Saving the rain that God Provides!

 

This time last year we decided to invest in a rain barrel.  We bought a pickle barrel at a local container company and my handy husband added the screen on the top, cut holes in the top and added the spigot. I spray painted it black.  So it cost us about $45.00 versus the $100 + they were selling for in the stores.

My husband is a fireman!

He made two and we have really used them a lot.  We have watered our gardens, flowers, and cleaned muddy feet and dirty hands.  We use the water to wash off things we use outside.  The biggest things we have used the water for is to water our animals.  We only had to use tap water two days when the barrels were frozen in the winter.  We keep them cleaned out so that we always have fresh water for the animals.  I went to our local daycare and asked them if I could have some of their milk jugs that they were recycling anyway.  They were happy to provide them for me and I picked several up every day for a couple of weeks.  We fill those jugs up and store them in the garage so that we always have a supply, even if it isn't raining.  That has came in handy this year since this spring has been so dry.  This was really one of the best investments for the homestead that we have made. 

 Every time it gets low, God fills it back up.  Isn't He wonderful like that, God always provides!!

My sweet niece filling up the jugs!

Used Coffee Grounds for your garden

Using coffee grounds in the garden is a great way to add organic matter to your soil. Coffee grounds are a good source of nitrogen for your garden soil. Being naturally acidic in nature, used coffee grounds are wonderful for acid loving plants such as roses, blueberries, camellias, azaleas, and rhododendrons. If you don't drink coffee very often, you may find coffee grounds for the garden at your local coffee shop. Starbucks, in particular, has a "Grounds for your Garden program" where they give you a 5 lb bag of used coffee grounds for FREE.

 
Most coffee shops are more than willing to give you all the coffee grounds your garden can handle, that way something that would normally get thrown out, gets used for something good.  Sprinkle them around the base of the plant, on the ground.  Be careful not to add too thick of a layer or mold may develop. A nice thin layer of coffee grounds around the trunk of the plant is all that is needed. One more added benefit of using coffee grounds in the garden is that earthworms love the used coffee grounds. They will feed on the coffee grounds and in turn aerate and fertilize the soil around your plants. You'll always enjoy the rewards of using coffee grounds in the garden.  Sprinkle them around the plant or add them to your compost. 

White Vinegar for Cleaning and beyond

I am beginning to wonder if there is anything vinegar can't do!

I can't believe how long vinegar used to sit in my cabinet and never get opened.  Now, I have it my cabinets in my kitchen and bath, in my laundry room, and in our garage. It seems like we use it for everything: kitchen, bath, cooking, garden, laundry, and even deodorizing!  We have cut chemicals out of our daily routine all together.

Since “green” cleaning has become more popular, vinegar is finding it's way into more buggies at the grocery store. White vinegar can still be purchased fairly cheap and I will put it up against any commercial cleaner any time and it will win every time!

10 uses for white vinegar around the house

1. Clean your produce -  If you don’t want to rinse fruits and veggies in plain water, you can simply wash them with 10 parts vinegar and three parts water. This will keep berries from getting fuzzy if it takes you a while to eat them.  Need a little extra cleaning:  add a little lemon juice and a touch of baking soda to the mix to get non-organic veggies really clean. Just be sure to rinse well with plain water before eating.

2.  Give new life to leafy vegetables - Don’t throw away wilted lettuce. Soak in a bowl with cold water and a splash of vinegar for 10 minutes. Just rinse and dry before enjoying your revived produce. Works great with Kale.

3.  Drain Opener - Pour 1 cup of baking soda down the drain (let sit for a few minutes to absorb odors)  Pour in 1 cup of vinegar.  Allow to fix and bubble up and leave for 20 minutes.  Pour boiling water down the drain (about 1 quart).  Have you priced Drano lately?  That stuff is expensive and this works just as well.  Another thing I have wasted money on over the years, we live in an old house with old pipes.

4. Fabric Softener – White vinegar is very effective at removing soap residue in the laundry and softening your clothing. Add one cup to the fabric softener dispenser of your washing machine, or fill a fabric softener ball with vinegar and toss it in the load. Laundry comes out feeling soft and fluffy, with no chemical coatings or perfumes like commercial softeners. Also it will help keep colors from fading.  WARNING:  Never use bleach and vinegar together, it produces highly toxic fumes.

5.  Get your dishes to sparkle - Pour vinegar into the rinse aid dispenser of your dishwasher and stop spending the money on expensive commercial rinse aids. This trick works well whether using commercial or homemade dishwasher detergent. If you are like me and hand wash your dirty dishes, add a cup of vinegar to your rinse water for spot-free dishes.

6  Cooking - Make pickles, dressings, and flavor soups and sauces with vinegar. My son has an egg allergy and I discovered that you can replace an egg in baking with 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp water, and 1 TBS of vinegar.  This works great in pancakes, that is all I have tried it in so far.  (and no you do not taste the vinegar)

7.  Cleaning around the house – Vinegar has replaced all my cleaning bottles.  I use diluted vinegar on floors, walls, windows, carpets, showers, sinks, mirrors, and faucets. I sprinkle baking soda inside the toilet bowl and spray vinegar around the lid, bow and allow it to sit. After a few minutes I scrub the inside of the toilet, wipe away any remaining vinegar, and flush! Cheap, easy, and effective. The smell dissipates, but if you have a hard time with the smell, make my Citrus Scented Vinegar Cleaner.

8.  Kill grass or weeds chemical-free - Spray full-strength vinegar on young weeds or grass that creep into places they’re not welcome. This will work within 24 hour.  Larger, tougher weeds may need several sprays.

9. Deodorize -  Pet odors are improved by spraying a mixture of 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup water enhanced with a few drops of my favorite essential oils. Spritz this mixture into the air throughout the room; the vinegar smell will dissipate after a few minutes leaving a fresh scent.

