Category Archives: homemaking

Lifestyle creep and how it happened to me

frugal strategies, homemaking

A year ago, my husband got a new job along with a raise in salary. Nice, right? And yet, here we are a year later with hardly any increase in our savings rate.

How did that happen? When we talked about our numbers, we both felt we were being pretty careful financially – we’re not big spenders. We sat down together a few times for financial meetings to go over the numbers, and seemingly the only answer was that our expenses had gone up. It wasn’t until this week that I could finally answer that question more definitively.

Why this week? The first year we were married, my husband was responsible for the finances. I took over the next seventeen years. And then for the next twelve years, my husband has been at the helm. This week I took responsibility for the finances once again, something my husband really doesn’t like but I actually enjoy a lot. (As to why he did it for so long if he didn’t like it, that’s another question, but it was a purposeful decision on both of our parts and we’ve agreed our goal was reached.)

Taking over again is a bit overwhelming because I’m looking at a different system than my own, and I have to wade through a lot of numbers to figure out what’s going on, what money we have coming in and what’s going out, in order to get clarity in my own mind.

Here’s what’s become clear so far: we’ve allowed lifestyle creep to sneak in. For years we were really, really frugal and careful about all of our expenses. We had to be, as our income was on the lower side (my husband’s friends who had similar incomes as well as a spouse’s second income were all in debt) and it was only by very careful and conscious management that we had any possibility to accrue some savings.

As our financial situation improved, we got a little more relaxed, and then a little more relaxed….we stopped paying attention to all the little expenses because the bills were getting paid without it.

And we began to spend a little more money here, a little more money there – nothing major or budget busting that we could point to as to where all the potentially savable money was going.

Now I’m back in the hot seat. The first couple of nights I sat for hours, going through details of months of expenses, trying to get a clear sense of where our money goes. I felt like giving up because it was so frustrating to me. But I stuck with it, and after a couple more nights looking at printouts, am excited and energized to be our financial money manager again. I’m looking forward to seeing how much money we can save and funnel into savings.

That’s going to mean becoming more conscious again about expenses, assessing the value of where we spend money rather than just spending it when it seems necessary. I’m going to be carefully tracking all of our spending – neither of us has been tracking our cash expenditures at all, and all the itemized expenses have to be gone through regularly – and plugging the many small leaks that our budget has sprung. There’s no one big item to point to – yes, prices have gone up, but even more than that, what I’m seeing is a general increase in expenses due to lack of attention.

I’m recognizing lifestyle creep and taking steps to counter it. This is a very hopeful and empowered place to be, and I’ll be sharing about different things I’m doing and how it’s working out for us.

Avivah

Late night preparations for a healthy school birthday party!

homemaking

My ten year old son’s birthday was the week after the school year ended, so we opted to delay his class party until after the fall holidays. After his teacher and I coordinated the date, she sent me a note about what refreshments to send. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was quite different than last year!

  • rolls
  • cheese – sliced or cottage
  • salad or sliced vegetables
  • hard boiled eggs
  • birthday cake
  • 1 bottle of drink
  • papergoods – plates, cups, napkins, silverware

I don’t know what prompted this change, but I’m really glad to see they’ve shifted to a very different menu than what I was asked to provide last year. I’m going to let the teacher know how much I appreciate this.

It’s the night before his party and I’ve been getting ready the last couple of hours. I honestly was ready to go to sleep at 9:30 and thought I’d wake up early to bake, but realistically it would be hard for me to wake up at 4 am to start baking, and I would be likely to wake other people up with the noise. So here I am getting it done now with gritty eyes and a body that is yearning for bed. 🙂

It’s more work to prepare for this kind of party – especially since until a few hours ago I thought we were going to push it off for a week – but I’m really glad to provide something more nourishing for the class to eat.

I don’t want to send regular rolls for everyone else and to send my son with some substitute that would look very different from what everyone else was having at his party. However, I’m not an experienced gluten-free bread baker, and didn’t have time to play around trying out different recipes. It feels like a bit of pressure to make a gluten free roll that all the kids who are used to regular white bread will be willing to eat.

The stars in the sky all lined up when I found a recipe for which I amazingly had almost all the unusual (for me) ingredients. White rice flour, millet flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour. I didn’t have xanthum gum and a google search told me I could substitute potato starch. I just took the rolls out of the oven and tasted one when it was still warm. The flavor was good, though a little crumbly. I baked them in a silicone muffin pan and after waiting another ten minutes, they came out in one piece, so I think – hope? – they’ll will firm up when they cool down.

For the cake, my son told me he wanted cake with frosting and sprinkles on top. It’s late and I’m tired, and just didn’t have the energy to make frosting. I made him two pans of gluten free brownies and baked the colorful sprinkles directly on it. I hope he’ll be happy with it when he sees them in the morning.

I’ve chopped up the salad, boiled the eggs, packed up cheese and paper goods. I have no drink in the house to send – other than bottled water – and the boys have to be ready so early for their bus that it’s unrealistic to go out to the store before they need to leave. I’ll send the water so there will be something. At this point all that’s left is to wait for the baked goods to finish cooling down and wrap them up. Then it’s into bed for me!

