Elegant Survival

Conserving Water

Flowering in the Desert

The price of water is going up, and its availability in some locations is scarce. There are some things you can do to keep whatever water you do have from going down the drain in vain.

Bathing usually uses less water than showering. Whether you bathe or shower, keeping the drain plugged will allow you to use this “gray water” later for other purposes.

Use the bath water to give your outdoor plants a drink. They especially like Epsom salts, a time-honored fertilizer in England.

Use a large, gallon-sized pitcher of bath water to flush your toilet. Pouring it down fast creates a flush; sometimes you will want to do this twice. A tubful of water can constitute twenty or more flushes. It works great.

While running water to get it hot, fill pitchers, glasses, any empty vessels you have handy until the water gets hot enough to use, saving the cooler water for drinking later.

Water doesn’t grow on trees!

Photo and Conservation Tips Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2008

Elegant Wind-Farm in Tehachapi, California--the Leader in Wind Energy

Tehachapi: what a beautiful town, with a view of its gorgeous windmills. We drove in, and were extremely pleased to see a huge wind-farm up in the distance. And some "environmentalists" are against having them "in my backyard" because windmills would ruin their view. Well, I reckon they just want to continue to support the gas and oil companies, an idea that I don't mind, as long as they're American, but that they pretend to hate. Isn't that beautiful?

U.S. Department of Energy has Tips on Saving It

Using Grey Water in the Garden

When you bathe instead of shower, you usually use less water. To further enhance your water-saving program, carry the used bath-water outside in a large pail or pitcher to the garden. Plants don't mind a bit of soap, and they especially adore Epsom Salts, which are well-documented as an effective fertilizer.

Conserving Energy and Supplies

Monday, May 26, 2008

Survival Preparation: Non-Electric Tools

In the event of a power-outage, or complete disaster, you will need certain non-electric kitchen tools. Let's say that you've successfully put away a stock of wheat. You will need to grind it for flour, or crush it for salads and pilafs. The traditional heavy metal meat and vegetable grinder, which attaches by vise to a table or counter-top, is necessary. If you have stored-up a load of coffee beans (whole coffee beans, like wheat "berries", have a much longer shelf-life than their ground forms), you will need a high-quality, hand-operated coffee grinder. See my Survival Tools link-list on the blog of this website for sources.
Hand-Operated Meat and Wheat Grinder

Here is a photo of my sprouted grains and seeds, showing my hand-operated coffee-grinder.
Click on photo to enlarge

Sun-dried Shirts, a Real Luxury

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sun-Dried Shirts, a Money-Saving Luxury

Photo: Vermont Clothesline Company

Washing and Drying Your Shirts

A well-made shirt can cost $500.00 or more. That is an investment to protect. Your shirts will last much longer if they are washed by hand and hung to dry. Don't use so much detergent that it takes a rinsing marathon to remove it. "A little dab'll do ya", as the old Brylcreem jingle said. Ideally, one would hang shirts on a clothesline, upside down, with clothespins. This keeps pinch-marks off the important areas of your shirts. The sun will dry them in no time. Alternatively, one could hang them indoors, perhaps out-of-sight behind the the shower curtain, on hangers. A sturdy spring-rod, placed inside the shower area for the purpose of hanging clothes to dry will not interfere with your existing shower-rod. If you don't want to get hanger-marks on the shoulders, just put wash-cloths under them, over the ends of your hanger. The worst thing to do, even if you wash your shirts in cold water in the gentle cycle, is to dry them in a machine--doing so will quickly degrade your shirt, which will die an angry death before its time. My husband and I have shirts from France and England that are twenty years old, and in perfect condition.

An electric, energy-consuming dryer is an enemy to high-quality clothing. In fact, dryers shrink clothes and wear them out quickly; lint is composed of fibers that a machine robs from your clothes. You'd be surprised at how swiftly shirts dry naturally, and when they are just a wee bit damp, they're easy to iron. In cases of stubborn collar and cuff soil, when hand-scrubbing fails, you can still wash your white shirts in hot water, soap, and a little bleach, as long as they are rinsed well, and then hung to dry. (Bleach alternative may be a better choice, if you can get it to work on stubborn stains.) The sun will do some natural bleaching of white cotton. Save costly energy and your shirts by hand-washing and sun-drying them.

Giving your precious shirts to a dry-cleaner or other laundry service is wasteful. They crush buttons and machine-dry the poor things. Do clothes hanging on a line outdoors conjure up bad images for you? Too bad, because it is one of life's simple luxuries to be able to dry a beautiful, well-made shirt in the sun--some of the best people do it. Believe me, it's not remotely infradig to care for your own shirts. After all, who cares for them more than you do?

Plant a Garden

With the price of petroleum having gone up, feeding yourself and your family is more expensive than ever. You probably don't have the resources to grow your own wheat, but growing certain vegetables is easy. Stocking up on wheat berries or cracked wheat is smart, because they have a variety of uses and have a long shelf-life. The easiest vegetables to grow seem to be tomatoes, parsley, mint and peppers. Added to cracked wheat, they are useful for pilafs and tabbouleh, a very refreshing and nutritious dish. Another thing to do with wheat is to grind it and make bread, or sprout it and have wheat sprout sandwiches. See if your local feed-store carries untreated (pesticide-free) whole wheat berries, because you may be able to purchase fifty pounds of it for about $70.00. This all sounds quite complicated and time-consuming, but once you have a system in-place, it will become routine. Buy yeast in bulk and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator, so you will be ready to make a couple of loaves of bread once a week or more.
Have a "kitchen garden" if possible, right outside your door. If you grow tomatoes, peppers and cilantro, you can make your own Mexican style salsa. There are myriad things to do in order to save yourself money and trips to market.

~~M-J de Mesterton

Stylish Living on a Shoestring