Annie Collins

Em Bracken wrote:Some considerations that haven't been mentioned yet;

Vacuum sealing creates a lot of waste plastic that mostly gets thrown away after a single use

Indeed, vacuum sealing the way it is typically shown with the plastic, etc., does cause a lot of waste. It's the reason I never got going with it. HOWEVER... BUT ... then I discovered another way to vacuum seal. Ooooh, I was rather excited about it. So much so, that I went straight onto eBay to go find what I needed for the system. I got everything used, of course (love recycling!), and in great shape. Now I can reuse all kinds of glass jars and vacuum seal my dried herbs, spices, beans, rice, you name it! Such a great system! And besides the initial investment of plastics (canisters and machine), the rest is all about recycling glass jars of all sizes and putting them to great use!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH7OJrCD3YE

Not the same as your situation, but I have a few hundred pounds of pea seeds stored in galvanized garbage cans in my basement because I have a small microgreens business and got a good $/lb. price on the peas. I put them down there about 4 years ago and added some food-grade diatomaceous earth. The basement is a bit damp, but keeps a pretty even temperature. I open the lid about 1x/month to bring a few pounds upstairs when I run low on the seeds in my grow/seeding room.They are still germinating as well as they did when I first got them, and I have never seen even one insect among them. So while I don't have the same goal or set-up as yours, whatever you decide to do, I would recommend adding DE to your stored goods and just rinse it off before cooking, although that really isn't even necessary. The DE will not only thwart insects, but I think it also helps keep things drier.

Collecting rainwater and not dealing with the city water at all would have been my suggestion also. There are various ways to do so, not just by adding gutters to the tunnel. There is a thread on this forum somewhere about various ways to collect rainwater, with pictures. One of them shows  4x4s put into the ground and a metal roof put on at a slant which collects the water plenty. Have it go into IBC totes, and you should be all set. And if you place the totes a bit off the ground, you should get a decent amount of pressure, I would think.

Erica Colmenares wrote: Could you describe how you did this? Did you just pour (or spoon?) the DE into the crack, where the subflooring and drywall meet?

I'm not James, but I imagine that a powder applicator such as is in the picture would work very well for applying DE into nooks and crannies. I use this same type to apply DE (infused with certain essential oils) for all kinds of insect control, including getting into carpenter bee holes in our shed. It's great at spreading the powder beyond the tip of the applicator for the most reach of the DE. I would just be sure to get one that has a little metal ball in it so you can shake apart any clumps that may form.

I'm not sure which was the biggest, but there have been quite a few over the years.
- Using cloth diapers for my children. Most of the diapers I got used and when my children outgrew them, they were passed on to others.
- We also stopped using paper towels or paper napkins a couple of decades ago.
- As much as we can, we get food from the bulk section of the grocery store, bringing our own bags. And, of course, bringing our own cloth bags for most any shopping.
- We have two composting bins -one with red wigglers and one without. A lot goes in those, including papers and cardboard.
- We use only our own stainless steel water bottles when we go on hikes, etc.
- When taking our dogs for a walk and picking up after them, I use bags that I fished out of the supermarket's "recycling" container where people bring their used plastic supermarket bags (which I am pretty sure cannot be recycled - so I like to give them one more use before they go in the landfill).
- And the latest change we made was stopping the use of toilet paper. We use toilet wipes now which I made by cutting up two towels into 5" squares as well as cutting some of those into 2.5" squares, and sewing the edges to stop fraying. The small squares are for females using the toilet. No need to use the big pieces when only needing to wipe some pee drips. The larger wipes are really only for drying since with our new system we also got a hand held sprayer that gets hung on the toilet tank. Awesome system! Next to the toilet we have a small swing-top garbage container where all the used wipes go into. Even the family that stayed for a week over Christmas used the new system (although they didn't have to - I put the toilet paper back out for them so they'd have a choice), and were very impressed. The wipes get kept on top of the toilet tank in a basket the size of which is almost perfect for it all. Here is a picture of our newest change showing everything, including the sprayer hanging on the tank on the left side of the toilet tank.
- And, oh yes, another very small change we made is to no longer use ear swabs. We use some sort of thin cotton something we have around, instead, to simply dry the ears after showering.

Congratulations, Bernetta! You must be so excited! I love moving into a new home and slowly getting the feel of the land and the structures. Nice job on the shed! I would think about getting rid of the chewed/rotted wood at the bottom of the doors and replacing those parts with some fresh wood, probably also putting a layer of thin metal over them to help protect them. And if you are going to put chickens in there, you wouldn't want a draft, either. Keep us updated on your progress!

Hi Eric,

Just responding to say that I hope you are keeping some type of journal of all your adventures. You clearly have the gift of written words (among others); someday you may want to put them into a book format!
Best of luck to you! (I am in a happy union and not the right age anyway, but wanted to remark on your talent(s).)

I find this video shows nicely how to get a garden going on the cheap. No-till and also using cardboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SE8RjyTq3A

Great information, Violet! I would really like to try this, but my only concern is how to source hay or straw that I can be sure has not been herbicided with the type that just keeps on. I forgot the name of it now. I wonder what else one could use if one has trouble finding trustworthy hay/ straw.
Anyway, thank you for the information!

What wonderful ideas, Lisa - thank you for posting this! Birds give me so much joy; I would love to do more to possibly make their life a bit better as well. These ideas about birdbaths as well as exposed earth for dust-baths are so easy to implement!