I have enjoyed reading the Dollar Stretcher for several years and am thrilled that Pat is associated with it!  I believe this will be a good "marriage" for both parties!

We have a house on two acres in a "country" subdivision about 35 miles from Houston.  Through the years, we have fed-out a hog, bottle-fed a calf, raised turkeys, and kept chickens; all of these projects were for the sole purpose of feeding a large family.  We have raised a garden and also willingly accepted the generosity of others sharing their garden's bounty.  We have also harvested dewberries (wild blackberries) which grow all over the fence rows and road sides here in southeast Texas.

Yesterday, we were blessed with the gift of 20 broilers (chickens) ready to butcher.  The owners' kids had raised them as a 4-H/AG project and the ones I received were the culls (not show quality).  So....Good Friday will be the day and then we will be enjoying fresh chicken BBQ for our Easter Sunday lunch.

If your family doesn't mind doing the work of butchering your own meat, there are a lot of parents who are looking for a place to send the 4-H projects.  The folks I talked to yesterday said the best price they could get for butchering a chicken was $5.75 per broiler; they didn't want to butcher themselves, so were willing to give them away.  Call your local high school's AG department and talk to the head AG teacher or ask at the feed store about these meat projects.

Oh thank you for mentioning this Kris. I'll have to check to see if they reduce prices later in the day and what they do when produce starts getting wilted.

I do many of the things mentioned here . I also hang dry most of my clothing year round . I have a big dryer rack upstairs and that's what I use .

I thought that was you Pat !! I used to read your blog all the time and wondered what happened to you . I am glad to see you here .

I have been reading the Dollar Stretcher for years but just found this message board . I love this site !!

heatherd:

I thought that was you Pat !! I used to read your blog all the time and wondered what happened to you . I am glad to see you here .

I have been reading the Dollar Stretcher for years but just found this message board . I love this site !!

The message board is brand new. I think it's a great addition to the Dollar Stretcher!

Hi Michele,

 Have you considered by-passing your gray water (rinse water) to an outdoor tank?  I have read that you can use the gray water for watering your lawn/plants with.  It might be worth looking into.  I do anywhere from 2-3 loads a day.  There are some appliances I just cannot do without and a laundry machine is one of them!  I do hang the wash out in the summer months but my hands can't take the extreme cold or I would do it year-round.  My dh installed a filter on our dryer so the air gets diverted into the house.  It helps with the humidy level in the dry winter and also gives our heater and woodstove a rest.  I have to make sure I change the filter daily but the warm air from the dryer helps our heating bill.

Bonnie

bonniejil:

Hi Michele,

 Have you considered by-passing your gray water (rinse water) to an outdoor tank?  I have read that you can use the gray water for watering your lawn/plants with.

Bonnie

Greywater can indeed be used in your garden and many households here are installing systems to use it. Its worth doing your research on though for safety - for example greywater can only be stored for 24 hours at the most. Even relatively 'clean' greywater  - eg from clothes rinses - can be contaminated and bacteria can grow quickly, so its best to use it straight away.

My relatives who live in an area with very tight water restrictions (no lawn watering allowed at all, ever) keep a bucket in their shower which they put on the garden. 

 I have heard of homes with miniature 'wetlands' gardens making a natural water recycling system. Pretty amazing.  

Currently I have my own wetlands alright.....a pond over my septic lids whenever I do wash LOL! Or like now, when there is alot of moisture from snow runoff.

We are looking at 2 options:

1. For $450-$500 at Menards dh will get all the needed materials to add plastic tunnel chambers to the existing tree-root-filled drain field. (aside from our house, buildings, and garden, it is ALL pines) This should help the septic drain into the drain field like it should.

2. For unknown price, dh can dig a very large hole in the ground, line it with cinder blocks, and pipe just the washing machine into it. We have sandy, not clay, soil, so it should drain fairly well. We have the cinder blocks, and we have a decent hole started by a pine that dh cut down (it fell on the house but that's another story) and pulled the large stump out with the tractor.

To salvage the washing water, I wonder how big of an outdoor tank I would need? How many gallons between wash and rinse does an automatic pump out?

WE were very broke for a few years.had $30,000 of medical bills.

There was a store that sold can food with out the lables for 10cents a can.

We ate a lot of strange things. We learned to identfy a lot of food by the sound when you

shook the can. Of course, soup were easy, pineapple , the odd shapes. My kids had

a lot of laughs from our meals. We also were getting free bread from church. They would sit down to eat and say Mom please dont tell us how much this meal cost.

The cool thing was that recently ,by oldest son was speaking in church. He told the congregation this story and shared how he had learned to be thnkful for everything by our daily discussion about how we had recieved our food.

So this is kind of corn cob living! 

Cinnamonhuskies:

To salvage the washing water, I wonder how big of an outdoor tank I would need? How many gallons between wash and rinse does an automatic pump out?

How many gallons depends on your machine. Unless yours is an Energy Star qualified washing machine, it will probably use about 40 gallons to wash a load, including rinsing. Those qualified for Energy Star ratings will be less, but it should be in your manual, either way.