Yesterday, I ordered some cloth diapers. When our son was born, we chose to use an unbleached, dioxin-free brand of disposable diapers. Due to their high cost, we switched to regular disposable diapers purchased in bulk from our local wholesale club. I just keep wondering what else we could be spending that $75/month on- other than disposable diapers.
We constantly look for ways to be more self-sufficient and keep more of our hard-earned cash. We are also going to have to deal with diapering for a few more years. The total cost of disposable diapers can be anywhere from $1,500-$2,000 per child. I googled "total estimated cost of disposable diapers" and found those figures. According to my math, I think those estimates are very low. I would rather invest in more bee hives, some dairy goats, or woolly sheep than spend another dime on diapers.
Environmentally, cloth diapers keep unnecessary waste from ending up in landfills. Economically, if you launder them yourself, cloth diapers cost less. Politically, cloth diapers put less money into government hands.
The first two points are self-explanatory, but the third point may need some explanation. Cloth diapers are purchased once. Sales tax is collected and paid once. Disposables, on the other hand, provide an ongoing supply of sales tax dollars. Also, if the diapers were made in the USA, then the government also collects taxes on the utilities (electric, fuel, phone, etc.) used by the manufacturer.
I am not a fan of handing over any additional tax payments to local, state, or federal, than is absolutely necessary. With cloth diapers, I could pay taxes once. With disposable diapers, I will pay taxes repeatedly.
I admit, we haven't used cloth diapers because we're nervous. We don't know how well they work. What about all the pins and the plastic pants? When I was pregnant, we even had family tell us that they would refuse to babysit if we used cloth diapers! But since that relative has not been able to babysit regularly after all, that isn't a concern anymore. Pins and plastic pants have faded away. Modern fasteners and fabrics have replaced them, eliminating another concern.
One of my biggest problems switching to cloth diapers is that there are so many choices. It took me an entire weekend between researching web sites and picking a patient, cloth-diapering mother's brain, to sort it all out. Another issue is my son's size. He is very tall (in the 98th percentile), and at sixteen months already weighs 33 pounds. Karl has a way to go before potty training, and even the disposables are getting tight on him! The upper limit on many of the cloth diapers I found on line was 35. I found one that claims it will fit a baby up to 45 pounds, so that's what I ultimately ordered. I can't wait to try them out!
Live better, a little every day.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Progress Update
The sun made a long over-due appearance today, and we got eight more pepper plants in the garden. Our tomato plants look strong and have gained in height. Still no signs of flowers yet, but we did get a late start. The green bean plants look healthy and are showing blooms. One cucumber plant is going strong, but is in severe need of company!
Eddie spent the better part of the day with the bees. In a week, we should see another 100+ pounds of honey. This comes just in time to replenish our honey supplies, and certainly gives us enough left over to experiment with making creamed honey.
While I spent the day playing out with our son (something I don't nearly get to do often enough), Eddie spent the rest of his evening assembling a utility trailer, making good progress. The trailer will help bring equipment and materials up to the homestead site.
We contacted a lumber mill that is local to our homestead site and priced out lumber for the cabin. We were pleasantly surprised to find the lumber will cost less than had been estimated. This difference offsets the amount spent on the utility trailer. We are still on track to keep this project on or under budget.
Live better, a little every day.
Eddie spent the better part of the day with the bees. In a week, we should see another 100+ pounds of honey. This comes just in time to replenish our honey supplies, and certainly gives us enough left over to experiment with making creamed honey.
While I spent the day playing out with our son (something I don't nearly get to do often enough), Eddie spent the rest of his evening assembling a utility trailer, making good progress. The trailer will help bring equipment and materials up to the homestead site.
We contacted a lumber mill that is local to our homestead site and priced out lumber for the cabin. We were pleasantly surprised to find the lumber will cost less than had been estimated. This difference offsets the amount spent on the utility trailer. We are still on track to keep this project on or under budget.
Live better, a little every day.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
How We Found Affordable Rural Land
When we realized the importance and eventual necessity of being able to grow our own food, we knew it was time to secure land. Where we currently live, in southeastern Massachusetts, there is precious little undeveloped land. Of the land lots that are available, they were prohibitively expensive. We had to start looking a little further away than our own backdoor.
It didn't take long to realize that the best dollar per acre values in New England were to be found in Maine. (We also liked the fact that Maine was the first state to officially refuse to participate in any national identification program.) We did several Internet searches on Realtor.com, got advice from friends and relatives that already live in Maine, and spoke with multiple real estate agents.
