Crocheted Frog Beanie

We've decided to offer some of Debbie's crocheted hats for sale. I'm still deciding on the best way to handle them on here under the Country Life Dreams name, but for now I'll just post them with a paypal button and make links to the posts on the side menu.

Hand Crocheted Frog Beanie.

This hat has ear flaps and long tails on the sides.

Size

Kids $28.00 USD Adult $30.00 USD

To buy this hat locally for cash, contact Deb via email. 

They Told Him He Was Poor

As the story goes, an elderly man lies alone in his nursing home bed; his children all grown and leading what many consider to be successful lives; however, unable to care for their aged father. His is a story similar to countless others. He was born in the 1920’s, an era defined by its self-sufficiency. He was raised on the family farm. The family had all that was needed and they were dependent on no one. One day, during the heart of the industrial revolution, “they” told him he was poor. Poor because he didn't have the newest modern conveniences. Poor because he grew his own food and didn't purchase from the grocery chain. Poor because he didn’t have electricity. So he left the farm and went to work, working in the factory downtown, earning a wage. Now, unable to 

Homemade Laundry Soap

How many times have you wondered how easy would it be to make your own laundry soap and if it would be cheaper than just buying it at the store?

We just made our second batch of liquid laundry soap and we're a lot happier with the results.

It takes about half a cup per load and our clothes are just as clean as with the store bought stuff and while I don't have an exact cost per load, knowing what's in it and having no scent to drive me nuts is worth it.

It takes about an hour to get everything ready and mixed then a day or so to cool and be ready to use. It's not like the normal liquid you see but looks more like egg drop soup. Our first batch we used less of the bar soap and it was a little thinner. This time it seems just about perfect.

The soap has only four ingredients,

Freezerator Update

Have everything now for the system with the exception of the inverter and battery. The freezer went on sale just after I made the last post and I got it for just over $100.00 off the original price of $499.99. Got the solar panel from ebay along with the updated thermostat. The charge controller is a cheaper unit from Harbor Freight but does the job.

The freezer worked great as a freezer and after putting in the new thermostat, it appears to work great as a refrigerator as well. According to my kill-a-watt meter it draws just under 8 amps for a few seconds at startup and then drops to 1.2 amps. It only runs about 5-6 minutes each hour and after running it for

A New Freezerator In Our Future?

One of the main things we will have to deal with in Oklahoma from the day we get there is we will have no electric service. Now I myself don't see that as a negative and at this point neither does the wife. Of course we can't go without power at all which leaves us with solar, wind, and propane. The main topic of this post however is food and refrigeration.

Old Abandoned Root Cellar

Our main source of food storage will be in the form of a root cellar. I figure if storing food underground worked before electricity was around it should still work just fine.

What we plan on doing is digging what can be considered a combination root cellar / storm shelter as our first major project when we get there. It's tornado country so a storm shelter is an absolute must, especially since we'll be living in a tornado magnet travel trailer until the house is built. Of course now that it's also earthquake country it'll need a little more reinforcement than I originally planned, but that's okay.

The layout of our property being on the hill means it'll be easier to dig into the side of the hill for the cellar/shelter so it'll be a bit bigger than the standard root cellar. My goal would be for us to be able to have hammocks up that we could sleep in in the event of a bad stormy night.

Inefficiency On Display

Of course you're probably still wondering what the heck is a freezerator? Before I answer that, let's cover why the need for a freezerator exists.

Basic thermodynamics is that hot air rises and cold air falls. By design then the standard front door refrigerator is inefficient. When you open the door, all the cold air you've spent money on creating has now been instantly turned into a foot chiller. It may be really convenient, but in a time where we all need to conserve a little more and save some of those hard earned slave wages, we could do better.  Have you ever wondered why they can keep food in the store in refrigeration units with no lids? It's because the cold air stays inside and they're actually cheaper to run than those with the glass doors. The real question though is how inefficient are standard upright units?

Mines bigger than yours.

It's a pretty sad day when you realize the Jeep you just bought is that much smaller than your daughters...

On another note, I just realized you can edit the pictures directly in blogger now including giving it that 70's photo look..

There's a new book coming out that was written by one of the Hammock Forum members "dejoha" that I'm looking forward to reading.

The Ultimate Hang: An Illustrated Guide to Hammock Camping

The link will take to the Facebook page for the book and if you'd like you can follow the author here on twitter.

Those of you that like to go camping, try it once in a hammock and you'll never sleep on the ground again. What's not to like about a view like this..

I'll update the blog when the book is available. In the mean time run over to the Hammock Forums and see what you're missing. If nothing else you'll get to see guys like shug..

The things we do for love.

For the past two weeks I've been stuck out in one of the parking lots at work instead of in the park. I have to admit it does make the day go much slower and I miss the guest interaction but either way I get paid and we get one step closer to our dream.