Better late than never

So it's been damn near a month since we posted. The month of May is jam-packed with fun things and we got a little caught up in all the excitement and found no time to blog. Mothers day, my b-day, memorial day, highland festival and planting the garden. We'll post about them all when we stop to take a breath. The pigs are gigantic. Still haven't gotten the chickens yet and we've been learning so much!

One Mans Trash.....

The past couple of weekends marked the beginning of Garage, Rummage and Yard Sale season. I love this time of year. It's like a sport for me, hunting down that treasure that's oh so needed.

I picked up quite a few things for us this time around, couple shirts and a great pair of $100 coveralls for $9. I especially like if for finding clothes for Gabrielle. You know she's still stuck in the name brand world so that's what I keep my eye out for her, 3 shorts 2 shirts...score!

Household things are pictured here. The chair is by far my favorite find for $2. Pat's going to try and replicate it so we have a few more around the homestead. The planter was .50 cents and the cupboard was $4. I did practice bartering a lot, everyone that I made an offer to accepted. So offer away, it really works! Great deals for great stuff wouldn't you agree?

Here Comes The Sun...

For the first time ever...here at True North...we are harnessing the awesome power of the Earth!
Let the northerly winds howl and the golden sun blaze, for no longer will we sit by and watch as these magnificent natural energies elude our grasp. We have captured them...sun and wind, and bent them to our needs!!

I have built...a Clothes-line.













I know it seems funny and for many this simple device is and has been a part of their lives, but for us it is new and amazing. Yesterday, as me and Melissa hung our first load of laundry out to dry we couldn't resist being excited about our newest endeavor. Instant savings; from washer machine to clothesline, we eliminated the energy hog known as the dryer. Why hadn't we done this before? I guess we were just too busy to save ourselves money. It's nice having the right perspective now...working to save money versus working to earn money...

So today I put on my first clothes dried by nature, and lo and behold, I didn't notice any difference in them. Except maybe the fact that they smelled better, felt better, and frankly looked better.

I did have to invest some money in the materials for the clothesline. Four 8' 4x4 treated posts and clothesline, but that minimal cost should pay back dividends in the months ahead. As far as construction goes...it was pretty simple. Again, I can not believe we hadn't done this before. It's too bad that T.V. never made hanging your clothes out to dry a cool thing to do. It is, and I feel like I've been missing out.

Re-Volt

It was at the beginning of November 2008 when we decide to get serious about reducing our debt...and in order to do that, we had to get a hold on our monthly expenses. Our electric bill was at the top of the list...so that's where we started. At this time though, I was still truck driving cross country, so what follows is really a testament to Melissa's and Gabrielle's willingness and determination to lower one of our most costly bills.
Our entire house runs on electric; heat, air, lights, well pump. We have two meters. One is the Main meter and the other is called the Dual Heat meter. Only our furnace runs on the Dual Heat meter, and everything else is on the Main. The good part about that is we get a slight discount on the Dual meter. Needless to say, our electric bills were quite high, especially in the winter and the hottest parts of summer when we ran our air conditioner.

One of the first things, and the most important, that Melissa decided to do was turn the thermostat down to 63 degrees, bundle up, and supplement the heat with our fireplace. Of course we had never seriously used the fireplace before...it was more for decoration and mood, so there was not exactly a lot of wood laying around for her to burn. Luckily, I had a few days off and was able to cut up some wood before I hit the road again.
Yes it was cold. The fireplace did an ok job of warming the living room, but the rest of the house was quite chilly. Yet, my wife and daughter persevered; extra clothes, big comfy blankets...and very rapidly the electric bill began to plummet.

