Posted on 03/02/2020 11:56:55 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Very cool.
How did you come into possession of your orchard? Was it something you were looking for or was it near you and the opportunity fell into your lap?
I also call it nature’s brillo pad.
Whatsamatter, you? You forgot making pickles. No Wisconsin homestead is complete without knowing how to make sweet or dill pickles.
Don’t forget we got a musky fishing date on Lac Courte Oreilles when the ice breaks. I’ll bring the beer, you buy the potato chips, okay? And don’t forget the redworms for perch bobbing.
#6 - Preserving Food!
I’m starting my pepper plants this weekend. Going to make some more of my ‘Cowboy Candy’ which are pickled hot peppers. Yum!
I’ll bring the chips and I’ll keep the red wigglers in my cheek to keep ‘em warm. ;)
We still biting the head off the first Musky caught? Tradition!
“I’ll bring the chips and I’ll keep the red wigglers in my cheek to keep ‘em warm. ;)
I love Wisconsin women who know how to keep bait warm and wiggly. If you keep 6/0 hooks dangling from your ears for easy retrieval, I’ll have to ask you for a date come penguin season at Apostle Island, you sly fox.
LOL!
Who has more fun than us, Sergeant Dave? Not many! :)
And I can get a few more piercings in my earlobes if that’s what it takes, LOL!
Retread article from Mother Earth News.
For me, I haven’t done bee keeping, I’ve made wine but not cider (Dandelion and Cranberry are my faves), I can split wood - Beau bought me my own maul because I couldn’t simultaneously LIFT his and swing it - I want to learn soap making, I’ve helped fix PLENTY of fences around here, and the only instrument I play is my auto harp - and I’m not very good according to my family, LOL!
I can cook, sew, preserve, garden, crochet, compost, stitch up a wound, balance the books, fish, hunt, con a ship, etc.
...and while Beau has known everyone that lives around here since High School, I’ve made a good dent in getting to know the neighbors - our closest neighbors are a horse farm, a dairy farm, a beef cattle farm and I’ve made it a point to get to know the small grocery owners and the local bar/restaurant owner in our little Cow Town.
I think we’d all have a really awesome set of skills to swap and share if TSHTF.
God Bless America! MAGA! KAG! :)
Agreed. I’ve stopped getting that magazine since I’ve been reading it since I was a teen and there’s not much new under the sun anymore. ;)
I was not knocking your post. It was just something I had read since the mid 70’s. I was a hard core Mother Earth News back to the nature and so forth for a number of years until I learned how hard it was to pull that off. I had a 40 hour job and have had for 45 years until I retired. It’s a glamorous looking life until you actually live it. I don’t regret any of it. I have learned so much in my inconsequential life. I could get by for a while without all of the modern conveniences, but not over the long haul. Thank you for your great posts!
Soap is easy. I don’t drip my own lye though-I buy it from the store. Depending on what type of lye you buy, you can make bar soap or liquid Dr. Bronner type soap. I’ve only made bar soap but someday I’d like to make some liquid soap like Dr. Bronners and add my own essential oils to it as I use it. I buy unscented, dilute it with water, add it to a foaming dispenser and use a few drops of whatever essential oil I want-sage, rlse, lavender....
It would be much cheaper to make that liquid soap at home.
Lots of YouTube tutorials on soap and simple recipes are all over the internet.
I've made Dandelion, Lilac and cherry wine. Now I'll have to try making cranberry wine!
Thanks for the idea!
I’ve made soap from the leftover slivers and added coffee grounds to them.
21. Protecting Property Against Intruders and Disposing of Their Carcasses.
There is a guy in my town in NH that has this set up. All of his trees are up the hill from his shack. His tubes all drain by gravity feed to his storage tank on the north side of his shack in the shade. His storage tank sits up on a platform so the bottom is about 6” above the top of his pan. So, once he taps, the sap just flows down hill 24/7.
I’ve made homemade laundry soap where you grate a number of things together. Works well on really dirty clothes.
My other laundry tip? And I’ve done a LOT of laundry through the years...do your load of whites last and let them soak over night, then finish the cycle in the morning. Don’t even need any bleach and everything turns out nice and white with just basic detergent.
I’ve also invested (about $3) in the wool dryer balls. They work great for getting rid of static.
I’ll have to try your whites tip.
I hate messing with bleach.
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