What I'm finding more and more, is how much trying to use 90% of the resources that are average to my neighbors, makes those resources seem more precious. Taking an extra 30 seconds in the shower become such a treat. Having dry clothes in 60 minutes really becomes a luxury (had a laundry emergency-got to get rid of that dryer so I don't fall back!) Considering lemonade becomes as much a treat as a brownie... It's the little things in life that I notice the most. I have my brother's car parked in my back yard and I keep forgetting it's there to use. It may very well sit there the whole time he's gone at the rate I'm going. Of course, it might be more tempting if it was November! So here's some little things:
I've rounded up most of my potatoes. The hugelkultur was hard to dig up, but I had some nice potatoes. The red potatoes here are "Red Thumb." I grew them in another plot. I'm not sure that one way of growing worked better than another. I didn't water either and had about the same results. But they were different types of potatoes too, so not a fair trial. I also found a few shelling peas while I was digging. I'd just stuck them in willy-nilly to use up some seed that I had left.
The worm bin is doing very well. I pulled back the cardboard to put some scraps in and there were wiggly little red worms all over. What fun!
On the consumption side, I'm pondering the need for new sneakers. All this walking is hard on shoe longevity. I've read somewhere that sneakers can't have new soles put on them. What I need to figure out is a good pair of shoes for walking 4 plus miles a day that can be resoled as they wear out.
I gave myself a pat on the back for going into the co-op the other day and not buying a goodie wrapped in plastic wrap. Oh that darn sweet tooth. Gets me in trouble all the time. I love fresh fruit, but those bready carbs are just addictive. I've been paying attention to the plastic in my life in general. Pretty pleased at how little I've brought into the house. I've been freezing food in glass canning jars. It's been working out fine (just wouldn't put hot food in glass in the freezer). I do have a freezer full of raspberries. When it's cooler I'll make some jam.
I'm going to try drying apples. I have a tree full to do something with.... I'll also make some applesauce, but not too much. It's not something I eat a lot of. If I get my act together, I'd really like to try making apple jack out of these. The variety is Yellow Transparent I think. It's definitely a cooking apple and makes great applesauce and pies. I'm really hoping it will dry well, I think it would be more useful for me.
Another discovery, and this may have a "why didn't I think of this before" moment again, but I learned this week that washing soda is the same thing as soda ash-which I can buy at the art store! It's used as a dye fixative. I've always used baking soda in my laundry detergent as it was the ingredient that was listed in the first "recipe" I found, but I've seen several since then that used washing soda. So I'll try it out (costs about the same) and see if it works better or not.
It's a rainy windy day so I don't think much gardening is going to happen today, so it's time to finish some sewing projects and a few other little things. I'm also going to experiment with making tortillas today. Lots of yummy local things to cook up....