Making adjustments

Life is full of adjustments and that is never more evident than when you are attempting to make a change in lifestyle. So far we have had to downsize, give up a lot of privacy, and try to learn a little more patience. Overall however, we do not regret our decision. Making adjustments has also meant becoming a little more creative. I have mentioned before about the outside shower situation. Well, as you can tell by looking outside, fall has arrived so now it's a little too cold in the mornings for me to take a shower outside. Once again an adjustment has to be made and here is the solution we have come up with so far.

Since the bathroom isn't built yet we had to come up with another solution to the shower situation. I was thinking about it one day and it occured to me that if we could find some sort of basin we could stand in that to catch the water. So we headed over to the farm store and bought a 16.5 gallon galvanized tub. We plan on placing a board between two of the rafters to suspend the solar shower from and place tarps behind and under the basin. This way we can take a shower, catch the water, and protect the wall. It's not the ultimate solution but it will do for now.

The kids have already had the privelge of taking a bath in it. Hopefully we can get the shower set up inside soon so that I can actually use it.

We also got some worms for the worm bin. We went to a local bait shop and bought some red wigglers. So far they seem to be doing well and the bin doesn't smell. We have been slowly adding food so we don't overwhelm them. Below is a picture of the worms before we put them in the bin.

We shredded some newspaper to make a bed for them and then added them to the bin. Initially we gave them some coffee grounds, tea bags, and a chopped up potato to eat. The potatoes seem to be slowly disapearing and they haven't died on me yet so we must be doing something right!

Our neighbor was also nice enough to give us a bathtub! Ok, so it's not much to look at now but I think it will clean up fairly well. I'm not going to complain because it didn't cost us anything and it's one less thing we have to worry about for now.

It's baby steps but we are making progress. Slow progress is better than no progress and for now it keeps life from getting boring!

Worms, worms, worms!

Happy belated Mabon! I hope everyone had a great Mabon and got to spend some time with those you love. We had a nice evening here at home. My hubby built a small fire in the firepit and we sat around drumming for a bit while the kids played. It was nice to just be outside and observe the moon and stars while spending a little quality time together.

Things have been a little busy for us lately. Last weekend we took the kids to the State Fair. Even though they didn't get to ride as many rides as they would have liked, they still had a good time. We took them through the petting zoo and through an exhibit where they got to see live farm animals and learn about them. I told them we may have to start a Fair Fund for next year so we can get the wrist bands and stuff.

The husbandly unit has been working on building a shed so we can eventually get our stuff out of storage. He has managed to get the framing up for three of the walls so he is making some progress. I will take some pictures as we go along and get them up at some point. So far we have used reclaimed wood that we have gotten off of Craigslist. We will eventually have to buy some OSB and perhaps some more 4x4's to get it finished but so far we are trying reclaim as much as possible.

So one of our latest projects was building a worm bin. I found the directions for this at http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm. It was very easy to do but now we have to get some worms! I haven't been able to find any locally so it looks like I will have to order them from online. We bought two 10 gallon containers for about $5 each.

We followed the directions and drilled the holes in the bottoms of the containers and one of the lids.

With this system, once the first container is full of compost you set the second directly on top. The worms will work their way up through the holes to get to the new food. Once most of the worms have moved into the second bin you can harvest the compost. I like this system because the containers are not that big so they can be kept pretty easily inside. Also, the cost is minimal for the supplies. The worms will be the biggest expense. Once we get some worms I'll let you guys know how it goes.

We haven't started construction on the bathroom yet and the low's are supposed to get down into the 50's this next week. I get the feeling that's where they are going to stay for a while so I may have to resort to sponge baths again. Ah well, hopefully soon I'll have a somewhat real bathroom.

Stay tuned and I'll try to post a little more often than what I have been!