Where to start when it comes to being self-sustainable

  I can't tell you exactly how to become self-sustaining, I can't even tell that our home is completely self-sustaining.  I can tell you that we are in the beginning stages and I can share how we are doing it with tips we've learned from what we have done so far.
   Living on a farm does help, it isn't a requirement but it does help when it come to livestock and our water.  Since we live on a farm we have our own well, there for mother nature does the filtering for us, it doesn't have to go through a plant and be "cleaned".  I have seen ways on the internet to build your own water supply without using the city water, so I guess I would say: do a little research and you could probably come up with a way to have water without using the city supply.  Sometimes all it takes is a little creativity. 
    We also have the luxury of 5 acres to put whatever animals we see fit on.  That is something I wouldn't even have a clue what each city ordinance is, but it doesn't take much to ask around and do a little research.  Even if you can't have the animals in your own yard, having a friend that does have the animals is a plus.  We don't have our own chicken yet so we usually buy farm fresh eggs from a friend.  Supporting local farms is a good place to start.  As for larger animals for meat that is something that can easily be shared amongst friends as well.  My parents have helped friends who were raising 4H cows pay for the processing in exchange for meat.  
     Grow your own veggies, and plant a fruit tree or two.  Even with limit yard space there are many many ways to grow a garden.  The only wrong way is to not grow a garden ;) If you live in town you may want to check with your local city office to see if the have any specifics you have to follow dealing with where you plant your garden and so forth.  I have seen several things where people we fined or forced to move their gardens because they had planted them in their front yards.  Personally I think that is bogus!! Planting a garden is so awesome for many reasons and if it is my yard I should be able to do with it as I please.  At least they weren't leaving broken down cars and garbage pile up in their front yard.  If your city does have an ordinance, who knows you could be the one to help change it ;)
      I know not everyone can make or grow everything they could possibly need to be self-sustaining, but in my opinion every little thing you can do helps!  After doing some research on the internet and reading tons of articles I started to realize how easy it would be to make certain things for myself and that many of the things we buy in the store are truly luxury items.  Not to mention how harmful several of the things used to make these products can be extremely harmful to us and our environment.  Many of our health and beauty products fit into the line of luxury items.  . 
     Beauty products are definitely heavy on the luxury side of things.  Yes, I do where make-up.  That is one of the few things I do indulge in, and I haven't really found a way to make cosmetics to match the ones I buy.  As for lotions and and things of that nature, I have found ways to make a lot of them.  My list of homemade beauty supplies: lotion, chap stick, deodorant, face wash, shampoo, facial creams, body spray/perfume.  Most of the in-store varieties of the items contain harmful ingredients, just because it doesn't go in your body doesn't make it any less harmful.  After all the biggest organ of the human body is the skin, the layer that protects us so treat it well!  You can even make or buy feminine pads that are washable, and reusable.  I realize that it is the fact of having to wash things like feminine pads and cloth diapers is the main reason why people switched to disposable, to me it is no worse than cleaning up those potty training accidents or those yearly tummy flu messes.  As far as tampons are concerned..... I saw an article about a woman who found a moldy tampon in her box of tampons.  When she wrote to the company they told her it was no different than a mold found on vegetables and that she should not be concerned!  Really?!  If I won't eat moldy food I sure as Hell am not going to stick something that is moldy where the sun don't shine!
        There are many food items that can be made at home for a fraction of the price.  I have recently found recipes for different kinds of crackers, and I love baking bread.  Not everything made at home as a very long shelf life, but really I would rather make enough to use right away or freeze it verses ingest unnatural preservatives.  Condiments like ketchup and mayonnaise are also very easy to make at home and are better for you than what you can buy in the store.  A regular store bought bottle of ketchup has a staggering amount of sugar in it, it is actually amazing to me that there are any tomatoes in it at all.
       Laundry detergent is another on my list of things I can make myself for a lot less money.  I use a mixture of Borax, washing soda, and Fells Naptha bars.  I will do some looking and post the recipe I use.   As for fabric softener, I don't use liquid and if I use the dryer sheets I cut them in half and use a half a sheet per load.  Otherwise we are going to invest in buying some dryer balls or I am going to make some instead of using any fabric softener at all.   If I want my clothes to come out of the dryer scented I use herbal sachets from the lavender I grow in my flower bed.  These can be refreshed every so often with essential oils.  Of course when the weather is nice I use my clothes line.  If my basement was bigger I would have a clothes line in it as well for winter and rainy day use, but my basement is tiny so I have a drying rack for those few things I absolutely cannot put in the dryer.
     As for cleaning products....... I use a lot of vinegar.  Soaking orange peels in a jar of vinegar for a week or two, makes an awesome cleaning liquid.  You just strain off the liquid and put it in a spray bottle and use like you would any cleaning product.  I am careful not to use it on things I don't want stained because it could turn them a little orange.  For that stuff I just use diluted vinegar.  Baking soda is also in my cleaning kit, it works well on a lot of things, it is great for refreshing a stinking carpet just sprinkle it on let it sit for a few minutes and vacuum it away.  Some people even add herbs or essential oils to the baking soda to give their house a scent of their choice.
    So do some research and ask some questions, that is the best way to start ;)

