From The New Old School – canning apricotsâ??chapter review

It is the Damsel’s wish that you know how to preserve food. It’s one of the basic skills of becoming more self-reliant. When you put stuff in glass jars and seal it, it’s called “canning” or “bottling” or “putting up.” And the easiest thing to “put up,” in the Damsel’s humble opinion, is apricots. So [...]

I canned some apricots this year. My neighbor has a tree and doesn’t like apricots. Plus, I got a canner for my birthday. If only I liked the canned apricot taste better, I’d be set…

From The New Old School – how to sharpen a disposable razor

The whole idea of using things for a little while and then throwing them away . . . like razors . . . doesn’t seem too environmentally sound, or a way of being self-reliant. After all, if you were required to live off your own resources and couldn’t run down to the store and buy [...]

I saw this video first over at the Art of Manliness, and when I came across it again, I just had to share it. 

From The New Old School – testing eggs for freshness

It’s easy to tell when some things have gone bad. But how do you tell if an egg is too “aged”, without cracking it? It’s confusing because the expiration date marked on the carton isn’t that great a guide. Many eggs are perfectly safe to use after their expiration. So how do you know? Grandma [...]

Another great kitchen tip from the damsel over at the old school.

From Get Rich Slowly – Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Remembering to Appreciate What I Already Have

Walking home from work today, I decided to take the long way. Most of the time, I choose the easy quarter-mile stroll downhill from the office to our happy half acre (or happy .62 acre, if you’d like to be precise). But to celebrate the first day of summer, I took the river-forest loop. The river-forest loop is exactly what it sounds like: a series of quiet streets that wend along the east bank of the Willamette River, easing their way beneath stands of tall oak, fir, and pine. It’s three miles from our house down the river-forest road and back again. I choose this route when I need exercise or want to think. And, on days like today, I choose it to soak up the scenery. As I walked, I looked at the trees and the river and the lake. I listened to the birds. I watched the squirrels go about their squirrely business. I nodded [...]

I remember reading a study a little while ago. It ranked people’s happiness in comparison to other factors in their life. It found that once someone gets enough money for the bare minimum (food & shelter), there no correlation between happiness and amount of stuff or riches you have.

You know what one attribute every single “happy” person in the study shared? They were grateful people. 

Gratitude.

Just think about it, that’s all I’m saying.

From Get Rich Slowly – High Interest: How to Choose Between Checking, Savings, and CDs

In a rocky economy, high interest rates are the holy grail of conservative investors, especially those who don’t want to to invest in bonds. But in this rocky economy, “high interest” hasn’t really meant much: High-interest savings accounts are returning below two percent! Get Rich Slowly readers are just like everybody else. A couple of times a week, I get e-mail from somebody looking for higher interest rates, but puzzled about where to find them. So, inspired by a recent article in Consumer Reports Money Adviser, I’m going to run down the top choices for finding high interest rates. First, I want to remind you all of one thing: Interest rates aren’t likely to rise until the economy improves. ING Direct doesn’t hate you. Ally Bank isn’t trying to rip you off. We’re just not in a high-interest rate environment right now. The government is keeping rates low because they don’t want you to save — they [...]

From Get Rich Slowly – Living on (a Lot) Less

This post is from staff writer Sierra Black. Sierra writes about frugality, sustainable living, and getting her kids to eat kale at Childwild.com. I spent last weekend at a lake house in Maine with a broken water pump. For three days, we had no running water. Being beside the lake gave us ample access to water, but nothing flowed from the taps. To get clean, we swam in the lake or bathed with damp cloths. To flush the toilet, we carried buckets of water up from the lake. We did the same for washing dishes, boiling the water before washing our plates in it. Drinking water became a precious resource. We were careful to drink what we needed without waste. We hard-boiled half a dozen eggs in the same pot we cooked pasta in, and steamed a basket of veggies over it. We made every drop count. When you have limited water, you’re highly motivated to figure out what [...]

I bike to work whenever it’s nice, which is most of the time. I haven’t filled up my car in about two months. It feels good.

From Safely Gathered In – Food Storage Friday: Peanut Butter Pie

This Peanut Butter Pie is soo darn delish AND soo easy to make ANNNND I will now ALWAYS have Oreos on hand. (husband is not fighting me on this!)

…

Something else to do with your food storage.

From The Simple Dollar – Professional Time, Leisure Time, and Wasted Time

Most of this article applies to any situation in which someone hires someone else to perform work, whether it’s paying someone to change the oil in their car or hiring a plumber to fix a leaky faucet. On that note, Connie writes in: Your schedule seems overstuffed. Have you ever considered hiring an assistant [...]

From Survival Blog – Surviving A Home Invasion Robbery, by Susan G.

On August 2nd, 1997 I had the hardest choice in my life to make, that was to survive.  Masked men wearing camouflage and carrying guns kicked my front door in at 12:40 am.  I was sitting about five feet from the front door waiting for my son to arrive…

Something to think about.

From Survival Blog – Sustainable Chicken Farming, by Sheila C.

I have been raising chickens for eggs during the past several years, and I would like to share some of the secrets I have learned for long term food production. I like free range eggs, but have found that chickens pose certain conflicts with other necessities that can be…

If my yard were less visible, I would totally have a chicken coop by now.