Cool It!

Today is our first real hot, humid day of the summer...the kind where you're sweating before breakfast is over.

Our cottage is very challenging to keep cool.  I've tried with just fans alone, but it isn't enough.  The small house, many humans, west facing picture window and west facing dark, low pitched roofline and the set up of the house distinctly lacking in a cross breeze all add up to one HOT HOUSE!

So, cooling it inexpensively isn't really on the consideration list.  It's just keeping it cool!

Each of the two bedrooms has an AC unit in the window.  In the doorways of said rooms are fans that blow the cool air into the rest of the house.  This works, but, really, during a long heat wave, we pretty much live in the bedrooms and dining room.

The basement tends to stay cool, so we'll hang out down there, too, if need be.

I try to do my cooking outside because even just one burner turned on the stove makes the whole kitchen unbearable.

I don't cool the bathroom.  I keep the door shut and the window open.  It's on the "cool" side of the house and since we don't actually LIVE in there, only using it on occasion for special business purposes, we don't need to waste energy cooling it.

We installed a retractable awning over the picture window and that helps keep the living room much cooler.

Our daughter's room can really cook, though.  I'd like to get outdoor canvas and sew shades for the outside of her windows.  She has thick curtains on the inside, but once the sun hits glass, it radiates heat into the room, so I need to prevent the sun from hitting the glass.  If it gets to be a long heat wave, we just shut up her room and have her sleep in the boys' room or in the living room until the heat wave passes.  I'd love an AC in her room, but her windows don't allow for one.

Last year was a pretty hot summer here and we only had to shut up her room and have her sleep elsewhere for two nights.

To save money, I try to make do as long into the day as possible, but sometimes if I don't get ahead of the game, it just doesn't cool down enough in the house.  I have to take Mr. Scott into consideration, since he works outside all day long.  He NEEDS a cool house to come home to.

Since most of the family is under the weather today (allergies, and a stomach bug), I decided to get those AC's cranking.  It's just going to have to be a restful indoors day.

As for the animals, the pig has a nice, well shaded pen and has made his own wallow, which I filled with cold water this morning.  The rabbits are moved out of the shed (which can get really hot) and their cages placed in an area of the yard that has constant shade a access to a breeze (if there is one).  I place a muslin cover over part of the mother/baby cage for added protection and shelter, while leaving the other half open to breezes.  All animals' water is checked 3-4 times per day and animals are checked on to make sure they aren't overheating.

Stay cool!

A Penny Saved #2

My goal for this week's grocery shopping was to get enough for the week for under $100.  That isn't easy with a family of 6 and being as particular about quality foods as I can afford.  I managed with just under $94.00 and only crossed off one thing on my list and substituted another.  I crossed off baking cocoa.  I don't NEED it and I also have a canister of carob powder that could be put to use somehow.

Last year around Thanksgiving Aldi had a gallon of peanut oil for $10.  I grabbed it and was able to use and reuse it for 7 months.  I only have a little used oil left, Aldi no longer sells peanut oil this time of year, and the only other place I can get refined pure peanut oil sells it for nearly $5 for 12 oz.  So, I decided to browse the grocery store for an alternative.  I will not use soy, corn, vegetable or Crisco oils.  I checked out the SnowCap Lard, but it is hydrogenated and contains BHA.  So, over to the meat department I went and found suet for $1.69 lb.

I'm rendering the suet!

I got a quart out of only half the suet I purchased!

Here it is still warm in its liquid state.

Here it is solidified.

I have to tell you, it feels like heaven on the skin!

It's a bit weird to me to rub animal fat on my skin, but it is wonderful, really!
I'll make soap out of some of it sometime, and maybe a lotion, too.

I also purchased inexpensive slices of top round steak (one with a day-old coupon on it) and ground it up for ground beef.  It was cheaper than buying ground beef outright.

Lastly, we had a lovely afternoon downpour.  I decided to take advantage of it and washed my hair in it rather than running the well pump, pressure tank, softener and water heater.  I wish I had a Berkey.  I would have collected rain water and run it through a Berkey filter.

Official Baby Rabbit Count

NINE!

Tiny House Next Generation

My oldest watched the documentary, Tiny on Netflix with me the other evening.  He loved it and started coming up with plans for his own tiny house.  I told him how other young people have built or are building their own tiny homes and that is something he can work towards, too.  He started with sketches on paper, with the idea of using an enclosed trailer.  Then, when he was playing outside, I suggested he draw a floorplan on the driveway using sidewalk chalk.  He loved that idea and got right to work.  Two of his younger siblings joined him in his tiny house for the photo.  Upon suggesting he can make another floor plan after the rain comes, he responded, "No, Mom.  That's hard work!"  I think he'll draw another.  Tiny homes are hard to forget. :-)

Thinking Outside the Jones's Box

We are a larger than average family in a smaller than average house.  Therefore, conventional practices and cultural standards simply don't usually work for us.

