Where I live there simply isn't any toilet paper to be had in the stores. And, it is a rare commodity online. I haven't yet been able to order any, but due to my slightly "survivalist" proclivities and LDS upbringing (year's supply of food, etc.) I've always kept a supply of needful things on hand at all times.
If you have some TP and want to conserve it, I may be able to help you extend the supply you do have with the following suggestion:
Use a minimal amount - three to five squares - for the "big" jobs...you know...#2 (aka pooping).
For peeing don't use any.
Instead, use a personal rag or old, clean washcloth - each member of the family being assigned their own. Rinse and hang for the next pee. After a couple of days sling all the cloths into the washer and wash them. Be sure to have backup cloths for every fanny in your family while the current batch is being laundered.
This idea probably won't work with young kids unless you do the wiping for them. The danger with kids is that they'll toss the rag in the toilet and FLUSH. This leads to BIG TROUBLE of the plumbing variety. This is not the time for a clogged loo.
Will the days of toilet paper abundance return any time soon?
Another possibility is the installation of a bidet. It's eco-friendly and will vastly reduce the amount of toilet paper used to very little or none, leaving your tush feeling as clean and as fresh as those of the majority of Europeans that swear by this modality.
Bidet and toilet arrangement
If your bathroom has room, a bidet is generally installed next to the existing toilet. If not, Amazon sells an attachment for your toilet that enables its use as both toilet and bidet. The price runs from $30 to over $300 for a variety of types and models. These are likely found online from plumbing suppliers, as well. Supposedly you don't have to be a plumber to easily and fret-free install it yourself...
Bidet conversion kit on a conventional toilet. A small hose hooks into the water supply coming out of the wall that fills the toilet tank. You aren't being cleansed by water from the tank or bowl...a comforting thought.
The only downside of going the toilet-into-bidet route is that you'll be "douching" with cold water. Perhaps this is the reason for that "fresh" feeling bidet users refer to?
I'm sure there's some way around the cold water issue...perhaps hooking into the hot water line of the wash basin and possibly having to wait for the water to warm up? Well, where there's a will, there's always a way.
I haven't done much researching on the bidet-conversion kit, so it's likely that the manufacturers have solved the cold water issue.
A cautionary note to the National toilet paper woe is to secure your supply from toilet paper vandals. They're usually furry and scamper about on four paws. Don't be taken in by their cuteness or the fact that they're members of your household.
This is one type likely to be found lurking in your own home!
Cute and clever often go hand in hand.
Stay safe. Be well. And, may the toilet paper fairies visit your home soon!
You can use your oven to dehydrate foods thereby adding to your food security.
Dehydrated foods are compact, require no refrigeration, and store for long periods of time. You can make tasty dishes, snacks, sauces, soups, desserts, gifts, crafts, and more, with your home-dehydrated fruits, veggies, and herbs.
The "pros" of oven dehydrating:
1. It's possible
2. A convection oven has an inbuilt fan. Some even have a dehydration feature!
3. You likely own an oven
The "cons" of oven dehydrating:
1. It's not energy efficient
2. The oven won't hold as much food to dry
3. It will warm up your home
4. Not all ovens have low enough temperature settings
5. You'll have to re-position the food trays to achieve uniform drying
6. This may not be a safe option if you have small children
7. You won't be able to use your oven for at least a day
8. Most fruits take too long to dry by oven
Check that your oven's lowest heat setting can go below 150-degrees, ideally, otherwise you'll likely slow cook it instead of dehydrating it. Many ovens have a "keep warm" feature. Even if your lowest temperature is 200-degrees, the fact that the oven door is left slightly open, will mean that the inside temperature is less than 200. So give it a try and see. Less than ideal, but still possible.
Your oven will likely cycle on and off during the dehydrating process to try to maintain internal temperature when the oven door is slightly open, so not as energy efficient.
You want to keep the oven door slightly open to mitigate moisture which will prevent dehydration. A fan to circulate air means a better dehydration.
Okay let's get started. You'll need:
Some cookie sheets. Old battered ones are fine.
Some cooling racks (the ones used to cool cookies, etc.)
A fan
A chair or stool
Something to hold the oven door ajar
Cookie sheets and cooling rack combinations allow air to reach the underside of foods you're dehydrating.
Air circulation is of paramount importance for dehydration. Without a rack system of some type, as pictured above, you'll have to turn the food periodically.
A chair or stool, and a fan will help with air circulation around the foods your drying.
Position the fan so that it blows into the opening of the oven door as in the photo above.
You'll need something to keep the oven door slightly ajar. A garlic press, lemon reamer, whatever works.
The inbuilt "stop" feature of the oven door leaves too large a gap so most of the heat will escape. You want the oven to be slightly ajar by an inch or two; enough so that air from the fan enters, but most of the heat is still retained inside the oven. Dehydration may take six- to 18-hours, depending on the foods you want to dry.