Avivah

Getting ready for the fall season, plans for the week

food preservation, gardening, homemaking

Last week we were busy getting our yard ready for the rain, which turned into a race against the weather!

I’m so glad we enlarged our goat pen before the holidays, because there was so much to do to get things in the yard waterproofed before the first rain of the year (for about seven consecutive months a year we don’t get rain here in Israel). First and most important was the goat pen: the boys built a roof frame, then lined it with what they were told was a waterproof tarp.

We were rushing to get the hay covered as the rain began. It quickly turned into a downpour, and we were relieved to have finished the goat pen roof in time…until it became clear that the waterproof tarps we used weren’t waterproof after all, when we saw the water was dripping through onto our unhappy goats.

Talk about finding alternative solutions quickly! I suggested grabbing the large blue foam mats that we used under the pool and stapling them up; they did that in the pouring rain and then we all ran for cover.

They took the entire roof off to redo it on a sunny day, but it began raining before it was put back on. They once again ran to get it over the goats, but the pen had gotten soaked and the next day I and one of the boys had to completely clean everything out.

Until now, I’ve been cleaning out the dirty hay by shoveling it into a thirty liter barrel, then carrying to the chicken run and dumping it in. I do a load every two or three days. The chickens love picking out any insect larvae and with their constant scratching and pecking, break down the hay and in essence, compost it. My plan has been to eventually pull all that composted hay out of their coop to use on the garden beds.

With the sudden huge pile of wet hay, it was too much work to take it all to the chicken coop, so I changed direction and after shoveling it all onto the garden beds, suggested to my son he let the chickens out into the yard to work the hay. They’ve been loving free-ranging again, and we’re enjoying our ‘chicken tv’ again, as we sit in the yard watching their antics.

Speaking of the chickens, we need to cover more of their coop area with a waterproof material as well. Since part of their coop is rain-proof, we put our focus on getting the rabbits and goats waterproofed. Then after the downpour I noticed some of them were wet; I suppose they didn’t want to limit themselves to staying in the dry area. So this week my son will extend that for them.

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Today my plans include making a huge pot of compote, then canning it all up so we can enjoy it in the winter.

I’ve done all my winter clothes shopping for the boys, but I still need to organize it all. We’re at the stage of the days being hot but the mornings being cold enough for winter wear. So in the next couple of days I hope to finish getting all the clothes sorted.

Also in the next couple of days I need to figure out how to transport a buck to our home for breeding. I’ve been pushing this off until the pen was enlarged and then rainproofed; now I need to get this done or risk missing the breeding season. (Goats need to be bred to continue to produce milk.) I think we’ll keep him here for a few weeks, and will see how that affects what has been a smooth running daily routine with our three females. Male goats have a reputation for not being fun to have around and their presence supposedly makes the milk taste more ‘goaty’.

When I ordered two bales of hay, it was with the thought it would get me through until the next hay season. Then we got a third goat (it was going to be for my daughter and then ended up a better fit for us), and now with the male goat…we’re going to be needing much more hay than I initially planned for! In a non-shmita year, I would order a bale at a time, but now even though I have a lot left, I need to order more this week while the hay farmer still has non-shmita bales (from the year before last) available.

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When I bought barrels for animal feed from a private seller a few months ago, he offered me a couple of rusty hoes for free (just the head, no handles). Seeing they were heavy duty metal, I accepted them, figuring we could sand them down and get new handles for them. I’ve been very disappointed with how poor the quality of new garden tools are – almost every rake and shovel I’ve bought has broken after less than a year of use. Not heavy duty use, either. The first shovel that I bought seven or eight years ago is still going strong, though, even though it’s seen much more use than all of the new implements put together.

I haven’t gotten to sanding them down these rusty hoes yet (and it’s not on my list of immediate projects to do since they’re usable without sanding) but we did get new handles that fit perfectly at the hardware store. Additionally, I’ve bought a couple new shovels and two hand trowels. The trowels look like excellent quality and if I can keep track of them and not lose them (I tend to put them down and then forget where I put them…) they should last a long time.

After a year of not touching the garden because of shmitta, there has been a lot of work to do – weeding, trimming, pruning. I’ve gotten a lot of garden clean-up done in the last couple of weeks. This week I’d like to get some seeds into the ground and will see if I can get a crop before it gets cold. The vegetables I’m thinking about traditionally are planted in the spring so I don’t know if planting now is being smart by optimizing the planting season or being overly optimistic. We have a warm climate and sometimes even in January it’s warm so it theoretically could work; all I have to lose is some seeds and some time, so I’m willing to experiment.

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There’s lots more to do this week, but these are my ‘discretionary’ projects. I’m conscious of how much these activities add to my day, but I do them to the degree that it works for me, and it’s a nice feeling to be purposefully busy.

