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Weight Control page is Up...

3/29/2020

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Bear here...
GOAL SET... GOAL MET... finally...

I have been wanting to do a weight control page on OTH for over 5 years, (It started as Reducing your maximum density) and it is finally done!  

I needed and wanted to do it. I came up with a plan in Dec of 2019 to get the page done by the end of January of 2020. I took action, had some setbacks but kept at it and it's done before the end of March!
It's time to inspire some people. Anyone needing help losing weight can go to the In Shape Shelf chefing page and see what they think. And hopefully give me some feedback on making it better.

​Type at ya later...



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Weekends Full of Canning & Bone Broth

2/14/2020

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From Theresa:
 
We recently got out the “new” pressure canner that had been sitting unused in our closet for several years, because I hadn’t had the time or energy to learn how to use it. Not that I was feeling guilty or anything about spending all that money on something that was gathering dust, but I am relieved to have finally put it to good use.  We have recently learned to make bone broth, which has opened up a whole new world of flavors for us. We were freezing the broth, though, which meant we had to take it out two days in advance to let it thaw enough to use it in recipes. If we pressure canned the broth instead, it would safely stay on the panty shelf and be ready at a moment’s notice whenever the urge to try a new recipe hit us. So we canned some turkey bone broth with the carcasses we had left over from Thanksgiving.

I had also bought the pressure canner so that we could can beans, so we decided that if we had the canner going, we might as well add beans to the weekend project. We buy our beans in 25 lb. bags at a discount from our local Co-op. In the past, this amount has lasted us for years, but now that we are canning them, I bet we will start to use them more. Just like the frozen bone broth, dried beans need a lot of prep time. They need to be soaked in water overnight, and sometimes cooked separately for hours before you can add them to your dish. Now, with canned beans, we just pull them off the shelf and they’re read to heat and eat.
Our Turkey Bone Broth:
Add turkey carcasses, onions, garlic, bay leaves, vinegar, and salt and pepper, to a large pot and cover with water:
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Simmer for two days:
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Strain and pressure can:
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Was it Worth the Time it Took?

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We spent three days canning, and although it was lots of time watching pots boil and probably only four hours of actual work, I was worn out at the end and wondered if it was worth our time, since we could have just bought the food already canned from the store. So I did some math:
 
Organic navy beans in the store cost $2.59 per 15 oz. can, which is $.17 per oz. We canned 192 ounces (12 pints x 16 oz each), so in the store it would have cost us
=$32.64
 
Organic chickpeas in the store cost $2.89 per 15 oz can = $.19/oz x 176 (11 pints x 16 oz each)
=$33.44
 
Organic bone broth in the store costs $6.59/quart. We canned 8 quarts, so that’s
=$52.72
 
So to buy everything we canned from the store would have cost us
=$118.80.


I figure we used approximately $12 worth of dry beans and there’s a very small cost for canning supplies, so we still come out over $100 ahead. That made me feel like it was worth it, since I would rather spend my time making the things we need, then spend my time working to make money to buy the things we need. Plus, the bone broth we make is better than anything you can buy in the store.

Our Expensive Pressure Canner

Water bath canners are inexpensive. They are basically a very large pot with a lid and a rack to hold jars. You can often buy them from garage sales. But they can only be used to can high-acid foods, which means mostly tomatoes and other fruits. A pressure canner cans everything else: meats, beans, soups, vegetables. But they are much more complicated machines with lots of safety features, so they are quite a bit more expensive.  After researching my options, I decided I really wanted an All-American cast aluminum pressure canner, which of course was one of the most expensive I found. We bought the 21.5 quart, which is big enough to let us do two layers of pint jars at time.
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Our All-American 21.5 quart Pressure Canner

I wanted this higher-priced pressure canner because it seemed the most self-reliant:
  • It didn’t have a rubber gasket around the rim that would need to be replaced periodically.
  • Although it had a gauge dial for reference, it relied on the weighted gauge to measure the pressure. I didn't want one that only had a dial gauge, because it should be taken annually to your county extension agent for testing to see if it is still reading accurately.
The canner came with pretty good instructions and a helpful DVD that showed us the basics of how to use it. Once I took the time to pay attention, it wasn't at all hard to figure out how to make it work.
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Our canner is big enough to hold two layers of pint jars. This batch has navy beans and chickpeas.

