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Freeze drying clothes? This is a thing? I always just assumed that back in the day people had fewer clothes and dried them indoors. Off to Google...

I have thought about a solar laundry room- tons, actually- but I'm not sure if it's practical in this setting. The house is a very small, snug, 1940s bungalow and it is adorable just the way it is- I'd hate to ruin it. It faces east, so a southern solar room would interfere with the facade...

We use a regular toilet. In fact, we just installed a 1gpf HET. But right now, we live in town. We are hooked up to a city water and sewer system. If we do move out to the country, we'll be on septic/well. I grew up on a septic/well. My dad built the house when I was 2. By the time I was...

What!? Your taxes are $3000 per year? Holy cow! I complain non-stop about our taxes at $1200/yr.

Right now, we live in town. We have put a lot of time/money/effort into making this house energy efficient. In doing this, I have learned a lot. Our electricity is very expensive, the priciest in the state, 20c per kWh. Because of this extreme electricity price, we have put everything we can...

I was an ethical vegetarian for 15 years, and have only recently gone back to eating meat due to insulin resistance (pre-diabetes). However, I was never offended in the least by people hunting for their own meat. Those animals got to live the life God intended for them, rather than suffering on...

Here is my chemistry prof's take on fuel cells: -This technology is old. It's how we got to the moon. (Yes, there are various types of fuel cells, some hydrogen, some water, etc. But just like a gas engine and diesel engine are both internal combustion engines, a fuel cell is a fuel cell.)...

Frontier isn't bad. We buy the restaurant size spices at GFS and freeze them, and bulk spices from the co-op and vac seal them. I have been happy with this. It's nice that we don't have to buy herbs anymore. :cool:

I live in the Big Woods, so nobody here really says "X for a cord", because it's really dependent on the species. However, if you have a reasonably well insulated home, and a wood stove (not an outdoor furnace, not a fireplace) that's less than 20 years old, you can heat with wood for the...

We use wood fuel pellets as cat litter. A 40# bag costs $5, and it lasts forever. We have two cats and we use about four bags per year. It composts fine. You should either have it in a long term pile (like over a year) or only use on it things like non-edibles, or fruit trees.

Yeah, I caught that, and then I saw WI, too, and thought, geez, the UP deserves one all it's own... we may as well be a whole other country! :lol:

You Know You're a Yooper When... A trip to the islands means a trip to Mackinac or Bois Blanc. You use the Yooper Rule of Apostrophes: dinty = didn't he; shounta = shouldn't have; and wounta = wouldn't have. Gotta love the U.P. Language! The word "Eh" seems to find its way onto the end of every...

The references to long pig freaked me out. No cannibalism for me, thanks. I know it was said in a tongue in cheek way, but yikes.

Step one for us was to get new wallets that had two bill compartments- one for cash, one for receipts. I got a Big Skinny and DH got an ALL-ETT. Then I got one of those plastic file dealies, you know, with the rubber band that loops around a button on the front. It was $4 at Office Max. We...

This is very good to know, moolie. We have a simple roofline, so I think the vent will probably be enough. We are right in town, our neighbors on either side have many leaves, so we'd be cleaning gutters non-stop if we didn't put the guards up. I am going to discuss this with DH.

I am a very Type A, assertive person, so I know that this may not work for other people, but if it were me in this situation, I would put the kibosh on homework. As in, no homework for these children at all until further notice. The magic words needed for this are "IEP" or "homeschooling" or...

Well, we insulated our attic (ceiling, walls, and floor) last summer, and it's crammed. It has at least one vent that faces west. I am concerned that when the accumulated snow falls off the roof (in a giant sheet, usually, in April) it will tear the gutters off. If we do install gutters...

We have three chest freezers, two of which have been converted into refrigerators. We have no uprights anywhere. We had a professional energy audit last summer and the auditor told me I was blowing his mind. :lol: All three of our units (17 cu ft freezer, 12 cu ft fridge, and 7 cu ft fridge)...

Oh, and it is perfectly legal to harvest rainwater here. :D

Well, here are my issues: -I primarily want to harvest rainwater for irrigating the garden and crops. -We currently live in town, so we have a water bill, which I am looking to cut down. -We have no gutters. None of the houses here have gutters. At all. We live in an extreme climate and...