10. Keeping away ants - Ants do not like vinegar. Spray in cracks, around baseboards, on counter tops, or anywhere ants tend to crawl around your house. No need to put poisonous ant traps on your floor that kids or pets could get into.  I can't tell you how many chemicals I have sprayed around my house inside and out over the years.  So wish I had known about this a long time ago. 

Garden bling

Photo Credit to In My Own Style

Each year by mid summer everything in the garden has grown up so much that I forget what I planted where.  I always mark the spots but the markers that have been too small once everything starts growing or get washed out or broken in the weather.  I found this idea from our friend at "In My Own Style" so I thought I would share with you.  These should hold up nicely in the weather and help us remember what is planted where.  Not to mention they are very stylish and use recycled materials. 

Go here for the tutorial on how to do this for your own garden.  http://inmyownstyle.com/2010/06/jewelry-for-your-garden.html.  You have plenty of time to collect the needed items and work on them over the winter! 

Blessings,
Melissa

Composting Bin

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Our family really enjoyed our time together. 

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite gifts I received this year.   
It is a composting bin for my counter top.

One of my goals for 2012 is to tackle the compost bin and get it in order.  We have always tried to compost, but never really had it all together.  I am really bad about making sure that my scraps get out to the compost bin, somehow they end up in the trash.  So now that I have this on my counter, I will pop them right in there.  It is very handy to have, not to mention pretty to look at.

 (My mother bought this for me on Target.com if you would like one for yourself.)

Do you compost?  If you plant vegetables or flowers you should.  You can do it in a small area and you are putting things in there you would normally throw away anyway.  So you can nourish your plants and reduce what goes into the landfill at the same time.  Check out one of our earlier posts to see what you can and cannot compost.  http://myoldkentuckyhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/12/composting-ultimate-in-recycling.html

Composting - the ultimate in recycling

Making your own compost is the ultimate in recycling—it takes household scraps and yard waste and makes it into a perfect, earth-friendly fertilizer, for free! Composting is the process of converting organic material into rich, organic humus—the gardener’s “black gold.” The material is broken
down by microorganisms such as bacteria and larger organisms such as earthworms.  Not a vegetable gardener?  Compost is great fertilizer for your flowers and you are keeping these items out of the landfill. When we started composting, we were amazed at much less trash we had!

What materials can be composted?
There are two categories of compostable materials:
Greens contain a lot of nitrogen. Think “fresh.” Browns are high in carbon. Think “dried.”
For optimal results, layer your compost using a ratio of 1 part "green" to 3 parts "brown". Turn your pile every week or so and water if it hasn't rained in a while (you want to have moisture like a wrung out sponge).

Green materials that can be added to compost:
• raw fruit and vegetable peels, rinds, or scraps
• fruits and vegetables that are past their prime
• coffee grounds
• tea grounds or tea bags
• egg shells - crush them, since they decompose slowly
• stalks, stems, and leaves from spent garden plants
• lawn clippings - best left on the lawn as mulch,
but they can be added to compost if they’re from
lawns grown without chemicals
• hair
•dryer lint
• animal manure - from organically-raised rabbits,
  chickens, pigs, sheep, horses, and cattle

Brown materials that can be added to compost:
• fall leaves
• nut shells
• crumpled paper (not chemically treated)
• old wool or cotton (not chemically treated)
• paper bags, cardboard, and egg cartons - torn up
   into small pieces
• straw

What materials shouldn’t be composted?
• cooked food - (it may attract animals or vermin)
• dairy products
• fish
• meat or bones
• invasive plants - you could end up spreading them all over the garden
• woody plant material
• cat or dog feces
• used cat litter
• coal ash or charcoal

The Williams' Compost Bin- next year we'll add 2 more bins next to this one!

You can make your own compost bin (for free) using old pallets like we did! Just nail 4 pallets together, or use bungee ties on one side so you can open it for easier access. There are also a lot of different bins for sale on the internet that are good for backyard use to larger scale. When done right, it shouldn't smell bad at all.

Fall Garden Prep and Spring Planning

Just because winter is getting close doesn't mean you have to abandon your gardens altogether.  Fall is the perfect time to start preparing your gardens for the spring and mapping out your plans.  We have been removing any left over veggies and pulling out remaining plants from this years beds.  We have been trimming back bushes and trees and moving trees that were getting too big for their area.  This year we covered our bed areas with newspaper, leaves and compost.  We are planning to have more growing areas this spring so it is time to sit down with a pencil and paper and a cup of tea and decide what we want to do.  I love to plan.  We have more animals now, so we have to raise our crops around them.  Fall is a good time to have your soil tested.  A soil test can show you where your soil's pH levels stand and, if changes are needed, you can work on  it by using the proper amounts of lime now and it will be ready just in time for spring.   Now is the perfect time to order some seed catalogs and learn all about the fruits and vegetables you would like to plant next year.  It is really important to read all you can so you don't have to learn the hard way like we have done so many times.  Also, fall is the time to plant garlic.  I use a lot of garlic in our kitchen, so it makes perfect sense for us to grow it.  We will be planting ours as soon as we have a dry day, look for a post on that.  Happy Fall Cleanup and Planning!

Getting Ready for Spring Planting!!

As the year nears it's close, it's time already to begin thinking about next year's garden! I had no idea that you can use egg shells as pots to start your seedlings!! What a great way to reuse something we normally throw on our compost pile! Now is the time to begin collecting them! I have saved egg cartons from throughout the year so I already have a way to store them! In the early spring, you can poke a hole in the bottom for drainage and when it's time to plant, you just place the shell into the soil where it decomposes and adds calcium and nitrogen to the soil! How are you planning for next year's harvest?

Photo Credit: pallensmith.com