Time to Make This Years Fire Starters!

These things are SO handy! We use them every time we make a fire at home and when we are camping. I just used the last one in the fireplace, so it is time to make more!

Normally, I make these outside in our fire pit. However, today it is cold and quite windy. I have decided to make them in the house (read that to mean I used electricity!)

I made two kinds, one using dryer lint and one using newspapers/shredded papers.

Dryer lint method:

At our house, making fire starters isn't a one day project. Actually, I am making them throughout the year. It takes that long to collect the ingredients I need to make them. I start with lint from the dryer. It takes all year for me to collect a significant amount because I don't use the dryer that often. Most of the lint I collect is from my husband using the dryer. I stuff the lint into empty toilet paper rolls.

Then, once a year, I dip the lint-filled toilet paper rolls in wax. You can use these without the wax, but they burn longer and steadier once you coat them with wax. It also makes sense to waterproof them for emergencies and times when you need to start a fire in the rain. Dipping them in wax is very easy, but it can be a bit messy. I covered the counter with freezer paper to make clean up easy. In addition to the dryer lint, you will need wax, string and scissors.

Start with a small amount of water in a pot. You need a double boiler to melt the wax and I don't have one. I used my small soap pot instead. You will also need a container for melting the wax. I used a Christmas cookie tin. I have used this one for years. I leave the left over wax stored in it from year to year.

Put the container with the wax into the boiling water. Once I did that, I turned the heat down some to keep the boiling water from splashing around. 

After this wax started to melt, I added another pound of the Gulf Wax to the container and let that melt as well. Needless to say, please be careful, the melting wax gets very hot. If you touch it, it will stick to your skin and you can get burned. 

While the wax was melting, I prepared the paper rolls. I tied them with string to make dipping in the wax easier. Make the string long enough so you don't need to touch the hot wax. The string also makes lighting the starters easy. 

They don't have to look pretty, they just have to hold together so everything can be dipped in the wax and not fall apart. I dip one at a time so I don't make a mess. While holding the string, dip one and hold it under the melted wax (with a spoon, not your fingers) for a few seconds to let the wax penetrate both the lint and the paper.

When finished, hold the string up and let the wax drip back into the container.

When it stops dripping, place on a piece of wax paper or freezer paper to cool. 

When the fire starters are completely cool and the wax has hardened, store until needed! 
I store mine in a plastic bag with the newspaper logs in the garage.



Shredded paper method (aka - Fire Bricks):

FYI - making fire bricks also takes about a year to collect enough newspaper/junk paper to make them. They are a breeze to make and burn quite efficiently! They can also be used as the only fuel in a Kelly Kettle or volcano stove! Here is how you do it:

Shred your newspapers or junk mail. You can shred by hand or machine. There isn't any difference in the quality of the bricks. Be sure not to shred any credit cards or other plastic in the batch you will use to make the bricks.

Place the shredded papers in a pail with water. Soak the papers well. If you shred by hand, you may have to soak them for a few hours. If you shred by machine, you don't have to wait that long. 

The papers will reduce down a lot. Stir and let them soak for a few minutes to a few hours. Stir again. Break up any lumps. The lumps are not saturated with water yet. If you had to break up a lot of lumps, wait a few more minutes and stir again.

Compact the shredded papers together (allowing the water to drain out). There are a couple of ways to do this:

• Get a mold. You can purchase a paper brick mold to do this - online stores sell them. I don't have a brick mold. I prefer to keep mine small so I use an old cookie press. When filling, compress the papers every so often then add more. Your brick will be bigger this way. Add the top and squeeze the handle. Remove the cookie cutter and squeeze the handle until the brick comes completely out.

• You could also use your hands to compress the paper, the same way you would make a snowball. It isn't hard, I have osteoarthritis and I do just fine. 

• Let them dry completely. They are going to take a couple of days to dry. If you used a paper brick mold, it could take a few weeks. That's it!  Here is a picture of one I did with the cookie press and one I did by hand.

We now have enough fire starters to last through next January!

My Vision of Self-Reliance

I have a different point of view on what self reliance is. (Come to think of it, I have a unique point of view on everything!) My husband and I have decided that now is the time to focus our efforts on our future vision of self-reliance. Now is the time because we think (expect?) the US economy is going to kick into high gear now that we have a new president. This may put rural acreage out of our price range if we wait too long. So, we have been driving around for the past month or so looking at land that we can move to (in about a year to 18 months). We want this land to be something we can use now, and will also meet our needs when we retire.

So what exactly are we looking for?

