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The weather is turning cooler, although still dry enough to hang the laundry on the line. We had one light freeze, but luckily DH and I finished the cold frame the day before so my lettuce was safe inside. We are finishing our food preservation today with the last of the corn. We put up 950 packages of food in addition to what we had left from last year for a total of 1200 packages. I am very satisfied with all the hard work.
Now we start transitioning to fall and although we still have some items to collect - mushrooms, nuts, and elderberries - our focus is on sewing. I have finished 3 dresses and 3 pinafores. I have 5 more dresses and 4 vests to finish so that church clothes are finished for this season. Children need play clothes and everday clothes, but there is no possibility of finishing it all before the new year. Because . . . there are only ten sewing weeks left until Christmas!
In an effort to cut down on costs, I am making most of my kids' gifts. I can share because they don't read my blog. Boys are getting cowboy and Indian dress up clothes. They always ask why the dress up box only has things for their sisters. Everyone is getting new pajamas. Several kids need new special blankets. Girls are getting doll clothes. I am planning that everyone will get one store bought item. The kids will pool their money to buy one gift for each of their siblings. This allows them to experience the joy of giving without being too much to manage. Seven kids buying for seven kids is 49 gifts - that it is too much shopping for Mom.
We have been doing a few cost cutting measures around here. Using our wood stove in the house to heat. Using our outside boiler to heat hot water. The combination of these 2 means zero electricity for heat and water. We are getting our laundry done early in the morning so it can be hung on the line for the day. We are making our own baby wipes to use with cloth diapers. We made our own cleaning rags for each bathroom. Since we don't use paper towels I occasionally buy white wash cloths for the rag drawer. We placed these in old baby wipe boxes and put a mixture of water, vinegar, and dish soap over the top. Now we have pre-moistened, chemical free bathroom wipes ready to be used. We already use cloth napkins and avoid buying paper products.
The price of food is definately on the rise around here. I spend about $350 per month on food, but I could spend $0 if need be. I buy dairy products, wheat, rice, oats, sugar, baking products, and spices. I keep stocking up a little each month. This amount includes toilet paper, laundry soap, cleaning products, etc. I figure I have a years worth of food on hand.
I have seen a few bloggers posing questions about how to begin to prepare for poor economic times. I think it is helpful to think about the what if's in order to make a list. What if we had no income for 1 month - okay we have enough cash on hand to cover the bills and we have enough food on hand to feed us. We are building a 3 month supply of animal food and we would like to have fuel tanks to stock up on fuel. What if things were really bad and we had to go a year without income - okay we have food but we would have difficulty paying our bills. We could probably defend what we have but our animals would have trouble surviving with little store bought feed. These "what if's" allow us to think about where our priorities should be. I have found it helpful to tackle more than one preparation thing at a time, so all our eggs are not in one basket.
Happy homesteading . . . |
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