Some foods need pre-treatment to prevent browning. Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and bananas need this. Although potatoes do need it, too, most other veggies do not. Many veggies will need at least a three minute steam blanching. Steam blanching also means that your dried foods are more tender when re-hydrated.
For that need an anti-browning pre-treatment, a dip in Fruit Fresh or acidulated water (to each pint of water add 1/2 cup lemon or line juice) does the trick. Again most veggies - except potatoes - don't need this.
There are some vegetables that don't need steam blanching. Mushrooms, onions, garlic, frozen vegetables, rhubarb, and most fruits.
I mentioned frozen vegetables. Frozen potatoes need no pre-treatment or steam blanching. Simple thaw and spread evenly over the drying racks. I also buy bags of frozen green beans and corn. My favorite frozen vegetables to dry are thawed packages of mixed veggies containing corn, green beans, diced carrots, and peas...sometimes there's lima beans in the mix also. I thaw them out and spread them over the drying racks. They're handy to tote along on camping trips, or to re-hydrate when I want to make veggie fried rice and don't have any fresh vegetables on hand.
Acidic fruits don't need a pre-treatment. Examples are citrus, pineapple, mangoes, strawberries, rhubarb, berries, and plums.
Foods need to be cut in 1/4-inch slices or cubes. Grapes, strawberries, cherries, cranberries, raspberries should be cut in half for oven drying. You may need to spray or rub a light coating of olive or other cooking oil onto the racks to prevent sticking.
Arrange the foods to be dried in single layers on the racks so they aren't touching. Set them into the oven, set the temperature, arrange your stool/fan combination, turn on the fan.
Every couple of hours or so you'll need to turn the racks 180-degrees and shuffle their positioning to insure even drying. Even so, you may find that the top of the food is drying faster than the bottoms of it. If this is happening use tongs to turn the food over so the bottoms are now better exposed to heat and air.
I used to oven-dry foods before acquiring my dehydrator. The dehydrator is so much more efficient in every way. However, the oven will get you started until you can acquire a dehydrator.
Onions, leeks, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and peppers are some of the easiest items to oven-dry, and some you'll use most often when you're out of the fresh versions. They dry quickly and on those occasions when I find them on sale, I will still use my oven for the overflow.
When fruits are shrunken, dry, and malleable they should be finished. Low sugar fruits such as cranberries and rhubarb (actually a vegetable used as a fruit) that have little sugar content will tend toward crispness. It's hard to tell if foods are fully dehydrated when they're still hot, so allow them to cool a bit and check for doneness and dryness. They must be dry all the way through.
If your foods aren't dry at day's end you can turn off the oven, leave the foods in overnight, and simply turn on the oven again the next morning. I do this with my dehydrator, too, if I've waited until late afternoon to start it up. It won't harm the fruits or veggies to sit overnight in a cooling oven or dehydrator.
Don't do this with meats. I'm not giving instructions for dehydrating meats with an oven for food safety reasons. If you are adamant to oven-dry meats, the Teresa Marrone book, "Dried Foods" (see my previous post) will tell you how to do so. Dried meats should be refrigerated or frozen or they're likely to go rancid.
Store your dried foods in lidded jars or Ziploc baggies. Potatoes I store in paper bags due to their propensity to mold even if they appear dry.
Your dehydrated foods may need to be re-hydrated before using. My favorite method is to put veggies into a heatproof bowl or cup. Just cover with water then microwave for 30 or more seconds and allow to sit for 30 minutes. The liquid left over is great to use as a flavoring in sautees, soup stocks, or sip as a hot beverage.
If you're making soup, re-hydrated veggies may be sauteed in butter or oil, then added to the mixture for simmering. If a soup or stew is set to simmer for 40 minutes or more, the dried veggies may be added straight to the soup as they will re-hydrate sufficiently during cooking.
For recipes made with dehydrated vegetables that haven't been sauteed first, I like to add a pat of butter or a drizzle of oil before serving to add a mouthfeel of silkiness that only a bit of fat can give.
Dehydrated fruits may be used to make pies, cakes, added to nut mixtures, and eaten as is. Most fruits dehydrate to a sweet flexibility that makes them tasty as snacks with no preparation. Apples, bananas, pears, mangoes, pineapple,and peaches come to mind.
I like to make a muesli using my dehydrated fruits, pan-roasted nuts and seeds, and old-fashioned oatmeal. I take this camping in a Ziploc baggies. It makes a nice breakfast by adding some hot water or milk and letting it soak for about 15 minutes. I also make "overnight oatmeal by putting everything on to soak overnight. Add some hot milk and you have a nearly instant hot and satisfying breakfast.
Adding dehydrated foods to your food security-system is easy, compact to store, and you'll always having something to eat whether camping, traveling, when times get tough, or you run out of a fresh ingredient.
At this moment, my dehydrator is working away to dry the sliced potatoes I loaded into it this morning. After submitting them first to Fruit Fresh to keep them from oxidizing and browning, then a steam blanch for eight minutes, followed by a dip into honeyed water - another treatment to prevent darkening, I laid them in single layers on the trays of my dehydrator. Fortunately, most foods I dehydrate don't require this much preparation for dehydration!
