100 Item Challenge

There is a challenge to pare one’s belongings down to 100 items total. I did this once some time ago and the paper I am copying this list from has 58 items on it. I have added some things on here that I didn’t think of then, and separated some things that I think now should be listed separately. I am unsure if this means per person or per household, so I am going to combine the two. I am going to list items by type with no duplicates within the type unless so noted. So for instance, I list my sewing kit, which includes measuring tape, needles, pins, scissors, etc. But I only need one measuring tape, one pair of scissors, and so on. I do not include consumables. So here is my list.

Kitchen

1. my pots/pans
2. extra stockpot
3. baking sheets and pans
4. measuring cups and spoons
5. 2-3 assorted mixing bowls
6. 1 place setting per person (cup, plate, bowl, silverware)
7. cutting board
8. 2-3 wooden spoons
9. ladle
10. large fork
11. chef knife
12. paring knife
13. bread knife
14. sharpening stone
15. spatula
16. pitcher
17. 2 wash basins (one to wash, one to rinse)
18. can opener
19. scissors/shears
20. coffee filters and holder (for straining debris out of collected water)
21. portable fire pit (if not in a house or for summer cooking)
22. grill brush
23. case of matches or flint
24. 3-4 cookbooks (just the ones I already own and use on a daily basis)
25. gardening book
26. foraging book
27. 5-6 dozen assorted canning jars (probably would need more if I can all our harvest)
28. brewing supplies
29. teapot
30. wood cookstove (if in a house)

Bath

31. 4-5 dozen washcloths (they also currently double as our TP)
32. 1 Towel per person
33. comb/brush
34. hair ties for each
35. razor
36. toothbrush for each
37. non-toxic cleaning kit (includes 2-3 spray bottles, washing soda, borax, etc.)
38. 5-7 cleaning rags
39. wash tub
40. plunger
41. wringer
42. laundry basket
43. cloth pads (there are/will be multiple women in the household)

Bedroom

44. tents (if not in a house)
45. sleeping bags, pillows
46. 3 changes of clothes for each
47. kids’ dolls (1 each)
48. cold weather outer gear for each (coat, mittens, etc.)
49. baby sling (at least until youngest is 3 years old)
50. handkerchief per person

Outdoors

51. axe
52. saw
53. hammer
54. spade
55. trowel
56. bucket
57. clothesline and pins
58. field guides to plants and animals
59. tote bags/backpacks for each
60. utility knife
61. hand crank flashlight
62. bow and arrows
63. fishing net
64. skinning/tanning book
65. maps, atlas, directions to loved ones’ homes

General

66. Circle Round book
67. 3-4 health books (just the ones I already have)
68. family photo album
69. some kind of lamp
70. fire-safe with legal documents such as birth certs, etc.
71. sewing kit
72. string
73. knitting needles, crochet hooks, and accessories (such as darning needle, cable needle, stitch holder, etc.)
74. god and goddess statues
75. Book of Wisdom (my own homemade book that contains this list among other things)
76. knitting pattern books
77. sewing patterns
78. pleasure reading books
79. spinning wheel
80. loom (probably warp-weighted, since it takes up less space)

I could expand this out to 100 if I divided up things that I consider go together. I’m not listing my individual knitting needles, for example. But this is a great exercise to determine what exactly we truly need.

Write to your Representatives

Here is the letter that I just sent to my Congressman. Feel free to copy it, personalize it, and send it off to your own representative.

Dear Mr. Hodes,

Ms. Shea-Porter recently sent out a survey to her constituents regarding energy prices and I wished to address this issue with you as one of your constituents.

I understand that everyone is focusing on our need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but I think we are missing the point, which is that we should be reducing our dependence on all oil, foreign or domestic. Instead of pouring money into the bottomless pit of oil exploration and development, we should instead focus on helping people transition to a low-energy lifestyle, where the price of oil will be mostly irrelevant since we won't need it anymore. As I see it, trying to be more self-sufficient for our oil needs is like the drug addict who tries to produce their own drugs instead of seeking a rehabilitation center. Instead of more drilling, we need to create an oil-addiction rehabilitation system.