Well, self reliance to most people means taking care of your self, your family and helping out your community when you can - and doing it all on your own, without help or handouts from others. Our family takes this to another level. We consider self-reliance to be not requiring anything on a continuous basis from any government agency or quasi-governmental agency. This includes our utilities. We don't want city water or sewer services. Nor do we want electricity or TV services. (While we don't really need internet and wireless phone services for our personal life, we do need both to run our business. Hopefully, that need will end when we retire in a decade.)

We want to live where we don't need stores either. Now, I don't mind going to the store once a quarter or so, just like the pioneers did, but not weekly or bi-weekly. Without a cow and chickens of my own, it isn't possible to do that. Cooking with powdered milk and powdered eggs limits my trips to the store, but having my own cow and chickens (as well as a larger garden) is truly self-reliance to me. When it is time to 'go to the store' I want to go out to my land to harvest what I need.

Different states and each county in those states, all have different rules! I have been spending a lot of time on the phone asking questions of local governments. One county employee actually told me that all homes in that county require a continuous source of electric power to get an occupancy permit, and that solar panels with batteries (and a whole house propane generator for back-up) are not considered a continuous supply of electricity! The problem with that is the land we were interested in was almost two miles away from the nearest power line! This is such a shame because those 20 acres we looked at in that county were beautiful! Another property we were interested in did not have access to a phone line (and satellite internet won't meet our business needs).

So on we go! I am doing most of the research, because my husband is super busy with work right now. I am learning a lot about building a house on rural land in all the southern states, and plenty about many of the counties we have targeted in each state as well! 

We are praying for guidance from our Heavenly Father on where we should look next. I certainly hope we find what we are looking for soon - I want to plant the apple and peach trees on our new property this year!

Busy Week!

Boy, I had a super busy week with a "To Do" list as long as my arm! Still, late today I managed to can some apple sauce.

The applesauce was made from Gala apples (my favorite!). They are super sweet this year. I have 2 bushels sitting in my kitchen right now. When the Winesap apples come in next month I will get one or two more bushels!

Honestly, for about an hour of work, you can't beat homemade apple sauce. (It takes slightly longer than that if you are canning it.) We never purchase store bought applesauce anymore, it is bland and dull. Frankly it is tasteless! The recipe that I use came from page 182 of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. In my opinion, it is the only canning book you should ever need.

Home canning is so rewarding! It is a comfort to me to know that I can grow and preserve my own food! AND make it taste good!  I hope I am making my great-grandmothers proud!

Do You Know What This Plant Is?

I have been looking for this plant all summer and I can't find it in my area! I am going to look even harder in August because that is when it blooms and it will be easier to spot. This plant is called Thistle and it will make rennet that you can use to make cheese! You can see how to do that here.

I have learned a lot about Thistle this year. One of the disappointing things I have learned is that it only works with goat's milk or sheep's milk. If you use cow's milk, the cheese will turn bitter.

In addition, I now know that there are many different kinds of Thistle. The variety you need to make cheese is called Bull Thistle. It is also know as Scots or Scottish Thistle, Spear Thistle or common Thistle. Here is an article from Wikipedia about it. (The picture above also came from Wikipedia.) The kinds of Thistle you see in your back yard may also be Milk Thistle, Musk Thistle, Sow Thistle, Star Thistle, Golden Thistle or one of many more varieties! The problem for me is, I am not experienced enough to know what I am looking at. The flowers of all of them look the same to me (in the pictures I looked at). Even when I do find a real plant, I am not sure I will know what variety it is!

I have also learned that you can make rennet from the sap of fig trees (our fig tree died from the extreme cold last winter - I have not replaced it),  artichoke flowers, Stinging Nettle or the fronds of yucca plants. Stinging Nettle and the flowers of the artichoke can be used with cow's milk.  

I am going to add looking for Stinging Nettle to my search for Bull Thistle this month. Planting artichokes in my garden may be in my future as well! I will need to do more research on artichokes to see if one variety is better than another for making cheese.

Making cheese from thistle rennet was a goal of mine this year. While I make not achieve that goal, I sure have learned a lot about many different plants that can be used in the cheese making process!

Eventually, I will have success in making cheese from a sustainable rennet source!

Pay Down Your Debt (Almost) Painlessly

Many of my family members are accomplished authors. A few have books published. Another one used to work for a regionally known magazine. Two are currently working on new books! (A note to both Gloria and Nancy, I can't wait for your new books!) Nancy has also been writing online articles. So it is with great pride that I offer a link to her recent article, Pay Down Your Debt (Almost) Painlessly.

