Drying Laundry without a Dryer, by Kira

 

 

 

I thought I would miss my dryer when it died.

We knew it was coming; it had a horrible squeak when it ran,

and gradually took longer to get started.

Eventually, it just stopped drying clothes,and we deemed it not worth repairing.

At first I did miss it.

I guess for the most part it was the convenience that I missed;

if you needed something dry now, you could run it through the dryer and have it ready in a matter of minutes.

It was also missed for it's ability to dry the cloth diapers thoroughly.

 

 

 

 

 

It's been two years now without a dryer.

It wasn't missed for long.

It just took a while to get into a rhythm and working out drying details.

 

 

 

 

 

We have an outdoor clothes line that Andrew installed within the first year of moving into our home, which was about 9 years ago.

The second was put up shortly after the loss of the dryer.

Since then, two more lines have been added indoors.

One is a line that goes through the middle of our living room, which I usually only fill before bed and empty early morning.

The other line is the seed shelf that Andrew built last spring for holding my seedlings.

 

 

 

 

 

The woodstove really does work wonders for drying clothes.

If it wasn't for the woodstove it would be slower.

I can do three large loads of laundry in the evening, fill all the lines in the living room and have it all dry by morning.

The most difficult time for me to dry laundry is during the hot

and humid summer days.

If I get too far behind on these humid days I sometimes hang the clothes indoors and light the woodstove.

Some may call that crazy for making it hotter.

But the temperature doesn't normally rise much.

What it does is dry my clothes and also cuts the humidity in the house.

We also started to be more mindful of what was actually dirty before just throwing it into the dirty clothes pile. (Yes, a pile, not a hamper.)

Now that we're diaper free, (yay!) the laundry has been cut back even more.

 

 

 

 

 

This past year I dried more inside than outside.

There just wasn't that much prime drying weather.

The key to going without a dryer is having the right kind of set up in your home.

For me it's lots of lines and a running the woodstove.

 

By the way,

here is a link to my laundry soap recipe.

I felt it was appropriate. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Roasting Our Beans, by Kira

 

 

 

 

A little glimpse into feed making.

One ingredient that goes into our chicken feed is soybeans.

Andrew buys organic soybeans to use as the main protein component.

Many animals aren't able to properly digest raw soybeans.

So, to make the beans easier to digest we roast them.

 

Our clothes dryer died a couple winters ago, and we became a dryer free home.

We held on to the dryer until we found a use for it.

This past summer it became our soybean roaster.

Andrew removed the drum from the dryer and now it sits on the cookstove inside the school house

(which is nearing completion, I will share photos soon).

The cookstove is on most days,

with dinner slowly cooking inside the stove and beans roasting in the dryer drum on top.

Once the beans are roasted they are ready to go through the feed mixer with the rest of the grains and mineral supplements.

 

 

 

 

Developing Industry

One of the jobs on my list is to restore two de-hullers for a customer.

A de-huller may come in a variety of forms for a various grains, nuts, or seeds.

It seems that due to centralization and large scale processing operations,

the small versions of these machines have vanished.

Now that growing grain is returning to small operations,

the need for on-site processing equipment is increasing.

The nearest mill may be too far to efficiently transport grain to,

or there may also be no facility available to process organically grown product

independently of chemically supported crops.

It wasn't long ago that western culture was providing technical aid to developing nations.

Arguably, many of the contributions caused negative implications; dooming inhabitants to cash cropping and burdening them with developed world woes.

However, some solutions actually helped, and in turn,

those same solutions may be exactly what we need to solve our excessively industrialized food production system.

Most grain types require some element of processing to make them suitable for consumption, whether it is for palatability, marketability, or to retain nutrition.

Often, it is removing the outermost portion of the grain called the hull or pericarp.

There are traditional methods that include using a large mortar and pestle which release the grain from the hull, but can be wasteful, and may reduce storage times if performed to a moistened grain.

A mechanical solution intended for developing nations was created in the seventies using basic fabrication materials and can be scaled down or up to suit capacity.

This is just what is needed to suit the current need for small scale producers who wish to process their own grain.