We can encourage people to save energy at night by going to bed earlier instead of sitting up watching 24-hour television. We can encourage people to purchase well-built American-made products that will last instead of cheap plastic from China that will break within a month of purchase. We need to rebuild a new, sustainable economy out of the ashes of this destructive one that is dying before our eyes. We need to allow the price of oil to rise to the point that everyone finds ways out of necessity to do without it.

Please don't waste our time and effort trying to keep our addictions fed. Instead, use our resources to help us make the inevitable transition so that we don't crash, so that we can learn the skills we will need now while we can still afford to make learning mistakes instead of when those mistakes mean the difference between life and death.

Respectfully yours,
Judith Anderson

What is survival, anyway?

Dmitry Orlov said recently, "But the tragic thing is, to prepare for collapse, you have to start living as if it already happened, and very few people are willing to do that. They will wait until it is too late, and then expect somebody to come to their rescue." Sharon also has a challenge (that I am not fully participating in this time) that involves learning new skills, so I decided to add laundry 100% by hand to my list of skills. Don't get me wrong - I love my washing machine. With 5 children who love to get dirty, I do a lot of laundry. I have no intention of giving it up any sooner than I have to, especially since water and electricity are included in my rent. Drying by hand is a cinch - a clothesline outside in nice weather, an empty closet left ajar, several hangers and a box fan in the house in wet weather and that's all there is to it. But actually getting the clothes clean is another matter.

I have some minor prior experience. Six years ago when Lauren was a baby, we got our first set of cloth diapers. We lived in an apartment and had no washing facilities, normally doing our laundry at the laundromat down the road. We had a total of 24 diapers; enough for 2 days, not enough to justify a washer load at the laundromat. So every night after I put the kids to bed (after working a 10-hour workday a 45-minute commute from home), I plunked all the wet and dirty diapers in the tub and washed them by hand. I had no washboard, and didn't know how helpful a plunger could be. I just swished the wet diapers in the tub first, and wrung them out by hand. Then I washed the dirty ones in order from least poopy to most poopy. She was exclusively breastfed, so the poop wasn't too bad to deal with those first few months. I took a handful of diaper on each side and just rubbed them together until they came clean. Then I wrung them out by hand. We had no clothesline then, so the clean diapers were draped over the shower curtain rod (it went all the way around) until we got a clotheshorse. Altogether, the process took me about an hour each day. For eight to ten flat diapers.

So as I was thinking about how life will be without electricity, I realized that meant no washing machine. Laundry for 7 people was going to take me about 30 hours each day, then I still had to cook, do other cleaning, garden, and try to squeeze in a little shut-eye, too. Yikes! I gave thanks to the gods for my washing machine and tried to never think about laundry again. Then I learned about using a plunger to do the agitating. Whew! What a relief. So now I am on the hunt for a clothes wringer, since that really will probably be the most time-consuming aspect.

I began to call local hardware stores, but that isn't an item that is kept on hand. It can be special ordered for me, or I can order online. I checked Lehmans, but wanted to find something a little lower-priced. Ebay had lots of them for sale, but they all praised the aesthetics, with no mention of functionality. I don't care what it looks like, does it work? Then I remembered that LATOC has a preparedness store. No laundry solutions, though. That got me to reflecting on other people's idea of "survival". Yes, hunting knives and food stocks are very important. There are several items for creating electricity, but nothing to get you clean. How close to an animal are you going to when hunting it with your knife if you are wearing clothes saturated with sweat and blood? Maybe it is the difference between men and women. I want to be fed, clothed, sheltered, AND clean. Is that really too much to ask?