I would like to add my comment that once you change your lifestyle, these behaviors will become 'normal' to you. When that happens, you will no longer consider them 'painful'! Take it from me! Being frugal was not a 'normal' condition for me or my husband when we first were married. Not that we were ever irresponsible with money, but I bought convenience. Both of us were in the Army and I didn't have the time to do the things I do now to live a frugal lifestyle. I have since learned that back then,  I could have been doing small behavior changes to save money. Even a few changes would have made a difference. A busy lifestyle isn't an excuse to waste money!

Anyone can be more frugal with small behavior changes. When they become routine, add new ones! Soon, you will find that your behavior changes are permanent and you have extra money to pay down your debt, save for an emergency fund, or even take a vacation!

Congratulations Nancy on your published article!

Making Laundry Soap

It occurred to me the other day that I have talked about making soap before, and given laundry soap recipes, but I never showed you how I make it!

I (slightly) changed my recipe about a month ago and thought this would be a great opportunity to show you what I do differently now. You can see my old laundry soap recipe in this post here. You can see how I make my own bar soap in this series of posts here.

What I decided to do is to increase the concentration levels of the soap. Kind of like what you see happening to the laundry detergent you can purchase in the stores. The bottles are getting smaller and the liquid is more concentrated. Of course, the idea is that you use less. If you find that you don't use less, then go back to the first link posted above and use that recipe. (It will be cheaper for you.) For people who like the highly concentrated liquid formula, today's recipe is for you.

Super Concentrated Laundry Soap
2 bars of soap
3 cups of Washing Soda
3 cups of Borax

Regardless of which recipe you want to use, this post is about how I make up the liquid soap. Here are the ingredients you need.

Just for the record, the bottle is empty. This is the bottle I am using to store the laundry soap. This bottle is about 4 years old and I continually reuse it. I really like the thick plastic bottles used to hold commercial laundry detergent. Ask your friends to save their empty bottles for you and soon you will have plenty! 

I start by heating some water in my soap making pot. The amount of water isn't important, add enough to dissolve the soap and powdered ingredients. The reason you heat the water is, hot water will help dissolve the bar soap quickly. I use an old vegetable peeler (now saved just for soap making) to cut thin slices.

Here is what they look like when I finished cutting them and drop them into the hot water. 

It isn't necessary to heat the water or cut the bar up if you don't want to. Instead, you can pour some water into a pot, drop the bar in it and let it soak overnight. The next morning, the soap should be soft enough to work with. (You may need to add some boiling water to get it to completely dissolve.)

Next, pour in the washing soda and borax. I usually add about 1 cup at a time and then stir until it is dissolved.  

When you have added all the ingredients, pour the concentrate into your detergent bottle.

Then, add additional water to fill the bottle.

Shake a bit and store.

If the liquid is still hot, I will go back and shake the bottle a few times until everything cools off. Shaking as it cools can help ensure the ingredients don't separate.

And there you have it! Your own homemade liquid laundry soap!

Making Garlic and Herb Butter

My husband brought home some garlic and herb butter from the store a few weeks ago. We tend to eat plain things so neither of us had ever tasted it before. Wow! Was it good! Wow! Was it expensive! Best to save things like that for special occasions. Then I thought, " I bet I could make it cheaper!" I had to try!

I happen to have a quart of heavy cream in the refrigerator. I bought it to make whipped cream for a New Year's Day cake. The whipped cream never happened! Anyway, the 'best by' date on the carton was the middle of February and I knew I had to use it soon. I thought it would be a great idea to use it to make my own garlic and herb butter!

The first step is to make the butter. It is super easy. Start by setting the cream on the counter for a few hours. Fresh cream should be room temperature to make butter. (It really doesn't have to be room temperature, but the cream will turn to butter a lot faster if it is room temperature!) Pour the cream into a jar. I used a quart canning jar. Fill the jar halfway. A half gallon jar will work too, I just don't have one. Here is a picture of mine.

To make butter, shake the jar. It is just that simple. However, if you would like a detailed explanation of what will happen to the cream as it goes through the 'stages' to get to butter, you can read all about it here. I wrote this post a while back but the information is relevant today as well. Go ahead and click on the link, I will wait for you!

OK, now that you understand what you are going to get when you shake the jar, we can move to the final result, butter and buttermilk! Please don't throw out the buttermilk, it adds a wonderful flavor to homemade bread! I poured mine into another jar to save it. The butter must now be washed. This step is critical! If you omit it, you won't be able to eat the butter! Trust me on this! Wash the butter in cool water. I washed mine about five times. The number of times isn't as important as the results. You must wash it until the water runs clear. 

