Composting

We've had a compost pile for many years but I'm not sure we're doing it right. I don't turn it and I never see it "hot". Still it generates good looking soil - but with a twist. Since the mix does not reach 120-150 F, it doesn't kill the seeds of weeds or vegetables tossed in.  When I used compost on an onion garden we got a lovely crop of tomato plants instead.

Here's some advice from composting websites...
http://www.howdogardener.com/composting-101.html

Composting requires four ingredients:

I. Green Materials for Nitrogen
Grass clippings, Fruit & vegetable scraps and trimmings, Coffee grounds
Used tea bags, Cow, horse, or poultry manure

II. Brown Materials for Carbon
Dry brown leaves, Shredded newspaper, Wood chips, Sawdust

III. Water
You want the pile damp like a sponge, but not soaking wet.

IV. Air
About 30% of the total initial volume of your compost pile should be air space.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html This site has a nice list of what to compost and how. It discourages banana peelings because the skin might contain pesticides. Add grass and sawdust in thin layers to avoid clumping. Use pine needles in moderation because they are very acidic.

All sites agree on the following:

Do not compost meats or fats or pet droppings
Don't compost diseased plants

Home Remedies

Woman's Day magazine recommends Eight Home Remedies that really work (though they don't always know why).

1. Duct Tape to Remove Warts - just don't expect an overnight cure. Two months of duct tape with a weekly pumice stone scrub was 85% effective. Freezing was only 60% effective.
2. Vapor Rub to cure Nail fungus - apply once or twice daily. This will also remove the infected nail and a new one will grow back.
3. A 15 minute soak in finely ground oatmeal for Eczema (skin inflamation)
4. Yogurt to cure bad breath
5. A spoonful of sugar to cure hiccups
6. Gently biting a pencil to cure a tension headache
7. Olives for early stages of nausea from motion sickness
8. Salt water gargle for sore throat.
   1 tablespoon salt to 8 ounces of water, but more salt is better than less.

Bottom Line

Have any of these cures worked for you?

How To Plan A Vegetable Garden

"My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view."
~H. Fred Dale

My luck with gardens is very poor. Our havest last year was two or three plum tomatoes.

So instead I'll let another site do all the talking today and encourage all to check out How to Plan a Vegetable Garden at RootSimple.com.

Bottom Line

Gardening takes practice and planning. Begin now.

Rent or Buy?

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house.
With two cats in the yard ...
- CROSBY, STILLS and NASH

Today I encourage you to read the article, The Renting Alternative Will Undermine The Housing Market For Years, from BusinessInsider.com. Ignore the misleading title. What the article is really about and covers well is the increasing tendency of successful individuals and couples to choose renting an apartment over buying a house. As one person put it,

"With a pool I don't pay for, a gym that's open 24 hours a day, and emergency plumbers on staff at 2 a.m., I have enough responsibility in my life that I don't need a home."

A commenter from Chicago says,

"I think we might be renters forever. My husband and I love sitting ... in the park reading the Sunday New York Times while our landlord is stuck fixing the garbage disposal. Time is priceless. And we are nowhere nearly as freaked out about finances as our friends are."

Bottom Line

I knew a man who worked as a school teacher by and a troubled youth counselor overnight in order to raise the money for a home for his family (this was back in the days you needed a real deposit on a new home.)
At the time he lived in a beautiful apartment complex with a tennis court, rec center, swimming pool, green fields, etc. but he felt it essential that his kids had their own lawn to play on.

Personally I'd be very happy to give up lawn care, etc. (I'm grateful my wife mows the lawn.)

Soap Making

“Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.” - William Osler

We have a friend who makes decorative soap for fun and as gifts. The bar she made for us has lasted a surprisingly long time. Prior to 1916 much of the soap used was made at home using fats from cooking and butchering. This changed with World War I which created a national "fat" shortage. Enterprising companies stepped in and developed the first synthetic soaps.

The following information on soap was found at www.cranberrylane.com/soapmaking.htm.

There are 3 keys to successful soap making:

1. Accurately weighed ingredients.
2. A good formula.
3. Proper technique.

Chemically speaking, soap is a salt. An acid (fats) and a base (Lye) react with one another to form a salt or soap. Natural hand-made soap is not difficult to make; you can make a batch of soap in as little as one hour, depending on the formula.

The oil or fat is heated gently. Lye and water are combined separately. When both ingredients reach the required temperature, they are combined. When the mixture becomes the desired consistency, it is poured into a mould. The bars are removed from the mould after approximately 24 to 48 hours. They are restacked and allowed to “cure” or dry until hard (3 to 8 weeks).

Interestingly, the web site

www.ideamarketers.com/?Soap_Making_--_The_Disappearing_Skill&articleid=467687 is less enthusiastic about soap making...

There are only two ingredients required to make soap, yet soap making can be a very time consuming and difficult project. In the old days, soap was made a couple of times per year, sometimes once a year. One of the reasons for not making soap more often was because it was a long-drawn out process.

Bottom Line
Check out the web links above for details on soap making. I suspect like many things that soap making is simple in theory but takes skill to do just right. Note the importance of precise measuring, "right" temperature, "right" consistency, etc. Also note that soap making is NOT a craft for children. Lye is a dangerous chemical. It can burn the skin and if inhaled will burn the lungs. If swallowed it can be fatal.

Living off the Land

"Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery quotes (Author of 'The Little Prince')

Eventually most discussions on preparedness end up with moving to the country side and living off the land once you've lost all faith in the government or civilization to sustain you. I'm not that extreme but it remains the "holy grail" of preparedness. Here is an alleged first-hand account of a family who learned how to farm the hard way.

Perspectives on Prepping on a Very Low Income, by Kuraly

...I was forced to take very low-paying jobs and survive on a low-income.With our savings we were able to buy a small rural house and 7.5 acres in the southeast. We were able to pay cash, I wanted it to be ours with no strings attached, regardless of what the future held. I figured that at the very least we would have a roof and some plantable land.

...My first priority was for two weeks worth of provisions. ...

... We also invested in chickens, and watched some of them die, some of them be eaten by neighbor's dogs, some get eaten by our dogs, and the hardy survivors begin to lay eggs. We watched them eat their own eggs and learned to give them calcium.

...We had zero experience at any of this, and no one around that we knew to advise us. We had to learn everything from scratch. We bought a goat and promptly saw it attacked and killed by a stray dog. That hurt, financially as well as emotionally. After sending the dog to join the goat "on the other side", I bought another goat. and then another. These have survived. We have learned to care for them.

Bottom Line

Read the whole story. How would you do in a similar situation?