Voluntary Poverty

     Voluntary poverty. Some people think it's a rationalization to avoid hard work. Others view it as knowingly relying on the social welfare systems in place in our country. Others would view it as doing your best to live a life of less impact on both the environment and other people. Somewhere in the gray lies views about self-sufficiency, frugality, and happiness.
     Having lived in Florida almost my whole life, I can tell you that very few people in Florida were born or raised here. Most people have moved from someplace less hospitable to the heat and insects that they forever love to complain about. I have spent much time trying to understand what would make someone leave their family to come to a place that they hate, and the only conclusion that seems worthwhile is the one that says that they came here to have more with less. Taxes in the Northeast being what they are, they can come here and have huge ranch-style abominations, four cars, and spoiled brats that refuse to work hard for the community they now share. I'm not bitter, but it is a phenomenon that needs looking into.
     After working at a difficult and poorly-compensated career for several years, I am proud to say that I have paid off my house. It's not a big house, but it is more than big enough for our needs, which is very different from a person's wants. And I figure that if something happens to me, it will be three years of failed tax payments before we will be homeless.
     Now that shelter is covered, the next biggest expense is transportation. I'm still working on that one. The local transit system is not a far walk, maybe 2/3rds of a mile to the closest bus stop, and much cheaper than the car insurance for your average cheap car. I still use a cheap car at the moment, but that might change someday.
     After shelter and transportation, the next largest expenses are electricity and food/toiletries. Most of electricity is air conditioning. I have halved the air conditioning expense by raising the temperature setting in the house to 83F. It's warm but not actively sweating warm, and much cooler than outside. It's still good to drink plenty of cold water and do all outdoor activities before 10:00 AM. Installing solar water heating and an efficient clothesline system will save even more electricity over the long run.
     Food is a much more difficult expense to cut down. My love of sandwiches has led me to egg-salad, chicken-salad, and tuna-salad as my favorite warm weather foods. Easy to make, cheap, and nutritious. Unfortunately the kid prefers peanut butter and jelly, but sometimes I can talk her into grilled cheese and tomato soup, another cheap, easy, and nutritious meal. The next best way to save money on food is to grow as much of it as possible, and that is a topic for another post.
     People worry about healthcare a lot, and learning about the healthcare system as it stands today and in the future will prevent this anxiety. If you have a small child or a disability (Hmmmmmm?), you qualify for medicaid, provided your income is sufficiently low. Over the age of 65 should qualify for medicare, the cadillac of health plans at the moment, provided you have paid enough income tax to qualify. The most important thing about healthcare is to prevent sickness and injury in the first place, which is not easy or everyone would do it. Sometimes illness happens, and healthcare agencies will work with you to set up a payment plan. They don't mind, believe me. As long as you are paying it, even slowly, they will not put it to collections. And hospitals are unable to deny you critical care based on payment status, but they have been known to transfer patients once stable based on ability to pay. Not such a big deal since the patient still receives the needed care.

Finally part of the 3%. 

     After having recently re-evaluated my life situation, goals have changed somewhat. I still want to take this house off-grid as much as possible, and continue learning about sustainable living. I don't feel the need to slave to buy junk like so many others, and retirement savings seem not as important since it's so cheap to live here. Obviously having some money is worthwhile, but having a lot of money seems pointless, since the more you earn the more they take, for every category mentioned above.

     Did you know households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate? Are they like minds or deliberately accidentally poor?

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

     Ever since learning that bread can be made in small batches in the crock pot, I have been seriously contemplating the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method. Before I had ruled it out, since heating up the kitchen with the oven everyday seemed kind of excessive. Not to mention the serious electricity drain. It made me kind of miss the bread making machine I had given away years ago when I was given a stand mixer. But with using the crock pot method for baking bread, small batches can be cooked quickly and with very little mess.
     Their technique couldn't be easier. The only special equipment needed is a large enough container to hold your four pounds of dough in the refrigerator.