Three Weeks Later:
We're almost out of navy beans & broth

It’s about three weeks later, and as I thought, we only have 2 quarts of broth (out of 8) left, and only 3 pints of navy beans (out of 12) remaining. Having ingredients at our finger tips has made experimenting with recipes much easier, so our supplies are running out fast. We’ve been trying to challenge ourselves to cook from the pantry more, rather than buy food from the grocery store, because we need to save money, so learning to use the pressure canner has been very serendipitous timing (Bear here- good scrabble word, hon...).
 
This weekend we are canning beef bone broth. I like its flavor better than poultry broth, and the farmers we buy our bulk organic beef from recently decided to clean out their freezers and gifted us with almost 90 lbs. of bones! We will be making bone broth on weekends for the foreseeable future, since we don't have enough freezer space to store the bones long term. Actually, if we use 14 lbs. of bones per batch, that would be 5 more batches, so it would be good to figure out a way to get two batches going at a time. However, I don’t think we have space in our refrigerator to safely unthaw that many bones at a time.
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Here's about half of the almost 90 lbs. of beef bones our friends gave us.

Why Make Bone Broth?

We have been making "plain" stock for years with leftover chicken bones and vegetables, but I confess that I didn’t notice any flavor difference between adding our stock vs. plain water to our soups. When bone broth became popular, I looked at some recipes and realized there were some things I had been doing wrong when making stock all these years:
  • I needed to simmer the broth much longer. I usually only simmered it for several hours, or however long was convenient that day. I should have been simmering it for at least two days, or ideally, three or four for beef broth.
  • I needed to add vinegar, which has the ability to leach minerals from the bones. You don’t add enough to change the flavor, but enough to extract the minerals that make the broth good for you.
  • I had never made beef broth. We had just made stock from leftover poultry bones, but I think beef broth has much more flavor. We just don’t have hardly any leftover beef bones, so we needed to buy them specifically to make the broth.
 
Bone broth is definitely more flavorful in recipes that plain water. There are a lot of claims about how healthy it is, but I don't worry a lot about whether those are true, because we would make bone broth just because it tastes so good. Even if you just drink it straight without adding anything to it, it is so tasty it seems like a really nourishing meal in itself. It seems like something your grandmother would give you to make sure you stay healthy.
If you want to do more than drink it straight, though, it can be used in endless ways. If you are making a recipe that calls for any water, you can substitute bone broth instead, and it will add flavor. So don’t just think about adding it to your soups. For example, it is great when used to boil oatmeal. Add some bacon and parmesan cheese and you’ll have an amazing savory breakfast. We got this idea from Healing Bone Broth Recipes by Sharon Brown. It's a book about the Paleo diet, which we're not really into, but it's full of ideas for how to use your broth.
As part of our pantry challenge, we have cooked groats (whole oat kernels) in bone broth to create a pilaf, then added veggies and a little meat. It has been amazing. We are basing our oat experiments on recipes from The Scottish Oats Bible, by Nichola Fletcher, which Bear brought back from Scotland. We are sure that as we go on to experiment with barley, rice, and other grains, that cooking them in bone broth will also add incredible flavor.
 Pork and Kale and Knockit Corn (aka groats) recipe from The Scottish Oats Bible:
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Groats (aka whole kernal oats) boiling in beef bone broth.
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The finished recipe with a side of brussel sprouts and bread.

Our Beef Bone Broth Recipe

Makes 6- 8 quarts.
 
