Flour Sack Towels

I found some flour sack towels at the local bent and dent grocery. They were a great buy- I'm considering going back for more! Great for cleaning and much more.


The Flour Sack by Colleen B. Hubert

In that long ago time when things were saved,
When roads were graveled and barrels were staved,
When worn-out clothing was used as rags,
And there were no plastic wrap or bags,
And the well and the pump were way out back,
A versatile item, was the flour sack.

Pillsbury’s Best, Mother’s and Gold Medal, too
Stamped their names proudly in purple and blue.
The strings sewn on top were pulled and kept;
The flour emptied and spills were swept.
The bag was folded and stored in a sack
That durable, practical flour sack.

The sack could be filled with feathers and down,
For a pillow, or would make a nice sleeping gown.
It could carry a book and be a school bag,
Or become a mail sack slung over a nag.
It made a very convenient pack,
That adaptable, cotton flour sack.

Bleached and sewn, it was dutifully worn
As bibs, diapers, or kerchief adorned.
It was made into skirts, blouses and slips.
And mom braided rugs from one hundred strips
She made ruffled curtains for the house or shack,
From that humble but treasured flour sack.

As a strainer for milk or apple juice,
To wave men in, it was a very good use,
As a sling for a sprained wrist or a break,
To help mother roll up a jelly cake,
As a window shade or to stuff a crack,
We used a sturdy, common flour sack.

As dish towels, embroidered or not,
They covered up dough, helped pass pans so hot,
Tied up dishes for neighbors in need,
And for men out in the field to carry seed,
They dried our dishes from pan, not rack
That absorbent handy flour sack.

We polished and cleaned stove and table,
Scoured and scrubbed from cellar to gable,
We dusted the bureau and oak bed post,
Made costumes for October (a scary ghost)
And a parachute for a cat named Jack.
From that lowly, useful old flour sack.

So now my friends, when they ask you
As curious youngsters often do,“Before plastic wrap, Elmer’s Glue
And paper towels, What did you do?”
Tell them loudly and with pride don’t lack,
“Grandmother had that wonderful flour sack.”

Cooking beans, chicken, soups, rice......

Here's my thinking - since we are heating with the wood burning stove let's use the heat as productively as possible. In years gone by we have kept a kettle of hot water on the stove to help humidify the air. Why it didn't dawn on me before now to cook ahead I don't know.
It has been really cold here and we have kept a fire going just about all day. Each morning I put a big pot of something (sometimes several pots :)) on and let it cook away. I'm cooking food that we may not eat for several months, but since we have a large freezer, that I'm running anyway, I might as well fill it up. Also, it is wonderful to have an endless supply of hot water.
The watering can to the left of the stove is keep water warm for the animals. We hope you are staying warm and not spending a fortune for your heat.

I'm impressed....

Have you tried this? For those of you who might not have it is ....instant coffee? Starbucks is now offering instant coffee? Aren't these the coffee snobs, the brew masters, the perfect cup of coffee specialists? Instant coffee just doesn't seem to fit.

But, I'm impressed. I was very skeptical and had visions of those nasty little jars of Maxwell House instant that people who don't drink coffee keep on hand for those of us that do.

Weighing in at $.83/cup this stuff is really good. Is it cheaper than brewing a pot at home?Definitely not, but if your on the run it's much cheaper than the drivethrough coffee. And, as my husband so perfectly pointed out, you know what you're getting. Starbucks quality with Starbucks taste instead of playing russian roulette at the drive through.

So...... what a wonderful Christmas idea for the coffee lover (hint, hint).

It was going to be a blanket, but....

Has this ever happened to you? I was almost finished with this crocheted cotton blanket (about four years ago :)) and ran out of the white cotton yarn. I mean couldn't find it anywhere. So time one thing led to another and like so many other things it was tucked away in a box to be finished some day.
Fast forward to last week as we were hosting a calligraphy class for several girls in the neighborhood and a dear talented friend was knitting away as we visited on my front porch. What a lovely dish cloth she was knitting!! I fell in love with the idea, asked her for the pattern, and promptly went in search of white cotton yarn and my long lost knitting needles. Up in the dreaded closet of unfinished projects I ran across the half completed cotton blanket- perfect.
Here's the start of a very fun, very easy knitted dish cloth. This is a wonderful pattern not only is it easy (great project for beginning knitters), but look at the lovely border knitted right into it.

O.K. - so I went a little crazy and had a ball doing it. I found dozens and dozens of patterns on line and now my half finished blanket is almost completely dish clothes. You know you can't have too many :). By the way if you have never tried these cotton dish clothes they are the best!!!




P.S. Don't get bogged down in looking at the patterns - there are literally hundreds, but get out there and make one. It's fast, easy, and you'll love it.

Homemade (sort of ) Disinfectant Spray

I've been searching for a recipe for a good effective disinfectant spray (without bleach if possible) and here's what I ran across.

Wow- how easy and I love that both vinegar and hydrogen peroxide are so cheap. I now have under my kitchen sink a spray bottle of each.