My dehydrator holds about five medium-sized potatoes worth. Most often I'm drying a variety of different vegetables (or fruits) simultaneously, but having acquired five potatoes, I decided to dehydrate all of them.
I dehydrate in my balcony's storage closet. Although not noisy, the dehydrator is out of the way while it operates.
My dehydrator is about 15 years old and gets fairly regular usage. It's not one of the most expensive on the market, but it is one of the simplest to use and I've always gotten good results from it.
My dehydrator is a Nesco American Harvest. Although there are recipes for making jerky and fruit leathers, I've only ever used it to dry fruits and vegetables. It has four trays and a ribbed base for laying out the items to be dehydrated. I bought mine at Ace Hardware and they can be ordered on line. Nesco makes a variety of dehydrator types. My model is the least expensive - $36.00 - at Home Depot.
Dehydrated foods are compact so you can store quite a bit in a small space. Studies have shown that there's a little nutrition loss when foods are dehydrated...Vitamin C particularly. Dehydrated foods are rather pricey, so home drying is the frugal option.
I add dried foods to recipes, especially if I've run short of the fresh versions such as, onions, garlic, tomatoes, celery, leeks, and mushrooms. However, I dry just about everything!
This delicious soup is made entirely of dried veggies and minute-style rice. The veggies were re-hydrated, sauteed in a little butter and simmered in a reconstituted beef stock.
I don't use the dehydrator for mushrooms. These I simply slice or quarter - the stems are diced and used in sauce and gravy mixes. Mushrooms are air dried on a tray lined with waxed paper, parchment paper, or a paper towel. They dry in a few days out of the way on top of the fridge. They, and most of the items I dry, are stored in Ziploc baggies and labeled. Greens, such as kale, cabbage, and collards are better stored in jars because they crumble easily.
Dried potatoes are stored in paper bags because if they are not absolutely dried, the whole batch will mold. They can look and feel dry but the slightest amount of moisture and the batch is ruined.
Most fruit will be leathery and flexible when dehydrated because of their natural sugars. Vegetables are firm and crisp.
Foraged wild plums seeded and ready to dehydrate.
There are many great books that will guide you through the process of drying foods. And there are a variety of methods and dryers to choose from. You can even dry some foods in your oven!
The book on the right is the one that came with my dehydrator. For years it was the only one I used. A few years ago I purchased the Teresa Marrone book, "Dried Foods" which has a greater selection of fruits and vegetables one can dry.
The Teresa Marrone book also has tasty recipes for using your dried foods, such as baby foods, gift and camping mixes, sauce recipes, and more. The Nesco booklet also tells how to use your dried foods in recipes and has some fun projects for using home dried herbs in crafts, potpourri's, and making tasty chips and snacks.
My method of operation has always been to dry some of the foods I grew. When I lived in my Folk Victorian cottage/farmhouse I grew nearly everything I ate, and my dehydrator was used often, along with freezing - I had a large chest freezer - and my home canning stored in a large walk-in pantry.
Now, living in a condo, my dehydrator is my main food storage strategy with a bit of freezing - what my fridge's narrow freezer will hold. I don't have a pantry, so I've co-opted the narrow linen closet in the hallway near the bathroom to serve as my pantry. I now store towels in a basket in the bathroom and sheets on my closet shelf so I can claim the luxury of having a "pantry". Dehydration allows me to store a lot of foods in not much space. If the electric goes out I don't lose all my food storage.
I can no longer grow much in the way of food due to lack of a garden, but do use the portion along my balcony railing to grow a few edibles. I get about six hours of sun a day in the Summertime and I can grow a few crops such as lettuce, scallions, herbs, spinach, lettuce, arugula, some types of tomatoes - those that need less sun such as cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes - and surprisingly I can grow pole beans in pots! While my balcony harvests are limited, some of what I produce goes into the dehydrater.
Pole beans along with Grandpa Ott morning glories, grown in a pot on a bamboo tepee on my balcony last year.
My dehydration strategy is to dry some of whatever I purchase, forage, or grow. If I buy a small bag of potatoes, I'll get a second one for dehydration. However, I usually only buy two or three at a time for fairly immediate consumption and then buy double that amount so there'll be some to dehydrate.
balcony-grown fresh pole and bush beans.
This method has served me well over the years and I highly recommend it.
Dehydrated foods are now my main tactic for food security, especially at a time when the availability of goods is, or could get a bit iffy, depending on how this viral contagion goes.
The health experts are predicting that even if we get a handle on this present outbreak of Covid-19, they expect we'll have another resurgence this Fall. This is a good time to implement plans to add to your food security - not by hoarding - but buying a couple extra items of canned goods, foods to dehydrate, dry goods like beans, pasta, rice, and toilet paper. Most market presently limit purchases to two of any one item. Consider and plan for what you'll do if our water supply becomes compromised. Make a plan!
What if the folk who insure our safe water supply become ill?
What if the supply becomes contaminated?