We thought we had found our perfect location in a 48 acre lot, mostly wooded, with a mountain view, a small hunting cabin, and brook running through the the property. The asking price of $48,000 was in our price range, and we could easily afford the monthly payments. We were crushed, however, when we were turned down for a mortgage. My husband had filed bankruptcy before we were married. He had kept his finances in order since then, but had not accumulated enough of a credit usage history since the bankruptcy to qualify for a mortgage. I had good credit, but did not earn enough to cover the mortgage alone.
Knowing how important securing land would be, we felt it was imperative to come up with another option. We started exploring the possibility of buying land only. Land only lots are generally less expensive than lots with a structure, but are often more difficult to finance. If we could raise enough money, we could buy a small lot outright, eliminating the need for a mortgage altogether. At the same time, we had become very worried about the stock market and the security of the funds in Eddie's 401K. When he spoke to the benefits coordinator for the company about getting his money out of the 401K, he was informed that he couldn't closed out the account as long as he was a current employee.
We came up with a solution that killed two birds with one stone. The company my husband worked for at the time did a seasonal layoff each winter. That year, when he was laid off, he closed out his 401K. Technically, he no longer worked there! We took the tax hit, but we got the money out before the stock market started it's downturn. In return, we had a sizable amount of money to buy land.
I found the Land And Farm website (www.LandAndFarm.com). Through this site, we found a realtor that dealt with land only lots, mostly owner financed. Through owner-financing, a mortgage was back on the table. We were able to get a 22.8 acre lot with a brook, wooded acreage, and fields, on a maintained road for $27,000. After a down payment, our 10 year mortgage leaves us with a monthly obligation of $273 per month and dirt cheap yearly property taxes. We have nine years left to pay on the mortgage, but our goal is to have it paid in full in the next three years.
While this option is what worked for us, we did find other lots during our search that had plenty of potential and would fit into even the tightest of budgets. We found a three-acre lot for $4,000. For a lot of people, that's a tax return. Even for people earning minimum wage, careful budgeting and saving, plus a bit of fund raising (try eBay and Craigslist for ideas) will get you to this amount in a reasonable amount of time.
Three acres may not seem like a lot, but you can produce an amazing amount of food on three acres. The ability to produce your own food, even a small portion of your total consumption, gives you freedom. You are less dependent upon factory farming, shipping and warehousing costs, and grocery store markups. You take your money out of a system that props up large agri-business farming operations that will ultimately lead to food shortages in the long term. Plus, you can control the varieties and the integrity of your food.
I will do a short, bulleted factory-farming vs. grow-you-own/local farming post here soon. But, to get back on topic, if the reason you haven't pursued securing your own land yet is because you didn't think you could afford it, you're wrong. No more excuses! You can afford it. Maybe it won't be in your current neighborhood. Maybe you can't start out with as large of a piece of land as you'd like. Maybe you have to make some massive lifestyle changes to save up the money. But, it IS possible.
Live better, a little every day.
It didn't take long to realize that the best dollar per acre values in New England were to be found in Maine. (We also liked the fact that Maine was the first state to officially refuse to participate in any national identification program.) We did several Internet searches on Realtor.com, got advice from friends and relatives that already live in Maine, and spoke with multiple real estate agents.
We thought we had found our perfect location in a 48 acre lot, mostly wooded, with a mountain view, a small hunting cabin, and brook running through the the property. The asking price of $48,000 was in our price range, and we could easily afford the monthly payments. We were crushed, however, when we were turned down for a mortgage. My husband had filed bankruptcy before we were married. He had kept his finances in order since then, but had not accumulated enough of a credit usage history since the bankruptcy to qualify for a mortgage. I had good credit, but did not earn enough to cover the mortgage alone.
Knowing how important securing land would be, we felt it was imperative to come up with another option. We started exploring the possibility of buying land only. Land only lots are generally less expensive than lots with a structure, but are often more difficult to finance. If we could raise enough money, we could buy a small lot outright, eliminating the need for a mortgage altogether. At the same time, we had become very worried about the stock market and the security of the funds in Eddie's 401K. When he spoke to the benefits coordinator for the company about getting his money out of the 401K, he was informed that he couldn't closed out the account as long as he was a current employee.
