With Gas prices soaring and the cost of everything we use on a daily basis skyrocketing, my family has decided to make conscious efforts to live a little more frugally and try to make decisions with the environment in mind.
This all started about two years ago with our first small steps that included switching all of our light bulbs with the new compact fluorescents, also known as CFL’s. These bulbs are 
more expensive to purchase at first, however over the lifetime of the bulb the savings add up. As a matter of fact, CFL’s can save up to $30 in electricity costs over their lifetime compared to an incandescent lamp, plus they save 2000 times their own weight in greenhouse gases.
That was pretty much it… at least for a while.
Then, after several months of spending $200+ per week in fuel for two vehicles, going through 2 boxes of diapers each week (we have 4 kids), spending $600+ every month at the grocery store and still eating out several times each week, we decided that enough was enough. There must be a better way.
I began reading several helpful website like “The path to Freedom” project, The Dollar stretcher, Mother Earth News and more. We decided that some of the ideas on these sites were not for us and a bit too extreme. But on the other hand, there were several wonderful ideas that we could incorporate into our daily life to both stretch our dollar and make a positive impact on our environment at the same time.
Many of these ideas may not be for you.. some, you may want to try. Either way, we would love your feedback and comments as we make this journey.
Self Sufficiency and sustainable living:
Years ago people depended less on the outside world and more on themselves. There was not a Walmart on every corner and you could not just drive to the store on a whim and get what you need. You grew it or hunted it or you did not eat.
For the most part those days are gone. However, you can always make an impact in your own pocket book by growing or raising a portion of your diet yourself. Plus, the nutrition of “home grown” foods is much higher than those of many of the store bought goods that are filled with chemicals and pesticides.
We have a small garden that includes Tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs and more. We also grow grapes, blue berries, figs, peaches, pears, raspberries, black berries, and more(we will post more on our gardens soon).
We will be expanding our raised bed gardens (info on the value of raised beds and how to construct them coming soon) to include more items. When that happens, we will share it here.
Here are a few of the photos from our back yard…
Grapes from one of our 5 vines… just about ready!
More grapes…
Figs… yum! Still a while to go until they are ripe. (This tree was planted only two years ago).
Blueberries… I transplanted my blue berry bushes from a HUGE bush in Reinhart, Alabama two years ago. This is the first year we have been able to harvet the berries. (late frost killed the buds last year).
One of our two bunnies… (NO we are not going to eat them…)
Our solar Shower
This was built to 1) save on electricity (its a solar heated shower). 2) Conserve water… the run off is diverted to the garden. 3) Its awsome to shower outside! lol
Of course, you must use biodegradable soaps so you won’t harm your plants.
The idea came from my brother who built an outdoor shower at his house and used it on hot summer days. His was not a solar shower and utilized a hose pipe and only had cold water. Not sure about you but where I live the tap water is cold… burrrr… So I was not that enthusiastic about getting that cold water shock every time I took an outdoor shower.
As I searched online for ideas on outdoor showers, I found a couple that I liked. Using ideas from several of them, I constructed this one. It consists of 4×4 at each corner cemented into the ground plus on additional 4×4 to provide a separator for the doorway. 2×6’s run across the top and I doubled them mainly for the looks and not so much for strength. The trusses are bolted together to make the structure stronger. My plans are to plant some type of vines to grow over it.
The water comes from a 55 gallon drum that was originally designed as a rain barrel. There is a spigot at the bottom with a 12 inch piece of hose connected to a on/off switch. I also added a connection at the top and attached a portion of hose that extends to near the door so I can easily attach a hose pipe so it can be refilled.
The water flows using gravity and provides a fairly decent flow but a small stream due to the size of the hole in the spigot. I tried a shower head but while the flow is good it is not enough gallons per minute to allow the shower head to operate properly. It basically dribbles out of only a few of the holes. So, in my opinion it is better to just use the stream as it comes from the hose.
I fill the barrel at night after we are done using it and it heats the following day. I will soon be painting the barrel black in hopes that it will absorb more of the heat. While not necessarily hot, the water does get warm in the white barrel.
In many of the designs I read about online, they used coiled up black hose pipe to heat the water. While this makes for a much hotter water temperature, the quantity was not enough for my purposes. With the 55 gallons, our whole family can take normal length showers and the barrel still remains half full. As a matter of fact it takes quite a while to run it empty. It is recommended that you completely empty the water at least once a week to aid in prevention of algae. When I do this, I don’t refill on the day before so I will not have to waste water the following day when I run it dry. On that particular day, the water is noticeably warmer. So if you do not have a huge family like I do you could get by with a smaller tank and get hotter water. Also you could use a metal tank for your water which would result in hotter water.
There is also a noticeable difference in the water in the top of the tank and that in the bottom. Since our water flow comes from the bottom, the more water you use in ours, the hotter the water.
While I have not tried this, I have an idea that may work to pull water from the top and allow you to pull that warmer water. If you place your out flow at the top where I have the inflow and connect your inflow to the bottom where i have the spigot, you can turn on your hose pipe and provide pressure forcing the water from the top. This would give you access to the warmer water, however, it would also cool down much more quickly due to the colder water mixing in… I am happy with mine so at this point, this is just a theory. If you try it, let me know.
I know that this structure is overkill but I wanted to make sure it was strong enough after I googled the weight of water. 55 gallons weighs about 500lbs… yikes!
Now Green purists will point out that I used treated wood. Also some of the frugal purists will point out that I used new materials instead of reclaimed items. This is all true. However, I can say that while it is not completely green and was not completely frugal… In the long run, it will operate very environmentally friendly and it will save money.
It will save water by allowing it to drain to my garden. It will also save on electricity because my hot water heater is not having to heat the water.
(BTW… we have an indoor shower like normal people too… for that, we use an on demand hot water heater).
The inside of the nearly complete shower.
From inside, looking at the door.. (yeah, I built this…)
A bench I built out of rock that was dug out of a road to install gas lines. They gave me the rock, I just had to haul it! The extra rock to the right will soon be a walkway to the solar shower.
My water garden… More pics of this soon!
Water flowing from a rock fountain in our back yard.
One of my many roses…
Keep checking back for more exciting (at least I think so) information and photos!!
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Posted on July 7th, 2008.
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