The second thing we discussed and put into action was our appliances and such. We of course switched all our light bulbs over to CFLs...and then we started doing some in depth research on other ways we could save when it came to our appliances. Most of them (fridge, oven, washer...etc) are older models and there was no way we could replace them with newer, more energy efficient ones, so we had to find a way to deal with what we had.
I looked into the water heater and learned that we only needed to have ours set at 120 degrees. The installer had ours at 130, and with a little turn of a dial I reduced the electric bill. Amazing. One article I read said you could save as much as 6-10% by reducing your temperature setting in this way.
Next was the washer. We always had it set on hot/cold cycle and again...with a flip of a switch...turned it to cold/cold, and set the wash cycle to the quickest setting. I can't be sure how much this has saved us, but using less hot water (hot water heater) and having the washer run for a shorter period has to be doing something. Amazingly, our clothes are just as clean as they where before the changes!
There wasn't too much we could do with the dryer. It was winter and we couldn't hang anything outside to dry even if we had something to hang them on. We did debate unhooking the dryer vent and letting the heat circulate inside the house (another article suggestion), but opted not to do that. However, we did set drying time to 20 minutes and would check the clothes to see if they were done, resetting the time if needed. We used to just put them in for an hour whether the needed that much time or not. Btw, I'm in the process of putting a clothes line up right now...the dryer will be semi-retired very soon.
The dishwasher was easy...we just decided to not use it anymore. There where some conflicting points of view as to whether or not hand washing dishes is more economical then using a dishwasher, but I have no doubts that with judicial use, hand washing is way cheaper than having that machine chugging away. Not to mention our dishes are cleaner now then they ever were before.
Electric can opener...Gone! Seriously, I swear I had more problems using it than the hand held one we use now. Maybe not a huge hit to our electric usage, but now it's not any hit at all.
Refrigerator was next. We had read that a fridge should be 36-40F, and the freezer should be 0-5F. If a fridge is set 10 degrees lower than needed (or freezers set 5 degrees lower than needed), it can increase energy use by as much as 20-25%. Since the fridge is the second largest user of electricity...right behind the air conditioner, we got on this one right away.
With the research we had also learned that having appliances, lamps, TVs, computers, etc...plugged into the wall...even when not on, still used electricity. someone had coined the phase as "Ghost Amps". Apparently, these devices, while plugged in, sit there sucking your hard earned money right from the wall. Solution...we unplug them now when not in use. Some of our stuff, like the entertainment center that has multiple devices in one area, all got plugged into a power strip. That way we can flip just one switch and they all get shut down.
Then there are the other things. We shut off lights when we leave a room, take quicker showers, use towels more than once, watch less TV, use candles, and probably a number of other things I can't think of, because now, in just a short period of time, using less electricity has become second nature to us.

Our electric bill used to run us anywhere between $275 and $350 per month depending on the season. Last year at this time we were using 130 Kwh per day. Almost immediately we saw a savings. The first month we had dropped our daily usage drastically and now we average 70 Kwh per day. For us it's a big difference...our eclectic has been cut in half! Since we wont be using the air conditioner this year we believe that we can get the electric bill down below $100 this summer. When winter comes we'll have a real wood furnace, so hopefully that savings will continue. All that savings and it doesn't really seem like we're doing that much different.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It seems to me...from emails and comments I have received, that there is misinformation floating about. Apparently, there is confusion as to which one of our animals ate our three little chicks. Their untimely demise was bad enough, but to accuse the wrong animal of doing the awful deed is criminal.

The Good:
Maximus...aka The Baby Boy. This seemingly normal toy fox terrier is anything but that. He is a 'Good Boy", and we often shower him with that and other similar types of praise. If fact we strongly believe that Max wants to be a 'Real Boy', and as such would never harm defenseless chickens. In this photo it shows Max leaning in towards the chicks...not in an aggressive manner as those in the media might suggest...no, Max only wanted to kiss them. Verdict: Innocent.

The Bad:
Pretty Kitty...the cat with an identity crisis. He eats dog food, fears the outdoors, acts creepy on most occasions (gaining the new name: Creepy kitty), and is a brutal mouse eliminator. In the winter months nary a mouse survives long. As the weather becomes cold, and the mice seek refuge in our house it is to their folly. Pretty Kitty will not suffer them to live long. So, BAD to mice...didn't give the chicks a second glance. Verdict: Innocent.

The Ugly:
Gypsy...the dog gone wild. Once she was a loving animal that desired staying close to us and enjoy the comforts of home. Now, she seeks to escape at any given chance and attempts to terrorize nature's wild life. It is a constant battle with this wayward dog to keep her out of trouble. Yet, her place with us is secure for we have had her for many years. Her ugly behavior, however, might lead to a fenced in pen and a permanent 'outside dog'. Verdict: Guilty.