We came up with a solution that killed two birds with one stone. The company my husband worked for at the time did a seasonal layoff each winter. That year, when he was laid off, he closed out his 401K. Technically, he no longer worked there! We took the tax hit, but we got the money out before the stock market started it's downturn. In return, we had a sizable amount of money to buy land.
I found the Land And Farm website (www.LandAndFarm.com). Through this site, we found a realtor that dealt with land only lots, mostly owner financed. Through owner-financing, a mortgage was back on the table. We were able to get a 22.8 acre lot with a brook, wooded acreage, and fields, on a maintained road for $27,000. After a down payment, our 10 year mortgage leaves us with a monthly obligation of $273 per month and dirt cheap yearly property taxes. We have nine years left to pay on the mortgage, but our goal is to have it paid in full in the next three years.
While this option is what worked for us, we did find other lots during our search that had plenty of potential and would fit into even the tightest of budgets. We found a three-acre lot for $4,000. For a lot of people, that's a tax return. Even for people earning minimum wage, careful budgeting and saving, plus a bit of fund raising (try eBay and Craigslist for ideas) will get you to this amount in a reasonable amount of time.
Three acres may not seem like a lot, but you can produce an amazing amount of food on three acres. The ability to produce your own food, even a small portion of your total consumption, gives you freedom. You are less dependent upon factory farming, shipping and warehousing costs, and grocery store markups. You take your money out of a system that props up large agri-business farming operations that will ultimately lead to food shortages in the long term. Plus, you can control the varieties and the integrity of your food.
I will do a short, bulleted factory-farming vs. grow-you-own/local farming post here soon. But, to get back on topic, if the reason you haven't pursued securing your own land yet is because you didn't think you could afford it, you're wrong. No more excuses! You can afford it. Maybe it won't be in your current neighborhood. Maybe you can't start out with as large of a piece of land as you'd like. Maybe you have to make some massive lifestyle changes to save up the money. But, it IS possible.
Live better, a little every day.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Rainy Days- Knitting and Melting Beeswax
Under our kitchen window sit six additional pepper plants waiting for a home in our garden. The past few days have been too wet and rainy to any additional planting. We still have another garden plot to prepare, but it will have to wait until the end of the week when the sun is rumored to be in town for a two-day performance.
Personally, I love rainy days. More accurately, I love rainy days when I have no obligations outside the home. Rainy days are perfect for knitting, curling up with a hot cup of herbal tea, and baking... well, anything!
Yesterday (Monday) was one of those days. I'm making a beautiful aran sweater, with cables upon cables out of chocolate brown fisherman's wool for my husband. It will most likely take until October before it is done, but it will be ready for the cold weather. I caught him, out of the corner of my eye, watching me knit. He looked so proud, or perhaps touched, that his wife was making something that takes such time and care to create, and doing so just for him.
This sweater is a great example of self-reliance. Making your own clothing allows you to control every factor- style, color, quality, and every other aspect that contributes to its uniqueness. While I did not spin this yarn myself (though spinning is a skill I'm working hard to improve), it was purchased from a small, local shop. With a little effort, a warm work of art is crafted. All it will require is a little time, effort, and moderate skill.
No money went to support a large retailer with a history of mistreating employees. No money went to a corporation that employs foreign workers at slave wages. Some money did get paid in sales tax, which is one of the reasons I'm honing my own spinning skills, but the bulk of the purchase price went to support a local, small business.
Today, (Tuesday) I had a little time after work to clean out the uncapping tank and melt the beeswax cappings that have been waiting on me to have some free time for over a week. A solar wax melter is in the works, but probably won't be finished for a few weeks. However, it will remove any need for further fossil fuels, and therefore any grid connection, to process our bees' beautiful wax.
Always be very careful melting wax. Melt wax in a double-boiler, preventing the container of wax from touching the heat source. Beeswax is highly flammable, so please take all reasonable precautions.
I pour the melted wax into old liquid egg and milk cartons that have the tops cut off. When the wax cools, the clean wax floats to the top, and the sludge sinks to the bottom. After it cools, the sludge is cut off, and the process begins again and is repeated until the wax comes perfectly clean. At that point, the melted wax is poured into pretty, one-ounce cakes with a honeycomb and queen bee design, ready for easy measuring for future use or sale. Do not refrigerate the wax to cool it. It will not make a good candle if you cool it too quickly.
