simplifying life

So. After spending a week this summer at camp in a beautiful hand-built cabin, researching Mennonites after discovering the farm market , and finding out we're having another girl in November (hooray!), I've been doing a lot of thinking about the farm and ways to save money and live cheaply (and maybe even make a little money, too).

When we first moved to the farm, we were fresh out of a rental that had been brand new when we moved in, and for a while I really wanted that newness back. I wanted to drop a fortune on a custom kitchen, new bathrooms, wood floors, etc. But the reality is that we don't have that fortune, and aren't going to any time soon. Somewhere along the way, living in the house with it's ramshackle kitchen cabinets, crappy paint and dirty carpet, all of which are still functional, if not asthetically ideal, I've experienced a shift in the way I look at things. Sure, the cabinets suck, and I don't think they're attractive, but they get the job done. Paint is an easy fix, it just takes a little time. The carpet, well, there's no saving the carpet, but rather than going with laminate flooring that looks like wood, we've decided to use real wood boards. Not the kind you buy at Lowes with it's pre-fabbed Brazilian cherry or whatever, but pine that we can get from a sawmill locally, for dirt cheap. It's not really meant for floors, but we saw it used in the cabins at camp, and it looks and feels earthy and natural and homey. I love it.

As far as the kitchen goes, I do want to redo it, but not with manufactured cabinets, with cabinets we build ourselves out of real wood. And maybe the kitchen won't look perfect, but it will be ours.

When it comes to food - we're going to try to grow as much of it as we can, and what we can't grow ourselves, we're trying to buy locally. We've got the land. It's time to use it.

When we need a new bookshelf, why not build it? I read in Countryside magazine about a guy who was doing amazing stuff with wood pallets he got for free- taking them apart and making outbuildings and shelves. Why can't we do that? So much better than buying a piece of particle-board crap at the store. Why have I never done this before?!

I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to go shopping anymore. Because everything in stores like Wal-Mart or Target is cheap plastic junk, and why should I waste my money on it? I want to buy things that are made to last, and made of real materials. And I only want to buy them if I can't figure out how to make them myself. This isn't really new thinking for me, but I think I've finally reached a place where I'm capable of making this a reality. If I can't grow it, bake it or make it myself, do I really need it at all?

So, now I've started this whole "waste not, want not" campaign at home, saving fabric from old clothes, pickle and baby food jars, tin cans, and trying to figure out nifty things I can do with them. Just yesterday I discovered the log cabin quilt block pattern, and I'm addicted. And I'm also wanting to learn how to make rag rugs and other things instead of throwing scrap fabric away. With the jars I think I'm going to try making little hanging lanterns with beads and wire. And with the cans, I'm thinking pierced tin lanterns, pencil holders, or whatever. I'm also scheming a way to turn all of Davey's empty beer cans into tin tiles to redo the backsplash in my kitchen. Sounds crazy, I know. But just crazy enough that it might be totally awesome. AND, who knows, maybe I'll come up with some stuff that's cool enough to sell and make some extra income. Hey, it could happen.

Also on my list now are angora rabbits and cashmere goats, so I can spin my own yarn and dye it with vegetables from my garden. Not to mention the extra meat, milk, and animals to sell. (Hello, goat cheese!)

Some of this sounds crazy, I know. Maybe to some people this doesn't sound like simplifying.
But I don't care. I'm ready to live a different kind of life, and we have this amazing place and all these resources. It just seems wrong not to use them. So, all we can do is try, and we'll see how this turns out!

less chemicals = healthier hair. who knew?!