Avivah

Waste not, want not – do you need it, can you extend it, can you upcycle it?

frugal strategies, homemaking

There’s a pithy phrase that was popularized in the WW2 era: ‘Waste not, want not’. There are so many resources available to us and when we look at them with a creative set of eyes, you’ll often find more life left in that item than you previously assumed. Do you need it, can you extend it, or can you upcycle it to use it differently?

Here are some examples:

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Food – Do you need to use the expensive ingredients listed in the recipe, or can less costly similar ingredients be substituted? Can you prepare less of the dish rather than be left with leftovers that end up being thrown away? Can you cut down on the frequency of meat meals, and integrate meatless meals during the week?

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Repurposing clothing – My son ripped the elbow of a high quality shirt that was in excellent condition. Patching that wouldn’t be doable or aesthetic, so I headed to YouTube to watch a video on how to turn a long-sleeved shirt into a short-sleeved shirt. It was the first time doing this for me and my first attempt wasn’t perfect, but it looks pretty good. Next my husband asked if I could do the same to a cufflink shirt of his; he now has two ‘new’ work shirts.

Another example: my boys are hard on pants, and I periodically recycle their ‘good’ pants to ‘work’ pants. That is almost always because they’ve ripped the knees. I patch them from behind using material from a pair of pants that I keep for this purpose, then reinforce the patch at the knees and the areas around it repeatedly so they’re very strong. I do it all with the same color thread as the pants, and this extends the life of them for a long time as work pants. They do a lot of hiking/biking, outdoor work and home repair work, so these pants get a lot of use.

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Spatula, a valuable frugal tool – Ds10 and ds5 and I made banana muffins yesterday. Ds10 wanted to taste the batter and I told him he could lick out the bowl when we finished. He was dismayed when I took out a spatula and ran it along the bowl, scraping out enough for two or three more muffins. He still got to lick the bowl but it didn’t have the generous amount leftover that he was hoping for! A spatula is a simple thing but it’s amazing how much you can get out of that can or container or bowl by scraping it with the spatula.

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Repurposing containers – At the same time that there’s a huge industry selling us storage containers to organize items in our homes, there are many free containers that come into the home that can be productively reused, reducing or eliminating the need to buy the ‘storage solutions’. Here in Israel when we buy screws and nails, they are sold from bulk bins and you bag the amount you want. So you don’t come home with a box for them. My husband recently was organizing the hardware and found that the peanut butter jars with screw on lids were perfect for keeping nails and screws organized well.

And then there’s the glass jars and bottles that store bought food comes in. I didn’t use to reuse them because I didn’t see the value of the recycled containers or cleaning them out seemed like too much work, but now have recognized how useful they can be! So now I reuse most of the glass jars that come into our home. If the jars have metal pop-top lids, I use them for canning. If not, I use them for storage.

Lately I’ve been saving glass grape juice bottles rather than recycle them – until now I’ve been storing our goat milk in recycled plastic water bottles, and while plastic has its advantages, glass is a healthier option for storing food.

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Saving electricity – Electricity costs have gone up world-wide, and that’s motivated me to be more conscious of all the quiet leakage going on in our home. Though we hardly use air conditioning, we regularly have way more lights and ceiling fans on than we need. Someone leaves a room without turning off the light, then goes into the next room and turns on the light – and so it goes. I’ve begun asking our boys to be more conscious of this, and while I don’t go around all day long being the electricity police, I do turn off lights and fans that aren’t in use. I’ve explained to them there’s no use spending money on something that brings us no benefit; it’s just throwing money in the garbage.

Building supplies and natural resources – My son dug up a lot of dirt in the backyard when preparing to build a shed. He piled it to the side of the yard and left it while he was building the shed. Once the shed was done, it was time to find a place for this dirt. The easiest thing would have been to dump it. However, I wanted to build a raised garden bed, and it made no sense to dump it and then at a later time to dig up more dirt to fill the raised bed. We also had pallet wood in the spot that the shed was built that we needed to find a new home for, so I asked him to use the wood to build a garden bed. He built the raised bed using the pallet wood scraps, filled the bottom of the raised bed with more wood scraps hugelkultur style, and then dumped all the dirt on top. (Though the dirt is low quality fill dirt that will have to be actively enriched to be a decent growing medium, it was still worthwhile to do this.)

I’ve been looking for a rack to hang in the kitchen to organize brooms, dustpans and sponja sticks for ages. I know they exist but haven’t found one. Finally, I asked my husband if he could make something for me. Using a scrap of white painted wood (a castoff from another project), he attached hooks along the length of it. Then he screwed a wire ring into the end of the sponja stick so it could be hung; the brooms already had holes in the handles. Free, using what we already had in the house, and now my kitchen is better organized.

These are just some ideas to get you thinking creatively, not a complete list of things we’ve done. I could give you so many more examples – we do this regularly because it’s an extension of the way we think: to look for ways to use our resources wisely and responsibly. It’s particularly satisfying to create something useful from something that seemed destined for the garbage/recycling. And I also appreciate when we are able to put in the effort to maintain an item rather than replace it.