Just in case, you might want to start saving plastic and glass containers over one quart capacity. Even wax milk cartons can work in the short term.
I mentioned above that it's possible to use your oven to dehydrate foods. In my next post, I'll show you how to do this. In the meantime, acquiring a dehydrator will be more economical, efficient, and better designed for dehydration than your oven. Still, it's best to start where you can with what you can - right now! - until you acquire the better option.
Stay well. Stay safe! Keep others safe by following all the guidelines!
Dehydrated potatoes from a previous batch.
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Whatever space you have available may be turned over to food production. It may not yield a lot, but it will be so tasty. Planting "seeds of hope" for a brighter, tastier future uplifts my spirits!
Here in Northern Idaho we're not (yet?) confined to our homes.
Although bars and restaurants are closed to entry - we can still pick up food at restaurants on a "drive thru" basis - there remain a few things left to us that we can do to maintain that much-needed social distancing. Going for a walk or a hike are a couple of those things.
Nature and bodily movement are physically gratifying and emotionally uplifting. While gyms are out, walking, hiking, and gardening are physical activities that we can still enjoy until the stay-at-home orders are issued here, as they have been in some States.
Where I live in Northern Idaho, we do suffer insufficiency of toilet paper, cleaning supplies, rice, bread, chocolate (?!), pasta, and most recently avocados!
Thanks to my LDS (Mormon) heritage...six generations! - I was programmed early in life to maintain an emergency supply of food and other needful things at all times, such things as are now missing in the stores these days.
I also dehydrate and store the extra produce that I buy on sale - buy one to eat, buy another to dehydrate. I'll blog more on food dehydration and storage in the next post.
Check out my previous blog post series on "Elective Frugality" for some ideas on how to survive things like what we're going through right now. While I predicted that a recession was coming, I had no idea when I posted it, what we'd soon be going through. Such things are cyclic and will come again, often with decades between that lull us into a sense of false assurance and security.
Being a pet owner I also have in storage, dry and wet cat food and kitty treats.
As soon as I heard from my water/sewer company that they were cutting back on personnel, I filled every jug, quart jar and bottle I have (a quart or greater capacity) with water and set them on the floor of my laundry room under the ironing board, next to the washer and water heater...about 14 gallons worth. As I empty 1/2-gallon nut milk cartons I'll clean and fill those, too. If things start to look dicey, I'll fill my pint canning jars, as well.
Living in a small condo, I don't have a lot of room to store bottled water, but I do save bottles, canning jars, etc., for making homemade herbal vinegars, herbal tinctures, canning and pickling, and have called them all into service to store tap water in case things go badly, and the folk that service our water supply and keep it pure are unable to do so.
I also save and reuse gallon vinegar bottles because they are sturdy and I can use them to haul water when I go dry camping. Those are now filled and sitting in the laundry room. I'll have to look into getting a water purifier...
Those flimsy gallon-size plastic bottles that you can buy distilled and spring water in, eventually begin to leak as their seams fail. They don't hold up for long term storage of water. But, if I had one I'd fill it to!
If the lack-of-clean-water scenario doesn't occur (hopefully it won't), I'll simply use that stored water for my potted plants and crops this summer.
Tap water may be stored in clean bottles and jars for about six months without treating it. For longer storage there are methods found on-line to keep the water pure for longer periods. It's cheaper (more frugal!) to store your tap water, rather than purchase water!
Share my adventure! Watch the video...of course, YouTube will take you to a #@!!$& commercial first!
Joanne and her "doggy girl", Sophie
Of late, I've been not only reacting to the virus situation by taking stock of my resources and going for hikes and walks, I've also been looking for that not-always-apparent silver lining.
Is there a silver lining if people are sick and dying?
There is, IF you're not living that tragic outcome in a personal way...yet.
Tragedy and trial have a way of grounding us and bringing us to a realization of what's truly important in life...if we are open to the possibility.
On the trite side, is that I can read those books and magazines that have been awaiting my undivided attention. Oh, I can finally begin the knitting projects that have been on the back burner. These things will keep my mind occupied and give me a needed mental and emotional break from the non-stop Covid-19 news coverage.
Another, use of my spare time is to get back to my blog! I'd promised readers that I'd share some of the "perks" of Elective Frugality, such as Natural Abundance, Easy Elegance, and Simple Grace.
A time, such as we are presently enduring makes these techniques and values, well, invaluable. I took an extra long and lazy Christmas and New Year holiday, and put my blog on the back burner for these many months while I dealt with chronic and debilitating back pain.
Fortunately, that pain is now healed. So, back to business. Perhaps, in some way, the things I share may aid others in enduring this time of uncertainty. Personally, I'm contributing money and food to charitable organizations to aid those that don't have what they need. Perhaps, my blog will be of help, or inspiration, or share a useful idea, as well.
The things I worry about and pray about are my friends and family, most of whom are in the virus-dangerous ages of 50- to 90- years old. Balancing fear, sorrow, and worry with faith, prayer, and helping others in whatever capacity we can, is likely what will get many of us through this tribulation.