There are lots of different ways to wash the butter. I usually 'knead' it against the side of a bowl with a slotted spoon. As the water turns milky, I pour it out and add fresh. 

Once the butter is washed, it is ready to mix with the herbs and garlic. The first thing I did was add some olive oil so the butter would be 'spreadable' when chilled. (I decided that I wasn't going to store this in my butter jar on the counter since the cream was so close to its 'best by' date.)

Mix it well. I mixed mine by hand with a spoon/spatula. However, I must tell you, I almost gave up and went to get the beaters! If you run out of patience when mixing by hand, by all means, grab the beaters! It will be much faster. When the oil is incorporated, it is time to add the garlic and herbs.

Reading the label on the container of butter my husband bought, the herbs used were rosemary, basil and thyme. I had all three in my pantry! After I added the herbs, I added the garlic.

Mix well and put into a container. 

Here is the recipe I used to make this. My quart of heavy cream made about 2 cups butter. (I am guessing here, I didn't measure it.) To that I added:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 TBS of garlic powder (I grew my own garlic and made my own powder. Ditto for all the herbs.)
1/2 TBS Thyme
1/2 TBS Rosemary
1/2 TBS Basil
1/2 tsp salt

While I liked it a lot, I think I used a touch too much rosemary. Next time I will only add a teaspoon of rosemary to start. Then after tasting it, I will add another teaspoon, if needed.

The best thing about making your own herbed butter is you can make it anyway you want! In this instance, the butter is like a blank canvas. Nothing wrong with using your favorite spices & herbs with store bought unsalted butter either! 

If the herbs in my recipe above don't motivate you, try one of these:

Herb Butter from bonappetit.com
Italian Herb Butter from food.com
Herb Butter from thekitchn.com

I have been using mine on vegetables, and homemade dinner rolls. Before it is all gone, I am going to try it on seafood! 

What a great idea to add a touch of elegance to your dinner menu!

New Goals for a New Year!

This time of year, I plan goals that I want to accomplish during the year. This year, I have a few personal and business goals in addition to self-reliance goals that move me along my journey to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Some of them are on this goal cloud that I got from The Mormon Channel!

For the past five years or so, I have done a really good job of accomplishing most everything I set a goal for. Well, that streak ended this year! I didn't accomplish very many of the goals I set for 2013. I start again this year and try to increase my chances of success by creating a better plan of how I am going to accomplish them. 

So, here are the self reliant goals I want to accomplish this year. Some of them are goals I didn't get to accomplish last year, others are new ones:

• Grow my own popping corn. This is a self-reliant goal of mine because we eat a lot of popcorn at our house! I don't want to have to purchase it at the store anymore! Although I bought the seed in time for planting popcorn last spring, it never happened. Looking back now, it was a good thing that I didn't plant them. I am sure I would not have managed to keep them alive. With all the rain we had last summer, I am sure I would have lost them to fungus diseases. With the new raised bed I added this past fall, I have plenty of room to plant popcorn this year. In addition, the spot I want to put them will give the plants plenty of sun exposure to combat any potential disease threats I may have this coming year.
• Make soap from wood ashes. This is also a goal I had from last year. Although I have been making soap for over 20 years, I have never made soap with wood ashes. I didn't accomplish this goal last year because after researching what was needed, I realized I didn't have enough ashes saved up from the winter! This year, with the cold winter we are expecting, I should burn enough wood in my fireplace to get a sufficient amount of ashes. Hopefully, it will be enough to attempt to make soap. We shall see!
• Make more of my own cheese. I have been making cheese for a few years now. This past year, I didn't get the time to make very much of it. So unfortunately, we ended up purchasing more cheese from the store than I made. This year, I want to reverse that! I hope to make the majority of the cheese we eat. I also plan to do more research into making my own vegetable rennet so I no longer need to purchase it.

I did manage to move forward in my journey to all non-electric appliances last year! Two of the goals I met were in getting non-electric appliances.

• A hand crank blender. Over the past two months, I have grown to like my hand crank blender. (I have not grown to love it- it still has flaws!) Still, I am glad that I have it. (You can see my review of the blender here.) I do use it often.
• A carpet sweeper. This appliance became a critical tool for me to help keep my house clean this year. You may recall that my vacuum cleaner broke back in early spring! When it broke, I set a new goal to go without purchasing a new vacuum cleaner for one year. So far - so good, with that goal! It was only possible because of this tool. (I promise an update on my year without a vacuum soon!) 