Master Recipe, directly from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day website.
Makes 4 loaves, slightly less than 1 lb. each.
Note: The recipe is easily doubled or halved. Use the dough in 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) portions over the next 14 days.

• 3 c. lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tbsp. granulated yeast
• 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt
• 6 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

Directions

• In a 6-quart bowl or, preferably, in a lidded food container or food-grade plastic bucket, stir together the water, yeast and salt.
• Mix in the flour — kneading is unnecessary.
• Allow this to rise, covered with a lid that’s not completely airtight, at room temperature for about 2 hours. Refrigerate the dough and use over the next 14 days. Do not punch down the dough before using it.

In the Crockpot from Star Tribune (2013)

"On baking day, dust the surface of the refrigerated Master Recipe dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece. Dust with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Place the shaped ball on a strip of parchment paper wide enough so there is 1 inch on each side. (No need to let dough rise.)"

     I have found that you may omit the additional flour dusting.

Making Soap from Wood Ash (Potash) and Oils, Part 3

      Most websites say that the lye solution is the correct strength when a small potato or raw egg floats while showing an amount above the surface tension of the water about the size of a quarter. Most sources are unclear about the proper pH of lye water, but it is expected to be somewhere between 13 and 14 (the most alkalotic substances known to man) to be strong enough to saponify oils.
     It is difficult to guesstimate an approximate recipe to use the lye water. One person states, "If your lye water will float an egg with only a quarter size showing, boil down 1 gallon of lye water to 3/8 cup. Use 2 cup fats with 3/4 c. concentrated lye water…proceed slowly adding small amounts lye to fats whipping briskly each time."
     Another recipe concerning the proportion to ash water to fats can be found here. The author states, "Thirty-five liters of ashes is about the right amount for 2 kilograms of fat (a bushel of ashes for 4 pounds of fat). This proportion is cited in soap-making recipes of the colonial period in the United States, but many of the recipes of that era differ on the proportion of ashes to fat. Put 115 ml (1/2 cup) of lye in the kettle for every 230 ml (1 cup) of fats or oils."
     Another soap making website says the ratio of home-made lye water to fats should be "115 ml (1/2 cup) of lye in the kettle for every 230 ml (1 cup) of fats or oils." It goes on to say the mixture should be boiled until it becomes thick, foamy, and rubbery.
     This site has a surprisingly well-written article about how to neutralize an alkalotic pH in liquid soaps. In short, boric acid or borax is added to the soap solution, then allowed to precipitate, leaving the remaining soap more neutral and clear. Of course, proper pH testing is necessary to prevent skin reaction (we can handle more acid than alkali). Adding more fat will also bind the alkali in the lye.

Making Soap from Wood Ash (Potash) and Oils, Part 2

     On the other hand, Mother Earth News has printed an article from 1972 that says this about making wood ash lye at home:

To make lye in the kitchen, boil the ashes from a hardwood fire (soft woods are too resinous to mix with fat) in a little soft water, rain water is best, for about half an hour. Allow the ashes to settle to the bottom of the pan and then skim the liquid lye off the top. You can do this daily and when you've got enough of the weak solution, start the soap making process by boiling the liquid down until it'll float an egg. Now put that meat fat, left-over cooking lard and vegetable oil into a kettle not over half full, and heat the whole mess until all the liquid has been rendered out of the solid scraps. While it's still hot, add this clean grease to the bubbling lye and continue to boil the mixture, stirring all the while, until it reaches the consistency of thick cornmeal mush. 

     The article goes on to say that added salt makes the soap set into bars more easily, and that non-hardwood ashes are too resinous to produce soap. That last statement could use a good skeptical questioning, since pine tar soap is renowned for its anti-inflammatory properties against ailments such as psoriasis.