I do want to clarify that I don’t like clutter, so this doesn’t mean keeping a huge amount of stuff piled around. If it’s something I’m not likely to reuse, I rehome it as quickly as I can so it doesn’t take up space in my home.

Waste not, want not – there is abundance in using what you have wisely and well.

Do you have things you’ve done to recycle, upcycle or otherwise extend your resources? Please share your ideas in the comments for others to learn from!

Avivah

Peach Crisp and Peach Cobbler recipes, canning peaches

frugal strategies, homemaking, recipes

It’s the summer and summer means delicious peaches are in season!

With all these luscious sweet fruits to work with, I’ve appreciated being able to make desserts that I don’t make the rest of the year – peach crisp and peach cobbler.

In case you’re wondering what the difference is, peach crisp is a baked dessert that uses a crumb topping over the peach filling. With peach cobbler, the cooked peach filling is baked with a biscuit dough – sometimes the dough is placed on top, sometimes on the bottom. I tried making it both ways in the last couple of weeks.

I have fond memories of my mother making peach crisp when I was a child, so I enjoy it when I have a chance to make it. It’s an easy dessert to make, and easy to make gluten free. Here’s the recipe I made:

Peach Crisp

  • 4-5 peaches, sliced
  • 1 c. ground walnuts (or any other nut flour)
  • 1 c. oatmeal
  • 2/3 c. sugar
  • 1/2 t. cinnamon
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 c. melted butter/coconut oil
  • 1 t. vanilla

Place the sliced peaches in a pan. Mix all the remaining ingredients for the topping, then sprinkle on top of the peaches. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 40 – 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Frugal note: if you don’t have nut flour (and many times I don’t), just substitute an equal amount of oatmeal. To be clear, I don’t mean rolled oats, but the chopped rolled oats that are sometimes sold as instant oatmeal. If you only have rolled oats, whiz them in a food processor to make them smaller.

The peach crisp is on the right in the picture below (one pan was already eaten by the time I thought to take a picture for you!); the peach cobblers are the other two pans.

Peach Cobbler

  • 5 c. fresh peach or nectarine slices
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 2 T. potato starch
  • 1 T. lemon juice

Topping:

  • 1 c. flour (use a gluten free flour mix to keep this gluten free)
  • 2 T. sugar
  • 2 T. brown sugar
  • 1 t. baking powder
  • 3 T. butter or coconut oil that has been refrigerated so it’s solid
  • 1 egg
  • 4 T. milk or coconut milk

Combine the peaches with sugar, potato starch and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, let cook for a couple of minutes. Pour the peach mixture into a 9 x 13″ baking pan.

Mix the dry topping ingredients together. Cut in butter/coconut oil. Mix the milk and egg together, then combine them with the dry ingredient mixture. Stir until just combined to keep the crust flaky. Drop this mixture by spoonfuls on top of the peach filling. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 25-28 minutes, until brown.

Upside Down Peach Cobbler

  • 6 T. butter/coconut oil – put in baking pan and melt
  • 1 c. flour (use gluten free mix to make gluten free)
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 2 t. baking powder
  • 1/4 t. salt
  • 3/4 c. milk/coconut milk

Mix the batter ingredients in the order listed. Pour the batter on top of the hot melted butter/oil in the pan. Top this batter mixture with the peach filling, including the juices. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 38 – 40 minutes.

I made two 9 x 13 pans of this one as well, but didn’t take a picture. The batter mixture rises up through the peaches. It’s a different kind of recipe than the first cobbler; my family liked them both and didn’t have a preference for one or another. By the way, serving any of these hot with vanilla ice cream is so, so good.

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I don’t buy gluten free flour mixes, so I looked up a recipe and mixed up my own. I used a combination of white rice flour, millet flour and potato starch. (I have a grain grinder so this was the work of just a few minutes to whiz them up.) This worked great for the cobbler recipes but was too dry when used for Yirmi’s birthday cake.

I had some more ripe peaches and though my children wouldn’t mind daily fresh pans of peach cobbler exiting the oven, I keep foods like this for a treat. The season that peaches are very affordable isn’t usually very long, so I decided to can whatever peaches I had that had a soft spot or two that would lead them to spoil.

Though I prefer to minimize sugar, my first batch of cooked nectarines really wasn’t good. As compote it would have been perfect, but I had added lemon juice as a preservative for canning it sugar-free, and that took away the sweetness. I probably added too much lemon juice, but I can’t say for sure.

What I do know is that I added a bit of sugar to the cooked fruit mixture before water bath processing them, and then it tasted great. Anyone can do water bath canning with a regular stock pot, as long as it’s high enough to cover the jars with an inch or two of water.


The above jars are a liter, which means they each hold four cups of cooked peaches, so one jar is just right for a 9 x 13 pan of cobbler or crisp.