I also have a non-electrical appliance goal that I did not meet. That one was to fix up my treadle sewing machine and use it to make most of my clothes in 2013. I am sorry to say that it didn't even make it on the radar screen! The only dress I made last year was my pioneer dress for The Trek. (You can read about that here.) For the coat I am currently working on, I am using a 13 year old computerized sewing machine and my 23 year old serger. I still have some patterns for dresses and blouses from the 19th Century I hope to make this year. I would like to try to do that on the treadle machine. So, I will add fixing up the treadle machine to this year's goal list.

With all these goals, it promises to be a very busy year! My plan is to add one or two 'to do's' to my personal calendar each month so I stay on track to get them all accomplished.

I will post updates on my accomplishments as I work on each one throughout this year!

I Need A New Winter Coat: Update!

I finally found some time to work on my coat! I am not anywhere close to finishing but I do have a good start. Thankfully, Heavenly Father has provided us with some warm weather so I don't have a need for a coat just yet! I am not sure how much longer this warm weather will last, so I am going to have to finish it very soon.

I made some changes to the pattern. As you may recall, I am using the Folkwear Model T Duster Coat pattern. You can see my original post here.

In the early 1900's, this coat was not worn as an elegant coat, it was worn to keep the dust of the road off of your good clothes. Since I wanted mine to be a dressy coat that I could wear to church, I am changing the seams, and adding a lining.

The pattern directions call for using flat felled seams (flat felled seams are commonly used on jeans). I think this gives an informal look to the coat. In my opinion, flat felled seams would look great on a rain coat, but not on a dressy coat. Instead, I decided to use a serger to bind the ends of the seams. To make everything lie flat, the seams of the lining will be pressed to the opposite side of the seams on the coat.

As of today, here is my coat.

Overall, I am very pleased with this pattern manufacturer. The directions are well written and the pattern is very easy to use! The seam allowance is 1/2 inch. I used a scant 1/2 inch. The notches and dots lined up beautifully - no adjustments were needed!  When I construct the lining I am going to use slightly over a 1/2 inch seam. This way, the lining should fit into the coat without any wrinkles or extra folds.

My original goal was to make the shorter version of the coat (without pleats). I bought the yardage recommended for the shorter version. However, I laid out the pieces differently than the pattern recommended and freed up some extra fabric to make the pleats. Here is a picture.

The next step is to add the sleeves, then the front pockets. Once those are finished, I will start on the lining. I haven't even cut out the lining pieces yet!. I think I am going to add an extra pocket to the lining so I can conceal carry my handgun. I am probably going to have to lay out the pattern pieces differently here as well, or I won't have enough fabric left over to make the pocket. The coat is somewhat fitted, so after I get the sleeves in, I will try it on to make sure the gun will fit.  I may find that my gun will leave a noticeable 'bulge' if I try to carry it. If that is the case, I won't add the extra pocket.

I am going to try to work on the coat a bit more before New Year's Eve. However, I am not sure how much I will accomplish! I probably won't have another coat update until January!

I Need a New Winter Coat

I really do! I was going to get one last year, but never did. It is a good thing that last winter was so mild, no coat was needed. The coat I need is not an everyday coat, I need one for church and wearing with other 'dressy' clothes. The one I had fell apart, it was about 20 years old.  (I do have a 'jeans' coat that I got at Walmart about 15 years ago, it is still going strong. However, it is not appropriate to wear to church.)

If you have been a long time reader, you will know that I set goals for myself every year. One of this year's goals was to make some new clothes. I can't remember when I last bought any, maybe seven or eight years ago. Well, that didn't happen. My year was super busy with extra work I didn't plan on, and then, being sick for six weeks unable to do many projects. So here it is, nearing the end of October and I still don't have a coat. It is important that I get one this year, all the weather reports say we are going to have a wet, cold winter. (Well, wet and cold for the south. People who live in Buffalo, NY would laugh at our winters here.)

The problem is, I don't want to spend a lot of money. I have no idea how much coats cost, but I am sure it is too much. I also want a really nice one. Someone at church recommended that I go to Goodwill or a consignment shop. If I look around, I could find a really nice used one. Another problem I have is I hate shopping. I mean really hate it! I don't even like going to the grocery store. The thought of spending hours going from store to store does not thrill me. 