Toilet Paper on the Clothesline

This past winter, we decided to finally get rid of the toilet paper. My husband has, over time, brought home over 100 washcloths from work where he uses them to mop his brow. At one point I counted nearly 200, some of which I promptly gave away. So now I put a small stack of washcloths on the toilet tank behind the seat and we use those as our TP. I keep a bucket in the downstairs bathroom, and the washing machine is immediately outside the door to the upstairs bathroom. I can't put more than a few in each bathroom at a time or else the boy will take the whole stack and dip it in the toilet, which gets flushed every two or three uses.

So the other day I was hanging the laundry out to dry and realized that up to 1/4 of my clothesline space was used for drying toilet paper. How many other folks hang up their toilet paper to dry? Not many. I did notice that more of my neighbors are starting to use their clotheslines, though. Every apartment here has three lines run from the house across the patio, to the fence on the far side. They weren't ideally placed however, and the lines for my building are on the south side of the patio, right up against the fence. This means very little sun. On dry days at this time of year, though, I can still hang two sets of clothes, sometimes even three. I can fit anywhere from half a washerload to a full washerload at a time if I push things close together. If it is just adult clothes and/or towels, I can fit the whole load. If it is mostly kids clothes and/or washcloths, I can only fit half the load.

It is nice to know that we use almost no paper products now except paper to write on. We have an abundance of towels and washcloths that get used for everything that most people use paper for. I made up some nice muslin napkins for the table, and I haven't had a roll of paper towels in the house for over a year. Now to get rid of the last of the plastic. I still use ziplock bags for dividing up larger purchases into more manageable sizes, and gladware for leftovers.

Another Year

It looks like it will be a year before we can get out own place. We met with Habitat for Humanity and they say we qualify for their help. The problem is that they are busy through the end of this building season, so won't be able to start anything new until next spring. I'm crossing my fingers in hopes that the farmland will still be available then. I have noticed that many large land properties are staying on the market for quite some time. One we have been watching has been on the market for nearly 1½ years, I think.

I got a garden planted this year finally. The maintenance guys rototilled a nice big patch out back for us. I have 4 tomatoes, 2 peppers, 4 broccoli, 4 cauliflower, 2 cucumbers, 8 peas, 16 carrots, 3 strawberries (one of which sent out a runner that has developed roots), 2 onions, 9 potatoes, 1 pumpkin and 1 watermelon. I wanted a large variety, but I also didn't want to overwhelm myself, either. Some I bought as seedlings, some I planted from seed. Some were things that had started to sprout in my pantry, namely the onions and potatoes. The seeds may or may not be sprouting. It is hard or me to tell if the green I see is the seed I planted, a seed from the mostly composted cow manure I planted them in, or a seed from the field that was dug up. So I will nurture them all until I can identify them.

We are having horrible hot weather here. It has hit 90 degrees a couple of times, and close to it every day for the last week or so. The forecast keeps promising thunderstorms, but they dematerialize before they get to us. We got one rainstorm overnight last week, but it did nothing for the heat. Until the weather breaks, I am keeping the kids in the house. The TV is on more to keep them still so they don't work up too much heat. I can't wait until it rains so I can send them outside. The garden will appreciate it, too. I have been watering it both in the early morning and the later evening, using almost 1.5 gallons each time.

So that is the news from here. I will try not to wait a month again for the next post.

