Revisiting

As I was unloading towels from the dryer this morning, habitually sorting out and tossing my dryer balls back in, I wondered to myself just how long it had been since I made them.

Doing a quick search here on my blog, I found the original post... It has been a full year!

Perfect timing for an update, I said to myself.

One year later, those dryer balls are holding up pretty well. Two of them have developed holes in the outer layer, but who wouldn't, after being tumbled countless times?!

I still use dryer sheets when drying anything that has a high polyester content, but otherwise find that static is pretty minimal, and the dry time does seem to be shorter than BDB (before dryer balls!).

As for the Coal Hopper featured in the same post, it has been joined by a Tunnel, and still gets lots of play time. I think this picture, showing the current state of the upstairs Boy room is all the evidence you need.

While on the topic, one final update, in case you were wondering... All last Summer, with very few exceptions, I kept up with mowing our front yard with my reel mower. I even ventured out and mowed our gigantic back yard a few times too. Fabulous excercise, I must say. It is certainly not a walk in the park, but I found it to be so very satisfying (call me weird!).

For the first time this season, I pulled my mower out yesterday and put it to use again. With quite a lot of use, and zero blade sharpening, my American-made tool went to work like it was brand new.

Now THIS American-made tool on the other hand, isn't feeling quite so brand new today. Muscles, leave me alone!

Free Chart for Earth Day... Make it Do

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" is a WWII era slogan that has been revived and is used commonly today as a motto of frugal living.

Each year on Earth Day, for the past several, I have done some re-evaluating of how we live. In a way, it has replaced New Year's Day for me, since I always seem to be so busy at that time to actually think, let alone make resolutions.

We, as a family, are slowly but surely, changing the way we interact with the world around us, and are trying to be very conscious of our consumer impact on the environment.

I haven't done much research on the organization itself, but found this quiz at Conservation International's website to be thought-provoking. Want to know my score? I was pretty pleased with a 74, which, in their estimation, makes me an "Eco-Ally". But there are definitely areas where I can improve.

And since none of us are perfect, I am sure there are areas where you can improve your impact as well.

Here is a little design I created for you to stitch in commemoration of Earth Day 2011 (click on the image to be re-directed to a downloadable pdf file):


The idea is to only use materials you already have on hand to stitch it. And even better yet, if you have a large, healthy collection of orts in a jar, maybe you could stitch it only using those bits. Stick with the suggested colorway, but only as long as a thread holds out, then find another bit of thread that matches to finish out your vine/flower/bird. Let the variation in the colors of your threads create a lovely mosaic of frugality!

Its a small design, and will probably not even make a dent in your stash, but the idea is to get you (along with me) thinking about what you can do to make what you have stretch a little further before buying something new.

And if any of you decide to stitch it on black linen, please be sure to show me a picture. I think it would look quite lovely:

Smelling my Way into Autumn

To me, Autumn has always smelled like Building a Woodpile.

First come the scents of Damp, Mossy, Forests of Vine Maple and Cedar, Rubber Boots and Mushrooms, Cobwebs and Lichen, while tramping through the woods in search of downed trees to cut.

The sounds of chainsaw, splitting maul, wedge, axe are followed by new scents... Two-cycle Fuel, Bar Oil, Fresh Wood, Dry Leaves, Pitch, Bark, Sweat.

The rhythm of toss... thump! as the pieces arc through the air into the back of a pickup creates a deeper rhythm for the song of the crickets, who chirp away all day long, and stirs up the Warm Metal smell of the Truckbed.

A distinctly September-ish aroma of Warm Leaves, Grass, Moss, on the verge of decay wraps itself around me as I, with work gloves and boots begin the methodical discipline of stacking the mounds of wood. The Dust and Dry Bark from previous years tickle my nose and mingle with the new, fresher scent of Cedar, Maple, Fir, Cherry, Alder.

And finally... Woodsmoke, perhaps my favorite of them all.

We're not quite there yet, but soon, very soon, it will be time to let the out-of-doors rest for awhile while we cozy up and stay warm.

Warmed for the third, fourth, fifth time by the woodpile.

These days, I don't participate much in the process, instead, keeping the youngsters clear of danger. I managed to stack a cord or two this year, and truly enjoyed myself.