I'm one of those people for whom clean hair is a really Big Deal. As a teenager wallowing in the throes of puberty, my hair was super-oily and I could just never get it clean enough. At one point, I was washing it with dish soap (!) to get it clean and non-greasy feeling. (oh yeah. I was that girl. The one with the stringy hair). Anywho.. over the years I've had a love/hate relationship with my hair, trying to keep it feeling clean and product-free (well, except for that short affair with hairspray and huge bangs in the 7th grade...) and healthy. I always, ALWAYS had split ends. Baaad ones. Trimming my split ends just meant that my hair got shorter and shorter every month. Seriously. It was ridiculous. Then came pregnancy and the birth of my darling daughter. For all the while I was pregnant, my hair was relatively thick and healthy, thought I still had mad split ends, but then came the post-pregnancy hormone crash (and the ensuing whoopsie, I'm pregnant again! hormone rush) and literally, my hair was falling out. And I was freaking out. Seriously. Bald patches. I'm not even kidding.
I remembered once a long time ago that a guy friend told me that certain chemicals in shampoos actually caused hair loss, so I decided to do a little research. What I found was that the main ingredient in most shampoos (sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate) is actually really bad for your hair and causes split ends, and can cause hair loss. So I went in search of a shampoo that didn't have any of that nastiness in it. I ended up trying Burt's Bees, because, well, I'm a huge sucker for those bees, and because the price was actually less than I was paying for my 10-11.00 shampoo and conditioner that was wreaking havoc on my hair. I noticed a difference almost immediately. It doesn't foam up as much as regular shampoo, but my hair is clean and smells nice, and I haven't had a split end in months. AND, I stopped having handfuls of hair come out every time I washed! Hallelujah!
Sadly, my beloved Burts and most other natural-ish shampoos are hella expensive, and what with our upcoming economic downturn (aka me staying home to be a mommee) I'm going to need to come up with some way to get clean and healthy hair that doesn't cost me 30 bucks a month. I know of one friend who washes her hair with baking soda and vinegar, with great results, she says, but I'm just not ready to go that hippie... yet. So, off to research ways to make my own shampoo. Anyone got any suggestions?

A trip to the Delano Farm Market

Last Sunday for the 4th, Davey and I were feeling a wee bit on the lazy side (we had celebrated his 30th birthday the day before with good food (STEAK!) and lots of good friends) so we decided it was a good day for a drive. We'd been meaning to get out and do some exploring of the area, to get more familiar with what's nearby, so we struck out towards Benton and the Ocoee river to see what we could see.
A few weeks ago at camp we tubed the Hiawassee (well, some of us tubed. I mostly got stuck on rocks in a raft. But it was still fun!) and I caught sight of something I had been wanting to check out ever since: a sign for the Delano Farm Market. I love me some farmer's markets and this was 15 minute from the house, so definitely worth checking out. DEFINITELY. When we turned at the sign, the very first thing I noticed was a road sign warning of horse and buggy crossings. What the hey? Turns out this little portion of Tennessee is Mennonite country, and the farm market is run by the Mennonites, selling the produce from their farm. The Farm market was closed on Sunday (naturally), so we decided to come back the next day (hooray for 3 day weekends!) and check it out.
This place has got to be one of the best farm markets I've ever been to. The produce is FRESH - as in, they just literally picked the crops, loaded the wagon and drove them up here 10 minutes ago kind of fresh. From the parking lot, the farm spreads out in this gorgeous panorama, and it's fascinating to watch all the horse drawn wagons and buggies go by as the Mennonites go about their daily business. It's so serene and simple. Davey and I just sat there and watched them working in their fields for about 20 minutes. But then it was time to get down to the business of shopping (heck yeah, baby). The market has about 8 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and the same for chiles and peppers. Tomatoes run 1.25 lb, bell peppers were .75 each, and the hot chiles were all 3 for a dollar. Cabbage was .40/lb, and some of the cabbages were bigger around than my head. They had red and white potatoes (8 lb basket for 4.00), all sorts of melons (which made me cry because the smell was divine and I couldn't have ANY!), eggplant, beets, beans, okra, squash, zuchinni, onions, garlic, sweet corn (3.50 a dozen), plums, peaches, and a few quarts of blackberries. I read in an article I found online that they have amazing strawberries in the spring (though I'm pretty happy with what we got from the Mayfield farm), but of course, those are out of season now. They also sell sorghum (no honey though, bummer), jams, jellies, soaps, etc.
I was also excited to see that they sell seeds that they have saved from the crops they grow - which means that they're local and proven for our area. I'll be trying those out next year.

I managed to get out of the market with only a sampling of some tomato varieties to try (since Davey and I have never really eaten anything but your status quo red tomato from the grocery store), potatoes and a few huge bell peppers. I plan on going back next week with a lot more spending money and pretty much going crazy up in there. Yeah.




If you want to visit the Delano Farm Market - take Highway 411 S past Etowah to Delano Rd. You'll see a sign for the Farm Market on your right. Turn at the sign and then turn right again on Needle Eye Ln. There's a one lane underpass at the train tracks, so watch for oncoming cars (or buggies!). The farm market is just on the other side of the tracks. They're open M -S 9am to 4pm, and only take cash. Also, they ask that people (women especially) dress respectfully. Mostly they don't want to see your boobs. Fair enough, I think.

Oh, and just a heads up: there is no electricity and so no air conditioning. And not a lot of deodorant-wearing. By either the Mennonites or a lot of their hippie-ish patrons. Just sayin'.