One of the things that I think about as I seek to distance myself from the 9-5 grind is how things have changed since I was a kid. We all look back at our childhood and hold that as some type of standard by which we judge our current world, regardless of when we were born. Did children of the 60s have it better than those of the 70s? I don’t know, but one thing I do know is that when I was younger, men and women seemed to possess more practical skills than they do today. They had skills that could be used around the home to save some money and even to provide an income to support the family.
One of the things that has helped us reach our goal of becoming a one income family is the fact that I am a DIY kind of guy. Of course, there are times when I find it necessary to utilize the assistance of a professional but for the most part I take care of many things myself. Sometimes the savings is money and others the savings is time.
Let me explain further. I recently decided to take on an extensive repair job on my old pickup truck, after I discovered an extensive amount rust on the frame and the body. This project took about 2 ½ months for me to complete by working on it after work and on my days off. I had to completely take the bed off the truck, in order to replace the rear cross member, apply new sheet metal, new shocks, and due to my carelessness, a new back window. After the metal work was done, it needed body filler and paint. Since our truck is over 17 years old, and the odometer has long since passed 200,000 miles, it didn’t make good financial sense for us to pay an auto body professional the cost of parts and labor for this job. Instead, I sacrificed my time,( another precious resource), and as a result, we now have a sound and useful truck for many years to come.
You may think that the reason I was able to do this job because of past auto body and mechanical experience, but my background is actually in healthcare and this job was something I had never done before. Of course a professional could have done it much faster, but in the end, the job was done at a fraction of the cost and I also have the satisfaction of learning some new skills and doing the job myself. My experience accomplishing this job will give me confidence to tackle something even larger next time.
Now, let’s look at the other type of savings, which is precious time, and let’s once again use the automobile as an example. I can purchase an oil filter and 5 quarts of oil for about the same price as an oil change at the quick lube establishments. The problem for me is that I have to drive there, sit and wait, and then drive home. That is a lot of wasted time. For the same money I can do the job myself and while I am at it I get the opportunity to inspect my vehicle for other potential problems. Not many places will take an interest in your car as much as you will. They are interested in separating you from your money!
Of course you need to factor in the cost of tools that a person needs to do a job, and some would use that as an excuse to not do a job themselves. I will agree that tools can be expensive, but often you can still buy the needed tools and complete the job cheaper than if you were to hire it out. In the end, you will have the job done with less expense and have the tools to complete it again if the need should arise. This is how you build up your collection of tools and how you build your skills.
When I was a kid, my dad would take time and show me how to do things. I was always under the car with him when he was changing oil or doing brakes. Unfortunately, you don’t see many parents taking the time to teach their children valuable life skills or letting them tag along while they’re doing a job, anymore. Maybe men no longer possess the skills to do these things themselves, or they just don’t want to take the extra time to show their children. This has created a society that is dependent on others for just routine daily things. Possessing skills that you can pass along to your children is, in my opinion, one of the most valuable gifts you could give them. Working together and teaching your child is a great way to spend quality time together, which is also increasingly difficult to find these days. Take the time to increase your skill set and then share that knowledge with someone you care about so you can both be blessed by it.
when the gardening season was done and till it under. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but for some reason that always bothered me a bit. The ground looked so vulnerable and exposed, and I probably had good reason to feel uneasy. I learned that with the soil in this condition, it was at risk for erosion since my garden site is on a slight incline. Fast forward to now and I have adopted different practices regarding putting my garden to bed for the winter. Actually, many of my gardening practices have changed but I will just focus in my fall/winter routine for now.
Both nourishment and protection can be accomplished by liberal amounts of mulched organic material. I will pile my garden high with as much mulch as I can find after the growing season is over. I use leftover grass clippings, leaves, clippings from our shrubs and bushes, and wood chips. We use a chipper that we found used on Craigslist to process some of our material, and it creates wonderful free mulch that is difficult to beat. This nutrient rich mulch will protect the soil from erosion, and it gives our chickens something to scratch around in. As this material decomposes, it nourishes the soil, and promotes a healthy environment for the organisms that help to aerate the soil throughout the late fall, winter, and early spring. Then, when spring comes, I incorporate the mulch by tilling it under. As a result, we have a dark rich soil that has only gotten better over the years since I started using this method.
Tonight I got to do something that I really enjoy doing, starting the first fire in my wood stove. Wood heat is some of the best heat you can get. It seems to permeate every corner of your home and has a feeling that cannot be replicated. Of course there are negatives to heating with wood but for me the pros out weight the cons.
An old truck will also be needed in you procurement of wood. Hauling wood can be demanding on a truck so if you have a nice shiny new truck this may not be the best choice. I drive a 1998 F-150 and I find it to be a good choice except that I would prefer a long bed instead of the short bed I have. A short bed would be fine except that I like to have a toolbox in the back of my truck as and this does not leave a great deal of space for wood. I also like a truck with four wheel drive. This is not totally necessary but I have had to get into some pretty remote places to get my wood before and it sure paid off. I believe that a 4 wheel drive is the best choice when living in the country for other reasons as well. You can get by with a small truck but you do limit yourself on the amount of wood you can haul ant any given time and the additional weight really seems to stress the suspension of these smaller trucks. A friend of ours used an S-10 for hauling wood and he suffered busted shocks and springs due to it.
mistake. I have decided that a good saw for the firewood cutter is the moderately priced homeowner saws in the 18-20 inch range. I would also recommend that you stick with Husqvarna, Stihl, or Echo. I hear Jonsered are good as well but I have no firsthand experience with them. My current saw is a Husqvarna 450. I have been using this for two years now without any complaints. These seem to be solid machines and it should serve me for many years to come. There are certainly bigger and more powerful saws but if cutting wood to heat you home this type of saw will do quite well.
things, first it makes it in to more manageable sized pieces. Second thing it does is it allows the wood to dry more quickly. It is said that wood dries from its ends unless it is split. By opening the log up the moisture can escape more quickly. I used to split all of my wood by hand. My preferred splitting axe was one made by Fiskars. This was a nice light weight axe designed specifically for splitting and it did well on smaller to medium sized logs. For the larger logs I would use a splitting wedge and a sledge hammer. As I have grown a little older I have graduated to a gas powered hydraulic log splitter. I did a fair bit of research prior to making my purchase and what I decide to get was a Huskee 22 ton log splitter from Tractor Supply. I believe that they have changed the name of their splitters since I purchased mine but they are still the same machines. I have not found anything I could not handle with the 22 ton model and I see no reason to pay more for a large model.
ed at night, and repeat in the morning. The demands of working away from home keep us from enjoying the very things that we are working for, our family and our home. That is why we decided to start this blog. We are a family that is tired of the daily grind and something deep down tells us that there has to be something more. What is that something more? It is a life that is full of meaning and hope, a life that has the interest of others in mind, a life with time for the things that really matter. What I hope to share here is our journey to this type of lifestyle. Some of the topics that we would like to cover include gardening, finances, homeschooling and the art of just doing it yourself. The content should be something that both guys and gals can appreciate. We hope that you enjoy what we have to offer here and please feel free to comment and interact with us. Check us out on Facebook!
Logtown Acres 