Beeswax just smells absolutely delicious! It requires no toxic artificial fragrances to scent a room. Beeswax is used in candles, lotions, soaps, and furniture polish, just to name a few uses. We used our own beeswax to make the taper candles that lit our home last winter. Beeswax is more valuable pound for pound compared to honey.
When you get the chance, read up on candle making, and then locate a local beekeeper in your area. Every county has a beekeeping association, and you should be able to find their contact information (and probably web site) on line easily enough. Make an inquiry asking if any of the beekeepers have wax for sale, and you should have yourself a local source of beautiful beeswax for all your crafting needs.
Live better, a little every day.
Personally, I love rainy days. More accurately, I love rainy days when I have no obligations outside the home. Rainy days are perfect for knitting, curling up with a hot cup of herbal tea, and baking... well, anything!
Yesterday (Monday) was one of those days. I'm making a beautiful aran sweater, with cables upon cables out of chocolate brown fisherman's wool for my husband. It will most likely take until October before it is done, but it will be ready for the cold weather. I caught him, out of the corner of my eye, watching me knit. He looked so proud, or perhaps touched, that his wife was making something that takes such time and care to create, and doing so just for him.
This sweater is a great example of self-reliance. Making your own clothing allows you to control every factor- style, color, quality, and every other aspect that contributes to its uniqueness. While I did not spin this yarn myself (though spinning is a skill I'm working hard to improve), it was purchased from a small, local shop. With a little effort, a warm work of art is crafted. All it will require is a little time, effort, and moderate skill.
No money went to support a large retailer with a history of mistreating employees. No money went to a corporation that employs foreign workers at slave wages. Some money did get paid in sales tax, which is one of the reasons I'm honing my own spinning skills, but the bulk of the purchase price went to support a local, small business.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, (Tuesday) I had a little time after work to clean out the uncapping tank and melt the beeswax cappings that have been waiting on me to have some free time for over a week. A solar wax melter is in the works, but probably won't be finished for a few weeks. However, it will remove any need for further fossil fuels, and therefore any grid connection, to process our bees' beautiful wax.
Always be very careful melting wax. Melt wax in a double-boiler, preventing the container of wax from touching the heat source. Beeswax is highly flammable, so please take all reasonable precautions.
I pour the melted wax into old liquid egg and milk cartons that have the tops cut off. When the wax cools, the clean wax floats to the top, and the sludge sinks to the bottom. After it cools, the sludge is cut off, and the process begins again and is repeated until the wax comes perfectly clean. At that point, the melted wax is poured into pretty, one-ounce cakes with a honeycomb and queen bee design, ready for easy measuring for future use or sale. Do not refrigerate the wax to cool it. It will not make a good candle if you cool it too quickly.
Beeswax just smells absolutely delicious! It requires no toxic artificial fragrances to scent a room. Beeswax is used in candles, lotions, soaps, and furniture polish, just to name a few uses. We used our own beeswax to make the taper candles that lit our home last winter. Beeswax is more valuable pound for pound compared to honey.
When you get the chance, read up on candle making, and then locate a local beekeeper in your area. Every county has a beekeeping association, and you should be able to find their contact information (and probably web site) on line easily enough. Make an inquiry asking if any of the beekeepers have wax for sale, and you should have yourself a local source of beautiful beeswax for all your crafting needs.
Live better, a little every day.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Composting in an Apartment
Living in an apartment has presented a number of self-sufficiency challenges, especially if you want to grow a garden. Growing some of your own food, even if it is only a potted tomato plant and a few pots of basil, is an act of self-reliance and independence. The more of your own food that you can grow, the better off you are and the better quality food you will have.
We are lucky at our current apartment to have both a protected, south-facing balcony, as well as permission to grow a vegetable garden in a small section of the back yard (providing that we do a lot of ornamental plantings and maintain the lawn and hedges). Knowing how valuable compost is to the success of a garden, and wanting to keep rotting food out of landfills where it does absolutely no good to anyone, we wanted to compost our kitchen scraps.
Unfortunately, our landlords (my parents) are not permitting a compost pile in the backyard. But at least we can grow some edibles. At our old apartment, there was no yard nor balcony for an edible container garden, never mind a place for compost pile. In searching online for alternatives, we found three options: an electric composting unit, a Bokashi composting unit, and a worm bin.
The electric composter came with a price tag of about $300 for the least expensive model (for more money, you could change the color of the unit), but would allow for composting all kitchen waste, including meat and dairy. The unit used precious little power, but still, it uses electricity, and we're trying to eliminate any unnecessary electric usage.