It's not as if my project board is empty, but I am intrigued by the challenge.

The goal is to keep the costs down as much as possible, yet build a machine that is efficient as it is practical.

Produced by industry, these units could be very affordable.

The problem is, like with many other low demand items, there is simply not enough profit to entice big business to produce machinery like this.

Though I expect that Chinese industry makes lots of machines like this;

they're just not imported here.

The point is that we cannot always expect our domestic industry to produce the equipment that is needed by small scale producers.

And processing grain requires quite an array of labour saving devices to make it worthwhile.

In an effort to squeeze competition and increase margins, industry has grown out of proportion and contributes to high volume production at the expense of quality.

If we can return to providing local technical solutions, then we will not need to rely so heavily on large industrial companies to fill the needs of small communities.

Many of the answers lay close at hand in the devices sent to work in developing nations.

I expect that many people felt that the designs were minimalist only to suit fledging nations.

It looks as if the large and complex designs come with their own set of hindrances.

Another lesson that shows that bigger is not necessarily better.

 

 

 

 

 

Hot Loggin'

Hot logging is a forestry term for taking logs straight from the stump to the truck.

In these parts, the colloquial meaning is a little different.

Sometimes you may not get your firewood ready for Winter.

Or maybe there's not enough to make it all the way through the burning season.

So you need to head into the forest to get some fuelwood.

The problem is that Winter can be a challenging time for bringing firewood in,

depending on the amount of snow and the equipment available.

So when you say you're going hot loggin',

it means you're out of wood and will be getting some more the hard way.

I found out this year that our tractor doesn't do well in a bit of snow.

It works fine for clearing snow, but our woodlot is too hilly to get good traction.

Our friend Alain Fournier of Al's Handyman Services,

recommended using an ATV for getting the wood in.

I didn't think our old machine would do the job, but I remembered a old trick for off-road traction and thought it was worth a try.

You simply remove the air pressure from the tires which creates a big soggy footprint in the snow.

It worked great for me.

Winches are most often on the front of an ATV,

which is fine as long as you can carry on going forward when stuck.

A winch at the rear is a better plan because it can drag you back out of a muddy hole.

In this case, the winch is pulling out and dragging logs to be brought to the house.

Without keeping my hopes up, I chose a big log first.

That way I would get a good idea of the limitations.

To my surprise, the ATV was up to the task.

The snowy ground made for easy skidding and the cold air helped the tire traction.

(It was about -15C today.)

An ATV can be a very efficient and effective piece of equipment.

They are usually very reliable and most models are built to last.

Their engines are small and efficient, yet powerful coupled with a low gear transmission.

ATVs also tend to be expensive so buying one isn't always practical.

Ours was a hand-me-down that took some work to bring it back into service.

At the moment, there is not too much snow in the bush.

If it gets deep, this rigging may not work.

For the meantime, however, it will get the wood in without much trouble.

We also have a snowmobile on deck, ready to be put into service should the need arise.

I built a logging arch on skies for hauling logs.

The last time I tried it, the snowmobile lost traction.

Mind you, the log was quite large, so it might be worth trying again with a more modest piece of tree.

I know that it all sounds fun.

And it can be.

But there is also a lot of getting stuck, or parts breaking,

and sweating, and cursing, and sore muscles at the end of the day.

In case you're wondering whether or not it's all worth it,

wood stores a great deal of heat.

The gasoline that goes through the chainsaw, the ATV, and even the snowmobile, would not even come close to heating the house.

Today it took roughly 50,000 BTUs of gasoline to bring in

about 10,000,000 BTUs of wood.

Of course, a wood fire is much more comforting than a gasoline fire.

In the long term, I would like to eliminate our need for gasoline altogether.

For fuelwood, it would mean harvesting wood closer to the home, and choosing small diameter trees and branches instead of the large trees we take now.

It would also mean having more time available for collecting.

We plan on living in a cabin once the kids have left home which will reduce the amount of wood we'll need.

At this point, I'm doing well to keep us warm.