All joking aside, Gypsy really is a concern for us. We love her very much, but she is having difficulty finding her place at True North. We've become more vigilant when it comes to her escapes, and we our investigating alternatives to the common chain. Hopefully, very soon, she wont be a worry for us, but a joy like she once was.

The Red Flannel

Back when we first started homesteading, we had so many ideas as stated before in previous posts and of course in the introduction. One of those were to buy only used items where we were able to. Of course clothing is super easy to buy second hand so we began frequenting resale shops often. On our visits to these shops I would try with little avail to get Pat to buy things I thought he might need; work pants, work boots, shirts and flannels. After much convincing, over many days and many stores, he picked a few things, one of which is his red flannel. He said "oh I really don't need it, but whatever it's only a couple bucks, I guess we'll get it". WELL...as you can see in the photos on our blog, the red flannel has become a True North beacon! Pat has definitely taken to heart my re-use and re-wear polices. We love the red flannel!

Little Enlightenment's

We have found that every so often we learn a little something along our journey so we decided to do a regular post titled "Little Enlightenment's". Little Enlightenment's are what we refer to as small tid-bits of things we never knew before. Most are not of great importance but are none the less something we learned along the journey. Last weeks EL's were the following:

1) Sap is hard to get off of your hands! Note to self: put your gloves on before you pick up evergreen branches.

2)Pigs like evergreen branches. Who would have thought they would eat the branch and all!

3)Bird feeders get a hard clump of food in the bottom of the feeder, so clean it out! The seed doesn't fall very good if you don't. Then you can't watch the birds while you drink your coffee every morning...lol

Thank You

I want to personally thank all of those who have recently visited and commented to our blog. Since the publishing of the article in USA Today, the response from friends around the world via comments and emails have been overwhelming and truly heartfelt. It means a lot to us that you have taken the time to read our stories and share yours as well. We plan to visit each and everyone of your blogs and try to respond to all that have taken the time to comment to us. Thanks to you all for your support of our little journey.

An Unexpected Path In Our Journey

About two weeks ago I received an email from Judy Keen, a reporter from USA Today, requesting an interview. She said she had found our Blog while researching for an article she was planning on writing; an article that would, amongst other things, show how some people might be changing their lifestyles due to the economic situation in America. Although our decision to begin our self sufficient journey had less to do with America’s economic position and more to do with our personal choices on how we wanted to live as a family…it was a factor, no doubt.
Out of curiosity I ‘googled’ Judy Keen. At this point we weren’t even considering doing the interview, but we wanted to see who this reporter was. We didn’t have to look very deep. Nothing alarmed me though…she’s been in the business for some time, had some pics with past presidents, and, although naive on my part, it seemed she had a kind face. So, after a few cups of coffee, and some discussion, we decided I should give her a call and see what this was all about.

To make a long story short, we obviously agreed to do the interview, and let a photographer into our home. Why? Well, after long and lengthy conversations between me, Melissa, and Gabrielle…we came to a decision.
When we first started considering changing our lifestyle we did a lot of research on the internet…homesteading forums, Blogs, ebooks… and what we found was an entire network of people and families that were either doing what we wanted to do or were on the verge of making some serious changes in their lives. Their reasons for doing this were as varied as the people, but ultimately we discovered that we weren’t alone. We weren’t crazy. Other had come before us and succeeded. It gave us hope and inspiration, and still does! So, I guess we hoped that maybe we could give some of that back. I know it sounds cheesy and dramatic, but honestly it’s how we feel.

In the end, I think Judy Keen did a fine job with the article. The responses from it, and our Blog, have been great! People from all walks of life have been emailing us and leaving comments…

I had thought that maybe we could give others inspiration and hope, but as it turns out…it was all of you that gave it to us. Your kind words and insightful thoughts have been taken to heart. Thank you.

You can find the article here.

Ps. Thanks to the person that left the comment that this was 'The Wojtowicz's free family fun day'. Brought smiles to our faces.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Unfortunately we had our first animal tragedy. Our 3 baby chicks are all gone. Gypsy our dog decided they were not a part of the pack, like we hoped she would think. Instead, instincts took over and she ate all 3. It was very sad for us all, but a learning experience none the less. We are still planning to get the 3 larger laying hens, but are undecided on whether to get babies again.