The Used and Reused.

A few years ago I decided to eliminate most of the disposible things in our home - not an easy task some days. The first thing I did was stop buying most paper products - towels, plates,coffee filters, cups. No bottled water, reduced bottled beverages (neither of us drink soda so not an issue). We have containers, water bottles and I have a reusable lunch box. I started growing my own produce and yes I can yammer on about that all day every day - I love to garden! We use laundry sheets which take up no room, work well and there's no giant plastic container. Reusable shopping and produce bags, if we get something in a box i'll often use it as a donation box. I buy most of household things - cooking utensils, table cloths, etc at yard and estate sales - I've gotten such beautiful things for a tenth or less of the original price. I bought a pampered chef microwave pot brand new for $2, it's on Amazon for $40. Some of the girls clothes are used from consignment shops, kids grow so fast I occasionally find some really good buys. 95% of our furniture has come from Facebook Marketplace or estates sales - you get the idea. Even the house we live in was bought at 1/4 of what's it's worth today - doing the cleaning and work yourself saves you.

I've said before brand new only lasts as long as it's not in your house, the second you bring it through the door it's used, isn't it? And yes, you do have to be careful - the last thing we want to do is bring home unwanted visitors hiding but we dont' buy anything we're not sure of and certainly nothing dirty. We  have a beautiful leather living room set we purchased for $300 and refurbished ourselves, the iron and wood coffee table - $15. Our replacement chandeliers - new in the box and $5 apiece, scrounged from a hoarder sale. I love hoarder sales - I bought a large  tote for $20 a few months ago full of wrapped packages - they were brand new pelicans of every size and shape you can imagine. I only kept a few but the amusement value was off the charts and a lot people are now the proud owners of pelicans thanks to me. You're welcome! Not everything worked out of course, David refuses to entertain the idea of a bidet gently sprinkling his nether region and really nixed buying one at a yard sale. But other than that he's been onboard.

And the benefits! We of course save money because we don't spend a lot, when we retire we'll have to watch our spending, but we WILL be able to retire. I do plan on working a few more years though, I really like my job and it's pretty low stress - plus you know, money. One of the things I was surprised we save money on is trash collection, because we've drastically reduced our output we only have it picked up twice a month, we put out about 3 bags a month now. We save alot not buying pre-cooked or pre-packaged foods, dishes are washed as are containers. We recycle and reuse the bananas out of everything. This spring I'm planning on starting a compost pile to further reduce the trash with the goal of being able to just cancel it and David can bring what little we produce to the dump. I find I enjoy the challenge of it too, it's much more fun to find the things you wanted at a estate sale then simply take it off a shelf. Onward!

 

The Farm Report

So, I'm finally feeling better better - my larger incisions are still a bit sore but other than that I'm back to it. Work was a bit crazy coming  back, I'd been sick and out for so long it was hard to get started again, but last week was much smoother I think.  We went with Kim and Steve yesterday to celebrate his birthday a bit early, they drove here and then we drove them to Longview as there's a brewery there we've been dying to try. Scythe Brewing is in an industrial part and when you drive up it looks like a plumbing warehouse. But you walk in and it's this beautiful, huge restaurant brewery with soaring ceiling and fireplaces. Super fun and the food and beer were amazing. So, that was yesterday.  

Today I tackled the green house, or more specifically the Dutch Buckets which did not fare well. The thing with Oregon weather is we DO occasionally get a cold spell, snow, ice etc..., but it will only last a week or so and then you're back in the 40s/50s. The green house is largely unheated but I do have a small heater if I need to use it. The hydro unit has done wonderful, I am still picking lettuce daily and have shared the overload with neighbors and friends. And you don't pick it all in one go - it's just like a garden, you only take what you're going to eat and leave the rest, it just continues to grow.  But it more than survived the 20 degrees we had - the reservoir sits on the floor which is actually a deck but the unit itself sits high up so the water doesn't get that cold. The buckets however, sit directly on the deck and the water got so cold it froze the plant roots and killed the plants. Except one and one thing of lettuce. Because  of my lifting restrictions I've had to let it just sit there full of zombie plants which stare at me in the most accusing way every time I come out to get salad. Ugh. 

This morning I put my boots on and spent most of the morning emptying and scrubbing down everything - and it's a lot! Everything is reusable with the exception of the starter plugs so it all needed to be soaked with hydrogen peroxide and dish soap,, rinsed ,dried, stored - I managed to save one passive dutch bucket which will hopefully survive. This has been an ongoing learning experience - David had mentioned we could have moved the buckets into the sunroom or they could have lived there for the winter. I couldn't move them after they were set up because the air stones are all on one unit, if you disconnect them the water runs out of the bucket. Oh well, I am starting another round of seeds today and then after that I have to get fertilizer for my garden  and get started on that. Here it warms up much sooner than back in PA, Last year I think I had everything in the ground by early April and my hydro until started producing around May. So we shall see!!