My hardworking Husband and Life Companion has done more than his share, foraging, cutting, splitting, stacking for two households this year, all while being dedicated to his career and family. I am thankful every day for the strength that God has given him to tarry on even when his plate is full to overflowing.

2 Things I'm Really Excited About Today

1. My new cast iron bread pans, which have been my faithful companions over the last two weeks or so as I experimented and finally found the perfect recipe for 100% whole wheat sandwich bread (see previous post for the recipe). I became a cast-iron convert several years ago, and these bread pans are a wonder! I don't even have to wash them after baking sandwich bread, because nothing sticks to them. And that is what I call perfection.

2. My new American Lawn Mower Company reel mower. Yes, I said that I'm EXCITED about a lawn mower that is powered by nothing but ME!

When I was a teenager, I was often on lawn duty at home, and always found it to be a bit cathartic. When I married and moved out here to the country, where we have LOTS of lawn to be maintained, I again, was most often the mower, but this time on a riding unit, which was much less enjoyable to me, but I still liked mowing (yet I hate doing laundry... go figure).

When Jack was born, my lawnmowing duties came to a screeching halt. There is just no way to be on a noisy, gas-guzzling lawn mower while watching little ones.

This Spring, with the wonderful coming of a season in life with children who are old enough to play happily together for long periods of time, with only distant supervision needed, I had an idea... maybe, just maybe, I could regain my mowing abilities with a reel mower. I could get some much-needed excercise, keep an eye on the kids, all while improving the quality of my lawn and helping the quality of the air that we breathe as well.

And, after the first test run last evening, I am even more in love with my new mower. Granted, what used to take 5 minutes, now takes closer to 40, but it is good, solid, hands-on hard work in the fresh air and sunshine.

And this good, solid, hands-on kind of girl couldn't be happier.

Dryer Balls and Coal Hoppers

A few years ago I picked up some spiky plastic dryer balls because my slightly ageing dryer was taking longer to dry my clothes (winter in Oregon is usually very wet, making it impossible to line-dry clothing), and I had read that they would shorten the dry time while also reducing static. I used them until they broke apart, but never truly felt that they had helped in any way. At some point during that time, I began to see home-made dryer balls fashioned from wool yarn or felted wool on etsy and other places around the www.

Being the DIY girl that I am, I added wool dryer balls to my list of things to make. But it seemed that they were always made with wool yarn, of which I had none on hand, and I certainly didn't want to drive all the way to the city and spend lots of money on wool yarn just to throw it in the dryer. I really wanted an alternative way that would allow me to use materials on hand. Enter the Resweater blog and method of making dryer balls from old felted wool sweaters. The perfect solution for using up the stack of moth-eaten wool sweaters that I just couldn't bear to part with because I knew they would be good for SOMETHING! I had already made a pair of mittens, a winter hat for Little Miss, and a pair of slippers from them, but still had more wooly goodness leftover.

So, on Saturday, I set to work and used up most of three pre-felted wool sweaters to make these:

They turned out really, really big, but the kids loved playing with them for the brief time before this mean Mama made them throw them in the dryer, but I think they will work really well because of their larger size. I'll let you know... today is laundry day!

In the meantime, Father and Son had disappeared out to the shop. It was a rainy Saturday morning, perfect for doing little indoor projects. About the time I put my finishing stitches in dryer ball number 3, they came to the house with this:

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you will know that my Boy, now 4 years old, has been Thomas obsessed since he was 18 months old. That very first set that I bought for him was with much hesitation on my part, not sure that the money investment for a bit of plastic was worth it, but that set might as well have been gold, for he has been playing with it almost non-stop ever since. And of course, his set has continued to grow with each passing Birthday and Christmas celebration. And our wonderfully consumer-driven society continues to produce and market more, more, more. Check out the pages of Take Along Thomas items available on amazon. This Coal Loader Playset has been the most recent object of desire and the inspiration for his new home-made version.

If you do it just right, you can drop a barrel down through the funnel and...

it lands right in the coal car!

Something tells me he likes the made-with-love-by-Daddy-with-my-help-from-scrap-wood version better than if we had just paid money for colorful plastic.