Tecumseh lake Feb 2012
I think I have a use for my main blog finally (Now if I could just get some time to start writing my stories for my creative writing one LOL) I am always wanting to learn new things and this one seems actually pretty useful and a positive life change. Now I am sure many have heard of "Preppers" people who sort of take being prepared to a whole different level. That is actually not what I am trying to achieve (well quite on that level) though I have learned there are some really useful ideas there. I am going to share those here as I learn them as well as if I get a chance to try them I will share how well they worked etc. I find a lot of the ideas you find there (depending on style) are actually very green ideas which is a good thing and there is an economical appeal there also. I can see why people do it. We experienced a mini disaster of our own a few years back when a tornado took us off the grid for a couple of weeks. Keeping in mind it was ONLY a couple of weeks but no phone (though interesting enough for some reason they kept getting 911 calls from our number even though there was no phone line connected to the house at all...we were somewhat amused by this) and no electricity etc. There is also the issue of gas prices sky rocketing and now food prices are following suit in the wake of weather that has become unpredictable and rather devastating on crops and such. Grains are not doing so well and in turn it is becoming more expensive to feed the livestock and drought conditions in the lower half of the states are contributing to this factor. We are one of those states and as of right now the water situation is rather grim. The lake we get our water from is nearly dry there is only a small amount (about the size of a small cow pond) There are wells beneath the Canadian River but they are not keeping up with demand. They plan on buying water from the neighboring town but they are supposedly talking about water rationing themselves. According to different weather sources this summer is predicted to be as hot and dry as last summer was. Last summer was nearly insufferable and was up into the 100's (usually about 110 F or so) and we were given a water cooler by a friend to use which I think pretty much saved us for the summer....the problem is it uses water. I have convinced hubby to get a rain barrel (would like to have gone a cheaper route but I am thinking this is much needed) Now we just need to pick it up and then we need rain to fill it. No pool to stay cool in this year either as we are under rationing. Another thing that is going up is utilities. We have run into some bad luck in this area. Our gas line broke and the gas company can not find it. (leaving us with having to hire a plumber to basically do a blind search and we don't have the money for that right now) so we have had to turn to using electric for everything. I am line drying my clothes which really doesn't work out so well when it is below freezing outside (popsicles!) thankfully my mom dries them when it is like that so long as I do her laundry since her washer needs work...it works out in trade. Saves some energy also. We keep a rubber rain bucket under a gutter where when it rains the bucket fills and we use that for gardening and such. We are always looking for new ideas to save money, be a bit more green, and not use so much energy.
So anyway what this blog is going to contain a lot of (among other things if I have any) is the learning of new techniques for homesteading (small town), green living, and learning some old school stuff like canning etc...that I find useful.
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