Official SS Poll: What do you do to eliminate bills / cut down expenses?

[Mini Horses]

For electric usage the appliances are always killer....hot water, clothes dryer, oven, a/c, heat pumps. Anything that gives you comfort . Solar or boiler hot water, sun oven, fans, clothes lines, wood heat. Hmmmmm generally more personal labor.

It's kinda like the gardens where we grow delicious, healthy, chem free food. Not nearly as simple as walking into a produce department for the pretty but tasteless & sprayed with "?"

IT'S tough to be frugal & healthy.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yes it is!

 

[chicken girl]

I'm thinking about stringing a clothesline on our long covered porch. Too many pine trees for anywhere else unless I want to put in some post. The only problem is that is where I pen up my sons little chicken killing stray dogs. I wish I could give those little mutts away.

My daughter brought home a dog like yours. Trout is so sweet and such a good guard dog. So we made adjustments to our coops, they are much larger now and dog proof and have a good sized chicken tractor also. Trout only goes out supervised with our other dogs (who don't bother the hens) then back in house.

 

[lcertuche]

My husband likes the little mutts because they are good watch dogs and we have found a couple of dead opossums and armadillas, but they have also killed our neighbors cat. The little one looked like a hair covered skeleton when we found him but now is much healthier with some meat on his bones. They kill anything that won't get them I suppose. My 7 year old grandson loves them and play with them daily. Its a job keep the dogs and chickens separated. Its like the chickens have a death wish and keep flying in where they can reach them. We are constantly reingrese silly birds.

 

[Hinotori]

I've been cutting down on the electric bill for the last bit. We'd gotten lazy and had been running electric heat. Yeah, only took one bill to spark some encouragement to get outside and split wood.

I think I'm going to take some rope and go walk the train tracks to look for the downed trees as well. The tracks are only used a handful of times a year, but they are still maintained. Crews come through and cut down anything blocking the tracks and toss it to the side. The cottonwood sucks for fire, but there is plenty of douglas fir as well, which is good stuff. We normally burn fir and cedar in this area. Hardwoods just aren't an option. I've never had a creosote issue because I grew up with my parents burning fir, pine, and tamarack. So I know how to use it without any issues.

 

[lcertuche]

All we have for heat is an old Ashley burner. It's not effiecient but it is all we have. On a really cold week we can burn a rick of wood. A couple of people brought us a rick each a while back which was a great blessing. On the weekends DH and sons drag up limbs and cut up, unfortunately it is mostly pine. It burns up so fast there are no coals, only ashes. We just bough another rick for $50 and try to use as little as necessary. I'm not sure if electric heaters would cost more or not. At least if the power is lost we still have heat with the wood and in a pinch I could cook it is I had to, even if it meant put an iron skillet in the firebox.

 

[NH Homesteader]

What is a rick?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I turned the breaker off to the hot tub....too stinkin' hot to get in it lately and DH needs to clean the filter and get the chemicals right anyway. Is it silly of me to be wishing for colder weather so I can take a good soak???

 

[NH Homesteader]

Would you like my weather? It's about 30 and we have a couple of inches of fresh snow on the ground!

 

[Hinotori]

We only use about a cord of wood a normal winter. I clean out the stove about once a month. Not much ash. I had to learn to split the wood smaller for use in this stove.

I finally got Mom and Dad to understand that they also needed to split it smaller for the new one up at the cabin. Mom complained they couldn't load the firebox for the whole night. Smaller logs fit better and fixed that. They were too used to the old Blaze Queen that was there. That's what they still have at the house. That thing would use as much wood in one night as I use in 3-4 days and they are both designed to heat the same amount of space. The ash amount was horrid as well with unburned coals.