Avivah

Introducing…Buttercup and Bambi!

homemaking, homeschooling

I’ve made a number of calls in the last couple of weeks regarding goats, visited three different goat owners, and after much thought and discussion narrowed my options down to the following:

a) Buy a milk goat from the goat broker (yes, that’s a thing!). He has only one, and I’ve been waiting a few weeks for him to get more milk goats, which he keeps saying he’s going to do soon. He mentioned in a later conversation that he also had several young female kids. This is the most expensive option (2000 shekels for the milk goat, and the kid is double the price I’ve seen anyone else asking for a non-purebred kid) but also the most convenient, as he will deliver. Not purebred. 3400 shekels.

b) Buy two purebred goats with high milk production that would double the output of the single milk goat above. However, there is the extra fee for delivery with someone who is licensed to do animal transport, and they are two hours away. 3500 shekels, seller flexible on price.

c) Buy a different nursing goat and her kid, but this seller was letting the kid have all the milk and there was no clarity about what quantity of milk we could expect. Basically the same pair arrangement as the first option but much less expensive, and a motivated seller. Need to arrange animal transport, also two hours away. Not purebred. 2400 shekels.

All goats aren’t created equal. They produce different quantities and flavors of milk, have different personalities, and have different physical features.

Physical features have no significance in and of themselves, but there are a couple of features that I prefer. I like the look of ears that flop to the side versus standing straight up, and I prefer no horns (though most goats have horns). They just look more friendly to me. That doesn’t mean they are more friendly, just that they give that impression to me!

I’ve been mentally going in circles thinking about all the different possibilities. The biggest question would seem to be which goats will give the most milk, since that’s what they’re being purchased for and the more milk they give, the faster the return on expenses is. They basically eat the same amount regardless of the amount of milk they give, so it makes sense to get the highest milk production goats I can find.

Again and again, I circled back to the purebred option as the best value. Not only would I get double the milk quantity, opening up possibilities of yogurt and cheese making for our family diet, the future kids of a purebred animal will bring a higher price. Physically, this pair of goats have long horns sticking straight up on top of their heads. My boys told me that’s a good thing, that it makes them easier to hold onto and direct. I don’t love the look, but how important are looks when you’re buying milk goats?

The third goats I decided to completely take out of the equation – though I liked the way they looked, they were far away, so going to see them would be a five hour trip. And then if I wanted them, there would be the extra expenses. None of which seemed justifiable for a questionable amount of milk.

Back and forth, back and forth I circled. I strongly preferred the first set of goats but it didn’t seem smart financially. For three days I couldn’t make a final decision, and I was getting fed up with my indecision.

The frugal me was really resisting on this front; I really hated the idea of being a motivated buyer and paying more for them than any other goats I had seen listed. But the way they looked really mattered to me – if something is going to be in my space, I’d like to have a positive feeling when I look at it, rather than tolerating it. Finally, I realized that I just needed to allow myself to spend more money and be grateful that I found a good milking goat with the features I wanted, and not need to get a bargain deal on top of that. Sometimes the price really isn’t the most important criteria.

**Edited to add: after writing this, I had another conversation with the seller, and he explained something that I hadn’t previously understood. He told me that he bought these goats as kids from a small farm that has bred them for high milk production. I only knew they weren’t purebred. Until this conversation I thought the reason he could charge such a high price was because he was a good salesman. If I had understood that they are objectively very desirable milk goats, I wouldn’t have had any hesitations about the price in my decision making process! As I’ve told my children about other things, if you listen to your gut feeling you’ll never regret it, even if you don’t know why you’re making the choice you do, and that’s certainly the case here. ***

And so, introducing pair A, Buttercup and Bambi!

On arrival – where are they?
Ds13 and four month old Bambi, being taken from the truck to her new home.

We had two young fruit trees growing in the area where we built the pen. Since goats like to browse (climb up and eat from trees and bushes), we surrounded each with a metal post and fencing to protect them. Despite our protective efforts, they were persistent about getting to it and within a few hours, the persimmon tree had no leaves left – that’s the stick you see next to the post above. I hope it will continue growing but accept it may not. So far the fig tree is holding its own – they don’t seem to like the flavor.

They are very sweet and though a little skittish, after just a day they’ve gotten much more comfortable with us.

We’ve had two milkings so far, and have been very appreciative of how patient and calm Buttercup is while being milked. Her milk is rich and delicious, and we’re all happy with the newest inhabitants of our yard and to have our own source of raw milk!

Avivah

Cutting project costs by building with pallets

frugal strategies, homemaking, homeschooling

I started looking at ads to buy goats, then realized I better get a pen built first so that I didn’t create unnecessary stress for myself by finding the kind of goats I wanted but not having a place to keep them. So my husband stepped in as the overseer of that building project while a couple of our boys did the building.

I had been planning a certain kind of pen, but when I saw how expensive the goats are, was inspired to offset those costs by finding more frugal options for building the pen. I settled on using pallets, which are a good source of free wood, but they come with the not insignificant effort of dissembling them. For the pen design itself, we decided to minimize our work and use whole pallets, mostly avoiding the need to take them apart (the door is the exception).

