It's not white trash, it's ingenuity.

Although Low Impact week ended yesterday, I wanted to say something about reusing broken items.

We are huge on reusing items here on the homestead. Just a short tour will tell you that. We have a refrigerator that broke down, that is now being used to hold bags of feed to keep the rats out of. We have tire spacers that are used as flower borders. Old cattle fencing trellises tomatoes and grapes. Used pallets are up as wind breaks for future bees, and fragile plant life. A motorcycle packing create is being used for a well house. An old dog run is now a chicken run. A very large, heavy duty wooden crate is now an outside toy box. A wooden dog house and some strange large black and orange plastic slabs, wooden planks and tires are a playground for our goats, {donkey doesn't play well on it}. Motorcycle tie downs are used to keep gates closed. Old tires are used to mark young trees.

There is a plethora of reused items here, and some waiting to be put back into use. In the beginning, your place will look a little white trash, but after good application and time, this will fall into place and look nicer, reducing landfill waste in the process.

P~ has already shown me his white trash ways, what is yours?

Also Crunchy Chicken is holding a contest about low impact week, you might want to check it out.

Est in aqua dulci non invidiosa voluptas.

There is no small pleasure in sweet water. ~Ovid

If you didn't already guess, today's topic for Low Impact Week is water usage and waste. Today is the last day for this challenge, but I have one more topic for tomorrow, and then we can go back to laughing at my mistakes.

I attempted to find some environmental info on open air lagoons, as we have one, but the majority of information I found was on hog waste lagoons and spray fields. Don't think that applies to me, but I have been wrong in the past. We will skip the sins of the lagoon for now. It was in when we bought the place and a septic tank isn't feasible because of the soil/clay content. A public waste system is not in place because of the distance and the two rivers on either side of us.

We use well water here. Our water level is 9 ft to wet sand, 12 ft to standing water. Add that with the fact that I am sitting in a valley that is in a valley and you get flooding. Luckily the house is high enough that is doesn't get wet. The flood water seeps down through the sand and there we have more drinking water. The water cycle is rather fascinating {this coming from a girl that plays D&D, yes, dork and proud} During the spring, we tend to go through a monsoon season. We rarely have to water our garden and orchard at this time. Water conservation is not a problem.

Our ground water is good and clean for everyday use without filters. Our filters are primarily for catching sand.

We use soaker hoses in the garden, and when watering the orchard I cut off the water flow between trees. Our yard and fields are a mixture of the surrounding fields crops, clover and dandelions, and I don't have a need to keep them alive. With the Kansas weather cycle, they live out their days natural, live and thrive in the spring, dry up and die in high summer. Most of the surrounding towns have water restriction during the summer. We do not have these restriction, but we have never found it a bad idea to only water the necessities. The grass and weeds will make a comeback next year.

We do not place buckets in our showers to catch the warm up water. We do not leave things running if not in use {like brushing your teeth and such} . A habit I picked up from my 7th grade Social Studies teacher is placing a brick in the tanks of high flow toilets. I have never done research on this. She was a big environmentalist, though not farmer friendly, and some of her habits and lectures rubbed off.

We use a lot of water here. Most of the things that will keep us alive, need water to stay alive. We do not have recreation water, like a pool, yet the boys enjoy playing in the sprinkler on the hottest of days. A dual purpose, when the sprinkler is moved around to keep the wind breaks and shade trees from getting thirsty as my children stay cool.

I did recently purchase a new front load washer. A fancy little thing that gauges the weight of the clothing and adjust the water to clean, and not overly waste. And at the same time bought a new dish washer. I never had one before, but I thought I already know how to do these by hand, so if I have to survive that way, I have proved I can. excuses excuses, ha!

I have severe migraines, had them since birth. When one of the killer ones hit in the middle of the night, I tend to take very long hot showers to try and sooth myself. This is the biggest water waste that occurs here. And at the time of the migraine, do not try to reason with me, I could kill.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

Nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~ Dr. Seuss, from The Lorax

Today's Low Impact Week subject is. . . gasoline usage.

Here is were I admit my sins, and fall flat on my face.

It is difficult to live were I live and run the homestead without the use of gasoline, at least at this time. The Homestead is not yet self supportive, hence my husband working in the city. He rides in on the motorcycle when feasible, or takes our small car. I however own and drive a very large pick-up. I have attempted to transport animals in the back of cars, as well as feed. I don't advise it.

Saturday's are go-into-town days for us. The day starts by loading up several ice chests and heading into the city where the closest farmers market is. I buy my weeks worth of groceries and head to the feed store in another small town. I also pick up items needed for the homestead. Next it is back to the small town I live close to, where I hit up the grocery store for the items not acquired at the farmers market. Now depending on if there are other things needed, typically there isn't, I come full circle home. And hope that I have bought everything needed. Some time's I do blow it and have to head into town during the week, like today. I try to make a comprehensive list, even on these, I forgot to get this/ran out of that because a boy dumped it days.

With the lack of more grazing animals, it is necessary to use a small tractor, without a work horse, or, um, a donkey {not the sheep} we work the land with a gas powered tiller. We have a small ATV and a couple of go-carts. My husband and I also go on long distance motorcycle rides.

We also heat our water, our home and stove with propane.

Our goals are as follows;

Donkey to work land with
work horse to pull cart
cattle and sheep to replace tractor
fire place/solar power

Of course these are long term goals, though the animals will be coming sooner then the house changes.

Unfortunately, I do not live close enough to bike like some of you are doing, this would be a 2 day trek just to do some grocery shopping, and I am still trying to figure out how on earth I would get a weeks worth of groceries home if I did that.

There you have it, the sins of our homestead. Without gasoline and propane we wouldn't be able to attempt a self-sufficient life. Unless someone out there has a few extra dollars they want to send our way to complete our homesteading desires, it will continue to be this way for the foreseeable future.

