Jesse Glessner

Personally, what's kinder to clothes is *not* washing them until they're dirty (I know people who will wash their pants and bath towels after every use - underwear, yes, but pants get warn several days to a week, and bath towels are being used on me when I'm clean!) Also, avoiding a dryer at all costs in favor of a rack or clothesline will make clothing last much longer. I'm personally suspicious that many of these "attitudes" about "whiter than white" is about selling more detergent and more clothing. The clothing industry does not want clothing to last a long time. We're going to fix that!

There were 7 of us kids at home in the  50's & 60's time frame and my mother did a LOT of washing on one of these machines. I remember her being so proud of a new one she purchased and used it the day it was set in the house.

YEP, you don't wash regular clothes until the do get dirty, or have manure on them, or they smell strong from sweating. Undies and school clothes were different, although even school pants were normally worn throughout the week, but shirts and undies changed daily. That was just LIFE down on the farm.

Clothes went through washing, then rinsing, then being hung on the line throughout the entire year except when it was raining. We had clothes lines strung out in the house as well though as the clothes in the winter were frozen stiff and were brought inside to finish off the drying.

I'm surprised that my modern Kenmore, top load, washing machine has lasted as long as it has. I've had one belt replacement done on it in the 30 years I've had that. Bought that new around 89 or 90 and use it every 2 or 3 weeks to do my piled up laundry. Living alone it just doesn't pay to do a very small couple of loads - it uses too much water and electricity.  I've just bought clothes and bedding to last through at leas 4 weeks before it becomes MANDATORY to do my washing. And I still wear dress pants a couple of times and work pants until they can almost stand up by themselves. Work clothes get cleaned with the small rugs/carpets. C'est la vie!!

r ranson wrote:They have arrived!  

This next bit is a big disappointment to me.  I know it doesn't affect the useability of the calendar, but it grates against my aesthetic sensibilities.

The printer plastered its logo on the back of every single page.  

At that price, I can see why.  They get me to pay to advertise for them.  =

At the time of writing this, there are only 14 left to sell.  I don't think I'll be printing any more as I figure I should be sold out by Christmas.  
You can pick up your desk calendar here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/868435585/

HELLO R.RANSON & ALL:
This may be preaching to the choir for some of you, however, many people do not recognize the significance of the dpi (dots per inche) resolution for commercial printing jobs.
IF you ever make another attempt at publishing another calendar you have at least learned what to do and what NOT to do on the next round.
FOR ALL:  Any literature, with photos, that you attempt to publish should go through a couple of extra hoops BEFORE sending to a PRINT SHOP:
     1. is your work going to be in Color or B/W?  Some gurus are now working with B/W in photos as it is catching attention - because it is DIFFERENT!
     2. Are ALL of your photos at a minimum of 300 dpi? IF NOT, make them so! Higher resolutions may also be appropriate for your Pub! But, if you do not have your photos at a
              minimum of 300 dpi you will have very grainy graphics on your Project.

              There is one possible way to check for how your photos will look when printed. Assuming that you are
              using something like MS Publisher or another Publishing tool, check your photos in that FIRST! Then SECOND print your article as a PDF FILE and this is where you begin to see
              the differences between 150 dpi, 200 dpi, and the minimum 300 dpi for Print Shop Printing. In fact many Print Shops will ask that you convert your article to the PDF format so
              that it comes to them in a non-changeable format. IT really can be changed in an emergency, however, basically what you see is what you get from the Print Shop when you
              view that PDF File on your computer.

And one last suggextion/thought for all of you! IF you want to see articles about your work in PRINT try sending your write-ups and photos to "The Farm Show" magazine, "Mother Earth News" magazine, "Grit" magazine, or "Countryside & Small Stock Journal" magazine. They are always looking for good articles to put in their editions - although this is NOT saying that your article will get published - but take a chance on it. YOUR article in ANY one of these pubs should increase sales, if you're selling, or further educate the public about your project.

I just took a quick scan down through your "Read Me" file and your Worksheet.
There is no doubt that you put a lot of effort in building your system.
However, some suggestions to help other people step into actually using this worksheet.

1. Build a step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS listing. Refer people back to the worksheet shown in #2 below.
2. Show an example of a completed system worksheet.