Building with whole pallets has its challenges; since the pallets aren’t identical there’s extra time and effort involved so that the end result doesn’t look haphazard. Ds16 and ds14 worked together to get the main pen built; my only physical input was to redirect some passionfruit vines from along our fence to the area above the pen. Passionfruit grows quickly and my intention is for them to is that they will eventually cover the top of the pen, providing shade as well as making it look more visually appealing.

Building the door did require wood of a specific size, so ds14 found a method that is very effective in breaking them apart – though he makes it look easy he quickly developed blisters on his hand and I felt tired just watching him. That young man has a huge work ethic and a lot of stamina! Once he took the pallets apart, he built the door and now all that’s remaining to add is a lock.

Though doing your own projects is less expensive than paying someone, building materials nonetheless add up quickly. Ds14 and ds20 discovered this for themselves last year when they co-purchased geese and building materials for a pen. I suggested to them that they consider using recycled wood, but they didn’t think it was worth the effort. They spent 1500 shekels on a wooden frame, chicken wire and screws, and soon experienced for themselves how fast the expenses added up. Later when they decided to end the goose experiment, ds14 decided to switch over to chickens and wanted to add a chicken run. He chose to use recycled materials; almost doubling the space but spent only 100 – 200 shekels more).

Independent of cost considerations, I very much like reusing and recycling. It’s gratifying for me to find a way to use what I already have or what already exists rather than get something new.

About using pallets – it’s important to know that they have different codes printed on the pallet that indicate how the wood was treated. Sometimes dangerous chemicals are used and those pallets marked as such should be avoided for a project like this. We chose pallets that were untreated or heat treated. To see a list of the symbols and what they stand for, check out this site.

My husband gets the credit for shlepping the pallets home. Talk about a good attitude – he did it smilingly and told me he appreciated the chance to get a physical work out loading and unloading them (so far he’s brought home 25 pallets!). Next on the list of pallet projects is a hay feeder, milking stand and outdoor stairs.

Avivah

Thinking about getting milk goats – am I crazy?!?

homemaking, nutrition

Over the last couple of years my son told me he really wanted to get goats, and I adamantly and repeatedly told him, “No, we don’t have enough room,” and offered rabbits as an option. He agreed but that wasn’t what he wanted and after a year gave them away.

In the meantime, he has helped friends take care of their goats and learned to milk them.

For the last few months I’ve been noting how much space owners set aside for two or three goats, and it’s less than I thought was necessary. I spent a long time thinking about if I was willing to change the look of my yard to make room for two milk goats and a pen for them. I started to slowly find the idea more doable and acceptable.

Until recently, I had hoped we could rent or buy some land adjoining us. One person was willing to lease us the entire plot of five dunam but only for a year and for five times the going price for agricultural land. The other didn’t want to lease or sell any land. The thought behind having more land was so we could raise some animals and practice permaculture principles to rebuild the completely depleted chemically farmed soil, and develop some kind of food forest. That would mean investing in fencing and many other significant start up expenses, that we wouldn’t be willing to do without a long term lease.

I realized if I scaled down my vision, I could do some of those things in my yard right now. But it means giving up – to some degree – the kind of ‘pretty’ yard I’ve spent time developing.

Why would I want goats? Seventeen years ago I learned about the incredible nutritional benefits of raw milk, and since then have thought how amazing it would be to have our own source of milk. In the US, I traveled every month or two to Pennsylvania, where I bought raw milk directly from a Mennonite farmer, twenty plus gallons at a time.

When I moved to Yavneel, I was able to buy raw goats milk from a local family and was thrilled to let someone else raise the goats and for me to have the benefits. My daughter and I bought all that they had. However, the supply became irregular and then petered out completely.

Healing our very broken industrialized food system begins with supporting local farmers, and there’s nothing more local than producing food yourself! Though milk hasn’t been an important part of our diets since we left the US, when I thought about what would be the best use of our very limited space to raise some of our own food, milk kept coming up as the top option. (Eggs would have been number one, but my son is already raising chickens.)

This is NOT a frugal undertaking. From a strictly economics perspective, it doesn’t save money but this goes beyond money for us, since we see it as an investment in our health. If we had our own raw milk, it would replace other less nutritious things that we currently eat.

So what are the costs involved in getting milk goats?

First is buying the goats – and the costs have gone up quite a bit in the months since we began thinking about this. A good milk goat costs between 1800 – 2000 shekels each. (I asked the goat broker why they’re more expensive than a few months ago, and he said, “Gas has gone up, food has gone up, meat has gone up – why wouldn’t the cost of goats go up?!”) You can buy young female kids for 700 – 1000 shekels but then have to feed them and breed them and wean the babies before you get milk, which costs plenty of time and money.