Being 70-years old (in a few weeks) puts me right into the dangerous category targeted by this virus. Yet, I cannot see living my life huddled in fear.
I'll do - and am doing - what is reasonable to protect myself and others, but will strive to keep a positive attitude, too. This is something that will make my days, however many more remain, easier to bear under both legal and self-imposed restrictions.
Having reflected - and acted upon - the physical ways to (hopefully) survive all this, it seems that there's more to be looked at here.
I've also been reflecting on the more ephemeral emotional and spiritual responses that will allow me/us to face this pestilence with wholeness and grace.
I do not believe that God sent this virus to punish humankind. God doesn't punish us, we punish ourselves by violating His and nature's immutable laws.
May we receive His Grace?
Most certainly, although it may not always come the way we think it should. We might even miss it simply by neither asking for it, or not even looking for it.
I've asked myself, "What Grace and Blessings are given me presently?"
As I've begun to list them - mine will be different than yours most likely - a page has begun to fill...
Taking time to be grateful in times of trial will be a worthwhile exercise. We may find that we're suddenly grateful for the very things we've taken for granted...a home, those we love, an income, wellness, perhaps money in savings to tide us over. Toilet paper, food security, a place to walk...yes, even chocolate!
These things and much, much, more!
If you've lost your job, my prayer is that you have savings, or are able to apply for unemployment, that God and others will come to your aid...and hopefully that the government will bail YOU out this time, instead of BIG corporations like they did last time...they're talking about many good things to help people and small businesses. Let's pray they do it. Let's pray that those who truly need help will receive it this time around.
If you have loved ones who've died, or are ill, my heart and prayers go out to you. This is a good time for us all to pray and ask for comfort for ourselves and those that are ill.
It's also a time that calls for inner reflection. Asking ourselves what is truly important may aid us in realizing that we are ALL God's children, regardless of where we've come from, our race, our beliefs, and so forth.
The Coronavirus isn't a respecter of persons, or political orientation. It is an equalizer, for none are safe from infection, regardless of age-related severity.
Are we being given the opportunity to rise above our petty squabbles, bigotries, political ideologies, etc.?
What is the "weight" and worth of an idea? A philosophy? An ideology?
Absolutely nothing if it doesn't heal, feel as other feel, or aid them! And it's worth less than nothing if it harms others, physically, mentally, or emotionally, or is used to oppress them.
I'm thinking that leaving harmful, divisive, bigoted mindsets behind - and the stupidity of war - would only benefit and elevate our entire species. We are all God's children, He doesn't favor one above another. Perhaps it's time we all realized that what one does to the whole, one ultimately does to oneself.
We are our brothers' keeper!
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*If you're unable to find alcohol-based hand sanitizer - which is still missing from the shelves in most stores - see my previous blog. You'll find a recipe to make your own. The ingredients are still mostly available.
In the meantime, God Bless us all, each and every one!
In the desert-like area around Yakima, Washington this campground is an oasis of trees and animals, and a quiet, calm spot for people to camp and relax. This large leaf may be from the "big leaf maple" native to Washington State - Acer macrophyllum
I've just returned from a two-week camping and visiting trip. My first two days were camping days. I stayed at the lovely Yakima Sportman State Park. I'd hoped to have additional camping days during my trip...but Winter intervened...
My first two days were in the mid-50's and the nights in the 30's. I was cozy in my Jeep bed. Click the following link to see how I made my Jeep serve my RVing and camping needs without buying another vehicle, and instead using the one I already own and how I made my car bed!
Tall trees, and hedged in on three sides by wild roses, made my campsite a private Eden.
Not all the campsites were screened from view of other campers, but some where. There were a few other campers in the park due to the lateness of the season. Most were in RV's where privacy is maintained by the RV itself. There are also spots for tents, van and car camping. As many of my activities such as cooking, clothes changing, and sitting occur outside my car, I found a very private, secluded site.
With the hatch up and the car backed into my campsite I have a view from my car bed into the rose hedging and trees where I can relax and read or watch the varieties of birds that inhabit the park. Behind the car, out of site, is my folding camp chair and table. My "booth" sits between camp table and car.
I've erected my "booth", a changing room/potty tent for privacy when doing these things. The booth has an open top for ventilation or a solar shower (though nothing to hang the solar shower from...a tree limb would serve or a shepherds hook?) so I've put a tarp over it in case of rain.
To use the booth one side unzips for stepping into it. I keep a collapsible stool inside of it so I have a place to sit to put on shoes. The stool also raises the collapsible potty to a comfy, usable height. The potty may be moved into the car at night for those pesky nighttime nature calls and is the right height for in-car use where it sits next to the middle of the bed. It has a lid that securely covers it. Thankfully. Kitty sand has a part to play, but I will get into that subject in more detail another time.
Reading, relaxing, knitting, and sleeping, this car bed is eight-inches-thick comfort! I have a down sleeping bag, a wool blanket, and an afghan I'm crocheting - mostly done - for cozy comfort on chilly nights.