"It doesn't matter which you use first - you can spray with the vinegar then
the hydrogen peroxide, or with the hydrogen peroxide followed by the vinegar.
You won't get any lingering taste of vinegar or hydrogen peroxide, and neither
is toxic to you if a small amount remains on the produce. As a bonus: The paired
sprays work exceptionally well in sanitizing counters and other food preparation
surfaces -- including wood cutting boards. In tests run at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, pairing the two mists killed virtually all
Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and
surfaces when used in this fashion, making this spray combination more effective
at killing these potentially lethal bacteria than chlorine bleach or any
commercially available kitchen cleaner. "

An Easy Yogurt Maker

We've been making yogurt lately. Not only is it delicious it is so much less expensive than the store bought kind.

It's really simple. All you need is: a heating pad, stainless steel bowl, thermometer, fresh milk, and plain yogurt (store bought or from a previous batch).

First I heat my milk to 150 degrees in a water bath to pasturize it ( my milk is raw). Next, I let it cool to 110 degrees. Then I add 2 T yogurt for every quart of milk, stir it in, cover, and let it sit for seven hours undisturbed on top of a heating pad on meduim heat. I also wrap some towels around the bowl to insulate it. - presto a wonderful batch of yogurt.

Suffering from the sniffles and elderberries exploding in the kitchen

Walking down the driveway this morning I noticed a huge puff of smoke coming from our pine trees. I thought what could that possibly be? And then it dawned on me - pollen! That was pollen - clouds of it. Everytime the wind would blow a huge puff of pollen was released into the air. No wonder we have the sniffles and been sneezing to beat the band. I think we have gone through a case of kleenex in two days :).

A couple of kids started to feel rather miserable so I headed to my box of herbs fresh from San Fransico Herb Company to search out dried elderberries. Here's my thinking - I'll make a huge batch of elderberry syrup and that'll head off whatever ills are looming.

I soaked the elderberries, simmered them- no problem until.... the blender. The instructions said to "puree the warm berries in a blender" so I dumped the whole batch in without a thought. One pulse later and warm elderberry juice was all over me and all over the kitchen- it was as if they just exploded. I hate I didn't take a picture, but I wasn't thinking so clearly as the time. Thankfully, my dear sweet daughter helped me clean up the mess and all my efforts bore a quart of elderberry syrup.

Turns out those with the yuckies were quickly mended and the rest of us have been faithfully taking our elderberry.

Anyway for the brave and daring- here's the recipe. (Actually it's not that difficult; however, I would amend the instuctions to puree in small batches the warm berries in a blender and we added more honey to taste)

Elderberry Syrup

2 cups dried elderberries

1 quart boiling water

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup lemon juice

Place berries in an uncovered saucepan and pour boiling water over them. Cover and let soak overnight. The next day, simmer the berries for 30 minutes. Puree the warm berries in a blender, adding remaining ingredients as you blend. Pour the syrup into a clean bottle and store in the refrigerator.

From - Herbs for Health and Healing by Kathi Keville

Here's some interesting information on elderberries.

Solar Lights- Two Uses

We got a package of these fun solar lights from Walmart- 8 for about $20.00.

We leave them out during the day and at night they become our night lights. It's a fun cheap way to leave the lights off.

Frozen Bread Dough Part II

In an earlier post on frozen bread dough I inadvertently left out the thawing procedure. It's really easy- we simply take the lump of dough out of the freezer and leave it on the counter until it completely thaws out and begins to rise. See- simple!

You can use it partially frozen, but we have had better luck when it is completely thawed. And, as a reminder we have not had good results baking it in a loaf pan. I have no idea why, but it works really good for rolls etc.

Hope it works for you.

Welcome to My Kitchen

In the vein of cutting the power bill we have set up an outdoor kitchen of sorts. One of the things we realized really heated up our house during the summer months was the heat from the stove and oven. So...... what about cooking outdoors? (It's kinda like camping:))

We don't have a gas grill, but we do have a turkey fryer. We had bought this really interesting oven years ago (y2k preparation) and never used it.

I wondered if it would fit on top of the propane burner. And if it fit would it work? It has been two weeks now and almost all our baking- muffins, toast, bread, a layer cake, cookies, pizza, etc. has taken place in this oven- I love it.
Look inside- I can fit 4 large loaf pans easily.

When we aren't baking I simply remove the oven and cook with our pots and pans over the burner. All of our cooking, with the exception of crock pot dishes ,takes place on this burner. There are of course adjustments and finagling to get the meal ready at the same time, but all in all I think it's going to work.

I'm amazed at how hot dishes stay when pots are insulated. I fixed dinner one evening before we headed out to a meeting. I left about an inch of water in the bottom of a pot of cooked pasta noodles, put the lid on the pot, and wrapped towels around the pot. When we arrived home three hours later and unwrapped the pot the pasta was steaming.

How's my power bill doing? We are running about 1/2 of our normal usage which was about 100 kw hours/per day. Our goal is to keep it in the 50kw hours/per day range.

Hope we can keep it up in the middle of summer :0!!

Homemade Laundry Soap

....it's a long story, but I ran out of laundry detergent after just being at Walmart- so frustrating especially because shopping is not just a hop, skip and a jump away.

