It has been a relatively quiet month here on my hobby farm. My main point of focus was:

Ducks

At the end of September, my little brother helped me hatch two baby ducks (there were a lot more eggs, but only two hatched). I kept them inside until they got SO messy that I was changing the bedding every single day. What it was, is that ducks fling water all over the place to clean themselves. At that time, I decided to move the ducks outside. They have started life with the "big ducks" and transitioned pretty well at this point.

What's true with little ducks is also true with big ducks. They make a huge mess! Because the ducks dirty up my poultry water every day, I have to change it every day. One of the challenges of having ducks was coming up with a watering system that didn't involve a lot of water-dumping, mud creating, hose-dragging and time spent every day trying to get them some clean water.

What I came up with is a bucket system. I have four five-gallon buckets (with lids) lined up beside the black water tub. Once every five days I fill up all of the buckets AND the black tub. Then for the next four days I dump the dirty water out of the black tub and replace it with clean water from one of the buckets. This saves me at least 15 minutes every day. 

My "baby" ducks also have a little chick friend! One of our chickens hatched out a little chick, and was taking care of it very well until we found the chick by itself several nights in a row. The first night it was riding around on the back of our goat! Then we found it in some other places, and decided it would be happier and safer with the little ducks. They've grown to be great friends. It's hard to believe that the ducks were this small:

 The baby ducks are almost six weeks old now and you can hardly tell them from the adult ducks. I've never seen a farm animal grow so fast.

We did finally end up butchering one of our older drakes (male ducks). There were two drakes to two females, which is not a good ratio, so it was better that the second drake go in the freezer. The processing was much easier to do than I thought. It took Hubs and I about 90 minutes to complete the duck, but we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the insides should be removed. For plucking, we first dry-plucked the larger feathers. Then we dunked the downy duck into a pot of hot water with melted paraffin wax on top. After dunking, I dipped the duck into a bucket of very cold water in order to harden the wax. Then we peeled the layer of wax off, and out came nearly all of the downy feathers. It was a very simple but effective process. I used two blocks of Gulf canning wax for one duck. Two problems we ran into were 1) areas that didn't have enough wax, or 2) areas where we had pulled too many down feathers and the wax had nothing to grab. Next time I will try to more thoroughly dunk the duck, and leave more of the down feathers on.


Chickens

As the weather gets colder and warmer, so egg production goes up and down. In October we got anywhere from two to eight eggs per day. Right now they are giving between three and four eggs per day. One of the frugal hobby farm things I did in October was clean out the chicken coop. Litter went in the garden, and then I used free sawdust from Hubs' shop to replace the bedding.


Goats

Adi and Barry are doing well. They are working on eating down the pasture, bit by bit. I'm so happy that there are only two of them, because there will be plenty of pasture until it snows. I am watching each paddock to see when I should start feeding hay.

Another thing I am doing is making tree hay. This year I hung a clothesline out in the barn, complete with clothespins, and I use this to dry different weeds and plants. Some things I have dried to feed the goats this winter are sumac, curly dock, willow branches and raspberry canes/leaves.

This month I bought an ebook that I thought might help me lower my winter goat feed bill. 

The book was inexpensive at $1.99, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I did learn a few new things; for example, not to feed goats anything from the nightshade family. I also learned about feeding stover, which is leftover stalks and leaves of corn and sorghum plants. The author included a lengthy list of edible warm-weather plants for goats, and a shorter list of cool weather plants. She also included a list of plants that can be foraged for goats. She goes over sprouting grains for goats and added a list for that as well. Lastly, she briefly mentions hydroponic fodder, but notes that she has not actually tried it.

What I am looking for are ways to feed my goats during the winter. The lists in this book were nice, but I have seen many of them on other websites, and there are Youtube channels that can show you how to make sprouting or fodder systems. About one third of the book was glossary and back matter, which was kind of a bummer. However, if you are interested in any of these topics, $1.99 isn't to bad of a price to have it in an ebook.

Profit & Loss

Expenses:
100 lbs. layer mash- $22.00
200 lbs. shelled corn- $22.00
Gardening for Goats ebook- $1.99
Total expenses: $45.99

Income:
Eggs- $10.00

Total net profit: -$35.99

Year-To-Date net profit: $425.26

Now it's time to see if my $425.00 can last until April!! 

After stocking up last month, I'm pretty sure the corn and layer mash I have now will last through the end of the year. I certainly have enough goat feed to get through December as well.

More Ways I Plan on Saving:

1. Feeding my goats the tree hay I've collected and dried for them.
2. Processing most of the roosters and some non-laying birds.
3. Building a fodder system for the chickens. It's the chickens- not the goats- that will probably eat a lot of my profits over the winter.

I've decided to pause my Etsy store for now, because I didn't get any sales this year from it. I've never been able to sell handmade items on Etsy, although I have sold a few antiques and/or vintage items. In addition to that, the listing process takes a very long time, and I end up paying a fee even if the item doesn't sell. Ebay is much better for me because it is free to list, easier to list (it's like having a garage sale vs. a retail store) and I can actually sell stuff on that platform.


Should the Hobby Farm Earn an Income?

Based on past experiments, it is easier and faster for me to make money selling garage sale items on Ebay than it is to sell handmade items at farmers markets. 1) I don't have to make the items. 2) I don't have to pay to sell the items. I love having a hobby farm and I love making things, but the money-making part is just not efficient.

I like the farmers market model because I can sell excess "stuff" from the homestead (whether that be produce, soap, baked goods or books) and it's an easy way to make $50.00 per week while cutting down on household waste. However, it's not worth my time to be making things especially for the farmers market. I figured that out last year. Between 30% and 40% of my market profits are automatically subtracted for things like gas, booth fee, and costs of goods sold.

Example: Selling vs. Saving with Apple Pie

I can make an apple pie at home in a glass reusable pie pan for $1.47. Let's say that a decent bakery pie costs $10.00. If it takes an hour for me to make the pie, that means I can save $8.53 per hour making apple pie.

Hey! If I can save that much money making pie, I should try selling some, right? So I take the same pie to a farmers market. Instead of costing $1.47, the ingredients cost $2.39 because I have to use a disposable pie pan and pie box. In addition to those costs, I also have the booth fee ($20.00 divided by 20 items = $1.00). If it takes me an hour to bake the pie and 20 minutes to sell the pie (6+ hours divided by 20 items = 20 minutes), that means I'm earning $4.97 per hour selling pie.

