Thoughts on becoming a homesteader

I'm sure there are folks out there who are anxiously awaiting more bathroom pictures, but right now I'm taking a bit of a detour to talk about other areas of my life.  More pics and an update are coming, though!  I should have more to say about it by tonight.

I just had one of those moments when I looked at myself, as if from the outside, and wondered who I was and how I got to where I am.  I was in the kitchen, mixing up flour, yeast, water and salt for bread.  A big pot of vegetable beef soup was cooking on the stove.  The beef is from a cow named Dolly, I grew the onions myself, I grew and canned the tomatoes that went into the tomato juice, and most of the other ingredients are from local farmers.  My sink is full of canning jars from food we've eaten and ingredients we've used in the past 24 hours.  Next to the stove was a wooden crate of herbs and several little jars of homemade "Neosporin".  I could hear my rooster, Pretty Boy, crowing out in the backyard.  And I was thinking of the apples on the back porch that are starting to get wrinkled, wondering if I had time to make applesauce tonight.

It really struck me how far from "normal" I've strayed. 

Sometimes I look at the blogs I read and people on message boards and feel like they are "real" homesteaders and I'm just dabbling.  I don't grow even close to all of my produce, I still buy bread at the store more than I bake it, and I eat out WAY more than I should.  But taken as a whole, the way we choose to live is not even close to mainstream. 

How did I get here?  How did my rather normal and unremarkable childhood (no offense, Mom, I just mean that I wasn't brought up on a farm or by hippies!) turn into this not-at-all normal lifestyle?  I keep wondering if there was a turning point, I place where I suddenly realized that I had to have chickens in my backyard, or grow and can my own tomato sauce, or know the cow that turned into my hamburger.  But I can't find that place...  I don't know when my mentality shifted and I became aware of how unsustainable and unhealthy so many modern practices are; I don't know what made me decide to opt-out.

But here I am.  Here I am with chickens in my backyard, a cow named Dolly in my freezer, and bread rising on the counter.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Chickens in the backyard??

As you may know, last year I began my quest to eat more local, humanely/sustainably produced foods.  I had been buying organic/all natural meat and produce from Meijer, which I thought was a good thing.  Then I read "This Organic Life" by Joan Dye Gussow.  I thought I was reading a book about gardening.  Instead, it almost completely revolutionized the way I think about my food.  In her witty, pragmatic style, Joan points out how convoluted America's food production system really is, while also offering an alternative: locally produced foods, purchased in season. 

The book really resonated with me, and I started applying its principles in the best way I could.  For nearly a full year, I've bought all my produce (excepting pineapples, Clementine oranges, bananas, and a few heads of romaine lettuce) from our local farmer's market.  I "put up" produce for the off-season as well, freezing beans, broccoli, corn, peas, carrots, peaches, blueberries, and several types of peppers.  I canned peaches, scratch-made pasta sauce, and applesauce.  I buy chicken and eggs from a local farm that free-ranges its birds and doesn't use hormones or antibiotics.  Beef and pork have been a little more difficult, but I settled for buying in bulk from a small, local butcher.  Not all the meat is locally produced, but at least I'm helping a small business, and the quality is MUCH higher than that of supermarket meat.  There's really no comparison.

Aside from the warm, fuzzy feeling I get from helping out local small farmers, it's been fun to really know where my food comes from.  If I go to the market during the week, it's much less crowded and I have to opportunity to talk to the farmers who grow my food.  One even saved some peppers for me after he appeared to have sold out, since he knew I'd been coming for them every week.  You can't get that at Wal-Mart!

This year I want to take it a step further.  I'm going to plant a small garden (in a different location after last year's dismal failure!) and buy two laying hens.  Part of me wonders if I've gone completely batty.  The other (larger) part is excited by the idea of producing my own food right here in my yard. 


I haven't worked out all the details just yet, but I have found a local farmer who is willing to sell me winter-hardy, laying hens for under $10 each.  They should lay about 8-10 eggs per week between the two of them, which is plenty for me to split with my mom or neighbors.  I've also bought plans for a chicken coop, which Shayne and I are going to build.  A friend from work offered up some scrap metal roofing and wire fencing, so our costs should be pretty minimal.  We'll get started once the weather warms up.