Then there’s the issue of buying hay. We’re in a shmita year, and can’t buy hay that is currently being grown. There is literally a hay field opposite my house, and a few days ago I watched him bale the hay and stack the bales, thinking how easy and convenient it would be if I could run over to the tractor driver and ask him to drop a bale over the wall into my yard – but I can’t buy any of it. Everyone who had animals who was concerned about shmita issues knew to pre-buy hay for the upcoming year. There’s no hay that I know of available for purchase left from last year – several months ago we found one person who had a few small bales who told us to call him back in a week, since he was out of town. When we called back, he had already sold the non-shmita hay to someone else.

When my son bought his purebred barred Plymouth Rock chickens from a Circassian woman a couple of months ago, I asked her for her hay supplier. I’m allowed to buy hay from a non-Jew, since he’s not violating any Torah laws by growing hay during shmita. She gave me a number, but when I called him, he said he’s no longer selling privately, and all of his hay is now sold directly to a broker. He had no suggestions of anyone else I could speak to.

We have to ask a rav if we’re allowed to feed animals hay that was grown as heter mechira, because that’s what most Jewish farmers have relied on.

Then there’s the cost of animal feed that is going through the roof. You can’t save costs by pre-buying feed, because after a couple of months the weevil eggs inside the grains hatch, multiply, infest the batch and the feed gets ruined.

And of course, we need to be able to house them, and in addition to the pen need a hay feeder and a milking stand – all of which costs more money.

Despite all the costs and logistical challenges, I’m still seriously considering goats. Does that sound crazy?

Avivah

Asking myself what feels fun – then joining basket weaving course!

homemaking, personal development

Frequently when a writer or commentator wants to hold up an example of a useless thing to spend time learning, they mention basket weaving. Or underwater basket weaving.

It’s interesting what we consider valuable and what we consider worthless. Hands-on creation of a useful object is a waste of time, and tapping away at a computer screen living in a digital world is an accepted norm. But putting that aside…..

I mentioned having participated in a basket weaving activity a while ago. I didn’t really enjoy it, primarily because of what I was telling myself. When forming the sides of that basket, it seemed like I needed to be an octopus to keep hold of the different ends. I looked around and all the other women seemed to be managing better than I was. I was feeling increasingly frustrated and inadequate, comparing myself to them. Thoughts began running through my mind: “Why do I put myself in these situations? Why do I have to do new things with new people and look like a complete incompetent?” I was convinced that I wouldn’t be able to complete the basket and would walk away without anything to show for all of my effort.

After a few minutes of this, I got hold of myself and recognized the direction I had gone in. (It takes very, very little time for a mind to spin out into negativity!) I then asked myself, why am I telling myself this? It’s a beautiful day, it’s a lovely group of women and I get to do something I’ve never done before. I reassured myself that the basket would look just fine when I was done, and that my focus should be staying in the moment and enjoying the experience.

So I did.

And the basket, while not an impressive masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, looked like a basket when it was done.

My first weaving project ever – woven using westontonia and banana leaves

When I saw the ad about the next session before Pesach, I was simultaneously interested and avoidant, not wanting to have a repeat of my initial experience of inadequacy. But I told myself, I’ve already done it once and I’m going to enjoy it. I quickly sent my rsvp.

This was a project that I enjoyed much, much more.

Trivet made using olive branch for a frame, and date stalks

While we were working on our trivets, someone mentioned that there’s a local teacher who formally teaches basket weaving using traditional methods. I got her number when things quieted down after the holiday.

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I’ve been interested in learning basket weaving for a long time.

As a frugal person, sometimes I’ll say no to things that seem unnecessary or don’t add value. Whether basket weaving has intrinsic value to anyone else or not, I’ve been becoming increasingly conscious of making decisions not from a logical/intellectual space, but by asking myself, what do I want? What feels good to me? The more I ask those questions and act in alignment with the answer, the better things seem to go.

When I called the instructor to inquire about her classes, I was delighted to learn that a new eight week series was beginning just a few days later! Despite it taking place in the busy late afternoon/evening hours, I was determined to make the child care arrangements work so that I could participate.

I’ve done two sessions so far, each three hours long, and am enjoying it so much.

The sessions takes place in a tent outdoors, lined with beautiful handmade projects the instructor sells.


All of the weaving in these sessions is done using date stalks. When I finished my first basket, the instructor suggested I could hang it up and use it to keep small items in. No, I rushed to tell her, I was happy to have the experience learning how to weave and wouldn’t be displaying it.

Well. Here it is on my bedroom wall now. 🙂

I haven’t yet trimmed the ends of this, but for now am enjoying the natural look of it.

In the second session, we made small baskets. I made two – they are a good size to keep use on the desk and I’m going to use these as well.

One of my baskets in process.

There are four of us in the workshop; two beginners and two who did the first eight sessions, and are continuing with more complex projects.

In the background, a more advanced student working on her basket.

The instructor does her own weaving projects alongside of us.

The basket the instructor began during this session.

There’s a meditative quality to basket weaving, and the more you do the more relaxing it is. Right now I’m just learning the basic process and the end result is usable but far from perfect. I’m really okay with that. I’m more interested in learning and am so, so much enjoying it. Coming out with a concrete project is a nice bonus but the creative process alone is worth it for me. I’m already thinking I’d like to continue when these eight weeks are finished!