I have three bins that I take on my trips. A small one, and two larger ones. One holds pots, pans, eating utensils, knives, towels and wash cloths, plates, cutting board, glasses and cups, matches, and lighter, and fire starting sticks for recalcitrant campfires. It's a kitchen in a bin! I have a set of two plates, cups, utensils, cups, and glasses.
My kitchen set up occupies one end of the camp table at my site.
On the camp bench is a small bin that holds spices and tea bags. The larger bins holds my kitchen items. On top of the table is my old Coleman single burner stove. The kitchen towel is draped over a one gallon bottle of water so it can dry. A can of chili is at hand for making Frito Pie. My insulated cup keeps beverages hot or cold and I can re-hydrate dried veggies in it by adding hot water.
Not in the photo is my utility bin. It's the same size as the kitchen bin and serves dually as a bedside table in the Jeep. The utility bin holds tent stakes, a 5'x7' tarp, wet wipes, a roll of plastic bags for my collapsible potty (I will do a post on potty use), and the collapsible potty, an ax, a hammer, a tent stake puller, cording, a roll of duct tape, spring clamps and other odds and ends.
Under the front seats of the car I keep a folding table, a folding shovel, and a first aid kit. On the passenger side floor I store three gallons of water, food bags, the stove when traveling.
The passenger seat holds my small, rolling suitcase and my personals bag for hygiene, washing up, medications, etc.
My mobile pantry consists of a large bag in which I keep a variety of dehydrated foods and homemade soup and meal mixes. Also I carry minute rice, quick cooking barley, dehydrated pinto, black, and white beans, some "minute" grain mixtures, powdered milk, chicken bullion, and arrowroot.
I also use those sectioned wine totes from the market. One holds my canned goods and small 8-oz cartons of almond milk, packets of tuna, antiseptically packaged tofu, soy sauce, Tabasco, toasted sesame oil, and olive oil. Another, with the two end sections opened up carries spare propane canisters, while the intact mid sections hold batteries for flashlight and camp lantern and candles for my backpack lantern.
My old Igloo Playmateice chest totes things I need to keep cold for a few days such as meats, cheese, beverages. Ice from my ice maker at home will last for about three days.
Future posts will describe how I prolong my ice supply, why I store and carry my water in vinegar bottles, my "potty Protocol" and other things I've learned from past camping exploits and new things I'm learning about car camping in an SUV!
This fine almost-Autumn Saturday morning I observed and enjoyed some examples of Simple Grace I'd like to share.
Simple Graces are usually things and experiences that have little monetary value but constitute blessings and boons that lift one's spirits, delight one's eyes, and warm the heart.
My definition of Simple Grace...is the recognition that a Soul-Full life is gifted with scintillating moments of simplicity and grace.
Last Spring I planted a combination of Kentucky Wonder, Kentucky Wax pole beans, and Grandpa Ott morning glories in a large pot.
I've been rewarded with edible beans and verdant leafy vines, as well as lovely indigo morning glories twining around five-foot bamboo poles that I gathered into a tepee/tuteur at the top to accommodate the tall vines. These have brought satisfaction, beauty, and edible goodness.
Each morning I awaken and count the number of morning glory blossoms. Today there were eight!
Glories of the morning! They'll stay open nearly all day if I turn the blossoms away from the sun.
In addition my pole beans supply green and yellow beans.
Cherokee Wax bean blossoms
In a pot next to the pot of pole beans is one of Cherokee Wax bush beans. Bush beans aren't at all bushy. Instead, they form short vines about two-feet tall. I've grown these on a short tuteur. Like Kentucky Wax pole beans, these short vines grow yellow beans. Additionally, they reward me with cute, pink flowers.
While I was admiring my morning glories and picking beans, I looked over the balcony railing and saw these gobblers striding across the lawn. There were nine, but only four fit into my phone's photo frame.
God-given and Nature-gifted blessings and graces connect us to something larger than ourselves, bigger and more heartening than the oft-empty cultural imperatives to "shop 'til you drop".
Simple graces and heavenly blessings bring us back to what's really important. These things don't have monetary value but do have worth beyond counting.
Simple Grace is one of the effects of adopting Elective Frugality. Instead of looking for gratification from dollarable things, grace is found in daily life moment by moment, glance by glance. Suddenly, we realize that we are surrounded by beauty and bounty as I have been on this Autumny, Saturday morning!
May each of you enjoy life's simple, resplendent grace!
Elective Frugality is the genteel recognition of having acquired "enough", and that authentic abundance and real wealth are not money- or thing-based, but are instead, Soul-founded.
Elective Frugality "crosses the road" away from debt.
Together we've examined what constitutes the present version of the American Dream. The "dream" that was once the providence of all, now only serves to enrich the uber wealthy. The dream as it now exists has become the people's nightmare of clutter, indebtedness, overwork, broken families, and stress.
