Joanna Morton

This may be more simplistic than you are looking for, but could you just unplug the refrigerator? You already have a chest freezer, and if you can spare the space to freeze 2-3 gallon-sized containers of water, those could be placed in the refrigerator to make it function as an ice-chest. Then you could rotate water containers so that 2-3 are always cooling the refrigerator, and 2-3 are always re-freezing.
If the doors won't stay closed tightly enough to keep in the cold air, you could rig a fastener or even place the refrigerator on its back so that gravity holds the doors closed. In that case it might not fit its current location, though.
It's definitely a cheap option!

We are currently homeschooling 3 of our 4 kids. The oldest was homeschooled from 9-11 yrs old due to bullying and self-esteem issues. She chose to go back to public school in 5th grade and graduated high school last year. The current crop 'o kids are 10, 7, and 6 and are thriving! They were in public school, but our boy learns by hyperfocusing until mastery. Thus classroom transitions were an issue. After the last teacher (1st grade) said we would need to hire a lawyer to get him on an IEP or he would fall behind, we brought him home. It didn't seem fair to let him do all the hands-on, interest-based learning while his sisters had to suffer through worksheets, so they came home, too! Now DH supervises the learning while I go to my office job and plot learning paths on my lunch break.

Hi Bryant! Thanks for pointing that out, definitely something to be wary of.

Oh, forgot this one! The not-as-fast but still-fairly-effective cure for bites was vaseline mixed with salt. Put enough salt in to make it really grainy. Rubbing this salve on the bites actually scratches at the same time, so it feels good at first! Then it will itch like crazy for about 30 seconds to a minute (don't scratch at that point, you'll rip your skin off) and then it won't itch any more. I don't know why it works, I was told at the time it suffocated the chiggers but I now know that isn't true.

As a child, my brother and I would be covered with chigger bites after apple picking. We discovered by chance that swimming in the Gulf of Mexico completely killed the itch and dried up the rash. Perhaps a salt-water soak would also work? The Gulf is evidently between 28-36ppt salinity where we were, to get 30ppt the proportion of salt to water would be 10 TBS per gallon.

As for prevention, eating lots of garlic has been helpful to me. Just make sure everyone eats it! 10 garlic cloves mashed together with a few basil leaves, olive oil, and parmesan (kind-of like an inverted proportion pesto) makes a great spread/dip for crusty bread and keeps all biting creatures away, but can make you offensive to people as well!

HI, I'm newly registered on permies, but have been browsing the forums for several months! My husband and I are looking to pay cash for a small amount (0.5-1 acre) of unrestricted, raw land within about an hour of Branson, MO. We plan to move my mother, a healthy 70-year-old gardener, onto the land to get started on the raised-bed gardens, fruit and nut trees, berries, etc. We would be building for her a passive solar cabin, about 16X32, with solar panels/generator, rain catchment & greywater systems and composting toilet in place of electric, water and septic. So no perk test needed, but southern exposure and vehicular access onto the property is important! Ideally we would be buying additional adjoining land (to total at least 5 acres) in 2-3 years to start on our own off-grid home in which to raise our kids and later retire. We do not need for the property to be income-producing, my mother has retirement income and my husband and I will continue to work in the entertainment industry (scenic design & stage management). Please contact me if you know of any land that may fit! We currently live in Tulsa, OK and need some help from locals to find options that I haven't been able to locate online.