Quick Thoughts

Was browning some sausage crumbles in my cast iron skillet and found my mind wandering. I wonder how much energy I save every time I use them?

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  Cast iron skillets browns meat on level 3, other skillets I have to turn it up to 5 or 6.



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  Cast iron skillets can be turned off before the food is totally done, the pan stays heated in for a long time.



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  Cast iron skillets can be wiped clean and doesn't have to be washed with water every time you use it.

As obsessed as I am with saving cents, I don't have time to figure this all out. I must be saving something. Ok, back to supper. Homemade pizza and breadsticks tonight!

Fish in a Barrel

I am working on finding a few new rain barrels of some sort, but now that it is spring, I am anxious to get them found and set up. My goldfish are anxious also, I can tell by how they are much more active they seem to be. I guess it probably has to due with the length of daylight or more sunshine or something.

I have had the same 2 goldfish for about 3 years, so I must be doing something right. I bring them inside for the winter, although I have left them outside until the water has frozen over (but not totally frozen.) But as soon as it starts to warm up, they go back into the rain barrel. There they spend their days eating any bugs or mosquito larvae that happens to fall into the barrel. They never get fed fish flakes in the summer.

I wonder how long goldfish live anyways?

Top Articles for April

Here is a list of the best things I found for this month:

Energy Usage info(specifically dryer usage): http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/dryers.html

Homemade Garden Seed Tape: http://fitzgeraldsfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/04/homemade-seed-tape.html

Top Articles I've Read For March

Here is a list of the best articles I've come across this month:

Tomato Gardening: http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-24-2011-my-buckets-got-hole-in-it.html

Solar Oven Baking: http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Bread#Zucchini_Loaf (scroll 1/3 way down the page to read some tips on solar bread baking)

Rain Water Calculations: http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2008/08/25/just-how-much-rainwater-can-you-collect-off-your-roof/

Washing on the Outdoor Clothes Line

Spring will soon be here, so I am expecting alot of rain. I get excited for rain, I like to see the rainbarrel filled up. I was thinking of how else I could use the rain, and have come to an idea. I think I will hang the light weight towels, sheets, and pillow cases on the outdoor clothes line before it rains, and let the rain rinse them for me. Not every time they need washed, but maybe every other time. Heaven knows those items don't really get dirt dirty, so they probably only need a rinse out. I know how good sun-dried sheets smell, I wonder if they will smell better being washed with rain water. I'll have to time it right, so the neighbor's outdoor furnace isn't running, to keep the smoke off, and so the laundry doesn't hang on the line for days waiting for the sun.

Before you think I'm completely nuts, I have sortof done this before, maybe you have also. Remember the time you forgot the laundry was on the line and it hung there until it started to fade from the sun? (I have a rug to prove that.)

Levi Strauss

Saw on the news today that the Levi Strauss Company is encouraging people to NOT wash their jeans.

(see www.marcgunther.com/2010/11/04/dont-wash-your-jeans/ )

How odd, since I was recently thinking about this, but not to that extreme. I was just wanting the kids to to wear their jeans 2 or 3 times, not just once. If you think that's extreme, check out this guy www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/924787--student-wears-unwashed-jeans-for-15-months .

Just when I was running out of room in my freezer, now I find I could be using it for killing the stink off of jeans? Really? I think I will just Frebreeze them, thank you. And still wash them after 3 wearings, thank you.

The Energy Efficient Paper Shredder

DSC07151
Originally uploaded by pafish6

I found a brand-new paper shredder that uses absolutely no electricity at all. Maybe I should put a patent on him and rent him out.













If the puppy's taking a nap, then I put all those important, but needs-to-be-discarded-discretely papers here:














How many identity-thieving criminals will dare open the coop guarded by this guy?

Laundry Count

Going to keep a track of how much laundry I really do, just for the next month or so. I am thinking it comes to 7 loads a week, but we'll see. Am also going to see who will win, the dryer or the clothesline. My electric company is rooting for the dryer, but my pocketbook is screaming "Clothesline!" Going to keep track in the right hand column. Goooooo clothesline!