However, we can awaken and live a life of joy, freedom, and happiness by turning away from the marketing and advertising propaganda telling us that we must buy lots of stuff - more than we actually need - and to buy bigger, more expensive homes to house all the excess stuff.
Shopping for needless stuff has become a frantic habit that eats away our abundance and fills our homes with far too many needless things, creating and maintaining a state of personal and perpetual indebtedness.
We shop for entertainment and distraction and to fill what could be a truly meaningful life with mindless acquisition. We spend money, instead of quality time with those we care about. Shopping has become almost obligatory. It needn't be.
Working extra hours to afford ever more stuff - or pay for stuff we've already acquired on credit cards or via loans - takes us away from relationships, meaningful moments, and communing with Nature, both outer and inner.
My previous posts shared how to start today to create for yourself and your family (not CEO'S and their "shareholders") more abundance in your own lives rather than filling the pockets of bankers, corporations, marketers, and advertisers.
The goal - your goal - can be to enrich yourself and create a more prosperous and happy life by ignoring the propaganda to spend more on needless, but momentarily alluring things, or to purchase items simply to "impress" others. After all "those others" won't be the one's making monthly minimum and interest payments on already charged up credit cards. The people who really matter don't need to be impressed by big, costly houses, expensive new cars, or a $50,000 kitchen remodel that you'll be paying for over the next ten or twenty years.
Another strategy is to live in a home you can easily afford and drive a car that's clean, attractive, and affordable so YOU can live abundantly and free of anxiety and the other dangers of indebtedness.
We've explored how you can pay off credit card debt early ditching it altogether as you develop the habit of paying cash for things you need and want...or if you must charge something to a credit care - say for online shopping - you charge only what you can comfortably pay off completely when the statement arrives. Never carry any interest-attached balance on a credit card.
We talked about how to get rid of your mortgage early by making extra payments to reduce the interest obligation attached to every home loan. The more you pay on the principle loan amount each month - over and above the required payment - the more and faster the interest portion of the loan shrinks!
We've even explored alternate lifestyles that forgo the need to even pay mortgage or rent, such as living in a tiny house, an RV, a van, on a boat or houseboat, or even living in one's car as do those intrepid few who've choose to be major-minimalist nomads!
Getting out of debt - owing no one recurring payments and interest on anything - is like a breath of fresh air infusing happiness and simplicity into your life!
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Sneak Peak Into Easy Elegance!
Easy Elegance aims for comfort, simplicity, and beauty. So your first task is to choose a style you love, or keep the one you have, if...you love it! This photo shows how I created my own personal style in my previous home, an old Folk Victorian farmhouse in Utah, I called Heartsease Cottage.
In upcoming posts I'll share how I've created Easy Elegance in my present home, Heartsease Haven, a condo on the edge of the forest in Northern Idaho.
Enlarging, building upon, and enhancing an Electively Frugal lifestyle is a co-equal philosophy called Easy Elegance. Easy Elegance brings beauty, creativity, comfort, and simplicity into one's life.
Easy Elegance is not ostentatious, or ridiculously expensive, nor will it throw you into debt. You won't stun your neighbors with how much money it took to achieve your look, but you will "wow" them with how little you spent, or saved, to achieve a fashionable and comfortable home.
Easy Elegance is created on your terms, using your style, and what you like. It's a look that's comfortable, simple, creative, and hospitable. It's somewhat minimal - you won't have unused, unloved stuff taking up space - but it's a look that's not starkly minimal, either.
Rather than having an abundance of knickknacks to trick the eye from thing to thing, to thing, the aim is to have a true focal point where the eye can rest and observe beauty, symmetry, and harmony.
Most decorating styles can be easily accommodated into the Easy Elegance philosophy - think Shabby Chic, Country French, Farmhouse, Rust-Chic, Boho, Craftsman, Log Cabin, Shaker, Retro, and Modern, to name just a few. Or combine your most favorite and comfy pieces to create your own eclectic style!
I've opted for a combination of Shabby chic and Country French decor for my homes, both past and present, because that's what I happen to like, so I'll be using those styles to illustrate the Easy Elegance philosophy. Simply tweak the ideas to fit your space, your style...your way!
Instead of a collection of things to bounce the eye from item to item, it rests instead on a singular, simple but tasteful thrift store pitcher holding a collection of flowers (and yes, weeds) from the garden.
Easy Elegance is simple, minimal, achievable, uncluttered, and, well, easy.
A lovely nearby National Park campground was my camping "shakedown" destination.
It's been far too many decades (35-years) since I've gone car camping. My last car camping venture was in my Suzuki Samurai for a mapping and mileage gathering trip for my first book, Rockhounding California (formerly Rockhound's Guide To California) in 1994.
My 1998 Jeep is far larger than my old Sooze. It has room for a bed in the back when the passenger seats are folded away. Additional room in the back alongside the bed allows me to carry all else that I need for camping comfort, including a pup tent, sleeping bag and pad for my nephew, Jeff, who accompanied me on this trip.
Jeff relaxes in camp with a cup of tea.