Avivah

Stopped overthinking and got a new car, finally!

homemaking

Over two years ago, we bought a seven seater car, which has been very well used. It was a much older car than anything we bought in the past, since here in Israel, seven seaters are much more expensive than five seaters, and I was staying within a very tight purchasing budget.

I have never had the experience of constant repairs until owning this car. We have literally replaced every single part in the last two years, and every time we do, I’m sure that’s the last thing that will need to be replaced. Then a month (or less) goes by, and there’s something else!

The more money we put into it, the more it seemed we should keep it. After all, it’s all new under the hood! (If we had spent the sum up front that we spent on repairs to buy a car, we could have had a very nice car in excellent condition to start with! Not fun to think about but it’s been a good lesson.) When I bought that car, I was grateful to find a car that had so many things we were looking for, even though it was clear to me when I bought it that it wasn’t a vibrational fit for me. It was very functional but it felt like a step down to buy it.

After a particularly big repair a few months ago, I told my husband this car is trying to work its way out of our lives because it isn’t a match for us vibrationally. I’m positive that someone else who would be excited to have it could own it for years and would hardly need any repairs, but the car is doing its part to help us move towards something better for us.

I’ve been clear for over a year what our next vehicle would be when we were ready: a very good condition seven seater with four wheel drive. Seven seats so we can fit everyone at home if we go on a family trip, and four wheel drive since I live in an area with back roads where that would be useful. Cars like these are quite expensive – and not gas efficient at all.

When I finally began looking for a car a few months ago, I had a dilemma. I expected we would see a rise in gas prices, and couldn’t see spending more for the vehicle purchase, more for insurance – and then more to continually fuel up. Since the vast majority of our driving is just one of us, sometimes with one or two kids along for an errand, it was too much car for our true needs.

I had a really hard time letting go of the idea of a seven seater, though. (A seven seater is about twice the cost of a comparable five seater in terms of age and mileage, so the cost is a significant part of the decision.) Even when I let go of a seven seater, I couldn’t let go of the idea of four wheel drive. Those cars are also in a more expensive category (to buy/insure/fuel), and though it’s nice to bounce along a back road, it’s something we rarely do.

Finally I let go of that, too.

I’m the researcher and car buyer of the family, and when I asked my husband for his feedback as to what to buy, he replied, just buy a car in good condition that’s not old.

But what about this feature, and that feature? He really didn’t care. I did, though, and finally decided on a car that had the features and ‘look’ that I preferred. The challenge was that the cars that met my parameters weren’t being sold by private sellers locally, and my husband wasn’t available to go together with me to see these cars.

He travels to Tel Aviv once a week for work, so I found a car in that area, planning to drive in to work together with him. The intention was I’d drive the old car home, and after work he’d come home with the new car. I set up a meeting with the seller, agreed on the time we’d check in to confirm with each other first thing in the morning and made travel plans for the next day. Then my husband, wanting to save me the significant driving time, suggested he take the train to work, then take a bus from work to the seller and look at it himself. I was happy to save four hours of my time, and agreed.

However, there was some miscommunication between us about when he was supposed to contact the seller to confirm the meeting time. The meeting didn’t happen, and though they talked about meeting in the evening, that didn’t happen either. When he came home that night at 10 pm (obviously without the car I had assumed he would buy), I was frustrated that all the time and effort I had spent – researching and narrowing it down to this brand and then finally this car- had shown no concrete results. Though my husband said we could go there together the following day on his day off, I absolutely did not want both of us to drive two hours in each direction to go look at it. He has so little free time, and the point had been to go look at it when it wasn’t out of his way.

At 10:30 that night I spontaneously decided to look for a completely different car that had not been on my mental radar at all. I narrowed it down to the best three choices within an hour from us, then narrowed it down to the best car of the three – a seller twenty minutes away.

I called first thing in the morning, and an hour later was looking at the car with my husband (who had a day off since it was Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day). We test drove the car, I made an offer, then a counteroffer. When the seller accepted, I nodded and left my husband to take care of the transfer details. It was fast and easy.

It was also a bit anti-climactic. It’s not the look I preferred, it doesn’t have the extra features I wanted (both of which are minor details and can be added) – but I honed in on what is most important for us and it has it all. It’s a car in excellent condition with lower mileage, is a brand known for reliability, gets good fuel mileage, has a generous sized trunk – and we got a good price on it.

My primary initial feeling was relief. I’m not a person who does well with indecision; I like to make a decision, take action and move on to the next thing on my list. To keep thinking and thinking and overthinking one topic was sucking up so much of my mental energy. This has been a big thing on my to-do list for a long time and it’s really nice to have it taken care of.

Now that I’ve let go of all those things I thought I wanted, I’m feeling the freedom of having a smaller car with a smaller fuel intake, and appreciating driving something that runs quietly and smoothly!

Avivah