So what am I going to do? I am determined to make the coat myself. This solution really suits me because my idea of fashion is about 100 years out of date. I don't have to search and search to find something that is available now. I can get exactly what I want. I chose a pattern of the Model T Duster coat. This pattern is made by Folkwear.

The Model T Duster coat was worn at the turn of the century when the horseless carriage was first invented. All they had back then were dirt roads and they got very dusty! So did anyone traveling on them! This coat was designed to protect their clothes from the dust. Both men and women wore Model T Dusters. I am sure my great-grandmother had one!

Typically this coat was not lined. They were not designed to be elegant. I am going to modify the pattern and add a lining. I want mine to look elegant! I am going to need to make it fairly quickly because winter is coming. (A coat will be needed by mid-December here.) So I had to find fabric that I liked.

We have JoAnn Fabric stores here and I get their coupons in the mail. I got a coupon for 50% off of a regularly priced item and timed it to go during a sale. (For those that don't know, JoAnn Fabrics always runs sales. I think the idea of a permanent 'sale' is in their business model.) Anyway, I went to see if they had any wool that would be suitable for a coat. I found a gorgeous light weight wool in gray with a light gray fabric for a lining!

Now, comes the hard part. I have to make it. Hopefully, it will turn out as elegant as I envision it! 

I will post updates as soon as I have something to show!


If you liked this post, you may also like:

• I Need a New Winter Coat: Update!

10 Ways To Be More Self-Sufficient Without a Farm

I would love to live on a mini-farm. To me, having my own cow would mean I would only have to go to the grocery store once or twice a year! With a cow, almost everything you eat could come from your own land! Wow! That would be my ideal way of living.

However, I live in reality. Not everyone, (and this includes me) can live on a farm. Land is expensive and commutes to work would be quite difficult if not impossible. So, instead I have a 'bloom where you're planted' mentality about living. I do what I can to be as self-sufficient as I can now. I am not waiting until I move to a more ideal setting. As long as I am moving towards that goal every day, I am more self-sufficient today than I was yesterday.

This is one of the reasons I like to read other blog posts on ideas I can use to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. I just found another post that gives some additional ways we all can be more self-sufficient/self-reliant.

10 Ways To Be More Self Sufficient Without Having a Farm

I hope you can find a new idea or two that you can apply to your own journey!

Self-Reliance is More Than Food Storage

Food Storage (along with water storage), gardening, preserving the bounty from your garden as well as the ability to prepare and cook those foods are topics I cover extensively on this blog. However, that is not all there is to be self-reliant. In the uncertain times the USA (and the rest of the world) is currently going through, we need to be prepared with more than food and water. 

Here is a quote about being self-reliant from one of my Church's leaders:

"We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being." (Julie B. Beck, "The Welfare Responsibilities of the Relief Society President, Basic Principles of Welfare and Self-Reliance (2009), 4-5)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a plan to help you start on your way to complete self-reliance (and you don't have to be a Church member to read what they have to say.) It includes five basic areas:

• Education
• Emergency Preparedness
• Finances
• Health
• Home Storage

Let me give you my interpretation of my Church's counsel on each of these:

Education: What this means is education and literacy. I am going to describe it as a lifetime love of learning. (That is my term, not the official Church description.) The bottom line of this is you can't support your family without a good job. You can't get a good job without an education. This doesn't necessarily mean college - it includes technical training as well. 

A love of learning helps in this situation because when you love to learn, you will be willing to invest the time needed to continuously update your skill set. The best jobs go to those who have skills in the latest technologies!

Emergency Preparedness: I do cover Emergency Preparedness on this blog. You can read more about it here. At a minimum, you should have a plan to answer the following questions:

• What would you do if you get stuck in your car in a snowstorm, rushing flood waters, ice storm or an abandoned stretch of road? 
• What would you do if you had to leave your car and walk to get help on a very hot summer day? 
• What would you do if you were ordered to evacuate your home for a period of time?   
• What would you do if you experienced electric or water disruptions for a lengthy period of time?

Finances: Do you have a rainy day fund? How do you plan to handle it when the car breaks down? You can't avoid it, even a new car will break down or require repairs eventually. What about when your TV breaks? Or what if you drop your computer and need to replace it? Unexpected things happen to us all the time. You need to be prepared with savings in the bank so you can weather life's storms. This also includes living below your means. I heard Dave Ramsey say once that we all need to "act our wage". I think that statement is quite profound and I have never forgotten it. Of course it isn't possible to do this if you are watching every dollar that you make go out the door to support a lifestyle heavy with debt. If your answer to this is that you don't make enough money to get out of debt, let me refer you to the first bullet point on Education.