This trip allowed me to test a few new pieces of camping equipment I'd purchased, such as a shower/potty/changing tent that I call, "the booth".
The booth allows me to accomplish in privacy the types of things I'd like to, well, accomplish in privacy!
The booth is a pop-up tent that may be secured by inserting heavy rocks into pocketed panels around the bottom or with the included tent stakes and attached loops. If wind is an issue loops further up the sides allow for additional stabilization with lines and stakes.
Jeff started a nice fire in the camp-provided grill pit and after carefully cleaning the hinged grill, he cooked up a tasty steak dinner for us. His tent is in the background, a burnt tree stump sits between.
We had a great menu that featured Pizza Quesadillas (a recipe from the SUV RVing channel on Youtube...
Our menu also features French toast with sausage, Denver scramble and sausage, sandwiches, snacks (lots of tasty snacks), and our choice of beverages along with plenty of drinking water sustained us through our several day stay.
Along with good things to eat and drink, comfort is vastly important to me, especially as I'm sneaking up on 70-years old. In fact, if one has comfort and good things to eat most of the other "discomforts" of camping are negligible.
Wet wipes aid one in keeping acceptably clean. Anti-bacterial wipes are desirable if there are public or pit restrooms at your chosen site or for use prior to food prep.
My camp bed is 27-inches wide by 8-inches thick leaving plenty of room for stowing needful camping gear and the spare tire on the left. The surface of the bed is also available for stuff like a table and chairs, clothes, etc., if needed. Notice that folded against the back of the driver's seat is the rear passenger seat cushion with its headrest.
On this model of Jeep, the rear passenger seat backs fold into the floor for a level cargo area. The seat cushions fold forwards to rest vertically against the backs of the front seats. A small area rug is used to set bundles of firewood in order to keep the car tidy.
When the backs of the passenger seats are folded into the floor, the seat portions tip backward against the backs of the front seats. In this configuration, the headrests from both rear seats slot into storage ports located in the upper edge of the folded seats (you can see how the driver's side passenger seat's headrest remains in place in the photo above).
This photo illustrates how the passenger headrest inserts and sits atop the folded back seat just below the driver's headrest. On the passenger side I removed the headrest thus allowing my pillow, when laid flat on the edge of the folded seat, to be even with my mattress giving me four inches of additional bed length.
The bed of my jeep with passenger seats folded away is a level 53-inches long. I'm 5'7" tall. My four-inch gain was quite serendipitous. If my bed had been less thick I would have had to have removed the passenger seat completely, giving me the extra needed inches but also leaving a void I'd have had to fill with spare blankets, pillows, or something to provide a level spot for the mattress.
I didn't want to completely alter the inside configuration of my car or have to remove and replace a seat each time I had passengers. Additionally, if my bed had been an inch, or more, lower, I'd have had no choice but to remove the rear seat.
To create my mattress, I ordered a full-size, 4-inch thick memory foam topper from Walmart. I borrowed an electric knife from a neighbor and cut the 54-inch wide pad in half, stacking the two halves. I cut the mattresses to 53-inches in length allowing my bed pillow to rest upon the folded seat top incorporating that into my bed length to make it 5'7" long. I then drew a pattern of the side of the car onto which I wanted to place my bed that included the rear wheel well. Placing my pattern onto the mattress halves, I carved out a portion of the foam mat that allowed it to fit tight against the side of the car while accommodating the wheel well.
My eight-inch thick mattress still allows me to sit on my bed without my head touching the roof of my car. Comfy-womfy!
My car bed is as comfy as my bed at home, although not as wide. Twenty-seven inches of width - a standard sleeping bag pad is only 24-inches - is sufficient for a good night's sleep whether sleeping on either side or laid out on my back. It's also a great place to prop up my pillows and read a book or simply gaze out at the view beyond.
I was greatly inspired to enjoy car camping again by exploring and subscribing to Youtube channels about RVing and living and camping in one's car! While I realize I could comfortably live in my Jeep, if it ever became necessary, I'm planning only to enjoy camping in my car. By "RVing" in my Jeep instead of buying an actual RV I'm saving money on another vehicle, on insurance, and on licensing and maintenance, as well.
My Elective Frugality "fix" that inspired RVing in my Jeep helped me to realize that I can take very extended vacations in my car and be happy, content, and comfy! What more do I really need?
Oh...a bathroom! Well, I've solved that problem, too!
The booth tent has been outfitted with a collapsible potty - that and a couple of plastic bags, kitty litter, and bark shreds - fill those requirements entirely. In a future blog I'll shamelessly go into more detail on my potty "hack". Until then, I'll be sharing on some lifestyle philosophies that meld beautifully and joyfully with Elective Frugality...such as, Simple Grace, Natural Abundance, and Easy Elegance. These four modalities will help shape a personal and achievable "American Dream" allowing one to escape the "hamster wheel" of runaway consumerism, credit card debt, and financial stress that the "Dream" has devolved into.
I'll also be sharing more of my camping adventures, too.
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