When in doubt... Make it Yourself!

      Being a woman I tend to spend way to much money on things to make me more beautiful, smell better, ext.....   Well make-up isn't something I really want to spend time on making, but lotions, chap stick, the basic essentials has become a new part of my recipe book.  Our skin is used and abused on a daily basis, especially if you are like me and spend a lot of time outside or with your hands in soapy water cleaning things.   Basically by the end of the day I feel a little like I have alligator skin, and as much as I love lotion, it is something I spend way too much money on.  Chap stick, body spray, detangler also fit into the list of "I like to have but need to spend less money on" ;) I have been scoring the Internet looking for ways to make some of these items on my own, and for the price of raw organic materials I would save tons of money.  It is taking a little of trail and error on my part to find the recipes I like, or ones that aren't too complex for a busy mom of three who doesn't need to add more mess to piles that others leave for her......  So far I have been able to find recipes for chap stick and detangler that I really like, and I also came up with a recipe to put on chapped little faces do to colds or cold weather. 


Hair Detangler

• 1 1/4 cup  Distilled Water
• 1/4 cup   Dried Marshmallow Root
• 1 Tbsp  Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 Tbsp   Olive Oil or Jojoba Oil
•  few drops of essential oil to make it the scent of your choice (Optional)

1. Combine marshmallow root and water in a small sauce pot and simmer over medium low heat for 15-30 minutes to allow mucilage to release.  The longer you let in simmer the thicker the mixture will be.
2. Remove pot from heat and allow mixture to cool
3. Strain through a fine mesh strainer, cheese cloth, nylon, or teal towel.  Squeeze the strainer in order to extract all the goodness of the herb.  Reserve the liquid and compost the herbs.
4. Add vinegar and oils to the marshmallow root infused water.
5. Pour into a spray bottle, shake well prior to use.

I can't remember where I found this recipe, but when I do I will give credit where credit is due.  I had to add a little more distilled water once I put it in the spray bottle and I didn't have any essential oils to add a scent to it, but so far my daughter and I love it.  We both have semi-coarse hair so we battle tangles on a daily basis, and the apple cider vinegar isn't overpowering at all.  We really kinda like the scent of the apple cider vinegar.

The next recipe is for a something that is very similar to Gerber's Grins and Giggles Moisturizing Stick.  Living outside of a small town and 70 miles from the nearest city I have a hard time finding this stuff in the store.  The one stick I do have I bought in a Toys R Us store in Sioux Falls, SD, and I wasn't about to drive there every time I needed a new stick.  We have mostly done without it, but while trying to find a chap stick recipe that I liked or come up with my own, I accidentally made something that worked great on my chapped skin from constantly blowing my nose while fighting a recent cold.  When I figured it out I was thrilled, my poor kids' noses and cheeks are so chapped and sore in the winter and this will help with that immensely.

