the beginning

I tend to enjoy making lists and am finding that writing this is incredibly awkward for me right now, so I will begin this blog in the most exciting way possible - with lists!

Where I would describe myself right now:
- curious about how to integrate living like a frontiersman (ha ha ha) into a relevant 21st century life... how far is too far? At what point do I begin to sound like a crazy hippie? ;)
- curious about what am I capable of doing, I don't want to exhaust myself with trying to bite off too much. 
- I should probably say this again, how far is too far and when do I start to sound like a crazy hippie?!? 
- excited about the prospect of becoming more self-reliant as I believe that this is an important tool for this day and age.
- excited about the benefits of making our own products! Also looking forward to having a bigger garden this year and expanding my canning knowledge... and caring for our bees (who will hopefully make it through this crazy winter - the warm temperatures have made them start coming out and it froze and snowed today. I'm sure that it was a rather unpleasant surprise for them).


My goals for this blog are:
- to chronicle my husband and I's growth in becoming greener people.
- to show others my mishaps so they can try to avoid them.
- to entertain?
- to (hopefully) show others how easy it can be to go back to the lifestyle of our ancestors. I feel that if we all became more independent, we would all be better off. 


Things that I am proud I achieved in 2011:
- falling in love with my husband 
- getting engaged and married :)
- planting my first garden
- learning how to do some yardwork, we got our yard looking beautiful this past summer!
- harvesting our garden
- getting into a beehive for the first time and getting away with no stings 
- teaching myself how to preserve food and canning 63 (SUCCESSFUL!)) pints of giardiniera, pickles, and pickled hot peppers. 



Things I am looking forward to achieving in 2012:
- beginning to make all of our toiletries and cleaning products
- getting a good honey harvest
- planting a bigger and more extensive garden
- preserving at least double what I preserved last year




Now that I feel a bit more comfortable with this, I can quit the lists. Today we ordered the products we need to make laundry detergent and simple lye soap. The simple soap will be what we use for dish soap, laundry detergent, and any other cleansing product in the future. We also got two essential oils to begin our collection - eucalyptus and tea tree. I am SO EXCITED to make and ((in about a month)) use our homemade scented soap. Our laundry will smell so good! 


I spent around 30 hours this week researching recipes for soap, shampoo, conditioner, dish detergent, dishwasher soap, laundry detergent, lotion, lip balm, face soap, face lotion, shaving cream, shaving soap, and deodorant. I also did a price analysis of what it would cost per batch and per use for each of the above recipes and for the store bought products we were using. This is where I got the name of this blog - not only will we be saving ourselves and the planet with making our own products, growing our own food and preserving it, and maintaining our hive, we will be saving money... woohoo!

Look for a future post with the recipes I will be trying and the prices for making a batch, later later posts for how they turn out, pictures, and more! :)