Hi Amanda, sorry to be so long getting back with you. I think it is wonderful that you and James are getting back to the basics. Both my parents lived to be 84 and I've always thought it was because of their life styles. My mother died in June of 2007, and always had a garden and froze and canned almost all their food. They had an apple tree too that she used to make dried apples for her wonderful apple stack cakes and fried apple pies and of course they had their bees for honey. They would also buy peaches by the bushel and canned and freeze them. My mom quit milking a cow and raising chickens after my dad retired because they liked to go camping for days at a time and a cow has to be milked twice a day and the chickens had to be fed and watered everyday. There are so many ways to be self sufficient, especially when you have the land space for it. I find it so interesting to hear about your soap making. I've seen websites and also at craft fairs where people were selling hand made soaps they had made using goats milk. What scent of oil did you use to make your soap? I can remember my mother making lye soap to do laundry with. She saved the ashes from the woodburning stove and poured water through them to get the lye, which she then cooked with the lard from rendering hogs fat. This fat was from the hogs they had raised and believe it or not the smell wasn't all that bad either, quite pleasant in fact. The soap was cooked outside in a big cast iron wash kettle. I used to love to stick pieces of wood under the kettle to keep the fire burning while the soap cooked. I was very young but this is one of the things I can remember from my childhood as if it were yesterday. I've also hung my share of clothes on the outside clothes line too and in the winter when it was very cold they would be frozen by the time you got them pinned to the line and so would your fingers, or at least they felt like it. Quote:
James and I trying to get back to the more basics of life again. Chickens, quail, my worm compost that took quite awhile before the worms came to live and do their stuff. I reckon a milking goat would be nice to have next as I have been drinking powdered goats milk in my coffee instead of creamer or cows milk. James and I made our first batch of soap and after waiting 3 weeks for it to cure I used a bar today in my shower and it soaped up nicely. I took a bar over to my neighbour to ask her to test and let me know what she thought of it too. I made a 2nd batch over the weekend changing some of the oil quantities and putting in powdered goats milk instead of butter milk. I am enjoying the experimentation's to see what will feel better. Amanda Quote:
You know Amanda, when we see living conditions like these people have to endure should make all of us more thankful for what we have. These are nothing more than hovels these people are living in and until this gentleman came up with an affordable solution, for the most part they lived in the dark almost 24/7. Quote:
Hi Helen, Evelyn and all This video you shared Helen looked very intriguing and I hope that it works for these people for a long time - imagine being in the dark all day on a beautiful sunny day outside, because we all like sunlight coming into our homes which perks us up and also kills off bugs etc that like to lurk in the dark corners. UGH! I had to do a search for the serene because I did not know what it was or heard of this word and found it was like a bleach / chlorine they put into the water, I guess so it does not go cloudy and loose the effectiveness of the light. Amanda Quote:
Hello there!
This a simple but amazing idea....
This could have applications even in the western world. Can you think of some?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0_4qFrxw_4
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