Second Random Personal Update for August

After sitting through a lovely first day of college classes, I decided to go to the financial aid office to see if the money was there to pick up my books and supplies. I have already given up on it being available for the tuition. The financial aid office is extremely slow at every campus at this college. I know this, because I have waited in uncomfortable chairs at each, surrounded by people with all the same questions and concerns.
The really odd thing about this is that it was much simpler to apply for government insurance, food benefits, and WIC than to get government tuition assistance. I filled out one financial form for medicaid and one for tuition, but guess which one took less time and was easier? Heck, I didn't even know  I was applying for food assistance because the phone conversation I had was for the insurance! Yet have had to come in and sit and wait and talk to people several times, adding a form here and there, to no  avail. No waiting until the last minute on my part either.
How can it be easier to open my arms to the public wealth but difficult to arrange the shuttling of those same funds into the higher education system?

Making Soap from Wood Ash (Potash) and Oils, Part 1

     It wasn't all that long ago that housewives and farmwives made a liquid soap at home using wood ashes and animal fats. The recipes and techniques have been somewhat lost through the years, but several websites have been collecting some information about the process. This website has a bit of background information on the subject, saying, "Historically, potash was derived from boiling down liquid lye (leached from hardwood ash) until it was reduced to a white solid composed primarily of Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3). Potassium Carbonate was used in soap making, glass production, and other manufacturing processes. It could be further refined in a kiln to remove impurities. The refined product was called pearl ash. Both potash and pearl ash were used as an early leavening agent in baked goods."

     One book, the Farmer's Magazine (1859), estimates that ten pounds of ash will make about one pound of salts of lye. The leeched ash water is boiled "to the consistency of tar".
     From Frontier Freedom Magazine and other sources, homemade lye from wood ashes produces potassium hydroxide, an alkalotic relative to the commercial sodium hydroxide that handmade soap is made with. Most online sources agree that rainwater or distilled water is the most desirable for making wood ash lye. The technique they recommend to produce lye, which also sounds to be one of the faster and safer techniques out there, requires you to fill a pillowcase with ashes and place over a five gallon bucket. Pour boiling filtered water into the pillowcase bucket, like you are making tea. Agitate for some time (1 1/2 hours?), then take the pillowcase of ashes out of the water and cook the extra moisture out of the ash water. The lye is strong enough when it can dissolve a chicken feather. The process may have to be repeated several times to get the correct strength (approximate pH?). Avoid scorching the lye (?). Liquid lye can be sun-dried/dehydrated into crystals (?).
     The recipe from Frontier Freedom Magazine calls for 18.2 ounces of homemade lye crystals, 2 1/2 pints of water, and 6 pounds of fat, which they say will make 9 pounds of soap. Their single bar recipe calls for 3 heaping tablespoons of homemade lye crystals, 1/2 cup soft water, and 1 cup melted beef tallow. "A combination of half tallow and half lard is usually suggested." This is somewhat frustrating because most of us use metric measurements for everything this exacting. The soap is made via hot process, and can be hardened into bars and molded or left as a liquid for washing clothing.

What is Potassium Hydroxide, really?

     Potassium hydroxide KOH, is commonly called caustic potash. It is famously used to saponify fats into liquid soap, which is then firmed up with the addition of common salt.
     "Historically KOH was made by adding potassium carbonate (potash) to a strong solution of calcium hydroxide (slaked lime), leading to a metathesis reaction which caused calcium carbonate to precipitate, leaving potassium hydroxide in solution" (Wikipedia). Also historically but not mentioned on Wikipedia, potassium hydroxide was leeched from wood ashes using rainwater and a barrel, a long and indeterminate process which I will explain further in another post. The addition of calcium hydroxide (hydrated lime), which came much later, potentially simplifies and streamlines the process even for the farm wives who historically made soap.
     Other than it's famously historical use in home soap making, potassium hydroxide has fallen out of fashion in the chemical world in deference to it's cheaper sister chemical, sodium hydroxide, now also used for soap making. Potassium-based soaps are known to be milder than sodium-based soaps, though properly formulated soaps of either kind are mild enough for children and pets.
     This excerpt is from a chemistry text on soap and candle making, written in 1856. The science discussed herein is still good, though does not make adequate use of one our great modern advances in alkalimetry, known as the pH scale. Potassium hydroxide can have a pH of 12 to 14, depending on its formulation and purity. A pH of 13 is considered the normal for it.

