Jocelyn Campbell

Meg, you crack me UP!! Such a thorough reply to ray's question!! The logic, the rationale behind potential transmission vectors...oh my.

I'm dying over here!!

Lovely hot tub roof and cabin, Dale! I especially like the French doors and sweet dormer window.

Pearl, that is a work. of. art. Wowsa! Good on you! Maybe not everyone's style, but certainly way better than the original. Your work reminds me of the gal they featured in a few episodes of "Money for Nothing" on Netflix. I posted about that here. The gal who upcycles dressers is only in a few of the episodes, not all. It's amazing the prices she was able to charge for her fancied-up dressers.

Building a hot tub shelter and a cabin could be weekend side gigs for folks with access to all the demo materials that Dale finds/scores. At the same time, I think they also need higher level construction skills. We're learning (some times the hard way) that not everyone has those skills.

For folks in the wheaton labs bootcamp, or other early homesteaders, or those saving up for a homestead, I think it might be easier to start with a dresser redux, or making a lamp, or planter boxes from scrap wood. From the folks who join our bootcamp, I've observed that many of them would rather do something with their hands and tools in the evenings and on weekends instead posting pictures online. (wheaton labs boots can post pics to earn a pretty healthy BRK.) I think often folks are interested in the bootcamp, or homesteading, because they like being outdoors, doing physical work, working with people and animals and plants. Which means they usually don't like computer work quite as much.

So yeah, if you have Netflix, check out "Money for Nothing." It's a scrounger's or an upcycler's dream show! Though again, there are truly some skilled artisans on that show, not everything is something just anybody could do. Though there are some simpler inspirations, too.

Dan Boone wrote:
I'm not saying one damn thing about it being actually healthy, of course.  These are mostly salt/vinegar brines I'm using -- the juice from commercial pickles, green olives, and capers.   Sodium, oh my!

In speaking with a nutritionist about sodium, (and a nutritionist who is almost OCD about having properly done studies to back up what she says), it's not the quantity of sodium that is problematic, it's whether the sodium is balanced with potassium. Most veggies have lots of potassium.

Additionally, if you sweat a lot or in a lot of heat, you need more sodium.

So, IMHO, active people who eat a lot of veggies, can have a LOT of salt! :-)

I do love this! Thank you!! Fred has mentioned his mom rinsing out condiment bottles with vinegar or other things when making dressings or sauces, but I hadn't thought to make a Ranch dressing this simply. Or to rinse and save things for later.

You guys are awesome!!

I'm with Dan about the icky, rancid oils in bottled salad dressings. Making them fresh is so easy and quick, though I hadn't thought it could be THIS quick!

I'm a stickler about the mayo I buy for the household here. No soy oil. No canola oil. I'd prefer coconut and avocado oils only, but I can't seem to find the vegan one that was coconut and avo oils, so for the vegans in the house, the mayo is safflower oil. We used to make our own safflower oil mayo before the coconut and avocado oil mayo become available because we could find organic safflower oil, but we couldn't find organic safflower oil mayo.

Any way, unless you're purchasing Primal Kitchens brand salad dressings, most all bottled salad dressing also has soy or canola oils in them. IMHO big yuck. Consumers are wising up and the options are expanding a bit, though it's still far less waste, and I think even tastier, to make at home! Super easy!!

It might be nice to add some minced onions and a few herbs to this Trashy Ranch dressing. I know that's not nearly as simple, though I'm sharing just in case someone might like to level up a bit. Here's my completely off-the-cuff Ranch dressing. I made this up a little while back. If you don't use or have the yogurt, you can make it with full mayo and it works that way too. When we have vegan yogurt (rare for us to have) we've made a nice vegan version, too.

Jocelyn's ranch dressing

(Ranch dressing is traditionally made with buttermilk, mayo and/or sour cream, though this version seems to work well.)

ALL AMOUNTS ARE ESTIMATES - ADJUST TO TASTE.

2 c. plain, unsweetened yogurt
2 c. mayo
¼ c. minced (diced very small) onion
2 T. apple cider vinegar (or pickle juice!!)
3-4 cloves crushed/minced garlic
1-2 T. no salt seasoning (the stuff from Costco)
add the following to taste:
salt
pepper
chives - fresh if you have them
dill
parsley

Mix all ingredients. Better if left to sit for an hour or more before serving.

