This is the way we wash our clothes....wash our clothes...wash our clothes

 This is my wash day kit. An empty beef bucket which I use to both haul water and to wash and rinse clothes in. Laundry soap. A plunger; this works wonderfully to force the dirt out of the clothes. Plus a washboard that is now seldom used since discovering the plunger.
I got the idea for the plunger out of Lehman's non electric catalog. There was a plunger in there, I think it was made out of a galvanized metal, that was for use to wash clothes.

 I used rainwater for washing clothes until the end of

 October last year. Then I switched to getting water from the little brook by my place. It's three hundred steps from the front door to the water. So not too far. During the winter<the part where we had snow> I melted snow. Now I am back to hauling the water and soon hope to be back to using rainwater.
This is what the path to the water looked like as I walked down on Saturday morning.

 This is the little hill I go up and down to get to the water. I have a worn track there and as long as I don't step off of it I am okay. There is still about three feet of snow left.

 I heat the water in the big pot on the stove.

 Suds added and ready to go!

 The plunger really does the trick of forcing the dirt from the clothes!

 When the snow started in January it came in really fast. So my clothes line is way over there and basically not practically accessible. Still has the dogs' blanket on it.

 So this is part of my make shift line. My husband was putting together a wood shed out of pallets when the snow struck up here. I just strung my line up where I could.

 The small stuff dries on the line inside.

 This is one of my buddies. Last summer there was a mom and a dad and three babies. The mom and dad gray jay didn't take much convincing to eat the raisins from my hand. As their little ones got older they started coming to me as well.
Now there are six birds in total. The "family" plus one extra. I have had them show up when I have been on a walk so far up to about three kilometers away!

This squirrel has provided me with hours of entertainment! And many many smiles!

I had a suet cake in the side of the feeder and I watched Mr.Squirrel spend about half an hour struggling to pull it out. He finally succeeded. Watching him haul his bounty away was something else as it was bigger than he is!

Little whittling and a good find

 Started with five small pieces of birch.

Wound up with  two possible stiles.

I tried an even smaller portion of the branch to see if I could get the pith out but only succeeded in splitting the thing in half.  I have Saturday off so I plan on giving it another go. I have the two wooden stiles as well as one more metal one.

My mother came across and article yesterday that says that the sweetener xylitol originally was extracted from birch trees. Anyone who has eaten any quantity of this sweetener will soon be on the lookout for a washroom! So will this limit the amount of birch syrup one will consume.....stay tuned on that one.

While helping to unload the produce pallet at work yesterday, my eyes lit up when I saw the different bag that the fifty pounds of turnip came in!
I came home with about a half dozen of these(yes I know I will need more) and the brain has set to work on planning out an earthbag greenhouse! I think that will be the perfect little project to get the hang of  earthbag building.

Wild food and off grid living in Newfoundland

I thought this may be a better venue to post pictures and describe what I am doing and learning with harvesting and using wild foods. As well as the experience off living off grid. I try to do things by hand as much as possible.
I am going to document the tapping of the birch tree and sap harvest and syrup production as my first project.
I have many others planned and hope that this will spur me on a bit.  Such as coffee from dandelion roots(last year I made a tincture from the leaves as well as tried them out as greens a little too late in the year hence they were too bitter). Noodles and flour from the birch. I plan to try cattail as a root vegetable.
Last year I planted  stinging nettle seeds and if they have germinated I hope to use that as I wild food.<they do grow in Newfoundland<I could not find any so I planted this very nutritious ally.>