As far as the house goes...  Umm, well... yeah.  It'll happen eventually I guess.

I like meat, but...

This just about made me sick. God gave us the earth and its creatures to take care of, not to be cruel to. I do eat meat. I will continue to eat meat. But I think I'm done with meat from factory farms. This is disgusting. I don't want to eat something that has lived in its own shit, then fed antibiotics just to keep it alive in the terrible conditions. I want healty, naturally raised food. "Farms" like these are just another reason to know where your food comes from and how it was treated before it came to your table. When eating out, I'll take the salad, please. Pesticides and all.

This video is pretty graphic in spots. Fair warning. One of the clips that really got to me was edited out of this video. It showed a calf that couldn't walk being dragged around by one rear leg by a man at an auction. The calf was kicking and bawling, and when it struggled he's just yank on its leg harder. Maybe not as terrible has some of the clips of dying animals dragging themselves around, but it just really bothered me.

Please watch this. You deserve to know what you're eating. You, and the animals we eat, deserve better.

http://www.meat.org/

Help, I'm turning into a hippie!

Well, almost. I still take baths :)

Yesterday I made and used my first batch of homemade laundry soap. I used the most common recipe, which is 1 c of grated bar soap (I used Fels-Naptha, but I'll be looking for a biodegradable alternative for next time), 1/2 c of washing soda, and 1/2 c borax. For a standard washing machine, 1 - 2 T should be plenty. We have a HE washer, so I used a little under 1T. Everything came out flean and fresh, and there was no static in the dryer! It also didn't have a strong scent like commercial detergents, so that was nice was well. We have extremely hard water, and we didn't notice a problem with the detergent like we did with "natural" automatic dishwashing agents. At approximately $0.01 per load, I can see this will save us a ton of money!

This morning I ventured out the the Walkerton Dairy Herd Farm to take a tour and learn about raw milk. Since we're talking about procreating, the idea of hormones and antibiotics in my body is starting to worry me more. Although our government prohibits the sale of unpasteurized milk in Indiana, they can't keep you from milking your own cows and drinking it. The WDH sells shares of cows, and you are legally able to keep the milk that "your" cows produce.

The facility was very clean and pleasant. The cows appeared healthy and happy. I got a tour of the "bottling plant" where the cows are milked and the milk is bottled and refrigerated. Then, I got to sample some of the product. I was a little nervous about this part. I've grown up hearing that whole milk tastes awful, and that it has tons of bad things in it. I'm starting to accept this as the bullshit it is, but I was still a little leary about drinking milk straight out of a cow. Oddly, I was more worried about taste than safety. The way I figure, people have been drinking milk straight from the cow (or goat, or yak, or whatever) for thousands of years. We've still progressed. Our species has survived. I think our society as a whole worries too much about germs and bacteria. But I digress...

The milk tasted like milk :) It had a milder taste than even 1% milk, even though it had lots of cream floating in it. She had to shake it before she poured in, since the cream floats to the top. It did have a slightly grassy aftertaste, which was a little odd, but not bothersome. Pasteurized, homogenized milk might have an aftertaste too, we're just so used to it that we don't notice it.

I haven't yet decided whether raw milk is for me or not. I hate how it's so difficult to find unbiased information. The government claims raw milk is evil and will make you sick. It also claims that pasteurization doesn't kill any enzymes or reduce vitamin content. Raw milk proponents claim that unpasteurized milk is healthier and can cure or eliminate many common health problems. I need to find information that isn't propaganda!

South Bend Farmers Market

This morning I took a trip to the South Bend Farmers Market. This was not my first trip there; my mom and I have shopped there intermittently since we moved to the area 16 years ago. This was, however, my first trip where I was planning on buying everything I need for a week's worth of eating and cooking. I noticed quite a few things that I never did before, since my priorities have shifted a bit.

First, I never really realized the variety of food available. Just about everything that's available at the local Meijer could be found at the market, although possibly in a different form. Noodles for example. One booth had fresh noodles, but nowhere near the number of sizes and shapes that you can find in a grocery. You can also find bread, baked goods, and soaps.

I also noticed that not everything is local. There's one produce booth that offers fruits and veggies from all over the country. I avoided them, since I am trying to buy all local items. I think they have an actual store somewhere, but bring some of their inventory to sell on weekends.

