to their new home. Stay tuned for additional updates my beekeeping adventures.

Preview of our blog

Greetings Folks,

Here is a preview of future posts for our blog.Welcome to our little farm. Please feel free to join us on our journey as we progress down this road to self-sufficiency. Be sure to click on the “followers” to stay up to date on our adventures.

Our blog serves as a means of keeping you posted on regular adventures on our little farm; provides educational information on how to live this simple lifestyle and serves as a source of free entertainment.

Each of our blog updates will be broken down into the following categories (labels):
- Introduction
- Lifestyle Modification
- Income Assessment
- Home Budget Analysis
- Debt Reduction/Elimination
- Frugal Living
- Simple Living
- Recycling, Repurposing, and Upcycling
- Growing your own Food
- Raising Animals
- Canning, Preserving and Storing Food
- Country Cooking and Recipes
- Energy Management
- Emergency Preparedness
- Practical Skills
- Country Skills
- Country Crafts
- Country Wisdom
- All about the Earth
- Living and Staying Healthy
- Frugal Entertainment
- Humor
- Things to Ponder
- Resources for Learning
As you can see, we intend to make this a very comprehensive blog. We will share our experiences in these areas as well as those things we have learned from old timers who have been living this type of lifestyle for many moons.
Stay tuned for future blog updates. We are confident that you will find it both informative and entertaining and we certainly look forward to your feedback. If you would like us to post an update on any related subject, please let us know. We are having a blast trying new things—it’s all part of the adventure.

First blog post

Welcome to Our Little Farm. Join us on our journey as we progress down the road to self-sufficiency.

This blog will serve as an interim means to keeps folks posted on our progress until we are able to get our own website up and running.

This blog will chronicle the daily lives of John and Lynne Pearson as we continue to Live the dream.

Keep an eye on our blog for regular updates.