Diresu’s blog

I mentioned in my independence days post that relighting the hot water heater was my new skill.  And in an earlier post I wrote about turning off the hot water so I thought I’d give a report about how things went.

I thought that I would start using the sun shower when I turned off the water, but that never really worked as I kept forgetting to get it in time. And when I did remember to get the sun shower I realized that in order to use one you need a place to hang it.  This is not such a problem on a sailboat (where I’ve done the vast majority of my sunshowering) where there is a mast on which to hoist said shower.  I do want to rig up a place to sunshower inside, hopefully inside our bathrooms.  I didn’t want to risk just hanging it on the shower pipe where it sticks out of the wall because I envisioned breaking the plumbing and even if it didn’t break the spray hose would hang somewhere near my knee.  So we need a sunshower solution.

I did get a pump pot for the bathroom and was surprised at how long it held hot water.  I boiled water in my electric kettle and then would have hot water in the bathroom for wiping down or washing hands for a long time.  Over night a few times it was still warm; much longer than the 8 hours it says on the package.  Maybe if I was wanting it hot to drink like tea or coffee it wouldn’t be hot enough, but for hand washing it was often too hot and I had to add some cold out of the tap.  So mostly it has been bucket baths around here for me.  Hubby is showering at work when he goes and he and our son have been going to the Y 2x a week.  I broke my little toe and haven’t been to the Y so today was my first real shower in a long long time.

The dishes were the most annoying part for me.  This might be because the dishes are my least favorite chore anyway and they need doing at least twice a day.  They seem to need a lot of water, and a lot of hot water at that.  Now I know people say they wash dishes in cold water, but I really just can’t go there.  I tried it and it seemed to take at least twice as much soap and water to get clean (and some stuff just didn’t come off)  Maybe if you are a raw foodie you could get away with only washing in cold water.

Why are we back to hot water?  The water heater was restarted because my son got sick with some gastro-intestinal yuckies and the laundry was quite…FOUL… I just couldn’t wash it on cold water and feel like things were clean.  And there was a lot of it to be done, and I wasn’t about to make that much hot water in my electric kettle.  So I turned on the water heater.  It is going off again, and I hope to at least have some cheapy solar water set up soon so when the sun is out I can use hot water to wash some of the laundry.  I’m thinking hose on the roof and sunshowers again.  Maybe that is just because it has been such a lovely sunny day.  Off to shut the heater off again.  And now I know how to restart it when I need to.  It was pretty frightening to do it the first time, but now it will be easier.  Now I’m off to shut it off again.  I know the water will stay hot for at least over night and so I can enjoy warm water for a while longer running from the tap.

I need to write a little post everyday or I tend to forget things.  Lets see

Planted – Watermelon, cantaloupe and popcorn seeds.  And more potatoes.

Harvest – Nothing

Stored – Macaroni – first bulk order came in but half of it was out of stock.  The rest is piled in the corner awaiting bucketification. Also transfered some stored oil from plastic jug to glass jars and vac sealed.

Prepped – Washed more buckets.  Realized I need a bucket lid tool.

Cooked new – Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting.  Ok that probably doesn’t have anything to do with food independence.  Yesterday we celebrated my husbands birthday (its today but he is at work) and I needed a chocolate frosting made from things on hand (and not crisco) and so chocolate cream cheese frosting it was.

Managed – Did some general sorting out / shelf straightening in the food storage area.

Reduced waste – Trash picked cat litter bucket, seedling trays, soaker hose (in perfect condition), cut garden hose (will mend or use for Self Watering Containers), umbrella and badminton rackets from the “Other Plastics” section at the recycling center.  What were they thinking with the umbrella and rackets – they weren’t even plastic.   Husband  actually chopped up and layered compost.  I did feel bad for hunking out whole spoiled onions and apples, but he was a sweetie about it.

Preserved – nothing, but I’m hoping to make some jam soon.

The last few days have been crazy.  I haven’t done as much as I would have liked for this challenge but I’m going to keep going.  Here is a summary for the past week few days

1. Plant – Cucumbers (but my son turned over the pots, will have to redo). Lettuce (but some rodent ate most of it, will have to redo) Luckily I over planted so  I have some extra seedlings to put in and this time I’m going to try cages over the plants.  My peas were also dug up in one bed.  I don’t know if it is a rat (we had one visiting our compost pile) or the squirrels who like to “plant” the peanuts in that bed.

2. Harvest – Chives, Green onions

3. Preserve – Nada

4. Prep – Washed buckets for storing food.   Discovered, by accident that  using Borax and hot water does wonders for the pickle smell.  I was a bit concerned about using the borax, but it says you can use it to rise china, so I thought I would go ahead.  I discovered this after using a pickle bucket for a diaper pail and having the smell that could knock me over when I entered the bathroom.  I tried sprinkling the bottom with borax and still doing dry pail for the diapers, and that helped some.  Then I tried wet pail with borax a few times and after emptying the diapers there was no trace of the pickle smell.  Today I just emptied my first trial bucket and there wasn’t any noticeable pickle smell in the bucket. I also bought some canning jar lids and pectin that was on sale.  I think the jar lids at the commissary might be cheaper than ordering them in bulk.  I have to check the price.

Also “prepped” a bunch of fence from the Habitat for Humanity store.  We don’t have the time or skills to install it right now, but we will need a good fence before we start keeping rabbits, which is part of our someday plans.  Hopefully someday soon, but one day at a time.

5. Manage – Sorted through apples and onions.  Had quite a few onions to toss.

6. Support Local Foods – Purchased milk from local-ish source. Our very local (in our county) family farm where we bought organic milk sold out to a larger operation, so now we just know that the milk comes from our state, not sure where.  Also getting produce home delivery today, with some local produce.

7. New Skills – Built raised bed with concrete blocks.  My husband helped me get started but I cleared out a lot of the grass and set the blocks and then filled the bed from our left over garden dirt from last year.  Now I have to get out there and plant something.  I also have to pray that it isn’t destroyed by my son or the rodents.

Here are my updates for the last few days.

May 1 – Nothing – Dental appointments and Vet appointments kept me busy all day. Did go to the hardware store where I planned on getting jars for a “Prep” item, but forgot. Did support local food system when getting our milk delivered.

May 2 – Planted – transplants of cole crops, this may be too late, but better late than never.

May 3 – Planted – green onions Harvested – green onion.  Rainy yucky day with company so my husband actually did that while we were getting ready to have company over.

May 4 – Planted – cucumbers.  Harvested – broccoli.

I’m starting this blog in response to Sharon Astyk’s Independence Days Challenge and I’m setting my goal of doing one thing for food independence every day that I’m at home. I’ll still try on days I go to work but since I only work (away from home) occasionally this should be most days. I’ll also try to hit each category at least one time per week.

Here are the categories:

1. Plant

2. Harvest

3. Preserve

4. Prep

5. Manage

6. Support Local Foods

7. New Skills

So I’ll jump in here with the last two days:

April 29, 2008

1. Plant – transplanted Brussels Sprouts and Kohlrabi into the garden, late yes- but better late than never.

2. Prep – Helped husband make a “potato tower” out of chicken wire.  Now to plant potatoes.

April 30, 2008

1. Plant – transplanted Cabbages and Broccoli into garden beds

2. Harvested – weeds (They don’t really count but what the heck)

3. Preserved – cut up some free Rhubarb and froze it ( I guess that is local food supporting me not the other way around)

I’m hoping to keep this up, what a great challenge. I like having to think of something every day even if it is something small. With my son (2yrs.) “something small” is about all I ever do.