As you can see, I'm losing $3.56 per hour by selling the pie instead of just serving it for Thanksgiving dinner.


Faster, Easier Earning with Garage Sales

The internet model, however, is much more efficient. Even if I sell something small, like a used book, the workload is much less. There is no waste. First, I list the book on Amazon. It can stay there for a week or six months, and I don't have to pay to keep it up. When the item sells, I get an email, print out the postage, wrap it up in some recycled packing material, and pop it in the mail box. Sometimes I have to mail the item from the post office, but that can be done while we are already going to town for something else. With this model, I spend about 15 minutes total, and earn anywhere from $2.00 to $8.00. That's between $8.00 and $32.00 per hour. At the farmers market I have never made more than $5.00 per hour.

Though it has been fun trying to earn some money with my hobby farm, and I know from experience that it can support itself, I can make easier money (and more of it!) by selling non-farm products. I could sell just a couple of things on Ebay or Craigslist every month, and support my hobby farm that way. Or, I could give one 30 minute piano lesson per week.


Hobby Farming to Save, Not Earn

Let's think about that apple pie. If I keep my pie-making at home, I "earn" $8.53 per hour instead of $4.97. That's a 43% increase. And technically I should be paying taxes for everything I sell, but that is not required for items produced and used for your own consumption.

Take what we learned with the apple pie and apply that to bread, granola, soap, cheese, butter, milk, chicken meat, goat meat, eggs, and anything else I can produce here on the hobby farm.

Selling price - $1.00 (booth fee) - selling cost (varies per item) = earnings. 
Earnings divided by hours required to make (+ 20 minutes to sell) = hourly wage.

I could do an entire blog post on this, going through item by item of each thing I sell to figure out if it is really worth selling. You could go through the same calculations for ANYTHING you are interested in selling- crafts, services, used items.

Hourly wage for items produced and consumed inside the home is much simpler. It looks like this:

Cost to buy - cost to make = savings. Savings divided by hours required to make = hourly wage.

I believe that running all DIY projects through this calculator (and comparing it to your hourly wage at work, perhaps) could be the key to determining what is worth your time to do.

But that's kind of getting to another post.
I want some pie!!!

Til next time,
-Bethany

Another frugal week has come and gone!

1. We bought a vacuum cleaner. This will help us keep our rugs and carpets clean easily. I feel like we are at the point financially to where buying more expensive tools (that will a) last a long time and b) save money long term) is something we can do without being unwise. Listening to this podcast kind of confirmed our decision to spend money in that way. I really like the our new vacuum cleaner!

Another thing we bought with the vacuum cleaner was a combination dish soap/scrubbie holder for the sink. It looks a lot nicer than my oversized Ajax bottle, toothbrush and scrubbies all in a pile.

2. I defrosted the freezer. I had been putting it off for a long time, but finally I just decided to get it over with. It took several hours, lots of wet, cold towels and handling of frozen items. Which was pretty miserable. But The freezer was much more cleaned and organized when I got done. This will help me find- and use- freezer items with more efficiency. 

3. I found some random containers of quick breads and cookie dough in the freezer. I baked these in muffin tins and then put them back into the freezer. I'm hoping to use them as easy grab-n-go or road trip food. Using up these containers freed up a lot of space for other items.

I also worked on a little home deco job involving the freezer. There is some more work to finish it, but I'm hoping to post an update next week. :)

4. Used free grass clippings, fallen leaves and chicken litter to top off my raised bed gardens. This year we added two new raised beds, which had to be filled up completely. The others just needed a few alternating layers of grass, leaves and manure to top them off with.

​As I was cleaning things up, I harvested the very last of the tomatoes and peppers from the garden. I also harvested "pumpkin-on-a-stick" fruits to use for home decorating. 

I'm glad I didn't use the Snapfish book for travel photos. Even though it was $4.00 instead of $8.00, I wouldn't get one again. It had the same amount of pages (10) as the Shutterfly book, but the soft cover made the book seem very cheap and flimsy. One mishap and the book will be destroyed. In addition, Snapfish didn't have many attractive cover options, and the pages were thinner than Shutterfly's. 

In the future, I don't think I'll be ordering softcover photo books from ANY of the companies. Out of Walgreens, Snapfish and Shutterfly, Shutterfly was the most user-friendly and produced the most attractive, high-quality photo book out of all three companies. I don't think I will order any more Walgreens books because of the quality. I might try a hardcover Snapfish book if they have a "free" promotion going on, but Shutterfly is still my favorite.

What frugal things did you do this week?

9A couple weeks ago, I finished reading a very good book, written in 1833 by a Mr. William Cobbett. Because it's in the public domain, you can download the Kindle ebook for free here. 

Though a lot of the political issues and some of the activities mentioned in the book are outdate, the basic idea that Mr. Cobbett advocates is not: using a bit of land, skills, and hands-on labor to make the home a place of production, instead of a place only used for consumption.

He speaks of giving your children an education that consists of the following: "to labour with steadiness, with care, and with skill; to show them how to do as many useful things as possible; to teach them to do them all in the best manner; to set them an example in industry, sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness...." As a society, not only have we neglected to bring up children in such a way, but we've neglected to give ourselves the kind of education that Mr. Cobbett talks about in his book.

Some of the "skills" he mentions are brewing beer, making bread, keeping cows, keeping pigs, keeping bees and fowls, braiding straw for hats and bonnets, and a few other skills that I am probably forgetting. He goes into great detail on how to do each thing above; the detail is so great, in fact, that it was a little hard for me to understand or fully appreciate. However, I did learn some new and interesting things.

My chief interest in reading this book was to find some new goat and/or chicken feed ideas, but I got a lot more than that. Keep in mind that the advice was from the 19th century, so...

Bethany's Notes
Here are some notes I took from my Kindle:

"Every farmer will understand me when I say, that he ought to pay for nothing in money, that he can pay for in anything but money." That is, if you can barter for something or do it yourself, don't spend money on it.

Mr. Cobbett includes in the book a plan for growing cabbages and turnips (and/or rutabagas...like I said, the language is a little obsolete) to feed cows for free. In the book he lists proper varieties and planting times for each, and has done the math on how many cabbages and turnips one must plant in order to sustain the cow.