We do have electric baseboard heaters, but they are set to come on only if the temperature goes below 10C in the house.(Which does happen from time to time.)

There is plenty of suitable fuelwood in the woodlot and there is always a way of getting it from forest to stove.

But there are other things I would prefer to be doing rather than fetching wood.

Today's run worked well, and if conditions hold,

I won't need to do much hot loggin'.

 

 

 

 

The Death of a Camera

All of our photography has been done with three cameras.
Most photos are taken with an iPhone 4S.
Sometimes we use the iPad for photos.
For the past six years, a Powershot A640 has been the workhorse.
But no more.


Early in the Fall, the Powershot lens failed to retract when it was turned off.
The screen showed a lens error and the internet searches for easy fixes turned up little.
During the rain today, I thought I would see if it was repairable.


Now I'm pretty darn good at fixing things.
I have no problem patting myself on the back for intrepid tenacity when it comes to making things work when they won't.
There haven't been many things that I couldn't fix.
Electronics, however, continue to plague my good record.
Unless it has a blown fuse or a broken wire, electronics end up in the scrap bin.
I save the parts for future repairs, but so far, the steep slope of electronics has kept me trodding along fruitlessly.


The lens issue with this camera seemed like an easy mechanical fix.
The lens would not go back in.
I figured it was just a skipped gear tooth or a stop gone too far.
Perhaps I was right, but the gear assembly is buried so far into the camera that the scene grew bleaker at each turn of a tiny screw.
To make matters worse, the 'crappy tire' screwdriver set is junk and the tips wore off after only a few screws.
The internet was fairly clear on the issue;
either blow the sand out and it should work,
or toss it.
The camera is out-dated.
But it is better to fix than to replace.
The camera still took good photos until it's final moments.


I miss my old Minolta srt200.
It never did break.
Film shooting was expensive and became obsolete once the digital cameras improved.
The Minolta was a cast off that I scavenged as junk.
With only a 28-70 Zoom lens, I took photos for many years and adventures.
The Powershot saw our kids grow up, but I never formed the same kind of bond to it as I did with the brick-heavy SLR that helped me learn photography and captured the spirit of my youth.
The kids play with the old Minolta now.
Even with the punishing abuse of children, the camera has only suffered the loss of the aperture preview button, and would likely still work fine with a fresh roll of film.


The Powershot is done.
It doesn't need parts, but the gear assembly needs to be cleared of grit and properly reassembled.
After several hours of painstaking sweatshop re-creation, it still may not work properly.
So it is heading to the scrap bin.
There still may be a future incarnation for the camera parts as a costume, or a science project, or as components in some crazy project.
I think it would still turn on if the batteries were installed,
like some twisted wreckage of a robot facing it's imminent demise.

There's serious talk of a camera upgrade around here.
Perhaps even a 'his' and 'hers' solution.
But I'm content with something small and simple.
I stopped hiding behind the lens years ago.
Just a little something for the pocket to capture and share when the moment is right.








 
 
 

Firewood Failure

Many of you already know that I have been struggling to gather enough firewood together.
That goes for this year as well as years past.
The story is that each year I get better at bringing wood in.
What happens is that I spend the saved time on some other project and end up relegating the firewood to the last minute.

Over the years, I had always hoped to be able to do wood during the Winter.
Normally, there is more time available and there are some advantages to wood cutting during the colder months.
The problem in the past has been poor timing with the snow and it builds up before I have had the chance to keep the trails open with our tractor.

This is the first year that I have had the opportunity to keep the trails packed and open.
Only it turns out that even a small amount of snow in the forest renders the tractor useless.
There is still a huge pile of wood that is seasoned and ready to be skidded out,
but my rigging won't do the job with snow on the ground.

The plan had been to do the wood during the Fall.
The Fall, however, was busier than planned and only now when it is too late do I find out that the tractor won't do it's job when I need it.
It slips and slides too easily, and though chains on the tires might work, they may not help enough.
The tractor is light and lacks traction.
And besides, tire chains are quite pricey; even to build myself unless I can salvage some old chain on the cheap.