Days before:
Unthaw bones in the refrigerator (it takes a couple days).
If you have a water filter, make sure you’ll have enough water from it to use in the broth.

Ingredients:
  • 7 lbs of mixed beef bones  (Such as knuckle or neck bones, oxtail, short ribs, soup bones. Include at least one that has some meat on it.)
  • 16 cups filtered water 
  • 3 onions, roots removed, roughly chopped into quarters (Leave the skins on to add color to the broth.)
  • Large head of garlic, roots removed, skin left on
  • 2 bay leaves      
  • 1 tbsp peppercorns, or more or less to taste
  • 1 tbsp seasalt, or more or less to taste
Roast the bones:
  • Preheat the oven to 350° F.
  • Put all the bones in roasting pans (there’s no need to add any oil) and roast until very brown, for about an hour.
 
Simmer stock:
  • Add the bones and all other ingredients to a large stock pot. Add additional water if needed to cover everything. Put on the lid and bring to a boil. Continue boiling for 10 minutes, then lower heat and simmer for at least 2 days, ideally 4.
 
After about 12 hours:
  • Around this time, if you used any meaty bones, you should notice that the meat is very tender and falling off the bones.
  • If you want, you can remove the meat and use it in other recipes, returning the bones to the broth.
  • We like to start our broth in the evening, then remove the meat when we get up in the morning. It makes great sandwiches, or add it to soup or a grain pilaf.
 
To finish the stock:
  • Pour everything through a large strainer.
  • The resulting broth can be used right away, frozen, or pressure canned.
  • Once the broth cools, it will have a solid layer of fat on top, which you can discard before using the broth.
Unthawing 14 lbs. of beef bones:
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The bones after roasting:
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Removing the meat from the bones
after 12 hours:
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Tips:
  • Local meat farmers who have stores at their farms or who sell at farmer’s markets are a good source for buying the types of bones you need.
  • Simmering the broth means that there should only be a few bubbles breaking the surface at a time. When stock boils, most of the surface of the water starts moving. This should only happen when you first start cooking the broth.
  • We prefer to simmer our stock until the bones actually start to fall apart when we stir them. This usually takes 4 days. The first recipe we tried said to simmer the broth for 2 days, but we read it wrong and did it for 4 days, and found out we like that better. If the bones are falling apart, you know that the healthy minerals have been removed and you’ll be drinking them in the broth.
  • However, cook the broth for as long as your schedule allows. If you have only two days off in a row, then do it for two days. We only work part time, so are able to simmer it for 4 days. You could also do this recipe in a crock pot (although you’d probably need to make a smaller batch) so that overnight cooking isn’t an issue. I bet our great-grandparents just always had a soup pot simmering on the back burner, and didn’t have to worry about work schedules.
  • We often simmer the broth on our woodstove during the day, then move it to our electric stove overnight, since our woodstove doesn’t stay lit all night. We find that if we put the burner on the .5 setting, just above “Low,” it is safe to cook it all night. You could also put it in the refrigerator overnight if needed, but that would entail removing it from the woodstove early enough that it would cool off, and then cooking it additional days to make up for the loss of overnight time. You could also experiment with leaving it outside overnight if it’s cold in your area, and if you have a place to keep animals out of it.
  • The broth smells amazing and the scent will permeate your house as it simmers, so be prepared to spend your weekend craving it.
  • Here's what the broth looks like after simmering for about a day and a half:
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May your pantry be full of good things to eat!

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Debt-Free in 2019!

2/2/2020

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From Theresa:

I have added the 2019 edition to our Buy Nothing Challenge (BNC) pages.

We continue to be ecstatic to be able to report that thanks in part to the BNC, we paid off our mortgage and became debt free at the end of 2018!

Then in 2019 Bear and I both switched to working part-time, and we’re trying to see if we can make it on two part-time salaries, because instead of wanting more stuff, we wanted more time.