"When young, [ducks] should be fed upon barley-meal, or curds, and kept in a warm place in the night-time, and not let out early in the morning." There is a whole section devoted to duck-raising, which I've been very interested in since I got my first ducks in August.

He says of feeding chickens during the winter:
"...give them very stimulating food; barley boiled, and given them warm; curds, buck-wheat, (which, I believe, is the best thing of all except curds;) parsley and other herbs chopped fine; leeks chopped in the same way; also apples and pears chopped very fine; oats and wheat cribbled; and sometimes [the French] give them hemp-seed, and the seed of nettles; or dried nettles, harvested in summer and boiled in the winter. Some give them ordinary food, and, once a day, toasted bread sopped in wine. White cabbages chopped up are very good in winter for all sorts of poultry."

About the chicken coop: "It is good to fumigate the house frequently by burning dry herbs, juniper wood, cedar wood, or with brimstone; for nothing stands so much in need of cleanliness as a fowl-house, in order to have fine fowls and plenty of eggs."

"Fowls should be put to fat about a fortnight before they are wanted to be killed. The best food is barley-meal wetted with milk, but not wetted too much."

He says about feeding rabbits: "A variety of food is a great thing; and, surely, the fields and gardens and hedges furnish this variety! All sorts of grasses, strawberry-leaves, ivy, dandelions, the hog-weed or wild parsnip, in root, stem, and leaves."

He says about feeding goats: "In summer they picked about wherever they could find grass; and in winter they lived on cabbage-leaves, turnip-peelings, potatoe-peelings, and other things flung out of soldiers' rooms and huts." 

Of furniture: "In household goods, the warm, the strong, the durable, ought always to be kept in view. Oak tables, bedsteads and stools, chairs of oak or  of yew tree, and never a bit of miserable deal board. Things of this sort ought to last several lifetimes."

He says of the factory-culture of 1800's England: "One of the great misfortunes of England at this day is, that the land has had taken away from it those employments for its women and children which were so necessary to the well-being of the agricultural labourer. The spinning, the carding, the reeling, the knitting; these have been all taken away from the land, and given to the Lords of the Loom..."


Applying "Cottage Economy" to the 21st Century

What Mr. Cobbett is trying to say throughout the whole book is "Hey guys! Don't forget that we still have hands! We can make stuff at home, and then we don't have to pay for it. Maybe if we stop depending on the factories for sustenance and re-learn how to do some of this stuff, we can get out of poverty."

And really, I agree. In fact, one of the goals of my blog here is to give you a real-life example of what "cottage economy" looks like in our modern day. Instead of making beer, it might mean growing herbal tea. Instead of dipping rushes for light, it might mean growing miniature pumpkins for decorating. No, I probably won't be platting straw to make Hubs' hat. Probably, but that's not a guarantee.

I'm sure you've noticed that some of my "home economy" projects haven't worked out so well. Making noodles, or my first year of farmers market, for example. Some skills are as obsolete as platting straw, but others are definitely worth learning. I like saving money, but for me it is not just about the money. It's about proving that life as a homemaker is creative, productive and satisfying work. That homemakers can bring wholeness to their families by lowering stress, providing structure in the home and yes- still contributing financially, either by saving or earning.

I don't think it's being at home 24/7 and/or never working for money that makes a difference. It's having the heart of a homemaker that really counts. Some people say, "I don't have time to cook/clean/decorate/etc.", but where there's a will, there's a way. In our day and age, housewives can earn quite a bit of money from home (or even work outside the home a bit) and still be homemakers. Thank you to whoever invented dishwashers and washing machines, right?! Instead of just being a place to sleep and watch TV over microwave dinners, let's make home something memorable and financially viable. 


Last Words From Mr. Cobbett

I'll leave you all with this quotable: "...the way to make [your] daughters to be long admired, beloved and respected by their husbands, is to make them skillful, able and active in the most necessary concerns of a family." 

;)

​-Bethany

Hello everyone! Last week went very well for me in the way of frugal accomplishments.

1. Line dried one load of laundry. 

2. Sold 1 dozen eggs.

3. Ordered a free Snapfish 5 x 7 photo book. Last weekend they ran a promotion for a free softcover 5 x 7" photo book. Because the book was smaller, and not hardcover, I decided to do a little "Renaissance Farm" album to take to farmers markets instead of making a travel album.

Though the $13.00 book was free, I still had to pay $4.00 for shipping. I'm excited to see how this one turns out compared to the Walgreens and Shutterfly albums I've ordered in the past.

4. Sold my new book on Amazon! While we were gone on our trip to Wisconsin, I did a free book promotion in order to get some reviews and downloads of my new book, The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food. On Monday the promotion was over, but sales have still kept coming. During last week I kept track of the book's Amazon rankings. These are updated every hour, but I just checked them once or twice a day. On Saturday, the book hit #4 in Kindle Store > Budgeting, #5 in Books > Budget Cooking and #23 in Books > Budgeting and Money Management. That was VERY cool!!! 

Thank you SO much to all of you who left reviews. Each review helps the book's visibility in Amazon search engines, which means more people will be able to find and read it. 

5. Collected pop cans to recycle while walking/biking.

6. My order of Frugal Food print books came in the mail! I saved the packing paper to use for packaging material.

7. Listed two things on Ebay, and some more used books on Amazon. 

8. I did a lot of cleaning this week. I started following my friend Esther's cleaning schedule, which has been a big help. Last week I just did the basics (picking up/dusting/windows/etc.), but this week the rooms will be decently clean already, so I can work on more deep cleaning and organizing. This is dreadfully needed, because with harvest time, farmers market, book release and then travel, my poor house has been neglected.

9. Started using an RSS feed reader. This is kind of an obvious thing to do, but up until last week I was still going to each of my favorite 7-8 blogs individually and looking for new content. What a waste of time! Now I get a notification if one of them posts and update. I will never miss a single post this way, but nor will I waste time checking for new posts or binge-reading old posts.

10. Made quiche with leftovers and extra eggs. In early October our chickens really slacked off on egg production, and I barely had enough eggs for my customers, let alone any for us. I cut down to only selling a dozen eggs every week. Now we have a good amount of eggs every to use, which makes me super happy.

For lunch one day, I tried making quiche (recipe in the back of my book) with our Vitamix blender. It worked wonderfully. After blending the eggs, milk, flour, cheese and spices, I added the veggies and just pulsed it a few times to mix them in. Then I poured the mixture into a greased pan and added some leftover taco meat by hand.

