Need some SS ideas

[tortoise]

I have been working on SS for a little more than a year now. I need some new ideas to try. Keep in mind I live in a city - my ENTIRE yard can be seen by 9 neighbors!! Livestock is not an option.

Next year is expanding the garden. At some point before next fall I need to learn to can and make pickles.

Other than that???

 

[Dace]

Do you make kefir or your own yogurt? Those are both fun and healthy.

Make candles? That could come in handy.

Learn how to sew?

Try your hand at fermenting something, that is a useful skill.

Wine making?

I am have vered off the SS path...no more animals and no room for them, not a lot of room for gardening, just a few veggies tucked in here and there. I have been thinking about learning how to sew. I have been thinking about it for a long time actually, just one of those things that lingers in the back of my mind, but I really don't have time for

I am sure someone will come along with better ideas!

 

[lorihadams]

breadmaking
fermenting stuff
herb stuff
soapmaking
sewing
beekeeping

Try reading The Encyclopedia of Country Living....it'll give you lots of inspiration!

 

[mlynd]

I would love to learn about raiseing Bees

 

[ORChick]

I'll second the sewing idea, if you don't already know how. Even if making clothes seems beyond what you want to do, or impractical (if you need nice work clothes, for instance, you might be better off at thrift or consignment stores), but there are lots of things around the house that you might want to sew. Curtains, cushions, dish and hand drying cloths for the kitchen, etc.
Why wait until next fall for canning and pickling? You can water bath can fruits and tomatoes - from your garden or bought at the farm or farmers' market. Pickles are easy - super easy with vinegar, slightly more fiddly (but not much), and much better for you if you go the fermenting route.
Do you bake bread? Cook from scratch as much as possible? Hang out your laundry? Does your garden include herbs? Learn about simple, healthy teas for when you aren't feeling too well - at least as good, and probably better than OTC meds for a cold or tummy ache, and cheaper.
On a more passive note - turn your AC up/heating down; conserve water where you can; plan on using all of the oven space when it is going (this one I have problems with, I confess).

 

[patandchickens]

Learn plumbing repair (esp. soldering, it is not difficult nor expensive, just takes a bit of practice)

Learn small engine repair (most places have a good supply of peoples' thrown-out nonworking weedwhackers and lawnmowers and such for you to dissect and learn on, and libraries usually have books/videos even if a night-school class is not an option)

Work on scrounging things you need rather than buying them (a BIG BIG plus of urban/suburban living is the amount of stuff left out at the curb or otherwise being gotten rid of!)

Good projects for learning to sew are a) recycling items into throw pillows or purses or bags or small simple quilts, and b) doing repairs or "upgrades" on your clothing.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[tortoise]

I CAN sew. But I usually end up spending more $ than if I bought second-hand. I did get some patterns for super-cheap, but haven't done anything about it.

I am making a bellydance costume - NOT saving me $$! I think I have $150 - $200 into the thing already. But I love it!

I am planning on sewing puppets for Christmas presents. Maybe that will be my SS project for now?

I do darn socks, but I don't wear socks at all in summer so I forgot about that!

Ooo! small engine repair is a good idea! It sounds hard. But I know it is not a strong point for my fiance, so it would be good if one of us knew at least the basics. Maybe get a library book on it? My sewing machine could use some work. I guess that is a place to start?

I can bake bread. Except he doesn't like me to cook when it is hot outside. I guess I should have made a solar oven. :/

My fiance has everything for homebrewing; maybe he will teach me how?

My current list:

Small engine repair (soon)
Fix my sewing machine (soon)
Look for ways to use sewing (can't think of anything we need now)
Make a solar oven? (now?)
Water bath canning (winter)
Make beer (late winter)
Bake bread (cool weather)
Make candles out of old candle pieces (winter)

I especially need winter projects. I HAVE to stay busy for my mental health. I get feeling stuck and cooped up because I can't spend so much time outside.

 

[patandchickens]

Ooo! small engine repair is a good idea! <snip>My sewing machine could use some work. I guess that is a place to start?

Sewing machine repair is another thing to try (bear in mind that it has next to nothing to do with small-engine repair, a sewing machine not normally being an internal combustion engine ) HOWEVER I would strongly suggest not making your first attempts on your real sewing machine. See if you can find a freebie discard to play with. (You CAN of course do a careful tune-up of your existing machine as far as the instruction manual guides you to do, that is pretty safe and usually useful)

I especially need winter projects. I HAVE to stay busy for my mental health. I get feeling stuck and cooped up because I can't spend so much time outside.

Learn to solder.

Quilts from scraps/discards. Puppets and stuffed animals (for gifts) from scraps/discards. Sewing is expensive if you use store-boughten material (which is mostly cr*p these days anyhow, and at such a price!) but cheap if you use intelligently-selected discarded items that you cut up for fabric pieces.

In a similar vein, improve your skill at doing alterations (custom-fitting) or radically altering one garment into another, using cheapo thrift store stuff as material. Eventually you can alter your real clothing for better fit, which as a bonus lets you learn to shop better for future clothes (since you will be able to recognize good fit more easily, and know what problems can be fixed and what cannot)

Learn to knit and/or crochet. You can often get yarn real cheap at garage sales or thrift stores, as long as you are not all Martha Stewart about exactly what colors you want.

Make candied citrus peel this winter. It is not a huge SS type skill but very morale-boosting and YUMMY lol

Pat

 

[tortoise]

Mmm...K. Guess I have a lot to learn about small engines then if I don't even know exactly what one is!

Soldering - my fiance and my dad know how to do that, so I have someone to teach me. But what would I do with it? Any ideas for projects that require soldering?

PIZZA! I just realized that we buy a lot of frozen pizza and I know how to make them.

I think my FIRST SS project is to make and freeze some pizzas.

I think I'm going to stay away from most of the clothing / knitting / spinning / crocheting type stuff. Tends to be a big time drag and I rarely finish anything. And it ends up being expensive!

I guess right now I'm into the more "manly" side of SS. No offense ladies!

 

[framing fowl]

Do you use rain barrels to catch your water runoff for the garden? What about making a bookshelf. You can never have too many of those! Love the pizza idea. What about a cold frame for spinach/lettuce this fall/winter?