Thinking Outside My Laundry Room

Just paid an un-Godly amount of money to the water company again on Friday. So I decided to check out my local laundry mat. Haven't been there in years, but thought, hey, what the heck. Found that I could fit twice the amount of laundry into a washer than I can at home, for $2. What really floored me was it only took 50 cents to dry my load of whites. I know it takes about 50 minutes at home to dry a load, so that must be at least 50 cents spent, if not more.

Laundry mat cons: price; have to lug laundry around town; time-consuming (can't do the dishes or clean house while at the mat)
Laundry mat pros: may save money? ; can use HOT water for my whites; really nice and warm in there compared to my house (in the winter); can't do the dishes or clean house while at the mat (hehe, it's like a self-imposed time-out to me!)

Will have to think about this laundry mat vs. home thing some more, but just a thought.

Day 16: Never Say Never

Read a hint somewhere yesterday that said to make sure you only run full loads of laundry in order to save money/time/water/etc. Well DUH! of course I do that. Who wouldn't? A complete money-waster? Do you see what time I am posting right now? It seems that I shouldn't have DUH-ed that hint, as it finds me now running a half-load of laundry after someone got sick in the night. (p.s. note to self: don't DUH things, it will come back to bite you in the you-know-what.)

Day 1

Happy New Year to all!

What a way to start out the new year. Had another post planned for my first day of the new year, but went to work last night and found that my hours had been cut again. Soooooo, wow, I get a whole ten hours a week. The good news is that I get 6 days off in a row, so I can work on this new blog! My whole paycheck will go straight into the water and sewer bills, so I guess my first plan of attack will be on reducing our water consumption. There are six of us, so that's alot of showering and clothes to wash. Here is my attack plan:

• reduce shower times. If left up to the youngest, that would involve a wet washcloth run across the face (at the moment, she is soaking the grime off in the tub, whilst screaming she is done, after a whole 2 minutes) We do have a flow reducing shower head. What is the time limit on a shower? 10 minutes? 8 minutes? I do know a 25 minute shower is in the past. Now I need to find a easy to set timer for everyone to use.


• reducing the number of dishes washed. I am seriously thinking of using really cheap paper plates. (I got some on sale yesterday, 100 ct. for $1.57. ) Also limiting everyone to one glass a day. We do not have a working dishwasher. (Ok, ok, I am the working dish-washer.)
  
• reduce the amount of laundry washed. Has anyone used a fabric refresher, like Febreeze, on jeans? If the kids wear the jeans to school, they really aren't getting them dirt dirty, so could I Febreeze them? (the clothes, not the kids. Wait, would it work on kids also?)


• reducing the amount of bath towels washed. I mean really, if you use a clean towel on your clean, showered body, isn't the towel still clean? Maybe I will embroider everyone's initials on a personal towel and let them use it for what? 5 days? A whole week? before washing it again?


• use the rain barrel and get another one. Can't really use the rain barrel much in the winter, but I do use it all summer. I rarely use house water on my garden. I wonder if the chickens and rabbits will drink the rain water. I mean, I know they will drink it, but will they still be healthy? Rain off the roof shingles hmmm. . .

Am keeping an open mind to any other new ideas on saving water. Got a few more on the back burner, but the burner isn't on cuz I'm saving electricity also.

Electricity Usage

Well, I guess it's official. Our only choice in power companies will be raising the rates 16% on January 1. We can't afford the bill now, so I don't know what we will do. We already use the energy saving light bulbs, so the fixtures that have 2 or 3 bulbs in them will be reduced to a single bulb. I put 2 LED night lights in the bathroom, they only use .3 watts of electricity each, so I am trying to talk everyone into not turning on the light in the bathroom so much. I also bought everyone an LED flashlight for $1 each and put them in their Christmas stockings. I am really surprised at how bright those things are. I am working very hard at line drying as many clothes as possible. This is a major feat, not only because there are 6 of us, but because it is winter and EXTREMELY bitter cold outside, leaving me to hang the laundry all over the house. My next step is to unplug anything we aren't using right NOW. No VCR or DVD player, outdoor lights, no cell phone chargers left plugged in. I don't think these things will greatly reduce our bill because I already go around unplugging and turning off things constantly. So what else can we do?