With those many more people might pick up on your system.

j. bong wrote:For me, it is Egyptian Walking Onion & Jerusalem Artichokes.

Have you heard of Potato Onions? They're supposed to be similar to "walking onions", but supposedly produce larger bulbs.

I just planted some seed, very late, but maybe they will grow enough by winter that they can be used.

Hello and Welcome to the "permies" site.
I don't have my "dream home" and probably never will, so I'll have to make-do with my one acre plot on the edge of the town I live in.

I actually am pretty well along with what I wanted to do here, but am always looking for ideas that I can incorporate, like buying a bee hive a couple of years ago for way out back and then tilling up a 3 ft. x 20 ft. strip to try and grow flowers for part of the bees activities. The hive isn't so much for the honey, but for the pollinators. It partially seems to be working as I had an unreal tomato crop this year!

I'll have to hit the forum and read all the inputs.

Every year my grandmother made sugared orange peel "candy", along with a wire coat hanger, rounded into a wreath style, and added wrapped candies to that for us at Christmas.
Have any of you tried these citrus sugared peels? YUK!!! A Japanese girl who worked for me loved them, but then she grew up with them.

My mother was smart about it though! She made us eat every bit of the orange peel "candy" BEFORE she set out the candy wreath!     :-)

I say "YUK" even thinking about those awful candies!

Ah, will, country living - more or less! My friends in Florida and LA just do not believe me when I tel them there is nothing here really to see as I live in the middle of corn field and soybean fields at the edge of a small town of around 4,000 people

When I was still teaching I took my camera with me one day and took a photo of "Rush Hour" on my drive to work. This was in the fall with all of the leaves turning the trees along the highway all kinds of colors. There were a whole TWO cars ahead of me in the photo, one about 1/2 mile ahead and the other about 3/4 mile. I sent the photos to all those friends in the big cities who were still stalling in traffic tie-ups every morning going to work. I didn't hear a PEEP from any one of them.

Say la vie! I just sit and watch the grass, the weeds, and my garden growing and doing some occasional woodworking. Then there is my habit of reading any time I want to also.

I'm happy and content!!!

I was going to post this earlier and forgot it.
Lots of info on this LINK about Mason Jars, etc.

https://permies.com/t/40/19404/Making-Mason-Jars#1133870

When I was a kid in the late 40's and through the 50's we canned a LOT of Stewed Tomatoes. That was all that was in the jars too, just tomatoes. I hated them, although in the winter they seemed to be more tolerable.

After retiring and moving back to Indiana I decided to DIY some of my "prepper" foods and took up canning again. I found a new recipe for Stewed Tomatoes that is really great! You all need to try at least one batch of this recipe below and check it out for yourselves. I've pumped up the quantity of the added ingredients to make it more adaptable to a variety of meal-time uses. Serve these "as is" or with rice, maybe a piece of steak, or any other meal that needs something to help with bland or dry foods. Maybe serve as a side even with mashed potatoes. So, who's worried about the seeds, or the juice? Neither of those will harm you and the juice definitely would come in handy in any preparation of emergency foods - if nothing else just for the flavoring.

One hint about prepping the tomatoes - getting rid of the skins - is to cool your tomatoes in a fridge first, then cut a thinly cut cross on the bottom of the tomatoes and toss them into a pot of gently boiling water for one minute or 1 1/2 minutes. I found this method with having leftover tomatoes from my morning batch which I stuck in the fridge to use in my afternoon batch. The cooling, then the boiling water dunk, after which you dunk them in ice water gives you almost perfect quarters of skin to peel off. Core the tomato then and cut into whatever sizes you like and use the recipe I've added below.

So, here is the simple, quick recipe below.

STEWED  TOMATOES
From the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving  -  with slight modification
Yield: about 7 pints or 3 quart
Ingredients:
4 quarts chopped, peeled, cored tomatoes (about 24 large)
1 1/2 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh or bottled Lemon juice
Instructions:
1. Sanitize jars and lids per Ball Blue Book instructions
2. Clean and peel tomatoes then chop at least into quarters
3. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot. Cover; cook 10 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking
4. Ladle hot vegetables into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace.
5. Remove air bubbles
6. Adjust two-piece caps.
7. Process pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure in a pressure canner.
8. Label