One denial closer

Yesterday we went to the bank. Really, my husband did since he is the only income in the house, so the bank doesn't care about me, which is a good thing, given my crappy credit (what divorced person doesn't have crappy credit?). I took the kids to the park to await his call saying the appointment was done. I was so nervous I was almost ill. I was so afraid the bank would laugh at us and ask how delusional we thought we were for wanting a mortgage. About half an hour passed then he called. "Come pick me up," he said. He didn't say anything about how it went. I called the kids and for once they didn't whine about wanting to stay and play longer, thank goodness. I picked him up and he said, "Good news and bad news. Good news..." He paused and I said, "She didn't laugh in your face?" He chuckled and said, "That, too." Apparently the bank doesn't finance farms. She directed us to the USDA Rural Development program, and I ended up talking to some guy who asked how much experience we had and if we had a business plan? I didn't know you needed a business plan to live and raise a couple of chickens and goats. To me, that is akin to asking a pregnant woman if she has a degree in early childhood education. A little while later I realized that she probably thought we are going to run a commercial farm rather than a home with a few animals. I called back to explain, but it was near the end of the day, so I had to settle for leaving her a voice mail. The good news, though is that otherwise, the bank was happy to give us the loan. She sent it on up to her supervisor to see if there was something else they could do for us. When hubby told me that, I started to cry. I truly thought that my dreams of having a home of our own would only be that - just dreams. So now I wait until Monday when businesses open again to see if it was a misunderstanding or if banks now decide what kinds of pets homeowners can have.

Almost surreal

It all started 2 weeks ago yesterday. I was at the farm where I buy my milk and I nonchalantly asked the farmer's wife if she happened to know of any land available that we might be able to farm on. She answered that she did in fact read of some land that was up for sale as conservation land in a nearby town. She couldn't remember any other details and didn't know where her paper was that she had found it in. So armed with that minimal amount of knowledge, I called the town office and asked if they knew what property it might be and whom I should speak with. They directed me to the head of the conservation committee, who gave me the name and number of the committee member who was handling it. By Wednesday I had the info packet. Over the weekend the lady answered my questions on the property and I started calling banks to find a mortgage. Last Friday we went to walk through the land, which is beautiful fields and forest. There are multiple building lot locations available to choose from when deciding where to put the house. Today I got an appointment for this Friday to apply for the mortgage at a local bank, and we will be signing a purchase and sale agreement, and I will be dropping off some floor plan sketches to the local lumberyard for an estimate on building costs. We will be building the house with our own two hands as we have time and money to do so. In the meantime we will be camping out all summer on our own land.

There are two lots we have to choose from. One is 31 acres, the other is 25 acres. They have 8 and 7 potential building sites, respectively. There will be a conservation easement on all but 2 acres of the land to protect the groundwater since it is part of the town's watershed. The 2 acres is where we will put the house, the barn, the chicken coop, hubby's forge, and any other buildings we might need. The larger lot is about half field, half forest; the smaller lot is about 1/3 field, 2/3 forest. We haven't decided yet which one we will take. They are almost the same price.

I have been sitting with graph paper and pencil for a few days now sketching out floor plans of various sizes and layouts. The lumberyard offered a free review with one of their engineers to make sure that the design will hold up, eg. the carrying beam is strong enough to hold the second floor. We plan to model the house after the one I described a few posts ago. We plan to have a THWASPCO like Greenpa, a root cellar and a barn. Non-structures will include a compost pile and a nice, big garden.

The only challenge we have to pass now is getting a mortgage. I feel slightly insane trying to get a mortgage in the midst of a credit crunch, but the land is only $100k. I am hoping that a local bank will be happy to give us one even if the major national lenders are in trouble. The town wants to close on June 3rd. The mortgage lady at the bank said that is not a problem.

Honestly, I feel scared and exhilarated. We have been wanting this for 10 years now, and finally, it feels like it is just falling in our laps. The land is exactly what we want. Yes, it would be nice for there to be a pond on site, but there is a lake just a half mile down the road with a public beach that is really nice. We are exactly the kind of people the conservation committee wants on the land. It is in one of the two towns we wanted to be in. So now it just comes down to money. And that is what scares me. I am afraid we will be denied when we have no down payment. We aren't allowed to save up for a down payment, though. As soon as we have cash assets of $2000 or more, we are ineligible for food stamps or public housing, which makes saving up a down payment a bit difficult. I am keeping positive by reminding myself that we *do* deserve this. We have been pretty good about our budget for a year and a half. We have been on time with our rent payments for the last couple of years. That should count for something.