What did you do to be/become more self-reliant today?

tortoise

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I love the "what did you do to save money today" and "what did you do to make money today" threads. They motivate me and give me great ideas!

We moved to the farm just over a year ago, and there's so much I haven't done (or attempted) yet!
 

tortoise

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Fixing daily routine problems (especially those around schooling at home) is a big hang-up for me. Seems that all the time I *should* be spending on homesteading and self-reliance projects is sucked up in child discipline issues. So today, my baby step towards self-reliance is changing things up so DS8's slacking becomes HIS problem, not my problem. I hope to find some "free" time to get started on other things.... like canning tomatoes.
 

tortoise

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Today:
  • Cut DS8's hair. A pompadour with side fade, no less!
  • Researched orchid potting mixes and made one with 75% aged oak bark (from the basement wood pile, then boiled and rinsed) and 25% coconut fiber (was destined for hermit crab substrate). Repotted my orchid.
  • Made a pseudo-macramé pot hanger for my ivy, which frees up a windowsill for newly potted basil and oregano babies. I'm proud of them since they're my first successful herb seedlings. I've been trying for over a decade!!!
 

Denim Deb

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Good going! Hopefully this will motivate us to becoming more independent and give us ideas for things we can do.
 

sumi

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I don't know if it will count, but I've been looking at sheds for sale, for future poultry houses. Got put off very quickly by the ridiculous asking prices though. I can get pallets at €2 each near here...
 

sumi

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The pallets I've seen around here are mostly quite large and have a lot of planks in them, top and bottom, with narrow strips in-between the planks. What I'm thinking is take the planks off one side, fill most of the strips in-between the other side/remove and nail the planks back on, but snug together. Use the resulting "panels" for coop walls? It would be more labour intensive but it beats the tar out of a 8x8 shed for €500-700, which is what I've seen locally. Metal sheeting for the roofs can be had for as little as €1.50 per ft, so the costs would be minimal.
 

Britesea

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Sounds like a good idea. Maybe you can use a little of the money you'd be saving to pay some teenager to help you with it, too.
 

sumi

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A day late, but I was too tired to write yesterday. I found a wonderful source of free firewood in a piece of woodland not too far from my house. Broken and fallen branches and some that were chopped down and left… I took my handsaw with and collected 3 loads yesterday. I plan to heat with mostly the wood burner and the open fireplace this winter, as heating oil is quite expensive. So I'm going to need a LOT of wood!
 
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