Health: I don't think I mention health enough. Other then eating foods that are grown chemical free, switching to whole grains and removing chemical cleaners from your home, I haven't mentioned how important it is to take care of yourself. In Church yesterday, one of our speakers was talking about how your body is a "Temple of the Lord." It is! AND it is the only one you are going to get! Take care of it so you can get the maximum mileage possible from it.

Home Storage: Home storage includes a storage of food as well as other necessary supplies you need to live (without a trip to the store) for an extended period of time. How long? I am counseled to have a minimum of three months worth of storage of everyday items. One year's worth of storage for life sustaining basics like wheat, rice, oats, powdered milk and honey. You can read more about food storage here. 

If all this appeals to you and you think being self-reliant is something you are interested in doing, you can see more information about each of these areas on the following web sites:

• providentliving.org
• The Mormon Channel: Provident Living

If you Google the term "Provident Living" you will see many other resources as well. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step! Start your self-reliant journey today!

Homesteading 101

It is popular today to want to live a self-sufficient life style and get back to a more simple way of living. I know people who tell me that they wish they could purchase property out in the country and then they would start to live a self-sufficient life. Many say that they have so many things going on right now, they can't possibly do it. It turns into a 'someday' plan.

I have a different point of view about homesteading. I would also like to have some property out in the country so I can have chickens and a cow. (I will truly consider myself 'arrived' when I can have my own cow!) Right now I live on a small lot in a neighborhood that does not permit animal husbandry. Does that mean I shouldn't even try? Heavens, no! As I said, I have a different point of view about homesteading!

To me, homesteading is a frame of mind. It is approaching life from a self-sufficient, frugal point of view. It is a journey, not a destination, and you can do it no matter where you live. Start small and grow from there. Ideas like eating at home more often, growing some simple vegetables in a pot, or thinking of a way to reuse something instead of throwing it out will all start you on a homesteading journey.

Lehman's has a blog called Lehman's Country Life that I read every so often. Last week they ran a post on their blog called Homesteading Wherever You Live: Part I and Homestead Wherever You Live: Part II that gives lots of ideas on what you can do if you want to be a bit more self-sufficient.  

Each year at our house, we challenge ourselves to live on less money then we did the year before. To make that happen, I have to get creative and find new ways to be frugal and self-sufficient. I can honestly tell you that having the attitude that I must '"use it up, wear it out, make do or do without" goes a long way towards living a homesteading life-style! 

Making Fire Starters

One of the yearly chores I do this time of year is to make fire starters. My goal is to make enough to last the entire year. We use a lot of them. Chilly nights at home, camping in the spring and fall - anytime I need to start a fire, I reach for one of them. 

At our house, making fire starters isn't a one day project. Actually, I am making them throughout the year. It takes that long to collect the ingredients I need to make them. I start with lint from the dryer. It takes all year for me to collect a significant amount because I don't use the dryer that often. Most of the lint I collect is from my husband using the dryer. You can read about how to do that here. Not only do I collect lint in toilet paper rolls, but I also collect it in paper egg cartons.

When I collect a year's worth, I dip the lint-filled toilet paper rolls and egg cartons in wax. You can use these without the wax, but they burn longer and steadier once you coat them with wax. It also makes sense to waterproof them for emergencies and times when you need to start a fire in the rain. Dipping them in wax is very easy, but it can be a bit messy. I wanted to do this outside, but we were having severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings the day I made these, so I worked inside instead - I did have to use my electric stovetop to accomplish this task. I covered the counter with freezer paper to make clean up easy. In addition to the dryer lint, you will need wax, string and scissors.

Start with a small amount of water in a pot. You need a double boiler to melt the wax and I don't have one. I used my small soap pot instead. You will also need a container for melting the wax. I used a Christmas cookie tin. I have used this one for years. I leave the left over wax stored in it from year to year.

Put the container with the wax into the boiling water. Once I did that, I turned the heat down some to keep the boiling water from splashing around. 

After this wax started to melt, I added another pound of the Gulf Wax to the container and let that melt as well. Needless to say, please be careful, the melting wax gets very hot. If you touch it, it will stick to your skin and you can get burned. 

While the wax was melting, I prepared the paper rolls. I tied them with string to make dipping in the wax easier. Make the string long enough so you don't need to touch the hot wax. The string also makes lighting the starters easy. Here are the toilet paper rolls.

And here are the egg cartons. I cut the carton into individual pieces.

