Comments (2)

By Penny, April 12, 2010 5:44 pm

Last year, before the house burned down, my husband and I decided that having the front yard fenced in would be immensly helpful for our suburban homestead.  The front yard is mostly shady, so it is not conducive to vegetable growth. As such, we wanted to move the ducks and dogs into the front yard, using the entire backyard for vegetable and fruit gardening.

With this goal in mind, we had a representative from a local fence company do an estimate.  It came to a shocking $3,000!  Bearing in mind that our front yard is roughly 75ftX50ftX40ft, I nearly had a heart attack.  Obviously, we put the notion of having professionals do it quickly out of mind.

Scouring the classifieds, I found 150ft of chainlink with all the poles, ties, etc, for $150.  We brought it home and were waiting for spring break to put it up.  With the help of our friend, we managed to get the fencing we had bought up.  Unfortunately, it was not enough, so we had to buy more. However, that was only an extra $156.  As far as aggravation, it took two afternoons and two minor arguements. The process was a simple one, the most difficult part being the stretching, which had to be done by tying the fencing to a truck and pulling.

By doing it ourselves, we saved an astounding 90% off the professional price.  Does it look all shiny and new? Nope. It does keep the ducks and dogs in the yard, which is all I need it to do.  Plus, I don’t the the extra $2,700 to have the professionals do it was worth it.  If you look at the hourly wage for putting up the fence, we paid ourselves $337 an hour to put up fencing.  I surely can’t make that while sitting in my house on my tushie.

Comments (1)

By Penny, March 31, 2010 7:38 pm

I so desperately wish that I had the ability to show you lovely pictures of my seedlings, but the computer is still kaputz.  At any rate, I will give you the update without it, though it will be a sad update, indeed.

Two weeks ago, I planted some of my Brussel sprout seedlings in the garden.  In order to protect them, I covered them with “hillbilly cloches.” 

My husband drinks at least a two litre bottle of Diet Mountain Dew per day.  Rather than waste those bottles, I try to recycle them in some fashion.  I cut the bottoms off of the bottles, saving them for starting seedlings.  Then, I used the tops as cloches.  I planted the seedlings, covering them with the cloches.  To help harden the seedlings off, I put some branches from a pine tree over the cloches, to offer a bit of protection from the sun.  It seemed to be effective, as I only had two die, and those seedlings were ones I didn’t think would make it anyway.  Hooray for recycling and hick-engineering.   I would have loved to post a picture, but you will have to envision a garden plot with Mountain Dew bottles growing out of it.

Our warm weather seedlings are growing merrily away in the front windows.  Interestingly enough,  we have relied, once again, on hillbilly engineering.  A friend lent us one of his aquarium lights to use as a grow light.  We bought two L-brackets and some rope; then, we attached the L-brackets to the window frame and suspended the aquarium lights from wood flooring pieces, left from the fire, which were screwed to the L-brackets.  Not pretty, but the way I see it, my house is not a show piece; it’s the place where I work and play.  I am curious to know if the neighbors think we’re growing anything illegal.

For the last bit of redneck recycling, I planted some peas. Rather than buy special poles, we used some pine limbs that had fallen during the snow storms.  We made teepees out of them, stripping them down to poles and tying the tops together with the rope leftover from the light.  The best part: these pea teepees are in the front yard.  Good thing the neighbors think we’re “quaint.”  However, out of deference to the neighborhood, I did plant Blue-Podded Peas which, in addition to being delicious, are a lovely ornamental with purplish-blue flowers and pea pods.  After the peas are spent, I plan to sow Scarlet Runner beans which are also quite gorgeous… or, at least, that’s what the picture in the seed catalogue shows.

 In the back yard, I didn’t bother with teepees and just stuck branches in the ground. I suspect that batch will look like modern art once the peas have climbed up the branches.

With just a little ingenuity and eccentricity, you, too, can reap the frugal benefits of hillybilly engineering and redneck recycling.

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By Penny, February 3, 2010 4:26 am

Laundry Soap

1/3 bar of laundry soap ( I use a homemade soap that I barter eggs for, but Crystal from The Family Homestead sells a lovely laundry soap here  Any soap will do, though.)

½ cup borax

½ cup washing soda (NOT baking soda!)

Grate soap into a saucepan. Add soda and borax, stirring until the soap is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.  Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.  You use about ½ cup per load.

Here’s the pictorial:

The directions say use a sauce pan, but I just use my stainless steel mixing bowl. I assure you, the matching ensemble was accidental.

Grate the soap. You could whirl it in a food processor, but I hate cleaning the blasted thing and would rather hand grate for just a small amount like that.

Here's all the ingredients together.

Mix the ingredients completely until the shredded soap melts.

Add water to the pan you're going to keep it in. I just use a dishpan that I keep on the dryer.

Add the soap mixture, stirring constantly

add the rest of the water, and You're done!