Farm-acy Friday ~ Composting Toilets and Your Diet - part 1

Stock Photo

So many people are turning to composting toilets these days, us included. It's all part of that getting back closer to Nature living and reducing our footprint on the Earth, movement. You took it out of Nature, used it/consumed it, then put it back into Nature for that natural cycle of life style of living.

For those of us that are composters, be it just an average compost pile for our garden, or to also include the composting toilet, we are very careful as to what goes into our compost pile. We would never purposely pour a bottle of chemicals into the compost, nor dump in a bottle of pills, insecticides, hormones, or any other hazardous material. How horrifying! We don't want that stuff in our soil. It would leach out into our garden veggies, into the ground and into the ground water, etc. So why eat foods with all that stuff in it?

Think about it, you just got up and took some pills this morning, you use the composting toilet all through the day, then dump the 'compost' into your compost facility. All that medication passes right through you and into the composting toilet! Well, maybe not all of it, but quite a bit of it, and some medications and vitamins have been proven to pass all the way on through without ever dissolving. Just ask someone that cleans out those port-a-potties for a living. NO, I am NOT suggesting that you stop taking your medications if you are using a composting toilet, but I am asking you to give some thought to what you are doing and possibly look into seeing if there is a natural alternative to what you are taking if you are going to compost your waste.

Then there are the foods you eat. Are you dining out at all? Are you eating pre-packaged foods? What is in that stuff?! Do you read the labels before you eat it? Are their hidden pesticides on those fruits and veggies you are eating? Would you pour pesticides into your compost pile? Then why are you eating all that stuff that has been sprayed with them? It's going to go into your composting toilet and then on into your compost pile. What is all that stuff on that label that you can't pronounce? If it goes into your body, it is then going to go into your composting toilet and then on into your compost pile. Think about it . . . . really think about it.

Changing over to a composting toilet system has truly made us look much more closely at what we eat and put into our bodies. Even though we thought we were eating a lot more healthy (and we are) when we look at our diets more closely in relation to the fact that it might be going into our compost, we realize we still have a long way to go in making our diet more healthy. We want to eat as healthy as possible, and we are striving every day to eat a much more healthy diet, but this thought has made us realize that we just aren't there yet and need to continue to make healthier choices at the store, and further reduce what we are purchasing at the store while we increase what we grow on our own to eat.

Just thought I would give you something to ponder this week. It does give you food for thought, literally. Thanks for reading my post and have a fantastic day!

It's an Ear Mushroom!

 We just love these Wood Ear Mushrooms! For one thing, they are so fun! They look just like a person's ear, and feel like thick jelly.  As the weather begins to warm up and the spring rains begin to fall (although we are still on the dry side right now), these beautiful little jewels are beginning to pop out. Dave found these on a limb hanging out over the chicken house. He saw the dead limb and was thinking that he needed to cut it off before it fell off on top of the chicken house or pen, then saw the mushrooms. Needless to say, cutting that limb off became a much more tedious chore as we tried to make sure we saved all the mushrooms from harm.

The Ear Mushrooms you see in this picture (plus a few more from another limb) have now been dehydrated and are carefully stored away for future use. They dry very well and very tiny, yet rehydrate to nearly their original state.

Boiled up, these mushrooms make a great flavored broth for anything you need broth for. They are loaded with nutrition but are a bit tough to chew. Some people love the texture, but most just use the broth. If you dehydrate them, then process them to a powder, they can be easily sprinkled into soups and other dishes to give your food a wonderful flavor and a burst of great nutrients. Since we learned that these funny looking things growing on our trees are not only edible, but healthy as well, they have quickly become a basic staple in our diet. When we use them to boil down and make broth, we never have to worry about tossing the boiled mushrooms out. There is always a dog around, excitedly waiting to be handed one for a treat. They absolutely love them! We don't give them more than a bite, though, because I don't think mushrooms are something you are supposed to give dogs much of. But our dogs rank them right up there with steak!

Thanks for reading our post and have a fantastic day!

Our New Barn Yard Cat - Tater

This is Tater, our new Barn Yard cat. Yes, I know, I already have several "pet" cats, but they have been house cats most of their lives and are not "wild wise" so cannot have the full run of the farm. But more on them in a future post.

It is interesting how, when you truly need something, it just pops up out of nowhere sometimes. David and I were sitting by the heater, taking a break with our coffee one day and started talking about how we needed a good, rodent catching cat to keep the rodents out of the feed barrels. It seems that no matter how tightly we try and keep the feed closed (critters and ours), that those varmints just keep getting into it all. We agreed that none of the cats we have could do the job because they just don't have enough fear of dogs nor the wilds. They have pretty much always lived inside and most of them are used to sleeping and playing with large dogs. Just turning any of them loose to have the run of the farm just woudn't be wise. They would never survive.

As we sat there, talking and dreaming, we said that, ideally, we need a cat that wants to hunt his/her own food, is scared of dogs and wild animals, won't bother the chickens, goats, etc. and is friendly and gentle with us .... a pretty tall order for a cat!  Amazingly, about two days later, Tater showed up! We have no idea where she came from, she just showed up and started calling/meowing to us. She would come up somewhat close to us, but not close enough for us to touch her. I gave her a bit to eat and she thanked me by catching a rodent next to the feed barrel! Within a few days, we could pet her, hold her, and she now wraps herself around our legs loving on us and purring contentedly. She likes to have just a dab of "crunch" each day (a bit of dry cat food), but she much prefers to catch her own food! She spends her days hanging out at the feed barrels, in the garden, and next to the chicken pens in anticipation of catching anything rodent that tries to get near them. She eats what she catches and doesn't catch more than she can eat. She has now saved us much more $$$ in feed than what it costs to give her that dab of "crunch" she likes each day. What a true blessing, gift, and answer to a problem she is!

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!

WW - Taking a Country Nap with "Momma"

Taking a Country Nap

TIGHTWAD TUESDAY - Free Garbage Bags!

There are lots of things that annoy me, but one of the things that annoys me the most in life, is buying something for the sole purpose of throwing it away! Yep, I am talking about trash bags. It just doesn't make sense.

I have pondered ways of solving this problem for a very long time, now. One way of course, is to drastically reduce the amount of trash that you generate. Personally, I think that that is the best way. We, ourselves, are striving every day to reduce the amount of trash that we generate, but, unfortunately, we do still have a little that we have to dispose of. That brings us back to needing to acquire trash bags to dispose of that trash.

About a year ago I discovered a way to get many of those trash bags for FREE!  How? I go to furniture stores and ask them for the plastic bags that are wrapped around the furniture cushions during shipping. When the furniture arrives (such as sofas and easy chairs) and is put out on the showroom floor, those bags that were wrapped around the cushions during shipping are then taken off and tossed out into the trash. When I discovered this I thought, "It just doesn't make sense for these plastic bags to be tossed out into the dumpster, empty, while I am purchasing empty plastic bags to put my trash into!"

So .... I stop into the nearest, local furniture store every chance I get and ask for the plastic bags that were wrapped around the furniture cushions during shipping. So far, they have always been glad to let me have them. Not only does using these bags save me money, but it also gives those bags one more purpose before they hit the landfill.

Have any of you ever used these bags for trash bags? Or for any other purpose, for that matter?
Have any of you ever found any other types of  "free" bags to use as trash bags and if so, what were they? I would love to know!

Thank you for stopping in and reading this post. Have a FANTASTIC day!