Click to learn more about the key things we did to get to this point in our lives:

  1. Read the amazing book, Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez.
  2. Created Our Buy Nothing Challenge.
  3. Aimed for this goal: become debt free and have 3-6 month’s income in the bank.
  4. Reduced the amount of advertising we see.
  5. Got lucky with health insurance.

Neither Bear nor I come from wealthy families, nor do we make a lot of money, so we believe that you can do this too! We hope everyone finds more financial freedom so they can spend more time doing the things they love.
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Shelf Chef Weight Control

12/30/2019

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Bear here...   
​
I'm betting you are wondering what weight control has to do with homesteading. I'm thinking that if you are in better shape and comfortable in your body it will be easier for you to go outside and do things homesteaders do. I also think that after a hard day's work you want to be able to move around the next few days with little to no pain. Am I right? Hope so...

So... I am going to get a page on OTH and blog about my successes AND failures with weight control. (Nobody wins all the time.) It will help me stay focused and hopefully it will have the tools to inspire you to take control of weight issues you may have. The page will be a one stop spot with lots of info and stories. It will be updated many times this year. I am hoping to have it "done" within a year. The blogs will be my progress and small chunks of the big picture. It will be a mixture of many types of books I have read and programs I have been through. No weight control program or diet works for everyone. Those who say one plan fits all are full of crap, just sayen. I'm going to give you a wide variety of tools and you can choose and experiment and see what works best for you. I'm hoping it will help and inspire at least one person.
Why am I calling it weight CONTROL instead of weight loss?  In short, here is my story...

In 2000, when I moved to Wisconsin I weighed around 416 lbs (I am 6' 4" tall). In 2012 I was at my lowest weight of 298 lbs. My weight has gone up and down. I now weigh around 340. By my "Bear math" in the last 20 years I have lost around 950 then gained back around 900 of them there pounds.  

My main short term goal is to get down close to 280 lbs. by the end of April or May. (Partially, so I can button my cooking vest, below.) My long term goal is, once I get there I will NEVER be above 290 lbs again. If I can do that I am in CONTROL of my weight and most of my health. If I can inspire people to do the same and feel better about themselves, even better...
ME IN 2015
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ME IN 2018
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(By the way, I curse in real life to highlight and to get my point across sometimes, not to offend. I am a blunt guy and there will be a little cursing in the weight control page and blogs. We don't swear on our other OTH pages, at least I'm not remembering any at the moment. I hope this alerts you without causing offense.)

Let's get started with the first three basics...
  1.  ATTITUDE:  YOU NEED TO LIKE YOURSELF!  No one feels the need to help someone if they feel that person is an a--hole. PAY ATTENTION & ENJOY THE PROCESS! It is easier to do a thing you want to do instead of have to do. FIND WHAT WORKS! There are a lot of resources out there. Give what seems right an honest chance. Keep doing what works and discard what doesn't. Don't be afraid of change.
  2. INPUT:  This means calories and commercials. Commercials make you want what you don't  need or something that may be bad for you, that's their job. Calories are countable energy markers that we take in and burn off. If you eat too many calories your weight goes up. If you reduce the calorie intake your weight will slowly go down. If you starve yourself your body will go into emergency mode, meaning it eats itself to survive. Over time that can f-ck you up. Just sayen...
  3. OUTPUT: Energy (calories) you burn getting through life. You don't burn enough, you become a fat person. You burn too many, you become a stick person. Most athletes who are very active, possibly too active, burn out their bodies. They are amazing in their prime but are in a lot of joint pain by middle age (late 30s) instead of old age (mid 70s). 
Tools to help:

The best tools you can use are HONESTY and a JOURNAL. If you lie to yourself you are screwing yourself over. End of that discussion. The mind can play tricks on your memory. A journal will keep an accurate history, as it happens, that you can go back to, of what works and what doesn't. If you experience and write it down you are paying more attention to what is going on in your health and life. Honest journaling can be as good as mental therapy. You are not alone- good journaling can be a partner in discovering issues about weight control. If you discover you need help, someone to talk to, journaling gives you a head start on the issues after you learn to trust your therapist. Win, win...

