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As we begin “The Enterprising Family” series, I wanted to add a quick thought…some of the ideas we try to implement may not necessarily save us a bundle of money, but JUST AS IMPORTANT as being resourceful is the value of a foundational concept that we want our children to grow up with.
Namely, that God is the ultimate Provider (and we want them to see that in as many tangible forms as possible), and that the more self-sufficient a family is, the more freedom it has. So we don’t measure everything solely by how much money we’re saving/making.
The first topic in the series is using our natural resources and bartering. (Many of these topics overlap, so I’ll do my best to categorize them–very difficult though!)
This will vary for every family according the resources available in your area. But I thought I’d throw out a few things we’re thinking through and/or implementing, and I hope you offer your suggestions as well.
- Free Food. Do you have food that grows naturally in your area that could be harvested for FREE? Our favorite free food is blackberries. I know, lots of work. But work is good, remember? 😉 We love making pies and cobblers, blackberry butter, blackberry jam and blackberry syrup. These homemade treats make great gifts too. (Virtually anything we can produce is a gift possibility.)
- Garden. Growing your own food is the best use of a natural resource and has dividends far beyond saving money. Health and good work opportunity abound, but also the ability to see God provide in a miraculous way just does something to the soul. You don’t have to have much space at all to grow food. You can even grow small plants (herbs maybe) inside the house.
- Expanding Food Usage. My daughter is this very day, working excitedly on an all-natural bug repellent using the lemon balm plants she has been growing in her little garden. (Our neighbors let us in on the secret of lemon balm as a bug repellent.) Here is another clever way my neighbor uses the mint leaves they grow:
Cool Mint Towels
Crush mint leaves and sprinkle them on a small, wet towel. Roll them up and stick them in the fridge. On a super hot day, unroll them, shake off the leaves and drape them around your neck to squeeze in a few more outside hours!
- Bees. Consider getting into the bee business! From a bee hive alone, you get a wonderful, healthy sugar-substitute (that’s very expensive otherwise) to be used in all kinds of ways. Plus, the bees wax can prove valuable in several different ways. We’ve been using it to make some simple skin products (lip balm, baby salve, etc.) and you can also make candles from it. (We don’t have bees, we get it from a friend. My Dad “did bees” when I was younger…I would love to do that again.)
- Chickens. Another great project, especially for kids. And fresh eggs are so much healthier, I think! We’ve had hens in the past, but are gearing up to build another small coop. Look on-line for information about how to do it. (It’s a cheap start-up project.)
- Flowers. We love decorating with wild flowers, and sometimes they make nice dried bouquets to keep for a while. (Tie up with a ribbon, hang upside down, then place on a shelf.) We’ve also made great use of wild flowers and ferns to make cards, framed gifts and candles. (More pics. in the “homemade gifts category.) We press them in a heavy book and then glue them on card stock. I used pressed ferns one year to embellish a poem I wrote and framed. And then as a gift for one family, I put the ferns on a piece of card stock printed with the family’s last name in the middle, and each member’s name and birthday all around it. The right font and frame and the added ferns made it a very well-received gift.
- Pine Cones. For starting fires.
- Pine Straw. For mulching beds and gardens.
- Veggie Scraps. For composting.
- Animal manure. For fertilizer.
- Trees. If you happen to be building…this is the main beam-a cedar tree trunk-that supports my parent’s balcony. When my Dad first put it in, our job was to strip the bark off. At the silly age of 15 I thought his idea was ridiculous. (“Like, I can’t believe we’re gonna have a tree in our house.”) Now I love it.
- Clay. When I was young, I remember making moldable clay out of clay/dirt we found in the ground. Then I ran across a man who was making a fortune out of red clay sculptures.
- Rocks. If you are artistic, painting rocks can create all kinds of possibilities.
- Plantain. (This will also fit into the “medicinal” category I plan on covering.) Plantain is a bountifully-growing, common plant with great medicinal properties, the most common of which is treating wasp/ant/bug bites. You can make a tincture, or you can do what we do–run outside, yank it up, chew it up and spit it onto the victim’s wound 😉
Remember to barter! Just as some of these ideas could turn into great gifts, they also make great bartering tools. We’ve lost the pleasure and benefit of bartering! We don’t have to produce everything, but when your friends and neighbors are busy at production, it expands everyone’s resources!
Currently in our neighborhood we have several who milk cows (we milk my Dad’s), several raising chicken eggs and meat chickens, goats, gardens, and all sorts of homemade goodies. Bartering can be an invaluable resource for a productive circle.
There are more, but I don’t want to overload the post. Besides, I know you must have some good ideas waiting to be heard!
“Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least, you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences.” Benjamin Franklin
