Choosing Voluntary Simplicity » Voluntary Simplicity

Somewhat More Intimidating Than the Usual Do-It-Yourself Project

Shirley — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:25:05 +0000

We have heat! It took nearly a month of telephone calls, research, lots and lots of perseverance, and a full day of exacting work, but our previously "dead" furnace is now running like new. We were hoping to repair... not replace... the furnace, and this turned out to be a problem because the part we needed didn't seem to exist. There used to be two dealers within a sixty-mile radius selling and servicing this kind of furnace. The dealer we bought the furnace from went out of business a few years ago. The other dealer is closing his business in a few months because of the recession and he had absolutely no interest in trying to help us find parts or information.

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Progress, Perhaps… But an Intangible Something Has Been Lost

Shirley — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:12:37 +0000

It's actually starting to feel almost spring-like here. When the days are bright and sunny like this, and the temperatures rise above freezing during the day and drop down below freezing at night, this is sugaring weather! When I was a very young child, my parents "sugared" every year, and we spent many long hours wading through the deep snow to gather the sap, and even more long hours huddled around the fire waiting while the sap boiled. It was a lot of work... thirty-five to forty gallons of sap boils down to make just one gallon of syrup... but we had fun, too. Often we cooked our supper on the fire or toasted marshmallows while my parents kept an eye on the syrup's progress. Even a whiff of a certain type of wood smoke will still bring back happy memories of those times.

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How You Choose To Spend Your Time

Shirley — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:14:54 +0000

Think about how often we all regretfully say that we don't have the time to do "something" (you fill in the blank). What we're actually saying is that whatever this "something" is, we aren't giving it a top priority in our lives. Not enough time... or not a priority. There's a big difference there.

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Another Green Cleaning Solution That Really Works

Shirley — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:36:48 +0000

Reader question... "My husband and I are both heavy tea drinkers. Many of our teacups and mugs are badly stained and the stains don't come off no matter how hard I scrub them. Do you know of a natural non chemical way of removing the brown stain from the cups?" --Annette

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Can People Who Live Simply Have Nice Things?

Shirley — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:48:24 +0000

It's important to save for retirement. It's sensible to have an emergency fund. It's essential to live within your income and not go into debt. But where did the idea come from that people who are frugal and live simply can't have nice things? Or that they should feel guilty if they buy something new?

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It’s Almost Time To Plant the Tomatoes

Shirley — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:54:54 +0000

I just finished paring down a seed order for tomatoes (if I had the space, I'd get one of each!), and I think I have finally made my choices. I'm ordering heirloom seeds and one or two hybrids. This order is only for the smaller, "novelty" tomato varieties. I'll be ordering the seeds for larger tomatoes from another company.

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