...And Homework. In the journal write about...​
  1. ATTITUDE: Start with current health issues and weight, then a reasonable weight goal three months from now. Here are some questions to get you to know yourself. If you come up with more or better questions for yourself write them down and answer them. Why do you want to lose or gain weight? What are your goals? How do you feel about yourself? How do you want to feel about yourself? How do you feel about what others think of you? What has worked before? How do you feel about food, and exercise? What motivates you to be better? Do you self-sabotage? Why? What does being happy/content feel like to you? YOU... DESERVE... TO ... BE ... HEALTHY... AND... HAVE ... A ... GOOD ... LIFE!    Just sayen...
  2. INPUT:  If you remember, log all you consumed last week. This week and next week, keep track of what you eat, how much by volume and/or calories. (A good calorie counter book helps with this, get one.) Keep track of what you drink and their calories. Keep track of how much water you drink. You don't need to change, just write it down. Learn and pay attention to what you consume. Pick one day a week to weigh yourself in the morning and journal it.
  3. OUTPUT: (On an example scale of 1-5: 1 = almost no movement, 2 = 20% of time moving not rushed, 3 = up to moving 50% of time and sometimes rushed, 4 = some high speed movement or lot of time rushed 40% to 60% of time, 5 = very active most of time and rushed or high speed.) How active are you?  How active is your job? How active are your hobbies?  How active do you want to be? What do you want to be able to do?
AND... Small steps for feeling and being better...
  1. ATTITUDE: As needed, or every day, look yourself in the eyes in the mirror and say "I like you. We deserve to be healthy, happy, and have a good life." If you come up with something better for yourself that's positive, even better...
  2. INPUT: Are you keeping track of what you eat? Good... If you are dropping a pound or two between weigh-ins, GOOD F-CKING JOB! WELL DONE!!  If not at least 1 pound every other week that's OK. You are keeping track of it. Good job. Here are a few helpful hints: Be a little hungry and your stomach will shrink, reduce portions, and leave some food on the plate. (EXAMPLES: Be aware if you start feeling full and stop eating. IT IS OK TO LEAVE A LITTLE FOOD UNEATEN ON YOUR PLATE. Someone tells you you have to eat it all, tell them politely to piss off. You are trying to lose weight. Use smaller plates, bowls, and glasses, which makes less food look like more food. I used to eat a large pizza with a 2-liter of soda. A medium pizza with a liter of soda is less calories and when your stomach shrinks and that feels like a lot you can cut back further. Watch your liquids, most bottles hold more than one serving, read the labels, lots of calories can go down quick if you aren't paying attention. Water is your friend. A doctor told me we should drink 1/2 our body weight in ounces of water a day (if I weigh 300 lbs I should drink 150 oz of water) to stay hydrated, more in the summer. A simple test is: If your piss is darker than light yellow you are not hydrated, you need more water, not diet soda or milk.)
  3. OUTPUT: If you can, be more active. Create more movement in your life. Working out is advanced movement. (An example of each: Theresa and I walk a 1/4 mile, take breaks, if needed, and enjoy our time together- that's more movement. We go 1/4 mile at a decent pace with no stops, still have a good time- that's a workout. BOTH WAYS WILL HELP YOU BUILD STAMINA AND LOSE WEIGHT. Take 5 minutes when you wake up to stretch and walk in place, even in the shower if you need to. Create ways to walk more. (Theresa has the van she carpools in drop her off further away from her office building so she can walk.) Park further away from the store when you go to shop. Lay on the floor, get to standing position and back down quick as you can 5 times. When that is easy go up to 10 times. Dance or do martial arts forms for 10 or more minutes. Sweep all your floors with a broom. Find a hobby that requires you to move more. Get creative with activity and journal about it. You and I know you can do it.

