Times of Extreme Frugality: Rainy Day Grab-bag

It's a dark, wet day here on Silk Road. I'm stuck here at home awaiting delivery of the new sink*, so I've been puttering with several small projects.

1.This place has two bathrooms--a novelty for us. We finally settled on which one will be the "master" bath, the one with the newest tub and least gross sink. The other one has an absolute horror of a bathtub so that has become storage. 

It did look weird to see boxes of junk in the tub, so I decided to make a curtain to cover it. We had an extra shower curtain rod but no brackets to hold it up. However, what we do have plenty of is... canning jar rings! So I took two, spray painted them white, and screwed them to the wall. It doesn't look fabulous but, for now, it works.

2. My favorite seed catalog, Pinetree, usually has a pre-season sale in November. So in anticipation, I inventoried my seed collection. Seeds are probably one of the best bargains available, as well as almost miraculous. For instance, two Herb Marigold seeds from a $1.95 packet, grew into this:

A three foot tall bush still bravely blooming after three frosts. Best bang for your buck around.

3. And more about seeds. Most of what I grow is open pollinated, so I can save the seeds from those plants to grow next season. I'm not as diligent about this as I could be (note to self: remember this for next year) but I did save the seed heads from some lovely Cosmos and sorted them out this morning.

A bit tedious but the gorgeous flowers will be worth it.


4. Almost everyone has a bag stuffed with seeds or rice or cherry pits that can be heated in the microwave for use on sore muscles and aching heads. Tom bartered for one at a craft show over 30 years ago and it's still working fine. I have made at least 10 replacement covers for it since then; here's the newest version:

The fabric is leftover from some insulated drapes I made, using fabric I got at an auction.


5. "I've got sunshine, on a cloudy day." Well, not exactly, but we will have a brighter shed when we get this solar powered light installed in our non-electrified shed:

This arrived yesterday and I put the solar panel inside by the window. Even though it was overcast, the bulb still charged; this bodes well for the next few months when sunshine can be scarce around here. A light in dark places for a mere $14.99.
What thrifty projects occupy your rainy days? I'd love to hear some adventures from my fellow bargain hunters!

*The sink did arrive but the drain assembly, WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE INCLUDED, was missing. Customer service got it ordered quickly and even gave me a small refund for my trouble. So until next week, we are still toting dishpans to the bathroom.

Times of Extreme Frugality: When Civilization Goes Down the Drain

We mostly take the perks of living in the first world for granted. Things like running water and drains.

Kitchen drains.

It is a real eye-opener to discover how many times a day you use the kitchen sink drain: washing dishes, your hands, veggies, and in our case, draining the washing machine. 

Buckets are not usually involved when we do laundry.

Part of being frugal and prepared for the unexpected is planning ahead and purchasing used or reduced items before you need them. Since we moved in, we knew we wanted to replace the double kitchen sink with a single one, and the right side drain leaked, so we were only using one side. We could have been looking all of that time and bought one at auction or a private sale. But with the recent tightening of finances, it was put on the wait list.

Rookie mistake.

Last week, the left side drain developed it's own drip.

I'm pretty good with plumbing. In fact, we redid one bathroom years ago and did all of the plumbing, including the tub, ourselves. But I couldn't fix these leaks.

First of all, plumbing fixtures are not meant to be tightened by someone with very small hands; hands that don't even begin to reach around the drain fixture.

Second, I'm pretty sure the entire bottom of the drain is just plain rusted out.

So, we need a new sink. And since we use a lot of large pots, a high faucet is also called for.

I started haunting the online sales sights with little luck. Finally, I did win an Ebay auction for a faucet at a not too bad price.

No luck on the sink. 

By this time, the novelty of carrying buckets and dishpans to empty in the toilet has worn off, so I bit the bullet and ordered a sink from Home Depot. At least it was on sale and it should be a simple installation.


Most homeowners know this is the kind of thing that happens regularly and this is not even in the top ten of house repair expenses we've faced in the Silk Road house.


I'm just a little steamed at myself for not following my own advice and planning ahead. I guess some lessons you just have to learn and relearn and learn again.

Times of Extreme Frugality: What the Heck is Hugelkultur?

It's been a while since I posted but the beginning of autumn and the end of garden season has meant a mad rush here at Silk Road.

We've been harvesting and processing tomatoes, picking apples, pulling carrots and onions, digging potatoes, mining for sweet potatoes, gathering pumpkins, and trying to take back the garden from a massive weed invasion. 

Tom has also embarked on the adventure of substitute teaching, getting calls at 7am to be at the school by 7:30. Needless to say, being blasted out of bed and pushed immediately out the door is hard on a night owl like my husband. But he's managing.

And we have finally managed to try our first experiment with hugelkultur.

Hugelkultur (say it like you're baying like a bloodhound. Don't you just love German words?) is gardening with raised beds built on rotting wood and other biomass, providing long-term humus and fertility production. It has been practiced in Europe for decades and is now the latest darling of the hipster gardeners. 

Since part of our garden was water-logged long into spring, I thought a super-raised bed might help. 


The first step is to dig out the soil.

We did this with two shovels and two aching backs, so we didn't dig that deep.

Next, you put wood in the hole. We didn't have any rotting or otherwise useless wood hanging around, so Tom ventured into the edge of our lawn and hacked off some dead limbs.

We had saved the hay mulch that was on top of the bed. This went in next.

Then we got to re-shovel the same dirt, back where it came from.

Not as high as a traditional hugelkultur mound and it will settle over the winter, but I'm hopeful it will drain faster than this spot did last spring.

We can now say we are up with the latest trend in gardening; two  hepcats swinging to the hugelkultur beat *plays bongos and snaps fingers*.