In addition to being tasty, it only took me 15 minutes to mix up, and the recipe made enough quiche for at least three meals. That is five minutes per meal!! We ate all that we could for lunch, then some the next day, and I froze what was leftover (enough for one more meal). This is definitely one dish that is going on the fall/winter menu plan.

11. My sister and I found a bunch of tea on sale at Walmart from between $0.90 and $1.25 per box. Tea is one of the packaged "luxuries" that I spend some of my grocery money on when it goes on sale. Though I do grow my own herbal tea and that is cheaper, the hourly wage is only $2.40/hr. That means it is more worth my time to grow garlic, sell stuff on Ebay, write books, make yogurt or even make cloth napkins than it is to dry and package herbs to be used as tea.

I ended up buying four boxes for myself and a box for my mom, who also likes tea. The boxes were at LEAST 50% off, if not more. I bought two kinds of chai, one cinnamon-apple flavored herbal, and one herbal cocoa-flavored tea. 

12. Ordered a book from the library interloan system.

13. Hubs and I watched a docu-drama series on Amazon Prime about John Adams. I am not a huge fan of TV, but I'm a sucker for a good documentary. I especially liked this one because it was based off David McCullough's book, which I was able to finish last year. I don't like TV because most of it is a waste of time, but it takes far longer to read a book than it does to watch a documentary. We spent about 8.5 hours watching the miniseries, but I probably spent at least TWICE that amount of time reading the biography. While a few of the historical facts were incorrect (John's relationship with his son was over-dramatized, Nabby was diagnosed with cancer ten years early), the basic ideas were still the same. 

Hubs has Amazon Prime for shipping business stuff, so watching the movies are a nice, free side-benefit for us. It saves about $10.00 per month not paying for a subscription service like Hulu or Netflix.

14. Brought in tomatoes and green peppers from the garden, and made acorn squash soup from an acorn I found out there. Also started cleaning up and refilling some of my raised beds with organic matter.

Whew! I think that's it!

What were some of your accomplishments this week?​

Why Not Just Camp in a Tent?

Tent camping is great if you like pretending you're homeless. Just kidding. Some people really enjoy tent camping, and I think that is a very frugal option, too. I've just had too many cold/rainy tent camping experiences to enjoy that kind of thing. Plus there is not a lot of privacy in a tent. In addition to that, my left leg tends to cramp up on long car drives. This makes travel- something Hubs and I generally enjoy- very uncomfortable for me at times.

We are hoping that the RV will pay off in several ways.

1. It will make long drives (and cold nights!) more comfortable.
2. It will make overnight lodging cheaper and easier.
3. It will make spontaneous trips occur more often.

Boondocking

​This year we have used the RV on three separate occasions. "RV living" is an art that we are learning little by little. Last weekend our new adventure was "boondocking", or parking for free overnight. Generally this means finding a rest area or Walmart parking lot- both of which are pretty common. You can also stay on private property by contacting the owners through various boondocking sites online.

Over the weekend we stayed at two rest areas and two Walmart parking lots. The only problem we had was the bright lights shining in our windows and preventing somebody (it wasn't Hubs) from sleeping. By choosing a secluded spot, parking the RV in the opposite direction of the light and covering one window with a hoodie, we were able to keep it pretty dark.

Both areas had pros and cons. The rest areas were nice because bathrooms were close by. The Walmarts were nice because... well, we could buy whatever we needed. One night it was a dress shirt for Hubs, and the other night it was a pair of boots for myself... because somebody (it wasn't Hubs) left their tennis shoes with the in-laws and didn't want to hike trails in high heels.

Campgrounds are nice, but they often cost between $20.00 and $30.00 per night. By boondocking, we were able to save at least $80.00 on our trip. By not staying at hotels, we were able to save at least $80.00 per night.

Food Savings

During the entire five-day trip, we made two stops at McDonalds (under $8.00 per stop) and the last night we did eat dinner at a Big Boy restaurant in St. Ignace. When we got there, the line was SUPER long! We wondered what in the world was going on, but I really wanted to have the salad bar, so we waited. After a while, we realized that they were having an all-you-can-eat crab buffet that night. The special crab buffet was $19.00 per person and we are not big seafood lovers, so we decided to still just go with the regular buffet.

When we were finally seated, our waitress apologized for the long wait, and also apologized to us that the crab was almost gone. However, the buffet price would go back to normal because there was not a lot left. So we both got the buffet as originally planned. There were actually quite a few crab legs left, so we both got some to try before heading back to the table. I thought they were very good. So, that was kind of cool.

Apart from not eating out for breakfast, lunch and some dinners, we saved a lot of money by not purchasing gas station food. Sometimes one of us (it isn't Hubs) has a "food scarcity" mindset when they are away from home, which makes them want to buy food everywhere they go. Weird, I know. However, with the RV I know that we always have food stocked in case I get hungry. Hubs has also been known to buy gas station food because it's easy, so the RV "food stash" is beneficial for both of us. 

For breakfast, we had fried eggs and/or instant oatmeal. I picked these foods because they are easy to make and don't require refrigeration (eggs are fine un-refrigerated for a few days).

For lunch, dinner, and snacks, we basically just ate junk food- chips, candy, organic cheese crackers, organic oreos, cheese puffs- all things I got at the bent 'n' dent or dollar store. We did buy a pound of cheese curds at one of the gas stations, along with two bananas. We decided not to use the refrigerator for this trip, which meant I didn't bring any meat, dairy, or produce. By the end of our trip, we were both craving "real" food.

I know I could have made some pasta/canned meat meals over the stove, while Hubs was driving. I didn't, though, because the thought of hot liquids and an open flame in that bumpy RV scared me. I am going to do a little more research before our next trip, so we can eat healthier while on the road. I know many people use a pressure cooker for RV meals, which would be a lot safer than cooking in an open pot. 

The Motorhome Makes Planning A Breeze

Neither of us are great travel planners. Having an RV is nice because we don't have to worry about finding lodging. It also helps in the meal planning/shopping department, because I can stock an "RV pantry" (when we are NOT camping) that is all ready to go at a moment's notice. Lastly, I can keep the RV permanently packed with a lot of our camping gear (mosquito spray, matches, flashlight, etc.). This will save time when we do decide to go somewhere.