If civilization has risen from the Stone Age,

it can rise again from the Wastepaper Age. ~Jacques Barzun, The House of Intellect, 1959

Paper products are a problem here on the homestead. No matter how many things we opt out of, other things will replace them in the junk mail department. My son's school papers come home in droves. Food is package in a paper product, clothing has tags, and I like to write freehand {BAD Phelan!}

Paper plates and napkins rarely come into my home, and when they do it is usually because a guest brought them. And to be honest, it isn't an environmental reason I don't buy them, it's an economic one. Though there are times I wish I could just throw out my plates rather than washing them. I have yet to justify the cost.

I am addicted to toilet paper, and that's about all I will say on that subject. No,no, your bathroom, your policies.

What do we do with all that paper that finds it's way into our home. If the back side is blank, we save them for the boys to draw on, if not, to the shredder! We shred paper and mix it into the chicken nesting. And then into the compost pile {someday I might have a bin} We do not have curb side pick-up for recycling. I rather find new uses for things than hauling it all into town after it has sat, collecting various bugs and rodents. I have moved cardboard boxes that have sat for a week before, I'm telling ya, wear gloves.

We still get our bills via the paper trail. I have tried using the computer to receive them, and more times than not, I never see the bill. Plus we like physical paper trails around here.

Books are a hardcore addiction of mine. Those of you that read about the farm auction found that one out. I am still unsure of how many books I ended up with for that $1. I can not stand the thought of throwing away perfectly good books. When I am done with one, or had save it from being burned yet don't want to read I leave it for the next person, via a program called BookCrossing.com

That would be today's Low Impact week subject. What do you do with your paper waste?

We think fast food is equivalent to pornography,

nutritionally speaking. ~Steve Elbert

It's quick, it's easy, it's always there, but never as satisfying as it could be, if done naturally.

Friday I told you how we reduce our energy consumption, today food waste. In case you forgot, it is still low impact week. Also Crunchy Chicken is holding a contest and the winner receives a low impact goody basket.

There is an interesting study about man and agriculture. Some claim that it is the problem with us today, that it was the worst mistake we ever made. Without agriculture and domestication, we wouldn't have stayed in one place building homes, villages, cities. Our population wouldn't have exploded, and we wouldn't have the environmental problems of today. But the grass is always greener, things would be different if we were still hunter gathers, we would just have a whole set of other problems. Here is where I should place this, I am writing to more people and some of you do not know my history. I was a vegan for many, many years. When I became pregnant breakfast sausage became my favorite friend.

It isn't the meat itself I found that I had a problem with, it is the factory farms, the wastefulness and the way they keep and butcher animals. Waste and flavor are my biggest problems, while disease and quality are my biggest concerns. And now with NAIS looming over us, and the FDA approving cloned meat, I want to run further from my local grocery store. And in a way, I am doing just that. We raise our own organic chickens, for both eggs and meat, we also grow our own fruits and vegetables. This is the biggest way that our homestead reduces our food waste.

I know that not every one can do this. It's a matter of time and space, and by no means am I saying that this is the right and only way to do it. I can not completely rely on our own food stuff to survive. I also shop at my locally owned grocer and the farmers market, as well as a local dealer of cow juice. For the store and the dealer I shop for two weeks. this forces me to plan out a menu before hand, while I shop at the farmers market once a week, until seasons end.

Meals that are planned out carefully will still lead to leftovers and waste, especially when you have children. If leftovers are not advisable for various reasons, our chickens will get them everything but chicken meat which our dogs get to eat. Chickens are not vegans, they will eat rotten meat and fresh insects. {grasshopper feed chicken eggs are incredible tasting}. We opted to do this rather than send it to the compost pile.

Eating out happens once in a great while. My husband and I will take my mother to her favorite restaurant as a thank you for watching our active boys for an entire weekend. Or when we lose power, and I have had a long day in the mud, saving animals and farm. Or as a special treat. The places we tend to patronize are small, locally owned restaurants. Our favorite is ran buy the owners of a local U-Pick-it peach farm.

I know that the above says little about our food waste. We tend to not eat out, we buy our meat from local vendors, or butcher our own. Reducing, here, means a carefully planed 2 weeks worth of food items more than anything else.

Tonight? well some pulled pork. These make great sandwiches for lunch the next few days. What's for dinner at your place?

Reduction is addictive too

I can see what the cost will be
You know I don't need you
I just can't put you down
I can see what it all means to me
Honey I don't need you
I just can't put you down ~Alice in Chains

So maybe that song isn't about energy consumption, but I still found it fitting. WELCOME TO LOW IMPACT WEEK!

As I have stated I will not be participating in this, otherwise I would need to do completely without. But I did tell Crunchy Chicken that I would support her and the others by discussing energy usage and waste on the homestead. No, I am not going green, I am still as salty and selfish as ever. Yet consumption and waste are important factors when caring for your own little plot of the world. Personally I think you shouldn't think much larger than that little plot, at least not until you have it under control, then you can move onto your neighbors, as their feelings about their little plot will end up affecting yours.

Today's Low Impact Week topic shall be energy consumption.

Turn off everything that is non-essential, and go outside.

There you go, that is how we at the homestead reduce our energy consumption. We spend more time outside than in. No TVs on, no lights on, no computer left running. Only things running are the fridge and freezer, our water pump that cycles on and off, and the clock on my stove.

Once darkness has come, we tend to congregate in one room of the house, where we watch TV, read, or play games together. Lights get turned off as we leave a room, and the children think it great to turn the lights off while one of the kids are still in the room. Oh the screams of terror from the victim and the laughter of the bully. It can keep everyone entertained for awhile.