The little chains I have on there now are enough to take care of the driveway during the Winter.
They have proven inadequate for our steep and winding trail system.
I tried to make it happen but abandoned the job.
It was frustrating to finally have the time to skid more logs out only to leave the bush with nothing.

It's not that we have no wood.
I have managed a good pile of logs when there were a few spare moments for a run into the woodlot.
But there is a lot in there still.
Now I need to figure out how I would ever log during the Winter.
A great big new 4-wheel drive tractor would be fantastic but utterly expensive.
Old skidders come up for sale cheap every now and again but that's for a rig that needs help.
Animal power has always been a consideration, but I'm not convinced of the net benefit.
I would want to be using draught animals daily to justify their keep.
In the meantime, fuelwood has become an issue once again.
So it goes.





 

The Evil Appliance

Appliances are a scourge.
They have become so much a part of the western lifestyle that they are virtually impossible to abandon.
Appliances save us an incredible amount of work.
Yet they consume a great deal of energy in return for the time they offer.
And they work well; until they break down.

We have several appliances.
Each of them contravene our ideals regarding sustainable living.
There are three:
The dishwasher.
The clothes washer.
And the dryer.
When the weather is warm or the stove is hot, it's easy to skip the dryer.
But when it's damp everywhere and the kids are wetting the beds, and the cloth diapers are being filled and Daddy's work clothes are running out,
the dryer fills in where time simply cannot.

Lots of people do dishes by hand.
But when all of the food is made from scratch, including the bread,
the dishwasher makes the difference between a loving mother and well...
...I shouldn't say.

I couldn't imagine what our life would be like without a washing machine
And that's why it's a scourge.
There should be a better alternative, but I don't know what it is.
If it was just Kira and I, we could be easy on clothes and wash by hand.
But with three kids?
It's hard enough to keep up on laundry with the machine let alone without.

Our washing machine isn't perfect either.
Granted, it has seen some serious action.
But there's weakness in the drain pump.
First of all, it will accept a quarter.
You know, the coin.
It will fit into the pump only one way.
The coin will only come out the same way it went in, which is virtually impossible to replicate.
So after shortening my life removing quarters periodically,
I put a spring in to catch some of the overlooked pocket fodder.
The catch is that it picks up hair and makes the tub foam with soap during a wash cycle.

Out of all of the problems that we try to solve,
the appliances hit closest to home, and have proven to be the most difficult to resolve.
Most of the world does without, so why is it that we cannot?
Is it our climate?
Is it our standard of living?
Is it our lack of cohesive community?
Help me out here, because I don't plan on replacing them,
once I let them die in peace.

















 
 
 
 

Trade Tools

This blog is fairly informal so I won't be offering carefully planned lessons and training.
I will however, do what I can to introduce and explain some of the basic equipment and skills.


Today I relied heavily on my portable table-saw.
A table-saw is a circular saw blade fixed in the middle of a flat table that requires the user to move the wood against the saw rather than guiding the saw along the wood.
Many table-saws are large and heavy giving them accuracy, stability and safety.
Others are portable and can be easily moved from place to place.
The portable units are usually much cheaper to buy and very basic in design.


The main purpose of the table-saw is to 'rip' wood.
That means cutting long pieces lengthwise along the wood's natural grain.
You can take a board and cut in into whatever width you need.
If you need a 2inch wide board but only have a 6inch wide piece, the table saw will turn what you have into what you want.
This is of great benefit if you are scrounging materials.
It's easy enough to buy exactly what you need from the store, but when you are on the hunt for salvaged wood, or want to make good use of leftovers, then the table saw will help you make the wrong size fit.


Aside from ripping, the table-saw will cross-cut wood as well.
The cross-cut is cutting the board to the length that you need it.
The lower end table-saws don't usually do a good job of this and it's best avoided whenever possible.
Though I happen to know someone who started out his career as a carpenter using only a table-saw for cross-cutting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The table-saw also rips a range of angles on a board to bevel a board lengthwise for more complex cuts.
I don't have a good picture of this so I'll have to show you an example when I use a cut like that.
For now, it's important to know that the table-saw is responsible for the cuts that run the long length of a piece of wood.