One thing I would like to do, as mentioned before, is make an RV menu plan (or at least a list of meals) that we can use while on the road. This will save a lot of money and also keep us healthy and functioning at our best.

RVing as Long Term Frugality

If Hubs and I can eat for our normal $2.00-$3.00 per day and park the RV at night for free, all of the travel money can be spent on gas and/or sightseeing. Because the RV gets an impressive 13-14 miles per gallon*, $75.00 will take us anywhere in the state and back. As for sightseeing last week, most of it was done at state parks. There are a LOT of really cool state parks in Michigan! They are all free to visit for anyone who has the  $12.00/yr "passport" sticker on their license plate.

Earlier in the year, we did an overnight getaway. By the time we added up the cost of a decent hotel ($100.00) plus dinner ($40.00) plus gas ($20.00), the trip cost us $80.00 per day. That did not count costs of sightseeing or buying snacks. With the RV, we could have made the same trip for $20.00 per day. Of course the lodging wouldn't be quite as nice (and no cable TV!), but we are talking about saving 75% by using the RV. You could take FOUR motorhome trips for the price of one car & hotel trip.

We are hoping that our little Toyota will allow us (and force us!) to do more traveling and less forking over of cash. We'll see. 

-Bethany

*Note: The only personal vehicle we use for long-distance travel is a large truck. As you can imagine, this burns almost as much fuel as the motorhome. In the past year or so, the truck has been used much more for business purposes, and sometimes it is not available for Hubs and I to use. Because of the gas mileage and business, in the past we have rented cars to take on road trips. Driving the RV instead will cut out this cost entirely.

Last week we had planned a little RV trip up north to see some of the fall colors on Friday and Saturday. 

On Monday, however, we found out that Hubs' grandpa in Wisconsin had died. We decided right away to make it to the funeral, and later Hubs really wanted to be there for the visitation as well. So instead of leaving on Friday as originally planned, we packed up the RV and headed out Wednesday morning.

As it turned out, the funeral timing worked in our favor. Instead of making a puny 2-3 hour trip up north, we decided to leave the funeral and head north, coming back home through Michigan's Upper Peninsula, taking our time and stopping to see some things along the way.

My First Amish Funeral

So, if you are reading this and are not related to me, you have probably never been to an Amish funeral. 

The dynamics between Amish, ex-Amish and "English" people can be a little weird. Every community is probably different, and each family is probably different. Depending on the time and circumstances, one ex-Amish will be welcome to eat a meal with the Amish family, and another won't even be let in the house.

For this funeral, we (the no-longer-Amish family members and their spouses) were allowed to attend the viewing and visitation but had our own separate place to eat and/or sit for the service. For example, instead of going through the buffet line like everyone else, we had our plates brought to us already filled with food. Which was kind of nice, actually.

Visitation

The funeral and visitation were held in a relative's shop. They sectioned a small corner of the shop off with laundry line and bed sheets (fastened by clothes pins) and put the open casket in this area for viewing. So right as we walked in, there was a guest book to the left, and the casket to the right. After a quick look (nobody cried over the casket, as far as I could tell), we walked out of the little room and into the larger shop. Just past the casket, the little room opened up and we started to walk down a long line of family members to our left and right. Hubs shook hands and greeted some of them, so I followed suit. After we made our way through the line, we found a spot to sit on the hard wooden benches several rows back, with other family members. All of the benches were facing toward the front of the shop (where the line of relatives was) but there was really nothing to look at, because the casket was in the little bed sheet room in the corner. So we just sat there and talked quietly among ourselves... for several hours.

After a few hours, a bearded man came in and started to say something. Of course, the entire funeral/visitation service and most of the conversation was in the Pennsylvania Dutch language, so I couldn't understand it. Hubs did a little bit of translating for me. All of a sudden he stopped and whispered, "Oh.. be prepared to kneel."

No more than 10 seconds later, the guy in charge stopped talking and every single person turned around to kneel. This was not like the Catholic kneeling where they have nice little cushion things for your knees. Quick, I turned around with everybody else and folded my hands over where my backside had just been sitting. The cement floor was cold and hard on my knees. I peeked around me and noticed that some of the folks were hanging over the benches.

The prayer went on.. and on... and on. It reminded me of a cross between Gregorian chants and an auctioneer selling something. Mostly monotone, with a touch of sing-sing-y rhythm. And of course, it was in words I couldn't understand. I got tired of nicely kneeling and leaned forward on the bench. I could see the grains of mud and sand on the boot of the Amish man in front of me. I felt kind of weird to have my head so close to someone else's rear.

After the prayer, the "service" was pretty much done for the night and after some chatting with cousins, Hubs and I left.

The Funeral

The funeral was a little different than the viewing because more ex-Amish family members had come and we had our own little area of segregated seating for the "shunned"/English relatives. I did not see any other English people at the funeral service besides us.

The casket was placed, this time, in the middle of shop, with all benches facing toward it. At least we had something to look at! After the family had been seated, non-relatives started filing in, segregated by age and gender. It was estimated that between 500 and 600 were in attendance, stuffed into the shop.

When the funeral started, promptly at 9:00 am, one of the elders stood up to talk. As always, I couldn't understand 99% of what he said. Hubs was did a little bit of translating, and during the rest of the time I marveled at how many Amish people could fit in the little shop. I watched people go in and out with their children, counted how many people were sleeping (it was actually quite a few) and thought about how strange it was for me to be there. 

And then, a couple hours later, came the prayer. This time, I was ready.

I won't snitch on who took the picture, but let's just say there was more than one phone whipped out at this time*. 

After the prayer, people made their way past the casket. I don't remember which order they went in, but it was still age and gender segregated for non-relative guests. The younger folks walked by the body quickly, but as the line got older, more people slowed down or even paused before returning back to their seats.

Finally, the family members were allowed to view the body one last time. First the more distant relatives walked by, then we walked by, and then the Amish family members (children and grandchildren) were allowed the privilege of going last. The procession and funeral seemed very mechanical to me up until this point, but I was almost relieved to see a few tears shed by the closer family members.

Then the casket was closed and carried out by the pall-bearers. They put it on a special hearse buggy- basically a buggy with an extended back end, like a pickup truck.

My Six Hours of Fame

Before we ever arrived at the funeral, Hubs warned me that we would be stared at. A lot. Every time we drove out or in, it seemed, there was a group of 10 or so Amish boys standing around gaping. When we met with the other non-Amish relatives, we could see some more Amish staring at us from behind a buggy. As we walked through the crowd of people and into the shop, little tykes holding onto mama's hand stared, and their heads turned with us as we walked by. I never felt so much like royalty!! 