That's enough for now. It's a good start. Send me questions or comments if you want to. Do what you can until next time, I will too.
​
Type at ya later...
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Cook of Anarchy Pantry Challenge

11/22/2019

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Bear here...

We think it is fun to challenge ourselves to find new, and sometimes weird (Theresa prefers to call it unconventional), things and ways to cook. I call it the Cook of Anarchy school of cooking. If it saves us money, even better! (See our Buy Nothing Challenge pages.)

This cooking challenge is to choose one pantry item and make many different dishes from it until we are tired of using that item. Hopefully, each item will hold our interest for two or more weeks. 

First Challenge...   OATS
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 What we have learned so far...
  • Oat bran is the fine skin covering the oat groats. It is highly nutritious and helps reduce cholesterol. 
  • There are six types of oats, but each type has many names, so it can get confusing:
  1. Whole Groats: The least processed of all the oats. The indigestible outer hull has been taken off and that's it. Ready to go. Takes the longest to cook but has the most nutritional value.
  2. Steel Cut Oats (also known as Groats, Irish Oats, and Pinhead Oats): These are whole groats cut into three or four chunks to cook faster.
  3. Scottish Oatmeal (or just Oatmeal): Whole groats that have been ground to a medium oatmeal. Its largest grains are around 1-2 millimeters. It still has the bran in it. Fine oatmeal is much smaller. It is ground so fine it resembles oat flour but it still has the bran in it. Bran has been sifted out of oat flour.
  4. Old Fashioned Oats (in UK they are called Jumbo Oats): The whole groats are steamed and flattened into large flakes.
  5. Rolled Oats (known as Quick, Flaked, or Porridge Oats): Steel cut oats that are cut, steamed, and rolled flat. They are smaller than the Old Fashioned/Jumbo Oats and still have the bran.   
  6. Instant Oats: (I know it's judgmental but I call them crap.) Highly processed oats that have the bran and most of the nutrition stripped out of them so they can cook faster.


Theresa is interested in making main dishes that will have leftovers for us to eat throughout the week. I'm looking to push boundaries and see what we find. In the Oats Bible there are breakfasts, snacks, dinners, desserts, and even drinks.

So far Theresa made the peanut butter oat bars she liked when she was at Girl Scout camp. (Only crumbs left, didn't think ya wanted to have a picture of that.) We tried, and liked, the savory oatmeal pictured below.
​
Here is how we made it:

Fry some bacon in a skillet. Use strong beef or chicken broth to cook the groats or oatmeal with 1/2 a chopped onion. The bacon will be done before the oatmeal, set it aside, then crumble it while waiting. When the oatmeal is done, add the bacon and as much chopped raw onion as you want. It's also good to grate some Parmesan cheese over it. We served it with a side of broiled (yes, I said broiled) cabbage (because Theresa insisted on adding a vegetable).
​
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Hoping to have lots of ideas to share with ya.

​Type at ya later...
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Wild life (Helping the Hummingbirds)

10/30/2019

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Bear here...
​
Ever go out in the rain, in October, and replace the sugar water in the hummingbird feeder because the wife thought it needed changing?  I have... This year we had Some hummingbirds that were a frequent addition to our feeder area and we hope to have some back next year...
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Heh, with great bird feeders comes great responsibility...

Just to let you know we are going to try to blog more and get some new pages up for our website. for those who still follow us and for the new likes (on face book)  thank you.

Type at ya later...
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Revamping the Buy Nothing Challenge

10/30/2019

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Bear here...

We realized we are behind in adding pages to our Buy Nothing Challenge (BNC) section, so we wanted to belatedly announce that thanks in large part to the BNC, our house was paid off in November of 2018! Yep, it's all ours, more than 5 years earlier than we were scheduled to pay off the mortgage.

