Good Eating's Quick Breads: A Collection of Convenient and Unique Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Loaves and More
Being Different is Perfectly Fine By Me
I love to do the "homestead" thing, but I may be only telling you all part of the story.
I'm not a full time blogger or full time homesteader by any stretch of the imagination. I would love to be either (or BOTH actually) but the sad truth is that, like most of the people who dream of living off the land, I put in over 40 hours of my week at an assembly job. While the picture below is NOT ME; it is a pretty accurate representation of what I spend a lot of my time doing.
There are TONS of things that I would love to do with my time (see any of my boards on Pinterest), but the time isn't always mine. I'm just like most of America: I have bills, a mortgage to pay, etc. While I don't have a car payment (both my hubby and my cars are both paid for old clunkers, and I'm fine with that), there are a lot of other things that eat into the money we make.
I'm going to try and post more often about the things I do.... and while it may always be in pictures, or may be a relatively short post, at least I will take the time to share.
I think we all have a little bit of wanting to "live off the land" in us; but most of us have to do it in a very unconventional way.
But being different is perfectly fine by me.
Until next time....
5 Great Uses for Leftover Used Coffee Grounds:
5 Great Uses for Leftover Used Coffee Grounds:
Use as fertilizer/bug repellent. The nitrogen in your coffee grounds, plus the acidity, helps your plants out tremendously. I use it to both boost my soil (I have clay), and to repel insects from the base of my plants. This works especially well with hostas and rose bushes. Just dry out the used grounds and sprinkle around the base of the plant when you weed.
Deodorizer. Coffee grounds work much like baking soda at absorbing odors. Just place a open container in your refrigerator to absorb the smells that linger there. To deodorize trashcans/diaper pails/ect., use a small ziploc storage bag with small holes poked in only one side. Pour into the bag and lay flat in the bottom of the trash can.
Ant Repellent: This works great in the summer when you have these little boogers invading every nook and cranny you have. I use this method to deter the colony that insists on dwelling under the concrete slab under my hose out back. It seems like every year they show up and make a living black rug on my steps. GROSS. I start saving my grounds early in the spring so that I can start strategically sprinkling to avoid them settling in at all.
Compost. This use is similar to the fertilizer idea, however, this actually speeds up your composting time. Use both the damp grounds AND your leftover coffee (liquid) and pour it into your compost bin each day when you dump your kitchen scraps. (You are composting all your scraps, aren't you???) The liquid paired with the grounds encourages decomposition of all the other scraps in your bins. Plus, it adds acidity that may not be present if you compost newspaper and grass clippings.
Coffee Body Scrub: This comes in handy when you start getting rough patches of skin and callouses from all your outdoor work in the summer!! Combine 1 cup of your coffee grounds, 1/2 cup coconut oil and 3/4 cup sugar. You may add some essential oil to the mixture in order to make it smell better, but I love the smell of the coffee alone, so I typically do not add in anything. Use a bit on your rough patches to exfoliate!
I typically end up composting way more than I actually use for any of the other uses, but it does make for great compost!! Besides, I drink a LOT of coffee, and there's only so many things that can be done. I am in the process of drying out some used grounds to sprinkle into the cats' litter boxes, but I have yet to attempt this and see the results. I assume that the deodorizing principle will work, however, I have to judge the cats reaction to it. If they refuse to use the box, then obviously, it will smell better. :)
I'll attempt it soon and post my results.
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