As we pulled out of the driveway to leave, a group of boys stood in the yard, watching. I waved, and Hubs rolled down the window. Before he could say anything, one of the older boys called out, "Put the ped-al to the met-al!" in a heavy Dutch accent. 

So we did... as much as possible with a 1986 Toyota motorhome.

Second Leg of the Trip: The Upper Peninsula

After leaving the Amish, we visited one of my friends in Madison, and then headed up to the U.P. The scenery was beautiful! We were able to stop at several tourist-y areas on the way home. Our first stop was Fayette, a ghost town. Originally the town was started by an iron company. 

By the time we got to Fayette, the sun was setting and the visitor's center had closed. However, we were still able to walk around the buildings and peep in some windows. Most of the buildings were not refinished on the inside and probably not even open during regular hours. It was still pretty cool for a short stop, though.

The next day we headed east toward Tequamenan Falls. On the way, we stopped at Kitch-iti-kipi, Michigan's largest freshwater spring. Because the water was so clear, we were able to see all the way to the bottom of the lake while going across on their little viewing barge. It was fun to see the large fish and "boiling" pools of sand at the bottom of the lake. Then we were off again.

Finally, we arrived at the Falls!

This was one of Hubs' "must see" destinations for this trip. While there, we did some hiking and I bought a book at the gift shop (which was 40% off, because it was the end of the season). We also saw an advertisement for a shipwreck museum. We had considered going to the museum before and decided against it, but Hubs didn't realize it was only 20 minutes away from the falls. So we decided to go see that, as well.

The shipwreck museum was nice, but it was $13.00 per person and we have been spoiled by similar museums that were free to walk through. However, it was still a cool little stop.

I thought the old diving gear was the best. It reminded me of my dad's copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that he read to us when we were kids.

On our final day on "vacation", we stopped at Hartwick Pines State Park in the lower peninsula. It is home to a large area of "old growth" pine trees, as well as a logging museum. I really liked this stop, both for the historical and nature aspects of it. Some of the trees were between 300 and 400 years old.

The heart of the forest was beautiful. The lack of underbrush and very tall trees made me feel like I was in Lothlorien (that's from the Lord of the Rings, for those of you who don't know).

After the Pines, we headed home for good. It was a great trip!!

Note: we did do some frugal things on this trip, but I didn't want to clutter up the post with frugal accomplishments. So I will post those on Wednesday, Lord willing... hopefully we won't have to attend another funeral this week!

​-Bethany

*Interesting fact: Amish don't always obey the rules, either. Some of them actually take pretty good Facebook selfies. 

One of my major accomplishments for last week- nay, for this entire year- was giving a talk for my local garden club about foraging wild edibles. I spent a good part of Monday working on the talk. On Tuesday we went to the state capitol to hear Franklin Graham talk about the upcoming elections. Wednesday, as well as Thursday, were spent cleaning out the garden and working on my foraging talk. I was nervous because it was my first public talk ever, and I wanted to be very prepared.

As it turns out, the talk on Thursday night went great! I'd be the last person to consider myself a natural speaker, but you know. Practice makes... better. I got through the talk without any major fumbles or forgetting important points. My favorite part of the talk was the question and answer session at the end. It was fun to hear the other ladies' stories and experiences with wild edibles.

I was hoping to get my book finished before this talk, and I did... mostly. I was able to rush-order my proof copy to use as a display, and take pre-orders at the meeting. I ended up selling quite a few books that way, and adding a lot of names to my email newsletter list. The final, final edits of the book were finished over the weekend, and my first order will be shipped out within a week. Almost half of those books will go back to the garden club ladies at their next meeting in November.

So, that was kind of cool.


Grocery Shopping & Meals

In the frugal meal department: we ate a lot of leftovers last week. We ended up eating out once, and also buying some chips and a box of ice cream that were on sale. And a box of Wheat Thins that I used for the garden club talk. Unfortunately I didn't keep track of our meals as well this week, and my planner ran out of pages so I didn't keep track of frugal accomplishments, either.


Coleslaw: Frugalness of the Week

One neat thing I learned how to do this week was make coleslaw with the Vitamix. I cut the cabbage into small wedges, and then used the "wet chop" technique to cut it into tiny pieces. I did the same thing with the carrots, and then made a simple dressing with mayo, sugar, vinegar, celery seeds, salt and pepper. I was very happy with the finished product.

My recipe made enough slaw for a potluck and also two meals for Hubs and I. Total cost was $1.72; $0.89 for the cabbage, $0.21 for the carrot, $0.40 for the celery seed, and $0.22 for the other ingredients. I am going to try a frugal version without celery seeds, and a healthy version sweetened with honey instead of sugar, and then perhaps post the recipe on here. 

Some other things I did this week: rode my bike and picked up aluminum cans to recycle, got a bunch of stuff at a "free" church rummage sale, used homemade jelly and soap as part of a housewarming gift, and collected tree hay to dry for my goats.

Til next time,
-Bethany 

Frugal Accomplishments: 

1. Sold 2 dozen eggs.

2. Returned $12.30 worth of pop cans.

3. Made five pints of applesauce.

4. Harvested beans, peppers and mint.

5. Dried the mint to make tea with.

6. Used a 50% off coupon at Joanns to buy glue sticks for my hot glue gun. I saved about $4.00.

7. Finished formatting my book for print and ebook format! I ordered a proof of the physical copy just to make sure everything is okay before I have a bunch printed.

**************

If you remember, last week I bought a few basic groceries- milk, eggs, cabbage, onions and carrots. I still have most of the milk, cabbage, and onions left. 

Meals Last Week:

1. Breakfast for the most part was skipped by Hubs, and I had two scrambled eggs (a total of $0.28 for the two) many days last week. There may have been a day or two where Hubs had yogurt and/or granola. The granola was technically free because it is leftover from the farmers market, and the cost to produce it has been covered in those expenses.

2. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I used some apple cider that we got for my birthday to make mulled hot cider. It cost $1.00 per quart (we used one quart per day) and the spices cost about $0.25. Generally we try not to buy beverages, and that is why! During those three days we spent more on cider than dinner.

