john mcginnis

Its hit or miss, but I have pick up old leather electrician tool pouches at estate sales. They work great for garden tooling.

The creativity is outstanding. Kudos everyone.

But in our household our recycling journey starts with the 'buy':

* We bring our own packaging to the grocery store. We have a Winco in our area. So when we buy spices we use a 'wyler, light' plastic tube as to portion and storage. Their dry goods like flour and the like we reuse plastic bags or buy in bulk in the paper sacks. (all those McCormick spice jars don't go in the trash as we don't use/have them

* We purchase our canned tomato products in #10 tins. Use what we need then recan the balance in glass. The tins get used for various but generally as eratz pots for transplants till that rusts out.

* If there is a choice, we will buy a product that is in a reusable glass container over single use containers.

* We buy olive oil in 1 gal glass containers. They are reused for making fruit wines.

* Most paper products that are suitable go into the worm bin.

Our aim is to have nothing leave the homestead, since we did not bring anything in to the place that is a throwaway.

The impact small gardens can have? Go back in time. To exactly 1940-46, England, US. Dig up the old literature and government reports of the period. There are even old Pathe' films of the period  about small garden regenerative practices now on youtube. For England it was a matter of grow it or starve. In the US Victory gardens made it possible to stretch that ration book further.

For me personally it is a matter of being thrifty. It makes no sense to take yard waste off my land to a landfill only to then turn around and pay $$ for fertilizer to start the process all over again. So my first goal is always zero waste off the land, be it water, soil, biomatter, etc.  After that it is a matter of technique as to what I do with the resources.

Oh one other thing. You know the best source for canning jars? Why the supermarket. ??? Yes my local emporium does carry empties by the case. But that is not where I get them generally. I get most of my canning jars of the shelf in the food section. What?

Yep. The downside is most already have food in them. :) I can buy Classico sauce for about $2.50 or house brand for $1.75. Did I do a good deal? Well I think the sauce is better and I get a 24oz canning jar for .75c. I can tomatoes and pickles in them. Salsa, pickles, mayo I am able to find in glass rather than plastic. We just need to look.

This also can be a philosophical point in food. If we were to choose products stored in reusable canning jars over plastic eventually food purveyors will  adjust. Its the power of the market in play. Over and out.

Rose Dallal wrote:Casie Becker wrote:
I also never pare down my clothes if they are just over or under my current weight for the same reason.   Prices never go down.

I'd like to add that quality has been going down horribly.  15-year-old clothes still look great.  1-year-old have lost their shape and the fabric is becoming see-through.
And it's not just clothing that's losing quality, but almost everything you can think of.

Hah! Don'tja know it! I am wearing a short sleeve shirt that is at least 20yo old and is still going strong. They could probably bury me in it.

Just to chime in here.....

Jars:

Uline carries Ball product -- https://www.uline.com/BL_8192/Ball-Glass-Canning-Jars?keywords=Canning
And here -- https://www.uline.com/BL_2621/Standard-Glass-Canning-Jars?keywords=Canning+Lids

Lids:

Uline also carries the lids.
webstaurantstore.com -- https://www.webstaurantstore.com/search/canning-lids.html

Just keep your eyes on the shipping.

The best deals on canning lids in my view is to buy entire sleeves (300 ct) in the winter. That way I know I am ready for next year.

"That's a good idea, where do you get the silicone bags. I've never seen them advertised "

SaraLee I got my last batch off of Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Homelux-Theory-Reusable-Silicone-preserving/dp/B07QFNPD3W/ref=sr_1_9?crid=3IHTI4L2GKA72&keywords=silicone+bags+for+food+storage&qid=1659292025&sprefix=silicone+bags%2Caps%2C268&sr=8-9

I prefer the slider style closure it has never leaked.

Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:I need a slug problem.

That is, I have a duck problem and a lack of slug problem.

I have 3 huge piles of wood chips from the highway dept, they were very sure there is no herbicide or pesticide in anything they cut, and it’s a nice mix of some conifers, some leaf bits, and a lot of being free.  

But no one has moved in.  Pull bugs? Ants? Alien invasive from Arcturus? Anybody?  There is one tiny ant on here, one , and plenty of carpenter  ants in the bathroom of our house.  I don’t see earthworms underneath, mushrooms i planted in there have not fruited not potatoes sprouted out.  There’s one spider web in the side but otherwise it seems like a ghost town.  Any ideas of how I can get a bug or slug problem???

How wet is the pile? Chips are a fungal favoring environment but it is essential that moisture is available to kick it off. Check the moisture.

I ground up trash styro using a DIY shredder. Don't do it inside tho! Coated the beads with white glue and packed it into a waxed form. The resulting 'brick' spanned the roof rafters with a small gap at the bottom of the cavity to bleed moisture. Still up there in the attic and works.

The downsides. Its labor intensive but if you have more time than money it works. Its messy, the low density of the beads fly everywhere. I suspect it won't work in large spans without reinforcement, the glue is the only thing holding it together.