Bokashi is a Japanese word for "fermented organic matter", and the Bokashi product is a microbial product that speeds up the breakdown of food waste into compost. The Bokashi unit was around $70, which was a much more affordable option to get started. However, it would require ongoing purchases of Bokashi. A typical 2.25 pound bag would cost around $12 plus shipping. Since Bokashi is not something that we can reproduce here at home, and would be the most expensive solution long term, we chose to bypass this option.
The final option was starting a worm composting bin. This type of composting, called vermicomposting or vermiculture, uses red worms (Eisenia fetida) to break down kitchen scraps, minus any meat or dairy. Worm bins can be made out of plastic storage bins for minimal investment, though we found a cedar worm bin and worms on eBay for a reasonable price. The worms reproduce, so you never need to buy anything else (assuming that you treat your worms correctly and don't kill them), and won't overpopulate, as their numbers are restricted by the size of the bin.
We got our worms last Autumn. In that time, there has never been an unpleasant odor from the bin. The worms have done a fair job, though if we had to do it again, I would have purchased twice as many worms. We bought approximately 500 worms, and we should have gone with 1000. We still ended up throwing veggie waste away because the bin was too full. Now, that the little wigglers have had some time to build up their numbers, we are seeing less and less kitchen waste.
I highly recommend composting with worms. The worms are not gross (actually, they are kind of cute). And they do a great job of breaking down non-meat and non-dairy food scraps. After the initial minimal expense, and minimal upkeep (a spray bottle to keep them from drying out, and an area free of drafts, etc.), the worms take care of the rest. The compost they produce is as good as gold.
So, it would seem that Mother Nature provided the perfect, natural, sustainable composting tool, even if the composting takes place in a city apartment.
Live better, a little every day.
We are lucky at our current apartment to have both a protected, south-facing balcony, as well as permission to grow a vegetable garden in a small section of the back yard (providing that we do a lot of ornamental plantings and maintain the lawn and hedges). Knowing how valuable compost is to the success of a garden, and wanting to keep rotting food out of landfills where it does absolutely no good to anyone, we wanted to compost our kitchen scraps.
Unfortunately, our landlords (my parents) are not permitting a compost pile in the backyard. But at least we can grow some edibles. At our old apartment, there was no yard nor balcony for an edible container garden, never mind a place for compost pile. In searching online for alternatives, we found three options: an electric composting unit, a Bokashi composting unit, and a worm bin.
The electric composter came with a price tag of about $300 for the least expensive model (for more money, you could change the color of the unit), but would allow for composting all kitchen waste, including meat and dairy. The unit used precious little power, but still, it uses electricity, and we're trying to eliminate any unnecessary electric usage.
Bokashi is a Japanese word for "fermented organic matter", and the Bokashi product is a microbial product that speeds up the breakdown of food waste into compost. The Bokashi unit was around $70, which was a much more affordable option to get started. However, it would require ongoing purchases of Bokashi. A typical 2.25 pound bag would cost around $12 plus shipping. Since Bokashi is not something that we can reproduce here at home, and would be the most expensive solution long term, we chose to bypass this option.
The final option was starting a worm composting bin. This type of composting, called vermicomposting or vermiculture, uses red worms (Eisenia fetida) to break down kitchen scraps, minus any meat or dairy. Worm bins can be made out of plastic storage bins for minimal investment, though we found a cedar worm bin and worms on eBay for a reasonable price. The worms reproduce, so you never need to buy anything else (assuming that you treat your worms correctly and don't kill them), and won't overpopulate, as their numbers are restricted by the size of the bin.
We got our worms last Autumn. In that time, there has never been an unpleasant odor from the bin. The worms have done a fair job, though if we had to do it again, I would have purchased twice as many worms. We bought approximately 500 worms, and we should have gone with 1000. We still ended up throwing veggie waste away because the bin was too full. Now, that the little wigglers have had some time to build up their numbers, we are seeing less and less kitchen waste.
I highly recommend composting with worms. The worms are not gross (actually, they are kind of cute). And they do a great job of breaking down non-meat and non-dairy food scraps. After the initial minimal expense, and minimal upkeep (a spray bottle to keep them from drying out, and an area free of drafts, etc.), the worms take care of the rest. The compost they produce is as good as gold.
So, it would seem that Mother Nature provided the perfect, natural, sustainable composting tool, even if the composting takes place in a city apartment.
Live better, a little every day.
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