Because we had made our laundry detergent several years ago I had all the ingredients on hand so it was basically easier for me to make it than go buy it.

In searching for recipes I ran across an abundance of them. I chose recipe #3 and the above picture shows the fruit of my labor. I'm figuring this will last at least one month- maybe more because we have a front loading washing machine.

P. S it smells wonderful - I used lavender and tea tree essential oils.

Meet Your Breaker Box

For those of you who tuned in earlier we are into seeing how low we can get our power bill.

One the of the steps I mentioned was identifying those power hogs- heating and a/c systems, hot water heaters, clothes dryer, etc. While turning off lights is important we don't want to "strain at a gnat and swallow a fly". Another important step is becoming familiar with your breaker box- I hope yours is in as convenient location as ours is. If not, I'll have a suggestion for that in a minute so don't tune out :).

If your box is not labeled and major breakers identified now would be a great time to do that. Stand beside your box with a roll of masking tape and marker. Flip each breaker off and have children stationed throughout the house as you turn them on again letting you know what breakers control which switches. As you identify the switches they control label them. This may take some time, but it will be worth it in the long run. An electrician built our house and thankfully ours was marked very well, but in the ten years we have lived here we have rearranged and renamed rooms so it's always good to update your information. One other little tip- tape "on" those breakers you don't want to ever turn off. For instance we learned the hard way it was not worth it to turn off the outlet that ran our cordless phone and computer modem :).

These particular breakers are important- your hot water heater, stove/oven, freezers and/or refrigerators, and a/c system. Now because I'm home most all day and my breaker box is very convenient I can turn these breakers on and off to accelerate our savings. Yes, it is very important I remember to turn them on again. For instance we turn our hot water heater off at night and most of the day. We turn it on again in the evening to wash dishes, start the first load of laundry, and for baths. If all this jiggling of the breakers is not for you they do make an electric :( timer you can put on your hot water heater that will turn it off and on for you. We have really been amazed at the savings from this simple step. The water stays very warm even with the heater off. Of course we are entering summer so we don't need our showers to be quite so hot.

What about the other breakers? Why would I want to turn those off? As you are all aware many of our electric appliances use power even when they are off. The timer /clock on your stove and microwave, the clock on your coffee pot and on and on. If not being used why not turn them off ?- or you can unplug them.

The other reason is to help everyone think differently. Do I really need to turn that light or that switch on? Well, if I'm used to the power being off chances are I'll find another solution- maybe move to in front of the window. Gee, what a great idea!!

What about you- what great ideas are you having?

Simple Ways to Cut Your Power Bill

Do you know there are some simple really easy things you can do to cut your power bill? We may have gone a little overboard over here :), but if you want to learn some simple ways that you can save, read on. But.... be forewarned it gets additive. Once you see your kilowatt hours dropping you'll soon be flipping those breakers off :0.

For starters- learn how to read your power meter. This is the place to begin because once you learn to read your meter you can actually see the savings on a daily basis. Also, in Alabama our power bills have loads of good information. They detail the amount of kilowatt hours used: last billing; one month ago, and one year ago. Pay attention to the billing cycles- they differ in the number of days- so not all billing cycles are equal. We look at our meter each day at the same time to tell the amount of power used in the previous 24 hour period. How are we doing? More? Less? Don't forget to calculate how much your power company charges for a kilowatt hour by simply dividing your bill by the total number of hours used. This varies widely by state and area. Now that you know your usage and cost per hour you can see the dollars as the meter turns.

Next, identify your power hogs. What in your home uses the most power? This website has tons of information concerning power usage, kilowatt hours, and many tips on saving electricity and taking care of your electric appliances. In a nutshell here are the biggies- hot water heater, a/c, stove, oven, clothes dryer- you get the picture.

Step 3- be creative. Make simple changes like turning off the hot water heater breaker at night, putting up a clothes line, or maybe cutting off your refrigerators and freezers for a few hours. Check to see how your changes are affecting your power usage. Set a goal and see if you can stay within that goal. Make it a family fun project. We try to report each morning at breakfast how we are doing.

Why? Well, the most obvious reason is to save money. But, an even bigger issue we believe is the issue of stewardship. How well are we managing God's resources- be it money, time, material possessions or whatever He has in trusted to us for a season? Are we making the most of those resources.

Hey, if you've been doing these things all along- give yourself at pat on the back and enjoy your new found popularity- finally it's vogue to be thrifty.

Stay tuned for more tips ....

Clean Clothes On The Line

After being without a clothes line for several years we figured it would be a good idea to put one up again. In addition to trying to save on our power bill the clothes look and smell great

So.......we are hanging clothes on the line and humming the tune to one of our new favorite songs Green Beans In the Garden- thank you dear West family for a terrific song with an even better message.

Here's the chorus:
Green Beans In the Garden
words and music by Cecilia West

Cause there's green beans in the garden
clean clothes on the line
yeah there's little bare foot children playing beneath the grape vine
the sun is shinning bright and the creeks a bubblin too
We've got a lot to be thankful for and Lord I wanna thank you