Make it, do without, repair it, maintain it.

Zog -

I made my first batch of grape jelly last month with some grapes from a local friend's vines.

I was actually surprised at how easy it was to make. And even more surprised at how AMAZING it tasted.

I grew up in New England on Concord grape jelly, so I consider myself a bit of a grape jelly snob. This homemade batch was as good if not better than any I had ever tasted.

Am lamenting I started at the very end of harvest season. Am looking forward excitedly to next year, when I plan to can up shelvesful of jelly.

(FYI: I started making jam earlier this summer from the many blackberry bushes that grow wild on our new property. Thought that was my favorite spread until the recent grape jelly discovery...)

Safewrite  Good subject . And it's true that the secret to those homemade jellies and jams are small 250 ml jars.  People seem to love the 

special attention that's done to the wrapping......making it more precious, exclusive. Give them a boutique appeareance.

Cut round colorful fabrics and cover the  lid  and fix it there with straw string , make a bow. Why not add to the jar a small spoon (expresso spoon) attached to the jar. Give a small collection of the different jellies and jams that was made. Decorate each flavor differently. 

Under "repair it," I want to share this article on the idea of a "repair cafe" concept where community members volunteer their time to help fix other people's repairable, potentially useful stuff.  I love this idea so much and hope to see it happen locally.

One of my favorite always-have-on-hand quick-fixes is superglue gel (not liquid).  I know there are arguments for not using it (namely, it has toxic fumes and it's brittle as far as glues go), but in my busy household it has fixed and saved more things than I can count, simply because I didn't have the time to set a broken thing aside and follow up with a classier fix.  I've also used it to "stitch" finger wounds, allowing us to avoid the ER on occasion.

I diligently mend and patch our precious woolen (merino) long johns -- an investment -- and my kids are "trained" to hand them over when a pinhole appears.  ;-)  I also require my kids to wear slippers or shoes at home over their precious wool socks and always wear some kind of socks when wearing footwear (except for sandals) to keep shoes and boots from getting stinky.  My goal is to get woolens, boots, etc, through all of my kids and at least one other kid's use. 

I feel that we are stewards of the items in our possession, and it's our responsibility to care well for them so they can continue to be useful.  I have a couple of friends who are trained/gifted/resourceful and who can be called upon to fix things to extend their longevity -- repair a drawer so a bureau remains useful, fix a broken peg on a coat rack, etc. 

We've learned to "do without" disposable products.  I've found there are a few that I strongly prefer to use, and so I do buy them (namely, dental flossers for my kids, and paper kleenex for really horrible colds, and toilet paper for part-time use), but we've found that ~12" squares cut from soft, old T-shirts do very well as handkerchiefs, cut-up old towels and old cloth diaper wipes work fine for "family cloth" (TP alternative), cheap washcloths are better than paper towels, and old cloth diapers (prefolds) are super-absorbent for kitchen spills.  However, I'm mindful that this is easy for us because we have a modern electric washer and dryer, and without that I might be less enthusiastic...or not.

As far as "do without," I honestly have to think very hard to come up with anything, because I've mostly just dropped what I don't use from my thinking.  We don't have TV, for one thing.  My kids do not have the "latest gadgets" or the "new fashions" or anything like that -- helps that we did away with most mainstream advertising exposure when the TV left.  I feel like I'm kind of out of touch with what we might be missing, and therefore I don't miss it!

No air conditioning here, and we are making do without central heating in our current house -- we have an oil furnace, but I don't intend to use it, in favor of the woodstove and a single hot-air solar panel.  Also, our woolen long-johns and socks, along with other layers and strategies, keep us warm.

Small thing, but when I use my computer printer, I always print in grayscale in draft mode.  Uses no color ink and half the black ink.  Extends the life of the ink cartridge.  Not so critical in the context of long-term issues, but it helps pinch pennies and free them up for other needed things right now.

I'm looking forward to other ideas.  Hope to add more as they come to mind.

I bake our own bread, just the simple italian bread recipe off the bread flour package, from scratch, no fancy machine.  While it saves money, the best thing is it tastes way better than store bought and my kids prefer it.

We do fine without TV too.

Well, getting into "repair it" part of the discussion, I have this suggestion.  Get yourself to your local marine supply or maybe even a really good hardware store and pick up some of the West System Epoxy products.  This is basically "liquid plastic" in a mixable 2-part kit.  It can repair or even create almost anything.  Has a shelf life of years and years, maybe forever.  I could spend hours describing it's virtues and capabilities, but if you find the stuff, you'll also find the free handbook that describes it's uses and techniques for usage.  When items become unavailable or  repair is needed, you'll be glad you have some of this stuff.  Maybe you'll even decide to build a boat!  That'd be a good project for the Apocalypse.  Water World!  There are some other brands such as System Three which are probably as good, but we sell West Systems at our shop so that is what I'm familiar with.  Just be sure to use rubber gloves when playing with this stuff as toxic alergies can develop with prolonged contact.  Otherwise enjoy!  Aloha,  Steve.

I save $$ by refilling our inkjet printer cartridges. I searched YouTube and Google for techniques and mail order bulk ink. I haven't bought cartridges for over two years and our color printer works great. It is great to have this ability and not have to run to the office supply store and be inconvenienced. Every printer is different and the technique can be challenging, but persevere. It does take a leap of faith to have the confidence in your success . Printer manufacturers discourage this by warning of loss of warranty, but it didn't deter me, and I have saved hundreds of dollars. It does take very careful technique, but now I can refill the cartridges in a few minutes.