Personal Update August

     After watching the American Heart Association video again, I realized that my very first CPR class was almost ten years ago. So much has changed both with me and with CPR over the years. Mostly with me, CPR hasn't changed that much, other than a few nuances in technique. On the other hand, I have the two kiddos, bought a house, blah blah blah. Personal details that are difficult to nuance into writing. Where's the mandatory class for that?

Not a stroke, just a goofy picture.

How to Bake Bread in the Crock Pot

     People say the internet is more than 95% a waste of resources, because it doesn't offer any new information, just rehashes the same over again. This is true, in a way, except that not everyone knows everything, so sometimes it can be better to follow some blogs and learn as we read along.
     The other day I found a simple technique to bake bread in the crockpot. Having never known about this technique before, it has really made me rethink what kind of appliances I had wanted for my future dream outdoor kitchen. Before Crock Pot Bread, I had wanted a convection oven so I could bake bread without heating the whole kitchen and using all that electricity. Convection ovens are, after all, known to use less electricity than standard ovens. Wood-fired ovens are a lot of work, and propane ovens or grills are just as costly if not more so than standard ovens, plus the hassle of replacing tanks.
     One other great thing about Crock Pot Bread - if you are making standard round (artisan-style) loaves, then as long as you have parchment paper you will not have to scrub any loaf pans or even the inside of the crock.

     Perhaps discovering an appropriately-sized portion of dough for use in the crock is the hardest part. The dough should be about one pound in size, which is about the size of a grapefruit. Ensuring the optimal size helps to make sure the interior of the dough reaches a high enough temperature to baked thoroughly, a temperature of roughly 190-200 degrees F. Pictures is a smaller loaf, so the baking time has been adjusted to match. Most crockpots with loaves of this size need at least a good hour on the High setting to bake all the way through.
     Since the inside of the crockpot remains moist, a heavy/thick crust does not form on the top of the loaf. This may invalidate that lazy baker's tap test to check for done-ness. Some would check the bottom of the loaf. I just like to wing it, myself, and remove from the heat when I think it's probably ready.

Chrissy's Basic Recipe for a 1 Pound Loaf of White Bread
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup milk or water, can be powdered milk.
1/4 cup butter or oil

     This particular recipe needs no additional kneading or rising time, unless that is your preference. The dough will rise as the slow cooker warms up to temperature. This basic recipe can have any number of tasty additives incorporated into the dough before baking, such as blueberries, raspberries, herbs and spices, garlic, onion, etc. Pictured is cheddar cubes and ham slices.

Home-made Ollas

     Ollas (oi-yas) are a traditional Central American method of irrigation. One simply plants the terra cotta vessel in the garden, then plants the most water-needy vegetables near the olla. The more drought-tolerant vegetables are located further from the olla. Then the ollas are topped with water regularly, slowly leaking moisture to the soil nearby. The surface soil and leaves never receive watering with this method, which eliminates water lost through evaporation.
     To make some yourself, you will need terra cotta pots, some stones, super glue, and bathroom caulk. The best place to find terra cotta pots cheap is to look at garage sales and rummage sales, or ask any friends that think they have "black thumbs". I used to have bromeliads in these when I was an apartment dweller, but now that I have a yard, the smaller pots seem like more work than they are worth.
     Glue a stone over the drainage hole on the bottom of the pot. Allow to dry, then caulk around the stone to ensure waterproofing. Super glue the superior pot on the top, allow to dry, then caulk around the edges to waterproof. Bury where you plan on having the veg grow, leave the top exposed for adding water.