One of the butchers at the market offers rabbit. I'll have to give that a try. This was the only booth that offered local meats. I didn't realize this and bought from the other butcher. That's something to remedy next week.

Vendors offer homemade sauces, salsas, dressings, and jams/jellies. I'd like to learn to make my own, but this is a guilt-free option until then.

Two booths offer homemade spices, and several others have fresh herbs. Potted plants are also available. One vendor even had a large pot growing salad greens. You just pick what you want, when you want for only $7.50. I'm thinking about buying one of those...

I can buy local eggs and butter. Free range, chemical free eggs are only $2 a dozen. Meijer wants $3.79. Butter was $4 for a "roll" which looked like about 2 lbs. Wow!

The market accepts WIC. Anyone who says local, fresh produce is unavailable for the lower classes is sadly misinformed. Tha market is located centrally, easily accesible from either Mishawaka or South Bend. It's also on the bus line, which is very inexpensive ($.75 for a regular fare, or $.35 for Medicare cardholders).

Another thing I loved is that you can buy just the quantity you want. I'm going to make a pasta dish this week that requires a small quantity of mushrooms. Instead of buying 12 oz and scrambling to find something to make with the remainder before they go bad, I just bought 6 little mushrooms that I selected myself. I was also able to buy a little basket of redskin potatoes for only $1. It's just enough for a meal for Shayne and I.

Maybe best of all, from an environmental standpoint, is that the food isn't packaged. I brought my own produce bags that I had aquired at the grocery store, and carried everything in my canvas tote. Aside from the paper wrapped around the meats, there was no waste.

I'm pretty excited by the whole experience. I bought a couple of cookbooks this morning to help me on my new quest to use more whole foods, and I'm sure the market will open up more possibilities once I know how to cook better. As for today, dinner is roasted chicken, carrots or broccoli (there were heads the size of my head!), and redskin mashed potatoes. Nothing fancy, but it's all homemade!

Rain barrel update

After 1.6" of rain yesterday, the rain barrel is up to 45 gallons. And this is still without any kind of downspout leading into it, just what happens to fall out of the gutter into the little hole in the lid.

Eventually we'll empty it and put it together right... :)

Rain barrels

While I was driving around at work a few days ago, I noticed a sign in the yard of one house offering plastic barrels for $10. I don't know about you, but considering that most barrels seem to cost at least $40, I think that's a bargain. I had Shayne go pick one up along with some hardware, and over the next few days, we're going to build our first rain barrel.

Because I have no patience, I set up the barrel underneath our somewhat-defunct garage gutter. This gutter was a victim of last year's roof rebuilding project, and it never made it back in service. The gutter itself is mostly fine, but the downspout isn't attached. It's laying on the ground next to the garage and has since been damaged by me stepping on it. Numerous times. So... We have a gutter with a hole in one end. Not idea, but it works. Mostly.

I set the barrel underneath the gutter hole with it's 3" diameter cap open. During the afternoon, we got .46" of rain. It had probably already rained for a half hour before I set up the barrel (2 hrs of rain total), and once I did, it was only doing a mediocre job of cathing the water. Still, we "harvested" about 10-15 gallons of water from our garage roof. The catchment area for that side is about 200 square feet. According to my calculations, we could have gotten at least a full 55 gallons from that rainfall, but for a half-assed setup, I don't think we did too badly.

That barrel is right next to my new veggie garden (more on that later), and I plan to attach a soaker hose to the barrel to provide water to my little seedlings. I'd like another barrel by the porch roof, and that will catch some water from the house roof as well. Being a Foursquare, we don't have gutters on the main roof, but I think we can get plenty of water from our front and back porch roofs to water our flowers and veggies. Every little bit helps!

Eco-friendly: The Reusable Shopping List

I dunno about you, but it seems like every time I go to the store, I buy pretty much the same stuff. Milk, bread, bagels, cereal, veggies, fruits, etc. In addition, I usually write my list on a piece of scrap paper, which I tend to lose, if I remember to bring it at all.

My new idea is to write a semi-permanant shopping list to keep on the fridge. It'll have all our commonly used items, plus space to add additional stuff. There will be a check box by each item so I can just tick it off the list when I run out. And, the list will be laminated, so I can use it over and over. I'll attach a dry erase or grease pencil to it so I can mark things off quickly.

