Mindful Chickens 9/15/2017

Mindful Chickens?

We try to be frugal in order to afford our life and attain our goals. At the same time we try to consume responsibly so that our choices have the least negative impact on our fellow humans and on our earth and its creatures.

Mindful Chickens! Cheep, Cheap!

This was a heckuva week. Trying to get this website ready-to-publish at the same time as Len’s contract job as well as living our regular life.

These are some of this week’s Mindful Chickens:

1. At 5:00 one night we remembered we had to leave the house in 40 minutes to walk to a meeting. Instead of driving and buying fast-food along the way, sups was pasta, shredded cheese, microwaved peas, and some of the pesto Len made two weeks ago. This took less than 25 minutes from starting to finish and cost 20 minutes and a dollar.

2. Made a quadruple bath of laundry detergent. Took 15 minutes (including clean up), cost less than $5, will last 4-6 months, and is not toxic to anyone or anything. I use this “recipe” from The Prudent Homemaker. http://theprudenthomemaker.com/make/laundry-soap I use Fels Naptha soap which is good for removing oil, butter, dirt, and sweat - substances Len and I are talented at getting on our jeans and t-shirts. I cut the bar of soup into small pieces and then pulverize in our 37-year old Cuisinart. And then wash the Cuisinart pieces in the dishwasher.

3. We went to two evening things this week. Walked to both of them.

4. The only surprise trip out in the truck was this morning when Len got a flat on his bike and I drove out to get him. See above. A guy on a bike is seldom too far away.

5. I walked around a corner at the grocery store into a huge display of magnificent orchids. Didn’t buy any. Did take pix and then text to a friend who I knew was working hard right then, just to bother her. Sharing flowers….

What did you do lately to be respectful to too-easily-exploited workers, to preserve the environment, to be mindful of animals – and yet to not break your bank?

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The Arrows of Yore

I have a weird dark closet in the back of my soul. In it are critical things people have said to me in my life. I rarely consciously think about those old cuts and criticisms, but they are tucked in back there and sometimes I remember them uneasily.

Here are some of my particular arrows of yore:

“Can’t you do anything with her hair, Dorothy?” Dorothy was my mom. My dad liked his daughters’ hair to be curly and orderly, mine was straight and flyaway. I think I was in my 40’s before I realized OMG I do not have “problem hair”… whatever the hell that is.

Make Persimmon Cookies; Don’t make a Persimmon Life.

We are new subscribers to “Imperfect Produce” which is a service that delivers imperfect (duh) but safe and flavorful veggies and fruit to your house. This helps to keep “imperfect” produce from being wasted. (https://www.imperfectproduce.com/ I don’t get kickbacks from them.)

We are open-minded about trying new things to eat so when they included a pomegranate – cool. I enjoyed pomegranate, raisin, and walnut oatmeal I invented for myself.

Buy Angry

Frugality is a tool and a weapon. You can use it to be powerful.

What?

Frugality and Privacy

“If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.”

When one of our kids was 8-years old, Len thought it would be fun to let that kid drive his car. I swear - though I doubt you will believe me - no drinking was involved. Len just really believes in our kids and sometimes this turns into bigger adventures than one would expect.

Did I mention the car was in the garage so it needed to be backed out? Also, the child in question was too short to adequately reach the pedals.

Mindful Chickens – Up North Weekend Edition 9/24/18

Mindful Chickens are (for people who don’t know why I call them this) about:

1. Being Cheap (cheap, cheep).

2. Being thoughtful about how choices affect our community and our earth.

3. Paying attention to the constant tumble of little things like bugs and crumbs, dollars and daily choices.

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Several years ago our son and his wife decided that they were going to set a goal to visit every state park in Wisconsin. There are 50 state parks and they only have a few more to go; what a cool way to claim where one lives.

Mindful Chickens 9/15/18 & The Scattered Schedule of Retirement

Mindful Chickens are (for people who don’t know why I call them this) about:

ONE: Being Cheap (cheep, cheep).

TWO: Being thoughtful about how choices affect our community and our earth.

THREE: Did you know you can enter “flying chickens” as an actual searchable topic in YouTube? Did you know you can lose an hour (or more) of your life this way? It’s been quite a week over here, doing many needful and not-so-needful things – including watching chickens fly.

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