Chapped Face Stick

• 1oz stick of Beeswax
• 6-8 drops Glycerin
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• 1/4 tsp Vitamin E Oil
• 7-10 empty chap stick tubes .15oz size

1. Melt beeswax, glycerin, and coconut oil in a glass measuring cup.  I usually do this with the double boiler method in a small pot of boiling water over my stove top, but you can do this at 30 sec intervals in the microwave. Do this until all components are completely melted.
2. Add vitamin E oil, if you add it during heating it will loose some of its beneficial properties.
3. Fill chap stick tubes with liquid and allow to set for a few hours.  They don't take long to set I just like to leave them alone for awhile so they are cooled all the way through.
4. Once set they can be applied like chap stick onto chapped skin.

Chap stick

• 1 1/2 tsp. Beeswax (.25oz) basically a fourth of a 1oz bar.
• 1 3/4 tsp. + 1/8 tsp. Coconut Oil
• 1 1/8 tsp. Cocoa Butter (raw not the kind you buy in the lotion section at the store)
• 3 tsp. Sweet Almond Oil
• 3 Capsules Vitamin E, oil squeezed out (I don't have the capsules so I used about 1/8 tsp)
• essential oils for scents, or flavored oils (both optional, I didn't use either)

1. Melt every thing in a small jar set in a pan of boiling water (don't melt over direct heat, it could burn or the wax could catch on fire!) Stir frequently.
2. When melted (don't cook too long! use as soon as melted to avoid grainy-ness), add fragrance (essential oils work well like lemon or peppermint- start with a few drops and work up from there you can always add more, or you can order flavors from places on the Internet.
3. Next fill the tubes completely to the very top. It contracts when cooled and form a little dip but you don't want to re-fill this, the layers might not adhere to each other and the top layer could slip off. It's also best not to re-melt the lip balm, it will get grainy.
4.  Let sit without moving until completely set up.

This recipe has a similar consistency to Burt's Bees when applied, that is why I like it.  Plus it is made with natural ingredients, I did it myself, and the cocoa butter makes it smell really good ;)

 

Update on 40 bag challenge

    I was going to keep to my day count but I lost track of what days were done when.  I got sick so I had to put things on hold for a little bit to let my body heal.  So anyway....... I have 16 tasks done and 23 1/2 bags of stuff pulled out!!! YAY!  I also have 2 rooms in my house finished, my living room and kitchen.  The living room was simple once I got the momentum going.  It just seemed really intimidating, it's not huge but it is larger than some of the other rooms in my house. I even rearranged the living room while I was at it, and cleaned under the furniture :S  With kids that is always an interesting task, you just never know what they are going to stuff in the couch cushions.  Hopefully we can get the one wall we put up in the living room finished so I can paint before winter hits. 
         We have slowly been remodeling or redecorating rooms in our house.  We don't have a particular order, we mostly go by what ever room I come up with an idea for first.   My kitchen was the first room I redecorated.  We started with the new laminate floors, next time I will not start with flooring instead I will start with the paint.  I actually didn't think I was going to repaint the kitchen but as we got to working on it I changed my mind.  Now all I have to do in it is make curtains and we want to build another cabinet for the microwave and some of our other small appliances.
     The kids' play room got a make-over next, mostly because it was a simple one.  I wanted a brighter color in it so it would be easier for the kids to see while playing, and we needed more storage space.  The walls went from a dark red color to a light peach, and my husband built a wonderful shelf system that the kids can store books and toy in. 
      I want to get the living room finished next, but I think I am going to get my bathroom done.  It won't take as much time to finish it mostly just needs a fresh coat of paint and the cabinets moved.  I made curtains for the lonely window in it last summer, and we also put new flooring in it not to long ago.  Words of caution when redoing a bathroom..... Don't put carpet in your bathroom especially if you have small children.  My boys missed the toilet a few times, and all of my kids have splashed in the tub before.  Needless to say when it gets hot and muggy the carpet can really start to stink, and no matter what I used to clean it, it didn't get all of the smell out.  So when we decided to redo the floors sin the bathroom we went with 1'x1' laminate tiles with sticky backs so all we had to do was peel and stick.