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How to Start a Compost, Part 1
If you have a garden, a compost is important. If you are a tightwad like me, and don’t like buying expensive fertilizers, bagged compost, and peat moss every year, a compost pile is REALLY important. Compost is just a fancy word for decomposed waste. Or, as Wikipedia says, “a combination of decomposed plant and animal [...]
Continue reading...Diatomaceous Earth for Human Consumption
20. March 2010
NOTE: This is NOT a health blog. I am NOT a medical professional or nutrition expert. This is an experiment I’ve been trying. My post here is NOT medical advice. Get the advice of a professional before taking any kind of ANYTHING, OK? You might hurt yourself! It came! Four big jugs of food-grade diatomaceous [...]
Continue reading...Offbeat Design is Right!
19. January 2010
When I was young– back in the late 70s and early 80s– there was a craze for families to get “back to nature.” Not to be swinging from the trees, mind you, but to leave the dirty urban centers with their high taxes, crime, and chaos, and live free in the wilderness. We moved away [...]
Continue reading...Is It Illegal to Collect Rainwater?
1. July 2009
Short answer: YES. Long answer: Depends on what state you live, and depends on the outcome of new bills coming through the U.S. Congress, as they seem to making up new and stupid ones every day…. From what I have ascertained so far, it is illegal to collect rainwater in the following states: Utah Washington [...]
Continue reading...A House Made From Garbage
20. March 2009
No! It’s not MY house I’m talking about. Although it could be…. nah, MY house was made from good stuff. 150 year-old stuff. It’s actually turning into garbage now. Anyway, this is about a rather cool and very eccentric house called the Nit Wit Ridge house. There’s a whole slew of photos on a Flickr [...]
Continue reading...The Paper Towel Duel
25. November 2008
Just in time for the holidays, I decided to do my own little experiment with paper towels. Now as a frugal lady, I don’t use paper towels a great deal– I use washcloths and then I launder the washcloths. But I need to keep paper towels around the house for things like cleaning out the [...]
Continue reading...Make Your Own Air Freshener
18. November 2008
I don’t know why I am so focused on air fresheners lately; perhaps it is due to the cold weather settling in, and we are indoors all the time? If there’s one thing about old houses, they do tend to smell. I have a very sensitive nose, so the smells of old lathe-and-plaster, 150-year old [...]
Continue reading...The Underground Chicken Movement
11. October 2008
What lies stealthily behind those innocent looking suburb and urban fences across the United States? Henhouses! With CHICKENS! It’s an illicit movement rapidly spreading across the country, ruffling the feathers of city ordinance boards. The Worldwatch Institute reports that a growing number of US city-dwellers are raising their own chickens, often in defiance of local [...]
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I’m Rebecca
:) I’m a married mom of four teenage children. We live in Upstate New York. We bought an old 1855 home and acre property, over 10 years ago. We've been in the slow, agonizing process of living in the home while (trying) to renovate it. When I'm not renovating, I'm a freelance writer and blogger.
We've learned to dig a French drain, plant huge flower and vegetable gardens, wire a circuit panel, install furnace ducting, understand the enigmatic complexities of the plumbing system, and more. It's been *quite* the adventure.
You can read more about us here, read up on the history of the home, and read about what we've renovated so far. Thanks for visiting!
- Parging The Foundation Walls
- The Silent Summer: No Crickets, No Peepers!
- Building a Winter Cat Shelter
- The Tempurpedic Mattress Update
- How to Create a Serfdom
- Marg: Yup that was an easy one. Where ever there is a bo...
- blueyes: But does she bring you the items as gifts? I hate...
- blueyes: Hey I have a box of old toys too, mostly from McDo...
- Mrs. Mecomber: Lin-- when we finally got the owl out, it was dead...
- Marg: I am sure there are lots of things wrong with an o...
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12. April 2010
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