3. For Monday's lunch I made "leftover chili" with some leftovers from the freezer, plus one jar of homemade enchilada sauce ($0.10), one jar of home-canned beans ($0.35), a little bit of molasses for flavor ($0.05) and homemade chili powder seasoning (free). I served it with some sour cream and homemade cheese ($0.20). Total cost for this meal was $0.70.

4. For dinner on Monday I made pumpkin soup. I used a free pumpkin, free broth from the freezer, a bit of onion, 1/3 cup or so of sausage from the discount store, peppers from the garden and a little bit of flour for thickener, with salt and pepper for seasoning. It turned out very good. I estimate the cost for this meal around $0.56; the cost of the onion, sausage and flour.

5. On Tuesday my sister came over to visit. We had to run some errands, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to cook. I decided to make a stroganoff dish for lunch with canned venison chunk meat, seasoning and pasta from the bent 'n' dent, milk and flour. Total cost for this meal was $1.17, and it fed three people with some leftovers.

6. For dinner on Tuesday we had leftovers from lunch, scrambled eggs, and... candy. I know, that's kind of lame. But we had a church activity that night and I didn't have a  crock pot meal ready.

7. On Wednesday we had leftover chili and pumpkin soup in bread bowls ($0.11 each) that I had made. However, the bread bowls were really too big, and there wasn't that much soup left. We ended up scraping out the bottoms of our bread bowls and then spreading them with peanut butter and honey... which probably cost another $1.00. Next time I will make the bread bowls half the size. Estimated cost for this meal was $1.22.

8. Eating Out This Week: Wednesday night was date night, so we ate out; I believe the total was around $15.00. Thursday night we ate out with friends (someone else ended up covering the tab) and Saturday we had lunch at Arby's, on the way to a wedding. The Arby's meal- one sandwich and curly fries for each of us- cost about $20.00. "I could get a burger and bottomless fries at Red Robin for that amount!" I told Hubs. If you don't order off the "bargain menu", fast food can be just as expensive as a sit-down restaurant. It's kind of ridiculous! If I would have planned better, we could have eaten sack lunches. But I didn't plan better. Before we got to the wedding, we stopped at a Dollar General to buy a card for the happy couple. And we also bought something to eat before the wedding, and this happened to be... candy. I think it was about $5.00. 

9. For lunch on Thursday we had tacos. I used the rest of the chunk venison from Tuesday, along with tortillas that we already had in the pantry, salsa from the garden and homemade cheese from the week before. I had a crock pot meal planned (and cooking) for dinner, but then I remembered that we were going to eat out that night. The crock pot meal was a little overcooked by the time we got home that night, but I put it in the fridge to eat again anyway.

10. On Friday I re-warmed the crock pot meal (venison steaks, carrots, and potatoes) and we ate it for lunch. I estimate the cost of this meal was about $1.62; the cost of the potatoes and carrots. For dinner I used the leftover meat, carrots and potatoes, along with some free frozen broth and a little bit of milk ($0.12) to make soup. Hubs ate his soup out of one of the bread bowls ($0.11). Total cost for dinner was $0.23.

11. On Sunday we had lunch at my parents' house to celebrate my brother's birthday. For dinner I made scrambled eggs with salsa and peppers from the garden, along with a generous helping of homemade goat cheese. I used eggs from our chickens and ducks, which I'm counting as free because we sold enough stuff this year to pay for their winter feed. Does that make sense?

We Spend a Lot at Restaurants.

Total cost for this week's food was $48.77. If you don't count the restaurants and Saturday candy purchase, the cost for food was only $8.77. I've discovered that Hubs and I spend a lot, LOT more money when we are away from home. We really enjoy restaurant food and money is not an issue at this point, so I don't try to curb spending in this area (unless it using a coupon or something like that). I would consider eating out more of a lifestyle choice, similar to buying a fancy car or more house than you need. Restaurants are a fun way to waste extra money, if you have it.

Sometimes I feel do bad about the principle of eating out or buying things like candy or ice cream. I never did that when I was single; it goes against my frugal morals. But now that I'm sharing my life with someone else, he has just as much right to spending money as I do. He is certainly the one who makes most of it! Sometimes as wives, we try so hard to spend as little as possible in our chosen area (like groceries), and then our dumb husbands go and blow it on a bag of Doritos or candy without even blinking. For a couple with debt, this would be more of a struggle. But for me, I have to remember that marital happiness is worth more than money, and I buy a lot of "dumb" stuff too. I buy books, kitchen gadgets, plants, and animals that we don't really need. It's easy to blame the other person for spending in your chosen area of frugality, while you overspend yourself in other areas; buying too many ebooks or indulging in multi-level marketing products, for example. No, they're not really "investments"... they're a fun way to waste money just like the bag of Doritos or $10.00 Arby's meal.  
Being generally responsible with money as a couple (not carrying debt, saving a large percentage, buying less car and house than you can afford, etc.) will allow room for fun things like eating out OR buying yet another orchid. Money struggles cause power struggles, and I am happy to be free from both. Most of the time... ;)


Groceries for This Week

For this week, I bought a 1-lb. tub of sour cream and a "free" Ibotta banana. Normally I buy a brand of sour cream called "Monticello" that costs $1.28- well below the price of the other brands. This week, however, the Monticellos were not there, but I found a same sized tub of Deans sour cream for $1.16. So that was nice. I also bought a box of Little Debbies for my brother's birthday. Total cost for groceries this week was $6.83 (though $1.94 of that was technically "gifts", and $0.25 will be given back to me for the banana rebate).

Some "free" groceries I want to use this week include a summer squash, onions and potatoes that my mom gave me, leftover bread and/or granola from the farmers market, bread bowls in the freezer and more garden produce. 

Til next time, 
-Bethany

Hello everyone! September on our homestead was busy but fulfilling. I spent three Saturdays at the farmers market and earned over $128.00. I started the process of "putting the farm to sleep" for the winter. I've only got one regular egg customer now, and it is my last week of milking Adi.

Chickens & Ducks

In September, egg production dropped dramatically. Now we are getting between one and three chicken eggs every day. Despite increasing feed and turning on a light for more daylight hours, production has remained at this rate.

The good news, though, is that my ducks are laying between one and two eggs every day! That means we are getting between two and five eggs per day total. At this rate, I can sell about one dozen decent (not small or cracked) eggs per week, so that is what I am doing. This leaves Hubs and I with a good dozen+ eggs per week, so we probably won't have to buy any.

