Saturday, September 22, 2007
Non-Electric Shredder
Well, in my quest for sweet, sweet simplicity I decided to purchase a hand crank shredder. You see we used to have an electric shredder but it was just soooo loud and I just hate these 'loud' appliances. So I got rid of that one and ordered this one last week on ebay, it was only $20.00 so I thought we'd give it a try. It has been months since I disposed of the electric one so we had lots of 'junk mail' built up in a cardboard box and I decided to shred all of this in one day. 20 yo son 'Puritan' shredded quite a bit for me while he watched some international soccer, and then I decided to shred some myself and I think tomorrow I won't be able to lift my arms!, that's some hard work but all of my pile is finished.You know the idea of homesteading sounds just very 'romantic' to me and I know lots of others but once you start on your journey and start replacing the easy appliances with things we need muscle for things start to look a bit different. I still love being on this journey but I am truly starting to get an idea of how life was for my grandparents, they were farmers, raised all their own food, chickens etc. and bartered for the things they couldn't raise themselves.....and raised 9 children to boot!...all the while using outhouses, well water and no electricity (in their early years of marriage) and what's even more incredible is that my grandma always had an overflowing table for each meal and had three full meals every day...I sometimes feel we've accomplished much when we get oatmeal, toast, juice etc. on the table and we all sit down to eat it.....most days people help themselves at breakfast since we don't have any 'small' children. We disposed of our microwave years ago, not only because I'm still not sure about long term effects but also just because I know if I'm home all the time I can use my stove and oven for anything we would use a microwave for, and also a couple of years ago we purchased a hand crank coffee grinder from www.lehmans.com and daily grind our own fresh coffee from beans so we have been in the beginning stages for awhile but now we're seeing some things falling into place and it's just so exciting! Well, I'm off here to find some busy work! |