They don't have to look pretty, they just have to hold together so everything can be dipped in the wax and not fall apart. I dip one at a time so I don't make a mess. While holding the string, dip one and hold it under the melted wax (with a spoon, not your fingers) for a few seconds to let the wax penetrate both the lint and the paper.

When finished, hold the string up and let the wax drip back into the container.

When it stops dripping, place on a piece of wax paper or freezer paper to cool. 

When the fire starters are completely cool and the wax has hardened, store until needed! 
I store mine in a plastic bag with the newspaper logs in the garage.

Easy to do and costs very little money! Can't get more frugal than that!  

Can You Make A Fire Without Wood?

Of course you can! Think of all the places where wood is scarce: the desert, the great plains,  the arctic (antarctic), maybe even your house. 

Even if you don't have a fireplace at your house, there may come a time when you need to build a fire. If you should ever have to go without electricity, what will you use to heat and cook your food?  If it is winter, how do you plan to stay warm? Do you have enough propane to cook with while you wait for the electricity to come back on? Let me give you an alternative solution to keeping an emergency stack of wood. This item is usually available anywhere people are located and can be easily used as a substitute fuel in place of wood.

It's newspapers! In addition to burning, newspapers have a lot of useful purposes and I will show you some of my favorite uses in another post. This post is centered around how I use the majority of my newspapers. Newspapers can easily be burned as an alternative to wood. However, to do that you must make them into logs. It is really quite easy to do. 

Start with a stack of newspapers. Take a small section and lay it out flat. To me, a small section is no more than five or six pages. If you have a section that is bigger than five or six pages, break it apart into smaller sections. Now, take another section and lay it on top of the first. But, this time place the fold on the opposite side from the first section. You want to alternate the folds in your stack of papers so one side of the log will not be bigger then the other. As an alternative, you can cut the paper at the fold and then neatly stack all the individual pieces.

In the picture below, I hope you can see that the section on top is showing its fold, while the section below has the page edge showing.

Continue stacking the newspaper this way until you have a two to three inch stack. If I have newspapers of different sizes, I usually separate them into different stacks but this really isn't necessary.

Now, take a section at a time and tightly roll it up. If you cut your newspaper and now have individual pages, roll five or six of them at a time. For the newspaper to burn like a log of wood, the paper must be rolled very tightly. Once the first section is rolled, start again with the next section and continue rolling it on the outside of the first section. Don't worry too much if the first few logs you create are not tight. You will get better as you make more.

If you have some other paper items, you can add them to the roll as well. In the photo below, I have some cereal boxes left over from a family member's visit. While you can put these boxes in the recycle bin, this is an alternative way to use the cardboard. You can also do this with junk mail (I try not to use colored, waxy or photographic paper) as well as old bills that you have paid. We file our bills for six months to one year. When we run out of room, the oldest bills go into the shredder or into a newspaper log.

Continue to roll the newspaper until the log is about four inches wide. Then tie it off with some string. Cotton string is best so it will burn with the log.

Here you can see that I have made four newspaper logs. These logs will burn for about one hour. They didn't take more than 15 minutes to make.

We have a bin in our garage that we use to store the newspaper logs. That way they are handy when we need them. 

There is one thing to remember when burning newspaper logs. They don't burn like paper. Tightly rolled logs burn just like wood. This also means that they can be difficult to 'start' on fire when you are trying to light them. You can't just put a match to one end and expect a roaring fire. You will need to use fire starters and kindling, just like real wood.

And I am sure I don't need to say it, but I will anyway. Be sure to use all necessary safely procedures around fire. Use the logs in a fireplace or if burning outside, use a fire pit. If you don't know how to make a fire pit, do an Internet search. There are lots of instructions on how to make one on the Internet.

Now, if wood is scarce where you live, what do you use for kindling? Paper! This is a perfect use for junk mail. I only use plain basic paper, no glossy stuff. Roll individual sheets of paper (and envelopes) and then give them a twist to keep them that way. Any size paper will do. Standard size paper or standard size postcards both work well. I can use between four and ten pieces of paper kindling on a five log fire at my house. I keep it next to the fire place so it is always handy when needed.

The other empty basket is for small wayward branches that fall off the trees in my neighborhood on a windy day. I collect them from my yard and store them here to use as kindling. And yes, that is a usable washboard in the background! It lives by my fireplace.

Here are the leftover pieces of glossy junk mail that will go into the shredder. They are next to my 'helper' who insisted I have her input on this project.

Whether you want a fire to keep warm or need to cook food when there isn't any electricity, consider a no cost (or low cost) alternative to wood! Newspapers!