If you have leftover bits of onion, leftover relish, and/or leftover tablespoon or two of ketchup, then I highly recommend making your own Thousand Island Dressing. We make this one (you might need to click to see the full recipe on that website) without the sugar (there's sugar in ketchup already!!!) all. the. time. If we have vegan mayo, we make it with that so then everyone is happy to use it.

From this thread, I hope to be more aware of using up or rinsing out jars to make this stuff. That is just so freaking brilliant.

We stayed somewhere that had some upcycled decor (see the lamps and barbed wire at bottom) that got me thinking about this topic.

I would LOVE to see or hear more about folks making money as a side hustle with cool upcycled crafts.

First, we have the thread about just selling trash that others use to make their crafts:
Making money on the Internet selling trash.
Really worth checking out for someone looking to augment their side hustle earnings.

Nicole started this thread about re-purposing old garden hoses.

That garden gate is just one spectacular example.

Plus, Jay posted here, in a thread with a general discussion about upcycling, this awesome turtle stool from upcycled materials.


It reminds me of re-purposing a hanging wire basket into a turtle topiary:


Who knew barbed wire could be so cheerful?


The lamp pictures next, coupled with r's thread on upgrading a standing lamp to battery power, could make a useful off-grid combo.

Floor lamp made from branches or twigs also known as junkpoles:


Pretty table lamp made with junkpoles, too:


Any other side hustle crafts going on out there?

Mandy Launchbury-Rainey wrote:Still securing the perimeter after Frankie has been in (clever like a veloceraptor) but otherwise, all done

Gosh, it does look lovely! The house, the gate, the stone steps - I love it all!

Those two are giving you the look being separated from you, aren't they though? Haha!

Oh, I found the other thing I was thinking of! The Give Back Box.

The first major retailer to join Give Back Box was Newegg.com. The retailer placed Give Back Box fliers in all the boxes shipped to its customers. The flier recommended that customers re-use the boxes their purchases came in and fill them with clothes, accessories and household items, then ship them to local charities using pre-paid shipping labels. The local charities developed a system to track the packages, so when they received the boxes and scanned them in, tax receipts were generated for appropriate donors.

This is the link for using an Amazon box:  https://givebackbox.com/amazon.

It looks like it's a $15 donation to ship your items to one of the charities associated with The Give Back Box. That barely covers postage for a small-ish box.

Or, you can use any box - there we go! More about how it works here:  https://givebackbox.com/works.

Yes, the zero-waste boxes are quite amazing. And expensive!! You're correct, Su, a large part of what is offered in those zero-waste boxes can be done for free, or composted, etc. One example was the human hair box...which was an eyebrow raiser for me.

The free programs (their "brigades"), however, especially for items for which we don't have recycling available, now those are interesting to me! So currently, I'm thinking these three free programs look appealing:

snack or chip bags - https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/haincelestial  

vitamin/supplement bottles via:  https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/rb-health (Paul and I generate a lot of empty supplement/vitamin bottles! too many to use for seed sor other things!)

electronics:  https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/electronics-recycling (we currently have some cell phones to dispose of...)

There is a fourth free one for Cliff bars and other energy bar wrappers, though we don't have so many of those here. Though some times some of our helpers have these.

I would love to hear more information about some of these options. User experience or feedback especially!

So...there are mail-in / shipped in recycling options for some things in some places.

One that I'm looking in to is:

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/zero_waste_boxes/ - For enough money (IMHO, a lot of money in most cases) you can still have a normal consumer lifestyle, but pay to have your leavings recycled and thus be zero-waste. Tadaa!! While I'm being flip, I do this is kind of neat and might be a good start to reducing what normally goes in to our landfills.

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades - but this link shows they also have free recycling programs, often sponsored by the companies or manufacturers of certain products. This one, Snack Bag Recycling Program, looks especially cool.

While I wish we did not consume any snack type chips....we do. And the bags make up a large part of our trash. So I think we might try this one.

I think there is some place to send in used clothes, too, and I'm forgetting where and how to do that. Was that through Amazon or something. Does anybody have a link?

paul wheaton wrote:
The books will now gather dust until Friday.   Shawn will arrive thursday eve and we will begin signing and boxing on friday.   The official signing party is on saturday.  If enough people show up, we might get it all done on saturday evening.  (I'm told lasagna (pizza flavored cake) will be served from the rocket oven!)

I think you mean a week from Friday. Tomorrow is Friday, Sep. 13, 2019.
Shawn will arrive Thu. Sep. 19, opening and signing starts Fri. Sep. 20, with the signing party on Saturday. Sep. 21.
(You're killing me, Smalls!)