With today's project, I only had certain sizes of boards to work with in order to suit many purposes.
The table-saw did most of the cutting while the hand-held circular saw cut long boards into manageable pieces.
A professional can use a hand-held circular saw for most of the cuts that a table-saw will make.
But for the beginner, the table-saw gives great results safely and easily.


Old table-saws are usually easy to find used for cheap or free.
These are normally good quality tools, but are cast iron and heavy.
If you think you'll need to move one around a bit, look for a portable.

For myself, wood working began in earnest when I bought my first table-saw.
It's versatile enough to allow you to experiment with different cuts and advanced wood shapes without any instruction or frustration with jagged or crooked edges.
The confidence that tools build is more important than the projects they create.
And the table-saw should be one of your first.




 
 
 
 

Trade Skills

The blue collar trades can be intimidating for many people.
Tools and techniques for the uninitiated appear mysterious.
And though I advocate for supporting your local economy and the skilled tradespeople who are your neighbours,
it really helps the family budget if you can handle minor repairs without calling in the professionals.


If you have no knowledge or confidence when it comes to trades work, it is important to understand the connections that each discipline shares.
Once you begin to learn and challenge yourself, the experience gained grows exponentially because the skills are largely transferrable between trades.


An example is cutting and measuring.
It seems simple enough, but any errors can cause major headaches.
Good measuring and accurate cutting skills are critical in all of the trades.
But once you are able to measure and cut wood, moving to steel, or ductwork, or plumbing, is simply a matters of using appropriate tools.
In fact, trade skills differ much less from each other than the specialized tools that specific tasks require.

A neighbour once told me that for an average family, it's necessary to be able to fix either your car or your home. Otherwise it's an expensive prospect when there's a household infrastructure failure.
Certainly if you are plotting a goal of self-sufficiency, being able to repair your home and equipment are integral to that kind freedom.
If you count yourself out before you even try, then expect to be at the mercy of the world.
It's said that God helps those who help themselves.
And while Karma is understood as a 'what goes around, comes around' idea,
Karma is also about how you apply will and determination to your environment.


Expanding your skill set and knowledge can only improve the steadiness of your gait as you make your way through life.
Taking small steps towards learning the trade skills are very empowering and will most certainly lead you forward.
And if you are thinking about homesteading,
these skills are your ticket in.


 

Kijiji

Our friend Martin is a big fan of the yard sale.
'Obtainium' is what he calls the rewards of a fruitful search.
Quality goods for next to no money.
I tend to agree with the principle of reusing and re-purposing,
but I can't picture myself ranging all over the place just to score some great deals.
Especially if you come home with things that you never intended to buy.


Having said that, I have been using Kijiji more often.
If you don't know what Kijiji is,
it is an online classified service, much like a well organized yard sale.
It is informal, with no online payment system; cash only, in person, pick-up.
It costs nothing to post a simple ad, and it costs nothing but time,
to peruse the thousands of items available.

Though I have used the service in the past,
I find myself turning to it more and more.
Normally, I type in a keyword and do a search.
But last night, I caught myself browsing categories aimlessly.
Not unlike Martin picking his way throughout the tables, scrutinizing the boxes in search of precious, overlooked treasures.

I must admit that the draw of very low priced goods has put me in danger of accumulating more than I need.
To date, I have done well procuring what we need,
avoiding the new goods in the box stores.
I fear that my recent successes may turn me into a rabid online shopper,
being sure to turn the screen off as Kira passes by.
Like an obessive gambler; sneaking around, hiding my filthy addiction.

As I use the site more frequently,
I am better able to zero in on those items that I covet most;
building materials to feed my other addiction for constructing.
Though, I found myself drifting through the guitars for sale, and wistfully choosing the ones I prefer.
"Hey, that's pretty cheap! Maybe I should....."
But no. That's not on the list.
I was looking for one window and one door.
Which I did find, and bought today.
$50 for a brand new window that is just the right size, and $85 for two solid pine doors that are beautiful.


