Amazon: Etekcity Personal Water Filter Just $15.99

This is a post I put together for my other blog. I thought some of my readers here might be interested in this. 

If you are a camper or just like to be prepared then you need to check out this deal on the highly rated Etekcity 1500L Water Personal Filter Purifier Chemical Free: Filter to 0.01 Microns.  I have been eyeing a different brand to keep in our emergency bag, but at this price I may have to get this one.
They are currently priced at $19.99, but when you use coupon code YTGOK8MO you will get $4 off bringing your total down to $15.99. If you are a prime member you will also get free 2 days shipping. 

Order Summary

Items:	$19.99
Shipping & handling:	$0.00
Promotion Applied:	-$4.00
Total before tax:	$15.99
Estimated tax to be collected:	$0.00
Order total:	$15.99

Thanks Hip2Save

This post contains affiliate links

February Homestead Update- Eggs, Garden Plans and A Year Without A Purchase

We are thinking about taking this flower garden out. It is really beautiful during the spring and summer, but it is right in the middle of our yard. I think I would prefer to give the kid more play space and myself more vegetable space. Although I may leave it for the bees. 

It's February already and that means it is officially time to start planning my spring garden!! I am planning to use the same software as last year. If you want to take a look at last year's garden you can go here to check it out. As soon as I have everything laid out I will write a post to share our plans for the year.

Unfortunately the pictures for today's post are not too spectacular, I am having issues getting my phone to send them to me so I can get them on here. I had more, but I finally gave up trying to get them off my phone.

The winter garden looks so sad. You can see in the corner some green sprouts from the garlic I planted in October.

In the winter there really is not a ton to report on in the area of homesteading. It is basically a time to relax from the hard work of summer and to plan for the next year. I like to take the down time of winter to research other small homesteads to see what I can implement into ours as well as try to learn a few new skills.



Here is a great list of small, suburban homesteading blogs in case you wanted to check them out.

--- The 104 Homestead
--- The Urban Homestead
--- Lil' Suburban Homestead

The skills I am trying to learn this year include knitting, crocheting and studying the no till method.

There is not a huge amount of productivity in the winter, but in January we had 115 eggs from our 7 hens. Not too bad.

I have also been doing some preserving when I am able to buy produce in bulk, such as the 40 pounds of pears we dried, ate, or canned in December. We were also blessed with a friend who got a deer, but did not want the meat. That was a huge blessing to help fill our freezer.


Here is a list of our future goals for this year on the homestead.

• In the picture below you can see the grassy area to the left of the garden. We are planning to use the no till method this spring to double the size of our current garden. We are going to add a pallet fence all the way around the garden to keep the chickens and children out of the plants.
• We are also planning to double the size of the chicken's fenced in area so that we can keep them fenced in all the time and stop dealing with chicken poo all over the yard getting stuck on our shoes and eventually into the house. Gross! 
• If I have my way we will be adding goats by this time next year. We have a great area near the chicken coop that would be perfect for them.
• I will take pictures as we get these projects finished and keep you updated.  

Our family also decided to embark on a new journey this year that is a bit different then the norm. I had a friend read the book The Year Without a Purchase. She mentioned it on facebook and that turned into several of us asking her questions about the book and eventually an accountability group forming.

As of January 1st our family has decided that we will not be making any purchases unless they are consumable or foster family togetherness. Basically no new clothes (except for growing kids and only if there is nothing else in the house to hand down), toys, furniture, decor...you get the picture.

I have to admit that it has taken some getting used to. There have been several times where I have absent mindedly started to buy something and then realized it doesn't fit into the rules. For instance, our chicken waterer cracked due to ice. I thought no big deal I am headed to the feed store today anyway. I will just pick up a new one, Nope not in the rules.  So I had to get creative and see what we had around that would work. I rummaged through my potting stand and found a metal planter without holes...instant waterer and it was FREE.

We have managed to save some money so far by not buying anything new, but really the whole point of the experiment is to foster togetherness as a family and to learn to really enjoy what we already have. We live in a throw away society. If it is broken just go get a new one, Don't try to fix it or do without, just buy something new.

I have actually begun to enjoy not spending money. It is nice to go into a store and not buy anything. I know it sounds strange. I have also had to learn to find other ways to entertain myself without shopping. This has included staying away from coupon blogs and tossing ads as soon as they come in the mail.

I will keep you updated as the year goes along. There will inevitably be a few purchases that we had not thought about. We also decided that if there is something we as a family really need or want we have to sell enough items around the house to cover the cost of the item or we don't get it.


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