I made a draft today (unlaminated), and I'm going to give it a test run to see how it goes. It's on a standard piece of paper, which will make it difficult for me to misplace, but I might end up scaling it down if it's too bulky. Since Shayne and I seem to be splitting the shopping chores equally lately, marking things off will work better than him calling me at work and asking, "Do we need anything from the store?"

At least I'm trying to be organized...

Shiny! New! Clean!

These three words generally don't describe my house. Some things may be shiny, but it's generally from wear, not because they are new and/or clean. But our gorgeous front-loading washer is all this and more.

We decided on a Whirlpool Duet Sport. I had a bit of a hard time settling on it, since they all looked so pretty sitting there in the store. But we really don't need 17 water temperatures and 28 pre-set load types. Everything we wash is either with warm or cold, and on permenant press unless it's towels. The Sport (makes it sound like a car, doesn't it?) has 3 temperatures, 3 spin speeds, and 5 load settings. Water level is automatic, so I don't have to guess. Simple is good. And significantly cheaper, too!

I've been washing clothes like a woman possessed since last night after work. I had to go inside a VERY unsanitary house, so I changed clothes in the laundry room as soon as I walked in the door. Since then, I'm almost an addict. What amazes me most is how quiet the washer is. Unless it's spining, you can't hardly hear it. Until it leveled itself as well as it could on our notably un-level back porch, I thought it would shake the house apart when it spun. But it seems to have settled into a sweet spot, and you can't feel the vibrations inside the house now. I can't say the same for the porch. Out there it still feels like a minor earthquake...

But overall I'm thrilled. It uses so little water I'm sure we'll notice a difference in our bills, and it's Energy Star on top of that. I can't wait to get the dryer and stack the two. The porch will be less cluttered and awkward to navigate, and then maybe we'll have room for a little coat locker to stash some of our outerwear in.

"Green" cleaning products: Drain openers

The sink in the upstairs bathroom clogs constantly. At least 3 times per year it becomes completely stopped up, and we then decide it's time to do something about it. Usually "something" involves buying several bottles of Drano or Liquid Plumr to blast the clog into oblivion. Usually it takes 3 or 4 applications before the drain is completely clear. This time, I decided to try something a little less... hazardous. Traditional drain openers can be bad for cast iron pipes, which is what our waste pipe is made of. Drain openers also contain very harsh chemicals like hydrochloric or sulpheric acid. Stuff like that will kill the good bacteria in the cesspool and slow the process of breaking down household waste. The chemicals will also leach into the soil.

The traditional method is to use baking soda and vinegar, so I decided to give that a try.

I dumped probably 1/2 cup of baking soda directly into the drain, then added about a quart of vinegar (slowly). It started to bubble up over the top of the drain, so I gave it 1 plunge with the plunger. The result was instantaneous: no more clog. I waited a minute or so to let the mixture work its way down the pipe, then flushed the drain with hot water for about 5 minutes.

Not only did it work better than commercial drain cleaner, it was cheaper too!

"Green" cleaning products: Laundry detergents

The first laundry detergent I tried was Earth Friendly Products ECOS powder. I found it at Meijer one day, and just decided to give it a shot. If I remember correctly, it was about $9 for the box. I had been using Tide liquid before, and I wasn't really sure about using a powder. I was pleasantly surprised, as it disolved readily and cleaned well. Since it was unscented, it didn't clash with my dryer sheets. Unfortunately, it also left some kind of residue on my clothes. After several washings, they started to feel a little... crunchy. I don't mean that my clothes literally crackled, but the did seem rather stiffer than they used to. I've since found that it may have been a reaction to the extremely hard water we have in this area.

Next I tried Seventh Generation's laundry powder, also found at Meijer. I don't recall the price, but it was more expensive than the ECOS. This detergent also cleaned well and had a fresh, citrusy scent. Unfortunately, it also made my clothes kind of stiff. Your mileage may vary.

I went back to using Tide for a while, but really felt guilty about it once we moved into the Prairie Box. We do a lot of laundry, and I was just imagining the cesspool clogging with soap bubbles...