Living in a rather small house, the bedrooms are not very big at all.  Daughter's bedroom is the smallest of all.  When we moved her out of the boys' room and into her room, we shoved a twin size bed along the wall, leaving just enough room for a side table, a narrow shelving unit and her dresser with a narrow walkway between the windows and her bed.  I had it in my head that she needed a twin size bed.

Consequently, the poor girl had little to no floor space for playing and moving about.  Too big for a toddler bed and too small for a twin and no floor space, the bed turned into a catch all and at night everything would avalanche to the floor.

I tried so many efforts to keep that room clean, but it just wasn't working.  Worse still, her toys and things would pour into the living room as she sought out space to play.  I was beside myself, and so was she.  The joy of having her own room was turning into an every day frustration.

Finally, I decided to stop trying to live up to conventional practices of giving her "real" furnishings, a real twin bed and whatever idealism was attached to it and pulled it out of her room, mattress and all.  Instead, I decided to revisit the cobbed-together daybed idea I used in there before she was born.

I grabbed a bunch of totes from storage that I knew we wouldn't be opening any time soon and thanked God I saved the platform from the old daybed and pulled it from the shed.  I added hubby's old feather ticking and an unused down comforter for a mattress and voila!  A charming bed AND floor space!

Here's it is in the picture before I put the bedding on.  Twin fits, though it needs extra tucking, which is no big deal.  It holds the ticking and comforter in proper place.

The smile on my daughter's face said it all.  She LOVES her new room and her new bed.  She calls it her "box bed."  Better yet, she's keeping it tidy!

The Tiny House Movement provides me with ideas for fitting all of us in such a small house, but better still, it provides me with the freedom from the conventional.  It's OK that my daughter doesn't have a traditional twin bed.  It's OK to make do with what you have and create something different.  It's OK that we live in a small house and it's OK if we STAY in this small house.

Micro is GOOD!  That's not to say Macro is bad, but there's nothing wrong with letting the Jones's be the Jones's and letting the Scott's be the Scott's.

Simple Foods

One thing about watching Wartime Farm again is I get encouraged to stretch and simplify meals.  As it stands, we are eating more and more like depression era farmers than modern Americans.  With 6 people to feed 3 meals a day the grocery bill can get quite high.  Two years ago, I was spending around $300 per week on groceries and supplies. Now, I do all I can to keep it under $150...and that is HARD.  

One thing I am trying to avoid is supplementing with pasta.  Yes, we are eating more of it (we have an italian dish once a week and about twice a month I make homemade macaroni and cheese) but I don't want to have it much more than two times per week.  Potatoes are too pricey, neither is rice.  There's also homemade spatzel, and biscuits.  A bag of frozen cauliflower works as a good "starch" dish, too.  

I stretch meat as far as I possibly can, learning to buy and cook cheaper cuts.  I, myself am eating a smaller portion of meat and supplementing that protein loss with eggs.

I'm reconsidering the use of beans and rice for a meal.  At least one vegetarian meal per week wouldn't hurt anyone.  I can make my own soft taco shells and voila!

Being a vintage enthusiast, I have several vintage cookbooks which tout economy.  There are some great ideas in them, but, unfortunately, what was cheap meat back then is more expensive today, like veal.  Veal was cheap meat from needless culled calves.  Now, it's a delicacy.  With Paleo and more natural diets becoming more and more popular, I can't even get chicken feet for free anymore.  

I am also hindered by the sensitive eyes and tastebuds.  I am not a fan of casseroles (and neither is the rest of my family for that matter).  At least half of my children are not fans of soup (I'm working on that one).  Pot pies, while hubby and I love them, the children are not thrilled.  

We have success with meat and gravies with a side of biscuits or potatoes and a veg.  My kids will eat anything in "hotdog" form, so I'd like to get a sausage stuffer and make my own sausages.

A watermelon is fairly inexpensive this time of year and makes a great, refreshing side dish for at least two meals.

I've also noticed that deep frying anything makes it more filling.  I use peanut oil, which is hard to come by around here, but it is soooo good and so easily reusable!  One gallon lasts me half a year.

Picking off the land and making from scratch also stretches a food budget.  Drinking more water instead of juice, tea, coffee or milk helps, too.  (I don't limit my children's milk, though).

Baked goods or air popped popcorn for snacks go a lot farther than prepackaged snacks.  Plus, you can sneak fruits and/or vegetables into a lot of baked goods.

I daresay a homemade apple pie has more nutritional value than a Poptart!

I look forward to a time where grocery shopping is almost needless.

How do you make a meal stretch and save on groceries?

Successful Strawberry Forage

After some pretty strong rains and time delays, I was afraid I missed the peak of the wild strawberries.  I had already gone out for an hour one evening and picked just under a quart.  I was finally able to break free and find an hour back in that horse pasture.  I picked just over a quart for nearly two quarts of delicious wild strawberries total!

The evening was spent hulling my latest forage and laying the tiny berries out on a tray to freeze before transferring to a freezer bag.  I occupied that task by watching BBC's Wartime Farm Episode 1 again.  Now, I'm jealous of the rosehips Ruth and her father found.  Someday, I hope to have grand rosehips.