And now look at this.
I have been searching for Baltic Birch plywood for some special kids toys.
Lo and behold, up comes a big pile of it for $125.
Can you believe it!
Wow!
But I only need about six sheets.
Only, the price is so low.
But how do I get it home?
I'll have to go and look on Kijiji to see if there's a good trailer for sale.

 

Tools for Money.

It takes money to make money.
That's the truth of the current economic system.
The more of a financial investment you can make,
the more you stand to gain.
If you don't have enough money to invest, you can work for someone else.
But then your investment of time profits both you and your employer.

As much as we would like to reduce our consumption,
the fact is that if we would like financial independance,
we will need to invest more than simply time and effort in order to make money.
And we must make money, in order to buy our house and pay the property taxes.
Every project we undertake requires materials and equipment.
And that compels us to consume more.

Setting up for welding has taken a fair bit of investing thus far.
Much of the equipment is used, but there were a lot of blanks to fill.
I have all of the elements needed to get started, but not without having to do some buying.
Some big items, and many small items.
Scrounging is a great way to pick up necessary tools and materials,
but that takes time and money just to runaround from place to place.
Though there will be some scrounging yet.

I console myself with the prospect of generating income for the homestead.
There is also the fact that welding is a great skill used to repair items;
thus reducing consumption.
I will have the ability to weld virtually any metal at any thickness.
Beyond repairs, I will also be capable of creating and producing goods that would otherwise need to be bought from a store.
Manufacturing is mostly done far away from us, so making our own objects helps reduce the impacts from shipping and poor labour conditions.

Of course, I can't make everything, so the buying continues despite the best of intentions.
It forces me to ask myself if this is necessary.
Well, if money was out of the equation, simplicity would preclude a great many of the steps we have taken to ensure our ability to survive within this culture.
Where to draw the line is unclear.
And that is very frustrating when trying to stamp out my own hypocrisy.

Properly cared for, the welding gear has a very long lifecycle.
I continue to use the equipment that was passed to me from my father.
And there is no reason to replace it other than the need to be able to weld a greater variety of metals, of varying sizes and shapes.
I hope that Auren will get to use this rigging, and won't have to buy as much as I have in order to ply skills.
The accumulation of skill and knowledge seems to be of equal importance to accumulating tools and equipment.
In truth, I hope that my children need more knowledge than tools.
And perhaps in the world they grow up in,
money will not be important at all.

The Tipping Point

Up until now, the drought has only had minor effect on our property.
But the lack of rain is beginning to cause immediate and long lasting damage.
Even the hearty Blackberries are wilting, and next year's crop will suffer.
The hope of a good harvest has turned to the hope that plants won't die.

The last time the water table was so low was in 2006.
I only remember because Kira and were married here that year, in September.
We had landscaped and renovated for the wedding; of the projects was a lawn.
The lawn was grown from seed and would not have survived had we not irrigated from the pond.
I have always kept a careful watch on our water supply,
which is a spring fed dug well.
This year is the lowest the well has ever been, and it is possible that it could stop giving us water if the aquifers are not replenished.

The creek is completely dry; there is no water at all running on the surface.
The pond is fed from the creek, but is also supplied by the water table.
It still has water in it, but barely.
If the pond dries up, there will be no water at all here.

The plan is to set up a pump to draw from what's left in the pond.
We can irrigate our gardens and fruit without using well water.
This has always been the intention, if only because pond water is better for the plants, and it would compel me to set-up a permanent irrigation solution.
Of course, now it is an emergency reaction.

Even if the pond dries up, I believe that I could dig a well in the bottom of the pond to reach more water.
The tragedy would be the death of countless fish.
Many have already been snatched up by the opportunistic wildlife,
as the fish are more vulnerable.

How I go about installing a parallel water system depends on when I am able to get the materials.
There will also be some trench digging, which is never fun in shield country.
On the positive side, once this is working, it should be permanent and won't need to be done again.
We'll be able to water the plants without fear of draining the well.
But it all hinges on getting some rain again someday.
It's been a dry year from the outset.
It's difficult to believe that the pattern will change.