Then I found Method detergent at Target. It's biodegradable, phosphate free, and smells very nice (I use "fresh air"). It also leave my clothes residue free. Oddly, the detergent doesn't make a lot of bubbles compared to Tide, but it cleans just as well. The price is comparable to "ordinary" detergents, but the bottle is smaller since it's a concentrated formula. The cap/measuring cup is about 1/3 the size of Tide's. The bigger bottle of Method costs about $12 and seems to last us about 3 months. I've also used the "free + clear" version with good results. Since I line dry some items, though, I prefer a scented detergent.

After liking Method detergent so much, I also bought the dryer sheets. I've read that these contain tallow, an animal byproduct, which upsets some folks (I'm not one of them). I'm not sure that they're biodegradable, but they smell great and leave my laundry static-free. Bach also likes them and will chew them up any chance he gets. Half a sheet seems sufficient for most of our loads of laundry, and the box contains 100. Cost: About $6.

I've also tried the softener-infused dryer cloths but don't like them nearly as much. They're more like wet wipes than traditional dryer sheets, and they need to stay moist. I'm not crazy about the scents. Two cloths were needed to kill the static in an average-sized load. Bach also did not approve and won't touch them. These cost about $5.50, less at Target than online, but there are fewer in the container (32).

I feel obligated to mention that I am not affiliated with any company or product mentioned, nor am I receiving any compensation for these mini-reviews. Just in case... :)

Of cesspools and biodegradable cleaners

I've mentioned before that we have to be careful which cleaning products we use because of our septic situation. Actually, we don't even have a septic. That's the problem. Back when the house was built, there was less concern for polluting the groundwater. The wastewater from the home simply emptied into a brick-lined hole in the ground called a cesspool. From there, the water would seep out through holes left in the sides. It's the same concept used today in parking lot drainage, and it's now called a drywell. Drywells are approved in Indiana for greywater systems (no human waste), but codes now require a septic system. Since ours is grandfathered, we're trying very hard to preserve it. Not only would installing a septic be expensive, we'd also have to have the cesspool filled in. And we have two of them. Luckily, we do have an access hatch built into the driveway, so it can be occasionally pumped out like a regular septic.


What all this means for everyday life is that we need to be very careful what we put down the drains. Ordinary commercial soaps and cleaners inhibit the soil's ability to absorb liquid. Over time a scum builds up on the surface, and no water will leach out at all, which would mean our cesspool would be nothing more than a holding tank. As far as I know, this hasn't happened yet. All of our drains run quickly and there are no strange odors in the backyard. Since we'd like to keep it this way, we are pretty picky about what cleaning products we use.

The transition began even before we moved into the Prairie Box. I read an article somewhere (sorry, no idea where!) about how the chemicals we use in our homes can cause the indoor air quality to be worse than that outside. I also found that many cleaners are petroleum-based (laundry detergent, dish soap, and many others). I'm not a crazy hippie-chick, but it bothered me that I was using oil to clean my home and clothing. And myself. It also concerned me that some many substances we use to "clean" our home had warning labels on them. "Vapors can be harmful", "may cause skin irritation", "avoid prolonged exposure". Does this sound like stuff we want to prepare our food around? Take a bath in? Expose children to? No thanks.

And so the quest began. It started with a non-petroleum-based laundry detergent, but once we moved into the Prairie Box, I wanted as many products as possible to be biodegradable. Over the next few days, I'm going to take a look at the cleaning products we use in the house, and write about what works and what doesn't. I'll also include where we bought them and what they cost.

Here are the criteria we use when evaluating a product prior to purchase, in no particular order:

1. Price: I don't care how well it cleans or how good for the environment it is if I can't afford to buy it on a regular basis. I try not to spend more than $6 for most cleaners, but there are exceptions.
2. Biodegradability: A necessity. If I switch from a mainstream product, it's never to something non-biodegradable.
3. Ingredients: I prefer products that are pH balanced (i.e. phosphate-free), since I have well water.
4. Fragrance: Many "green" products are perfume free. Others smell like various herbs or flowers, which is usually okay. Some smell like patchouli. Ick.
5. Availability: Some products I buy are only aavailable to me online. Others only at certain stores. When possible I like to buy from Meijer, since it's where I go for my groceries.