No.821: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Frugality Drives Creativity

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.

Frugality drives creativity.  I recently read that phrase on a blog post and it resonated because it’s true!

Farming/homesteading is such a great vehicle for that type of thinking.  We spend so much money on feed and infrastructure and trailers and buckets (so many five gallon buckets…) that when something starts to malfunction or break, we do all we can to fix it as cheaply as possible. A stubborn streak runs through us…we can fix it! We’re not spending another dime!  This thinking can be helpful for families not on the farm, though. A job loss, a reduction in income, an inflationary tightening of the belt – it all forces our hand in a certain direction and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Sometimes constraints are good for us.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking of some recent examples of our frugal creativity and here’s what I’ve come up with:

• We are always constructing and reconstructing pig shelters.  We pull apart the lumber of one and create something new with the same cuts.
• I’ve purchased truckloads of compost over the years and it is not cheap.  This year, I’m committed to building and tending to my own compost pile.  Now more “trash” (aka coffee grounds, egg shells, toilet paper rolls, dryer lint, etc) has a purpose.
• On a particularly windy day last month, one of our chicken tractors was thrown, busting one of the sides.  Instead of buying a new one ($$$), we fixed what we could with rope and it works fine.
• I recently started a new junk journal.  As I get back into the process, I’m realizing how much I enjoy this creative outlet, how much I enjoy the challenge of creating something beautiful from random bits and pieces of life.
• In order to avoid the grocery store and fast food, we whip up simple meals from ingredients we have in the house.

Hoping to document the abundance around me all year long!

Around here, abundance looks like…

+ bringing Max and Ruby to the butcher.  We are extremely proud because they are our first full circle “farrow to finish” operation.  We bred, birthed and raised these guys!  What an incredible experience – I can’t wait to do it again.

+ sharing with a new friend.  My husband recently met someone from church and their family generously shared a big mason jar of their famous homemade Caesar dressing with us.  Delicious!  When we returned the jar, we passed along a dozen eggs as a thank you.

+ making some ant bait from baking soda and powdered sugar.  We’re not ant-free in the kitchen yet, but I think it’s working.

+ selling fifteen unneeded items for the Farm Sitter Vacation Fund: six books, five pieces of clothing, and four pieces of curriculum.  After shipping and fees, I made $118.16!  We’re almost to 45% of our goal.

Reading //

Lots of pondering on family in the modern age this week!

• Why We Call Them Fathers from Denise Trull at Theology of Home // “I have met many priests over my lifetime. They had many gifts between them. Some wrote beautiful sermons. Some were impressive and efficient stewards of their parishes. Some celebrated exquisite Masses and convinced me that the spiritual life was a poem we each speak to the Father. But it is always the priests who most exemplified fatherhood that have stayed so firmly in my memory. Those whose greatest talent was being a father to their people.”
• The Family Tree, Stripped from Andrew Yuengert at Front Porch Republic
• Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood? from CBC
• Multi-Generational Mothering from Siobhan Heekin-Canedy at Fairer Disputations // “Restructuring policy and culture to accommodate both women’s desire for motherhood and their presence in the workforce is a complex task. An important piece of this puzzle is capitalizing on the familial network of mutual aid that already exists. In other words, the answer isn’t ‘less family,’ it’s ‘more family.’”
• Every family needs a leader from Jim Dalrymple II // A really interesting look at “kinkeepers,” people who work to keep their families together.

New Additions to The List // 

• Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity by Adam A.J. DeVille // My rabbit trail started with an encyclical and ended with this book: an examination of the Roman Catholic papacy from an Orthodox perspective.
• Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald // Mentioned in Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am.  Sounds fascinating.
• The Holiness of Ordinary People by Madeleine Delbrêl // Spotted in the latest Ignatius Press book catalog.

Watching/Listening //

• Love What Lasts: An Interview with Joshua Gibbs from The Commonplace // I loved the distinction between the common, the uncommon and the mediocre.
• Joel Salatin on the Avian Influenza Outbreak from Beyond Labels Podcast Clips

Loving //

• Reading the Old Testament in the New: The Gospel of Matthew from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology // I’m on lesson five.
• Yours, Mine and Ours // We found this DVD with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda at the used bookstore and it’s been a big hit.