What are we doing with the extra money now that we don't need to make that huge monthly payment? For us, the most basic choice is- do we want more money (which means more stuff) or more of a life? Theresa and I choose more life. So this year, we have been seeing if we can survive working part-time.

It's been tight, so we are are revamping the Buy Nothing Challenge for 2020. (Here is the link to our BNC we started in 2014 if you would like some background.) We hope to be adding more details in the near future, but here is a preview of the things we have been talking about doing:

  • My allowance for food at work is up to $10 a week. It used to be $5 because I brought my own lunch, but I have a new job where I can eat a good meal really cheap. Sadly, I can no longer get morning coffee cheap. I have been buying the Starbucks bottled frapachinos, two for five bucks and have been spending over $20 a week on those alone (which does not fit in our budget).
  • Beer fund: I get one six-pack a week. If I want more I have to save up from the work food allowance. (Oh yeah, what I drink is about $10 a 6-pack.)
  • The big one is groceries. We spend at least $200 when we go to the grocery store and around $40 at our local gas station for junk / comfort food (Theresa protests that she seldom goes to the local gas station, whereas I go nearly every day, so she denies that it's her fault we spend so much money there. She totally admits to being part of the large grocery bills). We are thinking of a $100 limit and only going twice a month. 
  • That means an EAT FROM THE PANTRY Challenge. It's time to use what we have on hand, time to see what we can do with 25 lbs bags of grains and beans (Theresa points out she's been cooking with them for years- see her page on Cooking from the Pantry), and cook more staples from scratch. We might make a cooking page to share recipes from this challenge too.

Why do we continue to challenge ourselves?  We both want to stay working part time and we want to  to go to California to see the giant redwoods and swim in the ocean. Good reasons don't ya think?  Gotta plan what we think will help us accomplish this.

​Type at ya later...
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Guess Who is doing a Yarden Tour...

7/28/2019

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Bear here... 

Ever want to visit us, in Wisconsin, and see the yarden? Now you can!!!

Yup... 

We are doing a tour on Sat., August 10th, from 11:00 am to 1 pm. (If you need directions contact us through our website contact form.)  We're planning to have a potluck afterwards. (We will have hot dogs and hamburgers. The grill will be open to anyone who wants to grill with Bear. Do you want to grill some plants? We can do that! ) Bring chairs and a dish if you want to hang out by the bonfire and eat after the tour....

For the outside... We will be discussing permaculture, gardening for wildlife, catios, etc...

Inside... cooking methods, being debt free (and our buy nothing challenge), wood stove cooking and more...

If it rains, we will probably cancel or postpone. 

Hope to see you!
Bear & Theresa...
​
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Summer Solstice Blessings

6/21/2019

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Solstice Sunrise over our central standing stone.
 Theresa here...

Solstice Blessings to everyone! Today (June 21st) is the longest day of the year, when we celebrate the life-giving heat of the Sun.

Today Bear & I try to be outside the whole day, staying in touch with the Sun and watching how it travels slowly across the sky. 

Sometimes we go places where it's easier to see the sunrise and sunset, but this year we are staying at our tiny homestead, to see what it's like to connect with the Sun in our own yarden. We watched the sunrise and marked where it happens in our stone circle.

I am trying to spend the day relaxing (which means not working in the garden). I am wondering about the yard, trying to stay in the moment. There is so much life, even in our less than 1/8 of an acre yard. I celebrate all the plant and animals that we've welcomed into our yarden (If you look closely, you might see some bugs on some of the flowers...):
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Evening primrose, which has some edible parts, although we don't remember which.
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Native rose, also edible.
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The first tomato!!
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A fancy lily from the previous home owners- we don't know if it's edible like the native daylily.
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Edible Turkish rocket flowers
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Edible "weeds" lamb's quarters and chickweed. Yum.
Bear celebrated in a more traditional guy way- sleeping with the cats in our catio:
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Soon we will go inside for a while to make our amazing World's Best Honey Vanilla Ice Cream:
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If you feel like a few laughs, you can watch the video of Bear making ice cream
we did a couple years ago.
Here's our Solstice flame (a little bit of the Sun), our abundance charm (with a citrine geode on the left), and our hope for how we can live the rest of our Summer (and our lives):

Do what you love,
and do it as often as you can.