Right now there are 32 birds in our chicken coop: two male ducks, two female ducks, seven roosters and 21 hens. Later in the month I have plans to butcher one of the male ducks, half of the roosters and perhaps some of the really old hens. That will give us enough chicken to last the winter, hopefully. It will also cut down the number of birds to feed over the winter. In September I increased the amount of feed from 5.5 lbs. to 8 lbs, in order to fatten the birds. That way the cooking birds will be heavier, and the overwintering birds will have some extra cushion for the cold weather. Once we butcher, I will cut the feed back between 6.5 and 7 lbs. This should be sufficient for 20 chickens (4 oz. per day, per bird) and 3 ducks (6.5 oz. per day, per bird). If I have alternative feeds, I will probably cut the feed amount down more per day. I use a half-and-half mix of corn and layer mash to feed the birds right now, plus they have all of the lush pasture that their little hearts desire. During the winter they won't have that pasture though, so I will try to find some alternative green feeds for them.

Duck Hatching Experiment

My latest new hobby farm experiment was hatching my own ducklings. At the end of August, I saved a week's worth of duck eggs, and the neighbor also gave me a dozen as well. I sent them over to my brother, who bought an incubator earlier this year. I offered to  pay him $20.00 for his time and the use of the incubator.

The first duckling started pipping (pecking at the egg shell to get out) on September 25th. He hatched the next day, and I brought him home when he was a couple days old. He was so cute! I put him in a large storage box lined with an old T-shirt and some newspaper. I put a homemade feeder in with some chick starter, and also a lid with water. I was a little afraid at first that he would drown if I used a real chick waterer.

Three days later, the second chick hatched. This one was "late", and he took so long getting out that my brother had to assist a little. The duckling had already pooped in his shell, and probably would have died in there without the help.

What happened to the other 18 or so eggs is kind of a mystery. Half of them weren't fertilized, but the other half were partially developed or were fully developed but didn't hatch out of their shells. We are going to try it again next spring after a little more research. One thing we learned this time is that the smaller eggs are actually more likely to be fertilized and hatch. Double yolk eggs in particular are not likely to hatch, so those are better just to eat.

Because there were only two ducks that hatched, they have pretty much become pets. Hubs and I like picking them up and holding them. They have also pooped on the kitchen floor. You know you have a pet when they are allowed to poop on the floor.

Apart from the $20.00 "hatching fee", we spent $7.41 on chick starter. The bag will probably last until they are old enough to have grower, which we already purchased for the last set of chicks. So the total cost for this project was $27.41, or $13.71 per duck. Though these ducks were much cheaper than my 4-H auction ducks, they ended up costing more than TSC ducklings in the spring. 

In the spring when we try hatching again, I will pay my brother with ducklings instead of money. His cost for running the incubator for 28 days is about $3.00. If I give him the duck eggs for free, his cost is $3.00 for at least one duck (but probably more, if we can get the hatching rate higher!). I believe that TSC ducklings are $4.00 or $5.00 each, so this would still be a savings for him. All I would have do is donate the eggs, which are about a $3.00 value. So I would get at least one duck for $3.00, and he would get at least one duck for $3.00. It would be a good deal for both of us, especially if we can get more than two to hatch!

We will see how I like keeping ducks over winter. Right now I think it is a good idea, because my two female ducks are still laying eggs when the chickens have quit. If I still like the ducks come spring, I will probably buy some more at TSC (in addition to those that we hatch in the incubator). I like the fact that duck hens can provide us with eggs all through the winter, plus the meat is worth more than chicken, if we decide to butcher and sell.

Goats

At the end of September I went down to milking Adi once a day and put the buck in with her. Soon I will quit milking her altogether. Now I will be watching for heat cycles in order to estimate her kidding date in March. I decided to breed one month earlier this year, and plan on having her inside, where it is warm, when she has her kids. I think having them weaned earlier will help me sell them faster.

Adi and Barry both look great. I was a little worried about Adi in July because her hair was dull and she seemed skinny. I started giving her an herbal wormer once a week. For the past two months, Adi and Barry have had their own pastures; more than they could possibly eat. I didn't feed Barry any grain, and Adi got about 1.5 lbs. per day during milking. Now both of them have got some meat on their bones, and Adi's hair is thick and shiny again.

Profit & Loss

Expenses:
Layer Mash- $44.00 
Corn- $10.00     
Light bulb for heat lamp- $2.99 
Heat lamp- $8.99 
Poultry waterer- $5.99 
Duck incubation- $20.00 
Chick starter- $7.41 
Total Expenses: $99.38 

Income:
Eggs- $38.00 
Milk products- $39.83 
Garden Produce- $24.00 
Baked Goods- $75.35 
Total Income: $177.18 

Net Profit: $77.80

Year-to-Date Net Profit: $460.25

I almost made it to the $500.00 net profit goal! And honestly, I would have made it, had I not took on the duck incubation project. But that's okay.

A Time for Rest

I am looking forward to the next few months of fewer chores and fewer selling obligations. We will still be doing chores twice a day (because the chickens need to be let in and out), but they won't take as long because the animals are fewer and housed close together.

Though expenses will be higher (about $30.00/mo. for chickens and $20.00/mo for the goats) and income much, much lower, I'm hopeful that our summer earnings will carry us through those expensive winter months. I am going to budget $50.00 per month, but try to spend less than that by giving alternative feeds. I estimate a $10.00/mo. egg income (thanks, ducks!), so that will help a little bit as well. Over the summer I toyed around with selling at a craft show or two. We'll see if that happens or not. I like the idea of keeping a bare-minimum hobby farm in the winter, and then expanding during the summer for income purposes.

If all goes according to budget, we should end the winter (Oct.- Apr.) with a surplus $100.00 for new hobby farm projects. I think that's pretty good for my first year of P&Ling. I was hoping for a lot more surplus, but we have spent a lot of money on one-time purchases this year: feed cans, wool processing, kidding equipment, baby poultry stuff, books, ducks. I was hoping to start beekeeping in 2017, but $100.00 is not nearly enough money to purchase equipment and supplies. Plus there are a few other things I'd like to focus on next year, and I'm not sure I'll be able to handle the time & learning commitment of honey bees. The good news is that I have a running list of cheaper projects that I would like to try as well. Yay for new projects!!! 

Until next time,
-Bethany