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For more ideas about how to spend the day, see our Celebrate Summer Solstice page.

Happy Solstice to All!

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Why Have a Big Bird Feeder Area?

6/15/2019

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Bear here...

We like to garden for wildlife and one of our favorite forms of wildlife is birds- all kinds of birds. It is cool to sit at the window and see all the different types that come to our yard: ground feeder birds, small feeder birds, pretty much any birds, we like all of them. We have noticed there is a lot more bird song in our yard than most places in our town, even more than in the nearby state natural area.

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We started small with a couple of hanging bird feeders and a ground feeder. The ground feeder was small and needed cleaning after it rained, so was no fun to take care of. We replaced it with stumps, which are pretty self cleaning in a hard rain and created a lot of room for more birds.

Theresa also put small tree limbs out the top of the post so there were more safe landing areas. As you can see, some birds had to wait in line to get to the food.

We feed the birds fine sunflower seeds with the shells removed. It's expensive, but there's less waste and less mess. The birds don't throw out the less attractive seeds to get to the ones they like.

To attract woodpeckers we added suet. Theresa heard that Baltimore orioles like grape jelly, so we added bowl for that. And yes, Theresa buys jelly without high fructose corn syrup for the birds.

You also need water for the birds. Theresa went out every other day to fill a small birdbath so the birds could drink and sometimes take baths. That changed in 2012...
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​
... The Major upgrade! We built a pond! No more pitchers of water to carry outside.

We also added a fence for more privacy and bird perches. The fence and tall sunchokes we planted nearby also help block the wind. Doesn't mean much in the Summer but in Winter it really helps...
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Yep, in the winter. We feed the birds all year round. In Winter, on really cold or snowy days we use twice as much food, the birds need it. We also have a heater for the pond. It keeps an area open so the birds can drink. 

We use the Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide to identify the different types of birds. 

Here are photos of some of the 30+ types of birds that have visited the bird feeders in our yarden...
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A robin, goldfinches, and scarlet tanagers seem to get along well.
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Mr. and Mrs. Scarlet Tanager. The male is on the jelly. Scarlet tanagers and Baltimore orioles really like the grape jelly.
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And here are the baltimore orioles. We thought the were just spring and early summer birds, but found out they will keep coming to the feeders if we keep putting out jelly.
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Here we have a rare fur feathered waddler... Nah, that's Phil the woodchuck, he likes seeds too.
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We have the rat tailed short feathered tree huger. Nah.. that's Wobbles the opossum. He eats thousands of ticks in the Summer so we like having him around.
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Can't blame Wobbles. The OTH bird feeder is where the cool birds hang out in the winter, or at least a lot of cold gold finches.
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Grossbeaks (left) are my favorite. The other bird is a red winged black bird.  They usually don't hang out at bird feeders. These two seem to get along.
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Indigo buntings are rare and cool. They look like bluebirds, but their blue color is brighter, and the bluebirds have orange breasts.
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It's a little stressful for the bird community when a hawk moves in. I thought he was a lousy hunter so I called him Mr. MaGoo. Then I realized he was still alive after stopping in our yard for over a month, so he had to be good enough to survive. He is now known as McGee.
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We leave a large brush pile in (aka the birdie condo) in the back yard to provide shelter for birds close to the food.
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W even get mourning doves. Here are two babies waiting on the path for their parents.
On some days the birds like to take baths in the pond.
 You get the Idea. Lots of life and diversity in a small yarden area. To see more about what Theresa has done to create wildlife habit in our tiny yard, see her Gardening for Wildlife page.

​Type at ya later...
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